Did Kshesinskaya have children? The long and brilliant life of the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya

13 years before her death, Matilda Feliksovna had a dream. Bells rang, church singing was heard, and a huge, majestic and amiable Alexander III suddenly appeared before her. He smiled and, stretching out his hand for a kiss, said: "Mademoiselle, you will be the beauty and pride of our ballet ..." everyone, and during a solemn dinner he sat next to the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. This morning, 86-year-old Kshesinskaya decided to write her famous memoirs, but even they could not reveal the secrets of her charm.

There are women to whom the word "sin" is inapplicable: men forgive them everything. They manage to preserve their dignity, reputation and a veil of purity in the most incredible situations, smiling over public opinion - and Malya Kshesinskaya was one of them. The friend of the heir to the Russian throne and the mistress of his uncle, the permanent mistress of the Imperial Ballet, who changed theater directors like gloves, Malya achieved everything she wanted: she became the legal wife of one of the great dukes and became the Most Serene Princess Romanova-Krasinskaya. In Paris in the fifties, this did not mean much, but Matilda Feliksovna desperately clung to her title: she spent her life to become related to the Romanovs' house.

And at first there was her father's estate, a large light log house and a forest where she picked mushrooms, fireworks on holidays and light flirting with young guests. The girl grew up brisk, big-eyed and not particularly pretty: small in stature, with a pointed nose and a squirrel chin - old photographs are not able to convey her lively charm.

According to legend, Mali's great-grandfather, in his youth, lost his fortune, the count's title and the noble surname Krasinsky: after fleeing to France from the murderers hired by the villain-uncle, who dreamed of taking possession of the title and wealth, having lost the papers certifying his name, the former count went to the actors - and became later one of the stars of Polish opera. He lived to be one hundred and six years old and died, burnt out from an improperly heated stove. Mali's father, Felix Yanovich, an honored dancer of the Imperial Ballet and the best mazurka performer in St. Petersburg, did not even make it to eighty-five. Malya went to her grandfather - she also turned out to be a long-liver, and she, like her grandfather, also had vitality, will and grasp. Soon after the prom, a note appeared in the diary of a young ballerina of the imperial stage: "Still, he will be mine!"

These words, which had a direct bearing on the heir to the Russian throne, turned out to be prophetic ...

Before us is an 18-year-old girl and a 20-year-old young man. She is alive, lively, flirtatious, he is well-mannered, delicate and sweet: huge blue eyes, a charming smile and an incomprehensible mixture of softness and stubbornness. The Tsarevich is unusually charming, but it is impossible to force him to do what he does not want. Malya performs at the Krasnoselsky theater - summer camps are set up nearby, and officers of the guards regiments fill the hall. After the performance, she flirts with the guards crowding in front of her dressing room, and one fine day the Tsarevich turns out to be among them: he serves in the Life Hussar Regiment, a red dolman and a gold-embroidered mentik are dexterously sitting on him. Malya shoots her eyes, jokes with everyone, but this is addressed only to him.

Decades will pass, his diaries will be published, and Matilda Feliksovna will begin to read them with a magnifying glass in her hands: "Today I was with baby Kshesinskaya ... Baby Kshesinskaya is very sweet ... Baby Kshesinskaya positively interests me ... We said goodbye - stood at the theater tormented by memories ".

She grew old, her life came to an end, but she still wanted to believe that the future emperor was in love with her.

She was with the Tsarevich for only a year, but he helped her all her life - over time, Nikolai turned into a wonderful, ideal memory. Malya ran out onto the road along which the imperial carriage was supposed to pass, was filled with emotion and delight, noticing him in the theater box. However, all this was ahead; in the meantime, he was making eyes at her backstage at the Krasnoselsky theater, and she wanted to make him her lover by all means.

What the Tsarevich thought and felt remained unknown: he never confided in his friends and numerous relatives and did not even trust his diary. Nikolai began to visit the Kshesinskaya house, then he bought her a mansion, introduced her to his brothers and uncles - and a cheerful company of great dukes often visited Male. Soon Malya became the soul of the Romanov circle - friends said that champagne flowed in her veins. The saddest of her guests was the heir (his former colleagues said that during the regimental holidays, Nicky managed, after sitting at the head of the table all night, not to utter a word). However, this did not upset Malya at all, she just could not understand why he constantly tells her about his love for Princess Alice of Hesse?

Their relationship was doomed from the very beginning: the Tsarevich would never offend his wife with a relationship on the side. At parting, they met outside the city. Malya spent a long time preparing for the conversation, but was unable to say anything important. She only asked permission to continue to be with him on "you", to call "Nicky" and, on occasion, seek help. Matilda Feliksovna rarely used this precious right, besides, at first she had no time for special privileges: having lost her first lover, Malya fell into a severe depression.

The Tsarevich married his Alice, and cavalry guards and horse guards in gold and silver armor, red hussars, blue dragoons and grenadiers in high fur hats, walkers dressed in gilded livery walked along the Moscow streets, and court carriages rolled. When a crown was put on the young man's head, the Kremlin flashed with thousands of electric bulbs. Malya did not see anything: it seemed to her that happiness was gone forever and it was no longer worth living. And yet everything was just beginning: there was already a person next to her who would take care of her for twenty years. After parting with Kshesinskaya, Nikolai asked his cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, to look after Maley (ill-wishers said that he simply handed her over to his brother), and he immediately agreed: a connoisseur and great connoisseur of ballet, he had long been in love with Kshesinskaya. Poor Sergei Mikhailovich did not suspect that he was destined to become her squire and shadow, that because of her he would never have a family and would be glad to give her everything (including his name), and she would prefer something else to him.

Malya, meanwhile, got a taste of social life and quickly made a career in ballet: the former friend of the emperor, and now the mistress of his brother, she, of course, became a soloist and chose only those roles that she liked. "The Case of the Figures", when the director of the imperial theaters, the omnipotent prince Volkonsky, resigned due to a dispute over a suit that Male did not like, further strengthened her authority. Malya carefully cut out and pasted the reviews about her perfected technique, artistry and rare stage charm in a special album - it will become her consolation during her emigration.

Benefit relied on those who served in the theater for at least twenty years, while in Mali it took place in the tenth year of service - the stage was littered with armfuls of flowers, the audience carried her to the carriage in their arms. The Ministry of the Court gave her a wonderful platinum eagle with diamonds on a gold chain - Malya asked to tell Niki that an ordinary diamond ring would upset her very much.

Kshesinskaya went on tour to Moscow in a separate carriage, her jewelry cost about two million rubles. After working for about fifteen years, Malya left the stage. She magnificently celebrated her departure with a farewell benefit performance, and then returned - but not to the state and without signing a contract ... She danced only what she wanted and when she wanted. By that time, she was already called Matilda Feliksovna.

