Smirnova, Lidiia Nikolaevna

Born Jan. 31 (Feb. 13), 1915, in Moscow. Soviet film actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974). Member of the CPSU since 1952.

Smirnova graduated from the Moscow City Theater School in 1938. She worked as an actress in the Kamernyi and Realistic theaters and now acts with the Film Actors’ Theater-studio in Moscow. In her earliest film roles, Smirnova was a lyric actress; she was later most outstanding in character and comedy roles. Her roles have included Shura in My Love (1940), Varia in A Boy From Our City (1942), Fenia in She Defends Her Country (1943), Smaida in They Have a Motherland (1950), and Mariia in Steep Hills (1956). Other film roles include Iuliia in Three Came Out of the Woods (1958), the Matchmaker in The Marriage of Bal’zaminov (1965), Mariia Aleksandrovna in Uncle’s Dream (1967), and Dus’ka in A Country Detective (1969). Smirnova has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1951). She has also received two orders and several medals.