Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (20 page)

On 13 December Isadora Duncan performed in St Petersburg’s Salle des Nobles. The following day Isadora received a visit from Mathilde, ‘a charming little lady, wrapped in sables, with diamonds hanging from her ears, and her neck encircled with pearls’, who invited her to a gala performance at the Maryinsky Theatre. That evening Isadora, still dressed in her white tunic and sandals, stepped into Mathilde’s carriage ‘warmed and filled with expensive furs’. She was conducted to the ballerina’s first-tier box ‘containing flowers, bon-bons, and three
beautiful specimens of the
jeunesse dorée
of St Petersburg’. Isadora admitted to being an ‘enemy’ of the ‘false and preposterous’ art of ballet, but she found it impossible not to applaud Mathilde, ‘as she flitted across the stage, more like a lovely bird or butterfly than a human being’. Afterwards Mathilde invited her guest to a supper party, where one of the Grand Dukes ‘listened with some astonishment as I discoursed on the plan of a school of dancing for the children of the people’.
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Around this time Mathilde formed the idea of taking the Imperial ballet to Europe with herself at the head, to give a series of performances in Paris and other major cities in aid of the Russian fleet. The idea was supported by Sergei, who asked Baron Frederiks to persuade the Tsar to give the plan his consent. For some two months the matter was discussed and Sergei reached agreement with one of the Paris theatres. Then the proposal came to the ears of the Empress. The journey did not take place.

At the turn of the year a concert was planned in the Army and Navy Assembly Hall followed by a ball. Mathilde was to join the ballerinas selling programmes, champagne and flowers. This was an attempt to stir patriotism and support for the army, and also the Russian fleet blockaded at Port Arthur by the Japanese. The attempt failed. Soon afterwards the Russian naval base at Port Arthur surrendered.

The surrender of Port Arthur, with the loss of 28,000 men, sparked protests over the government’s management of the war. The army’s morale was shattered by a series of defeats, while the people, who did not understand why they were fighting anyway, began to agitate for a say in the running of the country. Unrest spread.

On 6 January the Imperial family attended the ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters, during which the Metropolitan blessed the River Neva with a cross dipped through a hole in the frozen surface. As a salute was fired from the SS Peter and Paul Fortress some of the windows of the Winter Palace shattered and it was believed that terrorists had planted a live shell among the blank rounds. In the confusion it took some minutes to ascertain that the Tsar was unhurt. The Court was thrown into panic.

A strike at the Putilov metalworks then spread. ‘The workers’ strike deprived me of electricity. A loud crowd passed through Gallernaya Street,’ Andrei noted in his diary
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as nearly 150,000 dissatisfied workers roamed the capital’s streets.

On Sunday 9 January, soldiers stood on guard outside Andrei’s palace as Father George Gapon, a 32-year-old priest, led a peaceful
march to the Winter Palace. He proposed to present a petition to the Tsar stating their demands for a minimum wage and a ten-hour day. As wave after wave of people swept along, carrying icons and portraits of the Tsar, the authorities panicked. As the crowd neared the palace, troops barred their way. Still they pressed on, unaware that the Emperor was not even in the capital. Suddenly the soldiers opened fire straight into the crowd. Men, women and children fell to the ground, their blood staining the snow. Thousands were killed or wounded on a day that went down in history as ‘Bloody Sunday’. To his people the Tsar was no longer their ‘Little Father’. He now became ‘Nicholas the Bloody’.
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That evening, Mathilde and her parents attended Olga Preobrajenska’s benefit performance at the Maryinsky. Although all the tickets had been sold in advance few ventured out and the theatre was only half full. A mood of unease reigned. Rumours spread that the mob had already disrupted the performance at the Alexandrinsky Theatre and was now heading for the Maryinsky. Most of the audience left before the performance ended.

Mathilde was anxious to take her elderly parents home quickly. She was even more concerned because Felix, now in his eighties, had met with an accident the previous year when a trapdoor opened under him during a rehearsal. His normally robust health had suffered as a result. As they left the Maryinsky the atmosphere was unsettling. Military patrols roamed the streets. Mathilde had accepted an invitation to a large supper party at Vera Trefilova’s apartment and, although she described driving through the capital that evening as terrifying, was determined to attend. She was nevertheless relieved to return home safely later that night.

For several days afterwards many of the theatres remained closed. Mathilde continued to perform at the Maryinsky and was designated an Honoured Artist of the Imperial Theatres on 26 January.

By the end of January nearly half a million workers were on strike and the city was placed under martial law. At dinner in the Imperial Yacht Club Grand Dukes Sergei and Nicholas Michaelovich, together with Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter Nicolaievich, ‘dreadfully frightened at the approaching revolution’, were ‘throwing off all pride and reconciling themselves to the end’, wrote Count Alexei Bobrinsky.
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In February the Russian army was routed at Mukden with the loss of 90,000 men and in Moscow Andrei’s uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was assassinated by a terrorist’s bomb as he left the Kremlin. Few of the Imperial family attended his funeral, as the police
could not guarantee their safety. Mathilde said nothing about all this in her memoirs – the triumphal performances go on as usual – but in the atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty she must have feared for the lives of the Tsar, Andrei and the other Grand Dukes.

In May the Russian Baltic fleet was almost annihilated in the Straits of Tsushima in less than forty-five minutes. This defeat sparked off mutinies in the remaining ships of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. All over the country strikes and riots erupted, as bands of peasants looted and burned the manor houses.

By this time the Social Democrats (or Russian Marxists) had split into two groups – the Mensheviks (minorityites), and the Bolsheviks (majorityites). The leader of the Bolsheviks was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, more commonly known as Lenin. From their places of exile abroad the Bolsheviks began to stoke the fires of revolution.

On 3 July 1905, while the country was still in a state of unrest, Mathilde’s 83-year-old father died at Krasnitzy. Felix had refused to follow the doctor’s advice and although he recovered quickly after the accident, his health had been affected. His death broke the first link with Mathilde’s childhood and it was all the harder because she was unable to fulfil her father’s last wish.

Felix had asked to be buried in the Kschessinsky family vault in Warsaw, and he requested that his mother’s body be moved from the Catholic cemetery in the Vyborg quarter of St Petersburg and buried with him. Although Mathilde obtained permission to move her grandmother’s remains, the situation in Russia was still too volatile to take the bodies to Warsaw. Her father’s coffin was therefore temporarily moved to the Catholic Church of St Stanislas.

The Krasnitzy estate was now sold to Prince Henry of Wittgenstein. Among Felix’s possessions was a long list of his partners from the nineteenth century until 1900, written in his own hand. The list ended with one name, proudly underlined:
Mathilde Kschessinska
.
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After the disaster of Tsushima the Tsar was forced to sue for peace. Although there was no disarmament, no indemnity and Russia ceded only a small amount of territory the strikes and disturbances continued as Russians blamed the Tsar for the humiliating defeats.

Finally the situation became calm enough for Mathilde to carry out her father’s last wish. ‘Warsaw had not forgotten my father and gave him a magnificent funeral,’ Mathilde recalled.
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The road from the
station to the Powonsky Cemetery ran through the outskirts of the town but nothing disturbed the order of the procession. Mathilde had built a glazed chapel with a bronze door by Ivan Khlebnikov over the family crypt where her grandfather Jan Kschessinsky was already buried. In this crypt they now buried Felix and his mother.

During the autumn Mathilde took Vova to meet Andrei in Cannes. His family had also recently suffered a heavy blow.

For some years Cyril had been in love with their cousin Victoria Melita, who had married the Empress’s brother in 1894. The marriage foundered and in 1901 she left her husband and daughter for Cyril. A divorce followed. Marriage between first cousins was forbidden by the Orthodox Church and the Tsar refused to give permission. The couple bided their time, but the birth of Tsarevich Alexei pushed Cyril one place further from the throne and they decided to defy the Tsar.

