Read The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) Online

Authors: Helen Rappaport

Tags: #History, #Europe, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #Biography & Autobiography, #Women's Studies, #Family & Relationships, #Royalty, #1910s, #Civil War, #WWI

The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) (75 page)

32 Ibid.

33 Gavriil Konstantinovich,
Marble Palace
, p. 128.

34 Ioann Konstantinovich, letters to his father, 2 November 1909 and 3 December 1910,
Rossiskiy arhkiv
,
pp. 415–19
.

35 Bokhanov
et al.
,
Romanovs
, p. 127.

36
Correspondence
, p. 351.

37 For Tyucheva’s account of the assassination of Stolypin, see

Tyutcheva, ‘Za neskolko let’.

38
LP
, p. 344.

39 Tyutcheva, ‘Za neskolko let’.

40
Correspondence
, p. 351.

41 Galina von Meck, ‘The Death of Stolypin’, in Michael Glenny and

Norman Stone,
The Other Russia
(London: Faber & Faber, 1990).

42
Correspondence
, p. 351.

43 Tyutcheva, ‘Za neskolko let’.

44
Correspondence
, p. 351.

45 ‘The Creation of Nadezhda Isakovlevna Mandel’shtam’, in Helena

Goscilo (ed.),
Fruits of Her Plume: Essays on Contemporary Women’s
Culture
(New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1993),
p. 90.

46 Tyutcheva, ‘Za neskolko let’.

47 Zeepvat, ‘Valet’s Story’, p. 304.

48 Tyutcheva, ‘Za neskolko let’.

49 William Eleroy Curtis,
Around the Black Sea
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1911), p. 265.

50 Buxhoeveden,
Before the Storm
, p. 294; Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 37.

51 Sergey Sazonov, introduction to
P’er Zhil’yar, Imperator Nikolai II I
ego sem’ya
(Vienna: Rus, 1921), p. vi. It is unclear whether this was said by Olga or Tatiana. See also Grabbe and Grabbe,
Private World
, p. 75.

52 Kalinin and Zemlyanichenko,
Romanovy i Krym
, p. 80.

53 See Vyrubova,
Romanov Family Album
, pp. 84–7.

54 Vorres
, Last Grand Duchess
, p. 110; Vyrubova,
Romanov Family
Album
, p. 103; Zimin,
Vzroslyi mir
, p. 323.

55 Brewster,
Anastasia’s Album
, p. 30.

56 Kalinin and Zemlyanichenko, ‘Taina Velikoi Knyazhny’, p. 243;

Mikhail Korshunov,
Taina Tain Moskovskikh
(Moscow: Slovo, 1995), p. 266.

57 Mossolov,
At the Court
,
p. 61.

409

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NOTES

58 See Victor Belyakov, ‘Russia’s Last Star: Nicholas II and Cinema’,
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
15, no. 4, October 1995, pp. 517–24.

59 Zemlyanichenko,
Romanovy i Krym
, p. 83.

60 De Stoeckl,
My Dear Marquis
, p. 127. Some sources state that this proposal was made later, but in the context of de Stoeckl’s memoir

it is clearly 1911.

61 See Sablin,
Desyat’ let
,
p. 234.

62 See Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, pp. 142 –3.

63 Mossolov,
At the
Court
, p. 247.

64 Girardin,
Précepteur
, p. 51.

65 See Zimin,
Tsarskie dengi
; Mossolov,
At the Court,
p. 41.

66 Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, p. 151.

67 Vyrubova,
Romanov Family Album
, p. 86; see also Spiridovich,
Les
Dernières années
, vol. 2, pp. 148–9.

68 De Stoeckl,
Not All Vanity
, p. 119.

69 Vyrubova,
Romanov Family Album
, p. 86.

70 Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, p. 151.

71 Titov, ‘OTMA’, p. 33. There are 12 volumes of Olga’s diaries in

GARF dating from 1905 to 1917, but many of them are incom-

plete or with brief entries and 1910 is missing. Only the first few

pages of her 1917 diary survive.

72 For an account of the ball, see Kamarovskaya,
Vospominaniya
, pp.

173–6; Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2 , pp. 150, 151.

73 De Stoeckl,
Not All Vanity
, p. 120; Kamarovskya,
Vospominaniya
, pp. 173–6.

74 Mossolov,
At the Court
, p. 61.

75 Vyrubova,
Romanov Family Album
, p. 86.

76 Naryshkin-Kurakin,
Under Three Tsars
, p. 201.

77 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 44.

