Doesn't it look like a fairy tale? And now a few words about Maria Kleinmichel’s dacha itself.
The Kleinmichel mansion, one of the most beautiful monuments of the Romantic era, is located in the northwestern part of Kamenny Island, on the banks of the Krestovka River. in 1893, the land and house (built for E. Genies, the head of the French theater troupe in 1836 by the architect A. Stackenschneider) “for a period of 90 years” were acquired by 47-year-old Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel. For a long time we knew it in one form (previously its walls were green), but by 2007 the house was restored to its original form. Today, Kamenny Island is being prepared for the residence of the President of Russia, which includes the mansion of M.E. Kleinmichel.
Maria Eduardovna was the wife of Colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment N.P. Kleinmichel, who died five years after the wedding. his father, Count, Adjutant General P. A. Kleinmichel, for the heroism he showed during the fire of the imperial residence in 1837, received, by a personal decree of Nicholas I, the right to depict Winter on his coat of arms, engulfed in flames. This stone coat of arms can still be seen today above the entrance to the Kamennoostrovsky house.
in 1904, the architect K. G. Preis rebuilt Verkhovtseva’s house, highlighting the main entrance with a spacious vestibule. The Kleinmichel mansion acquired its final appearance in 1904, when, according to the project of architect. I. Pretro was rebuilt using Gothic elements. Particularly interesting is the design of the high-spired roof of the main house, the corner turret and the pinnacle framing of the stucco cartouche above the entrance with the Kleinmichel coat of arms. Three years later, part of the plot was rented by L. Ciniselli, the daughter of the circus owner, for whom F. von Postels in 1909 built a two-story mansion in the Art Nouveau style from wood with a high attic topped with a turret. the entrance to it was through the front lobby of the Kleinmichel dacha. The stylistic discrepancy between the nearby houses of Kleinmichel and Ciniselli became the reason for another reconstruction of the countess's dacha - in the neo-Gothic style.
An integral part of the composition of the dacha is an openwork forged lattice with salamanders, into the links of which are woven the graphically impeccably executed monograms “MK” - Maria Kleinmichel. The author of the grating, installed in 1904, was K. G. Preuss. in 1912, at the San Galli plant, according to the design of K. K. Meibom, neo-Gothic gates were made, the round pillars of which were crowned with forged lanterns. The interiors of the dacha, which have not survived to this day, are known from a series of photographs by K. K. Bulla for the magazine “Capital and Estate” (whose owner was the Countess herself), as well as thanks to research carried out by employees of the City Museum in the mid-1970s.
Salamanders decorate the wrought-iron fence of an old dacha, and dragons hold lanterns in their mouths.
Palace intrigue and political adventures. Notes of Maria Kleinmichel Osin Vladimir M.
M. E. Kleinmichel From the Drowned World
M. E. Kleinmichel
From the Drowned World
Before my memory fades and my eyes close forever, I would like to express my memories. A future historian may have to find in these scattered pages the foundation for depicting the era in which I lived, the traces of which were mercilessly swept away by the flow of revolution.
I was born in 1846 in Kiev, where my father was vice-governor. My godfather, General Bibikov, Governor General of Kiev, Podolsk and Volyn, was a very famous person in the military world. He lost an arm in the battle of Silistria. In order to attend my christening, my godmother, who was also my grandmother on my father’s side, made a long journey from Courland to Kyiv in her own carriage, since there were no railways then. She talked about her journey the way Stanley would talk about his expedition to Central Africa.
I have no memories of Kyiv at that time, since four years after my birth my father was transferred to Riga as an official on special assignments to Prince Suvorov, who was then governor-general of Livonia, Courland and Estland. A few years later, my father was appointed governor of Volyn.
Here I would like to say a few words about my family. My great-grandfather, Count von Keller, was Frederick the Great's ambassador to the court of Catherine II. His wife was Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, sister of the Russian field marshal of the same name. During one celebration in honor of the great ruler, given by my great-grandfather, my great-grandmother felt unwell, due to the expected motherhood. The Empress invited her to leave and told my great-grandfather: “If your wife gives you a son, I will be his godmother. Assign him to Russian service." That same night my grandfather was born. The Empress kept her word, and when three years later my great-grandfather received an appointment in Vienna, he left his son to be raised by his sister-in-law, Princess Wittgenstein.
At the age of sixteen, my grandfather joined the Guards Hussar Regiment, and for 24 years he had already commanded the Army Hussar Regiment in the Battle of Borodino, when he was awarded St. George's Cross. He was on his way to brilliant military career. But having married a rich heiress, Countess Borkh, who brought him as a dowry an estate of 40,000 dessiatines in the Vitebsk and Minsk provinces, he quit his service with the rank of guard colonel and took up farming on his wife’s estates, which, by the way, he did very poorly. I remember that just forty years ago these estates, which had passed through many hands, were sold to the treasury for nine million rubles; My father and uncle received only one million, which had to be divided among five brothers.
My mother was born Riznich. Her father, of Serbian origin, was married to Countess Rzhevusskaya, whose mother was Princess Radziwill. He was rich, lived in Kyiv and in the village on a grand scale; Thanks to his hospitality, he was elected leader of the nobility in his district. He maintained lively ties with Serbia, was a great patriot and educated many Serbian youths at his own expense in various educational institutions in Kyiv. By the way, I remember well the young theology student Miloj Iovanovic, who later played big role in the Serbian uprising of 1875 as Bishop Michael of Serbia.
Near Optitsa, the estate of my grandfather and grandmother Riznich, there was a castle called Pogrebishche, which belonged to his grandfather’s brother, Count Adam Rzhevussky (grandfather of Princess Blucher). He came every year with a whole retinue of adjutants and numerous invitees for a big hunt, in which almost the entire district took part. This Count Adam Rzhevussky is my uncle with whom I met most often. He was adjutant general under Nicholas I and was already very old then. He was married three times.
At the age of twenty-one, he married a woman over fifty, Countess Orlova, née Zherebtsova, the grandmother of the ambassador in Paris (who was elevated to the rank of prince at that time) and the great-grandmother of princes Vladimir and Alexei Orlov, so well known to the then Parisian society. On this occasion, the following story was told in Paris: once Count Rzhevussky, having arrived at the Russian embassy, told the doorman to report to the envoy that his grandfather had arrived. The doorman took the business card and handed it to the footman with in the following words: “Report to the prince that there is some gentleman here, who must be insane, claiming that he is the prince’s grandfather!” But to the surprise of everyone, the prince hurriedly went out to his grandmother’s husband, hugged him most heartily and led him upstairs. Married in his early youth to an old woman, he married a second time, probably to restore balance, to a completely young person, Dashkova; she was very beautiful, rich, from good home and surprisingly, despite big difference when she was old, she was head over heels in love with him. She died during childbirth. Her daughter subsequently married Prince Wilhelm Radziwill, whose granddaughter became Princess Blücher.
Two years after the death of his wife, Count Rzhevussky married for the third time to Mrs. Yashchevskaya, who gave him three sons. I met one of them, Adam, in Paris; he was a young, decadent writer, not without talent, however, he was known less for his literary works than for his large card game in Parisian clubs. In one night he lost a million rubles to the Serbian king Milan.
My grandmother's other brother, Heinrich, was the Polish Walter Scott. Its the most famous novel"Krakow Castle" describes the interesting but wild customs of his compatriots in the 17th century.
The youngest of the brothers, Count Ernest Rzhevussky, commanded a cavalry brigade in the Caucasus; I clearly see him in front of me in a picturesque Circassian robe, a white beshmet, hung with orders, armed to the teeth, always ready for all sorts of military and love adventures, in which he, of course, played a heroic role. Unfortunately, I never knew the results of these adventures, since as soon as the stories about them reached the most interesting moment, I was sent out of the room.
My maternal grandfather had a sister who was married in Naples to the Duke of San Marco, and another in Hungary, Countess Nako. My mother's sister married a Polish nobleman, Tsikhonovetsky. She lived in a magnificent hunting castle in Lithuania, which belonged to Stanislav August, and her gardens, arranged in the French style, aroused admiration in all the surrounding areas. One of her daughters was married to Baron Sternsted, adjutant general at the court of the King of Sweden, another daughter became engaged to the Viscount de Forzants, a military attaché in St. Petersburg, who later commanded a cavalry brigade at Versailles.
The Duchess of Decazes and the Marquise de Beauvoir were also my cousins; these sisters, despite their differences, were charming - one with extraordinary kindness, the other with brilliance and wit. The exquisite, extensive hospitality de Beauvoir showed me at Sandricourt belongs to best memories my Paris stay.
I attribute the strongly developed sense of cosmopolitanism in me to the fact that the blood of different nationalities flows within me and that I have such heterogeneous kinship. If this cosmopolitanism served as an obstacle to hatred for me, then it has never been an obstacle to love. Since childhood, I loved Russia more than anything in the world and adored Emperor Alexander II, in whom I used to see my ideal. This feeling was instilled in us by our father, who was passionately devoted to the emperor.
My father spent his youth in St. Petersburg in the house of his aunt Princess Baryatinskaya, nee Countess von Keller, attended the gymnasium and university with his cousins Prince Alexander, later Field Marshal and Governor of the Caucasus, Prince Vladimir, later Chief of the Horse of His Majesty, and Prince Anatoly, subsequently adjutant general. He would be extremely surprised if they told him that he was not Russian or called him a foreigner. This name, so beloved in our time, was not in use then. The interests of Russia were dear to my father’s heart, and I remember from my early childhood one day when we were released from lessons and given champagne - a great event for us children - on the occasion of the victory over Shamil, to celebrate the suppression of the uprising in the Caucasus.
Nationalism, as it is now understood, existed then only in Slavophile circles, about which I had no idea then. I am talking about that nationalism that does not consist of love for the fatherland, but rather of hatred of others.
In Zhitomir, where my father was governor, a deep friendship began between our family and the family of the Governor-General, Prince Vasilchikov. When the princess came to Zhitomir, she always stayed with us; For the most part, she brought with her her daughter Sophia, later Countess Stroganova, who was older than me, but with whom I nevertheless became very friendly. The future general, Prince Sergei Illarionovich Vasilchikov, was then a little boy running around in his white Russian shirt embroidered in red.
