Matilda Feliksovna Kshesinskaya (August 19, 1872 – December 6, 1971), Russian ballerina.
The figure of Matilda Kshesinskaya is so tightly shrouded in a cocoon of legends, gossip and rumors that it is almost impossible to discern a real, living person... A woman full of irresistible charm. Passionate, addicted nature. The first Russian fouetté performer and ballerina who could manage her own repertoire. A brilliant, virtuoso dancer who ousted foreign touring performers from the Russian stage...
Matilda Kshesinskaya was petite, only 1 meter 53 centimeters tall. But, despite the growth, the name of Kshesinskaya for many decades did not leave the pages of gossip columns, where she was presented among the heroines of scandals and “femme fatales.”
Kshesinskaya was born into a hereditary artistic environment, which for several generations was associated with ballet. Matilda's father was a famous dancer and a leading artist in the imperial theaters.
The father became the first teacher of his youngest daughter. Already from the very early age she showed an ability and love for ballet - which is not surprising in a family where almost everyone dances. At the age of eight, she was sent to the Imperial Theater School - her mother had previously graduated from it, and now her brother Joseph and sister Julia were studying there.
At first, Malya did not practice particularly diligently - she had long learned the basics of ballet art at home. Only at the age of fifteen, when she got into the class of Christian Petrovich Ioganson, Malya not only felt a taste for learning, but began to study with real passion. Kshesinskaya discovered extraordinary talent and enormous creative potential. In the spring of 1890, she graduated from college as an external student and was enrolled in the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Already in her first season, Kshesinskaya danced in twenty-two ballets and twenty-one operas. The roles were small, but responsible, and allowed Mala to show off her talent. But talent alone was not enough to obtain so many games - one important circumstance played a role: the heir to the throne was in love with Matilda.
Malya met Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich - the future Emperor Nicholas II - at a dinner after the graduation performance, which took place on March 23, 1890. Almost immediately they began an affair, which proceeded with the full approval of Nikolai’s parents. truly them serious relationship began only two years later, after the heir came home to Matilda Kshesinskaya, under the name of Hussar Volkov. Notes, letters and... gifts, truly royal. The first was a gold bracelet with large sapphires and two diamonds, on which Matilda engraved two dates - 1890 and 1892 - the first meeting and the first visit to her home. But... Their love was doomed and after April 7, 1894, when the engagement of the Tsarevich to Alice of Hesse was officially announced, Nicholas never came to Matilda again. However, as you know, he allowed her to contact him in letters on a first name basis and promised to help her in everything if she needed help.
On October 20, 1894, the emperor died in Livadia Alexander III- he was only 49 years old. The next day, Alice converted to Orthodoxy and became Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. A week after the emperor’s funeral, Nicholas and Alexandra got married in the Winter Palace - for this purpose, the mourning imposed at court for a year was specially interrupted.
Matilda was very worried about parting with Nikolai. Not wanting anyone to see her suffering, she locked herself at home and hardly went out. But... as they say, a holy place is never empty: “In my grief and despair, I was not left alone. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, with whom I became friends from the day when the heir first brought him to me, stayed with me and supported me. I never felt a feeling for him that could be compared with my feeling for Niki, but with all his attitude he won my heart, and I sincerely fell in love with him,” Matilda Kshesinskaya later wrote in her memoirs. She fell in love... however quickly and again... Romanova.
Due to mourning, there were practically no performances at the Mariinsky Theater, and Kshesinskaya accepted the invitation of entrepreneur Raoul Günzburg to go on tour to Monte Carlo. She performed with her brother Joseph, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Alfred Bekefi and Georgy Kyaksht. The tour took place from great success. In April, Matilda and her father performed in Warsaw. Felix Kshesinsky was well remembered here, and the audience literally went wild at the performances of the family duet. She returned to St. Petersburg only in the 1895 season and performed in R. Drigo’s new ballet “The Pearl,” which Petipa staged specifically for the accession to the throne of Nicholas II.
And it is not surprising that her career was going uphill. She became the prima of the Mariinsky Theater and virtually the entire repertoire was built around her. Yes, her contemporaries did not refuse to recognize her talent, but latently everyone understood that this talent made its way to the top not through a terrible struggle for existence, but in a slightly different way. The world of theater is not so simple, if for ordinary spectators it is a holiday, then for the servants of melpomene it is a struggle for life, intrigue, mutual claims and the ability to do everything to be noticed by the superiors of this world. Ballet dancers have always been loved by the upper class: grand dukes and nobles of lower rank did not shy away from patronizing this or that ballerina. Patronage often did not go beyond a love affair, but still some even dared to take these beauties as wives. But such people were in the minority; the majority were destined for the sad fate of “flashing up as a bright star” on the stage and then quietly fading away outside it. Matilda Kshesinskaya escaped this fate...
The beginning of Kshesinskaya’s activity was associated with performances in classical ballets staged by the famous choreographer M. Petipa. They not only revealed her virtuosic technique, but also revealed her extraordinary dramatic talent. After Kshesinskaya’s debut in P. Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Sleeping Beauty,” Petipa began choreographing parts specifically for her “coloratura” dance. Only long mourning after the death of Alexander III prevented their collaboration.
The ballerina was distinguished not only by her talent, but also by her enormous hard work. She was the first after the Italian virtuosos to perform a rare ballet number for that time - thirty-two fouettés. As one of the reviewers noted, “having performed thirty-two fouettés, without leaving her place, literally nailed to the fulcrum, she, having answered the bows, again went to the middle of the stage and unscrewed twenty-eight fouettés.”
From this time on, a ten-year period of Kshesinskaya’s dominance on the Russian ballet stage began. It ended in 1903, when M. Petipa retired. At this time, at the request of Emperor Nicholas, Kshesinskaya was under the care of Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. In his house she met the Tsar’s cousin, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich. Many believed that their relationship would not last long, but soon their son Vladimir was born, and Kshesinskaya became the common-law wife of the Grand Duke. True, they got married many years later, in 1921, when they were in exile.
Kshesinskaya had a hard time getting used to innovations in choreographic art. For a long time she could not find a suitable choreographer for herself, and only collaboration with M. Fokin helped her overcome the crisis situation. Their relationship changed several times. Kshesinskaya either idolized Fokin or tried to remove him from the St. Petersburg stage. However, Fokin’s popularity could not leave her indifferent, and, despite everything, they continued to work together.
In general, Kshesinskaya was always sharp and often came to the right decision only after making many mistakes. This is how, for example, her relationship with S. Diaghilev developed. He approached her in 1911 with a request to become the main soloist in the program of ballet performances he had planned. At first, Kshesinskaya rejected his proposal, since shortly before that she had triumphantly performed in Paris and London in several performances staged by the influential French newspaper Le Figaro. However, after thinking, or perhaps simply learning that the largest dancers of that time - M. Fokin and V. Nijinsky - agreed to perform in Diaghilev’s troupe, she gave her consent. After this, especially for Kshesinskaya, Diaghilev bought from the directorate of the imperial theaters the scenery and costumes for the ballet “Swan Lake”, made according to sketches by A. Golovin and K. Korovin.
The performances of Diaghilev's troupe in Vienna and Monte Carlo turned into a real triumph for Kshesinskaya, and the collaboration itself continued for many years.
Only after the outbreak of the First World War did the ballerina stop performing abroad, and on February 2, 1917, she last time appeared on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.
Kshesinskaya understood that after the February Revolution she needed to disappear from the sight of journalists for several months. Therefore, together with her son, she went to Kislovodsk to see her husband. After the Bolsheviks came to power, they left for Constantinople and then settled for several years at the Villa Alam on the Mediterranean coast of France. Soon Kshesinskaya realized that she could not count on returning to the stage, and she needed to look for another way to earn money. She moves to Paris and opens a ballet studio at the Villa Monitor.
At first she had only a few students, but after visiting the studio by Diaghilev, as well as A. Pavlova, their number rapidly increased, and soon more than a hundred students studied with Kshesinskaya. Among them were F. Chaliapin’s daughters Marina and Dasia. Later, such famous ballerinas as R. Nureyev’s partner M. Fontein and I. Shoviré studied with Kshesinskaya.
The outbreak of World War II upended her well-established life. Fearing bombing, she moves to the suburbs, and when she approaches German army Together with his family he goes to Biarritz, on the border with Spain. But soon German troops arrived there too. Kshesinskaya's situation was complicated by the fact that her son was soon arrested for anti-fascist activities. And only a few months later he was able to escape from the camp, and then from France.
After the liberation of France in 1944, Kshesinskaya returned to Paris and, with the help of her students Ninette de Valois and Margot Fonteyn, organized a traveling ballet troupe that performed concerts for the soldiers. At the same time, classes resumed in her studio. In 1950, Kshesinskaya went to England, where she became the head of the Federation of Russian Classical Ballet, which included fifteen choreographic schools.
