Friday, February 28, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
The Hawaiian Star on Alexandra's mental health, year 1908
Source:
The Hawaiian Star, published in Honolulu, Oahu on February 19, 1908
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1908-02-19/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1894&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Czarina+CZARINA&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=16&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
The article:
CZARINA MENTALLY AFFECTED
ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. 8. — Despite the efforts that are made to prevent the publication of alarmist reports concerning the Czarina's real condition, sad news filters through to the people from court circles. Both mental and physical ills are believed to be afflicting Her Majesty, who is described as "the wreck of her former self."
Although the official statement is made that the Czarina's real malady is a stubborn attack of influenza, following a weakening attempt at "banting," the popular explanation is that the Czarina is in a state of great nervous depression. She has lost all interest in the outside world and has ceased to take any pride in her personal appearance.
The Czarina refuses to move from St. Petersburg, in obedience to the strong advice of her medical attendants. The court physicians are extremely disquieted by her obstinacy, for they realize that something must be done to get her away from the depressing atmosphere of the court to some sunny retreat in the South.
Both the Czar and Czarina have largely abandoned the freedom of movement in which they formerly indulged, disregarding to a great extent the police precautions for their safety. The Czar frequently rode out from Tsarskoe Selo beyond the protection zone, chatted with peasants by the road side, and so on. Similarly the Czarina delighted to escape from official supervision occasionally and to go out shopping like an ordinary woman. But in her present low state of health and spirits she has given up these outings. In their place the Czarina takes a mild interest in physical matters and has attended the seances at court promoted by the Grand Duchess Melissa, wife of the Czar's cousin, the Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievitch.
The Hawaiian Star, published in Honolulu, Oahu on February 19, 1908
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015415/1908-02-19/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1894&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Czarina+CZARINA&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=16&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
The article:
CZARINA MENTALLY AFFECTED
ST. PETERSBURG, FEB. 8. — Despite the efforts that are made to prevent the publication of alarmist reports concerning the Czarina's real condition, sad news filters through to the people from court circles. Both mental and physical ills are believed to be afflicting Her Majesty, who is described as "the wreck of her former self."
Although the official statement is made that the Czarina's real malady is a stubborn attack of influenza, following a weakening attempt at "banting," the popular explanation is that the Czarina is in a state of great nervous depression. She has lost all interest in the outside world and has ceased to take any pride in her personal appearance.
The Czarina refuses to move from St. Petersburg, in obedience to the strong advice of her medical attendants. The court physicians are extremely disquieted by her obstinacy, for they realize that something must be done to get her away from the depressing atmosphere of the court to some sunny retreat in the South.
Both the Czar and Czarina have largely abandoned the freedom of movement in which they formerly indulged, disregarding to a great extent the police precautions for their safety. The Czar frequently rode out from Tsarskoe Selo beyond the protection zone, chatted with peasants by the road side, and so on. Similarly the Czarina delighted to escape from official supervision occasionally and to go out shopping like an ordinary woman. But in her present low state of health and spirits she has given up these outings. In their place the Czarina takes a mild interest in physical matters and has attended the seances at court promoted by the Grand Duchess Melissa, wife of the Czar's cousin, the Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievitch.
The Day Book on Alexandra wanting to save babies in Moscow orphanages, year 1914
Source:
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on April 11, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-04-11/ed-1/seq-21/#date1=1894&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=CZARINA+Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=3&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
The highlight:
CZARINA WOULD SAVE BABIES OF MOSCOW
Moscow, Russia. — Because hundreds of children are dying annually in the Fondling [sic] Asylum at Moscow, Czarina Alexandra has ordered an investigation of the cause of this "slaughter of the innocents." Starvation and bad air are said to be the causes of the heavy death toll of babies.
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on April 11, 1914
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-04-11/ed-1/seq-21/#date1=1894&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=CZARINA+Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=3&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
The highlight:
CZARINA WOULD SAVE BABIES OF MOSCOW
Moscow, Russia. — Because hundreds of children are dying annually in the Fondling [sic] Asylum at Moscow, Czarina Alexandra has ordered an investigation of the cause of this "slaughter of the innocents." Starvation and bad air are said to be the causes of the heavy death toll of babies.
Review of Marfa Mouchanow's book "My Empress" in The Sun newspaper, year 1918
Source:
The Sun, published in New York on May 5, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1918-05-05/ed-1/seq-71/#date1=1894&index=14&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This review of Marfa Mouchanow's book My Empress, an early biography of Alexandra, was published in The Sun newspaper of New York on Sunday, May 5, 1918, just two months before Alexandra's death. We now know that Marfa Mouchanow was either a pseudonym for someone at court or a fictional person, in addition the book makes obviously fabricated claims as well as exaggerations and half-truths and ironically dismissing certain claims and stories as falsehoods, all while both pitying and defaming Alexandra, and therefore the book is a discredited source (which I learned only after finding the excerpts I included in part 1 of my Alexandra biography here, long before I reached the end of the book). Another book, Confessions of the Czarina by Count Paul Vassily, was published at around the same time and is nothing more than an almost word-for-word rehash of everything in My Empress, making it obvious that the books were written at the same time by the same author using different pen names and identities. The author's true identity remains unknown.
The article:
An Intimate Picture of Mrs. Romanoff
SOME day, we hope, a second Dumas, or rather a third Dumas, will write the history of the Russian court which had for its heads the residents of Tobolsk, now known as Col. and Mrs. Nicholas Romanoff. With such unsurpassed materials a genius in the art of story telling ought to build up one of the great romances of all times. There will be no Henri of Navarre, it is true, no personality vital and intense to fill the foreground of this amazing picture, but talent could do much with the melancholy figure of the beautiful, superstitious, unfortunate woman whom Marfa Mouchanow tells about in her book My Empress, Alexandra Feodorovna, the final chapters of whose life are still to be written.
Humanity's inborn interest and curiosity concerning those who wear a crown is perhaps one of the great obstacles to universal republicanism. All of us, it seems, like to hear whether an Empress prefers rice or prunes and how many dresses she buys each year. We are safe in saying, therefore, we think, that readers will enjoy Marfa Mouchanow's pleasantly written account of the former Czarina of Russia as she knew her during twenty-three years of service as first maid in waiting. The world is not in the mood to sympathize with the woes of autocrats, yet one cannot but pity this unhappy woman who earned the gratitude of those whose duty it was to wait upon her but who had no charm or graciousness to win their affection.
A Proud Empress.
Mme. Mouchanow held her post in the Russian Imperial household from the day of the marriage of Nicholas II. to the German princess up to the hour when the train departed from Czarskoi Selo bearing the deposed rulers to their present habitation. She would have accompanied them in this exile had the leaders of the revolution allowed her to do so. Mme. Mouchanow describes the former Czarina as conscientious and straightforward, proud, morbidly sensitive; not, like her husband, lacking in courage, but so entirely without tact and worldly address as to antagonize everybody from her mother-in-law, the accomplished Danish woman, down to the Parisian dressmakers who had the honor to serve her.
There was the episode of the gold toilet set, for instance, which the Empress insisted on carrying with her when she went visiting at neighboring courts, along with an antique Argenton lace covering for her dressing table, valued at 20,000 francs. This equipment mortally offended the Kaiser during a stay at Breslau. That gentleman for obvious reasons had laid himself out to be pleasant to the newly made Czarina and had caused to be brought from the Royal Treasury at Berlin the silver toilet set of Queen Louise of Prussia. "Alix," however, had already developed decided ideas as to the deference due her exalted position and complained that Cousin William apparently still thought her a "little Hessian Princess of no importance."
The bickerings between Alexandra Feodorovna and Marie Feodorovna, the Dowager Empress, seem to have been endless, their quarrels being over such important matters as the propriety of the Czarina's addressing her imperial husband as "my boy" in public and as to which lady should be prayed for first in the services of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Devoted as a Mother.
The Czarina was a devoted mother — too devoted to please the gay leaders of St. Petersburg society, who never forgave the beautiful young ruler for the frigidity of her manners or her rash attempt to exercise a moral censorship over them. The four girl babies who arrived successively in the imperial nursery added to the unpopularity of the Czarina. In fact, misfortune so persistently dogged the steps of Alexandra Feodorovna that one cannot blame her for having a superstitious conviction of a parallel between her career and that of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette.
The rejoicings which greeted the birth of an heir to the throne were quickly turned into apprehensions because of the delicate health of the boy. Mme. Mouchanow explains fully the mysterious malady of the former Czarevitch, which was for many years one of the most fruitful topics for some of the imaginings of sensational writers.
The Rasputin Scandal.
There is no hint in this narrative of any domestic infelicity in the lives of the ex-rulers more serious than a difference in literary tastes. The ex-Czar liked to spend his evenings reading aloud historical volumes, which bored his wife exceedingly, her taste being for scientific works, such as Darwin's masterpiece and treatises on astronomy. Very likely the Empress despised her weak minded husband, but she apparently tried to do her duty as she conceived it.
Mme. Mouchanow denounces as malicious lies the frequent insinuations made against the Czarina in connection with the Rasputin scandal. The truth, however, seems to have been bad enough. It is hard to picture a more disgusting scene than the celebrated prayer meetings in the imperial oratory, presided over by Rasputin, at which the Empress of All the Russias usually writhed on the floor in hysterical convulsions while the his Imperial Majesty looked on unconcerned, having been persuaded by the charlatan that the neurotic manifestations of the Czarina were proof that her prayers would be answered.
Victim of Charlatans.
Superstitious and mystical by nature, the Czarina upon her arrival in Russia rapidly developed into an ultraorthodox adherent of the Greek Church. Malicious advisers abetted and encouraged her in developing this natural inclination into a morbid hysteria. So that in the years just preceding the revolution the Empress's days and nights were mostly taken up with table tipping, spook consultations and the procuring of quack powders and potions to build up the health of her son. Upon one occasion the Duchess Elizabeth, sister of the Czarina, so worked on the superstitions of the half insane lady as to persuade her to drink a beverage made from dissolving in water the bones of some departed saint of the Greek Church in order to insure success to the Russian armies at the front.
The haughty pride of Alexandra Feodorovna's nature enabled her to go through the bitter times following the abdication of the Czar in a manner befitting her birth and former rank. She bore herself with a dignity which had certainly been lacking in the days of petty squabbles and religious mania. She is rapidly being forgotten, while her story is yet unfinished, a circumstance which is, perhaps, one of the many crosses which Providence has placed upon her ill starred shoulders.
The Sun, published in New York on May 5, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1918-05-05/ed-1/seq-71/#date1=1894&index=14&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1918&proxtext=Czarina&y=14&x=13&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This review of Marfa Mouchanow's book My Empress, an early biography of Alexandra, was published in The Sun newspaper of New York on Sunday, May 5, 1918, just two months before Alexandra's death. We now know that Marfa Mouchanow was either a pseudonym for someone at court or a fictional person, in addition the book makes obviously fabricated claims as well as exaggerations and half-truths and ironically dismissing certain claims and stories as falsehoods, all while both pitying and defaming Alexandra, and therefore the book is a discredited source (which I learned only after finding the excerpts I included in part 1 of my Alexandra biography here, long before I reached the end of the book). Another book, Confessions of the Czarina by Count Paul Vassily, was published at around the same time and is nothing more than an almost word-for-word rehash of everything in My Empress, making it obvious that the books were written at the same time by the same author using different pen names and identities. The author's true identity remains unknown.
The article:
An Intimate Picture of Mrs. Romanoff
SOME day, we hope, a second Dumas, or rather a third Dumas, will write the history of the Russian court which had for its heads the residents of Tobolsk, now known as Col. and Mrs. Nicholas Romanoff. With such unsurpassed materials a genius in the art of story telling ought to build up one of the great romances of all times. There will be no Henri of Navarre, it is true, no personality vital and intense to fill the foreground of this amazing picture, but talent could do much with the melancholy figure of the beautiful, superstitious, unfortunate woman whom Marfa Mouchanow tells about in her book My Empress, Alexandra Feodorovna, the final chapters of whose life are still to be written.
Humanity's inborn interest and curiosity concerning those who wear a crown is perhaps one of the great obstacles to universal republicanism. All of us, it seems, like to hear whether an Empress prefers rice or prunes and how many dresses she buys each year. We are safe in saying, therefore, we think, that readers will enjoy Marfa Mouchanow's pleasantly written account of the former Czarina of Russia as she knew her during twenty-three years of service as first maid in waiting. The world is not in the mood to sympathize with the woes of autocrats, yet one cannot but pity this unhappy woman who earned the gratitude of those whose duty it was to wait upon her but who had no charm or graciousness to win their affection.
