A PS on Ella...
Atlantis Magazine
or four months, I though I would post information on her that was cut from
The Fate of the Romanovs in the interests of space.
Some of this stuff will be very familiar, but some comes from previously
unused or unsuspected sources. Everything is in its raw form here, and
there are no source notes attached. But ask away, if you want to know where
something comes from, and I'll do my best to answer quickly.
This follows Ella's story through the end of her life.
+++++++++++
It is true that rumors of all descriptions surrounded the married life
of Serge and Ella: that Ella was terribly unhappy; that Serge was
homosexual; a sadist in the bedroom, who inflicted untold sexual
indignities upon his helpless wife; that the Grand Duke frequented the
slums and ghettos of Moscow in search of prostitutes to satisfy his
bizarre desires; and that he was a pedophile, with a taste for the young
cadets in the city’s military training schools and, worse still, his
young charge, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. Whether the latter charge
was true, it was certainly circulated among both members of the Romanov
Family and the Imperial Court, and is recalled to this day by those in a
position to know. "His private life was the talk of the town," declared
Alexander Mossolov, head of Nicholas II’s Court Chancellery. In fact,
everyone seems to have been aware of Serge's homosexual tastes; even
Serge Witte noted: "He was always surrounded by comparatively young men,
who were excessively affectionate toward him." And another author
commented, "It was well known that the Grand Duke Serge was one of those
unhappy men cursed with the failing of loving only their own sex."
Serge certainly had an affinity for the young. Many family members and
relatives who recall the rather stiff and formal Grand Duke also
remember this same man down on his hands and knees playing childish
games for hours with young guests to Ilinskoye or his palace in St.
Petersburg. Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich recalled the joy with which
a visit to Serge was greeted among his siblings. The young princes
would jump from their carriage almost before it came to a stop and race
each other to be the first to find Serge and leap on him, searching his
pockets for chocolate and toys. Yet his undoubted affection for younger
members of the Romanov Family may have had nothing at all to do with his
uncertain sexual proclivities.
Serge was a complicated man, very insecure and uncomfortable in the
duties incumbent upon him. In Ella, he may well have found his soul
mate, and she in him. They certainly knew each other for most of their
lives, and as Ella grew older, she found herself more and more attracted
to Serge. It is difficult to know what goes on behind closed doors in
an intimate relationship. But we do know that for the duration of their
married life, and right up until the night before Serge’s death, he and
Ella shared a single bedroom and a large bed, an uncommon occurrence
among 19th and 20th Century royalty. Perhaps there was nothing physical
between them, but as their relationship was based initially in shared
confidences it is not unreasonable to assume that the very private and
socially awkward Serge may well have unwound in the privacy of the
bedroom in a way that at least enabled their early closeness to continue
on an emotional level.
Ella was jealous of Serge’s time, and liked to hold his attention. She
dressed for him, studied his favorite topics to please him, and immersed
herself in his religion to draw closer to him. This jealousy may also
explain her coldness and lack of affection towards her young charge,
Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. If Ella so badly wanted children of her
own, she had two lovely specimens dropped right into her lap in 1902.
Yet rather than see Paul’s children as answers to heartfelt prayers,
Ella regarded them, or Marie at least, as an irritation. When Marie was
sixteen, she often shared balls and parties, including a coming out
ball, with Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna, sister of Prince Gabriel;
Ella, the charming and vivacious society hostess, could not even be
bothered to attend to her niece’s needs. This may be explained away by
the fact that Ella was by this time wearing the habit of the Martha and
Mary Convent, but she was not unaware of the requirements of a young
girl of Marie’s station.
Given her own brother’s sexual preference, Ella was no stranger to
homosexuality, but she apparently reconciled herself to life with Serge
and his speculative tastes; they shared much, not the least of which was
a cold vanity, a harshness and temperament which drew them together.
Within a few years, they shared the same extreme political ideologies as
well.
Serge, according to one well-placed intimate of the Imperial Court, told
Ella to chose a "husband" from among her entourage. Whether the Grand
Duchess actually did so is not known, but a possible affair with Prince
Nicholas of Greece has long been hinted; certainly, she regularly wrote
to in intimate terms, calling him her "Papa." A second possible affair,
this one with her brother-in-law Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, has also
been raised. In her memoirs, Countess Lily Nostitz, whose St.
Petersburg circle included many well-placed aristocrats and members of
the Imperial Court, wrote that Ella’s "love affair with her
brother-in-law the Grand Duke Paul, was condoned generally by many in
society, despite the fact it broke the heart of his wife, a pathetic
young Greek princess." This, of course, carries with it no proof,
merely gossip. But both private letters passed within the Romanov
Family, and a set of unpublished memoirs by the descendant of an
Imperial Lady-in-Waiting, confirm that at the very least details of the
alleged liaison were well-known and discussed.
