Final Translations of AP Rooms from Yakolev's 1928 Book

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 1st Floor

69. CORRIDOR

It is illuminated only through the vestibule and therefore semi-dark.

The walls are painted in a light pale-yellow mastic oil with edging of artificial pink marble.

Running the length of the corridor is a red carpet; and at the end by the drawing room are stretched carpets; one a Turkmen at the entrance of the library, the second between Nicholas II’s study and the maple drawing room of Alexandra Fedorovna – similar type.

There is little furniture: in the part of the corridor against the New Study of Nicholas II and the niches – ottomans covered with a Persian Kharasan carpet with the rollers covered in “Alatza”, the work of the Moscow factory of furniture material Malyzheva.

The wall of the Tsarina’s half contains the bread and salt dishes received by the Imperial family during their travels and the elevator to the children’s floor.

Paintings - #613-645

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 1st Floor

74. DRESSING ROOM
The walls are covered with bright wallpaper. The room is overlapped by the enclosed arch painted in two colors – white and blue. The furniture is from the Tsarskoe Selo palace workshops and is upholstered in white with blue flowers English chintz.

The overall decoration of the room is relatively simple with few trifles and trinkets. There are on the table near the window several religious pamphlets. In the chiffonier were the personal effects of the tsarina: fans, scarves, gloves, sachets with handkerchiefs, etc. that are now displayed in the cabinets in the maid’s apartment.

Note two additional Italian leather icons in silver frames depicting the figures: one of a holy devouring devil and the second of a saint tied to a tree by two hangmen.

Paintings #727-739

75. BATHROOM

Low dark room with walls and ceiling covered in chintz. On the sofa is a linen basket, in the corner a cabinet of medical supplies and on the hanger a nightdress and dressing gown for ironing.

Photographs of portraits of Alexandra Fedorovna’s relatives are hung around the walls.

From here is a small wooden staircase to the children’s floor used by Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna.

76. MAID’S ROOM

Low small room, wallpapered. The ash wood furniture is from the epoch of Alexander II.

In the cabinets are dresses belonging to the Tsarina.

Paintings #740-748

77. Wooden Stairs

To the mezzanine and to the second floor.

Joanna

[Joanna]

ENTROSOL FLOOR
The mezzanines  are predominately auxiliary and only a few in number. These spaces with illegal heights of which compliance with the law was not required served as  storerooms and accommodations for the staff.

1. Alexandra Fedorovna’s Wardrobe

The walls of the room and the wooden stairs are a gray mastic oil paint. Parquet floor. There a just a few simple items of furniture.

In the oak cabinets are stored bonnets, ceremonial dresses, mantle, furs, capes and scarves of the tsarina which in most cases were from the workshops of V. Brisac and Lamanova, as well as accessories for needlework and dressing.

In the ashwood cabinets standing on the upper platform of the wooden stairs are arranged stacks of items for dressing:  fans, boas, aigrettes, scarves, belts, day and sport hats of the tsarina supplied in most cases from the Bertrand workshop, gloves, etc..

2. Nicholas II’s Wardrobe

The room is finished the same as the previous. The furniture comprises a pair of Viennese chairs and a simple ashwood table.

The cabinets hold the foreign uniforms of Nicholas II.

Also stored in this room are a trunk valise and a pair of metal trunks.

3. Bathroom
The room is paneled in ashwood. The wall of the stairs is in the same Chintz pattern as the children’s dining room. The floor is covered with a red plush carpet. The copper bath is enclosed in ashwood and under the stairs is a small wood seat toilet. The only furniture is an armchair from the time of Alexander II.

4. Valet

The walls are painted in a bright blue-gray mastic oil. Canvas framed with small additional traction connects the walls with the ceiling. The floor is covered with an oriental patterned carpet.

The furniture is mahogany and the sofa and screen is in the Empire style. The bed with a spring mattress is covered with a flannelette blanket. A clock is on the fireplace mantel. In the front corner on a stand is a sculpture with an inscription from the Archimandrite Varnava, March 2, 1905.

In the entrance area to this room are ashwood cabinets in which are stored uniforms, frock-coats, hunting suits, canes, sheet linens, towels, etc.

Joanna

[Joanna]

ENTROSOL FLOOR (cont'd)

5. Room of the Wardrobe Mistress

The walls are painted the same color as the previous room. The plank flooring is a yellow oil paint.

The furniture is the usual – Viennese chairs, ashwood chest of drawers, clothes rack, mahogany bed of the time of Alexander II. In the ashwood cabinets are the convoy and naval military uniforms of the Tsar and the hussar uniform in which Nicholas II was married. On the shelves are the uniform accruements and peaked caps in the wall display by the window.

