Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (19 page)

Mathilde was naturally discreet about her relationship with Nicholas II. The official story is that they broke up when Nicholas became engaged. Descendants of Mathilde’s brother stated that ‘according to family tradition, the association ended
when Nicholas was crowned
’ [my emphasis]. Prince David Chavchavadze said that ‘the writers of the period … uniformly state that Nicholas continued to visit Mathilde frequently throughout his life, talking with her, and accepting her advice on political matters. Whether the affair continued is uncertain, but most observers say not.’ Another writer in the 1930s called it ‘a platonic friendship
which was prolonged into maturity
, as shown by her subsequent interest in Russian national affairs’ [my emphasis].
¹⁰

The source of most of these stories appears to be Princess Catherine Radziwill, no supporter of either Nicholas or Alexandra. ‘Nicholas kept up his former habits of going to see Mlle Krzesinska [
sic
] whenever he had time to do so; what was even worse, he continued to consult her on many matters which he never discussed with his wife,’ she wrote in 1918. She returned to the attack in 1929: ‘Kschessinska never lost her influence over him … plying him with constant demands and advice and, through her new lover, the Grand Duke Sergei Michaelovich,
continued to exercise her influence over him.’ This influence ‘was to continue until the very day of his abdication’.
¹¹

According to a recent biography, Princess Radziwill had ‘connections with the secret service’ (she worked as a secret agent for Stolypin between 1907 and 1911) and also ‘family connections who lived within the orbit of the Imperial Court’. Using information allegedly gained through these connections, Catherine Radziwill claimed that the Imperial marriage was a sham and that Nicholas often visited Kschessinska, who was still his mistress. ‘Nicholas II, after an interval of several years, had resumed his former relations with Mlle Krzesinska [
sic
], and the dancer was contributing perhaps more than she herself suspected to sow dissension in the Imperial
ménage
,’ Princess Radziwill wrote in 1918. When the Empress found out she retired to her rooms and refused to carry out her social duties. According to this version it was Anna Vyrubova who befriended the Empress and came to her aid. This continued until, after the birth of four daughters, Alexandra gave birth to the longed-for son in 1904.
¹²
Princess Radziwill said that Nicholas then became ‘a most devoted husband and father’. Several experts today still believe this rumour, according to one notable Russian writer.
¹³

Even discounting the strength of the love known to have existed between Nicholas and Alexandra right from the beginning, Catherine Radziwill’s information is at best second hand. Between 1897 and 1905 she was largely abroad (some of that time in a South African gaol for blackmail and fraud). Yet many people believed that Nicholas and Mathilde were still lovers, and even that they had children. Or perhaps because people were annoyed by Nicholas’s sentimental devotion to his wife, they
wanted
to believe that he and Mathilde were lovers. ‘For years all Russia had smiled tolerantly at the Tsar’s passion for a Polish dancer,’ wrote Anatole Bourman, recalling events of 1902.
¹⁴

Mathilde was everything that Alexandra was not. Supremely self-confident, she loved parties and society. Alexandra was painfully shy and awkward, finding social occasions such an ordeal that she finally stopped appearing at them altogether. ‘The Empress Alexandra was not affable; sociability was not in her nature,’ wrote Prince Volkonsky. ‘She could only squeeze a word out with difficulty, and her face became suffused with red blotches … her wholesale mistrust of people deprived her of the slightest popularity. … In her intercourse with others, she seemed only to be performing official duties; she never emitted a congenial spark.’
¹⁵

Mathilde had robust health and inexhaustible energy. Alexandra was frequently ill and her pregnancies were difficult. In 1898, when she was still only twenty-six, Alexandra had more than 200 consultations with her doctors. In 1900 they examined her more than 100 times.
¹⁶

Mathilde was certainly not sexually repressed. Although both women were deeply religious, with the Empress it was almost a passion. Alexandra was a prude who disliked anything that smacked of frivolity, temptation or sin. She had a restraining influence on Nicholas. ‘I remember once,’ recalled Prince Volkonsky, ‘while looking through the repertory, [the Tsar] asked, “What French play is given on Saturday?” I replied it was a very amusing one, but – somewhat … He screwed up one eye, and winked at me, saying in a sly, boyish whisper: “Oh, never mind. I shall come alone.”’
¹⁷

Mathilde was lively and flirtatious – the sort of woman a man has as a mistress. If any meetings did occur, the most likely place would be Strelna.

