Odessa Cinema
Unfortunately, the reports were intercepted by Vasily Shulgin’s White Guard counter-espionage squad. This interception became fatal to the entire reconnaissance mission. Vera Kholodnaya died suddenly on February 16th, 1919. According to the official version, Vera Kholodnaya died a quick death due to the Spanish flu. However, the last recorded case of a death due to this strain in Odessa had happened in October of 1918 – five months before the actress’s death. According to the most popular alternative explanation, she was poisoned by the General Anton Denikin’s counter-espionage squad due to her Communist sympathies and her enormous influence over the “French Odessan” Colonel. There is some evidence to support this version, namely a telegrammed report from Shulgin to the Denikin HQ: “Killed the Red Queen.” However, the enamored French Colonel served the Red Army faithfully, even after Vera Kholodnaya’s death. On April 3rd, 1919 Freidenberg gave the order to evacuate the entire expeditionary corps from Odessa. The order was completely unexpected and shocked both
cution from various White Army-sympathizing expatriate media and social organizations. The cruel persecution reached such proportions that by May 1925 the Soviet press was actively discussing the necessity of “repatriating Vera Kholodnaya’s children in the interests of their own safety.” As the 100th anniversary of the October revolution looms over us, a group of researchers has joined forces in order to finally close the cold case of Kholodnaya’s death and put an end to the unyielding question: did Kholodnaya succumb to a global epidemic, or was her death a political murder? Many of Kholodnaya’s biographers have stressed that the causes of her death are, as of yet, not totally clear. To this day, historians, biographers and even criminologists remain mystified by the romantic and tragic case. I certainly hope that by publishing this article, I will help attract the attention of Eu-
Many refused to believe that the cause of the actress’s death was the “Spanish flu”, a horrible strain of the common illness which took the lives of millions all over the world that winter Denikin’s men and the Entente command. On April 19th, the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau sent materials regarding Colonel Freidenberg to the High Military Court, but, as they say, the deed was already done. The White Guard, deprived of a dependable rear, was soon backed into Crimea and from there, into the sea. In further evidence of the White Guard’s involvement in her death, after her death, Kholodnaya’s young children were brought overseas where they faced ceaseless perse-
94
ropean historians and specialists who could assist us in shedding light on these historical enigmas. It is my hope that we can film the proceedings and keep track of events as they occur. The international group of experts investigating Kholodnaya’s death has taken the following historical sequence of events, which has been sketched out above, as the basis of their research.
After the Revolution, the supporters of the dying Russian Empire flocked to Odessa. It is there where the final standoff between the Bolsheviks and the White Guard will take place. At the end of 1918, Entente armies headed by Colonel Freidenberg arrive in Odessa to assist the White general Denikin. Throughout these fateful days, the filming of an epic love story with the beautiful Kholodnaya in the starring role is taking place in the city. Unbeknownst to the actress, she will play her final fateful role in the ultimate downfall of the Russian Empire. The young Red anarchist Lafarre serves as the orchestrator of these momentous events. This official version of events could very well be the authoritative and final one, if not for the efforts of a group of young researchers who, in our own day, is trying to locate Kholodnaya’s grave – it has seemingly been wiped off the face of the earth in 1932. A small poster hanging on the walls of their base of operations, the actress’ portrait captioned with the plea “Find me. Vera.” serves as the modest but powerful motivation for their work. Each of the experts working on this project has their own motivation to continue investigating Kholodnaya’s life and death. But there is one overarching desire uniting them: a certainty needs to be brought to the conclusion of her life story. We should no longer be satisfied to simply read that “the circumstances of Vera Kholodnaya’s death have not been completely determined to this day.” The project will draw on declassified archives, artifacts and documents which were thought to have been long lost, and are newly re-discovered in laboratory findings. A century since the event, Kholodnaya’s murderers will be named…and she, herself will speak again from the screen in her own voice. However, we have no way of foreseeing what the results of this investigation will be, because it will take place in real time – during the filming itself. We will try to trace Kholodnaya’s path in that crucial espionage