The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) (77 page)

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Authors: Helen Rappaport

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90 Azabal,
Romance and Revolutions
, p. 153; Marie Pavlovna,
Things I
Remember
, p. 163.

91 Ibid.

92
ASM
,
p. 13.

93
Nikolay
, p. 157.

94 Arbenina,
Through Terror to Freedom
, pp. 20–1.

95
LP
, p. 398.

96 Wortman,
Scenarios of Power
, p. 401.

97
The Times
, 4 August 1914 (NS).

98 A. Varlamov,
Grigoriy Rasputin-Novyi
(Moscow: Molodaya

Gvardiya, 2007), p. 424.

99 Buchanan,
My Mission to Russia
, vol. 1, p. 214.

100 Florence Farmborough,
Nurse at the Russian Front
(London: Constable, 1974), p. 21; Buchanan,
Queen Victoria’s Relations
, p.

217; Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, p. 102.

101 Buchanan,
My Mission to Russia
, vol. 1, pp. 214–15.

102 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 105.

103
ASM
, p. 14.

Chapter 14
: Sisters of Mercy

1 Dehn,
Real Tsaritsa
, p. 69.

2 See e.g. issue no. 25 for 5 January 1915, p. 21. Several other female members of the Russian imperial family became wartime nurses

420

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NOTES

– notably Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Grand Duchess

Marie Pavlovna – and were featured on the magazine’s pages.

3 Almedingen,
Tomorrow Will Come
, p. 84.

4
WC
, p. 15.

5 Henniger, ‘I Only Wanted to Do Good’, p. 5.

6 Gromov,
Moi vospominaniya za 50 let
, p. 30.

7 For the work of the British Colony Hospital, see Buchanan,

Dissolution of an Empire
, ch. XI.

8 Like many Russian women of her generation refused permission to

study medicine in Russia, Gedroits had travelled to Switzerland to

study and qualified in Lausanne in 1898, returning to Russia in 1900

to work as a doctor. An accomplished abdominal surgeon, she had

served on the front line during the Russo-Japanese War. See J. D.

Bennett, ‘Princess Vera Gedroits: Military Surgeon, Poet and Author’,
British Medical Journal
, 19 December 1992, pp. 1532–4.

9 See
SA
,
pp. 234, 250–2;
ASM
, pp. 5–7.

10
NZ
181, p. 178. Note that many of the excerpts from

Chebotareva’s diary cited in
SA
have been heavily redacted by the editor Fomin, who has removed any negative comments about the

girls and about Alexey’s bad behaviour. In particular Chebotareva’s

criticism of the empress’s relationship with Anna Vyrubova and

Rasputin is totally excised. See e.g. ch. 15, n. 1, below. All entries in this regard are therefore taken from the uncut
NZ
version.

11 Details of Olga and Tatiana’s daily routine at the annexe hospital can be found in their letters and diary entries for 1914–16, in

ASM
.
See also articles by Stepanov and Belyaev and Valentina Chebotareva’s diary in
SA
as well as the fuller version of the diary in
NZ
and Popov,
Vospominaniya
, pp. 131–2.

12
SA
,
p. 337.

13 Tschebotarioff,
Russia My Native Land
, p. 60.

14 See note 12 above.

15 Vurubova,
Memories
, p. 109.

16 See
ASM
, pp. 18, 19;
SA
,
p. 234.

17
WC
, p. 53.

18 Paul P. Gronsky and Nicholas J. Astrov,
The War and the Russian
Government
(New York: Howard Fertig, 1973), pp. 30–1. For

photographs of Olga and Tatiana taking donations at their

Petrograd committees, see
Stolitsa i usadba
no. 23, 1 December 1914, pp. 20–1.

19 Tyan’-Shansky, ‘Tsarstvenniya deti’, p. 55.

20 Pavlov in
SA
, p. 413.

421

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NOTES

21 W. B.,
Russian Court Memoirs
, p. 159; Vyrubova,
Romanov Family
Album
, p. 117; Melnik-Botkina,
Vospominaniya
, pp. 17–18; Ofrosimova, ‘Tsarskaya semya’, pp. 144 –5.

22
WC
, p. 16.

23
SA
, pp. 235, 249.

24 Ofrosimova, ‘Tsarskaya semya’, p. 144.

25 Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 129.

