From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847--1928 - Softcover

Gelardi, Julia P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1250001617 ISBN 13: 9781250001610

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2012

Synopsis

This sweeping saga recreates the extraordinary opulence and violence of Tsarist Russia as the shadow of revolution fell over the land, and destroyed a way of life for these Imperial women

The early 1850s until the late 1920s marked a turbulent and significant era for Russia. During that time the country underwent a massive transformation, taking it from days of grandeur under the tsars to the chaos of revolution and the beginnings of the Soviet Union.

At the center of all this tumult were four women of the Romanov dynasty. Marie Alexandrovna and Olga Constantinovna were born into the family, Russian Grand Duchesses at birth. Marie Feodorovna and Marie Pavlovna married into the dynasty, the former born a Princess of Denmark, the latter a Duchess of the German duchy of Mecklendburg-Schwerin.

In From Splendor to Revolution, we watch these pampered aristocratic women fight for their lives as the cataclysm of war engulfs them. In a matter of a few short years, they fell from the pinnacle of wealth and power to the depths of danger, poverty, and exile. It is an unforgettable epic story.

About this title

About the Author:

JULIA P. GELARDI is the author of Born to Rule and In Triumph's Wake. She is an independent historian, currently living in Minnesota with her husband and two daughters.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

FROM SPLENDOR TO REVOLUTION (1: A SPLENDID IMPERIAL COURT)

Nothing as meaningful and sacred as the coronation of a Romanov tsar could take place anywhere but in the very heart of the Russian Empire. Even resplendent St. Petersburg, Peter the Great’s creation and the most western city in the empire, was unworthy. Only historic Moscow, the most Russian of cities, would do. Since the days of old Muscovy hundreds of years before, sentiment about rulers had changed little in the heart and soul of the average Russian. “Russians had been taught” from their cradle “to regard their ruler as an almost god-like creature. Their proverbs embodied this view: ‘Only God and the tsar know,’ ‘One sun shines in heaven and the Russian tsar on earth,’ ‘Through God and the tsar, Russia is strong,’ ‘It is very high up to God; it is a very long way to the tsar.’ ”1 Coronations in Moscow were “intended to bring home to the minds” of the emperor’s “subjects in the most vivid manner the Heaven-appointed nature of his functions and inheritance.”2 Thus, in accordance with tradition and mindful of the sacredness of the occasion, the Empress Marie Feodorovna traveled to Moscow for the coronation of her husband, Emperor Alexander III. It was May 1883, two years after he had ascended the Russian throne.

Widespread excitement surrounded the emperor and empress’s coronation. Hundreds of thousands of their subjects descended upon Moscow to celebrate the momentous event that spring day. Festivities officially began when Russia’s “little Father and little Mother”—the thirty-eight-year-old emperor and his thirty-five-year-old empress—made their majestic state entry into the city. A journalist who witnessed the scene from the Kremlin ramparts observed the royal retinue in their carriages to have been of “interminable length.”3 Not just long, the procession was of incomparable majesty, a dazzling and awe-inspiring sight. An impressive array of royalty, nobility, dignitaries, and soldiers processed before packed crowds, producing a rarely seen panorama of splendor. Crowds continually gasped with admiration over such sights as the imposing chevalier-gardes with their silver cuirasses and white tunics, along with the Cossacks with their long red lances, looking “perfectly wild and uncivilized.” Especially arresting in appearance were the Asiatic deputations from the Russian Empire’s far-flung provinces. These exotic representatives with their lyrical titles included the Khan of Khiva and the Emir of Bokhara who wore “high fur caps” and jewels flashing on their belts and headpieces.4 Even prancing horses made an indelible impression, thanks to their eye-catching harnesses embedded with glistening semiprecious stones.

Most spectacular of all was the imperial family. The colossal frame of the bearded Emperor Alexander III was impossible to miss. His subjects were awed to see him astride a white charger and dressed as a Russian general, his head topped by an Astrakhan cap. Following the emperor were his sons, the fifteen-year-old heir, the Tsarevich Nicholas, and twelve-year-old Grand Duke George. Riding next to Alexander III and enjoying a special place of honor was his brother-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the scarlet uniform of a British general. Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, the emperor’s only sister, accompanied her husband the duke, second son of England’s venerable Queen Victoria.

When the Empress Marie Feodorovna appeared amidst the pealing of bells and the booming of cannons, the crowds reverently crossed themselves and greeted their empress with a thundering ovation. The emperor’s petite, dark-haired consort made her way in a gold carriage, “a veritable mass of glass and gilding ... drawn by eight perfectly white horses in gold harness, each horse led by a groom in blue velvet and white plumed casques.”5 With the empress sat her sister-in-law, thirty-one-year-old Queen Olga of Greece, and Marie Feodorovna’s elder daughter, eight-year-old Grand Duchess Xenia, who, according to an eyewitness, looked “astonished at the homage that was being paid to them.”6 Following Marie Feodorovna’s carriage were those of the Romanov grand duchesses, including Marie Feodorovna and Marie Alexandrovna’s sister-in-law, twenty-nine-year-old Marie Pavlovna (“Miechen”), wife of the emperor’s brother Grand Duke Vladimir. Like her imperial counterparts, Miechen dazzled the crowds in her white gown and glittering diamonds and pearls.

