Is there historical truth in the film Matilda. Frank diaries of Nicholas II about Matilda Kshesinskaya published for the first time

To somehow correct this, the filmmakers invited representatives of VKontakte to a private screening of the film. Representatives of the social network, surprisingly, appreciated the film and are ready to promote it.

I would like to express my gratitude to the team working on the film “Matilda” for the opportunity to familiarize myself with the material at the post-production stage.

Despite the fact that the film is in the process of production, even from its working version one can appreciate the seriousness and scrupulousness of the creators’ approach to their own work.

Our platform has always been open to dialogue and opinions, so we decided to support the film, giving VKontakte users the opportunity to form their own idea of ​​Matilda.

Let's also collect opinions about the upcoming film. Here are some facts for you to think about:

Fact 1

The main roles were played by famous Russian (and not only) actors - Michalina Olshanska (Anatomy of Evil), Danila Kozlovsky (Legend #17), Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Burnt by the Sun).

Fact 2

Orthodox activists, historians and State Duma deputy Natalya Poklonskaya accused the filmmakers of violating ethical standards. It is argued that there is no historical role in the history of the film, but the picture itself is “terrible, vulgar and insults the memory of Nicholas II.”

Fact 3

Over the course of a year and a half, about 7,000 unique costumes, shoes, hats, jewelry and accessories were created for the film. More than 12 tons of silk, wool, velvet, cloth, leather and other materials were spent on production.

Fact 4

Filming took place in historical places: the Catherine, Elaginoostrovsky, Yusupov and Alexander palaces, the Bolshoi Theater, the Mariinsky Theater and others.

Fact 5

You should not expect clear historical accuracy; the authors took liberties in their presentation. But the main story is conveyed accurately.

Fact 6

This is the most scandalous film not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Discussions of this picture are already brighter and richer than those of the same “50 shades of gray”.

They tried to ban it twice within a year, but to no avail.

Fact 7

Thousands of people all over Russia came to a prayer stand against the film “Matilda”. They were also supported in Moldova, Austria and Serbia.

Fact 8

Director Sergei Aliyev plans to show his documentary answer to “Matilda” - the film “Matilda’s Lie”. Duma deputy Vitaly Milonov even starred in it.

Fact 9

Archpriest Chaplin accused Putin of a “huge mistake” because the President did not ban the release of the film Matilda.

Fact 10

Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church) declined to make any comments. They don't care much about the fate of the film. Poklonskaya is indignant.

And here, as we promised, is the trailer for the scandalous film “Matilda”:

The artist, of course, increased attention His works are usually pleasant. But when your opus is examined with a magnifying glass, excuse me, this is too much.

This is roughly the situation Alexey Uchitel now finds himself in with his long-suffering (without irony) “Matilda.” Natalya Poklonskaya’s attack, which caused a muddy wave of aggressive attacks from the “tsarebozhniks” up to the expressed desire to impale the director, on the one hand, added to the film’s popularity in advance. On the other hand, they added purely entomological interest to it on the part of critics, who are now forced to analyze “Matilda” in the light of the aggressive events around it. And this, of course, did not benefit the film and the team.

If it weren’t for Poklonskaya and her retinue of mentally unstable people, “Matilda” would have modestly passed by on the sidelines of film critical reviews as just another near-patriotic movie with a not very successful distribution fate, but not a failure against the backdrop of our entire film industry. Which I just want to put in quotation marks. But since the wave of public discussion has brought it to the surface, we have to sort through the bones. An exhibit after all.

Let's give the Teacher his due: he did an excellent job with the front side of the film. A costume historical drama from ancient times, when ladies dragged trains of silk skirts, gentlemen in sideburns savored the word “honor” with cutlets, and newly-crowned emperors laid out round sums from their pockets to the families of those killed during their coronation, in “Matilda” it is constructed competently, lovingly and clearly with honest use of the allocated budget. Which, you see, is already an achievement in our suspicious times.

The story told in the film unfolds against the backdrop of grand facades and elegant interiors. Here you can feel not only the scope, but also the taste, which, again, is rare for our current cinema. For the most part, we have one thing - either scope or taste. The magnificent end of the 300-year reign of the Romanov dynasty, which 20 years later will end in a bloody tragedy, becomes a successful backdrop for the dramatic love story between the soon-to-be Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich (Lars Eidinger) and the ballerina Matilda Krzesinskaya (Michalina Olshanska). Love will begin with the brave experiment of the young Kshesinskaya on stage - her breasts are accidentally exposed, and instead of shyly running backstage, she, seeing the future emperor in the box, impudently looking into his eyes, will continue to dance with her breasts bare, which, of course, will attract will captivate young Nikolai. Then, when Nicky tries to take possession of her in a special tent, Matilda slaps him in the face and promises that he will now love her forever.

