The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) (76 page)

42
The Times
, 7 March 1913.

43 ‘Imperial Russia’,
Illustrated London News
, Supplement, July 1913, pp. xviii , xxi; Radzinsky,
Last Tsar
, pp.
xxi, 109.

44 ‘The Romanoff Celebrations’,
The Times
, 6 March 1913.

45 Wortman,
Scenarios of Power
, p. 383.

46 Quoted in ibid., p. 386; see also
The Times
, 7 March 1913.

47 Vassili,
Taint
, p. 404.

48 Gavriil Konstantinovich,
Marble Palace
, p. 165; Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, p. 35.

49 Wortman,
Scenarios of Power
, p. 384.

50 Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, pp. 34–5.

51 See Wortman,
Scenarios of Power,
p. 388.

52 For the dresses, see @: http://www.nicholasandalexandra.com/

dresso&t.html

53 Lidiya Leonidovna Vasilchikova,
Ischeznuvshaya Rossiya:

Vospominaniya . . . 1886–1919
(St Petersburg: Petersurgskie sezony, 1995), p. 267.

414

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NOTES

54 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 99.

55 Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, p. 36.

56 Ibid., pp. 36–7; see also Hall,
Little Mother
, pp. 244–5.

57
DON
, p. 23.

Chapter 12
: Lord, Send Happiness to Him, My Beloved One

1 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, p. 175.

2 See Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, pp. 36–7; Konstantinovich,
Marble Palace
, p. 165.

3
DON
,
p. 24.

4 Buchanan,
Queen Victoria’s Relations
, p. 211.

5 See Harris, ‘Succession Prospects’, pp. 74–5; Crawford,
Michael and
Natasha
, p. 134.

6 Meriel Buchanan diary, January 1913, BuB 6, MB Archive,

Nottingham University, f. 41.

7 Ibid., 19 February 1913, f. 45.

8
DON
,
p. 19.

9 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, p. 286. Nicholas was clearly aware of Tatiana’s fondness for Nikolay Rodionov, but chose not to harm his career by

transferring him from the
Shtandart
. See Vyrubova,
Keisarinnan
Hovineiti
, p. 226, and web site accessible @: http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=7272.0

10
Correspondence
, Alexandra’s letters to Onor, 18 March 1913, p. 362:

‘Tatiana is still in bed, but she will move to a sofa tomorrow. She

is always cheerful and looks well with her short hair’; and 27

December 1913, p. 367L, ‘Tatiana’s hair has grown nice and thick,

which means she no longer needs to wear a wig’.

11 Rasputin,
Real Rasputin
, pp. 100–1.

12 See
DON
,
pp. 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 18 and 21.

13 Ofrosimova, ‘Tsarskaya semya’
,
p. 138.

14 See Spiridovich,
Les Dernières années
,
pp.
234–5; ‘Imperial Russia: Her Power and Progress’, Supplement to the
Illustrated London

News
, 19 July 1913.

15 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, pp. 297–8.

16 For the ceremonies at Kostroma, see Wortman,
Scenarios of Power
, pp. 391–3.

17 Naryshkin-Kurakin
, Under Three Tsars
, p. 206.

18
DON
, p. 61.

19 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, pp. 296–7.

415

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NOTES

20
DON
, p. 63.

21 Prince Wilhelm,
Episoder
(Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söners Förlag, 1951), pp. 144–5 (translation courtesy of Trond Norén

Isaksen).

22 Heresch,
Blood on the Snow
, p. 41.

23 Sergeant Alexander Bulgakov, quoted in ibid., p. 42.

24
DON
, p. 64.

25 Ibid., p. 70.

26 See Rowley, ‘Monarchy and the Mundane’, pp. 138–9.

27 Elchanninov,
Tsar
,
pp. 58–9. For a discussion of the Romanov public image during the Tercentary, see Slater,
Many Deaths
, ch. 7,

‘Family Portraits’. A two-shilling English paperback edition of the

book was also published.

28 Buchanan,
Queen Victoria’s Relations
, p. 212; Elchanninov,
Tsar
, p.

60.

29 For this holiday see Nicholas’s diary I for 10 June to 11 July, in
Nikolai
, pp. 48–58.

30 See e.g.
DON
, pp. 81, 82, 87.

31 Ibid., pp. 87–8.

32 Ibid., p. 91.

33
Nikolay
,
17 July 1913, p. 59.

34 Konstantinovich
, Marble Palace
, p. 177.

35 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, pp. 324–5.

36 Girardin,
Précepteur
, p. 60.

37
Correspondence
, p. 317; Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 43.

38 Kalinin and Zemlyachenko, ‘Taina Velikoi Knyazhny’, pp. 245–6.

This excellent chapter presents an enlightening overview of the

Olga–Voronov story.

39 Cherkashin, ‘Knyazhna i Michman’.

40 Barkovets, ‘Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna’, in Swezey,
Nicholas
and Alexandra
, p. 78.

41
DON
, p. 126.

42 Ibid., p. 141.

43 Barkovets, ‘Grand Duchess’, in Swezey,
Nicholas and Alexandra
, p.

76.

44
DON
,
p. 148.

45 Kalinin and Zemlyachenko, ‘Taina Velikoi Knyazhny’, p. 257;

DON
, pp. 143, 148, 154.

46 Ibid., p. 156.

47
Nikolay
,
p. 100.

48 Barkovets, ‘Grand Duchess’, in Swezey,
Nicholas and Alexandra
, p.

79.

416

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NOTES

49 Ibid.

50
DON
, p. 172.

51 Swezey,
Nicholas and Alexandra
, p. 79.

52 When war broke out in 1914, Pavel Voronov fought in the 2nd

Guards battalion and served in the Tsar’s Escort. But he fell ill

with a heart complaint and was sent on leave during February–

March 1917. In April 1917 he was transferred to the Crimean

Fleet; then into the reserve in August, after which he went into

hiding from Bolshevik commissars. During the winter of 1920,

Pavel and Olga escaped Russia in the British steamer
Hanover
and settled in the USA, where Pavel died in 1964. He never wrote any

memoirs of his time with the imperial family, perhaps out of an

enduring respect for the feelings he knew Olga Nikolaevna had

held for him. In her own memoirs his wife Olga makes no

mention of their romance either.

Chapter 13
: God Save the Tsar!

1 W. B.,
Russian Court Memoirs
, p. 64.

2 Almedingen,
Empress Alexandra
, p. 131.

3 W. B.,
Russian Court Memoirs
, p. 64; Anon. [Casper],
Intimacies of
Court and Society
, p. 138.

4 Some of the most vivid accounts of that last social season are given in the various memoirs of ambassador’s daughter Meriel Buchanan; see

e.g
. Diplomacy and Foreign Courts
,
Dissolution of an Empire
and

Ambassador’s Daughter.
See also: Kochan,
Last Days of Imperial Russia
, ch. 2, ‘Haute Société in St Petersburg’ and King,
Court of the Last
Tsar
, ch. 27, ‘The Last Season’.

5 Buchanan,
Diplomacy and Foreign Courts
, pp. 147–8, 155; Buchanan,
Ambassador’s Daughter
, p. 116.

6 Iswolsky,
No Time to Grieve
, p. 83.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid., p. 85.

10 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, p. 181.

11 Iswolsky,
No Time to Grieve
, p. 85.

12 Duchess of Coburg to Crown Princess Marie of Romania, 17–19

February 1914, TS (courtesy of John Wimbles).

13 Ibid.

14 Buchanan,
Diplomacy and Foreign Courts
, p. 160.

417

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NOTES

15 Iswolsky,
No Time to Grieve
, p. 85.

16 Duchess of Coburg to Crown Princess Marie of Romania, 17–19

February 1914, TS (courtesy of John Wimbles).

17 Buchanan,
Diplomacy and Foreign Courts
, p. 160.

18
Lloyds Weekly Newspaper
, 2 November 1913.

19 ‘Sentimental Crisis’
,
p. 323.

20 Ibid., p. 323.

21 Ibid., p. 324. Even Sydney Gibbes remarked on the girls’ lack of

style: ‘every so often their “toilets” looked dreadfully out of place, simple as they usually were’; and the men in the
Shtandart
noticed too that ‘the way they dressed, truth to tell, was not always fashionable and was even old-fashioned’. Gibbes, TS Memoirs, List 1

(82), f. 7; Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, pp. 317–18.

22 Ibid.

23
Lloyds Weekly Newspaper
, 2 November 1913.

24 Biddle, ‘The Czar and His Family’, p. 6.

25
DON
, p. 162.

26 For the political ramifications of the match see Gelardi, ‘Carol & Olga’.

27 Kalinin and Zemlyachenko,
Romanovy i Krym
, p. 260; Sazonov,
Fateful Years
, p. 109.

28 ‘May Wed Czar’s Daughter’,
Washington
Post, 1 February 1914; Biddle, ‘The Czar and His Family’, p. 6.

29 Letter to Marie of Romania, 27 January 1914, TS (courtesy of

John Wimbles).

30 Ibid.

31 Duchess of Coburg to Crown Princess Marie of Romania, 7

February 1914, TS (courtesy of John Wimbles).

32 Duchess of Coburg to Crown Princess Marie of Romania, 17–19

February 1914.

33 Duchess of Coburg to Crown Princess Marie of Romania, 7

February 1914.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

38 Titov, ‘OTMA’, p. 29.

39 Ibid., p. 334.

40 ‘Romanians in 1910s Russia’, accessible @: http://www.rri.ro/

arh-art.shtml?lang=1&sec=9&art=28280

41 James Lawrence Houghteling,
A Diary of the Russian Revolution
,
418

693GG_TXT.indd 418

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NOTES

New York: Dodd, Mead & company, 1918,
p. 10; Virubova,

Keisarinnan Hovineiti
, p. 230.

42
The Times
, 31 March 1914.

43 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, pp. 316, 318.

44 Ibid., p. 318.

45 Azabal,
Countess from Iowa
, p. 144; Nostitz,
Romance and
Revolutions
, pp. 140–1.

46 Azabal,
Romance and Revolutions
, p. 141.

47 De Stoeckl,
Not All Vanity
, pp. 137–8.

48 Ibid., p. 138.

49 Sazonov,
Fateful Years
, p. 110.

50 Elsberry,
Marie of Romania
, p. 101; Spiridovich,
Les Dernières
années
, vol. 2, p. 455; Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 94.

51 Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
, p. 92.

52 Ibid., p. 93.

53 Crown Princess Marie of Romania to the Duchess of Coburg, 18

June 1914.

54 Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
, p. 94.

55 Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 95.

56 Crown Princess Marie of Romania to the Duchess of Coburg, 1

June 1914.

57 Ibid.

58 Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
, p. 94.

59 Ibid., p. 95.

60 Marie of Romania,
Story of My Life
, p. 329.

61 Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
, p. 96.

62 Crown Princess Marie of Romania to Duchess of Coburg, 18 June

1914; Elsberry,
Marie of Romania
,
pp. 100–1.

63 Marie of Romania
, Story of My Life
,
p. 575.

64 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, p. 182; Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
,
p.

99; Elsberry,
Marie of Romania
, p. 102.

65 Marie of Romania,
Story of My Life
, p. 330.

66 Crown Princess Marie of Romania to Duchess of Coburg 18 June

1914.

67 Bibesco,
Royal Portraits
, p. 99.

68 Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, p. 73.

69 Buchanan,
Ambassador’s Daughter
, p. 118.

70 Sablin,
Desyat’ let
, p. 343.

71
Harold Tennyson RN
, p. 198.

72 Buchanan,
Queen Victoria’s Relations
, p. 216.

73 Ibid., p. 217.

419

693GG_TXT.indd 419

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NOTES

74 Buchanan,
Diplomacy and Foreign Courts
, p. 164.

75 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 103;
Correspondence
, p. 368.

76 Buchanan,
My Mission to Russia
,
vol. 1, p. 204.

77 Dehn,
Real Tsaritsa
, p. 106.

78 Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 106.

79
ASM
, p. 13.

80
The Times
, 3 August 1914 (NS).

81 Ibid.

82 Merry,
Two Months in Russia
,
p. 83.

83 W. B.,
Russian Court Memoirs
, p. 73.

84
ASM
, p. 13.

85 Almedingen,
Empress Alexandra
, p.134.

86 Paléologue,
Ambassador’s Memoirs
, p. 41.

87 Marie Pavlovna
, Things I Remember
, p. 162.

88 Azabal,
Romance and Revolutions
, p. 153.

89 Cantacuzene,
Revolutionary Days
, p. 162.