During the first tour of the Bolshoi Theater in France, Kshesinskaya specially went to Paris to attend performances on the stage of the Grand Opera, in which G. Ulanova performed.
Kshesinskaya published several books. The most famous were her memoirs, which were simultaneously published in France and the USA.
Matilda Feliksovna lived long life and died on December 5, 1971, a few months before her centenary. She was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris in the same grave with her husband and son. On the monument there is an epitaph: “The Most Serene Princess Maria Feliksovna Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters Kshesinskaya.”
Aleksey Uchitel's film "Matilda" has finally been released in Russia - a seemingly ordinary drama about the romance between the last Russian emperor and a ballerina, which suddenly, quite unexpectedly, caused an unprecedented seething of passions, scandals and even serious death threats against the director and members of the film crew . Well, while the intrigued Russian public, in a state of some confusion, is preparing to personally assess the source of the all-Russian hype, Vladimir Tikhomirov tells what Matilda Kshesinskaya was like in life.
Ballerina of blue bloods
According to the Kshesinsky family legend, Kshesinsky’s great-great-great-grandfather was Count Krasinsky, who possessed enormous wealth. After his death, almost the entire inheritance went to his eldest son, Kshesinskaya’s great-great-grandfather, but his youngest son received practically nothing. But soon happy heir died and all the wealth passed to his 12-year-old son Wojciech, who remained in the care of a French teacher.
Wojciech's uncle decided to kill the boy in order to take possession of his fortune. He hired two killers, one of whom repented at the very last moment and told Wojciech’s teacher about the plot. As a result, he secretly took the boy to France, where he registered him under the name Kshesinsky.
The only thing that Kshesinskaya has preserved as proof of her high-born origin is a ring with the coat of arms of the Counts Krasinski.
From childhood - to the machine
Ballet was Matilda's destiny from birth. The father, Pole Felix Kshesinsky, was a dancer and teacher, as well as the creator of a family troupe: the family had eight children, each of whom decided to connect his life with the stage. Matilda was the youngest. At the age of three she was sent to ballet class.
By the way, she is far from the only one of the Kshesinskys who achieved success. Her older sister Julia shone for a long time on the stage of the Imperial Theaters. And Matilda herself was called “Kshesinskaya the Second” for a long time. Her brother Joseph Kshesinsky, also a famous dancer, also became famous. After the revolution he remained in Soviet Russia, received the title of Honored Artist of the Republic. His fate was tragic - he died of hunger during the siege of Leningrad.
Love at first sight
Matilda was noticed already in 1890. At the graduation performance of the ballet school in St. Petersburg, which was attended by Emperor Alexander III and his family (Empress Maria Feodorovna, four brothers of the sovereign with their spouses and the still very young Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich), the emperor loudly asked: “Where is Kshesinskaya?” When the embarrassed pupil was brought to him, he extended his hand to her and said:
Be the decoration and glory of our ballet.
After the exam, the school gave a large festive dinner. Alexander III asked Kshesinskaya to sit next to him and introduced the ballerina to his son Nicholas.
Young Tsarevich Nicholas “I don’t remember what we talked about, but I immediately fell in love with the heir,” Kshesinskaya later wrote. - I can see him now Blue eyes with such a kind expression. I stopped looking at him only as an heir, I forgot about it, everything was like a dream. When I said goodbye to the heir, who sat next to me throughout the dinner, we looked at each other differently than when we met; a feeling of attraction had already crept into his soul, as well as into mine...
The second meeting with Nikolai took place in Krasnoye Selo. A wooden theater was also built there to entertain the officers.
Kshesinskaya, after conversations with the heir, recalled:
All I could think about was him. It seemed to me that although he was not in love, he still felt attracted to me, and I involuntarily gave myself up to dreams. We had never been able to talk alone, and I didn’t know how he felt about me. I found out this only later, when we became close...
The main thing is to remind yourself
The romance between Matilda and Nikolai Alexandrovich began in 1892, when the heir rented a luxurious mansion on English Avenue for the ballerina. The heir constantly came to her, and the lovers spent many happy hours there together (he later bought and gave her this house).
However, already in the summer of 1893, Niki began to visit the ballerina less and less.
And on April 7, 1894, Nicholas's engagement to Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt was announced.
Nicholas II and Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt It seemed to me that my life was over and that there would be no more joys, and that there was much, much sorrow ahead,” Matilda wrote. - It’s hard to express what I was worried about when I knew that he was already with his bride. The spring of my happy youth was over, a new, difficult life was beginning with a heart broken so early...
In her numerous letters, Matilda asked Nika for permission to continue to communicate with him on a first-name basis, and also to turn to him for help in difficult situations. Over the subsequent years, she tried in every possible way to remind herself of herself. For example, patrons in the Winter Palace often informed her about plans to move Nicholas around the city - wherever the emperor went, he invariably met Kshesinskaya there, enthusiastically sending “dear Niki” air kisses. Which probably drove both the Tsar himself and his wife to white heat. It is a known fact that the management of the Imperial Theater once received an order banning Kshesinskaya from performing on Sundays - on this day usually royal family visited theaters.
Mistress for three
After the heir, Kshesinskaya had several more lovers from among the representatives of the Romanov family. So, immediately after breaking up with Niki, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich consoled her - their romance lasted for a long time, which did not prevent Matilda Kshesinskaya from making new lovers. Also in 1900, she began dating 53-year-old Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.
Soon Kshesinskaya began a whirlwind romance with his son, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, her future husband.
A feeling that I had not experienced for a long time immediately crept into my heart; “It was no longer an empty flirtation,” Kshesinskaya wrote. - From the day of my first meeting with Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, we began to meet more and more often, and our feelings for each other soon turned into a strong mutual attraction.
Andrey Vladimirovich Romanov and Matilda Kshesinskaya with their son However, she did not break off relations with the other Romanovs, taking advantage of their patronage. For example, with their help she received a personal benefit performance dedicated to the tenth anniversary of her work at the Imperial Theater, although other artists were entitled to similar honors only after twenty years of service.
In 1901, Kshesinskaya found out that she was pregnant. The child's father is Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.
On June 18, 1902, she gave birth to a son at her dacha in Strelna. At first she wanted to name him Nikolai, in honor of her beloved Nika, but in the end the boy was named Vladimir - in honor of the father of her lover Andrei.
Kshesinskaya recalled that after giving birth she had a difficult conversation with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who was ready to recognize the newborn as his son:
He knew very well that he was not the father of my child, but he loved me so much and was so attached to me that he forgave me and decided, despite everything, to stay with me and protect me as good friend. I felt guilty before him, because the previous winter, when he was courting a young and beautiful Grand Duchess and there were rumors about a possible wedding, I, having learned about this, asked him to stop courtship and thereby put an end to conversations that were unpleasant for me. I adored Andrei so much that I didn’t realize how guilty I was before Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich...
As a result, the child was given the middle name Sergeevich and the surname Krasinsky - for Matilda this meant special meaning. True, after the revolution, when in 1921 the ballerina and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich got married in Nice, their son received the “correct” middle name.
Gothic in Windsor
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, in honor of the birth of the child, gave Kshesinskaya a royal gift - the Borka estate in the Oryol province, where he planned to build a copy of the English Windsor on the site of the old manor house. Matilda admired the estate of the British kings.
Soon the famous architect Alexander Ivanovich von Gauguin, who was building the very famous Kshesinskaya mansion on the corner of Kronverksky Avenue in St. Petersburg, was discharged from St. Petersburg.
Construction took ten years, and in 1912 the castle and park were ready. However, the prima ballerina was dissatisfied: what kind of English style is this if in a five-minute walk through the park you can see a typical Russian village with thatched huts?! As a result, the neighboring village was razed to the ground, and the peasants were evicted to a new location.
But Matilda still refused to go on vacation to the Oryol province. As a result, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich sold the “Russian Windsor” in Borki to a local horse breeder from the Sheremetyev count family, and he bought the ballerina Villa Alam on the Cote d'Azur of France.
Mistress of the ballet
In 1904, Kshesinskaya decides to leave the Imperial Theater. But at the beginning of the new season she receives an offer to return on a “contractual” basis: she is obliged to pay her 500 rubles for each performance. Crazy money for those times! Also, Kshesinskaya was assigned all the parties that she liked.
Soon the entire theatrical world knew that Matilda's word was law. Thus, the director of the Imperial Theaters, Prince Sergei Volkonsky, once dared to insist that Kshesinskaya appear on stage in a costume that she did not like. The ballerina did not comply and was fined. A couple of days later, Prince Volkonsky himself resigned.
The lesson was learned and new director At the Imperial Theaters, Vladimir Telyakovsky already preferred to stay away from Matilda.
It would seem that a ballerina, serving in the directorate, should belong to the repertoire, but then it turned out that the repertoire belongs to Kshesinskaya, Telyakovsky himself wrote. - She considered it her property and could give or not let others dance.