In the crowned Romanov family, Kshesinskaya was considered something of a challenge banner - starting with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, she would take care of Nikolai, and when Nikolai became an exemplary family man, she would turn her gaze to the imperial cousin, Prince Andrei, whom she would later marry. But the Teacher doesn’t want to know anything bad about the heroine - his Matilda is a girl, although she is punchy, but she sincerely and devotedly loves her Nicky. The Polish actress is extremely good - fresh, black-browed and has that free sex appeal that our actresses are mostly deprived of. Therefore, one should not be surprised that the Teacher brought the heroine from abroad. With the emperor everything is much sadder. Lars Eidinger is an outstanding artist; it is almost impossible to attend performances of the Berlin Schaubühne with his participation. You can’t even tell right away what the director did with him. Or he forbade me, on pain of termination of the contract, to play as usual well. Or he pumped me with sleeping pills. But in any case, looking at a bearded man over 40, who is clearly bored with portraying a 22-year-old boy, is even somewhat awkward. The dissonance between the eyes of a well-aged man and the youthful impulses of yesterday's puberty is too striking, and this makes the love story seem deliberately false.

Although - and here again we must give credit to the director - he does not insist on the veracity of what is told. He doesn’t even try to persuade us that, they say, this could have happened. On the contrary, he seems to emphasize that everything told is fiction from beginning to end, and for this he attracts completely fairy-tale characters. Like Prince Vorontsov (Danila Kozlovsky), a bearded man furiously in love with Matilda, who is ready to send the heir to the throne to the next world for her sake. This is Koschey, Bad Boy and all the demons rolled into one. This is already funny, but it’s even funnier when a certain Lucifer-like psychiatrist, played for some reason by the great German theater director Thomas Ostermeier, puts Vorontsov in an aquarium with his head and begins to torture him. Isn’t this a direct hint to us: don’t believe it, dear viewers, don’t believe it for a second!

The only problem is that the director himself did not understand whether to believe himself or not. He desperately rushes between genres, between fiction and reality, never fully deciding what he is filming and why. It seems to him that he is making a completely patriotic movie about that textbook Russia before 1913, when the piglets were fat and people believed in God. That is, “Russia, which we lost.” It is not for nothing that the film begins with an unambiguous metaphor - the same famous train crash, after which the health of Tsar Alexander the Third (Sergei Garmash), who held the roof of the carriage for a long time, was greatly deteriorated, like that train. Soon Niki became emperor.

At moments it seems that the cunning Teacher actually made a comedy - in addition to Vorontsov and the half-mad psychiatrist, there are many more comic characters in comic circumstances in the film. The most charming of them is the head of the royal detective police, Vlasov (Vitaly Kishchenko). This sinister guy, as he seems to appear to the viewer, according to the plot, for several years does nothing but rush after Matilda, trying to separate her from the future emperor. Apparently, things were going very well in the country from a security point of view, since the main security guard throws all his strength at the ballerina girl. Having overtaken her, Vlasov tries to either drown the girl or burn her. Or maybe, on the contrary, things were going badly, but the detective police were busy with the wrong things, and so everything collapsed? Then it turns out that the Teacher is digging deep. And this is very difficult to believe.

Most likely, the director wanted to please a little everyone - patriots (Orthodoxy-autocracy-nationality), fans of mass spectacle (elegant salons and ferry races), housewives (a story of unhappy love), critics (good actors, especially Ingeborga Dapkunaite in the role of the Dowager Empress, plus room for interpretation, which we took advantage of). But as often happens in such cases, the artist missed, and the only one who was seriously interested in the film was deputy Poklonskaya. And she doesn’t want to watch the movie either.

By the way, the comedy is also supported by the fact that the Tsarevich, after a night of love with Matilda, always ends up wearing long johns. By the way, someone tell Poklonskaya about this - maybe she will calm down?

Rarely has a film attracted so much attention modern society like the movie Matilda. However, it is a mistake today to focus on the theme of the film only on the “film product” of Alexei Uchitel. The next active phase of discrediting the image of the Russian Emperor began much earlier: in 2015. Then the "masters" historical genre", for reasons known to them, suddenly turned again to the personality of the ballerina. And the stream of lies, the target of which was the Royal Martyr, filled the pages of newspapers, television screens, and the Internet with its stench. It ended in 2017 with a huge-scale perversion in the form of a “historical blockbuster.” It is logical to conclude that there was an organized campaign on the eve of a tragic date for the history of Russia: the centenary of revolutionary events.

The love relationship between the brightest star of ballet art and the last of the reigning Romanov dynasties is a myth that is more than a century old. Various pseudo-researchers, writing fables about the physical intimacy of the ballerina and the Tsarevich, baselessly refer to Kshesinskaya’s “Memoirs,” which contain nothing of the kind.