Along with the century, the old life ended - it was still quite a long way from the revolution, but the smell of decay was already in the air: there was a suicide club in St. Petersburg, group marriages became commonplace. Matilda Feliksovna, a woman of impeccable reputation and unshakable social status, managed to derive considerable benefit from this.

She was allowed to do everything: to have a platonic love for Emperor Nicholas, to live with his cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, and, according to rumors (most likely they were true), to be in love with another Grand Duke - Vladimir Alexandrovich, who was her father. ...

His son, young Andrei Vladimirovich, pretty as a doll and painfully shy, became the second (after Nikolai) great love of Matilda Feliksovna.

It all began during one of the receptions in her new mansion, built with the money of Sergei Mikhailovich, who was sitting at the head of the table - there were not many such houses in St. Petersburg. A timid Andrei inadvertently threw a glass of red wine onto the hostess's luxurious dress. Malya felt her head spinning again ...

They walked in the park, in the evenings they sat for a long time on the porch of her dacha, and life was so beautiful that it made sense to die here and now - the future could only ruin the unfolding idyll. All her men were in business: Sergei Mikhailovich paid Malina's bills and defended her interests before the ballet authorities, Vladimir Alexandrovich ensured her a strong position in society, Andrei reported when the emperor went out for a walk from his summer residence - Malya immediately ordered to lay the horses, drove up to the road, and adored Niki respectfully saluted her ...

She soon became pregnant; The birth was successful, and four Malin's men showed touching care for little Volodya: Niki gave him the title of hereditary nobleman, Sergei Mikhailovich offered to adopt the boy. The sixty-year-old Vladimir Alexandrovich also felt happy - the child looked like the Grand Duke like two drops of water. Only the wife of Vladimir Alexandrovich was very worried: her Andrei, a pure boy, completely lost his head because of this libertine. But Maria Pavlovna bore her grief as befits a lady of royal blood: both men (both husband and son) did not hear a single reproach from her.

Meanwhile, Malia and Andrei went abroad: the Grand Duke presented her with a villa on the Cap "d" Ai (a few years ago she received a house in Paris from Sergei Mikhailovich). The chief inspector of artillery took care of her career, nursed Volodya and more and more faded into the background: Malya fell head over heels in love with her young friend; she transferred to Andrei the feelings that she had once felt for his father. Vladimir Alexandrovich died in 1909. Malya and Andrei grieved together (Maria Pavlovna cringed when she saw the scoundrel in a perfectly tailored, beautiful mourning dress for her). By 1914, Kshesinskaya was Andrei's unmarried wife: he appeared with her in the world, she accompanied him to foreign sanatoriums (the Grand Duke suffered from weak lungs). But Matilda Feliksovna did not forget about Sergei Mikhailovich either - a few years before the war, the prince hit on one of the great princesses, and then Malya politely but persistently asked him to stop the disgrace - firstly, he compromises her, and secondly, it is unpleasant for her look at it. Sergei Mikhailovich never married: he raised little Volodya and did not complain about fate. Several years ago, Malia excommunicated him from the bedchamber, but he still continued to hope for something.

The First World War did not harm her men: Sergei Mikhailovich had too high ranks to get on the front line, and Andrei, due to poor health, served at the headquarters of the Western Front. But after the February Revolution, she lost everything: the Bolshevik headquarters was located in her mansion - and Matilda Feliksovna left home in what she was. She put some of the jewelry that she managed to save in the bank, having sewn the receipt into the hem of her favorite dress. This did not help - after 1917, the Bolsheviks nationalized all bank deposits. Several pounds of silverware, precious things from Faberge, diamond trinkets donated by fans - everything went to the hands of the sailors who settled in the abandoned house. Even her dresses disappeared - later Alexandra Kollontai sported them.

But Matilda Feliksovna never gave up without a fight. She filed a lawsuit against the Bolsheviks, and he ordered the uninvited guests to vacate the owner's property as soon as possible. However, the Bolsheviks never left the mansion ... The October Revolution was approaching, and the girlfriend of the former emperor, and now a citizen of Romanov, fled to the south, to Kislovodsk, far from the Bolshevik outrages, where Andrei Vladimirovich and his family had moved a little earlier.

Before leaving, Sergei Mikhailovich proposed to her, but she rejected it. The prince could leave with her, but preferred to stay - it was necessary to settle the matter with her contribution and look after the mansion.

The train started, Malya leaned out the compartment window and waved her hand - Sergei, who did not look like himself in a long baggy civilian cloak, hastily took off his hat. This is how she remembered him - they will never see each other again.

Maria Pavlovna and her son had settled in Kislovodsk by that time. The power of the Bolsheviks was almost not felt here - until a detachment of Red Guards arrived from Moscow. Requisitions and searches began immediately, but the grand dukes were not touched - they were not afraid of the new government and were not needed by its opponents.

Andrei chatted nicely with the commissars, and they kissed Male's hands. The Bolsheviks turned out to be quite friendly people: when the city council of Pyatigorsk arrested Andrey and his brothers, one of the commissars fought off the grand dukes with the help of the mountaineers and sent them out of the city with forged documents. (They said that the grand dukes travel on the instructions of the local party committee.) They returned when the Shkuro Cossacks entered the city: Andrei rode up to the house on horseback, wearing a Circassian coat, surrounded by guards from the Kabardian nobility. In the mountains, his beard grew, and Malya almost burst into tears: Andrei looked like two drops of water like the late emperor.

What happened next looked like a prolonged nightmare: the family fled from the Bolsheviks to Anapa, then returned to Kislovodsk, then went on the run again - and everywhere they were chased by the letters sent from Alapaevsk by Sergei Mikhailovich, who was killed several months ago. In the first, he congratulated Malin's son Volodya on his birthday - the letter arrived three weeks after they celebrated it, on the very day when it became known about the death of the Grand Duke. The Bolsheviks threw all the members of the Romanovs' house in Alapaevsk into a coal mine - they died for several days. When the whites entered the city and the bodies were raised to the surface, a small gold medallion with a portrait of Matilda Feliksovna and the inscription "Malia" was clutched in Sergei Mikhailovich's hand.

And then emigration began: a small dirty steamer, an Istanbul wax wash and a long journey to France, to the Yamal villa. Malya and Andrey arrived there penniless and immediately mortgaged their property - they had to dress up and pay off the gardener.

After Maria Pavlovna died, they got married. The locum tenens of the Russian throne, Grand Duke Kirill, bestowed on Male the title of His Serene Princess Romanova-Krasinskaya - this is how she became related to the Bulgarian, Yugoslavian and Greek tsars, the Romanian, Danish and Swedish kings - the Romanovs were related to all European monarchs, and Matilda Feliksovna happened to be invited for royal dinners. By this time, he and Andrei had moved into a tiny two-room apartment in the poor Parisian district of Passy.

