Elena Shatrova

Born May 19 (31), 1892, in Moscow; died there July 15, 1976. Soviet Russian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1968). Member of the CPSU from 1950.

Shatrova, upon graduating from a private theater school in 1912, worked in N. N. Sinel’nikova’s theater in Kharkov. From 1918 to 1932 she was a leading actress with the former Korsh Theater and occasionally performed in other theaters. Her roles included Varia in Ostrovskii and Solov’ev’s The Wild Girl, Liza in a dramatization of Turgenev’s A Nest of Gentry, Marfin’ka in a dramatization of Goncharov’s The Precipice, Liza and Masha in A. N. Tolstoy’s The Bitter Blossom and The Swallow, Amalie in Schiller’s The Robbers, Katharina in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and Kupavina in Ostrovskii’s Wolves and Sheep. She often played in translated versions of drawing-room comedies, for example, as Germaine in Verneuil’s The Lie, Susie in Pagnol and Nivoux’s The Swamp, and Georgine in de Flers and de Caillavet’s Golden Autumn.

Shatrova, an actress of delicacy and grace, was distinguished for the lyricism and subtle humor of her characterizations. She often performed opposite her husband, N. M. Radin. The two became known for their comic wit and mastery of dialogue. In 1932, Shatrova joined the Malyi Theater. She appeared in comic and character roles in works from the classic repertoire, for example, as Lidiia, Mamaeva, and Kukushkina in Ostrovskii’s Easy Money, Even a Wise Man Stumbles, and A Profitable Post, Anna Andreevna in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, and Matrena in L. Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness. Shatrova’s roles in Soviet plays included Potapova in Sofronov’s The Moscow Character and Madame Stessel in Stepenov and Popov’s Port Arthur.

Shatrova was a deputy to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. In 1964 she became vice-chairwoman of the presidium of the All-Union Theatrical Society. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR in 1948 and 1949, she was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and several medals.