THE CZARINA, HER CHILDREN AND HER CHARITIES
It would be difficult to find a better mother than the Empress
Alexandra. She entered into the smallest details of the training of
her daughters and her son, and she tried before everything else to
imbue them with the same serious points of view with which she looked
upon life and its numerous duties. She insisted on her children always
speaking the truth, and the only time I ever saw her really angry
with the little Alexis was one morning when he was caught by her
telling a falsehood. She had suffered so much through the insincerity
which continually dogged her footsteps that she made up her mind to
save her children from this misery, and she applied herself to make
out of them sincere people. She had been very lucky in the choice of
the lady who was appointed to superintend the education of the young
Grand Duchesses. Mademoiselle Toutscheff was a person of the highest
moral character, who gave herself up to her duties of governess to the
daughters of Nicholas II. with a complete devotion. People said that
she had been the whole time in variance with the Empress, and that she
had left at last because her advice had been disregarded. But this was
not quite correct. It is true that she objected to the introduction of
Rasputin to her pupils, but that was principally because she feared the
influence which this illiterate peasant might come to exercise over the
impressionable minds of the young girls entrusted to her care, whom
she did not wish to see afflicted with the superstitious religious
exaggerations to which their mother unfortunately succumbed. This led
to friction between her and Alexandra Feodorovna, and she preferred to
resign her functions rather than to remain at her post after having
lost the confidence of the mother of her pupils. There may also have
been another reason for her going. The Grand Duchess Olga was already
twenty years of age, and she had developed an independent character
which had made the position of Mademoiselle Toutscheff extremely
difficult. She thought that it would be to the advantage of everybody
if she severed her connection with the Imperial family before she had
spoilt it by unseemly quarrels.
In a certain sense she was right, because it was unfortunately an
undoubted fact that the Empress had become quite fanatical in her
allegiance to the Greek Orthodox Church, and that she tried to induce
her daughters to follow her example. Happily for them the girls had a
great deal of common sense, and they managed to keep themselves free
from the religious excesses into which their mother had fallen. They
loved her tenderly, and would have given their life for her, and she
on her side doted on these girls. When they were babies she spent most
of her spare time with them in their nursery or schoolroom, and later
on she shared with them all her occupations and associated them with
her life as much as she could. She never parted from them or from their
brother, and there was not a thing which concerned their well-being,
down to the smallest details, into which she did not enter. When the
war broke out she with her two eldest daughters followed a course of
training as sisters of charity, and in the hospital which she opened in
Czarskoi Selo she nursed the wounded soldiers with them.
In regard to the little boy whose advent had been such a source of
joy to his parents, the Empress was also full of solicitude. She had
taken upon herself his religious training, and every morning had him
brought to her room for an hour, when she would read to him the gospel
and teach him the catechism. She was a fond, but by no means a foolish
mother, and what she aspired after was to make out of her children
honest men and women and worthy members of society. But at the same
time she had very determined opinions in the matter of education, and
there were things which she could not understand, as, for instance,
the necessity for her girls to have some amusements in their lives.
She imagined that it was quite enough for them to live with their
parents, in possession of all that their hearts could desire in the
matter of material satisfactions, and would not hear of the necessity
of marriage for them. She could not bring herself to look upon them as
upon grown-up women, and considered them always in the light of babies
in need of her care. She is not the only mother who may be reproached
for this failing, and she was more reproached for it than she deserved
to be.
[Illustration: _International Film Service_
THE EX-CZARINA AND HER SON]
The little Grand Duke Alexis had a tutor, an Englishman, whom he liked
very much, and also a French master. His mother wanted him to have
a complete command of foreign languages, knowing by experience how
difficult it is for people placed in high positions to get on without
it. The boy was a bright and intelligent child, and if he had only had
good health, he might have made greater progress in his studies. But
half of his time was spent in bed, and naturally this interfered with
the course of his lessons. His sisters also were not in possession
of the best of health, and this extreme delicacy of her children was
a source of perpetual anxiety to the Czarina. She also objected to
what she declared was a tendency towards frivolity on the part of
her girls. Tatiana especially was extremely fond of nice clothes and
of jewellery, and her mother was continually trying to subdue her
extravagances in that direction, notwithstanding the fact that she
very well knew the like reproach might be applied to her own self. She
was continually drawing the attention of her daughters towards the
sufferings of others, and her instructions bore fruit, because when
the war broke out the Grand Duchesses displayed wonderful qualities
of self-abnegation and devotion to the cause of suffering humanity.
Tatiana in particular was quite marvellous, and worked indefatigably
in the relief committee at the head of which she stood, which proved
the only one that did any good, and where malversations did not take
place. She renounced any pleasures she might have obtained in the way
of buying this or that thing that attracted her fancy, and at last
when money became scarce she sold a beautiful pearl necklace which her
father had given to her on her eighteenth birthday, to relieve some of
the distress which was being constantly brought before her notice. The
lessons of her mother had borne fruit.
The Czarina was naturally extremely charitable, and moreover she had
very sane ideas in regard to the relief of suffering and misery. She
had especially at heart the fate of small children, and the society
which she and the Emperor founded, which was destined to encourage poor
women in their aspirations after maternity by teaching them how to take
care of their offspring, was an elaborate and most intelligent affair.
She would certainly have brought it to an excellent result if the
Revolution had not interfered and destroyed her plans in that respect,
as it destroyed so many other things.
