Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy

by Douglas Smith

  66. Osipova, Klassovia bor’ ba, 227–28; Zemlia i volia, August 28, 1917, no. 128, p. 4; October 12, 1917, no. 166, p. 2; Den’, September 14, 1917, no. 163, p. 5; September 17, 1919, no. 166, p. 5; Den’ (under special title Polnoch’), November 24, 1917, no. 1, p. 5; Gill, Peasants, 142.

  67. Revolutionary Days, 328.

  68. Den’, September 30, 1917, no. 177, p. 3; Figes, People’s Tragedy, 462–63.

  69. Ibid., October 13, 1917, no. 188, p. 5.

  70. Ibid., October 18, 1917, no. 192, p. 2.

  71. Ibid., (published as Noch), November 22, 1917, no. 1, p. 6.

  72. Figes, Peasant Russia, 21–22; Gill, Peasants, 157–58.

  73. AVG/M, 44–45.

  74. VMG/D, 71–72, 77, 89.

  75. Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 93–95, 149.

  7: THE BOLSHEVIK COUP

  1. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 124–25.

  2. Figes, People’s Tragedy, 456–58, 469–78; Rendle, Defenders, 199; Robert Service, “The Bolshevik Party,” in Critical Companion, 234–35.

  3. Rendle, Defenders, 199; Figes, People’s Tragedy, 493–95.

  4. Figes, People’s Tragedy, 481–95; Lincoln, Passage, 441–53.

  5. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 136–38.

  6. Lincoln, Passage, 468–70.

  7. OGSh, 21.

  8. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 136–38; OGSh, 20–24.

  9. OGSh, 24–25.

  10. Lincoln, Passage, 470–71; RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 139–42.

  11. SVS, 245; Alekseeva, “Velikii,” 25–26.

  12. VMG/D, 103–109.

  13. AVG/M, 46–47.

  14. Appendix II to AVG/M: “Excerpts from the Diaries of Olga and Marina Golitzin and Olga’s Poems,” 9.

  15. Ibid., 5.

  16. AVG/M, 48; PG, 432.

  17. ZU, 148–51.

  18. VMG/D, 112, 116, 120, 124–25, 133; ZU, 152–53.

  19. ZU, 148–52.

  20. Marie Kastchenko, “A World Destroyed,” HIA, 138–76.

  21. Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 102–28; see also TAS, 309–12.

  22. TAS, 115.

  23. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 496–98; Lincoln, Passage, 457–58; Figes, People’s Tragedy, 489–91.

  24. Lincoln, Passage, 458; Figes, People’s Tragedy, 492–97; Rabinowitch, Bolsheviks, 302–304.

  25. Lincoln, Passage, 458–61; Pipes, Russian Revolution, 499.

  26. Ryan, “Revolution,” 261.

  27. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 509.

  28. Ibid., 521–24.

  29. Rendle, Defenders, 54; Izvestiia, March 12, 1917, no. 13, p. 4.

  30. Dekrety, 1:41–42, 71, 132–37; Rendle, Defenders, 212.

  31. OGSh, 19.

  32. Lincoln, Passage, 462–63; Pipes, Russian Revolution, 526–27.

  33. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 527–28.

  34. Golinkov, Krakh, 73.

  35. Lincoln, Passage, 463–68.

  36. OGSh, 27–28.

  37. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 541–42.

  38. OGSh, 27–28.

  39. Pipes, Russian Revolution, 537–55; Lincoln, Passage, 475–79; Figes, People’s Tragedy, 509–10.

  40. Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 38–41; Lincoln, Passage, 474–75.

  41. Nabokov, Speak, 2, 41–43.

  42. “Zapiski M. S. Trubetskoi,” in A. B. Tatistcheff Collection, box 4, HIA, 1.

  43. VMG/D, 118–19, 121–22, 140, 161; AVG/M, 48–50, and Appendix IV, 15; KhiG 9 (2002): 156–62, 203–36; KhiG 7 (2000): 368–75.

