Kshessinskaya Matilda: the famous Russian ballerina

It often happens that, for political reasons, the names of talented people who have not accepted the ideas of the ruling class are removed from the memory of the descendants. And if the representative of art and literature also emigrated, his name was not blamed, but was abandoned completely to oblivion.

The most important

After the revolution, the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaia was known to the main population of Soviet Russia only because her residence in Kronversky Prospekt once lived, worked and delivered speeches from the balcony of the palace designed in the style of the Northern Art Nouveau, VI Lenin. The very building of the newspaper of Petrograd was christened "the headquarters of the Leninists." And this amoral "lady", the lover of the three most brilliant princes and heir to the throne, could not be interested in the generation of a new Russia. This woman fell out, because of which the representatives of the elite were shooting at a duel, and the former ones were much younger than her (the future husband, the most illustrious prince Andrey Vladimirovich, for 6 years, the lover, the star of the Russian ballet Peter Vladimirov - for 21 years), from the field of view of the programmed Completely different people. And yet, unlike most Soviet people who considered the decadent dancer Anna Pavlov to be the star of the Russian ballet school , Maurice Petipa was considered by the ballerina No. 1 to be Matilda Kshesinskaya, consciously and unfairly forgotten. But she was called the Generalissimo of the Russian Ballet.

Interesting roots

Kshessinskaya Matilda, or simply Malia, as her family and friends called, was born in the family of "ballet" in 1872. Her father Felix came from the famous in Poland theater family Krzesinsky (Kshesinsky - a theatrical pseudonym). Matilda's grandfather - Jan - was a virtuoso violinist, had a wonderful voice and sang at the Warsaw Opera. Polish King Stanislaw August, his great admirer, called him only "my nightingale". And great-grandfather Wojciech was a famous dancer. But the family legend, which constantly incited the girl's vanity, said that Wojciech was the representative of one of the best Polish families and was to inherit the enormous fortune of Count Krasinsky. Having lost everything - inheritance, family name and homeland - because of the intrigues of his uncle, he had to flee to France, where he began to make a living by dancing.

The beginning of the Russian period

The son of Jan Felix professionally studied dances, his highlight was the brilliant performance of the mazurka, which Nicholas I adored, who invited the Polish dancer to the Russian capital. He debuted in 1853 on the stage of the Imperial Alexandrinsky Theater in the Peasant Wedding. About his execution of the mazurka went legends, and it was, as one of his contemporaries put it, with his "easy leg", dance became so popular in the high society of Russia. On the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, Felix Kshesinsky always performed with unchanged success. Here he meets the widow of the dancer Leda, the ballerina Julia Dominskaya. From the first marriage the dancer had five children, the second with Felix - four.

Birth of prima

Kshessinskaya Matilda was the last child of the mother-heroine, whom children did not interfere with either getting married or dancing. Matilda-Maria was an adorable child and a universal favorite, but especially her father adored her forefather in her future ballerina Assolute, which in the history of the whole world ballet was only 11. Maleka was born in Ligovo near St. Petersburg, on the 13th km of Peterhof Highway, famous for the fact that the local "Red Tavern" one night was spent by the future Great Empress Catherine II. The elder brother Stanislav died in infancy. The other three are beautiful Julia, who entered the history of the ballet as Kshesinskaya I, brother Joseph, who remained in Soviet Russia and became a well-deserved artist of the country, and Kshessinskaya Matilda herself, famous for the fact that the first of the Russian ballerinas performed 32 fouettes and removed from the domestic scene the prevailing here Foreign prim, - were virtuoso dancers.

Seductive baby

My father often took her with him to the theater and once even forgot it there. With the actor's world, the girl was familiar from childhood and could not imagine a way other than the stage. She grew up a talented ballerina and an incomparable seducer. Beauty girl was inferior to her sister, but was full of the charm that does not leave people - especially men - indifferent. The low (Matilda Kshesinskaya's height was 1.53 m), with full legs and surprisingly narrow waist, she was full of life. Funny and joyful, Malia attracted everyone's attention, than more than successfully used.

Incredible working capacity

Her, a man who survived the revolution and the weight of emigration, still can 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 connection would help her to make the scene of the first of all Russian dancers 32 fouettes. The girl achieved this with hard work, constantly improving the technique, leading her to the heights of skill. Her work capacity was legendary. So who is she - Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose biography, because of the strong character of this little woman, does not know the failures (there were, of course, small setbacks - 1-2, no more), sometimes looks like a fairy tale?

Honored adoration

On the stage in the ballet "Don Quixote" she left at the age of 9, after studying only a year at the school, and in the solo part she performed at 17. But the truly talented girl got carried away after she saw the dance performed by the one who came to Russia on tour Virginia Zuckie. It was this dancer who became the idol of Mali, thanks to her, Kshessinskaya began to take lessons from the Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti and achieved that incomparable skill and brilliance that allowed her to become a prima, to oust the foreign actors from the Russian scene and conquer the hearts of true ballet lovers. There were cases when, after the performances, fans unharnessed horses from her carriage and took her home themselves.

Worthy girlfriend

At the graduation party in honor of the graduation from the school, the great Empress Maria Feodorovna, worried by the gloominess and constant solitude of her son, immediately drew attention to the tiny young girl-mercury Kshesinskaya-2. She was amazingly composed: relief muscles, very thin waist, high breasts. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose weight did not exceed 50 kg (although at her height it was too much for the ballet), its forms favorably differed from most lean girlfriends. At the solemn dinner the Emperor Alexander III himself seated her among themselves and the son-in-law Nikolai. According to some reports, young people immediately fell in love with each other, on the other - more evil, - Kshesinskaya pursued him energetically. Be that as it may, there is evidence that Tsar Nicholas II retained his affection for all his life, although officially the relationship was terminated after his engagement with Alex.

