Carefree Adini. The tragic fate of the beloved daughter of Nicholas I

Karl - Friedrich visited the songstress - a recluse in the morning, with a constant smile and a bouquet of fresh, not yet blossoming primroses or hydrangeas in his hands .... Sometimes among them a camellia gently sparkled with dew or an elegant violet smelled fragrant ... .. And then Adini already knew for sure: her sweet, loving Ollie had laid her hand on Friedrich's bouquet. And the feeling of tender gratitude, longing and unexpressed love for her sister, caused involuntary tears in her eyes. She hid them, these tears, hurriedly swallowed a lump in her throat, and tried touchingly to cheer up her dear betrothed, (who was invariably sad at the sight of her feverish blush or hot sweat on her forehead!) With detailed stories about children's pranks, such, for example, that she didn’t even know about and sweet, beloved, omniscient Mama!

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna (1825-1844)

She forced, forced him to laugh - first through force, and then - and at the top of his voice! - their fascinating stories from childhood. For example - a story about a dance with silk pillows, which was so shocked by their faithful tutor and Russian teacher Anna Alekseevna, who was always burning with a desire to introduce her little daughter to the young Grand Duchesses. On the day of the appointed reception, the elegant court lady expected to see in the palace hall strictly - well-bred girls - crown princes with Catherine's ribbons on dresses made of pink brocade, with small trains - trains, but her eyes appeared ... .. something unimaginable! Mary, Olli and Adini, a trios * (* three of us - French - R.), dressed in long silk robes embroidered with flowers, and hoisting pillows tied with ribbons on their heads, circled in a strange oriental dance. In addition, a whole mountain of colored velvet pillows fell down on the heads of the dignified and slightly timid guests. At this point, dear Anna Alekseevna, throwing off all her courtly restraint, gasped, frowned, waved her arms, like a goose - wings! But the little peri - mischievous girls continued to perform their strange dance, solemnly shaking their square heads, like Chinese doodles, clearly showing their complete innocence to the falling “rain from the thoughts” that dotted the slippery, waxed parquet of the hall.

Having finished the “eastern minuet”, the young beauties - princesses tore off the pillows - thoughts from their lovely heads and sat on them, with a gesture inviting the little guest, shy from everything he saw, to follow their example. They laughed loudly and treated the baby with sweets, vying with each other telling how long and carefully they thought about their prank in secret from everyone.

Anna Alekseevna continued to gasp, amazed at the play of their imagination and energy, directed, as it seemed to her, into a completely vain channel! Their strict and devoted governess was upset by this incident for a very long time, but Mama, who was very sensitive to all secular ceremonies and protocol conventions, did not dare to tell about it ...

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel.- V. Hau, 1844

The conventions of the palace protocol ..... How often they prevented Adini from being childishly, completely happy! With what spontaneity, with what ardent, lively chagrin, she told Karl-Friedrich about the balls at which her Royal parents so often shone, and from which she had to leave strictly after nine in the evening before she was fifteen! She always complained in her adolescence about the fact that she couldn’t just take and stay for a late mazurka, this captivating, magical dance, like a long song, with intricate vocalizations and passages, roulades and codas, a song is a romance, a song is a confession ...

Ball in the concert hall of the Winter Palace"

Mama, her delightful, her charming Mama, like a magical vision of Lala - Rukk * (* The romantic nickname of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, named after the heroine of the ballad by Thomas Moore, translated by V. A. Zhukovsky - R.), who reigned at all the holidays of the Winter, almost always dances the mazurka and waltz - Lancier with the most beautiful cavalry guards of his regiments! It’s strange, for some reason they, her pages, are called so funny: “red” or “blue”, like Sasha’s tin soldiers ... The cavalry guards passionately adore their Chef, it’s just a pity that Mama, due to her eternal ill health, is less and less often at their holidays and parades.

Ball in the New Palace, A. Menzel"

Adini was not as lucky at balls as Mama, she could, with the permission of the strict Papa, dance polonaise and quadrille, like her sisters, only with generals or aide-de-camp. The generals were all remarkably old and clumsy, and the adjutants were shy and embarrassed and stepped on her dress. A small, I must say, pleasure - to dance with such awkward gentlemen! Thank God, now her partner at the balls will always be only her dear Freddie, what a happiness, really! The happy bridegroom at these words Adini was embarrassed and blushed pleasantly, and she looked at him with a quiet, warm smile, from which again appeared lovely, alluring dimples on her cheeks, already touched by painful thinness ....

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. V.I. Gau"

... At that real, full, January wedding, adult ball, on the evening after the wedding, Adini was so charming, so lively and sweet that everyone around seemed to have forgotten about the doctors' warnings ... Behind the high windows of the front halls sparkling with lights, the cathedral halls rang loudly and church bells, fireworks shone: the city joyfully celebrated in the white silver of a luxurious Russian winter the marriage of the songstress - Tsesarevna and the Duke of Hesse, and some of the courtiers were already shaking their heads in dismay: the Russian nightingale will fly away, soon the Russian nightingale will fly away to foreign lands, and somewhere his voice will ring, transparent, like a stream, like rock crystal - at what height, at what distance? No one thought that - in Heaven ..

... Everyone made plans for the future, hoping desperately to see Adini completely healthy, because soon after the wedding she felt herself waiting for the heir, and the gray-haired doctor, old Vilie *, the life doctor of the late uncle, Caesar Alexander Pavlovich, timidly dared to express hope to the crowned parents that this new condition of the Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna will change the course of her fatal illness for the better.

Such, after all, is the ancient Russian belief: the expectant mother, in anticipation of a child, often blooms so unexpectedly that you are only amazed! Yes, yes, and all ailments melt without a trace, for the Lord Almighty is merciful and gives new strength .... After all, blood formation in the body changes at this moment!

