The Romanovs

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

  24

  NM, Alexandre on mystical seer Tatariov and Arakcheev vs Golitsyn 180–7; reform plans for Poland and Russia 188–90 and 205–8; Speransky decrees 193 and 207. Rey 310–20. Conversation with Borstell: GARF 728.1.633. Military colonies and different attitudes to Russian and other peasants: NM, Alexandre 208–17; Metternich quote on Alexander changes 209; revolution and Semyonovsky mutiny, Alexander to Golitsyn, 8–15 February 1821, inc. anti–Christian revolutionary conspiracy. Empress Alexandra (Mouffy) on military colonies: Una Pope-Hennessy, A Czarina’s Story: Being an Account of the Early Married Life of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia Written by his Wife (henceforth Pope) 9–20. Arakcheev 171–203. Alexander travels, Rey 347–50. Congresses, Aix, Alexander’s Spanish plan and Holy Alliance: Adam Zamoyski, Phantom Terror: Political Paranoia and the Creation of the Modern State 1789–1848 (henceforth Zamoyski, Phantom) 183–91.

  25

  Arakcheev 188–96; secret societies and Semyonovsky mutiny 210–12. Zamoyski, Phantom 326–30. Rey 327–42; Caucasus 328–9; colonies 321–6. British view of Congress system: Rory Muir, Wellington: Waterloo and the Fortunes of Peace 1814–1852 (henceforth Muir) 172–4. Alexander and Borstell: GARF 728.1.633. Aix Congress: Charmley 40–45 on Countess Lieven, Metternich; on Nesselrode 56–7; Troppau and Laibach 65–79. Bew 505–6. Secret police: Ruud 16. Police ministry abolished 1819, replaced by three agencies run by Arakcheev, Petersburg governor-general Milodorovich and interior minister: LeDonne 128–30. Objections to military colonies by Barclay 206. Pushkin and fat-bottomed despot: Binyon 55, 100–4.

  26

  Constantine RA (1876) 1.118, Rostopchin to Vorontsov, 28 May 1794. Wilson 21. Custine on foot–piercing and Davydov on ugliness: Lincoln 26–7. Golovina 98 and 184–5. Plans to refuse crown: Sablukov 325. Jackman 8, 26 Maria disapproves of mistress then approves marriage, Maria to Anna, 17 July 1820, and 59, 7 February 1821; 136 Petersburg as prison, Constantine to Anna, 12 June 1827. Amiable lover to Lieven: Charmley 10–11. NM, Elisabeth 66. Rey 309, 364, 417. Beech 1.21.

  27

  Nicholas: GARF 728.1.1394.4–31, Notes of Nicholas I. NM, Elisabeth 2.647, marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra, Elizabeth to mother, 27 June/9 July 1817. Youth: W. Bruce Lincoln, Nicholas I (henceforth Lincoln, Nicholas) 48–50; marriage 48–72. Romance/marriage with Nicholas: Pope 9–47. Beech 1.47. Nicholas virgin at marriage, syphilis visit: M. A. Korf, Materialy i cherty k biografii Imperatora Niklaia I in N. F. Dubrovin, Materialy i cherty k biografii imperatora Nikolaia I k istorii tsarstvovaniia, 98–100. Hatred of Poles and Jews: Dubrovin Materialy i cherty k biografii imperatora Nikolaia I i k istorii ego tsarstvovaniia, SIRIO (1896) 98.10–14. M. Polievktov, Nikolai I. Biografia i obzor tsarstvovania 3, Rey 308–10. GARF 728.1.1210, Constantine to Alexander, 14 January 1822; GARF 728.1.1167, Alexander to Constantine, 2 February 1822; succession manifesto by Alexander, 16 August 1823. GARF 679.1.68.

  28

  Rey 342–6; secret societies 357–63. ‘Synagogues of Satan’, Alexander complains of Comité Central and trap to Constantine, Zamoyski, Phantom 267–275; surrounded by assassins 330; Verona 302–6; Wellington and street sex quoted by Chateaubriand. Muir 193–7. Societies: Lincoln, Nicholas 32–4. Secret police: Ruud 16. Verona Congress: Charmley 81–93; Greek question 124–6.

  29

  NM, Alexandre 241–328. Arakcheev 204–38; Minkina murder 239–62; fall of Golitsyn, Volkonsky, no right to be severe 222–36; Sherwood 252. Arakcheevschina/fall of Golitsyn: Rey 352–7 and 363–6.

