Confessions of the Czarina

by Princess Catherine Radziwill

by
COUNT PAUL-VASSILI
Author of
“BEHIND THE VEIL AT THE RUSSIAN COURT”
“LA SOCIÉTÉ DE BERLIN”
ILLUSTRATED

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON

Confessions of the Czarina
——
Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published April, 1918
D-S

CONTENTS

CHAP.		PAGE
	Publishers’ Note	[ix]
	Introduction	[xi]
[I]	Betrothal and Marriage	[1]
[II]	Marriage and Loneliness	[18]
[III]	My Country, My Beloved Country, Why am I Parted from Thee?	[25]
[IV]	A Sad Coronation	[34]
[V]	Daughters, Daughters, and No Son	[44]
[VI]	The Empress’s Opinions about Russia	[53]
[VII]	What the Imperial Family Thought about the Empress	[66]
[VIII]	Sorrow and Unexpected Consolation	[76]
[IX]	Philippe and His Work	[88]
[X]	Anna Wyrubewa Appears on the Scene and He Saw Her Pass	[99]
[XI]	And He Saw Her Pass	[112]
[XII]	Loved at Last	[127]
[XIII]	He Died to Save Her Honor	[137]
[XIV]	A Nation in Revolt	[147]
[XV]	A Prophet of God	[157]
[XVI]	She Saw Him Once More	[166]
[XVII]	My Son! I Must Save My Son!	[177]
[XVIII]	Another War	[188]
[XIX]	My Fatherland, Must I Forsake Thee?	[199]
[XX]	It Is Your Husband Who Is Losing the Throne of Your Son	[208]
[XXI]	Peace, We Must Have Peace	[219]
[XXII]	The Removal of the “Prophet”	[229]
[XXIII]	Anna Comes to the Rescue	[240]
[XXIV]	You Must Become the Empress	[251]
[XXV]	The Nation Wants Your Head	[261]
[XXVI]	A Crown Is Lost	[271]
[XXVII]	A Prisoner After Having Been a Queen	[281]
[XXVIII]	The Exile	[291]

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

A few months before the great war broke out, there appeared a book, which, under the title Behind the Veil of the Russian Court, bearing the signature of Count Paul Vassili, a name that had become famous through the publication of the volume called La Société de Berlin. A lively interest was aroused by Behind the Veil of the Russian Court, dealing as it did with the intimate existence of four Russian Sovereigns and their respective Courts. The author of this book was declared to be already dead, out of a very natural feeling of precaution for his personal safety. Count Vassili was living in Petrograd at the time, and most certainly would have been banished to Siberia, and perhaps tried for lèse-majesté, if that fact had been discovered. At the present moment the reasons for concealing it exist no longer, and Count Vassili is free to live once more and to publish another work of even greater interest—the life of the former Czarina Alexandra. In relating it, together with some most characteristic incidents which so far are but little known, Count Vassili remarks to the public what a small circle only have known; persons more or less interested in keeping the facts as secret as possible. Count Vassili had known the Empress personally, in fact was regularly and most exactly informed by numerous friends as to all that went on at the Russian Court, and with all manner of intimate details concerning the existence led by the Czar and by his Consort in their Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. It is interesting to note that in Behind the Veil of the Russian Court, written at a time when but few people foresaw the fall of the dynasty of Romanoff, Count Vassili declared the event bound to take place in the then very near future.