Re: The Empress Alexandra Fights Back #2

Thank you, griffh, for the massive amount of work you have done!

Being only four years older than the Tsar, Ella’s greeting to Nicky must have stung the young Tsar with its patronizing tone:
Darling Boy—dearest child—let me call you so and let an old heart pour out all its prayers before you… 

She used a similar patronizing tone in a letter to Nicholas when she wanted to influence him with regard to Rasputin.

I also wanted to add that somewhere in the chronology, which I can't find right now, I believe I stated that the Tsar was 34 in 1905.  In fact, while I got the 4 year difference in ages between Nicky and Ella correct, the Tsar was 37 in 1905, Ella was 41, and Alix was 33.  Sorry about that.  Well as I so often say, onward and upward and hope everyone will have a great holiday season. 


 

I am currently reading Abraham Ascher’s, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, as part of my research for part two of the 1905-1909 chronology which I hope to post in the next week or so.   

What I found compelling in Ascher’s biography of the Prime Minister, was Stolypin’s political analysis of Russian reform in 1906 and how similar it was to the Empress’ views in her January 27, 1905 letter to her sister Victoria which I have previously quoted. 

Asher states that when faced with the Kadet’s reform proposals, Stolypin found the radical agenda unrealistic and dangerous.  Taking the proposal apart, point by point, Stolypin started with the Kadet’s demand for complete amnesty, explaining that if implemented it would:

…free the “most dangerous elements in society” and would encourage others to commit similar crimes; the expropriation of private lands would be “unjust and would be economically ruinous”; death penalty could not be abolished at a time when police officers and other were regularly being assassinated throughout the country.  Although he granted that much could be said in favor of enacting the principle of “equality of rights for all,” the “backward state of education” and the prevailing ethnic hatreds made it essential that the authorities proceed cautiously and slowly.   [Ref: Abraham Ascher, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia,  (2001), p. 109]

Stolypin’s position, that lasting reform in Russia could only be accomplished gradually with great caution and foresight, reemphasizes the accuracy of the Empress’ point that political and social reform in Russia could:

…only be made gently with the greatest care and forethought.  [Ref: Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life & Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia,, (1996 reprint), p. 109]

In speaking with the British Ambassador, Sir Arthur Nicolson, Stolypin, paraphrasing the Empress, reassured Sir Nicolson that the government:

…“knew full well that they must advance on the lines of progress…but sudden and impetuous changes would work ruin.”  [Ref: Abraham Ascher, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia,  (2001), p. 109]

I am not trying to build the case that the Empress was politically active in 1905.  We can see that her greatest concern was for her husband and tremendous pressure he was under to ensure the greater well-being of his people, whilst at the same time working to restore order.

Even though I share the young Empress’ irritation with some of the impractical paper utopias that adversary’s such as Miliukov proposed at the time, I am not trying to build the case that the Empress’ political point of view was fully informed.  At the same time one cannot deny the fact that the Empress’ assessment of Russian reform was sensible and contained remarkable clarity and intelligence.   

Just a quick update. 

I am finishing the final entries for the chronology and at the same time am working on the Sept. 1915 War Correspondence so that it will quickly follow the chronology.  I realize that the chronologies were really more for my own benefit and must have seemed quite out of place with their emphasis on the Tsar and the historic events of 1905.  The rest of the chronology will really be confined to aspects of the relationship with Nikolasha as it developed in 1906-1909.  I think it will be helpful as it will establish the timing of Nikolasha's marriage to Stana that occurred within a day of Ania's marriage to Vyrubova.  Just after that everything falls apart with the Nikolaevichi and the Imperial couple and Ania will be targeted from the beginning of the Black Women's campaign against the Empress. 

koloagirl I am sure that much of the confusion about the nature of Ania's marriage and divorce came from the slander campaign aimed at the Empress but targeting Ania.  Do you know more about Ania’s mother and her relations with the rest of her Tolstoy relatives?  In my Tolstoy family book I still cannot find her mentioned, though I have been able to find out much more about Ania’s famous cousin Sergei and his platonic love affair with Tolstoy’s wife.  I have a great book that has just come out on Tolstoy’s wife’s love of photography and there are some wonderful photos of Ania’s cousin sitting at a grand piano.   

koloagirl, it never occurred to me that Ania had inadvertently been caught in Stana and Militsiya’s attack on the Empress as early as 1908 which was just shortly after she really became close to the Empress.  Given this information it make it all the more difficult to sort out fact from fiction when it comes to Ania as the fiction started so early on with her.   

I also think that Nelipa’s information on Rasputin will be helpful in giving us a less sensational and more accurate sense of how his relationship with the Imperial couple became so strong.  At the same time it is interesting that Nelipa includes the tantalizing bit of information on Rasputin being assisted by the Nikolaevichi in escaping an arrest warrant issued by the St. Petersburg police in 1910.  He is seen entering the Grand Duke Peter’s automobile just before leaving the Capital.  It begs the question as to his relationship with the Nikolaevichi and when it actually became irrevocably adversarial.       

I also want to include information on Stolypin but will try and confine my entries to include just that information that touches upon the social aspects that we are viewing rather than the continuing political reform.  I can’t help feeling that my earlier chronology, with a few exceptions, really did not belong to this thread.  It is just that I am on this incredible learning curve and have such a growing thirst to know as much as I can about every aspect of the Tsar’s reign.   At the same time I must not allow myself to stray from our focus again.

Having said that I have found the Fuhrmann’s book such an outstanding and valuable book.  Fuhrmann’s encyclopedic notes are all one could hope for and his point of view seems fair minded and fully informed. 

Helen I did not get a chance to thank you for the Russian sources you posted.  Thanks so much. 

Well I should have the chronology posted by this weekend.  Thank you again for your patience with my process.  If I am not mistaken, I believe that I have divided out my need to keep detailed chronologies on the one hand of each year of the reign, and on the other hand not let my focus on the Empress’ correspondence be a separate project altogether. 

I had not really come to that conclusion until I had this foray into the events of 1905.  I know everything is relevant but at the same time I have realized that it is not good to break the momentum of the War Correspondence. 

[1905-1909 CHRONOLOGY]

Here is the last of our adventures outside the paramenters of the thread.  As I stated earlier I shall not stray again as we do need to focus on finishing the War Correspondence.  In the second part of the 1905-1909 chronology I have tried to limit myself to the unfolding relationship between the Nikolaevitchi, the Imperial couple and Rasputin.  Hopefully this short exercise will help us establish something of the backgroud to the disputes that found their origin's in this earlier period.  I have attempted to focus the chronology at times on issues that will come up in the Sept. 1915 correspondence.

1905-1909 CHRONOLOGY

October 1905-December 1906

•   Agrarian Revolt

It is interesting to ponder the fact that the first meeting of the Imperial couple and Rasputin had occurred on November 1, 1905 in the midst of the Agrarian revolt.  Pipes states that rural disorder had been active through the spring and summer of 1905 and then, beginning on October 23:

…when large-scale disorders broke out in Chernigov province, the wave of rural disorders kept on swelling until the onset of winter, reemerging in the spring of 1906 on an even vaster scale.  It would fully subside only in 1908…  [Ref: Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution, (1990), p. 48] 
 
Pipes states that the agrarian revolt of 1905-1906:

…involved surprisingly little personal violence; there is only on authenticated instance of a landlord being killed, although there are reports of the murder of fifty non-communal peasants who were particularly detested.  In some localities attacks on estates were accompanied by anti-Jewish pogroms.  The principal aim of the jacquerie was neither inflicting physical harm nor even appropriating land, but depriving landlords and other non-peasant landowners of the opportunity to earn a livelihood in the countryside—“smoking them out,” as the saying went.  In the words of one observer: “The [peasant] movement was directed almost exclusively against landed properties and not against the landlords: the peasants had no use whatever for landlords but they did need the land.”  The notion was simple: force the landlords to abandon the countryside and to sell their land at bargain prices.  [Ref: Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution, (1990), p. 48] 


December 6, 1905

•   Moscow Rebellion

Just as the agrarian revolt was about to flair up again, the far-left erupted into violence in early December 1905 in St. Petersburg and Moscow.   The newly formed St. Petersburg Soviet had attempted to stage an armed uprising after their chairman, Nosar had been arrested.  They started with an appeal, the Financial Manefesto, for the people to stop paying taxes and to withdraw all their money from the banks and accept only gold coin or foreign currency thereby hoping to cause a financial collapse.  The day after the publication of the Financial Manefesto Durnovo arrested half of the St. Petersburg Soviet.  On December 6th the remaining Soviet members issued a call for a General Strike which went unheeded.