Grand Duchess Princess Genssen-Kasselskaya Alexandra Nikolaevna

The strict, silent and scrupulous current healer of the Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich Mandt, in response to Viliyo's soft-spoken, quiet tirades, only stubbornly shook his head, and outside the door of Adini's chambers he begged his relatives who had found a ray of hope not to delude themselves ahead of time, and most importantly, not to resolve the newly appeared Landgravine of Hesse - Kassel sing! Any tension is detrimental to her, especially in her delicate position! Golden throat must be silent! And it was silent...
Adini was carefully wrapped in shawls and capes, soldered with warm honey milk with ginger and Vish'Inskaya warmed mineral water. On Saturdays, she would certainly be taken in a stuffy, heated to an unbearable heat, a cart with windows that did not open to Gatchina.

The men of the entire large Romanov family, young and old, amused themselves by hunting black grouse and chasing deer in the Gatchina park, somewhat skimping on all their other activities.

Women spent days and evenings poring over a more pampered occupation, familiar to their thin hands: they sewed a dowry for the next royal-born baby expected in the family.

But the exquisite patterns of richelieu and gaps of Alençon lace no longer obeyed Adini's emaciated fingers. She dropped the needle and the embroidery frame from her hands, she was somehow chilly, she asked to throw firewood into the fireplace, and now and then she pressed a handkerchief to her pale lips. He was instantly soaked in blood. During bouts of feverish coughing, she felt sharp or, on the contrary, slow, as if confused, jolts of the child, and even the weakest, they caused her unbearable pain. Biting her lips, she wrinkled her brow, pale in cold perspiration, and helplessly, imploringly looked at Mama, Ollie, Mary, or the faithful Anna Alekseevna, who immediately approached her with questions and persuasions to go to bed ...
Bed. A painful bed ... Sometimes Adini lay in it for days on end, trying in the twilight of the lowered curtains to see a faint sunbeam or hear the singing of a bullfinch or a tit .. She herself was getting weaker and weaker bird whistling: her strength was waning, and she was afraid that she would hear these attempts alarmed Mama, who almost did not leave her on such days, and spent the night in a neighboring boudoir, on a couch. Papa came every evening or morning, visiting her, and in a deliberately cheerful voice told his news: playful skirmishes with ministers; incidents on the military parade ground; anecdotes of audiences or - news of the last ball, which he opened with Mrs. Ficquelmont, as the wife of the doyen * (* Foremen of the diplomatic corps - R.)

The clever Countess Darya Feodorovna was charming in her dress of pale lilac silk and guipure, in the style of the Marquise de Pompadour, and a curled, powdered wig of the eighteenth century. She looked like an elegant porcelain figurine, which you are afraid to break inadvertently with a careless movement! For the sake of the costume of the wife of the doyen, and in general, this whole masquerade was invented - a costumed holiday of the era of Louis the Fourteenth .....

But the fraserka - a little longer Dolly, of course, is far from the grace of Mama! - sighed the father at this point in the story, and Adini nodded her weak black-haired head in response, now and then languidly throwing it back on the highly fluffed pillows. She quietly smiled at her father, after more than twenty years of marriage, still in love with Mama, like a boy. ”(The original words of A. N. Romanova, written on the portrait of her mother, always standing on the table of Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich. - R.) but sometimes, with the insight of a heart that suffers a lot and matured early, she noticed that despotic outbursts of this love bring her incomparable, quiet and gentle Mama more grief than happiness, for the proud nature of the daughters and grandchildren * (* The old form of pronunciation of the word “granddaughter” - R.) of the Prussian king was very difficult to humble himself and his royal rebelliousness and ardor, brought up on dramas Schiller, Goethe's stanzas and Sir Walter Scott's romantic passages. For the sake of the loving tyranny of the royal husband!

Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna"

Sometimes Adini cautiously called Mama to the bed so that she would read something from Goethe to her in her quiet and gentle voice. Mama usually chose "Iphigenia in Taurida" beloved by both of them. Adini listened with half-closed eyes, and through the noise in her head, growing from eternal weakness, she caught the rhythm of measured, bewitching words and mentally selected a quiet melody for them. She so wanted to sing the newly composed song, and she was about to start, but Mama looked at her in fright, fell silent, pressed her finger to her lips, and immediately brought a spoonful of a nasty, odorous anise mixture or hot milk to Adini's mouth. But somehow, one day, a drop of ichor from a strong, debilitating cough accidentally fell into the creamy warmth of milk. Seeing that fatal, ruby drop in the slightly bluish whiteness of the drink, Mama suddenly bit her lip convulsively, sobbed, almost silently, and, as if slain, fell on her knees in front of her daughter's bed.

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. (Mama) Not earlier than 1817 Alexander Molinari (1772-1831) (?)"

It was terrible and strange for Adini to see her mother's face distorted by a painful convulsion; she kept trying to raise herself up on the pillows, to pull the sonnet of the bell, which hung very close to the bed, but she could not succeed in this. Finally, with her weak hand, she reached the twisted silk of the cord. The ladies-in-waiting, the maids, Ollie, Mary ran in... The bewildered lifeguard, forgetting to put the dark beaver of a wig on his smooth head, clenched his teeth, tried in vain to calm the sobs of the Empress - mother, admonishing the unfortunate woman in a strict, almost ominous, whisper, but she kept repeating and repeated, burying her face in her daughter's emaciated, sharp knees covered with a satin blanket:

Adini, my nightingale, do not leave us, how will we be without you?! And what will become of poor Papa, who will comfort him, who will warm his tired heart?! How else can I pray to the Lord God to leave you with us? .. Don’t leave, soon - spring will come again, you will certainly come to life, you will warm yourself with the sun, we will go to Oreanda, this estate in the Crimea, such a nice place, Dad recently gave it to me , you know, there is an English architect building a wonderful villa for you and me in the spirit of Schiller's romantic ballads. It looks like a medieval castle, on the seashore .... You love all this so much .... There we will arrange for you a gazebo entwined with ivy, a swing and you will watch for days on end as wave after wave rolls, you will calm down and get better, my dear, isn't it true that Oreanda will save you?!