  30

  Rey, account of Countess Choiseul–Gouffier 351–3; Michaud to see Pope 367. Sophia and sin: Golitsyn to Alexander, GARF 728.1.120. Taganrog: Alexander to Elizabeth, GARF 658.1.96, 5 September 1825. Alexander orders investigations and arrests by Dibich and Chernyshev; death: GARF 728.1.1394.4–31, Notes of Nicholas I. Taganrog, letters of Alexander to Elizabeth, Elizabeth letters to her mother on honeymoon idyll and then Alexander’s decline and death, told in letters to mother: NM, Alexandre 241–328. Alexander visits Vorontsov Crimea and Alupka: Anthony L. H. Rhinelander, Prince Michael Vorontsov: Viceroy to the Tsar (henceforth Rhinelander) 77–9. Departure to Taganrog and death: Rey 366–85; retire with Volkonsky as librarian 376; Kuzmich myth and medical reports 381–5. Fairweather 159–62; last meeting and letters with Alexander 177; death and funeral cortège, Ilya the coachman 181–4.

  ACT III: THE DECLINE

  SCENE 1: JUPITER

  1

  GARF 728.1.1394.4–31, Notes of Nicholas I. Nicholas’s impulse to take throne: S. V. Mironenko, Stranitsy tainoi istorii samoderzhaviia 89–90. S. W. Jackman (ed.), Chère Annette: Letters from Russia 1820–1828: The Correspondence of the Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia to her daughter the Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, the Princess of Orange (henceforth Annette) 100–1; Maria Fyodorovna on Emperor Constantine, dreadful position, hears cannonfire: Maria to Annette, 1, 2, 5 and 15 December 1825. Lincoln, Nicholas 18–47, 70–85. Jackman 115–16, Anna of Orange to Constantine, 27 December 1825. Wortman 131–3.

  2

  Wortman 130–1. Elizabeth Longford, Wellington: Pillar of State (henceforth Longford) 162–3. Muir 233–7. Annette 112–13, Maria to Annette, 18, 19 February and 19 March 1826. Eastern Question and Nicholas as his own foreign minister: Lincoln, Nicholas 110–12, 117–19.

  3

  OR RNB 380.479.1, Nicholas to A. N. Golitsyn, 13 July 1826. Nicholas’s instructions on executions: OR RNB 738.37.15, Nicholas to Count P. V. Golenischev-Kutuzov, 1826. ‘No less reason to complain’: RAS 198.13.2.18, Nicholas to Paul’s mistress Nelidova, 4 April 1826. Nicholas ‘system’: Lincoln, Nicholas Ministers, 308–23; army, all is order, Nicholas to Mouffy quoted 312. Chernyshev: Menning 190–219. Jonathan W. Daly, Autocracy under Siege: Security Police and Opposition in Russia 1866–1905 (Daly 1) 12–17. Perlustration and surveillance: Binyon 449–5. Empress Alexandra on Benckendorff: Pope 46. Benckendorff and actress: Lieven 248–9. Lincoln, Nicholas 89–90. Ruud 18–21. Inspections with Benckendorff ‘to astound Moscow’, Benckendorff diaries quoted in Lincoln, Nicholas 171; reform commissions 99; new ministers 99. Yermolov tainted, interrogation of Griboyedov: Laurence Kelly, Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran: Alexander Griboyedov and Imperial Russia’s Mission to the Shah of Persia (‘Kelly’) 131–40.

  4

  Wortman 135–9. Annette 116, Maria to Annette, 13, 25 July 1826. Binyon 240–5; Benckendorff 244–51. Young Tsarevich Alexander: E. Radzinsky, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar (Radzinsky)53.

  5

  Persia: Lincoln, Nicholas 110, 113–15. Nicholas suspects Yermolov : RS (1880) 29.619–25, Nicholas to Dibich, 10 and 27 March 1827. Rayfield 277–80. Kelly 128– 43; rise of Paskevich 143; ar 143–62; embassy 179–94.

  6

  Ottomans: Lincoln, Nicholas 115–30. Nicholas to Grand Duke Michael on siege of Brailov, 8 June 1828 quoted in A. S. Tsamutali, Nikolai I 346; Nicholas to Michael on death of Maria, ‘we have orphans’, 24 October 1828. Varna/Menshikov wound: Lyubov Ruseva, Oklevetannyi molvoi, Smena (2007) 2.96–107. Death of Maria: Annette 162, Alexandra to Annette, 24 October 1828. Death of Griboyedov: Kelly 195–204.

