Confessions of the Czarina

Оглавление

Princess Catherine Radziwill. Confessions of the Czarina

Confessions of the Czarina

Table of Contents

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

INTRODUCTION

CONFESSIONS. OF THE CZARINA

I. BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE

II. MARRIAGE AND LONELINESS

III. MY COUNTRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY, WHY AM I PARTED FROM THEE?

IV. A SAD CORONATION

V. DAUGHTERS, DAUGHTERS, AND NO SON

VI. THE EMPRESS’S OPINIONS ABOUT RUSSIA

VII. WHAT THE IMPERIAL FAMILY THOUGHT ABOUT THE EMPRESS

VIII. SORROW AND UNEXPECTED CONSOLATION

IX. PHILIPPE AND HIS WORK

X. ANNA WYRUBEWA APPEARS ON THE SCENE AND HE SAW HER PASS

XI. AND HE SAW HER PASS …

XII. LOVED AT LAST

XIII. HE DIED TO SAVE HER HONOR

XIV. A NATION IN REVOLT

XV. A PROPHET OF GOD

XVI. SHE SAW HIM ONCE MORE

XVII. MY SON! I MUST SAVE MY SON!

XVIII. ANOTHER WAR

XIX. MY FATHERLAND, MUST I FORSAKE THEE?

XX. IT IS YOUR HUSBAND WHO IS LOSING THE THRONE OF YOUR SON

XXI. PEACE, WE MUST HAVE PEACE

XXII. THE REMOVAL OF THE “PROPHET”

XXIII. ANNA COMES TO THE RESCUE

XXIV. YOU MUST BECOME THE EMPRESS

XXV. THE NATION WANTS YOUR HEAD

XXVI. A CROWN IS LOST

XXVII. A PRISONER AFTER HAVING BEEN A QUEEN

XXVIII. THE EXILE

Отрывок из книги

Princess Catherine Radziwill

Published by Good Press, 2019

.....

The Princess reached Livadia three days before the Czar breathed his last. He found sufficient strength to receive her, bless her, and wish her happiness in her new life. She replied (this must be conceded to her) with great tact to those solemn words of farewell, and, suddenly surmounting her previous repugnance, she declared herself ready to abjure at once the Protestant faith, and to embrace that of her future husband and subjects. Some people say that she declared she wished to procure this last joy for Alexander III., but this is doubtful, considering the fact that her conversion took place only on the morrow of the death of the latter.

As soon as it had become an accomplished fact, she was given the title of a Russian Grand Duchess and of an Imperial Highness. Her name appeared in the liturgy, and she was treated with all the honors pertaining to a future Empress. But she found herself lonely and forsaken amid her newly acquired grandeur. The Dowager Empress was too entirely taken up by her grief to pay any attention to the haughty girl, who, already during those first few days of her new life, showed herself resentful when she thought that she was not awarded sufficient importance. The young Czar was so absorbed by the many duties and obligations which fell upon his shoulders that he had no time to remain with her as long as she would have wished, perhaps, and his family simply ignored her. Her days were spent in attending the many funeral services which, according to etiquette, took place twice, and sometimes thrice, daily beside the bier of the deceased Monarch. She found herself placed not only in an awkward, but also in an absurd, position, and if she did not realize other things, she understood this one but too well.

.....