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Christina Robertson"

Tired and utterly frightened by the sudden fit of despair that swept over Mama, Adini only nodded helplessly in response, and carefully, childishly timidly, stroked her mother's hands, painfully clinging to the blanket. She could not speak, whisper anything from excitement, and therefore she meekly swallowed the sedative given by the doctor.

In the cloud of involuntary drowsiness that fell upon her almost immediately, she also saw Mary and Ollie lead Mamma out of the room by the arms; how Dr. Mandt, desperately biting his lip, stirs some white, muddy drink in a thin flask; as in an enfilade of echoing, high rooms, someone’s anxious faces flicker like a colored carousel, voices hum. She remembered that she and Karl-Friedrich had already come up with a name for him, in honor of his grandfather: Wilhelm! After all, it will certainly be a boy! What a pity that she must never have to see him as an adult! Just as beautiful as that young icon painter from the community of the Alexander Vasilevsky Church, in whose orphanage she so loved to go every Sunday with Papa and sisters. She has not been there for a long time, so long ago, God, forgive her, a sinner! When - then she will be able to visit the free air again ?!

Adini sighed, parted her eyelashes a little, and closed them again. She fell into a heavy sleep, full of confused, strange visions, the clearest of which was the face of her late aunt, the Hungarian Palatina, Alexandra Pavlovna, Papa's elder sister, a charming creature that captivated her imagination forever, from infancy. She did not know her aunt alive.

Alexandra Pavlovna Romanova. Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich

She died in her youth, in childbirth, in a place far from her home, in the valley of the Irem River, not far from her palace in Ofen - the old part of Pest - the capital of the possessions of her husband, Palatine, Archduke Joseph .. Adini was not much like her, only I knew that my aunt also loved roses and the singing of nightingales .. They very much reminded her of her homeland. Auntie's youthful face, with a lovely soft oval chin and a family subtlety of features, as if from an old medallion,
(similar to the one she had recently given to Papa.) suddenly appeared clearly before Adini's confused feverish mind's eye.

The namesake - Palatine, resembling a white bird, in a translucent, muslin robe trimmed with silk braid, beaming with an inexplicable charm of a smile, quietly walked through the gardens in which the Irem valley was buried, and suddenly stopped at a cross entwined with ivy. Ivy branches hung right over the steep cliff ..... Adini and in her dream suddenly took her breath away, her head was spinning, as if she suddenly flew like a bird over everything she saw. From the height of her heavenly gaze, a picture aching her heart opened up: at the foot of the cross, she saw a plate with letters embossed in Slavonic script: “Alexander Romanov” ...
Aunt Alexandra Pavlovna stood near the tombstone covered with ivy without moving, covering her face with her hands, with a strange sign - a sign: a cross - crosswise ... then down ... and she woke up, realizing that in the haze of painful slumber, arranged for her by the caring doctor Mandt, she had just seen her own Death. But she no longer frightened her, this imperious mistress ... On the contrary, she brought some strange calm to her restless soul.

Adini suddenly realized why singing had always attracted her to her, what music had always enchanted, bewitched. , on the ground.

"Memories "

But now there was no more energy left for music. But, by the way, maybe it’s worth trying again? .. With weak hands, Adini threw back the blanket that was pressing her chest and tried to sit up, crushing the cambric and silk sheets and lace pillows with her hand .. Somewhere in her head the highest note of cavatina rang like a bee - a fly from "Lucia de Lamermour", her favorite aria..
How does it start there? "Before"? No, "re"...
No, no! - “la”, certainly, “la”; the highest, the purest, the most gentle.. Like an alluring heavenly distance.

She took a breath of air, so strangely easy, and from the magical, quivering, full wave of her voice swayed and tinkled weakly in time with the pendants of crystal chandeliers, on the patterned ceiling, the lights of candles in wrought-iron floor chandeliers flickered, the velvet curtain of the canopy above her alcove stirred. ....
The doors swung open abruptly, but Adini did not see the faces that entered her hitherto quiet boudoir in a crowd, she did not perceive the steps. She sang. She sang until blood gushed out of her throat in a wide dark red stream - a fountain. And the last note of the aria mingled with the frightened cry of Mary, who rushed to her sister's bed...
Out of the corner of her eye, Adini saw that Mary was imperiously held in place by someone's fragile hands: Mom? Ollie? Olga Baryatinsky? Anna Alekseevna? .. It was impossible to make out.

"Reality"

After finishing the aria, Adini cast a weary, tender look in her sister's direction. Her bloodied mouth twisted strangely. She could barely keep from crying. But suddenly - she smiled, hearing rare, gently - timid jolts inside herself, like a tugging of the thinnest silk thread .. The one who had not yet been born responded to her singing with his whole being. He seemed to be asking for more. It was as if he wanted to rise with her to those pure crystal heights where her voice had just soared ... And, having heeded this silent request, she immediately began to sing again. Blood dripped continuously down her chin in a thin, black-and-scarlet stream. But she sang. She sang until dark. Until the last strength is gone.

