Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (37 page)

This was Mathilde Kschessinska’s last appearance on the Russian stage. Ironically, the Conservatoire was constructed around the old Bolshoi Theatre where she had made her first stage appearance as a pupil of the Imperial Theatre School.

Rumours spread that a Bolshevik rising, coupled with grave street disorders, was expected on 1 May, Labour Day. Mathilde was afraid and immediately contacted the Siamese Ambassador, Vizan, who had been a frequent guest at her house. As a foreign ambassador, Vizan was not afraid to pay her a visit. He immediately offered shelter at the Embassy, which occupied a floor of a grand apartment building at Admiralty Embankment 6.
³²
Mathilde was joined by Julie and Ali, who were worried that he would be re-arrested. After two anxious days, Mathilde and Vova returned to Vladimiroff’s apartment.

The outpouring of support at the Conservatoire gave Mathilde hope of repossessing her house. ‘Before the war, people gossiped with a tinge of envious respectfulness about this den of luxury, spurs and diamonds located opposite the Winter Palace,’ Leon Trotsky recalled. ‘But in wartime they frequently remarked “stolen goods”. The soldiers expressed themselves even more accurately’ and the people’s feelings were now less benevolent. Nevertheless, as anger against the Bolsheviks grew, the right-wing press blamed Lenin for the armed seizure of the mansion from the defenceless ballerina. In bourgeois drawing rooms there was anger against ‘tattered workers and soldiers among those velvets and silks and beautiful rugs’. Kschessinska suddenly became ‘a symbol of culture trampled under the hoofs of barbarism’ and the Bolsheviks were accused of ‘undermining the pillars of human morality and hawking and spitting on [Kschessinska’s] polished floors’.
³³

All other efforts having failed, on 5 May 1917 the seizure of Kschessinska’s mansion was examined in court. She claimed 2 million roubles for the Provisional Government’s failure to evict the Bolsheviks. Mathilde ‘proved that the house was built with money
earned by her work’, and all sixteen Bolshevik organisations were ordered to vacate the house. Nothing happened. After a complaint by Mathilde’s lawyer, the Executive Committee recognised that ‘in the interests of the revolution’ they should submit to the Court’s decision – but still they remained.
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This was the first instance of a judgment that could not be enforced.

Soon afterwards was published
The Tsarevich’s Romance, or The Great Romance of Nikolai II
, a tawdry fictionalised account by ‘Maria Evgenia’, written ‘by order’. The publication again suggested that Kschessinska had borne Nicholas two healthy sons.
³⁵

The gold wreath and the cases Julie had seen at the Prefect’s office
were
returned. Mathilde deposited the wreath and the boxes of silver in the Society of Loan Credit, along with several things Arnold had salvaged. Eleven other boxes were stored in the Bank of Azov & Don whose director, Kamenka, was her good friend and neighbour at Strelna. Mathilde still had the receipt in the 1960s. One of her cars was also returned and she immediately sold it to raise much-needed cash before it was permanently confiscated.

Sergei returned to Petrograd at the beginning of June. He moved into the New Michaelovsky Palace, where his brother Nicholas Michaelovich was also in residence, although Sergei spent a lot of time with ‘his beauty La Kschessinska’.
³⁶
Mathilde badly needed his advice, ‘because she lived 23 years under my supervision’, he explained to his brother, ‘but now when this misfortune happened she had to make decisions herself’. They urgently needed to calculate their budget and make plans for the future. Sergei later estimated their loss as at least half a million roubles, ‘maybe even more’.
³⁷

The most urgent matter was Mathilde’s house, where the Bolshevik Central Committee, the Petrograd Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the Bolshevik Military Organisation and the editorial offices of
Pravda
were still resident. The steward willingly accompanied excursions to the house by the various Bolshevik associations. Privately he revealed a photograph of one of the rooms and told of the vast amount Kschessinska had lost at cards on the eve of the revolution.

