In 1880, two months after the death of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Tsar Alexander II married Katia Dolgorouki. In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, Jean des Cars returns to a love story forbidden to tragic outcome.
A few days after Valentine's Day, Jean des Cars tells you the story of a passionate, forbidden and ultimately tragic love. In this new episode of "At the heart of history", produced by Europe 1 Studio, discover the love at first sight between the Tsar of Russia Alexander II and the beautiful aristocrat Katia Dolgorouki.
On July 18, 1880, at 3 p.m., in the great palace of Tsarskoye Selo, Alexander II, 62 years old, dressed in the pale blue uniform of the Hussars of the Guard, went to look in his room for Katherine Dolgorouki, his mistress, aged 34. . She wears a beige cloth dress, no flowers, no tiara and yet, if the Tsar comes to get her, it is because we are going to celebrate their marriage. They have loved each other for fourteen years. For the Tsar, this is the best gift he can give him. For her, it is a kind of triumph. The two crossed the palace to a small living room, isolated and without furniture. In the middle, a simple table that will serve as an altar. The archpriest of the Winter Palace has placed there a cross, a Gospel, two torches, the crowns essential to the Orthodox rite and two alliances.
Two only witnesses, generals close to the Emperor, will act as groomsmen and hold the crowns above the heads of the engaged couple. Behind them, a couple of friends from Katia. And that's all. Of course, it is a morganatic marriage. This means that the bride will not become a Czarina and the three children she has had from the Tsar will not be heirs. Nevertheless, the sovereign will make his new wife Princess Yourievski. Children will bear the same title with the predicate of serene altitudes.
A scandal, a sacrilege!
For the children of the tsar's first marriage, who are not even aware of it, this is a real provocation. For the Court, it is a scandal. For the Orthodox clergy, it is a sacrilege: the first wife of the tsar, Maria Alexandrovna, died less than two months ago, victim of tuberculosis. If the 40-day mourning of the Court is effectively over, it is, in principle, impossible to remarry less than a year after the death of the lawful wife. But Katia matters so much to the Tsar, he is so mad about her, he was so unhappy to impose a clandestine life of fourteen years on him that he is ready to do anything to redeem himself.
As for Katia, certainly in love with the sovereign, but also ambitious, she accomplishes the first act of her dream: to marry the tsar! It only remains for her to be crowned Empress.
But who are really the beautiful Katia and this 62 year old man? And how did he fall in love with this penniless young princess?
Love at first sight at the Smolny Institute
Alexander II ascended the Romanov throne in 1855. His father, Tsar Nicolas I, did not leave him an easy legacy: an unfinished Crimean war which turned into disaster for Russia and a country rebelled by the iron fist of the one who was nicknamed "the policeman of Europe".
To make matters worse, the Treaty of Paris in 1856 ended the Crimean War in unpleasant conditions for Russia. It is deprived of access to the Straits and therefore of access to the Mediterranean.
Alexander II wants to be a reforming tsar. It will take six years to impose the abolition of serfdom in Russia. It is a generous and courageous idea. But it will only get him into trouble. The aristocracy protested, the peasants went into debt to buy their land. Many will gain the cities which industrialize, in particular Saint-Petersburg. They constitute a miserable proletariat which will be the breeding ground for revolutionary ideas. A nihilist movement is formed. And the reforming tsar who wanted to make his country happy will be the victim of eight attacks.
As a family, the Tsar was very happy with his lovely and intelligent wife. She gave him seven children, six boys and a girl. But Maria Alexandrovna is in fragile health. She is exhausted by her successive maternities and probably already eaten away by consumption, which will eventually prevail. Alexander II is beautiful, attractive, he loves women. He will have some adventures without result. It is at the moment when his wife closes his room, because she can no longer risk being pregnant again, that Alexander II chooses to turn away completely and meets the one who will be the true love of his life.
Catherine Dolgorouki, Katia for close friends, belongs to a ruined noble family. She is a boarder at the Smolny Institute. It is an institution founded by the daughter of Pierre the Great, Elisabeth 1st, for the education of young girls of the aristocracy. The Russian equivalent of Madame de Maintenon's Saint-Cyr.