Nor was Ella above taking sides in the aftermath of the disaster at
Khodynka Meadow during Nicholas II’s Coronation in 1896. Far from being
appalled after the tragedy, she did all in her power to ignore it. To
anyone who would listen, Serge Alexandrovich declared that he was
absolutely innocent, and Ella, not unexpectedly, took his side, telling
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, "Thank God Serge has nothing to do
with all this!" Xenia herself knew that Serge shared the blame, and the
Dowager Empress complained that "Serge’s behavior in the matter is
incomprehensible to me, for he is Governor-General, after all!"
Khodynka, and Ella’s continued protests on her husband’s behalf, did
little to endear her to certain members of the Imperial Family. The
Dowager Empress, in particular, came to view her with increasingly
unsympathetic eyes, knowing that she was capable of questionable
behavior. In 1891, following her husband’s appointment as
Governor-General of Moscow, he had, of necessity, to relinquish his
position as Regimental Commander of the Preobrazhensky Guard, and Ella,
her role as patroness to the handsome young officers; they were replaced
by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and his wife Grand Duchess
Elizabeth Mavrikievna. When Marie Feodorovna teased Ella about this,
she became, according to the Empress, "furious…I tell her that Marva
[Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna] is sure to become the
Preobrazhensky mother, then Ella becomes pink with rage and says the
most dreadful things about her."
Ella enjoyed being the center of attention, and took this desire to
levels never witnessed before, even at the Russian Court. Marie
Pavlovna remembered that her aunt seemed inordinately obsessed with her
clothing and appearance. "She designed most of her dresses herself,
sketching and painting them in water colors, planning them with care,
and wearing them with art and distinction," she later wrote. "My uncle,
who had a passion for jewels, gave her many-so that she had a different
set to harmonize with almost every costume that she wore." When
dressing, Ella "would regard herself attentively, usually with pleasure,
in a high triple mirror, so arranged that she saw herself from all
sides," her niece recalled, in an effort to ensure that she drew
admiring glances. Even this was not enough, however, to feed her
vanity; when a ball was given by her and her husband, "she had a habit
of disappearing at midnight to change into a new dress and another set
of jewels," remembered Prince Christopher of Greece, "then she would
return to the ballroom more resplendent than before."
In the first decade of Nicholas II’s reign, both Serge and Ella
attempted to use their positions as intimates with the Imperial couple
to direct political policy. The ultimately fatal view of the autocracy
developed by Empress Alexandra stemmed from lectures given to her by
both Serge and Ella beginning in the summer of 1894. It was from this
pair that Alexandra learned the principles of autocracy and the mystical
nature of the Emperor’s office, and she quickly adopted that which her
sister and brother-in-law believed: a conservative, narrow-minded
viewpoint absolutely convinced of the necessity of maintaining and
preserving the autocracy.
Nor was Ella above interfering herself directly with Nicholas II’s
policies. Just before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, with
rural looting and urban strikes a common event, Nicholas II had to
appoint a man to replace Dimitri Sipyagin, his assassinated Minister of
the Interior. When he hesitated, Ella wrote to him in a letter which
repeated many of the same phrases which would later appear in her
sister’s War-time letters to the Emperor. Ella not only recommended
that Nicholas appoint Vyacheslav Plehve, but also that he crush the very
spirit of revolution with ruthless brutality: "Serge does not know of
this letter, it will probably be unlogical and over feminine, but I have
picked other brains and kept my ears open and as we hear much and
through clever, devoted people with experience and love for their
sovereign and country I thought who knows even a woman can be of use in
heavy times. Nicky dear, for heaven’s sake, be energetic now, more
deaths may be in store…put an end to this time of terror-forgive me if I
write straight out without phrases and as if I were dictating, I don’t
expect your doing what I say. I only put it so in case these ideas
might be of use to you. I would have directly named your new minister,
every day your looks will do harm-why not Plehve who has experience and
is honest. Don’t be so gentle-all think you are wavering and weak, they
no more speak of you as kind and it makes my heart ache so bitterly. I
fear I must be cruel and say more…a firm decision counter-ordered is
worse than none at all, it becomes fatal and now this new sorrow-oh, is
it really not possible to judge such brutes with a drum-head court? And
let all Russia know that such crimes are punishable by death."
Nicholas duly appointed the experienced, "honest" Plehve, a man who,
like Serge Alexandrovich, was an extremist in every sense: a vehement
monarchist, devoutly Orthodox, and rabidly anti-Semitic, a man who
proudly boasted, "I will choke the revolution in the blood of the Yids!"
and who, within a year, planned the bloody Kishinev Pogrom. Ella may
possibly have been politically naïve, but certainly she knew what sort
of man Plehve was, particularly with her own husband’s reactionary,
anti-Semitic views to enlighten her.
There is no doubt that Ella shared these views, for within a few months
she was responsible for helping introducing the infamous "Protocols of
the Elders of Zion" to Nicholas II. Shortly after the turn of the
century, the Emperor and Empress had become enamored of two French
mystics, Philippe Nazier-Vachot, a former butcher from Lyon, and a
mysterious man named Papus, a former Theosophist and founding member of
the Gnostic Catholic Church. The Court was in an uproar, and several
times Ella visited her sister, imploring her to denounce the men as
adventurers. In August, 1902, Alexandra wrote to Nicholas that Ella had
"assailed me about Our Friend [Philippe]. I remained very quiet and
gave dull answers."
