Tat'iana Samoilova and the Soviet Celebrity

• In Event: Stardom and Celebrity: The Actress in Soviet and Russian Film

Abstract

This paper explores the career of one of the most famous Soviet film stars, Tat'iana Samoilova, who rose to celebrity status for her role in Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1957 film, The Cranes are Flying. Samoilova is a particularly interesting figure because of the recognition she was given for her accomplishments at Cannes, and because of offers she received (and her own desires) to become an actress abroad. A career outside of the USSR, of course, never came to fruition due to restrictions imposed by the Soviet cultural administration. In examining the ways that she was portrayed in the Soviet and international press, I look at how her celebrity image was constructed for the Soviet public during the Thaw period. The paper, then, asks how the portrayal of Samoilova as a film star contributed to a paradigm for a socialist (or second-world) celebrity figure.

Author

• Theodora Kelly Trimble, U of Pittsburgh