Matilda's Withering
In 1909, Kshesinskaya’s main patron, Nicholas II’s uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, died. After his death, the attitude towards the ballerina at the Imperial Theater changed in the most radical way. She was increasingly offered episodic roles.
Vladimir Alexandrovich Romanov Soon Kshesinskaya goes to Paris, then to London, and again St. Petersburg. Until 1917, no fundamental changes occurred in the life of the ballerina. The result of boredom was the ballerina’s romance with dancer Pyotr Vladimirov, who was 21 years younger than Matilda.
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, accustomed to sharing his mistress with his father and uncle, was furious. During Kshesinskaya's tour in Paris, the prince challenged the dancer to a duel. The unfortunate Vladimirov was shot in the nose by an insulted representative of the Romanov family. Doctors had to piece him together.
On the run
At the beginning of February 1917, the police chief of Petrograd advised the ballerina and her son to leave the capital, since unrest was expected in the city. On February 22, the ballerina gave her last reception in her mansion - it was a dinner with luxurious serving for twenty-four people.
The very next day she left the city, engulfed in a wave of revolutionary madness. On February 28, the Bolsheviks, led by Georgian student Agababov, broke into the ballerina’s mansion. He began hosting dinners in a famous house, forcing the chef to cook for him and his guests, who drank elite wines and champagne from the cellar. Both Kshesinskaya's cars were requisitioned.
Kshesinskaya's mansion in St. Petersburg At this time, Matilda herself wandered with her son to different apartments, fearing that her child would be taken away from her. Her servants brought food to her from home; almost all of them remained faithful to Kshesinskaya.
After some time, Kshesinskaya herself decided to go to her house. She was horrified when she saw what he had become.
I was offered to go up to my bedroom, but it was simply terrible what I saw: a wonderful carpet, specially ordered by me in Paris, was all covered in ink, all the furniture was taken to the lower floor, the door and all the shelves were torn out of the wonderful wardrobe with its hinges taken out, and there were guns there... In my restroom, the bathtub-basin was filled with cigarette butts. At this time, student Agababov approached me... He invited me, as if nothing had happened, to move back and live with them and said that they would give me their son’s rooms. I didn’t answer anything, this was already the height of impudence...
Until mid-summer, Kshesinskaya tried to return the mansion, but then she realized that she just needed to run away. And she left for Kislovodsk, where she was reunited with Andrei Romanov.
In her own mansion different years Lenin, Zinoviev, Stalin and others worked. From the balcony of this house Lenin repeatedly spoke to workers, soldiers and sailors. Kalinin lived there for several years, from 1938 to 1956 there was a Kirov Museum, and since 1957 - the Museum of the Revolution. In 1991, the Museum of Russian Political History was created in the mansion, which is still located there.
In exile
In 1920, Andrei and Matilda and their child left Kislovodsk and went to Novorossiysk. Then they leave for Venice, and from there to France.
In 1929, Matilda and her husband find themselves in Paris, but the money in their accounts is almost gone, and they need to live on something. Then Matilda decides to open her own ballet school.
Soon, children of famous parents begin to come to Kshesinskaya’s classes. For example, the daughters of Fyodor Chaliapin. In just five years, the school grows so that about 100 people study there annually. The school also operated during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Of course, at some moments there were no students at all, and the ballerina came to an empty studio. The school became an outlet for Kshesinskaya, thanks to which she survived the arrest of her son Vladimir. He ended up in the Gestapo literally the very next day after the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Parents raised everything possible connections so that Vladimir would be released. According to rumors, Kshesinskaya even secured a meeting with the head of the secret German state police, Heinrich Müller. As a result, after 119 days of imprisonment, Vladimir was finally released from the concentration camp and returned home. But Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich really went crazy during his son’s imprisonment. He supposedly imagined Germans everywhere: the door opened, they came in and arrested his son.
The final
In 1956, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich died in Paris at the age of 77.
With the death of Andrei, the fairy tale that was my life ended. Our son remained with me - I adore him and from now on he is the whole meaning of my life. For him, of course, I will always remain a mother, but also his greatest and most faithful friend...
It is interesting that after leaving Russia, not a single word about the last Russian emperor is found in her diary.
Matilda died on December 5, 1971, a few months shy of her centenary. She was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery near Paris. On the monument there is an epitaph: “The Most Serene Princess Maria Feliksovna Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters Kshesinskaya.”
Her son Vladimir Andreevich died single and childless in 1974 and was buried next to his mother’s grave.
But the Kshesinskaya ballet dynasty did not fade away. This year, the great-niece of Matilda Kshesinskaya, Eleonora Sevenard, was accepted into the Bolshoi Theater ballet troupe.
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Maria-Matilda Adamovna-Feliksovna-Valerievna Kshesinskaya was born on August 31, 1872 into a creative family. Father - Russian Pole Felix Kshesinsky, discharged from Poland by Nicholas I as best performer his favorite mazurka, mother - Yulia Dominskaya, the rich widow of the ballet dancer Lede.
From the age of 8, the girl studied at ballet school, entered the Imperial Theater School and graduated from it in 1890. The entire royal family was present at the graduation ceremony, and at the gala dinner Kshesinskaya sat next to the heir to the throne, Nicholas. Then Alexander III, watching Matilda’s movements with delight, utters the fateful words: “Mademoiselle! Be the decoration and glory of our ballet!”
Matilda is accepted into the ballet troupe of the Mariinsky Theater, on whose imperial stage Kshesinskaya danced until 1917.
In 1896, Kshesinskaya was awarded the status of “prima ballerina of the imperial theaters,” despite the objections of the chief choreographer Petipa. According to some reports, it was her connections at court that helped her quickly advance to the very top of the ballet hierarchy.
She became the first Russian ballerina to perform 32 fouettés in a row on stage.
In 1904, Matilda Kshesinskaya quit her job. at will from the Mariinsky Theater and after the benefit performance she switched to performing on a contract basis. She earned 500 rubles for each appearance on stage, and subsequently the payment increased to 750 rubles.
Intrigue
Still from the film “Matilda” by Alexei Uchitel.
Screenshot from the official trailer
Matilda Kshesinskaya strongly opposed the invitation of foreign ballerinas to the troupe. She tried in every way to prove that Russian ballerinas were worthy of leading roles, while most of them were given to foreign artists.
Because of Matilda’s influence, the director of the Imperial Theaters, Prince Volkonsky, himself could not stand it, leaving the theater after refusing to restore the ancient ballet “Katarina, the Robber’s Daughter.” The ballerina herself named the reason for the dispute with Volkonsky over the fittings of the costume for Russian dance from the ballet “Camargo”.
The organizer of the Russian Seasons, Sergei Diaghilev, considered Kshesinskaya “his worst enemy.” He invited her to perform in London, which attracted Matilda much more than Paris. For this, the ballerina had to use her connections and “break through” for Diaghilev the opportunity to perform with her enterprise in St. Petersburg and get a reprieve military service for Nijinsky, who became liable for military service. “Swan Lake” was chosen for Kshesinskaya’s performance, and not by chance - in this way Diaghilev gained access to the scenery that belonged to her.
The attempt was unsuccessful. Moreover, Diaghilev was so angry at the futility of the petition that his servant Vasily seriously suggested that he poison the ballerina.
Personal life and the Romanovs
It is believed that from 1892 to 1894 she was the mistress of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. After meeting, he regularly attends her performances, their relationship develops rapidly, although everyone realizes that the romance does not have a happy ending. In order to maintain decency, a mansion was bought for Kshesinskaya on the Promenade des Anglais, where they met without any interference.
“I fell in love with the Heir from our first meeting. After summer season in Krasnoe Selo, when I could meet and talk with him, my feeling filled my entire soul, and I could only think about him...” wrote Matilda Kshesinskaya in her diary.
The reason for the break in relations with the future Nicholas II was his engagement to Queen Victoria's granddaughter Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt in April 1894.
Alexandra Feodorovna, née Princess Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt.
From open sources on the Internet
Matilda Kshesinskaya later had close relationships with the Grand Dukes Sergei Mikhailovich and Andrei Vladimirovich. On October 15, 1911, according to the Highest Decree, the patronymic “Sergeevich” was given to her son Vladimir, who was born on June 18, 1902 in Strelna. In his family he was simply called “Vova”, and his last name was “Krasinsky”.
On January 30, 1921, in Cannes, in the Archangel Michael Church, Matilda Kshesinskaya entered into a morganatic marriage with Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, who adopted her son and gave him his patronymic. In 1925, Matilda converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy with the name Maria.
On November 30, 1926, Nicholas II's cousin Kirill Vladimirovich assigned her and her descendants the title and surname of Prince Krasinski, and on July 28, 1935 - His Serene Highness Prince Romanovsky-Krasinski.
Emigration
In February 1917, Kshesinskaya and her son were forced to wander around other people’s apartments, having lost their luxurious real estate - a mansion, which turned into the “main headquarters of the Leninists,” and a dacha. She decides to go to Kislovodsk to see Prince Andrei Vladimirovich in the hope of returning home soon.
