Translated material
The Empress's Treasures
Electricity bills
The Grand Duchess loved Denmark since childhood. Fredensborg and Copenhagen were remembered by her from those distant years when almost all the royal families of Europe gathered there, under the roof of her hospitable grandfather, King Christian IX.
But all this is in the past. Now it was 1920. The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna lived in one of the wings of the royal Amalienborg Palace in close proximity to the chambers of her nephew, King Christian X, who did not hide his hostility towards his dispossessed relatives.
“Fortunately, other representatives of the royal family and the Danish people did not share his attitude towards us,” said the Grand Duchess, “otherwise I can’t even imagine how we could have endured all this.” I myself don’t understand how we endured all these humiliations. Queen Alexandrina, whom we called Adin, once burst into tears: she was so ashamed of her husband.
Olga Alexandrovna recalled how one evening, when she and her mother were sitting in the palace living room and calmly knitting, the door opened and a royal servant entered. He was clearly uncomfortable. Embarrassed, he muttered barely audibly: “His Majesty sent me to ask you to turn off the light. He wants to notify you that the electricity bill he had to pay was too high.” Empress Maria Feodorovna turned pale as a sheet, but did not answer. With a regal air, she called one of her own lackeys and, in the presence of the royal messenger, ordered him to illuminate the palace from the basement to the attic!
- The king sometimes even walked through the rooms, where, naturally, every piece of furniture and most of the decorative decoration belonged to him. I remember how he looked around all the time,” said Olga Alexandrovna. - If it suddenly seemed to him that some trinket or miniature was missing, he did not hesitate to ask his mother if she had pawned it. It was so offensive that there are no words.
Refugee finances
The matter was worsened by the thoughtless generosity of the empress. Thousands of Russian emigrants wrote to her from all over the world, asking for help, and Maria Feodorovna considered it her duty to satisfy all their requests.
“It never occurred to my mother that she had barely enough money to support her own family,” Olga Alexandrovna continued her story. “I can’t judge her harshly.” She considered all emigrants, no matter what class they belonged to, as one family. Besides, none of us, with the exception of my father, were practical.
However, the financial assistance that the Empress Mother sent to all corners of the world was not the limit of generosity. Several noble emigrants came to Denmark and gradually became somehow attached to the tiny court at Amalienborg. The Empress did not refuse anyone. For some time, many wealthy friends of Maria Fedorovna provided her with financial support, but the situation worsened every day. In the end, one of her friends, an American of Danish origin, frankly told the empress that this could not continue for long.
Box under the bed
After King Christian X became aware of his aunt's plight, he said that she could sell her jewelry. The fact is that the Dowager Empress managed to take a box of jewelry to Denmark. In Amalienborg she kept it under her bed. From time to time, when melancholy attacked her, she would open one case or another and take out all these pearls, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. With the exception of the diamond brooch that Alexander III gave her on the day of their wedding, the empress no longer wore jewelry. However, this box, containing incredible treasures that shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow, was the last link with the former luxury and splendor of the Romanov family, and Maria Feodorovna could not even think about parting with the most trifling trinket.
The matter ended with her English nephew coming to her aid, assigning “dear Aunt Minnie” an annual annuity of ten thousand pounds sterling. King George V also asked Sir Frederick Ponsonby to take the necessary steps to ensure that his aunt's court remained solvent. Ponsonby, in turn, asked the retired Danish Admiral Andrup, a longtime friend of the Empress, to try to persuade the old lady to balance her expenses with the means at her disposal. The task was not an easy one, but the admiral coped with it admirably.
One of the first measures recommended by the admiral was to change his residence. Empress Maria Feodorovna and her court - to the undisguised relief of Christian X and to their own, although not so demonstrably expressed pleasure - moved to the Videre Palace. There was enough space for the empress and her retinue, but the maintenance of the palace was much cheaper than in Amalienborg. Videre, built by the three daughters of Christian IX, was their joint property, but Queen Alexandra and the Duchess of Cumberland gave it to their sister.
Trial against the Bolsheviks
King Christian X continued to humiliate his aunt. However, sometimes she, with her calm dignity, rebuffed him. One such incident occurred during a state visit by the King and Queen of Italy. Christian X had no intention of inviting his poor relatives to the banquet that was to be held in the palace, or to other festivities. He just said by phone that one of the next days he would arrive in Videre along with his guests from Italy. At the palace, the guests were met not by the chamberlain or even by the manager or butler, but by a simple footman who said:
“Her Imperial Majesty sincerely regrets that due to illness she is not receiving today.
King Christian was furious. But his aunt’s decision was partly a response to his own rudeness, but mainly due to the fact that shortly before this Italy recognized the Soviet government.
