Alexandra (54 page)

Mouchanow was questioned about the empress’s health and whether or not she had miscarried. Though Alix had tried to keep her pregnancy a secret, the press had speculated that she might
be expecting, and Queen Victoria, writing to Alix’s sister Victoria on June 1, 1896, noted that the papers were ‘hinting’ that another baby was on the way.
Advice to a
Granddaughter
, p. 136.

1
. Buxhoeveden, p. 79; Mouchanow, p. 55.

2
. Mouchanow, p. 55.

3
.
Ibid
., p. 69. ‘The sayings,’ Mouchanow wrote, ‘circulated freely in Petersburg.’

4
.
Ibid
., pp. 118–9.

5
.
Ibid
., pp. 118–9.

6
.
Ibid
., pp. 61–2.

7
.
Ibid
., p. 61.

8
.
Ibid
., p. 64; Poliakov, p. 123; Nina Epton,
Victoria and Her Daughters
(New York, 1971), pp.
210–1.

9
. Mouchanow, pp. 65–6.

10
.
Ibid
., pp. 65–6; Buxhoeveden, p. 75.

11
. Mouchanow, p. 91, wrote that the empress was worried about the sex of the child she was carrying ‘until at last
the thought of it had become quite an obsession’, doing harm to her nerves.

12
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 163.

1
. Alix’s increasing preoccupation with orderliness, her supervision of the household and her obsessive concern with
time management are described in Mouchanow, pp. 147, 150–1.

2
.
Ibid
., p. 29.

3
. According to Mouchanow, Alix possessed ‘one of the most remarkable collections of precious stones in Europe’,
and Bolin and Fabergé brought to Tsarskoe Selo every fine piece of jewellery they acquired, offering it to the emperor before allowing any of their other customers to see it. Mouchanow, p.
28.

4
.
Ibid
., p. 68.

5
.
Ibid
., p. 89.

6
.
Ibid
., p. 90.

7
.
Lifelong Passion
, pp. 173–4.

8
. Buxhoeveden, p. 84.

1
. Mouchanow, p. 85.

2
. Anastasia, or Stana, divorced Duke George and in May, 1907, married Nicholas Nicholaevich, or Nikolasha. Stana’s
second husband Nikolasha was 6
'
6
"
, gruff, and commanding. Militsa’s husband Peter, on the other hand, was diffident and of indifferent health, having suffered from
tuberculosis which led him to flee the damp and cold of Petersburg and spend years in Egypt seeking a cure.

3
. Alix wrote to her close friend Juju Rantzau, ‘I worry myself and cry for days on end.’ She was upset that
Nicky was not being well served or respected – in part because of the succession issue. As long as she had no son, the courtiers looked to Michael and accorded him the authority due to Nicky.
Anna Vyrubov,
Souvenirs de ma Vie
(Paris, 1927), p. 20. In published photographs of Alix taken in 1900–1 she looks sad, anxious, sorrowful or serious – never happy or
lighthearted.

4
. Buxhoeveden, p. 167.

5
.
Ibid
., p. 90.

6
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 204.

7
.
Ibid
., p. 204.

8
.
Ibid
., p. 206.

9
. Descriptions of Philippe Vachot, and of his proceedings when meeting with the devotees in Paris and in Russia are in
Lifelong Passion
, pp. 206–8, 219, and
Once a Grand Duke
, p. 181. Paris police reports include eyewitness notes on what was actually said at his gatherings.

10
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 207.

11
.
Ibid
., p. 219.

12
.
Ibid
., p. 208.

13
. Sandro,
Once a Grand Duke
, p. 181, wrote that the European newspapers reported that ‘an important event
in the family of the Czar of Russia’ was expected.

14
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 214. ‘So it is true and you are sure about yourself,’ Alix wrote, ‘so
now I must confess the same thing. I know by your looks you have been thinking it was so, but I on purpose did not tell
you, so as that when others asked, you can honestly
say that you did not know. Now it begins to be difficult to hide . . . My broad waist all winter must have struck you.’

1
. Early in August, 1902, Alix wrote to Nicky saying that Ella ‘assailed me about our Friend [Philippe]. I remained
very quiet and gave dull answers . . . I stuck to the story of the remedy.’
Lifelong Passion
, pp. 216–7.

2
.
Ibid
., pp. 217–8.

3
. Mouchanow, pp. 125–6.

4
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 217.

5
. Xenia wrote that she and Minnie ‘found her [Alix] in a very sad mood, although she talks about it [the false
pregnancy] with great acceptance’.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 217.

6
.
Ibid
., p. 219. Apparently the story of a miscarriage became the standard one in diplomatic circles. Maurice
Paléologue,
An Ambassador’s Memoirs
(New York, 1924–5), I, pp. 203–10.

7
. Buxhoeveden, p. 98.

8
.
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 117–8.