A Proud Empress.
Mme. Mouchanow held her post in the Russian Imperial household from the day of the marriage of Nicholas II. to the German princess up to the hour when the train departed from Czarskoi Selo bearing the deposed rulers to their present habitation. She would have accompanied them in this exile had the leaders of the revolution allowed her to do so. Mme. Mouchanow describes the former Czarina as conscientious and straightforward, proud, morbidly sensitive; not, like her husband, lacking in courage, but so entirely without tact and worldly address as to antagonize everybody from her mother-in-law, the accomplished Danish woman, down to the Parisian dressmakers who had the honor to serve her.
There was the episode of the gold toilet set, for instance, which the Empress insisted on carrying with her when she went visiting at neighboring courts, along with an antique Argenton lace covering for her dressing table, valued at 20,000 francs. This equipment mortally offended the Kaiser during a stay at Breslau. That gentleman for obvious reasons had laid himself out to be pleasant to the newly made Czarina and had caused to be brought from the Royal Treasury at Berlin the silver toilet set of Queen Louise of Prussia. "Alix," however, had already developed decided ideas as to the deference due her exalted position and complained that Cousin William apparently still thought her a "little Hessian Princess of no importance."
The bickerings between Alexandra Feodorovna and Marie Feodorovna, the Dowager Empress, seem to have been endless, their quarrels being over such important matters as the propriety of the Czarina's addressing her imperial husband as "my boy" in public and as to which lady should be prayed for first in the services of the Greek Orthodox Church.
Devoted as a Mother.
The Czarina was a devoted mother — too devoted to please the gay leaders of St. Petersburg society, who never forgave the beautiful young ruler for the frigidity of her manners or her rash attempt to exercise a moral censorship over them. The four girl babies who arrived successively in the imperial nursery added to the unpopularity of the Czarina. In fact, misfortune so persistently dogged the steps of Alexandra Feodorovna that one cannot blame her for having a superstitious conviction of a parallel between her career and that of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette.
The rejoicings which greeted the birth of an heir to the throne were quickly turned into apprehensions because of the delicate health of the boy. Mme. Mouchanow explains fully the mysterious malady of the former Czarevitch, which was for many years one of the most fruitful topics for some of the imaginings of sensational writers.
The Rasputin Scandal.
There is no hint in this narrative of any domestic infelicity in the lives of the ex-rulers more serious than a difference in literary tastes. The ex-Czar liked to spend his evenings reading aloud historical volumes, which bored his wife exceedingly, her taste being for scientific works, such as Darwin's masterpiece and treatises on astronomy. Very likely the Empress despised her weak minded husband, but she apparently tried to do her duty as she conceived it.
Mme. Mouchanow denounces as malicious lies the frequent insinuations made against the Czarina in connection with the Rasputin scandal. The truth, however, seems to have been bad enough. It is hard to picture a more disgusting scene than the celebrated prayer meetings in the imperial oratory, presided over by Rasputin, at which the Empress of All the Russias usually writhed on the floor in hysterical convulsions while the his Imperial Majesty looked on unconcerned, having been persuaded by the charlatan that the neurotic manifestations of the Czarina were proof that her prayers would be answered.
Victim of Charlatans.
Superstitious and mystical by nature, the Czarina upon her arrival in Russia rapidly developed into an ultraorthodox adherent of the Greek Church. Malicious advisers abetted and encouraged her in developing this natural inclination into a morbid hysteria. So that in the years just preceding the revolution the Empress's days and nights were mostly taken up with table tipping, spook consultations and the procuring of quack powders and potions to build up the health of her son. Upon one occasion the Duchess Elizabeth, sister of the Czarina, so worked on the superstitions of the half insane lady as to persuade her to drink a beverage made from dissolving in water the bones of some departed saint of the Greek Church in order to insure success to the Russian armies at the front.
The haughty pride of Alexandra Feodorovna's nature enabled her to go through the bitter times following the abdication of the Czar in a manner befitting her birth and former rank. She bore herself with a dignity which had certainly been lacking in the days of petty squabbles and religious mania. She is rapidly being forgotten, while her story is yet unfinished, a circumstance which is, perhaps, one of the many crosses which Providence has placed upon her ill starred shoulders.
Richmond news article slandering Alexandra, year 1918
TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE AND DEATH.
Source:
Richmond Times-Dispatch, published November 20, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1918-11-10/ed-1/seq-37/#date1=1789&index=7&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This article was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper on November 10, 1918, blaming Alexandra for betrayal via secretly communicating intelligence information to her cousin and Russia's enemy Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, for the fall of the Romanov dynasty and ultimately the deaths of Nicholas and Alexei, as well as on reporting news on what happened to Nicholas's body and the way Alexei died that we now of course know is fabricated, gets the ages of Maria and Anastasia not only mixed up but further wrong, and other such fabrications, half-truths and exaggerations. But at that time, it was only made public that Nicholas and Alexei had been assassinated, which was the official news released then, and the rumour spread around the world that Alexandra and her daughters were probably still alive and their whereabouts unknown — when in reality they had been killed with Nicholas and Alexei in the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1918, almost four months before this article was published.
The article:
The Terrible Retribution which has Punished the Czarina
How Her Plotting with Her Cousin, the Kaiser, Betrayed Russia, Dethroned Her Husband, Led to His Murder and the Cruel Death of Her Idolized Son -- Her Own and Her Daughters' Fate a Mystery
UTTER mystery surrounded the fate of the widowed Czarina of Russia and her four pretty young daughters up to four weeks ago, but vague reports from chaotic Russia created a strong impression that they had all been killed.
Concerning the little Czarevitch, the Czarina's only son, the reports left little doubt that he had perished. In a country where the executioners are killing daily until they drop from exhaustion at their work of slaughter, there can be little hope for members of the former ruling class who are caught in the whirlpool of anarchy.
While the fate of the delicately nurtured Czarina and her family must fill us with horror, it is still more amazing and shocking to learn that the unfortunate woman by her treachery brought about the entire tragedy of Russia.
Evidence had long shown that there was constant communication between the Russian court and the German military command. Our knowledge of this subject has just taken a long step forward. Commissioner Henry W. Mapp, of the Salvation Army, a responsible American who had been sent to Russia to relieve distress, came back with positive information that the Czarina herself had sent direct communication by her private wire from Tsarskoe Selo to the German Kaiser giving information that the British War Minister, Lord Kitchener, had sailed for Russia. Kitchener's mission was to provide for better co-operation between the Russian and Allied armies and to check the disorganization of the Russian armies which had already begun.
Kitchener sailed for Russia on the cruiser Hampshire in April, 1917, and the ship was torpedoed by the Germans off the north of Scotland and lost with everybody on board. This tragedy was directly traceable to the information supplied by the Czarina.
The latest evidence indicates that the Czarina constantly furnished to the Kaiser intelligence concerning Russian military movements. She was a cousin of the Kaiser, the sister of a reigning German sovereign, the Grand Duke of Hesse, a German princess herself by birth, training and instinct. Like the Queen of Greece and other royalties, she was a devoted and unreasoning adherent of the Kaiser.
Right well did she work for her imperial master. Through her treachery she brought about the ruin of her adopted country, the defeat of its armies and the demoralization of its entire political structure, previously weakened by terrible losses and sufferings.
Her treachery, according to this view, was the main factor that caused not only the collapse of the empire, but the death of her husband and her son, and, it appears probable, of herself and all her daughters.
Never perhaps in all history has there been a more perfect case of retribution for treachery.
The last days of the Czarina and her family would surely make a drama of unsurpassed terror. Lost in the wilds of the most desolate part of Russia, at the mercy of half-crazed Bolsheviki politicians, Red Guards and unwashed peasants, the condition of this family of delicately bred women defies description. The wretched Czarina, once the wife of the most absolute monarch in the world, the possessor of jewels valued at $100,000,000, had not even the power to communicate with her relatives and friends.
So great was the uncertainty about the Czarina's fate that His Holiness the Pope sent an inquiry about a month ago to the Austrian Ambassador at Petrograd, asking if he could find out what had happened to her and her daughters. The Austrians having nominally made peace with the Bolsheviki, it was supposed that they could obtain some information from them. The Ambassador answered His Holiness that their death had been reported and denied, and that no reliable information could be obtained.
The Pope then sent an ecclesiastic of high rank to Russia with instructions to find out definitely what happened to them and to remove them to a place of safety, if possible. As the place where the family were last heard from, Ekaterinburg, is nearly a thousand miles from Petrograd, and as railway travel is almost at an end, no one can say when the envoy will complete his mission.
One of the latest and most circumstantial reports declared that the Czarina and her four daughters had been murdered at a village near Ekaterinburg. A former court servant returned to Petrograd, who declared that he had seen certain details of the tragedy.
According to this man, there had arisen a violent quarrel in the local Soviet as to what should be done with the Czarina and her daughters. The six most bloodthirsty members of the Soviet, a butcher, an innkeeper and four peasants, then went to the house in which the poor women were imprisoned and shot them all.
After this the murderers burned down the house with all the bodies. The servant who brought this news declared that he had seen the charred bodies and some fragments of jewelry the princess had worn.
Russia now groans under a condition of anarchy in which local councils called "Soviets" exercise tyrannous power in their vicinity, while the central bodies at Moscow and Petrograd have little or no authority.
After the circumstantial report about the murder had been received, Lenine, the Bolshevist Prime Minister, announced that he had received a denial of it from Ekaterinburg and that the women were safe.
When the execution of ex-Czar Nicholas was decided on, his wife and children were separated from him in order that pity for them should not lead to any action that might save the fallen monarch. The whole family up to that time had been imprisoned at Tobolsk in Siberia. They were then taken to Ekaterinburg in European Russia, but while the ex-Czar was imprisoned in the town, the rest of the family were taken outside.
The Czar's execution has been reported in many ways from various sources. One report stated that he had faced the firing squad with bravery and steadiness, while another described him as collapsing in terror. The reports generally agreed that his last thoughts had been for his family and that his last words were:
"Have mercy on my wife and children!"
After the Czar's execution his body underwent a strange series of experiences, which suggest his own treatment of the fanatic Rasputin's remains. It will be recalled that the Czar recovered Rasputin's body from the Neva and buried it at midnight in a silver coffin with solemn ceremonies in the grounds of his palace at Tsarskoe Selo, from which it was dug up and carted away to Siberia by the revolutionists.
The Bolsheviki deliberately planned to treat Nicholas's body with the greatest possible indignity. They buried it in the "Suicides' Corner" of the local cemetery. In the eyes of the old-fashioned Russian peasants a suicide is the most hopeless of lost souls, worse even than a murderer, and the spot where such creatures are buried is passed with shuddering and loathing.
The body had not lain here many weeks, however, when a force of the Czecho-Slovak army, the released Austro-Hungarian soldiers who support the Allies, passed this way. They considered that the monarch who had supported the cause they believe in deserved better treatment. They therefore unearthed his body and buried it in consecrated ground with simple religious services.
But the body was not yet to rest. The "People's Army" consisting of Cossacks, obtained possession of the grave, and, being imbued with the old, deep, religious sentiment of Russia, they thought that the Soviet's treatment of the Czar's body was wicked and would bring divine anger on the country. They therefore exhumed the body again with much ceremony and prepared to give it solemn burial according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It was enclosed in a zinc coffin with an outer case of Siberian cedar and placed in the Cathedral at Ekaterinburg under a guard composed of commanders of the People's Army. After that the body was carried away to be buried in a special sarcophagus at Omsk.
These details concerning the two burials were furnished by the newspaper Izvestia of Moscow.
Only scraps of information and rumors can be obtained concerning what happened to the Czarina and her children between their removal from Tobolsk and their reported reappearance at Ekaterinburg. This information has come through Russian Bolsheviki and peasants notorious for their untruthfulness and wild imaginations.
The circumstantial report has it that the Red Guards deliberately kept the delicate little Czarewitch out in a public square at Perm day and night for three days without food or shelter. At the end of this time the poor child died of pneumonia brought on by cold and starvation.
The child, whose birth Russia and the rest of the world awaited with anxiety for ten years, is now supposed to be in an unknown grave. Everybody will recall how the Czar and Czarina of Russia longed and prayed for the birth of a son for years. Four daughters in succession were born to the couple, and the Czarina nearly lost her mind through disappointment at her failure to bear the desired heir.
