The birth of Vera Maretskaya

She was born in Barvikha but grew up in Moscow, where, starting in 1912, her father began renting a concession stand at the Nikitin Brothers Circus that used to occupy the location of the current Satire Theatre. He worked there as a store clerk after the revolution, and his daughter helped him out. Her parents wanted Vera to study at the Moscow University’s Philosophy Department. But she passed the entrance exams for the Theatre School at the Vakhtangov Theatre in secret from her family. She graduated from there in 1924 and became one of the first actresses of the Theatre Studio under the direction of Yuri Zavadsky with whom she worked her entire life.