Vera Alexandrovna Tiscenko (28 August 1902 â€" 13 October 1983) was a
Russian actress of Polish descent and member of the Moscow Art Theatre
who lived through four revolutions: the 1905 Russian Revolution, the
Russian Revolution (1917), the Spanish Civil War, the Direct Action
Day & Indian Independence Movement, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
(also known as the First Kashmir War). In India, her divorce from her
first husband, Eugene Tiscenko, has achieved the status of a
constitutional precedent that has been deployed repeatedly by the
Supreme Court of India. She was the second wife of Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy who was the last Chief Minister of United Bengal (April
1946- August 1947) and subsequently became the fifth Prime Minister of
Pakistan (1956â€"1957). They had a son Robert Ashby was born as Rashid
Suhrawardy, who worked in the British and American film industry.The
second of three sisters, she pursued acting as a child against her
parents wishes and when she was 19 caught the attention of Olga
Knipper (widow of Anton Chekov) who brought her to meet Constantin
Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre. She acted at the Moscow Art
Theatre and in Prague. Always dynamic on stage she went on a European
tour with Moscow Art Theatre actress Vera Baranovskaya, where she met
the Russian émigré medical student Eugene Tiscenko who was then
living in Berlin. They were married on May 20, 1931, and later settled
in Madrid. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War the couple
moved to Rome via Vienna where on January 27, 1937, she gave birth to
a son, Oleg. In 1938 her husband went to Edinburgh, Scotland to
qualify for a British medical degree. Vera's marriage to Eugene had
not been not a happy one and left alone with her son in Mussolini's
Rome she became increasingly worried about the surrounding European
unrest. She decided to accept an invitation from Sir Hassan
Suhrawardy, an eminent surgeon and uncle of her English professor and
former director from the Moscow Art Theatre, Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy,
to leave Europe with her son and stay with him in Calcutta, India.On
September 1, 1938, they arrived in Calcutta and Hassan, a widower for
a good many years, began to put the make on her. Vera promptly sought
out his nephew, Huseyn, to put a stop to his advances and in Huseyn
she found a colorful, brilliant and witty man; an Oxford graduate and
prominent lawyer (Gray's Inn), and also a widower (his first wife
Begum Niaz Fatima had died in 1922) who had recently been elected to
the new Bengal Assembly in 1937. Vera, living in Calcutta with her son
on her own earnings and without any support from her husband, found
"relief and solace" in the teachings of Islam. She cabled her husband
with the news of her conversion to Islam and requested that he accept
the Islamic faith. Eugene, a Greek Orthodox replied that his religious
convictions were unshakable and "refused absolutely" to change his
faith and insisted that their son remain Greek Orthodox. Vera, who had
changed her name to Begum Noor Jehan at her conversion on 27 June
1940, applied to the High Court of Calcutta on August 5, 1940, for a
suit declaring dissolution of her marriage to Eugene Tiscenko. The
Calcutta High Court originally declared that her marriage to Eugene
was dissolved. Despite a subsequent appeal that left the case
unresolved, she married Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy later in 1940 and
they had one son, Rashid (aka Robert Ashby). One year later, on
December 19, 1941, the Calcutta High Court overturned the dissolution
of marriage. The "Tiscenko" decision came to affect the lives of women
all over South Asia. A Polish woman who was married to a Russian man
in Germany trying to dissolve her marriage before a court in
Calcutta.Vera, an American citizen, later went to live in the United
States. Her younger sister, Lydia, was living in a Manhattan apartment
building at 130 West 57th Street that her husband, Dr. David Jedwabnik
had inherited from his brother, Abram, in 1949. Vera spent the rest of
her life teaching acting lessons based on the Stanislavski's system
under the pseudonym Vera Vlasova at her studio in her flat on Orchid
Avenue in Hollywood. Her professional name, "Vlasova", was the name of
Vera Baranovskaya's character in Mother, a film based on the novel by
Maxim Gorky and directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin in 1926. For over twenty
years she went on lecture tours around the world lecturing as the
"Foremost authority on the Stanislavski Method". On October 7, 1983,
Vera was at LAX about to board a flight to New York City to visit her
sister, Lydia, en route to give a lecture at the Moscow Art Theatre
when she suffered a sudden stroke as she was arguing with the baggage
handler about the treatment of her luggage. She died on October 13,
1983, in Los Angeles.
