Alexandra's secret book

[bongo]

Protocol of the Inspection of the Upper Floor of the Ipatiev House, conducted on August 2, and August 5-8, 1918”
Room 12 (XII): The Water Closet. This contains a pile of newspapers on the floor, which is of linoleum and appears cracked from water damage. Several of the pipes are wrapped in a kind of fabric. Behind one of the pipes was found a small black book inscribed "To My Own Darling Nicky, to remind him of his Spitzbub when he is far away from her, from his loving Alix, Osborne, July 1894." The entries in the book appear to be in code.

http://www.kingandwilson.com/FOTRresources/nametkin.htm

Does anyone know what became of the book, and has it be been decoded? Was it her 50 Shades Of Grey?

[Forum Admin]

They were not yet married, so NO it was no "50 Shades of Gray".  It was something of a token for him after their engagement, when he left Osborne House back to Russia, before Alexandra got there in November 1894.  The book is probably somewhere in GARF I would suspect.

[rosieposie]

LOL sorry but 50 shades gee.   Alexandra was not into erotica,  she was deeply religious.   Dirty little mind you have there.

[Превед]

LOL sorry but 50 shades gee.   Alexandra was not into erotica,  she was deeply religious.   Dirty little mind you have there.

Personally, I have often found people who are not religious to have boring, vanilla tastes in affaires intimes. Like Alexandra Fyodorovna and Nikolay Alexandrovich so well understood (judging from their infantile nicknames* for each other), sex, just like religion, is inherently linked to the parent-child dichotomy. To be a helpless child vis-à-vis an all-powerful parent is our first, most fundamental experience and something we can slip back into, also when we try to act like grown-up, equal lovers. Religious example: A Christian's relationship with God vs. Jesus. The Holy Mother of God / Virgin is an interesting transitional figure that probably can serve both purposes.

Alexandra Fyodorovna may not have read erotic literature, but remember this is a woman who owned a collection of merkins (pubic wigs). There was some degree of kink at play in the Imperial bedroom!

* Interesting that she uses an infantile, male term of endearment in the quote above: Spitzbube means "naughty boy" or "bad boy" in German.

[rosieposie]

I no doubt there some sort of kinky side of her but I was saying that book was most likely something Alexandra wrote as a token to remember her by.   If it was something sorrid it would have been noted.  Just like the merkins (yes I already knew what a merkin is I am 30)  and the condoms of Nicholas' which was found.

[Превед]

I no doubt there some sort of kinky side of her but I was saying that book was most likely something Alexandra wrote as a token to remember her by.   If it was something sorrid it would have been noted.

Not necessarily, because it's written in some sort of code. And I don't think it needs to be sordid even though it might be erotic. One of my favourite examples of 19th century erotic art is Norwegian author Arne Garborg's folkloristic neo-romantic epic-lyrical cycle Haugtussa (The Hillbilly Fairy), about the life and love of a sheperdess cursed / blessed with "the second sight" and with wonderful music by Edvard Grieg. ("Elsk" on YouTube, sung by famous Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad.) It was published in 1895, just after AF's wedding. Edvard Grieg was certainly someone AF and not at least her Nordic mother-in-law was familiar with, so she might very well have played his music herself:

Elsk = Love
Den galne Guten min Hug hev dåra,
eg fangen sit som ein Fugl i Snåra;
den galne Guten, han gjeng so baus;
han veit, at Fuglen vil aldri laus.
=
The crazy boy has seduced my mind,
I am captured like a bird in its trap;
the crazy boy, he goes so boldly;
he knows, the bird doesn't want its freedom.

Å giev du batt meg med Bast og Bende,
å gjev du batt meg, so Bandi brende!
Å gjev du drog meg so fast til deg,
at heile Verdi kom burt for meg!
=
Oh, do tie me up with ropes and bast,
oh, do bind me so hard that the ropes burn!
Oh, do pull me so tightly towards you,
that the whole world disappears!

Ja kund' eg trolla og kund' eg heksa,
eg vilde inn i den Guten veksa,
eg vilde veksa meg i deg inn
og vera berre hos Guten min.
=
Yes if I knew magic and witchcraft,
I'd grow into that boy,
I'd grow into you
and stay only with my boy.

Å du, som bur meg i Hjarta inne,
du Magti fekk yver alt mit Minne;
kvart vesle Hugsviv som framum dreg,
det berre kviskrar um deg, um deg.
=
Oh you, who lives in my heart,
you got the power over all my mind;
every thought that goes through it,
it whispers only of you, of you.

Um Soli lyser på Himlen blanke,
no ser ho deg, det er all min Tanke;
um Dagen dovnar og Skoming fell:
skal tru han tenkjer på meg i Kveld?
=
If the sun shines on the bright sky,
now it sees you, that's all I can think of;
if the day falls asleep and dusk falls;
I wonder if he is thinking of me tonight?

The more modernized version, sung by Lynni Treekrem and found on Spotify, is also to be recommended.