In the chest of drawers are linens (starched shirts, ties, etc.) Also here is a male mannequin which corresponds to the figure of Nicholas II.

6. Maple Room Balcony

Included in the description of the Maple Room.

7. Tsar’s New Study Balcony

It is also included in the description of the New Study and the two rooms connected over the corridor.

8. Storage for the Heir’s Possessions

The walls are painted a light gray mastic oil. The ceiling and cornice molding is painted in white oil. The floor is covered with linoleum. Large pine tables and cabinets and painted shelves were used for various different things.

9. Room of Marie Fedorovna’s Wardrobe Mistress

Walls, ceiling and cornice molding are whitewashed. The floor is the common linoleum. The furniture is a mixture of a mahogany Empire style folding screen, a painted iron bed and an icon in the front corner.

10. Continuation from the Stairs – Marie Fedorovna's Wardrobe

The walls are covered with bright wallpaper with a different pattern on each.

The mahogany cabinets and chairs are from the time of Nicholas I.

11. Maid’s Room

The walls are painted a grayish-blue mastic oil and the same with the front.

The wooden bed, chairs, mirror frame, chest of drawers and sofas are in the Empire style of the time of Nicholas I.

12. Maid’s Room

The walls are wallpapered in white with blue patterns.

The redwood furniture is of the same style.

The floors in these two rooms and in front before them are covered with linoleum.

Both rooms have been allocated to maids since 1827. During the reign of Nicholas II, they were given to the maids of Grand Duchesses Alexandra M., Xenia and Olga (daughters of Alexander III) and friends visiting the palace.

13. Room of Elizabeth Fedorovna’s Maid

The walls are painted a grayish blue mastic oil.  The floor is painted in yellow oil.

The furniture is predominately mahogany from the time of Nicholas I.

There are two French beds with spring mattresses, one mahogany and the other bronze iron.

The walls of the room with the wooden stairs are painted the same.

14. Room of the On-Duty Wing Adjutant’s Assistant

The walls are a light gray wallpaper and the floor is linoleum. Cabinets, chairs, redwood chest of drawer and sofa are from the time of Nicholas I.

The redwood bed is of the same period, the wall mirror is mahogany, etc. They are placed on the upper platform of the wooden stairs.

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 2nd Floor

1. & 2. Passageway and Pantry

A low wooden partition with Doric pilasters divides the room. The walls of both rooms are painted a white mastic oil.

The rooms are simple. An ironing board is against the wall which was used only for random requirements. There is a wall telephone by the cabinet. On the wall between the windows in the lower area is a map of Europe. There is now a display of the children’s sleights and skates in the pantry.

3. Alexandra Fedorovna’s Wardrobe

The walls are painted a greenish-gray mastic oil.

There is minimal furniture: a table with movable pieces upholstered in green cloth, a mahogany Empire style mirror, a pair of Viennese chairs.

In the ashwood wardrobe cabinets with sliding doors are stored the furs of the tsarina, dresses, blouses and bodices, and in one cabinet are the accruements for the dressmaker. The work of the dressmaker when on-duty here did only minor sewing.

4. Corridor with Elevator Extension

The main part is illuminated with a skylight. The walls are painted a light blue mastic oil with stenciled cornice molding of large stylized flowers of two colors. Above the door of the first part of the corridor is a colored glass transom.

A red carpet extends along the corridor. Along the walls are ashwood cabinets displaying:

Dresses: List of 12

Along the wall to the right (first corridor) are trunks which were used by the Grand Duchesses when traveling.

Hanging on the walls in glass frames are reproductions of “History of the Russian Soldiers in Pictures”, photographs of Nicholas II among the troops, and over the door of Derevenko’s room is a silhouette of a Don Cossack regiment, etc.

On the left side of the corridor are the rooms of the Grand Duchesses and on the right the attendant staff with the exception one - the classroom of the younger Grand Duchesses.

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 2nd Floor

5. Vestibule
It connects with the oak staircase to the two rooms of Alexandra Fedorovna – one to the bath and the other into the passage next to the maids’ room. The room does not have any other light except through the door.

The walls are covered with pink flowered chintz. The floor is covered in the same red colored bobrikov carpet as in the children’s dining and drawing rooms.

Of the small amount of furniture, there are several child-sized items.

In the ashwood wardrobe cabinet are the regimental uniforms of the Grand Duchesses: Olga N. -  Hussar, Tatiana N. – Uhlan, and Marie N. – Dragoon.

Various British art reproductions are arranged around the walls.