Chapter 10
: ‘Cupid by the Thrones’

1 581 Sir Valentine Chirol, ‘In Many Lands. III: Glimpse of Russia

before the War’,
Manchester Guardian
, 15 August 1928.

2 Rasputin,
Rasputin My Father
, pp. 75–6.

3 Bowra,
Memories
, pp. 65–6.

4 Natalya Soboleva, ‘La Tristesse Impériale’.

5 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 64.

6 Hall,
Little Mother
, p. 238.

410

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NOTES

7 It has been argued that the letters were faked but both Anna

Vyrubova and Vladimir Kokovtsov saw them. See Kokovtsov,
Iz moego
proshlogo
, vol. 2, pp. 20, 27, 42–4; Moe,
Prelude
, pp. 204–7; Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 65.

8 For Tyutcheva’s independent line see Bogdanovich,
Tri poslednykh
samoderzhtsa
,
p. 511. See also Bokhanov,
Aleksandra Feodorovna
, pp.

217–19 for a very damning, and perhaps biased, take on Tyutcheva.

9 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 65.

10
LP
, pp. 331–2.

11 Ibid., p. 351; Buxhoeveden
, Life and Tragedy
,
p. 152.

12 Ibid., pp. 152–3.

13 GARF in Moscow holds 616 folios of letters written by Tyutcheva

to Anastasia during 1911–16.

14 Zimin,
Detskiy mir
, p. 75;
LP
, p. 331.

15 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 81; Vorres,
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 141; Bokhanov,
Aleksandra Feodorovna
, p. 220.

16 See
Correspondence
, letter to Ernie, 29 July 1912, p. 312; Zimin,
Detskiy mir
, p. 75.

17
Correspondence
, p. 317.

18 Ibid., pp. 354–5.

19 For Wallinson, see the front page story, ‘Kings and Emperors Like Their American Dentists’,
The Call
, San Francisco, 15 November 1903.

20 This expenditure covered May 1909 to May 1910 but is represent-

ative of the kind of money spent on the sisters’ wardrobes.

Quotation courtesy of Bob Atchison, @: http://www.alexander-

palace.org/palace/mexpenses.html

21 King, ‘Livadia’, p. 23.

22 Ibid., p. 21.

23 Buxhoeveden,
Before the Storm
, p. 296; Buxhoeveden,
Life and
Tragedy
, p. 180.

24 For Alexandra’s and the children’s charitable work in Livadia see King, ‘Livadia’, p. 25; King,
Court of the Last Tsar
, p. 450; Zimin,
Detskiy mir
,
p. 322; Vyrubova,
Memories
, pp. 34–7, 46; Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, pp. 145–6; Buxhoeveden,
Before the Storm
, pp.

293 –6.

25 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, p. 257.

26 Ibid.

27 Vyrubova,
Memories
,
p. 46.

28 Ibid., p. 80.

29
Hackney Express
, 19 September 1903;
The Times
, 18 September 1911.

411

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NOTES

30 Bokhanov
et al., Romanovs
, p. 124.

31
Washington Post
, 25 June 1911.

32 ‘Won’t Wed Czar’s Daughter’,
Washington Post
, 30 November 1913.

33 Radzinsky
, Last Tsar
, p. 106.

34 Marie, Grand Duchess of Russia,
Princess in Exile
(London: Cassell, 1932), p. 71.

35 See Harris, ‘Succession Prospects’, pp. 75–6.

36 Letter to Nicholas, 16 October 1911; V. I. Nevsky ed.,
Nikolai II i
velikie knyazya
, Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo, 1925,
p.

46
(translation courtesy of Will Lee).

37 Lisa Davidson, profile of Dmitri Pavlovich, on Alexander Palace

web site @: http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/Dmitri.html

38 TS letter to Marie Pavlovna, 4 May 1908, (translation courtesy of Will Lee).

39 Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, p. 186.

40 Bogdanovich,
Tri poslednykh samoderzhtsa
, p. 510.

41
Washington Post
, ‘Cupid by the Thrones’, 21 July 1912.

42 Meriel Buchanan journal, August 1912, f. 33.

43 For the Dmitri/Yusupov relationship, see Moe,
Prelude
, pp. 238–9

(information on Dmitri Pavlovich’s gambling from Will Lee).

44 ON,
p. 9; Meriel Buchanan journal, f. 42.

45 See Rounding,
Alix and Nicky
, p. 190; Wortman,
Scenarios
, pp.

380–2.

