The Mystery of Olga Chekhova (37 page)

p. 143
19 million people arrested, over 7 million died, Andrew and Gordievsky, p. 106.

p. 143
‘The execution squads ...’, Shentalinsky, p. 222.

p.
143
Ada sent two postcards asking for the document, AD-MCY.

p.
144
‘There were not any persons...’, Mariya Pavlovna Chekhova and Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov, RGALI 2316/3/146.

p. 145
‘Gospoda!’
V. V. Knipper, p. 107.

p. 145
‘My life has become a lot more complicated ...’, L. K. Knipper to Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, Yalta, 4 April 1937, MMKhAT, K-Ch No. 2745.

p. 146
‘You see, my dearest Aunt Olya ...’, L. K. Knipper to Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, Yalta, 25 April 1937, MMKhAT, K-Ch No. 2746.

p. 148
Barber’s shop in the proezd Serova, V. V. Knipper, p. 140.

p. 149
‘She was sitting ...’, Leo Rabeneck, ‘Posledniye minuty Chekhova’,
Vozrozhdeniye,
Vol. 84, Paris, December 1958, quoted Malcolm, p. 62.

p. 149
‘worries and joys’, 9 October 1937, TB-JG, Teil 1, Aufzeichnungen 1924-1941, Band 3, p. 294, and ‘professional concerns’, 5 May 1939, TB-JG, Teil 1, Aufzeichnungen 1924-1941, Band 6, p. 338. See also 4 February 1938.

p· 149
‘prima donna of the Nazi film ...’, Berezhkhov, 1972, p.109.

p. 150
‘Well, that’s life!’, 16 September 1938, TB-JG, Teil 1, Aufzeichnungen 1924-1931, Band 6, p. 93.

p. 150
‘The piece was not up to much’, TB-JG, Teil 1, Aufzeichnungen 1924-1941, Band 6, p. 337.

p. 150
‘a beautiful, sunny May Sunday’, TB-JG, Teil 1, Aufzeichnungen 1924-1931, Band 6, p. 348.

p. 151
‘poking their noses ...’, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 190.

p. 152
‘our people in Scandinavia’, Lev Bezymenski,
Die Zeit,
15 October 1993.

p. 152
‘Prince, people like you ...’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003.

p. 153
General Nikolai Baldanov, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Melikov, interview, 18 October 2003.

p.
153
General Baldanov’s imprisonment and execution. According to Lieutenant Colonel of State Security Igor Aleksandrovich Shchors, after Baldanov visited military plants in France and Germany he was denounced, probably by another member of the delegation, and accused of being a French agent. He was sentenced to ten years with no right of correspondence.

Shchors saw his file and three petitions from his work colleagues, asking for him to be released. The reply to all three petitions was the same: ‘His crimes are too grave for the case to be reconsidered.’ Shchors became involved in this when, in 1943 or 1944, Mariya Garikovna asked him to tea. She was a very clever woman and he was sure she had her reasons for doing this. She asked some questions, in her charming, nonchalant manner, and then showed him a letter she wrote to the KGB leadership asking them to reconsider Baldanov’s case once again.

She wrote that perhaps now that she had proved her devotion to her country and her eagerness to die for it, they would trust her more and believe her that her former husband was innocent. She asked Shchors to pass the letter on to his bosses. Shchors told her that the best way was for her to put the letter into the box for petitions in the building in the Dzerzhinskogo Square (now Lubyanka Square). Her letter reached its addressees. Some time later Sudoplatov asked Shchors to trace Baldanov in the camp and, if he had not received an additional term, to release him. He found out that Baldanov was a prisoner at a certain camp. The reply from there was that he had died from typhus in 1939 (long before the petitions were submitted). Just to be thorough, Shchors checked whether there had been any cases of typhus in that period. The answer was negative. Baldanov had probably been executed. Igor Aleksandrovich Shchors, interview, 7 December 2003.

p. 153
Mariya Garikovna and Beria, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003, and Zoya Vasileevna Zarubina, interview, 25 September 2003. An ancestor, Prince Kochubei, featured in Pushkin’s epic
Poltava.

p. 154
‘Lyovka, you son of a bitch! ...’, Andrei Lvovich Knipper, interviews, 22 and 23 September 2002.

p. 154
Lev’s mission in Poland, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003.