The next morning after the shocking event, she was still alive. Miraculously, she's alive. “... on the night of July 28-29, she began to experience severe pain; those were the first fights. She was not told anything about it, but she guessed it herself from the worried faces of the nurses, and began to tremble nervously at the thought of premature birth. “Fritz, Fritz,” she cried, “God wants it!” And the indescribable look of her raised eyes made me guess that she was praying. Her pulse weakened, they sent for a priest, and Fr. Bazhanov confessed and communed her. It was at eight o'clock in the morning. Between nine and ten o'clock a boy was born to her. The child cried. This was her last joy on earth, a real miracle, a blessing from Heaven.

The child was only six months old. “Ollie,” she breathed, “I am the mother!” Then she bowed her face, which was as white as her pillows, and immediately fell asleep. The Lutheran pastor baptized her little one under the name Fritz Wilhelm Nicholas. He lived until noon. Adini slept peacefully like a child. At four o'clock in the afternoon she passed into another life.
In the evening, she was already lying, drowning in a sea of flowers, with a child in her arms, in the chapel of the Alexander Palace.

Chapel of the Alexander Palace"

Grand Duchess and Tsesarevna Alexandra Nikolaevna Romanova, Land Countess of Hesse - Kassel, died exactly five hours after the birth of her son, Crown Prince of Hesse - Kassel, Wilhelm. The child was born prematurely and, having lived no more than half an hour, died, having managed, however, to be baptized. He was buried in the same grave with his mother. On the day of the funeral of Grand Duchess Alexandra in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the capital, an almost autumn haze descended on the city. Drizzling fine, nasty rain. Not a single ray of the sun could break through the lead, heavy clouds that covered the sky. The first clod of earth on the lid of the coffin of the untimely silenced Gatchina nightingale was thrown by her father, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, who barely whispered through unrestrained sobs: “With God!”

"Treasure of Adini"

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Portrait of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich,

Alexander Vasilievich Polyakov

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. Not earlier than 1817

Alexander Molinari (1772-1831) (?)

The youngest girl in the family of Nicholas I was Alexandra Nikolaevna, " naughty and affectionate"Adini, or as her grandmother Maria Fedorovna called her youngest granddaughter -" Le bijou"(treasure - French). In the family, she was also called " our ray of sunshine" and " everyone's favorite sister". She was born in Tsarskoye Selo on June 12, 1825. “Adini,” Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna wrote, “was born in Tsarskoye Selo, where the sovereign cordially placed his palace at the disposal of my parents.”

Garden facade of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.I.-Ya. Meyer. 1840s

Alexander Palace

The main hall in the Alexander Palace

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F. Sokolov

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F. Sokolov

On the first portraits from the children's series by P.F. Sokolova (1828), she is depicted as a three-year-old girl in a standard white dress for all sisters with a red belt, bows on her shoulders. Unlike others - in a cap. She was brought up like her older sisters: she studied literature, history, was fond of drawing. On the surviving self-portrait, signed by her "Adini. December 6, 1836”, an eleven-year-old teenage girl sits at a table in thought, detached from everything around her, resting her cheek with her left hand. The signature day was not chosen by chance - it is the father's namesake day and the drawing was intended as a gift.

She had an amazingly beautiful voice (soprano), the range of which covered three octaves. At the age of 13, she could perform complex pieces of music. Adini appears as a grown-up fifteen-year-old young lady in a small drawing made as a gift to her brother Konstantin and lovingly enclosed by him in his diary in December 1840.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

With great tenderness, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna recalled her sister, who had departed so early: “Even as a small child, she attracted the charm of her chatter. She had a rich imagination and perfectly represented not only people, but even historical characters, as if moving into them. At eleven, she could carry on a conversation at the table, sitting next to someone unfamiliar, like an adult, and did not seem prematurely developed: her graceful charm and cunning muzzle spoke for themselves. Everyone in the house loved her, the children of the courtiers of her age simply adored. . ..

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, 13 years old

Christina Robertson

Gracefulness showed in everything she did, whether she played with her dog, whether she climbed a hill, or simply put on gloves. Her movements were reminiscent of Mom, from whom she inherited a flexible back and broad shoulders. In the family, she was called by everyone "Brownie". Her English tutor, who set herself the task of tempering Adini, went for a walk with her in all weathers, which one fine day caused severe bronchitis, and her life was in danger. Thanks to her beautiful body, she recovered completely, but with the illness, the child disappeared from her. The proximity of death made her completely different. The meaning of life and thoughts about the other world began to occupy her.

K.A. Ukhtomsky. Children's room of Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga and Alexandra. 1837

I.I. Charlemagne. Children's sons of Nicholas I, or Ship.

Roller coaster in the Alexander Palace

Scene from the life of the family of Emperor Nicholas I. Artist A. Chernyshev

Her reading became serious. From books, she, according to the remark of her older sister, “ loved religious books. For the older sisters, Adini remained for a long time a child who "pleased to play and play pranks with little brothers." In 1838" it was Adini's turn to introduce herself to her grandfather”, together with Ollie she then visited Berlin. Later, when she began to go out, she quickly became disillusioned with the secular emptiness of pastime. " Life is only a corridor, she said, only preparation».