The roulette wheel took the house and the villa: Matilda Feliksovna played for high stakes and always bet on 17 - her lucky number. But it did not bring her luck: the money received for the houses and land, as well as the funds that were raised for Maria Pavlovna's diamonds, went to the dealer from the Monte Carlo casino. But Kshesinskaya, of course, did not give up.

The ballet studio of Matilda Feliksovna was famous throughout Europe - her students were the best ballerinas of the Russian emigration. After class, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, dressed in a shabby jacket worn on his elbows, walked around the rehearsal room and watered the flowers in the corners - this was his household duty, nothing else was trusted to him. And Matilda Feliksovna worked like an ox and did not leave the ballet barre even after the Parisian doctors found her leg joints inflammation. She continued to study, overcoming terrible pain, and the disease receded.

Kshesinskaya was much outlived by her husband, friends and enemies - if fate had let her another year, Matilda Feliksovna would have celebrated her centenary.

Shortly before her death, she again had a strange dream: a theater school, a crowd of pupils in white dresses, a downpour raging outside the windows.

Then they sang "Christ is risen from the dead", the doors flew open, and Alexander III and her Niki entered the hall. Malya fell to her knees, grabbed their hands - and woke up in tears. Life passed, she got everything she wanted - and she lost everything, realizing in the end that all this did not matter.

Nothing but the notes that a strange, reserved, weak-willed youth made in his diary many years ago:

"I saw little M. again."

"I was in the theater - I like the little Kshesinskaya positively."

"Farewell to M. - stood at the theater tormented by memories ..."

Source of information: Alexey Chuparron, "CARAVAN ISTORIY" magazine, April 2000.

Matilda
Olga 2006-03-22 04:43:42

Matilda is the True Love of Great Men. They are afraid of such women, they are ready to love them all their lives - but at a distance, thereby tormenting themselves and her. Great fools who have done a lot ...

From her first performances on stage, she was accompanied by rumors, increased interest in tabloid newspapers and numerous fans. Interest in this peculiar and bright woman does not wane today. Who was Matilda Kshesinskaya - an ethereal creature completely devoted to art, or a greedy hunter for power and wealth?

First student

Her memoirs, written at the end of her life, Kshesinskaya began with a legend. Once a young offspring of the Krasinski family of counts fled from Poland to Paris from relatives who were hunting for his enormous fortune. Fleeing from the assassins, he changed his surname to "Kshesinsky". His son Jan, nicknamed the "golden-eyed word", that is, the nightingale, sang at the Warsaw Opera, and became famous as a dramatic actor. He died at the age of 106, passing on to his descendants not only longevity, but also a craving for art. Son Felix became a dancer, shone on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and when he was already elderly, he married the ballerina Yulia Dominskaya, a mother of five children. In the new marriage, four more were born, all of them, except for the early deceased first child, made a successful career in ballet.

Including the younger Matilda, who was called Malechka in the family.

Miniature (153 cm), graceful, big-eyed, she conquered everyone with her cheerful and open disposition. From the first years of her life she loved to dance, willingly attended rehearsals with her father. He made a wooden model of the theater for his daughter, where Malechka and his sister Yulia performed whole performances. And soon the games gave way to hard work - the girls were sent to the drama school, where they had to study for eight hours a day. However, Matilda comprehended ballet science easily and immediately became the first student. A year after admission, she got a role in Minkus's ballet Don Quixote. Soon they began to recognize her on stage, the first fans appeared ...

From the righteous labors Malechka rested in the parental estate of Krasnitsa near St. Petersburg. She will forever remember berry hikes, boating, crowded receptions - her father adored guests and prepared exotic Polish dishes for them himself. At one of the family receptions, the young coquette upset someone's wedding, falling in love with the groom. And early on I realized what men like - not beauty (the nose is too long, the legs are short), but brightness, energy, sparkle of eyes and sonorous laughter. And, of course, talent.

A brooch

Matilda describes her romance with an unmarried heir in her memoirs very sparingly. At the beginning of 1894, Nikolai announced that he would marry Alice, in April their engagement took place, in November, after his accession to the throne - a wedding. But there is not a single line about wounded female pride in Kshesinskaya's memoirs, designed for the general reader:

"A sense of duty and dignity was developed in him extremely high ... He was kind and easy to handle. Everyone was always fascinated by him, and his exceptional eyes and smile won hearts" - about Nicholas II. And this is about Alexandra Fedorovna: "In her, the Heir found himself a wife who fully embraced the Russian faith, the principles and foundations of tsarist power, an intelligent, warm-hearted woman, of great spiritual qualities and duty."

They parted, as they would say now, in a civilized manner. That is why Nicholas II continued to patronize Kshesinskaya, moreover, together with his wife, they chose a gift for Matilda for the 10th anniversary of her ballet career - a brooch in the shape of a sapphire snake. The snake symbolizes wisdom, the sapphire symbolizes memory, and the ballerina had enough wisdom not to make her career on very personal memories of the past.

Alas, her contemporaries also tried for her, spreading gossip around the country, where fables were intertwined, and descendants who published Kshesinskaya's diaries more than a hundred years later, not intended for prying eyes. Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Yegoryevsk spoke about this in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta after the release of the trailer for the film Matilda, which is being shot by the famous director Alexei Uchitel (see below).

Unfortunately, as often happens, behind the scandalous discussions, no one was ever interested in the personality of an extraordinary woman and a magnificent ballerina, who was made famous after all by not high-profile novels (including with the grand dukes Sergei Mikhailovich, from whom she gave birth to a son, and Andrei Vladimirovich ), but talent and hard work.

Escape with a suitcase

In 1896 she received the coveted title of prima ballerina, danced the leading roles in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. To the expressiveness of the Russian school, Matilda added the virtuoso technique of the Italian. At the same time, she tried to oust foreign competitors from the St. Petersburg stage and promoted local young talents, including the brilliant Anna Pavlova. Kshesinskaya shone in Paris, Milan, her native Warsaw, where Gazeta Polska wrote: “Her dance is as diverse as the brilliance of a diamond: it is distinguished by lightness and softness, then it breathes fire and passion; at the same time, it is always graceful and delights the viewer with a wonderful harmony of movements ".

After leaving the Mariinsky troupe, she began to tour independently, taking 750 rubles for a performance - a huge amount of money at that time. (Carpenters and joiners earned in July 1914 from 1 ruble 60 kopecks to 2 rubles a day, laborers - 1 ruble - 1 ruble 50 kopecks. - Author). The highlight of her performances was the lead role in the ballet "Esmeralda" based on the novel by Victor Hugo, last performed shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. On that day, they applauded her especially warmly, and at the end they brought a huge basket of flowers. It was rumored that the flowers were sent by the king himself, who was present at the performance.

Neither he nor she knew that they were seeing each other for the last time.

