Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov and Fanny Lir. Film Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov
When the resort city is melting from the heat, Samara residents, tired of the sun, seek salvation on the banks of the Volga. Few people know that just at that time, back in 1879, several residents of our city set off from hot Samara to conquer the Central Asian expanses. This journey went down in history as the Samara scientific expedition.
The Samara local historian tells about the mysterious leader of this campaign, who by the will of fate ended up in our city, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov Igor Makhtev.
In 1878, the great-grandson of the All-Russian Emperor Nicholas I was born in Samara. Capital newspapers did not write about this, and the local press preferred to remain silent. There were good reasons for this. But still main character of our story is not a baby of royal blood born in Samara, but his father, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov.
In her memoirs, Countess Maria Eduardovna Kleinmikhel, a well-known representative of the "high society", the hostess of a political salon in St. Petersburg, writes about Nikolai Konstantinovich: "... the future historian will sooner give him a place in the realm of legends than in history." How right the old countess was, comparing the Grand Duke with mysterious personalities Russian history, such as Cagliostro, Princess Tarakanova, False Dmitry. There are conflicting opinions about this Grand Duke. Some consider him a victim of their liberal ideas, others attribute the most terrible crimes to him, others consider him a philanthropist and scientist.
Nikola is a favorite of the court
Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov was born on February 2, 1850. The eldest son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and his wife Alexandra Iosifovna, born Princess of Saxe-Altenburg, he was the favorite of the family and his crowned uncle Alexander II.
Nicola, as he was called in the family, was destined for a wonderful career and a brilliant future. Heir to the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg and the estate in Pavlovsky. A recognized handsome and clever man, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich was the first of the Romanovs to receive higher education, graduated from the Academy General Staff With silver medal. When Nicholas was 20 years old, his mother tried to arrange his marriage with the lovely Princess Frederica of Hanover, but she was in love with her father's adjutant, Baron Paul von Ramingen, whom she later married. Rejected by the princess, the Grand Duke, as the metropolitan society said, went into all serious trouble.
Cherchezlafemme
In the late autumn of 1871, the American Fanny Lear arrived from Paris in St. Petersburg. The real name of the American dancer and actress, but simply cocottes and adventurers Harriet Blackford. She was born in America in the family of a priest, in her youth she ran away from home to Europe, where she led the life of a demi-monde lady. Fanny met the Grand Duke at a masquerade ball at the Grand Opera. A stormy romance began between Nikola and Fanny.
“I swear by everything that is for me the most sacred in the world, never anywhere and with no one to speak or see without the permission of my august sovereign. I undertake faithfully, as a noble American woman, to keep this oath and declare myself, body and soul, the servant of the Russian Grand Duke. Fanny Lear.
Such a half-joking receipt was taken by the Grand Duke from Fanny Lirv on the very first night of their acquaintance. Since then, Nikolai Konstantinovich, in letters to Fanny, called her nothing more than "my little wife."
The romance of Nikolai and Fanny discussed the entire metropolitan world. They swore and put up, traveled around Europe and even tried to get married in secret. The Grand Duke spent a lot of money on his "wife". Rumors about the unworthy behavior of his beloved nephew reached Alexander II.
Fanny Lear and her book about the Grand Duke
wedge wedge
What can distract a man from love experiences? Only war. In February 1873, the captain of the General Staff, Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, was sent to Turkestan. By the 70s of the 19th century, the Khiva Khanate remained the last independent state in Central Asia. The Khiva campaign of 1873 was the most difficult of all the Turkestan campaigns of the Russian army. Nikolai Konstantinovich, as befits a Russian officer, shared the hardships of camp life with his associates, participated in skirmishes with the enemy, and rightfully deserved the golden saber handed to him on behalf of Emperor Alexander II, as well as the rank of colonel.
In the Khiva campaign, the Grand Duke met Colonel-Engineer Dmitry Ivanovich Romanov, who was seconded to the Turkestan detachment. A writer, a traveler, a passionate person, he "infected" the Grand Duke with the study of Central Asia. Nikolai Konstantinovich begins to keep travel notes about everything that may be of interest in military, scientific and industrial relations. Thus was born the enduring passion of the Grand Duke of Central Asia, the study and conquest of which he devoted his whole life.
Military camp life did not pass without a trace for the health of the Grand Duke. Nikolai Konstantinovich fell ill with a severe form of fever, but all the difficulties and hardships of the campaign did not cure him of love fever. At every opportunity he wrote to Fanny Lear. And in his letters there were not only stories about military victories.
“... I was looking for a friend among all the women of St. Petersburg, and only when I met on my way the beautiful, witty and, most importantly, the blonde Fanny Lear who cherished me, I said to myself: “It has happened, my home has been found ...” ... I am so afraid of losing you that get crazy"…
May 28 Khiva was taken. The Grand Duke is expected in St. Petersburg, but he writes a letter to Fanny Lear, in which he makes an appointment in Samara.
Khiva campaign in 1873. The transition of the Turkestan detachment through the dead sands to the wells of Adam-Krylgan Artist: Karazin Nikolai Nikolaevich
First visit to Samara
On June 26, Fanny Lear left Paris and on the 30th was already in Moscow. Having left with the evening train, Fanny was soon descending the Volga on a modest steamer. “I will never forget this wide and deserted river with its sandy banks, where there is nothing to stop the eye. Only from Simbirsk, steep mountains and verdant hills protrude from both sides of the river.. Fanny spent ten days in Kazan, waiting for a telegram from the Grand Duke. Having lost her patience, she decided to go to St. Petersburg.
In the Samara Provincial News, meanwhile, they wrote: “On July 5, at 9.30 pm, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, on his way back from Khiva, deigned to arrive in the city of Samara and stay at the house of the nobility.” "... His Imperial Highness deigned to express his desire to stay the next day in the city of Samara in order to rest after a long and tiring journey from Khiva almost without stopping."
As soon as Fanny arrived in Petersburg, she received a dispatch announcing that the Grand Duke was in Orsk and that she must leave immediately. She immediately set off on her return journey, this time immediately to Samara, where the Grand Duke's servant handed her a letter: “Samara, July 6, 1873. Finally, after a five-month separation, I will see you. I do not believe my luck, but I have your letters in my hands, convincing me that these are not dreams. It seemed to me that I was buried and it was all over, and now I am returning to life ... You were right: I became more human, and you, of course, more woman than before. Even if the Khiva expedition did not separate us, then all other means will be powerless ... A few more minutes, and I will crush you in my arms.
"Samara provincial news": “The next day, after His arrival in the city of Samara, precisely on July 6, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, before tea, deigned to take a walk around the city and visited the staff officers who accompanied Him, who fit especially in the Annaev hotel”.
But we know who Nikola was in a hurry to see.
From the memoirs of Fanny Lear: “I took a carriage and went to the indicated hotel, where I found myself between two of his friends. The hotel servant entered, locked the door, and took the key with him. Left alone, in indescribable excitement, I ran from corner to corner, straightened my hair, pulled off my sash (he liked thin waists), looked in the mirror. My heart was beating like a hammer; I wanted to cry and laugh.
Suddenly, a mad "hurrah" was heard in the street. Running to the window, I saw a loved one walking with long strides and surrounded by a crowd of people kissing his hands and even feet. I heard him enter the hotel, go to the next room and go out onto the balcony to say a few words to the people from there.
Finally, he freed himself, knocked softly on my door and said, as if we had parted only yesterday:
- Fanny Lear, let me in.
- Yes, I can not, the servant locked the door and took the key with him. Soon the desired key clicked and he entered.
Instead of throwing myself into his arms, I, I don't know why, ran away from him and hid behind the drapery. He found me there, took my hands and glared at me with greedy eyes, in which there were tears ...
For a long time I could not say a word; the excitement of happiness was breathtaking. He was very tanned and thin, but he was perfectly healthy. Our date was short, because he had to go to a dinner given by representatives of the city, and after that to a review of firefighters ...
His father urged him to leave for St. Petersburg, and the next day we left for Saratov on the Alexander II steamer, built according to the American model. No matter how hard we tried to be unnoticed, he did not find the desired peace anywhere. Whatever the stop, then new deputations, triumphal arches, banners, drumming, bread and salt. He thanked and the crowd cheered.
