Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (17 page)

Having finished the winter season Mathilde retired to her St Petersburg house. She now had to find a replacement for
La Bayadère
, preferably someone who would not overshadow her in the part. Among the company was a young ballerina already attracting notice for her ‘ethereal lightness, her delicately arched instep, her lyrical
port de bras
and the extraordinary passion of her acting’. Mathilde ‘despised her as a ballerina’, saying, according to Lubov Egorova, ‘Poor thing, she can hardly stand on
pointe
…’, and she really believed the girl would fail.
²⁹
Mathilde maliciously decided to coach this fragile-looking young dancer, who had graduated in 1899. Her name was Anna Pavlova.

Pavlova had none of Mathilde’s advantages. Born around 1881, she was illegitimate, her father’s name uncertain. She attached herself first to Baron Constantine Feleisen, stepson of Teliakovsky, and later to Valerian Svetlov, a critic whose praise gained her wider notice. According to Mathilde, Anna came to the house every day to be coached in the role of Nikiya. Grand Duke Boris was a regular visitor. Anna especially liked this arch-womaniser (was she hoping to repeat Kschessinska’s success?) and Boris called her his angel. Anna also rehearsed with Eugenia Sokolova, who had danced the role many years earlier and now coached the ballerinas. Mathilde said it was only after much persuasion on her part that Petipa gave Anna
La Bayadère
– but another version says that Petipa gave the ballet to Pavlova because he was annoyed that Kschessinska had supported Gorsky’s new staging of
Don Quixote
. This upset many of the senior dancers because Pavlova was still not officially a ballerina. In fact, Ekaterina Geltzer danced at the first performance. Kschessinska (who was unlikely to have pressed for Pavlova to dance if she was upset about her being given the role) probably lobbied for her friend Geltzer to dance it first. Maybe also it was felt there would be gossip if one of Kschessinska’s roles was given to a younger dancer before the announcement of Mathilde’s pregnancy.
³⁰

Pavlova first danced the role on 28 April. Mathilde was angry when Pavlova not only scored an enormous success, but in an interview afterwards referred only to the help given by Sokolova. Mathilde blamed this on her enemies, particularly an influential St Petersburg journalist ‘apparently pleasant and polite, but capable of the worst meanness’.
³¹
Anna Pavlova became a star overnight.

Shortly before her child was due Mathilde retreated to the privacy of Strelna, where everything was ready for the baby’s arrival. As Mathilde’s doctor was away he had recommended another. Also present was the personal doctor of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich.

The birth was extremely difficult and painful and at one point the doctors almost had to decide whether to save mother or child. Finally, between 1 and 2 o’clock in the morning of 18 June 1902 a healthy son came into the world. Mathilde was confined to bed for some time with a high fever, her condition probably not helped by the thought of all the explanations and decisions she would now have to make. Life was not going to be easy. She was condemned both by the common people and the aristocracy for having a child outside marriage. All kinds of
things were said, especially that she owed her career to her connection with the Tsar. Yet Mathilde survived even this scandal.

Her first decision was the child’s Christian name. ‘At first I wanted to call him Nicholas, but I was not able to do this and besides did not have the right to do so for many reasons.’ So she decided to call him Vladimir, after the Grand Duke who had been her friend for many years and always treated her warmly. Convinced that he would not object, Mathilde asked for, and obtained, the Grand Duke’s consent.
³²
In the family little Vladimir was always known as Vova.

The next problem was Vova’s patronymic, which usually came from the Christian name of the child’s father. But who
was
the father? Prince David Chavchavadze, a great-nephew of Grand Duke Sergei Michaelovich, said that ‘Vladimir claimed in later life that he did not know who was his father, Grand Duke Sergei or Andrew [
sic
], although Andrew recognised Vladimir as his after the revolution’.
³³
Writing her memoirs in the 1950s when Andrei was still alive, Mathilde maintained that the child was his, despite the fact that Sergei had been her official ‘protector’ for the previous eight years. Nevertheless, Mathilde was forbidden to give the baby Andrei’s patronymic and the formidable Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna would never acknowledge that her son was reputed to be Vova’s father.

