Vera Pashennaya

Vera Nikolayevna Pashennaya was born on 19 September 1887 in Moscow, in the Russian Empire, and died on 28 October 1962 in Moscow. A Soviet Russian stage and film actress as well as a pedagogue, she was the daughter of the noted actor Nikolay Roshchin-Insarov, who was born with the surname Pashenny. Her sister, Yekaterina Roshchina-Insarov, was also an actress and emigrated in 1919.

Pashennaya appeared on Broadway in 1923, performing in two productions: The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. Both works were staged by the company she represented from Moscow.

Her film work included the role of Akulina in Polikushka in 1922, Murzavetskaya in Wolves and Sheep in 1953, Ekaterina's grandmother in Ekaterina Voronina in 1957, and the role of Yepanchina, a general's wife, in The Idiot in 1958. She joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1954.

Pashennaya received numerous state honors throughout her career. She was named Honored Artist of the Republic in 1925 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1937. She received two Orders of Lenin, in 1937 and 1949, and was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st class, in 1943. Additional honors included the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1957, the Lenin Prize in 1961, the Medal for Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945, and the Medal in Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow.