The Mysterious Alexandra Tarasova-Yusupov

by Carl Douglass

  —Edwin Markham

  National Archives of Australia, Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, August 25, 2014

  Over the past three months, three missionary couples had bade farewell to their brothers and sisters in the gospel leaving only Elder LaRen and Sister Katherine Durrell remaining from the original five couples who had worked with personal fervor on the mysterious Alexandra Tarasova-Yusupov project. The new couples arrived in the mission district in Melbourne one couple at a time over four months making the Durrells the most senior couple of the senior couples. It was up to the Durrells to get the Wrights, the Nicholsons, the Smedleys, and the Gablers, to buy into the project without having them argue that it was breaking mission rules to spend the Lord’s time on frivolous personal enterprises.

  The newbies were lukewarm at best towards the zealous search for information on the one person—Alexandra—at the possible expense of the hundreds of thousands of others for whom they were tasked to provide digital copies of their vital statistics and documentary records. The breakthrough came when Elder Peter Wright and his wife, Nedra, found a surprising record related to Boris Yusupov’s military career. The finding dredged up as many questions as it did answers and provided nothing about Alexandra by itself.

  Elder Wright presented his finding at lunch during a very cold wintery day in August.

  “I found something that might pertain to our subjects of research,” he said. “It is about a general named Yusupov and two other soldiers who were engaged in fighting in Novonikolaevsk—what was the name they called Novosibirsk in those days–during the Bolshevik revolution. Incidentally, I learned that “Bolshevik” means majority while “Menshevik” means minority in Russian parlance. Anyhoo, I digress. I got almost everything I learned from a famous old Russian history The History of the Imperial Army, by General Field Marshall, Ivor Strabiskinov. Let me begin by telling you a bit about the fighting in Siberia during that dreadful time. First of all, I am an avid amateur student of military history, and I can tell you that this was one of the most confusing and bloody revolutionary wars in all of history. It would take me three months to explain or to try to explain what went on. All I will do, today is to set the stage for the few mentions I found of our Boris Yusupov—or just Yusupov.

  “You recall that the Bolshevik Revolution led by Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin was in full swing late in 1917. There were many differing factions in the fighting on both sides. Yusupov was on the side of the White Army which consisted of sometimes allied but a loose confederation of forces united only by their anti-communist sympathies. These forces included such disparate interests as landowners, republicans, conservatives, bourgeoise [middle-class citizens], reactionaries, pro-monarchists, liberals, army generals, non-Bolshevik socialists who still had grievances and democratic reformists voluntarily united only in their opposition to Bolshevik rule and even some Western Allies, especially the British.

  They espoused monarchism, capitalism, and several different forms of socialism, with variable amounts of democratic and antidemocratic policies. Early on, the White Army did fairly well despite lacking strong support of the peasant populace, aggravated by forcible conscriptions, terror, and harsh autocratic policies.

  “The White’s military forces led by General Yudenich, Admiral Kolchak, and General Denikin, controlled significant parts of the former Russian Empire for most of the war. From January to November 1919, the White armies’ advances from the south (under Gen. Denikin), the east (under Adm. Kolchak) and the northwest (under Gen. Yudenich) were successful, forcing the Red Army and its allies back on all three fronts. Gen. Lieutenant Yusupov was first mentioned as a leader of a Novonikolaevsk brigade known for its ferocity in driving back fanatical Reds. By June of 1920, however, the Red Army was able to halt Kolchak’s advance assisted by a Black Army offensive against White supply lines.”

  “Black Army?” asked Elder Jack Perry Nicholson. “Never heard of them.”

  “That’s too far afield for this discussion. Let me get together with you later this week, or you can Google it.”

  Elder Wright continued, “Gen. Yusupov was mentioned in the history as having lost several battles and having had to retreat. The interesting thing there is that the official reports list two more Yusupovs as having acquitted themselves well—first names Nikita and Oral, former students of the Novonikolaevsk Military Academy School for Boys. By the end of July, the Whites had extended their gains westwards. Shortly before the fall of Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918, the former tzar and his family were murdered by the Ural Soviet to prevent them falling into the hands of the Whites.