26 Rasputin,
Real Rasputin
, p. 103.

27 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, p. 155; W. B.,
Russian Court
Memoirs
, p. 159.

28 Ofrosimova, ‘Tsarskaya semya’, p. 146.

29 Chebotareva [ref to follow]

30 Gilliard,
Thirteen Years
, p. 75.

31 Kleinmikhel
, Shipwrecked World
, pp. 216–17, 327; Buchanan,
Dissolution of an Empire
, p. 125. See also Rowley, ‘Monarchy and the Mundane’.

32 Kleinmikhel,
Shipwrecked World
, p. 217.

33 Bokhanov,
Aleksandra Feodorovna
, p. 275.

34 Kleinmikhel,
Shipwrecked World
, p. 217.

35
SA
, p. 251.

36 See
SA
, pp. 812–13.

37
ASM
, p. 22.

38 Ibid., p. 23.

39 See
ASM
, Anastasia’s letter to Nicholas, 26 August 1916, p. 124.

For Maria see e.g.
ASM
, pp. 44, 49. Alexandra, who seemed to

condone her daughter’s crush on Demenkov, called him ‘Marie’s

fat fellow’; see
WC
,
p. 335.

40 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 4;
LP
, p. 407.

41
ASM
, p. 34.

42
SA
, p. 271.

43 See de Malama, ‘The Romanovs’.

44
ASM
, p. 32.

45 Ibid., p. 33; de Malama, ‘The Romanovs’, p. 185.

46 See
ASM
, p. 136.

47 Ibid., p. 41.

48 Ibid., p. 5; Vyrubova, however, talks of ‘85 hospitals’ at Tsarskoe Selo,
Memories
, p. 108.

49 Gibbes, untitled TS memoir, Gibbes Papers, Bodleian, f. 9.

50 Brewster,
Anastasia’s Album,
p. 46.

422

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NOTES

Chapter 15
: We Cannot Drop Our Work in the Hospitals

1
NZ
181, pp. 180–1. Note that the bulk of this entry referring to Rasputin has been redacted in the version of Chebotareva’s diary in

SA
, p. 295.

2 De Jonge,
Life and Times of Rasputin
, p. 248.

3 Letter to Evelyn Moore, 26 December 1914 (8 January 1915), in E.

Marjorie Moore (ed.),
Adventure in the Royal Navy 1847–1934: Life and
Letters of Admiral Sir Arthur William Moore
(Liverpool: privately printed, 1964), pp. 121–2. The admiral’s sister Evelyn Moore was a

lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, whom Alexandra had known before

her marriage.

4
WC
, p. 112.

5
LP
, pp. 431–2.

6
ASM
, pp. 99–100.

7
WC
, p. 28.

8 Ibid.;
Fjellman,
Louise Mountbatten
, p. 228;
WC
,
pp. 237–8.

9
WC
, pp. 122, 130.

10 Letter to Olga Voronova, 2 June 1915, accessible @: http://www.

alexanderpalace.org/palace/tdiaries.html

11
ASM
, p. 111.

12
SA
, p. 311.

13 Ibid., p. 315.

14 Popov,
Vospominaniya
,
p. 131.

15
SA
, p. 315.

16 Ibid.; Popov,
Vospominaniya
, 133.

17 Quote accessible @:

18 http://saltkrakan.livejournal.com/658.html See also Popov,

Vospominaniya
, p. 133.

19
SA
, p. 311.

20 Ibid., pp. 298, 300.

21
ASM
, p. 122;
WC
, p. 181.

22 Anon. [Stopford]
, Russian Diary
, p. 37.

23
WC
, p. 261.

24 Anon. [Stopford]
, Russian Diary
, p. 37.

25 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, pp. 210, 212.

26 See Shavelsky,
Vospominaniya poslednego protopresverita russkoi armii i
flota
, vol. I, pp. 360–2.

27 Newton A. McCully,
An American Naval Diplomat in Revolutionary
Russia
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1993), p. 98.

423

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NOTES

28 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 143.

29 See e.g. the photographs in Michael of Greece and Maylunas,

Nicholas and Alexandra
,
pp. 215–21 and Grabbe and Grabbe,
Private World
,
pp. 152–8.

