Olga Nikolaevna Gulazian

Born Dec. 27, 1885 (Jan. 8, 1886), in Tbilisi; died May 27, 1970, in Yerevan. Soviet Armenian actress; People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR (1935).

Gulazian’s acting career began in 1901 in the Tbilisi Armenian Theater. She toured Baku, the cities of the northern Caucasus, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Turkey and Egypt. In 1926, Gulazian joined the G. Sundukian Armenian Theater in Yerevan. Her talent was revealed particularly vividly in performances of Sundukian’s plays, as Salome in One More Victim and Ravaged Hearth, Nataliia in Khatabala, and Epimiia in Pepo. Gulazian’s art was distinguished by its ease and graceful execution, the musical quality of her speech, a soft, sincere manner, and vivid national flavor. Her best roles also included Gaiane (in Betrayal by Iuzhin-Sumbatov), Toinette and Dorine (in The Imaginary Invalid and Tartuffe by Molière), Laurencia (in Fuente pvejuna by Lope de Vega), Ogudalova (in The Dowerless Girl by Gorky), and the Grandmother (in Trees Die Upright by Kasona). Gulazian was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1952. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals.