Nicholas II: In Love With Two Women At Once?

Imagine you are seventeen, have just completed the vigorous 10-year ballet program at the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatrical School and you find yourself at the graduation dinner seated across from Emperor Alexander III and next to his son Nicholas, heir to the Russian throne!

Nicholas Romanov, future Emperor Nicholas II. Matilda Kshesinska, future prima ballerina assoluta of the Imperial Mariinsky Theater

Financed by the Crown, St. Petersburg Theatrical School (building on the right) prepared ballet dancers and actors for the Imperial Troupe. Matilda Kshesinska graduated with honors from the Ballet Department in 1890.

Matilda was smitten by the twenty-two-year-old Heir. He suggested that she start her ballet career at the theater in Krasnoe Selo, a town close to St. Petersburg where he and his fellow royal guards went for summer training.

The 400-seat Theater at Krasnoe Selo was built exclusively for the entertainment of Imperial Guards and their guests. Its biweekly performances were attended by members of the royal family. (Left: Main Entrance. Rt: Tsar’s Box.)

When in Krasnoe, Nicholas did not miss a single performance. Matilda did not miss a single opportunity to flirt with him. The ensuing year, their encounters were brief and formal until Matilda decided to take matters into her own hands.

The Heir often took rides along the Neva River, and she began to do the same. These excursions came to an end when Matilda developed an eye abscess and was forced to stay home.

When snow covered the roads, denizens of St. Petersburg exchanged their carriages for sleighs. Unknown artist, end of 19^th century.

In pain, with a bandage over her face, Matilda was getting ready for bed when a friend showed up to see her. She went to the sitting room. Was her only good eye playing a trick on her? Before her stood … the Heir!

Caught at her worst, Matilda did not panic. She and her sister Julia sat down at the table and had tea with the Heir. Just the three of them. Had tea! With the Heir!

Matilda showed Nicholas her drawing of him.

Drawing by M. Kshesinska, 1890. Bakhrushin Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The next day, she received a handwritten note:

I hope your little eye and leg are doing better. I’m in a daze since we’ve met. I will try to be back as soon as possible.

Faithfully yours,

Nicky.

Next time, he gave her a present—a beautiful golden bracelet with a large sapphire and two big diamonds. They agreed to call each other by their family pet names: Nicky and Malya.

Kshesinska as The Little Red Riding Hood in the ballet The Sleeping Beauty. Nicky liked Malya in that role. At her house, with their friends, the Heir sometimes performed the dance both as the Wolf and the Riding Hood. The 1900s, Bakhrushin Museum.

Kshesinska accumulated a magnificent jewelry collection, gifted to her by Nicholas and later, by other Romanovs. She had multiple exquisite pieces by Faberge. Treasure hunters are still searching for her gems which she hid before fleeing Russia after the 1917 Revolution.

Though Nicholas became a frequent visitor at Malya’s house, he was candid about the future of their relationship. It was his sacred duty to marry another royal and he had set his eyes on Alix, Princess of Hesse. Kshesinska felt jealous and spared no effort to have a more intimate relationship with the Heir. But he was apprehensive about taking this step. Matilda shared her desperation with her diary:

he was saying … that he could not be my first, that it would haunt him all his life, that if I had not been a virgin, he would have been intimate with me without much ado, and so on and so forth…

A year went by when on January 25, 1894, Nicholas wrote in his diary:

In the evening, I rushed to see my M.K and had the best night with her ever. I am still under her spell—the pen is trembling in my hand.

Matilda’s wish had finally come true—Nicky was hers! Meeting at her parents’ house had become awkward and she took a drastic step—rented a house and moved out. Devastated, her father asked if she understood that the Heir would never be able to marry her. Malya did not care.

I did not want to dwell on what awaited me. Instead, I wanted to take advantage of the happiness that I had been granted, no matter how brief.

Father gave me his permission but on one condition: my sister was to move in and live with me.

View of the English Prospect in the 19^th century and a modern photo of couple’s love nest (#18 English Prospect, first on the left). The ballerina sold it in 1906 and moved to a resplendent mansion she had built for herself and her young son.

The new house became the couple’s love nest. Nicholas recorded his almost daily visit to “M.K.” in his diary:

February 23. … I went to M.K.’s. … At night, on my way home, I wandered on foot because I could not find a coach.

February 25. I had tea at home and then went to M.K.’s, where I had dinner, as usual. I had a wonderful time.

February 27. I spent the evening at home and then went to M.K.’s where I stayed for dinner.

February 28. I left at 12:15 and went to M.K.’s for dinner … Back home at 5 in the morning.

March 3rd. At 12:30 I went home and, having changed, went to M.K.’s. Stayed until morning.

March 5. After tea, I went to MK’s. We had an excellent dinner together. Came back home at 5 AM.

March 8. At 12:30 AM I went to have dinner at M.K.’s. … I had lots of fun.

March 9. Having returned home from the German theater, I went to M.K.’s. … I was back home at 4:30 in the morning.

Though their liaison was a popular topic at St. Petersburg’s salons, the ever-spinning rumor mills missed an event, which at the time seemed of minor importance. In January, Malya was enjoying a sleigh ride when the horse got spooked and took off. She remembered:

I … plummeted out of the sleigh and into the snow. I hurt my arm badly and got terribly bruised all over.

Had it not been for this misfortune, I would have soon become a mother. Only later, when I was older, I came to understand what I had lost then. Some said later that I had children with the Heir, but it is not true. I often felt sorry that I had not had his child.

In the spring of 1894, Matilda’s worst nightmare came true—Nicholas and Alix announced their engagement.

Nicholas and Alix on the day of their engagement, Coburg, 1894

The Heir did not come to see Malya again, but they continued to correspond. Kshesinska asked if she could continue to address him informally and could turn to him in time of need. A gentleman, he had granted his former lover both requests and gifted her the house that had been their love nest. He also asked to see her one last time. Matilda remembered:

As always, when there is so much to say, but you are choking with tears, you do not say what you had intended, and so many things are left unspoken. And what could we have said to each other at that farewell, when we knew that nothing could ever be changed, it was not possible…

After they parted, Malya’s heart was broken but she did not stay alone long. Other Romanovs were waiting in the wings only too ready to cheer her up.

Nicky was crowned Emperor of Russia Nicholas II in 1894 (Left, oil by E. von Liphart, 1900). He, Alix, and their five children were assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Malya became the first and only Russian prima ballerina assoluta. She was 64 at the time of her last, very successful performance (right photo). A talented dancer and teacher, she married Nicky’s cousin, became a princess and died at the age of 99, in France. “My life was beautiful,” she wrote to a friend.