From Volyn my father was transferred by the governor to Minsk, where in the same year a great event took place: Emperor Alexander II, having arrived in Minsk, stayed in the governor’s house. My mother was still sick in bed after giving birth to my younger brother; Thus, I, a ten-year-old girl, had to, according to Russian custom, bring bread and salt to the emperor on the threshold of our house. The Emperor hugged me and said: “Come to St. Petersburg and I will give you the code.” I had never heard of any “cipher” and did not yet know that the code was the empress’s monogram decorated with diamonds, given as a distinction to the ladies of the court. The next day the emperor expressed his desire to be godfather to my little brother. At the same time, both my brothers were elevated to pages, which gave them the right to be raised at public expense and subsequently join the guard.
Here followed a very characteristic event, which I had not mentioned for fifteen years and which I suddenly remembered a year before the war, when my niece Ella Kleinmichel introduced me to her fiancé Vsevolod Pushchin, an adjutant, a horse guard who died in this war.
The great-grandfather of this young Pushchin, an old 70-year-old Decembrist, lived after his pardon and return from Siberia, where he spent many years in hard labor, in Minsk. He was a very kind old man and was always a welcome guest with my parents.
Six months before the arrival of the emperor, my father gave a dinner party in honor of the leaders of the nobility, to which all the Orthodox and Catholic clergy and all the provincial nobility were invited.
At that time, Orthodox and Catholics lived in complete harmony, both bishops were even on first name terms and often visited each other. After numerous toasts and a fair amount of libation, one young Polish leader of the nobility, influenced by the presence of Pushchin, suddenly decided to propose a toast to the health of the Decembrists. There was a moment of extraordinary confusion, fear and anxiety gripped everyone present. Then my father raised his glass and said the following words in a loud voice: “Yes, we drink to the health of the repentant Decembrists, such as Vsevolod Pushchin, but first of all to the health of our most merciful Sovereign, Emperor Alexander II, thanks to whose kindness and generosity we now have the opportunity to see among us is Pushchina, to whom the emperor forgave his youthful errors. Hooray!"
Two weeks later, my father received a letter from his friend Valuev, a fellow Minister of the Interior, in which he reported that my father would lose his post due to the fact that the gendarmerie colonel who was present at dinner had sent an indignant, secret denunciation that a Pole had dared to sit at the table the governor to make such an unacceptable toast. Valuev advised my father to immediately go to St. Petersburg for his justification. My father immediately followed his advice, and I remember how my mother shed many tears when we parted. Everything was soon put in order: Minister of Internal Affairs Lanskoy was a very benevolent, fair person. He described this event to the emperor in its present light, and this incident did not entail any consequences.
In Minsk, the emperor suddenly remembered the story and, turning to my father, said: “You answered well then to this Pole about Pushchin (the emperor says “you” to everyone), but where is Pushchin? I want to meet him." Colonel Kavelin, the emperor's adjutant, was sent to bring Pushchin, who lived nearby; Pushchin was brought in. The emperor sat him down next to him, asked him with great interest about the past, about individual episodes of the conspiracy, immediately returned him the rank of lieutenant colonel and appointed him the parade ground commandant of the Bobruisk fortress, which he remained until the end of his days. This event indicates the spirit of the then gendarmerie, this secret and at the same time official police, which lay a heavy burden on all officials, both large and small, and these informers were never punished.
Emperor Alexander II was sometimes ruthless, but often chivalrously generous. When he appointed Benckendorff (the grandfather of the ambassador in London) as head of the secret police, which was subject to neither control nor the law, he handed him a handkerchief with the words: “Understand me well, Benckendorff, this handkerchief should serve you to dry your tears.” those unfortunates whom the law cannot help and who are deprived of the opportunity to go to court.” This noble thought of the emperor was subsequently as distorted as the idea of Christ by the ministers of the church, and many injustices and horrors were carried out by the gendarmerie power, all the more powerful because it was completely irresponsible.
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M.E. Kleinmichel
From the Drowned World
Content: "The Holy League" The story of Count Witte Yacht Club General Cherevin Diplomatic event Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich The last years of Emperor Alexander II The story of my sister The favorite of the court and the capital Archduke Rudolph Did there exist a German party in Russia 1905 The Tsarina The Empress's charity bazaar Did I have a political salon ?Costume ball July 19, 1914 Pavel Vladimirovich Rodzianko
"Holy League"
Three years before the war, I was in Biarritz, where I often met with the Wittes. One day, when I was having dinner with them in a beautiful villa on the Rue de France (in addition to me, Witte’s daughter and her husband, Naryshkin, with their mother were also present), they started talking about a rumor spreading in the city, and one of those present remarked: “The gullibility of the public Truly there are no boundaries." “That’s absolutely true,” I objected. “You know, Sergei Yulievich, at one time they claimed in St. Petersburg that you were the inventor of this incredible, senseless “Holy League,” and there were quite stupid people who believed it.” How great was my amazement when I noticed that Count Witte turned pale and closed his eyes for a moment; his face twitched, and he said with difficulty: “Well, yes, it’s true.” This crazy, senseless thought first arose in me. Now I involuntarily blush, remembering this, but then I was very young and did not know either life or people. I was a small, unknown head of the Fastov station. It was in Kyiv. On March 1, 1881, after a hard day at work, I went to the theater. They waited in vain for the show to begin. Finally, the theater manager appeared on stage and read a telegram with stunning content: “Emperor Alexander II was killed by a nihilist who threw a bomb at him, tearing off both his legs.” It is impossible to convey the excitement and pain that this terrible news caused among those present. Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, was very much loved by all layers of society, and this love was a consequence of a number of liberal measures taken by the sovereign that preceded the much-awaited constitution. I returned home, trembling, as if in a fever, and sat down to write a long letter to my uncle, General Fadeev, the war correspondent of Golos, an intimate friend of Count Vorontsov-Dashkov. I described mine to him state of mind , my indignation, my suffering, and expressed the opinion that all my like-minded people should closely surround the throne, form a friendly alliance to fight the nihilists with their own weapons: revolvers, bombs and poison. What is necessary, like them, is to create your own organization, in which, like theirs, each member would be obliged to attract three new ones, and each of the new ones, in turn, also three, etc. Thirty members make up a chapter with a leader. I wrote page after page without rereading what I had written. At that time, my idea seemed clear, simple, and easy to implement. The next day I sent this letter. With great enthusiasm, I took the oath to the new monarch, attended many funeral services for Alexander II, and then again plunged into my daily activities, no longer remembering my letter... Months passed. Suddenly I receive a telegram from my uncle Fadeev: “Come immediately. The order for your leave has been sent to your superiors.” I couldn’t believe my eyes when the courier brought me an order to immediately report to the head of the distance. Trembling with excitement, I went into the office of my senior management, which was not accessible to small employees like me. I noticed some uncertainty and confusion in the boss’s features: “I received from the Minister of Railways, Admiral Posyet, an order to give you leave and the opportunity to travel to St. Petersburg. Do you know why you are being called?” - he asked me. I answered frankly that I had no idea. “Strange... Do you need money for the trip? I’m ready to give you as much as you need.” I thanked him and declined. “Well, go ahead. It’s a happy journey, but still all this is strange,” he repeated, measuring me with an incredulous look. It seemed even stranger to me than it did to him. For the first time I crossed the threshold of one of the luxurious aristocratic houses, which made a great impression on me. For the first time, I was also in the company of those high-ranking persons with whom I was subsequently destined to meet so often. There were then the Grand Dukes Vladimir and Alexei, the chief General Staff Prince Shcherbachev, cavalry guard captain Panchulidzev and owner of the house. I was received very cordially, they honored me for my brilliant idea and informed me that my project had been developed and a department (of ten people) had already been compiled, that members would be recruited both in Russia and abroad, and in this way a powerful organization would be formed. They showed me the secret sign of this union and took me to the oath. I had to swear in front of the icon that I would devote all my strength, my whole life to this matter, and I, like all other members, had to promise, if necessary, not to spare either my father, mother, or sisters, no brothers, no wife, no children. This whole procedure, which took place in a luxurious office, among the walls decorated with silver and weapons, made a deep impression on me, a provincial. But I was completely electrified when the door to the dining room opened - I had never seen so many delicious dishes before. The wine was flowing like a river, and I was slightly tipsy when Grand Duke Vladimir said to me: “Dear Witte, we have all decided to give you the honorable commission you deserve. At present, the French government refuses to hand over the nihilist Hartmann to us. We sent the guards of Lieutenant Polyansky to Paris with order to destroy Hartmann. Go tomorrow to observe Polyansky, and if he does not fulfill his duty, then kill him, but first wait for our order. You will always find the opportunity to enter into relations with us through our agent in Paris; this agent enjoys our complete confidence; is at the head of our organization abroad. You can see him every day at Duron, Boulevard de la Madeleine. Consult him in everything. difficult cases ". When I asked his name, the Grand Duke said: “Let him recognize you with our secret sign, and he himself will tell you his name.” They gave me 20,000 rubles. I had never seen so much money before. The next day my uncle delivered me to the station. I had a severe headache after drinking the wine the night before, and only in Verzhbolovo did I finally come to my senses and begin to understand the strange incident in which I could not imagine at the time when I sent my schoolwork to my uncle. letter, so that it could produce a result of such national significance. At the same time, I was horrified by the role assigned to me and by the terrible oath that bound me. The prospect of shedding human blood made me shudder. Finally, I arrived in Paris and stopped. in the hotel assigned to me by the Grand Duke in the Quartier Latin [Latin Quarter (French)]. For three days in a row I had breakfast and lunch at a table in close proximity to the man whom, perhaps, I was supposed to kill. On the evening of the third day, my future victim approached. and said: “I am Polyansky. I received a notification from a member of our organization that you were sent here to kill me if I do not kill Hartmann. I must tell you that everything I have undertaken in this direction has been crowned with success - I hired a killer and am waiting for orders from St. Petersburg, but I have not received them yet and I think it will be better if we talk frankly. I have decided to fulfill the task entrusted to me, and therefore I do not think that I will fall victim to you. We will have time and the opportunity to escape." I was very happy about this meeting - I didn’t know anyone in Paris, I was terribly bored, and for the first time I spent a pleasant evening in the company of a comrade in the “Holy League”, who, before killing or being killed by me , went with me to the theater, and then to a restaurant for dinner. The next morning everything was still the same, and I suddenly remembered that I was ordered to go to Durand, where I was to meet a mysterious person who would give me the necessary instructions. I sat down at a small table at Durand’s and made our mysterious sign to everyone who came in, in order to attract attention. Some passed by without looking at me; others seemed somewhat amazed and, since I repeated these signs quite often, they thought. It is likely that I suffer from epilepsy. I was already beginning to lose all hope, when suddenly one person with large black eyes and an unpleasant appearance, passing by my table and noticing my signs, answered them - this was the one I was looking for. He sat down next to me and called himself Zografo. He then told me that, according to his information, the efforts of the embassy were crowned with success, it was possible to prove that the nihilist Hartmann was an ordinary criminal and that as a result he would be extradited by the French government. This way we didn't have to commit murders. central committee were transferred to Paris through Prince Ferdinand Wittgenstein, who was also a member of this secret society. We spent that night in one of the entertainment