09.11.
2018
I. Last happy days, October 1916
II. Grand Duke Paul and the Tsar
III. Assassination of Rasputin, the
Suspected Complicity of Dmitri
IV. Christmas 1916 and After
V. Manifesto of the Grand Dukes -
Miliukoff's Comment
VI. The Tsar Abdicates
VII. How abdication came about
VIII. How the Abdication Came About
IX. My sorrows begin
X. Imperial prisoners at Tsarskoe
XI. Fruitless appeal to Kerensky
XII. The Kerensky regime
XIII. Under arrest in Tsarskoe
XIV. Days of confinement
XV. Imprisoned in Petrograd
XVI. He is Released
XVII. A wine cellar interlude
XVIII. Encounter with the Soviet
XIX. Sad Christmas of 1917
XX. Palace saved
XXI. My son Vladimir
XXII. Impending perils
XXIII. Vladimir into exile
XXIV. Life in captivity
XXV. My Son's Last Days
XXVI. Fears and hopes
XXVII. Terrible News
XXVIII. My Husband Arrested
XXIX. Grand Duke a Prisoner
XXX. I Plead With Ouritzky
XXXI. Visits to Shapalernaia Prison
XXXII. I Seek Help from Gorky
XXXIII. Minor Ordeals
XXXIV. Evicted from our Cottage
XXXV. Transferred to Prison Hospital
XXXVI. How My Daughters Escape From
Russia
XXXVII. I See My Husband for the Last Time
XXXVIII. My Agonized Search for My Husband
XXXIX. Shot - the Ex-Grand Dukes Paul,
Dmitri and George
XL. Manner of Their Death
XLI. My Actress Benefactress. I Escape to
Finland
XLII. How Vladimir died
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Memories of Russia :: Chapter I :: Last happy days, October 1916
Chapter I
Last happy days, October 1916
Before coming to the melancholy and odious events of the years 1917,
1918 and 1919, I want to speak of a bright and happy moment, to tell of
the indescribably glad memories which I cherish of our stay in the
Crimea during the month of October, 1916. The war was then in full
swing. The Grand Duke had been in command of the 1st Corps de la
Garde since the previous June, and my beloved son, my Vladimir, after
twenty months in the trenches, had just been appointed orderly officer
in attendance on his father. Throughout the summer of 1916 these two,
the two beings dearest to me in the whole world, had been running the
greatest dangers day after day.
The Germans, who were au courant with everything, knew perfectly
well the locality in which the Grand Duke was stationed, and exerted
themselves desperately in the aiming of bombs at the house which
sheltered him. Thus, to give an idea of their persistency, seventy bombs
were discharged within the space of two hours upon the village of Sokoul
where the Grand Duke and his staff had to spend several days in a refuge
underground.
During this period I was at Tsarskoe-Selo with my little daughters, in the
palace which we had had erected there and in which we settled down
two months before the war, in May, 1914. A work-room, which was
placed under the patronage of the Empress and of which I was the
founder and President, had been set up in the ball-room, for which,
alas! we had dreamt of other uses. . . .
In September, 1916, after two years of assiduous work and of efforts to
obtain the necessary resources and materials, I was very much fatigued,
and the Grand Duke's medical attendant, the faithful Obnissky, who
looked after him with a devotion beyond all praise, held that a rest in a
good climate would be good for me. There could be no question of my
going abroad, so we decided in favour of the Crimea, which I had never
seen and which I had often heard spoken of as a land to dream of.
I set out with my daughters and a somewhat numerous suite on October
1Oth/23rd, for Simeis, which is about forty miles distant from
Sebastopol. The scenery along the route, from Baidar onwards, is
certainly the most beautiful I have ever seen, with the one exception of
the view of the Greek theatre at Taormina. That road from Sebastopol
to Simeis recalls the Corniche road, but has even more windings. I t has
on one side a sea of sapphire blue, while on the other it is overhung by
rocks, all ready, so one feels, to crash down upon it. We had engaged at
Simeis a floor in the house of a friend, and we installed ourselves there
very comfortably, looking forward from day to day to the arrival of the
Grand Duke and of niy son. The day when they arrived - so close to the
days of misfortune and sorrow which were coming - seems to me the
moment of my greatest happiness.
We spent three weeks in the Crimea, for ten days of which we had our
dear war-heroes with us. The Grand Duke was accompanied by his
faithful aide-de-camp and friend of twenty-one years' standing, General
Efimovitch, and by Dr. Obnissky. We made long excursions by
automobile. Yalta was usually the farthest point. we reached on these
drives, as my daughter Nathalie was down with influenza (in spite of its
being summer-time), and I was afraid to go too far away from Simeis.
A memory which proves that "telepathy" is no idle word dates from this
visit. We had left behind us in Paris, in 1914, many friends whom we
cherished and among them the Marquis de Breteuil. He had written to
me several times during the war. In February, 1916, I had had a letter
from him to which I had not had time to reply at once and which, I must
admit, I no longer had in mind. In the Crimea, one evening when
Nathalie was feeling worse and I was looking after her, I decided to
write some letters to keep off the drowsiness which was coming over
me. I experienced an over mastering sense that I must write to Henri de
Breteuil. I wrote to him about a thousand matters, giving him particulars
about the war, about the activities of the Grand Duke, about myself. . .
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. Three weeks later I received a black-edged letter. The Marquise de
Breteuil wrote to tell me of the death of her husband, and added that
my letter was dated the day and the hour of his death.