The Czarina often comes to visit Smolny. She is interested in her boarders. Alexander II sometimes accompanies him and notices the mischievous look of the young Katia. One spring day, while he is walking in the Summer Garden, he meets her, recognizes her and begins to speak to her. The academician Henri Troyat, of Russian origin, describes the scene to us: "At the same time proud and frightened to have been distinguished by Her Majesty, she has only one haste, it is to escape and disappear Alexander, however, devours her gaze. She has fine features, an ivory complexion, brown braids, supple and silky, almond-shaped split eyes and a beguiling smile. So much prettiness and naivety transport her. "
All of St. Petersburg is aware of this new route
She is 17 years old. He will see her often. They are walking in the imperial parks. Alexander declares his love to her. She refuses. It will take two years to yield to him. It was on July 13, 1866 that Katia became mistress of the Tsar. They ended up at the Babygone belvedere, a charming colonnaded pavilion overlooking the Baltic in the grounds of Peterhof Palace. He is 29 years older than her but who cares! It is a mutual sensual revelation that time will never dull. They exchange erotic correspondence. It is the tsar who expresses himself: "Do not forget that all my life is yours, angel of my soul, and that the only goal of this life is to see you happy, as much as we can be happy at world ... I feel very impregnated with our delicious evening yesterday and our ... (word censored) delirious which made us enjoy screaming. And our antics ... "
Katia's answer is no less incredible since she dares to write: "I love you madly, my dear delusional husband, my life, my everything, and it overflows with me. I can't get over the happiness to have seen you yesterday and to have really enjoyed these delights has no name. And certainly nothing in the world can be compared to it. "
It should be noted that Katia calls the tsar "my dear husband". Did he promise her anything? Or is she suggesting that it might happen one day? The tsar hands Katia a key. Thus, it will be able to enter, through a small door of the Winter Palace, to its private apartments. They have meetings that they believe to be discreet, but alas, nothing in the life of the sovereign can be completely secret. All of St. Petersburg is aware of this new connection. It is unfortunate because at the same time, the Mint of the Russian capital issues a gold ruble coin which celebrates the 25 years of marriage of the imperial couple!
The connection is organized
For the past two years, Katia, who has finished her studies, has lived with her brother and sister-in-law, the prince and princess Michel Dolgorouki. The princess is worried about rumors circulating about Katia's affair. She believes that the girl must be protected. She takes him with her to Naples, to her family. Alexander II is desperate. He writes to her every day. He misses him terribly, to the point that during a state visit to Paris in the summer of 1867, he asked Katia to join him.
Napoleon III accommodates his official hosts at the Elysée. Katia arrives from Naples and settles in a hotel on the Boulevard des Capucines. She finds her lover in the evening at the Elysée Palace, through a secret door. Alexander II is in great need of comfort. Certainly, he is dazzled by the splendor of the Imperial Festival for the Universal Exhibition. But he is constantly insulted and attacked by Poles in exile. Even the French get involved! In the procession of the czar, the republican Charles Floquet launches him: "Long live Poland, sir!" Worse, a Pole shoots the Tsar in front of the big waterfall in the Bois de Boulogne, barely missing him. Alexander II is furious and it will take all the charm and persuasion of the Empress Eugenie so that he does not shorten his stay.
On his return from Paris, the connection was organized. Katia still lives with her brother and sister-in-law in a mansion on the Quai des Anglais in Saint Petersburg. Katia has her own servants and crew. At the Winter Palace, the tsar places at his disposal the former working office of his father Nicolas 1er. During stays as well Tsarskoye Selo as in Peterhof or in Crimea, in Livadia, it has a villa near the residence of the tsar.
To justify her presence at the Court, Alexander II had her appointed maid of honor to the empress. It swallows, resigned, this new snake. But Katia benefits little from this function. We don't see her in the Czarina's official car. Above all, she values the moments of intimacy that she shares with the Tsar. During her trips abroad, she accompanies him. In Ems, in Rhineland, in June 1870, during the meeting of Alexander II with the king of Prussia William 1st, she has a small villa.
The favorite settles in the Winter Palace
On April 3, 1872, at the Winter Palace, Katia gave birth to her first child with Alexander II, little Georges. To avoid a scandal, the baby is placed in a house monitored by the secret police. A Russian nurse and a French governess take care of him. In 1873 was the birth of a daughter, Olga. In 1876, a new son, Boris, was born, but died very quickly. In 1877, the tsar launched a war against the Ottoman Empire. The countryside is rough but victorious. The peace of San Stefano in 1878 was very advantageous for Russia. But the Berlin Congress considerably reduced these provisions. The tsar is disappointed, bitter, and as always, it is with Katia that he finds comfort. He then makes a provocative decision. : he settles his second family on the second floor of the Winter Palace ... just above his own apartments! The Czarina, exhausted and sick, suffered the affront. She confides in her friend the Countess Alexandrine Tolstoy: "I forgive the offenses that we do to the sovereign; I cannot take it upon myself to forgive the tortures that we inflict on the wife".
