Olga Knipper

Olga Knipper, or Knipper-Chekhova (21 {O.S. 9} September 1868, Glazov, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire — 22 March 1959, Moscow, USSR), was a Russian-Soviet stage actress, wife of the renowned writer Anton Chekhov from 1901 until he died in 1904, and paternal aunt of composer and Soviet spy [url=https://discogs.com/artist/1401011]Lev Knipper[/url] (1898—1974). Knipper-Chekhova served at the [url=https://discogs.com/label/2625883]Moscow Art Theatre[/url] for her entire life, starting as the original cast member under Konstantin Stanislavski (1863—1938) in 1898. She held numerous prestigious accolades, including People's Artist of the USSR (1937), the Stalin Prize of the 1st Degree (1943), two Orders of Lenin (1938/1948), and two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1937/1945).

She was born in an upper-middle-class family to an Austrian expat and a Russian mother of Baltic German descent and grew up in Moscow. Olga was fluent in French, German, and English, attended a private school for girls, and took music and singing lessons. Despite an evident talent, her father refused to support Olga's interest in performing arts, wishing for his daughter to "marry well" and become a housewife as per traditionalist, "patriarchial" vision. After he died suddenly in 1894, twenty-six-year-old Olga and her mother started giving private music and vocal lessons to support the family. Now free to pursue her career, Olga Knipper briefly enrolled in the [url=https://discogs.com/artist/7825948]Malyj Theater[/url]'s drama school; she transferred to the [url=https://www.discogs.com/label/605813]Russian Institute of Theater Arts[/url] (GITIS) just a month later and joined the class of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

In the late 1890s, Nemirovich told Olga Knipper and her classmate, Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874—1940), about his plans to launch a new dramatic theatre in partnership with Konstantin Stanislavski; both Knipper and Meyerhold ended up among the original 39 actors who performed in the MHAT Theatre's debut season. She first met Anton Chekhov, who was still a bachelor at 38, while rehearsing for The Seagull production in September 1898, based on his play. Olga and Anton began to correspond extensively, subsequently falling in love. When Chekhov returned from Yalta to Moscow in late 1900, he carried a new play, Three Sisters, with one of the roles, "Masha," written for Knipper and partially based on her personality. They married in May 1901, in the spur of the moment, without even notifying most relatives and friends. Anton Chekhov died of tuberculosis only three years later, in July 1904; Olga never remarried and kept his name.