Svetlana Druzhinina was born on 16 December 1935 in Moscow. In 1946, Druzhinina entered the circus school, where she successfully worked with a group of circus acrobats for one year. A year later she moved to the ballet school at the
Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre. In 1955 she graduated from the ballet school of the
Bolshoi Theatre, where she studied together with future ballet stars
Māris Liepa and Natalya Kasatkina. Because of a serious injury Druzhinina couldn’t become a dancer. In 1955 Druzhinina debuted as an actress in the movie
Showcase for Supermarket (), played a shop assistant Sonja Bozhko. From 1955 to 1965 she was an actress at the central studio of
Gorky Film Studio. In 1960 Druzhinina graduated from the
VGIK Faculty of Actor (actor's workshop of Olga Pyzhova and Boris Bibikov). In 1969 Druzhinina graduated from the
VGIK Faculty of Director (workshop of
Igor Talankin), her thesis film was
Zinka (screenwriter B. Mazhaev). In the same year she began working as a director with
Mosfilm. During her training, in 1968, she would become the very first director to film a scene from the novel
The Master and Margarita by writer
Mikhail Bulgakov. Druzhinina was a hostess of the first Soviet humor TV shows and competitions called
KVN on the Central Television (together with
Mikhail Derzhavin). Her debut as a director was in the movie called
Fulfillment of Desires () (1974) based on the novel by
Veniamin Kaverin. Druzhinina received her recognition and national love as a director in 1987 after the release of the TV film
Gardes-Marines, ahead! This was her first experience as a director of a historical movie, and it was very successful. Later the history of the
Russian Empire became the main theme of her work. From 2000 to the present time Druzhinina is directing a TV series about the history of Russia in the 18th century called ''
Secrets of Palace coup d'etat. Russia, 18th century''. == Family ==