Matilda Kshesinskaya wrote “Memoirs” in the 60s of the last century in France and is unlikely to have hidden anything about her relationship with the Sovereign. On the contrary: if it had been written in the style of a cheap love vaudeville, the profit from the sale of “Memoirs” would have increased significantly. But the former ballerina was not carried away by fabrications, which is a credit to a worthy woman, no less slandered than the Master of the Russian Land. “Memoirs” are presented by year. However, there is not a word in them about closeness with Nikolai Alexandrovich. However, the lie about the ballerina’s love affair with the Heir has firmly settled both in news publications and in the heads of gullible citizens.

And, really: why shouldn’t the average reader believe “Arguments and Facts,” which published on its pages in 2016 an article by Andrei Sidorchik “Sinful Matilda. How did the ballerina Kshesinskaya drive the men of the Romanov house crazy? Let us illustrate one of the fragments of the publication: “In January 1892, a certain “hussar Volkov” arrived at Matilda’s house. The surprised girl approached the door, and Nikolai walked towards her. That night was the first time they spent together.”

Let’s refute “comrade” Sidorchik: in January 1892, the hussar Volkov could not “arrive” at Matilda’s house due to Kshesinskaya’s lack of one. The ballerina lived with her parents - people of extremely strict morals. And she acquired her own mansion (English Avenue, No. 18) only in the second half of 1892. The surname of hussar Volkov is mentioned only once in “Memoirs”: “A comrade in the Heir’s regiment was hussar Evgeny Volkov, whom I knew well. He was supposed to accompany the Heir on a trip around the world.”

Let us turn to the “nights” of the ballerina with the Heir. In "Memories" there is only one mention of a night together. Let us quote it in full, because it gives an understanding of the actual relationship between the Tsesarevich and Kshesinskaya:

One evening, when the Heir stayed (!) with me almost until the morning, he told me that he was going abroad to meet with Princess Alice of Hesse, with whom they wanted to marry him. Often the Heir brought with him his diaries, which he kept from day to day, and read to me those places where he wrote about his experiences, about his feelings that he had for Princess Alice. He considered her (Alice) the most suitable and that he was attracted to her more and more, that she would be his chosen one, if parental permission followed.

The foregoing confirms the existence between Matilda and Nikolai Alexandrovich of an exclusively spiritual closeness. Being a man of honor, the Tsarevich could not cross the line of this intimacy with the understanding of the impossibility of marriage with a ballerina, being the heir to the throne. This circumstance is confirmed by Kshesinskaya: “The sense of duty and dignity was extremely highly developed in him (in the Tsarevich”). From here love story ballerinas and the Heir with dressing up are an absolute fiction.

By the way, the article in “Arguments and Facts” was preceded a year earlier by the documentary “Matilda Kshesinskaya. Mysteries of life." In it, the wild imagination of Elizaveta Gorobets - the author of the film's script - played out much more coolly, especially in the description of Matilda's first date with Nikolai Alexandrovich. According to the film, it happened after Kshesinskaya’s final exam at the Imperial Theater School in March 1890. Then, as you know, Alexander III liked the ballerina’s examination performance, and he seated Matilda at the table next to himself and the heir to the throne.

By the way, the episode with the Peacemaker Tsar is the only one in the documentary where its creators hardly lie. Almost: for Alexander Alexandrovich’s playful, smiling address to the young Kshesinskaya: “Look, just don’t flirt too much,” they disgustingly turned into a threat from the Emperor to a seventeen-year-old girl.

Next, the audience is openly told to mislead. It turns out that after a short conversation at the table, the lover Nikolai Alexandrovich began to shower Kshesinskaya with precious gifts. “Matilda told her friends at school how beautifully the heir to the throne was courting her. Some of the girls were jealous, others laughed at her boasting. “I bet,” exclaimed Matilda, “Nicholas will be at my feet.”

In the film, the presenter talks about the first personal meeting of Matilda Kshesinskaya with the Tsarevich as if he were nearby. Kshesinskaya returns from the stage to the dressing room and “suddenly someone’s hand grabbed her ankle. The ballerina was speechless and could not even call for help. Matilda did not know what to expect from the impudent admirer and watched in horror as he clumsily climbed out from under the table. The stranger took off his wig and glasses, and Kshesinskaya realized that there was no reason to panic. Before her was the heir to the throne.” After which a whirlwind romance ensues and Nikolai Alexandrovich loses his head from love for Matilda. Alexander III, angry with his son, reproaches him: “It’s a shame to forget about the power because of a woman,” and sends the Heir to Japan on a cruiser.

What is described is a spreading “cranberry”. The Tsarevich did not shower Matilda with diamonds and pearls, there were no love affairs, a wig with an ankle being grabbed under the table and vows in front of the young ballerina’s friends. The Emperor did not send the Heir to Japan because he “forgot about the power.”

To confirm this, let us refer to Kshesinskaya’s “Memoirs”. In them she talks about her meetings with the future emperor after the final exam - before he left Russia. In fact, Matilda saw Nikolai Alexandrovich only a few times in in public places. Let us quote the ballerina about her contacts with the Tsarevich, arranging them in chronological order, as in “Memoirs”:

Two days later (after the exam), I was walking with my sister along Bolshaya Morskaya, when suddenly the Heir drove by. He recognized me, turned around and looked after me for a long time.

Another time, I walked along Nevsky Prospect past the Anichkov Palace, where Emperor Alexander the Third lived at that time, and saw the Heir standing with his sister. Again an unexpected joyful meeting. There were random encounters with the Heir on the streets several more times.

My dreams have come true. Not only on the first day, but at all performances, the Heir came to the stage and talked to me. Since the school performance, I dreamed of seeing him again, even from afar, and now that I could even talk to him, I was infinitely happy.

This summer I was once in Peterhof with Marusya Poiret and spent the whole day hoping to meet the Heir on a walk, but this did not happen. The sad day of the Heir's departure on a trip around the world has arrived.

That's all it was! Let's add to the above: meetings (ordinary, not love) between Nikolai Alexandrovich and Matilda Kshesinskaya practically ceased after the Tsesarevich's accession to the Throne and his marriage to Alexandra Fedorovna in 1894. Of course, Kshesinskaya loved the Emperor. However, we repeat, it was love that did not develop into something more than a spiritual connection between young people.

But if in the documentary there were at least some minor genuine details from the life of the ballerina, then in “Matilda” by Alexei Uchitel there is not even the slightest hint of historical reality, replaced by primitive vulgarity.

Let's start with the fact that the Tsarevich appears on the screen in the form of an overweight man of about fifty with a beard and the puffy face of a man who clearly abuses alcohol. For some reason he was dressed in a blue general's uniform with epaulettes, like the one worn by the chief of the gendarme corps, Alexander Benckendorff. Meanwhile, Nikolai Alexandrovich in 1890 (we are talking about this date) was only twenty-two years old. The young Heir did not yet wear a beard and was in the rank of guards captain.

There is a parody scene in the film when the heir to the throne is shown on top of ordinary scaffolding in a blaze of lights. Yes, ordinary primitive scaffolding, the kind you probably rented from a construction company. Banners of national white-blue-red flags are hung on the scaffolding Russian Federation instead of imperial ones: black-yellow-white. Below, to Matilda Kshesinskaya standing under the scaffolding, Alexander III is being brought in a wheelchair (!). From it, the Emperor addresses the ballerina: “Take care of him (the Tsarevich).”

Opinions of historians: The script of “Matilda” is a fiction of the worst taste

Moscow, September 25. The script of the film "Matilda", submitted several months ago for review to two famous Russian historians - the president Faculty of History Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, professor, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.P. Karpov and scientific supervisor State Archive of the Russian Federation, Head of the Department of History Russia XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, Faculty of History, Moscow State University, to Professor S.V. Mironenko was subjected to severe criticism from them.

“The script for the film Matilda has nothing to do with historical events, about which it is narrated, except that only the names of the characters correspond to reality, and the heir-Tsarevich had an affair with Matilda Kshesinskaya. The rest is a complete fabrication of the worst taste,” says the summary of the conclusion of S.P. Karpov and S.V. Mironenko.

“The very first scene evokes a smile and great bewilderment. Matilda Kshesinskaya did not run up to the choir of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin during the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II, did not shout: “Nicky, Niky!”, and the emperor himself did not faint. All this is an invention of the scriptwriters, recalling the lines from the famous novel by Ilf and Petrov: “The Countess runs across the pond with a changed face.” Only in Ilf and Petrov it is grotesque and irony, and in the script there is the harsh “truth” of the heroes’ lives, as it appears to the author,” the Moscow State University professors continue.

According to historians, the film's script is filled with inventions of the worst taste, which have nothing to do with real events, much less to the feelings of the heroes.

“What a scene it is when Nicholas’s father, Emperor Alexander III, chooses a mistress for his son from among the ballerinas of the Mariinsky Theater. Do I need to explain that such vulgarity could only be born in the head of a person who had no idea about the real relationships in the royal family, and even in the court environment,” note S.P. Karpov and S.V. Mironenko.

Historians recalled that although Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna were not sinless people, in their lives and relationships there was no place for vulgarity, which is in the film script.