On the same day, December 6, the Moscow Soviet voted for an armed insurrection to overthrow the Tsarist government, convoke a Constituent Assembly and establish a democratic republic.  Pipes states that, unlike St. Petersburg’s response, within a day:

…Moscow was paralyzed: the strike was enforced by Soviet agents who threatened with violence anyone who refused to cooperate.  Two days later, government forces launched an attack on the insurgents; the latter responding with urban guerrilla tactics.  The arrival of the Semenovskii Regiment, which used artillery to disperse the rioters, settled the issue.  On December 18 the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet capitulated.  [Ref: Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution, (1990), pp. 48] 

Harcave adds some interesting insights into Nikolasha and his response to Moscow’s Governor-General Dubasov’s plea for help.  When the rebellion broke out the new Governor-General of Moscow was not certain that he could count on the loyalty of his troops and telephoned Witte for reinforcements.  Witte notified Rediger, the Minister of War who ordered a regiment from the Warsaw Military District but the troops were deterred from reaching Moscow because their train had been derailed by the revolutionaries. 

Witte then informed Nicholas who put the matter in the hands of Nikolasha.  Harcave tells us that according to Witte’s account:

…the grand duke balked, insisting that he could not spare any troops from the task of guarding the capital and that as far as he was concerned, Moscow, the source of so much of the troubles, could go to the devil.  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 209]   
   
Nicholas was then forced to personally order Nikolasha to send the elite Semenovskii Guard Regiment along with additional cavalry and light artillery to Moscow under the command of Colonel Min. 

It was at this juncture that Witte apparently exhausted and anxious about the outcome of the rebellion and:

…feared that it would be a calamity if Moscow fell into the insurgents’ hands, was urging Dubasov to be “merciless,” a sentiment also expressed by his cabinet.  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]

By the time Colonel Min arrived on December 15, 1905 the Governor-General had regained control of the city expect for Presnia, the industrial district which the Colonel immediately commenced to attack:

…shelling some of the factories, storming barricades, and making free use of deadly force.  In the process many women and children were among the casualties.  The insurgents soon saw that their cause was hopeless.  On the eighteenth, the Moscow Soviet called for an end to the uprising, but Min continued to act with savage fury in the process of clearing the insurgency.   [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]
     
Though Nicholas and his mother expressed gratitude for Colonel Min’s ability to quell the rebellion and to quickly bring the Moscow Soviet to its knees, Nicholas was repulsed by Witte’s advocacy of savagery that had to have impacted Colonel Min’s actions in Moscow. 

[1906• Security of the Winter Palace]

In writing his mother, Nicky states that:

…Witte, since the happenings in Moscow has radically changed his views; now he wants to hang and shoot everyone.

I have never seen such a chameleon of a man.  That, naturally, is the reason why on one believes in him anymore…  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]

It is only fair to state that while Witte supported Min’s quick and decisive action, he eventually backed away from Min’s use of excessive force, stating that:

… “as soon as the revolutionary activity or outbreak is put down, the spilling of blood of innocent people is cruel and brutish” and that it was in this that Min was at fault.  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]

This was a view that was shared in general with many elements of society including both Ella and Nikolasha. 
 
Harcave states that:

Colonel Min’s brutal behavior aroused widespread disgust.  Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna complained bitterly about the colonel to the tsar, her nephew.  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]

Min would eventually pay with his life, and in his typical histrionic fashion Nikolasha, in spite of his original “do-nothing” response to the Moscow Rebellion, now demanded that Min:

…be either dismissed or assigned to a post in the hinterland.  [Ref: Sidney Harcave, Count Sergei Witte, 2004), p. 210]

It is clear that after two years of continuous terrorism in spite of the freedoms granted Russia and with no relief from the growing terror in site, the combination of frustration, pressure, stress, depression and general anxiety was wearing down patience and wisdom of everyone who were trying to restore order and bring a greater well being to the Russian people.  Russian liberals, with few exceptions, never really appeared to respond in a positive manner to the October Manifesto and from the start refused to take part in forming a new cabinet. 

It seemed that the only group really grateful for the increased civil liberties was the press who took full advantage of their new freedom of expression and as a result we have a permanent legacy of the multi-perspective journalistic record for the period of 1905-1917.  As one historian said of journalism, that it is history written in a hurry, the Russian press between 1905 and 1917 has left a legacy of Russia’s political history from a number of invaluable perspectives in a way that has never before or after been achieved. 


1906

•   Security of the Winter Palace  

I had wrongly assumed that the Winter Palace was an insecure dwelling that the government was incapable of defending and hardly the kind of place that would afford protection against terrorist attacks. 

However I had to alter my assumption after reading what Stolypin’s biographer, Abraham Ascher, had to say about the safety of the Winter Palace and how it became a haven of protection for Stolypin and his family after the August 1906 bombing of his summer villa on Aptekarskii Island. 

The Ascher states that Stolypin:

…moved his family to the Winter Palace, which was more secure than their quarters on Fontanka, the official residence of the prime minister.  The police now took elaborate measures to conceal his moves outside the palace.  Whenever he left the palace, Stolypin would be kept in the dark about the exit at which his carriage would be waiting for him.  If he planned to take a walk, he would not know where the carriage would stop to allow him to start.  After he had completed his stroll, usually for an hour or so in one of the suburbs, the police would take him back to his apartment along a route they had decided upon without informing the prime minister.  Stolypin bristled under these restrictions, but there had been so many reports of assassination plots the he reluctantly agreed to the precautions.   [Ref: Abraham Ascher, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, (2001), p. 139]
   
As I now see it, the concern about living in the Winter Palace was not so much security issues as it was the scheduling daily activity, such as long walks which both Stolypin and Nicky needed and enjoyed. 

While the Winter Palace was secure, the scheduling of those walks for Stolypin involved nothing short of a covert military operation to insure his safety.     

I think that this freedom from such severe restrictions on his daily activities was an aspect of the gratitude Nicky felt in January 1905 for having the luxury of wintering in the country setting of Tsarskoïe Selo.       


1905-1909

•   Continuous Terrorism Impacts Imperial Couple for Four Years

One can more easily grasp the underlining insecurity and instability that everyone in society was consciously and unconsciously experiencing in Russia, not to mention the lurking fear of what the morrow would bring.  This constant state of mental and emotional stress explains the variety of reactions to the repression necessary to reestablish order.   

Certainly in the aftermath of 9/11 one has been able to see the full spectrum of differing perspectives from the left all the way to the right on how to deal with terrorism in context of the fear, uncertainty and anxiety of the period.  It certainly makes the Tsarist era feel very contemporary and it is not difficult to understand how this continuous state of political and civil unrest created not only the fatigue and fall of men like Witte, but also impacted the freedom of the Imperial couple from 1905 to 1909. 