establishments in Paris. I remained in Paris for another week, happily spending both my money and the Holy League's. When I returned to St. Petersburg, I noticed that interest in me had cooled greatly. I was no longer invited to the highest circles of our secret alliance, and I returned to my place as the head of the distance, where I remained for quite a long time. I remember another case on the same topic, a case that proves the frivolity of some and the carelessness of others. For many years I visited quite often for dinner with my old friend Durnovo on Okhta (near St. Petersburg). I don’t remember how, but in our conversation we touched on the “Holy League”. Durnovo told me: “To judge this enterprise, like everything in this world in general, you need to look at it from a historical point of view. I will tell you that this league, despite its imperfect sides and often stupid mistakes, which I admit, provided great services to the state. So, for example, we should be grateful exclusively to our league for uncovering a large conspiracy aimed at kidnapping the heir to Tsarevich Nicholas, only we should be grateful to her for saving our future monarch. However, Reitern, who is present here, can help you. tell him more about this if he is inclined to do so.” while we are doomed to sit in this slush for many more months." And then suddenly a revelation descended on me. I had no money, and a trip to the south was completely inaccessible to me. What if I received an order there , but how? At first, as a joke, we began to come up with a “broad conspiracy” that would give us the opportunity to get an assignment to investigate this case and go to Italy. But gradually this plan began to take on more realistic forms, and I, knowing Prince Belozersky well, Pavel. Demidov and others, assured my interlocutor that it was quite possible to convince them of this. We composed anonymous revelations with fictitious signatures, and I was very amused, seeing how all these home-grown Sherlock Holmeses were fooled by us Bobi Shuvalov, a smart man, but a morphine addict. , always possessed by some obsession, took me aside one day at the Yacht Club and asked me if I would take upon myself a trip to Rome in order to talk with the Italian police about a conspiracy invented by my imagination. Shuvalov found that I was very suitable for this assignment, and said that he was convinced of the excellent outcome of my trip. I expressed my consent to him, but set the condition that I be accompanied by an experienced investigator. Do you see how I confess to you after 15 years that I led you all by the nose?Yacht Club
Baron Bartold Huene, married to the lovely daughter of the former American ambassador in St. Petersburg, Miss Lothrop, told me the following. When he was in Paris in 1920, many Russians belonging to high society approached him with an offer to take part in the resumption of the Yacht Club under the chairmanship of Sazonov. A premises had already been found, negotiations were underway with a Russian chef, who was supposed to strengthen patriotic and national feelings with pancakes, pies, meatballs and fish soup. But the lack of solidarity, a common phenomenon among us Russians, had its effect here too, and nothing came of this initiative. And absolutely no one can be blamed for this: neither the allies, nor the enemy, nor the Masons, nor even the German General Staff, since none of them took any part in this matter. Yacht Club - what a magic word! How many people walking along Morskaya cast envious glances at this shrine, at this object of their cherished desires. I still remember how members of the Yacht Club sat by the window and, with an important air of superiority and self-esteem, watched the traffic on Morskaya for hours. The young man, who was modest and shy before running for office, immediately after his election as a member became an arrogant and full of conceit. He spoke of his club as if it were the Senate or the State Council, and when they talked about politics in his presence, in the most difficult issues even for statesmen, he said importantly: “In the Yacht Club they say... in the Yacht Club they find... .at the Yacht Club they decided..." But it was true: permanent presence in the club of the Grand Dukes, especially the all-powerful Nikolai Nikolaevich, and the communication with them of the other members served as a reason for many ministers and other influential persons to often attend these meetings, and it often happened that they began a career there, created names for themselves and, conversely, overthrew undesirable persons their high positions. A pleasant life, the opportunity to promote their loved ones to higher spheres made the members of the Yacht Club some kind of chosen creatures. In Russia there were two kinds of people close to His Majesty: some, nominated by a happy accident, others - members of the Yacht Club, special creatures who achieved everything. and buildings. Members of the Yacht Club were courted and ingratiated, as they could easily provide patronage. A club is usually established for spending time together, for a more pleasant and cheaper table, but never anywhere, with the exception of clubs of the times French Revolution(Jacobins, Girondins, etc.), there was no such unanimity and unanimity as in the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. He was a body inspired by the highest ranks of the guards. Seeing in my house different generations our military - my brother and husband were also military - I was often surprised military ethics reigned among them. So, for example, it is completely understandable to me if someone who has dishonored his military uniform is obliged to take it off. But I was often amazed that the officer who committed this or that act, dishonoring his uniform, was less blameworthy than the one who reported his offense. All the indignation, all the anger and revenge of both the entire military corporation and its individual members or units was directed against this latter. As for the culprit himself, having given him a hard time, they tried with all their might to atone for his crime, swore that he had not committed anything of the kind, and thereby made it impossible for the person who reported the culprit to exist. I’m not interested in anything anymore..." One day he finally asked me if the Yacht Club was still thriving? I looked at him in amazement: "What a strange question, Azis Bey, how can you assume that under the Bolsheviks could there be a Yacht Club? There is now some kind of revolutionary institution there. At the very place where you and the rest of the club members spent hours watching the traffic on Morskaya, I saw women writing on typewriters." Azis began to get very worried, and some strange, unexpected sounds bubbled in his throat. He grabbed his head - it seemed , fatalism left him - and cried out: “Allah, Allah, is this possible, I can’t believe it. How! this exquisite, so powerful organization, these people who knew everything, all-powerful, these chosen people no longer exist? What a misfortune, what a misfortune! Then Russia, of course, perished, everything was lost, everything. But, for God’s sake, tell me, where does Sergei Beloselsky go now? Where does Vladi Orlov spend his evenings? Where does Prince Boris Vasilchikov hold his poker games? Allah, Allah, what a misfortune." I tried to calm him down, saying that Sergei Beloselsky had found himself a club in London, that Vladi Orlov had settled in Paris, that Prince Boris Vasilchikov was in Baden, in a sanatorium, and was not currently playing poker. The next day, pale and haggard, Azis told me that he could not sleep all night, and I was convinced that the death of the Yacht Club was more important and terrible for him than the death of the four states.General Cherevin
Recently I was in the company of an ardent anti-Semite, a truthful, respected person, but, like all fanatics, he wears blinders and considers pogroms a legal and natural phenomenon. I argued with him a lot about this. Every person is free to choose his environment and has the right to avoid contact with elements that are unpleasant to him, but this is not a reason for burning Jews or for a calm attitude towards the killing of their children. Since childhood, I had a negative attitude towards all kinds of oppression, and did not recognize the feelings of hatred and injustice. - “No, I’m not joking at all: I can’t put my friends and some dirty Jew on the same scale, if he’s innocent today, then he was guilty yesterday or will be guilty tomorrow.”Diplomatic event
Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich
“Mysterious personalities of the 18th century” is the title of Karpovich’s book. This book talks about people about whose affairs opinions are divided and whose identities have not yet been fully clarified, such as Cagliostro, False Dmitry, Chevalier Eon, Princess Tarakanova and others. I, in turn, would like to talk about one person whom I knew well from the days of her youth and to whom a future historian would rather give a place in the realm of legends than in history. I'm talking about Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who, after thirty years of exile in Siberia and Bukhara, died last year. There are conflicting opinions about this Grand Duke: some consider him a victim of their liberal ideas, others attribute to him the most terrible crimes, still others consider him a philanthropist and scientist. In any case, it is a fact that the Sarts honored him as a benefactor of their country, since he spent most of his fortune on the construction of modest water pools, with which he desert soil Fergana turned into fertile. The head of the police department was then one of the outstanding personalities of Russia - Count Pyotr Shuvalov, who took part in the Berlin Congress. It was nice man , extremely vigilant, and also very benevolent and fair. I have never heard of him being unfair to anyone. But, due to disagreements on political grounds, unfavorable relations were established between him and Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. Count Shuvalov was in favor of the need for an alliance with Germany, the Grand Duke, being a Slavophile, hated the upper strata of society, was a democrat, as is often the case with princes who want equality for everyone, under the condition that they still retain the advantages given to them. I remember one clash between these two statesmen in the Council of State. We were talking about the Baltic provinces. The Grand Duke supported their Russification to the extreme; Shuvalov held the opposite opinion. At the end of the meeting, the Grand Duke said venomously: “Goodbye, Mister Baron.” Count Shuvalov bowed low and answered, no less poisonously, in Polish: “Goodbye, noble sir,” which served as a hint at the political role that rumor unfairly attributed to the Grand Duke in 1862, when he was in Poland. Alexander II was reported about this incident, since it was impossible to hide it further. A commission was appointed, chaired by Count Adlerberg, at which it was decided to recognize the Grand Duke as mentally ill and at the same time - completely inconsistently - to deprive him of military distinctions and the title of honorary chief of the regiment. Many doctors and officers were assigned to him to supervise him and, since they were very well off financially, it was in their interests not to want any changes in the state of things. desk. This note was passed from commission to commission, and they wanted to see in it proof of his insanity. It was an unfinished petition, beginning with the following words: “Am I mad, or am I a criminal? If I am a criminal, try and condemn me; if I am mad, then treat me, but just give me a ray of hope that I will someday see life and freedom. What you are doing is cruel and inhumane." But dark clouds were gathering over his brow. The careless words he uttered reached Emperor Alexander II, who saw them as evidence of revolutionary ideas. It was decided to exile him to Siberia, and his security was strengthened. Complaints and alarming news came more and more often. They say that during one conversation Nikolai Konstantinovich said: “I will put on the Order of St. Andrew, I will go out to the people, and the people will rise up and protect me.” The Order of St. Andrew was immediately taken away from him and he was exiled to Central Asia. In 1881, Emperor Alexander II died, and Alexander III, who had always harbored antipathy towards his cousin, assumed the throne. The Grand Duchess, the wife of Constantine, received a letter from her son, to which was attached a letter to the new emperor. This letter read: “Your Imperial Majesty, allow me, shackled, to kneel and pray to the ashes of the monarch I adore and ask him for forgiveness for my crime. Then I will immediately and meekly return to the place of my imprisonment. I beg Your Majesty not to deny this mercy to the unfortunate Nicholas." The Grand Duchess, who often called me to her place to chat, with tears in her eyes showed me this letter and the answer to it from Emperor Alexander III to his cousin: “You are not worthy to bow to the ashes of my father, whom you so deeply upset. Do not forget that you covered us shame on everyone. As long as I live, you won’t see St. Petersburg.” Then the Grand Duchess showed me another note in French sent to her by Alexander III: “Dear Aunt Sunny, I know that you will call me cruel, but you do not know for whom you are bothering. You were the reason for my anger at Nicholas. I kiss yours.” pen. Your loving nephew Sasha.", Secretary of State Golovnin, great friend of Grand Duke Konstantin. The unshakable severity of Alexander III was caused by a message to him from Tashkent (where Grand Duke Nicholas was interned), which stated - perhaps completely unfairly - that Nikolai Konstantinovich spoke extremely rudely about his mother. Subsequently, I learned that he married the daughter of the Tashkent police chief, taking the name of Colonel Volynsky. Nobody understood why he chose this name, but I remembered the times of our youth and Lazhechnikov’s “Ice House”.Artemy Volynsky, the statesman persecuted by Biron, was Nikolai's favorite hero.
