| Marija Leiko | |
| Birth Date: | 14 August 1887 |
| Birth Place: | Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire |
| Death Date: | 3 February 1937 (aged 49) |
| Death Place: | Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Yearsactive: | 1907 - 1928 |
| Children: | 1 |
Marija Leiko (14 August 1887 - 3 February 1937), also known as Marija Leyko, was a Latvian stage and silent film actress in Europe, especially popular in Latvia, Germany,[1] and Russia.
Leiko conquered the German big screen first, starring in The Diamond Foundation (1917), Kain (1918), Ewiger Strom (1919), Die Frau im Käfig (1919) and Lola Montez (1919) as the dancer.[1]
When the silent movie era ended Leiko retired from film acting. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, she returned to her native Latvia. In 1935 she visited the Soviet Union and stayed to join the company of the Latvian State Theatre in Moscow.[1]
During the so-called "Latvian Operation" the theatre was shut down, and on 15 December 1937, Leiko was arrested on charges of belonging to a "Latvian nationalist conspiracy". On 3 February 1938 at the age of 50 she was shot and buried in a mass grave at the secret NKVD killing field at Butovo, near Moscow.[1]
Maria Leiko was posthumously rehabilitated for the absence of a crime (corpus delicti) on May 12, 1958.[1]
A memorial sign, Last Address of Maria Karlovna Leiko, was put up on the wall of house 9, building 3 at Obolensky lane in Moscow on May 14, 2017.[2]