Baroness Buxhoeveden tells us that:

…from 1905 to 1909 obliged the Imperial couple to give up any journeys away from St. Petersburg.  The Emperor had to be in daily communication with his Ministers.  The Douma was a new institution, and many questions arose in connection with it.  Shooting in Poland was given up and the Crimea was not visited.  The Ministers had great fears for the Emperor’s life during these times of continual political unrest.  [Ref: Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life & Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, p.115]

The Baroness states that almost all of Nicky’s relaxation events had to be abandoned during these years and the Tsar:

…was implored to give up his solitary rides in the Peterhof Park, and his shooting.  He submitted, very grudgingly, only when it was pointed out to him that it was his duty to the country.  On one point, however, the Emperor was firm: he would not abandon his long walks, and every day he went out, whenever he possibly could, generally alone.   (complete)   [Ref: Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life & Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, p.115]

[July 4, 1906• Grand Duke Sergei Finally Laid to Rest]

As for Alix during 1905-1909, the increased presence of the police, especially the plain clothes men who were in constant view around Tsarskoje Selo:

…greatly annoyed her.  She enjoyed escaping from them and delighted in Haroun-al-Raschid expeditions. [Harun al-Rashid was the fifth Abbasid Caliph whose amazing escapes [fictitious and factual] are immortalized in The Thousand and One Nights.  She liked to drive, without even a footman, with her children or her lady-in-waiting, and had her splendid Cossack on the box only on State occasions.  She liked to stop, during her drives, to enter a church or a humble shop, or to admire a view.  Often at Tsarskoe Selo who would drive slowly past some villa, for she liked to see into the houses unobserved.  On her long drives in the woods round Tsarskoe and Pavlovsk, a mounted Cossack of the Emperor’s escort rode at some distance behind her carriage, but occasionally she dismissed even him.   [Ref: Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, The Life & Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, p.115]


July 4, 1906

•   Grand Duke Sergei Finally Laid to Rest

In an elaborate foot note by Ella’s biographer, Christopher Warwick, we learn of the details of Sergei’s final burial.  It will be remembered that he had been laying in Chudov Monastery since his funeral in February 1905, awaiting the completion of his burial vault. 

Warwick tells us that:

In his study of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich (KR), entitled Avgustieshi Semeysho (p. 283), Mikhail Vostruishev tells us that Serge’s remains were finally interred in the Church of St Serge of Radonezh on 4 July 1906 (OS), the day on which it had been consecrated.  Describing the church, KR said it was ‘incomparably beautiful, in it one feels mysteriously secluded.’  Beneath a high arch, Serge’s burial chapel was decorated in blue and gold, its ceiling painted with multi-colored stars.  The iconostasis was of white marble decorated by Pavel Zhukovsky ‘in the Byzantium style’.  The white marble floor was edged with a ‘reddish border’.  ‘On the northern wall,’ KR wrote, ‘is a semi-circular indentation under [a] shallow golden mosaic semidome.’  It was here that the remains of the Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich were interred.  Among the furnishings for the burial chapel was a ‘shroud’ which Ella had commissioned Vasnetsov to design.  It would be draped over Serge’s tomb.  Exhibited in 1990 by the Smithsonian Institute as part of an exhibition called Moscow Treasures and Traditions, this exceptionally beautiful covering was of gold brocade, exquisitely embroidered by the nuns of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin.  Framed by an inscription in old church Slavonic, the symbols, while entirely religious, representing death, martyrdom and resurrection, were clearly intensely personal to Ella.  Art Nouveau seraphim flank the Not Made by Human Hands icon, which may also be seen as a representation of the Sudarium or Cloth of Veronica, beneath which is the Orthodox Cross, which is in turn flanked by a representation of the spear that pierced Christ’s side and a lance topped by a figurative sponge representing that which offered vinegar to Christ’s lips.  On either side of the Cross are embroidered the words ‘Khristos Voskres’ [Christ is Risen].  Hung over the top of the Cross itself, however, are the most unusual features of the piece – a double crown of thorns, the upper more prominent than the lower, representing Christ and doubtless the martyrdom of the assassinated Serge, above a jewelled kokoshnik which cannot have symbolized anyone but Ella herself.  What that meant we can only conjecture.  It may, perhaps, have alluded to her own withdrawal from the world (and devotion to Christ) through a monastic existence, or it may possibly have represented the eternal union of Serge and herself, reflecting the words of the Orthodox marriage ceremony, ‘Unite them in one mind; wed them into one flesh.’  We cannot know for sure.  [Ref: Christopher Warwick, Ella, Princess, Saint & Martyr, (2006), ft., pp. 234-235]       

One can’t help wondering what kind of faith it took for the nuns of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin who were hard at work embroidering Sergei’s exquisite Art Nouveau burial shroud not to yield to discouragement especially during the height of the Moscow rebellion, or wonder if their work may never be completed, or might end in vain. 

Warwick also gives us the history of the fate of Sergei’s burial vault which is worth sharing.  Ella’s biographer begins by telling us that in:

…1928, during Stalin’s orgy of destruction, the Chudov Monastery, like the Nicholas Palace adjacent to it, was blown up.   Presidential administrative buildings now occupy the site.  In 1990, Kremlin workmen discovered the blocked entrance to the burial vault beneath what had become a car park in front of the present-day building.  More than five years later, the coffin of Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovitch was at last exhumed and was carried in procession to the Cathedral of the Archangel, where a special service was held.  Afterwards, the coffin was driven by hearse from Red Square to the ancient Novospassky Monastery in the Taganka district of Moscow, where it was interred in the early Romanov burial vault of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour (sober Spasa Preobrazheniya) that was erected on the site of the original cathedral in 1645.  Near the cathedral stands a replica of the magnificent bronze memorial cross designed by the lyrical painter and designer Viktor Mikhailovitch Vasnetsov, inscribed with the words, Forgive them Father for they know not what they do, that Ella had erected on the site of Sergei’s assassination in the Kremlin’s Senate Square.  The original, so it was said, was physically pulled down by Lenin himself.  [Ref: Christopher Warwick, Ella, Princess, Saint & Martyr, (2006), ft., pp. 228-229]         


July 18, 1906

•   The Imperial Couple Meets Rasputin for the Second Time

One of the things that I find continuously fascinating about chronologies is the way events that are usually dealt with separately, such as the July 4 burial of the Grand Duke Sergei and the second meeting on July 18 of the Imperial couple with Rasputin come together.  Because these two events are handled separately in histories one tends to forget that they are linked in time.  So much had transpired since the February 10, 1905 funeral service, when Sergei’s coffin had been placed in the center of St Andrew the First Called on a white catafalque to await its final burial on 4 July 1906 in Sergei’s vault which Ella named the Church of St Serge of Radonezh.
 
Sergei’s interment must have brought back the momentous events that had filled that year and a half between his funeral service and his final interment and those thoughts must have still occupied the minds of the Imperial couple when the met Rasputin for the second time just two weeks after Sergei was finally laid to rest in the Church of St Serge of Radonezh.

It is understandable, given the ordeal Russia people and the Throne had been passing through, that second encounter with Rasputin appears to have left a stronger imprint on Nicky as his need for spiritual solace had clearly increased dramatically since first met Rasputin. 

[July 22, 1906 • Tsar’s Brother Michael Attempts to Marry Commoner]

Margarita Nelipa tells us that:

…Nikolai and Alexandra would again meet Rasputin. On July 18, 1906, Nikolai appeared rather impressed by that arranged encounter and noted in his diary:

1906 18 July, Tuesday During the evening (we) were at Sergievka and saw Grigorii!  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 


July 22, 1906

•   Tsar’s Brother Michael Attempts to Marry Commoner

Shortly after this second meeting with Grigorii, and just as the dust was beginning to settle over the Cyril/Ducky scandal, Nicky’s brother, Michael, had written him on July 22, 1906 asking permission to marry Alexandra Kossikovskaya who was lady in waiting to his sister Olga.  Michael’s desire to marry a commoner would have brought increased dishonor to the already beleaguered Dynasty but fortunately Michael was dissuaded from creating such an indignity, at least for the present. 

It is interesting the several historians have confused Michael’s desire to marry Alexandra Kossikovskaya in July 1906 with Natasha Wulfert, née Sheremetevsky, whom he eventually did marry in 1912.

In  The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, we read in Nicky’s July 25, 1906 letter to his mother:

…Three days ago Misha wrote asking my permission to marry.  He said too, that he cannot wait any longer than the middle of August.