When, at last, in 1904, the little Czarevitch Alexis came, the Imperial couple were transported with joy. The entire thoughts of Russia's ruler were concentrated on this child. As he began to grow he received increased devotion from the Czar. The entire world was ransacked to gratify his wishes. From the strongly guarded precincts of the Russian Court came many reports of attempts by revolutionists on the boy's life. It was very positively stated that one attack had resulted in injury to his leg.
On public occasions after that the Czarevitch was observed to have a permanently stiffened right leg. Though of delicate health, he was a handsome and attractive boy.
How the late Czar spoiled his child is shown by an incident related by Dr. E.L. Dillon, the well-known English writer on Balkan affairs. Not long before the Czar's downfall a special British envoy, General Sir Arthur Paget, was sent to Petrograd to discuss closer cooperation between British and Russians. While he was talking with the Czar, the young Czarevitch got hold of the General's cap and placed it on the head of a female statue. When the Czar saw this he laughed so heartily that the conference was seriously interrupted.
Now, this spoiled heir of the world's greatest autocracy may have been put to death by a band of unwashed ruffians in an obscure village.
It was assumed that the report of the Czarevitch's death must be correct, because no mention was made of him when the rest of the Romanoff family reappeared at Ekaterinburg.
The four daughters of the Czarina were the Grand Duchess Olga, aged twenty-three; Grand Duchess Tatiana, aged twenty-one; Grand Duchess Anastasia, aged nineteen, and Grand Duchess Marie, aged fourteen. Their photographs prove that they were very handsome young girls and all accounts agree that they were charming and sweet.
After the Czar's downfall and a brief period of imprisonment in the palace at Tsarskoe Selo, they were removed to Tobolsk in Siberia. The whole family was forced to occupy the upper floor of a humble house that had belonged to a local tax collector. Revolutionary guards occupied the ground floor.
At first the fallen imperial family was treated with leniency, although subject to considerable privations. They had only one servant and the Czarina was obliged to do much of her own cooking. The deposed monarch and his wife were not allowed to go out except to church, and Nicholas tried to maintain his health by carrying pails of water upstairs. The little Czarevitch was only permitted to go into the public park for a few hours a day under an armed guard.
The young Grand Duchesses, however, were allowed considerable liberty at this stage. They mingled freely with the townspeople and travelled about the country. All signs of rank were discarded in their social relations and the young women were known simply as the Misses Romanoff. The Grand Duchess Olga learnt stenography and typewriting and fitted herself to earn her living in business. The second daughter, Grand Duchess Tatiana, began to train as a nurse. All the girls, in fact, were learning to live in a normal way under a democratic system.
The quarters in the private house were so cramped that the imperial family was removed after three months to the monastery of Tobolsk.
That was before the Russian revolution began to turn toward Bolshevism and terrorism. The anti-Bolshevist sentiments of the Siberians settled the fate of the fallen imperial family. They were removed from Tobolsk hastily by the Red Guards lest the Siberians or Czecho-Slovaks should reach them and liberate them. Then began the terrible journey toward European Russia in which Czar Nicholas lost his life, while the fate of the women was left in uncertainty.
Source:
Richmond Times-Dispatch, published November 20, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1918-11-10/ed-1/seq-37/#date1=1789&index=7&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This article was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper on November 10, 1918, blaming Alexandra for betrayal via secretly communicating intelligence information to her cousin and Russia's enemy Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, for the fall of the Romanov dynasty and ultimately the deaths of Nicholas and Alexei, as well as on reporting news on what happened to Nicholas's body and the way Alexei died that we now of course know is fabricated, gets the ages of Maria and Anastasia not only mixed up but further wrong, and other such fabrications, half-truths and exaggerations. But at that time, it was only made public that Nicholas and Alexei had been assassinated, which was the official news released then, and the rumour spread around the world that Alexandra and her daughters were probably still alive and their whereabouts unknown — when in reality they had been killed with Nicholas and Alexei in the pre-dawn hours of July 17, 1918, almost four months before this article was published.
The article:
The Terrible Retribution which has Punished the Czarina
How Her Plotting with Her Cousin, the Kaiser, Betrayed Russia, Dethroned Her Husband, Led to His Murder and the Cruel Death of Her Idolized Son -- Her Own and Her Daughters' Fate a Mystery
UTTER mystery surrounded the fate of the widowed Czarina of Russia and her four pretty young daughters up to four weeks ago, but vague reports from chaotic Russia created a strong impression that they had all been killed.
Concerning the little Czarevitch, the Czarina's only son, the reports left little doubt that he had perished. In a country where the executioners are killing daily until they drop from exhaustion at their work of slaughter, there can be little hope for members of the former ruling class who are caught in the whirlpool of anarchy.
While the fate of the delicately nurtured Czarina and her family must fill us with horror, it is still more amazing and shocking to learn that the unfortunate woman by her treachery brought about the entire tragedy of Russia.
Evidence had long shown that there was constant communication between the Russian court and the German military command. Our knowledge of this subject has just taken a long step forward. Commissioner Henry W. Mapp, of the Salvation Army, a responsible American who had been sent to Russia to relieve distress, came back with positive information that the Czarina herself had sent direct communication by her private wire from Tsarskoe Selo to the German Kaiser giving information that the British War Minister, Lord Kitchener, had sailed for Russia. Kitchener's mission was to provide for better co-operation between the Russian and Allied armies and to check the disorganization of the Russian armies which had already begun.
Kitchener sailed for Russia on the cruiser Hampshire in April, 1917, and the ship was torpedoed by the Germans off the north of Scotland and lost with everybody on board. This tragedy was directly traceable to the information supplied by the Czarina.
The latest evidence indicates that the Czarina constantly furnished to the Kaiser intelligence concerning Russian military movements. She was a cousin of the Kaiser, the sister of a reigning German sovereign, the Grand Duke of Hesse, a German princess herself by birth, training and instinct. Like the Queen of Greece and other royalties, she was a devoted and unreasoning adherent of the Kaiser.
Right well did she work for her imperial master. Through her treachery she brought about the ruin of her adopted country, the defeat of its armies and the demoralization of its entire political structure, previously weakened by terrible losses and sufferings.
Her treachery, according to this view, was the main factor that caused not only the collapse of the empire, but the death of her husband and her son, and, it appears probable, of herself and all her daughters.
Never perhaps in all history has there been a more perfect case of retribution for treachery.
The last days of the Czarina and her family would surely make a drama of unsurpassed terror. Lost in the wilds of the most desolate part of Russia, at the mercy of half-crazed Bolsheviki politicians, Red Guards and unwashed peasants, the condition of this family of delicately bred women defies description. The wretched Czarina, once the wife of the most absolute monarch in the world, the possessor of jewels valued at $100,000,000, had not even the power to communicate with her relatives and friends.
So great was the uncertainty about the Czarina's fate that His Holiness the Pope sent an inquiry about a month ago to the Austrian Ambassador at Petrograd, asking if he could find out what had happened to her and her daughters. The Austrians having nominally made peace with the Bolsheviki, it was supposed that they could obtain some information from them. The Ambassador answered His Holiness that their death had been reported and denied, and that no reliable information could be obtained.
The Pope then sent an ecclesiastic of high rank to Russia with instructions to find out definitely what happened to them and to remove them to a place of safety, if possible. As the place where the family were last heard from, Ekaterinburg, is nearly a thousand miles from Petrograd, and as railway travel is almost at an end, no one can say when the envoy will complete his mission.
One of the latest and most circumstantial reports declared that the Czarina and her four daughters had been murdered at a village near Ekaterinburg. A former court servant returned to Petrograd, who declared that he had seen certain details of the tragedy.
According to this man, there had arisen a violent quarrel in the local Soviet as to what should be done with the Czarina and her daughters. The six most bloodthirsty members of the Soviet, a butcher, an innkeeper and four peasants, then went to the house in which the poor women were imprisoned and shot them all.
After this the murderers burned down the house with all the bodies. The servant who brought this news declared that he had seen the charred bodies and some fragments of jewelry the princess had worn.
Russia now groans under a condition of anarchy in which local councils called "Soviets" exercise tyrannous power in their vicinity, while the central bodies at Moscow and Petrograd have little or no authority.
After the circumstantial report about the murder had been received, Lenine, the Bolshevist Prime Minister, announced that he had received a denial of it from Ekaterinburg and that the women were safe.
When the execution of ex-Czar Nicholas was decided on, his wife and children were separated from him in order that pity for them should not lead to any action that might save the fallen monarch. The whole family up to that time had been imprisoned at Tobolsk in Siberia. They were then taken to Ekaterinburg in European Russia, but while the ex-Czar was imprisoned in the town, the rest of the family were taken outside.
The Czar's execution has been reported in many ways from various sources. One report stated that he had faced the firing squad with bravery and steadiness, while another described him as collapsing in terror. The reports generally agreed that his last thoughts had been for his family and that his last words were:
"Have mercy on my wife and children!"
After the Czar's execution his body underwent a strange series of experiences, which suggest his own treatment of the fanatic Rasputin's remains. It will be recalled that the Czar recovered Rasputin's body from the Neva and buried it at midnight in a silver coffin with solemn ceremonies in the grounds of his palace at Tsarskoe Selo, from which it was dug up and carted away to Siberia by the revolutionists.
The Bolsheviki deliberately planned to treat Nicholas's body with the greatest possible indignity. They buried it in the "Suicides' Corner" of the local cemetery. In the eyes of the old-fashioned Russian peasants a suicide is the most hopeless of lost souls, worse even than a murderer, and the spot where such creatures are buried is passed with shuddering and loathing.
The body had not lain here many weeks, however, when a force of the Czecho-Slovak army, the released Austro-Hungarian soldiers who support the Allies, passed this way. They considered that the monarch who had supported the cause they believe in deserved better treatment. They therefore unearthed his body and buried it in consecrated ground with simple religious services.
But the body was not yet to rest. The "People's Army" consisting of Cossacks, obtained possession of the grave, and, being imbued with the old, deep, religious sentiment of Russia, they thought that the Soviet's treatment of the Czar's body was wicked and would bring divine anger on the country. They therefore exhumed the body again with much ceremony and prepared to give it solemn burial according to the rites of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It was enclosed in a zinc coffin with an outer case of Siberian cedar and placed in the Cathedral at Ekaterinburg under a guard composed of commanders of the People's Army. After that the body was carried away to be buried in a special sarcophagus at Omsk.
These details concerning the two burials were furnished by the newspaper Izvestia of Moscow.
Only scraps of information and rumors can be obtained concerning what happened to the Czarina and her children between their removal from Tobolsk and their reported reappearance at Ekaterinburg. This information has come through Russian Bolsheviki and peasants notorious for their untruthfulness and wild imaginations.
The circumstantial report has it that the Red Guards deliberately kept the delicate little Czarewitch out in a public square at Perm day and night for three days without food or shelter. At the end of this time the poor child died of pneumonia brought on by cold and starvation.
The child, whose birth Russia and the rest of the world awaited with anxiety for ten years, is now supposed to be in an unknown grave. Everybody will recall how the Czar and Czarina of Russia longed and prayed for the birth of a son for years. Four daughters in succession were born to the couple, and the Czarina nearly lost her mind through disappointment at her failure to bear the desired heir.
When, at last, in 1904, the little Czarevitch Alexis came, the Imperial couple were transported with joy. The entire thoughts of Russia's ruler were concentrated on this child. As he began to grow he received increased devotion from the Czar. The entire world was ransacked to gratify his wishes. From the strongly guarded precincts of the Russian Court came many reports of attempts by revolutionists on the boy's life. It was very positively stated that one attack had resulted in injury to his leg.
On public occasions after that the Czarevitch was observed to have a permanently stiffened right leg. Though of delicate health, he was a handsome and attractive boy.
How the late Czar spoiled his child is shown by an incident related by Dr. E.L. Dillon, the well-known English writer on Balkan affairs. Not long before the Czar's downfall a special British envoy, General Sir Arthur Paget, was sent to Petrograd to discuss closer cooperation between British and Russians. While he was talking with the Czar, the young Czarevitch got hold of the General's cap and placed it on the head of a female statue. When the Czar saw this he laughed so heartily that the conference was seriously interrupted.
Now, this spoiled heir of the world's greatest autocracy may have been put to death by a band of unwashed ruffians in an obscure village.
It was assumed that the report of the Czarevitch's death must be correct, because no mention was made of him when the rest of the Romanoff family reappeared at Ekaterinburg.
