Elina Bystritskaya

Elina Bystritskaya is a Soviet - Russian actress best known as Aksinya in Quiet Flows the Don (1957) by director Aleksandr Gerasimov. She was born Elina Avraamovna Bystritskaya on April 4, 1928, in Kiev, Ukraine, Soviet Union. Her father, Avraam Petrovich Bystritsky, was a notable medical doctor in Kiev, her mother, Esther Isaakovna, was a medical administrator. Young Elina Bystritskaya worked as a medical nurse helping her parents in a Soviet military hospital during the Second World War. She was decorated by the Soviet State for her contribution to the Victory in the Second World War. From 1944 - 1947 she studied as a medical nurse at Nezhin Nursing School, graduating in 1947 as gynecological nurse, and then worked at a gynecological clinic. That same year she failed to enter the Kiev Acting School and studied to be a teacher, albeit her second attempt to acting school was successful. From 1948-1953 she attended the Kiev Theatrical Institute, graduating in 1953 as an actress. Bystr