Saving the Romanovs: an illusion or missed opportunities? Sacrificed

Karl-Friedrich visited the reclusive singer in the mornings, with a constant smile and a bouquet of fresh, not yet blossoming primroses or hydrangeas in his hands... Sometimes among them a camellia gently sparkled with dew or a graceful violet fragrant... And then Adini knew for sure: her sweet, loving Ollie put her hand to Friedrich’s bouquet. And the feeling of tender gratitude, longing and unspoken love for her sister brought involuntary tears to her eyes. She hid them, these tears, hastily swallowed the lump in her throat, and tried to touchingly cheer up her dear betrothed, (who invariably became sad at the sight of her feverish blush or the hot perspiration on her forehead!) with detailed stories about children’s pranks, such, for example, that she didn’t even know about and dear, beloved, omniscient Mom!

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna (1825-1844)

She forced, forced him to laugh - first through force, and then - out loud! - your fascinating stories from childhood. For example, the story about the dance with silk pillows, which was so shocked by their faithful teacher and Russian teacher Anna Alekseevna, who was always eager to introduce her little daughter to the young Grand Duchesses. On the day of the appointed reception, the elegant court lady expected to see in the palace hall strictly well-bred maidens - crown princesses with Catherine's ribbons on dresses made of pink brocade, with small trains - trains, but what appeared before her eyes... was something unimaginable! Mary, Ollie and Adini, a trios*, dressed in long silk robes embroidered with flowers and placing pillows tied with ribbons on their heads, spun in a strange oriental dance. In addition, a whole mountain of colored velvet pillows fell out of nowhere onto the heads of the decorous and slightly timid guests. At this point dear Anna Alekseevna, casting aside all her courtly restraint, gasped, wrinkled her face, and waved her arms like a goose’s wings! But the little peri-mischief girls continued to perform their strange dance, swaying their square heads importantly, like Chinese bobbleheads, clearly showing their complete innocence to the falling “rain of little thoughts” that dotted the slippery, waxed parquet floor of the hall.

Having finished the “eastern minuet”, the young beauties - the crown princesses - tore off the pillows - thoughts from their lovely heads and sat on them, with a gesture inviting the little guest, who was frightened by everything she had seen, to follow their example. They laughed loudly and treated the baby to sweets, vying with each other to tell how long and carefully they had thought about their prank in secret from everyone.

Anna Alekseevna continued to gasp, amazed at the play of their imagination and the energy directed, as it seemed to her, in a completely vain direction! Their strict and devoted governess was upset by this incident for a very long time, but Mama, who was very sensitive to all social ceremonies and protocol conventions, did not dare to tell about it...

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. - W. Gau, 1844

The conventions of palace protocol….. How often did they prevent Adini from being childishly and completely happy! With what spontaneity, with what ardent, lively grief she told Karl-Friedrich about the balls at which her Royal parents so often shone, and from which she had to leave strictly after nine in the evening until she was fifteen! She always complained in her adolescence that she couldn’t just stop and stay for the late mazurka, this captivating, magical dance, like a long song, with intricate vocalises and passages, rolls and codas, a song - a romance, a song - a confession ...

Ball in the concert hall of the Winter Palace"

Mama, her delightful, her charming Mama, like a magical vision of Lala - Rukk * (*Romantic nickname of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna after the heroine of Thomas Moore's ballad, translated by V. A. Zhukovsky - R.) who reigned at all Winter holidays, almost always dances the mazurka and a waltz - a lancier with the most beautiful cavalry guards of his regiments! It’s strange, for some reason they, her pages, are called so funny: “red” or “blue”, like Sasha’s tin soldiers... The cavalry guards ardently adore their Chief, it’s just a pity that Mom, due to her eternal ill health, attends their holidays less and less and parades

Ball in the New Palace, A. Menzel"

Adini was not as lucky at balls as Mama; with the permission of the strict Pope, she could dance polonaise and quadrille, like her sisters, only with generals or outhouse adjutants. The generals were all very old and clumsy, and the adjutants were timid and embarrassed and stepped on her dress. It’s a small pleasure, I must say, to dance with such awkward gentlemen! Thank God, now her partner at balls will always be only her dear Freddie, what happiness this is, really! At these words, Adini’s happy groom became embarrassed and blushed pleasantly, and she looked at him with a quiet, warm smile, from which sweet, alluring dimples again appeared on her cheeks, already touched by painful thinness...

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. V.I.Gau"

...At that real, full, adult wedding ball in January, on the evening after the wedding, Adini was so charming, so lively and sweet that everyone around seemed to have forgotten about the doctors’ warnings... Behind the high windows of the sparkling lights of the state halls, the cathedrals rang loudly and church bells, the lights of fireworks shone: the city joyfully celebrated in the white silver of the luxurious Russian winter the marriage of the singer - the Tsarevna and the Duke of Hesse, and some of the courtiers were already sadly shaking their heads: the Russian nightingale will fly away, soon fly away to foreign lands, and somewhere His voice will ring, transparent, like a stream, like rock crystal - in what heights, in what distances? No one thought that - in the Heavenly...

... Everyone was making plans for the future, desperately hoping to see Adini completely healthy, because soon after the wedding she felt herself waiting for an heir, and the gray-haired doctor, old Vilie *, the life physician of his late uncle - Caesar Alexander Pavlovich, timidly dared to express hope to the crowned parents that this new condition of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna will change the course of her fatal illness for the better.

This is also the ancient Russian belief: the expectant mother, while expecting a child, often blossoms so unexpectedly that you are amazed! Yes, yes, and all illnesses melt away without a trace, for the Lord Almighty is merciful and gives new strength... Blood formation in the body changes at this moment!

Grand Duchess Princess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Genssen-Kassel

The strict, silent and scrupulous current healer of the Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich Mandt, in response to the sweet-tongued, quiet tirades of Viliyo, only stubbornly shook his head, and behind the door of the chambers Adini begged, who had found a ray of hope for his relatives, not to be deluded ahead of time, and most importantly, not to allow the newly-minted Landgravine of Hesse - Sing to Kassel! Any tension is detrimental to her, especially in her delicate position! The golden throat must be silent! And it was silent...
Adini was carefully wrapped in shawls and capes, fed with warm honey milk with ginger and heated Vish'in mineral water. On Saturdays, she was certainly taken in a stuffy cart, heated to unbearable heat, with windows that could not open, to Gatchina.

The men of the entire large Romanov family, young and old, had fun hunting black grouse and rutting deer in Gatchina Park, somewhat skimping on all their other activities.

Women spent days and evenings poring over a more delicate task, familiar to their delicate hands: sewing a trousseau for the next royal baby expected in the family.

But the exquisite cutwork patterns and gaps of Alençon lace no longer obeyed Adini’s emaciated fingers. She dropped the needle and embroidery hoop from her hands, she was still somehow chilly, asked to add wood to the fireplace, and every now and then she pressed a handkerchief to her pale lips. He was instantly soaked in blood. During attacks of feverish cough, she felt sharp or, on the contrary, slow, as if confused, pushes of the child, and even the weakest ones, they caused her unbearable pain. Biting her lips, she wrinkled her forehead, pale in the cold sweat, and looked helplessly, pleadingly at Mama, Ollie, Mary or faithful Anna Alekseevna, who immediately approached her with questions and persuasion to go to bed...
Bed. A sick bed...Sometimes Adini lay in it for days on end, trying in the twilight of the lowered curtains to see a faint ray of sunlight or hear the singing of a bullfinch or a tit... Her bird whistle was getting weaker and weaker: her strength was waning, and she was afraid that she would hear these attempts alarmed Mama, who almost never left her side on such days, and spent the night in the neighboring boudoir, on the couch. Dad came every evening or morning, visiting her, telling her his news in a deliberately cheerful voice: playful skirmishes with ministers; incidents on the military parade ground; anecdotes of audiences or news of the last ball, which he opened with Madame Fiquelmont, as the wife of a doyen* (*Seniors of the diplomatic corps - R.)

The clever Countess Daria Feodorovna was charming in her dress of pale lilac silk and guipure, in the style of the Marquise de Pompadour, and her curled, powdered eighteenth-century wig. She looked like an elegant porcelain figurine that you were afraid of accidentally breaking if you moved carelessly! It was for the sake of the costume of the doyen’s wife that this whole masquerade was invented - a costume party of the era of Louis the Fourteenth.....

But the bolder phrase-maker Dolly is certainly far from the grace of Mama! - the father sighed at this point in the story, and Adini nodded in agreement with her weak black-haired head, every now and then languidly throwing it back onto the highly fluffed pillows. She smiled quietly at her father, after more than twenty years of marriage, still in love with Mom, like a boy. ”(The original words of A.N. Romanova, written on the portrait of her mother, always standing on the table of Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich. - R.) but sometimes, with the insight of a much suffering and early matured heart, she noticed that the despotic outbursts of this love bring her incomparable, quiet and gentle Mother was more upset than happy, for the proud nature of the daughters and grandchildren* (* Old form of pronunciation of the word “granddaughter” - R.) of the Prussian king was very difficult to humble himself and his royal rebellion and ardor, brought up on dramas Schiller, the stanzas of Goethe and the romantic passages of Sir Walter Scott. To please the loving tyranny of the royal spouse!

Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna"

Sometimes Adini would carefully call Mama to the bedside so that in her quiet and gentle voice she would read something from Goethe to her. Mom usually chose “Iphigenia in Tauris,” which they both loved. Adini listened with half-closed eyes, and through the noise in her head, intensifying from eternal weakness, she caught the rhythm of measured, bewitching words and mentally selected a quiet melody for them. She so wanted to sing what she had composed again, and she began, but Mama looked at her in fear, fell silent, pressed her finger to her lips, and immediately brought a spoon with a nasty, odorous anise mixture or hot milk to Adini’s mouth. But somehow, one day, a drop of ichor accidentally fell into the creamy warmth of the milk from a strong, debilitating cough. Seeing that fatal, ruby drop in the slightly bluish whiteness of the drink, Mama suddenly bit her lip convulsively, sobbed, almost silently, and, as if knocked down, fell to her knees in front of her daughter’s bed.

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. (Mama) Not earlier than 1817 Alexander Molinari (1772-1831) (?)"

It was scary and strange for Adini to see her mother’s face distorted by a painful spasm; She kept trying to rise up on the pillows and pull the bell that hung very close to the bed, but she just couldn’t do it. Finally, with her weak hand, she reached the twisted silk cord. The ladies-in-waiting on duty, the maids, Ollie, Mary ran in... The confused life-medic, having forgotten to pull the dark beaver of his wig over his smooth head, clenched his teeth and tried in vain to calm the sobs of the Empress - the mother, admonishing the unfortunate woman in a stern, almost ominous, whisper, but she kept repeating and repeated, burying her face in her daughter’s emaciated, sharp knees covered with a satin blanket:

Adini, my nightingale, don’t leave us, how will we live without you?!! And what will happen to poor Papa, who will console him, who will warm his tired heart?!! How else can I pray to the Lord God to leave you with us?.. Don’t leave, soon - spring will come again, you will certainly come to life, warm yourself in the sun, you and I will go to Oreanda, this estate in Crimea, such a nice place, Dad recently gave it to me , you know, there is an English architect building a wonderful villa for you and me in the spirit of Schiller’s romantic ballads. It looks like a medieval castle on the seashore... You love all this so much... There we will arrange for you a gazebo covered with ivy, a swing and you will watch wave after wave roll in for days on end, you will calm down and get better, my dear, is it true that Oreanda will save you?!

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Christina Robertson"

Tired and utterly frightened by the sudden fit of despair that washed over Mama, Adini only nodded her head helplessly in response, and still carefully, childishly timid, stroked her mother’s hands, which painfully clung to the blanket. She couldn’t speak or whisper anything because of her excitement, and therefore she meekly swallowed the sedative given by the doctor.

In the cloud of involuntary drowsiness that fell on her almost immediately, she also saw Mary and Ollie leading Mama out of the room by the arms; how Doctor Mandt, desperately biting his lip, stirs some white, cloudy drink in a thin bottle; like in a suite of echoing, high rooms, someone’s worried faces flash like a colored carousel, voices hum... Like a weak, almost lifeless thread in the depths of her womb, exhausted from pain, the child twitched and immediately fell silent. She remembered that she and Karl Friedrich had already come up with a name for him, in honor of his grandfather: Wilhelm! After all, it will certainly be a boy! What a pity that she might never have to see him as an adult! As beautiful as that youth - an icon painter, from the community of Alexander - Vasilievskaya Church, to whose orphanage she loved to go every Sunday with Papa and the sisters. She had not been there for a long time, so long ago, God forgive her, a sinner! When will she be able to visit the free air again?!

Adini sighed, slightly opened her eyelashes and closed them again. She fell into a heavy sleep, full of confused, strange visions, the clearest of which was the face of her late aunt, Palatine of Hungary, Alexandra Pavlovna, Papa's elder sister, a charming creature who had captivated her imagination forever, from her infancy. She did not know her aunt alive.

Alexandra Pavlovna Romanova. Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich

She died in her youth, in childbirth, in a place far from her home, in the valley of the Irem River, not far from her palace in Ofen - the ancient part of Pest - the capital of the domain of her husband, Palatine, Archduke Joseph.. Adini was not very similar to her, only I knew that my aunt also loved roses and the singing of nightingales... They reminded her very much of her homeland. Auntie’s young face with a charming soft oval chin and family delicacy of features, as if from an ancient medallion,
(like the one she recently gave to Papa.) suddenly appeared clearly before Adini’s fever-confused mind’s eye.

The namesake - Palatine, looking like a white bird, in a translucent muslin robe trimmed with silk braid, beaming with an inexplicably charming smile, quietly walked through the gardens in which the Irem valley was buried, and suddenly stopped at a cross entwined with ivy. The branches of ivy hung right over the steep cliff..... Even in her sleep, Adini suddenly took her breath away and felt dizzy, as if she had suddenly taken off like a bird above everything she had seen. From the heights of heaven, a picture that ached her heart was revealed to her: at the foot of the cross, she saw a slab with the letters embossed in Slavic script: “Alexandra Romanov”....
Aunt Alexandra Pavlovna stood near the ivy-covered tombstone without moving, covering her face with her hands, a strange sign - a sign: cross - crisscross... At that same second, the guy Adini, over his native, but so distant, almost incorporeal, figure, broke off, his heart rushed like a stone to where then down... and she woke up, realizing that in the haze of a painful slumber, arranged for her by the caring Doctor Mandt, she had just seen her own Death. But she no longer frightened her, this domineering lady... On the contrary, she brought some strange peace to her restless soul.

Adini suddenly understood why singing had always attracted her to it, why music had always enchanted and bewitched... It simply gave her an incomparable feeling of flying in the heavenly heights, a feeling of isolation from everything that weighed down, worried, saddened, unspeakably here , on the ground.

"Memories "

But now there was no more strength left for music. But, however, maybe it’s worth trying again?.. With weak hands, Adini threw back the blanket that was pressing on her chest and tried to sit up, crushing the cambric and silk of the sheets and the lace of the pillows with her hand.. Somewhere in her head the highest note of cavatina rang like a bee or a fly. from “Lucia de Lamermoor”, her favorite aria..
How does it begin? "Before"? No, “re”...
No! - “la”, certainly, “la”; the highest, the purest, the most tender.. Like an alluring Heavenly distance.

She took a deep breath in her chest, so strangely lightly, and from the magical, tremulous, full wave, her voices swayed and rang faintly to the rhythm of the crystal chandeliers hanging on the patterned ceiling, the lights of the candles in the wrought-iron floor chandeliers began to flicker, and the velvet curtain of the canopy above her alcove moved. ....
The doors opened sharply, but Adini did not see the faces that crowded into her hitherto quiet boudoir, nor did she perceive the steps. She sang. She sang until blood gushed out of her throat in a wide, dark red stream like a fountain. And the last note of the aria mixed with the frightened cry of Mary, who rushed to her sister’s bed...
Out of the corner of her eye, Adini saw that Mary was imperiously held in place by someone’s fragile hands: Mom? Ollie? Olga Baryatinskaya? Anna Alekseevna?.. It was impossible to make out.

"Reality"

Having finished the aria, Adini cast a tired, tender glance towards her sister. Her bloody mouth twisted strangely. She could hardly restrain herself from tears. But suddenly she smiled, hearing rare, tenderly timid tremors within herself, like the tugging of the finest silk thread... The one who had not yet been born responded to her singing with his whole being. It was as if he was asking for continuation. As if he wanted to rise with her to those clear crystal heights where her voice had just hovered... And, heeding this silent request, she immediately began to sing again. Blood was continuously flowing down her chin in a thin black-scarlet stream. But she sang everything. She sang until dark. Until the last of my strength is exhausted.

The next morning after the shocking event, she was still alive. Miraculously, she’s alive. “...on the night of July 28-29 she began to experience severe pain; These were the first contractions. They didn’t tell her anything about this, but she guessed it herself from the worried faces of the nurses, and began to tremble nervously at the thought of premature birth. “Fritz, Fritz,” she cried, “God wants this!” And the indescribable look of her raised eyes made me guess that she was praying. Her pulse weakened, they sent for a priest, and Fr. Bazhanov confessed and gave her communion. It was at eight o'clock in the morning. Between nine and ten o'clock she gave birth to a boy. The child began to cry. This was her last joy on earth, a real miracle, a blessing from Heaven.

The child was only six months old. “Olly,” she breathed, “I am a mother”! Then she bowed her face, which was as white as her pillows, and immediately fell asleep. The Lutheran pastor baptized her little one under the name Fritz Wilhelm Nikolai. He lived until lunchtime. Adini slept peacefully, like a child. At four o'clock in the afternoon she passed into another life.
In the evening she was already lying, drowning in a sea of flowers, with a child in her arms, in the chapel of the Alexander Palace."

