Valentina Petrovna Telegina was born on February 23, 1915, in Novocherkassk, capital of Don Cossacks (now the Rostov Oblast).

[1][2][3] In 1937, she graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts, workshop of Sergei Gerasimov.

She had her first big role as Motya Kotenkova in Sergei Gerasimov's film Komsomolsk, released in 1938.

[4] After the war she moved to Moscow, working at the Gorky Film Studio from 1946.

[5] She aimed to embody the character of the Russian woman in all its diversity.