On February 17, 2010, Distinguished Artist of Russia Maria Kuznetsova will celebrate her jubilee. The theater biography of this outstanding actress is inextricably intertwined with the Alexandrinsky Theater. A student of Igor Gorbachev, she was admitted to the company right after graduation in 1975. Her unique creative individuality along with colossal workability and mastership, her exceptional feeling of the partner and the ensemble allowed Maria Kuznetsova to turn into one of the leading young actresses after a short while: in the 1980s, she was engaged in nearly all performances of the Pushkin Theater and had been carrying a huge part of the theater’s repertoire. In the years of her work on the Alexandrinsky Stage, Maria Kuznetsova had played 70 roles. At present, the actress’s repertoire includes the roles of Anna Pavlovna, mother of Liza Protasova in L. Tolstoy’s “Living Corpse” (February 23), Matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna in Gogol’s “Marriage” (February 22), and Maria Timofeyevna, and the old nanny in Voinitsky’s family in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” (February 19). Maria Kuznetsova became broadly known and popular after Alexander Sokurov’s film “The Calf” had been released: she played the role of Nadezhda Krupskaya in it. The film was shown at the Cannes Festival and was largely commented by critics. Cooperation between Kuznetsova and the famous director continued in the new Sokurov’s film “The Russian Arch” where Maria Kuznetsova appeared in the role of Russian Empress Catherine II. Maria Kuznetsova was honored with the Nika National Cinema Award , the Golden Eagle Award of the cinema critics and cinema press; she also is recipient of the “Window in Europe” and ”The People of Our City” prizes and several prizes of the Gild of Film Experts and Film Critics.