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I found this full of history, but not so much a story. I felt overwhelmed at times with so much information. I would have preferred more about Olga, but it wasn't there.
This should have been a lengthy article and that's it.And too many persons called Olga Chekhov.
This was a fascinating book. I loved reading about the Moscow Theater and all of the people that worked there and their adventures and trips abroad. The description of the book led me to believe that Olga was a spy, but there wasn't much about it. What exactly did she do? It tells more about what Lev did than anything else. But I read the book because I was interested in the theater, not the spying, and this has so much information on it. It was especially thrilling to read about where they live...
Nada que ver con lo que suele ofrecer Beevor, pero un libro entretenido, y menos "académico" que el resto de su obra
The Mystery of Olga Chekhova turned out not to be particularly mysterious and for this I definitely subtract points. Olga Chekhova, a White Russian actress, doubly related by marriage to Anton Chekhov, ended up as a star of the German film industry in the 1920s and 1930s (she even made a German version of a Hitchcock film) and as a minor favorite of Nazi Party leaders like Hitler and Goebbels. After the war, she continued to live in East Germany, so the "mystery" is whether she was a Soviet spy,...
Удивителен, конечно, этот внешний взгляд на Россию даже самого дотошного не-русского исследователя, который, хоть и понимает разницу между всеми этими уменьшительными именами, и не путается в отчествах, однако же все равно видит русское в обыденном, и вот уже Baba Книппер, переезжая в Берлин, тащит с собой иконы и русский хаос, преследуемая метафорой про медведицу.
-Mucho misterio, sí, y alguno por encima del correspondiente a Olga.-Género. Historia (pero diferente a lo que Beevor suele ofrecer, quedan avisados).Lo que nos cuenta. El libro El misterio de Olga Chejova (publicación original: The Mistery of Olga Chekhova, 2004) es un acercamiento al ocaso de la Rusia imperial, al crecimiento de la URSS, a la Segunda Guerra Mundial y a algunos de sus protagonistas principales de la mano de la familia Knipper y la familia Chejov, con Olga Chejova como eje condu...
Lots of suspence, a typcial spy novel based in war time, the author creates a story that is very interesting, Well written, no editorial errors, despite the concept of spys in wartime being used many times over the years, this book as a fresh feel to it, the story keeps you interested right to the end. Worth reading!!!
Um bom livro de espionagem, cheio de reviravoltas, que eu simplesmente devorei em dois dias. Não sei porque Hollywood ainda não fez um filme baseado nessa história, mas eles deveriam: daria uma excelente adaptação para o cinema.O livro aborda um lado mais voltado para relação entre a Rússia e a Alemanha, principalmente, o que é sempre bem vindo, e o autor não poupa especulações sobre uma rede de espionagem que durou quase uma década e envolveu vários membros da mesma família.Acredito que tenha f...
I am having difficulty progressing in my reading because, quite frankly, the protagonist of the story, Ms. Olga Chekhova, is simply not a person that I find any empathy for, nor real interest in her life. The cast of characters around her, including Der Fuhrer, help keep my interest alive, but I have been dividing my reading time with other more fascinating topics and characters. I will finish this book (because that's the way I am), but not today or tomorrow.November 18, 2015I finished this boo...
Antony Beevor is best known as the writer of brilliant military histories like Stalingrad, Berlin The Downfall, Ardennes and the Second World War. The Mystery of Olga Checkova shows he is equally adept at biography as he unravels the amazingly complex life of Chekov's niece whom we first meet in pre Revolutionary Russia and then during the early years of Communism. She will best be remembered as a major star of the Nazi cinema and the West post-German film industry. But above all she was an NKVD...
This Mystery Monday’s Gem is a bit different. There is no single murder, suspect or detective.This is the true story of an extremely brave and cunning woman. A woman who managed to: survive the Russian Revolution, it’s civil war, the rise of Hitler ( who was one of her biggest fans), the Stalinist Terror, the Nazi Invasion of Russia and went on to lead a fairly normal life for the time and place she lived, Soviet Russia. Who is this Mystery Woman? Olga Chekhova, the niece of the great Playwright...
So, firstly, the title is a bit misleading. In terms of mystery there is about as much as what would shroud anyone’s life story. This account of the life of Olga Chekhov’s and her family is mildly interesting. I will admit that the book does shed some light and background into the operations of the NKVD and the Nazi elite circle but the supposed links lack tenability and the arguments are more hearsay than factual. The composition of the story (albeit always difficult in recounts of history) jum...
This was a good book - a fascinating set of historical figures at a fascinating time. I got the book at the Hay Festival this past year. Of course Beevor best excels at descriptions of societal backgrounds during wars and revolutions. You get a feeling that he may not have had all the documents needed to uncover the guises of the spy-actress Olga Chekhova, but his attempt to still try and do so is commendable, given the importance of the Chekhov family and Malyi theatre in Russian culture, no ma...
well research history,get an copy of the book if you can.
It's pretty impressive to take a really interesting story and turn it into something dull. Shame.
I love Beevor, but confess that I found this a little hard to get into. It starts as a detailed history of the Chekov clan etc and doesn't really get into Olga and her spying until years later. White Russia before the revolution and red Russia thereafter, wasn't really what I was expecting here, but it does get into the WWII spying later and becomes somewhat more palatable. In the end though, I thought there wasn't enough on Olga's spying or what she was really up to. Imagine picking up a book o...
Antony Beevor is a master historian - his book on the fall of Berlin in 1945 is absolutely riveting. Compared to such previous works, this book is a minor achievement, but it is an enjoyable one nevertheless, mostly because the tale that unfolds is totally improbable - and yet completely true. Olga Chekhova, niece of the great Chekhov, survived the Russian revolution, emigrated to Berlin, became an actress, found celebrity and wealth as a famous movie star, and ended up as one of the goddesses o...
Llibre interessant a estones, potser excessivament dispers i mancat de ritme, que dóna a conèixer al gran públic la figura d'Olga Chejova, actriu russa emigrada a Alemanya el 1920 que arribà a ser l'actriu preferida del Reich, mentre paral·lelament feia tasques d'espionatge pels soviètics. Aquesta figura és l'eix central, però Beevor també analitza, amb major o menor intensitat, els altres membres de la família Knipper-Chejov, i esmenta molt de passada al final el que potser era el principal obj...
Mystery indeed. The esteemed Antony Beevor is extremely fine at military history, but perhaps not so successful at biography if this comparatively slight book is anything to go by? The story largely concerns what is fabled of the German/Russian actress Olga Chekhova. It tells us what is untrue, half-true and vaguely possible in the doings and sayings of the maybe NKVD agent. I learn little about her in the end, though I can attest I do not much like her. She strikes me as vain and opportunistic