They're not to be published as far as I know - they're written in quite an open voice (as far as her jewels are not concerned - those are "Medikamente" medicines). Alexandra longed to have Madelaine with her and tried hard to get the commander's permission - without any success. They exchanged things however. Food, eggs, coffee and such. Alexandra often writes about money. It seems that she was as wise as to take a specific sum of cash with her before leaving Zarskoje Selo - the Tsar had no access to his bank accounts anymore and so Alexandra's cash was the only money they had to live with. She even had to pay their servants with that specific sum. Madelaine refused to take her salary but the Empress insisted on it - it is extremely touching to read how much Alexandra cared for her people. Others always first - despite of her own dangerous situation. I can always shake my head if people use to say she was egoistic, had no sense of duty and such....
It is simply not true and people would learn it if they's just read through the papers available in the archives.......
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Thomas Hesse most warmly for this post and the one above!!
I have only begun posting recently, but I have been reading the Forum off and on for some years.
Thomas' posts alerted us to the fact that the Empress' letters to Zanotti were in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt.
Since then, we have contacted the Archives and received copies of those letters and permission to publish them.
There are twelve letters written by the Empress to Zanotti while in Tobolsk.
One postcard is in Russian; the other eleven are in German.
They are accompanied by transcriptions done by Zanotti herself in
Sütterlinschrift, since she felt that others might not be able to decipher the Empress' handwriting.
(Actually, the originals are easier to read than the transcripts, especially since
Sütterlinschrift is no longer in use.)
The original of one letter is missing, and only Zanotti's transcript exists, so she did perform a great service in copying them.
A notation, in Zanotti's hand, on the packet containing the letters, indicates that at one time she loaned them to the Empress' sister Irene.
