Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (38 page)

When Mathilde arrived the Grand Duchess would not permit her son’s mistress to move in with him. Andrei therefore rented rooms for Mathilde and Vova in the Stcherbin Villa. This single-storey building, only intended as a summer home, had a covered gallery giving an exit to the street on one side and to the courtyard on the other. Everyone had their own room, although it was far from luxurious and there was no heating. Ivan prepared breakfast; other meals were taken in a restaurant.

Andrei dined with his mother, although he visited Mathilde and Vova regularly. When the lease on the Grand Duchess’s villa ran out she moved into a bed-sitting room in Andrei’s villa.‘She complains most bitterly of her lot,’ a friend reported.
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Miechen’s name day was celebrated on 22 July with a
Te Deum
and lunch for twenty-eight people. Mathilde was not invited.

Also in Kislovodsk were Michael Fokine and his wife Vera. Over tea a few days after her arrival Mathilde and Andrei discussed the situation with them. What would happen next? Should they stay or leave?

The Grand Duchess’s loyal English friend Bertie Stopford, who ‘served nominally as an official diplomatic courier’ but may have had links to the secret service,
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smuggled some much-needed money to the Caucasus in his boots. When he returned to Petrograd Stopford hatched a plan to retrieve the Grand Duchess’s jewels.

He and Grand Duke Boris disguised themselves and, with the help of a loyal caretaker, removed all the money and jewels from the secret safe in Miechen’s bedroom at the Vladimir Palace. Stopford took the money to the British Embassy and carried the jewels back to London, where they were placed in a safe deposit box. In all, he made three trips to Kislovodsk with money for the Grand Duchess. Stopford’s ingenuity would benefit all her children when they were living in exile.

At the end of August Julie and Ali arrived and settled into a wing of Mathilde’s villa. En route their trunk had disappeared and when it reached Kislovodsk two months later Ali’s Orders and regimental insignia, all Julie’s lovely furs and several other items had been stolen. The thieves had cut a hole in the trunk and closed it up with wire.
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Three weeks later Boris arrived with his mistress Zina Rachevska, her French friend Marie, and the oil magnate Leon Mantachev. Boris’s mistress was also forced to live elsewhere, as Miechen would not have ‘the harem’, as she sarcastically called her sons’ mistresses, living with them.
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As winter approached, Mathilde searched for a new home. She finally settled on the Beliaievsky Villa at Vokzalaia Pereluk 9, a white-painted house with a green roof, a turret and several balconies, standing in a small garden. Mathilde, Vova, Julie and Ali moved in on 3 October and hired a fat red-haired cook.

Mathilde was now surrounded by friends from Petrograd. A welcome visitor was Pierre Vladimiroff, taking a cure in nearby Sotchi. According to her, during his stay he sustained severe bruising and a broken nose after falling from a horse and was unable to leave his room for some time. There is another version of this story, which says that Andrei became jealous of Mathilde’s friendship with Vladimiroff and challenged him to a duel. He shot through Vladimiroff’s nose and the unfortunate victim needed plastic surgery. This story obviously dates from a different period, as the duel was allegedly fought in the Boulogne Woods near Paris.
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In Petrograd, the Provisional Government requisitioned Andrei’s palace for the Minister of Agriculture at the end of August. Meanwhile Grand Duke Sergei continued his efforts to recover Mathilde’s possessions. He managed to store some of the remaining furniture in Meltzer’s but his efforts to send her jewellery (and also some belonging to his late mother) abroad in Mathilde’s name failed because the British Ambassador refused to help. Despite Mathilde’s urgent pleas and the fact that Count Cheremetiev offered to let the Grand Duke stay with him in Kislovodsk, Sergei still refused to leave. He remained in the New Michaelovsky Palace and frequently dined with his brother Nicholas, who was receiving gifts of food from his property in the Kherson district.

When Vladimiroff returned to Petrograd in October he promised to try and obtain permission for Sergei to go to Finland. When Vladimiroff obtained the permit it was made out only in Sergei’s name, with no mention of his manservant and secretary Feodor Remez. The Grand Duke, who was ill, was unable to travel without him.