Petersburg thundered with victory - the capture of Kars, and General Loris-Melikov was elevated to the dignity of count for the capture of this fortress. This victory was considered very significant in 1877 - 1878, and the count was the hero of the day. I had already been a widow for a year and, due to mourning, did not make visits to anyone, but in intimate circles I met many of my friends, and at Countess Adlerberg, the wife of the minister of the court of Alexander II, I often met with the Caucasian general. He visited me often and soon became a regular participant in our lunches, games of whist, and dinners. Both amiable and rude at the same time, not without cunning, he knew how to approach men and women, in order to please them, to use techniques that always had success: at first he contradicted his interlocutor, then allowed himself to be convinced by saying: “Your The logic is truly amazing. Yes, yes, you are undoubtedly right. I completely agree with you after you showed me this question in a different light.” Of course, he diversified his expressions and did not allow himself to be convinced so quickly, but he always achieved his goal: he left his interlocutor with a proud and pleasant consciousness of his superiority. Being a man without erudition, Loris-Melikov knew how to hide it perfectly. Starting a conversation on a political or literary theme, he suddenly, immediately, fell silent, letting others speak, and he himself only grinned evilly to show that he contained a whole world of knowledge. In clubs and salons all the talk was about the beautiful Armenian. At Mrs. Nelidova's he met and became close to the Minister of Finance Abaza, whose liberal opinions he flatteringly encouraged. With Count Adlerberg and with the Minister of Internal Affairs Timashev, he was a conservative, with Grand Duke Konstantin he was a Slavophile, with German Ambassador General Werder - a Germanophile, an ardent supporter of English politics - with Lord Dusserin, and with General Chancy - he admired the French army; that way everyone liked him. But the honeymoon, both in politics and in love, soon passes. Being a liberal by nature, he nevertheless had no convictions. To illustrate the instability of his views with an example, I will cite his opinion about English politics. He said that the superiority of the English political system lies in the fact that ministers are appointed there by election. In Tsaritsyn, on the Volga, the plague was then raging, which caused major unrest there (it was then decided to send someone there with emergency powers). The name Loris-Melikov was on everyone’s lips. The Emperor appointed him for this mission, and he went, accompanied by the professor of medicine Eichwald, to Tsaritsyn, taking with him, as a precaution in the form of a large retinue, the military youth of those influential families who were still outside his sphere of influence. Thus, he gave a very high appointment to the young Count Orlov-Denisov, stepson of Count Pyotr Shuvalov; by this he secured for himself the favor and high position of the all-powerful favorite of Alexander II. All these young counts, princes, brilliant guards officers went to fight the plague with the impulse of the crusaders marching to liberate the Holy Sepulcher. Both of them were consumed by selfish desires - the crusaders wanted to get gold and jewelry, Loris-Melikov’s retinue was waiting for ranks and orders. It goes without saying that Loris-Melikov, upon arriving at his destination, hastened to inform the Chief Chamberlain, Countess Protasova, that her nephew was an example of valor for everyone; Countess Bobrinskaya - that her nephew amazed everyone with his courage, and his praise for young Orlov-Denisov was limitless. He said that Denisov is his right hand, and he doesn’t know what he would do without him. Having learned the contents of that letter, the emperor appointed R. Orlov-Denisov as his adjutant for his intelligence and self-sacrifice. Thanks to the wise measures of Professor Eichwald, the plague subsided. When Loris-Melikov passed through Kharkov on his way back from Tsaritsyn, a triumphal arch was erected there in his honor. which read: “To the winner of Kars, the plague and all hearts.” In St. Petersburg, in all salons he was celebrated as a hero. Soon after this, there were several attempts on the life of Emperor Alexander II: at the end of his days, having fallen in love, being subjected to attempts on his life, he encountered an unfriendly attitude towards himself in his family, former consequence his secret marriage. His nerves were strained to the extreme, and he thought: “If only someone could be found who would take upon himself the protection of my person, so that I could rest a little,” and his tired gaze suddenly fell on Loris-Melikov, who, after the Sunday parade in the arena he talked with the generals around him. The emperor called him over and told him approximately the following: “I am extremely tired. You are enjoying success everywhere. Save me. I will transfer my power to you. Order the broadest powers to be prepared for you, I will sign them today. Take everything into your own hands.” Loris-Melikov was appointed, unofficially, as dictator to suppress the increasingly frequent attempts on the life of Alexander II. Loris-Melikov, when he was in Tsaritsyn, had a chancellery manager, a certain Skalkovsky, the son of a professor and the brother of a famous journalist. He was an idealist, full of freedom-loving ideas, an enthusiast. In addition, Loris-Melikov was even on good terms with Mechnikov, like almost all prosecutors of that time, a champion humanities. The connection with these two above-mentioned persons greatly influenced Loris-Melikov’s orientation, which, thanks to his compliance, under other conditions could have taken a completely different direction. A moving appeal to the public conscience was issued. The expression “dictatorship of the heart” was in use back then. One of the first measures carried out on the advice of Abaza (although it was later attributed to Loris-Melikov) was the abolition of the salt tax - an echo of the French Revolution. All newspapers celebrated this event as one of the greatest reforms of that century. Two outstanding person Abaza and Milyutin then took all power into their own hands, while Loris-Melikov was left with only illusory power, with which, it seemed, he was completely satisfied. He previously lived in the Winter Palace, then the Karamzin Palace was hired for him, in which an attempt was made on his life by a nihilist student, and Loris-Melikov, praised in all newspapers as a liberal personality, as an enemy of all violence, preparing a broad constitution, a defender of rights human, this Loris-Melikov without trial or investigation ordered the hanging within 24 hours of the attempt on his life. The executioner was sick at the time, and they wanted to postpone the execution, but Loris-Melikov said: “Why, there’s no need to look for a long time, my Caucasians will carry out this task with pleasure.” He looked at things so simply. On the same day, a convict was found who took on the role of executioner, and the execution was carried out. The next day, newspapers of all stripes praised the “dictatorship of the heart.” he was a rare father and a wonderful family man. As for his state affairs, he became very compliant in the hands of Milyutin and Abaza, who presented the sovereign with a very liberal draft constitution, which Alexander II approved and signed, since his trust in Loris-Melikov was so boundless that he agreed with everything what came from him. When Loris-Melikov came to see me, he always brought with him a whole heap of newspapers with praiseworthy reviews about him in various ways. He was intoxicated by all this praise and took it at face value. One Tuesday, at Mrs. Nelidova’s, he announced to me that he would visit me the next day, adding: “I will bring you a whole heap of very interesting newspaper articles.” I had a Russian translation of La Bruyère's work "Character". I tore the page from the book with the description negative traitsambitious and held it in front of him. “Look,” he said, “how enthusiastically they all speak of me,” and, saying this, he handed me the whole heap of newspapers. I seriously told him: “Not everyone praises you. I have a newspaper issue with a critical article about you.” - “Oh, what newspaper, when?” - “I don’t know, they sent me this article this morning.” - “And this article is signed?” “Yes,” I answered and began to read to him about the ambitious man, inserting his name everywhere. He became furious: “What a bastard, what a scoundrel, what is this unfortunate man’s name?” “La Bruyère,” I answered. He wrote down this name in his notebook and told me that this scoundrel would be expelled from St. Petersburg that same day. “You can’t do that,” I objected. - “I would like to know who can stop me from doing this. Today I will put the entire secret police on their feet.” “This won’t help you,” I told him with conviction. He became more and more worried. “Where do you get this confidence that I won’t be able to find him?” - “Because he died more than two hundred years ago,” - and then I admitted to him that I allowed myself to play a little joke with him, that there was no reason for his worries and that I apologized to him. He was so pleased by the fact that the chorus of praise lavished on him was not disturbed by anything, that he generously forgave me for my outburst.
