Once A Grand Duke by Alexander Grand Duke of Russia. Alexander Mikhailovich
ONCE A
GRAND DUKE
by
ALEXANDER
GRAND DUKE OF RUSSIA
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ONCE A GRAND DUKE
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER DURING THE WAR WHEN COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE RUSSIAN AIR FORCES.
FOREWORD
THE history of the last fifty turbulent years of the Russian Empire provides only a background, but is not the subject of this book.
In compiling this record of a grand duke’s progress I relied on memory only, all my letters, diaries and other documents having been partly burned by me and partly confiscated by the revolutionaries during the years of 1917 and 1918 in the Crimea.
Naturally enough, I am dealing at greater length with those who played an important part in my personal life: Emperor Alexander II, Emperor Alexander III, the last Czar Nicholas II, my mother-in-law Dowager-Empress Marie of Russia, my wife Grand Duchess Xenia, and my parents and brothers. The others—generals, ministers and statesmen—appear to have been generously taken care of both in their own memoirs and in the numerous volumes dedicated to the Russian Revolution.
I have no desire for post-mortems and I have done my utmost to keep bias and prejudice from influencing my judgment. In fact, there is no bitterness left in my heart.
ALEXANDER, GRAND DUKE OF RUSSIA.
Paris, Autumn, 1931.
ILLUSTRATIONS
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER DURING THE WAR
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AT THE AGE OF FOUR
THE FUTURE EMPRESS MARIE WITH HER DAUGHTER XENIA
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AT THE AGE OF FIVE
GRAND DUKE MICHAEL NICHOLAEVICH
GRAND DUKE SERGEI MICHAILOVICH
GRAND DUKE NICHOLAS MICHAILOVICH
GRAND DUKE GEORGE MICHAILOVICH
TWO VIEWS OF THE ESTATE AT AY-TODOR
CZAR NICHOLAS II WITH GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AND GRAND DUCHESS XENIA
CZAR NICHOLAS II; GRAND DUKE MICHAEL NICHOLAEVICH
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AND GRAND DUCHESS XENIA
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER WITH HIS DAUGHTER IRENE
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER, GRAND DUCHESS XENIA AND THEIR TWO ELDEST CHILDREN
THE CZAR AND CZARINA WITH THEIR THREE ELDER DAUGHTERS
CZAR NICHOLAS II IN 1899
THE LAST CZARINA IN 1899
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER IN XVII CENTURY COSTUME
GRAND DUCHESS XENIA IN XVII CENTURY COSTUME
CZAR NICHOLAS AS A XVII CENTURY CZAR
THE LAST CZARINA OF RUSSIA
THE LAST CZARINA IN THE UNIFORM OF HER OWN GUARD REGIMENT
THE HEIR APPARENT AND ONLY SON OF THE LAST CZAR
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER INSPECTING A NEW AERODROME
CZAR NICHOLAS II IN HIS SUMMER RESIDENCE
CZAR NICHOLAS IN MOSCOW
GRAND DUKE MICHAEL ALEXANDROVICH (“MISHA”)
THE CZAR AND THE CZARINA REVIEWING A REGIMENT
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER DISTRIBUTING DIPLOMAS
THE SEVEN CHILDREN OF THE GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE AIR FORCES
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AND HIS WIFE DURING THE WAR
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AND GRAND DUCHESS OLGA
CZAR NICHOLAS AT HIS HEADQUARTERS IN MOGILEV IN 1916
GRAND DUCHESS OLGA
THE GRAND DUCHESS XENIA IN EXILE WITH HER CHILDREN
PRINCESS IRENE YOUSOUPOFF, ONLY DAUGHTER OF GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER AS HE LOOKS TODAY
THE DOWAGER-EMPRESS
THE THREE GRAND-CHILDREN OF GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER
Someone has proposed the toast, “Our Memories.” Goethe knocked on the table and said: “I do not like these words. The toast seems to imply that we have forgotten and that some outer event recalls our memories to us. Those things which are great and beautiful never leave us; they become part of ourselves. It is not the past but the eternally new which our desires would have us seek. . . . The new is itself the creation of ever-growing elements of the past. True longing must always be productive and fashion a new and better self.”
ROMAIN ROLLAND: Goethe and Beethoven.
ONCE A GRAND DUKE
CHAPTER ONE
OUR FRIENDS OF DECEMBER THE FOURTEENTH
A TALL man of military bearing crossed the rain-drenched courtyard of the Imperial Palace in Taganrog and rapidly made for the street.
The sentinel jumped to attention, but the stranger ignored the salute. The next moment he disappeared in the dark November night that had wrapped this small southern seaport