Russian actress of Polish descent and member of the Moscow Art Theatre
who lived through four revolutions: the 1905 Russian Revolution, the
Russian Revolution (1917), the Spanish Civil War, the Direct Action
Day & Indian Independence Movement, and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947
(also known as the First Kashmir War). In India, her divorce from her
first husband, Eugene Tiscenko, has achieved the status of a
constitutional precedent that has been deployed repeatedly by the
Supreme Court of India. She was the second wife of Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy who was the last Chief Minister of United Bengal (April
1946- August 1947) and subsequently became the fifth Prime Minister of
Pakistan (1956â€"1957). They had a son Robert Ashby was born as Rashid
Suhrawardy, who worked in the British and American film industry.The
second of three sisters, she pursued acting as a child against her
parents wishes and when she was 19 caught the attention of Olga
Knipper (widow of Anton Chekov) who brought her to meet Constantin
Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre. She acted at the Moscow Art
Theatre and in Prague. Always dynamic on stage she went on a European
tour with Moscow Art Theatre actress Vera Baranovskaya, where she met
the Russian émigré medical student Eugene Tiscenko who was then
living in Berlin. They were married on May 20, 1931, and later settled
in Madrid. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War the couple
moved to Rome via Vienna where on January 27, 1937, she gave birth to
a son, Oleg. In 1938 her husband went to Edinburgh, Scotland to
qualify for a British medical degree. Vera's marriage to Eugene had
not been not a happy one and left alone with her son in Mussolini's
Rome she became increasingly worried about the surrounding European
unrest. She decided to accept an invitation from Sir Hassan
Suhrawardy, an eminent surgeon and uncle of her English professor and
former director from the Moscow Art Theatre, Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy,
to leave Europe with her son and stay with him in Calcutta, India.On
September 1, 1938, they arrived in Calcutta and Hassan, a widower for
a good many years, began to put the make on her. Vera promptly sought
out his nephew, Huseyn, to put a stop to his advances and in Huseyn
she found a colorful, brilliant and witty man; an Oxford graduate and
prominent lawyer (Gray's Inn), and also a widower (his first wife
Begum Niaz Fatima had died in 1922) who had recently been elected to
the new Bengal Assembly in 1937. Vera, living in Calcutta with her son
on her own earnings and without any support from her husband, found
"relief and solace" in the teachings of Islam. She cabled her husband
with the news of her conversion to Islam and requested that he accept
the Islamic faith. Eugene, a Greek Orthodox replied that his religious
convictions were unshakable and "refused absolutely" to change his
faith and insisted that their son remain Greek Orthodox. Vera, who had
changed her name to Begum Noor Jehan at her conversion on 27 June
1940, applied to the High Court of Calcutta on August 5, 1940, for a
suit declaring dissolution of her marriage to Eugene Tiscenko. The
Calcutta High Court originally declared that her marriage to Eugene
was dissolved. Despite a subsequent appeal that left the case
unresolved, she married Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy later in 1940 and
they had one son, Rashid (aka Robert Ashby). One year later, on
December 19, 1941, the Calcutta High Court overturned the dissolution
of marriage. The "Tiscenko" decision came to affect the lives of women
all over South Asia. A Polish woman who was married to a Russian man
in Germany trying to dissolve her marriage before a court in
Calcutta.Vera, an American citizen, later went to live in the United
States. Her younger sister, Lydia, was living in a Manhattan apartment
building at 130 West 57th Street that her husband, Dr. David Jedwabnik
had inherited from his brother, Abram, in 1949. Vera spent the rest of
her life teaching acting lessons based on the Stanislavski's system
under the pseudonym Vera Vlasova at her studio in her flat on Orchid
Avenue in Hollywood. Her professional name, "Vlasova", was the name of
Vera Baranovskaya's character in Mother, a film based on the novel by
Maxim Gorky and directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin in 1926. For over twenty
years she went on lecture tours around the world lecturing as the
"Foremost authority on the Stanislavski Method". On October 7, 1983,
Vera was at LAX about to board a flight to New York City to visit her
sister, Lydia, en route to give a lecture at the Moscow Art Theatre
when she suffered a sudden stroke as she was arguing with the baggage
handler about the treatment of her luggage. She died on October 13,
1983, in Los Angeles.
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