Imperial Dancer

by Coryne Hall

  Lili Likhatcheva brought her husband and children to stay at Villa Alam but, at the end of July, their newfound gaiety was interrupted by a telegram from Contrexéville. Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna had been taking the cure, hoping to recover her shattered health, but Andrei was summoned when her condition seriously deteriorated. The Grand Duke stayed in Contrexéville for a month and during this time he and Mathilde exchanged some tender letters, discussing their feelings and future life together.

  The Grand Duchess rallied but Andrei had barely returned home when he was summoned once more. Not knowing how long he would be away, and wanting to be with him, Mathilde decided to go as well.

  They arrived at the Hotel La Souveraine to find the Grand Duchess desperately ill. Boris, Cyril and Elena had arrived and they all maintained a vigil round the bed. By now Miechen was in great pain and in no condition to object to the presence of Andrei’s mistress. She repeatedly murmured Andrei’s name and, Mathilde afterwards claimed, ‘tried to say some words about Vova’3 before finally losing consciousness. Her death on 6 September affected Andrei greatly. He alone had remained with her all through the dark days of the Revolution and the flight from Russia.

  Marie Pavlovna’s jewels were now divided among her children. Boris (his mother’s favourite) received her magnificent emeralds; Cyril received the pearls; Andrei the rubies and Elena the diamonds.

  Back in Paris, Mathilde and Andrei were informed that Nicholas Sokolov was in the capital. Sokolov was the White investigator charged with looking into the presumed murders of Nicholas II and his family at Ekaterinburg, and also the fate of Sergei Michaelovich and other members of the family at Alapayevsk. Determined to find out the truth, Andrei asked Sokolov to call on him at the Hotel Lotti. Prince Gabriel, three of whose brothers had died with Sergei, was also invited to attend.

  Sokolov’s investigation had concluded that Nicholas, Alexandra, their children and servants had been shot in the sinister ground-floor room of the Ipatiev House during the night of 16/17 July 1918. Their bodies were loaded on to a lorry and taken to the Four Brothers Mine where they were stripped, chopped up, burned and dissolved in sulphuric acid before being thrown down a disused mineshaft. Jewellery, clothing, and personal effects were discovered – but the family’s bodies were never found.4 (Only in 1979 was the grave discovered and even this information was suppressed for many years during the Communist regime.)

  Seventeen of the fifty-two Romanovs living in Russia disappeared during the Red Terror. Grand Duke Sergei Michaelovich, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, Prince Vladimir Paley and Princes Constantine, Igor and Ioann Constantinovich (Gabriel’s brothers) were struck on the head and thrown down a disused mineshaft in the early hours of 18 July 1918, Sergei’s name day. Sergei tried to resist and was shot in the head first. The others died from haemorrhages. Unlike those of the Tsar’s family, their bodies were recovered and Sokolov showed Mathilde and Andrei the photographs.

  Sergei’s brothers Grand Dukes George and Nicholas Michaelovich, together with Grand Duke Dimitri Constantinovich and Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, were shot in the SS Peter and Paul Fortress in January 1919. Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich disappeared in Perm, believed shot by the Bolsheviks in June 1918. His mother the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna and sisters Xenia and Olga were among those who reached the west.

  With all hope now gone, Andrei asked Sokolov to send him his file on the Alapayevsk investigation. He and Mathilde then sat up all night hand-copying the most important documents. A little while later Mathilde received from Grand Duchess Xenia the items found on Sergei’s body. There was a gold pendant in the shape of a potato on a gold chain, the emblem of the ‘Potato Club’ which Tsarevich Nicholas, Sergei, some of his brothers and friends had formed in the far-off days of their youth. There was also a small gold medallion with an emerald in the middle, which had been a present to Sergei from Mathilde many years earlier. It contained her portrait, a ten kopek piece minted in 1869, the year of Sergei’s birth, and was engraved with the words: ‘August 21 – Mala – September 25’.5 The significance of the dates is unknown.

  Mathilde knew that Sergei would never have parted with these things if he was alive. Seeing them, and the photographic evidence of the bloated dead bodies, removed any doubt in her mind as to his fate. It also settled the question of her future.

  The death of Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna removed the only real obstacle to Mathilde and Andrei’s marriage. Any feelings of guilt about Sergei which Mathilde may have harboured also disappeared with the confirmation of his murder. They now decided to marry, Mathilde maintained, not only for their own happiness but to legitimise Vova, who was in an uncertain and very difficult position.

  This was not quite the truth. According to Grand Duke Dimitri, who was a guest at Villa Alam in October, there was now a great deal of ill-feeling between Mathilde and Nina Nestorovska, Prince Gabriel’s wife. ‘It’s clear that Mala can’t bear the thought that Nina, being married, has somehow left her behind. Naturally their relationship has changed,’ Dimitri wrote in his diary. Andrei agreed that because of people’s attitude to Mathilde, his own situation was difficult and he asked that she be treated ‘normally.’ He also claimed that although it would be easy to change all this by marrying her, Mathilde did not want to marry. In fact it appears the opposite was true.

  The following day Mathilde learnt that Gabriel had arranged for Nina to be received by Dimitri’s sister Grand Duchess Marie. This thought gave Mathilde no peace, according to Dimitri who visited them that afternoon. As Dimitri left, Andrei said that he, Mathilde and Vova would go to the station when Marie and Dimitri departed the next day, ostensibly because Vova wanted to present the Grand Duchess with a bouquet. ‘Mala simply wants to be received by Marie, so she won’t be playing second fiddle to Nina,’ Dimitri noted. Mathilde’s plan failed, as they mistook the time of the train. On Dimitri’s next visit in December, Mathilde and Andrei were ‘rather too affectionate – a little toadying. Mala just didn’t know what to do with herself’ in her efforts to curry favour and be received by the Grand Duchess.

  Things came to a head in January 1921, when Andrei and Mathilde were pointedly not invited to a dinner given by Gabriel and Nina, at which Dimitri and Marie were among the guests. Mathilde wept, while Andrei was outraged at this snub, going so far as to tell Dimitri that Marie must apologise to Mala for accepting Nina’s invitation. He insisted that the only way to ameliorate the situation was for Marie to agree to receive Mathilde.

  There was more at stake here than just Mathilde’s amour-propre. At this juncture it seems that Andrei expected Cyril to renounce his rights to the throne. With Boris already excluded because of his unsuitable marriage, Andrei would be next in line. By marrying Mathilde he would lose his rights to the succession. ‘Sooner or later I will end up getting married, because I can’t live this way any longer,’ he told Dimitri, ‘and then, if Cyril renounces the throne, his rights will automatially transfer to you.’

  The following day Marie approached Mathilde and Andrei as she left the cathedral after liturgy. Although the gesture pleased Andrei, it was still not enough. Nothing further happened though and Marie left for Nice.

  It was this incident in Monte Carlo and Mathilde’s realization that she would never be received by the family while she remained merely Andrei’s mistress, which persuaded them to act. ‘It was clear to me that Andrei hadn’t married Mala right away only because of his potential career …,’ Dimitri wrote later when he heard the news of their hasty marriage. ‘Therefore she probably ruined his life before he was willing to make that decision.’6

  Mathilde having forced the issue, Andrei wanted to marry with the permission of Cyril, who he considered ‘head of the Imperial Family’.7 This would make the marriage legal and give Mathilde and Vova a proper surname and title. Andrei therefore went to see Cyril, who gave his consent and said he would grant Mathilde the name of Krasinsky with the title of Princess. Vova would henceforth be a prince. Cyril asked
Andrei to return with Mathilde immediately after the wedding so that she could be formally presented to Grand Duchess Victoria.

  Andrei also wrote to the most senior surviving member of the family, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, who was living in Denmark with her daughter Olga. In reply he received a kind letter from Olga saying that the Dowager Empress favoured the union ‘and wished us a great deal of happiness’.8

  Although Mathilde was a Catholic they were married in the Russian Orthodox Church of St Michael Archangel in Cannes on 30 January 1921. Owing to mourning for Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna it was a quiet wedding, conducted by Andrei’s confessor Father Gregory Ostroounov at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Only Vova and the four witnesses – Ali, Count Sergei Zoubov, Colonel Constantine Molostrov and Colonel Vladimir Slovitsky – were present. Mathilde made no mention of Julie, who surely must have been there to see her sister’s ultimate triumph. Nor, for once, did Mathilde give any details of what she wore.

