Olga Lepeshinskaya was a Soviet ballerina, teacher, and public figure, and a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre. She was born in Kyiv into a noble family of Polish descent. She began studying choreography on her own and later graduated from the Moscow Ballet School of the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1933, she made her debut at the Bolshoi as Lise in “La Fille mal gardée”. She soon became one of the leading dancers of the troupe. During the Great Patriotic War, she performed for troops at the front. In 1942, while the Bolshoi Theatre was evacuated to Kuibyshev, she danced the leading role in “Scarlet Sails”. After the war, she toured extensively in the USSR and abroad. After retiring from the stage in 1963, she devoted herself to teaching in the Soviet Union and other countries. For more than 50 years, she headed the State Examination Commission of the Choreography Department at GITIS and became a professor there in 1997. She also led the organizing committee of international ballet competitions in Moscow, headed professional organizations, worked on television, and served on the editorial boards of specialized publications. The Bakhrushin Theatre Museum’s collection holds a large number of photographs of the ballerina, as well as archival documents and personal belongings.