Prince Volkonsky

[bluetoria]

Could anyone tell me more, please, about Prince & Princess Peter Volkonsky? I understand he was based some of the time in Warsaw during WWI & he was closely connected with Gd Anastasia (Stana.)
I have read this description of him:
"An immensely tall man, emaciated by very handsome, with a beaked nose like an eagle, fiercely arching eyebrows, very alarming until one knew him....It was never his way to impart information..."
His wife (whose name I don't know) worked tirelessly in the hospitals for the wounded in Warsaw & elsewhere, running ambulances etc.
Who exactly were they, please?  

[matushka]

Bluetoria, about wich Petr Volkonsky are you talking? There is a Petr Mikhalovich Volkonsky. I have to see my old notes, I have studied something about the family Volkonsky. As I remember, Petr Volkonsky was the son of Mikhail Sergeevitch Volkonsky (himself son of this Volkonsky, decembrist, who was in exile in Siberia) and princess Elizaveta Grigorievna Volkonskaia. They have 5 or 6 children, Petr, Sergei, Grigory, Maria and Vladimir (perhaps and other too, I do not remember). Elizaveta Grigorievna was a very clever woman. She converted herself to catholiscism, and wrote some books about this question. It was so serious, that the Holy Synod was forced to ask 2 great theology professor to write an answer. She had a great influence on her children, and most of them converted too. Sergei died in France, he was liberal and a great specialist on theater and wrote VERY interesting memories. As I rember Petr was specialist in question of army (theoretical questions) and wrote too some books. He lived in Kiev sometimes. He became a catholic priest. Vladimir (or Grigory) had a charge in the governement and something to do with the Comitee of Olga Nikolaevna. Sorry, I remember very few, I must read again. I hope it has helped, and that it was this part of this very big Family.

[bluetoria]

Thank you so much, Matushka!  
I really know nothing at all about him - he is probably part of the interesting family you have described. I read about him in the biography of a nurse who worked in Russia during World War I.  She seemed a little scared of him but became quite close to his wife who, from the book, worked extremely hard & did a great deal of good for the patients.
Thank you!  

[matushka]

You are welcome. There was an other brother, Alexandre, I remember now! You know, the family Volkonsky is enormous, there is a lot of cousins, so it can be an other part...

[felix]

B. was the book "With The Armies of The Tsar: by F.B.?

[bluetoria]

B. was the book "With The Armies of The Tsar: by F.B.?

No Felix, it's an out of print book, published in Cornwall called "The Hounds of War Unleashed" by Viletta Thurstan. She says Felix Youssoupov told her to write it when she met him in England after the war....ooops got to go, tell you more later!

[felix]

Just wondering,I have abook by an English nurse,by the name I mentioned. I have to look,but I think her name was Frances Farmbrough.

[bluetoria]

(...Sorry, I was part way through that when a man came to fix something - he's dealing with it so I've left him! - I didn't want to sound like Coleridge & the person from Porlock!).

This obviously isn't the same book as yours - though yours sounds v. interesting. The nurse has encounters with Empress Marie, Alix, Alexandra (Stana) & these Volkonskys. Her descriptions of the war wounded, the hours the nurses worked & the state of the Russian fields hospitals are quite horrific.
I must look out for the book that you mentioned. (There are SO many books I need to buy - I'll have to win the lottery or something )

[felix]

B, Its "With The Armies Of The Tsar,A Nurse At The Russian Front 1914-1918" Alexander Solzhenitsyn, said "The photographs inspired my imagination". Its by Florence Farmborough. No Volkonsky's in index.

[felix]

I dont think Florence met many famous people, I think she was really  at the front. No Empresses  there.

[matushka]

My lazy memory seems to have been yesterday very tired! Yes, Bluetoria, you read about this Petr Mikailovich Volkonsky I was writting about. BUT! I made a confusion with his brother Alexandre Mihailovich. Alexandre became a catholic priest, priest of the so called "byzantine rite". Alexandre was a big specialist in theoretical questions about army. Petr Mihalovich was born in 1861 (he was the elder of six children), he died in 1947 in Paris.
In time of war, he work in the front, in an organisation of the "zemski soyus" (I do not know how to translate that). He found a society of people who wanted to work for the unity of christian churches, but it work only in 17-18. He converted into catholicism quite late, after the Revolution in Constantinople.
He wrote an history of the Catholic church in Russia,
The Way of Bitterness: Soviet Russia, 1920. - London, 1931, and some other things.

That is all I can say at the moment. I find this information in the russian internet. I remember now that Vladimir Mihailovich work in the Comittee of Olga Nikolaevna. Grigory Mihalovich dead early, although he was one of the youngest in the family. Perhaps you remember this letter of Alexandra Feodorovna of end 1916. She wrote that for the first time, Volkonsky "who have always a smile for her" was very cold with Olga. The Tsar quote him in his diary in some places. Does anyone know his exact fonction?

[matushka]

Yes, I want to add: Vladimir was the only (well, I do not know about Grigory) who stay orthodox. I do not know the reason: was he a profound orthodox believer, or was that why he work in the government? I cannot say.

[bluetoria]

Matushka, this is fantastic! THANK YOU   He is far more interesting than I had even anticipated! THANKS!

[matushka]

I have found no portrait of Petr Mihailovich, but one of Vladimir, at this adress, http://www.rulex.ru/01030767.htm
If you are interested I can say something about him, from this article and others I read today.

[bluetoria]

Yes, please...if ever you have the time. Thank you, Matushka!