The four daughters of the Czarina were the Grand Duchess Olga, aged twenty-three; Grand Duchess Tatiana, aged twenty-one; Grand Duchess Anastasia, aged nineteen, and Grand Duchess Marie, aged fourteen. Their photographs prove that they were very handsome young girls and all accounts agree that they were charming and sweet.
After the Czar's downfall and a brief period of imprisonment in the palace at Tsarskoe Selo, they were removed to Tobolsk in Siberia. The whole family was forced to occupy the upper floor of a humble house that had belonged to a local tax collector. Revolutionary guards occupied the ground floor.
At first the fallen imperial family was treated with leniency, although subject to considerable privations. They had only one servant and the Czarina was obliged to do much of her own cooking. The deposed monarch and his wife were not allowed to go out except to church, and Nicholas tried to maintain his health by carrying pails of water upstairs. The little Czarevitch was only permitted to go into the public park for a few hours a day under an armed guard.
The young Grand Duchesses, however, were allowed considerable liberty at this stage. They mingled freely with the townspeople and travelled about the country. All signs of rank were discarded in their social relations and the young women were known simply as the Misses Romanoff. The Grand Duchess Olga learnt stenography and typewriting and fitted herself to earn her living in business. The second daughter, Grand Duchess Tatiana, began to train as a nurse. All the girls, in fact, were learning to live in a normal way under a democratic system.
The quarters in the private house were so cramped that the imperial family was removed after three months to the monastery of Tobolsk.
That was before the Russian revolution began to turn toward Bolshevism and terrorism. The anti-Bolshevist sentiments of the Siberians settled the fate of the fallen imperial family. They were removed from Tobolsk hastily by the Red Guards lest the Siberians or Czecho-Slovaks should reach them and liberate them. Then began the terrible journey toward European Russia in which Czar Nicholas lost his life, while the fate of the women was left in uncertainty.
Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper article on Alexandra's wartime nursing work, published August 8, 1915
Source:
Richmond Times-Dispatch, published August 8, 1915
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1915-08-08/ed-1/seq-45/#date1=1789&index=4&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The article:
How Her War Nursing Has Cured the Unhappy Czarina's Mind
Her Self-Sacrificing Ordeal Amid the Woe and Misery of the Army Hospitals Saves Russia's Empress from Hopeless Insanity
St. Petersburg, August 1.
IT is no secret that the mind of the Czarina of Russia has been seriously affected for many years past. She was subject to a marked form of melancholia, with other mental peculiarities. Physicians who had examined her feared that she was drifting into hopeless insanity.
And now, miracle of miracles! Her mental sickness has been completely cured by the war. That which has brought such unspeakable woe and misery to millions of people has brought relief to the once unhappy Czarina.
It is the serious hard work she has been doing as a war nurse that has benefited the Czarina's mind. Coming into close contact with pain and grim reality, with human patience and human weakness has lifted her out of her life of morbid self-concentration and exaggerated terrors, and made her a normal human being.
The Czarina has gone into war nursing in a most serious and efficient manner. She has established a hospital of her own, known as "the Court Hospital," at Tsarskoe Selo, the village where the famous Summer palace of the Czar is situated.
When the war broke out the Czarina, who is of a very sympathetic and impressionable nature, was horrified at the accounts of slaughter and suffering that reached her. At first she was nearly prostrated by these stories, and her condition became more serious than ever.
"What can I do? It is so dreadful! It is so dreadful!" moaned the poor nerve-wracked Empress.
The response of her entourage to these outbursts was to smother her with every care and luxury, and to do everything possible to distract her mind from the war by amusements and mental dissipations.
It was then that the Princess Gedroyc, a member of the highest nobility, who was become one of the most prominent women doctors of Russia, obtained the confidence of Her Majesty. She told her that the immense suffering among the soldiers could only be relieved by intelligent, properly trained women, and that the expression of aimless, purely emotional sympathy might do more harm than good.
The Czarina then began to throw herself into the organization of her hospital with much enthusiasm. It was equipped in the most perfect manner and placed under the direction of the Princess Gedroyc.
The Czarina and her two older daughters, the Grand Duchess Olga and the Grand Duchess Tatiana, then took a thorough course of training in the care of the wounded. They were able to obtain the best possible experience in their hospital. They took examinations like other war nurses and showed themselves thoroughly qualified for their work. It may be remarked that they have not had the same amount of study as regular trained nurses, but it must be remembered that it has been found absolutely necessary in all countries to qualify war nurses after less than the former period of training. The great difficulty of the doctors has been to protect the soldiers from nurses with no training at all.
The Czarina has given an amount of hard labor to this hospital which she probably never dreamed of, and which no Queen in Europe can equal. She works at the hospital with her daughters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, and often much later. She invariably returns in the evening, and sometimes, when she has a dangerously wounded patient, she stays there all night.
The Court Hospital accommodates two hundred soldiers and thirty officers. There is a perfectly equipped operating theatre, a commodious surgical dressing ward, and an up-to-date laboratory for X-ray work and research.
The Czarina and her beautiful daughters wear the regular nurses' uniform, which is entirely of white and covers the hair completely. There is a red cross on the left arm. Many men familiar with fashions, declare that it is the most winning, picturesque and becoming costume a woman can wear. It resembles a nun's dress somewhat, but is scientifically adapted to the requirements of the nursing profession.
The Czarina and her daughters take their orders from the director of the hospital and the other doctors, just as if they were ordinary nurses. They understood that it would cause great harm and embarrassment if they received special attention, and so they move about among the others without any distinction such as would have to be paid to them in the outside world.
The ordinary soldier is not told at first that his nurse is the Czarina. She takes hold of him in a business-like manner, hands the surgeon his instruments, bandages the patient's wounds, attends to all his wants and gives him his diet.
When she has performed all her duties she will often sit down by the bedside, take the soldier's hand and chat with him if he is well enough to listen. By the time he has learned that she is the Czarina he has become too accustomed to her ministrations to feel embarrassed.
The two pretty young daughters of the Czarina behave in the same professional yet friendly way. Many a poor fellow, with his spirit nearly crushed out of him by months of privation and dreadful perils, followed by terrible wounds, has been cheered up and brought to life again by the sympathetic smiles and gentle hands of these two charming young women.
The Czarina had no sooner begun to do this practical work among the wounded than a great change was noted in her manner and appearance. She lost the worried, harassed, melancholy air she had worn for many years. She even lost the intense nervousness she had exhibited at the slightest noise, such as the creaking of a board or the turning of a door handle. She acquired a cheerful though grave manner, thoroughly self-controlled and self-confident.
During an interval between her duties at the hospital the Czarina confessed to the director that she had experienced a complete mental and physical change since she had been there. Her Majesty's remarks on this subject have been conveyed to your correspondent, for she wishes everybody to know how pleased she is with her experience in the hospital.
"I have forgotten all my worries and ailments since I have been here," said the Czarina. "It is impossible to think of myself in the presence of all these poor fellows, who are enduring such real troubles when I used to make myself miserable over imaginary ones. My only interest in life is to see my patients get better. It is strange that the sight of so much suffering does not make one despondent, but the fact that one can work for them makes one hopeful and even cheerful. If I were only a visitor, making them a visit of sympathy, the sight would make me miserable. That often happened to me in other days when I made visits to hospitals, but now that I know how to do something for them the feeling is quite different.
"The patience and cheerfulness with which most of them bear their sufferings are a lesson to me. Many of them are crippled for life, and yet they are thankful to be alive. We who have all the material things we can desire and yet are not happy, have a great deal to learn from the poor, and this is the best opportunity I have ever had to learn."
When the patients are convalescent they are sent to recuperate in Finland, where, amid beautiful surroundings, they regain strength, and in most cases are ready to return to fight the enemy. Tsarskoe Selo is not suitable for the last stage of treatment, for this little town, besides Her Majesty's hospital, has numerous private institutions in which several thousand wounded are always being cared for.
The hospital which has thus been equipped is in a wing of the Czar's Palace. In rooms which still retain the royal furniture are white bedsteads with the wounded lying in them. Every day a "sanitary" train from different parts of the theatre of war brings many carriages full of wounded directly to Tsarskoe Selo. Count Schulenburg, who was formerly the principal court official, is the chief of the sanitary train, which is named "The Tsarevitch Train," after the Crown Prince Alexis.
The train possesses an operating theatre for urgent cases and almost every hospital appliance in miniature. Especial care is taken of the seriously wounded, beds are arranged as stretchers, and one end of the carriage can be entirely opened. Thanks to this the wounded are thus easily moved, avoiding all difficulties which may occur in turning the bed through a doorway.
Those carriages which do not possess this ingenious device are used for patients who are only slightly wounded; but here, again, one of the doctors who belongs to the staff of the train has invented a stretcher which avoids much of the common discomforts of being carried in this way. They are longitudinally and horizontally flexible, and consequently they pass through any doorway with a semi-circular movement, and all the time the position of the patient is comfortable.
Every carriage has electric bells and telephones. The train goes as near as possible to the firing line, and motor-cars or horse vehicles are sent to advanced positions to fetch in the wounded. The train arrives in Tsarskoe Selo at the Czar's private station, which is not open to the public. The Czarina very often meets the train in person. The chief of the train gives a full account of his wounded, and they are directed to different hospitals. Every wounded man is ticketed with the name of the hospital to which he is dispatched.
After the arrival of the wounded in hospital all linen is changed, they are bathed and placed in comfortable beds, and among them all, like guardian angels, the Tsarina and her daughters give them every help and their sympathy. Those hundreds of wounded will go to different villages and towns, to remote parts of the vast land of Russia, carrying with them the memories of the good Tsarina, who has shown to all a mother's love for her children, while she on her part must be no less grateful to them for having rescued her from an unfortunate mental condition.
—
Why the Czarina's Mind Has Been Restored
By A.K. Vandeventer, Ph. D.,
The Distinguished American Psychologist.
ALTHOUGH the occurrence must seem strange to a lay mind, there is nothing surprising to the alienist in the statement that the Czarina of Russia has recovered from her mental disease under the influence of her war occupations. That which unbalances the minds of sane people may in some cases restore the equilibrium of the mentally unbalanced.
From the accounts we have received of the Czarina's former condition we must believe that she was suffering from a mild form of melancholia. A sensitive and emotional young woman at the time of her entry into the Russian court, her whole nature was repeatedly shocked by the terrorist attempts on the life of her husband, herself, and their family, by the intrigues constantly pursued in court circles, and by the frequently strange and erratic outbursts of the Russian character. The burden of repeated maternity increased the strain on her physical organism, and the knowledge that the Czar and the Russian nation were disappointed at her long failure to produce a male heir to the throne did not lessen this strain.
The court could do nothing to protect her against these troubles except to surround her with every possible luxury and keep her in perfect idleness. Against secret and imaginary terrors it gave her less than no protection. Under these conditions she must have developed a habit of morbid self-introspection, which greatly increased the tendency to melancholia.
Then came the great war, in which the life of almost everyone around her was at stake. The habit of doing serious work which she then acquired, and the contact with wounded soldiers excited in her the normal reactions which all human beings should experience in their relations with one another. We must suppose that there was no gross or serious lesion in her brain. The sudden resumption of normal contact with her fellow beings of which she had long been deprived, but under circumstances very exciting and stimulating, restored to her deranged mental apparatus the "tone" without which it could not function properly.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, published August 8, 1915
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1915-08-08/ed-1/seq-45/#date1=1789&index=4&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The article:
How Her War Nursing Has Cured the Unhappy Czarina's Mind
Her Self-Sacrificing Ordeal Amid the Woe and Misery of the Army Hospitals Saves Russia's Empress from Hopeless Insanity
St. Petersburg, August 1.
IT is no secret that the mind of the Czarina of Russia has been seriously affected for many years past. She was subject to a marked form of melancholia, with other mental peculiarities. Physicians who had examined her feared that she was drifting into hopeless insanity.
And now, miracle of miracles! Her mental sickness has been completely cured by the war. That which has brought such unspeakable woe and misery to millions of people has brought relief to the once unhappy Czarina.
It is the serious hard work she has been doing as a war nurse that has benefited the Czarina's mind. Coming into close contact with pain and grim reality, with human patience and human weakness has lifted her out of her life of morbid self-concentration and exaggerated terrors, and made her a normal human being.
The Czarina has gone into war nursing in a most serious and efficient manner. She has established a hospital of her own, known as "the Court Hospital," at Tsarskoe Selo, the village where the famous Summer palace of the Czar is situated.