  7

  Lincoln, Nicholas 130–48. RGIA 706.1.71, Nicholas to Michael on ‘scoundrel’ Metternich, 24 April 1843. Fear of assassination,: RA (1897) 1.16, Nicholas to Paskevich, 30 June 1835.

  8

  Wortman 145. Lincoln, Nicholas 275. ‘smile of a condescending Jupiter’, Anna Tyutcheva, Vospominaniia 44. Home life, schedule and advisers: Lincoln, Nicholas 154–66. Mouffy ‘in a golden cage’: Anna Tyutcheva, Vospominaniia, Moscow, 2004, 51, 55. Mouffy: Lincoln, Nicholas 60, 115 and 364. Wholesome image: Wortman 126–7. Mouffy: Binyon 443. Dancing and learning of political plots: Pope 41–3; Nicholas on family happiness 31, Nicholas to Annette, 28 February 1846; our peaceful cottage, Peterhof, 28 July 1837 222; ‘our favourite corner’ 190.

  9

  Children: Jackman 185, children ‘dearer than any conquest’, Nicholas to Annette, 19 September 1829; 145 my boys, ‘angelic’ soul
of young Alexander, 16 February 1828; 83 ‘little fellow a soldier’, Nicholas to Annette, 16 July 1820; 98 absent-minded boy. Nicholas drills family, Grand Dukes NN and MN: Beech 1.79–80. ‘Play regiments:’ Wortman 148. Young Alexander: tearful, emotional, military instincts: Zapiski K. K. Merder, Novyi zhurnal (1995) 3. Zapiski K. K. Merder, RS (1885) 45.347–8, 538–29; 46.488–90; 47.227–8 (henceforth Zapiski K. K. Merder). ‘Keen to ensure son feels like me’: RA (1897) 1.6, Nicholas to Paskevich, 22 May 1832. Lack of enthusiasm for military/soldier in soul: Alfred Rieber (ed.), The Politics of Autocracy: Letters of Alexander II to Prince A. I. Bariatinskii 1857–1864 (henceforth Rieber) 22, Nicholas to Merdera; secretive nature, Merdera reports 32; wish never to be tsarevich 19. Court life: Wortman 148, 151. ‘I like people having fun’: Jackman 190. Nubians 1810, first Americans, costumes, darkness of skin and regular position, reduction in cost of Nubians in 1851, just eight Negroes: Zimin, Negroes 410–18.

  10

  Nicholas’s sex life: Annette 24 on Nicholas’s libido and abstinence, Maria Fyodorovna to Annette, 7 July 1820. Leo Tolstoy, Hadji Murat, in Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy, 616. Varenka Nelidova, secrecy: M. P. Frederiks, Iz Vospominanii. Portret na fone imperii (henceforth M. P. Frederiks) 54–5. On Nicholas’s friendship of seventeen years with Nelidova: Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Son Iunosti. Vospominaniia velikoi knyazhny Olgi Nikolaevny 1825–1846, in N. Azarova (ed.), Nikolai I. Muzh. Otets. Imperator (henceforth Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Son Iunosti) 248–9; on Amalia Krüdener, 235–6. Krüdener and Buturlina on Nicholas I as strange man: S. V. Zhitomirskaia (ed.), S. A. Smirnova–Rosset, Dnevnik. Vospominaniia 8–9, 10 March 1845; on timing of visits to Nelidova 7, 5 March 1845. Binyon 381; on flirting with Pushkina and harem of actresses 529; Krüdener and Buturlina 567; on ‘dangling’ after Natalya Pushkina, driving past window 566.

  11

  Binyon 244–62; 437–9; 442; 449–52. Uvarov and nationalism: Lincoln 237–52. Binyon 480–5 on Uvarov against Pushkin, Nicholas on reviews 316–17. Pushkin and Elise Vorontsova: Rhinelander 75–7.

  12

  Binyon 524–99; d’Anthes marriage to Ekaterina 609–10; duel and death 611–27; 639–50; November 1836, Nicholas advises Natalya to pay attention to virtue; Nesselrode 149; funeral 296; Zhukovsky complains of harassment to Benckendorff 311.

  13

  This is based on Moshe Gammer, Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of the Chechnia and Dagestan; John F. Baddeley, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus; Rayfield, Edge of Empires; Lesley Blanch, The Sabres of Paradise. RA (1897) 1.22, Nicholas to Paskevich, 21 October 1837.

