I just finished reading the book Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs by Coryne Hall. I got the book from my parents for my birthday. I buzzed right thru the book I guess because it kept my interest all the way thru. I always enjoy a new perspective on my hobby of studying Russian history especially the Romanovs. Mathilde was one of the greatest ballet dancers in the Imperial Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg from the 1880s thru the revolution in 1917. This was a period of a great flowering of the arts in Russia. Her comtemporaries were Serge Diaghlev, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Anna Pavlova. She was a lover of the last Tsar while he was heir to the throne, and then later she was a lover of two Grand Dukes simultaneously (both cousins of the Tsar). Because of her relationships with members of the Imperial Family, Mathilde reigned supreme at the Mariinsky as the Prima Ballerina Assoluta, and she became fabulously wealthy. Between performances at the Mariinsky, Krasnoe Selo (the summer training ground for the Russian Imperial Army), and infrequent stops in Europe, Mathilde lived the life of the rich and famous. She had a wonderful palace in St. Petersburg directly across the Neva from the Winter Palace, a summer dacha in Strelna next to the Constantine Palace (currently the official residence of the President of Russia in St. Petersburg owing to the restoration work done by Putin), and a villa in the South of France outside Nice. Her glittering life came to an end when the Revolution came. The Bosheviks took posession of her home in St. Petersburg, and Lenin made speeches from her balcony to the revolutionary crowds. She escaped to the Caucacus' joining her lover Grand Duke Andrei. They remained in this area for as long as they could safely remain on Russian soil, and then they boarded a ship bound for Venice, Italy. In exile, she finally married into the Imperial Family by becoming the wife of Grand Duke Andrei, and she became a princess by decree of the then head of the family, Grand Duke Cyril. This was not a marriage of equals, so she was not allowed to assume the title of her husband. For the rest of her life, she lived in France until the ripe age of 99. She opened a ballet school in Paris, and taught for 35 years. In the last years of her life, she was completely destitute, and only thru the generosity of friends and institutions in the UK and France was she able to survive. She died in 1971, and she is buried outside Paris.
Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg
Mariinsky Stage
Mariinsky Imperial Box
Infamous balcony at Mathilde's palace in St. Petersburg