At the beginning of 1918, “the wave of Bolshevism reached Kislovodsk,” and Kshesinskaya and Vova went to Anapa as refugees by the decision of Andrei’s mother, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. The year 1919 was spent in relatively calm Kislovodsk, from where the refugees left for Novorossiysk on a train of 2 cars.
In 1929, Matilda opened her own ballet studio in Paris.
Memoirs of Matilda Kshesinskaya were published in 1960 in Paris on French. The work was published in Russian only in 1992.
The outstanding ballerina lived a long life - she died at the age of 99 a few months before her centenary, on December 5, 1971. She was buried in Paris.
Name: Matilda Kshesinskaya
Age: 99 years old
Place of Birth: Ligovo, Peterhof
A place of death: Paris, France
Activity: prima ballerina, teacher
Family status: was married
Matilda Kshesinskaya - biography
A great ballerina who has a unique technique and influences her audience with dance steps like hypnosis. She was an Honored Artist of His Imperial Majesty.
Childhood, ballerina family
Matilda Feliksovna was born near the northern capital of Russia. Both the prima's mother and father were artists of the Mariinsky Ballet Theater. Grandfather Jan played the violin masterfully and sang in the opera of the capital of Poland. Jan enjoyed the favor of King Stanislaus Augustus, who greatly valued his voice. And Matilda’s great-grandfather Wojciech passed on the genes of the great dancer to his granddaughter. The ballerina has Polish roots, her brothers and sisters are, one way or another, connected with dancing.
Sister Yulia is a ballerina, brother Joseph is a dancer. From childhood, little Malechka already knew how to dance, and from the age of 8 she was already a student at the ballet school. After graduating from school, she performed on the Mariinsky stage with her older sister. She did not leave the stage from 1890 to 1917. The biography of the ballerina was written out for Matilda from her very birth.
Career
The most famous roles were played by the ballerina: the Sugar Plum Fairy, Odette, Nikia. Matilda danced the ballet “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake”, “La Bayadère” and “Sleeping Beauty”, receiving deafening applause. She was familiar with P.I. Tchaikovsky and received the status of a prima ballerina. The dancer took lessons from teacher Enrico Cecchetti, achieving expressive hand movements, softness, plasticity and clear leg movements.
The Russian ballet did not have access to many of the dance elements with which Italian dancers captivated the public. Matilda Kshesinskaya was the first to perform 32 fouettés in a row on stage. Many performances were written specifically for the Russian ballerina, some returned to the stage thanks to Matilda's strong technique.
Innovation
Kshesinskaya collaborated with innovative choreographers, creating her own a new style. Later he decides to leave the theater, after which he enters into an agreement for one-time performances with high pay. Matilda has always been for the development of Russian ballet and opposed the presence of foreign ballerinas in the theater troupe. Matilda leaves forever from hometown, then moves to Kislovodsk and Novorossiysk, from where he goes abroad. From this moment on, the ballerina begins a new biography.
The ballerina received a French visa and settled in her villa. She owns her own ballet studio in the French capital. Kshesinskaya begins to engage in teaching activities. One of her talented students was Tatyana Ryabushinskaya. The ballerina decides to write memoirs about her life and the lives of her loved ones. First, the memoirs were published in French, and much later, after 32 years, they were published in Russia.
Matilda Kshesinskaya - biography of personal life
In the personal life of the ballerina Kshesinskaya there were many moments that were associated with the Romanov royal family. Matilda is considered the mistress of Nikolai Alexandrovich. Their relationship lasted for two years. The Tsarevich bought a house for the ballerina on one of the embankments of St. Petersburg, where their meetings took place. The woman was passionately in love with Nikolai, but both understood that their love could not last long. This is what happened, since the future king was engaged.
The granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, was intended to be Nicholas II's wife. Matilda had relationships with the great princes, from one of them a son, Vladimir, was born, who received the patronymic Sergeevich at birth. Kshesinskaya's son, according to the greatest decree, was given the surname Krasinsky and a noble title, thereby recognizing his relationship with the great princes.
Sergei Mikhailovich loved his Matilda very much. Historical facts indicate that when the bodies of the executed Romanovs were taken out of the mines, a medallion with the image of the famous ballerina was clutched in Sergei’s hand. But she was married to another Grand Duke Andrei, who decided to adopt Vova. The woman converted to Orthodoxy and received the name Maria. With the arrival of the revolutionary-minded masses, Kshesinskaya’s mansion was taken away, and she and her child decide to leave their homeland.
Biography of a ballerina in films and books
There are many rumors about Matilda Feliksovna; her life is of interest due to the fact that her name is mentioned along with crowned heads. Therefore, many writers and directors turn to the history of her work and personal life.
“I spent the best evening with her - the pen is shaking in my hands!”
Nicholas II and Matilda Kshesinskaya: for more than a hundred years their relationship has haunted historians, politicians, writers, idle gossips, zealots of morality... In State Archives Russian Federation, we got acquainted with the diaries of Nikolai Romanov, which he kept in 1890-1894 (the bulk of these records were known only to a narrow circle of specialists). The diaries shed light on the height of the ballerina's romance with the Tsarevich.
This spring, MK published previously unpublished diaries of Matilda Kshesinskaya herself. The miraculously preserved notebooks end in January 1893 - and at the most intriguing moment. The ballerina had an “extremely difficult conversation” with Nikolai: Matilda insisted that it was time for them to finally experience the “bliss of love.”
The heir to the throne, as Kshesinskaya describes, replied: “It’s time!”, and promised that everything would happen soon.
From Matilda’s last entry dated January 23, 1893, it follows that Nikolai did not visit her after this conversation; the ballerina continued to wait for his visit.
THE INTIMATE DIARIES OF MATILDA KSHESINSKAYA - in our
But the object of her passion also kept a diary, maybe there are some convincing facts there? What did the future Nicholas II himself write about during this period? And what is his overall “version” of the affair with Kshesinskaya?
Until now, articles and books have quoted only isolated fragments from the early diaries of Nikolai Romanov, including those for 1890 - the first half of 1894. The MK correspondent had to sit down for several weeks in the State Archives of the Russian Federation and study the notebooks stored there, filled out by the hand of the future Russian emperor.
And we found an entry in the diary of the heir to the throne from exactly the same January 23rd, on which Matilda’s surviving diary was interrupted! And most importantly - from January 25, when Nikolai “spent the best evening with her,” after which “the pen was shaking in his hands.”
But before we try to unravel the tangle of Nicholas’s amorous relationship with Matilda with the help of a diary, let’s take a look at other episodes of the Tsarevich’s life that are noteworthy from an everyday point of view.
“I decided to get a dragon tattoo.”
Nothing human was alien to him. In relation to Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov - the future Emperor of Russia and To the Royal Passion-Bearer, canonized many years later, such a statement does not at all look like sacrilege.
The “compromising” diary entries made by this man in his youth, in fact, cannot at all belittle the feat of his last period of life - after his renunciation. And even more so, their quoting here should not be regarded as an attempt to denigrate the Orthodox Saint revered by many.
After all, canonical church literature, the Lives of the Saints, and even the Bible contain references to many people who initially led an unrighteous life, but at some point repented of past sins and accomplished a spiritual feat.
So we will be sympathetic to the weaknesses of Tsarevich Nicholas. Including his infatuation with a pretty ballerina. We must not forget that during the period of time that interests us, the future king was a little over 20!
« June 22, 1890. Bivouac at the Tsarskaya Slavyanka... We had a wonderfully fun whole night: we had dinner, played in the hay, ran in the garden, climbed on the roof and told jokes after dinner. The evening and night were perfect.
April 16, 1891. (During a long stop in Nagasaki, Japan - A.D.) After lunch I decided to get a dragon tattoo on my right hand. It took exactly seven hours - from 9 pm to 4 am! It’s enough to go through this kind of pleasure once to discourage yourself from starting again. The dragon came out great, and my hand didn’t hurt at all!
The tattoo is visible on the emperor's right hand.
February 16, Sunday. Wide Maslenitsa. Now after breakfast I went with Ksenia (sister - A.D.) to the ballet “King Candaulus”... We had a very fun dinner at Uncle Alexei’s and finally, having lost Maslenitsa, returned home at 3 o’clock in the morning.
February 17. (First day of Lent - A. D.) Fasting began. Thoughts and thoughts have not yet been fully applied to the church direction after Maslenitsa. But it doesn’t matter, I like opposites.”
Judging by the diary entries, only the first six days of Lent were spent by the entire royal family under strict restrictions. On Saturday, during the first week of week, the sovereign with his wife and children received Holy Communion, and after that it was possible to “relax” again - at least to the younger generation, – until the beginning of Holy Week.
