On Sunday, February 13th, 1911 Nicholas II
wrote “… At 7:15PM I departed for St. Petersburg, had dinner with Mama, and
then I went with her to see Kshesinskaya’s jubilee performance. There were lengthy
greetings and a mass of gifts …”
Matilda Kshesinskaya’s fame was not only as a
ballerina but for her ménage à trois of Grand Dukes: mistress to Nicholas,
Sergei Mikhailovich and Andrei Vladimirovich. Discarded by the first for his
marriage to Alexandra and later married to the third, Sergei is the enigma.
In 1904-06, the architect Alexander von Hohen built an
Art Nouveau (Style Moderne) mansion for Matilda on the Petrogradsky Island near
the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Photograph (below) of Ksheskinskaya’s Mansion c1906
Sergei financially supported Matilda’s opulent
lifestyle in St. Petersburg, including a villa in Strelna. The Mikhailovich
were the richest branch of the Romanov family. Alexander Polovtsov was amused
by Olga Feodorovna, Sergei’s mother, pleading poverty. On Monday, January 28th,
1885 he wrote “… [Olga] said if the Empress Marie asked her to give a ball, she
will answer that she has no means to do so because she has to save for her
grandchildren …”
Gossip within all classes of society was widespread
regarding Matilda for over thirty years before the revolution. A persistent
rumor, then and after, was that Nicholas II had a tunnel built connecting
Matilda’s mansion to the Winter Palace. It is beyond absurd. By 1906, Nicholas
had long departed the Winter Palace and the mansion was in direct sight of
Sergei’s New-Mikhailovsky Palace across the Neva.
Drawings (below) of Ksheskinskaya’s Mansion: Plan, Façade
1, Façade 2, Interior Drawing Room, Interior Hall, Interior Staircase, Interior
Dining Room and Interior Nursery
On Wednesday, February 29th, 1912 Nicholas wrote
“… went to Sergei Mikhailovich’s and had lunch …”
Nicholas and Sergei were members of the ‘potato’ club
formed in the 1880s with the Vorontsovs and Sheremetevs. Grand Duchess Xenia
had Fabergé design small gold brooches for the ladies and pendants for the men
with an image of a potato. In c1920, Xenia sent from England Sergei’s pendant
to Matilda. Nicholas had used his potato pendant as a keychain. On Friday,
April 28th, 1900 he wrote “… After dinner I sorted out a sea of
papers from St. Petersburg, which came in an old Danish suitcase for
safekeeping …”
On Tuesday, May 12th, 1915 Empress Marie
wrote “… I visited Sergei, who is not well at all [rheumatism] … It stinks in
his bedroom, where the air is awfully warm and unhealthy …”
Photograph (below) of Sergei Mikhailovich
Photograph (below) of Sergei Mikhailovich on Khodynka
Field during the coronation in 1896