Chapel of the Alexander Palace"

Grand Duchess and Tsarevna Alexandra Nikolaevna Romanova, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, died exactly five hours after the birth of her son, Crown Prince of Hesse-Kassel, Wilhelm. The child was born premature and, having lived no more than half an hour, died, however, having managed to be baptized. He was buried in the same grave with his mother. On the day of the funeral of Grand Duchess Alexandra in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the capital, an almost autumn haze descended on the city. A fine, nasty rain was drizzling. Not a single ray of sun could break through the leaden, heavy clouds covering the sky. The first clod of earth was thrown onto the lid of the coffin of the untimely silenced Gatchina nightingale by her father, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, who barely whispered through uncontrollable sobs: “With God!”

Alexandra
Birth	after 1452 and before 1490s (?)
Death	May 11(1525-05-11 )
Burial place	Cathedral of the Intercession Monastery in Suzdal
Genus	Rurikovich (?)
Birth name	unknown
Father	Ivan III Vasilievich (?)
Mother	Maria Borisovna or Sofia Paleolog (?)
Religion	Orthodoxy

Sources

The inscription on her tombstone reads:

“In the summer of 7033 (1525), the blessed princess nun Alexandra reposed in May on the 11th day, and was buried in the ground of the same month on the 21st day.”

The inscription about the consecration of the Intercession Cathedral, recorded at one time by the Suzdal archpriest Anania Fedorov, complements this information. It says that the cathedral was consecrated in 1514 in the presence of nun Alexandra, sister of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich - obviously, we are talking about the same noble nun of the monastery.

The next year after the death of nun Alexandra, Grand Duke Vasily III exiled his barren wife Solomonia Saburova to this monastery.

Identification

However, Vasily III did not have a known sister with a similar fate - all of his full sisters (daughters from the 2nd marriage of Ivan III with Sofia Paleologus) either died in infancy or were married off. He had an older half-brother - the son of Ivan III (d. 1505) from his first marriage with Princess Maria Borisovna Tverskaya - Ivan the Young (d. 1490), who died early; his widow Elena Voloshanka (d. 1505) and little orphan son Dmitry Vnuk (d. 1509) fell victim to the intrigues of Sophia Paleologus by the 1500s, as a result of which Vasily III inherited the throne. Presumably, nun Alexandra may turn out to be the full sister of Ivan the Young and half-sister of Vasily III, unknown from other sources, who was exiled to a monastery because of the victory of Sophia Paleologus. (In this case, her date of birth falls after 1452 until April 22, 1467 - the dates of marriage and death of Maria Borisovna Tverskaya).

P.P. Zabolotsky (1842-1916). Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. 1907
Canvas, oil. 142.0 x 107.0
Arrival: from antiques, 2003
GMZ "Tsarskoe Selo"
The portrait is a modified version of the watercolor portrait of V. Gau from 1843, located in the collection of the Peterhof State Historical Museum.

Folder for drawings of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna
Paper, canvas, cardboard, silk. 52.0 x 46.0 x 1.2
Until 1917 it was kept in the Library of Emperor Nicholas II in the Winter Palace
Arrival: from antiques, 1999
GMZ Tsarskoe Selo
Covered with marbled paper, with green silk ribbons.
The inside of the folder is covered with light paper and has four canvas dividers;
Published for the first time

1.

Self-portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. 1836
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
Civil Aviation of the Russian Federation
On the right side there is an inscription in ink by the Grand Duchess: "Adini. December 6, 1836"
Published for the first time

2.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Bedroom of Emperor Alexander I in the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace. 1830s
Paper, pencil. 40.0 x 37.0
Bottom right signature and number: "Adini December 6"
GMZ "Tsarskoe Selo"
The drawing is not finished.
The drawing was prepared for December 6 (Nikolin's Day, Winter Nikola's Day) - Nikolai Pavlovich's name day. At the same time, the image of the bedchamber of Alexander I, depicted in the drawing shortly before the next anniversary of the emperor’s birthday (December 12, 1777), makes it possible to verify that in the 1830s. the memory of him was preserved in the family, and the condition of the interior, corresponding to his lifetime decoration, was carefully preserved.

3.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Room. 1838
Cardboard, pencil. 21.0 x 25.5
On the right side of the drawing there is an inscription in ink by the Grand Duchess's hand: "Adini. December 6, 1838"

4.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Interior with knights. 1837
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
On the right side of the drawing there is an inscription in ink by the Grand Duchess: "Adini. December 6, 1837"

5.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Architectural composition. Educational drawing. 1832
Cardboard, watercolor, pencil
25.0 x 33.0
On the left side of the drawing there is an inscription in ink by the Grand Duchess: “Adini December 6, 1832”
Published for the first time

6.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Children's room with a house. 1836
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
On the right side of the drawing there is an inscription in ink by the Grand Duchess: "Adini. 1836"

It wasn’t me who cut off the inscription when I scanned it, it’s like that in the book :)

It is known that the grand duchesses had a small house in their nursery. Here, we read about him.