One morning I was walking in the park of Simeis, when, suddenly, a

woman threw herself at my feet and clasped her arms round my knees.
As soon as I had got over my first bewilderment, I drew her up and
questioned her as to the reason of this proceeding. She had a
lamentable tale to tell me. She belonged to a Jewish family and lived in
Turkestan. Her brother, a doctor at Tashkend, had a young and beautiful
wife whom he loved dearly, and a daughter of fourteen whom he
adored. Kurds had broken into his house, bound and gagged the two
young women and carried them away by force. Four months had passed
without news of the prisoners, but the active inquiries made by the
doctor had made him believe that the two were being kept with a view
to selling them into a harem in Turkey. I said what I could to console the
poor lady, promising to do all in my power. I wrote that same day to
Tsarskoe Selo to the Empress, who replied to me by telegram three days
later-on receipt, that is, of my letter-that she had given formal orders
to General Kuropatkin, Governor-General of Kurdistan, with regard to
the seeking out of the victims and the punishing of the guilty parties.
Some days later Kuropatkin sent me a long telegram promising me that
everything that was humanly possible should be done. The lady wrote
me in December that the search had become active and that they were
on the tracks of the two unfortunate women. She added that her family
would never forget this kindness. Since the melancholy events I have
had no news of her, and if I have mentioned this seemingly unimportant
incident, it is to prove once again that the persecution of the Jews by
order of the Government and of the Sovereigns was a pure legend.
Whenever there was occasion to protect the weak the Empress never
hesitated to intervene without regard for differences of religion or of
race.
During our stay in the Crimea we several times visited the palace of
Livadia, which the Emperor and Empress had had built in accordance
with their own ideas. The view of the sea was superb and the park was
planted with century-old trees, but the edifice was ugly. In the interior,
amid decorations of a bastard Moorish description, one saw English
furniture of the purest Maple and voluminous Louis XIV arm-chairs. An
immense dining-room, a veritable refectory, was decorated with heavy
and inartistic stucco work. A little Italian court-yard, which was paved in
black and white and which led to the chapel, was the one thing which
would have been attractive if it had not been out of place in this
amalgam of styles, periods, and colours.

