Paulina Shavinskaya

**Years active** | 1969–present

**Paulina Viktorovna Shavinskaya** (Belarusian: *Паўліна Віктараўна Шавінская*, Russian: *Паулина Викторовна Шавинская*; born 6 May 1950) is a Belarusian-Russian actress and former model. Beginning her career in 1969 as a model throughout the Soviet Union, Shavinskaya embarked on an acting career after graduating from the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in 1972.

Beginning her acting career with small parts, she received her breakout role as Maria Antonova in the Channel One Russia soap opera *Vodagrad* from 1975 to 1980. She later starred in the Channel One drama *My prevrashchayemsya* (1982–1987), for which she received three Russian Television Awards. Shavinskaya has went on to star in a number of other television series, including *Govorit* (1989–1993), *Angely* (1997–2003), and *Krasnovy* (2007–2015), portraying Irina Krasnova in the latter of the three.

The recipient of thirteen Belarusian Television Awards, eleven Russian Television Awards, and four Ukrainian Television Awards, Shavinskaya is one of the most awarded television actresses in Russian television history.

## Early life and education

Shavinskaya was born on 6 May 1950 in Grodno in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union to parents Viktor Shavinsky (1914–1999) and Maria Fedorovich (1916–2012). She is of ethnic Polish descent, with her parents Russifying their Polish names from *Wiktor Śawiński* and *Maria Fedorowicz* following the Soviet Union's acquisition of Grodno from Poland in the 1940s. Her father worked in the textiles industry, while her mother was a seamstress, and the family was working-class. Shavinskaya is the second of four children; her siblings include Peter (born 1948), Margarita (born 1954), and Olga (born 1956). Shavinskaya grew up in a strict Roman Catholic family, speaking primarily Polish and Belarusian; she later learned Russian in school.

In order to avoid being deported in the mid-to-late-1950s, the family heavily assimilated to Soviet culture, and began only speaking Russian at home. Shavinskaya began her education in 1956, later graduating with a high school diploma in 1967. After graduating, Shavinskaya moved to Moscow to attend the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts; she graduated with a degree in drama in 1971.

## Career

In 1969, Shavinskaya began a career working as a model in Moscow. She primarily worked in glamour modeling, and by 1972 was named one of the "100 Most Desirable Women in Russia" by Russian men's magazine *Lyuba*. Shavinskaya continued modeling in ad campaigns and glamour shots, but retired from modeling after beginning an acting career in 1974.

Beginning her acting career with small parts, she received her breakout role as Maria Antonova in the Channel One Russia soap opera *Vodagrad* from 1975 to 1980. She later starred in the Channel One drama *My prevrashchayemsya* (1982–1987), for which she received three Russian Television Awards. Shavinskaya has went on to star in a number of other television series, including *Govorit* (1989–1993), *Angely* (1997–2003), and *Krasnovy* (2007–2015), portraying Irina Krasnova in the latter of the three.

The recipient of thirteen Belarusian Television Awards, eleven Russian Television Awards, and four Ukrainian Television Awards, Shavinskaya is one of the most awarded television actresses in Russian television history.

## Personal life

Shavinskaya holds citizenship to Belarus, Russia, and Poland, and owns residences in Grodno and Minsk, Belarus, Moscow, Russia, and Kraków, Poland. She is a "devoted" Roman Catholic, and speaks fluent Belarusian, Russian, and Polish, although she has mentioned that her Polish skills have been deteriorating as she does not speak Polish unless with family members.

Shavinskaya began dating Belarusian ski jumper Boris Toshkin in 1975. They married two years later in Minsk, and later had one child together: a daughter named Yekaterina Borisovna Shavinskaya-Toshkina (born 1980). They divorced in 1986, and Yekaterina was raised by Shavinskaya. Yekaterina now works as an attorney in Belarus. Shavinskaya later married Finnish alpine skier Pentti Luukkanen in 1995, after dating for four years. They divorced in 2008. After the divorce, she began dating Russian pediatrician Andrey Pushnov in 2009, and they married in 2011.

## Filmography

*Main article: Paulina Shavinskaya filmography.*

## Awards and nominations

*Main article: Awards and nominations received by Paulina Shavinskaya.*