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.