Julia P. Gelardi - From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847-1928

To Alec

Contents

Introduction

On September 22, 2006, the final chapter at last unfolded, in the long, drawn-out saga that was the life story of Empress Marie Feodorovna, mother of Russias ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. On that day, ceremonies began at the Cathedral at Roskile that saw the repatriation of the empresss remains from her native Denmark to her adopted country. Symbolically, the return took place 140 years after Marie Feodorovna, as Princess Dagmar, left Denmark for Russia to marry the future Emperor Alexander III. This final journey from Denmark back to Russia, so long overdue, was carried out on a Danish frigate. As the ship arrived in Russian waters, the Russians honored the late empress by firing off a thirty-one-gun salute from the Baltic port of Kronstadt, the gateway to St. Petersburg. During the funeral service held in the citys splendid St. Isaacs Cathedral, a multitude of gorgeously robed clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church intoned prayers before the late empresss coffin, which was covered in the gold and black imperial standard of the double-headed eagle. The event, so suffused in imperial and Orthodox symbolism, could never have taken place in the atheistic Soviet Union. Thus was the repatriation truly remarkable. For the reburial had to wait until Russia, like a phoenix, arose from the ashes of what had once been the Soviet Union. With the full approval of Denmarks Queen Margrethe II and Russias President Vladimir Putin, the six-day-long repatriation finally took place, nearly eighty years after Marie Feodorovnas death. Her remains were laid to rest at last next to those of her husband, Emperor Alexander III, at the Romanovs imperial crypt in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg.

What must have it been like for this Danish princess who, as an eighteen-year-old, left her family and journeyed to Russia in 1866 as the Tsarevich Alexanders bride? No doubt, Princess Dagmar, who took the name Marie Feodorovna upon embracing Russias Orthodox faith, was full of excitement and trepidation at what the future held. In the ensuing years, Marie Feodorovna, as a member of the Romanov dynasty, would come to experience the full panoply of what life had to offer. Great happiness and heart-wrenching tragedies would come her way. As I pondered the empresss life, I could not help but also reflect on a less famous historical figure whose life story was just as steeped in drama. This individual, another Romanov, was Queen Olga of Greece, who also happened to be Marie Feodorovnas sister-in-law. On further reflection, I came to the conclusion that two other womencontemporaries of Marie Feodorovna and Olga Constantinovnahad equally compelling life stories that were worth telling in tandem with those of the Russian empress and Greek queen. And so, I embarked on my latest literary endeavor, the end result of which I wish to share with you, the reader. It is a journey to imperial Russiaa journey that will take us from the splendors of the Russian imperial court of the nineteenth century to the tragic days of World War I, the Russian Revolution and the decade that followed. We will also delve into the tumultuous history of nineteenth and early twentieth century Greece, but this work will largely focus on imperial Russia and the Romanovs.

Despite the massive body of literature on the Romanovsa reflection of the intense interest in and profound impact on history of this famous familymissing still in the dynastys tales of triumph and tragedy is the collective story, as witnessed by four Romanov matriarchs, of imperial Russias inexorable march toward catastrophe and the destruction of this old world.

In order to redress this gap, I present in the following pages, the stories of this special group of Romanov women in one volume, focusing on the years 1847 to 1928. I chose that interval because it is the life span of the longest living of the four, Empress Marie Feodorovna (18471928), consort of Emperor Alexander III. Her story is accompanied by that of another consort, Queen Olga (18511926), wife of King George I of the Hellenes, a brother of Marie Feodorovna. My third protagonist is the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna (18531920), Emperor Alexander IIIs sister and a daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria through her son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who later reigned over not an empire or a kingdom, but a duchy within Germany, that of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The fourth protagonist, the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna (18541920), the wife of Alexander IIIs brother, the Grand Duke Vladimir, did not grace a throne. Instead, she dominated St. Petersburg society, appropriating this important position, a role that normally belonged to the empress or tsarina.

Of course, other Romanov women were contemporaries of my four protagonists. Why then focus on these four and not the others? One reason is that my four subjects were among the most senior female members of the Romanov dynasty of their generation. Another is that Marie Feodorovna, Olga Constantinovna, Marie Alexandrovna, and Marie Pavlovna can rightly be termed matriarchs, as all four have descendants to this day. Because Grand Duchess Elisabeth (Ella), by marriage a contemporary of her sisters-in-law, Marie Feodorovna and Marie Pavlovna, did not have children, I omitted her from the group. I excluded Ellas sister Tsarina Alexandra as well, because her children were massacred in 1918 at Ekaterinburg, and so Alexandra has no direct descendants. Moreover, Tsarina Alexandra does not technically belong to the same generation as her mother-in-law, Marie Feodorovna, and aunts Marie Alexandrovna, Marie Pavlovna, and Olga Constantinovna.

Two of the four women were born Romanovs: Marie Alexandrovna (Duchess of Edinburgh) was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II while Queen Olga was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich. Two of the women, on the other hand, married into the Romanov dynasty: Empress Marie Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark; and the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, born Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The womens early lives unfolded during a time when the Romanov tsars, as autocrats of all the Russias, wielded unlimited power and the grandeur of the Russian court was at its apogee. But because these women witnessed the Russian Revolution of 1917, they were uniquely positioned as well, to experience the destruction of imperial Russia and the devastation the revolution left in its wake in the lives of countless Russians. In Queen Olgas case, the turbulent politics that consumed Greece in the early part of the twentieth century meant that this Russian grand duchess was even more uniquely positioned in comparison to her three counterparts in that she had the dubious distinction of living through the tempestuous histories of these two countries.

A proliferation of Maries, Alexanders, Nicholases, Alexandras, and Olgas characterized several generations of Romanovs. To minimize the confusion, I use nicknames and second names. As second names, Russian males have vich added to their fathers name, and females have -ovna or -evna added to their fathers name. Thus, Queen Olga was Olga Constantinovna meaning daughter of Constantine, while her niece Grand Duchess Olga had as her second name, Alexandrovna, meaning daughter of Alexander (Emperor Alexander III). To distinguish the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Empress of Russia from each other and from other Maries, second names are included (Marie Alexandrovna and Marie Feodorovna). Marie Feodorovna, who was also called Dagmar, and Minnie, is initially referred to by these names early in the book. Later on, after she becomes empress, she will be known primarily as Marie Feodorovna. Marie Pavlovna was also known as the Grand Duchess Vladimir. Though occasionally called by these two names, she will largely be referred to as Miechen, her nickname among family members.