"28th of February. I’m lucky that I don’t have any consequences from drinking the next day. On the contrary, I feel better and somehow excited!... At 8 o'clock. had lunch. Then I got to the notorious Izmailovsky leisure (feast of officers in the Izmailovsky Guards Regiment - A. D.), stuck in the shelf until 6 am - this has already been going on for two nights in a row - it’s simply unbearable!
March 16. We had dinner... with the ladies. Then I was and even stayed in wine vapors until 6 o’clock. Morning."
Mentions of cheerful “childish” undertakings, even not always characteristic of his age, are, of course, more common in the heir’s notes on ordinary days.
« 14th of April. At 7 o'clock went to P.A. Cherevin (adjutant general - A.D.). Besides me, Dimka Golitsyn, Volodya Sh., Hesse, Nikita Vsevolozhsky, Kotya Obolensky, Kochubey and Gorbunov dined. They fed us...excellently; Gorbunov's anecdotes were very good. Especially obscene ones...
July 11. Woke up on the sofa near the bathroom. I felt extremely unreliable all day, as if a squadron had spent the night in my mouth... Returning to my room after breakfast, I began to experience the unfortunate consequences of the feast. I slept with Mama (that’s what he called his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna - A. D.) on the couch, then took a walk and came home to tea, which I didn’t want to drink at all.
21 July. Now it’s been a month since I stopped shaving, and some funny semblance of a beard has grown on my chin. It’s even somehow strange to write about this!
2nd of March. I went with Mitya in the troika on duty to Uncle Pavel (Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich - A.D.). We played with balls upstairs, broke two chandeliers and went downstairs to drink tea...
September 17. We rode bicycles and had a great apple fight. A good time for 25 year old boys!”
In fairness, it should be noted, along with all these liberties, even outright boyishness, also the truly devout faith of the future emperor. Almost every Sunday diary entry mentions his attendance at mass in the church. And for the heir to the throne this was by no means self-inflicted, a forced concession to court protocol. We find confirmation of this, for example, in the diary for 1893.
"November 28, Sunday. I really don’t like it when I can’t go to church on Sunday!” (This time the Tsarevich was in Oranienbaum, where another moose hunt was organized. - A. D.).
“I looked from behind the curtain at a women’s gymnastics lesson.”
A separate selection of quotes from the diary is devoted to the “women's issue.” The young Tsarevich did not very often - if we exclude mentions of Matilda Kshesinskaya and Alice of Hesse, his future wife - addressed this piquant topic in his notes. Did women's charms really leave him indifferent? But it is all the more interesting to read those rare mentions of Nicholas about representatives of the fair sex, in which, at least, there is some hint of flirting or, conversely, a categorical unpreparedness for it.
« March 18, 1891. I had a lot of fun (in Saigon, at a ball given by the French admiral Vonar - A.D.) behind the cotillion, when he danced with lovely m-m Banche. I confess that I am completely carried away by her - she is so sweet, Beatiful lady and speaks surprisingly well! I danced with her for three hours, and it seemed to me too short a time!.. When we parted, we said goodbye touchingly... It was at 5 ½ o'clock. morning.
April 15, 1891. Finally, at eight o'clock in excellent sunny weather, we saw the high shores of the long-desired Japan... Having passed the island of Panenberg... we saw Nagasaki in the depths of the bay... In the evening there were only 8 people in the wardroom; nevertheless, the midshipmen were in the Russian village of Inasu (a Russian colony that existed in the suburbs of Nagasaki - A.D.), where everyone has already gotten married.
I confess and I would really like to follow common example, but it’s a shame because Holy Week has come.”
(This refers to the established in those years among the Russians naval officers tradition: during long stops in Japan, “marry” local young beauties. In the Land of the Rising Sun there was even a term “temporary wife”. This was the name for the officially permitted relationship between a foreign national and a Japanese national: during the foreigner’s stay in Japan, he received, by paying a certain amount, “for family use” a girl from a low-income family that he liked, whom he was obliged to support in a dignified manner. The terms of such “lease” could vary from a month to several years - A.D.)
"January 29, 1892. He climbed into Ksenia’s room and from behind the curtain looked at her gymnastics lesson with a pretty young lady.
November 24.(In the Abas-Tuman estate - A.D.) The ladies are still the same: the old widow of Admiral G.M. Butakov, Azbeleva with her sister (muzzle), the wife of the Bulgarian officer Krestev, Kobordo’s daughter and a young Muscovite with a governess - an ass-shaped Swiss.
February 26, 1894. At 3 o’clock the ball began in Anichkovo... I was dissatisfied with the boring female cast.”
“Little Kshesinskaya has become even prettier”
Let us turn to the main thing, for the sake of which the diaries of the Tsarevich were taken from the archival funds. Additional assistance in deciphering and assessing some events can be provided by Kshesinskaya’s diary outpourings - much more detailed. And some moments in the relationship between Nikolai and Matilda are quite convincingly evidenced by the complete absence of mentions of them in the diary.
« March 23, 1890. We went to a performance at the Theater School. There were short plays and ballet - very good. We had dinner with the pupils.”
Very succinctly. And without mentioning the name of Matilda Kshesinskaya. But it is still known for sure that it was on this day that they met. All communication details young man and the girls at the ever-memorable dinner in detail - on two pages, Malechka described in her diary. Her heart really skipped a beat at that first meeting. But the Tsarevich seemed to be “breathing evenly” at first. Although he was clearly impressed by the talent of the young ballerina.
The first and very unambiguous mention of Matilda appears - however, this quote has been published more than once.
"July 6. Slept until 5 ½ pm. After lunch we went to the theater. Positively, Kshesinskaya 2 is very interesting to me. (Two Kshesinsky sisters danced in the ballet troupe. The eldest, Yulia, was called Kshesinskaya 1st in the posters, and the younger, Matilda, Kshesinskaya 2nd. - A.D.)
July 31st. After a snack I went to the lovely Krasnoselsky theater for the last time. I said goodbye to Kshesinskaya.
August 1. At 12 noon the standards were consecrated. Standing in the ranks of the division at the Krasnoselsky Theater teased me with its memories!”
This is about fleeting meetings in the theater backstage with Matilda! So, have you already been “captured” by a pretty ballerina? However, subsequent events did not contribute to the development of this hobby: the Tsarevich left for the regiment for military maneuvers near Narva. At such a long distance, Kshesinskaya’s charm, it seems, had not yet worked. But the Tsarevich’s thoughts turned to another representative of the fair sex, in whom his interest awoke much earlier - Alice of Hesse, the future empress.
« August 20. God! How I want to go to Ilyinskoye! Now Victoria and Alix (Princess Alice of Hesse - A.D.). Otherwise, if I don’t see her now, I’ll have to wait a whole year, and that’s hard!!!”
Then there was almost a month of the Tsarevich’s stay with his parents at the royal hunting residence of Spala on the territory of Poland. And only at the end of September he returned to his native land. Some time after this, the name of the charming ballet diva flashed in the records again.
« 17 October. At 7 o'clock we drove from Ropsha to St. Petersburg to say goodbye to ballet! The wonderful “Sleeping Beauty” was on. I saw Kshesinskaya 2nd.”
Ahead was waiting for him long separation and with his family, and with St. Petersburg theaters, and with a girl he liked. Alexander III sent his eldest son on a journey to Far East. The crown prince returned to the Russian capital only in August 1892.
« August 4, 1892. For the first time I was at the Krasnoselsky Theater. The play was boring, but the ballet was lively. I saw little Kshesinskaya, who became even prettier.”
Matilda Kshesinskaya in a ballet role.
Then again there followed a long interval of time without any mention of this young lady in the diary. The Tsarevich was faced with a new parting with the capital's regions. Together with his parents, he went to Denmark to visit his maternal relatives. And after that, Alexander III and his loved ones moved to Crimea for a traditional vacation. Only closer to mid-November the royal family settled in Gatchina again. But in diary entries In the following days, Nicholas has no mention of meetings with Kshesinskaya, or at least that he dreams of such meetings. But in the notebook there is a mention of a completely different cherished desire.
"21 December. In the evening at Mom's... we talked about the lives of today's young people from society. This conversation touched the most living string of my soul, touched that dream, that hope with which I live every day. A year and a half has already passed since I talked about this with Papa in Peterhof, and since then nothing has changed, neither in a bad nor in a good sense! – My dream is to someday marry Alix G. I have loved her for a long time, but even deeper and stronger since 1889, when she spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg in winter. I resisted my feeling for a long time, trying to deceive myself with the impossibility of realizing my cherished dream!.. The only obstacle or gap between her and me is the question of religion!.. I’m almost convinced that our feelings are mutual!”
However, in the absence of any direct contacts with Alice, after some time the heir again returned to interest in the “ballet charmer.”
« February 15, 1892 Today I was overcome by theatrical fever, which happens every Maslenitsa. After a short reception I went to Mariinskii Opera House to my favorite “Sleeping Beauty”... I talked a little on stage with K.