Spectacular as the procession was, there was a palpable, underlying tension, for the imperial family was under threat from Russian terrorists, known as the Nihilists. A number of the distinguished guests noted this anxious atmosphere, including Mrs. Frederic Chenevix Trench, wife of the military attaché to the British embassy in St. Petersburg. Mrs. Trench was impressed by the gorgeous pageantry of the coronation entry, but she was even more struck by Marie Feodorovna’s brave face before her adoring subjects. “On the very morning of the entry,” recalled Trench, “several anonymous letters had been received by both the Emperor and Empress telling them to prepare for the worst if they persisted in their intention of going in state to the Kremlin ... Yet, there sat the Empress with a smile on her face, not knowing at what moment there might be a desperate attempt upon her own or upon the Emperor’s life. Not only did the imperial couple receive such letters of warnings, but many of the attendants who were to form part of the pageant, and the little pages and postilions who accompanied the Empress’s chariot, each received separate letters telling them that they would not reach the Kremlin alive.”7 Mary King Waddington, wife of a French diplomat and guest of the emperor and empress, also noticed the “highly charged atmosphere” and surmised why the Empress Marie Feodorovna, behind the smiles and bows looked “grave and very pale.” Waddington concluded that “it must have been an awful day for her, for she was so far behind the Emperor [in the procession], and such masses of troops in between, that he might have been assassinated easily, she knowing nothing of it.”8

Despite these sinister threats, Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna, their entourage and the imperial family, including Marie Alexandrovna, the Duchess of Edinburgh; Queen Olga; and Miechen, survived their state entry and made their way unscathed to the Kremlin, the medieval walled citadel dominating the banks of the Moscow River. Mrs. Waddington thought the Kremlin with its “great crenulated wall ... quantities of squares, courts, churches, palaces, barracks, [and] terraces,” along with its “gilt domes, pink and green roofs, and steeples,” presented a unique and splendid vision. The color “pink predominated,” she observed, most likely because of the “rose flush of the sunset which gave a beautiful color to everything.”9 For the following three days the emperor and empress remained secluded in the Kremlin on a religious retreat. In the meantime, “more and more stringent measures,” noted Mrs. Trench, were “taken to prevent any un-authorised person from entering the walls of the Kremlin, for, as the all-important day of the coronation draws near, no amount of precaution seems too minute to counteract and prevent any possible machinations of the Nihilists.”10

On the day of their coronation, the emperor and empress emerged. They “walked under a splendid canopy held aloft on long golden staffs by sixteen generals, whilst sixteen other officers held the silken cords which steadied it. The Metropolitans of Novgorod, Moscow, and Kieff, who had prayed all night ... came forth with their clergy to meet the imperial pair.” Inside the Cathedral of the Assumption, “the deacons swung their censers to and fro. Clouds of incense rose in the air and the censers danced in them like balls of molten gold. All around was a sea of eager and excited faces.”11 Inside the cathedral, the brilliant gold and precious stones that adorned much of the interior dazzled observers. Vying for attention were exquisite frescoes and sparkling icons along with the gorgeously vested clergy. The coronation ceremony began with Queen Olga of Greece and the Tsarevich Nicholas leading the imperial procession into the cathedral. As Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna entered the cathedral, nearly all eyes were firmly fixed on them. “I could see,” recalled Mrs. Trench, “that the poor Empress was very much agitated; her chest was heaving with emotion, and she was nearly as white as her silver dress.”12 Mary Grace Thornton, daughter of the British ambassador to Russia, thought the Empress Marie Feodorovna had possessed “a certain stateliness” on her coronation day. “She was very pale,” recounted Thornton, “but I thought that I had never seen her look more sympathetic.”13

Emperor Alexander III first crowned himself. Marie Feodorovna then knelt humbly before her husband, whereupon Alexander lifted his crown from his head and placed it on hers momentarily. Afterward, he took Marie Feodorovna’s own crown and held it in place on her head. Once the emperor crowned his wife empress, Marie Feodorovna unexpectedly embraced Alexander in a touching moment. Grand Duke Constantine (“K.R.”), Queen Olga’s brother, was moved by the sight, confiding in his diary: “I cannot describe, cannot express how touching and tender it was to see these embraces of husband and wife and kisses under the imperial crown—this ordinary human love in the glitter and radiance of imperial majesty.”14 The emperor and empress then took Holy Communion, signaling the end of the cere...

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1250001617
• ISBN 13: 9781250001610
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528