  “That was so dreadful,” Sister Francis Nicolson exclaimed.

  “Like everything else in that awful conflict,” Elder Wright said.

  He continued, “In Omsk the Russian Provisional Government quickly came under the influence–then the dominance–of its new War Minister, Rear-Admiral Kolchak. On November 18, a coup d´état established Kolchak as dictator. The members of the Directory were arrested, and Kolchak was proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of Russia. General Lieutenant Prince Boris Nikolaivich Yusupov was mentioned once as being second-in-command.

  “During the summer, Bolshevik power in Siberia was eliminated; and it appeared that the Whites were going to gain full power and to reestablish the power of the tzars with Gen. Yusupov occupying an important position in the new government. The British occupied Murmansk and–alongside the Americans–seized Arkhangelsk; but things did not go well for Kolchak—and I presume for Yusupov–in Siberia. To make a long story short, Kolchak was defeated and retreated in Siberia; the Allies pulled their troops out of the cities before the winter trapped them in the port. The remaining White forces under Yevgenii Miller evacuated the region in February 1920, and the remains of the White forces commanded by Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated, thereby heralding the end of the White Army.

  “After an abortive offensive at Chelyabinsk, the White armies withdrew beyond the Tobol River. A White offensive was launched against the Tobol front; however, in October the Reds counterattacked, and thus began the uninterrupted retreat of the Whites to the east. I am now getting to the last mention of the Yusupovs in the military history of Russia.

  In Siberia, Adm. Kolchak’s army disintegrated. He gave up command after the loss of Omsk and designated Gen. Grigory Semyonov as the new leader of the White Army in Siberia. Not long after that Kolchak was arrested as he traveled towards Irkutsk without the protection of the army and turned over to the socialist Political Center in Irkutsk. Six days later this regime was replaced by a Bolshevik-dominated Military-Revolutionary Committee.

  On February six and seven, Adm Kolchak and his prime minister, Victor Pepelyaev, were shot; and holes were chopped in the deep ice of the frozen Angara River. The two men, and possibly several others, were dropped into the frigid, rapid flowing stream just before the arrival of the White Army in the area. Yusupov was mentioned as having been arrested along with his admiral; and, after that, there is no further official record of him having survived.”

  “Well, thanks for that bit of grim news, Elder Wright,” said Sister Margaret Smedley ruefully.

  He laughed, “Don’t mention it, Sister Smedley.”

  It was Monday–P-day–and all the missionaries were ready for another trip down town, as the Gablers called it. They were ticking off the list of sites to visit in their tour books, and this brought them to their starting point, the incredible Melbourne Aquarium with its transparent tunnels where it seemed as if they would be able to pet one of the great animals from the deep. It was a gorgeous day, and they basked in the moderate sun on the Melbourne Observation Deck on the fifty-fifth floor of Melbourne’s tallest building—the Eureka Building Skydeck, where they dared each other to walk the vertiginous plank for a belly-tightening experience of a lifetime.

  They went back to the archives for a picnic and a nap. Peter and Nedra Wright, Goeffrey and Margaret Smedley, and Glen and
Marilyn Gabler cleaned up after lunch; and the faithful troop of missionaries went back to the important didactic work of digitizing records for Victoria Province and Australia for a self-imposed evening shift.

  BOOK TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  ARRIVAL IN MELBOURNE

  I think Melbourne is by far and away the most interesting place in Australia, and if I ever wrote a novel or crime novel of any kind, I had to set it here.

  -Peter Temple

  The Hotel Windsor, Spring Street on Bourke Hill, Victoria Province, Melbourne, Australia, December 12, 1884

  Australia—a large island–is also the world’s smallest continent. It lies southeast of Asia between the Pacific and Indian oceans; its diverse landscapes and climates are home to a wide variety of plants and animals. The continent is generally warm and dry all year round, with no extreme cold and little frost. Average annual rainfall is 17 inches [42 centimeters], much less than the mean for all the countries of the world of 26 inches [66 centimeters]. As a result, insufficient rainfall can and frequently does cause droughts that threaten to destroy crops and to impact the lives of Aussies severely. The country’s limited rainfall can also cause problems with water quality and availability. Because Australia produces most of its own food, a water shortage for plants and animals can cause agricultural production to suffer. It takes a hardy soul to be an Aussie.

