Rzhetskaia, Lidiia Ivanovna

Born Apr. 5 (17), 1899, in Minsk. Soviet Byelorussian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1955). Member of the CPSU since 1952.

Rzhetskaia began her artistic career in 1916. She joined the troupe of the la. Kupala Byelorussian Theater in Minsk in 1920. Rzhetskaia’s roles have included dramatic, character, and comedy roles, for example, Aunt Katia in Krapiva’s He Who Laughs Last, Stepanida in Samuilenok’s The Death of a Wolf Avdot’ia Zakharovna in Krapiva’s The Larks Are Singing (State Prize of the USSR, 1952), Al’zhbeta in Kupala’s Pavlinka, Kas-parikha in Biadulia’s The Nightingale, Shablova and Murza-vetskaia in Ostrovskii’s Late Love and Wolves and Sheep, and Marfa in Leonov’s The Blizzard.

Rzhetskaia has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and various medals.