Valentina Vasilyevna Serova (russian: Валенти́на Васи́льевна Серо́ва; 23 December 1917 – 12 December 1975) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
actress
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...
born in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
Honored Artist of the RSFSR
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (, ''Zasluzhenny artist RSFSR'') was an honorary title granted to Soviet artists, including theatre and film directors, choreographers, music performers, and orchestra conductors, who had outstanding achievements in the ...
(1946). Winner of the
Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to:
* The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...
of the second degree (1947).
Early life
Serova was born Valentina Polovikova ''(Валентина Половикова)'' in 1917 in
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Komsomol, Aleksandr Kosarev who was executed during the
Great Terror
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
in 1937. She escaped being implicated. In 1938, she married her first husband, Anatoly Serov, a
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
general
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
, a test and fighter pilot. In 1939 Anatoli Serov died in an air crash together with
Polina Osipenko
Polina Denisovna Osipenko (russian: Полина Денисовна Осипенко, uk, Поліна Денисівна Осипенко, translit=Polina Denysivna Osypenko; 8 October 1907 – 11 May 1939) was a Soviet Union, Soviet military pil ...
A Girl with a Temper
''A Girl with Character'' (russian: Девушка с характером, Devushka s kharakterom) is a 1939 Soviet comedy film directed by Konstantin Yudin.
The film featured acting debuts of Mikhail Gluzsky and Anatoly Solovyov.
Plot
The best ...
'' had a huge success and she became one of the biggest film stars of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
In 1940 she met
Konstantin Simonov
Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, born Kirill Mikhailovich Simonov (russian: link= no, Константин Михайлович Симонов, – 28 August 1979), was a Soviet author, war poet, playwright and wartime correspondent, arguabl ...
, a famous Soviet author, whom she married in 1943. Simonov's poem " Wait For Me", one of the most famous Russian war poems, is dedicated to her. She subsequently inspired a series of love poems, collected as "With You and Without You" ("С тобой и без тебя"). Their relationship was a troubled one. During the war it was widely rumored that Serova was a mistress of Gen. K.K. Rokossovski.
While it's true that Serova, working as a hospital volunteer, met Rokossovski several times while he was recovering from a wound from a shell fragment in early 1942, it was not acknowledged. Frontline soldiers saw the two often travelling together.
Rokossovski also had another mistress at this time, Dr. Lt. Galina Talanova, with whom he had a daughter in 1945.
Later years and death
Her career declined after the 1940s. Simonov left her in 1957. She became an alcoholic and died in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1975.Braithwaite, Rodric; ''Moscow, 1941'', Vintage Books, New York, 2006, p 314