I will of course never give my consent to such a marriage…  [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, p. 213]   

Edward Bing’s editorial note mistakenly attributes Michael’s July 1906 desire to marry Dina Kossikovskaya with that of his later romance with Natasha Wulfert: 

Grand Duke Michael’s romance gives the Tsar cause for grave concern, as his “flame” had been twice divorced and was a commoner.  Many years later she was made a Countess Brassow.  [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, p. 212]   

Edward Radzinsky makes the same error.  Reviewing the royal misalliances from 1902 to 1906 the author states that the:

…Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovitch, had condescended to appropriate the wife of the adjutant of another grand duke.  And had married her, for which he had been exiled from Russia…And then another scandal threaded the family.  The tsar’s younger brother Misha had taken it into his head to marry the wife of a Life Guard from is own Blue Cuirassier regiment, the twice-divorced beauty Natalia Wulfurt…Yet then yet another scandal, this time it was Kirill, the son of another uncle, Vladimir.  [Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, 2000, pp. 78-79]

Rosemary and Donald Crawford give the correct information in their carefully researched book, Michael and Natasha.  The authors tell us that the woman Michael was asking Nicky permission to marry in 1906:

…was Alexandra Kossikovskaya, known as Dina.  She was three years older than Michael and, while no great beauty, she was well educated, strong-minded and highly intelligent; she was a ‘wonderfully bright conversationalist’, and exceedingly popular among the younger generation of St. Petersburg society.  Born in September 1875, in a small town near Orel, her father had been a provincial but well-connected and ambitious public attorney, Vladimir Kossikovsky.  And therein lay the problem: Dina was a commoner.  [Rosemary and Donald Crawford, Michael and Natasha, The Life and Love of Michael II, the Last of the Romanov Tsars, (1997), p. 12]

This is verified by authors Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko in their book, A Lifelong Passion.  Xenia records in her diary for May 12, 1906 that Princess Obolensky:

…sat with me for a long time – She upset me and finally killed me, talking about Misha and Dina.  In town, they are already saying that he wants to marry her.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 294]


August 12, 1906 Saturday

•   Stolypin’s Villa Blown Up by Terrorists


The Tsar’s sister, Xenia records the shock of hearing about the attempted assassination of Stolypin.  She records in her diary for August 12 that there:

…had been a nightmarish attempt on the life of poor Stolypin – but neither he nor his wife, were hurt.  Some men in policemen’s uniforms came to his villa during a reception.  It appears one of them got inside the house and there was immediately a terrible explosion.  Part of the ground and first floor collapsed and were blown to splinters, and all the people in the front hall were killed or wounded.  His children, his fourteen-year-old daughter and three-year-old son, who were upstairs, fell as the floor collapsed, both her legs were broken and her life is in danger, the boy has a fractured hip!  Poor children – what for?  About 60 people were killed or wounded.  Many of the injured died soon afterwards.  Among the dead are: General Zamiatin, who served various ministers of the Interior over many years, and Governor Khvostov, the husband of Unkovskaya, who has an enormous family!  The poor old doorman was killed.  What a horror!   [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 295]

[October 13, 1906• Rasputin Breaks Free of Nikolaevichi Control]

In his book, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, Stolypin’s biographer, Abraham Ascher tells us:

August 12 was a Saturday, which is why Stolypin was at his dacha on Aptekarskii, one of the many islands in the Neva River where prominent citizens of St. Petersburg spent their weekends.  As was his custom, Stolypin devoted several hours that day to receiving petitioners with special requests.  Many people were therefore in and around the residence early in the afternoon, when three Social Revolutionary Maximalists entered the scene, two in army officers’ dress and one in civilian attire, each carrying a briefcase loaded with bombs.  The guards became suspicious of one of the three men, and when they tried to inspect his briefcase, all three, shouting revolutionary slogans, threw their bags to the ground, producing an enormous explosion.  The would-be assassins died on the spot.  Although they did not succeed in killing Stolypin, who was in a room that somehow remained essentially intact, their bombs did cause a tremendous amount of damage and many casualties.  The façade of the house was completely destroyed.  Twenty-seven people died instantly—among them General Zamiatin and three other senior officials—and another seventy were injured, some of them seriously.  “Fragments of the balcony and the roof were strewn about everywhere.  A shattered carriage and the injured horses were covered by the fragments.  Everywhere one could hear the groans of the wounded, everywhere one could see shreds of human flesh and blood.”  Stolypin’s assistant and friend, Syromiatnikov, rushed to the prime minister’s home and was shocked by the devastation.  Stolypin, he recalled, “flushed with excitement, came into his half-demolished study, with plaster stains on his coat and an ink stop on the back of his neck.  The top of his writing-desk had been lifted right off by the explosion, which took place in the hall at a distance of about thirty feet from the study, and the inkstand had hit his neck.”...
 
Stolypin, who suffered a minor cut on his face, remained remarkably clam and took charge of the rescue efforts as soon as he had arranged for the care of his children.  [Ref: Abraham Ascher, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, (2001), pp. 138-139]

Nicholas also recorded his gratitude for Stolypin’s safety.  In his diary for August 12 he writes that he had heard:

…about the explosion in Stolypin’s house, thank God he was not hurt, but his son and daughter have been injured.  A lot of people killed and wounded, half the house destroyed.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 295]

As we shall see Nicholas’s concern for Stolypin’s daughter’s full recovery from injuries that the doctor’s had left to fate as to whether the child would ever walk again, would continue to concern Tsar.   


October 13, 1906

•   Rasputin Breaks Free of Nikolaevichi Control

Rasputin had managed to break away from the personal control of her sister, the Grand Duchess Militsiya.  According to Colonel Dmitry Loman, warden of Fyodor Cathedral and one of the Court administers, Rasputin was granted his first private audience with the Tsar and Empress.  Loman tells us that the semi-literate muzhik got into:

…‘the palace the first time in this way: once the sovereign (I pass this along as a rumour) received from a Siberian peasant, from Rasputin, that is, a letter requesting an audience and permission to present him with an icon that for some reason was especially revered.  The letter piqued the sovereign’s interest.  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 75]
 
Margarita Nelipa explains that Rasputin had defied the Grand Duchess Militsiya who:

…had apparently warned Rasputin that he should never meet the Imperial couple alone…
 
Unperturbed by the warning, Rasputin had arranged an exclusive audience with their Majesties. Using his own initiative, a telegram was sent in his name requesting an audience so that he could present them with an icon depicting St. Simeon Verhoturskii - the Miracle worker.  The motive was an innocent one; directed to help relieve Alexei’s suffering. (The icon was found by the Sokolov investigators inside the Ipatiev house after the Imperial Family and support staff was assassinated.) The desired audience was granted and Rasputin was received in the private rooms of the Alexandrovskii Palace on Friday, October 13. Nikolai noted the visit in his diary this way:

1906 13 October, Friday Grigorii arrived at 6.15 and brought us a St. Simeon Verhoturskii icon. He saw the children and chatted with us until 7.15.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

[October 16, 1906• Nicholas’ Letter Imploring Stolypin To Seek Rasputin’s Help]

October 16, 1906

•   Nicholas’ Letter Imploring Stolypin To Seek Rasputin’s Help

While Stolypin’s biographer, Abraham Ascher, does not mention the Tsar’s letter to Stolypin imploring him to seek the help of Rasputin for his daughter’s injury,   
Ascher does tell us that that:

Stolypin was understandably distraught over the injuries to one of his daughters and his son.  “When I carried out my daughter from under wreckage,” he told Syromiatnikov, “her legs hung like stockings.  My son has one knee broken and his head is injured.  He is all crumpled up.”  At first, the doctors thought that they would have to amputate both of the young woman’s legs.  But after a few days they decided to let nature run its course and within a year she was able to walk again.  The three-year-old boy recovered faster.  [Ref: Abraham Ascher, P. A. Stolypin, The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, (2001), p. 139]

It is clear that Nicky had been concerned as to whether or not Stolypin’s daughter would ever walk again, especially after the attending physicians “decided to let nature run its course” because three days after Nicky meeting with Rasputin he penned an exuberant letter to Stolypin full of hope:

Pyotr Arkadievich!

A few days ago I received a peasant from the Tobolsk district, Grigory Rasputin, who brought me an icon of St Simon Verkhoturie.  He made a remarkably strong impression both on her Majesty and on myself, so that instead of five minutes our conversation went on for more than an hour.  He will soon be returning home.  He has a strong desire to see you and to bless your injured daughter with an icon.  I very much hope that you will find a minute to receive him this week. 