Not so often Samara was visited by Imperial Highnesses and Majesties, and therefore we will give a “guest route” of the 1873 model. So, after meeting with Fanny, the Grand Duke hurried to the cathedral, where he was met by the clergy. After inspecting part of the city and the newly built cathedral, I had breakfast in my apartment in the noble assembly with a large confluence officials. “The time before lunch was devoted to exploring the city. His Highness deigned to inspect the city's Strukovsky Garden, the fire brigade, which was called, on alarm, to Alekseevskaya Square, and finally, the fish garden of the local fish merchant Myasnikov... save the tsar”, and then deigned to inspect the koumiss medical institution doc. Postnikov and Mr. Annaev, where His Highness graciously accepted the tea offered to him by the city society, and returned to the city at 10 pm.
Scandal in a noble family
On July 11, 1873, the Grand Duke and Fanny arrive in St. Petersburg and leave for Vienna three days later. Upon his return to St. Petersburg, the prince is engaged in organizing his house and preparing for scientific expedition in the Amur Darya river basin. The parents of Nikolai Konstantinovich still hoped to "save" their son from the insidious Fanny Lear. If the military campaign did not help, marriage will help. The housing problem, which spoiled ordinary people, of course, was not so acute in the royal family, but according to tradition, the grand dukes had to bring their wives to their own palace. For these purposes, Nikolai Konstantinovich acquired the mansion of Count Kushelev-Bezborodko on Gagarinskaya Street. Often this mansion is called the Second or Small Marble Palace.
The Grand Duke was delighted with his acquisition. He spent a lot of money on the arrangement of the palace. He wanted to have paintings by Greuze, Rubens, Wouwerman and was in a great hurry. However, the first who saw the splendor of the palace was Fanny Lear, to whom he handed a silver key to one small door.
The Grand Duke is mired in debt. The grand ducal content was not enough to equip a new home and satisfy the needs of an American woman accustomed to luxury.
In April 1874, jewels were stolen from the bedroom of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna in the Marble Palace - three large diamonds from the icon given by Nicholas I to his daughter-in-law. The Grand Duchess, beside herself, instructed the chief of the gendarmes, Count P. A. Shuvalov, to find the impudent kidnapper at all costs. The police indeed found several times resold diamonds, and without difficulty traced their circulation from hand to hand to the most unfortunate young man. The scandal was huge. The diamonds were pawned in a pawnshop by Captain Varnakhovsky, allegedly on the orders of Nikolai Konstantinovich.
Konstantin Nikolayevich was given the right to decide whether to give the case a further move or to stop its proceedings. Konstantin Nikolayevich talked with his son whether the work that had been started should be continued, and Nikolai Konstantinovich insisted on conducting a further and, moreover, the most rigorous and public investigation. Nikolai Konstantinovich, despite irrefutable evidence, did not change his testimony. On the same day, April 15, Fanny Lear was arrested and, by order of Shuvalov, a search was carried out at her place.
Alexander II signed a decree, which outlined the official version of the scandal: "signs of mental illness, mental disorder." Guardianship was established over the Grand Duke "in the person of his august parents."
For many years, the Grand Duke was expelled from the royal family, his name was forbidden to be mentioned in the official papers of the court, he was recognized as mentally ill and sent into exile, from which he never returned. Fanny Lear was expelled from Russia, she never saw the Grand Duke again. Captain Varnakhovsky shot himself, but who cares about the fate of these little people.
Tell me who your idol is and I will tell you who you are
In the first years after the establishment of guardianship, the residence of the Grand Duke changed several times. Persons specially assigned to him and a psychiatrist reported to his father about the state of health and lifestyle of Nikolai Konstantinovich.
In February 1878, Nikolai Konstantinovich was in Orenburg. And the scandal erupted again.
In the church of the village of Berda, the Grand Duke, under the name of the retired colonel Volynsky, married the daughter of the Orenburg police chief, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer. They were crowned by the priest Paradise, who later testified during interrogation: “On February 15, 1878, at seven in the evening, out of my ignorance of the Volyn province, the son of the landowner, retired colonel Nikolai Ivanovich Volynsky, was married to the daughter of the lieutenant colonel, the girl Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer. There was no one at the wedding, except for the Dreyer (as they called) nephew, who was their coachman.
The marriage was declared illegal. The priest of Paradise, due to the illegal actions he committed, was dismissed for the staff, reduced to the clerk forever, "with the prohibition of his priestly service, blessing and wearing a cassock." The Dreyer family was ordered to leave Orenburg.
Why did the Grand Duke call himself Volynsky? As Countess Kleinmichel recalls: “No one understood why he chose this name, but I remembered the times of our youth and Lazhechnikov's Ice House. Artemy Volynsky, persecuted by Biron, a statesman, was Nikolai's favorite hero.. In 1740, Volynsky was arrested on a false denunciation; under torture, he never admitted his guilt. He was accused of intending to become a sovereign in the event of the death of Anna Ivanovna. A verdict was handed down, according to which Volynsky was executed by being impaled alive with a preliminary cutting out of the tongue. But, the royal mercy is great, the empress softened the sentence. On June 28, 1740, in St. Petersburg, on the Sytny market, after cutting out the tongue, Volynsky was executed by cutting off his hand and head.
Another "pseudonym" of the Grand Duke is Iskander. So in Asia they called Alexander the Great, so Nikolai Konstantinovich called his estate near Tashkent, the surname Iskander would later be given to his two sons, Artemy and Alexander, born by Nadezhda Alexandrovna. The innocently executed hero and the conqueror of the World are two idols of the disgraced Grand Duke.
Samara. Second coming
On July 23, 1878, a confidential letter was received in the name of the Samara Governor Bilbasov, which stated: “The Sovereign Emperor has deigned to command the Highest: to move His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich from Orenburg to live in the city of Samara and entrust this execution to Colonel Count Rostovtsev.”
On September 6, 1878, a dispatch leaves Samara for Orenburg with a request to clarify when Nikolai Konstantinovich leaves for Samara. What was the answer : “The Grand Duke left Orenburg for the steppe to check to find the path of the projected railway, which has to be produced in Tashkent, from where, as they say, it will return at the end of September or at the beginning of October directly to Samara, where it will have its stay.
Following the disgraced husband, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Dreyer arrived in Samara.
Five years have passed since the first visit of the Grand Duke to Samara, the city met the royal guest in a completely different way. There were no enthusiastic shouts of "Hurrah", there were no streets decorated with flags and illuminated in the evenings, and the choir of orphans did not sing "God Save the Tsar". This visit never happened at all. Only the memories of the townspeople, and a couple of entries in the parish registers of Samara churches are all that remains in the history of Samara about the two-year stay of the Grand Duke and his court.
“An extraordinary exile kept himself modest and simple in a philistine town. One could often see his tall figure of the Anglo-Saxon type on the streets, in the summer - in a jacket and a two-peaked helmet of an Indian officer; in winter, on a skating rink in the Alexander Garden, skating in an arkhalukha made of camel cloth, among high school students.
So Alexander Alexandrovich Smirnov (Treplev) wrote about the Grand Duke in his essay “The Old Samara Theater and Life”. On the initiative of Nikolai Konstantinovich, a society of lovers of musical and dramatic arts was formed in Samara. The Grand Duke was the first representative of the board of the society.
As the famous Samara second-hand book dealer Pavel Petrovich Shibanov recalled, the Grand Duke and his retinue were accommodated in the Reutovsky apartment building. Tatyana Fedorovna Aleksushina in the book “The Samara Fates of the Russian Nobility” writes that this house has been preserved and is located at ul. Leningradskaya, 20. The building was rebuilt and built on many times, but elements of the original building are still preserved on the ground floor.
Grand Duke godfathers
Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer on December 19, 1878 gave birth to a son. So the great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I was born in our city. The baby was baptized on February 15, 1879 in the Ascension Cathedral. Entry in the register of births at number 21 : “The noblewoman Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Dreyer took up the baby with a note with the following content: “I ask you to take up the baby born on December 19, 1878 and christen him under the name Artemy and give the surname Volynsky”. Priest Archpriest Alexy Krotkov, Archdeacon Pavel Rumyantsev. The godparents of Artemy Volynsky were the Samara merchant Georgy Ivanovich Kurlin and the merchant's wife Vera Akimovna Kurlina. In the registers of births there is one more column “Assault on the record by witnesses at will”, two Samara merchants wished to leave their signatures in it: “The record is witnessed by Samara merchant Georgy Kurlin, Samara merchant Konstantin Kurlin”.