Berlin, Eduard Gertner

Berlin: Parade in front of the Royal Palace,

William Bridge

Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia

Colonel F. Gagern, who visited Russia in 1839, describing the daughters of the emperor, noted: “The youngest Grand Duchess is Alexandra, 13 years old [during his stay in Russia she turned 14 years old], and there is still something childish in her; she is very lively, playful and promises to be the most beautiful among the sisters. She often teased Prince Alexander." That year, Alexander Nikolaevich was abroad, and Mary was busy with her fiancé, so Olli began to spend more time with the growing Adini: “A lovely girl, carefree as a lark, spreading only joy around her. Early death is the privilege of the chosen natures. I see Adini in no other way than all shrouded in the sun.” Gradually, Alexandra turned into a beauty who competed with Ollie.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

C. Robertson. Daughters of Emperor Nicholas I, Princesses Olga and Alexandra Nikolaevna, 1840

Moskvich M.D. Buturlin, who saw the sisters in the hall of the Noble Assembly of St. Petersburg at the end of the winter season of 1843, Olga and Alexandra Nikolaevna seemed “creatures not of this world, especially the second. It was this year that turned out to be decisive in the life of Adini. Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm-Georg-Adolf, son of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, arrived at Mary's wedding in the hope of meeting Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna in order to get her hand. Ollie found him kind, "pleasant and cheerful".

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Duke Maximilian-Leuchtenberg

But, shortly before the ball in the Grand Peterhof Palace, he saw Adini; a spark ran between them. Ollie conceded a possible suitor to her sister. The explanation with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the presence of Adini took place on the terrace of the palace in Strelna. "Adini loves him! Ollie said. “She saw Fritz,” Olga Nikolaevna later wrote, “through the poetic veil of her eighteen years, and God called her to Himself before her gaze saw another.” True, after the marriage, she tried to develop her Friedrich morally and spiritually, distract him from secular entertainment, had serious conversations, “read Plutarch with him so that the example of noble men would help him.”

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

It turned out that Adini was ahead of her older sister Olga Nikolaevna with marriage. Nicholas worried and rejoiced at the same time. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna wrote: “Papa suffered because of me, and yet he was happy to keep me with him. Of course, he also loved Adini, but she was still a child for him, and not his equal, with whom you could talk like with me; besides, Adini was always very silent in his company for fear of speaking Russian incorrectly. (Thanks to her English teacher, she did not become fluent in her native language). What a treasure Adini was, the Pope realized the moment she was gone.” And further: “On the day of Peter and Paul, June 29, during a solemn dinner, an engagement [conspiracy - L.V.] was announced. When Fritz asked Papa shortly before if he dared to speak to him, Papa embraced him and said: "Here is my answer!".

Grand Duchesses Alexandra Nikolaevna and Olga Nikolaevna

O. Vernet. Tsarskoye Selo carousel. Family of Emperor Nicholas I in fancy dress, 1843

When the royal family on August 22, as usual, moves to Tsarskoe Selo for the autumn months, Adini does not suspect that not only this summer is the most blissful in her life, but she forever says goodbye to " Peterhof Paradise"- with the splendor of its cascades and fountains, with the distance of the sea and the dreamy paths of Alexandria, with the comfort of your beloved Cottage. Here, in his furnished lovely simplicity"girl's room, where the portrait of her lover now occupies a central place on the table, on July 29 she writes on the last page of her diary: "I am finishing this diary and, by a strange accident, at the same time I am completing my girlish existence. It was beautiful, this existence, and very happy "I did not know grief. God and people who love me helped me to stock up on the necessary for my future. It now opens before me like the dawn of a beautiful day. So let the clouds that cover it dissipate before evening, and let the evening of my life be like its dawn! God help me!"

Palace-cottage

Holgin island in Peterhof.E. Meyer (?)

Classic view of the pavilion on the lake in Peterhof. E. Meyer.(?)

"Pink Pavilion in the Meadow Park of Peterhof", Luigi Premazzi.

P. Borel, Belvedere Palace in a meadow park

Belvedere Palace in a meadow park

View of Renella in Alexandria.,

Socrates Vorobyov

Could she suspect, full of luminous hopes, that fate, in the meantime, had already circled her barely blossoming life with a mourning frame? Could she know that she was never destined to repeat the long walks along the autumn alleys of the Tsarskoye Selo park, where she now gives free rein to her dreams of the future? She does not know all this and is happy, as only a young creature in love can be happy.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Long before the obvious manifestation of the disease, her singing teacher Soliva was the first to draw attention to the unhealthiness of the Grand Duchess, but the court doctors reassured the Empress, and the shrewd Italian paid the price by being dismissed and forced to leave Russia.

However, the bride herself, hovering in rainbow dreams, does not attach any importance to this, especially since her doctor Rauch does not see any reason for concern. She is consumed by thoughts of his Fritz”, describes to him in a painstaking drawing his simply furnished room in the Alexander Palace, the main decoration of which here, too, is his portrait now standing on an easel, painted in the summer by Karl Steibein, and counts the days until meeting with him.

Grand Duke Alexandra Nikolaevna. "My room in Tsarskoye Selo on October 16." Paper, pencil. 1843. Foundation of the Hesse Landgraviate, Fazaneri Palace

The famous portrait of Alexandra Nikolaevna belongs to this time. “In October,” Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna recalled, “Mistress Robertson, a well-known English artist, arrived to paint with Adini a large life-size portrait. In a pink dress, with her hair braided on both sides of her face, as she is depicted on it. She was a little smaller than me, with not quite the right features and very good in her own beauty. Her face always shone with merriment, but immediately changed its expression as soon as a conversation began about something serious. In prayer, when I closed my eyes to concentrate, she, on the contrary, opened her eyes wide and raised her hands, as if she wanted to hug the sky.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

On December 29 of the same 1843, Adini's engagement was officially celebrated; on December 30, a solemn reception was held, which was attended by Frederick's father, the seventy-year-old Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. “Fritz next to his lovely bride,” Olli conveyed her impressions, “seemed insignificant and without much bearing. Later, I recalled how worried old Dr. Willie, Uncle Mikhail's medical officer, was after shaking Adini's hand and feeling her wetness. "She must be unwell," he said then. At that time they did not yet know that back in June 1843, Adini fell ill with consumption (tuberculosis).