This is his address: St Petersburg 2, Roszdestvenskaya, 4.  He is staying with the priest Yaroslav Medved.   [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997),  pp. 296-297]

While the medical faculty credited the child’s ability to walk again to nature taking its course, it appears from Ania’s testimony in 1917 that both the Tsar and the Prime Minister credited the child’s ability to walk again to Rasputin.

Ania Vyrubova stated to the Kerensky Commission in 1917 that the Prime Minister Stolypin followed the Tsar’s advice and:

…summoned Rasputin to his injured daughter, and he apparently prayed over her and she recovered.  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]


October 25, 1906

•   Anastasia von Leuchtenberg Becomes Dr. Philippe’s Medium  

To add to the growing confusion over the Nikolaevichi’s relations with the Imperial couple, Madame Bogdanovitch, quoting current Court gossip, noted in her diary for October 25, 1906 that:

…‘she [that is, Stana] has incarnated the medium Philippe in herself, that he resides in her, and that she predicts that everything will now be peaceful…The tsar and tsarina believe her every word and in expectation of peace are carefree and gay.’  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 79]

Clearly Stana was maneuvering to create for herself an unassailable position of authority as the “spiritual” medium of the late Dr. Philippe in order to gain Imperial favor for her desire to divorce her husband the Duke of Leuchtenberg, in order to marry Nikolasha.  As we shall see it had rather the opposite effect on Nicholas.   

 
November 3, 1906

•   Anastasia von Leuchtenberg Divorces Her Husband   

Either Dr. Philippe’s October prophesy of peace did not extend to Philippe’s resident body, Stana, or else Stana had gotten her “spiritual” wires crossed somehow or other.
Stana’s version of spiritualism so transparently self-serving that even the most devoted spiritualist must have had trouble believing her claims.
 
Be that as it may, a major firestorm erupted amongst the Romanovs when it was leaked that Anastasia, Duchess von Leuchtenberg was divorcing her husband, the Duke George, to marry Nikolasha.

Just before Stana’s divorce a bewildered and dismayed Xenia noted in her diary for November 3, 1906, whilst on holiday in Biarritz:

Nikolai [Mikhailovich] told us the most unbelievable news, that Yury and Stana are to divorce, and that she wants to marry Nikolasha.  He saw Yury in Paris, who told him himself.  How awful, what disgusting nonsense!  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 297]

Equally appalled, the Grand Duke Konstantin noted in his diary for November 6, 1906:

I learned with horror from my wife, who was at the Hussar celebration, that Stana is divorcing Yury and is going to marry Nikolasha!!!  Authorization of this marriage can only be seen as connivance, due to Nikolasha’s closeness to the Emperor, and that of Stana to the young Empress; it breaks all church convention, which forbids first cousins to marry.  Kyrill was not allowed to marry Ducky, because they were first cousins, now was Misha allowed to marry Beatrice.  In these dark times, divorce in the family is something inauspicious and deplorable.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 297]

The Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovitch, referring obviously to Stana’s claim that she had become the late Dr. Philippe’s resident body, told KR on November 10 that Nikolasha: 

…is declaring that he hasn’t lifted a finger to bring about his marriage, that it was inspired from above, that it would have been impossible with Philippe’s influence beyond the grave.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 297]

[Winter 1906• Rasputin Continues To See Imperial Couple In Secret]

While the Anastasia von Lichtenberg’s divorce was accomplished in November, Stana’s desire to marry Nikolasha was not a given.  Nicholas absolutely refused to grant the couple permission to marry and it would only come about six months later when the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg presented the matter to the Holy Synod.

KR includes in his November 10, 1906 diary entry an intriguing observation that the Grand Duke Andrei had heard from Stana’s former stepson, Alexander Leuchtenberg, the Duke George’s son by his first wife, Therese von Oldenburg.  The twenty-five year old Alexander insisted that Stana, and Nikolasha were:

…not particularly drawn to each other.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 297]

KR adds, contrary wise that:

Others maintain that she is deeply in love.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 297]

One does wonder if the marriage was not, in part, motivated by political considerations inspired by Nikolasha’s all-powerful position as Chairman of the Council of State Defense. 

And one can’t help but recall the French Ambassador’s description of the Montenegrin sisters at a dinner Nikolasha gave in honor of the French President Poincaré’s visit to Russia just prior to the outbreak of the Great War:

Three long tables were set in half-open tents around a garden which was in full flower. The beds had just been watered and from them the fresh scent of flowers - a delicious change after the baking day - rose into the warm air.

I was one of the first to arrive. The Grand Duchess Anastasia and her sister, the Grand Duchess Militza, gave me a boisterous welcome. The two Montenegrins burst out, talking both at once:

“Do you realize that we're passing through historic days, fateful days! ... At the review to-morrow the bands will play nothing but the Marche Lorraine and Sambre et Meuse. I've had a telegram (in pre-arranged code) from my father to-day. He tells me we shall have war before the end of the month.... What a hero my father is! . . . He's worthy of the Iliad! Just look at this little box I always take about with me. It's got some Lorraine soil in it, real Lorraine soil I picked up over the frontier when I was in France with my husband two years ago. Look there, at the table of honour: it's covered with thistles. I didn't want to have any other flowers there. They're Lorraine thistles, don't you see! I gathered several plants on the annexed territory, brought them here and had the seeds sown in my garden ... Militza, go on talking to the ambassador. Tell him all to-day means to us while I go and receive the Tsar ...”

At dinner I was on the left of the Grand Duchess Anastasia and the rhapsody continued, interspersed with prophecies. “There's going to be war... There'll be nothing left of Austria... You're going to get back Alsace and Lorraine... Our armies will meet in Berlin ...Germany will be destroyed ...” 

Then suddenly:

“I must restrain myself. The Emperor has his eye on me.”

Under the Tsar's stern gaze the Montenegrin sybil suddenly lapsed into silence.  [Ref: Maurice Paléologue, An Ambassador’s Memoirs, Vol. 1, (1925), pp. 22-23]

One is struck by the sister’s complete oblivion to the consequences of their recklessness. The antics of the Montenegrin sisters would have been ridiculously comical were it not for the power they would eventually wield, especially among the enemies of the young Empress.  One cannot help but sympathize with concerns the Empress voiced to Nicky during September 1915 after Nikolasha was removed as Commander of the Russian Army, as we shall soon read for ourselves.   

Again, it is apparent that these Montenegrin sisters who left nothing to chance when orchestrating their intrigues, from the flowers that decorated their dinners to the reckoning of their greatest political schemes, would make very dangerous enemies.   


Winter 1906

•   Rasputin Continues To See Imperial Couple In Secret

Rasputin continued to visit the Imperial couple in the company of the Archimandrite Feofan, according to the testimony of Colonel Dmitry Loman, but:

…‘in the very modest role of a lay brother and follower of Feofan.’   [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]

Understandably Rasputin wanted to keep these meetings secret from the Grand Duchess Militsiya, and the Empress’ Confessor tells us that:

…‘Rasputin himself told informed me that he was hiding his acquaintance with the royal family from Militsa Nikolaevna’…  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]

However it was not long before the Grand Duchess Militsiya discovered the Strannik’s secret and confronted him.  Feofan states that:

‘Rasputin informed me that Militsa had openly declared to him, “You, Grigory, are an underhanded person.”  Militsa Nikolaevna told me personally of her dissatisfaction with Rasputin’s having penetrated the royal family on his own, and mentioned her warning that if he did, it would be the end of him.’  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]


1907 [?]

•   Nicholas Builds Pavilion for Shrine of Saint Simeon

That Rasputin was clearly credited for Stolypin’s daughter’s ability to walk again, a healing which had occurred in the presence of the icon of Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye, is proved, if we can trust the research of Radzinsky, by the fact that Nicholas built a beautiful pavilion the shrine of St. Simeon in memory of the healing. 

