Vera Valentinovna Alentova (Russian: Ве́ра Валенти́новна Але́нтова; born February 21, 1942) is a Soviet and Russian actress famous for her leading role in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears.
Vera Alentova was born on February 21, 1942 in the town of Kotlas in the Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the family of actors Valentin Mikhailovich Bykov and Irina Nikolaevna Alentova. She was named in honor of her maternal grandmother, who died at the age of twenty-eight. The actress's grandfather graduated from Tomsk State University and worked as a doctor, her grandmother graduated from Bestuzhev's courses. Vera's father died when she was four years old, after which her mother took her to Ukraine.
She came to Moscow in 1961, where she entered the Moscow Art Theater School (course of Vasily Petrovich Markov). During the second course Alentova married Vladimir Menshov who was also studying acting at the same theatre school. Vera finished her studies in 1965, after which she became an actress of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. In the same year she debuted in cinema with the film Flying Days.