From a child’s letter from Grand Prince Alexandra Nikolaevna to her mother dated October 15, 1831: “Dear mother, I kiss you and ask you to kiss for me, Papa. Today I was with Niska (Grand Prince N.N.), he was like an angel, before that I played on the mountain. Are you well, dear Mom? After lessons, Olya often tells me fairy tales in the house "(GA RF)

From the memoirs of Olga Nikolaevna.
"1834.
Pictures of our childhood life appear before me again. In memory of my visit to the monastery in Novgorod, Abbess Shishkina gave me a peasant hut, the inside of which was made of glass, and the furniture was embroidered with colored beads. A doll with ten dresses made by nuns was in it. Almost simultaneously with this gift, Liana gave us a two-story house, which they placed in our children's room. It had no roof so that lamps and candlesticks could be lit without danger. We loved this house more than all other toys. This was our kingdom in which we sisters could hide with our friends. I hid there if I wanted to be alone, while Mary practiced on the piano, and Adini played some game I had invented. I was between the two in age: three years younger than Mary, three years older than Adini - and I often felt a little lonely. I had already begun to move away from the world of Adini’s games, while I could not yet approach the world of adults, to which Mary already belonged at the age of fourteen. My sisters were cheerful and cheerful, but I was serious and reserved. Compliant by nature, I tried to please everyone, and was often subjected to ridicule and attacks from Mary, unable to defend myself. I seemed stupid and simple-minded to myself, I cried into my pillow at night and began to imagine that I was not at all the real daughter of my Parents, but had been replaced by a wet nurse: instead of their child, she put my foster sister. Mademoiselle Duncker only contributed to my loneliness. Thanks to her character, she instantly flared up and immediately conveyed her displeasure to Yulia Baranova, who, in turn, immediately took the side of her pupil Mary. Tension crept into the relationship, and each remained with her student in her own room. Sasha’s teacher, General Merder, who was on good terms with Charlotte Duncker, knew how to cheer me up and instill confidence in me, saying that neither my calmness nor my shyness at all meant that I was incapable, but indicated the qualities of a deep nature, which it takes time to develop. What made my nature similar to Sasha’s was that he was unusually sensitive and close to me.
In the children's hall, where our toy house stood, we were taught dancing by Rose Colinette, who made her debut at the Maly Gatchina Theater. We practiced gavotte, minuet and country dance together with Sasha and his peers. After this there would be a joint dinner, and instead of the usual fish and chips dish, we were given soup, a meat dish and chocolate sweets. In the winter of 1833, these fun lessons stopped because Mary turned fifteen and moved away from us to other rooms."

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna was still very young (she was only 16 years old), of a cheerful, playful disposition, extremely kind, indulgent and easy to deal with - the distinctive properties of our entire royal family, these properties are amazing how they attracted everyone who had the good fortune to experience them on myself. She led the most modest life: she got up early and immediately went for a walk; after morning tea she studied music, then studied with the governess, Miss Gigenbotten; She was especially passionate about drawing under the guidance of Academician Sauerweid, who came to Tsarskoe Selo twice a week. As a form of relaxation, she managed her small manor. In front of the windows of her rooms there was a small island, on it a small village house with dairy household supplies. The island contained geese and rabbits, which the Grand Duchess loved to feed herself. This manor was called “Sashina” and was built for Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich.

Usually the Grand Duchess drank tea in the morning, but on Sundays and holidays it was customary to drink chocolate. Occasionally, as a form of special entertainment, she rode on horseback, accompanied by her governess, one of the court gentlemen of her state, bereytors and lackeys. On horseback she was amazingly graceful and elegant.

One morning, when I was at her toilet, I felt sick. The Grand Duchess, seeing this in her mirror, became frightened, stood up, picked me up, called for help and ordered me to be taken to my room. When I returned half an hour later, she kindly and caringly reprimanded me why I didn’t stay at home all day. Sometimes it would seem to her that my lips were pale; she, sitting in front of the mirror and looking at me in it, would silently begin to bite her lips, indicating that I should follow her example or take her pink lipstick and paint my lips with it herself. During the toilet, she almost always talked to me, asked about life at the institute, and was especially interested in the relationships of the students with the classy ladies. In the manner and tone of her questions one could feel and hear a slight hostility towards classy ladies; she even called them “die steifen alten Jungfern” (stubborn old maids). The chamberlain-jungfer on duty told me that the day before the Grand Duchess had some argument with her governess.

One day the Grand Duchess called me into her bedroom: I saw her lying at full length on the floor, she ordered me to pull her dress from one side to the other; since her beloved dog of the English breed still knew me little, she began to bark, even trying to grab me by the hand; I was afraid of this dog, she was quite angry, I quickly jumped back and pulled the dress on the other side. The Grand Duchess was amused by this; she wanted to test the loyalty of her dog, who barked incessantly and energetically stood up for her mistress. After lunch, the Grand Duchess took a ferry to her manor to manage things. After some time, she sent me with the valet a small pot of curdled milk of her product, and then graciously inquired whether the curdled milk was tasty. This was a great mercy, as my colleagues explained to me.

One day the Grand Duchess suffered from a runny nose; going to bed, she asked for lipstick and anointed her nose, and told an anecdote, which, of course, has long been known to everyone, and which children at the institute memorized: “When my uncle, Emperor Alexander I, had a runny nose, he ordered a a tallow candle stub to anoint your nose; and when after some time they checked the expenses, it turned out that from that time on a tallow candle was issued daily and almost 600 rubles were recorded in the expense for this item.”

When she went to bed, the Grand Duchess knelt down in bed and read a prayer, addressing a small icon hanging at the head of the bed. The Grand Duchess was covered with a wadded silk blanket, which the chamberlain-jungfer tucked under the mattress, and a silk-lined hood was placed on her feet. In the morning, getting up, she wrapped herself in the hood mentioned above, sat down at the toilet to wash and comb her hair. Her hair was of extraordinary length and thickness: having combed it and twisted it at the back of her head, she had to make a kind of loop out of it and pin it with a thick tortoiseshell comb, divide the rest of the end into four strands, braid each and wrap them around her head so that the comb with twisted hair remained in in the center, and a braided braid, 1 ½ inches wide, formed a kind of crown in front; at the temples, the hair was braided into braids an inch wide, which went down the cheeks and framed the lovely oval of her face; under the ear, the braids rose to the braid and complemented the already that luxurious hairstyle.

I was with the Grand Duchess for almost three months - until the arrival of the Princess of Darmstadt, the bride of the Grand Duke.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna was of a cheerful character and a great prankster. One day she came up with such a joke. The princess was sitting in front of her dressing table, her hair was being combed to go to dinner with the empress. Someone knocked on the restroom door from the hallway. I immediately went out to find out what was needed. In front of me stood a young lady with black eyebrows and a black spot on her chin, wearing a white dress, an old-fashioned shawl, and an old-style tulle cap with yellow ribbons. She began to shyly ask me to report to the princess that she was asking for a position as an ironer from Her Highness and that Countess Baranova had sent her to introduce herself to the princess. I immediately recognized the petitioner by her accent (she pronounced the “r” very firmly) and called her Highness.