Though we are not told the date, it is safe to assume that it was sometime during 1907, in commemoration of the healing of Stolypin’s daughter, that at the:

…Tsar’s expense, a magnificent pavilion was erected over St. Simeon’s shrine.  And the procession of the cross on the on the day of Saint Simeon’s apotheosis was headed by Father Ioann Storozhev.  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]

[1907(?)• Bishops Find Rasputin a Good Spiritual Adviser for Imperial Couple]

Like the icon of Saint Simeon of Verkhoturye which Nelipa told us was found in the Ipatiev house after the assassination of the Imperial family, so Radzinsky shares with us that it was the:

…same Ioann Storozhev, a priest from the city of Ekaterinburg, who two days before their execution in 1918 would celebrate holy communion with them and give them the blessing that would be their last.  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 77]

1907(?)

•   Bishops Find Rasputin a Good Spiritual Adviser for Imperial Couple
     
It may well have been in an effort to remove any remaining vestige of faith in the late Dr. Philippe that the Bishops endorsed Rasputin’s relationship with the Imperial couple.  As we have seen, well into 1907 the mesmeric influence of late Dr. Philippe via the mystical lunacy the Nikolaevichi was still very much alive and they were at the time still very close to the Imperial couple.

The Nikolaevichi occultism must have caused the Bishops a great deal of concern about their influence on the Imperial couple and Rasputin, at this point in his career, must have appeared as an excellent counter influence.   

Nelipa states that according to the testimony of the former President of the Duma, Mikhail Rodzianko, to the Kerensky Commission, a secret meeting of Bishops took place sometime shortly after the presentation of Rasputin to the Tsar and Empress during which the Church Prelates determined that:

… Rasputin was suitable to provide “clear, simple, credible answers to questions posed by her Majesty” concerning the Church.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 


Late March, 1907

•   Ania Taneïev Meets Rasputin Just Before Her Marriage 

In both January and February 1907 Ania had breakfasted her future husband, Sergei Vyrubova had been invited to breakfast with the Imperial couple.  Then in March it appears that Alix asked Militsiya to introduce the young bride-to-be to Rasputin.  Ania testified in 1917 that:

It was about a month before my marriage in 1907 that the Empress asked Militsa, the Grand Duchess Pyotr, to make my acquaintance with Rasputin.  I had heard that the Grand Duchess was very clever and well read, and I was glad of the opportunity of meeting her in her palace on the English Quay in Petrograd.  Interesting as I found her, I was nevertheless thrilled with excitement when a servant announced the arrival of Rasputin.  Before his entrance the Grand Duchess said to me: ‘Do not be astonished if I greet him peasant fashion,’ that is, with three kisses on the cheek.  She did so greet him and then she presented us to each other.  I saw an elderly peasant, thin, with a pale face, long hair, an uncared-for bead, and the most extraordinary eyes, large, light, brilliant, and apparently capable of seeing into the very mind and soul of the person with whom he held converse.  He wore a long peasant coat, black and rather shabby from hard wear and much travel.  We talked and the Grand Duchess, speaking in French, bade me ask him to pray for some special desire of mine.  Timidly I begged him to pray that God would permit me to spend my whole life serving their Majesties.  To this he replied: ‘Your whole life will be thus spent.’   [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 300]

It appears that Ania also had some doubts about her forthcoming marriage to Sergei, a man who was still a stranger to her in many ways.  Ania testified that:

…I was concerned about my marriage, since I didn’t know the groom very well, and I asked if I should get married.  Rasputin answered that he recommended I get married, although the marriage would be an unhappy one.    [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 81]


March 22, 1907

•   Nicholas Finally Grants Nikolasha’s Request to Marry Stana  

It appears that messages from the departed spirit of Dr. Philippe via the resident body of the divorcé Alexandra von Leuchtenberg, had any impact on the Tsar’s decision to finally grant permission for Nikolasha to marry the former Duchess, a permission that he had consistently, even vehemently, refused to grant since Stana’s divorce in November 1906. 

It appears that whilst speaking with the Metropolitan Antonii of St. Petersburg about church matters, the Tsar spontaneously brought up the proposed marriage of Nikolasha to Stana.  Nicky sought the Metropolitan’s opinion as to the propriety of the marriage and asked the Metropolitan Antonii if felt such a marriage was permissible, brothers marrying sisters, etc. 

The wise and fair-minded Antonii suggested that it would be best to let the Holy Synod make a ruling as to the moral and legal issues involved in the proposed marriage.  After a week of deliberation the Metropolitan Antonii returned with the Holy Synod’s judgment and informed Nicky that the Synod gave their conditional approval if certain provisions were met. 

Writing to his mother on March 22, 1907, Nicky explained that the Synod had ruled that:

…as marriages in similar circumstances were freely admitted by bishops of various dioceses, they had no objection, provided that the wedding was a modest one and took place somewhere not too near Petersburg.   [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, p. 226]

Indicating that his decision was based, in part, on how indispensable Nikolasha was to him at the present, Nicky explained to his mother how pleased he was with the Holy Synod’s edict:

I must say I was delighted with this answer which I sent on to Nikolasha there and then together with my consent to his marriage.  Thus this rather difficult and delicate matter which affects Nikolasha’s and especially Stana’s position is at last settled.  You would hardly know him now, so happy is he and so lightly does he bear the burden of his service.  And I [italics used in the original letter] am in such need of him.  [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, pp. 226-227]

The Empress Dowager, who according to her biographer Coryne Hall had to be medicated for shock, replied from Biarritz five days later on March 27, 1907:

I do not attempt to hide from you the fact that the news of the proposed marriage surprised me very much, especially after what you had said to me before…But since it is all settled there is no use discussing it further.  [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, p. 227]
 

[April 29, 1907• Nikolasha and Stana’s Wedding]

April 29, 1907

•   Nikolasha and Stana’s Wedding 

The Grand Duke Nicolai Nicholaïevitch and the former Duchess Anastasia von Leuchtenberg were married in the small church at Livadia on April 29, 1907 in partial obedience to the Most Holy Synod’s decree that demanded that the marriage be preformed away from St. Petersburg. 

A very perturbed Xenia notes in her diary for April 29, 1907;

The wedding of Nikolasha and Stana takes place today in Livadia.  They even found somewhere to get married!  Sandro absolutely refused to send a telegram.   [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 301]

However Nikolasha and Stana refused to obey the Synod’s second demand that their wedding be modest, as the highly indignant Xenia points out in her April 30 diary entry:

Yesterday’s wedding took place in the little Livadia church, and was attended by a large number of guests and officials, afterward there was a huge lunch!  Mama is beside herself – and so upset that she had to take tranquillizing drops.

She even wrote a letter to Nicky, and got it off her chest by expressing her displeasure and her surprise!  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 301]

Apparently the Empress Dowager was not as reconciled to the Nikolasha’s marriage as her March 27, 1907 letter to Nicky had indicated: …since it is all settled there is no use discussing it further.   [Ref: The Secret Letters of the Last Tsar, (1938) edited by Edward J. Bing, p. 227]

I am sure that the worldlier element in the Russian Court must have gained a great deal of amusement wondering if, indeed, the late Dr. Philippe was still residing within former Duchess von Leuchtenberg at the time of her wedding. 

While I agree that my observations above are not in the best of taste and may well be considered unpardonable, the point I am hoping to make, albeit through peasant humor, was that Alexandra in her most superstitious moments, never embraced the kind of half-crazed mysticism of the Nikolaevichi women, not to mention Nikolasha who appears to have never let go of his penchant for mystics.

There is an interesting story in Perry/Pleshakov’s, The Flight of the Romanovs, about Nikolasha’s driving ambition to become Tsar during the German occupation of the Crimea in 1918 and his reliance on religious mystics to accomplish his dream. 

