Nadezhda Plevitskaya
Encyclopedia
Nadezhda Vasilievna Plevitskaya was the most popular female Russian singer of the White emigration
.
. She loved to sing, and after two years in a religious chorus she became a professional singer in Kiev
, where she married Edmund Plewicki, a Polish dancer. Soon they moved to Moscow, where she began singing in the well-known Yar
restaurant, whose specialty was gypsy bands with beautiful female singers, and going on tour; at a concert in 1909 at the Nizhny Novgorod
fair, she was heard by the great tenor Leonid Sobinov
, who brought her to the attention of a wider public, which soon included the Imperial family as well as Feodor Chaliapin
.
A Russian song site says:
She married again, this time to a Lieutenant Shangin of the Cuirassiers, but he died in battle in January 1915. After the October Revolution
she became a communist and Bolshevik
, and continued singing for the troops of the Red Army
. In 1919 she was captured by a unit of the White Army commanded by General Nikolai Skoblin
, who married her in exile in Turkey after the defeat of the White military forces.
, where she was accompanied by Sergei Rachmaninoff
), while her husband, General Skoblin, took a leading role in a White émigré
organization, the ROVS. It was there that Rachmaninoff heard her sing the song "You, My Ceruse, My Rouge" (Белилицы, румяницы вы мои; Belilitsy, rumyanitsy vy moyi), which he used as the basis of the last of his Three Russian Songs
for chorus and orchestra. However, neither career produced much income for Plevitskaya or Skoblin. Plevitskaya, a woman known to love the fine furs and jewelry worn by affluent women in the West, persuaded her husband to work for the Soviet Union.
, (later, the NKVD
), the Soviet secret police. Plevitskaya, already a willing Bolshevik
before her capture, had few qualms about working for the Soviets. By all accounts, Plevitskaya and her husband served as accomplished and highly successful agents of Soviet intelligence. At first, the couple were used on assignments in Western Europe. However, their success soon resulted in periodic covert trips back to the Soviet Union, where she and Skoblin performed well-paid counter-intelligence work in Moscow for the NKVD uncovering 'enemies of Stalin' while posing as 'Mr. and Mrs. Grozovsky.' Working under a variety of guises for the Soviet Central Executive Committee and the Foreign Trade Comissariat, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, under the pseudoymn 'Mrs. Grozovsky,' would appear for work at a Soviet government office as an extremely well-dressed typist-clerk, complete with lacquered nails, jewelry, and well-tended skin, where she faithfully reported on the actions and statements of its personnel.
Plevitskaya and Skoblin were also involved in the infamous 1937 abduction of General Evgenii Miller
, who was kidnapped in Paris, drugged, and taken back to Moscow
, where he was executed after being tortured for nineteen months in May 1938. After the kidnapping, Skoblin escaped to Barcelona, where the Spanish Republican government, kept alive by Soviet aid, refused to extradite him back to France. Plevitskaya, always chauffered around France by Soviet NKVD drivers in a Soviet embassy Cadillac, was constantly followed by the French police Citroens. She successfully lost her police surveillance in a high-speed auto chase outside Paris, but was eventually arrested before she could escape across the border. Tried for the kidnapping of Miller, she feigned ignorance of the plot and denied working as a Soviet agent. However, she was convicted based on evidence of her espionage activities found in her apartment. In 1938, she was sentenced to an unusually harsh term of 20 years to a French prison. Alexander Orlov
, a Soviet defector, later claimed that her husband was induced to write undated love letters to Plevitskaya begging her not to reveal the extent of her actions as an NKVD agent, which were later sent to her in prison to ensure her silence.
She died in Rennes prison of a heart ailment in the autumn of 1940. Her story is told (under a different name) in Vladimir Nabokov
's short story "The Assistant Producer" and the French film Triple Agent
(2004). She and her husband Nikolai Skoblin are also mentioned in Anatoly Rybakov
's semi-fictional novel Fear.
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
.
Early life and career
Plevitskaya was born Nadezhda Vasilievna Vinnikova to a peasant family in the village of Vinnikovo near KurskKursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
. She loved to sing, and after two years in a religious chorus she became a professional singer in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, where she married Edmund Plewicki, a Polish dancer. Soon they moved to Moscow, where she began singing in the well-known Yar
Yar
Yar may refer to:Rivers* Western Yar, Isle of Wight, England* Eastern Yar, Isle of Wight, England* River Yare, in East Anglia, EnglandIn Russia:* Yar, Russia, name of several inhabited localities in RussiaIn fiction:...
restaurant, whose specialty was gypsy bands with beautiful female singers, and going on tour; at a concert in 1909 at the Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
fair, she was heard by the great tenor Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov , was an acclaimed Imperial Russian operatic tenor. His fame continued unabated into the Soviet era, and he was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1923...
, who brought her to the attention of a wider public, which soon included the Imperial family as well as Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...
