Mordyukova, Nonna

▪ 2009

Noyabrina Viktorovna Mordyukova 

      Soviet actress

born Nov. 25, 1925, Konstantinovskaya, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now in Russia]

died July 6, 2008, Moscow, Russia

epitomized the ideal Soviet woman in films that typecast her as a strong mother figure torn between her conflicting loyalties to family and state. Mordyukova grew up on a collective farm and studied acting at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography. She made her screen debut in Molodaya gvardiya (1948; The Young Guard), but her breakthrough roles came in Chuzhaya rodnya (1955; Other People's Relatives) and Aleksandr Askoldov's Kommissar (The Commissar), which was filmed in 1967 but was not released until 1987, largely owing to its controversial themes of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Mordyukova's other significant films include Prostaya istoriya (1960; A Simple Story), the comedies Brilliantovaya ruka (1968; The Diamond Arm) and Inkognito iz Peterburga (1977; Incognito from St. Petersburg), and her final screen appearance, Mama (1999). Mordyukova was honoured (1992) with the Order for Service to the Fatherland. She published a memoir, Ne plach', kazachka! (“Don't Cry, Cossack Woman”), in 1997.

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