From a nearby hill Mathilde could reach the bridge over which the Tsar and his entourage passed on his return from Krasnoe Selo. When Nicholas left camp Andrei alerted her by telephone. The road was guarded and all access to the bridge was strictly barred but the police always let Mathilde through. As the Tsar rode by he turned to look at Mathilde and raised his arm to his peaked cap in salute, ‘his wonderful eyes fixed on me’.
¹⁸

Mathilde never explained why Andrei alerted her and why the police let her through so easily. Was it on orders from the Tsar? Several times Mathilde recorded that Nicholas rode past the dacha. Yet despite the incessant rumours, there is no evidence that he ever stopped and called in.

When the season opened in September 1903 it was without Marius Petipa, for whom Alexander Gorsky proved a lightweight replacement. Johannson died in December and the Legat brothers were now increasingly in demand as teachers and choreographers, especially for private performances at the Hermitage.

On 23 November Kschessinska and Pavlova danced in
Pharaoh’s Daughter
. Pavlova managed to advance her secondary role of the slave Ramzé to the forefront and eclipse Kschessinska. Mathilde was shaken.

Intrigues and hostile demonstrations in the theatre began to cast a shadow over Mathilde’s performances. Her stage appearances were now often punctuated by hisses and boos from certain sections of the
audience and Mathilde increasingly began to think about retirement. ‘My ballerina girlfriend tried to have her hissed off the stage’, recalled one dancer. ‘This was duly noted … And at her own [benefit] performance my girlfriend received a huge bouquet of flowers and a note: “Mathilde Kschessinska thanks you very much.” She could be splendid.’
¹⁹

Having petitioned for an increase in salary for the ballerinas from 5,000 roubles to 8,000 roubles a year, Mathilde was particularly upset not to receive from them even a word of thanks. Weary of all this malice she decided to retire, a decision made all the more difficult because her father was still performing and could not understand her decision. Officially she left employment without a pension ‘in accordance with the petition… of 1 June 1904’.
²⁰
With an annual income of 50,000 roubles (worth over £811,000 today),
²¹
she could well afford to do so. Mathilde requested a benefit performance at the end of the Maryinsky season.

On 21 January 1904 Mathilde danced
The Sleeping Beauty
at the Maryinsky. ‘Excellent,’ the Tsar wrote in his diary. ‘I had not seen it for a long time.’
²²

Six days later the Russian empire was at war.

On 27 January, angered by Russia’s penetration into Korea, Japan attacked the Russian naval base at Port Arthur in the Pacific without a declaration of war. The following day churches all over Russia said Masses for victory. All court functions were immediately cancelled as the Season was abandoned.

Nevertheless, Mathilde’s farewell benefit performance took place on 4 February as arranged. ‘I will never forget that night,’ recalled Bronislava Nijinska. ‘The atmosphere was electric in the Theatre, and backstage emotions were high among the artists, the students, even the stagehands. Kschessinska’s decision to leave … had been a complete surprise.’ One of the items on the programme was the
pas-de-deux
from
La Fille mal Gardée
which Mathilde had danced for her graduation in 1890. Later the audience was electrified by the thirty-two
fouettés
, which she promptly encored. This time the Tsar was not in the audience.
²³

At the end of the performance the stage was covered with flowers. Among the tributes was a gold laurel wreath with the name of a ballet Mathilde had performed engraved on every leaf. Outside the theatre the young balletomanes unhitched the horses and pulled her carriage home.

In fact Mathilde had one more performance, a benefit in Moscow for Ekaterina Geltzer, in which Kschessinska danced with Nicolai Legat
and was warmly acclaimed. Katia Geltzer reigned supreme in Moscow, but was only allowed to perform in St Petersburg as a guest artist ‘because her virtuosity threatened the prima ballerina status of the omnipotent Kschessinska’.
²⁴
A sleeping car was provided for the eight-hour journey back to St Petersburg. The balletomanes joined Mathilde for supper and they had an all-night party.

