CHEKHOV Olga K.

Olga K. Chekhov (13.04.1897 years [Tbilisi] - 1980 [Berlin])

We had the famous Moscow Art Theater actress Olga Knipper-Chekhov Leonardovna. But the world is known and another Chekhov, Olga, too, and also an actress. And how! World-class stars. In Russia alone, it has long suppressed.

In the family of an engineer Konstantin Knipper had three children: Ada, Olga and Lev. Average daughter-allotted the beauty of the mind, interested in theater, and the parents sent her to Moscow, to your favorite aunt - Leonardovna Olga Knipper-Chekhov. The girl quickly learn and successfully played Stanislavski in his acclaimed productions of "The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters," "Hamlet" and other. As it happened, in love with Olga Knipper cousins Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Michael and Ivan. She preferred to Michael, the famous actor.

When they married, Olga was 17, Michael - 23. Their marriage was short-lived, perhaps because the two creative personalities rarely get along with each other. But a close friend of Michael Smyshlaev put forward another version: "Misha Chekhov, separated from his wife. This is not so sudden as it might seem at first glance, but, nevertheless, remarkably. The fact that Misha was very fond of Olga K. and she. Perhaps, then played the role of ugly Mishka's mother - a selfish, sucked from their despotic love for his son, Natalia. Poor Misha, his whole life in recent years flowed in a kind of nightmare. Smoky, not ventilated rooms, rest for two to three hours (and even to 9 am) for maps. Some crazy old woman and the tenderness of a young man who became an old man and a pessimist. "

In 1916 Michael and a daughter, Olga (Olga, too), and in 1917 the family split Chekhov. In January 1921 the actress managed to get a Lunacharskogo permit a six-week trip to Europe for the correction of health, and she went to Germany. Olga was only 23 пЁпЎпЄп°. Later she says: "Those years have taught me to distinguish in the life of the main and secondary". From the memoirs of Michael Chekhov: "I remember how he was leaving, already dressed, she saw how hard I worry about separation, patted me and said:" What you're ugly, well, goodbye. Soon forget ". And kissed my friend, gone.

Olga Chekhov parted with her husband, leaving him a loud name. I kept him and his new family good relationship. They both did not look back, not remembering mutual grievances. Lived this. Michael Chekhov dearly loved daughter Olga and bequeathed it to his small ranch near San Francisco.

In Germany, Olga again tried to arrange his personal life, marrying a man named Frederick Yarosh. But with him she soon parted company, devoted himself entirely to art. Chekhov's debut in the movie by Friedrich Murnau Castle Fogeled "(1921). The premiere was held with great success. Then followed the "Round Dance of Death" (1922). Again success. She acknowledged her wish to see on the screen as often as possible, and it met the expectations of fans. "Why get married," "Modern Girl", "Woman in flames," "The torments of love," "great passion" ... During his film career Olga Chekhov co-starred in about 140 films, but none of them has been shown in the USSR. Chekhova heroines were mostly aristocrats and adventuress. Her beautiful, almost impassive face-mask attracted and fascinated. Her penultimate painting called "talent to be happy" (1953). Chekhov played herself: she really had the talent to live happily in spite of circumstances.

. It seemed, "Third Reich" is not a paradise for art, nevertheless Olga happily lived in a totalitarian state, and starred in the movies and theater
. She appreciated and loved Hitler. Came off the wife Goering.

When the war ended, the house where the actress lived with his daughter and granddaughter of Vera, came to the Soviet soldiers. When he learned who she was, Olga Chekhov arrested. Questioned first in Berlin, then on the military plane sent to Moscow. And here begins miracles.

From the memoirs of Chekhov: "In prison I do not fall. I live in the apartment of the officer's wife, who disappeared ... Two rooms are furnished to me. In the case of the officers come to visit me. They bring books, play chess with me. In my slightly ironic question, how long we like so we kill time, they are silent. Just smile politely ... "

Then came the questioning, but again officers were polite, speak German and French. It seems that the conversation between us is on international issues. "

Yes, all countries. She was not thrown into a damp basement. It is not shouting. With her politely chatted about music, literature, theater and cinema. As a result of interviews, interrogations were born 36 sheets of a kind of confession: the story of the Nazis and their henchmen, their morals, character, habits - a kind of political dossiers on top of Nazi Germany. Olga was concealing nothing.

"... In 1936 I had many offers, I had great success in theaters, and all foreigners that flock to Berlin, led me to the theater, as in zoo. At the reception after the performance I went once or twice a year, very briefly. I do not remember where it was, when the king came from Yugoslavia with his wife. It seems that in 1938. All Berlin was decorated and illuminated as never before. The first day they were taken from Hitler himself, and then play (Wagner), the second day in the country Goebbels in Lanka, the third was receiving - in the evening at 11 o'clock, and though I refused, had to go. Royal couple saw me often in films, and the Queen wanted to make my acquaintance. Admission to Sharlottenburgskom palace was given to Goering - so it was very rich ". "In the old Prussian palace rooms were lit candles in the old chandeliers, all present were in the costumes of the times of Frederick the Great. After dinner I sat with the royal couple in the garden - talking about my films, and tours of the Moscow Art Theater ... Then the program began, and I quietly left. My driver was delighted - all watered, fed, gave cigarettes. But the security officer who led the interrogation Chekhova, not interested in ancient chandeliers in the palace, and the conversations that there were. "The policy can not say that I have something special had heard about the approaching war, I had no idea," - replied Olga Chekhov.

