Chekhova, Olga Konstantinovna

(1895–1980)

   Married to the nephew of Anton Chekhov, Olga Konstantinovna immigrated to Germany during the Russian civil war. She was almost immediately contacted by members of her family, who had been co-opted by the Cheka, and convinced to work as an agent for the security service. In return for exit visas for members of her family, she promised to act as an agent within the émigré community and the rising Nazi establishment. In the 1930s, Chekhova became a major movie star in Nazi Germany, and a personal favorite of Adolf Hitler and Nazi propaganda boss Joseph Goebbels. The Russian archives suggest that she was a “sleeper agent,” maintained first to report on the Nazi leadership and later, during the Battle of Moscow, as part of the NKVD’s plans to assassinate German leaders. Following World War II, she was flown to Moscow and debriefed by Smersh director Viktor Abakumov. Chekhova’s reputation as a femme fatale was greatly exaggerated by Western journalists after the war, some of whom styled her as Hitler’s lover.