Maria Maksakova, Sr., Russian soprano (d. 1974)
Maria Petrovna Maksakova (Мария Петровна Максакова, née: Sidorova; April 8, 1902, Astrakhan, Russian Empire – August 11, 1974, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet opera singer, mezzo-soprano, a leading soloist in the Bolshoi Theater (1923–1953), who enjoyed great success in the 1920s and 1930s, in the times often referred to as the golden age of Soviet opera. Maria Maksakova, the three times laureate of the Stalin's Prize (1946, 1949, 1951), was designated as a People's Artist of the USSR in 1971. The actress Lyudmila Maksakova is her daughter; singer and TV presenter Maria Maksakova Jr. her granddaughter.