But there was more at work here than a sister worried over the mystical
influence of two potentially corrupt characters. Since 1894, both Serge
Alexandrovich and Elizabeth Feodorovna were accustomed to wielding great
influence at Court. Serge was not only Nicholas’s uncle but his
brother-in-law as well, and he frequently advised his nephew on policy
issues. Of all the Imperial Family, only Serge and Ella held such an
influential position that, when the Emperor and Empress planned the
redecoration of their new rooms in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye
Selo, they had a suite specially set aside for them. Neither the Grand
Duke nor his wife was willing to watch quietly as this influence slipped
from their hands in favor of a pair of obscure foreign mystics. Thus,
"The Protocols" became an instrument through which Serge and Ella could
undermine the positions of Philippe and Papus at Court while
re-establishing their own hold over the Imperial couple. With this goal
in mind, "The Protocols" were once again re-written, this time to
include not only allegations against the Jews but also against the
Freemasons, a group with which both Philippe and Papus were known to be
involved.
To make sure that the plan succeeded, Ella herself found an author to
bring its new form forward. This was Serge Alexandrovich Nilus, a
narrow-minded, reactionary, ultra-Orthodox writer known for his
controversial publications. Nilus was married to a certain Countess
Ozerova, who happened to have been one of Ella’s Ladies-in-Waiting, and
the author and the Grand Duchess had frequently met. Now, to guarantee
success, Ella and her husband introduced Nilus to influential members of
the Court, and helped him raise the necessary funds to publish his
work. Ella’s actions stands at odds with the often-saintly descriptions
which surround her.
When Serge fell victim to a revolutionary bomb in 1905, his wife most
certainly rushed out into the courtyard to encounter a snow-covered
square scattered with charred and bloody pieces of flesh which, minutes
before, had been her husband. According to legend, with her own hands
Elizabeth gathered the larger pieces, including the remains of her
husband’s shattered head, in the folds of her dress and sadly carried
them inside. However, as the official police report of the event makes
clear, her behavior was not, as might be expected, quite so controlled.
As she stood in the midst of the carnage, the Grand Duchess saw a crowd
gathering to see what had happened. She angrily ran up to them and
screamed, "Aren’t you ashamed to be staring here? Go away! Go Away!"
She was finally led away, hysterical and screaming, back to the Palace.
After Serge’s death, Ella effectively washed her hands of the life-and
responsibilities-she had previously led and borne. She arranged the
marriage of her charge, the sixteen-year-old Grand Duchess Marie
Pavlovna, to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden without even informing the
intended bride, who learned of her engagement when she accidentally read
a cable on her aunt’s desk. At the age of forty-one, Ella found herself
a widow. It is this second half of her life which has passed into
near-legend, with émigré memoirs evoking images of the long-suffering,
virtuous, and saintly woman, consumed with spiritual piety, freeing
herself of earthly concerns to dedicate herself to the religious order
of nursing sisters she founded in Moscow.
It is often said that she sold her jewels and possessions, keeping
nothing of her former life, and used the money to fund her new religious
order. In fact, Ella left most of her jewels to Grand Duke Dimitri
Pavlovich and to his sister Marie Pavlovna; others were returned to the
Imperial Treasury, while only a few pieces, including her wedding ring,
were sold.
The Grand Duke’s death freed his wife, but by this time, she had become
so mystical and pious that she willingly withdrew from her former life.
In the 19th Century, Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna, the unhappy wife
of the persistently unfaithful Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievich Sr., had
left her husband, taken the veil, and founded a convent of nursing
sisters in Kiev, and it was this example Ella followed, though she did
so in her own unmistakable flamboyant and grand manner. Unlike Grand
Duchess Alexandra, Ella did not go quietly.
Several years after her marriage, Ella had converted from Lutheranism to
Orthodoxy, and with the passage of time her fervor only grew pronounced,
until it became an obsession. "Although himself pious and scrupulous in
observance of all the rites of Orthodoxy," recalled Grand Duchess Marie
Pavlovna, "Uncle Serge regarded with anxiety his wife's increasing
absorption in things spiritual, and ended by regarding it as
immoderate."
This spirit, coupled with her vanity, led the Grand Duchess to embark on
her charitable life in what the Dowager Empress complained was a
deliberately "grand manner." She used her money to establish a
religious community of nuns in Moscow. She was not, however, content to
simply preside over the community, as Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna
had done; instead, Ella wanted an official position and title, and
became Mother Abbess of the Convent of St. Mary and St. Martha. She
pushed further, insisting that her novitiates be allowed to assume the
rank and title of "Deaconess." She could easily have settled for
nursing sisters but, as in other areas of her life, what she wanted was
something extraordinary and unique, which made her organization stand
far above the rest.
Her insistence on the issue caused a scandal. She waged a public battle
with the members of the Holy Synod, the Church’s ruling body, who
refused to humor her and declared that such a request was unheard of in
Eastern Orthodoxy, which confined all clerical ranks to men. She was
loudly, and publicly, opposed by Bishop Hermogen of Saratov, one of the
Church’s leading clerics, who went directly to Nicholas II and
complained about his sister-in-law’s grandiose behavior. His
discontent, as Professor Joseph Fuhrmann wrote, was "freely quoted about
the capital," ensuring a scandal.