  Alexandra arrived in Sandridge Port, Melbourne on a delightful summer day—December 12, 1884—after a very pleasant but anxious steamship voyage on the Cunard steamship, The Great Britain, from Bristol. The pleasure was being able to luxuriate in a splendid, middle outside, stateroom; and the anxiety was occasioned by her necessarily hasty departure from Vladivostok, which was enduring one of the worst winters in Far East Russian history. She waited on the departure deck as the gang plank was lowered. She was in no hurry because she wanted to see that all her baggage—which was very considerable—made it to the wharf. Most of the first-class passengers disembarked as she watched. She had five forty-inch metal stateroom trunks with key-lock clasps and reinforcing leather straps, four heavy leatherette suitcases for her dresses and hats, and a dozen two-part portmanteaus, grips, and valises—all waterproofed to withstand the sea spray of steamship travel. A small army of hired hands carried the luggage from the first-class compartment and loaded them onto three four-horse vans. Alexandra left The Great Britain and entered a shining black barouche for her ride to the aptly named “Grand Hotel”.

  Her arrival warranted considerable attention, even a newspaper article with a photograph. Observers commented on her regal bearing, her form-fitting salmon-colored big-bustled Victorian Petrova gown showing a bit too much décolletage for local tastes. Her striking knee-length hair—the color of platinum–was swept up into a chignon ornamented by jewel crusted tortoise shell combs. She wore sensible medium heeled, high-button, shoes made of salmon-colored kid leather. For all that finery, her most striking features were her porcelain-perfect white face and her Aphrodite figure. Other than to give instruction to the luggage handlers and the barouche driver, she did not speak to anyone.

  Once she was ensconced in her five-room apartment, she summoned the business manager to get his advice on beginning her business ventures in Melbourne.

  “Mister…?” she paused.

  “O’Dwyer, M’am, at your service.” he responded.

  “Mr. O’Dwyer, I will be in your hotel for a month or so. During that time, I wish to acquire a suitable business building and to buy or to commence construction on a new house. I will need the services of an attorney, an accountant, a real estate agent, and a banker. I presumed that you would possess that kind of information. Am I correct?”

  “With all modesty, Ma’am, you have found the correct hotel and the right man to fulfill you needs. I expect it will take me no more than three days to assemble appropriate candidates for each of the positions you expect to fill. You can interview the candidates in the hotel’s business conference room. Before you see them, I will have a brief dossier prepared for you to study. Will that be satisfactory?”

  “More than satisfactory. I appreciate your service and will not demean it or you by offering a tip or gratuity. Rather, I will pay you for your services and your counsel on a regular basis. Will that be acceptable to you?”

  “Oh, Ma’am, my services come with the hotel stay. I expect nothing further.”

  “Mr. O’Dwyer, I have found in doing business, that the best service comes as a part of regular compensation. I will ask a considerable amount from you, and I would be uncomfortable if I were feel that I was taking advantage.”

  He shrugged, smiled, and reached out to shake her hand.

  “Business associates, then, Mr. O’Dwyer,” Alexandra said and gave him a robust handshake quite unlike the effete and dainty grasp he might had expected from a delicate Victorian young lady.

  A small nod by Alexandra sufficed to indicate that their business was concluded. O’Dwyer returned a small courtly bow and exited the room. As soon as he was gone, Alexandra used the conference room telephone to call her old friend, bodyguard, and now business associate, the Don Cossack, Stenka Mazepa. It was necessary to call through the hotel’s switchboard.

  Stenka answered, “Zdravstvuyte.”

  The operator said, “Please, Sir. Is there an English speaker in the home?”