9
. Buxhoeveden, p. 93. Nicky recorded in his diary, ‘We have heard of many people being cured today and yesterday.
Another cure took place in the cathedral while the holy relics were being carried around the cathedral.’
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family
, p. 292.

10
. Felix Yusupov,
Lost Splendor
(New York, 1953), pp. 144–5. Yusupov related in detail another ceremony of
glorification of the relics, along with a procession of the sick and mad seeking cures.

11
.
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 117–8. While at Sarov, Olga witnessed a peasant woman carrying her entirely
paralyzed little daughter into the river. Later the girl walked in the meadow, and doctors who were present certified that the child had indeed been paralyzed, and that her paralysis had
disappeared. Ella wrote that while at Sarov ‘we had the blessing of seeing a little dumb girl speak’. Buxhoeveden, p. 93. Whether through mass hypnosis or by some other psychological
means, the thousands who came to Sarov, including the imperial family, were convinced beyond any doubt that miraculous cures were being effected.

12
.
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family,
p. 292.

1
. Buxhoeveden, pp. 102–3.

2
. Mouchanow, pp. 101, 152–4;
Lifelong Passion
, pp. 232, 238. Olga noted in her autobiography that Alix was
hardly ever in good health at this time.
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 96.

3
. Mouchanow, p. 101.

4
. Buxhoeveden, pp. 102–3.

5
. Mouchanow, pp. 160–1.

6
.
Ibid
., pp. 154–5.

7
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 245.

8
. ‘Alix and I were very alarmed by the bleeding of young Alexei that came at intervals from his umbilical cord until
evening,’ Nicky wrote in his diary. ‘How painful it is to experience such anxieties!’ Cited in
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family
, p. 237.

9
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 249.

1
. This account of the Epiphany assassination attempt is based on
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 113–4. Sophie
Buxhoeveden was present in the palace on the day of the attack. Buxhoeveden, p. 113.

2
. Salisbury, pp. 119–20.

3
. Iroshnikov, p. 158.

4
. Official government figures listed 96 dead, 333 wounded, but journalists who were present put the number much higher, at
over 4000 injured. Newspaper reports published in foreign capitals inflated the numbers still further. Salisbury, p. 125 note, summarizes the various estimates.

5
. Alix’s letter is in Buxhoeveden, pp. 108–10.

1
. Alix’s unescorted carriage rides are described in Buxhoeveden, pp. 115ff.

2
.
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 123.

3
. Buxhoeveden, pp. 105, 164, 218.

4
.
Education of a Princess
, p. 61. Nearly all the contemporary memoirists note the strain caused by the
empress’s having to conceal Alexei’s illness from even her closest personal servants.

5
. Mouchanow, p. 48. According to Mouchanow, the empress was careless with the rings, throwing them down anywhere; she did
the
same thing when writing letters, tossing finished sheets carelessly in a heap on a desk as she wrote them, and later on sorting them by recipient, sometimes mixing
them up so that they were sent to the wrong person.

6
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 278.

1
.
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 134.

2
.
Ibid
., p. 134.

3
. Buxhoeveden, p. 136.

4
. This account of Father Gregory’s private apartment is drawn from Poliakov, pp. 161–4, which gives much
colourful detail.

5
. Olga was in ‘no doubt’ that Father Gregory possessed the healing gift. ‘I saw those miraculous effects
with my own eyes,’ she wrote, ‘and that more than once. I also know that the most prominent doctors of the day had to admit it. Professor Fedorov, who stood at the very peak of the
profession, and whose patient Alexei was, told me so on more than one occasion; all the doctors disliked Rasputin intensely.’
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 138–9.

Poliakov, pp. 171–2, cites another instance of Rasputin’s healing gift. One Madame Djanumov had a niece near death from scarlet fever complicated by pneumonia. The doctors had
said she was beyond hope, but the aunt sought Rasputin. According to Madame Djanumov’s own account, Rasputin took the girl’s hand, ‘his face became different; it was like that
of a dead man – yellow, waxlike and immobile: terrible. The eyeballs rolled upwards so that only the whites were to be seen.’ He said, ‘She shall not die, she shall not die .
. . ’ That evening the girl’s fever broke and she began her recovery. It may have been a coincidence, but Rasputin’s contemporaries observed too many such
‘coincidences’ over too many years to remain sceptical.

6
. Nicky’s sister Olga attested to Rasputin’s sparse number of personal possessions, and the rented or loaned
furniture.
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 133. Whether he sent money home to Siberia at this period is unknown.

7
. Yusupov, pp. 131–2. Like Rasputin, Father John was sought out by hundreds of would-be clients. And, like Rasputin,
he was said to have a particularly ‘penetrating gaze’.

8
.
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 135–9, describes Alexei’s grave attack.

9
.
Ibid
., pp. 135–9. The remarkable swiftness with which Alexei’s attacks
were
brought to an end by Rasputin’s influence was something witnessed many times by family members, not just in this instance in 1907.

10
. Buxhoeveden, p. 144.