[bongo]

Judging by what she wrote in Nicholas's diary the first morning of her honeymoon, the marriage was intensely physical. It partly explains the power of her matriarchal grip on him -- like Wallis & Edward....or Mary & Frederik for that matter! ;-)

The discovery of the merkins is fascinating on two fronts. As evidence of her early aging brought on by stress, hysteria, bad diet, lack of exercise and drugs (it's amazing to think she was only in her mid-forties at the end), but also because it shows how critically important sex continued to be in their marriage. Not surprising with Nicholas, who always looks sensual. I 'get' Alex totally as well. Why? Because she had a doppleganger in the form of a matron at my boardingschool -- a self-obsessed, intensely controlling, passive aggressive ice queen who had her weak husband wrapped round her little finger. The way he used to look at this infuriating milkcow martinet with lustful adoration was comical --  as schoolboys we used to joke that he could barely wait to scramble to her Mummy goddess bosom. Doppleganger? Reincarnation!

I agree with the suggestion that Alex came to the marriage not as a complete Victorian innocent, but possibly with (to at least some degree) a knowing flirting that, together with her beauty, hooked the sensual Nicholas for good. And the book is likely part of it. Think about it. Visits to the estate farm at Wolfsgarten may have acquainted her with the facts of life. And she had an older brother who, even if he didn't know he was gay growing up, may have also teased her with all sorts of tidbits the way brothers do. So giving Nicholas an erotic rush with some flirty texts would have been standard schoolgirl manoeveurs. It's not surprising that that they found it hidden in the toilet. I have little doubt it was a masturbatory icon for him.

And I don't think the book is in GARF. The Russians only bought the Sokoloff file when it came to auction recently. And the only item from the Ipatiev house in that was the piece of wallpaper from the basement. The Whites claimed the rest. So unless it has been lost or destroyed, someone else has it.

A few months ago while browsing in a secondhand bookshop I came across a Romanov account which featured a photo from the Ipatiev house I've never seen before of their belongings -- which included a whopping great flacon of Alex's favourite Vervain. Has anyone seen that pic? Oh, and on one of the Russian documentaries on YouTube (in Russian), there's an interview with a man who has one of Alex's packing cases from, presumably, Ekaterinburg. Packing case hardly does it justice: beautiful wood, with her initials in brass, and lined in what looked like white velvet, with an inset tray. But enormous. No I don't have a link.

[Превед]

Judging by what she wrote in Nicholas's diary the first morning of her honeymoon, the marriage was intensely physical.

Aren't most happy marriages? BTW it would be surprising if their wedding night wasn't an ecstatic and happy experience, considering that it was a mariage d’inclination rather than an arranged one.  

It partly explains the power of her matriarchal grip on him -- like Wallis & Edward....or Mary & Frederik for that matter! ;-)

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were off the pale (an anorectic boy-man who worshipped an androgynous, mother-witch figure), I don't think they can be compared to AF and NII.

I sense a tendency in your posts to brand royal men who don't dominate their spouses as weaklings or mama's boys. Don't you think a man who has a close, but healthy relationship to his mother may want a woman who is on an equal footing with himself as life partner? NII was a weak ruler, due to his inherent character, but as a father and employer he seems to have displayed a model mix of paternal authority and loving care.

[bongo]

Aren't most happy marriages?

You would think so wouldn't you, but surprisingly no. Was discussing this with friends recently. The older we get we're amazed by the number of middle-aged marriages we're acquainted with -- many happy -- where sex has been confessed to be minimal. They've devolved to either companionship and/or complacency.

As for N&A: if you're trying to suggest it was an equal partnership on the basis of cosy family interaction I think you're contradicting almost every observational account printed. Including any the highly negative observations of her by equally strong women like Marie of Roumania, Grand Duchess Vladimir the Elder, or Zenaide Yusupov. To use the common and appropriate colloquialisms: she not only had him by the balls, she was a passive aggressive ballbreaker of the first water.  

Painting the Wallis & Edward relationship as some kind of freaky thing is a distortion: one encounters their types regularly. He liked being dominated, as do many men, and as did Nicholas. The only marked difference was that it appears Edward was rampantly bisexual, and Wallis may have been as well.

[Превед]

Aren't most happy marriages?

You would think so wouldn't you, but surprisingly no. Was discussing this with friends recently. The older we get we're amazed by the number of middle-aged marriages we're acquainted with -- many happy -- where sex has been confessed to be minimal. They've devolved to either companionship and/or complacency.

And I guess that the men in these relationships are unhappy with the lack of physical love on some level which they are too polite, considerate, frustrated or afraid to express, unless they, in stark contrast to NII, are so fat and slobbish that they've lost most of their sex drive due to a lack of testosterone and developed psychological self-disgust.

As for N&A: if you're trying to suggest it was an equal partnership on the basis of cosy family interaction I think you're contradicting almost every observational account printed.

I see it from the angle that AF was a virtual (hypocondric) invalid and NII patience personified. That was his masochism. No doubt this "saintly stance" was easier to uphold when, as you note so clearly, AF's "invalidity" did not supress her need for physical love.

Painting the Wallis & Edward relationship as some kind of freaky thing is a distortion: one encounters their types regularly.

No doubt yes - but primarily in certain cultures and milieux with many taboos, I would think.