Not far from this modern palace stood the old house in which the Grand
Duke had lived with his family and which was full of memories for him.
It was there that the Emperor Alexander III died on October
20th/November 2nd, 1894. The Grand Duke and I and our three children
made our way with intense emotion into the room in which this great
monarch met his death. The utmost simplicity prevailed in it. The arm-
chair in which Alexander III breathed his last remained where it had
stood and a little black cross inlaid in the parquetted flooring served to
perpetuate the memory. All was calm, great, noble, simple: the very
image of the Sovereign who, had he lived on, would have known how to
prevent the revolution and perhaps even the war. He was loved and
feared in the interior of the country-loved by the French whose greatest
friend and ally he had been and whom he had drawn out of their
prolonged isolation. He was feared by all countries and even by England,
a reflection which could not but be flattering for him and for the Russian
diplomacy of his time.
Vladimir and the girls amused themselves taking photographs of this
wonderful Taurida scenery, too little known, alas! by foreign visitors.
The weather was superb, real summer days and mild nights. Nowhere
have I seen a moon of such brilliant silver reflected in a sea of a blue so
deep. The sound of the waves was like a caress. Often of an evening we
left our sweet-scented, well-lit, comfortable rooms, in which bliss sat
enthroned, to admire the enchanting spectacle of the Crimea night.
Meanwhile time was passing swiftly, and. it became necessary to tear
ourselves away from these delicious surroundings. The Grand Duke. had
to return to Headquarters, where he had been given the post of
Inspector-General of the Guard, and we decided to stop and have a look
at the town of Mohileff before returning to Tsarskoe; but the chief
motive was to remain a few more days with my two beloved ones.
On the eve of the day fixed for our departure we received a telegram
from Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, inviting us to make a halt at
Kiev, which was on our way, and to lunch with her on November
14th/27th, the day of her anniversary. We were very well provided for in
the railway compartment placed at the disposal of the Grand Duke,
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which was the very last word in comfort. On arriving at Kiev we decided
not to leave the train to stay at the hotel. An automobile of the Court
was sent to meet us, the Grand Duke and me. The Empress Dowager
received us with that friendliness which is peculiar to her and that
charm which she had transmitted to her august son: there was nobody
with more charm of manner than Nicholas II. There were at least.
eighty. persons. having lunch with the Empress that day. The Empress
had the Grand Duke to her right and the Grand Duke Alexander
Michaelovitch to her left. I was to the right of the latter. My neighbour
invited us to lunch with him next day, "having," so he told me, "serious
matters to discuss." At the same table sat Princess Georges Radziwill
(Bichette), who had come from Bela-Tzerkow with some magnificent
fruit and flowers, to wish une bonne fete to Her Majesty. Next day the
Grand Duke and I and Vladimir availed ourselves of the invitation of the
Grand Duke Alexander, who was stationed at Kiev as Chief of Aviation.
He had quite a suite of persons attached to him and a General Staff (of
which Prince Michel Muret was a member). The lunch was very gay; but
afterwards the Grand Duke Alexander expressed the wish to be alone
with my husband and me. He then spoke at length, with the eloquence
of a man convinced, regarding the. immense danger which the
Monarchy, and in consequence the whole of Russia, was running. He
confided to us his grievances against the Emperor, above all against the
Empress. Rasputin, who at that moment (a month before his death) was
all-powerful, was in the eyes of the Grand Duke Alexander the initial
cause of all the misfortunes. The Grand Duke Alexander told us of the
reports which were current about the scandalous behaviour of the so-
called monk, and of how General Djounkovsky for having wished, in full
knowledge of what had been happening (Djounkovsky was head of the
Gensdarmerie), to open the eyes of the Sovereigns, had fallen into
disfavour. The appointment of Sturmer to replace Sazonoff, and under
Rasputin's protection, was even more calculated to perturb people. The
very name of Sturmer was odious, for he was of Germanic origin and
national Chauvinism was just then at its height. The Grand Duke Paul, to
whom the Grand Duke Alexander was saying nothing that he did not
know already, listened very attentively, and asked him for what purpose
he had entered upon this conversation. The Grand Duke Alexander
replied that the whole family counted upon him (Paul) as being the
Emperor's nearest and dearest relative and only surviving uncle."As soon
as you get to Petrograd," he went on, "you should see their Majesties
and speak to them' with all possible frankness and from your heart. My
brother Nicholas Michaelovitch will talk with you about this as soon as
you are back in town. You should call together a family council, with my
brothers and the Vladimirovitchi (the three sons of the deceased Grand
Duke Vladimir), for things will begin to happen suddenly very soon, and
will drag us all down into the abyss."The Grand Duke and I were
extremely disturbed by this conversation of which I have given but a
scanty resume. Without admitting it to ourselves, we had indeed felt for
a long time past that the danger was increasing every day. All the
terrible indications were coming now to confirm our fears. The war had
excited too many dissatisfied and unhappy people. There had been too
many losses, too many broken hearts and stricken homes. The cost of
living was increasing every day. In the army the best troops, the best
organised, the most faithful to the Emperor, had been decimated in
1914 in Eastern Prussia, in 1915 in the Carpathians, and in 1916 in
Volhynia. The new contingents were contaminated by the revolutionary
ideas which were being now fomented by the Party of the Cadets
(Constitutional Democrats). MM. Miliukoff, Kerensky, Gutchkoff, etc.,
lost no opportunity of sapping the foundations of the throne. Had not
Gutchkoff said: "It is better that Russia should lose the war, provided the
Monarchy shall have ceased to be . . ."? The supposed presence of
Rasputin at Court provided them with an excellent opportunity. There
were no horrors in the way of calumny that were not uttered at the
expense of our unfortunate Empress. She refused to believe that such
infamy was possible. In her eyes, and to the end, Rasputin was a saint, a
martyr, calumniated, persecuted, as were the. saints in the earliest
days of Christendom.
We left Kiev on November 16th/29th for Mohileff, where the Grand
Duke, with his suite, reinstalled himself in a house which he had rented
at the moment of his being appointed Chief of the Corps de la Garde. I
and my little daughters remained in the railway compartment which we
continued to use as a residence. We remained in it a week. The Empress
and her children had come to pay a visit to the Emperor. We were sent
word that on November 22nd (old style) the Emperor, the Empress, the
four Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevitch would come and drink tea with
us at four o'clock. Great excitement! Our excellent chef began at once
to prepare all kinds of sandwiches and cakes and petits fours, in which
he excelled, and I and Vladimir set to work to find nice out-of-the-way
sweets and fruits. An enormous table was laid, for we were to be a
numerous party. At the hour fixed, the whole Imperial family arrived.