11
. Victoria visited Alix in the summer of 1906 for two weeks.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 296. Irene too came to visit
from time to time. During Irene’s visits Alix must have discussed with her Alexei’s condition, but whether she drew hope from the fact that Irene’s surviving haemophiliac son was
continuing to thrive is unknown.

12
. An increase in apocalyptic literature was evident throughout Europe in the early years of the twentieth century, but
was at its peak in Russia. Educated Russians saw omens of world destruction everywhere. James Billington,
The Icon and the Axe
(New York, 1966), p. 514. On the electrifying discovery of
the woolly mammoth, which was the talk of Petersburg in 1905–6, see von Almedingen,
I Remember
, pp. 154–5.

13
. Buxhoeveden, p. 190.

14
. It was a measure of Nicky’s increasingly weak position – and of the severity of Alexei’s illness
– that in July 1907 Cyril’s marriage was officially recognized, restoring his succession rights. In November of 1908, following the death of Vladimir’s brother Alexis, Cyril was
permitted to return to Russia to attend the late grand duke’s funeral.

Cyril’s choice of Ducky had put his claims at risk on several grounds. The Orthodox church forbade marriage between first cousins (though Nicky’s cousin Sandro and
his sister Xenia had married despite this prohibition), as a divorcée Ducky was ineligible to marry any member of the imperial family, and finally, she was not a baptized member of the
Orthodox church.

15
. This account of the
Standart
accident comes from Buxhoeveden, p. 114. Princess Obolensky, an eyewitness, told
the story to Buxhoeveden in great detail. Alix, the princess said, was ‘always resourceful and full of energy’. Some years earlier Alix had described herself, when accompanying Nicky on
one of his autumn hunting trips, as ‘game to the end’, though limping on her sore leg as she did her best to keep up with his swift stride.

16
. Mossolov, pp. 173–4.

1
. Buxhoeveden, p. 161. ‘She always felt in a hurry.’

2
. Mouchanow, pp. 85–6. Alix’s habit of always having some piece of ‘fancy
work’ – embroidery, tatting, needlepoint – in her hand was, according to Buxhoeveden, a habit acquired in childhood under Queen Victoria’s influence.
Buxhoeveden, p. 161.

3
. Buxhoeveden, p. 126.

4
. Nicky told KR that Alix was ‘very unwilling to receive, and is fearful of people, especially in crowds’.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 318.

5
. Mouchanow, p. 143.

6
. Alix’s comments on illness and depression were in a letter of October, 1909, but apply to her long illness in 1908
as well.
Lifelong Passion
, pp. 322–3.

7
. Count Kokovtsov,
Out of My Past
(London and Stanford, California, 1935), p. 449. Countess Hendrikov, Alix’s
lady-in-waiting, talked to Kokovtsov about her mistress’s ‘almost mystic moods’. Alix’s favourite subject for discussion with her daughters, the countess said, was the
efficacy of prayer and mankind’s ongoing relationship to the divine. ‘The Empress believed that one’s whole life should be based upon complete faith in the Almighty and obedience
to His will,’ the countess recalled her saying. ‘Nothing was impossible for God, she believed. He would hearken to every prayer of the pure in heart; faith in Him would overcome all
obstacles.’ Miracles, she said, were to be accepted ‘with meekness and humility’.

8
. Buxhoeveden, p. 126.

9
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 320.

10
. Mouchanow noted that the ‘extreme delicacy of the children was a source of perpetual anxiety to the
tsarina’.

11
.
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 100.

12
. Buxhoeveden, pp. 157–8.

13
.
Last Grand Duchess
, pp. 102–3. Nicky’s sister Olga kept until the end of her life keepsakes that
had belonged to Anastasia: a tiny silver pencil on a thin silver chain, a small scent bottle and a hatpin surrounded by a large amethyst. Olga developed so pronounced a habit of charitable
generosity that when she inherited her full fortune at age twenty, her first act was to ask Alix to allow her to pay the costs of a sanatorium stay for a disabled child whose parents could not
afford treatment. Buxhoeveden, p. 159.

14
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 330.

15
. Buxhoeveden, p. 166.

16
.
Ibid
., p. 156;
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 105.

17
.
Lifelong Passion
, p. 320.

18
.
Ibid
., p. 314.

19
.
Ibid
., p. 320.

20
.
Ibid
., p. 331.

21
.
Education of a Princess
, pp. 279–80.

22
. Buxhoeveden, p. 144.

23
. Olga in
Last Grand Duchess
, p. 129, called Father Gregory a chameleon. It is impossible to reconstruct the
true nature of the elusive Rasputin, for nearly all the surviving written records about him either come from hostile sources or attempt to exculpate him. According to Olga, ‘most of what was
written about him by contemporaries was hearsay’, gossip from grand ducal courts and drawing-room chatter. The French ambassador Maurice Paléologue’s recorded views of Father
Gregory merely repeated the stories Paléologue heard at Aunt Miechen’s dinner parties.