The Last Tsar - Chapter Six Alexander Palace

Chapter Six
Alexander Palace

'It was an enchanted fairyland. To the monarchists it was a paradise, the abode of earthly gods. To the revolutionists it was a sinister place where blood thirsty tyrants were hatching their plots against the innocent population', - wrote Gleb Botkin, the son of a court physician.

Tsarskoe Selo is only fifteen miles away from the capital. There are two palaces, one is called 'Alexander Palace' and was built by Catherine the Great, for her grandson Alexander I. It is smaller in size, consisting of one hundred rooms. It has two wings. In this palace Nicholas and Alexandra, the last Tsar and Tsarina, came to live in the summer of 1895. It became their home for twenty-two years.

The two palaces were situated in the midst of a beautiful park, which was surrounded by high iron fences. Inside the fence Cossack horsemen, in their beautiful scarlet uniforms, rode day and night on their ceaseless patrol. The park had beautiful monuments, obelisks, triumphal arches, an artificial lake, a beautiful pink turkish bath, a dazzling gold Chinese pagoda, crowned on an artificial hill, a pony track curved through gardens planted with exotic flowers.

The middle part of the Palace was used for official purposes - the Tsar's study, reception rooms, audience room, drawing rooms. The right wing of the Palace was the private apartment of the monarch. The left wing of the Palace was used by the household. The most beautiful room in the Palace was the boudoir of Empress Alexandra.

Everything, carpets, curtains, every piece of furniture was mauve, as it was the favourite colour of the Tsarina. In the morning the Empress lay and relaxed on a couch in her boudoir when she heard the footsteps of her children, or listened to the soft sweet sound of the piano being played by her daughters. Here in that boudoir she helped her daughters to choose their dresses. Near her couch there was a table full of books. Sometimes her eldest daughter descended from upstairs, down into the boudoir, picked up some books and left. When the Tsarina looked for them Olga used to say - 'Mama, let me read first and tell you which one is suitable for you.'

Early in the morning servants, holding the pots of incense, walked up and down the endless corridor, moving from one room to another, leaving behind sweet smells. Maids in beautiful uniforms visited every room, polished the gold, silver and china vases, threw away the previous day's flowers and replaced them with fresh scented flowers, just arrived from the gardens of Livadia Palace in Crimea.

Every afternoon the Tsarina used to get out for a short drive. The carriage was ready at two o'clock in the afternoon, waiting at the Palace gates. In the evening she used to call her maids to help her in wearing jewels. They had dinner at 8 o'clock. After dinner the family gathered in the cosy comfortable drawing room of the Palace. The Emperor used to read a book aloud, while listening to the Tsarina and her daughters knitting or embroidering something. Before retiring to bed they used to have hot drinks. At 11 o'clock at night the Tsar wrote his daily activities in his diary. Finishing his diary, he plunged himself into his beautiful silver bath.

To guard this paradise, to tend its lawns, pick its flowers, groom its horses, polish its motor cars, clean its floors, make its beds, polish its crystals, serve its banquets and baths, and dress its Imperial children took thousands of human hands.

According to a Soviet who had access to the Palace, wrote in his book what he saw inside - 'When at last the door opened with a reluctant grunt, we entered the vestibule with a vast officer in a bearskin hat like a tub, pages, court negroes in crimson velvet coats, embroidered in gold, with turbans and sharp pointed curved shoes, equerries in cocked hats, red capes bordered with stamped imperial eagles, stepping noiselessly with the soft patent leather shoes, resplendent in snow white garters, the footmen ran before us up the carpeted staircases. We passed through drawing rooms, anterooms, banqueting rooms, passing from carpets to glittering parquet, then back to carpets. At every door stood servants petrified in pairs in most varied costumes, according to the room to which they were attached; now the traditional black frock coats, now polish surcoats, with red shoes and white stockings and gaiters. At one of the doors stood two handsome servants with crimson scarves on their heads, caught up with tinsel clasps.'

There was an army of cooks in the Palace kitchen. Most important of them was Cubat, a Frenchman. He cooked special dishes on special occasions. After dinner was over he was stood at the door of the dining hall listening carefully to what the guests would say about his cooking.

Tea was a most important and interesting time in the Palace. The Grand Duchess wore special dresses for tea. When they were little they used to play with toys on the floor after tea. When they grew up toys were replaced by knitting and sewing. Anna Vyrubova remembered the Tsar entering the dining hall exactly at 4 o'clock, drank two cups of tea, no more no less, buttered a slice of hot bread, while drinking he looked into some official paper. Cakes never appeared on the table. After tea the Tsar left for his audience chamber, where people gathered to discuss their problems with him. At 8 o'clock the meeting ended. As soon as the clock struck eight the Emperor got up and walked to the window showing the sign that the meeting was over. After dinner the Tsarina used to go upstairs to say Tsarvitch his prayers before going to bed.