“There were different situations in their lives, and their activities are assessed differently by historians. There was only one thing missing - vulgarity and dirt. Namely, the author of the script passes off vulgarity and dirt of the lowest level as historical truth,” the MSU professors emphasize in their conclusion.

Commentary by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk in connection with the aggravation of public debate on the film “Matilda”

Moscow, September 14. The situation surrounding the film "Matilda", unfortunately, is reminiscent of the one that unfolded some time ago around the scandalous French weekly "Charlie Hebdo". Then they tried to put us all in a dilemma: are you with “Charlie” or are you with the terrorists who shot the editorial staff? Now they are trying to put us before a choice: either you support Matilda, or you are with those who call for burning cinemas.

But what about those who are not with some and not with others? For example, I unconditionally and categorically oppose any calls for violence, any threats against anyone, be it the director, actors, distributors, etc. I also oppose the ban on showing the film, and the revival of Soviet-style censorship. But at the same time, I just can’t and don’t want to take the side of those who defend this film.

Unlike most participants in the debate, I watched this film. Nowadays they say: if you haven’t seen it, keep quiet and wait until the film is released. And those who speak out against the film based on the trailer are accused of criticizing without having seen it. I expressed my opinion about the film not on the basis of the trailer, but on the basis of watching it full version. My opinion offended the director who invited me to the preview, but I could not bend my conscience. And I couldn’t keep silent either.

The discussion around the film involves the most different people and groups of people. But today there are thousands of letters expressing outrage. Many people do not understand why it was necessary, in the year of the centenary of the revolution, to once again publicly spit on a man who was shot along with his family and minor children. The anniversary of the revolution is an occasion for prayer and remembrance of the innocent victims, and not for continuing to spit on their memory.

Not to mention the fact that for the Church, Emperor Nicholas II is a passion-bearer, canonized. And the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, presented in the film as a hysterical witch, is also canonized. On Royal days At least one hundred thousand people gather in Yekaterinburg, who for five hours at night go in procession from the place of his execution to the place of his supposed burial.

I express the hope that in the year of the centenary of the tragic events that resulted in millions of victims for our people, there will be directors, writers and artists who will be able to pay tribute to the memory of the murdered Sovereign.

V.R. Legoyda: Orthodox believers cannot endanger people's lives and health

Moscow, September 11. Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and the Media V.R. Legoida said that acts of violence associated with the film "Matilda" cannot come from religious people.

"Not only Orthodox Christian, but it would not even occur to any believer to express his disagreement with anything in a way that is dangerous to the life and health of innocent people,” said a representative of the Church.

“Whether it’s a cinema or cars in Moscow, all this speaks of spiritual or mental ill-health,” he added.

“The position of the Orthodox community, people who pray in connection with the release of the film “Matilda” or send appeals to those on whom the decision on distribution depends, and acts of demonstrative violence are phenomena from different moral galaxies,” emphasized V.R. Legoida.

“We have condemned, condemn and will condemn the actions of pseudo-religious radicals, no matter what religion they hide behind, because such actions are equally alien to the worldview of any believer,” concluded the chairman of the Department for Relations between the Church and Society and the Media.

A.V. Shchipkov: When expanding the boundaries of creative freedom, it is important not to step on what is sacred for others

Moscow, September 8. Speaking on the television show “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, First Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and the Media, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Political Sciences A.V. Shchipkov noted that the absence of boundaries for freedom of creativity inevitably leads to trampling on the feelings of other people.

“We constantly discuss the boundaries of freedom. But it would be more correct to discuss another problem - the problem of the lack of borders. When we begin to discuss the absence of boundaries, our vision expands, we begin to say that the boundaries of what is permitted in art are endless, that it is impossible to draw boundaries,” said A.V. Shchipkov.

“If the boundaries in creativity and in art are endless, then they inevitably step on things that are sacred to other people,” he added.

The First Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations of the Church with Society and the Media recalled that although the film “Matilda” does not pose a direct physical threat, its release on screens will cause a painful reaction from those who revere Tsar Nicholas II.

“Here, of course, we are talking about a film that, in principle, cannot kill or injure anyone. But in fact it can, because we are talking about a person to whom a huge number of citizens of our country have a special relationship. When a creator, an artist begins to expand his boundaries of what is permitted, he steps on what is sacred for others,” concluded A.V. Shchipkov.

Alexey Kulegin

Head of the editorial and publishing department State Museum political history of Russia, candidate of historical sciences, author of the research “The Case of the Mansion. How the Bolsheviks “densified” Matilda Kshesinskaya” and “Diva for the Emperor. Nicholas II and Matilda Kshesinskaya" and the exhibition "Matilda Kshesinskaya: Fouette of Fate", which has been running at the Museum of Political History of Russia since 2015.

