Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (31 page)

Natasha had married her Grand Duke and the penalty was banishment. Mathilde’s fate would be different.

On 9 February 1914 there was a benefit performance to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Nicolai Legat’s entry into the Imperial Theatres. His friendship with Mathilde had stood the test of time and now that Nijinsky was dancing with Diaghilev’s company Legat was again Mathilde’s regular partner. Sometimes she gave his ‘common-law wife’ Nadine a piece of jewellery if she would allow Mathilde to ‘borrow’ Nicolai to partner her.
³¹

For his benefit performance Legat chose
Esmeralda
, and that evening one of Mathilde’s dearest wishes was fulfilled. Just before the start of the ballet she learnt that the Tsar would be in the audience with the Dowager Empress and his daughters Olga, Maria and Anastasia. Mathilde always performed
Esmeralda
with genuine ardour but with Nicholas in the audience she danced as if her own fate was at stake. When she and Legat, as Esmeralda and Gringoire, had to dance before Phoebus and his fiancée she had real tears in her eyes and gave a more powerful performance than at any time before. Nicholas can have been left in no doubt as to the message. Unfortunately, Mathilde never learnt what effect she had on the Tsar. Nicholas usually confided his impressions to Sergei Michaelovich but the Grand Duke was not in the capital that day.

The winter season of 1913/14 was especially splendid, with a series of brilliant balls and parties given by the aristocracy. Mathilde was a regular patron of the Hotel Astoria in St Isaac’s Square, where many
wonderful parties were held, both in the elegant public dining-rooms and in the private rooms above. She was a frequent guest at the French restaurant after the ballet, usually accompanied by a party of friends. ‘They would arrive in sleighs, the men in uniform, the women swathed in expensive furs,’ recalled Joseph Vecci, the restaurant’s manager.
³²

Mathilde turned down an offer to appear in the new production of
The Sleeping Beauty
, which would be attended by the Tsar. Instead she left for the Riviera to meet Andrei, leaving Nicholas with the memory of
Esmeralda
.

The consecration of Villa Alam took place on 27 February/12 March 1914, Andrei noted in the villa’s guest book. As well as Mathilde and Andrei, the other signatories were the Archpriest Gregory Ostroounov, who had travelled specially from Cannes, Vova, his tutor George Pflüger, Dr George Maak and Andrei’s ADC Kube.

The new annexe had been completed. On the ground floor was an extensive garage with a flat for the chauffeur, a laundry and the central-heating boiler. Above were four guest rooms with views over the sea, rooms for Kube, Dr Maak and Andrei’s valet Lednev, as well as two maids’ rooms and two lavatories. The roof of this new house was a continuation of the terrace of the original villa.

Margot and Arnold had followed them from Villa Morlat. Vova had two tutors and his personal valet Koulakov, and Mathilde’s dresser Ludmilla Roumiantzeva also joined them.

Sergei Michaelovich and Philippe Ledé arrived in time for Easter and among the guests that spring were Frederick Meltzer, owner of the St Petersburg furniture factory, K. Raguso-Suszezewski (a prominent friend of Mathilde), Misha Alexandrov, Dimitri Guinsberg (the collaborator of Diaghilev), and Nicholas Johnson, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich’s secretary who was later killed with him in Perm. They often went to Nice, Cannes or Monte Carlo for dinner.

They left the Riviera early in May, having bought some additional land on which to build a tennis court and a miniature fort for Vova. Mathilde decided to travel home via Paris, so that she could buy presents and order some new clothes from the couturiers.

As they left Cap d’Ail, planning to come back in the autumn, they little knew under what different circumstances they would return. The timely purchase of Villa Alam would prove of enormous benefit during the difficult years ahead.

Eleven

‘T
HE
B
IRD HAS
F
LOWN
!’

A
s Mathilde arrived at Strelna to prepare the celebrations for Vova’s twelfth birthday, dark clouds were gathering over Europe. The situation was particularly tense in the Balkans, where the Serbs had bitterly resented Austrian rule since the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1908.