After the betrothal of Alexander II, all members of the imperial house received from him a notice of his marriage to Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova with an explanation of the reasons why he so hastily, without waiting for the end of the mourning year, decided to take this step. He was prompted to do this by frequent attempts on his life. In the same notice, he expressed his will - to introduce his wife to the Grand Duchesses. Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna resolutely refused to meet her new daughter-in-law and declared that she would spend the entire winter not in St. Petersburg, but in her palace in Strelna. Her husband, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, repeatedly tried to convince her to change her decision, since his brother, Emperor Alexander II, was extremely dissatisfied with this. Soon, the eldest daughter of the Emperor and Princess Yuryevskaya (she received this title upon her betrothal) fell ill with a severe form of typhus. To soften her son-in-law, the Grand Duchess sent me to Princess Yuryevskaya to inquire about the state of her daughter’s health. When I came to Princess Yuryevskaya, the door opened, and Emperor Alexander II appeared on her threshold. He came out and sat down next to me. Large tears flowed down his cheeks when he told me that his child would die, since he had never returned with such a heavy heart to St. Petersburg, and that on the way between Yalta and Moscow he told his wife: “I feel that something... something terrible awaits me in St. Petersburg. I have a premonition that death is hovering over me and now my child is dying.” He then told me all the details of his daughter's illness and said that he was extremely touched by his daughter-in-law's sympathy for his deep grief. “Thank her for sending you,” he added and quickly stood up. His beautiful, usually so kind eyes suddenly received a different expression. He looked at me sternly and said: “I want my daughter-in-law to move here as soon as possible. You see, Countess, you give her this order right away. I can’t go to Strelna. I want to introduce my wife to her.” When I conveyed the emperor’s words to the Grand Duchess that same evening, she angrily exclaimed: “He has no right to demand this from me. I will not budge.” But nevertheless, the next morning at 10 o’clock [she] moved to the city, and at one o’clock in the afternoon the emperor arrived in Marble Palace to introduce Princess Yuryevskaya to his daughter-in-law. Other Grand Duchesses followed their aunt's example. A month later the emperor was assassinated; if he had remained alive, Princess Yuryevskaya would have been crowned. The coronation project was developed by Loris-Melikov.Favorite of the court and the capital
This was in the spring of 1873. I picked up my friend, Princess Liza Kurakina, in my carriage to take her for a ride around St. Petersburg. On Morskaya, someone’s carriage ran into our carriage from behind, and the young cavalry guard sitting in it, instead of apologizing, attacked our innocent coachman and threatened both him and us with his fist. Outraged, I returned home and told my brother, the adjutant of the Cavalry Guard Regiment, about what had happened. He made an order, and it turned out that it was the young cavalry guard Nikolaev, a former student of the cavalry guard school. In his excuse, he cited the fact that he had breakfast from 12 to 4 and therefore was tipsy at the time of this incident. Subsequently, I had to meet this poorly educated officer more than once, since he was a favorite of the capital’s society and his death was mourned much more than the death of some great commander. It seems to me that such a young man could not enjoy any kind of success anywhere abroad. Possessing neither intelligence nor means, of dark origin, without any knowledge, he did not enjoy anyone's support and no one knew any of his family members. There were vague rumors about his father, an engineer-general, who had acquired some funds through God knows what means. His uncle was a police officer in some district of the Tula province. At that time, Nikolaev was still a healthy, handsome, thick-haired, slightly clumsy and rude boy who barely spoke French, but a good comrade, always ready to empty more than one bottle of wine in a pleasant company or ride at night in a troika among the gypsies. The first to pay attention to him was Princess Baryatinskaya. Nikolaev became a weekly visitor to their home. My cousin, Alexander Baryatinsky, was a colonel of the Cavalry Regiment. He led, which was visited not only by high society, but also by the court, especially the court of Grand Duke Vladimir. Nikolaev especially stood out in such a society; they laughed at his bad French accent and his lack of education. His lack of culture served as the basis for his success, which often happened in our life full of contradictions. He joined the Yacht Club and started playing. He played happily, and the money he won there served as the beginning of his fortune. Always in a good mood, never speaking ill of anyone - which was a consequence of calculation, not complacency - he became close at the Yacht Club with influential people, whose drinking companion and entertainer he managed to become without much effort. He knew how to assume an independent and even patronizing air towards those whom he ate and drank. Infected by the fashion for Nikolaev, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna invited him to her place. Then it was a sign of good form to have Nikolaev at your place for breakfast and lunch. He was seen in all public places; at the ballet - in the first row, at the races - on the fence, always with a cigar in his mouth, always tipsy, constantly repeating the same word "gorgeous". The only failure befell this darling of fate, when one day, on the day of the regimental holiday of the cavalry guards, he was waiting for the aide-de-camp aiguillettes, for whom Maria Pavlovna was trying for him before Alexander II, but the emperor, apparently not sharing common sympathies, appointed Nikolaev as his aide-de-camp. and Mikhail Pashkov. Nikolaev received this honor much later, having danced a cotillion with the queen., lunches, dinners, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, games. No events, no one's suffering could disturb his peace. Nikolaev was acquainted exclusively with rich or influential persons; he spent the summer in their palaces, ate at their expense, and thus lived on such a large scale, as if he had an annual income of two hundred thousand. This universal favorite never brought a flower to anyone, never invited anyone to dinner, never paid a visit to anyone, and when receiving invitations, he went where it was more interesting and profitable for him to go. Even his death came happily for him. Threatened by a terrible disease - cancer, he died suddenly, no doubt regretted by everyone, obviously grateful to him for the breakfasts and lunches he devoured from them. His funeral was distinguished by great pomp, and if he could speak, he would probably have said: “Very chic, very chic,” words that he so readily repeated during his lifetime.Archduke Rudolf
On one of my trips to Rome, I stayed for a couple of hours in Warsaw, at the house of the Marquis Sigismund of Wielopolsky, who invited me to dinner. His wife, née Montenuovo, was the granddaughter of Maria Luisa, wife of Napoleon I, from her second marriage to Count Napier, who later received the title Count of Montenuovo. The Wielepolskys told me that they had just received terrible news about the murder of Rudolf. The telegram he sent lacked details. Everyone was stunned. At 10 pm I moved on; Having crossed the border, I watched as a mass of Austrian military men of all ranks took seats on the train from the battle, rushing to Vienna. The excitement reached its climax. Some rumors contradicted others, but the word “suicide” was never uttered. “This is a political murder,” some said, “this is the work of the Freemasons,” others argued, and still others said, due to the fact that the Archduke was constantly surrounded mainly by Jews and journalists, that it was committed by a fanatic who wanted to free the Catholic monarchy from an atheist. Still others spoke of a jealous husband, while others argued that this was an accidental murder during a hunt. Only the reason was not clarified." I spent ten days in Vienna, and almost daily I met with people who visited me in my home in St. Petersburg. All of them, thanks to their position, could gradually seek the truth, and, thanks to their completely objective reports, I , as it seems to me, I can truthfully illuminate this incident in some images. Among the people I met were: our ambassador, Prince Lobanov, and members of the embassy, who were at home in Viennese society, Prince Henry VII, von Reis and his wife, who had dined the day before. from Franz Joseph; Count Nigri, one of my best friends, who read Lobanov’s telegram about the death of the Archduke in my presence; Prince Karl Hovenguler, a friend of Rudolf; Count Kalnoki and his secretary Erenthal - all these names speak for the veracity of the message that I am conveying here. Archduke Rudolf, neurasthenic, with perverted tastes, was still a gentleman towards women. He fell in love with Vechera, who, in turn, fell deeply in love with him, since he did not want to reduce this feeling to an ordinary affair and felt responsible. In front of the girl he loved, whom he had compromised, he decided to marry her. Due to the fact that he was extremely unhappy in his marriage to Princess Stephanie of Belgium, he turned to his godfather , Pope Pius IX, with a sincere confession in which he described to him the whole drama of his life and begged him to give him a divorce, even at the cost of abdication, which could make it easier for the holy father to fulfill his request. Dad did not answer for a long time, and when the answer finally arrived, it was negative. The Archduke considered himself insulted and dishonored, and invited Vechera to die together. A valet privy to the Archduke's affairs delivered Vechera to Meyerling Castle. full swing and gave rise to not one, but dozens of legends. Many years later I had the opportunity in Carlsbad to talk about this terrible drama with Prince Karl Hovenguller and in Paris with his brother Rudolf, and both of them sadly repeated: “Yes, that’s exactly what happened.”Was there a German party in Russia?
In many countries I heard talk about the Germanophile party in Russia, read articles about it on different languages. A calm observer might notice that since the time of Alexander II there has not been a Germanophile party in Russia. The highest military circles, especially the officers of the General Staff, who came from democratic circles of society, strove for laurels and believed that this was easily achievable under the condition of an alliance with France (this opinion intensified after the unfortunate Japanese war). The intelligentsia sympathized with the republic and was happy with the opportunity to sing the Marseillaise, which had previously been strictly punished and because of which more than one had already been exiled to Siberia. Merchants saw Germany as a strong competitor. The workers in the factories did not like the neat, demanding German master. The men considered themselves entitled to complain about the German manager punishing drunkards and lazy people, and the wealthy class, who spent a lot of money in Paris, expressed, of course, their sympathies for the French - their restaurants, boulevards, theaters, tailors, cocottes, believing that in these sympathies and that is the love for France. The arrival of the young beautiful princess Dagmara contributed to the strengthening of antipathy towards Germany, since, saddened along with her homeland by the loss of Schleswig-Holstein, she conveyed her feeling of dissatisfaction to the heir and those around him, and it soon turned out that all the young guards were outraged that Schleswig-Holstein no longer belonged to Denmark . This indignation intensified when it became clear that since the time of Alexander III, only opponents of the Germans had made careers in the same way as Germanophiles had succeeded during the reign of Alexander II. And at court only the old Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich (the Tsar’s uncle), the last of the Romanovs, remained faithful to the friendship that united the two royal dynasties - Russian and German. His sons, on the contrary, had antipathy towards Germany: the eldest, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, now killed, was known for his historical works , of great interest; he worked out a lot, in which he was especially interested in scandalous incidents; he loved the intrigues of the 18th century, which did not prevent him from being interested in those of the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, he was happy to discover that his grandmother’s sister, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, wife of Emperor Alexander I, considered a saint in Russia, had a lover. With love, he carefully investigated everything related to this circumstance. He was even more delighted when he learned that Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich had hired people to kill his rival, a young officer. with its western neighbors. He described to the sovereign the consequences that an aggressive policy could lead to. Witte also foresaw the consequences of the policies of Sazonov and Izvolsky. He did everything to avoid the whirlpool that threatened us with disaster. But, harsh in his expressions - which is why he was considered energetic - he was in fact indecisive, hesitant, to which his position in society obliged him - to spare friend and foe.Germany was so unloved among us at that time that its defenders, when presenting their evidence, usually began like this: “I never liked the Germans and always sympathized with the French, but I find that, etc.”