28th of February. I went for a ride with Ksenia in a stroller and met someone on the embankment.”
Behind this impersonal mention in the context of previous entries, Matilda Kshesinskaya is clearly visible. Moreover, in her diary she repeatedly described how she specially rode in a carriage along the central streets of St. Petersburg in order to “accidentally” meet the Tsarevich.
« 10th of March. At 8 o'clock. went to the Theater School, where I saw a good performance of drama classes and ballet. At dinner I sat with the pupils as before, only little Kshesinskaya is sorely missing.”
“My poor Little One had a sore eye.”
The most important event in the “heartfelt” story of Nikolai and Matilda happened the next day. It marked the beginning of a much more trusting relationship between the Tsarevich and the ballerina.
« March 11, 1892. I spent the evening in a wonderful way: I went to a new place for me, to the Kshesinsky sisters. They were terribly surprised to see me there. I sat with them for more than 2 hours, chatting about everything incessantly. Unfortunately, my poor Little one had a pain in her eye, which was bandaged, and besides, her leg was not entirely healthy. But there was great mutual joy! After drinking tea, I said goodbye to them and arrived home at one in the morning. The three of us had a great time spending the last day of my stay in St. Petersburg with such faces!
March 19. I went for a ride. On Morskaya I met K.... I walked in the garden and drank tea alone!”
From the first days of their close acquaintance, a correspondence began between Nikolai and Matilda. Judging by Kshesinskaya’s diary notes, they sometimes wrote letters to each other almost every day. However, in the Tsarevich’s diary, mention of the epistolary side of their relationship with Malechka occurs only once.
"20th of March. The weather was bad and the mood was not good. I didn’t receive the letter and that’s why I was bored! But what can you do, not every day is a holiday!”
But future emperor very punctually takes notes on every, even fleeting, meeting with his crush.
« 21 March. I went to the Maly Theater to Uncle Alexei's box. They were performing an interesting play “Thermidor”... The Kshesinskys were sitting in the theater right opposite!
March 22. After breakfast at 1 ¼ I immediately went for a ride into the city... I saw the Kshesinskys again. They were in the playpen and then stood still on the Karavannaya.
March 23. I went to St. Petersburg for 4 days!.. At 11 o’clock. evening went to my friends Kshesinsky. Spent time with them fun and at home. The older one was playing the piano, and I was chatting with the younger one! Beautiful evening!
March 24. After lunch I went to visit the Kshesinskys, where I spent a pleasant hour and a half..."
Apparently, the charm of the pretty ballerina played a role, and the Tsarevich became seriously interested in her. However, his feelings for Alice did not leave him.
« April 1st. Very strange phenomenon, which I notice in myself: I never thought that two identical feelings, two loves are simultaneously compatible in the soul. Now it’s been four years that I love Alix G. and I constantly cherish the thought, God willing, of marrying her someday!.. And from the camp of 1890 to this time I have passionately fallen in love (platonically) with little K. An amazing thing our heart! At the same time, I can’t stop thinking about Alix G. Really, can we conclude after this that I’m very amorous? To a certain extent, yes. But I must add that inside I am a strict judge and extremely picky!
Nikolai's diary.
An interesting fact: at first, after his first visit to the Kshesinsky house, Nikolai uses very gentle addresses in his notes - Malenka, Malechka. And from the diaries of the ballerina herself it is known that during that visit of the Tsarevich on March 11, they agreed to call each other confidentially: Niki and Malya. However, in the future, the heir to the throne himself avoided such familiarity - at least on the pages of the diary. Either initials or surname appear there.
« 14th of April. At about 11 ½ I went to M. Kshesinskaya. She was alone again. We spent time chatting and reading “The Petersburg Action.”
« April 16. I rode along different streets and met the Kshesinskys... We arrived with Sandro and Sergei (Grand Dukes Alexander and Sergei Mikhailovich - A.D.) to the theatre. They gave "The Queen of Spades"! I enjoyed sitting through this opera. M. danced in the shepherdess. Then I went to see her, unfortunately, only for a short time. Our conversations are fun and lively! I enjoy these dates.
20 April. I went to St. Petersburg... I rode in a carriage for a long time and met the Kshesinskys 4 times. I drive by, bow importantly and try not to laugh! At 7 o'clock had lunch at Sandro's and together at 9 o'clock. we went to the court musical choir... There was a French operetta... I left only at 12 ½ straight to M.K. I stayed for a very long time and had an extremely good time. There was even a little treat! I was extremely happy to learn from M. something that interested me very much! It's time! I'm on my way!"
The final part of the diary entry looks intriguing. What is “time”? – One could assume Nikolai’s determination to take some active steps to further develop this love story and take the relationship with the girl he liked to a more “serious” level. However, neither in Matilda’s diaries, nor in the diaries of Nicholas himself in the following days, weeks, months, is there a hint of such revolutionary changes. Although their meetings occurred frequently, sometimes the Tsarevich stayed (but he stayed!) with his beloved until the morning.
« April 21. We went to the new opera “Prince Silver”... From the theater I went to M. Kshesinskaya, where I again spent a nice evening. This is how it got promoted – for the second day in a row. Sandro also appeared there for an hour. They danced to his music!
April 29. At 10 o'clock I went from Gatchino to St. Petersburg and from the station straight to the Kshesinskys. It was the last evening (the Tsarevich had to leave for a military field camp - A.D.), but also the best. Elder sister returned from the opera and went to bed, leaving M. and me alone. We talked about a lot of things to our liking!
April 30. We parted at about 5 o'clock. morning, when the sun had already risen high. It is done conscientiously, passing by policemen. (As Matilda Kshesinskaya wrote in her diary, there were cases when the Tsarevich even gave money to the law enforcement officers on duty on the street so that they “wouldn’t recognize him.” A. D.)
“May 3. In the military camp in Kaporsky, I walked around in a sad mood all day. Real melancholy is gnawing at me!”
The Tsarevich sailed with his parents to Denmark. The royal family stayed abroad until the end of May, and soon after returning to Russia, without staying in St. Petersburg, the crown prince went to a camp on the Military Field near Mikhailovka.
The “abroad”, rich in events and meetings, and then the everyday life of the army, so dear to his heart, quickly overshadowed in Nikolai’s head the seductive memories of his dates with Matilda. Not even a hint of it in his notes for this period - more than two months! – does not occur.
“The kidnapping was carried out quickly and secretly!”
The next stage of the “love series” began in July 1892.
"July 23. After the rehearsal with the battery of the ceremonial march on the Military Field, I went to gallop to Krasny and casually dropped into the theater for the rehearsal. I spent a very pleasant hour with M. Kshesinskaya, who positively turned my head!
July 27. At 2 ½ pm I went to Krasnoe for a rehearsal, which dragged on. I returned to Mikhailovka by lunchtime, after which I went with Sergei to the theater. After the performance, he moved to another troika without bells, returned to the theater and, taking M.K. with him, took him first for a ride and, finally, to a large military camp. The five of us had a great dinner. The kidnapping was carried out quickly and secretly! Felt very happy! We parted ways at six o'clock in the morning, the sun was shining high...
July 28th. I didn’t have to sleep much, so what! But the reason is too good and such a vigil is not even enough for it... After breakfast I sat in my room and kept remembering last night...
5th of August. Having seen Papa and Mama after visiting my home in Mikhailovka to the intersection of the road with the Ropshinskoe highway, I rode on horseback to Krasnoe for the last time for a rehearsal at the theater. I talked with M.K., consoled her before separation, but, it seems, to no avail, the melancholy began to be strong!.. At 8 o'clock. went to the last performance of the Krasnoselsky theater... In the evening I took M.K. for a ride in a troika and said goodbye to her well.”
This time the Tsarevich was absent until mid-December. He again participated in military maneuvers (now near Ivangorod). He spent almost the entire September with his parents in the royal hunting residences in Poland. Then there was a trip to Austria, Greece, and, finally, a long stay in Abas-Tuman - visiting my brother.
In the records for this period, there are no signs of the Tsarevich’s regret about the meeting with Matilda, which was delayed for almost another month. So Nikolai is Once again“cooled down”, being away from the pretty St. Petersburg ballerina? Although, judging by Kshesinskaya’s diaries, correspondence between them was not interrupted during these months.
Having finally returned to the capital, the heir to the throne is in no hurry to resume dating. Judging by the records, he saw Matilda in January.
« January 3. Although I was an officer on duty, Dad let me go to the theater. There was a mixture of different ballets, but nevertheless it was successful. Finally M.K. danced, and I was very pleased with her!
4 January. After sitting with Sandro, I went to see M.K. for an hour. I found Yu. too, it was nice!”
That very evening
The moment has come for the lovers to make a decisive explanation. The heir's diary entry about the events of that day related to Kshesinskaya is very laconic.
« January 8. At 6 ½ pm I went to the Preobrazhensky Regiment for a monthly dinner. Had a great time. I visited M.K. and stayed with her for a long time. We had a serious conversation with each other."