  Immediately after the ceremony Andrei kept his promise to formally present his wife to Grand Duke Cyril and Grand Duchess Victoria at their nearby hotel. Andrei and Mathilde then returned to Cap d’Ail for the wedding breakfast. Around the table, beautifully decorated by Arnold, the witnesses were joined by the Marquis Passano with his wife, and Lili Likhatcheva, her husband and eldest son. The celebrations lasted far into the evening. Later that night Andrei wrote in his diary: ‘My dream has at last come true. I am infinitely happy.’9

  It was a sentiment echoed by Mathilde. After many years of waiting and, one could almost say, third time lucky, she had achieved her dearest ambition. Although the marriage was morganatic, Mathilde Kschessinska was now Princess Krasinsky, a member of the Romanov family.

  Unlike Boris’s wife Zina, for whom few of the Romanovs seemed to have a good word, Mathilde was ‘tolerated’ by the family. Andrei informed his relatives of the marriage but many of them were detached and uninterested.10 Most of them did not recognise Cyril’s right to be ‘Tsar in exile’ and grant titles. Although Andrei now adopted Vova, the titles of Princess and Prince Krasinsky given to Mathilde and Vova by Cyril were not considered legitimate by many of his relatives. Dimitri thought the funniest thing was the title given to Mathilde, which he said ‘reminds one of an operetta.’11

  Nevertheless, soon after their wedding Mathilde and Andrei began to call on his royal relations. Their first visit was to Andrei’s cousin Queen Alexandrine of Denmark (elder daughter of Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin), who was staying in Cannes. Mathilde found her ‘pleasant and kind’. Next they went to Nice to see Queen Marie of Roumania at the Chateau Fabron. Marie and her sister, Cyril’s wife Victoria, were out when they arrived but Cyril’s daughters Marie and Kyra happily showed Mathilde their rooms and Kyra’s collection of silver objects, while Andrei and Vova went to see their young brother Vladimir have his bath. Mathilde thought Queen Marie ‘very beautiful’ and was utterly charmed by her intelligent, witty conversation.12 In Paris they called on Queen Olga of Greece, mother-in-law of Andrei’s sister, at the Ritz. The short-sighted Queen stared at Mathilde through her lorgnettes.

  Several friends also gave parties to celebrate the wedding. Among them was the wealthy Prince Paul Demidov, who gave a luncheon in honour of the newlyweds.

  Back at Villa Alam Grand Duchess Anastasia continued to be a regular visitor. Once the mourning for Andrei’s mother had ended they all frequently went dancing and Mathilde gave parties again. One evening, as they were dancing in the drawing room after dinner, Arnold surprised them by turning out all the house lights so that they could see the garden, which he had illuminated with pretty Bengal lights. The young Peter Kovalyevskii, whose grandfather had been Minister of Education to Alexander III, recalled a visit to Villa Alam on 28 October 1921 during which Andrei, Mathilde and Vova spoke ‘spiritedly’ about their flight through the Caucasus. Sitting in candlelight, because the electricity had not been turned on, they discussed writers, literature and life in Russia.

  On 15 February 1922 Princess Yourievsky, morganatic wife of Andrei’s grandfather Tsar Alexander II, died in Nice at the age of seventy-four. Mathilde and Andrei accompanied Grand Duchess Anastasia to the funeral. Within a month they received an urgent summons to Anastasia’s villa, where a servant told them she was gravely ill. The Grand Duchess was already unconscious and died soon afterwards.

  As relatives arrived, including Anastasia’s brother Grand Duke Alexander (the ‘Sandro’ of Mathilde’s youthful evenings with the Tsarevich) and her niece Princess Xenia Georgievna, Mathilde helped Queen Alexandrine to sort her mother’s possessions. Andrei was given some Russian books and miniatures and there was even a memento for Vova.

  In the spring Andrei’s niece Princess Olga of Greece, who was staying with her family in Nice, became engaged to Queen Alexandrine’s son Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. By September the engagement had been broken.

  Sima had settled in England, becoming the first Russian to open a ballet school in London. Beside the Chelsea studio was accommodation for her and Slava, who on 15 September 1919 married Margot Luck, one of his mother’s pupils.

  In 1921 Mathilde invited Slava, Margot and Sima to stay at Villa Alam. Sima was a striking figure, ‘tallish, worldly and elegant with slender legs and an indefinable mixture of the stylish and the grubby that only such an aristocratic personality from Czarist Russia could hope to carry off successfully’, recalled Margot Fonteyn.13 She wore a silk bandeau round her head, white cotton stockings, very high heels, long strings of pearls and smoked Balkan Sobranies through a long cigarette holder. Every year Sima now spent her two weeks’ holiday at Cap d’Ail with Mathilde and Andrei.