In July 1905, I became convinced for the first time that the possibility of revolution in Russia was probable. It was on an estate in the Kursk province. I was writing a letter in my office. A servant entered who was shopping in the provincial town. With a distorted face, he told me what an outrageous scene he had witnessed. When he was waiting at the station for a train, he saw a military detachment heading to Manchuria. The colonel with his wife and two children settled into the compartment, when suddenly a non-commissioned officer entered and, very worried, reported that a hundred people were squeezed into the carriage, which could fit forty people, so that it was impossible for them to lie down or sit down. The non-commissioned officer asked the colonel for assistance. The colonel said: "Okay, I'll be right there." Then he lit a cigarette and calmly continued the conversation with those around him. A little later the non-commissioned officer reappeared in the compartment. His eyes became bloodshot and, without saluting, he reported to the colonel that the soldiers were agitated by his inaction, adding sharply: “It’s good for you to sit quietly in your compartment while we are being driven like cattle to the slaughter.” The colonel, beside himself, ordered the station gendarmes to arrest the non-commissioned officer and put him in a prison carriage. A crowd has gathered. The sergeant major came to report that the prisoner’s screams and curses were attracting a large audience and irritating the assembled workers. The colonel went to the carriage where the prisoner was, who, seeing him, burst into abuse. The colonel, who lost his temper, severely wounded the brawler in the neck with a blow of his saber. The blow was so strong that the artery was cut and the head tilted to the side. Witnesses to this terrible scene, losing their composure, rushed at the colonel, doused him with kerosene and tar and forcibly dragged him into the carriage. Someone, more reasonable, removed his wife and children from the compartment in time, and in front of everyone, the unfortunate colonel was set on fire and burned alive. Nobody even tried to save him. It’s always the same thing: either weakness or the boundless arbitrariness of our administration, which led to the revolution.During the war, a miracle happened: there was no one else who was of German origin. Within an hour I met with both generals of Hartung: one of them said with conviction that he was of Scottish origin, as everyone knows, - the other with the same conviction asserted that he, as everyone knows, was of Dutch origin.
When the Emperor was in Paris for the first time, I stayed there with my daughter Olga, the wife of the Russian ambassador Baron von Korff. With me was also my youngest daughter, who had recently received the appointment of maid of honor to the Empress. The next day, after the ceremonial entry into Paris of Nicholas II, which we watched from the windows of the owner of the New York Herald, Gordon Bennett, in the Champs-Elysees, I went with my daughter to Madame de Tabe. She, having kindly received me, said: “Unfortunately, I have such a migraine that I am not able to tell fortunes either with cards or with coffee grounds.” I said goodbye to her, asking her to receive me the next day. “You are Russian,” she said, seeing me off, “do you think that it would be possible for me to get a photographic photograph of the lines of the Tsar’s hand? I would give a lot to get such a photograph.” - “I’ll try to do this. The lady accompanying the queen, Princess Baryatinskaya, my cousin, I’ll try to contact her. I think that the sovereign would be interested in having his horoscope from you.” “You will be doing me a great favor,” said Madame de Tabe. “I would be happy to check the impression that the sovereign made on me yesterday. How much misfortune I read on this face young man. It's horrible. Misfortune, great misfortune,” she repeated. These words frightened me so much that, going out into the street, I told my daughter that I would not take any steps to obtain a photograph of the sovereign’s hand. I was afraid of being an intermediary in delivering bad predictions to him and decided more not to visit Madame de Tabe, which my daughter regretted, since she wanted to know her fate. I am glad that Madame de Tabe would have read from the line of my daughter’s hand the sad fate that awaited her. several years later, my dearly beloved daughter, which still poisons my days and causes sleepless nights. I often thought about the words of Madame de Tebe, “a misfortune, a great misfortune,” during the coronation of Nicholas II. Louis XVI. Just as with the arrival of Marie Antoinette in Paris the holiday turned into mourning, so the Moscow celebrations were marked by a great disaster, which entailed many casualties. The distribution of royal gifts to the people was promised. Crowds of women and children flocked from different villages to Moscow to Khodynskoye Field. No precautions were taken, and when the distribution of gifts began, the whole crowd rushed forward in disorder, stumbling, falling into pits, pushing and trampling each other. Khodynka became a giant hecatomb, a symbol of the constant chaos that reigned in Russia. The number of victims ranged from 8 to 10 thousand people. When I went to the parade the next day, I saw hundreds of carts carrying whole mountains of corpses with arms and legs sticking out, since they didn’t even consider it necessary to cover them with anything. An investigation was ordered to find the perpetrators. At that time, power in Moscow was divided between the Governor General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, and the Minister of the Court, headed by Count Vorontsov-Dashkov. They both blamed each other for what happened. Count von der Palen, former minister of justice and master of ceremonies during the coronation, was elected judge. He asked permission to read his report to the king and the royal family. He began like this: “Disasters like the one that happened can be repeated as long as Your Majesty appoints such irresponsible people as Their Highnesses and Grand Dukes to responsible posts.” These historic, fearless words correctly illuminate the situation at that time. This irresponsible, autocratic and, at the same time, powerless government led us, as I have said more than once, to the terrible catastrophe of which we became victims. The beginning of the reign, marked by the shedding of blood, put a stamp of sorrow on the empress. She was proud and shy at the same time and was not at all like her friendly mother-in-law, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, whose smile charmed everyone. Due to the fact that the young empress had not been prepared in her youth for her future role and had never had to subordinate her will to the higher will of another, she did not know people and, despite this, considered her beliefs to be impeccable. With complete ignorance of life, she judged everyone and everything very strictly. It seems to me that she, like her sister, the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, would have become accustomed to the demands and morals of Russian society if at the very beginning of the reign of Nicholas II the royal family had not attacked her humiliation and even persecution. After her first visit to St. Petersburg, where Princess Alice of Hesse accompanied her father and when they were still far from the idea that she would someday become a queen, she was greeted, especially by Vladimir Alexandrovich’s wife, with condescendingly patronizing, like a small, insignificant princess, that caused her a lot of grief. When Princess Alice became the wife of Nicholas II, her aunt, the Grand Duchess, was about to make mentoring remarks to her, but the queen did not forget her attitude towards herself and made her high-ranking relative feel who was now the mistress. The Grand Duchess could never forgive her for this and, taking advantage of her influence, did everything in St. Petersburg society that could harm the empress. She persuaded high-ranking ladies to give advice to the empress, then praised the courage of these ladies and conveyed in every possible way the contents of these oral and written advice to the empress. One day the Empress answered someone who insisted that she should give breakfast parties and dinners, Fredericks: “Why do you want me to invite people who give me different tips , which could only bring me harm, and gave these persons a reason for various conversations." These words were conveyed to me by Count Fredericks himself. Instead of seeking rapprochement and attracting hearts to herself, the queen avoided conversations and meetings, and the wall that separated her from society everything grew. After the death of Alexander II, the royal family lost all discipline. The Tsar was timid and unfriendly towards his uncles and cousins, who were older than him and were accustomed to looking at him as a child and therefore did not show him due respect. the royal family did not recognize any discipline, while under none of its members dared to resist the strict orders of the Minister of the Court, Count Vorontsov-Dashkov. The Empress understood the danger that threatened the imperial family, and, using her influence on Nicholas II, she advised him to stop with all severity the abuse of his position by some family members. Her advice was accepted, but behind her back the tsar gave his consent to all the demands of the great dukes, demands that often offended the dignity of the imperial house. All this led to the fact that the queen had many enemies among her husband's relatives, enemies who hated her and did everything that could harm her and make her unloved. The only exception was Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, whose intelligence and tact kept him from any participation in acts directed against the empress. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was the same. The emperor, who came to the throne early and spent his entire life surrounded by his family, who even chose a mistress for him to protect his health, was not a leader and, thanks to his youth, surrounded himself with young officers, his former colleagues.Alexandra III
The Empress, who did a lot of charity work, wished in 1910 to organize a large charity bazaar in favor of those institutions of which she was the patron. Once she already organized such a bazaar in the Hermitage, one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, so much was then damaged by visitors to this bazaar of rare items from the time of Empress Catherine II, with which the halls of the Hermitage were decorated, that it was decided never to organize such bazaars there again. In view of the fact that the Minister of the Court did not want to provide any of the other palaces for this purpose, one could see how the wife of the greatest ruler in the world was busy looking for premises suitable for the bazaar. We approached many ministers about this, but everyone tried to free themselves from such troubles. During one conversation with the Empress, Nicholas II remembered that, while still heir, he visited my house during balls and receptions. He remembered that he had lunch at great hall , which accommodated many tables. Princess Golitsyna, then the chief chamberlain of the empress, visited me and asked me for photographic photographs of my apartment in order to present them to the sovereign, and a few days later the empress turned to me with a request to organize a bazaar with me. This event had unpleasant consequences for me. It created many envious people around me, who saw in the empress’s request a mercy towards me, which in fact was not the case. During the week, every corner of my house was filled with lady patronesses, their assistants and their servants. Each Grand Duchess had her own table, her gentlemen and ladies quarreled over places; I was made responsible for everything. All the artists offered their services for these evenings, and my halls had the honor of receiving Sarah Bernhardt, the great Sarah, who was then in Petrograd. We surrounded her with great honor. Count Alexander Zubov, a descendant of the famous favorite of Catherine the Great, picked her up at the hotel, accompanied by a court footman dressed in red livery. She received a big ovation upon her appearance. All hands stretched out to meet her, they applauded her and shouted: “Hurray, Sarah Bernhardt.” The next day she was received in Tsarskoe Selo, as the Empress wanted to personally express her gratitude to her. I don’t know what impression this visit made on Sarah Bernhardt - I never met her after that. Personally, I knew little of the empress. In my entire life, I had only three audiences with her - one, by the way, after the market. I often saw her at theatrical performances in the Hermitage and in the Winter Palace. By the way, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich played Hamlet there, which he beautifully translated into Russian. My daughter played Ophelia. The queen often came to rehearsals. Always cold and indifferent, she seemed only concerned with ensuring that there was nothing in Shakespeare’s text that might seem offensive to her. She did not greet anyone. Like ice, she spread the cold around her. The Emperor, on the contrary, was very friendly and very interested in the performance of the artists, all the guards officers he knew. The production of Hamlet became almost an official event - a large sum of money from the sovereign's personal funds was spent on it. It is difficult to describe the luxury of this production. I am sure that neither Hamlet’s mother, nor the king, her husband, ever had such a brilliant retinue as the Russian court arranged for them. Even the queen's pages were real pages of the empress, sons of the best Russian families. This performance was repeated three times - the first time it was given for the court and for the diplomatic corps, the second - for the relatives of the performers, and the third - Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who was an excellent artist, received permission to perform the role of Hamlet in front of the artists of the imperial theaters - Russian, French and Italian. I would like to emphasize that under no regime have art and artists enjoyed such honor and played such a role as during the monarchy. In addition to Madame Wolnis, who was so often present, and the Grand Duchess Helena, Charles Andrieu, Petri, Madame Pasca and many others were welcome guests to everyone. similar to history from Marie Antoinette's necklace. Antipathy and even hatred towards the empress grew. Rumors spread that through this favorite man, everything could be achieved at court. Illiterate notes from Rasputin circulated from hand to hand, in which he asked for one, then for another. Everyone was indignant, but it did not occur to anyone that Rasputin’s patronage was successful only because those to whom it was addressed, wanting to please higher spheres, cowardly fulfilled his requests. I know of two exceptions in this sense: Alexander Grigorievich Bulygin and Count Fredericks did not accept those sent to them with Rasputin’s recommendation and ignored his request. Neither the sovereign nor the empress expressed their displeasure to these two statesmen, but, on the contrary, always remained supportive of them. Lists of cynical letters that the Tsarina allegedly wrote to Rasputin circulated from hand to hand in salons, as well as in the lower strata of society. These letters were fictitious, but when this became known, they had already done their job and the goal was achieved. The Empress's German origin also served as a reason for an unfriendly attitude towards her, although she received a completely English upbringing. She was proud to be the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and spoke English constantly to her husband and children.If she were married to an Englishman, she would be happy and respected by everyone. But fate, to her and others’ misfortune, placed her on the greatest throne in the world precisely at a time when this throne began to shake.
