The Mystery of Olga Chekhova: A Life Torn Apart By Revolution And War

The Mystery of Olga Chekhova: A Life Torn Apart By Revolution And War

by Antony Beevor (Author)

Synopsis

Antony Beevor's The Mystery of Olga Chekhova is the true story of a family torn apart by revolution and war. 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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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Edition: 1st Penguin Edition
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 05 May 2005

ISBN 10: 0141017643
ISBN 13: 9780141017648

Media Reviews
Compelling . . . as engaging a read as Stalingrad and Berlin * Guardian *
Fascinating. An intricate, gracefully told and often moving social history of a talented family in times of revolution, civil war, dictatorship and world conflict -- Rachel Polonsky * New Statesman *
A fascinating spy story, a delicious entertainment, a compelling investigation -- Simon Sebag-Montefiore * Evening Standard *
An extraordinary drama of exile and espionage -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *
Beevor uses the story to evoke a world - the vague ideological borderlands of Nazism and Communism -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto * The Times *
Antony Beevor, one of the finest narrative military historians now writing, is a master of revealing vignettes -- Eliot A. Cohen * New York Times *
A true story that is dramatic, evocative, and well worth unearthing * Observer *
Author Bio
Antony Beevor is the author of Crete: The Battle and the Resistance (Runciman Prize), Stalingrad (Samuel Johnson Prize, Wolfson Prize for History and Hawthornden Prize), Berlin: The Downfall, The Battle for Spain (Premio La Vanguardia), D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (Prix Henry Malherbe and the RUSI Westminster Medal), The Second World War, and Ardennes 1944 (Prix Medicis shortlist). The number one bestselling historian in Britain, Beevor's books have appeared in thirty-two languages and have sold just over seven million copies. A former chairman of the Society of Authors, he has received a number of honorary doctorates. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Kent and an Honorary Fellow of King's College, London. He was knighted in 2017.