  44. AVG/M, 35, and Appendix II, 7, 9–10; Appendix IV, 2; ZU, 80–81, 243–44; VMG/D, 118–19, 121–22, 140, 161; Schmemann, Echoes, 155–56, 185; KhiG 10, pt. 1 (2003): 203–12.

  45. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 159; 1287.1.5062, 156a.

  46. Ibid., 1287.1.5062, 156a.

  47. ABM.

  48. MVG/M, 65.

  49. RGADA, 1287.1.3500, 27–30ob.

  50. OGSh, 28–31.

  51. Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 128.

  52. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 172.

  53. VMG/D, 116.

  8: EXPROPRIATING THE EXPROPRIATORS

  1. Mawdsley, Civil War, v, 399. Drawing on the work of various experts, Mawdsley estimates between seven and ten million died as a result of the fighting. For more on the number of deaths, see Raleigh, “Russian Civil War,” 166. Historians disagree about the day the civil war began, but this book follows the argument put forward by Mawdsley and others that it started with the Bolshevik coup and not, as some claim, the following summer.

  2. Mawdsley, Civil War, 268–98.

  3. Ibid., 4–5.

  4. Riasanovsky and Steinberg, History, 464.

  5. Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 23.

  6. Dekrety, 6:124; Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 9, 14, 56, 76; Rendle, Defenders, 203–204.

  7. Nabokov, Bagazh, 111.

  8. Quoted in Ryan, “Revolution,” 270–71.

  9. Trifonov, Likvidatsiia, 162.

  10. Lenin, Polnoe sobranie, 34:287–339; 35:156–58.

  11. Ibid., 34:195–205.

  12. Schapiro, Communist Party, 210.

  13. Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 73; Applebaum, Gulag, 28–29.

  14. Zinovieff, Princess Remembers, 122–25.

  15. Wolksonsky, Way, 120–23. See also Robien, Diary, 218; WSHC, 1720/1130, Prince Nicholas Galitzine, 6–7.

  16. Ivanov, Byvshie liudi, 70; Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 57.

  17. Figes, People’s Tragedy, 727.

  18. Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 57.

  19. Fel’shtinskii, Krasnyi terror, 108–10; Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 8:14–15; 9:27.

  20. Preston, Before the Curtain, 92–94.

  21. McMeekin, History’s Greatest Heist, 6–7, 91.

  22. Osipova, Klassovaia bor’ ba, 269; Figes, Peasant Russia, 296–97.

  23. Figes, Peasant Russia, 133–34.

  24. Igritskii, 1917 god, 259–69; Gill, Peasants, 154.

  25. “K istorii provedeniia v zhizn’,” 48–52.

  26. McMeekin, History’s Great Heist, 12–13, 17, 24–25, 35–36, 45, 73–91.

  27. Trifonov, Likvidatsiia, 117.

  28. Dolgorukov, Velikaia razrukha, 96; OGSh, 41–42.

  29. On consolidation and its effects, see Bertaux, “Transmission,” and Chuikina, Dvorianskaia pamiat’, 138–40; Zubov, Stradnye gody, 80–97; Glenny and Stone, eds., Other Russia, 122–24; Shapovalov, Remembering, 131–32; Sollohub, Russian Countess, 132–34; Reed, Ten Days, 354; Kovalevskii, Dnevniki, 51–68.

  30. Steinberg and Riasanovsky, History, 460–66; Raleigh, “Russian Civil War,” 157–63; Trifonov, Likvidatsiia, 107–108; Dekrety, 1:240, 230, 236, 390; 2:136–37.

  31. Trifonov, Likvidatsiia, 103–105; McMeekin, History’s Greatest Heist, 12–13, 17, 24–25, 35–36, 45, 73–91.

  32. Skariatina, World, 229–32. See also M. F. Meiendorff, Vospominaniia, 242–43; Meshcherskaya, Russian Princess, 11–14.

  33. Tatishchev, Zemli, 265, 269–70; I. Vasil’chikov, To, chto mne, 144; Wassiltschikow, Verschwundenes Russland, 335; Robien, Diary, 104.