But Matilda described the vicissitudes of a “serious conversation” in every detail - she insisted on intimacy, Nikolai seemed to give up, saying the notorious “It’s time” and promising that everything would happen in a week.
What was happening to Nikolai these days, did he somehow prepare for such an exciting “event”, did he think about it, anticipate it?
« January 9. We went ice skating... We had family dinner, after which we went to the French theater. They gave a funny play... Finally went to bed early.
January 10. In the evening there was a conversation with the three of Dad and Mom. I’m allowed to start finding out about Alix when I’m in Berlin.”
Very interesting. That is, “amorous affairs” with Matilda did not captivate him even during this period? And on the eve of his closest relationship with the charming ballerina, the heir to the throne continued to think about German princess, leaving no hope of achieving success with Alice of Hesse?
The next day, the Tsarevich actually went to Berlin to attend the wedding of Kaiser Wilhelm's younger sister. Nikolai’s “representative” visit lasted a week, but during this time his “Hessian dream” was mentioned only once in the diary, and even then laconically, without emotion.
It is clear that His Highness’s “approaches” regarding the possibility of a future marriage to a German beauty did not yield any results. Someone else in his place in a similar situation, you see, would have decided to quickly “fill the vacuum.” Now is the time to fulfill your promise to Malechka! However, the Tsarevich was clearly in no hurry to do this. A day, two, three passed after his return to St. Petersburg, but no meetings between the heir to the throne and the ballerina happened. Moreover, Nikolai was the culprit for this. It seems that he deliberately avoided a visit to the house of the Kshesinsky sisters, finding reasons to replace the “decisive” meeting with Malechka with something else.
In the diaries - playing billiards, gatherings with guards officers, dancing... - this is wonderful, however, if a young man is truly passionate about a girl and knows that she is really waiting for him... And not just really waiting! Yes, here you will give up all other entertainment and rush off to a date! However, Nikolai found time only on the sixth day of his stay in St. Petersburg. Exactly on the day on which Kshesinskaya’s diary ends - “I hoped that he would come to me, and so I hurried home!
And he went.
« January 23. After tea I read. At 7 o'clock There was lunch at Uncle Alexei's. Then everyone went to the Mikhailovsky Theater... Finally I managed to go to M.K.... I spent a very pleasant time with her.”
Judging by this completely standard wording, the date was the same as before: no “exclusive”. And the next day was again busy with His Highness’s participation in high society life.
“January 24. At 10 o'clock the first Concert Ball began in the Winter Palace. It was lively. I danced the mazurka and dined with the eldest princess Gorchakova - very reminiscent of M.K.”
Malechka would probably be delighted to read this remark: it means that her position in the heart of the Tsarevich is preserved! And the next day the persistent young lady could celebrate a big victory. Here, perhaps, main quote about the romance of Nikolai and Matilda.
« January 25, Monday. In the evening I flew to my M.K. and spent the best evening with her so far. Being impressed by her, the pen is shaking in my hands!”
There are no specific formulations in this rather clumsy (due to excess emotions?) entry from Nikolai. Let everyone who reads it draw conclusions “to the extent of their own depravity.” Although... Can anyone explain what could have happened between two lovers such that the young man’s hands are shaking with excitement even half a day later? Did you hug and kiss? So they (judging by Kshesinskaya’s diaries) had “sinned” like this long before. Means...
"Gichiri-pichiri was happening"
Since significant day On January 25, 1893, “delightful” meetings between the Tsarevich and the ballerina became regular. Their number can even be counted if desired, since Nikolai meticulously recorded each of their rendezvous in his diary.
« January 27. At 12 o’clock in the evening I went to see M.K., with whom I stayed until 4 o’clock. We had a good chat, laughed, and tinkered.”
Let it be, however the last word does not introduce excessive temptation to supporters of the “maximum” relationship between Nikolai and Matilda. Indeed, in the diaries of the heir to the throne, such a verb is used in different interpretations. “We were fiddling around on our walk, jumping and getting stuck in places where the snow was deeper.” “There was a lot of fiddling around in the ballroom of the Winter Palace.” “I was fiddling around at home with checking the officers’ tasks...”
« January 29. After lunch we went to the Mariinsky Theater to see “Mlada” - an opera-ballet... From the theater I went only for an hour, unfortunately, to see M.K.
January 30. Let's go to the French theater... Returning home, I stopped by the 1st battalion, examined the sleeping soldiers and went to M.K. Spent a wonderful 3 hours with her!
January 31. Got up late, but in great spirits... Had a snack at home at 7 ½ o'clock. Just at this time “Sleeping Beauty” began, and my thoughts were there, since the main character was M.K.!
1st of February. At 10 ¼ pm I went... to a ball in the Marine Corps... I left at one o'clock and went to M.K. The conversation with her was heated, but everything ended for the better.
February 3rd. After the snack, I went with Aunt Marie to a funny play... Having brought her home, I went to M.K. and from there in a troika of four (also Yulia Kshesinskaya and Baron Alexander Zeddeler, her future husband- A.D.) went for a ride to the islands. It was extremely nice... We arrived at Zeddeler's, where we had a great dinner. We returned to them in pairs (Kshesinsky – A.D.) to the apartment, where I stayed until 6 o'clock. morning.
February 6. Left at 12 o'clock. to Uncle Alexei, had a good dinner with him and then visited my M.K., where he stayed until 6 o’clock. morning."
The days of fasting have begun. His Highness had to keep himself “strict” at least for a while. And this is in full swing love relationship It wasn't easy with Matilda. However, as mentioned above, young Nikolai observed real fasting only in the first and last week. At the end of winter and beginning of spring, the heir visits Kshesinskaya almost every day.
We were especially interested in the mysterious expression “gichiri-pichiri” in the crown prince’s description of further events.
« February 8. Great Lent!.. Now we need to lead a moderate life - go to bed and get up early!.. Fasting has begun. What was running through my head was not waltzes and quadrilles, as had happened before after the season, but more music from “Sleeping.”
February 13, Saturday. At mass I received Holy Communion... In the evening we finished the fast at the all-night vigil.
The 14th of February. At 7 ½ there was a family dinner, after which I went to the French theater. Spent most evenings at M.K.
18th of Febuary. I drank tea upstairs at Mama’s and then went for two hours to M.K. – the last time I was in their old apartment. (The sisters moved to this rented housing from their father’s house on Malechka’s initiative back in 1892: anticipating future regular meetings with the Tsarevich, she made sure to “fly away” from under parental care. In the winter of 1893, Malya and Yulia moved to a more spacious and comfortable “ nest." - A.D.)
February 20th. I didn’t go to the theater, but I went to M.K. and the four of us had a great time (with Julia and A. Zeddeler - A.D.) had a housewarming dinner. They moved to a new home, a cozy mansion house on two floors... It is very nice to have a separate household and be independent. We sat again until 4 o'clock.
February 23. After homemade tea, I went to the regiment for a general lunch... From there I went to M.K. The five of us had dinner with Preobrazhenskaya. Then gichiri-pichiri (??? – A.D.). At night, returning home, I wandered for a long time on foot due to the lack of a cab.
25 February. I drank tea at home and went to M.K., where I had dinner as usual and had a great time.
March, 3rd. He left for home at 12 ½ at night and, having changed clothes, went to M.K. He stayed until the morning.
5th of March. After tea I went to M.K. We had a wonderful dinner together. I arrived home at 5 am.
March 8. At 12½ I went to M.K.’s for dinner; were Preobrazhensky. We played makashka (in Macau - A.D.), had fun.
9th of March. Returning home from the German theater, I went to M.K. We had quite a great dinner big company. I arrived home at 4 ¼ o’clock.”
Meanwhile, the date arrived in this love story: exactly a year has passed since that significant evening when the Tsarevich came to the Kshesinskys’ house for the first time and their rapprochement with Malechka began.
"11th of March. In the evening I went to M.K. We had a great dinner and everyone was in very good spirits. I stopped by Zeddeler's, chatted and had a drink. This is how I celebrated the first anniversary of this day.
March 14th. After dinner, I took Ksenia to the Vorontsovs, with whom we spent the entire evening. Returning home, he went to M.K. The three of us had dinner, since A. had gone to the line (to his regiment stationed in Malaya Vishera - A.D.). Had a perfect night!
March 16. I went to M.K. for the last time. The four of us had dinner with Preobrazhenskaya. It was very sad to leave after two months of just dating.”
Cooling
The heir to the throne had to travel a lot on business trips: this was required by army service, and more often by parental will. In mid-March 1893, together with Papa and Mama, Nikolai set off from St. Petersburg to Crimea. He really didn’t want to part with Matilda in the midst of their love.
« 18th of March. (In a train carriage on the way to Sevastopol. – A.D.) In the evenings I especially think about someone!”