When the war broke out the Czarina, who is of a very sympathetic and impressionable nature, was horrified at the accounts of slaughter and suffering that reached her. At first she was nearly prostrated by these stories, and her condition became more serious than ever.
"What can I do? It is so dreadful! It is so dreadful!" moaned the poor nerve-wracked Empress.
The response of her entourage to these outbursts was to smother her with every care and luxury, and to do everything possible to distract her mind from the war by amusements and mental dissipations.
It was then that the Princess Gedroyc, a member of the highest nobility, who was become one of the most prominent women doctors of Russia, obtained the confidence of Her Majesty. She told her that the immense suffering among the soldiers could only be relieved by intelligent, properly trained women, and that the expression of aimless, purely emotional sympathy might do more harm than good.
The Czarina then began to throw herself into the organization of her hospital with much enthusiasm. It was equipped in the most perfect manner and placed under the direction of the Princess Gedroyc.
The Czarina and her two older daughters, the Grand Duchess Olga and the Grand Duchess Tatiana, then took a thorough course of training in the care of the wounded. They were able to obtain the best possible experience in their hospital. They took examinations like other war nurses and showed themselves thoroughly qualified for their work. It may be remarked that they have not had the same amount of study as regular trained nurses, but it must be remembered that it has been found absolutely necessary in all countries to qualify war nurses after less than the former period of training. The great difficulty of the doctors has been to protect the soldiers from nurses with no training at all.
The Czarina has given an amount of hard labor to this hospital which she probably never dreamed of, and which no Queen in Europe can equal. She works at the hospital with her daughters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day, and often much later. She invariably returns in the evening, and sometimes, when she has a dangerously wounded patient, she stays there all night.
The Court Hospital accommodates two hundred soldiers and thirty officers. There is a perfectly equipped operating theatre, a commodious surgical dressing ward, and an up-to-date laboratory for X-ray work and research.
The Czarina and her beautiful daughters wear the regular nurses' uniform, which is entirely of white and covers the hair completely. There is a red cross on the left arm. Many men familiar with fashions, declare that it is the most winning, picturesque and becoming costume a woman can wear. It resembles a nun's dress somewhat, but is scientifically adapted to the requirements of the nursing profession.
The Czarina and her daughters take their orders from the director of the hospital and the other doctors, just as if they were ordinary nurses. They understood that it would cause great harm and embarrassment if they received special attention, and so they move about among the others without any distinction such as would have to be paid to them in the outside world.
The ordinary soldier is not told at first that his nurse is the Czarina. She takes hold of him in a business-like manner, hands the surgeon his instruments, bandages the patient's wounds, attends to all his wants and gives him his diet.
When she has performed all her duties she will often sit down by the bedside, take the soldier's hand and chat with him if he is well enough to listen. By the time he has learned that she is the Czarina he has become too accustomed to her ministrations to feel embarrassed.
The two pretty young daughters of the Czarina behave in the same professional yet friendly way. Many a poor fellow, with his spirit nearly crushed out of him by months of privation and dreadful perils, followed by terrible wounds, has been cheered up and brought to life again by the sympathetic smiles and gentle hands of these two charming young women.
The Czarina had no sooner begun to do this practical work among the wounded than a great change was noted in her manner and appearance. She lost the worried, harassed, melancholy air she had worn for many years. She even lost the intense nervousness she had exhibited at the slightest noise, such as the creaking of a board or the turning of a door handle. She acquired a cheerful though grave manner, thoroughly self-controlled and self-confident.
During an interval between her duties at the hospital the Czarina confessed to the director that she had experienced a complete mental and physical change since she had been there. Her Majesty's remarks on this subject have been conveyed to your correspondent, for she wishes everybody to know how pleased she is with her experience in the hospital.
"I have forgotten all my worries and ailments since I have been here," said the Czarina. "It is impossible to think of myself in the presence of all these poor fellows, who are enduring such real troubles when I used to make myself miserable over imaginary ones. My only interest in life is to see my patients get better. It is strange that the sight of so much suffering does not make one despondent, but the fact that one can work for them makes one hopeful and even cheerful. If I were only a visitor, making them a visit of sympathy, the sight would make me miserable. That often happened to me in other days when I made visits to hospitals, but now that I know how to do something for them the feeling is quite different.
"The patience and cheerfulness with which most of them bear their sufferings are a lesson to me. Many of them are crippled for life, and yet they are thankful to be alive. We who have all the material things we can desire and yet are not happy, have a great deal to learn from the poor, and this is the best opportunity I have ever had to learn."
When the patients are convalescent they are sent to recuperate in Finland, where, amid beautiful surroundings, they regain strength, and in most cases are ready to return to fight the enemy. Tsarskoe Selo is not suitable for the last stage of treatment, for this little town, besides Her Majesty's hospital, has numerous private institutions in which several thousand wounded are always being cared for.
The hospital which has thus been equipped is in a wing of the Czar's Palace. In rooms which still retain the royal furniture are white bedsteads with the wounded lying in them. Every day a "sanitary" train from different parts of the theatre of war brings many carriages full of wounded directly to Tsarskoe Selo. Count Schulenburg, who was formerly the principal court official, is the chief of the sanitary train, which is named "The Tsarevitch Train," after the Crown Prince Alexis.
The train possesses an operating theatre for urgent cases and almost every hospital appliance in miniature. Especial care is taken of the seriously wounded, beds are arranged as stretchers, and one end of the carriage can be entirely opened. Thanks to this the wounded are thus easily moved, avoiding all difficulties which may occur in turning the bed through a doorway.
Those carriages which do not possess this ingenious device are used for patients who are only slightly wounded; but here, again, one of the doctors who belongs to the staff of the train has invented a stretcher which avoids much of the common discomforts of being carried in this way. They are longitudinally and horizontally flexible, and consequently they pass through any doorway with a semi-circular movement, and all the time the position of the patient is comfortable.
Every carriage has electric bells and telephones. The train goes as near as possible to the firing line, and motor-cars or horse vehicles are sent to advanced positions to fetch in the wounded. The train arrives in Tsarskoe Selo at the Czar's private station, which is not open to the public. The Czarina very often meets the train in person. The chief of the train gives a full account of his wounded, and they are directed to different hospitals. Every wounded man is ticketed with the name of the hospital to which he is dispatched.
After the arrival of the wounded in hospital all linen is changed, they are bathed and placed in comfortable beds, and among them all, like guardian angels, the Tsarina and her daughters give them every help and their sympathy. Those hundreds of wounded will go to different villages and towns, to remote parts of the vast land of Russia, carrying with them the memories of the good Tsarina, who has shown to all a mother's love for her children, while she on her part must be no less grateful to them for having rescued her from an unfortunate mental condition.
—
Why the Czarina's Mind Has Been Restored
By A.K. Vandeventer, Ph. D.,
The Distinguished American Psychologist.
ALTHOUGH the occurrence must seem strange to a lay mind, there is nothing surprising to the alienist in the statement that the Czarina of Russia has recovered from her mental disease under the influence of her war occupations. That which unbalances the minds of sane people may in some cases restore the equilibrium of the mentally unbalanced.
From the accounts we have received of the Czarina's former condition we must believe that she was suffering from a mild form of melancholia. A sensitive and emotional young woman at the time of her entry into the Russian court, her whole nature was repeatedly shocked by the terrorist attempts on the life of her husband, herself, and their family, by the intrigues constantly pursued in court circles, and by the frequently strange and erratic outbursts of the Russian character. The burden of repeated maternity increased the strain on her physical organism, and the knowledge that the Czar and the Russian nation were disappointed at her long failure to produce a male heir to the throne did not lessen this strain.
The court could do nothing to protect her against these troubles except to surround her with every possible luxury and keep her in perfect idleness. Against secret and imaginary terrors it gave her less than no protection. Under these conditions she must have developed a habit of morbid self-introspection, which greatly increased the tendency to melancholia.
Then came the great war, in which the life of almost everyone around her was at stake. The habit of doing serious work which she then acquired, and the contact with wounded soldiers excited in her the normal reactions which all human beings should experience in their relations with one another. We must suppose that there was no gross or serious lesion in her brain. The sudden resumption of normal contact with her fellow beings of which she had long been deprived, but under circumstances very exciting and stimulating, restored to her deranged mental apparatus the "tone" without which it could not function properly.
Chicago newspaper highlight on Alexandra's anxiety over Alexei, year 1913
Source:
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on December 9, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1913-12-09/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1789&index=1&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This highlight was published in the December 9, 1913 issue of the Chicago, Illinois newspaper The Day Book, Noon Edition. It reputes Alexandra to be the "unhappiest" royal mother in the world and falsely claims that Alexei was attacked by a nihilist.
The highlight:
UNHAPPIST ROYAL MOTHER IN THE WORLD
Here is the latest picture of the unhappiest royal mother in all the world and her son. She is the Czarina of Russia. With her is the little Czarevitch who was attacked and disabled by a nihilist some years ago. The Czarina's constant anxiety over her son's safety has cut deep lines in her face and has dimmed and saddened her once bright eyes.
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on December 9, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1913-12-09/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1789&index=1&rows=20&words=Czarina&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Czarina&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
This highlight was published in the December 9, 1913 issue of the Chicago, Illinois newspaper The Day Book, Noon Edition. It reputes Alexandra to be the "unhappiest" royal mother in the world and falsely claims that Alexei was attacked by a nihilist.
The highlight:
UNHAPPIST ROYAL MOTHER IN THE WORLD
Here is the latest picture of the unhappiest royal mother in all the world and her son. She is the Czarina of Russia. With her is the little Czarevitch who was attacked and disabled by a nihilist some years ago. The Czarina's constant anxiety over her son's safety has cut deep lines in her face and has dimmed and saddened her once bright eyes.
Chicago newspaper highlight on Alexandra's new life in captivity, year 1917
Source:
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on March 19, 1917
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-19/ed-1/seq-11/
The highlight:
REVOLUTIONISTS GUARD OVER CZARINA
Czarina Alexandra, wife of deposed Czar Nicholas, is held captive by the revolutionists who have taken over control of the Russian government, and is held with the czar under guard. She is daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV. of Hesse and was married to the czar in 1894.
The Day Book, Noon Edition, published in Chicago, Illinois on March 19, 1917
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-19/ed-1/seq-11/
The highlight:
REVOLUTIONISTS GUARD OVER CZARINA
Czarina Alexandra, wife of deposed Czar Nicholas, is held captive by the revolutionists who have taken over control of the Russian government, and is held with the czar under guard. She is daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV. of Hesse and was married to the czar in 1894.
San Fransisco newspaper article on Nicholas and Alexandra's wedding, year 1894
Source:
The Morning Call, published in San Fransisco on Tuesday morning, November 27, 1894
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1894-11-27/ed-1/seq-1/
The article:
NICOLAS AND ALIX.
—
Joined at Last in Holy Matrimony.
—
AS CZAR AND CZARINA.
—
The Proudest Sovereigns of the World.
—
WILL RULE IN WHITE RUSSIA.
—
While Millions Kneel Before Them and Prisoners Are Set Free in Their Honor.
—
ST. PETERSBURG, NOV. 26. — Before 7 o'clock this morning large crowds were assembled in Newsky Prospect to secure places along the route of the royal wedding procession. From Anitchkoff Palace to the Winter Palace the avenue was lined with troops. There was not an inch of space to spare along the Grand Morskaika Prospect and on the square in front of the Winter Palace.
At 11:15, at a distance, were heard strains of the national anthem, and the multitudes uncovered in anticipation of the approach of the bridal party. Soon after there appeared the open state carriage, drawn by four white horses. In this vehicle were the Czar and his brother, Grand Duke Michael. They both wore uniforms of Hussars of the Guard, and were greeted with a vociferous burst of cheering, which was renewed again and again.
The Czar's equipage was preceded and followed by detachments of chevaliers and guards and hussars and lancers of the Guard, all in brilliant gala uniform. Then came a superb landau, also drawn by four white horses, in which were the Princess Alix and the Czarina. They received, if possible, even a more hearty greeting than the Czar himself. Handkerchiefs and hats were waved in the air and the most intense enthusiasm prevailed. After the carriage of the Princess and Czarina followed a long train of carriages with the royal guests, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Irene of Prussia, Grand Duchess Sergius and other prominent members of the imperial family, as well as all the wedding guests.
Military bands were stationed at various points along the route and each struck up the national hymn as the cortege appeared. The national hymn was sounded in the ears of the imperial party along the entire route. The wedding procession entered the Winter Palace at 1:15 P.M., where, as soon as possible afterward, were assembled all those invited to the wedding.