During the war years, Matilda helped the wounded: she equipped two hospitals with her own money, took the soldiers to the theater, and sometimes, taking off her shoes, danced for them right in the ward. For friends who went to the front or came on vacation, she arranged receptions - court connections helped to get food and even champagne prohibited by "dry law". The last reception took place on the eve of the February Revolution, after which the "tsarist kept woman" fled from the house in what she was, taking her son, a suitcase with jewelry and her favorite fox terrier Djibi.

She settled with her faithful maid Lyudmila Rumyantseva, and the Swiss butler who remained in the mansion brought her saved things along with sad news. Her mansion was plundered by soldiers, and then the headquarters of the Bolsheviks was located there. Kshesinskaya filed a lawsuit against them, but the laws in Russia were no longer in force. She fled to Kislovodsk, where she lived for three and a half years: she starved, hid jewelry in the leg of her bed, and fled from the Chekists. At the Kursk railway station, Sergei Mikhailovich saw her off.

Already in Paris, investigator Sokolov visited her, who told about the death of the Grand Duke, who, along with other Romanovs, was thrown into a mine near Alapaevsk ...

Prima's tears

In 1921, after the death of the parents of the Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, he married Matilda, who received the "hereditary" surname Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya. The husband went into politics, supporting the claims of his brother Kirill to the Russian throne that had sunk into oblivion. The son did not want to work - using his beauty, "Vovo de Ruess" lived on the maintenance of elderly ladies. When the savings ended, Matilda had to feed the family. In 1929 she opened a ballet studio in Paris. And she regained fame: the best ballerinas in the world came to her school, she was invited to meetings of the World Ballet Federation, journalists tried to find out how she manages to keep in shape. She answered honestly: two hours of walking and exercise every day.

In 1936, the 64-year-old prima danced the legendary "Russian Dance" on the Covent Garden stage, earning a storm of applause. And in 1940, she fled from the war to the south of France, where her son was arrested by the Gestapo, suspecting (apparently not in vain) of participating in the Resistance. Kshesinskaya raised all ties, even visited the head of the secret state police (Gestapo), SS Gruppenfuehrer Heinrich Müller, and Vladimir was released. With the end of the war, the old life returned, interspersed with sad events - friends left, in 1956 my husband died. In 1958, the Bolshoi Theater came to Paris on tour, and Matilda burst into tears right in the hall: her favorite art has not died, the imperial ballet is alive!

She died on December 5, 1971, a few months before the century. They buried her at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery, next to her husband, and a few years later her son lay in the same grave, who did not continue the Kshesinsky-Krasinsky family.

"Not a demand for prohibitions, but a warning about truth and falsehood ..."

BISHOP EGORIEVSKY TIKHON (SHEVKUNOV):

The film by Alexei Uchitel claims to be historic, and the trailer is titled nothing less than "The main historical blockbuster of the year." But after watching it, I honestly cannot understand: why did the authors do it that way? Why touch this topic like this? Why do they make the viewer believe in the historicity of the heartbreaking scenes of the "love triangle" they invented, in which Nikolai, both before and after marriage, melodramatically rushes between Matilda and Alexandra. Why is Empress Alexandra Feodorovna depicted as a demonic fury, walking with a knife (I'm not joking!) At her rival? Vindictive, envious Alexandra Feodorovna, unhappy, wonderful, magnificent Matilda, weak-willed Nikolai, rushing to one or the other. Hugs with Matilda, hugs with Alexandra ... What is this - the author's vision? No - slandering real people. "< >

The heir considered it his duty to tell the bride about Matilda. There is a letter from Alix to her fiance, where she writes: "I love you even more since you told me this story. Your trust touches me so deeply ... Can I be worthy of him ?!" The love of the last Russian Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, striking in the depth of feelings, loyalty and tenderness, continued on earth until their last hour of martyrdom in the Ipatiev House in July 1918.< >

Not demands for prohibitions, but warning about truth and falsehood - this is the goal that can and should be set in connection with the upcoming wide screening of the film. If the film matches the trailer, it will be enough to just broadly tell about the real former story. Actually, what we are doing now. And then the viewer will decide for himself.

DIRECTOR OF THE FILM "MATILDA" ALEXEI TEACHER:

The main thing for me is to avoid aesthetic vulgarity. Fiction is possible when it helps to better know the main characters of the picture.< >

I think that "bloody" and "weak-willed" are not the most fair characteristics of Nicholas II. This man ascended the throne in 1896 and until 1913 - over 17 years of rule - led the country, with the help of the people he gathered in power, to a political, economic, and military flourishing. Yes, he had flaws, he was contradictory, but he created the most powerful Russia in its entire existence. She was the first in Europe, the second in the world in finance, economy, in many respects.

© Alexander Ulanovsky / Collage / Ridus

Passions are still raging around the film "Matilda" by Alexei Uchitel, which is being released on the screens of the country. However, few of both opponents and supporters of his show are familiar with the real history of the novel of the heir to the Russian throne with the ballerina of Polish origin Matilda Kshesinskaya. Meanwhile, this story deserves the closest attention, because it can clarify a lot and dot the i's in the events that took place around the last Russian emperor more than a hundred years ago.

"Reedus" tried to figure out what actually stood behind the novel attributed to Nicholas II and Matilda Kshesinskaya, whether it really was and how the further fate of Matilda developed.

Lovely polka

The real name of Matilda is Krzezinskaya. Because of her dissonance, the girl's father, the famous dancer Felix Krzhezinsky, changed his last name to Kshesinsky. All her life, his daughter voiced the complex legend that her ancestors were the Polish counts Krasinski, but due to the intrigues of relatives, the family lost the right to the title.

After the revolution, having married the Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, the ballerina won the right to be called Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya. However, there was and is not any documentary evidence of her relationship with the Krasinskys.

It was no coincidence that Kshesinskaya came up with noble ancestors. This was the traditional move for all the famous courtesans of the time. At some point, the ladies of the Parisian half-light necessarily acquired the noble prefix "de", to which they had neither rights nor documents. Liana de Pugy, Emilienne d'Alanson, Beautiful Otero - the tastes and passions of Kshesinskaya did not differ in any way from the customs of semi-secular French women. She also adored jewelry and young beauties, robbed men to the bone, played roulette and recouped her rivals.

She was a fighter

According to her external data, Kshesinskaya ideally fit into the gold standard of the era. The famous beauties of the late 19th century were short and had a very dense physique. In the photo we see a strong muscular Kshesinskaya with a pronounced waist, rounded arms and plump legs. A large head with a small stature (about 150 cm) did not add beauty to her, however, her snow-white teeth and a cheerful smile made her forget about all her shortcomings.

External data Kshesinskaya not only made her the favorite of the house of the Romanovs. They allowed her to master the most difficult ballet steps. The smaller the height of the ballerina, the faster she can dance.