However, even at such a “peak” of relations, the heir to the throne, finding himself far from the object of his desires, quickly calmed down. His heartfelt impulses subsided literally in a matter of days, and further there are no hints of “passion for Matilda”, of the desire to quickly return to St. Petersburg and see her in his diaries. However, Nikolai writes that he would like to be in the capital, but he indicates a completely different reason.
« April 6. I asked Dad about the date of my return to St. Petersburg. He said that I should stay here, since now our family very rarely gets together. And I’m very sorry, I really wanted to see the regiment again!”
I missed my fellow officers, friendly conversations and feasts, drill exercises, but not at all the affection of women. And this applies not only to Malechka. Between the lines of the diary, the same absence of male emotions can be read in relation to another girl who seemed to be very interested in him - Alice of Hesse. Her name has not been mentioned even once in Nikolai’s notes in all these months. Have you lost interest in the German princess? Or did he consider that the obstacles to marriage with her were too great?
A. P. Sokolov. Portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (1897).
Perhaps the attitude of the young heir to the throne, even towards the women he cares about, can be likened to the interaction of a sheet of paper and a match: when the flame is at a distance, it does not affect the sheet in any way, and only when they come closer does the fire spread to the paper, and it flares up. While he and Matilda were separated by two thousand miles, the Tsarevich remained completely indifferent to love affairs. But as soon as he returned to St. Petersburg, the meeting took place the very next day.
There are no details or emotions in the recording. However, it seems that the “flame” did not “burn out” very much this time. In any case, over the next few weeks, no mention of new meetings with Kshesinskaya could be found in the diary. And on the eve of his next “absence” from the capital (he was scheduled to visit England), Nikolai writes that he doesn’t really want to leave because “it’s hard to leave the regiment and your battalion just at the most active time in the camp.” Again, army interests and no “heartfelt” reasons!
This foreign voyage lasted more than two weeks. After him, there was no “renaissance” in the relationship between Matilda and Nikolai. That is, the friendship between these two young people still existed, but it was very moderate. They met, but fleetingly, briefly. There was no longer any talk of any dates that lasted until dawn.
This is precisely the conclusion that arises when you read the diary of the heir to the throne for this period. Apparently, it was Nikolai who initiated this “calm down”.
Against the backdrop of an obvious cooling towards Kshesinskaya, Nikolai was quite happy with a cheerful bachelor life in a military camp. However, this freedom came to an end. Very soon the imperial family once again went to visit their relatives in Denmark. These Danish “vacations” lasted almost two months,
The St. Petersburg autumn of 1893, and then the winter, passed for His Highness in virtually complete detachment from Kshesinskaya, who had once so enchanted him. The Tsarevich no longer maintained personal contacts with her, although he himself admitted in his notes that he lacked human friendly communication.
What caused the cooling? From the memoirs of contemporaries we know that rumors about the affair between Kshesinskaya and Nikolai were discussed with might and main in high society. The heir to the throne was watched by the police “for security reasons” - his trips to Kshesinskaya were also known from these sources. In general, the matter was becoming too resonant.
But the main thing is that the Tsarevich did not leave thoughts about Alice of Hesse. However, he unexpectedly paid attention to another ballerina.
« November 17. I dined at Uncle Misha's and went to the wonderful Sleeping Beauty. Danced by M. Kshesinskaya. From the theater straight to Gatchino, where I arrived at 12 ½”.
Having received purely aesthetic pleasure from the ballet, Nikolai did not even linger in the theater, not to mention stopping by, as happened before, to visit Malechka. Instead, go home and sleep.
Surely Kshesinskaya was very worried about her obvious defeat in her relationship with Nikolai. And then a dangerous competitor appeared on the stage, threatening to intercept the attention of the avid theatergoer - the Tsarevich. Indeed, in his diaries there appeared enthusiastic references to the new ballet performance of the Mariinsky Theater.
« December 4. At 2 o'clock I went to the dress rehearsal of the new ballet "Cendrillon". The new Italian Pierina Legnani danced marvelously.
January 9, 1894 We hurried to the ballet. There was a revival of “Katarina” with Legnani, who danced marvelously. I've never seen anything like it!
January 23. After a snack I went to the ballet. “Cinderella” was on again. I went to the stage and met Legnani.
January 26. At 8 o'clock. I went with Mama, Ksenia and Sandro to the theater. There was a benefit performance by Legnani in the wonderful “Coppelia”. I gave her and my uncles a brooch.”
Pierina Legnani.
Matilda, at the end of 1893, nevertheless tried to launch a “counter-offensive” and regain at least part of her position in the heart of the Tsarevich. In the last weeks of December, her name suddenly appeared in Nikolai’s diary entries. And it didn’t just flash, he mentions several long, all-night “binges” in the Kshesinsky mansion. True, a large crowd gathered for these feasts, and, apparently, His Highness did not have any privacy with his former beloved.
« December 10. 1893 At 5 o'clock I went from Gatchino to St. Petersburg... Had dinner at M.K.'s in a cheerful company. We played baccarat until the morning and lost.
That December evening in the house of the Kshesinsky sisters, about which Nikolai does not provide any details, seemed to be the last real date in the “love story” of the crown prince and the ballerina. Further in the diaries of the heir to the throne, the name Matilda appears only a few times, and only then in connection with her participation in ballet performances that he attended.
“I was hoping to stop being a bachelor”
So, apparently, feelings for the “magnificent” Matilda have completely disappeared from the heart of the heir to the throne.
As for the future Russian empress, in November 1893, Nicholas received a message from the object of his affections, which seemed to finally put an end to all matrimonial plans.
« November 18th. In the morning I opened the package that had been lying on the table since last night, and from Alix’s letter from Darmstadt I learned that everything was over between us - a change of religion is impossible for her, and before this inexorable obstacle all my hope, best dreams and most cherished desires for the future collapse . Until recently it seemed bright and tempting to me and even soon achievable, but now it seems indifferent!!! It is terribly difficult to appear calm and cheerful when in this way the question regarding the entire future life is immediately resolved!
31th of December. Met New Year at Mom's... I must say in conclusion that he, that is, 1893, thank God, passed safely, but that I personally hoped to no longer be a bachelor. But God Almighty alone is free in everything!”
This entry contains the main possible explanation for the metamorphoses that occurred in the relationship between Kshesinskaya and Nikolai in the second half of the year. Probably, the Tsarevich still seriously counted on the success of his matchmaking with Alice, and therefore - in order to be clear before future wife- decided to nullify private communication with the ballerina. Another question, which is now unlikely to be answered, is what was more in such a decision: a strong-willed effort on oneself or a loss of elementary male interest in Matilda?
Nicholas and Alice of Hesse.
The story of the engagement of Nicholas and Alice of Hesse is widely known. It seems that after her refusal, sent in November, Nikolai should have started looking for another candidate for his wife, but he did not want to give up. The opportunity to somehow influence the situation in personal communication with the princess appeared in the spring of 1894. Nikolai Alexandrovich was sent by his parents as a representative of the Russian Imperial family to the next “royal” wedding in Germany.
"5th of April. Coburg. God, what a day it is today! After coffee around 10 o'clock. came to Aunt Ella's room Erni (Alice's brother Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse - A.D.) and Alix. She looked remarkably prettier, but looked extremely sad. We were left alone, and then that conversation began between us, which I had long sincerely desired and at the same time was very afraid of. They talked until 12 o'clock, but to no avail. She is still opposed to changing religion. She, poor thing, cried a lot... My soul is tired today.”
However, after this, the “heavy artillery” joined the matchmaking business - those who came to Coburg for the wedding celebration British Queen Victoria is Alice's grandmother and her cousin, German Emperor Wilhelm II. Thanks to common efforts, all obstacles were finally removed. On April 8, the engagement took place.
Overcome by the fever of love, the heir to the throne even seemed to have forgotten about his passion for the theater: in his diaries there are no entries about attending performances. And even more so, Nikolai removed from himself all reminders of Kshesinskaya’s former passion.
And Matilda herself, knowing full well that it was impossible to return the crown prince’s feelings and prevent his marriage to Alice of Hesse, found the strength to cope with despair and find new support in her personal life. This strong-willed woman soon managed to find a replacement for Nikolai - also from the Romanov family. And she was now bored with people not of “royal” blood.
« December 15. In the noble assembly there is an annual big masquerade in favor of the Humane Society. I was the subject of everyone's attention and, despite all this, I was not having fun, no one was interested in me. If there were still Mikhailovichs (Grand Dukes Sergei and Alexander - A.D.), I would have more fun. Previously, even a year ago, I would have been very pleased with this ball, but now I have become more demanding, I cannot have fun where there are only mere mortals.”
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich.
Just one of the Grand Dukes mentioned in this entry - Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov, the Tsarevich's uncle - became the “comforter” of the charming ballerina...
Judging by the meager mentions of events in the diary entries of the heir to the throne himself, he had a serious relationship with Kshesinskaya only for less than four months in the winter-spring of 1893.
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