The Mystery of Olga Chekhova Read online

  in Germany

  friendship with Lenin

  Stalin attempts to persuade to return

  accepts Soviet regime

  Gorky Park, Moscow

  Gorskaya, Lisa

  Great Terror (USSR)

  Grechko, General Andrei

  GRU (Soviet military intelligence)

  Guderian, General Heinz

  Gun, Dr Nerin E.

  Gurzuf

  Gusev, Viktor

  Hamsun, Knut

  Hess, Rudolf

  Himmler, Heinrich

  Hindemith, Paul

  Hitler, Adolf

  admires Olga Chekhova

  obsession with cinema

  sees film of Die Mühle von Sanssouci

  rise to power

  Adele Sandrock confronts

  Olga Chekhova’s association with

  views on art

  fury at Goebbels’s infidelity

  and Olga Chekhova’s marriage

  racist theories

  attends festivities

  and invasion of USSR

  Molotov visits (1940)

  sends Christmas parcel to Olga Chekhova

  threatens to destroy Moscow

  Russian assassination plots against

  ceases watching films during war

  officers’ plot against (1944)

  final reception before fall of Berlin

  Olga Chekhova despises

  Stalin’s obsession with

  Hollywood

  Misha in

  Olga Chekhova in

  Ibsen, Henrik

  A Doll’s House (adapted as silent movie Nora)

  Ilin, Viktor

  lllustrierte Blatt, Das

  intelligentsia (artists and writers) under dictatorships

  International Brigade (Spanish Civil War)

  Iran

  Italian Straw Hat, The (René Clair film)

  Italy

  Olga Chekhova visits

  Japan attacks USA

  Jarnach, Philip

  Jaroszi, Ferenc

  Jep (German airman)

  Jews persecuted by Nazis

  Kachalov, Vasily (Shverubovich)

  First War theatrical tours

  and theatrical tour in civil war

  in Bulgaria

  on Lev’s devotion to Olga Knipper-Chekhova

  plays in Prague

  in Berlin

  returns to Moscow

  on tour to Paris (1937)

  and son Vadim Shverubovich’s capture in war

  attends sick Nemirovich-Danchenko

  and Olga Chekhova’s post-war return to Russia

  Olga Knipper-Chekhova visits after war

  Kalinin

  Katyn forest massacre

  Kaufmann (Jewish actor)

  Keitel, General Wilhelm

  Kerensky, Aleksandr-4

  KGB; see also NKVD

  Kharkov

  captured by Denikin in civil war

  Khludov, General

  Khmelev, Nikolai

  Khrushchev, Nikita

  Kirov, Sergei

  Kitzbühel

  Kluge, Field Marshal Günther von

  Knipper family

  Knipper, Ada (Olga Chekhova’s sister)

  childhood in Georgia

  in Moscow after revolution

  daughter in Moscow

  Olga Knipper-Chekhova visits in Moscow

  moves to Berlin

  acting in Paris

  stays with newly married Olga Chekhova in Brussels

  Knipper, Ada - cont.

  requests genealogical document from Masha

  and Red Army advance on Berlin

  owns cow in Germany

  Olga Knipper-Chekhova writes to after war

  Olga Chekhova complains to on enlargement of cosmetics company

  Knipper, Andrei (Lev and Lyubov’s son)

  birth

  stays in Olga Knipper- Chekhova’s apartment

  Olga Chekhova sends presents to

  and Armand’s release

  suffering in war

  returns to Moscow with mother

  Knipper, Anna (Olga Knipper- Chekhova’s mother), see Salza-Knipper, Anna

  Knipper, Konstantin (Olga Chekhova’s father)

  engineering career

  position in Ministry of Transport

  and son Lev’s reaction to music

  forbids theatrical career to Olga Chekhova

  and Olga Chekhova’s marriage to Misha

  survives revolution

  moves to Siberia after revolution

  in civil war

  returns to Moscow

  illness

  letters to Olga Knipper Chekhova in USA

  death

  temper

  Knipper, Leonard (Olga Knipper Chekhova’s father)

  Knipper, Lev (Olga Chekhova’s brother)

  as White Guard officer

  invalid childhood

  musical talents and vocation

  father’s career hopes for

  upbringing and schooling

  in Moscow during First World War

  volunteers for army

  commissioned in army

  in civil war

  leaves Russia

  joins Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Zagreb

  returns to Moscow (1922)

  composing

  collaborates with state security organs

  ill-health returns

  on tour of West with Moscow Art Theatre

  Olga Knipper-Chekhova joins with Olga Chekhova in Germany

  recruits Olga Chekhova for intelligence work

  Olga Chekhova seeks to help

  and father’s death

  requests money

  style and manner

  self-belief

  returns to Berlin with Olga Knipper-Chekhova

  appeal to women

  ‘Fairy Tales of a Plaster Idol’ performed in Moscow

  visits Crimea

  North Wind

  marriage and child

  as musical adviser to Red Army

  rock climbing and mountaineering

  Third (‘Far Eastern’) Symphony

  Fourth Symphony (later The Komsomol Soldier opera)

  privileges and recognition in Russia

  ‘Polyushko polye’ (song)

  political harshness

  relations and marriage with Mariya Melikova

  trains Red Army in mountain warfare

  on German advance across Russia

  visits Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Caucasus

  in Moscow during Second World War

  in Russian underground resistance movement

  proclaims patriotism

  honoured in USSR

  wartime musical experiences

  bogus defection plan to Germans

  returns to Moscow (1943)

  conducting

  relations with Beria

  with sick Olga Knipper Chekhova in Crimea

  loses contact with Olga Chekhova

  visits Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Crimea after war

  leaves Mariya Garikovna

  music falls from favour

  travelling in Siberia

  death

  Count Cagliostro

  Knipper, Lyubov (née Zalesskaya; Lev’s wife)

  marriage and child

  Armand helps in war

  returns to Moscow from Tashkent

  marriage to Anosov

  visits Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Crimea

  Knipper, Margo (Vova’s wife)