  34. McMeekin, History’s Greatest Heist, 17–21, 46–48, 56–71.

  35. IDG, 71–72.

  36. GARF, R–5446.5a.737, 2–3; Iusupov, Memuary, 1998, 235; Von Meck, As I, 179; Iusupovskii dvorets, 2:383–84; Clarke, Lost Fortune, 106–107, 158–61.

  37. Tolstoy, I Worked, 56, 149–50; Tatistscheff, “Crossing the Field,” 148–50; Zinovieff, Princess, 122–25; Horsbrugh-Peter, Memories, 101. See also Urusova, Materinskii plach, 29; M. F. Meiendorff, Vospominaniia, 220; KNG, 155–56; Clarke, Lost Fortune, 106–108, 157–61; Williams, Olga’s Story, 206; Meshcherskaya, Russian Princess, 70, 82–83; Shcherbatova, “Dnevnik,” 70.

  38. Nabokov, Speak, 187–88, 244–46.

  39. Wassiltschikow, Verschwundenes Russland, 345.

  40. Welch, Russian Court, 133.

  41. Von Meck, As I, 174–76.

  42. Nabokov, Speak, 183.

  43. Meiendorff, Through Terror, 96, 102, 132
.

  44. Babine, Civil War, 75.

  45. Skriabina, Strannitsy, 79.

  46. Trifonov, Likvidatsiia, 164; Ivanov, Byvshie liudi, 70–71; McMeekin, History’s Greatest Heist, 49; Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 168, 180–82; Von Meck, As I, 161–62. See also Gipius, “Iz nebytiia,” 90–91; Babine, Civil War, 47, 78; E. F. Rodzianko, Perelomy, 74–75; Welch, Russian Court, 134–35.

  47. BP, 4:18.

  48. Brovkin, Behind, 119–26; OPR, 40; Leggett, Cheka, 147–51.

  49. Brovkin, Behind, 74–75.

  50. See, for example, Kovalevskii, Dnevniki, 20.

  51. Paley, Memories, 126, 264; M. Buchanan, Dissolution, 265–66.

  52. McMeekin, History’s Greatest Heist, 39.

  53. Ibid., 56–71.

  54. Coles and Urusova, Letters, 326–33.

  55. M. Buchanan, City, 217–18.

  56. Figes and Kolonitskii, Interpreting, 186.

  57. Robien, Diary, 186, 190, 218.

  9: THE CORNER HOUSE

  1. OGSh, 33–39; RGADA, 1287.1.3500, 54–59ob, 64–68ob.

  2. OR RNB, 585.4627, 3–4, 13, 23; RGADA, 1287.1.3759, 75–75ob.; Kraskov, Tri veka, 269–79; RGADA, 1287.1.3759, 84; author interview with Yevdokia Sheremetev, March 19, 2009.

  3. KNA, 145, 15; 146, 1–3; 148, 1; Zhukov, Sokhrannye revoliutsiei, 60, 82–83, 92–93, 172–74; idem, Stanovlenie, 165; Konchin, Revoliutsiei prizvannye, 88.

  4. ABM.

  5. Kovaleva, Staraia Moskva, 139–40; Krasko, Tri veka, 378; OR RNB, 585.4363; ABM; YPS/V, 53; SH, 2:147.

  6. Krasko, “Graf,” 467; idem, “Ob odnom,” 93–94; OR RNB, 585.6085, 3–3ob; SH, 2:147.

  7. Kiriushina, “Stranitsy,” 184–85; GARF, 2307.8.5, 3; Alekseeva, “Velikii, 25–26; Krasko, “Graf,” 467; Wassiltschikow, Verschwundenes Russland, 392–93; RGALI, 612.1.2853, 188, 190–92.

