Samarina, Antonina

(stage name; real surname Sobol’shchikova-Samarina). Born Apr. 10 (22), 1896, in Penza; died June 20, 1971, in Gorky. Soviet actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1968). Daughter of N. I. Sobol’shchikov-Samarin.

Samarina first appeared on stage in 1917. She worked in Orel, Arkhangel’sk, Yalta, Kazan, and Saratov. In 1932 she joined the troupe of the Gorky Theater of Drama. Samarina’s roles included Sophia in Griboedov’s Woe From Wit, Diana in Lope de Vega’s The Dog in the Manger, Maria and Katharine in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew, and Glafira in Ostrovskii’s Wolves and Sheep. She also played Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Sea Gull, Iuliia in Gorky’s The Summer People, Berezhkova in The Precipice (based on Goncharov’s novel), Mariia Aleksandrovna Ul’ianova in Popov’s Family, and Mrs. Savage in J. Patrick’s The Curious Savage.