On 5 June Sergei, Hessin and a squadron of loyal cavalry went to evict the Bolsheviks by force. ‘A squadron of dragoons with a kind of Prince approached the building,’ recalled one of the Bolsheviks. ‘He demanded that the residence be vacated in twenty-five minutes.’ Members of the soldiers’ club
Pravda
sent for help from the neighbouring regiment. The matter went to armed conflict but
after negotiations between the Ministry of Justice and Sverdlov the mansion was left to the Bolsheviks. By the end of June the Bolshevik Military Organisation and the Petrograd Committee had abandoned Kschessinska’s house but other organisations remained.
³⁸

Vova had passed his examinations with the top mark of 5 and received a certificate issued by the Gymnasium of Emperor Alexander I.
³⁹
Mathilde and Sergei now made several excursions in the small car he was allowed to keep and they may have used one of these trips to take Vova away from the dangers of the capital. Tsarskoe Selo, 15 miles south-west of Petrograd, was relatively quiet and although the Tsar and his family were still under arrest in the Alexander Palace, it was hoped that Vova could live in safety. Mathilde mentioned visiting a friend of her butler who had a small
pension
, so perhaps Vova was staying there.
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One day Mathilde recognised her requisitioned car. Certain that its occupants had spotted her, they hurried back home.

One of these excursions ended in tragedy. That night Djibi was restless and when Mathilde woke up he was lying on her bed, dead. He had been exploring during the day and Mathilde thought he must have eaten something poisonous. The soldiers helped Mathilde and Vova bury him in the garden at Strelna. Djibi’s death was a hard blow, as he had been Mathilde’s companion for nine years.

Mathilde visited Strelna several times. The rooms had been completely ransacked, again in a fruitless search for German gold. The dacha was now occupied by soldiers who Mathilde described as ‘very polite and correct’, and it has been mooted that this guard was organised by Sergei Michaelovich from among his loyal followers. These were decent men less affected by the revolutionary propaganda and many of them remained loyal to Sergei.
⁴¹
Although much of the furniture was missing, they arranged for some of Mathilde’s possessions to be transported to Petrograd on a large cart. Vova visited all his old haunts and the men kept an eye on him, one of them even suggesting that he should come and live in his little lodge.

This is another puzzling episode. When soldiers were deserting in droves, some of them helped Mathilde bury a dog and then transported her possessions to Petrograd. It has been suggested that there was another reason for these journeys. Thirty years after Mathilde’s death rumours would circulate about these visits to Strelna.
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(See Postscript)

For Vova’s fifteenth birthday Mathilde took him to Byelo-Ostrov in Finland accompanied by Sergei and Vladimiroff, who had arranged
for them to stay at the estate of Nicholas Oblakov, a teacher at the Theatre School.

The Oblakov estate, not far from the railway station, was a haven of peace, surrounded by forests, moors and swamps. Nearby was the little stream which marked the border between Russia and Finland. They remained for three or four days before returning to Petrograd, where Mathilde would soon have to make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Early in July the Bolsheviks very nearly pulled off a successful coup and shortly afterwards their strongholds were stormed. On 6 July eight armoured cars manned by troops loyal to the Provisional Government, along with some heavy artillery, evicted the Bolsheviks from Kschessinska’s mansion. Not a single shot was fired. The Bolsheviks left without resistance, as their leaders were busy burning the files. Lenin fled over the border into Finland and only a few employees were discovered in Mathilde’s mansion.

On 7 July Alexander Kerensky became Prime Minister and Minister of War in the Provisional Government. Kschessinska’s house was occupied by a bicycle brigade and it seemed now that Mathilde had a chance to recover her property. The Provisional Government had other worries and no one was concerned about the problems of a redundant ballerina. The troops remained. When the keys were finally handed over, Mathilde complained that furs worth 227,000 roubles were missing.

With the Bolsheviks narrowly failing to take power Mathilde began to think about joining Andrei in the Caucasus. His letters said that the revolution had not reached the area and it was possible to lead a normal life. Mathilde had to think of Vova’s safety. Many people had already left for the Crimea or the Caucasus, where the climate was good and the Black Sea gave the possibility of escape if it became necessary. Sergei refused to go, believing that a sudden exodus of Grand Dukes would endanger the lives of the Tsar and his family. Leaving Petrograd would therefore mean choosing between Sergei and Andrei.