Oh, what a villain! she recognized me! - exclaimed the Grand Duchess - but make sure that the princess accepts me, - she whispered. The princess positively refused to accept her, especially since she was in a negligee. I again began to beg the princess on behalf of Countess Baranova; but the princess flatly refused, saying that the countess could take whoever she wanted, that she would be happy with everything. The petitioner heard the answer and I did not have time to take two steps when the young lady was already standing near the princess, crouching, bowing low and speaking in broken French, crouching low, bowing and speaking in broken French, trying to explain that she was brought up at the Kaluga Institute, that she is an orphan, poor and begs to be accepted as an ironer.

The princess, a little embarrassed, agrees to her request, apparently wanting to get rid of her as quickly as possible; the petitioner rushes to her hand, which the princess graciously allows to kiss, but at that very moment the petitioner bursts into loud, uncontrollable laughter; I couldn’t help laughing either; The German Kammer-Jungfers stand dumbfounded, not understanding what’s going on. The princess got scared, jumped up from her chair, leaned over her table, as if wanting to save her hands, and shouted: “Mais elle est folle!” (Yes, this is crazy!)

The matter was very simple: the Grand Duchess furrowed her eyebrows and put on a front sight. You need to know that the princess had very light eyebrows: black eyebrows and a strange dress made her almost unrecognizable.

The Grand Duchess pestered the princess: “Marie, you didn’t recognize me after everything I told you this morning?” It turns out that on the same morning at the Empress’s breakfast, where everyone gathered every day, the Grand Duchess said that the most insignificant change in her hairstyle made her unrecognizable and that one autumn the Empress lay down to rest in her bedroom after dinner; it was neither light nor dark , as they say en chien et loup (at dusk); The chamberlain-jungfer was sitting in the duty room, and the Grand Duchess, tying a colorful scarf on her head, slipped into the Empress’s bedroom. It seemed to the duty officer that a strange woman had entered and from fright she fainted and was ill for several days. The Empress had not yet fallen asleep and recognized her mischievous daughter, scolding her for the fright she had caused and its consequences.

When the Grand Duchess was a bride, her groom, Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel, had to return to Germany for a while. The royal family was in Peterhof at that time. The Grand Duchess, while bathing every day, caught a slight cold: she had a cough and runny nose, naturally, she was in a feverish state, and she really did not want to swim, but her governess, Miss Gigenbotten, found that such a mild cold could most likely be cured without stopping bathing , the Grand Duchess obeyed.
However, her health was gradually deteriorating; Miss Gigenbotten attributed this to separation from her fiancé; but even after marriage her health seemed unreliable. When she became pregnant, her illness became quite clear. It was probably not entirely pleasant for the young husband to constantly be a nurse near the patient; sometimes it was even noticeable. It happened that, having dropped a handkerchief or something else, she would ask him to pick it up or give it, which lay at a distance from her, since it was harmful for her to bend over or reach; the prince will call and tell the one who comes in to do what needs to be done, or he will say to the Grand Duchess: “Mais vous avez vos pincettes” (But you have your own tongs).

The disease was rapidly progressing for the worse; Consumption was obviously developing. They feared for the birth that was approaching. Tender, relaxed by illness, the Grand Duchess’s body could not tolerate them - she died a few minutes after the birth of her son, who followed his mother two hours later.

1844, on August 2, on a dark, stormy night, the lights in the lanterns fought against the darkness and only pale dots illuminated the path for the sad procession. There was no solemnity, no luxury, no special honors, not even along the main streets of the capital; the Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, who had died so prematurely, was transported in a closed landau. All along the way, the dense mass of the public silently, with their heads naked, expressed their deep sympathy for the inconsolable father.

Portrait of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich,

Alexander Vasilievich Polyakov

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. Not earlier than 1817

Alexander Molinari (1772-1831) (?)

The youngest girl in the family of Nicholas I was Alexandra Nikolaevna, “ naughty and affectionate"Adini, or as her grandmother Maria Fedorovna called her youngest granddaughter - " Le bijou"(treasure - French). In the family she was also called " our ray of sunshine" And " everyone's favorite sister" She was born in Tsarskoe Selo on June 12, 1825. “Adini,” wrote Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, “was born in Tsarskoe Selo, where the sovereign cordially placed his palace at the disposal of my parents.”

Garden facade of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo.I.-Ya. Meyer. 1840s

Alexander Palace

Main hall in the Alexander Palace

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F.Sokolov

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F.Sokolov

In the first portraits from the children's series, P.F. Sokolov (1828) she is depicted as a three-year-old girl wearing the standard white dress for all sisters with a red belt and bows on her shoulders. Unlike others - in a cap. She was brought up like her older sisters: she studied literature, history, and was fond of drawing. In a surviving self-portrait signed by her “Adini. December 6, 1836", an eleven-year-old teenage girl sits at the table in thought, detached from everything around her, resting her cheek on her left hand. The day of the signature was not chosen by chance - it was my father’s name day and the drawing was intended as a gift.

She was distinguished by an amazingly beautiful voice (soprano), the range of which covered three octaves. At the age of 13, she could perform complex pieces of music. Adini appears as a matured fifteen-year-old young lady in a small drawing made as a gift to her brother Konstantin and lovingly inserted by him into his diary in December 1840.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna recalled her sister, who left so early, with great tenderness: “Even as a very small child, she attracted people to her with the charm of her chatter. She had a rich imagination and perfectly imagined not only people, but even historical characters, as if moving into them. At eleven years old, she could carry on a conversation at the table, sitting next to someone unfamiliar, like an adult, and did not seem precocious: her graceful charm and cunning little face spoke for themselves. Everyone in the house loved her, the children of the courtiers her age simply adored her. . ..