Reading this document raises more questions than answers. Why did Nadezhda Alexandrovna adopt her own son? Legally, her marriage to the Grand Duke was declared illegal, apparently, not wanting to spoil her son’s documents with a “shameful” entry in the metrics “illegitimate”, she passed him off as a foundling with a note. How did Archpriest Alexy Krotkov, an honest man, a clergyman with an impeccable reputation, go to this forgery? Did not know? Mindful of the unenviable fate of the priest Raisky, who married the Grand Duke in Orenburg, this is more than strange. Why did representatives of a well-known Samara merchant family become godparents of the Grand Duke's son? What connected the Kurlin family with the Grand Duke? By a strange coincidence, the first mention of the Kurlins dates back to 1873, in the same year Nikolai Konstantinovich arrived in Samara after the Khiva campaign. It should be noted that the Ural Cossacks took part in the Khiva campaign, from which the Kurlin brothers came, and in subsequent expeditions to Central Asia, the Ural Cossacks constantly accompanied the Grand Duke. Maybe it was not in vain that he chose Samara for his meeting with Fanny Lear, maybe he had his own people in our city who prepared this meeting?
Photos from the book by I.V. Kramareva "Merchants Kurlins: the history of the family in the history of Russia"
Disgraced Cerberus of the Disgraced Prince
In 1877, Count Nikolai Yakovlevich Rostovtsev was appointed chief administrator under the Grand Duke. His father, Yakov Ivanovich, was one of the developers of the manifesto on the liberation of the peasants in 1861. In 1856, Nikolai Yakovlevich was promoted to colonel and appointed adjutant wing of Emperor Alexander II. And on June 5, 1862, by decree of the emperor, Rostovtsev was removed from the court and dismissed because Nikolai Yakovlevich and his brother Mikhail went to England and met Herzen there.
After several years of oblivion, the disgraced count, at the request of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, was returned to society. Perhaps Konstantin Nikolayevich hoped that the count, who survived the exile, would understand his disgraced son better than anyone, but friendship between the two Nicholas did not work out.
Rostovtsev moved to Samara with the whole family. He was married to the artist Maria Vasilievna Bridgman, who in 1865 gave birth to twins Yakov and Alexandra, in 1869 to Mikhail, and in 1878 to Vera. Literally a few months after arriving in Samara, the Rostovtsev family suffered misfortune; on November 16, Vera died at the age of nine months. The cause of the baby's death is strange and ridiculous: "from teething." She was buried in the cemetery of the Iversky Monastery.
Together with the Rostovtsev family, the mother of Nikolai Yakovlevich Vera Nikolaevna also came to Samara. The daughter of the writer N. F. Emin, Vera Nikolaevna devoted her whole life to children and charity. Cavalier lady of the Order of St. Catherine, trustee of the Alexander-Mariinsky orphanage, she continued her charitable activities and in Samara.
Samara scientific expedition
Before moving to Samara, Nikolai Konstantinovich made three scientific trips to Central Asia: in the summer and autumn of 1877 and in the autumn of 1878, from which he returned to Samara. In November 1878, the Samara printing house of Sverbulov printed a brochure entitled “Study of the direction of the Central Asian railway between the Urals and the Syr-Darya”. In the spring of 1879, the brochure "Amu and Uzboy" was printed in the Samara provincial printing house with a circulation of 1200 copies. There is no name of the author on the pamphlets, and even information about who allowed to print was forbidden to be indicated.
The stay of the Grand Duke in Samara obviously brought him good luck. The birth of a son, the release of his scientific publications, and as a gift for the baptism of his son on February 16, a letter arrives in the name of the Samara governor from the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about permission “His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich to undertake this spring, accompanied by Count Rostvtsov and other persons, a trip to various steppe and other areas located in the Orenburg and Turkestan regions. Thus began preparations for the Grand Duke's largest Central Asian journey, which went down in history as the Samara Scientific Expedition.
Preparations for the Samara expedition to explore the direction of the Central Asian railway and study the Amudarya river basin dragged on, scheduled for spring, it began only in the last days of July, when all members of the expedition gathered for a common meeting. collection point, in Samarkand.
The artist and historiographer of the expedition N. N. Karazin describes the beginning of the journey as follows: “From Samarkand we split into two parts: one was to go to the Kara-Tyubi mountain gorge and then the Shor pass, to Shar, Kitab-Derbent, the other to Karshi, Guzar and also Derbent, where the connection of both detachments was supposed. The Samara artist Nikolay Evstafievich Simakov also took part in this expedition. The same Simakov who made a sketch of the Samara banner.
The journey was long and difficult. Sandstorms, waterless desert, crossing mountains and skirmishes with hostile Teke Turkmens.
The trophies of this expedition formed the basis of the exposition of the Samara Museum of Local Lore. On February 19, 1880, the museum, which then existed only on paper, received the first collection: “clothes and accessories of the Turkmens” (saddle, saber, trousers, shirt, boots, robe - 14 items in total). The first donor was Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich.
Pustynka — Tashkent
In November 1880, the Grand Duke was allowed to settle in the Pustynka estate in the St. Petersburg province, which was an undeniable relief. Having left our city, he did not lose contact with him, so the correspondence with the doctor N.V. Postnikov about the treatment and education of his son Artemy has been preserved.
In 1881, Alexander II died at the hands of terrorists. Nikolai Konstantinovich was not allowed to attend his uncle's funeral. And again the conflict, the refusal to swear allegiance to his cousin Alexander III, and a new exile. This time to Tashkent, where the disgraced prince lived with a short break until 1918.
Many books and articles have been written about the life of the Grand Duke in Tashkent. What was not in the Tashkent life of the great exile, the flooding of the Hungry Steppe and the construction of Russian settlements in Turkestan, the improvement of Tashkent and his love affairs, both good and bad. All these years Nadezhda Alexandrovna was with him. Their son Alexander was born in Tashkent. And even the marriage of the prince to Daria Chasovitinova, the daughter of a Cossack, did not separate them. Nikolai Konstantinovich could freely appear in society at the same time as his two wives.
Nadezhda Alexandrovna for many years tried to establish relations with her husband's family and gain recognition from her sons. In 1899, the highest command followed to assign N.A. Dreyer and her two sons Artemy and Alexander of hereditary nobility and surname Iskander. N. A. Dreyer nevertheless achieved a number of privileges for her children.
Nadezhda Alexandrovna with Nikolai Konstantinovich and his brother Konstantin (poet K. R.)
Volynsky— Iskander
Almost no reliable information has been preserved about Artemy Nikolaevich Volynsky-Iskander, who was born in Samara. What is known for certain: Artemy graduated from the Corps of Pages, briefly served in the Life Guards of the Gatchina Regiment of Blue Cuirassiers of E. I. V. Maria Fedorovna, where his younger brother Alexander later joined, retired of his own free will, led the life of a private person. The following information is unconfirmed. He was fond of the then fashionable theosophical currents and was either a Tolstoyan or an adherent of the teachings of Blavatsky. At the beginning of the war, he was drafted into the army. When one military unit refused to go to the front, Iskander was sent to "pacify" it. After he found out that the soldiers of this unit belonged to a certain sect that did not recognize the murder, he refused to execute them by execution. For this he was demoted to the ranks. After October revolution he fell into the ranks of the Red Army, participated in the hostilities on the Orenburg front against Ataman Dutov. In 1919 he fell ill with typhus, died and was supposedly buried in Tashkent, the place of burial is unknown.
According to another version, he served in the White Army and fought on the side of Dutov, died.
The younger brother of Artemy - Alexander fought on the side of the whites. After emigrating, he lived in Greece at the invitation of his aunt and godmother, Dowager Queen Olga Konstantinovna of Greece. Refusing her help, he worked in Athens as a taxi driver. Later he moved to France, where he also worked as a taxi driver, as well as a cook, a night watchman, and a messenger. Alexander Nikolaevich wrote several memoir works. In his memoirs, he did not say a word about the fate of his older brother.
No photos of Artemy Iskander could be found. But his autograph survived. The Gatchina Palace Museum keeps the gift broadsword of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich with the autographs of his colleagues, which was presented by officers of the Life Guards Cuirassier Regiment in 1909. The gift inscription: "TO THE AUGUST ONE SOLDIER OF COMRADE CURRAIRS OF HER MAJESTY". Number 29 is the autograph of Artemy Nikolaevich Iskander.
Artemy Iskander was on friendly terms with his fellow soldier and second cousin, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, in whose favor Emperor Nicholas II subsequently abdicated.
In 1918, Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov died of pneumonia in Tashkent. A museum of arts was opened in his palace, the basis of which was a huge collection of the Grand Duke. Now the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan has an almost exact copy of Canova’s sculpture “Venus with an Apple in Her Hand”, only instead of Polina Borghese, Fanny Lear lies on a marble bed, and paintings by his associates on the Samara scientific expedition N. N. Karazin and N. E. Simakov.