Discrediting the generally held opinion that Nikolasha refused to become a contender for the empty throne in 1918 the authors Perry/Pleshakov state that such misinformation found it’s source in General Denikin’s memoirs and they point out that Denikin:

…was [Nikolasha’s] competitor at the time and therefore cannot be entirely trusted.  [Ref: John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, (1999), p. 211]
 
Not only that, but Perry/Pleshakov state that there exists reliable evidence which:

…shows that at least once Nikolasha was more than ready to agree to take command if it had been offered to him.  [Ref: John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, (1999), p. 211]

It appears that the Grand Duke had received several offers to become Tsar and that one of the attempts:

…to sound him out was made by a person whom Nikolasha trusted entirely, George Shavelsky, the last chaplain of the Imperial Army and Navy.

Father Shavelsky arrived at the Crimean palace of Dulber on November 6, 1918, Nikolasha’s birthday, to find the grand duke finishing breakfast with his brother Peter and a group of Denikin’s officers…

The priest stayed with the grand duke for six days and had a good chance to access his situation.  At the same time, a conference of anti-Bolshevik politicians was underway in Romania at the town of Jassy.  The Romanovs in Crimea optimistically believed that the conference would recommend that Nikolasha lead the army in a new crusade.

Some were already speculating about the consequences of this.  Would Nikolasha become the next tsar?...  [Ref: John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, (1999), pp. 211-212]

It should not surprise us that during this period of impending hope, Stana’s son, Sergei Leuchtenberg, had introduced Nikolasha to a “seeker of prophecies” named Captain A. A. Svechin, who in turn:

…recommended to Nikolasha a mystic in Yalta, Mother Evgeniya, who claimed that it was revealed to her in several visions that the grand duke would be the savior of Russia.   

On that night of his birthday, Nikolasha told the disgusted Father Shavelsky that he too should submit to the will of God as manifested through Mother Evgeniya.  The priest thought Nikolasha spoke as if he were in a delirium; clenching his teeth…  [Ref: John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, (1999), pp. 212-213]

That penetrating image of Nikolasha in some kind of mesmeric trance gritting his teeth as he repeats Mother Evgeniya’s prophesy that he is Russia’s savior is the kind of mystical lunacy that the seriously misinformed French Ambassador attempted to lay at the door of the young Empress in December 1914.

In December 1914 Alix had not only distanced herself from the outspoken pacifist notions of Rasputin but also from the flirtatious antics of Ania and not only that but the Empress was at the height of her round-the-clock War Relief work and extensive Hospital-Inspection tours at the time the deluded French Ambassador described Alix as someone who was: 

…behaving exactly like one of the old Tsaritsas of Moscow…when she endows Rasputin with the gifts of prophecy, miracle-working and exorcism, or allows the success of a political step or a military operation to depend upon his blessing.  She carries us back to the times of Ivan the Terrible, or Michael Feodorovitch and takes her place, so to speak, in the Byzantine setting of archaic Russia.  [Ref: Maurice Paléologue, An Ambassador’s Memoirs, (1925), Vol. I, p. 240]

Paléologue’s myopic description of the young Empress in December 1914 could not have been more ill informed.  If you go back to the 1914 theme, Rasputin, in this thread it will become quickly apparent that the Empress not only rebuked Rasputin concerns about Nikolasha, but Rasputin’s only real concern in the 1914 correspondence was the inhumane treatment of the Russian Muslim troops. 

[April 30, 1907• Ania Taneïev and Vyrubova’s Wedding]

No where in the 1914 correspondence is Rasputin’s advice on military matter sought.  Other than encouraging the Empress to wear her nurses’ uniform while on her inspection tours, and sending encouragement and blessings to the Imperial couple in his numerous telegrams, the semi-literate muzhik does fit Paléologue’s 1914 portrait any more than the Empress does.   

However, strikingly enough, one can fit both Nikolasha and Mother Evgeniya in Paléologue’s 1914 pen-portrait with amazing accuracy. 

Clearly in 1918 Nikolasha: 

…behaving exactly like one of the old Tsars of Moscow…when he endowed Mother Evgeniya with the gifts of prophecy, miracle-working…or allowed the success of his political step…to depend upon her blessing.  He carries us back to the times of Ivan the Terrible, or Michael Feodorovitch and takes his place, so to speak, in the Byzantine setting of archaic Russia. 


April 30, 1907

•   Ania Taneïev and Vyrubova’s Wedding   

The day after Nikolasha and Stana’s marriage, the doubting Ania Taneïev was wed to her husband, Sergei Vyrubova. 

Nicky noted in his diary for April 30, 1907:

At night it rained, there was a storm all day.  We left for the palace before 3 o’clock.  Ania [Vyrubova] was upstairs dressing for her wedding.  We blessed her and then went to the church.  After the ceremony everyone congratulated the newly-weds in the church hall.  We returned home at 4.30.  I ran into the garden.  Ania and her husband had tea with us.  Received Stolypin.  Played billiards with Dimitri.  [Ref: Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion, (1997), p. 301]
 
Lili Dehn gives some interesting insights about Ania’s marriage that are worth reviewing, especially given the slander against the Empress and Ania after Ania’s marriage to Vyrubova falls apart in June. 

Lili tells us that Ania was married:

…the same year as myself, but before her marriage she was deeply in love with General Orloff, who commanded the Lancers, and who was a great friend of the Empress. Rightly or wrongly, Her Majesty thought that General Orloff would be too old a husband for Anna, and, although the General loved her, and desired nothing better than to marry her, Anna yielded her will to that of the Empress, and accepted Lieutenant Virouboff to whom she was married in the Palace Chapel at Tsarkoe Selo. The union turned out a complete failure, and I believe that the Empress's original interest in Anna was intensified by the fact that she was indirectly responsible for this unhappy marriage. The Empress accepted what she considered to be her responsibilities very seriously, as her salient characteristics were thoroughness and a fine sense of justice. It was not difficult for her to show more kindness to one whom she already loved, and whose unhappiness was now so poignant. Anna was one of those beings who always look as if someone has hurt them; one wanted to "mother" Anna, to amuse her, to hear her confidences, and to laugh at her exaggerated joys and sorrows.  [Ref: Lili Dehn, The Real Tsarina,, (1922), Alexander Palace Time Machine. Retrieved January 12, 2009, from http: /www.alexanderpalace.org/russiancourt2006/IV.html.]

Lili’s insights as to who Ania really loved will help us with understanding the Empress remarks in her September 1915 War Correspondence in which she tells Nicky:

Letter No. 110. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 2-nd 1915
- & then took her [Ania] to Orlov's grave, where she has not been since her accident.


Summer 1907

•   Rasputin Called to Heir’s Sickbed

It was that following summer of 1907 that the Imperial couple, in their desperation,   summoned Rasputin to Alexis’ sickbed for the first time.   

Nelipa explains that the three year old Alexei:

…had fallen after playing in Tsarskoe Selo and had suffered an injury that had developed into a major medical crisis.  Dr. Evgenii Botkin was unable to alleviate the pain and within hours all hope for a recovery had disappeared. Alexandra then remembered Rasputin and requested his presence. Rasputin arrived very late during the night and by morning Alexei’s temperature had fallen and the swelling in his leg had diminished.  It was obvious that the crisis had subsided.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

Having quoted only certain sections of Margarita Nelipa’s work on Rasputin, it seems only fair to Margarita to state that with her background in allopathic medical practice, she is not a proponent of spiritual healing.  Margarita does not support the theory that Rasputin had an ability to heal and that any healing effect that Alexis experienced came from the self-healing of his body. 

[Fall 1907• Rasputin’s Reputation as Spiritual Healer Spreads]

Fall 1907

•   Rasputin’s Reputation as Spiritual Healer Spreads 

Rasputin’s reputation grew rapidly in Court circles as word circulated about Alexis healing in the Summer of 1907. 

Nelipa tells us that:

…for a brief period while Rasputin was seen to be the favored one by the Imperial Family, the aristocratic set opened their doors and they too began to seek his attention.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

Radzinsky also states that a prominent St. Petersburg matron, E. Kazakova, testified that:

…at the time she ‘saw many important ladies…who looked after him [Rasputin] and considered him a man of great righteousness, and who cut his nails and sewed them up to attach to their bodices as mementos’.  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 72]
 
 
September 6, 1907

•   Rasputin’s First Khlyst Allegation Inquiry

The reason Rasputin’s rise was brief had to do with the Grand Duchess’ growing resentment of the semi-literate muzhik.  Militsiya’s bitterness might have been caused by the fact that Grigorii had pulled off a miracle within the heart of the Imperial family without the aid of his august Patron; or it could have been that fact that the plucky peasant had the audacity to make his disapproval of Nikolasha and Stana’s marriage known to the Imperial couple. 