In time, Ella won. She became the Head Abbess of the Order of St. Mary
and St. Martha, devoting the rest of her life to caring for the sick and
the poor. It is this picture of the sacrificing Grand Duchess which
earned Elizabeth such a reputation as a good and saintly woman. Hers,
according to history, was, as Lubov Millar wrote, "the life of a true
ascetic. She slept on a wooden bed without a mattress; her pillow was
hard." Such a vision also forms part of the myth, but it is a myth
without foundation. The Grand Duchess may have slept on an
uncomfortable bed, but she scarcely lived the harsh life of "a true
ascetic." In 1917, a journalist visited her at the convent in Moscow
and described in some detail the circumstances in which the Grand
Duchess resided: "It gave the same general impression of blue and white
and gold that one sees throughout the place. There were many books
bound in lapis blue which seems to be the Grand Duchess’s favorite
color; a few pictures, mostly of the Madonna and Child; some small
tables, one with Stephen Graham’s book ‘The House of Mary and Martha’
held open upon it by a piece of embroidery carelessly dropped. There
were easy chairs of English willow with blue cushions, and business-like
little desk crammed with papers. Everywhere, in the window, on tables
and the desk, were bowls and vases of flowers. Every room in the place,
in fact, was filled with flowers."
Nor did Ella embark on this life by abandoning comfort and style.
According to Maurice Paleologue, the French Ambassador to Russia during
the First World War, the Grand Duchess commissioned the famed religious
artist Nesterov to design the clothing for her new order: "long robes of
fine, pearl grey baize with white cambric whimples and white wool
veils." The attention to comfortable fabrics and an eye to detail were
certainly at work, but Paleologue did not know the complete story.
While Nesterov designed her robes, they were sewn at the fashion house
of Pacquin’s in Paris, one of the leading couturiers of the day, and it
was the work of this fine and expensive designer which the "ascetic"
Grand Duchess proudly wore at public celebrations of the Romanov
Tercentenary in 1913. In fact, she had two sets made: one grey, the
other white, the latter designed to attract "as much attention to
herself as possible," as the Dowager Empress once complained.
As the years passed, relations between Ella and her sister Alexandra
grew increasingly strained over Rasputin. When Sophie Tiutcheva, who
served as governess to the four young Grand Duchesses, was dismissed
from her position for spreading false and malicious gossip about
Rasputin’s relations with the girls, she immediately went to Ella, who
took her side and in what became a very public battle. Ella was
convinced that all of the rumors about Rasputin were true. Though she
knew of the plot to kill him in advance, she did nothing to stop it;
rather, she actively encouraged both Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke
Dimitri to carry out the murder, and sent several cables afterward which
praised them for their "patriotic deed."
Ella’s life ended in the Siberian town of Alapayevsk on 17 July, 1918,
when she, alone with five other members of the Imperial Family, and two
remaining attendants, were thrown down a mine shaft. Contrary to the
legend, the victims were not ordered to walk into the pit: all except
for Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich who was shot, were hit over the head
with blunt objects and flung into the shaft unconscious, followed by
grenades in an attempt to kill them. Stories that Ella willingly walked
over the edge of the pit singing a hymn and uttering as her last words,
"Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do," first began to
appear in monarchist literature in the early 1920s, though the official
records of the investigation show that the tales were apocryphal.
Though it is often said that the victims lived for days at the bottom of
the shaft, such stories were almost certainly monarchist propaganda. In
fact, this myth arose from the story of an Alapayevsk priest, who was in
the habit of stopping at the School in the Fields to visit Ella and her
companion, Sister Barbara Yakovleva. He was aware that something had
happened to the Imperial prisoners, and attempted to trace their path.
He followed their tracks quite far into the woods, where he encountered
some peasants who related a strange tale: the Bolsheviks, they said, had
attempted to keep them away from the mine in the forest, but they had
managed to creep close enough to hear both cries for help and some
muffled singing. Recently, Boris Soloviev, the State Prosecutor of the
Russian Federation who conducted the inquiry into the executions of the
Romanovs in the summer of 1918, concluded after extensive review of all
evidence and sources that the Alapayevsk victims had almost certainly
died from brain hemorrhages within a matter of hours.
When the White Army arrived in Alapayevsk, the priest informed them of
his discovery and he aided with the recovery and identification of the
bodies. Autopsies were carried out and photographs were made of the
corpses, which were included in the works of the official White Army
Investigator, Nicholas Sokolov, and in John O’Connor’s book "The Sokolov
Investigation."
The bodies of the Romanovs, plus Prince Paley, Sister Barbara and the
Grand Duke's secretary Feodor Remez, were taken by train to the East.
