Product Description

Olga Chekhova was a stunning Russian beauty and a famous Nazi-era film actress who Hitler counted among his friends; she was also the niece of Anton Chekhov. After fleeing Bolshevik Moscow for Berlin in 1920, she was recruited by her composer brother Lev, to work for Soviet intelligence. In return, her family were allowed to join her. The extraordinary story of how the whole family survived the Russian Revolution, the civil war, the rise of Hitler, the Stalinist Terror, and the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union becomes, in Antony Beevor's hands, a breathtaking tale of compromise and survival in a merciless age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114043 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Evening Standard
‘A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, a compelling investigation’

Guardian
‘Compelling … as engaging a read as Stalingrad and Berlin’

Independent
‘An extraordinary drama of exile and espionage’

Customer Reviews

Well Done Exploration of a Little Known Life
Anthony Beevor's "Mystery of Olga Chekhova" is a fascinating book. Beevor has taken a little known episode in Soviet (and German) history and managed to create a book that reads more like a novel. As I read "Olga" I was constantly reminded of the noir-like novels of Alan Furst, whose tales of Soviet espionage and counter-espionage center on tales of similar acts of espionage taken on by Russian and other East European émigrés in the 1930's and 1940's.

"Olga" is about the life of one "Olga Chekhova and her family. A niece, by marriage, of the great Anton Chekhov, Olga left the Soviet Union under mysterious circumstances to pursue an acting career in Berlin. Olga's family, mostly actors and musicians stayed behind. Olga went on to become a famous film star in Germany and was highly regarded by Hitler, Goering, Goebels, and the rest of the Nazi leadership. She married a Luftwaffe pilot (later killed in action) and performed for the troops during the war. In the meantime, her family continued to thrive in the USSR. This alone was a remarkable and mysterious achievement when one considers the fact that the families of so-called enemies of the state generally suffered far worse. The question addressed by Beevor is simple: Was Olga a Soviet spy and, if so, what did she do and how did she do it?

Beevor traces Olga's life and her relationship with the Chekhov family. His descriptions of Russian and Soviet Theater, particularly his overview of the family's relationship with Stanislavski and the Bohemian and lurid life-style common to the period are particularly interesting. Given the nature of the book and novel-like story line I think it would be inappropriate to reveal much in the way of details. Unlike Beevor's other works, such as Stalingrad, the events and final outcome of the story are not well known and it would be unfair to spoil the story. Needless to say, the story of Olga Chekhova is fascinating.

Last, this book is something of a departure for Beevor. Previously, he has focused on grand events, Stalingrad, the Fall of Berlin, and the Spanish Civil War. Here he covers less familiar and far more intimate ground. Despite the fact that Beevor cannot answer all the questions he raises in "Olga" he carries off this micro-history with aplomb. His writing style is not overly academic and the book is accessible to any reader. Further, Beevor sets out sufficient general background information such that the reader does not need to have a background in Russian or German history in order to make the book enjoyable.

Beevor has done an excellent job and I think "Olga" is well worth reading.

A mystery that hasn't been solved
I'm sure there was a mystery behind Olga's success in staying in Germany during the war, despite being a Russian (albeit of German extraction). And somehow her family survived at a time when even to surrender to the Germans was tantamount to a death sentence.
But the author didn't really come up with any answers as to why they all survived. He hints there may have been things going on under the surface, but can't shed any light on them. I finished the book thinking that it had more been a log of their lives rather than any explanation. A little frustrating!

Lady With NKVD Lapdog
In this book, the well-known historian Anthony Beevor tries to show that the niece of Anton Chekhov, resident in Germany, mainly Berlin, from 1920 through WW2 and later) was an agent of the NKVD, the Stalinist intelligence and security commissariat. He convinced me up to a point, the most telling evidence for me being the fact that, unlike so many women (German, as well as Russian emigrees in Germany, Austria and Hungary), the lady was neither robbed nor raped nor killed nor indeed sent into the GULAG system in or after 1945, but was, on the orders of the very high-ranking Abakumov, given a big house and generous supplies of everything on the outskirts of East Berlin and was even allowed to have a pistol (which would under other circumstances have been a capital offence at the time).

The family links to the Stalin system and NKVD are interesting but not conclusive (I knew an unpleasant old woman once who left Russia after the Revolution, as a child and who was pretty much as anti-Soviet as you could get, yet her brother was not only pro-Soviet, but was a member of the Central Committee of the Leningrad section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1930's and, remarkably, was one of the few not killed in the late 30's purges, the 1948 purge or the Siege of Leningrad. That aspect is no more than guilt by association.

My tentative conclusion was that here was a woman who hated Bolshevism, probably saw the good that Hitler and National Socialism brought to Germany without really actively supporting Hitler and who, to compromise or to be diplomatic, agreed to be a kind of "sleeper" agent who actually gave little or nothing to her "spy masters". A not unknown type of agent, surely? And anyway, what could she give, as a film actress? Only gossip and frippery.

A well-written and well-researched book, but a trifle slight in the end. Worth reading, though.