The pumped-up little Kshesinskaya (Malya, as her lovers called her) resembled modern gymnasts in addition. She became a real record holder of the national stage, the first Russian ballerina to master thirty-two fouettés.

The lyrical parts, which later became famous for her rival Anna Pavlova, did not fit Kshesinskaya. She was a virtuoso, a sports-style ballerina, as we would say today. She showed the same sporty character in life. “She was a fighter, a real warrior,” said Diaghilev, who had suffered a lot from her.

The beginning of the novel

And this 17-year-old "fighter", a charming, lively and irresistibly flirtatious girl, meets a sad and pensive heir to the throne. The first acquaintance took place on March 23, 1890 after the graduation performance. The dancers were summoned to the table along with the imperial family. Kshesinskaya was not supposed to be invited. But Alexander III personally noted her and seated her next to the heir. "Look just don't flirt too!" - the emperor smiled at the couple.

It was a difficult time for 21-year-old Nikolai Alexandrovich. Parents were worried that their son was somehow not interested in the fair sex. They tried to acquaint him with the young ladies, but things did not go further than platonic walks.

The imperial couple had every reason to worry.

The elder relative of Nicholas, the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was known not only for the cute rhymes, for which Tchaikovsky wrote romances, but also for his love for the representatives of his own sex.

“My life is flowing happily, I am truly a 'darling of fate', I am loved, respected and appreciated, I am lucky in everything and everything succeeds, but ... there is no main thing: peace of mind. My secret vice has completely taken possession of me ... ”- wrote the Grand Duke in one of his diaries.

Uncle Nicholas, another Grand Duke, the Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich, was also saved from homosexuality by the entire royal family.

“Some members of the imperial family also led an openly homosexual lifestyle,” wrote sexologist Igor Kon. “In particular, the uncle of Nicholas II, who was killed by Kalyaev in 1905, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich openly patronized handsome adjutants and even founded a closed club of this kind in the capital.”

Alexander was forced to invite Dostoevsky to be his tutor. This, however, did not help, and rumors about the Moscow governor-general's gay brothels circulated through the capitals until the very death of Sergei Alexandrovich from the Kalyaev bomb.

The Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, a desperate liberal and enthusiastic freemason, nicknamed Philip Egalite for his revolutionary spirit, was practically an open homosexual.

The middle of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries made homosexuality in the eyes of high society a kind of unusual sophistication, funny and very "cute" curiosity, albeit forbidden.

All these weaknesses were forgivable when it was not about the heir to the throne. But the sex life of Nikolai Alexandrovich was a matter of state importance. The fate of the monarchy and the country depended on whether he was able to leave offspring.

Naturally, Maria Feodorovna and Alexander III turned their eyes to the "ballet dancers". If under Mother Empress Catherine the sexual enlightenment of the heirs was provided by broken maids of honor, then in the 19th century the Smolny Institute (where Alexander II's beloved Princess Yuryevskaya studied) and the ballet troupe of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi (later Mariinsky) Theater became a semi-legal harem for the royal people.

Having met the heir, Kshesinskaya led the siege according to all the rules. Regularly, as if by chance, I met Nikolai - now on the street, now in the theater. I came to dance for him at the summer theater in Krasnoe Selo. She flirted diligently. However, the phlegmatic Nikolai did not reciprocate her, he only wrote in his diary "I positively like Kshesinskaya-second." In the fall of 1890, he generally went on a round-the-world trip.

After his return in 1892, Kshesinskaya began to invite the heir to her parents' house. Everything was decorous and noble. Niki and Malya sat in the living room and talked. After one such conversation, which dragged on until dawn, Kshesinskaya announced to her parents that she was leaving them and would live separately, in a rented apartment. She really rented a house on English Avenue. All that remained was to lure Nicky there.

But just at this decisive moment, the heir had a panic attack. He told Male that it was necessary to break off the relationship, that he "cannot be her first, that this will torment him all his life." Kshesinskaya began to persuade him. “In the end, I almost managed to convince Nicky,” she recalls. “He promised that this would happen ... as soon as he returned from Berlin ...” Returning from Berlin, the future emperor really came to the house on Angliysky Prospekt. There, as it is said in Kshesinskaya's memoirs, "we became close."

Despite the fighting qualities of the little ballerina, her romance with Nikolai came out short and not very successful. It turned out that even before he met her, the heir fell madly in love with the princess Alice of Hesse. Despite the opposition of his parents, he sought their consent to marriage for several years. Then he had to persuade Alice. Immediately after the announcement of the engagement, which took place in 1894, Niki broke up with Maleya.

As a consolation, Kshesinskaya got a mansion on Angliysky Prospekt, bought for her by Nikolai, a privileged status in the theater and, most importantly, ties with the Romanovs' house.

The protracted epilogue

As a true gentleman, Nikolai Alexandrovich, after the engagement, avoided meeting and corresponding with Kshesinskaya. In turn, she behaved herself wisely and delicately. The intimate letters of the emperor have "disappeared" somewhere. Kshesinskaya did not try to blackmail her lover. It was at this time that the cousin of Nicholas II, the Kaiser of Germany, Wilhelm II, got into an unpleasant story. For years, his ex-lover had been pulling money from him, and she kept notes incriminating him.

The fate of our heroes was different. Niki married his Alice, became emperor, abdicated the throne and died in Yekaterinburg.

Malya survived her lover by fifty-three years. Immediately after the affair with him, she entered the official patronage of Nicholas II's cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. At the same time, she was credited with an affair with the uncle of the emperor, the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. After a while, she got along with his son, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich. Besides them, there were the "cutest" diplomats, hussars, dancers. At the age of 40, Kshesinskaya fell in love with a young stage partner, Pyotr Vladimirov. Andrei Vladimirovich challenged him to a duel in Paris and shot the handsome man in the nose. At the same time, Kshesinskaya managed to dance the main parts, then “leave the stage for good”, then come back again, and so on until she was 44 years old. She had sovereignty over the Mariinsky Theater, selected the repertoire and appointed the performers.

“Is it really a theater and am I in charge of this? - exclaimed in his diary the desperate director of the imperial theaters Telyakovsky. - Everyone ... glorifies an extraordinary, cynical, impudent ballerina who lives simultaneously with two great dukes and not only does not hide it, but, on the contrary, weaves this art into her smelly cynical wreath of human decay and debauchery ... Kshesinskaya herself says that she is pregnant ... To whom the child will be assigned remains to be seen. Who speaks - to the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, and who to the Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, others talk about the ballet Kozlov. "

They said about Kshesinskaya that she was married to the entire house of the Romanovs. They paid her with jewelry (before the revolution, Kshesinskaya only saved up jewelry for two million rubles), villas, houses. When it became obvious that the diamonds and sapphires worn by Kshesinskaya on stage were paid for from the country's military budget, she became one of the most hated characters in Tsarist Petersburg. It is no coincidence that the Bolsheviks occupied her new mansion on Kronverksky Avenue as headquarters.