16. Enemy Aliens

p. 156
‘Edification and Cheerfulness in Hard Times’, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 179.

p.
156
‘tall and sure of himself, but without a trace of arrogance’, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 180.

p.
158
‘For singing that song ...’, Berezhkov, 1982, p. 20.

p. 159
‘to assess personally ...’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 25 September 2003. On Merkulov in Berlin, see also Andrew and Gordievsky, pp. 203-4.

p. 160
‘Occasionally, he would put...’, Berezhkov, 1982, p. 27.

p. 162
Message from Lev, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003.

p. 162
‘Frau Olga Tschechowa in sincere ...‘, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 165.

p. 162
‘We’ve got to look after ourselves’, V. V. Knipper, p. 96.

p.
163
Lev’s relationship with Mariya Garikovna, Igor Aleksandrovich Shchors, interview, 7 December 2003.

p. 163
‘Who’s that?’ V. V. Knipper, p. 47.

17. Moscow 1941

p. 165
‘One has to take ...’, quoted Turovskaya, p. 8.

p. 165
‘This was when ...’, Lev Knipper,
Sovietskaya muzyka,
No. 12, 1978, p. 89.

p. 166
‘Don’t be surprised ...’, L. K. Knipper to Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, 23 June 1941, MMKhAT, K-Ch No. 2748.

p. 168
‘They have been asked ...’, Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhovato V. L. Knipper, September 1941, V. V. Knipper, p. 61 .

p. 168
‘We are at a complete loss ...’, Sofya Ivanovna Baklanova to V. L. Knipper, 11 September 1941, ibid.

p. 170 ‘they were left to die ...’, Mariya Vadimovna Shverubovich, interview, 25 September 2003, and
Moskovsky Khudozhestvenny Teatr: 100Let,
Vol. II, Izd. 1998, MMkhAT.

p. 171
‘We were walking ...’, V. V. Knipper, p. 70.

p. 173 Volga German, ibid., p. 15.

p. 174
‘from Leningrad to the Far East’, Parrish, p. 99.

p. 174
‘People sitting round ...’, V. V. Knipper, pp. 19-20.

p. 175
‘Well, you should remember ...’, ibid., p. 49.

p. 175
‘I am afraid of him’, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Melikov, interview, 18 October 2003.

p.
176 Sudoplatov’s role, Andrew and Gordievsky, p. 252. Lieutenant General Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was the head of the NKVD Partisan Administration and later head of the post-war Spetsburo, which carried out foreign assassinations. His deputy, Major General Eitingon, had organized Trotsky’s assassination.

p. 176
‘In October of 1941 ...’, Sudoplatov, 1996, p. 159.

p. 177
‘General Sudoplatov mobilized ...’, Zoya Vasileevna Zarubina, interview, 26 September 2003.

p. 177
‘key figures ...’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003.

p. 177
Zarubina, after finishing as case officer for Lev Knipper and Mariya Garikovna, worked on the translation of all the papers brought to Moscow from the Soviet spies within the Manhattan project. Zoya Vasileevna Zarubina, interview, 26 September 2003.

p. 178
‘The city has produced ...’, Moscow, 19 October 1941, MMKhAT, K-Ch No. 2748. This letter was sent by a friend of Lev’s called Sidorenko and so there was much less chance of it being censored by the NKVD.

p. 179
‘They were being prepared ...’, Zoya Vasileevna Zarubina, interview, 26 September 2003.

p. 179
‘falsely defect’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24September 2003.

p. 179
Sudoplatov and Zarubina are convinced that Lev and Mariya Garikovna were to be sent to Germany to make contact with Olga Chekhova. Colonel Shchors, on the other hand, believes that Lev’s target was Franz von Papen in Turkey.

p. 180
‘If they want a war ...’, Werth, p. 246.

p. 181
‘Lyova my darling...’, Olga Leonardovna Knipper Chekhova to L. K. Knipper, Tbilisi, 6 December 1941, collection of S. M. Chekhov, RGALI 2540/1/36.

p. 182
‘The case with the little photograph ...’, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 181.