30 See Galushkin,
Sobstvennyi ego . . . konvoy
, pp. 199–202 for an account of OTMA at Stavka.

31
SA
, p. 302; see also
WC
,
p. 279.

32 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 109.

33
WC
, p. 279.

34
ASM
, p. 145.

35
NZ
181, pp. 206–7.

36
SA
, p. 305.

37
NZ
181, p. 206.

38
Nikolay
, p. 285.

39 Ibid.

40 Vyrubova,
Memories
, p. 170.

41
NZ
, p. 207.

42 Ibid., p. 208.

43
ASM
, p. 151.

Chapter 16
: The Outside Life

1 Stanislav Kon,
The Cost of the War to Russia
(London: Humphrey Milford, 1932), p. 33.

2 Reproduced in
Argus
, Melbourne, 23 February 1916.

3
Logansport Journal-Tribune
, 2 January 1916;
New York Times
, 25

September 1916.

4 For the work of the Tatiana Committee, see Peter Gatrell,
A Whole
Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War I
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), pp. 44–7 and Violetta Thurstan,
The
People Who Run: Being the Tragedy of the Refugees in Russia
(London: Putnam
,
1916), which has much information on the Petrograd maternity hospital.

5
Atlanta Constitution
, Magazine Section, 14 November 1915.

6 Fraser,
Russia of To-Day
, pp. 24–5.

7
WC
, p. 366.

8 Fraser,
Russia of To-Day
, p. 26.

9 Richard Washburn Child,
Potential Russia
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1916), p. 76.

424

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NOTES

10
ASM
, p. 337.

11
WC
, p. 361; see also
WC
, p. 366 re her taking opium.

12 Ibid., p. 381.

13
SA
, p. 336.

14
Daily Gleaner
, 4 August 1915.

15
NZ
181, pp. 210–11.

16
ASM
, p. 157.

17
SA
, p. 338.

18
NZ
181, p. 211.

19
ASM
, p. 156.

20 Farson, ‘Aux Pieds’, p. 16. Harmer,
Forgotten Hospital
, pp. 73–5; diary of L. C . Pocock 19 January/1 February 1916, in G. M. and

L. C. Pocock Papers, IWM. For photographs see
Stolitsa i Usadba
,

no. 54, 15 March 1916, p. 9; also
Ogonek
, no. 3, 31 January 1916.

21 Farson, ‘Au Pieds’, p. 17.

22 Buchanan,
Queen Victoria’s Relations
, p. 218.

23
WC
, p. 486.

24 Markylie, ‘L’Impératrice en voile blanc’, p. 17.

25
SA
, p. 337.

26
WC
, p. 404.

27
WC
,
pp. 369–70; note that this quotation has been wrongly identified by Furhmann as alluding to Olga Alexandrovna, Nicholas’s

sister, but that attribution is clearly erroneous, given the context.

28
WC
, p. 388.

29 Ibid., p. 356.

30
WC
, p. 421. Although he is not mentioned again by Alexandra in
WC
after March 1916, Malama apparently remained at Tsarskoe

Selo till the Revolution, after which he returned to southern

Russia. In August 1919 he was in command of a unit of White

Army troops fighting the Bolsheviks in the Ukraine when he was

captured, and executed soon after by firing squad. Although some

sources claim he was killed in battle, according to Peter de

Malama, Mitya’s body was recovered and buried with full military

honours at Krasnodar. See de Malama, ‘The Romanovs’.

31
SA
, p. 339.

32
WC
, p. 450.

33
Nikolay
, p. 239;
ASM
, p. 107 and see note on p. 439.

34
ASM,
pp. 162–3.

35 Ibid., p. 163.

36
WC
,
p. 412.

37 Ibid., pp. 432, 413.

425

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NOTES

38
ASM
, p. 178.

39 Buxhoeveden,
Life and Tragedy
, p. 238.

40
ASM
,
p. 179.

41 Boris Ravtopulo had developed a strong admiration for Tatiana

since first seeing her photographs. As a young officer, taking part

in the Tercentary celebrations in St Petersburg in 1913, he was at

the ball attended by the two sisters before Tatiana fell ill with

typhoid and he had breached etiquette and asked her to dance. He

took the liberty of asking her a second time, at the risk of being

rejected. Afterwards, he took her back to her seat, kissed her hand,

and promised, so he later claimed, that he would ‘never again

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