Background
She was the daughter of Elena Kolosova, a prima ballerina.
She was the daughter of Elena Kolosova, a prima ballerina.
The first Russian theatre star to receive education in France, Alexandra became highly popular for her roles in Molière"s comedies. After retirement Kolosova-Karatygina devoted herself to literature: she made several translations (including Der Glöckner von Notre Dame by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, published in Russia as Esmeralda or Four Kinds of Love) and wrote Memoirs which appeared posthumously in 1881, in Russky Vestnik. In it she addressed among other issues that of her relationship with Alexander Pushkin, who first lampooned her in an epigram ("All things enchant us in Esther…", 1820), then sang her a paean in "An Epistle to Katenin" (1821).