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel

Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (father of Friedrich Wilhelm)

Louise Charlotte of Denmark (mother of Friedrich Wilhelm)

Less than two months later, on January 28, 1844, the wedding took place. " Newlyweds” moved to their apartments in the Winter Palace. The usual secular life of the young couple began. Next, we again give the floor to her sister Olli: “Adini caught a cold when she returned from the ball from Nesselrode. One of the windows of the carriage was, through an oversight of some lackey, lowered at ten degrees below zero. The next day she woke up with a fever. No one attached any importance to this, relying on her healthy nature.” In order not to disturb her parents, Alexandra Nikolaevna continued to appear at the morning breakfast, because she was soon to leave Russia. “At the end of Great Lent,” Olga Nikolaevna continues her sad story, “this year we moved, as always, to Anichkov to prepare for Communion.

Winter view of Nevsky Prospekt near the Anichkov Palace. 1847

V. S. Sadovnikov

The return to the Winter Palace after Easter took place without Adini. She was expecting [pregnant — L.V.] and very weak from a strong cough. Doctors ordered her to rest and put her to bed for three weeks. After this period, she moved to the Winter Palace and settled in her gloomy rooms, suffering from the light and greenery of the gardens in Anichkov, which were there under the windows. There were no changes for the better: “She was forbidden to travel in a wheelchair, and she spent whole days lying resignedly on the couch. Nobody worried about her. Dad made a trip to England to meet his young niece Victoria and her husband Albert. In the midst of the festivities in his honor, he learned the terrible news that Adini had fulminant consumption. Mandt himself came to him to tell this terrible news.”

Portrait of an unknown, Christina Robertson

When Nikolai Pavlovich returned, the family was already living in Tsarskoye Selo. It seemed country air' revived Adini. She began to take wheelchair rides with Fritz. Mandt's diagnosis was not to be believed; waiting for a miracle.

The court doctors could not recognize the disease in time and make the correct diagnosis. Life physician Rauch overlooked the disease, and when he realized, “ fell into mental disorder", - wrote Count M. A. Korf in his memoirs" Death and burial of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna.

Gate "to my kind colleagues" 1857

V.S. Sadovnikov

The heavy atmosphere of those days was remembered by Olga Nikolaevna: “Doctors Markus, Rauch and Scholz looked completely destroyed. They, except for Scholz, who was needed as an obstetrician, were immediately released. Mandt took up the treatment alone. He was as unsympathetic to Adini as he was to us all, and only out of obedience did she overpower herself and allow him to heal. Luckily, he didn't torment her. Hot milk and pure water to quench one's thirst were, in fact, all he prescribed. He magnetized this water, which, in his opinion, calmed the patient.

However, already at the beginning of the month, signs of a terrible illness appeared, and the fatal prognosis was confirmed not only by the court doctors, but also by the Danish physician Bank, invited to the patient.

Watercolor by L. Premazzi

As the days got warmer, Adini began to suffer from fits of suffocation. Mom gave her her office with seven windows; even in summer it was full of air and freshness. It was arranged as a bedroom for Adini." Unfortunately, Alexandra Nikolaevna's condition worsened. She had to live separately from Fritz: “In mid-June, a few days before her nineteenth birthday, the situation worsened. She was definitely scorched with heat. Bouts of nausea prevented her from eating, and coughing fits - up to forty times a night - dispersed sleep.

Meanwhile, Alexandra Nikolaevna did not suspect that she was doomed, “delighted the boredom of the disease with castles in the air about her future stay in Denmark and the upbringing of the expected baby,” asked her brother Konstantin, who returned from a sea trip to Denmark, about the preparation of the palace and “ in recent days she loved to surround herself with her clothes and admire them.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich

It's Adini's birthday. Mass was served in a hastily built chapel right in the Alexander Palace. Priest Bazhanov brought the Holy Gifts to the sick woman and received her Holy Communion. During a conversation with Olli, Adini said that the thought of death came to her and gave Papa a sketch of a pavilion for a pond with black swans.

Portrait of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich,

Alexander Vasilievich Polyakov

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. Not earlier than 1817

Alexander Molinari (1772-1831) (?)

Garden facade of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.I.-Ya. Meyer. 1840s

Alexander Palace

The main hall in the Alexander Palace

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F. Sokolov

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

P.F. Sokolov

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, 13 years old

Christina Robertson

K.A. Ukhtomsky. Children's room of Grand Duchesses Maria, Olga and Alexandra. 1837

I.I. Charlemagne. Children's sons of Nicholas I, or Ship.

Roller coaster in the Alexander Palace

Scene from the life of the family of Emperor Nicholas I. Artist A. Chernyshev

Berlin, Eduard Gertner

Berlin: Parade in front of the Royal Palace,

William Bridge

Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

C. Robertson. Daughters of Emperor Nicholas I, Princesses Olga and Alexandra Nikolaevna, 1840

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Duke Maximilian-Leuchtenberg

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Grand Duchesses Alexandra Nikolaevna and Olga Nikolaevna

O. Vernet. Tsarskoye Selo carousel. Family of Emperor Nicholas I in fancy dress, 1843

Palace-cottage

Holgin island in Peterhof.E. Meyer (?)

Classic view of the pavilion on the lake in Peterhof. E. Meyer.(?)

"Pink Pavilion in the Meadow Park of Peterhof", Luigi Premazzi.