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The Emperor was rather pale and seemed tired, the Empress looked
beautiful and smiling, with a great deal of colour in her face. The
Tsarevitch, with his refined and charming countenance, struck me by his
look of fragility. The thinness of his neck distracted me. One could have
taken it with two fingers. The four young Princesses, a little shy, placed
themselves at one end of the table with the Grand Duke Dimitri, son of
the Grand Duke Paul by his first marriage with the Princess Alexander of
Greece. As hostess, I was at the other end of the table, the cups and
samovar in front of me, with the Empress on my right and the Emperor
on my left. The Grand Duke sat on the other side of the Empress. The
afternoon passed gaily. The Empress wanted to know what I thought of
the Livadia Palace, and I found myself torn two ways between the wish
to be truthful and the fear of offending her. The Emperor came to my
rescue and said with a laugh:

"The Princess has at Tsarskoe the most beautiful house in

the world, a veritable museum. How can you ask her to
say what she thinks of our house, in which we have put
more or less anyhow the things we liked, and which has
no kind of style at all? "

Meanwhile the young people had retired to the drawing-room, and

Vladimir, the life and soul of the company as always, had set some
round games on foot. There was no feeling of constraint, no
awkwardness. We could hear them laughing and shouting, and the dear
little Tsarevitch seemed to be amusing himself enormously. His parents
had all the difficulty in the world to get him away towards seven o'clock.

I saw my beloved Sovereigns for the last time that day, for, later, I
caught a sight of them only from a distance through the railings of the
park in March, 1917, when they were prisoners of the abject Provisional
Government.

Could I imagine on this happy occasion that I would have not only to
suffer for the sacred person of the Emperor and for his family, and for
the principle trodden under foot by wretches, but that two years later I
would have my heart crushed by the most terrible of sorrows - the
sorrow of the wife who loves and of the mother from whom her adored
son is torn away to be subjected to a martyr's death?

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