Studying the family ties of the Romanovs, I came across the surname Iskander. I remembered the writer Fazil Iskander and a question arose, placed in the title of the article.
"Fazil Abdulovich Iskander, born March 6, 1929, Russian writer, Soviet and Russian prose writer and poet. Born in Sukhumi in the family of a former owner of a brick factory of Iranian origin. In 1938, the father of the future writer Iskander Abdul Ibragimovich was deported from the USSR to Iran , died in 1957. Mother Misheliya Lely Khasanovna (1901-1980)". He was brought up by relatives of an Abkhazian mother in the village of Chegem. Awards and prizes: Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (September 29, 2004), Order of Merit for the Fatherland III degree(March 3, 1999), Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (March 13, 2009), USSR State Prize (1989) - for the novel "Sandro from Chegem", Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation (December 26, 2011) - for the book " Selected works”, Pushkin Prize (1993), State Prize Russian Federation(1994), State Prize of the Russian Federation - for the contribution to the development of Russian literature (2014)".
The biography is a bit confusing big number awards since 1989. But, no "threads" are drawn to the Romanovs.
Let's try to go from the other side. The appearance of the surname is associated with the marriage of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich (February 2, 1850, St. Petersburg - January 14, 1918, Tashkent), the first child of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich (September 21, 1827 - January 25, 1892), the youngest brother of the Russian Emperor Alexander II. Within the framework of my version of history, Prince Konstantin Nikolayevich and Ludwig IV of Hesse, (September 12, 1837 - March 13, 1892), Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine in 1877-1892, are one and the same person.
Nikolai Konstantinovich was married from December 15, 1878 to March 7, 1900 to Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer (1861-1929?), daughter of the Orenburg police chief Alexander Gustavovich Dreyer and Sofya Ivanovna Opanovskaya. On May 4, 1899, the noblewoman Nadezhda Dreyer was commanded to continue to be called Iskander by her surname.
There were also illegitimate children from Alexandra Alexandrovna Demidova (born Abaza) (1853-1894). "Their children in 1888 received from Emperor Alexander III the nobility with the surname "Volynsky" and the patronymic "Pavlovichi", since at that time their mother's husband (since 1879) was Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarokov-Elston (1853-1938)".
"Alexandra Alexandrovna Abaza was the daughter of a retired hussar captain from the nobility of the Kherson province, later the Poltava mayor, Alexander Mikhailovich Abaza. Her father had a cousin - Alexander Aggeevich Abaza, Minister of Finance and member of the State Council of the Russian Empire. He introduced her cousin-niece to the high society of St. Petersburg society, where she met, and in 1869, at the age of fifteen, she married Count Alexander Pavlovich Demidov, a descendant of the favorite of Peter the Great and the last owner of the Demidov Ural factories.
The surname Abaza may have originated from Abkhazia, where the letter "h" was considered aspirated. Yes, and Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarokov-Elston died in 1938, in the year when Fazil Iskander in last time saw his father. Perhaps coincidences, and perhaps symbols.
"The father of Pavel Feliksovich was Count Felix Nikolaevich Sumarokov-Elston (January 24, 1820 - October 30, 1877), Russian general, ataman of the Kuban Cossack army and chief Kuban region in the mid 1860s. "As his very name indicates ("Felix", that is, "happy, fertile"), Elston was illegitimate son high-ranking person. The surname "Elston", which was worn by his English nurse, Felix received a special imperial decree. There was no consensus in secular society about who exactly his parents were. He was married since 1852 to Countess Elena Sergeevna Sumarokova (1829-1901), daughter of Adjutant General and Artillery General S.P. Sumarokov, seven children were born in marriage.
Consider another character - the brother of Pavel Feliksovich and the son of Felix Nikolaevich - Felix Feliksovich Sr., the father of Felix-Feliksovich Jr. - the murderer of Rasputin.
Prince (since 1885) Felix Feliksovich Yusupov Count Sumarokov-Elston (October 17, 1856 - June 10, 1928), Russian Lieutenant General (1915), Adjutant General (1915), Chief of the Moscow Military District (May 5 - June 19, 1915), commander-in-chief of Moscow (May 5 - September 3, 1915). Married to the daughter of the chamberlain Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, maid of honor Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna.
"Felix Sr. in 1910 fell in love with his goddaughter named Zinaida Grigorieva (1880-1965), who was fit for him as a daughter and companion of his mother. In 1912, the first child was born - Nikolai, who died after 2 years. In 1916, again a son was born, baptized with the name Eleutherius. In 1919, a daughter, Tatyana, was born in Alupka. And Felix Sr. helped his mistress escape from the Crimea, correcting fictitious documents, as if she were the wife of his personal secretary Svetilov. And before fleeing (in 1920), she lived next to Ai-Todor (the estate of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich). Then Zinaida Grigorieva lived in Rome, next to the Yusupovs' house, and the elderly Count Felix intensively communicated with his illegitimate children. Moreover, his wife and son knew about this second family. And supposedly Felix Jr. promised his father to take care of his half-brother and sister, but he never did. (that is, Olivier in French transcription) lived right up to 2007, and his sister Tatiana died in January 2011 (she had two daughters). The story of the unknown mistress of Felix Sr. surfaced at one of the antique auctions in France in 2007 - photographs, letters and personal belongings belonging to Zinaida Grigorieva were put up for sale. The authenticity of these things and the love story were signed by the French historian Cyril Boulet.
So, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich had a wife Dreyer Nadezhda Alexandrovna (1861-1929?). She was a museum curator, then she was fired. She found shelter in the gatehouse at the former palace of Nikolai Konstantinovich, lived there surrounded by dogs. According to eyewitnesses, in the last years of her life she looked like a real beggar, walked in torn clothes and ate what the inhabitants left at the door of her hut, who remembered the kindness of the Grand Duke. Nadezhda Alexandrovna died in 1929 from the bite of a rabid dog.
And Felix Feliksovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston, had a wife, Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova (September 2, 1861, St. Petersburg, Russian empire- November 24, 1939, Paris, France) - the richest Russian heiress, the last in the Yusupov family, the owner of the Arkhangelskoye estate near Moscow.
The son of Felix Feliksovich Sr. - Felix, (March 23, 1887 - September 22, 1967), the last of the Yusupov princes, is known as a participant in the murder of G. Rasputin. He died in 1967, and Fazil's father in 1957. Draver died in 1929, and Zinaida Nikolaevna in 1939.
An interesting detail: Dreyer Nadezhda Alexandrovna (1861-1929?) - the wife of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich is similar to Zinaida Grigorieva (1880-1965).
But didn’t Eleutherius (1916-2007) (from the Greek “free”) turn into Fazil (1929)? (Muslim name, talented, educated).
In the photograph, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich with his wife Nadezhda Alexandrovna in Tashkent, Zinaida Grigorieva with children Eleuthery and Tatyana, Fazil Iskander and Alexander Mikhailovich Abaza.
Nikolai Konstantinovich is a graduate of the Academy of the General Staff, which he entered on his own initiative in 1868. Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich became the first of the Romanovs to graduate from a higher educational institution, and among the best graduates - with a silver medal. After completing his studies, he traveled abroad, where he began to build his collection of Western European paintings. After traveling around Europe, the Grand Duke entered the Life Guards Horse Regiment, and after a while he became a squadron commander at the age of 21. At this time, at one of the masquerade balls, he meets an American dancer and adventurer by nature - Fanny Lear, who by that time had already traveled around Europe, been married and had a young daughter. They started an affair.
The stormy romance of the Grand Duke worried his father and mother. The discussion of this problem even led to a meeting of his parents, who by that time did not live together. His father found a perfectly suitable excuse to remove him from St. Petersburg: in 1873, Nikolai Konstantinovich went on a campaign against Khiva as part of the Russian expeditionary forces.
Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who by that time already had the rank of colonel, received a baptism of fire in this campaign. He, at the head of the vanguard of the Kazalinsky detachment, which suffered the greatest losses, followed one of the most difficult routes through the Kyzylkum desert. The very first reconnaissance group led by him fell into such dense artillery fire that they were no longer expected to return alive in the detachment. In this campaign, Nikolai Konstantinovich showed personal courage and was an example for others. For participation in the Khiva campaign, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree.
After returning from Central Asia, with which he was fascinated, he became seriously interested in oriental studies. He began to take part in the work of the Russian Geographical Society: there, among scientists, the idea of the Amu Darya expedition was maturing. Its goal was to explore as much as possible the region that had just been conquered by Russia and subject its potential to a detailed scientific analysis. Such plans excited, captured the brilliant aide-de-camp of the sovereign. In the Geographical Society, of course, they were glad of the august attention. Nikolai Konstantinovich was elected an honorary member of this society and appointed head of the expedition.