At some point in Eastern Siberia, the train was raided, and Prince
Ioann’s body was taken. It was returned a few days later, however, and
all the coffins made their way successfully out of Russia to Peking,
where they were installed in the crypt of the Orthodox Cathedral until
other plans could be made. Ella’s sister, Victoria, Marchioness of
Milford Haven, paid for the removal of her corpse, and that of her
companion Sister Barbara. They were eventually taken to Jerusalem,
where they were interred in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral on the Mount
of Olives. Prince Paley, Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich and his
secretary, and the Konstantinovichii Princes, remained in the Peking
vault; their families could not afford to recover them and bring them
west for burial. The Orthodox Cathedral was destroyed by bombs in the
war with Japan, and the bodies of the Alapayevsk victims were believed
lost; however, within the last twenty years, they were located when a
parking lot was razed for development and the crypt was found relatively
intact. They now rest in the new Orthodox Cathedral in Beijing.
Ella was a complex woman: a beautiful Princess married to a man who
seemed her exact opposite but who, in fact, seems to have been her
temperamental match. With her petty vanities, jealousies, and
reactionary points of view, the Grand Duchess was certainly no better or
worse than any other member of the Romanov Family; but any negative
sides to her character have all but disappeared from the picture
slavishly painted in émigré memoirs and by religious devotees, depriving
her of any real emotional interest or human passion. While there is no
denying the Grand Duchess’s later important dedication to her charity
convent, it does not paint a complete portrait of the woman she seems to
have been.
As a final interesting note, a statue of Ella was installed above the
West Door of Westminster Abbey in July, 1998 as one of the new 20th
century martyrs commemorated in the great church.
G-B
Atlantis Magazine wrote:
>
>
snipped
Wow. You know how to disillusion a guy don't you! Although I think it was you
who alluded me not too long ago to Ella's 'other' life, I want to thank you for
the transcript. It is quite fascinating (I ended up putting three tel lines on
hold while I read it - but don't tell anyone).
I had no idea she was *that* complex. How did you manage to find all this
news? I wonder, if the GDke was so out of control in the bedroom, how she
developed the feeling for him that she did.. I suppose we shouldn't be
completely surprised, given her sister's personality as I can see some
resemblance, which I never had from what I've read before. I had no idea of
her involvement directly with Nicholas and the running of the country (through
such things as her letter) and I have to say that between his wife, sil, bil
etc etc I doubt he knew whether he was coming or going... It's also
extraordinary that given both sisters were granddaughters of QV that they both,
so vehemently, turned out to be so pro autocracy. Perhaps the mystical nature
of the Orthodox Church (compared with British & German protestantism) and their
conversion to it, combined with the legend of 'Tsar Autocrat' had something to
do with this? The Dowager Empress must have wished that she had never heard of
either of them....
Anyway, thanks again.
Gioff
Andy.3rd
>extraordinary that given both sisters were granddaughters of QV that they
>both,
>so vehemently, turned out to be so pro autocracy.
Not surprising at all really. Victoria was the biggest Autocrat of all, she
just chose to not play the part on the political stage and limited it to the
emotional aspect of "ruling" her family.. and make no mistake, she *did* rule
that family. <G>
His Illustrious and Most Serene Jadedness, Andy, RSM
G-B
"Andy.3rd" wrote:
=====
She certainly did rule the family. I always get the feeling though that while
she often lamented her role as only a 'constitutional monarch', that her social
sympathies were more benevolent than the Russian Tsars.
Gioff
Robert Hall
> Since interest in Ella has engendered a few threads here in the last three
> or four months, I though I would post information on her that was cut from
> The Fate of the Romanovs in the interests of space.
>
> Some of this stuff will be very familiar, but some comes from previously
> unused or unsuspected sources. Everything is in its raw form here, and
> there are no source notes attached. But ask away, if you want to know where
> something comes from, and I'll do my best to answer quickly.
>
> This follows Ella's story through the end of her life.
>
> +++++++++++
>
> It is true that rumors of all descriptions surrounded the married life
> of Serge and Ella: that Ella was terribly unhappy; that Serge was
> homosexual; a sadist in the bedroom, who inflicted untold sexual
> indignities upon his helpless wife; that the Grand Duke frequented the
> slums and ghettos of Moscow in search of prostitutes to satisfy his
> bizarre desires; and that he was a pedophile, with a taste for the young
> young charge, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. Whether the latter charge
> was true, it was certainly circulated among both members of the Romanov
> Family and the Imperial Court, and is recalled to this day by those in a
> position to know. "His private life was the talk of the town," declared
> everyone seems to have been aware of Serge's homosexual tastes; even
> Serge Witte noted: "He was always surrounded by comparatively young men,
> who were excessively affectionate toward him." And another author
> commented, "It was well known that the Grand Duke Serge was one of those
> unhappy men cursed with the failing of loving only their own sex."
>
> Serge certainly had an affinity for the young. Many family members and
> relatives who recall the rather stiff and formal Grand Duke also
> remember this same man down on his hands and knees playing childish
> games for hours with young guests to Ilinskoye or his palace in St.