June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. And in July, Goebbels was held at the reception, which celebrated the imminent capture of Moscow. Suddenly, all those present Goebbels appealed to the Russian actress. Here's how she remembered about this:

"We have an expert from Russia - Frau Chekhov - said Goebbels. - Do you think that this war will be over before winter and Christmas we will celebrate in Moscow?

- No, - I replied calmly. Goebbels, coldly:

- And why not?

- Napoleon ascertained what the Russian space.

- Between the French and us is a huge difference - smiled indulgently Goebbels. - We came to Russia as liberators. Clique will overthrow the new Bolshevik Revolution!

. - A new revolution will not take place, Herr Minister, before the abyss Russian will stand as never before!

. Goebbels just leaned forward and threw cold:

. - I wonder, Madam, that means you do not trust the German military power? You predict a Russian victory ...

. - I do not predict, Herr Minister
. You just asked me a question - whether our troops for Christmas in Moscow, and I said my opinion. It may be true, and misleading.

Goebbels had long looks at me suspiciously. Establish a long silence ... "

Is it really was, or Chekhov's Olga remembers the scene in the most advantageous for himself the light is hard to say. One thing is clear: in the war years it was difficult to determine whose it is patriotic - Russia or Germany. We had, of course, steer. But precisely known fact: she categorically refused to performances in war reporting from the Eastern Front. Speaking on the radio, she did not sing patriotic songs, but only lyric. I toured - in Vienna, Munich, Prague.

... While in Moscow, Olga did not have the right to meet with their loved ones - she still was a prisoner. But once, during a performance in Moscow Art Theater, Olga Knipper-Chekhov, leaving the bow, drew attention to a beautiful woman, one of the first stood up and waved her hand slightly. Old actress frightened: is this lady was very similar to her niece. This actress was so excited that she bows to no longer come out. Having a relative abroad, and even in Nazi Germany, but in addition to all close to Hitler - it was sverhuzhasno. Suffice it to say that the writer's sister, Maria Pavlovna Chekhov, destroyed all the pictures of Olga Chekhov: what if something is not found!

July 26, 1945 Olga Chekhov returned safely to Berlin. Why arrested? Why interrogated? Why let go? Questions remaining unanswered.

Then begin continuous speculation. Who was Olga Chekhov? Who worked - in our or the Germans? Or on both?

Curious episode. In early 1945, it wanted to arrest Himmler. Learning of this, she phoned him to Chekhov to conduct this operation in the morning, so she could drink coffee. This was done. When a group of SS men, headed by Himmler came into the house, they saw that morning coffee she drinks with ... Hitler. And the one stirring in a cup, displeasure through clenched teeth, that the visit of Himmler - not his most successful joke. Another fact. In the case of Olga Chekhov at the Lubyanka stored dispatch chief of SMERSH Viktor Abakumov, . which very high Kremlin bosses mapped out cold, . as death, . question: "... What is proposed in respect of Chekhov?" A November 14, 1945 the newspaper "Kurier", . published in Berlin under the supervision of the French military authorities, . published information about, . that "the well-known movie actress Olga Chekhov was awarded a high decoration for bravery Russian - Stalin himself ..." This message has passed in several newspapers,
. Gradually the noise around Olga Chekhova subsided, and she busied herself in furnishing the new, postwar life. Was a movie star fame. "Some are asked to photograph a souvenir. For that I get from the French white bread and wine, from Russian vodka, sugar and cereals, and the Americans in most cases, cigarette. Block cigarettes more expensive than gold on the black market ... "

In an incredibly difficult post-war conditions Olga Chekhov playing again in the theater, acted in films. The last time she played a major role in the theater in 1964, when she was 67 years old. From cinema Chekhov left ten years earlier. What? Go to Position "comic old women" or even abandon the scene? Or, . as she wrote in her book, . "colorless and quietly disappear, . go abroad, . a housekeeper in any intellectual family? Frightens me is not modest prosperity - I was starving, . knowledge of the needs and survived, . - But ..,
. monotony of days, following one another, something I feared all my life. "

At age 60 she begins a new life. Sell your house and moved from Berlin to Munich where he opened a beauty salon. "No shoes to be cleaned in the first place, and the skin - she said. - Depend on it self-confidence, vitality ". In 1955 she became the head of the firm "Olga Chekhov Cosmetic Gesellschaft. "No life is disappointing - we disappoint life. Bitterness makes a person ugly "- Chekhov wrote in his book. Every woman located in a depressed state, she recommends above all appreciate the time: "Every second, every minute, every hour, we lived through without joy, lost forever ..." She died in 1980 from brain cancer. She was 83 пЁпЎпЄп°. Her daughter Olga died in a plane crash in 50 years. Granddaughter, Faith Chekhov, is alive and, as a once-grandmother, is Melpomene. One of the films, which starred Olga Chekhov, ironically favorite of the two dictators, Hitler and Stalin, was called "The man who wanted to live twice". She lived two lives - one in Russia, another in Germany, leaving an imprint on the culture of both countries.