Margarita Meyendorff (Mourka) is an award-winning author of two books entitled DP Displaced
Person and Flipping the Bird.
DP Displaced Person, her memoir is a portrait of Mourka as she journeys through the hardships
of her Russian immigrant beginnings to becoming a wife, parent, educator and artist. The
journey is thrillingly personal yet universal as her readers travel to find their true selves and safe
haven.
Flipping the Bird is an anthology of 27 short stories, two plays and a screen play—-stories of
defiance and impudence in the face of injustice, both public and private. This collection is also
steeped in Mourka’s Russian background and she serves up a zakuska of flavorful memories –all
spiced with her spirit.
Mourka was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany to a Russian baron and his Estonian
wife, aristocratic parents who were forced to flee for their lives from persecution by the
Communists during and right after WWII. When the family immigrated to the United States in
1949, Mourka seemed destined to be forever displaced – moving more than thirty times until she
finally settled in an historic house in upstate New York.
Mourka had her theatrical debut as a six-year-old in Russian children’s plays in the famous
Russian enclave around Nyack, NY where she grew up among other emigres. Later, she pursued
her theatrical career and traveled extensively in the United States as an actor, director and
producer of plays. “Mourka” became her stage name and nickname. Her one-woman show
entitled Mourka played to sold out runs Off-Broadway in New York City in 1997 and again in
2004.
Additionally, Mourka has a separate career as a singer of romance, folk and gypsy Russian
songs. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe, and in New York City in
venues such as the Plaza Hotel and the Harvard Club in New York City.
Margarita holds a Master’s Degree in Professional Studies from SUNY, New Paltz and has three
teaching certificates – Russian, French and English as a Second Language. She taught Russian
and French in the Arlington School District in Poughkeepsie, NY, English as a Second Language
in the Marlboro School District and French and English as a Second Language in the Newburgh
School District. In addition, she taught courses in Russian and Russian History at SUNY, New
Paltz.