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, 13 years old

Christina Robertson

Grace was evident in everything she did, whether she was playing with her dog, climbing a slide, or simply putting on gloves. Her movements were reminiscent of Mama, from whom she inherited a flexible back and broad shoulders. Everyone in the family called her “Brownie.” Her English teacher, who set herself the task of strengthening Adini, went out with her for walks in all weathers, which one fine day caused severe bronchitis, and her life was in danger. Thanks to her beautiful body, she recovered completely, but with the illness the child in her disappeared. The proximity of death made her completely different. The meaning of life and thoughts about the other world began to occupy her.”

K.A. Ukhtomsky. Children's room of the Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga and Alexandra. 1837

I.I. Charlemagne. Nursery of the sons of Nicholas I, or Korabelnaya.

"Roller slide" in the Alexander Palace

Scene from the life of the family of Emperor Nicholas I. Artist A. Chernyshev

Her reading became serious. From the books she, as the elder sister remarked, “ loved religious books". For her older sisters, Adini remained for a long time a child who “enjoyed playing and being naughty with her little brothers.” In 1838 " it was Adini's turn to introduce herself to her grandfather", together with Ollie she visited Berlin then. Later, when she began to go out into the world, she quickly became disillusioned with the secular emptiness of pastime. " Life is only a corridor, she said, only preparation».

Berlin, Eduard Gertner

Berlin: parade in front of the royal palace,

William Bridge

Frederick William III, King of Prussia

Colonel F. Gagern, who visited Russia in 1839, describing the emperor’s daughters, noted: “The youngest Grand Duchess is Alexandra, 13 years old [she turned 14 during his stay in Russia], and there is still something childish about her; she is very lively, playful and promises to be the most beautiful among the sisters. She often teased Prince Alexander." That year, Alexander Nikolaevich was abroad, and Mary was busy with her fiancé, so Ollie began to spend more time with the growing Adini: “A lovely girl, carefree as a lark, spreading only joy around her. Early death is the privilege of chosen natures. I see Adini only as if she were all enveloped in the sun.” Gradually, Alexandra turned into a beauty that rivaled Ollie.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

K. Robertson. Daughters of Emperor Nicholas I, Princesses Olga and Alexandra Nikolaevna, 1840

Moskvich M.D. Buturlin, who saw the sisters in the hall of the Noble Assembly of St. Petersburg at the end of the winter season of 1843, Olga and Alexandra Nikolaevna seemed “creatures not of this world, especially the second. It was this year that turned out to be decisive in Adini’s life. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Adolf, son of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, arrived at Mary's wedding in the hope of meeting Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna in order to win her hand. He seemed kind to Ollie, “pleasant and cheerful.”

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Duke Maximilian-Leuchtenberg

But, shortly before the ball in the Great Peterhof Palace, he saw Adini; a spark ran between them. Ollie gave up a possible groom to her sister. The discussion with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the presence of Adini took place on the terrace of the palace in Strelna. “Adini loves him! - Ollie said. “She saw Fritz,” Olga Nikolaevna later wrote, “through the poetic veil of her eighteen years, and God called her back to Himself before her eyes saw anything else.” True, after the marriage, she tried to develop her Friedrich morally and spiritually, to distract him from secular entertainment, had serious conversations, “read Plutarch with him, so that the example of noble men would help him.”

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

It turned out that Adini was ahead of her older sister Olga Nikolaevna in getting married. Nikolai was worried and happy at the same time. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna wrote: “Dad suffered because of me, and yet he was happy to keep me with him. Of course, he also loved Adini, but she was still a child for him, and not his equal, with whom he could talk, like with me; besides, Adini was always very silent in his company for fear of speaking Russian incorrectly. (Thanks to her English teacher, she did not learn to speak her native language fluently). What a treasure Adini was, Dad realized the moment she passed away.” And further: “On the day of Peter and Paul, June 29, during a gala dinner, an engagement was announced [conspiracy—L.V.]. When Fritz had recently asked the Pope if he dared to speak to him, the Pope embraced him and said: “This is my answer!”

Grand Duchesses Alexandra Nikolaevna and Olga Nikolaevna

O. Vernet. Tsarskoye Selo carousel. The family of Emperor Nicholas I in fancy dress, 1843

When the royal family, as usual, moves to Tsarskoe Selo for the autumn months on August 22, Adini does not suspect that not only this summer is the most blissful in her life, but she is saying goodbye forever to “ Peterhof paradise"- with the splendor of its cascades and fountains, with the distance of the sea and dreamy paths of Alexandria, with the comfort of your beloved Cottage. Here, in his furnished "s" lovely simplicity” in the girl’s room, where the central place on the table is now occupied by a portrait of her lover, on July 29 she writes on the last page of the diary: “I am finishing this diary and, by a strange coincidence, at the same time I am ending my girlhood existence. It was wonderful, this existence, and very happy . I did not know grief. God and the people who love me helped me stock up on what was necessary for my future. It is now opening before me like the dawn of a beautiful day. So let the clouds that will cover it dissipate before the evening, and may the evening of my life be like its dawn! May God help me! "

Palace-cottage

Holgin Island in Peterhof.E. Meyer (?)

Classic view of the pavilion on the lake in Peterhof. E. Meyer.(?)

"Pink Pavilion in the Meadow Park of Peterhof", Luigi Premazzi.

P. Borel, Belvedere Palace in the Meadow Park

Belvedere Palace in Meadow Park

View of Renella in Alexandria.,

Socrates Vorobiev

Could she have suspected, full of luminous hopes, that fate had already outlined her barely blossoming life with a mournful frame? Could she have known that she would never again be destined to repeat the long walks along the autumn alleys of Tsarskoye Selo Park, where she now gives free rein to her dreams of the future? She does not know all this and is happy, as only a young creature in love can be happy.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

The first to notice the Grand Duchess’s ill health, long before the obvious manifestation of the disease, was her singing teacher Soliva, but the court doctors reassured the Empress, and the astute Italian paid by being removed and forced to leave Russia.

