Alexandra Yourieff - In Quislings Shadow: The Memoirs of Vidkun Quislings First Wife, Alexandra

The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the thirty-first president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic and international affairs. The views expressed in its publications are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, officers, or Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution.

www.hoover.org

Hoover Institution Press Publication No. 553

Hoover Institution at Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, California, 94305-6010

Copyright 2007 Kirsten A. Seaver and the W. George Yourieff Estate

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher and copyright holders.

Original Norwegian edition, Alexandra Voronine: Quislings unge hustru, was published in 1999 by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.

First printing 2007

14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Manufactured in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yourieff, Alexandra Andreevna Voronine.

[Alexandra Voronine. English]

In Quislings shadow : the memoirs of Vidkun Quislings first wife, Alexandra / by Alexandra Andreevna Voronine Yourieff with George Yourieff and Kirsten A. Seaver ; translated from the Norwegian original by Kirsten A. Seaver.

p. cm. (Hoover Institution Press publication ; no. 553)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8179-4832-0 (alk. paper)

1. Yourieff, Alexandra Andreevna VoronineMarriage. 2. Quisling, Vidkun, 18871945Marriage. 3. FascistsNorwayBiography. I. Yourieff, W. George. II. Seaver, Kirsten A., 1934. III. Title.

DL529.Q5Y6813 2007

948.1041092dc2

[B]

2007007696

Dedicated

To the memory of my mother

Irina Theodorovna Kossuch (von Kotzebue) Voronine

and

to all long-suffering Russian women,

living or dead.

Alexandra A. V. Yourieff

Index

The situation is not too good in Europe,

in the world where the majority

consists of egotists and fools.

V. Quisling

(Last entry, handwritten in Russian,

from an undated notebook kept by

V.Q. during the period 192223.

Tr. by W. George Yourieff.)

Alexandra Andreevna Voronines memoirs reflect a dramatic life in which tragedy, betrayal, and misunderstanding were softened by optimism and moments of great happiness. Her soul-searching began more than seventy years ago in an effort to understand her marriage to Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian whose name became synonymous with traitor during the Second World War, but whose early career included Ukrainian relief work as Fridtjof Nansens trusted assistant. It was in this early period (192224) that Quisling met, married, and abandoned Alexandra, a girl as petite as he was tall and sturdy, and eighteen years his junior.

She wanted to comprehend what had brought them together and what had caused them to become so painfully separated, for if she could discover what had gone wrong, she might avoid similar mistakes in the future. Far from bringing clarity and understanding, however, Alexandras quest led only to greater confusion when she realized that she had been a pawn in a complicated game of politics and personal ambition. Trying to uncover the purpose of that game became as important as understanding both the feelings she and Quisling had brought to their marriage and the reasons he had chosen Maria Vasilievna Paseshnikova over her.

Making her story known became more urgent to Alexandra after Maria Quislings death in Oslo on January 17, 1980. The subsequent auction of Marias possessions sharpened the Norwegians interest in Vidkun Quisling and his private life, including his relationships with Alexandra and Maria. Maria is generally regarded as Quislings widow, although no record of their marriage exists. For Alexandra, the closing of Marias estate marked the end of her many efforts to retrieve personal belongings from Erling Skjalgssonsgate 26, and the confused and confusing information provided by the daily press made it seem even more important to let the public, especially the Norwegians, know about her relationship with Maria and Vidkun.

It was Alexandras wish to set the record straight about those years in Vidkun Quislings life, which he and Maria evidently had been most eager to erase from the public record. The publication later, in 1980, of Maria Quislings Dagbok og andre etterlatte papirer (Maria Quislings Diary and other posthumous papers), edited by istein Parmann, did nothing to tear the web of mystery and contradictions with which Maria and Vidkun had surrounded themselves. It was also in 1980 that I was asked, in my capacity as an historian and novelist, to help Alexandra and her husband, W. George Yourieff, with her memoirs. I agreed because I fully shared Alexandras wish to shed new light on Quislings controversial personality and because I was impressed with the source material she and her husband laid before me. Mere chance had led to my being asked to help.

At the time of Marias death, I was still teaching Norwegian at Stanford University, although I had long since resumed my research into early voyages of discovery in the North Atlantic. In addition, I was quite busy as a translator because everyone who called the University asking for a Norwegian language specialist was referred to me. That was also the case when George Yourieff needed translation of some Norwegian articles about Marias estate. He never said why he was interested in Vidkun Quislings widow and her possessions, and I naturally did not ask, although I got along very well with this exquisitely courteous and well-dressed Russian.

One day toward the end of 1980, he called and asked if I had time to translate the preface of a newly published book and to give him an oral report on the rest of the works contents. When he handed me the book, which turned out to be Maria Quislings Dagbok og andre etterlatte papirer, he asked me somewhat hesitantly to pay special attention to any statements concerning the first Mrs. Quisling. When I told him Id had no idea that Maria had had a predecessor, he replied that there were many who did not know that!

Toppen Bech knew it, however, when she was the editor of the Norwegian weekly Alle Kvinner (All Women), and she saw to it that the magazine, in 1975, published three articles largely based on interviews with Alexandra in her California home. Maria refused to be interviewed and was, according to istein Parmanns preface in Maria Quislings Dagbok, very upset by what Alle Kvinner had published. Parmann, nevertheless, made it clear that there is no doubt that Quisling already was married to Alexandra when Maria was married to Quisling in 1923, and that we are dealing with a complicated story. Then he wrote: Alexandra has written her autobiography, and I have had the opportunity to read it in manuscript. As a book it would not have found a market here in Norway. Aside from the chapters about her marriage to Quisling, it concerns her career as a dancer and painter. Her story about falling in love with and marrying Quisling nevertheless seems believable. (pp. 1819)