Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (49 page)

Although Mathilde and Andrei were not allowed to visit, it was permitted to hand parcels into the guardroom for delivery to the prisoners. On 30 June they went to Compiégne in a friend’s car to take the items Vova had requested. The guard promised to give them to Vova on his birthday the following day. Mathilde then sent parcels nearly every week.

From 1 August meetings were permitted. Vova seemed cheerful and told Mathilde not to worry, reiterating that they were being well treated. Nevertheless, Mathilde later told Felia that she ‘suffered terribly’ with anxiety while he was in prison.
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Several hundred prisoners were freed but Vova was never among them. Mathilde and Andrei were afraid that he would be taken to Germany as a
hostage. The Germans feared that the Russian
émigrés
would join the Resistance. Some of them, of course, had already done so. A census of all Russian nationals was ordered and their bank accounts were blocked. Andrei’s physician Dr Zalewski became a patriot. Meanwhile Vova remained in prison.

By now Mathilde and Julie had lost contact with Joseph. As Hitler’s armies swept across Russia determined to destroy Leningrad, Joseph refused to leave the city that he loved. In one of his last letters he said that on 18 February 1938 he had celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of his work in the ballet, and wrote proudly about a celebration which would take place in the Philharmonia (the former Assembly Hall of the Nobility) in January 1939. In the last letter preserved, Joseph asked for material to have a spring coat made for Celina and thanked Julie for her ‘pleasant and kind attitude’ to his forthcoming marriage to Marie-Antoinette. The couple had been persuaded to marry by their respective children. The last communication they received from Joseph was at the beginning of 1940.
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After that there was only silence.

In September 1941 the Siege of Leningrad began. For almost three years the people of Leningrad were besieged and starving, sheltering from the German bombardment in the cellars of palaces and churches built by the Tsars. Mathilde had no way of obtaining news of her brother and did not know if he was alive or dead.

They were still trying to secure Vova’s release, meanwhile living in fear of their own arrest. The camp commandant often let them have a private meeting with Vova in his office. In gratitude Mathilde and Andrei presented him with a silver flask.

Suddenly, at 9.50 p.m. on 20 October the telephone rang. Vova was at the Gare du Nord. Mathilde and Andrei rushed to the nearby Metro station to go and meet him. Vova later told his cousin that he was ‘proud’ to have been arrested when the Russo-German war began – but even he could not understand why he was later released by the Germans.
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He was freed after 119 days in prison. By a strange coincidence, which the superstitious Mathilde did not fail to note, his number in the camp had been 119.

The war years were hard. During the winter of 1941 ration cards appeared but the 1,400 calories a day entitlement was insufficient for most adults. Mathilde’s weight dropped to 40 kilograms (6 stone 4 pounds). ‘Coal, fats, oil and soap were in very short supply’ and prices
rose sharply. Soon a black market emerged.
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Besides the constant fear of arrest and the worry for the safety of friends, it was becoming difficult to heat the studio and during the winter of 1942–3 there was no heating in there at all. Mathilde suffered from constant pain in the joints of her right leg caused by arthritis but she had to keep going if they were to survive.

The news was depressing. The German army was victorious on all fronts and hostage lists began to appear in the Paris streets. By a roundabout route they learnt of the death of Grand Duke Dimitri on 5 March 1942 in a sanatorium in Davos. He and Audrey had divorced in 1937 and she had taken little Paul to America. Dimitri’s health, which had never been strong, declined while Europe was in the grip of war and despite several operations he died of tuberculosis at the age of fifty. Also that year, on 22 August, Michael Fokine died in America.

In 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and America entered the war. Mathilde had no news of Felia, Pierre and the numerous other friends who had emigrated to the United States.

In the summer of 1943 Mathilde heard that Vera Trefilova was ill in a Paris hospital. Despite pain from her leg Mathilde climbed several flights of stairs to bring flowers to Vera, who had continued to give classes even when her temperature soared. On 7 July Mathilde left for Dax, where she hoped to cure her leg. Vera died three days later and Mathilde asked Serge Lifar to represent her at the funeral.

A more severe loss came with the death of Grand Duke Boris. At the end of 1942 he and Zina had moved from their house at Meudon to the rue de la Faisanderie in Paris. In November 1943 a telephone call from Zina alerted Mathilde and Andrei to his critical state but by the time they arrived it was too late. The Grand Duke, the one ‘more likely to be shot by a husband than an assassin’,
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had died quietly in his bed.

There was a large turn-out for the funeral service at the Russian Church, where his body was placed in the crypt in the hope of transferring it to Contrexéville later for burial beside his mother. ‘It’s my turn now,’ Andrei remarked sadly.
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Early in 1944 Vova underwent a major operation in a nursing home in Neuilly. This was another worry, as it was difficult to visit him. Luckily the surgery was successful and after a month Vova was allowed home.

Electric heating was installed in the studio but it was expensive. Both gas and electricity were in short supply and there were fines for people using too much, but for Mathilde it was a necessity. ‘Of course
the electric heating cannot heat a big studio,’ she explained, ‘and we had to work at only 2 degrees C when our hands and feet were freezing.’
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As they struggled through another bitter winter in Paris, events in Europe were coming to a head. On 27 January 1944 the Siege of Leningrad was finally lifted after 900 days. One and a half million people, more than half the population of the city, had perished. As the broken German army retreated they blew up the palaces. Peterhof, Pavlovsk, the large Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, all were reduced to ruins. The family’s feelings were summed up by Grand Duchess Xenia:

It hurts to think that nothing has been spared by the enemy (
beasts
) & all those beautiful palaces & lovely parks exist no longer – & everything is now a mass of ruins! Gatchina Palace has also been burnt down & as to Peterhof – nothing is left of it by the continual bombardment of both sides. Pavlovsk, which belonged to the Constantine family, was a real gem.
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Miraculously, Mathilde’s mansion had survived without major damage.