By imposing the presence of his favorite at the palace, Alexander II satisfied, of course, his desire for intimacy with Katia but he set up the whole Court against her. Although Katia is discreet, she is in contact with the imperial domestic staff, maids, valets, cooks, coachmen, stewards and even with some dignitaries.
Some courtiers approach her to use her influence with the tsar in their favor. We seek his support in a commercial enterprise. But even those who ask for it condemn it. The Czar is aging, he is tired, emaciated and hunched. And yet he is happy. Katia, September 9, 1878, gives birth to their fourth child, a little Catherine, who fills him with happiness. Intimate joy on the one hand, general disapproval on the other: the double life of the tsar is very badly perceived, particularly by the heir, the tsarevitch, future Alexander III.
An attack and the end of a love
However, the Nihilists are more and more daring. In January 1878, a terrorist seriously wounded the chief of the St. Petersburg police with gunshots. Not only was this woman acquitted during her trial, but carried in triumph like a heroine. On April 2, 1879, a man fired five times at the Tsar's place of the General Staff. Alexander II owes his salvation only to his running away! He spends his holidays with Katia in Crimea. On their return to Moscow on November 19, the imperial train narrowly escapes a bomb. On February 5, 1880, it was in the Winter Palace that the terrorists managed to detonate a bomb. It had been placed in the dining room where a ceremonial dinner was to take place in honor of the Grand Duke Alexander of Hesse and his son, Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The train which brought them being delayed, the tsar and his suite were waiting in a living room. A few minutes apart, they would all have perished. The attack still left 11 dead and 56 injured! The explosive, hidden in the basements, destroyed the entire guardhouse under the dining room. It is incredibly violent!
Katia was in her apartments on the second floor with her children. She could not be invited to the official dinner. She is terrorized: the tsar's enemies are taking more and more risks. They want to kill him ... The following spring, the empress dies and less than two months later, the tsar marries Katia. She is only a morganatic wife but it is nevertheless the wife of the tsar.
Katia's situation is accepted neither by her family nor by the Court. It must give way to all the Grand Dukes and all the Grand Duchesses. For her, the protocol is a permanent humiliation. The tsar then thought of having her crowned empress. It would be a first in Russia, the Czarina being always crowned at the same time as her husband. It would also be the sovereign's last gift to Katia. Very weary, he would abdicate and then go live with Katia and their three children in France, on the Côte d'Azur. He was given a list of properties for sale in the region. But fate decides otherwise ...
On Sunday March 1, 1881, like every week, Alexander II went to a parade at the Manège Michel, not far from the Winter Palace. In the early afternoon, the tsar returns from the merry-go-round. It's cold but it's sunny. While the procession runs along the Catherine Canal, perpendicular to the Nevski perspective, someone drops a bomb that kills two Cossacks of the escort and a young pastry chef who was going to deliver cakes. Unscathed, the tsar comes out of his coupe. The bomb launcher was arrested. A few seconds later, an accomplice drops a second bomb. This time towards the standing Czar. It's carnage. His left foot was ripped off by the explosion. He is hit in the face and lies in a blood bath. We quickly bring him back to the Winter Palace. Katia throws herself on her shredded body, covers it with kisses, shouting: "Sacha! Sacha!"
At 3:35 p.m., Alexander II died, surrounded by all his family. His successor, Alexander III, is accompanied by the new heir, the future Nicholas II is horrified by the vision of his martyred grandfather. He will never forget. Neither did his father: this is where the reforms lead. The next two tsars will refuse to do so. As for Katia, her dream is shattered. Alexander II financially sheltered it. She leaves alone, with her three children, to settle in Nice. She died there in 1922, aged 75. At that time, the Romanov Empire no longer exists and there is no longer a Czar in Russia.
"At the heart of history" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Project manager: Adèle Ponticelli
Realization: Guillaume Vasseau
Diffusion and edition: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Europe 1 Studio
Direction Europe 1 Studio: Claire Hazan
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