After returning from the Khiva campaign, he again traveled to Europe in the company of his beloved, Fanny Lear. There he continued to replenish his art collection.
But in the spring of 1874, when he was 24 years old, an event happened that completely changed the life of the Grand Duke.
family scandal
In April 1874, the mother of Nicholas Konstantinovich, Alexandra Iosifovna, discovered in the Marble Palace the loss of three expensive diamonds from the salary of one of the icons, with which Emperor Nicholas I once blessed the marriage of his son Konstantin with the German princess, who became Alexandra Iosifovna in marriage. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich called the police, and soon the diamonds were found in one of the pawn shops in St. Petersburg.
First, they found a person who took the diamonds to a pawnshop - the adjutant of the Grand Duke E. P. Varnakhovsky, the opinion of whose guilt was preserved later. During interrogation on April 15, he categorically denied involvement in the theft and said that he only took the stones transferred to him by Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich to the pawnshop.
Nikolai, who was present at the interrogation, swore on the Bible that he was not guilty, which, as they said, aggravated his sin. He told his father that he was ready, helping out Varnakhovsky, not just an adjutant, but his comrade, to take the blame. Emperor Alexander II, who took the case under personal control, connected the chief of the gendarme corps, Count Shuvalov, to the investigation.
Shuvalov interrogated the arrested Nikolai Konstantinovich in the Marble Palace for three hours in the presence of his father, who later wrote in his diary: “No remorse, no consciousness, except when denial is already impossible, and then I had to pull out the vein behind the vein. Bitterness and not a single tear. They conjured with everything that was left to him as a saint, to alleviate the fate ahead of him with sincere repentance and consciousness! Nothing helped!"
In the end, they came to the conclusion that the diamonds were stolen by Nikolai Konstantinovich, and the proceeds were to be used for gifts to the prince's mistress, the American dancer Fanny Lear. At the family council - a general meeting of members of the royal family, after a long debate (as options were offered: to give to soldiers, to bring to public trial and exile to hard labor), a decision was made that caused minimal harm to the prestige of the royal family. It was decided to recognize Grand Duke Nicholas as mentally ill, and then, by decree of the emperor, he was forever expelled from the capital of the empire. Fanny Lear was expelled from Russia with a ban on ever returning here. She never met the Grand Duke again.
In fact, two sentences were announced to Nikolai Konstantinovich. The first - for the public - was to recognize him as insane. From which it followed that from now on and forever he would be in custody, on compulsory treatment, in complete isolation. The meaning of the second sentence - family - was that in the papers relating to the Imperial House, it was forbidden to mention his name, and the inheritance that belonged to him was transferred to younger brothers. He also lost all ranks and awards and was deleted from the lists of the regiment. He was expelled from Petersburg forever and was obliged to live under arrest in the place where he was directed.
In 1917, a translation of Fanny Lear's memoirs appeared in the Argus magazine, where she talked about her august novel, the bitter fate of Nikola (as his close people called him), in whose guilt she did not believe for a minute, and also about how it ended her journey to Russia.
Fanny wrote in her memoirs that in the capital the Grand Duke was kept in a straitjacket, drugged and even beaten. The soldiers guarding Nikola swaggered over him, although yesterday he had been out of reach for them, and offered children's toys to the arrested person. Nikolai Konstantinovich himself, judging by the note he left, regretted that he did not end up in hard labor.
In the memoirs of Fanny Lear there is an entry that very eloquently characterizes this woman herself, who was born and raised in the family of a Protestant priest: “If such a loss had happened in the family of ordinary people,” wrote Miss Lear, “she would have been hidden there; here, on the contrary, they raised the police to their feet ... ".
There is another oddity in this case. Despite the fact that the parents of Nikolai Konstantinovich and his august relatives did not leave the conviction that Nikolai Konstantinovich was killed by love for a courtesan and a lack of funds to satisfy her whims, the fact remains that during a search in the desk of Nikolai Konstantinovich, an amount was found, much larger than the one that was received for the stolen diamonds pledged in the pawnshop.
Link
Nikolai Konstantinovich was taken away from St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1874. Before his last "stop", in Tashkent in the summer of 1881, that is, in less than 7 years, he changed at least 10 places of residence. He was not allowed anywhere to find at least some kind of home, to acquire connections, to take root. The places of exile were: Vladimir province, Uman - 250 miles from Kyiv, the town of Tivrovo, near Vinnitsa, and so on.
When he was sent to Orenburg, Nikolai Konstantinovich assumed that the supervision of him there would not be very strict, since there, on the border of the endless desert, in extremely difficult climatic conditions, there were constantly fighting. Indeed, here in Orenburg, the local authorities turned a blind eye to many “impermissible” things. It was in Orenburg in 1877 that the 27-year-old Nikolai published his work “ Waterway to Central Asia, indicated by Peter the Great”, published without the name of the author. Here he managed to make trips deep into the Kazakh steppes - on horseback, together with the same enthusiasts, he traveled from Orenburg to Perovsk. He was captivated by the idea of building a railway from Russia to Turkestan. The project sent to St. Petersburg was declared unprofitable due to the sparsely populated lands.
In Orenburg, the Grand Duke performed extraordinary deeds. So, in the winter of 1878, he married the daughter of the city police chief, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer. The wedding was secret, but rumors spread - and a corresponding report flew to St. Petersburg. As a result, by a special decree of the Synod, the marriage was annulled, and the Dreyer family was ordered to leave the city. The young wife flatly refused to leave her husband. Nadezhda Alexandrovna, being a Cossack family, had a strong character - the difficult trips across the steppes on horseback, passed next to Nikolai Konstantinovich, emphasized this in the best possible way. Nadezhda Alexandrovna Nikolay Konstantinovich in honor of Alexander the Great (Iskander Zulkarna?in) called "Princess Iskander".
While in exile, the Grand Duke also showed a kind of self-will - sometimes he threatened to put on all his orders and go out to the people, who, in his opinion, should have freed the exile. At the same time, rumors began to spread at the imperial court about the former meetings of the disgraced prince with Zhelyabov, a member of the People's Will. According to rumors, they were even friends.
The younger brother of the Orenburg prisoner, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, did not approve of the hard line of the imperial house: “Will the painful situation end soon, from which poor Nikola is not given any way out? The meekest person could thus be brought out of patience, Nikola still has enough strength to endure his imprisonment and moral prison.
Finally heeding the arguments of common sense, the cousin of the disgraced Grand Duke - the Emperor Alexander III- allowed to legalize the morganatic marriage, however, while the young were ordered to go to the Turkestan region, to Tashkent.
In Turkestan
In Turkestan, the Grand Duke lived at first under the name of Colonel Volynsky. Later he began to call himself Iskander. This surname is carried by all his descendants - the princes of Iskander. Subsequently, he married another lady - Daria Chasovitinova - the 15-year-old daughter of a Tashkent resident belonging to the Cossack class. From this union he had several children. At the same time, he could appear in society at the same time as his two wives.
From Nadezhda Alexandrovna, the Grand Duke had two sons: Artemy and Alexander. Nadezhda Alexandrovna herself, under the name "Princess Iskander", repeatedly visited St. Petersburg, trying to establish ties with Romanov's relatives. Perhaps she did not quite succeed in this, but both of their children were taken to study in St. Petersburg by the privileged Corps of Pages.
Being a contradictory nature, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich was capable of quite noble deeds. Having received 300 thousand rubles from the emperor for the construction of the palace, he used this money to build a theater in Tashkent. And a luxurious palace for living, built in the center of Tashkent, is now one of the most notable sights of Tashkent - now it is the house of international receptions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.
It is known that Nikolai Konstantinovich established 10 scholarships for people from Turkestan who were unable to pay for their studies at the main educational institutions of Russia.
With the name of the Grand Duke, rumors and memories of eyewitnesses connected a number of sometimes curious, and sometimes quite serious secular and near-secular scandals in Tashkent. This was facilitated by the ambiguous position of Nicholas Konstantinovich - on the one hand, he formally continued to be under house arrest, the decision on which no one canceled, on the other hand, he remained the Grand Duke and thus was under the auspices of the imperial house, and besides, he was very popular person among the local European population of the city.