9. Bathroom

The walls are painted a blue mastic oil. There is a stenciled frieze of the sea with sailboats, flowers and plants. Over the door frames are depicted four seagulls.

The door frames and window lintels are the same as in the previous room but with the difference that here they are painted an ivory oil. The following bedrooms have the same style.

The painted furniture is relatively simple except for the change-table, weigh-table and three stool benches that are made of natural birch.

The window curtains are first a silk, a medium thick cloth with flannel lining, and a cotton cretonne, apparently to prevent the winter cold and in other seasons for complete darkness in the room. The same is in the bedrooms of the children. The part of the floor and walls with the tank and washstand are covered with ceramic glazed tiles. The bath itself is silver plated. The rinsing is near where they get out of the bath. The W.C. is hidden behind a partition in the form of a cabinet. Inside on the walls are English illustrations from periodicals and pictures of the children. The half of the room with the bath and W.C. is separated by a cotton cretonne curtain suspended by rings on a rod which is similar to the metallic ceiling light fixture.

In the cabinets are stored masquerade suits of the Russian boyar and coachmen and others like the Marquis Pierre, the Sisters of Mercy uniforms, a military frock-coat from the time of Alexander I, as well as the belts, bows, scarves, collars, gloves, sachets, ribbons and linen. In the middle of the room is a table with the records of the weights and heights of each child.

On the door frame to the classroom under glass are the marks showing the heights with date and time of the children.  Above this on the door are screwed suspension hooks for gymnastic instruments and on the door into the bedroom of the elder sisters is a detachable horizontal bar. Judging by a brochure found in one table, it was possible that they did Jacques Dalcroze’s system of rhythmical gymnastics.

On the rear wall is an etching of a portrait of Alexei Nikolaivich by Rundaltseva and on the side wall above the tank are three glass frames of photographs of relatives, some signed.

Joanna

[Joanna]

One of the watercolors by Anatoly Yar-Kravchenko in 1931 is identified as "The Rooms of the Grand Duchesses" while others by him and Yury Neprintsev are specific to the rooms such as bedrooms, playroom. This one shows the classroom's two windows and the enfilade to the bathroom/bedroom. In the bathroom you can see that there are two chest of drawers - one in between the windows with a tall cabinet next to it and the other beyond the end window next to the door to the bedroom. There appears to be a pink (possibly) chair right against the door to the classroom. Half way up either, attached to the cabinet or sitting on something, is a curved-arm metal lamp that may have a fabric style round lampshade rather then metal. There is a red carpet runner that was the path for tourists to walk on. I am wondering if the "red" carpet that is in the corridor is from the tourist period or of the family living in the AP.

Joanna

[Sarushka]

One of the watercolors by Anatoly Yar-Kravchenko in 1931 is identified as "The Rooms of the Grand Duchesses" while others by him and Yury Neprintsev are specific to the rooms such as bedrooms, playroom. This one shows the classroom's two windows and the enfilade to the bathroom/bedroom. In the bathroom you can see that there are two chest of drawers - one in between the windows with a tall cabinet next to it and the other beyond the end window next to the door to the bedroom. There appears to be a pink (possibly) chair right against the door to the classroom. Half way up either, attached to the cabinet or sitting on something, is a curved-arm metal lamp that may have a fabric style round lampshade rather then metal.

This one?

There is a red carpet runner that was the path for tourists to walk on. I am wondering if the "red" carpet that is in the corridor is from the tourist period or of the family living in the AP.

My understanding is the carpet within the family's private rooms was from the tourist period. I don't recall where I learned that, though.

[Joanna]

[

This is the watercolor I refer to. It adds to our understanding of the classroom while giving a peek into the bathroom. I am working first on the rooms that we do not have photographs rather than describe say the Mauve room which we have a virtual surround of. At the moment just looking again at the classroom, the pale color of the furniture against the window appears to differ with what I thought was the dark wood of the bookcases and table but it may be the black/white photos have created a deceptive tone. The walls seems to have a brightness missing in the b/w.

Yakolev has described the various carpets within the rooms but I found that the corridors of the 1st in yellow and now of the 2nd in blue with red carpets clashed.

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 2nd Floor

14. A.E. Derevenko’s Room

The walls are painted in white mastic oil with cornice molding around the ceiling.

The common style nickel bed with a French spring mattress is separated from the front of the room by a screen with panels of cotton cretonne which is the same as the upper sliding curtain (all three curtains are the same as in the children’s bedrooms).

The furniture in the room are few and of different styles.

There are three newspapers on the birch credenza: “Russian Znamya” and two copies of “Bell” {Kopokop}.