> Petersburg. Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich recalled the joy with which
> a visit to Serge was greeted among his siblings. The young princes
> would jump from their carriage almost before it came to a stop and race
> each other to be the first to find Serge and leap on him, searching his
> pockets for chocolate and toys. Yet his undoubted affection for younger
> members of the Romanov Family may have had nothing at all to do with his
> uncertain sexual proclivities.
>
> Serge was a complicated man, very insecure and uncomfortable in the
> duties incumbent upon him. In Ella, he may well have found his soul
> mate, and she in him. They certainly knew each other for most of their
> lives, and as Ella grew older, she found herself more and more attracted
> to Serge. It is difficult to know what goes on behind closed doors in
> an intimate relationship. But we do know that for the duration of their
> Ella shared a single bedroom and a large bed, an uncommon occurrence
> among 19th and 20th Century royalty. Perhaps there was nothing physical
> between them, but as their relationship was based initially in shared
> confidences it is not unreasonable to assume that the very private and
> socially awkward Serge may well have unwound in the privacy of the
> bedroom in a way that at least enabled their early closeness to continue
> on an emotional level.
>
> dressed for him, studied his favorite topics to please him, and immersed
> herself in his religion to draw closer to him. This jealousy may also
> explain her coldness and lack of affection towards her young charge,
> Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. If Ella so badly wanted children of her
> own, she had two lovely specimens dropped right into her lap in 1902.
> Ella regarded them, or Marie at least, as an irritation. When Marie was
> sixteen, she often shared balls and parties, including a coming out
> ball, with Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna, sister of Prince Gabriel;
> Ella, the charming and vivacious society hostess, could not even be
> the fact that Ella was by this time wearing the habit of the Martha and
> Mary Convent, but she was not unaware of the requirements of a young
>
> Given her own brother?s sexual preference, Ella was no stranger to
> homosexuality, but she apparently reconciled herself to life with Serge
> and his speculative tastes; they shared much, not the least of which was
> a cold vanity, a harshness and temperament which drew them together.
> Within a few years, they shared the same extreme political ideologies as
> well.
>
> Serge, according to one well-placed intimate of the Imperial Court, told
> Ella to chose a "husband" from among her entourage. Whether the Grand
> Duchess actually did so is not known, but a possible affair with Prince
> Nicholas of Greece has long been hinted; certainly, she regularly wrote
> to in intimate terms, calling him her "Papa." A second possible affair,
> this one with her brother-in-law Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, has also
> been raised. In her memoirs, Countess Lily Nostitz, whose St.
> Petersburg circle included many well-placed aristocrats and members of
> brother-in-law the Grand Duke Paul, was condoned generally by many in
> society, despite the fact it broke the heart of his wife, a pathetic
> young Greek princess." This, of course, carries with it no proof,
> merely gossip. But both private letters passed within the Romanov
> Family, and a set of unpublished memoirs by the descendant of an
> Imperial Lady-in-Waiting, confirm that at the very least details of the
> alleged liaison were well-known and discussed.
>
> Nor was Ella above taking sides in the aftermath of the disaster at
> appalled after the tragedy, she did all in her power to ignore it. To
> anyone who would listen, Serge Alexandrovich declared that he was
> absolutely innocent, and Ella, not unexpectedly, took his side, telling
> Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, "Thank God Serge has nothing to do
> with all this!" Xenia herself knew that Serge shared the blame, and the
> incomprehensible to me, for he is Governor-General, after all!"
>
> little to endear her to certain members of the Imperial Family. The
> Dowager Empress, in particular, came to view her with increasingly
> unsympathetic eyes, knowing that she was capable of questionable
> Governor-General of Moscow, he had, of necessity, to relinquish his
> position as Regimental Commander of the Preobrazhensky Guard, and Ella,
> her role as patroness to the handsome young officers; they were replaced
> by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and his wife Grand Duchess
> Elizabeth Mavrikievna. When Marie Feodorovna teased Ella about this,
> [Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna] is sure to become the
> Preobrazhensky mother, then Ella becomes pink with rage and says the
> most dreadful things about her."
>
> Ella enjoyed being the center of attention, and took this desire to
> levels never witnessed before, even at the Russian Court. Marie
> Pavlovna remembered that her aunt seemed inordinately obsessed with her
> clothing and appearance. "She designed most of her dresses herself,
> sketching and painting them in water colors, planning them with care,
> and wearing them with art and distinction," she later wrote. "My uncle,
> who had a passion for jewels, gave her many-so that she had a different
> set to harmonize with almost every costume that she wore." When
> dressing, Ella "would regard herself attentively, usually with pleasure,
> in a high triple mirror, so arranged that she saw herself from all
> sides," her niece recalled, in an effort to ensure that she drew
> admiring glances. Even this was not enough, however, to feed her
> vanity; when a ball was given by her and her husband, "she had a habit
> of disappearing at midnight to change into a new dress and another set
> of jewels," remembered Prince Christopher of Greece, "then she would
> return to the ballroom more resplendent than before."
