The Mystery of Olga Chekhova

Yet another Antony Beevor book, this one with a slightly different focus. I must confess, I’d never heard of her before, but it is said that Hitler admired her for her "cosmopolitan sophistication." However, Olga Chekhova, niece of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and great icon of Nazi cinema never quite escaped her roots and worked as a Soviet agent while reaping the rewards of stardom under the Third Reich.

Beevor constructs an absorbing and expansive story, not just of an actress/spy, but far more broadly, a tale of revolution and its profound effect on Russian society that occurred between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Juxtaposing Moscow and Berlin, he explores the divergent trajectories of the regimes and the impact on a family of artists. Amid the tale of Olga Knipper-Chekhova and her extended family (particular her brother - former White Guard and subsequent NKVD spy - Lev Knipper), there is a social history lesson of life uprooted by revolution, civil war, and eventually a global war.

In many ways, this intriguing book reads more like a noir novel, of tales of Soviet espionage and counter-espionage. Yet I must admit it left me feeling slightly empty, perhaps spoilt by the more expansive earlier works by Beevor. At the end, you are still left somewhat wondering at the motivations of all concerned. A solid, if unspectacular read.

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Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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