Above the bed hangs a patriotic leaf from the publisher “Department of St. Isaac’s Cathedral” of the Imperial family in the Fedorovsky Cathedral.

On the walls are photographs of the Heir testing food with a regiment and in the park with a gun, a portrait of Alexandra Fedorovna in an armchair, etc. and a reproduction Lermontov’s poems by V. Vasnetsov: “Why am I not a bird, not the crows of the steppe”…

16. Alexei’s Bathroom

The walls are painted in white mastic oil with cornice molding along the ceiling and with panels along the lower portion of glazed tiles with flower patterns. The plumbing and lighting is by the engineer L.R. Swede and his assistant V.E. Legovich.

The room is furnished with a soft padded couch against the wall, a chintz screen, a stool and chest of drawers.

There are medical and therapeutic supplies: electric light apparatus for warming extremities, tray for mud baths, electrical device, winder for rolling of bandages, medical chest with collection of medicines, lacto wafers, porcelain mortar and pestle for grinding ointments, measuring glass, mirror for inspection of larynx, syringes, instrument for pulverizing different ointments and wafers.

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 2nd Floor

17. Room for Cinema, Teachers and Music Lessons

The room is L-shaped. The walls are painted in white mastic oil with a roof crown. The window curtains are English chintz.

The room is illuminated with a bronze chandelier with reddish glass. The mahogany furniture is in the Chippendale style and upholstered with soft blue suede. On the floor is a carpet of dominant shades of dark blue with patterns of curved roses.

The cinema screen of rubberized cloth coated in aluminum silver paint takes up a significant part of the front wall. The room contains many different collections on agriculture and handicraft industries: production of glass, paper, sugar, castings from plaster – gifts from the Benderskaya Zemtsvo School; various electrical machines, etc.; models of light pictures on the history of Russia comprised by T.P. Myatlev dedicated to Alexei Nikolaivich; reference books on the Imperial headquarters, looms, Austrian grenade; gifts from various schools in the form of carved wooden dishes, for example from the A.N. Belov Shelter School; collection of metallic objects (anvil, hammer, candlesticks) from the E. Alexandrovskaya Handicraft School, etc.

There is also another model of a church with internal device and a model of a bee-hive house presented by Archpriest I. Levandovski.

In the ashwood cabinet on the side wall are the military uniforms of which Alexei was chief or counted in the lists.

Also there are various weapons presented to him of which one is an Indian dagger No. 128 with a honed blade.

Painting - #773

18. Heir’s Corridor (Light Corridor)

The walls are painted in a bright gray-green mastic oil.

Above the doors in the transoms and instead of door panels are ribbed glass in the Art Nouveau style.

The furniture arranged along the front wall consists of chairs in the Empire style from the time of Nicholas I and mahogany armchairs with patterned covers from the time of Ekaterina II.  The window curtains are chintz crème taffeta. It is illuminated with Stennikov wall scones. On the walls are reproductions framed in glass of Victor Vasnetsov’s epic paintings. Above the door into the reception room is a wood burnt painting of Susanin with the Poles.

In this corridor during the first days of the February revolution, Count Apraksin tried to convince Alexandra Fedorovna to leave…

Joanna

[Joanna]

Left Wing - 2nd Floor

18a. Corridor from the Cinema Room

It is illuminated with a skylight.

The walls are painted in a white mastic oil.

Military uniforms and caps of the Heir are displayed in the simple ashwood cabinets.

The walls are lined in frames: a ship signal table, embroidered text of the National Anthem and a watercolor drawing by Henry Cumming in 1912 representing marching soldiers through the end of XVIII and XIX centuries. Also in a box under glass a burnt wood painting representing Susanin in the woods surrounded by Poles, and on both sides of the painting handicraft work of miscellaneous miniature toys – table, stool, trough, boat, basket, etc.

19. Heir’s Reception Room

The walls are painted in ivory mastic oil. The ceiling is framed with crown molding. The floor is covered with a brown-green carpet. The window and door curtains are a dark crimson color. The gilt furniture is predominately in the French style of Louis XVI from the 19th century.

Paintings - #774-776

Joanna

[Joanna]

I finished a rough translation of the 1914-17 diaries/letters of OTMA from Sisters of Mercy. It may be a possibility that we do addendums to the rooms with references from these and others to add to descriptions. Since they were at the AP for these years, there is a lot of intimate insights into palace life. Not to take away from the preservation of Yakovlev's work, but it would be interesting since we are now describing each of the rooms.

