ILLUSTRATIONS
| [The Empress of Russia in Her Happy Days] | [Frontispiece] |
| | Facing Page |
| [The Empress Driving Her Pony Chaise] | [8] |
| [The Empress with Grand Duchess Tatiana in Her Bedroom, Tsarskoe Selo] | [8] |
| [Alexander Sergievitch Tanieff] | [9] |
| [The Winter Palace, Petrograd] | [20] |
| [Military Review, Tsarskoe Selo] | [21] |
| [The Emperor and Empress in a Quiet Hour on Board the Imperial Yacht] | [32] |
| [The Empress Distributing Presents to Sailors at the End of a Cruise] | [33] |
| [Livadia, the New Palace of the Tsars in the Crimea] | [38] |
| [A Corner of the Court of the Palace of Livadia] | [39] |
| [The Imperial Children Bathing in the Black Sea at Livadia] | [39] |
| [The Imperial Yacht Arrives at Livadia, the Crimea] | [50] |
| [The Tsar, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana and Mme. Viroubova at Homburg] | [51] |
| [The Empress Giving Alexei a Lesson on the Terrace] | [74] |
| [Alexei Playing in the Snow at Tsarskoe Selo] | [74] |
| [The Empress in Bed with Convalescent Tsarevitch] | [75] |
| [Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana on Board the “Standert”] | [78] |
| [The Tsarevitch with His Cousins, Children of Grand Duke Ernest of Hesse] | [79] |
| [Nicholas II and the Tsarevitch on Board the Imperial Yacht “Standert”] | [80] |
| [The Tsarevitch with His Sailor, Derevanko] | [81] |
| [The Tsar, Tsarina, and Alexei in the Gardens at Tsarskoe Selo] | [81] |
| [The Emperor and Empress in Old Slavonic Dress, Jubilee of 1913] | [98] |
| [The Invalid Empress on the Balcony at Peterhof] | [99] |
| [The Guest Room in Rasputine’s House in Siberia] | [169] |
| [The Three Children of Rasputine Before Their House in Siberia] | [169] |
| [The Empress and Young Grand Duke Dmitri, Afterwards One of Rasputine’s Assassins] | [184] |
| [Minister of Court Count Fredericks, the Empress and Tatiana Taking Tea in Finnish Woods] | [185] |
| [Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Anastasie, and Marie, Prisoners at Tsarskoe Selo, 1917] | [266] |
| [Anna Viroubova Shortly After Her Release from the Fortress of Peter and Paul] | [267] |
| [Letters From Nicholas II to Anna Viroubova, from Tobolsk, 1917] | [306] |
| [Letters from Alexei, Tatiana, and Marie, Smuggled from Siberia in 1917] | [307] |
| [One of the Empress’s Last Letters to Mme. Viroubova, Written in Old Slavonic, 1918] | [320] |
| [Smuggled Letter from the Empress on Birchbark after Paper Gave Out] | [321] |
| [The Ex-Emperor and Alexei Feeding Turkeys in the Barnyard, Tobolsk, 1918] | [342] |
| [The Last Photograph Taken of the Empress and Her Daughters, Olga and Tatiana, Shortly Before the Murder of the Imperial Family in Siberia] | [343] |
Note: With very few exceptions all these photographs were taken by members of the Imperial Family and by Mme. Viroubova, all of whom were experts with the camera.
MEMORIES OF
THE RUSSIAN COURT
MEMORIES OF THE RUSSIAN COURT
CHAPTER I
IT is with a prayerful heart and memories deep and reverent that I begin to write the story of my long and intimate friendship with Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II, Empress of Russia, and of the tragedy of the Revolution, which brought on her and hers such undeserved misery, and on our unhappy country such a black night of oblivion.