Whatever her real motivation by the Fall of 1907 the disgruntled Grand Duchess set out to cunningly destroy the Siberian Strannik once and for all.  Nelipa states that it was Grand Duchess Militsiya who was secretly behind the First Khlyst Allegation Inquiry against Rasputin:

Anna Taneeva testified at the Kerensky Inquiry in 1917 that the intervening factor was Grand Duchess Militsiya Nikolayevna. According to Radzinsky, Militsiya, whilst exposing her vindictive nature, just “wanted to put Rasputin in his place.”   [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 23, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

The First Inquiry against Rasputin was initiated on September 6, 1907 and was:

…formalized by decree on the following day by Bishop Antonii of Tobolsk. The Inquiry had come about by the inspiration of the over zealous Pokrovskoye village priest, Peter Ostroimov who filed his complaint to his district governor. That complaint was then forwarded to the Tobolsk Bishop Antonii (Karzhavin) for his resolution.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

The investigation that had dragged on for several months, finally came to an end when the newly appointed Bishop of Tobolsk, Alexei: 

…traveled to Pokrovskoye to personally meet with Rasputin and following his encounter he had concluded that there was no foundation to the original allegation.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 


Summer 1908

•   Rasputin’s Second (Secret) Khlyst Allegation Inquiry

The young Empress in keeping with her customary sense of responsibility and keen thoroughness, qualities we have seen displayed in her War Relief Hospital Inspection tours, initiated a Second (secret) Khlyst Allegation Inquiry and sent her Confessor, Father Feofan, in the summer of 1908:

…to Siberia in order to discover the truth about Rasputin. Whether the intentions of the Empress had indicated an element of doubt is a moot point. Feofan examined all the documents from the Tobolsk Inquiry and according to his own assessment he had failed to find anything compromising.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

In December 1908, shortly after being completely exonerated by both Inquiries and shortly after it appears that the young Empress became aware that the Grand Duchess Militsiya had been behind the First Khlyst Allegation Inquiry against Rasputin which would completely end the young Empress’ friendship with both Militsiya and Stana and at the same time initiate their unrelenting slander campaign against the Empress.  It appears that Rasputin somehow or other managed to avoid direct persecution from the Black women until 1911.   


December 1908

•   Death of Father Ioann of Kronstadt

Just as the Nikolaevichi influence was rapidly disappearing, Rasputin’s value to the Imperial couple grew and came into greater focus with the death of Father Ioann of Kronshtadt.

Margarita explains: 

Rasputin’s role within the Family was exactly the same as the one that was foreshadowed earlier by Father Ioann of Kronshtadt. That role became more apparent when Alexei had experienced his episodic hemophiliac crises. Rasputin’s duty was to pray for Alexei’s health.  After Father Ioann’s death in December 1908, Rasputin stepped in to “save” the heir to the throne from imminent death.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 23, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 


It is also possible that Father Ioann’s death brought to memory how Rasputin, when he first arrived in St. Petersburg, had gone to Andreevsky Cathedral to be blessed by the acclaimed Father Ioann and how to the amazement of the worshippers the venerated archpriest had instead:

…sought Rasputin’s blessing before the congregation.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 23, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

[December 1908• The Fall of the Nikolaevichi From Imperial Favor]

Nelipa explains:

It was said that the priest [Father Ioann of Kronshtadt] had felt the pious sincerity of the peasant who came to his service dressed in rags, and had apparently told Rasputin that “God granted you many gifts, help people, be my right hand.”  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 23, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

Certainly with the passing of Father Ioann in December 1908, Rasputin filled in the spiritual void left by the passing of the venerated Father Ioann of Kronstadt. 


December 1908

•   The Fall of the Nikolaevichi From Imperial Favor

The rupture between the Montenegrin sisters and young Empress was complete by the closing months of 1908.  Margarita tells us that the catastrophic reverses for the Nikolaevichi began with the fall from grace of the Grand Duchess Militsiya, whose scheming against Rasputin:

…had failed and the consequence of her conniving had resulted in a visibly strained relationship between the Empress and the Nikolayevich branch of the family. The Empress never set foot in their home again, while the self indulgent Montenegrin sisters became estranged from the throne. They in turn began to vilify the Empress.  [Ref: Margarita Nelipa, Who was Grigorii Rasputin-Novii?, (2007), Retrieved November 15, 2008, http://www.facesofrussia.org/] 

Militsiya’s fall from grace was followed by Nikolasha loss of his omnipotent position as Head of the Council of State Defense when the newly appointed Chief of Staff, Sukhomlinov, suggested that the Council of Defense be dissolved.   Though Nikolasha remained Head of the St. Petersburg Military District the powerful Council of State Defense and Nikolasha’s power as its head was transferred to the Minister of War. 

The reasons for the disbanding of the Council of State Defense were, in Fuller’s words:

…the obvious short comings of this arrangement led to the disbanding of the council…  [Ref: William C. Fuller Jr., The Foe Within,, (2006), p. 82]

The “short comings of this arrangement” might refer to the gradual return to public order that had been established by 1908, but could also refer in part to the excessive amount of power the Grand Duke had been granted.   Regardless of the reasons by the end of 1908 the Nikolaevichi’s influence had all but vanished with a peep from the late Dr. Philippe, it appears.     


March 1909

•   New Minister of War Inherits Nikolasha’s Former Power

Worse was in store for Nikolasha’s mental equilibrium when in March 1909 the current Minister of War, A. F. Rediger, fell as the result of his inability to defend the War Ministry from Guchkov’s attack in the Duma and the man who had been responsible for Nikolasha’s demotion, the former Chief of Staff, Sukhomlinov, was appointed as the new Minister of War and thereby inheriting all of Nikolasha’s former power. 

Fuller explains:

The word “hatred” is probably too insipid a term to describe Nikolai’s feelings toward Sukhomlinov, whom he blamed for advising the emperor to abolish the Council.  Nikolai, who manifested classic symptoms of manic depression, thus begrudged Sukhomlinov the power that had so recently been his…The two were barely on speaking terms; when Sukhomlinov wanted to communicate something to the grand duke [during the Great War], he typically used Andronnikov as an intermediary.  [Ref:  William C. Fuller, The Foe Within, (2006), pp. 81-82]

At the same time the Empress came under fire from the Black Women who began to circulate the rumor that Alix and Ania had been involved in a lesbian relationship.  Ania testified that:

Everything bad that was being said about the empress now originated with Militsa and Anastasia Nikolaevna…They said that the empress…was psychologically abnormal, that she was seeing too much of Rasputin…’  .  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 85]

If Radzinsky is to be believed, he states that Rasputin’s banker, the publisher Alexei Filippov:
…testified that ‘Vyrubova’s friendship with the empress was explained by some in court spheres as an intimacy grounded in sexual psychopathology.’   .  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 89]

As early as June 1908 Stana’s Leuchtenberg niece’s, Princess Daria Kotchoubey, swore to Madame Bogdanovitch, the wife of General Bogdanovitch who was the warren of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral that reason Ania and Sergei were divorced was because of the:     

...unnatural friendship [that] exists between the tsarina and Taneeva, and …Taneeva’s husband, Vyrubova, apparently…fund among her things some letters from the tsarina that led to mournful thoughts.’  [Ref: Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, (2000), p. 91]

I don’t believe that given the timing of this cruel slander and its source that we can rule out the possibility that it originated with the black sisters and was the beginning of their slander campaign against the young Empress. 
 
In spite of part Princess Kotchoubey appears to have played in her aunt’s slander campaign against the Empress it is sad to remember that after returning to Russia both Daria [Dolly] and her fourth husband, Victor Markezetti were executed by Stalin in Leningrad in 1937 and 1938 respectively.