Lydia Kyasht, in her not always accurate memoirs written in 1929 (long after she and Mathilde had become friends), stated that the father was Sergei. ‘Some people were unkind enough to suggest that although Sergei was the official father the baby was the exact image of Andrei,’ she wrote. ‘They talked all the more when it was known that Grand Duke Vladimir … had consented to be godfather to the baby.’ She later recalled seeing Sergei ‘kneeling beside the child’s cot, and listening with the most rapt attention while the little fellow lisped forth his baby prayers. That picture of father and son will long linger in my memory.’
³⁴

Although both Grand Dukes were at first ‘convinced’ they were Vova’s father, it was Sergei who looked after Mathilde and her son. Andrei ‘kept a much lower profile’.
³⁵

It is, of course, impossible to be sure. In her memoirs Mathilde made a big point of how she was given a photograph salvaged from her house after the Revolution because the donor thought the child pictured was the ballerina’s son. In fact it was a childhood picture of Grand Duke Vladimir. Others also confirmed his likeness to the old Grand Duke and there are Russians today who believe that Vladimir may
have been the baby’s father. Yet in the Russian version of her memoirs Mathilde recalled that in the summer of 1918 a Bolshevik soldier saw Vova and asked ‘if this was the son of the Emperor’, and one of Joseph Kschessinsky’s relatives said that he thought Vova was Nicholas’s son.
³⁶
This seems unlikely. According to members of the Romanov family, the question of Vova’s paternity is ‘unresolved’, although Prince Nicholas Romanov remained ‘convinced’ that Andrei was the father, after seeing pictures of Vova in later life.
³⁷

Mathilde said she now threw herself on Sergei’s mercy and he, who genuinely loved her, forgave her and remained a faithful friend. Mathilde also said that Sergei knew perfectly well he was not Vova’s father. Nevertheless, the baby received the name and patronymic of Vladimir Sergeievich, although no surname was made public until 1911. Vova’s original birth certificate gave Sergei as the father.
³⁸

The christening took place in the Orthodox church at Mikhailovskoe, near Strelna, on 23 July. The ceremony was performed by Georgi Titov and Mikhail Zertsalov and, although Mathilde was a Catholic, she adhered to Orthodox custom and did not attend. The godmother was Mathilde’s sister Julie, the godfather Sergei Andreievich Markov of the Lancers of the Tsarina’s Guard.
³⁹
Although Grand Duke Vladimir presented Vova with a cross made from a dark green stone from the Urals on a platinum chain, he did not stand as godfather.

‘I so adored Andrei, that I could not realise how guilty I was in the eyes of … Sergei,’ Mathilde wrote. She conspicuously omitted to mention in the Russian edition of her memoirs that Sergei treated Vova like his own son, although this appeared in the English edition. All his life Vova had a ‘sincere attachment’ to Sergei and some sources say that the Grand Duke offered to adopt him.
⁴⁰
Her parents’ reaction is also unrecorded, although Mathilde’s mother spoilt Vova in later life.

Nor is there a record of what Nicholas II thought about this. Mathilde now had a healthy son and exactly a year earlier Alexandra had given birth to the couple’s fourth daughter in succession, Anastasia. The Tsar still had no heir.

Throughout this period Mathilde was consoled by Grand Duke Vladimir. One day, when she was still weak after the birth, the Grand Duke visited the dacha. Mathilde received him lying on a couch, Vova cradled in her arms. The older man knelt by the sofa and in a touching gesture, Mathilde wrote, ‘stroked my head and caressed me. … He knew, sensed and understood’.
⁴¹
She found his soothing words an immense source of comfort in what was proving to be a difficult
time, yet this has only served to increase the rumours about her true relationship with Vladimir.

In August Andrei’s sister Elena married Prince Nicholas of Greece. Mathilde recovered from Vova’s birth in time to dance at the gala performance at the Peterhof Theatre. It was Mathilde’s thirtieth birthday. She was reluctant to take part, probably because of gossip and partly because she had not yet regained her figure, but Teliakovsky prevailed on her to dance one act of
Don Quixote
.

