Irina Peltsin (Russian: Ирина Пельцин) is a recurring character portrayed by actress Oksana Lada and portrayed by Siberia M. Federico in the pilot episode. She was Tony Soprano's Russian mistress during Seasons 1 and 2 and made several appearances in each of the next couple of seasons, up to Season 4.
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Biography[]
As revealed in "The Knight in White Satin Armor", Irina left behind a miserable life in the Soviet Union. Growing up with alcoholic parents in the industrial city of Petrozavodsk in Karelia Republic, her father died aged 55 from complications with lung cancer and liver cirrhosis. Shortly after, her mother lost her job due to the closure of the factory she and her husband worked for, following which Irina was sent to live with her neglectful and abusive uncle in Kazakhstan. Not wanting to become a factory worker like her parents, she emigrated to the United States, likely after the dissolution of the USSR, and settled in New Jersey by 1996, working as a dancer at the Bada-Bing in Lodi.
Irina is the first of Tony Soprano's girlfriends to be shown on the show. His later girlfriends on the show would include Gloria Trillo, Valentina La Paz, and Julianna Skiff. Of these, Irina was the youngest and particularly intense in her codependency with Tony. She was treated to the most luxury, being seen on expensive dinner dates and on Tony's boat. Although Irina was quite immature and often seemed to annoy Tony, he was very attached to her, even assaulting a Russian yacht owner for offering to introduce Irina to his brother. Tony tells Dr. Melfi that their affair lasted two years.
In Season 2, Tony has a pang of guilt and chose to end things with Irina, telling her she deserves better than her job in a department store. Irina does not want to break it off, begging him to reconsider and threatening to kill herself, after which Irina made a drunken suicide attempt by overdosing on sleeping pills. Initially Tony did try to help out, paying for the emergency stomach pump, recommending her to a low-level modeling agency, and getting her the number of a therapist. Irina, however, remained resentful of Tony, lamenting that he was her only serious relationship, and after the agency turned her down for being "too old", Tony chose to send Silvio Dante around with $75,000 in order to reason with Irina to get out of his life, also advising her to settle down with a long term partner, as she had previously wished for, while she still has her looks.
During Season 4, Irina begins dating Tony's political ally, Assemblyman Ronald Zellman, who has been helping her assimilate better to American society, such as paying for her attendance at a community college and allowing her to live with him after a dispute with her landlord. Unlike Tony, Assemblyman Zellman appears to be genuinely invested in Irina, mostly because he was freshly divorced, and when Zellman announces their relationship to Tony, Tony claims he doesn't mind them dating, as he has moved on from Irina. But soon after, he becomes jealous of Zellman's relationship with Irina. He drives to Zellman's house, confronts him and beats him with a belt, humiliating him in front of Irina. It is later revealed that Zellman broke up with Irina shortly afterwards as a result of his stamina being sapped after the beating and being embarassed at his subsequent impotence.
This plays a large part in Irina later contacting Tony's wife Carmela Soprano to let her know of Tony's relationship with her cousin, Svetlana Kirilenko. Irina's cousin Svetlana was a care-taker to both Tony's mother Livia Soprano and to his Uncle Junior. Svetlana's drive to succeed and make something of her life despite her having only one leg greatly impressed Tony, along with her natural attractiveness. This led to him having basically a "one night stand" with her. Irina learned of this from the nurse employed by Svetlana. She called Carmela while she was drunk, and revealed what happened between Tony and Svetlana. This was the final straw for Carmela, as she had been tolerating Tony's unfaithfulness for years, and could stand it no longer. The "straw that broke the camel's back" was Tony's choice of mistress, Svetlana, a woman whom she knew and trusted as a mature stable woman who cared for her mother-in-law in her last moments, as opposed to Tony's usual bimbos. Another smaller factor is that the kids were indirectly involved. Irina briefly spoke with A.J. Soprano, calling him "the handsome boy" as A.J. answered the call. Tony attempted to confront Irina about this at her rented house, but Svetlana informed him that her cousin skipped town and is probably hiding in Brighton Beach in New York, outside of Tony's sphere of influence.
Tony and Carmela remained separated for the majority of Season 5, but eventually reconciled after Tony agreed to buy Carmela a $600,000 property she could use to start her house building business to become less reliant on her husband in the future.
Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||||||||||
| Season 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 6 |
Behind the scenes[]
- In the pilot episode, Irina was played by Italian actress Siberia Federico. She was recast with Oksana Lada in subsequent episodes. The first appearance of Irina showed her wearing John F Kennedy's yacht captain's hat, which would be seen on Fran Felstein much later in the series.