18. A Family Divided by War

p. 184
‘Lyova suddenly turned up ...’, Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova to V. L. Knipper, Tbilisi, 3 January 1942, V. V. Knipper, pp. 122-3.

p. 184
‘like stations of the cross ...’, L. K. Knipper, p. 94.

p.
184
Prokofiev,
Sovietskaya muzyka,
No. 12, 1978, p. 89.

p. 184
‘some short children’s pieces ...’, V. V. Knipper, p. 114.

p.
184
Paul Armand in Tashkent, Andrei Lvovich Knipper, interviews, 22 and 23 September 2002.

p. 185
‘I shudder to think ...’, Olga Leonardovna Knipper Chekhova to V. L. Knipper, 14 January 1942, V. V. Knipper, p. 123.

p.
185
‘very agitated letter’, Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova to V. L. Knipper, Tbilisi, 26 March 1942, ibid., pp. 134-5.

p. 186
Sudoplatov believes that Lev Knipper was due to meet up with Miklashevsky, but other Soviet intelligence experts, such as Boris Volodarsky, consider that most unlikely. He thinks that the NKVD would have preferred two separate operations against Hitler. Meanwhile, Colonel Shchors, as mentioned earlier, thinks that Lev was part of the Papen assassination attempt in Turkey. Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003; Boris Voladarsky, e-mail to the author, 13 November 2003; Igor Aleksandrovich Shchors, interview, December 2003.

p. 186
‘that her connections ...’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 24 September 2003. The NKVD, perhaps out of eagerness to please Stalin, who longed to get rid of Trotsky, was extremely interested in assassination plots. Kim Philby’s original task in Spain had been to organize the assassination of General Franco.

p. 186
Lev accompanied by Colonel Maklyarsky and caviar tin with false bottom, Igor Aleksandrovich Shchors, interview, 7December 2003. Colonel Shchors continued as Lev’s paymaster and confirmed that he was a fully paid agent of the NKVD.

p.
186
‘I don’t think it expedient in the circumstances ...’, RGASPI 558/II/66.

p. 187
‘defection to Turkey ...’, Anatoly Pavlovich Sudoplatov, interview, 25 September 2003.

p.
188
‘On one occasion’, Yevgenia Mikhailovna Chekhova, Sakharova (ed.), p. 210.

p. 189
Olga Chekhova and Mariya Pavlovna Chekhova, information provided by the director of the Chekhov house-museum, Yalta.

p. 189
‘I can’t watch films ...’, quoted Junge, p. 70.

p. 190
Film stars on newsreel,
Deutsche Wochenschau Zwölf Minuten Magazine,
UFA BA-FA 3246/1944.

p. 190
Olga Chekhova during the Goebbels speech on 18 February 1943. I am most grateful to Vadim Glowna for bringing this to my attention. The footage was cut from the newsreel shown:
Deutsche Wochenschau,
BA-FA DW 651/1943/Roll 1.

p. 190
Vadim Shverubovich in prison camp, Mariya Vadimovna Shverubovich, interview, 25 September 2003.

p. 191
‘a collective farm where ...’, Hal Erickson,
All Movie Guide,
MSN Entertainment.
The Song of Russia
was based on the novel
Scorched Earth
by Leo Mittler.

p. 193
‘This is Olga Chekhova, the cinema actress’, Vladimir Ivanovich Stezhensky, quoted V. V. Knipper, p. 176.

p. 193
Aunt Masha’s state on the liberation of Yalta, Sergei Mikhailovich Chekhov, MS, AD-MCM/Sakharova/File 81.

p. 194
Schaub conversation. The film she was making was presumably
Mit meinen Augen,
released early in 1945. It was one of the very last movies made under the Third Reich. Deliveries of supplies and weapons to Berghof, V. V. Knipper, p. 190.

p. 195
‘Mecca of the film-world’, Tschechowa, 1973, p. 195.

p. 196
‘When our troops reached Germany’, Beria, p. 127.

p. 196
‘bombing-holiday’, ‘The land does not belong ...’, Tschechowa, 1973, pp. 211-12.

19. Berlin and Moscow 1945

p. 197
‘did not even dare ...’, ‘all based on her initiative’, Albert Sumser, interview, 26 September 2003.

p.
198
‘We agreed that he would surrender ...’, Olga Chekhova’s handwritten deposition in Moscow to SMERSh, unsigned and undated, but almost certainly May 1945, AD-MCM, V. V. Knipper Fond, File 22.

p. 199
Abakumov report on
Wolfsschanze,
15 February 1945, GARF, 9401/2/93, pp. 6-15.

p. 199
‘We are already dreaming of the Crimea ...’, Sofya Ivanovna Baklanova to V. V. Knipper, 2 April 1945, AD-MCM, V. V. Knipper Fond, File 22.

p. 200
Olga Chekhova’s household, as the Red Army approached, consisted of Ada, Vera, a maid and a Russian dressmaker.

p. 200
‘Look, that’s a woman of perfect beauty’, Beyer, 1991, p. 15.