Galina Volchek

Galina Borisovna (Berovna) Volchek (Гали́на Бори́совна Во́лчек; 19 December 1933 – 26 December 2019) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress, theater director and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1989) and Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation (2017).

Biography
Galina Volchek was a daughter of the cameraman and director Boris (Ber) Volchek. After finishing the Moscow Art Theatre School (1955, Karev course) she co-founded the Sovremennik Theatre, together with Igor Kvasha, Oleg Tabakov, Oleg Yefremov and Yevgeny Yevstigneyev. Since 1972 she was the chief director of the theater, and since 1989 its artistic director. Volchek directed over thirty productions. Among them were Russian and world classics, works of contemporary domestic and foreign authors.

She was repeatedly invited to productions in theaters in Germany, Finland, Ireland, the US, Hungary, Poland and other countries. She was engaged many times in theater pedagogy activities abroad.

Volchek was elected a deputy into the State Duma in 1995, where she became a member of the Committee on Culture. In 1999, Volchek left the parliament.

On 26 December 2019, Volchek died in Moscow from pneumonia, one week after her 86th birthday.

Personal life
Galina Volchek said: I had two husbands, several romances and one fallacy. She was married twice:
 * First husband: Yevgeny Yevstigneyev. The marriage lasted for 9 years, after she initiated divorce proceedings.
 * The son Denis Yevstigneyev (born 1961), filmmaker.
 * Second husband: a doctor of technical sciences, professor of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering Mark Abelev, winner of the State Prize of the Soviet Union. Also divorced.

Honors and awards

 * USSR State Prize (1967)
 * Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1969)
 * People's Artist of the RSFSR (1979)
 * People's Artist of the USSR (1989)
 * Full cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
 * Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation (2017)