Bérzinš, Lilita

(Liliia Davydovna Priede-Berzinia). Born July 4 (17), 1903, in Riga. Soviet Latvian actress. People’s Artist of the USSR (1956). Member of the CPSU since 1949.

Since 1922, Bérziņš has worked in the Reinis Art Theater (Riga). Bérziņš work is noted for accuracy in her psychological characterizations, spareness of expressive devices, and nobility of stage form. Among her roles are Asnate, Spidola, and Mother (in Reinis’s Iosif and his Brothers, Fire and Night, and Breathe, Wind!), Liubov’ Iarovaia (in Trenev’s play of that title), Anna Karenina (from L. Tolstoy’s novel), Maria Stuart (in Schiller’s tragedy), Filomena Marturano (in De Filippo’s play), and the Colonel’s Widow (in Smuul’s play of that title).

Bérziņš was a deputy to the second through fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR. She received the State Prize of the USSR (1947) and was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals.