It often happens that, for political reasons, the names of talented people who did not accept the ideas of the ruling class are removed from the memory of their descendants. And if a representative of art and literature also emigrated, then his name was not condemned, but indulged in complete oblivion.
Most important
After the revolution, the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya was known to the main population of Soviet Russia only by the fact that in her mansion on Kronversky Prospekt at one time lived, worked and delivered speeches from the balcony of the palace, made in the northern modern style, V. I. Lenin.
The very building of the Petrograd newspaper was dubbed the “headquarters of the Leninists”. Yes, and this immoral "lady", the mistress of the three most serene princes and the heir to the throne, could not be of interest to the generation of new Russia. This woman fell out, because of which representatives of the elite fought in a duel, and those who were much younger than her (future husband, His Serene Highness Prince Andrei Vladimirovich, - for 6 years,lover, Russian ballet star Pyotr Vladimirov - for 21 years), from the field of view of people programmed for completely different things. And yet, unlike most Soviet people, who considered the decadent dancer Anna Pavlova to be the star of the Russian ballet school, Maurice Petipa considered Matilda Kshesinskaya, deliberately and unfairly forgotten, to be the number one ballerina. But she was called the “Generalissimo of the Russian ballet.”
Interesting Roots
Kshesinskaya Matilda, or simply Malya, as her family and friends called her, was born in a family of "ballet" in 1872. Her father Felix came from a well-known theatrical family of Krzezinski in Poland (Kshesinski is a theater pseudonym). Matilda's grandfather - Jan - was a virtuoso violinist, had a wonderful voice and sang at the Warsaw Opera. The Polish King Stanisław August, a great admirer of him, called him none other than "my nightingale".
And great-grandfather Wojciech was a famous dancer. But the family tradition, constantly inflaming the girl's vanity, said that Wojciech was a representative of one of the best Polish families and should have inherited the enormous fortune of Count Krasinski. Having lost everything - inheritance, surname and homeland - due to the machinations of his uncle, he was forced to flee to France, where he began to earn a living by dancing.
Beginning of the Russian period
Jan's son Felix studied dancing professionally, his highlight was the brilliant performance of the mazurka, which was adored by Nicholas I, who invited the Polish dancer to the Russian capital. He made his debut in 1853 on the stage of the ImperialAlexandrinsky Theater in "Peasant Wedding". There were legends about his performance of the mazurka, and it was, as one of his contemporaries put it, that from his “light foot” the dance became so popular in the high society of Russia. Felix Kshesinsky has always performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater with unfailing success. Here he meets the widow of the dancer Lede, the ballerina Yulia Dominskaya. From the first marriage, the dancer had five children, from the second with Felix - four.
Birth of Prima
Kshesinskaya Matilda was the last child of the heroine mother, whom children did not interfere with either getting married or dancing. Matilda Maria was a charming child and everyone's favorite, but her father especially adored her, foreseeing in her the future ballerina assoluta, of whom there were only 11 in the history of the entire world ballet. Malechka was born in the town of Ligovo near St. highway, famous for the fact that the future Great Empress Catherine II spent one night in the local "Red Tavern". Elder brother Stanislav died in infancy. The other three are the beautiful Yulia, who went down in ballet history as Kshesinskaya I, brother Joseph, who remained in Soviet Russia and became an honored artist of the country, and Kshesinskaya Matilda herself, famous for being the first Russian ballerina to perform 32 fouettes and remove from the domestic stage those who dominated here foreign prim - were virtuoso dancers.
Seductive little one
Father often took her to the theater with him and once even forgot her there. With actingThe girl was familiar with the world since childhood and could not imagine any other way, except for the stage. She grew up as a talented ballerina and an incomparable seductress. The beauty of the girl was inferior to her sister, but she was full of that charm that does not leave people - especially men - indifferent. Not tall (Matilda Kshesinskaya's height was 1.53 m), with full legs and a surprisingly narrow waist, she was full of life. The funny and joyful Malya attracted everyone's attention, which she more than successfully used.
Incredible performance
She, a person who survived the revolution and the severity of emigration, can still be called a darling of fate. Immediately make a reservation that she was a hard worker. Far from everything fell into her hands from heaven, moreover, no connections would have helped her to make 32 fouettes the first of all Russian dancers on stage. The girl achieved this through hard work, constantly improving the technique, bringing it to the heights of mastery. Her performance was legendary. So who is she - Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose biography, due to the strong character of this little woman, does not know failures (there were, of course, small failures - 1-2, no more), sometimes looks like a fairy tale?
Deserved Adoration
She entered the stage in the ballet "Don Quixote" at the age of 9, having studied for only a year at the school, and performed in a solo part at 17. But the talented girl really became interested in ballet after she saw a dance performed Virginia Zucchi, who came to Russia on tour. It was this dancer who became an idolMali, thanks to her, Kshesinskaya began to take lessons from the Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti and achieved that incomparable skill and brilliance that allowed her to become a prima, oust foreign entrepreneurs from the Russian stage and win the hearts of true ballet lovers. There were cases when, after performances, fans unharnessed horses from her carriage and drove her home themselves.
A worthy girlfriend
At the graduation party in honor of graduating from the school, the great Empress Maria Feodorovna, preoccupied with the gloom and constant loneliness of her son, immediately drew attention to the tiny young girl-mercury Kshesinskaya-2. She was amazingly built: relief muscles, a very thin waist, high breasts. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose weight did not exceed 50 kg (although with her height it was a bit too much for ballet), her forms favorably differed from most thin friends. At a gala dinner, Emperor Alexander III himself seated her between himself and his beech son Nicholas. According to some reports, young people immediately fell in love with each other, according to others - more evil - Kshesinskaya vigorously pursued him. Be that as it may, there is evidence that Tsar Nicholas II retained affection for her all his life, although the relationship was officially terminated after his engagement to Alex.
Breadth of Soul
It so happened that from the moment she met the heir to the throne, the ballerina Kshesinskaya Matilda forever linked her life with the Romanovs. Whom they just didn’t write down to her as “close friends”! What kind of epithets does shewas not honored with: "champagne of the Romanovs' house", "the muse of royal men" or, later, "Matilda Kshesinskaya - the mistress of the kings."
It should be noted that Kshesinskaya, in addition to the above advantages, had great wisdom: without a single word she let Nicky down the aisle, was always friendly with his wife, left the theater without scandal when they began to accuse her of intrigues, and with dignity, returned there triumphantly when her innocence became clear. In addition, possessing countless treasures (the contents of her jewelry boxes were estimated at 2 million royal rubles), she used her own money to maintain two infirmaries for the wounded in her dacha - the most luxurious in Strelna. The breadth of the soul of this amazing woman is also evidenced by the fact that, having lost them in the revolution, Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose biography contains a lot of interesting facts, regretted only the alcoholized rose, which - as a recognition of the skill of the Russian ballerina - was given to the prima by Virginia Zucchi, her idol.
Ingratitude is always black
In addition, performances at the Mariinsky Theater were very often staged, which were completely paid for by her - scenery, costumes, and other costs. But the burning envy of a woman who herself could manage her repertoire, did not lose her skill over the years, possessed one of the most beautiful palaces in St. mud, crazy. And, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko said (albeit on a completely different occasion): "… gossip, gossip, denouncing her, became angrier and angrier." They areforced Kshesinskaya to leave the Mariinsky. Enemies were especially choked from her constant strong relations with the ruling dynasty.
Great love
"Nicholas 2 and Matilda Kshesinskaya" - the servants of Terpsichore somehow survived this connection. The novel was stormy, but short - it lasted only a year. But the ballerina did not remain abandoned. From the first meeting in a two-story mansion bought for a girlfriend by the future last emperor of Russia, where he visited with his friends and numerous cousins, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich fell in love with her sincerely and doomedly from the first meeting, becoming her "knight without fear and reproach" for the rest of his life. His love, his spending and the execution of the slightest whims shut the most evil mouths.
He regularly made proposals, including before parting. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose son was conceived by another Grand Duke Romanov, Andrei Vladimirovich, immediately received a patronymic Sergeevich and, in addition to it, noble origin and the surname Krasinsky, in memory of a distant ancestor, which was taken care of by the faithful Sergei Mikhailovich. He himself, having sent his beloved from revolutionary Petrograd, could not leave on time, was shot and thrown into a mine in Alapaevsk in 1918, along with other representatives of the Romanov dynasty. What can say more about his great love than the fact that in his clenched fist, at the moment of raising the body to the surface, they found a golden medallion with the inscription "Malya"?
Everything - to the feet of the goddess
He, being an inspector general from artillery, had in hisat the disposal of uncontrolled funds, and arms companies did not skimp on "kickbacks". The legendary mansion of Matilda Kshesinskaya was built with his money. He always wanted to give his beloved a special status in high society. The construction was supervised by the author of the project, the fashionable architect Alexander von Gauguin. As a result, the city government awarded the architect with a silver medal for the construction of this pearl of the Northern capital.
Matilda Kshesinskaya's house in St. Petersburg overlooked the Neva, as did the Senate, the Academy of Sciences, the Winter Palace and St. Isaac's Cathedral. There were legends about the internal structure and decoration of the mansion. Everything, down to the nails, was ordered from the best construction firms in Paris. The rooms were made in different styles: if the salon was furnished in the style of Louis XVI, then the toilet symbolized the achievements of the British in providing housing with modern amenities. Do not count its merits! It can only be noted that in this palace, located in the “central center” of the capital, there was a cowshed with, obviously, the best cow in the world, since the thief of the inspector’s heart from artillery loved fresh milk…
A long-awaited and well-deserved finale
Evil tongues attribute to Matilda a connection with the grandson of Alexander II Vladimir Alexandrovich. Was it or not, but for his fourth son Andrei Vladimirovich Kshesinskaya Matilda Feliksovna immediately married. It happened in Paris, as soon as his mother, Maria Pavlovna, who opposed her son's wedding all her life, departed for another world. Boy Vova, or, as she jokingly calledhis Kshesinskaya, "Vovo de Russi" (All Russia Vova)", was immediately rewritten to his true father, and the family began to live happily.
Loving, strong and brave
In the biography of this outstanding personality there was also the fact that the great ballerina, not being afraid, rescued her beloved son from the Gestapo when Paris was occupied by the Germans. The Parisian house of Matilda Kshesinskaya in exile remained the center of attraction - F. Chaliapin, A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina and S. Diaghilev were here.
Kshesinskaya had mimic and dramatic gifts that made her ballet roles unique. But, as it turned out later, the talent of the writer was not alien to him. This is evidenced by her book “Matilda Kshesinskaya. Memories, published in Paris in 1960. Having survived her husband and oncology, a fracture of the femoral neck, chained to a chair, this strong woman began to write a book, which - as evidence of history - is priceless in itself, because the author was the great Matilda Kshesinskaya. The memoirs, on the other hand, were written in good language and maintained in an excellent style. It is very interesting to read them, we recommend them (they are widely available).
She lived happily ever after
Genetically this woman was programmed for a long life - her grandfather, already mentioned Jan, lived to be 106 years old and died not of natural causes, but of intoxication. So the legendary Malya did not live up to the century for 9 months. The ballet megastar died in 1971 and was buried in the "Russian cemetery" Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois with her husband and son (died in 1974). The inscription on her gravesays that Grand Duchess Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theatres, Kshesinskaya Matilda Feliksovna, is buried here.