“This episode did not make us very happy,” the Grand Duchess said sadly. “We really wanted to see Queen Helena.” She was born in Montenegro, raised and raised in Russia, and we all loved her, but my mother remained adamant.
I must say, she was so frank in her statements that we were constantly afraid that the Reds might kidnap her. It seems that in 1925 the Bolsheviks declared that the Russian Orthodox Church at the Imperial Russian Embassy in Copenhagen was their property. The Danish government satisfied their claim, and the Bolsheviks occupied the church premises, annexing it to their consulate. All the emigrants were terribly upset, but my mother did not want to accept defeat. She used the services of one of the best lawyers in Denmark, sought a review of the case in the Supreme Court and won it. At this time, she suffered seriously from lumbago and arthritis, but nothing could prevent her from attending the very first liturgy that was served in the temple after its rededication.
State of the Romanovs
The legend (about the significant fortune of the Romanovs, allegedly kept in foreign banks - Ed. ) had no basis. Olga Alexandrovna stated that all the Romanovs withdrew all their funds from foreign bank accounts in order to help Russia in its war efforts. In particular, the sovereign used funds stored in foreign banks to purchase equipment for hospitals and infirmaries. It was impossible to get only the amounts stored in the Berlin bank. They amounted to several million, but after the defeat of Germany and the depreciation of the brand, these millions could only buy a pack of cigarettes.
“For this reason, none of us who managed to survive had the means that would allow us to live tolerably in exile. Rumors about this “condition” spread especially persistently shortly after the appearance of Mrs. Anderson (False Anastasia - Ed. ) in Berlin in 1920. Astronomical figures were mentioned. It all sounded ridiculous and terribly vulgar. Would Mum really have accepted a pension from King George V if we had any money in England? It just doesn't make sense.
Recent years
At the end of 1928, Queen Alexandra died at Sandringham. Both sisters were like twins, if not for the age difference. This death was an irreparable blow for Empress Maria Feodorovna. At first, the news of death simply stunned her. But after she recovered from the shock, the Empress began to look lost. Almost the next day she gave in under the burden of years. She became weak. I lost my zest for life. I stopped going out into the world. For the last three years of her life, the empress was essentially a prisoner in Wiedere.
These three years were very difficult for the Grand Duchess. Her mother, despite numerous ailments, refused any medical help. She began to be suspicious of her ladies-in-waiting and all the servants and demanded that her daughter be with her at all times. Olga Alexandrovna had almost no time left for her husband and children. With each week, with each month, the elderly empress became more and more immersed in the past.
“Mom never talked about Nicky or the children, although she spent hours looking at their photographs, which were in all corners of her bedroom. Then she began to worry about her jewelry box. She was convinced that intruders were hunting for her, and ordered her to be hidden under the bed, pulling it out from time to time. Sometimes Ksenia came from England for a short time, and we both asked our mother to give us something as a souvenir, but she refused every time. I think she knew very well that neither of her daughters had any practical sense. She just invariably repeated: “When I’m gone, you will get everything.” Of course, there was no Romanov gold in English banks, but a whole fortune was kept in my mother’s bedroom in Veeder. I often noticed with what anxiety she looked at this box. Mom seemed to have foreseen how many troubles would be associated with her.
Empress Maria Feodorovna was right. Of course, the Romanovs could not be called practical people. Olga Alexandrovna did not have a faithful maid, unlike Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna - she managed to take most of the jewelry out of Russia. The collection included her famous black pearls, however, judging by Olga Alexandrovna’s words, her sister lost almost everything by entrusting the sale of these priceless treasures to strangers, through whose fault the transaction was unsuccessful.
The last years of Empress Maria Feodorovna's life were overshadowed by the insistence of her relatives that she part with her famous collection. Indeed, she had a treasure at her disposal, the value of which had increased many times thanks to several magnificent pieces of jewelry that she had inherited from her late sister, Queen Alexandra. Soon, King Christian X began making very clear hints, hoping to receive his share after the sale of the jewelry. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who settled in France, in his letters persuaded the Dowager Empress to, if not sell, then at least pawn her jewelry. This would allow the family to open a paper mill, which, according to the Grand Duke, would bring fabulous profits to all the Romanovs. Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, who was in England, found herself in a difficult situation, the only way out of which she saw was to sell her share of the treasures. In short, the casket of Empress Maria Feodorovna was of interest to everyone...
...In his letter, King George V of England recommended that his “dear Aunt Minnie” place the jewelry in a bank safe in London. He also promised to personally monitor the preparation and compliance with the terms of the sale. However, Maria Fedorovna stubbornly refused to part with her box, despite all the arguments of her relatives. The famous box continued to remain in the bedroom until the death of the owner.
