Source:
The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, 1928
The letter:
Awfully busy. Have seen splendid sklad of merchants — nobility, Zemstvos and mine. Blessed two hundred sisters, going to the war. Saw my train well arranged. Fastening images on to strings, whenever free. Returning over St. Serge and there part from Ella. ... Have no news from many people who could not return or be found and return in an awful plight, bruised, ill-treated. Such horrors they have gone through, it's inconceivable, simply twentieth-century culture. Saw a few wounded, happily nothing serious. Shall get my hospitals in order at Zarskoe and then set Olga and Tatiana to work. Having bad health makes all more difficult and stops me from doing many things one would have wished to. Glad for dear Ella's sake, that we have been here to cheer her up. ... She has any amount to do, is energetic, here there and everywhere. All help as they only can. It is right one prints no news [from the front], but it is anguishing.
Above: Alexandra. Photo courtesy of lastromanovs on VK.
Notes: sklad (склад) = military depot.
zemstvo (земство) = A Russian district or provincial council, or elective local-governmental administrative division.
No comments:
Post a Comment