On 15/28 June 1914, the old Emperor’s heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, paid an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. During the morning, after they had survived one failed attempt on their lives, their driver mistakenly took the wrong route. As he stopped to reverse in the narrow streets of the old town two pistol shots rang out. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie slumped forward, mortally wounded. Within fifteen minutes they were both dead.

The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a nineteen-year-old Serbian student. His pistol shots signalled the end of the old European order.

Three days later Vova’s birthday was celebrated at Strelna with a well-rehearsed ritual. In the morning he dressed in military tunic, decorations and sword and rode in his child’s motor car (a present from Grand Duke Sergei) to his little house for breakfast. Then he received his many presents. The favourite that year was Andrei’s gift of a small piglet with a blue bow round its neck, sitting in a basket. Vova called the piglet Masha and soon it accompanied him everywhere.

Joseph took a cine film of Mathilde’s guests during that long hot summer of 1914 as they enjoyed lazy days in the garden and went boating on the lake. During a garden fête three-year-old Celina made a charming curtsey to Nicholas II’s adjutant and then rode in a donkey cart with Vova while the adults waved. Celina loved to visit her aunt, who always gave wonderful presents.
¹
They were all blissfully unaware that the world they knew was about to end.

Belgrade was swarming with students vowing retribution against
Austria and an enquiry soon established that the Archduke’s murder had been planned there with the help of Serbian officials. Austria, determined on revenge, was assured by Germany that it would receive assistance if Russia entered a conflict. By mid-July it seemed war was imminent.

Mathilde went to Krasnoe Selo where President Poincaré of France, who was on a state visit, attended the review on 10 July before returning home. As soon as he had left Russia, Austria presented Serbia with an ultimatum in terms so harsh they would be impossible to accept. Forty-eight hours was allowed for a reply. When Serbia accepted all the points except one, Austria said this was unsatisfactory and declared war. Austrian troops bombarded Belgrade and Serbia appealed to Russia, traditional protector of the Slavs, for help.

It was in this uncertain atmosphere that Vova’s name day was celebrated on 15 July with a mock bullfight, complete with the King of Spain (Vova), Queen of Spain, toreador (the son of Mathilde’s housekeeper) and two of Vova’s friends dressed as a bull.

To add to the uncertainty, Sergei was away. At the end of June he was travelling near Lake Baikal. By 1 July he was in Chita, confined to bed for the previous three days with a high temperature. ‘The doctor says it is “flu”,’ he telegraphed. A few days later he was able to travel but ‘because I am not going to be well yet on my arrival I will be at Mikhailovskoe,’ he said. He reached Moscow on 8 July and was able to telegraph to Mathilde that ‘yesterday was the first day my temperature was normal. I am hoping that this evening if you are not busy you will come to Mikhailovskoe,’ he added.
²

The last performance at Krasnoe Selo took place amid enthusiastic demonstrations. As the Emperor entered the auditorium he received a tremendous ovation and ‘God Save the Tsar’ was sung with special fervour. Mathilde performed her Russian dance, little realising it was the last time that Nicholas would see her on the stage. Afterwards she stood at her dressing room window to watch him leave the theatre, as she had done as a young girl. This time Nicholas looked troubled.

The Tsar had already partially mobilised his huge army and, assured of the support of his ally, France, commenced full mobilisation on 18/31 July. Austria, France and Germany then mobilised and on 19 July/1 August Germany declared war on Russia.

On Sunday 20 July/2 August Mathilde was at Peterhof to see the Tsar leave for the capital, where he would issue a formal proclamation of war. It was the last time she would see her beloved Nicky. Soon the hostilities engulfed Europe. Germany declared war on France
and marched into Belgium. This violation of Belgian neutrality caused Britain to enter the fray. Austria declared war on Russia and a week later Britain was at war with Austria. Everyone expected the conflict to be over by Christmas. ‘Lunch in Paris, dinner in St Petersburg,’ was how the German Kaiser summed up his expectations.
³

Russia was in no state to withstand the strain of a protracted war. Vast distances and incomplete railways made mobilisation difficult, reserves of rifles and ammunition were limited, field guns, heavy artillery and shells were in short supply. Only in manpower was Russia supreme. Over 1,400,000 men were mobilised and there were another 1,300,000 reserves. The Germans knew their hopes of victory rested on crushing France before the ‘Russian steamroller’ could turn on them, and within a month they were only 30 miles south of Paris. As a wave of anti-German hysteria swept over St Petersburg, the Tsar changed the German name St Petersburg to the Slav name of Petrograd.
⁴