  14

  Zapiski K. K. Merder; ‘I wish I’d never been born a tsarevich’ RS 45.528; Nicholas to Alexander II, I can forgive anything except except lack of a sense of duty, RS 47.41; Nicholas notices little zeal for military science RS 48.514; secretive nature RS 47.430. Alexander education and youth: Sobstvennoruchnoe chernovoe pismo V. A. Zhukovskogo ee Imperatorskomu Vel. Gos. Imp. Marii Fyordorovne 1828,SIRIO (1881) 30.39. Wortman 169–80; marriage 180–5. Rieber 32; secretive nature, Merder reports 32; Nicholas as more than father 19–22. Cossacks: Menning 190–219. Alexander reverie, Kalinovskaya, a trip: GARF 672.1.340.10, Nicholas to Gen. Toll, 8 August 1838. Alexander parades, October 1839: I. A. Bychkov (ed.), V. A. Zhukovsky, Dnevniki V. A. Zhukovskogo 509. Tsamutali, Nicholas questions Marie relationship and then delighted with Marie: Nicholas to Toll, 12 October 1839 and 21 April 1840. Syphilis visit: Korff, Materialy 98–100. Tour: Lincoln 215. Dutch visit to Annette: Jackman 281, Annette to Nicholas, 1 March 1839. London: A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher (eds.), The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861 (henceforth Queen Victoria’s Letters), diary entries May 1839. Bariatinsky takes message to Marie: Rieber 60–1. Nicholas correspondence with young Alexander on life and marriage with Marie: L. G. Zakharova and L. I. Tyutyunnik (eds.), Venchanie s Rossiei: Perepiska velikogo knyazya Alexandra Nikolaevicha s imperatotom Nikolaem I. 1837 – 143 Nicholas to Alexander, 24 June 1837; 81 Alexander to Nicholas, 3 July 1837. Jackman 300, Alexander to Darmstadt to propose, Nicholas to Annette, 7 January 1840. Birth of children, Nikolai Alexandrovich: Jackman 313, Nicholas to Annette, 3 October 1843.

  15

  Rhinelander 123–59; Nicholas initial distrust of Vorontsov 101–6; love life and lifestyle 160–7; Nicholas pomposity on thanks 142–3; Caucasus in 1830s and appointment of Vorontsov 280–92. Winter Palace burned down: RA (1897) 1.22, Nicholas to Paskevich, 3 January 1838.

  16

  S. Tatishchev, Imperator Nikolai I v Londone v 1844 godu, Istoricheskii vestnik (February 1886) 23.3.602–4. Queen Victoria’s Letters 2.16–17. Orlando Figes, Crimea (henceforth Figes) 61–70. Lincoln 221–4; J. H. Gleason, The Genesis of Russophobia in Great Britain (henceforth Gleason) 35–45. They want to kill me: RA (1897) 1.16, Nicholas to Paskevich, 30 June 1835.

  17

  Lincoln 180–95. Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire 144–9, inc. quote on evil of serfdom, and 367–97; Samarin and Nicholas 382. Uvarov: Binyon 480–5. Lincoln 237–52. On contradictions of nationalism and empire: Dominic Lieven, Towards the Flame (henceforth Lieven, Flame) 46–57.

  18

  Velizh ‘blood libel’ case: Klier 192–5. Vorontsov on ludicrous persecutions: Rhinelander 87–8, 108. L. Loewe (ed.), Moses Montefiore, Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore 329–35. Abigail Green, Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero 181–94; on status of in Russia 174–80. Edmund Levin, A Child of Christian Blood: Murder and Conspiracy in Tsarist Russia: The Beilis Blood Libel (henceforth Levin) 39. Hatred of Poles and Jews: Dubrovin 10–14. Also: Polievktov 3. See: N. Riasanovsky, Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825–1855.

  19

  Lincoln 156–9. Death of Alexandra (Adini) in July 1844: Jackman 312, Nicholas to Annette, 2 September 1844. Nicholas and his daughters’ marriages, ‘Your old friend, papa, on Ollie, Tarasov, 1.178, Nicholas to Olga, 26 December 1845. Marriage of Olga: Jackman 314, Nicholas to Annette, 26 September 1846. Benckendorff and Amalia Krüdener, Nicholas’s reaction and adoption of baby/marriage to N. Adlerberg: Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Son Iunosti, 235–6. Death of Benckendorff: RA (1897) 1.32, Nicholas to Paskevich, 18 September 1844.