Joanna

[Sarushka]

(pgs 388-391)
No. 10 BEDROOM OF THE ELDER PRINCESSES

The walls are painted with pink mastic oil paint. Under the coving - a stenciled frieze of stylized morning glories in two tones with a wave pattern at the base and brown dragonflies flying against the backdrop of the coving. Adjacent to the white marble wash basin (near the icon cabinet) a portion of the floor and walls, as in this room and into the next, is lined with metlach tiles. There are triple window curtains: silk, cloth, and print cretonne matching the room.

The furniture in this room varies, but is of an ordinary everyday nature, mostly painted ivory, while many items are represented in pairs, because they were usually presented by relatives to both Olga and Tatiana. The many screens draw attention.

Children’s field cots are placed along one wall instead of those taken to Tobolsk. They are covered with silk blankets with large monograms. There are still other blankets for them knitted from wool. Dressing tables, tables and glass cabinets are positively cluttered with small photographs and various trinkets of porcelain, wood, glass, etc.

In a rear corner - a bone-colored icon case with icons, painted wooden eggs produced by Lukutina, crosses, rosaries and images. In the same place lie: prayer books, the four gospels (pocket edition) and Olga Nikolaevna’s gospel - with the blessing of arch-presbyter I. Yan’shev in 1903. Before the icon case hang three lamps and a desk is covered with a shroud embroidered with white lilies, apparently, the monastery's work.

In another corner, where Tatiana Nikolaevna’s bed stands immediately hang on the walls - icons, images, reproductions of paintings with religious themes, and then, on the small corner cabinet, lies the Gospel - with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony in 1903, the prayer of St. Seraphim of Sarov, antique embroidery beaded with the passions of the Lord, small printed religious scenes, and a carved wooden folding image of Nicholas the Wonderworker from the Bishop Varnavas 19 18 X 16 [18 October 1916].

Inside this small cabinet religious books are stored, such as: akathistos [hymns], lives of saints, collections of church hymns, the handbook of the  believing sisters of mercy, Iliotropion, or  Correspondence of human will with divine will - created in blessed memory of the Most Revered Ioann Maksimovich, metropolitan of Tobolsk and all Siberia (one of five books) - marked 1917 by Tatiana; pages of text are also marked with pencil.

On the chest against the bed (in front), there is a mahogany folding icon-box with images, adapted for travel. Right there is a printed timetable of prayer hours at the Fedorovsky imperial cathedral for the second to sixth week of Great Lent in leather binding. On the night table beside the bed - prayer books, Tatiana Nikolaevna’s gospel - a blessing from arch-presbyter Ioan Yanishev in 1905 and followed in the holy week of Easter from the Metropolitan Anthony in 1909.

[Sarushka]

(pgs 393-395)
No. 11 BEDROOM OF THE YOUNGER PRINCESSES

The walls are painted in gray tones of mastic oil paint. Under the coving - a frieze of stylized roses, stenciled in two colors with a full picture of the image, with flying dark bronze butterflies in free spaces. Triple window curtains, as from the other room, are made from English chintz.

The furniture is quite varied, but mostly ivory colored with green stripes. There are writing tables of the same type as the elder princesses’, and armchairs near them.

Children's maple wood beds, covered with silk blankets with monograms, are put on one of the side walls instead of the ones taken to Tobolsk.

Tables, glass cabinets, bookcases and dressing tables are filled with ordinary trifles and different photographs of the family, relatives and close persons. On the bookcase and the desk in front of the sofa are placed albums with photographs  glued in by them personally.

In a closet at the back wall the childhood belongings of the princesses are stored, such as: dresses, coats, umbrellas, shoes, baptismal bonnets, hats, knitted blouses and so on.

Two open maple icon cases and diptych are filled with icons, images worn next to the skin, and eggs. Before the corner and the large icon cabinet at the back wall - the lamps, before the last of them - are collapsable lecterns, on which lie embroidered silk icons of saints Maria and Anastasia, a gift in honor of lighting the Church of the Holy Mother of God in the school of folk art.

On the shelves in the corner is the Gospel - with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony in 1905 and the prayer of parting.

In the icon cabinet at the front wall also lies the gospel - with the blessing of the Metropolitan in 1906, and a small pocket edition of the four gospels.

On the night table beside Anastasia Nikolaevna’s bed are books with religious content, the remnants of church candles, bands with the prayers, cross, etc.

On the walls, above the beds, an array of little icons and more - with reproductions of paintings mostly of religious content of the kind: Engravings from the work of Gustav Dore ”Procession to Golofa” with the autograph of the artist and engraver on the margins, a color reproduction of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, and others.