27 replies to this topic

[leonid]

rg, on Dec 23 2008, 11:50 AM, said:

was it O. V. Lepshinskaya who was arrested in Italy for shoplifting on one tour outside Soviet Russia?
i seem to recall this being told to me with the suggestion that perhaps O.V.L. was trying to get arrested so she could 'stay' in Italy.
all this very fuzzy and if there has been an ref. to such an incident in the obits i missed it.
i wonder if anyone else has heard of antyhing related to this.
i could be misremembering the whole incident and connecting it wrongly to O.V.L.

I am not sure what country it was but took place in the summer of 1958. She denied the accusation and said it was ridiculous to suggest that she would steal.

It is is very interesting to think that she may have wanted to defect.

[Mel Johnson]

Interesting, too, that she would deny stealing, but not defecting.  

But seriously, it could have been entirely possible, considering her status as a Stalin favorite, and the Khrushchev deStalinization policy.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Mel Johnson, on Dec 23 2008, 07:16 PM, said:

Interesting, too, that she would deny stealing, but not defecting.  

Was she acused of thinking of defecting..?

[Mel Johnson]

No, but in that she followed Political Wisdom 101:  Never deny what hasn't been asked.  
My favorite example of a violation of the principle was the Rockefeller family's announcement of the death of former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.  They gave a time and place of death, and then, quite unbidden, added, "There were no young women present."  The press immediately perked up its ears.  "WHAT young women weren't present?  What were their names?  Ages?  Why should any young women have been present at his death?"  It appeared that Nelson had gone out with a bang!

[Marc Haegeman]

rg, on Dec 23 2008, 05:50 PM, said:

was it O. V. Lepshinskaya who was arrested in Italy for shoplifting on one tour outside Soviet Russia?
i seem to recall this being told to me with the suggestion that perhaps O.V.L. was trying to get arrested so she could 'stay' in Italy.
all this very fuzzy and if there has been an ref. to such an incident in the obits i missed it.
i wonder if anyone else has heard of antyhing related to this.
i could be misremembering the whole incident and connecting it wrongly to O.V.L.

She was arrested for shoplifting in Brussels, when the Bolshoi first came to Belgium in 1958. (Don't know it also happened in Italy?) Can't imagine she would have wanted to stay in Belgium. She surely just needed an umbrella or a pair of gloves.

[leonid]

Marc Haegeman, on Dec 24 2008, 03:17 AM, said:

rg, on Dec 23 2008, 05:50 PM, said:

was it O. V. Lepshinskaya who was arrested in Italy for shoplifting on one tour outside Soviet Russia?
i seem to recall this being told to me with the suggestion that perhaps O.V.L. was trying to get arrested so she could 'stay' in Italy.
all this very fuzzy and if there has been an ref. to such an incident in the obits i missed it.
i wonder if anyone else has heard of antyhing related to this.
i could be misremembering the whole incident and connecting it wrongly to O.V.L.

She was arrested for shoplifting in Brussels, when the Bolshoi first came to Belgium in 1958. (Don't know it also happened in Italy?) Can't imagine she would have wanted to stay in Belgium. She surely just needed an umbrella or a pair of gloves.

Thank you Marc for confirming this fact.

Please find herewith a link to an obituary which I found very interesting.  http://www.telegraph...eshinskaya.html

[cubanmiamiboy]

Wow...a truly soviet girl.
RIP

[leonid]

cubanmiamiboy, on Dec 25 2008, 03:24 PM, said:

Wow...a truly soviet girl.
RIP

Definitely wow!

As regards a real soviet girl, she certainly was.

It was extremely difficult to become a member of the party and in many cases took years to become a member starting from Young Pioneers to becoming a member of the Komsomol at 14 years of age.
In Lepeshinskaya’s era, when she graduated from the Bolshoi School there were some 3,500,000 formal party members in Russia. Purges in the 1930’s, reputedly reduced membership to 1.900,000 by 1939. During the purges, Maya Plisetskaya’s father was executed in 1938 and her actress mother was arrested and sent to a gulag in Kazakhstan for three years. There are rumours of the murder of a dancer and dancers forced into marriage to senior party officials.
Lepeshinskaya however, as a party member survived in some style as information in the obituary clearly explains.

[rg]

'very interesting' indeed, Leonid, this obiturary you just posted.
i've long been told that UK obits are essentially different from those run in US newspapers, esp. the NYTimes where the writing tends to be more 'formal' or at least used to be.
does this Telegraph obit have a by-line?

[leonid]

rg, on Dec 25 2008, 10:56 PM, said:

'very interesting' indeed, Leonid, this obiturary you just posted.
i've long been told that UK obits are essentially different from those run in US newspapers, esp. the NYTimes where the writing tends to be more 'formal' or at least used to be.
does this Telegraph obit have a by-line?

Regrettably formality in English public life has deteriorated and I regret to inform you so has the content of our newspapers.

It is generally the tradition in English Papers not to have a by line. This detachment, gave the obituary a formality of the importance of the subject as being worthy of note. In many cases, the obituary writers were quite notable persons in their own right. After the initial publication, there might follow a formal tribute by a distinguished person(s) confirming a personal view, often established through personal acquaintance with the deceased. In the case of a seriously important personage, an obituary giving formal details of the 'life; in question would be given and supported nearby or on the front page, a personal appraisal by various people of some standing.

In the case of ballet obituaries, a very few critics would get a by line, a notable exception being Mary Clarke in the Guardian.

What is curious about The Telegraph obituary of Lepeshinskaya is the depth of personal detail. Unlike a review, no by line was displayed.

[Goldfish17]

leonid, on Dec 25 2008, 07:31 AM, said:

Please find herewith a link to an obituary which I found very interesting.  http://www.telegraph...eshinskaya.html

It sounds like Olga Lepeshinskaya was an outstanding person and wonderfull dancer.
May she rest in peace.

It seems strange to me to blame an artist for being Stalin's favorite. As far as I know, Stalin also liked Michael Bulgakhov.

[Goldfish17]

Here is her Waltz, 1940:

http://ru.youtube.co...h?v=REKu3XahS2E

[rg]

a scan of a photocard of Lepeshinskaya as Cinderella from the USSR - a date of 1960 is written on the back and refers to some use of the card and not necessarily the year of the photo.

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