Family

Matilda Kshesinskaya came from a theatrical family. Her father Felix Janovich (in Russian transcription - Ivanovich) was a famous ballet dancer who performed at the Warsaw Opera. They even went on stage together: there is a photograph of them dancing the mazurka in the opera “A Life for the Tsar.” Felix Yanovich lived a very long life and died due to an accident: during

Felix Kshesinsky with his wife Julia

During one of the rehearsals, he accidentally fell into an open hatch, and, apparently, severe fright and injury brought his death closer. Kshesinskaya's mother Yulia Dominskaya was also an artist. Almost all of her children went to ballet: Matilda’s older sister Julia did not become such a famous ballerina, but her brother Joseph received the title of Honored Artist, which he retained in Soviet time.

Meeting the Imperial Family

In 1890, Matilda very successfully graduated from the Imperial Theater School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. - Note A.K.) in 17 years. Prom and became a turning point in the fate of Kshesinskaya - there she met with the heir, the Tsarevich.

Nicholas II

According to tradition, the royal family was almost in full force present at this event. Ballet was considered a privileged art - as it was later, in Soviet times. The powers that be showed interest in him in every sense - often they were interested not only in the performances, but also in the ballerinas themselves, with whom the princes and grand dukes had many affairs.

So, on March 23, 1890, after exams, the royal family arrived at the school. After a short ballet fragment, in which Kshesinskaya also participated (she danced the pas de deux from “A Vain Precaution”), there followed a dinner with the students. According to Matilda, Alexander III wanted to meet her and asked where Kshesinskaya was. She was introduced, although usually in the foreground there should have been another girl - the best student in the graduating class. Then Alexander allegedly uttered the famous words that predetermined future destiny Kshesinskaya: “Be the beauty and pride of Russian ballet!” Most likely, this is a myth invented later by Kshesinskaya herself: she loved to engage in self-PR and left behind a diary and memoirs that do not match in some details.

Matilda Kshesinskaya

The Emperor sat Kshesinskaya together with Nicholas, who was four years older than Matilda, and said something like: “Just don’t flirt too much.” It’s interesting that Kshesinskaya initially perceived that historical dinner as a boring, routine thing. She didn’t care at all what great princes would be there, who would be nearby. However, they quickly had a casual conversation with Nikolai. Even when they parted, it was clear that this meeting was not accidental. Returning to Anichkov Palace, Nikolai left the following entry in his diary: “We went to a performance at the Theater School. Were small plays and ballet. I had a very good dinner with my pupils” - nothing more. However, he, of course, remembered his acquaintance with Kshesinskaya. Two years later, Nikolai will write: “At 8 o’clock. went to the Theater School, where I saw a good performance of drama classes and ballet. At dinner I sat with the pupils, as before, only little Kshesinskaya is sorely missing.”

Novel

Kshesinskaya was enrolled in the troupe of the Imperial Theaters, but at first she, a young debutante, was not given large roles. In the summer of 1890 she performed at the wooden Krasnoselsky Theater. It was built for the entertainment of guards officers, among whom were all the great princes, including Nicholas. Backstage, she and Matilda once met and exchanged short phrases; Nikolai wrote in his diary: “I really like Kshesinskaya 2” Kshesinskaya First, in turn, was called Matilda’s sister Julia. They almost never saw each other alone. All in all, an innocent, sweet situation.

Then a famous event occurred - the heir’s round-the-world voyage on the cruiser “Memory of Azov”. Kshesinskaya was very worried that Nikolai would forget her. But this did not happen, although the journey lasted more than a year. Upon their return, the young people met at the theater, and in March 1892 their first private date took place. This is stated in the memoirs, although in fact Nikolai came to her parents’ apartment, and the three of them were in the room with her sister Kshesinskaya.

The first - in French - edition of Matilda Kshesinskaya's memoirs was published in Paris in 1960

You can learn how it was from Matilda’s diary. In the evening, Kshesinskaya felt unwell; the maid came into the room and announced that their acquaintance, the hussar Volkov, had arrived. Kshesinskaya ordered to ask - it turned out it was Nikolai. They spent more than two hours together, drinking tea, talking, looking at photos; Nikolai even chose a card, then said that he would like to write to her, received permission to write back letters, and subsequently asked Kshesinskaya to contact him on a first-name basis.