Kshesinskaya filed a lawsuit against the Bolsheviks and even managed to win. However, she could no longer return anything and, together with the Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich and her son, fled to France. There she quickly lost a game of roulette, the French villa had to be sold, Kshesinskaya moved to Paris, where she opened her own school.

Her son grew up dandy and handsome. He liked to hint that Nicholas II was his real father, but no one believed him. The emigrants called him Vovo de Russy - "Vova of All Russia". For some time he believed that he would be able to come to an agreement with the Soviets and he would be allowed to reign, at least nominally.

During the Second World War, he ended up in a concentration camp. To get him out, Kshesinskaya went almost to the legendary Gestapo chief Müller. Her famous charm worked again, Vovo was released, went to England and became a British intelligence officer.

Kshesinskaya died in 1971, several months before her centenary. Against the background of these adventures, her youthful romance with Nikolai Alexandrovich looks like a kind and funny story. Both lovers behaved extremely dignified.

After reading about the release of the historical drama "Matilda" and initially writing an article about the Polish actress Michalin Olshanskaya, who played the main role in this film, I wanted to know as much as possible about the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, the prototype of the main character. Who is this woman who, more than a hundred years after her two-year (three-year?) Romance with Tsarevich Nicholas, still remains occasionally remembered and discussed by our contemporaries? Her name is rinsed and bowed by all and sundry, including me. It seems that this dark-haired temptress was already forgotten, but the film "Matilda", filmed by the Russian director Alexei Uchitel, stirred up passions for Matilda Kshesinskaya with a new, all-consuming everything in its path.

Honestly, before I heard about the new scandal around the love drama of Matilda and Tsarevich Nicholas, I did not even know about the existence of this ballerina. I am not interested in ballet, but about the personal life of the last All-Russian Emperor Nicholas II, I believed that his only woman was his legal wife, Alexandra Feodorovna. It should be noted that I four days in a row As if possessed, I read memoirs, letters, diaries of Matilda Kshesinskaya, Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, all kinds of articles about them. Opinions and facts differ everywhere, but comparing all the data, turning on logic, it becomes clear a lot. So, Matilda Kshesinskaya fell in love with Nicholas II, then still the Tsarevich Heir. In those days, being a ballerina meant being able to become the mistress of high-ranking officials, wealthy aristocrats, many contemporaries call this a social lift. That is, girls from the lower classes sought to get into ballet schools, to become prima ballerinas, then it would be quite possible to grab a rich lover for themselves, who would buy you a palace, shower you with jewelry, and ensure a comfortable existence. Was it then condemned in society or was it commonplace? Surely among the ladies of the upper classes it was censured, but the male population, of course, enjoyed this order of things. That is, the ballet building was something like the current stage with pop divas or a catwalk with models. Men had the opportunity to examine the legs of ballerinas, admire their figures, each self-respecting ballerina had a rich lover. How else? Until now, as was the custom before, Russian, now pop singers, are looking for rich lovers, but now they are more often becoming their legal wives. Everything is corrupt and it still saddens me. But do not think that Matilda Kshesinskaya went to a ballerina in order to acquire a rich and influential lover, our heroine grew up in an artistic family, her father and mother danced in ballet, and the girl from childhood could not imagine herself outside the stage. Many children were born in the family, but only one Matilda was seen in connections with aristocrats, in particular with three Romanovs.

Many male historians sincerely admire Matilda not only as a prima ballerina who danced beautifully, but still, first of all, as a girl capable of seducing anyone. Matilda Kshesinskaya did not have the appearance of a beauty, I will say more, if you did not know that in front of you is the famous Matilda, who broke more than a dozen hearts, you would think that these are photographs of an ordinary ballerina of the 19th century. When women call Matilda Kshesinskaya an ugly, short-legged, crooked-toothed intriguer, men stop them and say with admiration, they say, she had amazing energy! Most likely it was so. After all, Matilda looks completely ordinary, but she certainly possessed extraordinary magnetism.

Was Nicholas II in love with Matilda Kshesinskaya until he lost consciousness, or was she only a short-term passion of his? After all, there are not only the diaries of the ballerina, but also the diaries of the Emperor himself. Well, he was in love, but at the same time he loved his bride - Princess Alix - nee Princess Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, whom he first saw as a twelve-year-old girl, the Heir at that time was 16 years old. Princess Alix sunk deep into his heart, in Nikolai's diaries more and more about her. But since he and the sweetness of his heart were separated by a distance, they saw each other extremely rarely, but they had the opportunity to correspond. Nikolai dreamed of becoming Alix's spouse, he cherished this dream for 10 years! But Nikolai was still a mere mortal, but he was the future Emperor, he was canonized after his death, but nothing human was alien to him, and therefore, when the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya began to seduce him, he could not resist, although apparently, that he resisted for a very long time and stubbornly, he was extremely careful and did not rush into the pool with his head, that is, he did want to confine himself to talking until morning and kissing. Matilda deliberately seduced the royal person, only having received a small hint of what Nicholas liked, she began to do everything in order to settle in his heart. Is it for selfish purposes?

Matilda, or Malya, as her relatives called, was definitely madly in love with Nikolai, although she was reputed to be vain, but such women are capable of losing their heads from love! She walked along the same streets as he did, she stared at him during her performances, she literally showered him with her vibes, went out of her way to please him. And in the end she succeeded. At one time, Nikolai even wrote in his diaries that two women live in his heart - princess Alix and ballerina Matilda. But all this lasted only a few years, the fact is that Nikolai traveled around the country, was on long trips abroad, and at this time his feelings for Matilda were fading away, that is, out of sight out of mind, but as soon as he visited the ballet again, as he noticed how prettier Matilda had become in his absence. The ballerina persuaded him to an intimate continuation of the novel, she insisted and demanded, but he resisted as best he could, since he believed that by entering into a more serious relationship with Matilda, he would be responsible for her future fate and life. But isn't that what Matilda herself wanted? To have such a patron? Of course, she was in love, the future tsar was handsome, there is no doubt about it, and then how women are affected by the realization that you can go down in history, perhaps as the first woman of one of the tsars. At that time, Matilda did not know that this was the last All-Russian Emperor, otherwise she would have climbed even harder to get her way. But do not think that all kept women do not love their benefactors.