On 25 September/8 October Cyril and Victoria Melita were married in Germany. When Cyril returned to Russia and announced the marriage Nicholas deprived him of his army rank, title, privileges and income and ordered him to leave the country within forty-eight hours. Grand Duke Vladimir was so furious at this that he promptly resigned all his posts. Although Nicholas relented and restored Cyril’s title, only in 1907 did he recognise the marriage and grant Cyril’s wife the title of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. The couple remained in exile until 1909, when Cyril’s income and privileges were restored.

Andrei was still reeling from the shock when he arrived in Cannes, where Mathilde had booked into the Hotel du Parc with her maid, Vova, and his nurse. The season was over, the hotel completely empty and once Vova had been put to bed the silence became unbearable. On the first evening as she sat in her panelled dining-room, Mathilde thought she could see her father’s face in the wood panelling. She felt it was a bad omen and asked for another suite.

Later they were joined by the dancer Misha Alexandrov, the illegitimate son of Prince Vladimir Dolgorukov (brother of Alexander II’s morganatic wife Princess Yourievsky). Mathilde thought Misha a delightful companion. He was said to introduce rich members of St Petersburg society to female members of the ballet company. The girls were later seen wearing expensive jewels. According to Mathilde, Misha Alexandrov was acting as a pimp.
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Mathilde’s fears about an omen now proved all too correct. She soon received bad news from home. By October St Petersburg was paralysed by a general strike which even spread to the artists of the Maryinsky
Theatre. ‘One of the most active revolutionaries’ among the Maryinsky company
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was Joseph Kschessinsky.

Twelve delegates were chosen to hand a petition to the authorities and frequent political meetings were held, but most of the dancers refused to strike and the revolt was abortive. The attempted strike was classed as a breach of discipline and all who wished to remain loyal had to sign a declaration to that effect. The majority signed and the delegates were left in the lurch. Sergei Legat was so upset at being pressurised to sign and betray his friends that he cut his throat with a razor. This news had a shattering effect on all the dancers.

At this point, on 17 October 1905, Nicholas II was forced to grant the country a constitution. This gave Russians freedom of speech, assembly and association and established an elected parliament, the Duma, although the Tsar retained the right to appoint and dismiss ministers. It included an amnesty for all strikers.

During a meeting of the abstainers it became apparent that a dancer, Alexander Monakhov, had acted as a blackleg. Pavlova denounced him and Joseph slapped his face. Monakhov complained to Teliakovsky and Joseph was suspended. Teliakovsky accused the twelve delegates of deliberately defying authority and Joseph was dismissed for ‘imprudent actions as a rebel’.
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Mathilde later wrote that Kroupensky, Assistant Director of the Maryinsky, dismissed Joseph ‘for whom he had formed a hatred’, but it was for his revolutionary activities that her brother was dismissed.
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Sergei Michaelovich fought for Joseph’s pardon. There was an investigation but when Sergei spoke to Baron Frederiks he had not been informed of the result. ‘Yesterday I was talking to Frederiks and he told me that they received some information that the larger part of the group is on Kroupensky’s side and that Pavlova is to blame for the situation with Iouzia [Joseph]. He cannot even think about returning Iouzia to the post,’ Sergei told Mathilde. ‘None of my arguments were good for him. It looks like Teliakovsky persuaded him.’ Frederiks insisted these were just rumours and they had to wait for the result of the enquiry but ‘after this, in case of failure, Iouzia will have to make an application to a higher authority’.
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Joseph’s marriage had also collapsed. Sima had become a
coryphée
with the Imperial Ballet in 1903, performing character parts, but she was frequently ill or absent. Around that time she and Joseph were divorced and two years later Sima married Constantine Greaves, a Russian of British descent and a chamberlain at the Tsar’s court. He
was a high official in the Russian Red Cross and although she was completely undomesticated Sima left the stage to work near him, helping to organise hospitals. She was decorated after being wounded while working near the front.

Although Bronislava Nijinska said that thanks to his sister’s friends at court Joseph did not lose his pension, for the moment he was out of the Maryinsky.