The older generation of Russians still retains fond memories of the popular film actress Zoya Fyodorova. The life of this woman was so tragic that it could inspire many an adventure storywriter….

Zoya Fyodorova was born on December 21, 1909 in St.Petersburg. After the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, her father, once an ordinary factory worker, made a head-spinning career in the Communist party and was eventually moved to Moscow to work as part of the Kremlin administration. He did not share his daughter’s love for the stage and after Zoya finished school he found her a job with a state insurance company. In 1926, Zoya Fyodorova, already 17, met a young Red Army officer, Kirill Prove. The two fell in love with each other but, shortly after, Prove was arrested on suspicion of spying for Britain.  A few days later they arrested Zoya too as an accomplice. The young woman could have ended up in the most pitiful way, but, happily, the gods smiled on her, so to say, and they let her out right after the first interrogation…

The pent-up desire to become an actress still burning hot in her heart, Zoya Fyodorova, much to her father’s dismay, eventually made her dream happen. Still a student at a Moscow drama school, she played a cameo part in a movie. Understandably proud of her cinematic debut, Zoya invited all her relatives to come to see her on screen. What she did not know, however, was that the episode she was in had been cut out by the film’s editor. Zoya was devastated… But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Working on the set of that ill-fated flick, Zoya Fyodorova met Vladimir Rappoport, a cinematographer. Two years later the too walked down the aisle and shortly afterwards, Zoya made her real and very successful debut as an actress. More films followed and by the time Zoya Fyodorova turned 28, she was already a superstar…

Everything looked like a dream come true but, then, all of a sudden, Zoya’s career all but foundered. In 1936 her mother fell ill, doctors feared she had cancer, and father enlisted the help of a private doctor who, very unhappily, turned to out be a German. Even though the poor woman never recovered, some people got suspicious about the German doctor spending so much time in the Fyodorovs’ apartment. Zoya’s father rarely missed a chance to criticize the authorities and his friendship with a German gave Stalin’s secret police ample reason to get rid of him. Farther was declared an enemy of the people and sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Likewise stigmatized as the daughter of an enemy of the people, Zoya had already kissed goodbye to her career of a movie star but, strange as it may seem, father’s arrest never once brushed off on her.  In the first ten years of her career Zoya Fyodorova starred in more than 20 films.  Meanwhile, Zoya and her husband had drifted apart and she met her true love, an air force pilot named Ivan Kleshchev. They never got married, though, because Ivan died a hero’s death fighting the Nazis during World War Two…

Despite the war and her personal tragedy, Zoya Fyodorova kept trying again and again to get her father out of jail. To make that happen, she   went to the much feared head of Stalin’s secret police, Lavrenty Beria. A longtime admirer of Zoya’s, Beria was ready to go to almost any length to win her attention. Once he invited Fyodorova to come over to his place. When the host’s intentions became too obvious to ignore, Zoya Fyodorova angrily cut them short blaring an insult right in the man’s face. Enraged, Beria told her to get out. Then, catching up with Zoya at the door he handed her a bunch of roses. “They’ll put it on your grave,” he muttered menacingly. All the poor woman could expect now expect was a quick arrest. Happily for her, it never happened, but the worst thing in Zoya’s life still lay ahead…

In 1942 one of Zoya’s friends introduced her to Jackson Tate, a naval officer with the US military mission in Moscow. Before long the two fell in love creating a wealth of hearsay. People said Fyodorova was working for the Soviet secret police to collect information from American diplomats. The truth however, was that Zoya and Jackson really loved each other. In 1946 Zoya Fyodorova gave birth to their daughter, Victoria. After the war relations between the wartime allies quickly soured and Zoya’s relationship with an American citizen was all but doomed now… By then Jackson Tate had already left Russia, unaware of what had become of Zoya and not even knowing she had given birth to their daughter. Meanwhile, Zoya Fyodorova was languishing in the feared Lubyanka prison where she spent six terrifying months methodically beaten up by her investigators who would douse her with boiling water and kept her awake 24 hours a day. In 1947 Zoya Fyodorova was sentenced to 25 years of labor camps for allegedly spying for the Americans. After the sentencing she tried to kill herself but at the very last moment was prevented from doing so by her watchful guards.  Zoya Fyodorova spent eight long years behind bars. Released after Stalin’s death she could finally reunite with her Victoria who was already nine… She also resumed her acting career…

In 1976 Zoya Fyodorova was allowed to travel to the United States to reunite with Jackson Tate whom she hadn’t seen for 30 years, and with her daughter who by then lived in America. Two years later Jackson Tate died of cancer. Zoya Fyodorova crossed the Atlantic two more times to see Victoria but each time she returned back to Russia. The third time never came… Shortly before boarding a US-bound flight again, Zoya Fyodorova, already 72, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment. The killers were never found…

12/19/2005