.
A Russian song site says:
She married again, this time to a Lieutenant Shangin of the Cuirassiers, but he died in battle in January 1915. After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
she became a communist and Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
, and continued singing for the troops of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. In 1919 she was captured by a unit of the White Army commanded by General Nikolai Skoblin
Nikolai Skoblin
Nikolai Skoblin was a general in the counterrevolutionary White Russian army, a member of the expatriate Russian All-Military Union , a Soviet double agent, and husband to the gypsy folk-singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya ....
, who married her in exile in Turkey after the defeat of the White military forces.
Exile in Europe
Plevitskya made concert tours throughout Europe (and, in 1926, to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where she was accompanied by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
), while her husband, General Skoblin, took a leading role in a White émigré
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
organization, the ROVS. It was there that Rachmaninoff heard her sing the song "You, My Ceruse, My Rouge" (Белилицы, румяницы вы мои; Belilitsy, rumyanitsy vy moyi), which he used as the basis of the last of his Three Russian Songs
Three Russian Songs, Op. 41 (Rachmaninoff)
The Three Russian Songs, Op. 41 for chorus and orchestra were written by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1926. It is the last of Rachmaninoff's three works for chorus and orchestra, the others being the cantata Spring, Op. 20 , and the choral symphony The Bells, Op. 35...
for chorus and orchestra. However, neither career produced much income for Plevitskaya or Skoblin. Plevitskaya, a woman known to love the fine furs and jewelry worn by affluent women in the West, persuaded her husband to work for the Soviet Union.
Soviet intelligence agent
In 1930 both were recruited by the GPUState Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
, (later, the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
), the Soviet secret police. Plevitskaya, already a willing Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
before her capture, had few qualms about working for the Soviets. By all accounts, Plevitskaya and her husband served as accomplished and highly successful agents of Soviet intelligence. At first, the couple were used on assignments in Western Europe. However, their success soon resulted in periodic covert trips back to the Soviet Union, where she and Skoblin performed well-paid counter-intelligence work in Moscow for the NKVD uncovering 'enemies of Stalin' while posing as 'Mr. and Mrs. Grozovsky.' Working under a variety of guises for the Soviet Central Executive Committee and the Foreign Trade Comissariat, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, under the pseudoymn 'Mrs. Grozovsky,' would appear for work at a Soviet government office as an extremely well-dressed typist-clerk, complete with lacquered nails, jewelry, and well-tended skin, where she faithfully reported on the actions and statements of its personnel.
Plevitskaya and Skoblin were also involved in the infamous 1937 abduction of General Evgenii Miller
Evgenii Miller
Evgeny Karlovich Miller was a Russian general and one of the leaders of the anti-communist White Army during and after Russian Civil War.-Biography:...
, who was kidnapped in Paris, drugged, and taken back to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he was executed after being tortured for nineteen months in May 1938. After the kidnapping, Skoblin escaped to Barcelona, where the Spanish Republican government, kept alive by Soviet aid, refused to extradite him back to France. Plevitskaya, always chauffered around France by Soviet NKVD drivers in a Soviet embassy Cadillac, was constantly followed by the French police Citroens. She successfully lost her police surveillance in a high-speed auto chase outside Paris, but was eventually arrested before she could escape across the border. Tried for the kidnapping of Miller, she feigned ignorance of the plot and denied working as a Soviet agent. However, she was convicted based on evidence of her espionage activities found in her apartment. In 1938, she was sentenced to an unusually harsh term of 20 years to a French prison. Alexander Orlov
Alexander Orlov
Alexander Mikhailovich Orlov , born Lev Feldbin, 21 August 1895–25 March 1973), was a General in the Soviet secret police and NKVD Rezident in the Second Spanish Republic. In 1938, Orlov refused to return to the Soviet Union because he realized that he would be executed, and fled with his...
, a Soviet defector, later claimed that her husband was induced to write undated love letters to Plevitskaya begging her not to reveal the extent of her actions as an NKVD agent, which were later sent to her in prison to ensure her silence.
She died in Rennes prison of a heart ailment in the autumn of 1940. Her story is told (under a different name) in Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's short story "The Assistant Producer" and the French film Triple Agent
Triple agent (film)
-Plot:The Popular Front wins the French general elections of 1936. In Spain the Civil War begins. Meanwhile, in a Paris apartment, Fiodor Voronin, a retired general of the Tsarist army lives an apparently quiet life with his Greek wife Arsinoé...
(2004). She and her husband Nikolai Skoblin are also mentioned in Anatoly Rybakov
Anatoly Rybakov
Anatoly Naumovich Rybakov was a Soviet and Russian writer, the author of the anti-Stalinist Children of the Arbat tetralogy, novel Heavy Sand, and many popular children books including Adventures of Krosh, Dirk, Bronze Bird, etc...
's semi-fictional novel Fear.