She went to school in Tsarskoye Selo but, after watching Eleonora Duse, joined the Moscow Art Theatre's studio.

There she met the Russian-Jewish actor Mikhail Chekhov (Anton's nephew) in 1914 and married him the same year, taking his surname as her own.

In the first year of the revolution, she joined a cabaret-theatre group called Sorokonozhka (The Little Centipede), as the troupe consisted of twenty members and forty feet.

[citation needed] She managed to get a travel passport from the Soviet government, possibly in exchange for her cooperation, which led to permission to leave Russia.

She had more contact with the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who referred to her in his diaries as "eine charmante Frau" ("a charming lady").

Her correspondence with Russian actresses Olga Knipper and Alla Tarasova was published posthumously.