Also, Sergei feared for the Emperor’s safety. In August Kerensky moved Nicholas and his family to Tobolsk in distant Siberia, but Sergei still feared repercussions if too many Grand Dukes tried to leave Petrograd. Vladimiroff had intended to return to Kislovodsk but told Mathilde that he would not abandon Sergei.

By the time Sergei had dealt with all Mathilde’s affairs it was too late. In September the Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet and on 25 October they staged a
coup d’état
.The Provisional
Government fell. Bolshevik forces occupied the banks, telephone exchanges, post office and other public buildings in the capital. Kerensky fled. Lenin was now master of Petrograd.

In Kislovodsk Mathilde heard about the Bolshevik coup with dismay. She now realised that her stay in the Caucasus would be permanent and that Sergei would never be permitted to join them. Mathilde had hoped to return to Petrograd to recover her ‘most precious possessions’, the Tsar’s letters and his photograph.
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This dream now vanished. As news came that the banks and all private property had been nationalised, Mathilde lost everything. Overnight Kschessinska and her Grand Duke became literally penniless.

She also had Vova’s education to consider. As soon as it became clear that they would not be leaving he was enrolled in the local grammar school, often returning home breathless, his coat torn, after some escapade in the park with his friends.

The days now passed in an agony of uncertainty. A curfew was in force between 9 o’clock and sunrise. When Mathilde visited friends to play cards or have dinner they often sat up talking all night to avoid leaving early. Random searches by revolutionary soldiers increased. The Grand Duchess’s villa had already been searched several times and looting was widespread.

Mathilde began to hide the things she had salvaged from Petrograd. It could only be a matter of time before the Bolsheviks reached Kislovodsk, and all their lives would then be in danger. Around the third week of January 1918 the Bolsheviks arrived in the spa town of Piatigorsk, the administrative centre of the district. Officers were arrested, banks and public buildings taken over. The Bolsheviks then moved south-west to Kislovodsk.

On 27 January Mathilde was entertaining friends. Ten people had just sat down to dinner when a band of Red soldiers burst in saying they wanted to see how the ‘bourgeoisie’ lived. Andrei was wearing a Cherkeska, the Cossacks’ coat-like garment with a row of imitation cartridges along the breast, with a dagger. Hearing that the men were looking for weapons he quickly put the dagger in the hall. One of the soldiers noticed its absence and asked where it was, whereupon Mathilde quickly told him, to avoid any problems. They even tried to confiscate Vova’s small dagger but Ivan protested that he was just a child. After the soldiers left, a more decent man among them secretly returned and warned Mathilde that they should put out the lights and disperse, or they would all be in danger.

The following month Lenin abolished the old Julian calendar used by Russians for centuries. The first of February now became 14 February, in line with Western Europe.
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In March Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow and on 3 March 1918 Russia signed a separate peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk. The terms were harsh but Lenin needed peace at any price. A quarter of Russia’s territory was surrendered as the Ukraine, the Baltic States, Finland, Poland, the Crimea and the Caucasus came under German rule. Russia was left defenceless as, overnight, Germany trebled in size. The peace treaty gave Lenin a breathing space to consolidate his position and it brought more danger for the Romanovs and their associates.

The next few weeks passed fairly quietly in the Caucasus, although the feeling of uncertainty continued. Those who had remained in Petrograd were not so lucky. All male Romanovs were required to register at the Cheka headquarters. They were then exiled. On 4 April Sergei was sent to Viatka in the Urals. With him went three sons of Grand Duke Constantine (‘KR’, who had died in 1915) – princes Ioann, Constantine and Igor, with 21-year-old Prince Vladimir Paley, the son of Grand Duke Paul and his second wife Princess Paley. Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich found himself in Perm; Grand Dukes George and Nicholas Michaelovich and Grand Duke Dimitri Constantinovich were sent to Vologda.

On 26 April Commissar Bulle arrived in Kislovodsk from Moscow at the head of a commission charged with extracting a contribution of 30 million roubles from the ‘bourgeoisie’. Although Mathilde was ill and could barely stand she had to appear before the commission at the Grand Hotel. Her friend Rebecca Weinstein courageously told the commissar that Mathilde Kschessinska was ill, she had already lost her house and money during the first days of the Revolution and had nothing more to give. Commissar Bulle sent Mathilde home in a car, escorted by one of his men. No more was heard about her ‘contribution’.