The next evening she had dinner with the balletomanes in Cubat’s. Although Mathilde had prepared a speech she was very agitated after a sleepless night in the railway carriage. At the end of the evening she was crowned with the gold laurel wreath.

Meanwhile, Grand Duke Cyril had volunteered as a junior naval officer serving in the flagship
Petropavlovsk
. Boris left for Port Arthur on 26 February but, much to Mathilde’s relief, Andrei remained at the Military Law Academy. Sergei had taken over his father’s role as Inspector General of Artillery.

The war went badly. The Russians, who believed they only had to throw their caps at the Japanese ‘monkeys’ for them to surrender, received a shock. On paper the Russian army was stronger but the Japanese had their army close by; the Russian men and supplies had to cross over 4,000 miles of territory, served only by the incomplete Trans-Siberian railway. Steamers had to ferry them across Lake Baikal in Siberia. In the icy winter a light railway was built across the frozen surface. Added to this, the two Russian commanders (Admiral Alexeyev in Port Arthur and General Kuropatkin, commander of the land forces) were at odds with each other. The casualty lists grew longer and corruption was rife. The investigation into the disappearance of a ‘large amount of Red Cross money’ was stopped when it turned out to have been spent by ‘several Grand Dukes’ on some French courtesans in St Petersburg.
²⁵

Then, on 31 March, the
Petropavlovsk
was sunk with the loss of 631 men. Cyril was among the few survivors. When Boris telegraphed the news to the Vladimir Palace Andrei and his family could neither laugh nor cry. Relief at Cyril’s escape was tempered by the news of so many lives lost. Cyril was put aboard Boris’ train, where he was tended by doctors and despatched on the long journey home.

After the performance in Moscow, Mathilde moved to Strelna where she spent the next few months. Vova’s second birthday was celebrated on 18 June and on 30 July Mathilde learnt of the birth of Nicholas’s fifth child, the long-awaited Tsarevich, Alexei.

Mathilde said she joined enthusiastically in the country’s jubilation.
The Empress had so far remained in the background, embarrassed and upset at being unable to give the country an heir. Alexandra now began to have more influence over her weak-willed husband.

On 24 August Nicholas rode along the Strelna road with his brother Michael. This time Mathilde had not been warned. ‘Undoubtedly he rode past my dacha, and I am sure that Nicky once again wanted to look at it, and maybe hoped to see me in the garden,’ Mathilde wrote. ‘And I learnt this only later.’
²⁶
The thought that Nicholas had been so close and she might have seen him, even spoken to him, tormented Mathilde for a long time. Surely if they
had
still been intimate at this stage she would not have suffered so much anguish.

Whether Mathilde had any serious intention of leaving the stage or whether, as has been suggested, the ‘farewell’ benefit was an excuse to bolster her finances,
²⁷
Kschessinska’s retirement lasted only a few months. In the autumn of 1904 Teliakovsky asked Mathilde to reconsider. From 5 November the management invited her to dance in individual ballets at a salary of 500 roubles per performance. Mathilde refused to sign a contract, saying she would dance what she wanted, when she wanted, as a guest artist. Many of the roles thought to be Kschessinska’s prerogative had already been assigned to other dancers but Mathilde allowed no other ballerina to perform her chief roles. When she was not dancing, the ballets were simply removed from the repertoire. On these terms she returned to the Maryinsky Theatre and on 23 November was awarded the title Dancer of Merit to the Emperor of Russia, regular guest prima ballerina.

On 12 December 1904 she danced
Brahma
for the farewell benefit of the choreographer Alexander Shirayev, her first performance since March. In Virginia Zucchi’s old ballet about an Indian god expelled from paradise Kschessinska received rave reviews, expressing ‘the best elements of technique allied to good mime’.
²⁸
She also made several appearances in Moscow including one, against doctor’s advice, with an infected throat and a fever.