P. Borel, Belvedere Palace in a meadow park

Belvedere Palace in a meadow park

View of Renella in Alexandria.,

Socrates Vorobyov

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Grand Duke Alexandra Nikolaevna. "My room in Tsarskoye Selo on October 16." Paper, pencil. 1843. Foundation of the Hesse Landgraviate, Fazaneri Palace

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Christina Robertson

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna

Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel

Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel (father of Friedrich Wilhelm)

Louise Charlotte of Denmark (mother of Friedrich Wilhelm)

Winter view of Nevsky Prospekt near the Anichkov Palace. 1847

V. S. Sadovnikov

Portrait of an unknown, Christina Robertson

Gate "to my kind colleagues" 1857

V.S. Sadovnikov

Watercolor by L. Premazzi

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich

Protopr. Vasily Bazhanov. Lithograph by A. Munster. 1865 (RGB)

For a while there was an improvement. Cool June days brought relief. We thought about a trip to Copenhagen to give birth there. On June 30, the midwife established the first movements of the child. Alexandra lay silently with her arms folded in silent prayer.

The study of Emperor Alexander II in the Winter Palace was decorated with three portraits of his younger sister Alexandra. The pictures showed a pretty young lady with large clear eyes. In the memory of her brothers and sisters, she forever remained a cheerful minx who became the center of attention in any company.

Adini, as her relatives called her, had an amazing ability to win over people, an easy character and a good sense of humor. Even as a child, everyone predicted a happy future for her, noting that a beautiful dove would grow out of this “chick”. Surrounded by the love of her relatives, she herself generously gave everyone smiles and attention.

“At eleven years old, she could carry on a conversation at the table, sitting next to someone unfamiliar, like an adult, and did not seem prematurely developed: her graceful charm and cunning muzzle spoke for themselves. Everyone in the house loved her, the children of the courtiers of her age simply adored, ”recalled her sister Olga (Olly).

When the girl was 13 years old, she was seen by Colonel Friedrich Gagern, who accompanied the Dutch Prince Alexander to Russia. In his diary, he left an entry: “The youngest Grand Duchess is Alexandra, 13 years old. There is still something childish about her; she is very lively, playful and promises to be the most beautiful among the sisters. She often teased Prince Alexander."

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. I. Windrerg. Photo: Public Domain

But, according to the memoirs of historians, she was not a windy laughter. Once, due to severe bronchitis, he was on the verge of death. After that, as her sister wrote, "the meaning of life and thoughts about the other world began to occupy her."

Love at first sight

In 1839, an event occurred that changed the lives of several daughters of Nicholas I at once. The eldest of the Grand Duchesses, Maria, married Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg, the youngest son of Eugene Beauharnais (Napoleon's stepson) and the grandson of Empress Josephine. The union, which was based on mutual sympathy, received the approval of the Russian emperor. The ceremony took place on July 2 in the chapel of the Winter Palace.

The French aristocrat Astolfe de Custine, who visited Russia that year, attended the wedding of the Grand Duchess. He described what happened as follows: “The young bride is full of grace and purity. She is blond, with blue eyes, her complexion is tender, shining with all the colors of her first youth. She and her sister, Grand Duchess Olga, seemed to me the most beautiful of all who were in the church.

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Georg-Adolf was carried away by the youngest daughter of Nicholas I. Photo: Public Domain

Friedrich-Wilhelm-Georg-Adolf, the son of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who also arrived in St. Petersburg for Mary's wedding, held a different opinion. The Romanovs assumed that the prince was seeking Ollie's sympathy in order to propose to her. What was the surprise of the royal family when Friedrich chose not Olga, but Adini.

“On the day of Peter and Paul, June 29, during a solemn dinner, an engagement was announced. When Fritz shortly before this asked the Pope if he dared to speak with him, the Pope embraced him and said: “Here is my answer!”, Olga Nikolaevna described the events in this way. By the way, in her memoirs, she did not give the most flattering characteristics to the groom. Perhaps, wounded female pride spoke in her, perhaps the landgrave's son really seemed to her "insignificant and without special manners."

Describing her sister's love, she noted that Olga looked at her chosen one "through the poetic veil of her eighteen years." The feelings that overwhelmed her daughter were also noticed by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In a letter to her future son-in-law, she noted that his messages made Adini happy: “Every time she receives your letter, she blushes with pleasure. Her health is quite in order, only something is very strange that the cough is still not completely gone.

The well-being of the Grand Duchess at that moment really began to concern her relatives, however, everyone believed that the young body would cope with the illness. Soothing forecasts were also given by doctors who did not see any dangerous illness in the cough.

Portrait of the Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna and Alexandra Nikolaevna at the harpsichord. K. Robertson, 1840. Photo: Public Domain

At the end of December 1843, a reception was held on the occasion of the engagement of Adini, which was also attended by the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Frederick's father. Later, in her diary, Olga Nikolaevna will remember how the old doctor Willie, her uncle Mikhail's life doctor, will say that after shaking Adini's hand, he felt her moisture. "She must be unwell," he said at the time.

Doctors' verdict

The wedding ceremony of Alexandra Nikolaevna and Friedrich-Wilhelm-Georg-Adolf took place on January 16 (28), 1844. However, the happiness of the young people was hindered by Adini's condition: a terrible cough continued to torment her. When, after another examination by the life physician Mandt, a terrible verdict was pronounced - tuberculosis - no one wanted to believe in it. To tell this sad news to Nicholas I, Mandt even went to London, where the emperor was visiting at that time. Learning that there was no hope for recovery, the emperor interrupted his visit and returned to St. Petersburg.

“In mid-June, a few days before the 19th birthday, the situation worsened. She was definitely scorched with heat. Nausea prevented her from eating, and coughing fits - up to forty times a night - dispersed her sleep, ”her sister Olga recalled the horrors of those days.

It is worth noting that by that time Adini was in position. To protect the life of the child, the doctors forbade her to walk and prescribed permanent bed rest. Despite constant rest, on the night of August 9-10, she went into labor, and she gave birth to a six-month-old boy.