Soon afterwards two of the Bolsheviks asked Mathilde to perform at a charity evening in aid of the wounded. She refused, even though they offered to send for her costumes. They persisted, assuring her that many of the beneficiaries of this performance were still sympathetic to the old regime. Finally, to avoid any unpleasantness, Mathilde agreed to sell tickets, programmes and champagne. The younger man, the handsome
Martzinkevich, remained behind and told Mathilde to inform him at once if she ran into trouble of any kind. A few weeks later at a concert he respectfully kissed her hand. She suspected that Martzinkevich was not really sympathetic to the new regime, a suspicion confirmed when soon afterwards he was sent on a mission from which he never returned.

Lydia Davydova, one of the most prominent members of Kislovodsk society, asked Vova to act in a charity performance at the Casino Theatre. Although Mathilde was doubtful of her son’s theatrical ability he produced a good performance, watched from one box by Grand Duke Boris and from the other by Commissar Bulle and his fellow Bolsheviks.

Mathilde obtained a permit to go out at night, but this was becoming increasingly dangerous. Once a sentry threatened to shoot Mathilde and her escort in the back if they did not hurry. Another time she and a prosperous-looking companion were followed. After seeing Mathilde safely home her escort was mugged and beaten up. She then stopped going out at night.

Regular house searches took place. One soldier asked to see Mathilde’s passport, then proceeded to examine it upside down. She snatched it back indignantly. Early one June morning, after one such search, Mathilde learnt that they were looking for Grand Duke Michael, who was rumoured to have escaped from Perm and reached the Caucasus.

As these searches generally led to the confiscation of valuables, Mathilde and the other ladies were forced to be more and more ingenious in hiding jewellery and silver. Once a particular hiding place was discovered in one house it was then checked everywhere. The underside of trunks or chests, pots of face cream, all gave up their secrets and nowhere was safe. Mathilde hid banknotes under the upper window frames of the ground floor and jewels in the hollow leg of her bed, attached to a string so that they could be easily removed. Her emerald necklace, with stones the size of pigeons’ eggs, was concealed in a potted plant which she took everywhere. When each plant died another took its place.

More and more armoured trains arrived from Piatigorsk packed with soldiers. The searches and arrests continued and Mathilde and her set lived in perpetual fear.

Early on 27 June volleys of shots echoed around Kislovodsk as a squadron of mounted Kuban Cossacks, known as ‘the Wolves’, rode through the town. They were led by Colonel Andrei Shkuro, a brigand in a wolf-skin cap with the red, white and blue ribbon of the Volunteer
Army on his coat. He and his band of partisans supported themselves by looting and their notorious reputation for atrocities and debauchery had led whole towns to surrender without fighting. Rumours that they had routed the Bolsheviks proved to be false. It was merely a raid. Bolsheviks soon roamed the streets once more and anyone suspected of harbouring Cossack sympathies was arrested. Among them was Boris, who after some hours was luckily released.

Letters arrived intermittently from Sergei, from which they learnt that on 30 April he, his secretary and the other members of the family had been moved to Ekaterinburg and housed in a suite in the Palais Royale Hotel on Vosnesensky Prospekt. The Tsarina’s sister Grand Duchess Elisabeth had joined them and they were allowed a certain amount of freedom. Although the Tsar and Tsarina were in the nearby Ipatiev House they were unable to make contact.

Mathilde received several postcards and a letter from Sergei in Ekaterinburg. In July a telegram dated 14 June arrived for Vova’s birthday. Sergei and the others were now at Alapayevsk, where they were put on a prison regime in the Napolnaya School. Then in mid-July the Bolshevik radio announced that the members of the Imperial family at Alapayevsk had been carried off by the Whites. Mathilde was overjoyed.

At the end of July children ran through Kislovodsk selling printed sheets and shouting ‘murder of the Imperial family!’
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The story quickly spread that the Tsar and his family had been shot at Ekaterinburg. Mathilde was stunned into disbelief, hoping it was just another Bolshevik rumour. In fact it was the beginning of a nightmare.