Entrepreneurship of the Grand Duke
The Grand Duke was engaged in entrepreneurship, was the owner of a number of enterprises in Tashkent - he started a soap factory, photographic workshops, billiard rooms, the sale of kvass, rice processing, soap and cotton manufactories, registering, in order to avoid family anger, all organized enterprises were issued to his wife. With money received from entrepreneurial activity, he built the first cinema in Tashkent (also as a business project) - "Khiva", with his own money he was engaged in laying irrigation canals in the Hungry Steppe.
The income from his entrepreneurial activities amounted to an impressive amount - up to one and a half million rubles a year. For comparison: from St. Petersburg, the prince was sent 200 thousand rubles a year for maintenance.
Nikolai Konstantinovich turned out to be an excellent entrepreneur. He was one of the first to turn to the then most profitable industry in the Turkestan region - the construction and operation of cotton ginning plants. At the same time, he used the most advanced technical ideas of his time - a waste-free technological cycle was used at his factories - cotton seeds remaining after processing the raw material into fiber were used as raw materials in oil mills, and the cake was used both for fertilizer and for livestock feed.
Already with his first irrigation works, he gained great popularity among the population. The first of them is the withdrawal of a canal from Chirchik along the right bank of the river, which he called Iskander-aryk.
Then on these lands there were only a few houses of poor dekhkans who had moved out of Gazalkent. After the construction of the Iskander-aryk, the “grand-princely” settlement of Iskander was laid here. Away from the village, the Grand Duke laid out a large garden. During the works connected with the construction on the Iskander-aryk, Nikolai Konstantinovich made an archaeological opening of the mound located near the channel of the canal, from which weapons and other objects were removed.
In 1886, the Grand Duke began to “withdraw” the Syrdarya water, wanting to irrigate at least a part of the Hungry Steppe between Tashkent and Jizzakh by all means, spending a lot of energy and personal funds. The work connected with the construction of the canal cost the prince over a million rubles. On a coastal rock near the river, near the head structure near Bekabad, a large letter “H” was carved, topped with a crown.
12 large Russian settlements rose on irrigated lands. Nikolai Konstantinovich wrote: “My desire is to revive the deserts of Central Asia and make it easier for the government to settle them with Russian people of all classes.” By 1913, 119 Russian villages had already grown there.
But the favorite idea of the Grand Duke was the project of restoring the "old current" of the Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea. Back in 1879, in Samara, he organized a society for the study of Central Asian routes, which aimed to choose the direction of the Turkestan railway and study the turn of the Amu Darya to Uzboy. In March 1879, Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich published a pamphlet entitled "Amu and Uzboy" (the book was published without indicating the name of the author). In it, the author, relying on the evidence of sources - the works of ancient and medieval writers - argued that the river repeatedly changed its direction "exclusively by the will of man." But the government did not support the initiative of the prince - it itself took up the development of a project to turn the river.
In the pamphlet “Amu and Uzboy,” the Grand Duke wrote: “Over the past 25 years, Russia has taken possession of most of Central Asia, but the once flourishing Turkestan went to the Russians in a state of decline. He is endowed by nature with all favorable conditions for rapid development their rich productive forces. By expanding the irrigation network, expanding the boundaries of the oases, Turkestan can be made one of the best Russian regions. The plan to "turn the Amu Darya", probably quite rightly, was also considered inappropriate. But the expedition itself, which traveled more than a thousand kilometers through completely unexplored places, brought material of exceptional value. This was noted by the scientific community, and even by the authorities in St. Petersburg, who awarded all its participants, with the exception of the Grand Duke.
Irrigation work has always been highly valued in Central Asia, especially on new lands that were not previously used for agricultural crops. Therefore, the mentioned irrigation measures of Nikolai Konstantinovich, the largest for their time and, moreover, carried out not by force, but with the payment of all participants, contributed to the rapid spread of the popularity of the Grand Duke among the local population. He laid a 100-kilometer irrigation canal at his own expense, which revived 40 thousand acres of land.
Collection of the Grand Duke
The collection of European and Russian paintings, collected by the Grand Duke and brought by him from St. Petersburg, was the basis for the creation in 1919 of the Museum of Art in Tashkent, which has one of the richest collections of European paintings among the art museums of Central Asia.
The fate of one sculpture
During their second trip to Europe, Nikolai Konstantinovich and Fanny Lear visited Rome at the Villa Borghese. Here he admired the famous sculpture by Antonio Canova, depicting Pauline Borghese (en), Napoleon's younger sister, in the form of a naked beauty, lying on a marble bed in the form of Venus the victorious with an apple in her left hand. Nikolai Konstantinovich immediately ordered the sculpture of Tomaso Solari to be made an exact copy of the sculpture, but instead of Pauline Borghese, his beloved Fanny Lear was supposed to lie on the marble bed.
In her memoirs, Miss Lear recalled the unpleasant impression that a plaster mask applied to her face caused in her, with the help of which the sculptor subsequently reproduced her facial features in marble. The sculptor assured them that upon completion of the work, the sculpture would be sent to St. Petersburg. He kept his promise.
Many years later, when the Grand Duke was already in exile in Tashkent, his mother, Alexandra Iosifovna, gave him a gift. While walking in the park, she came across a marble sculpture of a half-naked woman with an apple in her hand. She recognized this woman as Fanny Lear, the beloved of her eldest son. And soon the sculpture, packed in a wooden box, was sent to Tashkent to Nikolai Konstantinovich. Later, this marble sculpture became one of the decorations of the Tashkent Museum. fine arts.
Grand Duke and Revolution
Last Russian emperor Nicholas II, was brought to the infamous relative by a cousin, but he never allowed him to return to the capital. Therefore, the abdication of the emperor in February 1917, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich took with delight. He raised a red flag over his house and sent a telegram of welcome to the Provisional Government.
Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky personally knew Nikolai Konstantinovich from Tashkent, since for almost 10 years they lived in the neighborhood.
Death of the Grand Duke
Shortly after the October Revolution and the establishment in Turkestan Soviet power On January 14, 1918, the former Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov died at a dacha near Tashkent from pneumonia; buried near the fence of the military cathedral in Tashkent. A number of later publications indicated that he was shot by the Bolsheviks, but the data of newspaper publications in 1918 and archives do not confirm this.
In the resolution of July 17, 1998 on the termination of criminal case No. 18 / 123666-93 “On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian Imperial House and persons from their entourage in the period 1918-1919”, issued by the Senior Forensic Prosecutor of the Main Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Senior Counselor of Justice V.N. royal family: Last days, execution, acquisition of the remains"):
10.4. Death of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov.
Various sources suggested that Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov (1850-1918), who was exiled to Tashkent by Emperor Alexander II in 1874 for unworthy behavior and died there in 1918, was shot or otherwise violently caused the death [ so in the text]
Yes, in periodical“Nasha Gazeta” No. 13 dated January 17, 1918 (an organ of the executive committee of the Tashkent Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies) published a note with the following content: “The funeral of citizen Romanov. The funeral of b. Grand Duke, citizen Nikolai Romanov, who died on Sunday, January 14, at 6 o'clock in the morning. Romanov's body is buried near the fence of the military cathedral. Also in the newspaper "New Way" dated January 18, 1918, an obituary was given with the following content: "On the death of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov (born 1850), died on the night of January 13-14, 1918 from pneumonia in a country house near Tashkent and was buried on January 16, 1918 in Tashkent, in the square next to the Military St. George's Cathedral.
There is also a protocol of the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Tashkent Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies dated January 15, 1918, at which the request of N.K. cathedral. They decided to allow, to bury, but with a proposal not to make any kind of processions.
The investigation considers the established fact of the death of Romanov Nikolai Konstantinovich not connected with any repressions by the authorities.
…
Thus ended the life of the Grand Duke, full of dramatic collisions, most which he spent in the Turkestan region and left a bright mark here.
He was buried near the church of St. George - the Joseph-Georgievsky Cathedral, located opposite the entrance to the prince's palace. Later, in Soviet times, this church was “repurposed” into a puppet theater and a dumplings cafe, part-time an ice cream parlor. Some time after Uzbekistan gained independence, these buildings - the old puppet theater and the dumplings cafe - were demolished. At present, a small park has been laid out at this place.
A family
Wife (December 15, 1878 - March 7, 1900) Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer (1861-1929?), Daughter of the Orenburg police chief Alexander Gustavovich Dreyer and Sofia Ivanovna Opanovskaya. On April 22 (May 4), 1899, the noblewoman Nadezhda Dreyer was commanded to continue to be called by the surname "Iskander".
