内容简介
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.
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From Publishers Weekly
Hitler admired her for her "cosmopolitan sophistication," but Olga Chekhova, niece of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, was far too pragmatic to lose herself to the charms of a powerful man. Drawing on numerous interviews, articles and books, Beevor (Stalingrad) concludes that the great icon of Nazi cinema never forgot where she came from and worked as a Soviet agent while reaping the rewards of stardom under the Third Reich. Chekhova, a Russian of German descent, could not help but see the benefits of serving the motherland. As an migre in Berlin, she was already held suspect by the Soviets and hoped her spying for them would result in favorable treatment of her family in Moscow. Recruited by her brother, Lev, a Soviet composer, Chekhova became a friend and confidante to men like Goebbels, while serving Stalin by gauging Germany’s interest in war against Russia. An accomplished documentarian, Beevor has written an absorbing and expansive story, not just of an actress/spy, but of revolution and of the stark changes in Russian society that occurred between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He places Moscow and Berlin side by side and shows how the divergent trajectories of the regimes could intersect only on the battlefield. Amid the history lesson is the glowing and graceful Olga Knipper-Chekhova, a woman made wiser by a bad marriage and toughened by civil war. As Beevor illustrates, survival was perhaps her most pronounced motivation, and it guided her well, from the day in 1920 when she left the blight of Soviet Russia behind with nothing more than a diamond ring smuggled under her tongue to her death in 1980.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From The New Yorker
On Hitler's fiftieth birthday, Goebbels gave him a hundred and twenty movies, and the pair indulged their love of cinema by holding lavish parties for their favorite stars. One of these was Olga Che-khova, a Russian migre living in Berlin who was the niece of Anton Chekhov, and whose acting the Fhrer greatly admired. But her biggest fans were the Soviet secret police, who, seeing her closeness to the Nazi lite, recruited her as a sleeper agent. The closest she ever came to active duty was a 1941 plot to assassinate Hitler, but Stalin decided that keeping him around was a better idea. Beevor soft-pedals the more salacious details of his story and presents a documentary account of the large and complicated Chekhov clan. His painstaking work clears away historical gossip and shows how ingeniously Olga played powerful figures off against each other to survive the revolution, the war, and Stalin's purges.
Copyright 2005 The New Yorker--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
The award-winning author of Stalingrad (1998) has turned his attention to the well-known Nazi-era actress and her links with the Soviet government before, during, and after World War II. Chekhova (1897-1980) was born Olga Knipper in Russia. Her aunt, also Olga Knipper and a famous actress in the Moscow Art Theater, was married to playwright Anton Chekhov. Further intertwining the two families, the second Olga Knipper married the actor Mikhail Chekhov, Anton's nephew. In the early 1920s, Olga Chekhova, long divorced from Mikhail and with a daughter, immigrated to Germany to escape the poverty and atmosphere of the Soviet Union. She quickly established herself in the German film industry, where she made more than 100 films. There is also some evidence that by the 1930s she was a spy or at the very least a mole in place to possibly aid and abet in Hitler's assassination. Beevor crafts a good story. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, and a compellinginvestigation. -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, and a compelling investigation. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard)--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
作者简介
Antony Beevor has published several novels, and his works of non-fiction include The Spanish Civil War; Crete: The Battle and the Resistance; Stalingrad and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 which was a number one bestseller. With his wife, Artemis Cooper he wrote Paris: After the Liberation 1945 - 1949, now issued in a new edition. He lives in London.
| 出版社 | Penguin Books Ltd |
|---|---|
| 作者 | Antony Beevor |