Reaching the Winter Palace the royal party entered the Malachite Hall, where the bridal procession was formed. At its head were the court functionaries and then came the Czarina, escorted by the King of Denmark, her father; the Czar and Princess Alix came next, followed by the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the imperial and royal families and a batch of court officials bringing up the rear. The procession first slowly traversed the Concert Hall, the panels on the walls being the silver plates upon which the Russian people presented to the late Czar bread and salt during his journey through the empire and on the occasion of his coronation. A large crystal candelabra was suspended from the ceiling.
The Nicholas Hall was next entered by the wedding party. It was decorated with white and gold and adorned by richly embellished panels, the work of famous artist. In the center of the hall was a striking portrait of Nicholas I. The bridal procession then traversed the Enore Hall, splendidly decorated in empire style, the Field Marshals' Salon, where a variety of large war paintings adorned the walls, and then passed through the famous Petroffsky Hall, in which stands the throne of Peter the Great, and which is graced with ancient furniture of oxidized silver. From this magnificent apartment the wedding procession slowly passed through the hall of the Court of Arms, named after the enormous allegorical figures of Russians, which stand about the walls, holding in their hands the escutcheons of all the governments of the empire.
The bridal procession then found itself in the Pikotnay room, which adjoins the church. In this room remained the majority of the officials and the members of the lesser nobility, only the imperial family and their social guests and the indispensable functionaries passing into the small chapel, which is most gorgeous, glittering with gold and stucco work. On the right hand of the chapel, in glass cases, were the sacred relics brought to Russia by the Knights of Malta, including the hand of St. John the Baptist, the Martyr Saint Irene and the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary. These are ornamented with enormous sapphires in the form of bears.
The costumes in the chapel were dazzling. Most of the ladies wore the Russian costumes, very low before and behind and with arms bare almost to the shoulders. The bride's dress was white, richly embroidered with gold, and on her head was the usual kokoshnik belonging to the costume, ornamented with diamonds. The bride's mantle was of purple velvet lined with ermine.
The head dresses of the old court ladies were of ancient gold brocade, adorned with sapphires, emeralds and rubies.
The bride's train was borne by five officials, two walking on either side, while the Grand Chamberlain held the hem. The Czar wore the uniform of the famous Red Hussars of the Guard with a dolman suspended from the right shoulder.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha wore Russian uniforms, while the Duke of York wore a naval uniform. All the royal princes wore the cordon of the order of St. Andrew.
In the center of the chapel of the Winter Palace stood a holy table, on which had been placed the gospel and a cross. Between the table and altar were multi-branched candelabra with lighted tapers. Behind the table facing the altar stood the Preto-presbytery Yanischeffe, attired in gorgeous vestments of cloth of gold. Close behind the bridal pair the imperial and royal spectators formed a semi-circle. The ceremony was concluded a few minutes before two o'clock. The Czar and his bride then approached the Dowager Czarina to greet and thank her. She embraced her son and his wife, after which they were embraced and kissed by the King of Denmark and other relatives. Everybody was much moved and the bride was in tears. The Czar was very pale and was visibly affected.
When all the wedding guests were assembled the marriage ceremony was carried out according to the rites of the Greek church. The wedding procession was re-formed and the guests re-entered their carriages. The Dowager Czarina was the first to arrive back at the Winter Palace. The Czar with the Czarina returned to the Anitchkoff Palace in the same landau amid the unbounded enthusiasm of the immense crowds gathered to greet them. The Czar graciously saluted the crowds on either side of the route, and the Czarina bowed, too, repeatedly. On reaching the Cathedral of Kazan, which is a most imposing edifice, half surrounded by a colonnade recalling St. Peter's at Rome, there was a remarkable spectacle. There was literally a sea of heads extending up the Newsky Prospect, and the multitudes were so densely packed that the troops had great difficulty in preserving a passage for the wedding march. The bells in all the churches were merrily pealing the wedding chimes, and above all could be heard the distant booming of cannon from the fortresses and other places. The crowds had waited for hours with considerable patience, which was converted into enthusiastic cheering as the first detachment of cavalry escorting the Dowager Czarina dashed by and announced the return of the imperial party. The Dowager Czarina pushed on ahead to the Anitchkoff Palace in order to be the first to greet the newly married couple on their arrival there.
When the second cavalry escort trotted up followed in an open carriage by the Czar and the Czarina there was an unexampled scene of enthusiasm. The imperial carriage stopped before the Cathedral of Kazan in order to allow the newly married pair to invoke the blessing of the Almighty. The Czar and Czarina were received on the porch by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and the high clergy bearing the cross and holy water. A Te Deum was celebrated inside the cathedral, the Metropolitan proper praying the Almighty to bless the Czar and Czarina and to guide them in their paths of duty.
When the Czar reappeared on the cathedral steps after the religious ceremonies within, and kissed the miraculous image of Our Lady of Kazan, the enthusiasm of the people was beyond all description. The brilliancy of the spectacle at this moment was enhanced by a sudden burst of sunshine from the clouds which had hitherto darkened the city. The appearance of the golden rays was regarded as a good augury by the immense crowds present, who cheered themselves hoarse as the Czar and Czarina re-entered their carriage and returned to the Anitchkoff Palace.
When the newly wedded pair arrived at the Anitchkoff Palace they were received and welcomed by the Dowager Czarina, who had preceded them for this purpose. Later the Czar and Czarina, accompanied by Grand Duchess Olga, youngest sister of the Czar, appeared at the window of the palace overlooking the Newsky Prospect. Here they stood for fifteen minutes, bowing repeatedly in response to the acclamations of the multitude gathered outside the palace. Grand Duchess Olga, with girlish enthusiasm, repeatedly kissed her hand to the crowd. The Czarina leaned on the arm of her husband and smiled radiantly on the throng. There were several similar demonstrations during the next hour.
The Czar's manifesto mentioned in the dispatches last night was issued to-night. His Majesty in honor of his marriage remits various debts to the crown, including the repayment of the grants made to the peasants on account of famines. He also wholly remits arrears of taxes and fines and mitigates or shortens sentences of imprisonment, police supervision and deportation at hard labor. The prosecution for treason of offenders who have remained undiscovered for fifteen years will be abandoned. The indulgences to present prisoners will be decided upon after a report has been submitted to the Czar by the Minister of the Interior. Amnesty is granted to the participants in the Polish rebellion of 1863, and they will be permitted to reside anywhere in Russia. Their civil rights, but not their property, will be restored to them.
In honor of the Czar's wedding 40,000 poor people of this city will dine to-day at the expense of the Czar. All the schools have been closed for three days to give the children a holiday and enable them to celebrate the marriage.
The ordinary theaters to-day received permission to recommence their performances.
According to current reports the Czar has caused consternation among the officers of his household by leaving the palace unattended and walking through the streets in a military mantle, arm in arm with the first officer who recognized him. On Saturday the Czar went for a walk with Princess Alix, entered a glovestore and made several purchases. On leaving he was recognized by the people and loudly cheered.
His Majesty has also received the Ministers very graciously. When M. de Giers, Minister of Foreign Affairs, tendered his resignation, he said he hoped they would work together for a long time yet. To this De Giers replied: "But, Your Majesty, look at my feet. They cannot carry me." Whereupon the Czar replied: "I do not want your feet. I only want your head."
The Morning Call, published in San Fransisco on Tuesday morning, November 27, 1894
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94052989/1894-11-27/ed-1/seq-1/
The article:
NICOLAS AND ALIX.
—
Joined at Last in Holy Matrimony.
—
AS CZAR AND CZARINA.
—
The Proudest Sovereigns of the World.
—
WILL RULE IN WHITE RUSSIA.
—
While Millions Kneel Before Them and Prisoners Are Set Free in Their Honor.
—
ST. PETERSBURG, NOV. 26. — Before 7 o'clock this morning large crowds were assembled in Newsky Prospect to secure places along the route of the royal wedding procession. From Anitchkoff Palace to the Winter Palace the avenue was lined with troops. There was not an inch of space to spare along the Grand Morskaika Prospect and on the square in front of the Winter Palace.
At 11:15, at a distance, were heard strains of the national anthem, and the multitudes uncovered in anticipation of the approach of the bridal party. Soon after there appeared the open state carriage, drawn by four white horses. In this vehicle were the Czar and his brother, Grand Duke Michael. They both wore uniforms of Hussars of the Guard, and were greeted with a vociferous burst of cheering, which was renewed again and again.
The Czar's equipage was preceded and followed by detachments of chevaliers and guards and hussars and lancers of the Guard, all in brilliant gala uniform. Then came a superb landau, also drawn by four white horses, in which were the Princess Alix and the Czarina. They received, if possible, even a more hearty greeting than the Czar himself. Handkerchiefs and hats were waved in the air and the most intense enthusiasm prevailed. After the carriage of the Princess and Czarina followed a long train of carriages with the royal guests, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Irene of Prussia, Grand Duchess Sergius and other prominent members of the imperial family, as well as all the wedding guests.
Military bands were stationed at various points along the route and each struck up the national hymn as the cortege appeared. The national hymn was sounded in the ears of the imperial party along the entire route. The wedding procession entered the Winter Palace at 1:15 P.M., where, as soon as possible afterward, were assembled all those invited to the wedding.
Reaching the Winter Palace the royal party entered the Malachite Hall, where the bridal procession was formed. At its head were the court functionaries and then came the Czarina, escorted by the King of Denmark, her father; the Czar and Princess Alix came next, followed by the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the imperial and royal families and a batch of court officials bringing up the rear. The procession first slowly traversed the Concert Hall, the panels on the walls being the silver plates upon which the Russian people presented to the late Czar bread and salt during his journey through the empire and on the occasion of his coronation. A large crystal candelabra was suspended from the ceiling.
The Nicholas Hall was next entered by the wedding party. It was decorated with white and gold and adorned by richly embellished panels, the work of famous artist. In the center of the hall was a striking portrait of Nicholas I. The bridal procession then traversed the Enore Hall, splendidly decorated in empire style, the Field Marshals' Salon, where a variety of large war paintings adorned the walls, and then passed through the famous Petroffsky Hall, in which stands the throne of Peter the Great, and which is graced with ancient furniture of oxidized silver. From this magnificent apartment the wedding procession slowly passed through the hall of the Court of Arms, named after the enormous allegorical figures of Russians, which stand about the walls, holding in their hands the escutcheons of all the governments of the empire.
The bridal procession then found itself in the Pikotnay room, which adjoins the church. In this room remained the majority of the officials and the members of the lesser nobility, only the imperial family and their social guests and the indispensable functionaries passing into the small chapel, which is most gorgeous, glittering with gold and stucco work. On the right hand of the chapel, in glass cases, were the sacred relics brought to Russia by the Knights of Malta, including the hand of St. John the Baptist, the Martyr Saint Irene and the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary. These are ornamented with enormous sapphires in the form of bears.
The costumes in the chapel were dazzling. Most of the ladies wore the Russian costumes, very low before and behind and with arms bare almost to the shoulders. The bride's dress was white, richly embroidered with gold, and on her head was the usual kokoshnik belonging to the costume, ornamented with diamonds. The bride's mantle was of purple velvet lined with ermine.
The head dresses of the old court ladies were of ancient gold brocade, adorned with sapphires, emeralds and rubies.
The bride's train was borne by five officials, two walking on either side, while the Grand Chamberlain held the hem. The Czar wore the uniform of the famous Red Hussars of the Guard with a dolman suspended from the right shoulder.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha wore Russian uniforms, while the Duke of York wore a naval uniform. All the royal princes wore the cordon of the order of St. Andrew.
In the center of the chapel of the Winter Palace stood a holy table, on which had been placed the gospel and a cross. Between the table and altar were multi-branched candelabra with lighted tapers. Behind the table facing the altar stood the Preto-presbytery Yanischeffe, attired in gorgeous vestments of cloth of gold. Close behind the bridal pair the imperial and royal spectators formed a semi-circle. The ceremony was concluded a few minutes before two o'clock. The Czar and his bride then approached the Dowager Czarina to greet and thank her. She embraced her son and his wife, after which they were embraced and kissed by the King of Denmark and other relatives. Everybody was much moved and the bride was in tears. The Czar was very pale and was visibly affected.