Soon after his return from Stavka, now wearing unaccustomed civilian clothes, Sergei proposed. Mathilde refused. Although she had great respect for Sergei and was grateful for his love and devotion to her and Vova for many years, Mathilde did not love him in the way that she loved Andrei. ‘He knew this …’
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Mathilde was torn between joy at the thought of a reunion with Andrei and guilt at leaving Sergei, who would be in constant danger.
She also found it difficult to deprive him of Vova, who he adored. Throughout the years, while Mathilde was busy with rehearsals and performances, Sergei had devoted himself to Vova’s upbringing and education, showering him with expensive presents.

Mathilde applied to Kerensky for the necessary permit to travel to Kislovodsk, intending to return when things had settled down. She then put the Tsar’s letters into a casket, which was entrusted to Mme Inkina (whose daughter Zoia was a childhood friend of Vova), believing it would be safe. The signed photograph had still not been retrieved from Youriev’s flat.

On Thursday 13 July Sergei went to the Nicholas Station to say goodbye. Mathilde and Vova were accompanied by Ludmilla Roumiantzeva and Ivan Kournossov, Mathilde’s former butler, now demobilised, who was to look after Vova. They all crammed into a two-berth sleeping compartment. The parting was meant to be temporary but the sight of Sergei’s sad face as the train pulled away haunted Mathilde, especially after she learnt of his tragic fate.

The train reached Moscow without incident but on the journey south it was invaded by deserters, who insisted that everyone was free to do as they liked. Mathilde and her companions had to barricade themselves into their compartment. The journey seemed interminable.

Finally, at 10 o’clock on Sunday evening, 16 July, the train pulled into Kislovodsk Station, where Andrei was waiting. He immediately took them for a meal in a Caucasian restaurant. After the events of the last few months good food in peaceful surroundings bathed in moonlight seemed like a dream.

Mathilde did not know that she had left Sergei, her house, and Petrograd for ever.

Thirteen

F
LIGHT FROM THE
B
OLSHEVIKS

T
he Caucasus lay in the south of Russia, in the strip of land between the Black and the Caspian Seas. Kislovodsk was the most fashionable of the north Caucasus spa resorts, famous for its curative hot spring and invigorating mountain air. Its green, wooded slopes led to the higher ranges where the rocky peaks were always covered in snow. Just before the First World War it was a town of some 14,000 inhabitants and its river, waterfalls and wonderful views from the Blue Rocks provided popular places for excursions. After their ‘cure’, visiting Russian aristocracy relaxed in the park and in the evening attended the elegant Kislovodsk Theatre. ‘There were several hotels, white villas sheltering in gardens, avenues of poplars, gold-domed churches, here and there the minarets of mosques rising above the roofs of the houses. It was a very different world from the world of Petrograd,’ recalled Meriel Buchanan.
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The region was peaceful. Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna had rented the Semeyonov Villa in Pomerantseva Street but on 24 February she received a telegram from Boris informing her of rioting. Then rumours of revolution in Petrograd circulated through Kislovodsk. Miechen and Andrei received a taste of what was to come when Andrei’s train was stopped by revolutionaries while returning from Tiflis, 300 miles south. On 13 March Andrei sent a telegram to Petrograd, saying that he had sworn allegiance to the Provisional Government.

Miechen’s villa was then searched by two representatives of the Provisional Government, who removed some of her letters and papers. Claiming they had intercepted an indiscreet letter to Boris they placed the Grand Duchess under house arrest, where she remained for three months. During her imprisonment Miechen’s health suffered and she complained of heart pains. Once released, she was offered a house in the Crimea but considered there were too many Romanovs there already. Instead the Grand Duchess took the precaution of obtaining Kerensky’s permission to join Cyril in Finland. However, she remained
in Kislovodsk with Andrei and a few members of staff, guarded by a dozen locally recruited Cossacks.