Did I have a political salon? I claim that I did not. Some congratulated me on this salon, which supposedly enjoyed European fame, others spoke about it with indignation. In fact, this salon never existed - it existed only in the imagination of those who had not been to me and only read in the newspapers about my receptions, where ambassadors and ministers were listed among many other guests. They considered these purely secular methods to be political. In the summer there were many trips to the islands. Many people stopped by to see me on the way back for a cup of tea and a game of bridge. Calling as witnesses all the government officials who visited me, I am sure that when reading these lines they will remember that they extremely rarely heard conversations on political topics with me. In any case, they can testify that I never tried to influence anyone, impose my opinion on them, or find out about anyone. The Minister of Internal Affairs lived on Aptekarsky Island. All these dignitaries lived in dachas provided to them by the court. Everyone knew each other and visited each other. Loving company and accustomed to seeing many guests, I also cordially received my neighbors, not caring about the political views of one or the other and their orientation (a word known among us before the war). My dacha, located on the banks of the Neva and surrounded by a beautiful garden, was in full view of everyone passing and walking. It was as if I lived in a glass house, and since I had nothing to hide, it never occurred to me to separate myself from the world with a stone wall. But envy and ill will took their toll. He is old, tired of politics and lives with his family. After dinner we moved into the living room, where the bridge tables were prepared, and suddenly it seemed to me that I was delirious when I saw a lady in a black veil in front of me and recognized Countess Ignatieva, and next to her the Count.I repeat, I knew the empress very little. My daughter-in-law Countess Kleinmichel and her daughters enjoyed the favor of the Empress; My nieces often visited the Grand Duchesses in the Crimea and Tsarskoe Selo and told me that they had never seen Rasputin. This proves the falsity of the rumors that Rasputin even had access to the bedchambers of the grand duchesses and that he was constantly in the palace.
Did I have a political salon? Costume ball . Alexander Polovtsov volunteered to help me and brought, as in every case he took on, a lot of skill, energy and tact into the organization of this evening. A quadrille was arranged, in which my three nieces and the young Princess Cantacuzen, granddaughter of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder (the supreme commander in the Russian-Turkish campaign of 1877 - 1878) took part. Then they performed a classical minuet to the lovely music of Mozart. Known for her dancing skills, Countess Marianne Zarnekau, daughter of Countess Paley, performed an Egyptian dance with Lieutenant Vladimir Lazarev. Baroness Wrangel, her friend, and Okhotnikova, the sister of the beautiful Countess Ignatieva, now the wife of General Polovtsov, danced a Hungarian dance that was a huge success, the partners were Count Roman Podoni and Jacques des Lalaig. Prince Konstantin Bagration, son-in-law of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, performed Caucasian dances, and Princess Kochubey and her brother Victor, Count Musin-Pushkin and Grigory Shebeko danced Little Russian quadrille. Finally, Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, the wife of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, together with Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich, became the head of the eastern quadrille. The Grand Duchess asked all the most beautiful, graceful women of St. Petersburg to take part in this dance. Among them I will name Princess Olga Orlova, Countess Maria Kutuzova, Miss Muriel Buchanan, Princess Natalia Gorchakova, Mrs. Jasper Ridley (daughter of our ambassador in Paris, Count Benckendorff) and many others. The Francis de Croisset couple could not be there due to the need to leave for Paris. Among the men were: Prince Alexander of Battenberg, several young secretaries of the English embassy, officers of the Cavalry and Horse Guards regiments, many beautiful young people who had now died, either in the Carpathians or on the Lithuanian plains, victims of brutal soldiers. They didn’t want to understand that this was completely impossible for me - such a crowd of people would ruin the beauty of this evening. Olympiada Andreevna began to cry at the thought of what awaited me, since she had a great opinion about Rodzianko’s strong connections. On the same day, Prince Kurakin, who lived in my house, fussed over Rodzianko. I explained to him the reason for my refusal, and Kurakin told me in the presence of his wife: “Be careful, he threatens you with a big scandal if you don’t invite him.” “Now or later,” I answered, “he will make a scandal for me, but I prefer not to have it now. Of two evils, I choose the lesser.” My evening passed without the slightest trouble. The next day, the same ball was repeated by the wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, and a few days later I left St. Petersburg, went to Rome, and did not think about Rodzianko anymore. All this happened in the last days of January 1914. War broke out. I was at my dacha on the islands when an acquaintance of mine brought Russkoe Slovo correspondent Rumanov to me. Rumanov told me that Pavel Rodzianko had been calling the editorial offices of all newspapers for 24 hours with the question: “Have you also heard that Countess Kleinmichel sent Emperor Wilhelm, in a chocolate box, a mobilization plan and that she was arrested and has now been hanged?” . This, of course, was done with the aim of discrediting me, and Rodzianko, without asserting, but only asking, was not at all afraid of being accused of libel., like everyone else, and was present when the king made his speech to the people on the occasion of the declaration of war. Passing by me, the sovereign gave me his hand. So, there was no longer any doubt that I was alive and well. By chance I approached Fredericks’ assistant, General Maksimovich. He talked with Professor Rauchfus. When he saw me, he made such an astonished face, as if a ghost was standing in front of him, and said to me: “The professor just told me that you were hanged yesterday.” The next day, several of my friends invited me to Cuba for lunch, and I had the opportunity to hear with my own ears how Rodzianko, who had not noticed me, approached General Serebryakov’s table and asked: “Have you heard that Countess Kleinmichel sent a plan for our mobilization to the German Emperor and hanged yesterday?” Serebryakov answered him: “Stop talking nonsense,” and turned his back to him. Rodzianko walked away from him, confused. When he saw me among my friends, his face changed and disappeared from the restaurant. If these rumors were treated with distrust in St. Petersburg, they nevertheless penetrated abroad and into the mostremote places
I cannot help but mention the role played by Pavel Rodzianko a little later when the Germans captured the islands of Ezel and Dago. He commanded a squad in Pernov, a small town located on the border of Estonia and Livonia. Due to the fact that he was eager to be crowned with military laurels, he mistook the old barges sunk in the harbor to block access to the German fleet for the German fleet. He alarmed the entire sleeping city; His soldiers rushed to plunder the house of the leader of the nobility, Baron von Pilar, smashed his beautiful collection of porcelain and destroyed all his beautiful furnishings. After this, Rodzianko ordered his soldiers to set fire to large warehouses of firewood located in Pilau and then throw them into the sea huge variety bags of salt, the loss of which was then very sensitive for our northern army. All this was done under the pretext that none of the supplies would fall into the hands of the enemy, after which, as a reasonable commander, he retreated 12 miles from Pilau, preferring the salvation of his people to an unequal battle. At dawn, his patrols began to approach the city with great caution in order to look out for the enemy, but did not find anyone in this small peaceful town, destroyed by order of their chief. Rodzianko did not think of hiding his action, but on the contrary, he even had the courage to telegraph his brother, the Chairman of the State Duma, that he had won a great victory over the Germans. Mikhail Rodzianko read with confidence before members of the Duma this false message from his brother, which caused a storm of applause. Those who arrived on the same day from Revel and Pernov described what happened in his actual form , but the capital's newspapers had already spread the good news of the great victory, and then it was no longer possible to cover the truth. I must say that the commandant of the port in Reval, Admiral Gerasimov, was brave enough to express his indignation at this lie, which could harm the Russian army. He issued an order in which he categorically convicted Rodzianko of lying.I never met Rodzianko again, I only know that he showed my friend Count de E., as the latter himself told me, a saber studded with diamonds, given to him, according to him, by the king for his victory at Pilau. It is not necessary to add that Rodzianko himself acquired this “badge of distinction.”
St. Petersburg, Leningrad region.
Type of holiday:
Museums. Interesting people
Family, holidays with children
Amount of days:
Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel was famous throughout St. Petersburg. According to Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, sister of Nicholas II, “the whole St. Petersburg world was talking about her balls and masquerades.”
Portrait of Princess Kleinmichel in the Orsay Museum in Paris.
“Rich, eccentric, with a slight limp, the Countess rarely left her mansion, and everyone who occupied at least some position in society considered it an honor to be invited to her house... Somehow she managed to learn the innermost secrets of almost everything in St. Petersburg society. Her mansion was known as a hotbed of gossip. On top of that, she was interested in occult sciences...” (Ian Worres “The Last Grand Duchess”).
The mansion of Countess Kleinmichel still stands on Kamenny Island today. It resembles a fairy-tale palace, and it is not surprising that the entire high society of St. Petersburg loved to be here.
The architectural appearance of the mansion did not take shape right away; more than one architect had a hand in creating this masterpiece.
The mansion was erected in 1834-1835 for the director and actor of the French theater troupe E. Geniez, the author of the project was the architect A. Stackenschneider. Later, the house was owned by the wife of silversmith I. A. Verkhovtsev. During her reign, the mansion was rebuilt, and an extensive wooden dining room was added to the western side (designed by architect A.G. Trambitsky).
Countess Kleinmichel leased the mansion "for a period of 90 years" in 1893. She was married to Colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment N.P. Kleinmichel. His father, Adjutant General P. A. Kleinmichel, for the heroism shown during extinguishing the fire of the Imperial Residence in 1837, received the right, by personal decree of Emperor Nicholas I, to depict the Winter Palace engulfed in flames on his coat of arms. This coat of arms flaunts above the entrance to the dacha of Countess Kleinmichel.