She was a museum curator, then she was fired. She found shelter in the gatehouse at the former palace of Nikolai Konstantinovich, lived there surrounded by dogs. According to eyewitnesses, in the last years of her life she looked like a real beggar, walked in torn clothes and ate what the inhabitants left at the door of her hut, who remembered the kindness of the Grand Duke. Nadezhda Alexandrovna died in 1929 from the bite of a rabid dog.
- The eldest son - Artemy (born December 19 (31), 1878 in Samara), was granted the highest surname "Iskander" and the rights assigned to a personal nobleman on August 12 (24), 1889. According to one version, he died during the Civil War, fighting on the side of the Whites, according to another, he died of typhus in Tashkent in 1919.
Younger son Nicholas Konstantinovich - Prince Alexander Iskander
The youngest son - Alexander (born November 15 (27), 1887 in Tashkent), was granted the highest surname "Iskander" and the rights assigned to a personal nobleman on March 10 (22), 1894. Combat officer, participated in the anti-Bolshevik uprising in Tashkent in January 1919, fought in the Russian army of Wrangel, then evacuated to Gallipoli, and then to France, where he died in the city of Grasse in 1957. Wrote a memoir about civil war- "Sky Walk"
- Kirill Nikolayevich Androsov (Prince K. A. Iskander; 1915-1992)
- Natalya Nikolaevna Androsova (Princess N. A. Iskander; 1917-1999), lived all her life in the USSR and Russia; engaged in motorcycle racing, performed in the circus (vertical races), master of sports of the USSR in motorcycle racing; to the Great Patriotic War was a driver in a lorry.
In 1901 he married Varvara Khmelnitskaya (1885–?). The marriage was not recognized.
Extramarital affairs and children
- Mistress Alexandra Alexandrovna Demidova (born Abaza) (1853-1894)
- Olga (1877-1910) - went crazy.
- Nikolai (1875-1913) - participant Russo-Japanese War, retired colonel of the guard, wrote a number of works on the history of the Russian cavalry.
In 1888, they received nobility from Emperor Alexander III with the surname "Volynsky" and patronymic "Pavlovichi", since at that time their mother's husband (since 1879) was Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarokov-Elston (1853-1938), uncle of Prince Yusupov , the future killer of Rasputin.
- Mistress Daria Eliseevna Chasovitina (1880-1953/1956)
- Nicholas (-1919/1920)
- Svyatoslav (-1919) - shot
- Daria (1896-1966) - lived in Moscow and worked for some time as the secretary of the Soviet writer Marietta Shaginyan.
The file (documents) of the Grand Duke is stored in the Central Russian Archive.
Sources of information. Related links
- Lyudmila Tretyakova "An Exile from the Romanov Family", Vokrug Sveta magazine No. 4 (2751) dated April 2003.
- Forum "Old Tashkent" - Dec 16 2006, 11:41 PM Post #2190
- AIF - Destiny. How the grandson of Nicholas I ended up in Tashkent
- Svetlana Makarenko. ROYAL REJECT…
- Palace of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich on the map of Tashkent
- Business of the Grand Duke
- Yu. A. Kuzmin Russian imperial family 1797-1917. Biobibliographic reference book. St. Petersburg, Dmitry Bulanin, 2005, p. 155-156, 267-269 (ISBN 5-86007-435-2)
- Prince Michael of Greece Every family has its black sheep. Biography of Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich. - M .: "Zakharov", 2002. - 272 p. — ISBN 5-8159-0263-2
- See also Grand Dukes of the House of Romanov
- : Documents of the archives of the Republic of Uzbekistan about recent years the life of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov // Article in the journal "Domestic Archives" No. 6 (2009)
Sunrise landscapes of the desert of Central Asia.
The inscription on the stones: "Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich".
Photographs of the Grand Duke.
Biographer Romanova N.K. Golender B. gives interviews (synchronously).
Photos by Romanov N.K. in childhood, with his mother and father, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.
Portraits portraits of Romanov's parents N.K.
Portrait of Emperor Alexander II.
Photos of brothers and sisters of the Grand Duke.
Photos of the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, the Pavlovsk Palace, the Strelna estate.
Photograph of the Grand Duke with his family during his studies at the Academy of the General Staff.
Romanov N.K. after graduating from the academy.
Historian V. Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Photo by Romanov N.K. after graduating from the academy.
The train goes between the hills.
View of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Railway.
Photographs of the views of Athens, Rome.
Illustrations from the life of guards officers.
Photograph by Fanny Lear.
Golender B. gives interviews (synchronously).
Photograph of Lear against the backdrop of views of Paris.
Cancan at the Moulin Rouge.
The horse-drawn carriage drives up to the palace.
Photos of Romanov N.K. and Lear against the backdrop of dancing at the ball.
Picturesque portrait of Catherine II.
Statues and paintings from the collection of Romanov N.K. in the exposition of the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan.
Portraits of Lear and Romanov N.K. in the newspaper, portraits of the parents of the Grand Duke.
Map of Turkestan.
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: landscape of one of the Central Asian cities.
Khiva Khan gets into the carriage.
Newsreel of the early 20th century: desert landscapes.
Men dance in front of spectators sitting around.
Faces of spectators and dancers.
General view of the circle with the dancers.
Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Game footage from x / film: Emperor Alexander II sees off the troops at the station.
Game footage of the fighting of the Russian troops in the Khiva campaign, a portrait of the commander General Kaufman.
Paintings depicting combat operations.
The text of Romanov's letter N.K. to Lear.
Fighting Russian troops, cavalry attacks.
Photograph of the Grand Duke at the end of the Khiva campaign.
Game footage of combat operations.
Photo by Romanov N.K.
Landscapes of Turkestan.
Photograph of the Grand Duke in the ceremonial uniform of the Life Guards Horse Regiment.
The text of Romanov's letter to N.K. to Lear.
Interior view of an Orthodox church, candles are burning.
Types of winter St. Petersburg.
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: a camel caravan enters the gates of a fortress in Khorezm.
Types of quarters of Khiva.
General view of the old city (above).
View of St. Petersburg.
Portrait of the Grand Duke Constantine.
Portraits of Alexander II and Nicholas I.
Engravings and photographs of the exterior and interior of the Marble Palace.
Portraits of Romanov N.K. and Lear.
Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Text of Lear's memoirs.
Game footage of the imperial exit in the Winter Palace.
Texts of Lear's memoirs in various editions in Russian and English.
The text of the entry in the diary of Romanov N.K.
View of Palace Square in St. Petersburg.
Newsreel of 1913: carriages are passing through the Palace Square.
The horse-drawn carriage rides along the steppe road.
Postcard with a view of Orenburg.
Portrait of Romanov N.K. during his stay in Orenburg.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Desert panorama.
Mazar in the desert.
Desert landscape.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Scientific works written by Romanov N.K. in Orenburg.
Types of the Central Asian desert.
Passes a caravan of camels.
View of a part of the Amu Darya (above).
Desert landscape.
Photographs of the Grand Duke and Emir of Bukhara.
The text of the letter of the Grand Duke to the Emir.
Interior view of the premises of the emir's palace in Bukhara.
View of a part of Bukhara.
View of a part of the Amu Darya (above).
Sailing boats on the river.
Types of banks of the Amu Darya.
The book of Professor Sorokin, a member of the expedition, about a trip to Central Asia.
A caravan is moving through the desert.
Photos of the streets of Orenburg.
Photos by Romanov N.K. and his wife Von Dreyer N.A.
The text of the resolution of the Synod on the recognition of the marriage of the Grand Duke illegal.
Game footage: Emperor Alexander II takes a report in the Winter Palace.
Photo of Romanov N.K. and his wife.
Photo of Alexander II with his sons.
Photographs of Alexander III.
There is a train.
Photographs of the views of Tashkent in the 1880s.
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: views of the quarters of Tashkent.
A cart is passing along the street.
People on the street.
People ride donkeys.
Types of city bazaar.
Potter at work.
People pray in the square in front of the mosque.
Weavers on the street at work.
People load goods onto camels.
The caravan leaves the gate.
Photographs of buildings and streets of the "European" part of Tashkent.
Newsreel of the 1920s: the streets of Tashkent.
People ride down the street on donkeys.
A woman cleans the carpet in the courtyard of the house.
People on the banks of the canal, the girl draws water.
Peaches on the branches.
People are digging an irrigation canal in one of the villages.
Landscapes of the environs of Tashkent.
View of a part of the Iskander Canal in the Chirchik Valley, built with the participation of the Grand Duke in 1883-1885.
Kinds locality Iskander in Uzbekistan.
The text of the entry in the diary of the Grand Duke.
