Valentina Chistyakova Ukrainian Soviet theater actress and teacher. Date of Birth: 18.04.1900 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Valentina Chistyakova

Valentina Chistyakova was a Ukrainian Soviet theater actress and educator. She was born into the family of Nikolay Chistyakov, a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater, and lived with her family in Moscow. In 1918, the family fled from Bolshevik Moscow to Kiev.

At the age of 15, Chistyakova joined a ballet studio on Proreznaya Street, where rehearsals and performances of the "Young Theater" under the guidance of Les Kurbas took place. It was during this period that she met Alexander Kurbas, who would become her husband and mentor. Chistyakova recalled this period of her life, stating that meeting Kurbas in 1918 in Kiev was the most important event of her life, determining both her personal and creative destiny.

Chistyakova made her debut in the "Young Theater" in the summer of 1919, performing in the chorus of the play "King Oedipus". In September of the same year, she married Kurbas and became permanently associated with the renowned director. She performed in various theaters including the "Young Theater" (1919-1920), the First State Theater of the Ukrainian SSR named after T. Shevchenko (1920), and the traveling theater "Kiydramte" (Belaya Tserkov - Uman, 1920-1922).

From 1922, Chistyakova was one of the leading actresses of Les Kurbas' theater "Berezil" in Kiev, which relocated to Kharkiv in 1926. In Kharkiv, the Kurbas and Chistyakova family lived in the house of the writer's cooperative "Slovo". In "Berezil", under Kurbas' guidance, Chistyakova showcased her talent in various roles, including comedic, melodramatic, and deeply psychological characters.

Chistyakova also tried her hand at directing, staging the play "Comrade Woman" (1931). However, she faced difficult times when the theater was destroyed in 1933, and Kurbas was arrested and killed. Despite the tragic events, Chistyakova found the strength to remain in the troupe. From 1935 to 1959, she performed as an actress at the Ukrainian Drama Theater named after Shevchenko in Kharkiv. Her roles during this mature period of her career became part of the golden fund of Ukrainian theater art.

During the years 1941-1943, the theater, including Chistyakova, was evacuated to Uzbekistan. From autumn 1943, she resided in Kharkiv on Girsman Street, together with Vanda Adolfovna, the mother of the repressed Les Kurbas. Chistyakova continued her artistic journey and in 1959-1967, she taught at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts. She also wrote articles on acting skills and memoirs about the "Berezil" theater and Kurbas, which were published in 1991-1992.

Valentina Chistyakova was buried at the 13th City Cemetery on Pushkinska Street. A memorial pantheon for the Kurbas family was erected on her grave in 1993, where Chistyakova, Kurbas' mother Vanda Adolfovna, and an urn with soil from the Solovetsky Islands, where Kurbas himself perished, are interred.