  8. Lincoln, Red Victory, 156–59.

  9. Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 67–68.

  10. OGSh, 75–76.

  11. Lincoln, Red Victory, 159–61; Anichkov, Ekaterinburg, 155.

  12. Figes, People’s Tragedy, 510.

  13. Volkov-Muromtsev, Iunost’, 172.

  14. ABM.

  15. OR RNB, 585.4614, 2–3.

  16. ABM; Krasko, Tri veka, 267–68; OGSh, 80; YPS/V, 53; RGADA, 1287.1.5919, 24–25; Kovaleva, Staraia Moskva, 34–35, 139.

  17. ABM.

  18. YPS/V, 54.

  19. Ibid., 51, 54–55.

  20. Ibid., 54–55; Meiendorff, Through Terror, 48, 132–33; RGADA, 1287.1.3431, 16–18.

  21. YPS/V, 54–55.

  22. OR RNB, 585.4628, 11ob.

  23. For examples of daring escapes, see Korostowetz, Seed, 357–79; Paley, Memories, 272–73, 302–309; Wolkonsky, Way, 144; Belosselsky-Belozersky, Memoirs, 65–69; Fitzpatrick and Slezkine, In the Shadow, 135–39; Vyrubova, Memories, 376–81; Polovtsov, Glory, 336–44; Glenny and Stone, Other Russia, 120–21; Isaakova, “Testimony,” BA, 237; Rodzianko, Perelomy, 79–80; Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 214–56, 265–70, 290; TAS, 326–28; Wolkonsky, “Diary,” 65–66; Ponafidine, Russia, 231–301.

  24. Meshcherskaya, Russian Princess, 9–10.

  25. Almedingen, Tomorrow, 124.

  26. Chuikina, Dvorianskaia pamiat’, 18–19, 36.

  27. Almedingen, Tomorrow, 147. See also Robien, Diary, 233, 268; Pethybridge, Spread, 170–75.

  28. Coles and Urusova, Letters, 289.

  29. OGSh, 75–76. See also 33–35, 48–51, 56–57, 62–63, 73; RGADA, 1287.1.3500, 60–63ob.

  30. Bunin, Cursed Days, 57.

  31. Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 175, 179; Coles and Urusova, Letters, 360–62.

  32. OGSh, 33–35, 58–59, 73.

  33. Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dnevnik, 175, 179; Kokovtsov, Iz moego, 2:428; Sollohub, Russian Countess, 99.

  34. MVG/M, 65; TAS, 322.

  35. YPS/V, 53; ABM; Krasko, Tri veka, 383, 393, 403; SH, 2:148, 150.

  36. SH, 3:391–92, 398.

  37. RGADA, 1287.1.5062, 81–82; ABM.

  38. MVG/M, 64; Krasko, Tri veka, 378; author interview with Evdokia Sheremetev, March 14, 2009; ABM.

  39. ABM; Reswick, I Dreamt, 112, 160–61. On tame Communists, KNG, 219, 232–33.

  40. Kaminski, Konzentrationslager, 34–36; Afanas’ev, et al., eds., Istoriia, 2:523; Applebaum, Gulag, 31–32; Leggett, Cheka, 176–81; Shapovalov, Remembering, 4.

  41. GARF, R–1005.1a.148, 141–43, 154, 217–17a; WSHC, 1720/1130, Prince Nicholas Galitzine, 9–10.

  42. Letters 39–57 of A. Dolgoruky to his mother in Igor Vinogradoff Collection, box 1, HIA.

  43. Benckendorff, Last Days, 144; Wolkonsky, Way, 110–11; ABM.

  44. OPR, 22–23, 150n.1; IDG, 8; ABM; Lincoln, Red Victory, 217–26; Mawdsley, Russian Civil War, 265, 268–71.

  45. ABM; Krasko, Tri veka, 386, 406; IDG, 84–85.

  10: SPA TOWN HELL

  1. ABM; Shkuro, Zapiski; Zernov, Na perelome, 229–89; Savel’eva, Kavkazskie Mineral’nye Vody, 125, 150; GARF, 5819.1.5, 125; Musin-Pushkin, “Kniga,” 3:24–25.