However, the bride herself, hovering in rosy dreams, does not attach any importance to this, especially since her doctor Rauch does not see any reason for concern. She is preoccupied with thoughts of " his Fritz“, describes to him in a diligent drawing his simply furnished room in the Alexander Palace, the main decoration of which, here too, is now his portrait, painted in the summer by Karl Steubein, now standing on an easel, and counts the days until he meets him himself.

Grand Duke Alexandra Nikolaevna. “My room in Tsarskoe Selo on October 16.” Paper, pencil. 1843. Hessian Landgraviate Foundation, Fasaneri Palace

The famous portrait of Alexandra Nikolaevna dates back to this time. “In October,” recalled Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, “Mrs. Robertson, a famous English artist, arrived to paint a large life-size portrait of Adini. In a pink dress, with her hair braided on both sides of her face - this is how she is depicted on it. She was a little shorter than me, with not quite regular facial features, and was very beautiful with her own kind of beauty. Her face always shone with gaiety, but now it changed its expression as soon as the conversation began about something serious. In prayer, when I closed my eyes to concentrate, she, on the contrary, opened her eyes wide and raised her arms, as if wanting to hug the sky.”

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

On December 29 of the same 1843, Adini’s engagement was officially celebrated; on December 30, a gala reception was held, which was attended by Frederick’s father, the seventy-year-old Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. “Fritz, next to his lovely bride,” Ollie conveyed her impressions, “seemed insignificant and without much bearing. Later I recalled how worried old Doctor Willie, Uncle Mikhail’s physician, was after he shook Adini’s hand and felt its moisture. “She must be unwell,” he said then.” They didn’t know then that back in June 1843 Adini fell ill with consumption (tuberculosis).

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel

Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (father of Friedrich Wilhelm)

Louise Charlotte of Denmark (mother of Frederick William)

Less than two months later, on January 28, 1844, the wedding took place. " Highly newlyweds» moved to their apartments in the Winter Palace. The usual social life of the young couple began. Next, let’s again give the floor to her sister Ollie: “Adini caught a cold when she was returning from the ball from Nesselrode. One of the windows of the carriage was, due to the oversight of some footman, lowered at ten degrees below zero. The next day she woke up with a fever. No one attached any importance to this, relying on her healthy nature.” In order not to disturb her parents, Alexandra Nikolaevna continued to appear at the morning breakfast, because she would soon have to leave Russia. “At the end of Great Lent,” Olga Nikolaevna continues her sad story, “this year we moved, as always, to Anichkov to prepare for Communion.

Winter view of Nevsky Prospekt near the Anichkov Palace. 1847

V. S. Sadovnikov

The return to the Winter Palace after Easter took place without Adini. She was expecting [pregnant - L.V.] and was very weak from a strong cough. The doctors ordered her to rest and put her to bed for three weeks. After this period, she moved to the Winter Palace and settled in her gloomy rooms, suffering for the light and greenery of the gardens in Anichkov, which were there under the windows.” There were no changes for the better: “She was prohibited from traveling in a stroller, and she spent whole days lying resignedly on the sofa. Nobody was worried about her. Dad took a trip to England to meet his young niece Victoria and her husband Albert. In the midst of the festivities in his honor, he learned the terrible news that Adini had fulminant consumption. Mandt himself came to him to tell him this terrible news."

Portrait of an Unknown, Christina Robertson

When Nikolai Pavlovich returned, the family was already living in Tsarskoe Selo. It seemed " country air» revived Adini. She began taking trips in a wheelchair with Fritz. I didn’t want to believe Mandt’s diagnosis; were waiting for a miracle.

The court doctors were unable to recognize the disease in time and make the correct diagnosis. Life physician Rauch overlooked the disease, and when he realized, “ fell into a mental disorder“,” wrote Count M. A. Korf in his memoirs “ Death and burial of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna".

Gate "to my dear colleagues" 1857

V.S. Sadovnikov

Olga Nikolaevna remembered the difficult atmosphere of those days: “The doctors Markus, Rauch and Scholz looked completely destroyed. They, except for Scholz, who was needed as an obstetrician, were immediately released. Mandt took on the treatment alone. He was as unsympathetic to Adini as he was to all of us, and only out of obedience did she overpower herself and allow herself to be treated. Luckily, he didn't torture her. Hot milk and clean water to quench your thirst was, in fact, all that he prescribed. He magnetized this water, which, in his opinion, calmed the patient.

However, already at the beginning of the month, signs of a terrible illness appeared, and the fatal prognosis was confirmed not only by the court doctors, but also by the Danish physician Bank, who was invited to the patient.

Watercolor by L. Premazzi

As the days became warmer, Adini began to suffer from asthma attacks. Mom gave her her office with seven windows; even in summer it was full of air and freshness. It was set up as a bedroom for Adini.” Unfortunately, Alexandra Nikolaevna’s condition worsened. She had to live separately from Fritz: “In mid-June, a few days before her nineteenth birthday, the situation worsened. She was literally scorched by the heat. Attacks of nausea prevented her from eating, and coughing fits—up to forty times a night—disturbed her sleep.”

Meanwhile, Alexandra Nikolaevna did not suspect that she was doomed, “she delighted the boredom of her illness with castles in the air about her future stay in Denmark and about raising the expected baby,” she asked her brother Konstantin, who had returned from a sea trip to Denmark, about the preparation of the palace and “ “In recent days, I loved to surround myself with my outfits and admire them.”

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich

Adini's birthday has arrived. Mass was served in a hastily constructed chapel right in the Alexander Palace. Priest Bazhanov brought the Holy Gifts to the sick woman and received her Holy Communion. During a conversation with Ollie, Adini said that the thought of death came to her and gave Papa a sketch of a pavilion for a pond with black swans.

Protopr. Vasily Bazhanov. Lithograph by A. Munster. 1865 (RSL)

For some time there was an improvement. The cool June days brought relief. We were thinking about going to Copenhagen to have the birth there. On June 30, the midwife identified the baby's first movements. Alexandra lay silently with her arms crossed in silent prayer.