When all the wedding guests were assembled the marriage ceremony was carried out according to the rites of the Greek church. The wedding procession was re-formed and the guests re-entered their carriages. The Dowager Czarina was the first to arrive back at the Winter Palace. The Czar with the Czarina returned to the Anitchkoff Palace in the same landau amid the unbounded enthusiasm of the immense crowds gathered to greet them. The Czar graciously saluted the crowds on either side of the route, and the Czarina bowed, too, repeatedly. On reaching the Cathedral of Kazan, which is a most imposing edifice, half surrounded by a colonnade recalling St. Peter's at Rome, there was a remarkable spectacle. There was literally a sea of heads extending up the Newsky Prospect, and the multitudes were so densely packed that the troops had great difficulty in preserving a passage for the wedding march. The bells in all the churches were merrily pealing the wedding chimes, and above all could be heard the distant booming of cannon from the fortresses and other places. The crowds had waited for hours with considerable patience, which was converted into enthusiastic cheering as the first detachment of cavalry escorting the Dowager Czarina dashed by and announced the return of the imperial party. The Dowager Czarina pushed on ahead to the Anitchkoff Palace in order to be the first to greet the newly married couple on their arrival there.
When the second cavalry escort trotted up followed in an open carriage by the Czar and the Czarina there was an unexampled scene of enthusiasm. The imperial carriage stopped before the Cathedral of Kazan in order to allow the newly married pair to invoke the blessing of the Almighty. The Czar and Czarina were received on the porch by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and the high clergy bearing the cross and holy water. A Te Deum was celebrated inside the cathedral, the Metropolitan proper praying the Almighty to bless the Czar and Czarina and to guide them in their paths of duty.
When the Czar reappeared on the cathedral steps after the religious ceremonies within, and kissed the miraculous image of Our Lady of Kazan, the enthusiasm of the people was beyond all description. The brilliancy of the spectacle at this moment was enhanced by a sudden burst of sunshine from the clouds which had hitherto darkened the city. The appearance of the golden rays was regarded as a good augury by the immense crowds present, who cheered themselves hoarse as the Czar and Czarina re-entered their carriage and returned to the Anitchkoff Palace.
When the newly wedded pair arrived at the Anitchkoff Palace they were received and welcomed by the Dowager Czarina, who had preceded them for this purpose. Later the Czar and Czarina, accompanied by Grand Duchess Olga, youngest sister of the Czar, appeared at the window of the palace overlooking the Newsky Prospect. Here they stood for fifteen minutes, bowing repeatedly in response to the acclamations of the multitude gathered outside the palace. Grand Duchess Olga, with girlish enthusiasm, repeatedly kissed her hand to the crowd. The Czarina leaned on the arm of her husband and smiled radiantly on the throng. There were several similar demonstrations during the next hour.
The Czar's manifesto mentioned in the dispatches last night was issued to-night. His Majesty in honor of his marriage remits various debts to the crown, including the repayment of the grants made to the peasants on account of famines. He also wholly remits arrears of taxes and fines and mitigates or shortens sentences of imprisonment, police supervision and deportation at hard labor. The prosecution for treason of offenders who have remained undiscovered for fifteen years will be abandoned. The indulgences to present prisoners will be decided upon after a report has been submitted to the Czar by the Minister of the Interior. Amnesty is granted to the participants in the Polish rebellion of 1863, and they will be permitted to reside anywhere in Russia. Their civil rights, but not their property, will be restored to them.
In honor of the Czar's wedding 40,000 poor people of this city will dine to-day at the expense of the Czar. All the schools have been closed for three days to give the children a holiday and enable them to celebrate the marriage.
The ordinary theaters to-day received permission to recommence their performances.
According to current reports the Czar has caused consternation among the officers of his household by leaving the palace unattended and walking through the streets in a military mantle, arm in arm with the first officer who recognized him. On Saturday the Czar went for a walk with Princess Alix, entered a glovestore and made several purchases. On leaving he was recognized by the people and loudly cheered.
His Majesty has also received the Ministers very graciously. When M. de Giers, Minister of Foreign Affairs, tendered his resignation, he said he hoped they would work together for a long time yet. To this De Giers replied: "But, Your Majesty, look at my feet. They cannot carry me." Whereupon the Czar replied: "I do not want your feet. I only want your head."
Sunday, February 23, 2020
San Fransisco newspaper article about Alix, year 1894
Source:
Trousseau of an Empress, published in The San Fransisco Call, Tuesday morning on November 27, 1894
http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=87.5;wap2
The article:
TROUSSEAU OF AN EMPRESS
Some of the Pretty Things Provided for Alix.
Princess Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse, Czarina of Russia, is the youngest living child of the late Grand Duke Louis of Hesse and is sister to the present Grand Duke. Her mother was the Princess Alix, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and she is, therefore, a grandchild of the Queen of England. Her three older sisters, the Princesses Victoria, Elizabeth and Irene, are married to Prince Louise of Battenberg, the Grand Duke Sergius of Russia and Prince Henry of Prussia, respectively. It will be seen that the Hesse family is closely linked with the Russian imperial house, for the late Czar's mother was Princess Marie of Hesse, while her nephew and his son have both sought their brides in the same quarter.
One of the most imposing and important items in the marriage basket of Alix of Hesse is the numerous and varied styles of the specially made stockings prepared for her Royal Highness by a Nottingham manufacturer. The Princess has evidently a neat taste in all things pertaining to her footgear, and many of the designs chosen are her own original efforts. Her royal grandmamma gave the young Empress most of her lingerie, which is, therefore, nearly all of English manufacture.
There are many pairs of very fine silken hose in pale pink, pale blue, a silvery tone of gray and most delicate French gray and green to be worn with evening dresses. These are all embroidered in fine little raised sprays, with pale colorings in silk, either contrasting in hue or admirably harmonizing with the stockings themselves. For ordinary day wear there are liberal numbers of black spun silk, thick and durable, and having a very pretty light open-work design up the center of the foot. Many are of fine black silk, for indoor wear with smart afternoon dresses, and they are embroidered in a small Paislay design, and some in wild flower sprays, called respectively "chintz" and "Dolly Varden." It is interesting to know that these are all of English make and that the embroidery has been wrought by the nimble fingers of Nottingham cottagers. There are some pairs of a design in broken lines of bright color crossing a black ground, such as red and bronze lines on a similar somber background. These are decidedly original and most becoming to a pretty foot. Many pairs in silver gray have lines and dots through them of paler gray, looking by contrast almost white. Others are black, embroidered in pale color, such as clover, periwinkle, anthurium and gloxinia, all designed to match dresses with which they will eventually be worn.
Of all, the very prettiest are of black silk, the foot in stripes of exquisitely fine real black lace work, with narrow stripes of the silk between, and the lace delicately caught up over the silk with the effect of a fine embroidery. In the same style are some having the lace work less fine and yet nigh cobweb-like in texture, with a slightly raised silk embroidery over where the lacework unites with the stockings. The Royal Stuarttarian also figures among the trousseau stockings, for the Queen gives to all members of her family on their marriage at least one dress in velvet of this design. There are also ribbed open-work black and white stockings in a woven tiny meshed stripe called Grecian, though made in Nottingham, that are very fascinating. Each pair has the cipher "A," surmounted by a princess' crown, embroidered in red as marking. There is also a quantity of Nottingham silk and woolen underwear of a light, warm, durable and exquisitely soft kind, marked again with the princess' cipher and crown.
It is interesting to know that the Czarina has many gloves in glace kid, with plane stitching matching the kid, and that her favorite colors are yellow, grays and tans. For indoor wear are a goodly selection of suede gloves, in lovely light tint, prettily and aptly called champagne shades, as well as many white, gray, fawn and tan colorings. There are some pairs of English buckskin gloves made in England, and beautifully soft, pliable and durable, as well as some antelope skin, which are specially suitable for riding and driving. Then there are gloves of English make from Russian leather, the skins having been prepared in the Crimea. Veils are also a small but varied portion of the outfit, and some of these have been specially made to fit the hats and bonnets to be worn by the Princess. These are in black, white and gray, and have the mesh very finely oven and the spots small, sometimes single. A new veil, made in Nottingham, is also included, and looks like point d'Alencon bordering and springs, applied on a fine Brussels net ground, in an ivory-white coloring, very becoming to the complexion.
Among other pretty items provided for this fortunate young Princess are little dainty twilled morning jackets, having finely tucked Vandyke collars, trimmed with lace, and some having pointed sailor collars, with lace insertion. These are in very pale colors. Some silk and satin broche blouses are also very charming, trimmed in various pretty ways with velvet or lace. One, having black Spanish lace over the yoke and on the sleeves to the elbow, is particularly good style, as is a tea-gown in twilled silk, with insertion and trimming of ecru lace. The colors are chiefly those which the Princess likes best – soft pinks and delicate grays.
The gowns provided for the royal trousseau were most of them made in Paris or in St. Petersburg. It is one of the ancient traditions of Russia that a bride, being brought from a foreign land to wed a son of the imperial house, shall be stripped at the frontier of all her alien outfit and dressed forthwith in Russian garments from head to heel. This "law" is not carried out in its entirety nowadays, but a goodly portion of the bride’s trousseau must of necessity be of Slavonic origin.
Above: Alix.
Trousseau of an Empress, published in The San Fransisco Call, Tuesday morning on November 27, 1894
http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=87.5;wap2
The article:
TROUSSEAU OF AN EMPRESS
Some of the Pretty Things Provided for Alix.
Princess Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse, Czarina of Russia, is the youngest living child of the late Grand Duke Louis of Hesse and is sister to the present Grand Duke. Her mother was the Princess Alix, second daughter of Queen Victoria, and she is, therefore, a grandchild of the Queen of England. Her three older sisters, the Princesses Victoria, Elizabeth and Irene, are married to Prince Louise of Battenberg, the Grand Duke Sergius of Russia and Prince Henry of Prussia, respectively. It will be seen that the Hesse family is closely linked with the Russian imperial house, for the late Czar's mother was Princess Marie of Hesse, while her nephew and his son have both sought their brides in the same quarter.
One of the most imposing and important items in the marriage basket of Alix of Hesse is the numerous and varied styles of the specially made stockings prepared for her Royal Highness by a Nottingham manufacturer. The Princess has evidently a neat taste in all things pertaining to her footgear, and many of the designs chosen are her own original efforts. Her royal grandmamma gave the young Empress most of her lingerie, which is, therefore, nearly all of English manufacture.
There are many pairs of very fine silken hose in pale pink, pale blue, a silvery tone of gray and most delicate French gray and green to be worn with evening dresses. These are all embroidered in fine little raised sprays, with pale colorings in silk, either contrasting in hue or admirably harmonizing with the stockings themselves. For ordinary day wear there are liberal numbers of black spun silk, thick and durable, and having a very pretty light open-work design up the center of the foot. Many are of fine black silk, for indoor wear with smart afternoon dresses, and they are embroidered in a small Paislay design, and some in wild flower sprays, called respectively "chintz" and "Dolly Varden." It is interesting to know that these are all of English make and that the embroidery has been wrought by the nimble fingers of Nottingham cottagers. There are some pairs of a design in broken lines of bright color crossing a black ground, such as red and bronze lines on a similar somber background. These are decidedly original and most becoming to a pretty foot. Many pairs in silver gray have lines and dots through them of paler gray, looking by contrast almost white. Others are black, embroidered in pale color, such as clover, periwinkle, anthurium and gloxinia, all designed to match dresses with which they will eventually be worn.
Of all, the very prettiest are of black silk, the foot in stripes of exquisitely fine real black lace work, with narrow stripes of the silk between, and the lace delicately caught up over the silk with the effect of a fine embroidery. In the same style are some having the lace work less fine and yet nigh cobweb-like in texture, with a slightly raised silk embroidery over where the lacework unites with the stockings. The Royal Stuarttarian also figures among the trousseau stockings, for the Queen gives to all members of her family on their marriage at least one dress in velvet of this design. There are also ribbed open-work black and white stockings in a woven tiny meshed stripe called Grecian, though made in Nottingham, that are very fascinating. Each pair has the cipher "A," surmounted by a princess' crown, embroidered in red as marking. There is also a quantity of Nottingham silk and woolen underwear of a light, warm, durable and exquisitely soft kind, marked again with the princess' cipher and crown.