Mathilde was still working every day but by spring 1944 she had to limp to the studio as many of the Metro stations were closed. She found the evening walk back along dark streets terrifying. Prices had risen so much that, although Mme Georges managed to obtain everything, all Mathilde’s earnings were spent on food. The cost of lessons rose but she had fewer pupils and consequently earned less than before.

On 3 June Rome was liberated and three days later the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches. The Germans were now retreating on both fronts and, harassed by the Resistance, began the arrest and execution of hostages. Mathilde lived in continual fear that Vova would be re-arrested and shot. Air raids became more frequent as the Allied advance continued. The sirens wailed almost continuously, the area around Villa Molitor was subject to constant bombardment and many of the properties in the neighbourhood had broken windows. ‘Our district was terrible,’ Mathilde told Felia Doubrovska,

everything was flying above us and the bombs were exploding everywhere. Nights, there were horrifying nights! Our Villa Molitor miraculously was not touched, God helped us. But one bomb fell next to the right gate and it seemed that our villa … was falling apart. If the war had gone on we would not have had enough strength.
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On 11 August the wireless announced that the Allies were approaching Paris. For several days the people lived in continuous anxiety, wondering whether the Germans would blow up buildings and monuments as had been rumoured, fight, or withdraw. By 17 August the Germans were evacuating their offices, taking everything with them as they went. Normal life was now suspended. Banks and post offices were closed. Streets were deserted. Rioting was answered by summary executions. The whole of 24 August was spent waiting for the Allies to arrive.

When the announcement finally came at 10 o’clock that evening the people went wild. Church bells pealed, the ‘Marseillaise’ blared out from a gramophone and jubilant crowds thronged the streets. On 25 August the German Commander of Paris surrendered. Mathilde, Andrei and Vova went to the nearby rue Michel-Ange to watch General Leclerc’s tanks pass through. Girls threw flowers and offered champagne to the soldiers. Despite all the celebrations occasional shots were fired from the rooftops, either from German soldiers or German sympathisers. The tanks fired back and there were several casualties.

General de Gaulle made a triumphant entry into Paris on 26 August, followed three days later by the American army. Although the war in Europe continued, Paris at last was liberated.

Soon after the liberation, letters and parcels began to pour in from anxious friends. Andrei sent a note to Diana Gould to tell her everyone was well,
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Mathilde resumed classes despite more problems with arthritis in her leg and the studio was soon full.

In December 1944 Diana arrived in Paris. The small company in which she was dancing was performing at the Théâtre Marigny. Unable to find Mathilde at the studio she drove to Villa Molitor. Mathilde and Andrei were out but Diana left two pounds each of coffee and marmalade, soap, Lux washing powder, chocolates and 100 cigarettes with Ludmilla. Later Andrei called at Diana’s hotel to thank her personally and accept an invitation for them to lunch with her the following week.
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There was also a letter from Slava. The family home at Queen’s Gate had been bombed in 1941 but luckily no one was in. Mathilde still had no news of Joseph and it was difficult for her and Julie to write because they had no wish to make life more difficult for their brother. Vova asked Slava if he had any news. ‘P.S. butter would be a great joy for us,’ he added. Slava adored Mathilde but never forgave her and Andrei for not taking French citizenship.
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Not until the 1950s did Mathilde learn that Joseph and Marie-Antoinette had died in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad. They were buried in a mass grave with other victims in the Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery.

In the winter of 1944/5 Mathilde and Andrei suffered once more from the cold weather. Electricity was now turned off during the day and their house was freezing. In the studio Mathilde continued to work in temperatures of only two degrees.
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On 27 February Margot Fonteyn and Pamela May arrived at the studio with Ninette de Valois and the Sadler’s Wells ballet company in an enormous army lorry all decorated with flowers. Mathilde had lunch with them in a British military club in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. They were in Paris as part of ENSA, the entertainment section of the army. Mathilde and Andrei attended most of their performances at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and were very impressed with what had become a first-class company.
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Several welcome food parcels arrived from Felia Doubrovska in New York, sent via a company called Mimosa Food Products. For these they were always very grateful, as many items were simply unobtainable or could be bought only at extortionate prices on the black market. ‘The Cocoa we drank with great pleasure but the biggest success was with the tinned chicken. That was amazingly tasty,’ Andrei told Felia gratefully. Often these packages arrived with various items missing. ‘There was nothing missing from the first parcel,’ he added.
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Everything was up to ten times dearer than before the war. Mathilde and Andrei were reduced to wearing shabby old clothes because they could not afford to buy anything new. Mathilde was ‘spending masses of energy but the results are small’, Andrei told Felia. They had no idea how they had managed to live through the war years, with all the horrors and worries. ‘Very often we regret not moving with you,’ Andrei continued, ‘we would not have experienced this terrible need and would have lived well and tranquil.’
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Mathilde was still working in the studio, ‘but there are less girl students … so the income is much smaller. … All this makes life more difficult and creates hard conditions’, Andrei lamented. ‘Now there is spring outside and the war is close to an end. Everybody is taking heart.’
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In early May the Russians captured Berlin and linked up with the Allies. These were dangerous times. The search was on for German collaborators. Serge Lifar was denounced for keeping the Opéra open
and supplying entertainment for the Germans. He was later cleared and reinstated as Director of the Opéra, becoming the leading, and most controversial, figure in ballet in Paris.

Nevertheless, the
émigrés
celebrated Easter in high spirits. On 8 May 1945 Germany surrendered. For Mathilde, ‘the nightmare was over’.
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