THE END
Historical Notes and Acknowledgements
In The Romanov Stone, actual and imaginary facts, characters and events mingle freely. For example, principally found in Russia, Sri Lanka and Brazil, the alexandrite is the world’s rarest precious gem and changes color under illumination, from various shades of green to various shades of red. It was ostensibly discovered and named in Siberia as described, in 1830, the year Alexander II came of age, and for whom the gemstone is named. The Romanov Stone itself and the meeting between Tsar Nicholas I and his timorous lapidary are both, of course, apocryphal.
The character of Anya Putyatin is, as readers may have guessed, loosely modeled on Anna Pavlova, the greatest ballerina of her, or perhaps, any time. Russian noblemen of the period frequently drew mistresses from the Imperial Ballet and Nicholas himself had a love affair with a prominent ballerina—and the young Pavlova’s contemporary—Mathilde Kschessinska. This liason, however, occurred before Nicholas’ marriage to Alexandra.
It is also true that Empress Marie Feodorovna, along with a retinue of servants and relatives, escaped to Denmark aboard the HMS Marlborough, dispatched by England’s King George V to Yalta. The empress stuffed many of the family’s prized jewels into a trunk, which she kept under her bed in Copenhagen. Queen Mary subsequently obtained valuable pieces through sharp bargaining with the beleagured empress, for whom the jewels were a primary source of income. Today, the gems can be seen being worn by English royals, including Queen Elizabeth.
As described, after a hair’s-breadth escape from pursuing Bolsheviks, Princess Olga Romanov married her longtime lover and lived in Denmark on a farm, becoming a prolific watercolorist whose works remain highly regarded. As related in The Romanov Stone, many other Russian expatriates settled in Paris, enjoying a privileged cultural and legal status until the assassination of the French president by a deranged muscovite.
The Romanov’s pre-war finances came under intense scrutiny during the Anna Anderson “Anastasia” trials, which wound through international courts for decades. Reports of these proceedings, arguably the longest European civil case on record, supplied much of the detail about the tsar’s Bank of England accounts in The Romanov Stone. Although the trials established the existence of the accounts the tsar set up for his children, bank authorities claimed the funds were withdrawn to pay for the war, a point Andersen disputed until her death. Subsequent revelations of other untouched Romanov-era bank accounts, notably at Barings Bank in England, were trumpeted by Anderson advocates to support her claims.
The technical descriptions of the Romanov alexandrite and tests used by Simon Blake and Professor Bertram to test the stone, were as accurate as Mr. Cotes and I could make them. For example, the discrepancy between modern practice and 19th century standards of weight exist as described and must be taken into account in appraising the size and value of older gems.
As trivia experts in the United Kingdom may be aware, The Romanov Stone’s ending, in which a double-decker bus hurtles across Tower Bridge as it opens, is based upon historical fact. Indeed, in 1953, a Routemaster bus, fully loaded with passengers, jumped the gap when the bridge opened due to a malfunction. Its driver was widely hailed as a hero—had he attempted to stop the vehicle, it surely would have plunged into the Themes with resulting loss of life.
Many interview sources helped inform and authenticate this book. Dr. Peter Bancroft, of Fallbrook CA, has served as Curator of Mineralogy at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and as Director of Collections at the San Diego Gem and Mineral Society. He has spent years visiting remote mineral and gem deposits around the world, including Siberia’s Toyovaya mica schists, where the original alexandrite was found. His guidance, especially on the conditions and locations in which raw alexandrites are found, was appreciated.
The author is similarly grateful for two lengthy interviews with the late Dr. Herbert Spiegel, MD, of Manhattan, who died in 2009. At the age of 95. Dr. Spiegel helped establish hypnosis as a mainstream therapy. He coined the term “hypnotic virtuoso”—and defined its physical indicators—to describe the small number of subjects who are highly hypnotizable. His theories drew considerable interest from the American intelligence community. He was a proponent of “hypno-programming” in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan, whom he defined as a hypnotic virtuoso.
Others to whom the author owes thanks include Kenneth Taylor, stagecraft wizard extraordinaire for San Francisco’s Bohemian Club, who provided detailed guidance on creating the illusion of a fake-looking Romanov stone. The comments of Shannon Bresnahan, faculty member of the San Francisco Ballet and a former soloist and principal dancer with companies in Europe and New York, on the technique of dance, including “spotting,” as well as general observations about life en pointe, were especially helpful and deeply appreciated. The notes and comments of the late Jane and Don Wallace, recounting their visits to the Monastery of the Caves at St. Sophia in Kiev, were similarly valuable. Barron’s contributor, writer and photographer Susan Neider provided helpful technical information through a series of emails.
Many writer friends and colleagues commented on The Romanov Stone in its various stages, including Nancy Boas, Michael Libbey, Terry Raskin, Shannen Rossmiller, Judith Egan, Racheal Yeager, Judith Leaper, Brent Barker, Lucy Sanna and members of the Gold Rush Writer’s Conference, including novelist Antoinette May, the conference’s founding director. Editor and writer Aviva Layton and Hollywood producer and entrepreneur Tom Colbert made notable suggestions which improved the book and their stalwart efforts to see it reach print were deeply appreciated.
Published sources include: Anastasia: The Lost Princess, by James Blair Lovell; The Lost Fortune of the Tsars, by William Clarke; Nicholas II: The Last of the Tsars, by Marc Ferro; The Romanovs, Autocrats of all the Russias, by W. Bruce Lincoln; The Last Tsar, by Edvard Radzinsky; Rasputin, The Saint Who Sinned, by Brian Moynahan; Nicholas and Alexandra and The Romanov Family Album, by Robert K. Massie; Russian Imperial Style, by Laura Cerwinske.
I would especially like to thank my collaborator Ben L. Cotes, for his long and dedicated participation in developing the ideas, content and events depicted in The Romanov Stone. Finally, Judi Yeager should be rewarded by the heavens for her patient and countless rereadings of the manuscript as well as her insightful comments and suggestions.
Robert C. Yeager
March, 2012
The Sea Ranch, California
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