Can someone please help me: In Hugo Mager's book on Ella, on page 302 he says that Ella and Alix had their final showdown about Rasputin in Alix's Mauve Boudoir. Then after they had squabbled, Ella drove straight to see Felix Y at the Alexander Palace. I thought The Mauve Boudoir was in the Alexander Place and besides what would Felix have been doing there. I've read elsewhere that Alix and her 2 eldest daughters escorted Ella to the train station.
Can someone tell me what happened; who exactly did Ella go and see immediately afterwards ... and where?
Thanks, tim
The original story was in Felix Yusupov's 'Lost splendour' where he wrote that, following an unsuccessful interview between Yusopov's mother and the Empress ("The Empress, who had listened in silence [to the Princess's representations concerning the dangers of her patronage of Rasputin], rose and dismissed her with the words: 'I hope I never see you again.'"): "Later, the Grand Duchess Elisabeth, who appeared very rarely at Tsarskoie-Selo, made a last attempt to convince her sister. She promised to come and see us on leaving the Alexander Palace. We all waited eagerly for her arrival, anxious to hear the result of the interview. She entered the room trembling and in tears: 'She drove me away like a dog!' she cried. 'Poor Nicky, poor Russia!'"
Pierre Gilliard wrote that the Grand Duchess went to see her sister and "As soon as she arrived at Tsarskoe Selo she spoke to the Tsarina, trying with all the love she bore her to convince her of her blindness....The Tsarina's confidence [in Rasputin] was not to be shaken......As the Grand Duchess persisted, the Tsarina broke off the conversation. The interview was then objectless. A few hours later the Grand Duchess left for Moscow, death in her heart. The Tsarina and her daughters accompanied her to the station....The tender affection which had associated them [Alix and Ella] was still intact, but they realised that there was a broken something lying between them."
Maria Pavlovna the younger wrote: "She told me the details of her last trip to Tsarskoe Selo.......She had from her sister the Empress a frigid welcome, and her representation of the sombre, rebellious mood of Moscow, and of the need of immediate change, led to a painful scene. The next morning she received from the Empress a short note asking her to leave...."
Ella's own deposition noted that "In December 1916 I had a final, decisive conversation with the
Tsar and Tsarina [my italics] on the subject of Rasputin.....They replied that....all the rumours about him were slanders, and asked me not to touch on the matter any further."
So some rather differing views, but no Mauve Boudoir and no Yusupovs in the Alexander Palace. Greg King places them in the Moika Palace, which would be more logical. But note the time differential in Maria Pavlovna's account.