Mathilde spent the summer at Strelna with Sergei. Andrei was preparing for his entrance to St Petersburg’s Military Law Academy that autumn. A nurse had been engaged to look after Vova so Mathilde was free to enjoy her former lifestyle. Permanently at the dacha were a manager/gardener, a caretaker and, later, an electrician. During the summer when Strelna was full of visitors three girls for the garden and two night-watchmen were also engaged.

Among Mathilde’s guests one weekend was seventeen-year-old Tamara Karsavina, who had graduated in the spring of 1902. Karsavina had been an admirer of Kschessinska since her early days at the Theatre School, even treasuring a hairpin of Mathilde’s which she had found on the floor. Grand Duke Vladimir was so impressed with her debut that he asked Mathilde to look after the young girl. Karsavina soon learnt how kind-hearted her hostess could be to those she did not consider a threat to her power and influence. ‘Don’t worry about bringing smart frocks. We are quite rustic down here,’ Mathilde said, realising that such a young girl might be embarrassed by an inadequate wardrobe. ‘I will send down to fetch you,’ she added. Then, instead of sending a member of staff who Tamara would not be able to recognise, the ballerina came to the station herself.
⁴²

Tamara was shown round the house, the garden, and the paddock where several goats lived, including Djali. ‘We fed the pretty white creature with bread and sugar, which she accepted out of our hands, but she evidently relished more the cigars which the Grand Duke Sergei offered her.’
⁴³

All weekend the house echoed with the sounds of music and laughter. In the evenings the garden was illuminated by little lamps. ‘As a hostess she was at her best,’ recalled Karsavina. ‘Never mind,’ Mathilde said kindly, taking the girl’s plate as she struggled to carve a snipe in jelly, ‘you have ample time to learn all those tricks.’ Karsavina could not believe that this lively, considerate woman was the fearsome
past-master of intrigue who was allegedly the nemesis of many careers. Many years later, Karsavina was asked her opinion of Kschessinska. ‘Very kind,’ she replied, ‘she taught us about forks.’ Pressed for an explanation Karsavina explained that the young graduates from the cloistered world of the Theatre School were overwhelmed at the sheer amount of cutlery on the table when they started going out into the world and attending official functions. Mathilde taught them which forks to use.
⁴⁴

Remembering her promise to Grand Duke Vladimir, Mathilde intervened with the Director when the girl was given fewer parts because of Pavlova’s jealousy and, later, offered to help her mother when Tamara was struck down with malaria. Mathilde even gave Karsavina one of her own costumes, saying that it was in the ‘fashionable’ colours of pale blue and lilac. Her gesture was naturally deliberately misinterpreted. Nadejda Bakerkina, a dancer in the
corps de ballet
, warned Karsavina about intrigues, specifically the intrigues of Kschessinska, and questioned why Mathilde had presented the young girl with a ‘dark mauve’ tutu. ‘A pall for a coffin, not a costume for a child,’ she said.
⁴⁵

The attempt misfired. Tamara Karsavina never had a bad word to say about Kschessinska, either then or during the long years of exile.

In 1902 Julie Kschessinska completed twenty years’ service on the Imperial stage and, in line with tradition, retired with a pension. She was also soon to be married.

For some years Julie had been courted by Baron Alexander Zeddeler, called ‘Ali’ by his friends. The Zeddelers were originally Austrian, members of the Bohemian nobility raised to the dignity of Baron in 1782. Ali’s great-grandfather was Austrian Ambassador at the court of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in St Petersburg and the family transferred to Russian service in 1813. (In 1935 there was still a Baron Zeddeler Street in Prague.) Ali’s grandfather Baron Loggin (Ludwig) (1791–1852), was the first Vice-Director of the Military Academy and principal editor of four volumes of the Russian Military Encyclopaedia. His son, also called Loggin (1831–99), served in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–8, becoming an infantry general and later assistant to the head of the Military Education Establishment.

Ali was born on 22 March 1868 and served in the Preobrajensky regiment with the future Nicholas II. As such, he was a witness to the budding romance between Mathilde and the then Tsarevich. He
became a close friend of Nicholas, attended the select dinner party on the eve of the 1896 coronation, and was one of only five Preobrajensky officers invited afterwards to join the Tsar and Tsarina at Ilinskoe, the estate of his former commanding officer Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.