Often Nikolai was very cool, he rarely answered Matilda's letters, she scribbled news after news to him, and he was in no hurry to answer, being in the ballet he looked at other ballerinas, gave cause for jealousy, all this inflamed Matilda, sometimes angered. The very intimate part of the novel did not last long, judging by the analysis of Nikolai's diary, it lasted no more than 3-4 months. And if initially the future Sovereign Matilda Kshesinskaya inflamed and wildly pleased, then then he somehow gradually began to cool towards her, in the end everything came to naught. There were no worries about the fact that he was forced to part with Malechka in his diaries! All his meta were directed towards the deeply beloved princess Alix! The diaries and letters of Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, the presence of five beloved children, the henpecked tsar, who dreamed of choosing not ruling the country, but a calm measured family life, suggests that he was deeply devoted to his wife, loved her, allowed her a lot, in the end, her unconscious actions led to many tragedies. The entire royal family perished. Many stupid things have been done.

Was the fascination with Matilda Kshesinskaya just a small episode in the life of Nicholas II? Malya meant exactly as much in his life as it means in the life of any man, not the first love, but the first woman. Everything happened out of mutual love, which means that the memories remained the brightest, then each went his own way, naturally not grieving about what happened. This love affair opened the way for Matilda Kshesinskaya to high-ranking lovers, she now did not agree to less and arranged her life perfectly, lived up to 99 years. She married Andrei Vladimirovich Romanov, the grandson of Alexander II. By the way, her husband was 7 years younger and was dearly loved by her, but she never forgot her first love. Throughout her adult life, Matilda Kshesinskaya was a flirt, she seduced, played with men, drove many crazy. There will always be such women, some condemn them, others admire them, others lose their heads, barely approaching them.

In this photo you see the only son of Matilda Kshesinskaya and Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich Romanov. The name of this elegant guy is Vladimir. He never married, left no offspring behind him.

In this photo, little Vova with his mother.

In this photo, Matilda Kshesinskaya is on the left, in the middle is her older sister Julia, on the right is brother Joseph.

In this photo, one of Matilda Kshesinskaya's lovers is Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov.

In this photo, Tsar Nicholas II with his wife Alexandra Fedorovna.

Take a look at this photo, this is how Matilda Kshesinskaya looked in her old age.

In this photo Matilda Kshesinskaya with her husband Andrey and son Vova.

In 1920, 48-year-old Matilda Kshesinskaya emigrated to France with her eighteen-year-old son Vova and 41-year-old lover Prince Andrei Vladimirovich - Vova's father. At 57, Matilda Kshesinskaya opened her own ballet studio in Paris.

It often happens that, for political reasons, the names of talented people who did not accept the ideas of the ruling class are removed from the memory of descendants. And if a representative of art and literature also emigrated, then his name was not censured, but was completely forgotten.

The most important

After the revolution, the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya was known to the main population of Soviet Russia only for the fact that at one time he lived, worked and delivered speeches from the balcony of the palace, made in the style of V.I. Lenin, in her mansion on Kronversky Prospekt.

The very building of the newspaper of Petrograd was dubbed the "headquarters of the Leninists". And this immoral "lady", the mistress of the three most luminous princes and the heir to the throne, could not interest the generation of new Russia. This woman fell out, because of whom representatives of the elite fought in a duel, and the former were much younger than her (future husband, His Serene Highness Prince Andrei Vladimirovich, for 6 years, lover, star of Russian ballet Peter Vladimirov for 21 years), from the field of view of the programmed completely different people. And nevertheless, unlike the majority of Soviet people who considered the decadent dancer Anna Pavlova the star of the Russian ballet school, Maurice Petipa considered Matilda Kshesinskaya, who was deliberately and unjustly forgotten, to be ballerina No. 1. But she was called "the generalissimo of the Russian ballet."

Kshesinskaya Matilda, or simply Malya, as her family and friends were called, was born into a family of "ballet dancers" in 1872. Her father, Felix, came from the famous theatrical family Krzezinski in Poland (Kshesinski is a theatrical pseudonym). Matilda's grandfather, Jan, was a virtuoso violinist, had a wonderful voice and sang at the Warsaw Opera. The Polish king Stanislaw August, a great admirer of him, called him nothing but “my nightingale”.

And great-grandfather Wojciech was a famous dancer. But the family tradition, which constantly inflamed the girl's vanity, said that Wojciech was a representative of one of the best Polish families and was to inherit the enormous fortune of Count Krasinski. Having lost everything - inheritance, surname and homeland - due to the intrigues of his uncle, he was forced to flee to France, where he began to make a living by dancing.

The beginning of the Russian period

Jan's son Felix studied dance professionally, his highlight was the brilliant performance of the mazurka, which was adored by Nicholas I, who invited the Polish dancer to the Russian capital. He made his debut in 1853 on the stage of the Imperial Alexandrinsky Theater in the "Peasant Wedding". There were legends about his performance of the mazurka, and it was precisely, as one of his contemporaries put it, that with his "light foot" the dance became so popular in the high society of Russia. On the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, Felix Kshesinsky has always performed with constant success. Here he meets the widow of the dancer Lehde, the ballerina Yulia Dominskaya. From the first marriage, the dancer had five children, from the second with Felix - four.

The birth of a prima

Kshesinskaya Matilda was the last child of the heroine mother, whose children did not interfere with either getting married or dancing. Matilda-Maria was a charming child and everyone's favorite, but her father especially adored her, who foreseen in her the future ballerina assolyuta, of whom there were only 11 in the history of the entire world ballet. Malechka was born in the town of Ligovo near St. Petersburg, at the 13th km along Peterhof highway, famous for the fact that the future Great Empress Catherine II spent one night in the local "Red tavern". The elder brother Stanislav died in infancy. The other three are the beauty Julia, who went down in ballet history as Kshesinskaya I, brother Joseph, who remained in Soviet Russia and became an honored artist of the country, and Kshesinskaya Matilda herself, famous for being the first of Russian ballerinas to perform 32 fouettés and removed from the Russian stage those who dominated here foreign prim, - were virtuoso dancers.

Seductive baby

Father often took her with him to the theater and once even forgot her there. The girl was familiar with the acting world from childhood and could not imagine any other way than the stage one. She grew up to be a talented ballerina and an incomparable seductress. The girl was inferior in beauty to her sister, but was filled with that charm that does not leave people - especially men - indifferent. Short (Matilda Kshesinskaya was 1.53 m tall), with full legs and a surprisingly narrow waist, she was full of life. The funny and joyful Malya attracted everyone's attention, which she more than successfully used.

Incredible performance

She, a person who survived the revolution and the severity of emigration, can still be called a darling of fate. Let's make a reservation right away that she was a hard worker. Not everything fell into her hands from heaven, moreover, no connections would have helped her to make the first of all Russian dancers 32 fouettés on stage. The girl achieved this by hard work, constantly improving her technique, bringing it to the heights of skill. Her performance was legendary. So who is she - Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose biography, due to the strong character of this little woman, does not know failures (there were, of course, small failures - 1-2, no more), sometimes looks like a fairy tale?