Views of the Amu Darya.
irrigation channels.
Dekhkans plow the land.
Types of the village of Iskander, founded by the Grand Duke.
Streams of mountain streams.
Mountain stream on the slope.
Newspaper reports and photographs of charitable events with the participation of Romanov N.K.
Photo of the residence of the Grand Duke in the center of Tashkent.
The text of the entry in the diary of the Grand Duke.
Photographs and drawings of the house of the Grand Duke.
The modern look of the building.
The interior interiors of the premises in the house of Romanov N.K.
Decoration of the walls of the halls in the house.
"Eastern" rooms in the house.
Outbuildings and outbuildings.
Fragments of decorations of the house of the Grand Duke (Reception House of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan).
Fragments of interior design.
Paintings on the walls.
Carving on walls and doors.
Art critic gives interviews (synchronously).
Fragments of decorations of the rooms of the palace.
The art historian gives an interview.
Newsreel of the 1910s: construction of irrigation canals in Central Asia.
Canal named after Nicholas I, flowing from the Syr Darya.
Channel photos.
Photos of houses in the villages that arose along the canal at the end of the 19th century.
General views of the channel.
Photos of Russian settlers.
Types of buildings and buildings of the estate " Golden Horde Hungry Steppe", founded by the Grand Duke.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Photo of Chusovitina D.E., the second wife of the Grand Duke.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
The text of the entry from the diary of the Grand Duke.
Photo Khmelnitskaya V.
The building of the church in the Trinity village near Tashkent.
Icons and candles in the house chapel of the Grand Duke's palace in Tashkent.
Game footage from x / film: a general is walking with his retinue.
The text of the entry from the diary of the Grand Duke.
Game footage from x/film: policemen and gendarmes are passing by.
There is a passenger train.
Landscapes outside the train window.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: horse-drawn carriages leave the palace gates in Tashkent.
Imperial family during their stay in Tsarskoye Selo.
Photograph of the Grand Duke in a turban.
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: the departure of horse-drawn carriages from the gates of the palace in Tsarskoye Selo.
View of part of the exposition of the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, paintings and statues from the collection of the Grand Duke.
Wood carving patterns.
Collection items and paintings collected by the Grand Duke.
Fragments of the building of the palace of the Grand Duke in Tashkent.
Daughter Hajar, pupil of the Grand Duke, gives interviews (synchronously).
A watch presented by the Grand Duke to his pupil.
Game footage from x / film: a merchant closes a shop, a policeman passes by.
Portrait of Hajar in old age.
Granddaughter Hajar gives interviews (synchronously).
Water flows along the canal bed.
The wheels of the watermill are turning.
Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: people are clearing the bed of a ditch, weighing cotton.
Shop cotton processing plant in Tashkent.
Workers in the factory shop.
Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Photographs of buildings and interiors of libraries founded by the Grand Duke.
Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Buildings near the building of the palace of the Grand Duke in Tashkent.
Germanov gives interviews (synchronously).
Photograph of the palace building.
Photos of the visit of the younger brother of the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich to Tashkent.
Photos of the parents of the Grand Duke and his sister Olga - the Greek queen.
Newsreel of 1912-1913: Nicholas II takes bread and salt.
Arrival of the Emir of Bukhara Seyid Alim Khan in St. Petersburg.
Celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.
General view of Palace Square.
Nicholas II and the Empress on the balcony of the Winter Palace.
People are building an irrigation canal.
Photos of a part of the Romanovsky irrigation canal and a memorial stele in honor of the canal's commissioning.
Photos of the opening of the channel.
Photograph of the Grand Duke and his wife in 1916.
Palace of the Grand Duke in Tashkent.
Paintings collected by the Grand Duke.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Portrait of Chusovitinova D.E.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Photographs of buildings in Khiva built by the Grand Duke.
Portrait of Dreyer-Iskander N.A.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Newsreel of 1932: views of the bazaar in Tashkent.
Photo of Dreyer-Iskander at the bazaar in Tashkent.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Portraits of Natalya Alexandrovna Iskander, granddaughter of the Grand Duke.
Golender gives interviews (synchronously).
Newsreel of 1917: revolutionary events in Petrograd in March 1917.
Revolutionary demonstration in Tashkent.
units of the Red Army operating in Central Asia.
A cavalry squadron is galloping.
Photographs of cinema buildings built by the Grand Duke.
Newsreel of 1917: people on the streets of Tashkent.
People's faces.
Photos of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Tashkent, near the fence of which Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich was buried.
Portrait of the Grand Duke.
The inscription on the stones in the desert: "Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich".
Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov (1850-1919) was the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I, the favorite nephew of Alexander II. Nikolai's parents deprived their children of parental love and attention. The rude and evil baron R.A. was appointed as a mentor under Nicholas. Mirbach, who humiliated and beat the boy, felt his spiritual loneliness acutely from childhood. Over time, he learned about his father's numerous novels, including his main favorite, ballerina A. V. Kuznetsova, and their children.
In his youth, dubious girls were regularly taken to his rooms in the Marble Palace, with whom he liked to sensually amuse himself. Nikolai learned to buy mistresses, whom he constantly changed. By the age of 17-18, he had a reputation as a lover of obscene girls, a brawler and a drunkard, while he was considered the most beautiful of all the great princes. At the age of 20, he became officially an adult, financially independent from the will of his parents, rich. As a baby, his father gave him Pavlovsk, Strelna, the Crimean Oreanda. At the age of 18, at his own request, he became a student of the Academy of the Teneral Staff, the first of the Grand Dukes to study not at home, but in the classrooms of the higher educational institution. He became one of the best listeners, graduated from the Academy with a silver medal.
He entered the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, earned the respect of the soldiers, established a bonus fund for the best soldiers and officers in the regiment, and donated money to the Academy for scholarships for the best students. But he still loved sprees, uzpyf card entertainment with the most different women did whatever he wanted. He fell in love with a 23-year-old North American Jewess, Fanny Air, who had a reputation in St. Petersburg as a beautiful and clever mistress with a dark past (at the age of 16 she ran away from the house of her father-priest with a man she liked, became his wife and widow, gave birth to a daughter, became a prostitute, left to Paris and worked as a singer in a cabaret, became an expensive courtesan, then came in the hope of catching a rich lover, and even better a husband in St. Petersburg). She began to visit Nikolai's apartments in the Marble Palace, where their love meetings took place in secret.
She was an experienced, cunning and prudent hunter for money, she wanted to become the wife of the Grand Duke. Nicholas decided to purchase a separate palace for himself (which he soon did) and marry Fanny. To separate them, Nikolai's father managed to send him to Central Asia, where there was a war with the Khiva Khanate. In 1873 Khiva fell, the war ended, and Nikolai returned to St. Petersburg with the firm intention of marrying Fanny. Alexander II did not give consent to his marriage with a dubious woman, their secret wedding could not be held. After that, the story broke out with the theft of diamonds allegedly by Nikolai in the Marble Palace. Fanny managed to be expelled from Russia without the right to return to it. Nikolai was expelled from St. Petersburg, declared insane, forced to live under control with the guards.
At first, he was kept near St. Petersburg in the Elizavetino estate, then there were the Crimean Oreanda, the village of Smolenskoye in the Vladimir province, the village of Uman near Kyiv (1875), the town of Tivrovo near Vinnitsa (1876), Orenburg (1874), Samara (1875), Tashkent ( since 1881). A tireless lover, he had affairs everywhere, and he was not interested in the status of women.
In Oreanda, his affair began with Alexandra Alexandrovna Demidova (nee Abaza), the divorced wife of the madman Alexander Pavlovich Demidov, the mother of 3 children (2 more died in infancy), a woman of free morals who gave birth to his son Nikolai and daughter Olga, who were considered her illegitimate children. (Over time, AL. Demidova married Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarokov-Elston, to whom she gave birth to 5 children, he became the guardian of Nikolai and Olga, achieved the award of noble dignity to them.)
In Orenburg, 24-year-old Nikolai fell in love with a 17-year-old daughter, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Dreyer (1861-1929), a year later they secretly got married. In St. Petersburg, their marriage (1875) was declared invalid. But in 1882, Emperor Alexander III restored their marriage, and together they went into exile in Tashkent. Their sons Alexander and Artemy were born, over time they received the nobility, studied in the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg, and served in the elite Cuirassier Regiment. At the behest of her husband, his wife Nadezhda was called Countess Iskander. At the same time, when his wife left, Nikolai Konstantinovich always openly took a mistress, always remained a tireless conqueror of women, especially since he had tangible material resources.
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