Klara Borisovna Novikova (; born Herzer (), December 12, 1946, Kiev) is a Soviet and Russian pop artist and humorist. She is an

Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (, ''Zasluzhenny artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii''), also known as Honored Artist of Russia, is an honorary title in the Russian Federation. The title is awarded to actors, directors, filmmakers, writers, d ...

(1992),

People's Artist of Russia People's Artist of the Russian Federation (, ''Narodnyy artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii''), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation ...

(1997), and a member of the Public Council of the

Russian Jewish Congress The Russian Jewish Congress is a non-profit charitable fund and Russian Jewish organization. It was established in 1996 by a group of Jewish businessmen, workers and religious figures with the goal of reviving Jewish life in Russia. It unites som ...

Biography

Klara Novikova was born December 12, 1946, in Kiev, into the family of war veteran and director of a shoe store in

Podil Podil ( ) or Podol ( ), also known in English as the Lower City,Ivankin, H., Vortman, D. Podil (ПОДІЛ)'. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. is a historic neighborhood in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is located on a floodplain terrace ...

, Boris Herzer, and housewive Polina Weinstein.Клара Новикова вяжет носки
// Gazeta.ua She graduated from the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Art and the

Russian Academy of Theatre Arts The Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) () is the largest and oldest independent theatrical arts school in Russia. Located in Moscow, the school was founded on 22 September 1878 as the Shostakovsky Music School. It became the School of Mu ...

. In 1974, she became the winner of the All-Union Competition of Entertainers; chairman of the jury was

Arkady Raikin Arkady Isaakovich Raikin (; – 17 December 1987) was a Soviet stand-up comedian, stage and film actor, theater director, screenwriter and satirist. He led the school of Soviet and Russian humorists for about half a century. He is the father of ...

. In 1976, she went to work at

Mosconcert Mosconcert is the oldest cultural organization in Moscow. Its full name is "Mosconcert, state budgetary institution of culture of Moscow" (ГБУК города Москвы «Москонцерт») History At 25 January 1931, in Soviet Unio ...

and settled in Moscow. Since 1992, Klara Novikova has worked at the Moscow Theater of Variety Miniatures, headed by Mikhail Zhvanetsky. In 1995, she won the Arkady Raikin Cup at the MORE SMEHA International Festival in Riga. In 2008, a monument to Aunt Sonia was planned to be unveiled on the Yalta embankment near the Yubileiny Palace. However, the monument was not erected and remained in the studio of sculptors Igor Lysenko and Ella Lysenko. In 2010, together with the

Gesher Theater Gesher Theater is an Israeli theater company founded in 1991 in Tel Aviv by new Olim from the Soviet Union. Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, by Natan Sharansky, 2008, pp 139ff. It performs both in Russian and ...

, Klara Novikova first tried her hand as a dramatic actress, playing the lead female role in the play ''The Late Love'' (directed by Yevgeny Aryeh based on the play by Valery Muharyamov ''In the Shadow of the Vineyard'', which was based on the story by Nobel Prize winner

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer (; 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Poland, Polish-born Jews, Jewish novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, essayist, and translator in the United States. Some of his works were adapted for the theater. He wrote and publish ...

). In 2022, a documentary film about Klara Novikova was made, ‘Klara Novikova. I'm not Aunt Sonya!’.

Personal life

* First husband – drummer Victor Novikov, a fellow student at the circus school. * Second husband – sports journalist Yuri Leonidovich Zerchaninov (1931-2009), head of the department of journalism at the magazine

Yunost ''Yunost'' (, ''Youth'') is a Russian language literary magazine created in 1955 in Moscow (initially as a USSR Union of Writers' organ) by Valentin Kataev, its first editor-in-chief, who was fired in 1961 for publishing Vasily Aksyonov's ''Tick ...

. **Daughter – Maria Zerchaninova (born 1976), a journalist who teaches at the University of Theater Critics Клара Новикова привезла дочь в роддом
/ref> In 2013, Novikova was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery, long treatment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Novikova, Klara People's Artists of Russia Honored Artists of the Russian Federation Russian Academy of Theatre Arts alumni 1946 births Living people Artists from Kyiv Russian women comedians Ukrainian Jews Russian television actresses Russian humorists Ukrainian humorists Jewish humorists Russian women humorists Ukrainian women humorists Russian women television presenters Entertainers from Kyiv Jewish Russian actors