  Stenka said, “Da, I am English speaker. Vhat is vanted?”

  The operator said to Alexandra, “The number you are calling has been answered. You will be speaking to a man with a heavy accent.”

  Alexandra said into the phone, “Privet moy drug.”

  Stenka replied in English, “And hello to you, my friend.”

  “I am here now. I just got off the boat.”

  “To stay?”

  “This will be home now.”

  “I am glad you haf come, Alexandra. I haf been lonely for home ant friends,” the old man said.

  “I understand the feeling, Stenka. I trust the money has been enough.”

  “Indeed, zo. In a moment I vill tell you some good newses about money; but first I vont to know if der iss any newses about the poys, Nikita ant Oral.”

  “Still nothing, Stenka. My parents and I have searched everywhere in the oblast, wrote to all our friends and family everyplace, even contacted Boris’s family—who were not very pleased to hear from me. I tried to get information about Boris’s military assignment. The general staff secretaries brushed me away; ob“yavleniye” [‘classified’] they said everytime. So…nothing for three years since Boris took them that terrible night.”

  “I efen tried a few Europeans I know; and, no surprise, I learnet nothingk.”

  “So, there is nothing more I can do. I left the reward offer in place, but no takers for the whole time. Better I get on with life here. In Vladivostok, there is nothing but sorrow and frustration. You said you had some good news, Stenka. I could use some just now.”

  “Ah, ja. Remember you sent money ant a letter for me to gif an old family friend of your father’s?”

  “I remember…Stefan Petrokowsky. He lives here, right?”

  “He does. Health is not zo good now but is rich man. Zo am I. That was back in seventy-eight ven you wrote. Was ven the golt poom was getting started. Petrokowsky hat a good site for golt—couple streams, and some successful dry panningk in the hillsides nearpy. Ve collected some ant had it analyzed py an independent assayer fella. Vas very goot both for placer ant open cast mining. Lot off vork, lots off money. Sold our claim after four years. You remember?”

  “Of course, I do. You made a fortune and banked it.”

  “Is right. Better to say ve did. Equal shares ass agreet. Put it in Commercial Pank off Australia—biggest in Victoria–last year. Maybe zo much as twenty million Aussie dollars.”

  “Did you buy land like we talked about; so, we would not just let the money waste away in banks?”

  “I dit, even though old Petrokowsky didn’t tink vas goot idea. Lant vas
cheap and getting cheaper all the time. Lot of the miners ver goingk belly up, and ve got der lant. Ve now haf somethingk like coupla thousand hectares off prime acreage. I hafto say, Alexandra, ve would be richer if ve had invested in golt miningk.”

  “I understand the thinking, Stenka; but I have been following the economy here and have been learning about international banking. Maybe you don’t know it, but Barings Bank in London is slowly going under; and they are hinting at filing for bankruptcy as early as this year. Most European and American economists think the gold boom everywhere and especially in Melbourne is about over and that we are going to see a huge bust. It will be good to have real things, like real estate and physical gold. Change comes hard, my old friend; but we need to get our money out of banks and into real estate and gold and hold on until the bust clears itself. That way we can save ourselves and then be able to become very wealthy again. I have done a lot of studying, and I am sure of this. You can do anything you want with your own money, but as the major shareholder, I am going to make the changes with our money.”

  “I, too, haf pen hearingk zuch rumors, Alexandra. I vill go wit you. Old Petrokowsky will take his money and buy lant for more golt mining.”

  “His privilege and his risk, Stenka. We shall see what happens.”

  After a good rest and a hearty Aussie brekkie–a Bushman’s breakfast: thick bacon, pork sausages, fried potatoes, onions, and mushrooms, shakshuka [classic Middle Eastern dish of eggs, softly cooked vegetables and bircher muesli]–the next morning, Alexandra had another talk with O’Dwyer about Melbourne’s business future. What she learned was shocking in its stark reality.

  “You know, Alexandra, when you first looked into investing in Melbourne a few years ago, this place was incredibly successful.”

  “It was going through a boom,” she agreed.