“Between nine and ten o’clock she gave birth to a boy. The child cried. This was her last joy on earth, a real miracle, a blessing from Heaven, ”Olga wrote.

However, the miracle did not happen. The boy is dead. On the same day, Adini passed away. According to eyewitnesses, Nicholas I, not hiding his tears, grieved for the loss of his beloved daughter.

Six years after her death, in Tsarskoye Selo, where the Grand Duchess spent her last days, a chapel appeared, inside which a statue of Alexandra Nikolaevna was installed with a crying baby in her arms.

P.P. Zabolotsky (1842-1916). Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. 1907
Canvas, oil. 142.0 x 107.0
Arrival: from antiques, 2003
GMZ "Tsarskoye Selo"
The portrait is a modified version of the watercolor portrait by V. Hau of 1843, which is in the collection of the State Museum Reserve "Peterhof"

Folder for drawings of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna
Paper, canvas, cardboard, silk. 52.0 x 46.0 x 1.2
Until 1917, it was kept in the Library of Emperor Nicholas II in the Winter Palace
Arrival: from antiques, 1999
GMZ Tsarskoye Selo
It is pasted over with paper under "marble", with ribbons of green silk.
Inside the folder is pasted over with light paper and has four dividers made of canvas;
Published for the first time

1.

Self-portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. 1836
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
GA RF
On the right side there is an inscription in ink by the hand of the Grand Duchess: "Adini. December 6, 1836"
Published for the first time

2.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Bedroom of Emperor Alexander I in the Grand Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. 1830s
Paper, pencil. 40.0 x 37.0
Bottom right signature and number: "Adini December 6"
GMZ "Tsarskoye Selo"
The drawing is not finished.
The drawing was prepared for December 6 (Nikolin's day, the day of St. Nicholas in winter) - the day of the name day of Nikolai Pavlovich. At the same time, the image of the bedchamber of Alexander I, depicted in the drawing shortly before the next anniversary of the emperor's birthday (December 12, 1777), makes it possible to make sure that in the 1830s. the memory of him was preserved in the family, and the state of the interior, which corresponded to his lifetime decoration, was carefully preserved.

3.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Room. 1838
Cardboard, pencil. 21.0 x 25.5
On the right side of the drawing, there is an inscription in ink by the hand of the Grand Duchess: "Adini. December 6, 1838"

4.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Interior with knights. 1837
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
On the right side of the drawing, there is an inscription in ink by the hand of the Grand Duchess: "Adini. December 6, 1837"

5.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. architectural composition. Educational drawing. 1832
Cardboard, watercolor, pencil
25.0 x 33.0
On the left side of the drawing is an inscription in ink by the hand of the Grand Duchess: "Adini December 6, 1832"
Published for the first time

6.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Children's room with a house. 1836
Cardboard, pencil. 33.0 x 25.0
On the right side of the picture there is an inscription in ink by the hand of the Grand Duchess: "Adini. 1836"

It's not me who cut off the inscription when I scanned it, it's like that in the book :)

It is known that in the nursery of the Grand Duchesses there was a house. Here, we read about it.

From a children's letter from Grand Duke Alexandra Nikolaevna's mother dated October 15, 1831: "Dear mother, I kiss you and ask you to kiss for me Papa. Today I was at Niska's (grand k.N.N.), he was like an angel, before that I played on the mountain. Are you healthy, dear Mom? After school, Olya often tells me stories in the house "(GA RF)

From the memoirs of Olga Nikolaevna.
"1834.
Again pictures of our childhood life rise up before me. In memory of my visit to the monastery in Novgorod, Abbess Shishkina presented me with a peasant hut, the inside of which was made of glass, and the furniture was embroidered with colored beads. A doll with ten dresses made by the nuns was in it. Almost simultaneously with this gift, liana gave us a two-story house, which was placed in our children's room. It had no roof so that lamps and candlesticks could be lighted without danger. We loved this house more than all the other toys. This was our kingdom, in which we sisters could hide with our friends. This is where I hid when I wanted to be alone, while Mary practiced the piano and Adini played some game I thought up. I was between the two in age, three years younger than Mary, three years older than Adini, and often felt a little lonely. I was already beginning to move away from the world of Adini's games, while I could not yet approach the world of adults, to which, at the age of fourteen, Mary already belonged. My sisters were cheerful and cheerful, but I was serious and withdrawn. Naturally compliant, I tried to please everyone, often being ridiculed and attacked by Mary, unable to defend myself. I felt stupid and simple, I cried into my pillow at night and began to imagine that I was not the real daughter of my Parents at all, but was replaced by a nurse: instead of their child, she put my milk sister. Mademoiselle Dunker only contributed to my loneliness. Thanks to her character, she instantly flared up and immediately conveyed her displeasure to Yulia Baranova, who in turn immediately took the side of her pupil Mary. Tension crept into the relationship, and each remained with her student in her room. Sasha's tutor, General Merder, who was on good terms with Charlotte Dunker, knew how to cheer me up and instill confidence in me, saying that neither my calmness nor my shyness does not mean that I am incapable, but indicate the qualities of a deep nature, which it takes time to develop. The similarity of my nature with Sasha made him unusually sensitive and close to me.
In the children's room, where our toy house stood, we were taught to dance by Roz Colinette, who made her debut at the Maly Gatchina Theater. We practiced gavotte, minuet and country dance together with Sasha and his peers. After that, there was a joint dinner, and instead of the invariable fish dish with potatoes, we were given soup, a meat dish and sweet chocolate. In the winter of 1833, these merry lessons ceased, because Mary was fifteen years old and she moved from us to other rooms.

Portal for the student. Self-training

Love at first sight

Doctors' verdict

RELATED ARTICLES