>
> attempted to use their positions as intimates with the Imperial couple
> to direct political policy. The ultimately fatal view of the autocracy
> developed by Empress Alexandra stemmed from lectures given to her by
> both Serge and Ella beginning in the summer of 1894. It was from this
> pair that Alexandra learned the principles of autocracy and the mystical
> sister and brother-in-law believed: a conservative, narrow-minded
> viewpoint absolutely convinced of the necessity of maintaining and
> preserving the autocracy.
>
> policies. Just before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, with
> rural looting and urban strikes a common event, Nicholas II had to
> appoint a man to replace Dimitri Sipyagin, his assassinated Minister of
> the Interior. When he hesitated, Ella wrote to him in a letter which
> repeated many of the same phrases which would later appear in her
> that Nicholas appoint Vyacheslav Plehve, but also that he crush the very
> spirit of revolution with ruthless brutality: "Serge does not know of
> this letter, it will probably be unlogical and over feminine, but I have
> picked other brains and kept my ears open and as we hear much and
> through clever, devoted people with experience and love for their
> sovereign and country I thought who knows even a woman can be of use in
> deaths may be in store?put an end to this time of terror-forgive me if I
> write straight out without phrases and as if I were dictating, I don?t
> expect your doing what I say. I only put it so in case these ideas
> might be of use to you. I would have directly named your new minister,
> every day your looks will do harm-why not Plehve who has experience and
> no more speak of you as kind and it makes my heart ache so bitterly. I
> worse than none at all, it becomes fatal and now this new sorrow-oh, is
> it really not possible to judge such brutes with a drum-head court? And
> let all Russia know that such crimes are punishable by death."
>
> Nicholas duly appointed the experienced, "honest" Plehve, a man who,
> like Serge Alexandrovich, was an extremist in every sense: a vehement
> monarchist, devoutly Orthodox, and rabidly anti-Semitic, a man who
> proudly boasted, "I will choke the revolution in the blood of the Yids!"
> and who, within a year, planned the bloody Kishinev Pogrom. Ella may
> possibly have been politically naïve, but certainly she knew what sort
> anti-Semitic views to enlighten her.
>
> There is no doubt that Ella shared these views, for within a few months
> she was responsible for helping introducing the infamous "Protocols of
> the Elders of Zion" to Nicholas II. Shortly after the turn of the
> century, the Emperor and Empress had become enamored of two French
> mystics, Philippe Nazier-Vachot, a former butcher from Lyon, and a
> mysterious man named Papus, a former Theosophist and founding member of
> the Gnostic Catholic Church. The Court was in an uproar, and several
> times Ella visited her sister, imploring her to denounce the men as
> adventurers. In August, 1902, Alexandra wrote to Nicholas that Ella had
> "assailed me about Our Friend [Philippe]. I remained very quiet and
> gave dull answers."
>
> But there was more at work here than a sister worried over the mystical
> influence of two potentially corrupt characters. Since 1894, both Serge
> Alexandrovich and Elizabeth Feodorovna were accustomed to wielding great
> brother-in-law as well, and he frequently advised his nephew on policy
> issues. Of all the Imperial Family, only Serge and Ella held such an
> influential position that, when the Emperor and Empress planned the
> redecoration of their new rooms in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye
> Selo, they had a suite specially set aside for them. Neither the Grand
> Duke nor his wife was willing to watch quietly as this influence slipped
> from their hands in favor of a pair of obscure foreign mystics. Thus,
> "The Protocols" became an instrument through which Serge and Ella could
> undermine the positions of Philippe and Papus at Court while
> re-establishing their own hold over the Imperial couple. With this goal
> in mind, "The Protocols" were once again re-written, this time to
> include not only allegations against the Jews but also against the
> Freemasons, a group with which both Philippe and Papus were known to be
> involved.
>
> To make sure that the plan succeeded, Ella herself found an author to
> bring its new form forward. This was Serge Alexandrovich Nilus, a
> narrow-minded, reactionary, ultra-Orthodox writer known for his
> controversial publications. Nilus was married to a certain Countess
> the author and the Grand Duchess had frequently met. Now, to guarantee
> success, Ella and her husband introduced Nilus to influential members of
> the Court, and helped him raise the necessary funds to publish his
> which surround her.
>
> When Serge fell victim to a revolutionary bomb in 1905, his wife most
> certainly rushed out into the courtyard to encounter a snow-covered
> square scattered with charred and bloody pieces of flesh which, minutes
> before, had been her husband. According to legend, with her own hands
> Elizabeth gathered the larger pieces, including the remains of her
> them inside. However, as the official police report of the event makes
> clear, her behavior was not, as might be expected, quite so controlled.
> As she stood in the midst of the carnage, the Grand Duchess saw a crowd
> gathering to see what had happened. She angrily ran up to them and
> She was finally led away, hysterical and screaming, back to the Palace.
>
> responsibilities-she had previously led and borne. She arranged the
> marriage of her charge, the sixteen-year-old Grand Duchess Marie
> Pavlovna, to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden without even informing the
> intended bride, who learned of her engagement when she accidentally read
> a widow. It is this second half of her life which has passed into
> near-legend, with émigré memoirs evoking images of the long-suffering,
> virtuous, and saintly woman, consumed with spiritual piety, freeing
> herself of earthly concerns to dedicate herself to the religious order
> of nursing sisters she founded in Moscow.