The climax of their relationship came in the winter of 1892–1893. Most likely, Nikolai and Matilda became lovers. The diary of Nikolai, a very closed and reserved person, is replete with descriptions of meetings: “I went to M.K., where I had dinner as usual and had a great time,” “I went to M.K., spent a wonderful three hours with her,” “I just left at 12 ½ straight to M.K. Stayed a very long time and had an extremely good time.” Kshesinskaya kept a very ladylike diary, where she described her experiences, feelings, and tears. Nikolai has no liberties. However, this is how he writes about the winter events: “January 25, 1893. Monday. In the evening I flew to my M.K. and spent the best evening with her so far. I am impressed by her - the pen is shaking in my hand.” Even in the description of much more formidable events, such strong emotions on Nikolai’s part are practically invisible. "January 27, 1893. At 12 o'clock went to M.K., who had until 4 hours left. (meaning, until four o'clock in the morning. - Note ed.). We had a good chat, and laughed, and messed around.” Later, they decided that Kshesinskaya should live separately: meeting with her parents was too inconvenient - especially since the girls’ small bedroom was adjacent to her father’s office. With the support of Nikolai, Kshesinskaya rented a house at 18 Anglisky Prospekt - from now on they saw each other there.

Kshesinskaya first asked permission from her father. Then move unmarried girl from parents was considered indecent, and Felix Yanovich hesitated for a long time. As a result, they talked: her father explained to her that this relationship was futile, the novel had no future. Kshesinskaya replied that she understood all this, but she was madly in love with Niki and wanted to remain at least somewhat happy. The following decision was made - the father allowed the move, but only with his older sister.

Nikolai Romanov began keeping a diary in 1882. The last entry was made 9 days before the execution - June 30, 1918

They started living in a house with very interesting story. Its most famous owner was the uncle of Emperor Alexander III, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich . In addition to the fact that he was a great liberal (and Alexander III could not stand him for this), Constantine was de facto a bigamist: he left his legal wife and lived there with a ballerina Anna Kuznetsova .

They usually say that the move took place in winter. Matilda is not in the diary exact date, but Nikolai has it. He wrote: “February 20 (1893). I didn’t go to the theater, but I went to M.K. and the four of us had a great housewarming dinner. They moved to a new home, a cozy two-story mansion house. The rooms are decorated very well and simply, but some things still need to be added. It is very nice to have a separate household and be independent. We sat again until four o’clock.” The fourth guest is Baron Alexander Zeddeler, a colonel whom Julia later married. Kshesinskaya described in detail how she was engaged in landscaping: she generally enjoyed doing construction work.

Gap

This was the climax of the novel and at the same time the beginning of the end. The prospect of a marriage with Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, the future Alexandra Feodorovna, became more and more clear. Nikolai wrote quite interestingly in his diary: “A very strange phenomenon that I notice in myself: I never thought that two identical feelings, two loves, simultaneously combined in my soul. Now it’s been four years that I love Alix G. and constantly cherish the thought that if God allows me to marry her someday...” The problem was that his parents did not really approve of this choice. They had other plans - Maria Fedorovna, say, was counting on a marriage with a French princess; I looked at other options as well.

Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt - future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

Nikolai came to Alice several times, but it was not possible to woo him - which Kshesinskaya was very happy about. She wrote: I was again glad that nothing had happened, that Niki had returned to me, that he was so happy. Was he really that happy or not? big question. Alice did not want to convert to Orthodoxy. This was an important condition for a dynastic marriage. Her sister Ella (Elizaveta Fedorovna) In 1918, the Bolsheviks threw her, along with other members of the imperial family, into a mine near Alapaevsk. In 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Elizaveta Feodorovna as a saint., who became the wife of the Moscow governor Sergei Alexandrovich He was killed in 1905 by revolutionary Ivan Kalyaev, also did not immediately agree to this. Alice hesitated for a long time, and only in the spring of 1894 the engagement took place. Even before this, Nikolai broke off relations with Kshesinskaya.

Matilda describes in great detail their last meeting - near some sheds on the Volkhonskoye Highway. She came from the city in a carriage, he arrived on horseback from the guards camps. According to her version, Nikolai said that their love would forever remain the brightest moment of his youth, and allowed her to continue to contact him as you, promised to respond to any of her requests. Kshesinskaya was very worried - this is described in her memoirs and a little in her diaries, but after parting with Nikolai, the diaries ended. She probably abandoned them in frustration. At least, we know nothing about the existence of other similar records.

According to the memoirs of the emperor's valet, Nicholas drank a glass of milk every evening and meticulously wrote down everything that happened to him that day. At some point he simply stopped mentioning Matilda. At the beginning of 1893, Nikolai wrote something almost every day “about my Mala”, “about my M.K.” or about “flying to little M.” Then the mentions became less and less, and by 1894 they disappeared completely. But you need to take into account the nuances - his diaries could be read by strangers, parents, valet.