Breadth of the soul

It so happened that from the moment of acquaintance with the heir to the throne the ballerina Kshessinskaya Matilda forever linked her life with the Romanovs' house. Who did not write to her "close friends"! She did not receive any epithets: "champagne of the Romanovs' house", "muse of royal men" or, later, "Matilda Kshesinskaya is the lover of kings".

It should be noted that Kshessinskaya, in addition to the advantages listed above, possessed great wisdom: without a single word, Nikki let her go, was always friendly with his wife, left the theater without a scandal when she began to denounce intrigues, and dignifiedly returned to the triumph, When her innocence became apparent. In addition, possessing untold treasures (the contents of her jewelry boxes were estimated at 2 million tsar's rubles), she kept her two hospitals for the wounded at 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 so many interesting facts, regretted only about the rose, which, as a recognition of the skill of a Russian ballerina, gave the application to Virginia Tsukki, her idol.

Ingratitude - always black

In addition, very often staged performances in the Mariinsky Theater, which completely - the scenery, costumes, other costs - were paid for by it. But the burning envy of the woman, who herself could manage her repertoire, did not lose her skill over the years, possessed one of the most beautiful palaces in St. Petersburg and received her own benefit not after 20 years of service, but only after 10 years, Dirt, crazy. And, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko said (albeit quite on another occasion): "... gossip, gossip, which denounced it, became all evil and evil." They also forced Kshesinskaya to leave the Mariinsky. Especially the enemies from her constant strong relations with the ruling dynasty were choking.

Great love

"Nicholas 2 and Matilda Kshesinskaya" - this connection the ministers of Terpsichore still somehow experienced. The novel was stormy, but short - lasted only a year. But the ballerina did not remain abandoned. Her sincerely and doomed from the first meeting in a two-story mansion, bought for a friend by the future last emperor of Russia, where he visited with his friends and numerous cousins, fell in love with Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, who for the rest of his life was her "knight without fear and reproach." His love, his wastes and the fulfillment of the slightest whims shut the most evil mouths.

He regularly made suggestions of the proposal, including before parting. Matilda Kshesinskaya, whose son was conceived from another Grand Duke Romanov, Andrei Vladimirovich, immediately received Sergeevich's patronymic and, in addition to him, the noble lineage and the name Krasinsky, in memory of a distant ancestor, which the faithful Sergei Mikhailovich took care of. He himself, having sent his beloved from revolutionary Petrograd, could not leave on time, was shot and thrown into a mine in Alapayevsk in 1918, together with other representatives of the Romanovs' house. What can be said about his immense love more than the fact that in his clenched fist at the moment of raising his body to the surface, a gold medallion with the inscription "Malia" was discovered?

All at the feet of the goddess

He, being a general inspector of artillery, had at his disposal uncontrolled funds, and arms companies did not skimp on "kickbacks." The legendary mansion of Matilda Kshessinskaya was built on 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 erecting this pearl of the Northern Capital.

The House of Matilda Kshessinskaya in St. Petersburg went to the Neva, as did the Senate, the Academy of Sciences, the Winter Palace and St. Isaac's Cathedral. Legends were made about the interior arrangement and decoration of the mansion. Everything, down to the nails, was written out of the best building firms in Paris. Premises were made in different styles: if the salon is equipped 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 be noted only that in this palace, located in the "center of the center" of the capital, was a barn with, apparently, the best cow in the world, since the captor of the heart of the inspector from artillery loved fresh milk ...

The long-awaited and deserved finale

Evil languages ascribe to Matilda a connection with Alexander II's grandson Vladimir Alexandrovich. It was or was not, but for his fourth son Andrew Vladimirovich Kshessinskaya Matilda Feliksovna immediately married. It happened in Paris, as soon as his mother, Maria Pavlovna, opposed the whole life of her son's wedding, departed for another world. The boy Vova, or, as Kshesinskaya jokingly called him, "Vovo de Rüssi" (All Russia Vova), "was immediately rewritten to his true father, and the family healed happily.

Loving, strong and courageous

In the biography of this extraordinary personality was the fact that his beloved son, the great ballerina, without fear, still rescued from the Gestapo, when Paris was occupied by the Germans. The Parisian house of Matilda Kshessinska in emigration remained the center of attraction - there were F. Shalyapin, A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina and S. Diaghilev.

Kshessinskaya possessed a mimic and dramatic gift, which made her ballet roles unique. But, as it turned out later, the talent of the writer was not alien. This is evidenced by her book "Matilda Kshesinskaya. Memories ", released in Paris in 1960. Having survived her husband and oncology, the fracture of the neck of the hip, chained to a chair, this strong woman began to write a book that - as a testimony to history - is priceless in itself, because the author was the great Matilda Kshesinskaya. The memoirs were written in good language and are in excellent style. Reading them is very interesting, we recommend (they are widely available).

I lived happily ever after

Genetically, this woman was programmed for a long life - her grandfather, already mentioned Yan, lived to 106 years old and died not by his death, but from a frenzy. So the legendary Malia did not live to see the 9th century. The megastar of the ballet died in 1971 and was buried in the "Russian cemetery" of Saint Genevieve de Bois along with her husband and son (died in 1974). The inscription on her grave says that here lies the Grand Duchess Romanovskaya-Krasinskaya, Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters, Kshessinsky Matilda Feliksovna.