Biografia
Vera Petrovna Maretskaya was born on July 31, 1906, in Barvikha, a suburb of Moscow in the Russian Empire (now Moscow, Russia). As a child, she helped her father, Petr Maretsky, who sold candy bars at the Moscow Circus. Maretskaya was auditioned by Vakhtangov and Zavadsky and studied at the Vakhtangov Theatre School, graduating as an actress in 1924. That same year, she became a permanent member of the Theatre-Studio led by Yuri Zavadsky. She soon married her teacher Yuri Zavadsky, and they had one son. Despite their brief marriage, they remained lifelong friends and stage partners. In 1925, she made her film debut in "Zakroischik is Torzhka" (Tailor of Torzhok, 1925) and went on to appear in fifteen silent films.
In 1937, Maretskaya endured the political execution of her two brothers, journalists Dmitri and Gregori, who were followers of opposition politician Nikolai Bukharin. Although Maretskaya appealed to the Soviet government, her plea was ignored. Her brothers were executed by gunshot during the purges of the "Great Terror" under Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship. Shortly afterward, she lost her second husband, a young actor named Georgi Troitsky, who was killed in action in 1941 during World War II. Maretskaya cared for her two children and also adopted the children of her executed brothers, receiving support from Yuri Zavadsky.
By 1940, she had become one of the prominent faces of Soviet propaganda films. She gained fame for her leading role in "Chlen pravitelstva" (Member of the Government, 1940), directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi and Iosif Kheifits. For this performance, she was awarded the Stalin Prize. That year, the Zavadsky Theatre-Studio merged with the Theatre of Mossovet, and Maretskaya became a permanent member of the Mossovet Theatre. Her stage partners included noted Russian actors such as Yuri Zavadsky, Faina Ranevskaya, Lyubov Orlova, Nikolai Mordvinov, Osip Abdulov, Rostislav Plyatt, and Georgi Zhzhyonov.
Maretskaya was well known among actors for her legendary culinary skills. At her Moscow home, she once hosted French actor Jean Marais, a renowned gourmet and careful eater. She prepared a Russian-style dinner featuring dishes like blini with caviar, blintzes with fish, and various vodkas. Marais politely said he would limit himself to a small piece of blini with caviar but ended up enjoying the meal throughout the night.
During the last ten years of her life, Vera Maretskaya battled breast cancer and was later diagnosed with brain cancer, yet she continued her acting career on Moscow Radio. She created popular radio programs based on her adaptations of André Maurois's works "Woman Without Love" and "The Art of Living." These radio shows marked her final notable acting work. In 1976, Maretskaya was honored as a Hero of Socialist Labor. She received the Stalin Prize four times (1942, 1946, 1948, 1951) and was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1949. Vera Maretskaya passed away on August 17, 1978, and was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.