Attitude to the novel in the imperial family and in society

There are several versions about what the royal family thought about Nicholas’s affair with Matilda. It is believed that their first meeting was a well-prepared impromptu. Allegedly Alexander III started worry that the heir has become lethargic, inert, that he already seems to be a grown-up young man, but there are still no novels. On the advice of Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Nikolai’s teacher and chief ideologist Russian Empire- Alexander decided to find him a girl - ballerinas were undoubtedly suitable in this capacity. In particular, Matilda - she had a slightly dubious, but still nobility, was young, not spoiled by high-profile novels, and perhaps even remained a virgin.

Judging by Matilda's diary, Nikolai hinted at intimacy, but could not make up his mind. Their romance was platonic for at least two years, which Nikolai emphasizes. According to Matilda, during a meeting in early January 1893, a decisive explanation takes place between them on an intimate topic, from which Kshesinskaya understands that Nikolai is afraid to be her first. Nevertheless, Matilda managed to somehow overcome this embarrassment. No one held a candle: there were no documents strictly confirming the erotic connection. Personally, I am sure that there was an intimate relationship between Nikolai and Matilda. Agree, “the pen trembles in the hand” was written for a reason - especially by the heir to the throne, whose choice is actually practically unlimited. No one doubts the romance itself - platonic or not. However, the historian Alexander Bokhanov Author of many books about Russian emperors - from Paul I to Nicholas II - and a textbook on the history of Russia in the 19th century. Monarchist believes that there was no intimate relationship, otherwise Matilda would have tried to give birth to a child from Nikolai. Of course, there was no child, this is a myth. Well, in 1894 the romance definitely stopped. You can consider Nikolai useless statesman, but he was faithful to his family: his father’s nature, and not his grandfather’s, who had a lot of novels.

Alexander III with his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna

Maria Feodorovna knew for sure about Nikolai’s affair. One of the ladies-in-waiting told her about this - before that, the empress complained that her son often did not spend the night at home. The lovers tried to disguise their meetings in a rather funny way. For example, Nikolai said that he was going to Grand Duke Alexei Alekseevich. The fact is that the mansion on English Avenue adjoined his house with a garden: the route was the same, the address was different. Or he said that he was going somewhere and stopped there after Matilda. There are known rumors about an affair, recorded by the owner of a high-society salon, Alexandra Viktorovna Bogdanovich. Her diary was published several times: she kept it from the 1870s until 1912. In the evening, after receiving guests, Bogdanovich carefully wrote down all the new gossip in her notebook. Also preserved are essays by the ballet figure Denis Leshkov. He writes that rumors reached the highest parents. Mom got angry and instructed one of her outhouse adjutants to go to Felix Yanovich (Matilda was still living with her family at that time) to forbid him, under any plausible pretext, to receive the crown prince at home. Felix Janovich found himself in a very difficult situation. A solution was found in the spirit of Dumas’s novels, writes Leshkov: the young people saw each other in a carriage standing in a secluded alley.

Kshesinskaya moved to the famous mansion on Kuibysheva Street in the winter of 1906. By that time, she, the prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater, already had a son, Vladimir, and she herself was in a relationship with two other grand dukes - Sergei Mikhailovich Before the revolution, he was considered the father of Vladimir - therefore, since 1911, the child bore the patronymic “Sergeevich” And Andrey Vladimirovich He married Matilda Kshesinskaya in 1921 and adopted Vladimir - he changed his middle name to “Andreevich”. By that time they were living in France. Nikolai gave her a house on English Avenue, and we even know how much it cost - approximately 150 thousand rubles. Judging by the documents that I found, Kshesinskaya tried to sell it, and this figure is indicated there. It is not known how much Nikolai regularly spent on his novel. Kshesinskaya herself wrote that his gifts were good, but not large.

Of course, the newspapers did not mention the novel - there were no independent media at that time. But for the high society of St. Petersburg, the connection with Kshesinskaya was not a secret: not only Bogdanovich mentions her, but also, for example, Alexey Suvorin, Chekhov’s friend and publisher of Novoye Vremya - and unambiguously and in rather indecent expressions. In my opinion, Bogdanovich indicates that after the breakup, different options were discussed on what to do with Kshesinskaya. Mayor Victor von Wahl suggested either giving her money and sending her somewhere, or simply expelling her from St. Petersburg.

After 1905, an opposition press appeared in the country with materials of a very different level. Well, the real squall begins in 1917. For example, in the March issue of “New Satyricon” the cartoon “Victim of the New System” was published. It depicts a reclining Kshesinskaya, who reasons: “My close relationship with the old government was easy for me - it consisted of one person. But what will I do now, when the new government - the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies - consists of two thousand people?

Matilda Kshesinskaya died on December 6, 1971 in Paris at the age of 99. In exile, she bore the title of Most Serene Princess, which was assigned to her by Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who in 1924 proclaimed himself Emperor of All Russia.