Word: alexandra
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Rasputin. When a guest broached to the Grand Duke Alexander the subject of the notorious "Black Monk" called Rasputin, or the "Debauchee," he recoiled with a slight gesture of disgust. Since His Imperial Highness' wife is a sister-in-law of the assassinated Tsaritsa Alexandra, who was the chief patroness of Rasputin, no subject would well have been more delicate. When it was made clear however that the questioner did not share the commonly received opinion of Rasputin, but thought him in some respects admirable, the Grand Duke Alexander perceptibly brightened and said: "He was a great hypnotist-very...
...Alexandra's unpopularity, if such indeed it was, steadily increased. Her constant advice to the tsar was that he show himself man and ruler by adamantine autocracy. Her constant offering to the nation was daughter after daughter, and never an heir to the throne. Troubled by this her failing, she resorted to mystic seances (Princess Radziwill includes table-tipping, which the Baroness denies) conducted by a smooth character who turned out to be ex-jailbird and Parisian hairdresser. This Philippe prophesied a son; the Empress believed herself with child; a date was publicly announced, and excitement ran high...
Years later the Cesarevitch actually was born, a sickly child, victim of an hereditary disease in Alexandra's family. Again the harassed Empress resorted to religion, and Rasputin, notorious mendicant, promised a cure. In gratitude, Alexandra fell completely under the spell of this man-she was his dupe, and he in turn the dupe of countless office-seekers, climbers, charlatans...
...Significance. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was variously accused of misguiding her royal spouse, of sympathizing traitorously with her Vaterland during the War, of antagonizing the Russian aristocracy, and terrorizing the peasantry-in short, of causing downfall to the Russian empire. That this one woman should be held responsible for the inevitable revolt against centuries of abuse is patently ridiculous. But she served as convenient symbol-though less charmingly than Marie Antoinette...
...viewpoint. With infinite richness of detail, and anecdote of close personal relationship that ended only hours before the tragic finale, the Baroness depicts her mistress as devoted mother, and faithful servant of Russia, indefatigable in charity, painstaking in her advice to the tsar. The Princess, on the contrary, emphasizes Alexandra's ineptitude for social leadership; her temperamental incompatibility with Russian subtleties of mood and method; her stubborn persistence in meddling with political affairs which she did not understand...