Well-deserved adoration

She entered the stage in the ballet "Don Quixote" at the age of 9, having studied for only a year at the school, and performed in a solo part at 17. But the talented girl really got carried away with ballet after she saw a dance performed by a guest who came to Russia on tour Virginia Zucchi. It was this dancer who became the idol of Mali, thanks to her, Kshesinskaya began to take lessons from the Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti and achieved that incomparable skill and brilliance that allowed her to become a prima, oust foreign entrepreneurs from the Russian stage and win the hearts of true ballet lovers. There were cases when, after the performances, fans unharnessed the horses from her carriage and took her home themselves.

Decent girlfriend

At the graduation party in honor of graduation from the school, the great empress Maria Feodorovna, preoccupied with the gloom and constant loneliness of her son, immediately drew attention to the miniature young mercury girl Kshesinskaya-2. She was amazingly built: prominent muscles, a very thin waist, high chest. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose weight did not exceed 50 kg (although with her height it was too much for ballet), her forms favorably differed from most of her thin friends. At a gala dinner, the Emperor Alexander III himself sat her down between himself and his beech son Nicholas. According to some reports, young people immediately fell in love with each other, according to others - more evil, - Kshesinskaya vigorously pursued him. Be that as it may, there is evidence that Tsar Nicholas II retained his affection for her all his life, although the relationship was officially terminated after his engagement to Alex.

The breadth of the soul

It so happened that from the moment she met the heir to the throne, the ballerina Kshesinskaya Matilda forever linked her life with the house of the Romanovs. Whoever was not registered with her as a "close friend"! She didn’t receive any epithets: “champagne of the house of Romanovs”, “muse of royal men” or, worse, “Matilda Kshesinskaya - mistress of tsars”.

It should be noted that Kshesinskaya, in addition to the advantages listed above, possessed great wisdom: she let Niki go down the aisle without a single word, was always friendly with his wife, left the theater without a scandal, when she was accused of intrigue, and with dignity, she returned there as a triumphant. when her innocence became apparent. In addition, possessing countless treasures (the contents of her jewelry boxes were estimated at 2 million royal rubles), she kept two infirmaries for the wounded at her dacha - the most luxurious in Strelna - with her own money. The breadth of the soul of this amazing woman is also evidenced by the fact that, having lost them in the revolution, Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose biography contains a lot of interesting facts, regretted only the alcoholized rose, which, as a recognition of the skill of the Russian ballerina, was presented to the prima by Virginia Zucchi, her idol.

Ingratitude is always black

In addition, performances were often staged at the Mariinsky Theater, which were fully paid for by the Mariinsky Theater, costumes, and other expenses. But the burning envy of a woman who could control her repertoire herself, did not lose her skill over the years, possessed one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg and received her own benefit performance not after 20 years of service, but only after 10 dirt, crazy. And, as he said (albeit on a completely different occasion): "... gossip, gossip that denounced her, became more and more angry." It was they who forced Kshesinskaya to leave the Mariinsky. Enemies were especially choked by her constant strong relationship with the ruling dynasty.

Great love

"Nicholas 2 and Matilda Kshesinskaya" - the servants of Terpsichore somehow survived this connection. The romance was stormy, but short - it lasted only a year. But the ballerina did not remain abandoned. She was sincerely and doomed from the first meeting in a two-story mansion bought for a friend by the future last emperor of Russia, where he visited with his friends and numerous cousins, who became a "knight without fear and reproach" for the rest of his life. His love, his spending and the execution of the slightest whims closed the most evil mouths.

He regularly made prima proposals, including before parting. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose son was conceived from another Grand Duke Romanov - Andrei Vladimirovich, immediately received a patronymic Sergeevich and, in addition to him, noble origin and the surname Krasinsky, in memory of a distant ancestor, which was taken care of by the faithful Sergei Mikhailovich. He himself, having sent his beloved from revolutionary Petrograd, could not leave on time, was shot and thrown into a mine in Alapaevsk in 1918, along with other representatives of the Romanov family. What can say more about his immense love than the fact that in his clenched fist, at the moment of raising the body to the surface, was found with the inscription "Malia"?

All - at the feet of the goddess

He, being the general inspector of artillery, had uncontrolled funds at his disposal, and the arms companies did not skimp on kickbacks. The legendary mansion of Matilda Kshesinskaya was built with his money. He always wanted to give his beloved a special status in high society. The construction was supervised by the author of the project, fashionable architect Alexander von Gauguin. As a result, the city government awarded the architect with a silver medal for the construction of this pearl of the Northern capital.

The house of Matilda Kshesinskaya in St. Petersburg overlooked the Neva, as did the Senate, the Academy of Sciences, and St. Isaac's Cathedral. The interior structure and decoration of the mansion were legendary. Everything, down to the nails, was drawn from the best construction firms in Paris. The premises were made in different styles: if the salon was furnished in the style of Louis XVI, then the toilet symbolized the achievements of the British in providing housing with modern amenities. Do not count its merits! We can only note the fact that in this palace, located in the "central center" of the capital, there was a cowshed with, obviously, the best cow in the world, since the thief of the inspector's heart from the artillery loved fresh milk ...

The long-awaited and well-deserved ending

Evil tongues ascribe to Matilda a connection with the grandson of Alexander II, Vladimir Alexandrovich. Whether it was it or not, but for his fourth son Andrei Vladimirovich Kshesinskaya Matilda Feliksovna immediately married. It happened in Paris, as soon as his mother, Maria Pavlovna, who had been opposing her son's wedding all her life, departed for another world. The boy Vova, or, as Kshesinskaya jokingly called him, "Vovo de Russi" (All Russia Vova) ", was immediately rewritten to his true father, and the family healed happily.

Loving, strong and brave

In the biography of this outstanding personality, there was the fact that the great ballerina, not afraid, helped out of the Gestapo when Paris was occupied by the Germans. The Parisian house of Matilda Kshesinskaya in emigration remained the center of attraction - F. Chaliapin, A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina and S. Diaghilev were here.

Kshesinskaya had a mimicry and dramatic gift that made her ballet roles unique. But, as it turned out later, the talent of the writer was no stranger to the example. This is evidenced by her book “Matilda Kshesinskaya. Memories ”, released in Paris in 1960. Having survived her husband and oncology, a hip fracture, chained to a chair, this strong woman began to write a book that, as evidence of history, is invaluable in itself, because the author was the great Matilda Kshesinskaya. The memoirs, on the other hand, were written in good language and in an excellent style. It is very interesting to read them, we recommend (they are widely available).

Lived happily ever after

Genetically, this woman was programmed for a long life - her grandfather, already mentioned Ian, lived to be 106 years old and died not by his own death, but from a frenzy. So the legendary Malia did not live to see the century for 9 months. The ballet megastar died in 1971 and was buried in the "Russian cemetery" of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois together with her husband and son (he died in 1974). The inscription on her grave says that the Grand Duchess Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters, Kshesinskaya Matilda Feliksovna rests here.