46
SL
, pp. 270–1.

47 Nekliudoff,
Diplomatic Reminiscences
(London: John Murray, 1920) p. 73.

48 See Wortman,
Scenarios
,
pp. 381–2; Bokhanov
, Aleksandra
Feodorovna
, pp. 217–18.

Chapter 11
: The Little One Will Not Die

1
Correspondence
, 15 September 1912, p. 360.

2 Botkin,
Real Romanovs
, pp. 73–4.

3 De Stoeckl,
My Dear Marquis
, p. 125.

4 TS Letter, 7 February 1910, from Tsarskoe Selo to his sister Marie Pavlovna (translation courtesy of Will Lee). It is interesting to note that in their book about their battle with their own son’s severe

haemophilia, authors Robert K. Massie and Suzanne Massie also

asserted that ‘relatively speaking, Alexis was a mild haemophiliac . . .

412

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NOTES

The difference was that once the Tsarevich began to bleed, nothing

could stop the hemorrhage’ – in other words his form of the condi-

tion was mild, but the inability of medical science at the time to treat it was the problem; Robert Massie and Suzanne Massie,
Journey
(New York: Knopf, 1975), p. 114.

5 Radziwill,
Taint
, p. 397.

6 Untitled TS memoirs, List 1 (82) Sidney Gibbes Papers, Bodleian, fo 4.

7 Ibid.

8 Gerald Hamilton,
The Way It Was With Me
(London: Leslie Frewin, 1969), p. 29.

9
LP
, p. 351.

10 Ibid.

11 Official statement of 3 November 1912, reported in
The Times
, 4

November. Some sources state, as per Spiridovich in
Les Dernières
années
, vol. 2, pp. 284–5, that the bleeding was caused by Alexey hitting himself when jumping from the side of the large majolica

bathtub. The boating accident is given as the cause by Nicholas

himself in a letter to his mother,
SL
, p. 275 and also by Mosolov,
Court
, pp. 150–1, Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 90, Vorres,
Last Grand
Duchess
,
p. 143 and Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 32.

12 See Vyrubova
, Memories
, p. 92.

13
SL
, p. 276.

14 Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, p. 93; Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 93.

15 Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 29.

16 Ibid., p. 27.

17 Mosolov,
Court
,
p. 151.

18 Melnik-Botkina,
Vospominaniya
, p. 124.

19
LP
, p. 357.

20 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 94; Rasputin,
Rasputin
,
p. 177; Rasputin,
Rasputin
My Father
, p. 72. Mosolov,
Court
, p. 151, has it differently, saying that Rasputin’s message told the tsaritsa that the

tsarevich must not be ‘allowed to be martyred by the doctors’.

Many sources seem to have conflated the contents of the two tele-

grams.

21 Rasputin,
Rasputin
,
p. 177.

22 Mosolov,
Court
, p. 152.

23 Alexandra Feodorovna, letters to Boyd Carpenter, ff. 241–2.

24 Melnik-Botkina,
Vospominaniya
, p. 125.

25
SL
, p. 275.

26
Daily News
, Maryland, 23 October 1912.

413

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NOTES

27 Ibid. See also ‘Tragedy of the Czarevitch’, 12 December 1912,

which repeats the rumour about Dmitri Pavlovich marrying Olga

and becoming heir-designate.

28
The Times
, 4 November 1912.

29 Ibid.

30
New York Times
, 10 November 1912.

31 Mosolov,
Court
, p. 152; see also de Jonge,
Life and Times of
Rasputin
, pp. 213–14.

32
Correspondence
,
p. 361.

33 Letter to General Alexander Pfuhlstein, 20 December 1912, in von

Spreti,
Alix an Gretchen
,
pp. 187–8.

34 Spiridovich
, Les Dernières années
, vol. 2, pp. 293–4.

35 Letter to General Alexander Pfuhlstein, 20 December 1912, in von

Spreti,
Alix an Gretchen,
p. 188.

36 Alexandra Feodorovna, letters to Boyd Carpenter, BL Add 46721,

vol. 5, 24 January/7 February, ff. 240–1.

37 Vorres,
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 143.

38 Alexandra Feodorovna, letters to Boyd Carpenter, BL Add 46721,

vol. 5, 24 January/7 February, ff. 240–3.

39
LP
, p. 364.

40 Baroness Souiny,
Russia of Yesterday and Tomorrow
(New York: Century, 1917), p. 119.

41 For useful overviews of the Tercentary see King,
Court of the Last
Tsar
, ch. 23; Wortman,
Scenarios of Power
, pp. 383–96.

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