Mlotkovska, Liubov

Mlotkovska, Liubov [Млотковська, Любов; Mlotkovs'ka, Ljubov; née Kolosova; surname by first marriage: Ostriakova], b ca 1805 in Kursk, d 31 October 1866 in Kyiv. Actress on the Ukrainian and Russian stage. She debuted in I. Stein’s troupe in 1823 and remained in it until 1832. She was subsequently in her husband Liudvig Mlotkovsky’s troupe (1833–43), in the Kharkiv Theatrical Enterprise (1843–50), and in theaters in Odesa (1850–6) and Kyiv (1856–66). Her repertoire spanned several genres—vaudeville, melodrama, comedy, and tragedy. She played leading roles in the premieres of the first Ukrainian plays, such as Tetiana in Ivan Kotliarevsky’s Moskal'-charivnyk (The Muscovite-Sorcerer) and Uliana in Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s Svatannia na Honcharivtsi (Matchmaking at Honcharivka). A biography, by O. Klinchyn, was published in Kyiv in 1958.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]