  Diaghilev had made another unsuccessful attempt to lure Mathilde back to the stage in 1921, this time to dance Sleeping Beauty with Pierre Vladimiroff in London. Using her powerful connections, Mathilde had offered to help Vladimiroff escape from Russia soon after the Revolution. He refused but finally escaped during Easter 1920 by skiing across the Finnish border disguised as a peasant. Felia Doubrovska, who had graduated into the Maryinsky in 1913, went with him and they married on 11 January 1922.

  Diaghilev had an agreement whereby he provided dancers for the opera season in Monte Carlo and then had his own ballet season before the company moved to Paris. The company was based in Monte Carlo from November until April every year and their presence ensured that Mathilde visited, or was visited by, many old friends. Villa Alam’s guest book was soon filled with signatures. Virginia Zucchi, Lady de Bathe (the former Lillie Langtry), Anna Pavlova, Alexander Mossolov, former head of the Imperial Chancellery, and the Polish-born tenor Jean de Reszke were among the visitors during the 1920s, as well as many old friends from the Maryinsky Theatre. Diaghilev introduced Mathilde to Arnold Haskell, who would become one of her most fervent admirers and who always regretted that she never returned to the stage.

  In 1922 Tamara Karsavina arrived in Monte Carlo. She escaped at the height of the Revolution with her British husband and also joined Diaghilev. Karsavina wrote admiringly of Mathilde: ‘Although she had lost practically all her wealth, she was as cheerful as ever, without a single wrinkle or trace of worry. … She made a joke of her many privations and viewed her present situation with philosophy and courage.’14 When Mathilde recounted how she continued to practise ballet exercises even without proper shoes, Tamara immediately offered one of her own pairs.

  Despite their somewhat reduced circumstances Mathilde and Andrei maintained as much as possible the lifestyle of members of the Imperial family. Besides Margot and Arnold, Mathilde had her maid Ludmilla, while Ivan Kournossov acted as manservant and looked after Andrei and Vova. To take care of the estate there was the gardener, Botin, who had looked after the grounds all through their six years’ absence. They lunched at Claridges in Nice, danced at the Carlton in Monte Carlo, gambled at the Casino and made regular trips to Paris where they often bumped into Cyril or Boris. Zina’s Paris salon was ‘frequented by cosmopolitan nouveaux ric
hes who were excited by the proximity to a “real grand duke”.’15

  Cyril’s pretensions had already divided the family, with Grand Duke Dimitri acting as mediator between Andrei and Boris on one side, with Nicholasha and his brother Peter on the other. After one stormy meeting with Andrei, Dimitri wrote in his diary: ‘he is absolutely under the sway of his clever, cunning Kschessinska.’ In 1922, with the presumed deaths of the Tsar, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Michael, Cyril proclaimed himself Guardian of the Throne. Two years later he proclaimed himself ‘Emperor’ and raised the status of his children. His only son now became ‘Grand Duke’ Vladimir and his daughters were created ‘Grand Duchesses’. Apart from Andrei and Boris, few members of the Imperial family supported his action. His claims split the émigré monarchist movement and caused a rift in the Imperial family which has never healed. As Cyril’s mother had not converted to Orthodoxy until 1908, and because he had married his divorced first cousin, many émigrés claimed he had no right to the throne at all.16

  Although Princess Radziwill said that Mathilde and Andrei received few people, seldom left Villa Alam for long and were ‘never seen in any of the gay places for which the Riviera is so famous’17 they continued to entertain, living off the proceeds of Miechen’s rubies, which were reputed (probably erroneously) to have been sold for twenty million francs (equivalent to over twelve and a half million pounds today). These included a Cartier tiara containing the 5.22 carat Beauharnais ruby, purchased in 1908, which was now sold back to Cartier. Miechen’s children had been friendly with Cartier since his first visit to St Petersburg in 1909. Through Andrei, Mathilde also formed a friendship with Cartier which lasted for many years.18

  Vova’s twenty-first birthday was celebrated on 1 July 1923 (the equivalent of 18 June in the old Russian calendar) with a dinner party in the Chateau de Madrid in Paris for their closest friends. Afterwards they went on to the Chateau Caucasian, a Russian nightclub, and listened to gypsy music into the small hours. They were joined by Grand Duke Dimitri, who was living the life of a playboy, his wealth depleting rapidly. He was sometimes reduced to being an idle spectator at the Casino because he could not afford to play.