In 1904, architect K.G. Preis rebuilt Verkhovtseva's house, highlighting the main entrance with a spacious vestibule, and in 1909, the architect F. von Postels erected a two-story wooden mansion in the Art Nouveau style with a high attic topped with a turret. The house was built for L. Ciniselli, the daughter of the circus owner.
Due to the sharp contrast in styles in which the houses of Kleinmichel and Ciniselli were made, it was decided to rebuild the countess's dacha in the neo-Gothic style, which was carried out in 1911 - 1912 by the architect K.K. Meibom. It was he who came up with the idea of the roof with a high spire, the corner turret and the framing of the stucco cartouche with pinnacles above the entrance with the Kleinmichel coat of arms.
The most important part of the composition of the dacha is an openwork forged lattice with a wicket and double-leaf gates, the links of which are woven with the monograms “MK” (Maria Kleinmichel). It was installed in 1904 according to the design of K.G. Preisa. And in 1912, according to the design of K. Meyob, neo-Gothic gates with round pillars topped with lanterns were made.
Unfortunately, the interiors of the countess's mansion have not survived to this day. The interior of the house was no less magnificent. The walls of the mansion are decorated with oak panels. In the Great Living Room there is a fireplace with atlases, made of white marble, and in front of it are sphinxes on low pedestals.
photo of the early 20th century
A passage in the form of a gentle arch led from the Large Living Room to the Small Living Room, and then to the dining room. Collectible porcelain was stored there, as well as paintings, tapestries and oriental rugs on the floor. In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Countess Kleinmichel organized a hospital in her mansion, and the interior decoration was transported to her other house, located on Sergievskaya Street (now Tchaikovsky Street).
In October 1917, pogromists came to the house, but before their arrival the Countess hung up a sign with the inscription “Entry is prohibited. The building belongs to the Petrograd Soviet of Deputies. Countess Kleinmichel is imprisoned Peter and Paul Fortress"In this way, one might say, she saved her life. In 1918, the Countess, having sold her house and collection, left Russia forever.
House of Countess Kleinmichel on Sergievskaya Street
The Countess's house on Sergievskaya Street (now Tchaikovsky Street) is less famous than the mansion on Kamenny Island. It was erected in 1893 by architect V.E. Pater. The Countess occupied 15 rooms on the 2nd floor.
Many events also took place here, to which the entire St. Petersburg elite was invited. For example, in this house the golden wedding of Prince Anatoly Alexandrovich and Princess Elizaveta Mikhailovna (née Volkonskaya) Kurakin was celebrated.
On the lattice of one of the balconies the monogram “MEK” (Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel) has been preserved.
Address of the house on Kamenny Island: emb. Krestovka River, 12 M. Krestovsky Island
Address of the house on Sergievskaya Street (Tchaikovsky Street): st. Tchaikovsky, house 33 – 37 M. Chernyshevskaya
The mansion of Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel, one of the remarkable monuments of the Romantic era, is located in the northwestern part of Kamenny Island, on the banks of the Krestovka River.
Once on this place there was a house of rare beauty, built by the architect Andrei Ivanovich Stackenschneider, professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In Taganrog there is a house designed by this outstanding architect, known as Alferaki Palace.
In 1893, the house and the right to lease the land plot (for a period of 90 years) were acquired by Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel. M.E. Kleinmichel is the hostess of a high society salon in St. Petersburg, a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Capital and Estate", a person of deep intelligence and independent thoughts. The house was rebuilt by her, but this is a case when in the place of one architectural masterpiece another masterpiece appeared, in no way inferior to the first. 
The appearance of the Kleinmichel estate was formed gradually. In 1904, architect. K. G. Preis rebuilt the house of Verkhovtseva (the previous owner). Preuss separated the main entrance with a spacious vestibule into a separate volume and crowned it with a cartouche with the Kleinmichel coat of arms.
The Kleinmichel mansion acquired its final appearance in 1904, when architect. I. A. Pretro rebuilt the house in the Gothic style: a high-pitched roof over a central two-story volume.
The interiors of the Kleinmichel mansion are known thanks to a series of photographs by K. K. Bulla in the magazine "Capitals and Estates". The walls of the entrance hall were paneled with oak, and to the right of the entrance was a massive fireplace lined with patterned ceramic tiles. A staircase with carved railings led to the gallery. The carved pillars of the staircase were decorated with men's heads in wide-brimmed hats. The suite of ceremonial rooms was decorated with Corinthian pilasters and stucco friezes in the form of wreaths with garlands.
In the Great Living Room there was a marble fireplace with atlases; in front of it, on low pedestals, lay two sphinxes with female heads. A passage in the form of a gentle arch led to the Small Living Room, then to the living room, where a huge ceiling light illuminated tapestries, paintings, and inlaid parquet flooring.
Collectible porcelain was stored there, as well as paintings, tapestries and oriental rugs on the floor.
Monumental portcullis with two front gates. According to the design of K. G. Preuss (1904), a magnificent openwork forged lattice with floral patterns and salamanders, a gate and double gates with the monogram “MK” (Maria Kleinmichel) were forged. Installed in 1909
In 1912, at the San Galli factory, according to the design of K. K. Meibom, a neo-Gothic gate was produced, the round pillars of which were topped with forged lanterns.
Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel (née Keller), born in 1846. in Kyiv.
Her father is gr. Keller Eduard Fedorovich (1819-1903), Governor of Minsk, from 1863. senator, actual state councilor.
The Russian branch of the Kellers goes back to Count Ludwig-Christsphorus, the Prussian envoy in St. Petersburg. The Keller family was of the Lutheran faith.
Brother of Maria Eduardovna - gr. Keller Fedor Eduardovich (1850-1904), lieutenant general, hero of the Balkan and Russian-Turkish wars, recipient of numerous military awards. He died a hero's death in the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1872 Maria Keller married N.P. Kleinmichel, colonel of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Five years after the wedding, she was widowed.
By the time she bought the house on Kamenny Island, the countess was known in the capital as the hospitable hostess of a high-society salon. In addition, she was involved in collecting and was a member of the editorial board of the popular glossy magazine “Capital and Estate,” which introduced readers to the most interesting architectural monuments, art collections, and art news. Among Maria Eduardovna's friends were grand dukes, diplomats, politicians, bibliophiles and collectors. They were attracted by her persistent character, deep and versatile mind.
"Petersburgskaya Gazeta" wrote in June 1910: "...crowded meetings at the Kamennoostrovskaya dacha at Countess Kleinmichel's on Thursdays, when on the platform in front of the dacha all evening and after midnight numerous engines and autocars await the departure of guests. The salons of the kind and hospitable hostess in the summer at the dacha, as well as in winter, on reception days, it is filled with numerous visitors. The entire high society of St. Petersburg gathers here, all foreign diplomats, noble persons coming from abroad, attracted both by the kind and friendly cordiality of the reception, and by the prospect of an interesting conversation with the hostess. home and visitors to her salon."
COSTUME BALL 1914
On Maslenitsa at the end of January 1914. Countess Kleinmichel organized a grandiose masquerade ball for three hundred people in her mansion, which became an event in the great St. Petersburg society.
The ball was designed by Lev Bakst himself. The decoration of the ball was the luxurious oriental costumes of the participants and a procession from the Arabian Nights
Here are the lines from the Petersburg Newspaper: “The Most Serene Princess Natalya Pavlovna Gorchakova was in an original silver and white Indian costume, made according to a design by Bakst, with gold and silver inserts depicting high-relief Arabic ornaments, a wide-cut bodice trimmed with blue velvet bleu person with original shoulder pads made of white swan fluff, on the head an Indian turban, dazzlingly white and light, with white currents and esprits, pearls and diamonds, framing the face in an oriental manner. Emeralds, sapphires and
silver tassels and broth, also according to Bakst, complemented the fabulous impression of this original costume.”
A photograph of Grand Duchess Victoria and Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich in oriental costumes has been preserved
Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmichel left us several beautiful houses in St. Petersburg and a book of memoirs "Souvenirs d" un Monde englouti" ("From a Drowned World"). Individual chapters of this interesting book were published by the Petrograd publishing house in 1923.
Leon Trotsky in “The History of the Russian Revolution” spoke of the book as follows: “The cynical memoirs of the old intriguer Kleinmichel show with remarkable clarity what supernational character distinguished the top of the aristocracy of all European countries, bound by ties of kinship, inheritance, contempt for everything inferior and ... cosmopolitan adultery in old castles, in fashionable resorts and at the courts of Europe.”
In the “great and bloodless February revolution“The countess, who was 71 years old, was arrested. She allegedly fired a machine gun from the roof of the house at the revolutionary detachments. She was taken to the Duma, but was soon released, convinced of the absurdity of the accusation.
And she saw the results of the “revolutionary creativity of the masses.” The wine cellar has been looted, there is chaos and ruin everywhere. The soldiers of the Volyn regiment, the one where non-commissioned officer Kirpichnikov killed his commander with a shot in the back, especially tried. In a mansion on Kamenny Island, they staged a shooting competition on the main staircase, decorated with portraits of the Sovereigns from the House of Romanov. They poked burning cigarette butts into the eyes of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, cut out Catherine II's nose, and unimaginably mutilated the portrait of Alexander I.
At the end of 1918 Kleinmichel left Russia for France using a passport, which she received with difficulty through the Swedish embassy.
In 1918, the dacha was nationalized. Renovated by participants of communist subbotniks, it was transferred to the United Club of Holiday Homes for Workers on Kamenny Island. On July 19, 1920, V.I. Lenin visited here, and therefore, more than half a century later, the Kleinmichel dacha was included in the list of memorable Lenin places and placed under state protection as a historical monument. This is what saved her from inevitable destruction.
From 1986 to 1989, at the dacha, the Restorer association, according to the project of N.V. Morozova, carried out renovation work. At the same time, the Ciniselli house (adjacent) was destroyed, and the interiors of the countess’s mansion were not preserved. In 1990, the building was transferred to the Baltic River Shipping Company to organize a recreation center there.
An episode of the film “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson” - the menagerie mansion of the scarecrow Sherman (“Treasures of Agra”) was filmed in the mansion. Watson was sent here by a detective to pick up a dog named Tory.
Then it was privately owned, belonged to the Federal Migration Service...
In 2006-2007 was completed new reconstruction building. The main house, service wing and wrought-iron fence were restored. For a long time we knew it in one form (previously its walls were green), but by 2007 the house was restored to its original form. L. Ciniselli's dacha has been recreated. Stone Island is being prepared for the residence of the President of Russia, which includes the mansion of M.E. Kleinmichel.
Now this is the mansion of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, called the Reception House.