Nicholas appointed his tall, imposing cousin Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievich (Nicholasha) Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies. There were two main commands, the north-west front against Germany and the south-west against Austria-Hungary. As Cossacks raided East Prussia the Germans panicked and sent Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff to the eastern front with reinforcements. At the Battle of Tannenberg Russia suffered a resounding defeat. The Russian second army ceased to exist and General Samsonov shot himself in despair. Shortly afterwards the Russians were driven back to the frontier.

Andrei left for a relatively safe appointment on General Ruzsky’s staff at the headquarters of the north-west front and Julie’s husband Ali was appointed commandant of six field hospitals. The Tsar’s brother Michael, permitted to return to Russia because of the war, was given command of the ‘Savage Division’ in Galicia and later earned the Cross of St George for bravery. Boris was appointed commander of the Guards Regiment of Ataman Cossacks, which allowed him to travel more or less as he liked and stay well away from any fighting. Grand Duke George Michaelovich went to Kiev to organise the evacuation of the wounded and five of Grand Duke Constantine’s sons served in the Guards. By the end of September the war had claimed the life of the talented young Prince Oleg, who had often joined in Mathilde’s private theatricals.

Mathilde naturally found it hard to say goodbye to the Uhlan officers stationed at Peterhof, who had become her close friends. She blessed each of them with her father’s icon of Our Lady of Czenstokow, for which Fabergé had made a protective silver case. The only officer
who did not come for a blessing was killed during the first week of the conflict. Grand Duke Dimitri, unable to go to Strelna, asked Mathilde to come to the capital. There was a poignant moment as the young man knelt before the icon at her mansion to receive the blessing. Dimitri served at the front until the autumn of 1914 but was then transferred to headquarters.

On the outbreak of war Sergei was still confined to bed at Mikhailovskoe with either rheumatic fever or arthritis. During the first days of autumn he returned to the capital where his illness, now complicated by pleurisy, took a very severe form. The doctors despaired of his life and Mathilde visited every day. He spent five months confined to bed in constant pain before being pronounced fit enough to resume his duties.

Mathilde was also worried about her relatives. Joseph was taken back into the Maryinsky company in 1914 at her request and was still performing his old role as the gypsy chief in
Paquita
. By August he and Celina had moved to Apartment 43, Spasskaya Ulitsa 18 (a very fashionable area equivalent to London’s West End) but they had no idea what had happened to Slava and Sima.

Sima had been dancing in Budapest, from where she was due to go to Berlin and New York. ‘When war broke out she refused the German contract and lost the American one through the disappearance of her German impresario.’
⁵
Communications were difficult and it was some time before Mathilde learnt that Sima had settled in London, where she was joined by Slava in 1916.

In Petrograd life carried on as normal. The front was many hundreds of miles away and the war seemed remote. Nevertheless the priceless ornaments and trinkets in Mathilde’s St Petersburg mansion, many made by Fabergé, were packed away securely in trunks and boxes. Presumably she did the same at Strelna, although there is no mention in her memoirs of the valuables kept at the dacha.

Once Sergei was declared out of danger Mathilde turned her attention to war work. Like various noble ladies and members of the Imperial family she decided to open her own hospital. She found a large apartment at Kamennostrovsky Prospekt 24, not far from her house, and had the first floor converted into a hospital. On the floor below were apartments for the permanent staff, a surgeon, two doctors, four nursing sisters, four medical nurses and two nurses. The cook, Sergei, had been scullery boy, and later assistant, to Mathilde’s chef Denis. The hospital was blessed in December and shortly afterwards received
its first contingent of wounded, who were visited every morning by the best doctors in Petrograd. Mathilde received a letter of thanks from the Empress, who was working as a nurse in her own hospital at Tsarskoe Selo. Where the money came from to fund Mathilde’s hospital is unclear, but it was probably a Grand Ducal purse.