  Knipper, Vladimir (Olga Knipper Chekhova’s brother)

  studies law

  operatic career

  and Olga’s marriage to Misha

  Knipper, Vladimir - cont.

  threatened in Bolshevik revolution

  discourages Lev from musical career

  letters to Olga Knipper Chekhova in USA

  letter from Olga Knipper Chekhova in Berlin

  at Kon
stantin’s death

  and Olga Chekhova’s association with Hitler

  in Second World War

  Olga Knipper-Chekhova sends money to

  death

  Knipper, Vova (Vladimir’s son)

  on Olga Knipper-Chekhova’s room in Moscow

  and Lev’s composing

  Olga Chekhova sends childhood gifts to

  and NKVD interrogators

  on Olga Chekhova and Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Berlin

  admires Lev

  innocence

  wartime rations

  and Olga Knipper-Chekhova’s departure for Caucasus

  in wartime Moscow

  romance and engagement with Margo

  army service

  given Olga Chekhova’s post-war deposition and papers

  and Olga Knipper-Chekhova’s illness in Crimea

  behaviour in war

  Knipper, Yelena Luise (Olga Chekhova’s mother), see Ried-Knipper, Yelena Luise

  Knipper-Chekhova, Olga (Anton’s wife; ‘Aunt Olya’)

  plays in 1945 production of The Cherry Orchard

  in civil war (1919)

  as émigrée

  under Soviet disfavour

  acting style

  background

  love affair and marriage with Chekhov

  as Nemirovich-Danchenko’s mistress

  birth and parentage

  childhood

  fondness for Lev Knipper

  musical interests

  in Aleksei Tolstoy’s Tsar Feodor

  Olga Chekhova stays with in Moscow

  reaction to Misha’s marriage to Olga Chekhova

  First World War theatrical tours

  letters to Masha after revolution

  dyes hair

  and food shortages in early revolution days

  on pointlessness of revolution

  life under Bolsheviks

  and theatrical tour in civil war

  arthritis

  and Olga Chekhova’s departure from Russia

  helps Lev leave Russia

  plays in Bulgaria

  letter from Olga Chekhova on first stage role

  homesickness for Moscow

  in Prague

  returns to Moscow (1922)

  supports Lev’s musical interests

  on tour of West with Moscow Art Theatre

  letters from Lev

  visits Olga Chekhova in Berlin

  and death ofKonstantin

  letters from Olga Chekhova in Berlin

  returns to Berlin with Lev (1924)

  on celebrations for twentieth anniversary of Chekhov’s death

  stays with Masha in Yalta

  suspected of denouncing rivals in Moscow Art Theatre

  Ada Knipper writes to

  and Lev’s political harshness

  under surveillance on Moscow Art Theatre tour to Paris (1937)

  Second World War activities

  evacuated to Caucasus

  and Vadim Shverubovich’s capture in war

  anxiety over Lev in wartime Moscow

  meets Mariya Garikovna Melikova

  travels to Yerevan with Moscow Art Theatre

  anxiety over Masha in war

  on Olga Chekhova’s role in Germany

  letter from Ada on liberation by Red Army

  receives parcel of clothes meant for Olga Chekhova

  illness in Crimea

  awarded Order of Lenin

  visits Kachalov dacha after war

  and Misha’s death in USA

  death

  Kobulov, General Bogdan

  Kochubei, Prince

  Kolchak, Admiral Aleksandr

  Konev, Marshal Ivan

  Konrad, General

  Kosygin, Aleksei

  Krokodil

  Krupskaya, Nadezhda (Lenin’s wife)

  Kryukov, General V. V.

  Kuibyshev

  Kurier

  Kutepov, General Aleksandr

  Lang, Fritz

  Last Adventures of Arsène Lupin, The

  Leander, Zarah

  Lenin, Vladimir

  and February revolution

  and civil war

  scorns proletarian culture

  supports Stanislavsky and Moscow Art Theatre

  and return of Kachalov group

  pursues counter-revolution abroad

  authorizes Moscow Art Theatre tour of West

  and expected German revolution

  suffers strokes

  friendship with Gorky

  Leningrad, see St Petersburg

  Levitan, Isaak

  Liebelei

  Likani Palace, Borzhomi

  Lloyd, Harold

  Lorenz, Konrad

  Love on Command

  Lubitsch, Ernst

  Ludendorff, Field Marshal Erich von

  Lunacharsky, Anatoly

  Lvov, Prince Georgi

  Madame Dubarry

  Maklyarsky, Lieutenant-Colonel of State Security Mikhail

  Mamontov, General K. K.

  Mandelstam, Nadezhda

  Mandelstam, Osip

  Mandelstam, Yevgeny

  Margo (Vova’s wife), see Knipper, Margo

  Mariya (servant of Natalya Golden-Chekhova)

  Mariya Garikovna, see Melikova, Marina

  Marsia, Lieutenant-Colonel of State Security

  Mayakovsky, Vladimir

  Mayer, Louis B.

  Meer, Das

  Melikov, Garik

  Melikova, Marina (Mariya) Garikovna

  relations with Lev

  works for Soviet intelligence

  marriage to Lev

  wartime resistance activities

  receives medal from NKVD

  bogus defection plan to Germans

  returns to Moscow (1943)

  relations with Beria

  visits Olga Knipper-Chekhova in Crimea

  admiration for Lev’s music

  Lev leaves

  dismissed from KGB and recalled

  death