>
> It is often said that she sold her jewels and possessions, keeping
> nothing of her former life, and used the money to fund her new religious
> order. In fact, Ella left most of her jewels to Grand Duke Dimitri
> Pavlovich and to his sister Marie Pavlovna; others were returned to the
> Imperial Treasury, while only a few pieces, including her wedding ring,
> were sold.
>
> refused to humor her and declared that such a request was unheard of in
> Eastern Orthodoxy, which confined all clerical ranks to men. She was
> loudly, and publicly, opposed by Bishop Hermogen of Saratov, one of the
> complained about his sister-in-law?s grandiose behavior. His
> discontent, as Professor Joseph Fuhrmann wrote, was "freely quoted about
> the capital," ensuring a scandal.
>
> In time, Ella won. She became the Head Abbess of the Order of St. Mary
> and St. Martha, devoting the rest of her life to caring for the sick and
> the poor. It is this picture of the sacrificing Grand Duchess which
> earned Elizabeth such a reputation as a good and saintly woman. Hers,
> according to history, was, as Lubov Millar wrote, "the life of a true
> ascetic. She slept on a wooden bed without a mattress; her pillow was
> hard." Such a vision also forms part of the myth, but it is a myth
> without foundation. The Grand Duchess may have slept on an
> uncomfortable bed, but she scarcely lived the harsh life of "a true
> ascetic." In 1917, a journalist visited her at the convent in Moscow
> and described in some detail the circumstances in which the Grand
> Duchess resided: "It gave the same general impression of blue and white
> and gold that one sees throughout the place. There were many books
> color; a few pictures, mostly of the Madonna and Child; some small
> held open upon it by a piece of embroidery carelessly dropped. There
> were easy chairs of English willow with blue cushions, and business-like
> little desk crammed with papers. Everywhere, in the window, on tables
> and the desk, were bowls and vases of flowers. Every room in the place,
> in fact, was filled with flowers."
>
> Nor did Ella embark on this life by abandoning comfort and style.
> According to Maurice Paleologue, the French Ambassador to Russia during
> the First World War, the Grand Duchess commissioned the famed religious
> artist Nesterov to design the clothing for her new order: "long robes of
> fine, pearl grey baize with white cambric whimples and white wool
> veils." The attention to comfortable fabrics and an eye to detail were
> certainly at work, but Paleologue did not know the complete story.
> While Nesterov designed her robes, they were sewn at the fashion house
> was the work of this fine and expensive designer which the "ascetic"
> Grand Duchess proudly wore at public celebrations of the Romanov
> Tercentenary in 1913. In fact, she had two sets made: one grey, the
> other white, the latter designed to attract "as much attention to
> herself as possible," as the Dowager Empress once complained.
>
> As the years passed, relations between Ella and her sister Alexandra
> grew increasingly strained over Rasputin. When Sophie Tiutcheva, who
> served as governess to the four young Grand Duchesses, was dismissed
> from her position for spreading false and malicious gossip about
> took her side and in what became a very public battle. Ella was
> convinced that all of the rumors about Rasputin were true. Though she
> knew of the plot to kill him in advance, she did nothing to stop it;
> rather, she actively encouraged both Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke
> Dimitri to carry out the murder, and sent several cables afterward which
> praised them for their "patriotic deed."
>
> Investigation."
>
> The bodies of the Romanovs, plus Prince Paley, Sister Barbara and the
> Grand Duke's secretary Feodor Remez, were taken by train to the East.
> At some point in Eastern Siberia, the train was raided, and Prince
> all the coffins made their way successfully out of Russia to Peking,
> where they were installed in the crypt of the Orthodox Cathedral until
> Milford Haven, paid for the removal of her corpse, and that of her
> companion Sister Barbara. They were eventually taken to Jerusalem,
> where they were interred in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral on the Mount
> of Olives. Prince Paley, Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich and his
> secretary, and the Konstantinovichii Princes, remained in the Peking
> vault; their families could not afford to recover them and bring them
> west for burial. The Orthodox Cathedral was destroyed by bombs in the
> war with Japan, and the bodies of the Alapayevsk victims were believed
> lost; however, within the last twenty years, they were located when a
> parking lot was razed for development and the crypt was found relatively
> intact. They now rest in the new Orthodox Cathedral in Beijing.
>
> Ella was a complex woman: a beautiful Princess married to a man who
> seemed her exact opposite but who, in fact, seems to have been her
> temperamental match. With her petty vanities, jealousies, and
> reactionary points of view, the Grand Duchess was certainly no better or
> worse than any other member of the Romanov Family; but any negative
> sides to her character have all but disappeared from the picture
> slavishly painted in émigré memoirs and by religious devotees, depriving
> her of any real emotional interest or human passion. While there is no
> convent, it does not paint a complete portrait of the woman she seems to
> have been.
>
> As a final interesting note, a statue of Ella was installed above the
> West Door of Westminster Abbey in July, 1998 as one of the new 20th
> century martyrs commemorated in the great church.
Interesting