In October 1928, Empress Maria Feodorovna fell into a coma. The daughter Ksenia, who had arrived from England a week earlier, and Olga did not close their eyes for three days, keeping watch at their mother’s bedside. On October 13, the empress died without regaining consciousness.
Her ashes were taken to Amalienborg Palace. The final decision regarding the funeral rested with the king, who initially stated that there was no need to give his aunt, the former empress, a solemn funeral. This fact in itself would not have had much significance for her daughters, but they saw this as an insult to the rank and dignity of their mother.
“Ultimately,” Olga Alexandrovna noted, “the cousin had to change his decision under the pressure of public opinion.”
However, having reluctantly given permission for a solemn funeral, the king surrounded him with a number of unpleasant conditions. One of them was that Father Leonid Kolchev, the confessor of the late empress, was not allowed to appear in the cathedral in the vestments of an Orthodox priest - for fear that Catholics would later demand the right to perform services in a Protestant church. This, however, did not bother the devoted priest. Father Kolchev managed to enter the cathedral, wearing a long coat over his vestments, and read the Russian prayer at the empress’s tomb.
The coffin, draped in purple, was taken to Roskilde Cathedral, the traditional burial place of members of the Danish royal family. For the last time, the splendor and grandeur of Imperial Russia revived for a few days, when honors were paid to the Russian Tsarina. All the ruling houses of Europe and hundreds of Russian emigrants were represented, including many representatives of the House of Romanov.
- What an irony is that many of them did not even remember their mother during the years of exile. However, they all hurried to her funeral - even my cousin Kirill, who should have had the decency to refrain from coming,” Olga Alexandrovna remarked gloomily.
The Empress's Treasures
Some two or three days after the funeral, Olga was visited by King Christian X with the sole purpose of making sure that her mother's jewelry was still on its way to London.
In his memoirs, Sir Frederick Ponsonby says that he received instructions from King George V to deliver the jewels to England for safekeeping. Ponsonby approached Sir Peter Bark with a request to go to Denmark.
Ponsonby further writes about Bark's arrival in Copenhagen and his meeting with both Grand Duchesses. Bark explained to them that he had arrived on behalf of the king, who thought it advisable to take the jewels to London, where they would be kept in a bank safe until the sisters decided how to dispose of them. According to Ponsonby, both sisters agreed to the proposal. The jewelry box was sealed in their presence, taken to the British embassy in Copenhagen, and then sent to England.
However, Olga Alexandrovna told me that the episode described by Ponsonby is at odds with reality. In fact, she did not meet with Bark; the box was not sealed in her presence and was not taken away. Only her sister Ksenia knew about the agreement.
“I didn’t suspect anything until the next day Ksenia told me that the box had already been taken from Denmark. They made me understand that all this had little to do with me, since I was married to a man of ordinary rank.
The story with the box obviously created a deep divide between the sisters.
Olga's position turned out to be even more humiliating, since she remained in Denmark, and Ksenia hurried to return to England. She was present at the opening of the box at Buckingham Palace, when Ponsonby had the first and last opportunity to appreciate at least the fabulous wealth before it dissipated. The jewelry turned out to be even more magnificent than he had initially imagined. “Strings of the most delightful pearls were extracted, all according to their size. The largest ones were the size of a cherry...,” he wrote in his memoirs. “Then they laid out emeralds, large rubies and sapphires...”
The appraisal was carried out by the firm Hennel and Sons, who were prepared to offer an advance of one hundred thousand pounds sterling to pay for the contents of the box. According to Ponsonby, "these jewels were subsequently sold for three hundred and fifty thousand pounds."
King George V asked Sir Edward Peacock, director of the Bank of England, to look after the financial situation of both his cousins. After the death of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna in 1960, Sir Edward informed me that the sum entrusted to him in 1929 was exactly one hundred thousand pounds sterling, of which Xenia received approximately sixty thousand and Olga Alexandrovna received the rest. However, judging by the Ponnobi memoirs, the difference between this amount and the amount of jewelry was two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. I pointed out this inconsistency with Sir Edward Pikoku, but he could not make clarity, saying that perhaps Sir Frederik Ponnby in this case changed his memory.
However, the situation was unlikely, however. Sir Frederick Ponnobi could be mistaken in minor details, but he could hardly not know the total cost of Romanov treasures. In addition, it is no secret that jewelry costs many times more than one hundred thousand pounds. Some, including Sir Peter Bark, rated them at least half a million pounds. There is no reason to doubt the amount paid to both sisters specified in Sir Edward Picoca. Therefore, the secret of the disappeared two hundred and fifty thousand sterling and still remains unsolved.