It is interesting to know that the Czarina has many gloves in glace kid, with plane stitching matching the kid, and that her favorite colors are yellow, grays and tans. For indoor wear are a goodly selection of suede gloves, in lovely light tint, prettily and aptly called champagne shades, as well as many white, gray, fawn and tan colorings. There are some pairs of English buckskin gloves made in England, and beautifully soft, pliable and durable, as well as some antelope skin, which are specially suitable for riding and driving. Then there are gloves of English make from Russian leather, the skins having been prepared in the Crimea. Veils are also a small but varied portion of the outfit, and some of these have been specially made to fit the hats and bonnets to be worn by the Princess. These are in black, white and gray, and have the mesh very finely oven and the spots small, sometimes single. A new veil, made in Nottingham, is also included, and looks like point d'Alencon bordering and springs, applied on a fine Brussels net ground, in an ivory-white coloring, very becoming to the complexion.
Among other pretty items provided for this fortunate young Princess are little dainty twilled morning jackets, having finely tucked Vandyke collars, trimmed with lace, and some having pointed sailor collars, with lace insertion. These are in very pale colors. Some silk and satin broche blouses are also very charming, trimmed in various pretty ways with velvet or lace. One, having black Spanish lace over the yoke and on the sleeves to the elbow, is particularly good style, as is a tea-gown in twilled silk, with insertion and trimming of ecru lace. The colors are chiefly those which the Princess likes best – soft pinks and delicate grays.
The gowns provided for the royal trousseau were most of them made in Paris or in St. Petersburg. It is one of the ancient traditions of Russia that a bride, being brought from a foreign land to wed a son of the imperial house, shall be stripped at the frontier of all her alien outfit and dressed forthwith in Russian garments from head to heel. This "law" is not carried out in its entirety nowadays, but a goodly portion of the bride’s trousseau must of necessity be of Slavonic origin.
Above: Alix.
Alexandra's January 11 to 20, 1916 diary entries
January entries from Alexandra's 1916 diary, continued.
Source:
Transcripts (edited by me) and photos of scans of diary pages courtesy of GARF via Olga Grigor'eva at lastromanovs on VK.
https://vk.com/lastromanovs?w=wall-56510987_45964
The entries:
-2 11 Январь No: 426
Понедельник
lunch & dinner on sopha as usual.
Ал. 36.4. Анаст. 36. Аня 36.6.
lay on the balcony
Upstairs. Ан: Аня
Ал. 36.7½ 36.7. 36.9.
36.5.
6ч. фл. Адъют. Маслов Полк. Самойлов }lancers
8ч. Аня & Н.П.
...
-2 12 Январь No: 427
Вторник
Ал. 36.2. Анаст. 36.4
12½ Молебен in my room for Татьяна.
Ал: & Ан: came down to Молебен & luncheon.
lay on the balcony.
Received 4 of Т's lancer officers with her.
A. came.
6¼ - I received Zina Манштедт.
Н.П. - Родионов 9¼-11.50
...
-2 13 Январь No: 428
Среда
О & Т went to town.
After luncheon sait in little sledge in the garden with Marie to Знамения А. came.
Received C. Benkendorf.
...
0 14 Январь No: 429
Четверг
1ч. Ольга Евг. Папафедорова
1¾ч. Полк. Ягмин Ком. Нижег. Др. пор. Максимов.
A.
8ч. А. & Н.П.
...
-2 15 Январь No: 430
Пятница
Lunch, tea in bed.
Dinner in (стерто).
A.
Dinner on sopha.
A.
...
-2 16 Январь No: 431
Суббота
lay on the balcony.
Isa at 1.50 ч.
balcony
A.
8ч. Ania
9¼ч. Н.П.
...
0 17 Январь No: 432
Воскресенье
12ч. N's arrival
1½ч. Корн. 9 Др. Каз. П. Удимовский -
A.
...
-1 18 Январь
Понедельник
11¼ч. Isa
old Ал. Мих. Апраксин died this night.
A
5ч Misha
...
-1 19 Январь
Вторник
1ч. Серг. Мих. & Гавр. К.
A
8ч. Гавриил
9¼. А. & Родионов
...
-1 20 Январь
Среда
1ч. Сандро Лейхт. & фл. Адъют. Казакевич
2 ч. Кутепов
2½ч. Гр. Шуленбург
А
9ч. o. 7
А.
Above: Alexandra. Photo courtesy of Ilya Grigoryev at lastromanovs on VK.
Source:
Transcripts (edited by me) and photos of scans of diary pages courtesy of GARF via Olga Grigor'eva at lastromanovs on VK.
https://vk.com/lastromanovs?w=wall-56510987_45964
The entries:
-2 11 Январь No: 426
Понедельник
lunch & dinner on sopha as usual.
Ал. 36.4. Анаст. 36. Аня 36.6.
lay on the balcony
Upstairs. Ан: Аня
Ал. 36.7½ 36.7. 36.9.
36.5.
6ч. фл. Адъют. Маслов Полк. Самойлов }lancers
8ч. Аня & Н.П.
...
-2 12 Январь No: 427
Вторник
Ал. 36.2. Анаст. 36.4
12½ Молебен in my room for Татьяна.
Ал: & Ан: came down to Молебен & luncheon.
lay on the balcony.
Received 4 of Т's lancer officers with her.
A. came.
6¼ - I received Zina Манштедт.
Н.П. - Родионов 9¼-11.50
...
-2 13 Январь No: 428
Среда
О & Т went to town.
After luncheon sait in little sledge in the garden with Marie to Знамения А. came.
Received C. Benkendorf.
...
Четверг
1ч. Ольга Евг. Папафедорова
1¾ч. Полк. Ягмин Ком. Нижег. Др. пор. Максимов.
A.
8ч. А. & Н.П.
...
-2 15 Январь No: 430
Пятница
Lunch, tea in bed.
Dinner in (стерто).
A.
Dinner on sopha.
A.
...
-2 16 Январь No: 431
Суббота
lay on the balcony.
Isa at 1.50 ч.
balcony
A.
8ч. Ania
9¼ч. Н.П.
...
Воскресенье
12ч. N's arrival
1½ч. Корн. 9 Др. Каз. П. Удимовский -
A.
...
-1 18 Январь
Понедельник
11¼ч. Isa
old Ал. Мих. Апраксин died this night.
A
5ч Misha
...
-1 19 Январь
Вторник
1ч. Серг. Мих. & Гавр. К.
A
8ч. Гавриил
9¼. А. & Родионов
...
-1 20 Январь
Среда
1ч. Сандро Лейхт. & фл. Адъют. Казакевич
2 ч. Кутепов
2½ч. Гр. Шуленбург
А
9ч. o. 7
А.
Above: Alexandra. Photo courtesy of Ilya Grigoryev at lastromanovs on VK.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
German porcelain snack plate given to Nicholas and Alexandra as a wedding gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II, year 1894
Source:
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/10.%20porcelain%2C%20faience%2C%20ceramics/428240/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfbqlFrQbVMTEcUa4qN2YxpSsAkUgsSFX29jXJmIzm6Sc-fcAQkCpFV3U6reNFZVbj_L6MIpjYIpQwln4QJRnu3CjG2XKCBwegHoy1AE8p_8ACCHzye_BO4D3KUsLUG2qr-OjS0aEAGaeG3T5bpSxo68Qhltcz3yct2p2uQ3EATPMUGun_wwrNYzZ9iHMedHhhl5AwMd2_ogHpsYGer7TwwoRmw!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photo courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
Above: Nicholas and Alexandra.
Above: Wilhelm.
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/10.%20porcelain%2C%20faience%2C%20ceramics/428240/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfbqlFrQbVMTEcUa4qN2YxpSsAkUgsSFX29jXJmIzm6Sc-fcAQkCpFV3U6reNFZVbj_L6MIpjYIpQwln4QJRnu3CjG2XKCBwegHoy1AE8p_8ACCHzye_BO4D3KUsLUG2qr-OjS0aEAGaeG3T5bpSxo68Qhltcz3yct2p2uQ3EATPMUGun_wwrNYzZ9iHMedHhhl5AwMd2_ogHpsYGer7TwwoRmw!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photo courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
Above: Nicholas and Alexandra.
Above: Wilhelm.
Alexandra's 17th century costume, year 1903
My 300th post on this blog!
Source:
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1263498/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoy1NdNjURUawhPmo3piGATaQlFFz49VbjykR0dpOcO-cOYIACJvlNVLwTSvKr2U8sOhOEItfHMCE4nENEsm2Y4c0CugE4vgD4ZRAE7J_8AMCGzye_BOYDr01xWgHW8O4yErJUgLre2MqV7vq60I7VS1GqtnYsnueF1qoVhX4ykR_MpqYi-5AsVxMj2YUxIQfs4eANDNRs6j29r2MokG0_AFWgmzM!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1263523/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoS6G4bmoiolhDfGA3piGATaQlFFz49VbjykR0dpOcO-cO4CAHXImbrEUvtRJXu594dGaERH5AYcIonkPCsi3O6GYB_RAcXwD8MgQC_k9-BODj55NfAvsB6lKa1oC3or9MpKo0yH00dQpt-qEpjecMSla6azxHFEVpjO5kaZ5MFGAU2Ir8Q7Jczaxkh2PGDhTR8A2M1GybfX5fx1AS130Ai-qPLQ!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1264183/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoW166bWoiolhDFLEb0xDAJtISCi78eqtxZSI6u0nOnXMHMJADJvlN1LwXSvKr2U8sPFOMQ-QRGFMSLCCm6S5IyXYJkQ-OLwB-GQwB-yc_ArDx8_EvgfnA7RKS1IC1vL9MhKwUyJE7tQql-6EptWMNUlSqaxyLF0WptepEqZ9M6KO5ZyqyD8lqPTOSfRBRmhGX-G9gpGbbHPL7JoIC2_YDfXZ0kw!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photos courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
(photo courtesy of TatianaZ on Flickr)
Source:
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1263498/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoy1NdNjURUawhPmo3piGATaQlFFz49VbjykR0dpOcO-cOYIACJvlNVLwTSvKr2U8sOhOEItfHMCE4nENEsm2Y4c0CugE4vgD4ZRAE7J_8AMCGzye_BOYDr01xWgHW8O4yErJUgLre2MqV7vq60I7VS1GqtnYsnueF1qoVhX4ykR_MpqYi-5AsVxMj2YUxIQfs4eANDNRs6j29r2MokG0_AFWgmzM!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1263523/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoS6G4bmoiolhDfGA3piGATaQlFFz49VbjykR0dpOcO-cO4CAHXImbrEUvtRJXu594dGaERH5AYcIonkPCsi3O6GYB_RAcXwD8MgQC_k9-BODj55NfAvsB6lKa1oC3or9MpKo0yH00dQpt-qEpjecMSla6azxHFEVpjO5kaZ5MFGAU2Ir8Q7Jczaxkh2PGDhTR8A2M1GybfX5fx1AS130Ai-qPLQ!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/12.%20costumes%2C%20uniform%2C%20accessories/1264183/!ut/p/z1/jY_LDoIwEEV_BfZoW166bWoiolhDFLEb0xDAJtISCi78eqtxZSI6u0nOnXMHMJADJvlN1LwXSvKr2U8sPFOMQ-QRGFMSLCCm6S5IyXYJkQ-OLwB-GQwB-yc_ArDx8_EvgfnA7RKS1IC1vL9MhKwUyJE7tQql-6EptWMNUlSqaxyLF0WptepEqZ9M6KO5ZyqyD8lqPTOSfRBRmhGX-G9gpGbbHPL7JoIC2_YDfXZ0kw!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photos courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
(photo courtesy of TatianaZ on Flickr)
Alexandra's evening gown, early 1900s
Source:
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/08.%20applied%20arts/1246613/!ut/p/z1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfIjo8zi_R0dzQyNnQ28_J1NXQwc_YMCTIOc_dwNDE30w8EKDHAARwP9KGL041EQhd94L0IWAH1gVOTr7JuuH1WQWJKhm5mXlq8fYWChp5BYUJCTmZqikFhUUqwfYWhkYgY0A-igKDQjPb3NgUaGmHr4-4c5GzmbQBXgcVRBbmhElY-HQaajoiIANYu6CA!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photo courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/08.%20applied%20arts/1246613/!ut/p/z1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfIjo8zi_R0dzQyNnQ28_J1NXQwc_YMCTIOc_dwNDE30w8EKDHAARwP9KGL041EQhd94L0IWAH1gVOTr7JuuH1WQWJKhm5mXlq8fYWChp5BYUJCTmZqikFhUUqwfYWhkYgY0A-igKDQjPb3NgUaGmHr4-4c5GzmbQBXgcVRBbmhElY-HQaajoiIANYu6CA!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en
(photo courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)