  20

  No mercy: RA (1897) 1.32, Nicholas to Paskevich, 18 September 1844. Lincoln 269– 90; speech to nobles on danger of household servants, 21 March 1848; on anniversary of Decembrists in 1850 speech to Preobrazhensky Guards; family belongs to you as you belong to me 251; fear of rumours of German rule among the masses 91. Death of Michael: Jackman 331, Annette to Nicholas I, 15 September 1849. Messianic tone on visit to Moscow: Wortman 162, Nicholas I, 14 March 1848, manifesto on visit to dedicate Thon’s new Great Kremlin Palace.

  21

  Lincoln 303–11. Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in his Time 163–83. Radzinsky 89–94.

  22

  Lincoln, Nicholas I Ministers 321–3. No changes necessary whatsoever advises Chernyshev: W. Bruce Lincoln, The Great Reforms: Autocracy, Bureaucracy, and the Politics of Change in Imperial Russia (henceforth Lincoln, Reforms) 149. Rhinelander 115–18: Vorontsov urges railways and coal-driven steamers for Black Sea. Kostia urges steamers for navy: Radzinsky 73; average age of ministers 65. Withdrawal from court life: Jackman 334, Nicholas I to Annette, 23 December 1851. Build-up to the Crimean War: this is based on Figes 90–164. V. Vinogradov, The Personal Responsibility of Emperor Nicholas I in the Coming of the Crimean War: An Episode in the Diplomatic Struggle in the Eastern Question, in H. Ragsdale (ed.), Imperial Russian Foreign Policy 159–70. Varna/Menshikov wound: Ruseva 96–107. Rise of Napoleon III: Serena Vitale, Pushkin’s Button 324, Nicholas receives Baron George d’Anthes/Heekeren as Napoleon envoy, 10 May 1852. Decline of Nicholas: L. Thouvenel, Nicolas I et Napoléon III, préliminaires de la guerre de Crimée, 1852–1854, d’après les papiers inédits de M. Thouvenel, 217–19, 250–1, 331–3, marquis de Castelbajac to M. T
houvenal. Pomposity: Rhinelander 143. Anna Tyutcheva, Vospominaniia (henceforth Tyutcheva) 174, arrogant, cruel expression, 22 July 1854. Pressure on Nicholas: war is imminent 337, Nicholas I to Annette, 20 May 1853; 340 ‘war, I don’t look for it but I don’t flee from it’, Nicholas to Annette, 7 October 1853. Rhinelander on Vorontsov opposed war 191–2; his nephew British secretary for war 191–2.

  23

  This is based on N. F. Dubrovin, Istoriia Krymskoi voiny i oborony Sevastopolya (henceforth Dubrovin, Istoriia), Figes; Lincoln, Nicholas; A. Zaionchkovsky, Vostochnaia voina 1853–1856; E. V. Tarle, Krymskaia voina; Jackman. Rhinelander 191–2. Holy vocation, overcome with cares: Jackman 341, Nicholas I to Annette, 3 February 1854; 341 God and 1812, Nicholas I to Annette, 3 February 1854; 342 Nicholas, no inclination for entertainments, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna to Annette, 16 February 1854; 344 Tsarevich Alexander ready to welcome Royal Navy and visible from the Cottage, Alexander to Annette, 29 April 1854 and 2 July 1854; 346 the ingratitude of Emperor of Austria, will attack us, Nicholas to Annette, 13 July 1854. Nicholas correspondence with Menshikov and Gorchakov: Dubrovin, Istoriia 2.31, Nicholas I to Menshikov, 30 September 1854, ‘Don’t give up’, 1812; 4 truthful reports, Nicholas I to Menshikov, 3 October 1854; 5 not decent, Nicholas to Menshikov, 10 October 1854; 114 maintain honour, Nicholas to Menshikov, 16 October 1854; 256 ‘Cheer up’, Nicholas to Menshikov, 31 October 1854; 31 are we still not the same Russians, Nicholas to Prince M. Gorchakov, 30 September 1854; 253–6 Menshikov depressed, Nicholas to Gorchakov, 1 November 1854. Nicholas declines at court: Tyutcheva 182, heartbreaking, weeping, 19 October 1854; 188 Gatchina dark unbending oak, tsar in socks 24 November 1854; 192 feeding child, 7 December 1854. Shamyl and kidnap of Georgian princesses, June 1854, Jemal interview with Nicholas, and swap with Jemal-Eddin, March 1855, swap on day of Nicholas funeral: Blanch 316–21, 359–88.