My mistress has been reproached at different times for having shown
herself indifferent to the cause of national education, and for not
having considered that problem with the attention it deserved. But
this was also an unreasonable reproach. The Empress could not, even if
she had so wished, have interfered with the conduct of the different
educational establishments for women in the Empire. These were all of
them placed under the patronage of the Empress Dowager, who was far too
jealous of her privileges in that respect to have consented to share
them with her daughter-in-law. The same thing might have been said in
regard to the work of the Red Cross, which was entirely controlled by
Marie Feodorovna, who brought to it great knowledge and considerable
ability. But at the same time she would not allow the young Czarina
to interfere with it, and when the latter tried in her various visits
to the Front to suggest this or that improvement in the management of
the different hospitals she inspected, her mother-in-law instantly
protested and declared herself affronted by what she considered to be
a criticism on her management. The young Empress had to devote herself
to the care of the wounded in the different hospitals which she had
organised at Czarskoi Selo, and her work remained confined to the
great committee for relief of the refugees from the invaded countries
and other victims of the war, which the Emperor had founded at the
beginning of the campaign, and the care and patronage of which he had
placed under the management of his wife. It was an interesting but at
the same time a most disheartening work, because it was impossible to
follow its execution, and one had perforce to depend on people more or
less reliable. My mistress often regretted that she was debarred from
putting her experience and her great love for her neighbour at the
service of the army. This, however, was denied her, perhaps not without
reason, because by that time she had already become most unpopular
among the troops, who had taken to calling her “the German.” One day
when she was inspecting a field ambulance, she heard the expression
in reference to herself and was so overcome by it that she could not
restrain her tears. The poor woman, though she knew that she was
regarded with anything but affection by her husband’s subjects, yet had
believed that the army at least appreciated her care and her desire for
its welfare. The discovery that such was far from being the case was
a great blow to her. As time went on, carrying away with it all her
hopes of winning the love of the Russian nation, she became hardened
and ceased to conceal the contempt which she felt for a world that had
failed to realise and to believe in her good intentions. But through
it all she applied herself to hide from her children the intensity
of her disillusions, and she went on instilling into them those high
principles to which she had tried to remain faithful herself. Her
great misfortune was that she lived in great times, and that she had
no greatness in her to meet them. This was a calamity, but by no means
caused by her own fault.
Sometimes she was touching in the attention she gave to the smallest
detail connected with the training and the welfare of her children. One
may say that even before the great catastrophe which fell upon her, her
attention had been entirely concentrated on her babes. She liked to be
present at all the daily routine of their existences, and whenever her
daughters were to be produced before some of their relatives, she made
it a point to superintend their toilet, and to brush their long hair.
The girls were generally dressed in white, winter and summer, and it
was only when they had reached their twelfth year that she consented
to dress them in dark colours during their school hours. But even then
they had to change for dinner and to appear before their parents in the
light gowns their mother was so fond of. Their clothes were always made
in the best houses, and their linen just as dainty and magnificent as
their mother’s. In summer and on board the Imperial yacht, they were
generally attired in sailor hats and blouses, and were allowed to run
about as much as they liked, and to talk to the officers and sailors.
They shared their mother’s love for the sea, and the six weeks or so
that these annual excursions in the Finnish waters lasted were the real
holidays of the children as well as of the Empress.
The latter has also been accused of not showing any amiability in
regard to the foreign guests who from time to time visited the Court
of Czarskoi Selo. In this there may have been a certain amount of
truth, but the apparent coldness of the young Czarina proceeded from
the everlasting fear which haunted her that she might be compromised
by showing herself too effusive towards strangers. She knew that
any attention she showed to her visitors would be widely commented
upon, and as these with few exceptions were German princes, this
circumstance added to her embarrassment, because she was very well
aware that she was supposed to harbour strong Teuton sympathies. In
regard to her English relatives she was handicapped, because the Queen
of Great Britain was the sister of the Empress Dowager, and when she
came to Rewal with King Edward, she was naturally more with Marie
Feodorovna than with the niece with whom she had so very little in
common, and who had done nothing whatever to win her sympathies.
From time to time the sister of the Czarina, Princess Henry of Prussia,
put in an appearance at Czarskoi Selo, and her brother, the Grand Duke
of Hesse, was also a frequent visitor there. But these visits were
never official ones, and mostly passed unnoticed by the general public
that had left off troubling about what went on in the home of the
Sovereign. The members of the Imperial family were also rare visitors
at Czarskoi Selo, and avoided putting in an appearance there unless
absolutely compelled to do so. Alexandra Feodorovna knew so perfectly
well how to convey to her guests the knowledge that they bored her
that it was no wonder they did not care to court this knowledge and
that they preferred not to annoy her with their presence. The Empress
Dowager used to appear on the family anniversaries, such as birthdays,
name days, and others of the kind to offer her congratulations to her
son and daughter-in-law, and every winter the young Czarina used to
come to St. Petersburg from Czarskoi Selo to pay her mother-in-law one
solemn visit of ceremony; after which the two ladies did not see each
other for a long time. All this was abnormal, but once these relations
had been established it was next to impossible to change them, and
so the breach which separated my mistress from the world as well as
from her husband’s family widened and widened, until at last she found
herself alone in presence of danger, of sorrow, and of one of the
greatest catastrophes which history will ever record. Whether the fault
was wholly hers or was shared by others, is a point upon which I shall
not attempt to give an opinion.