[Kalafrana]

Bongo

Where is you evidence that the Duke of Windsor was 'rampantly bisexual'? Or are you mixing him up with his brother the Duke of Kent?

Moderators:
I know this is off-topic. I'm just looking for a quick answer.

Ann

[bongo]

Where is you evidence that the Duke of Windsor was 'rampantly bisexual'? Or are you mixing him up with his brother the Duke of Kent?

Nope. And I'll ignore the Scotty Bowers revelations with regard to him & Wallis, given they're so contentious, even though everyone who actually knows him says he's a straight arrow.http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1907754

I was actually convinced years ago by postings on a thread about he and Wallis on a gay message board. Two New York gentleman of a certain age shared their memories: one had worked as a delivery boy and delivered flowers to the Windsors suite at the Waldorf Astoria in the 50s. Wallis was out, but he said the Duke had chased him round the room begging a kiss - which he didn't get! Another poster had worked in an upmarket Manhattan men's clothing store where he had met and become a close friend of auto heir Walter Chrysler Jnr at the close of his life. Chrysler (who had been outed by Confidential magazine in the 50s) told him that he and the Duke had been great buddies, and used to cruise for sailors during Fleet Week. Make of it what you will.

I remember visiting a friend in the 70s when a reporter friend of his called in. He'd just returned from New Zealand where he'd been interviewed a terminally ill married gentleman who had been a chauffeur to Mountbatten during the war. The reporter was gobsmacked with what he'd been told by the dying man, who apparently felt the need to get it off his chest. Some of it I think made the Daily Mail. But basically it was that Mountbatten's sexual rapacity for both genders was so great, he would take any risk to satiate it: they would pick up youths wherever they went. He considered himself invulnerable. Anyway, ever since I've never been surprised at the often wide mark between public image and private reality.

Back to N & A. Yes, like many hypochondriacs, Alex used hers as a great emotional lever and 'get out' clause of situations and things that didn't suit her. Yes she was caring and shy etc etc., but she was also catastrophically cold, overbearing, unempathetic, self-focused and selfish. Too too much power, too too soon. As you can probably tell, I'm not a member of the Mauve Boudoir Cuddly Wuddly Club. I'm entirely comfortable giving her the bitch slap she never received in real life, but which she so richly deserved, because if she hadn't married N, there just may not have been the ocean of blood and 50 years of Communism. I don't think anyone can read Marie of Roumania's observations of her and not come away agreeing with them. Too many people extended the hand of friendship, and too many came away brutally disappointed in her.

[DNAgenie]

Превед wrote

I see it from the angle that AF was a virtual (hypocondric) invalid and NII patience personified. That was his masochism. No doubt this "saintly stance" was easier to uphold when, as you note so clearly, AF's "invalidity" did not supress her need for physical love.

I take issue with AF being a hypochondriac but I don't think that makes much difference to the outcome. I am convinced she suffered from Porphyria (and most of those are initially diagnosed as hypochondriacs) so her 'saintly stance' was a response to a physical illness. But the result was the same, so perhaps it is immaterial whether her illness was real or imagined. Her medicos had no idea what was wrong with her, except that she suffered from physical symptoms related to her heart and her rheumatism.  Her disease was not identified as an inherited metabolic problem until 1923.

[Kalafrana]

I tend to think of Alexandra as a hypochondriac who, consciously or not, rather enjoyed being treated as an invalid.

If you read John Rohl's book 'Purple Secret', porphyria tends to manifest itself in digestive problems and periodic high fevers (in George III's case the delirium from these was mistaken for madness). William of Gloucester's porphyria manifested itself mainly in skin trouble. As far as I'm aware, Alexandra did not suffer from any of these. That's not to say that she did not have porphyria to a minor degree, but I think that most of her medical troubles were psychological in origin.

As to the Duke of Windsor, I am rather doubtful, if only because there has been so much dirt published about him in recent years (a fair amount of it well-researched) that if these allegations were at all reliable they would have got further than gay message boards. Please note that I am very far from being an admirer of his, so not inclined to defend him.

Ann

[bongo]

if these allegations were at all reliable they would have got further than gay message boards.

There have been allegations since at least the 1930s which Mr Google will share. Try phrases like 'crocheting fascist royal bisexual'. Oh wait: that would bring too many names. ;-)

The only amusing personal anecdote I can share comes courtesy of an elderly gentleman whose family built a most ravishing ballroom on their home in the 1920s simply to entertain Edward for one evening. I was there for the contents auction shortly before its demolition and replacement by an ugly block of flats. He kindly and rather proudly pointed out to a few of us the spot in the garden where a flapper had managed to enjoy congress with their honoured guest. Perhaps they should have put in a plaque.

Sorry: the suggestion that Alexandra had porphyria makes me laugh. I have not the slightest doubt that a summer of building dams for Lenin would have miraculously eradicated all her symptoms. Pity he sacrificed such a valuable worker in the cellar. (Now there's an idea for a movie: she's saved and re-educated as a happy -- and healthy-- commo like Pu Yi. And the kids get to be Young Pioneers.)

If she was alive now she'd be whinging about fibromyalgia. And her no-gluten diet.