Marija Leiko

Marija Leiko (also known as Marija Leyko; 14 August 1887, Riga, Latvia – 3 February 1938, Moscow, USSR) was a Latvian silent movie actress in Europe since the 1910s, especially popular in Latvia, Germany and Russia.

Leiko conquered the German big screen first, starring in the Die Diamantenstiftung (1917), Kain (1918), Ewiger Strom (1919), Die Frau im Käfig (1919) and Lola Montez (1919) as the dancer.

When the silent movie era ended Leiko retired from film acting. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, she returned to her native Latvia. In 1935 she visited the Soviet Union and stayed to join the company of the Latvian State Theatre in Moscow.

This theatre was shut down during Stalin's purges, and on 15 December 1937, Leiko was arrested on false charges of belonging to a "Latvian nationalist conspiracy". On 3 February 1938 she was shot and buried in a mass grave at the secret NKVD killing field at Butovo, near Moscow. She was 50 years old. She was "posthumously rehabilitated in [the] absence of a crime" in 1958.

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