Mariia Starytska

Mariia Mykhailivna Starytska (; – 20 December 1930) was a Ukrainian and Soviet actress and stage director.

Early life and education Mariia Mykhailivna Starytska was born on in the selo of Lebekhivka, Poltava Governorate (present-day Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) to Mykhailo Starytsky and . Starytska was the eldest daughter of Mykhailo Starytsky and the sister of Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska and Oksana Steshenko.

Starytska went to the first kindergarten in Kyiv, which was administered by Maria Lindfors and Sofia Lindfors. She and her sister Liudmyla studied Ukrainian language, literature, and history at home from their parents and their family, even though they attended a private gymnasium that followed the Russian imperial curriculum. Marko Kropyvnytskyi's performances deeply influenced Starytska and sparked her love for Ukrainian theatre. Though she declined his marriage proposal—perhaps due to their age gap or her educational goals—she always held him in high esteem.

Starytska completed her education at in Kyiv in 1882. In 1883, while her father supported Kropyvnytskyi's theatre troupe, she chose to pursue further studies. Though previously believed to have graduated from the Bestuzhev Courses in Saint Petersburg, archival records confirm she attended the Kyiv Women's Higher Courses from 1884 to 1886, after studying natural sciences at the Bestuzhev Courses from 1883 to 1884. Her enrolment had full parental backing and official approval. In 1886, following the dissolution of her father's financially strained troupe, Starytska joined his new company, touring across the Russian Empire and assisting with both performances and organisational duties until 1890.

Awards Merited Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1926)