  2. Kokovtsov, Iz moego proshlogo, 2:422–25.

  3. V. Urusova, “Moi vospominaniia,” 62–64; Kshesinskaia, Vospominaniia, 191–203; Shkuro, Zapiski, 24–28.

  4. Kokovtsov, Iz moego proshlogo, 2:428–29, 432–33; Urusova, “Moi vospominaniia,” 62–64.

  5. Denikin, Ocherki, 3:188; Savel’eva, Kavkazskie Mineral’nye Vody, 235–36, 242.

  6. Ignatieff, Russian Album, 133; Luckett, White Generals, 184.

  7. ABM.

  8. P. Uvarova, Byloe davno, 201–203.

  9. “Zapiski kn. M. S. Trubetskoi,” in Aleksei B. Tatishchev Collection, box 4, HIA, 2:1–2; A. A. Tatishchev, Zemli, 282; Tatistcheff, “Crossing the Field,” 202–29.

  10. Savel’eva, Kavkazskie Mineral’nye Vody, 124, 135–36, 244–45; Tatistcheff, “Crossing the Field,” 204, 209–12; Serge, Year One, 214–15, 394–95n.8 and 20, 399n.48; Buldakov, “Revoliutsiia, naselie”; Kriven’kii, Politicheskie deiateli; GARF, 5819.1.4, 3ob–5; Amfiteatrov-Kadashev, “Stranitsy,” 559–60; Acton, ed., Critical Companion, 223, 225, 749.

  11. Rod L’vovykh, 246; Léonida, Chaque, 65–66; “Zapiski kn. M. S. Trubetskoi,” 2:1–12; GARF, 5819.1.4, 40; Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 7:14–15; Pipes, Russian Revolution, 309–14; Tatistcheff, “Crossing the Field,” 215–17; Z. N. Yusupov, “Diary,” February 7, 8, 10.

  12. Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi Terror,” 7:14–15.

  13. Ibid., 7:17; L’vova and Bochkareva, Rod L’vovykh, 145, 242–60; Coles and Urusova, Letters, 274–77, 389–90; GARF, 5819.1.5, 124–25.

  14. Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 9:19.

  15. Ibid., 7:16.

  16. Ibid., 7:18–19, 28, 34; Denikin, Ocherki, 3:228–29; Savel’eva, Kavakzskie Mineral’nye Vody, 78.

  17. Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 7:21–24; Akt.

  18. L’vova and Bochkareva, Rod L’vovykh, 145, 242–60; Coles and Urusova, Letters, 389–90; Zernov, Na perelome, 264–70; Fel’shtinskii, Krasnyi terror, 34, 35; Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavski, “Krasnyi terror,” 7:15–25.

  19. L’vova and Bochkareva, Rod L’vovykh, 140–47, 257; GARF, 5819.1.125, 126–27.

  20. Anonymous, “An Appreciation,” 28–36.

  21. Serge, Year One, 395n.8; Savel’eva, Kavkazskie Mineral’nye Vody, 135–36; Buldakov, “Revoliutsiia, nasilie”; Amfiteatrov-Kadashev, “Stranitsy,” 559–50. One source states Alexander was shot, not stabbed to death.

  22. Akt; Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 7:25–31; GARF, 5819.1.125, 126–27.

  23. GARF, 5819.1.3, 8–8ob; 5819.1.5, 126–27; Fel’shtinskii and Cherniavskii, “Krasnyi terror,” 7:26.

  11: BOGORODITSK

  1. VMG/D, 166.

  2. Ibid., 182, 201, 206.

  3. Ibid., 204, 212, 338.

  4. Ibid., 272.

  5. Ibid., 229.

  6. Ibid., 229, 315–16.
/>   7. Ibid., 352.

  8. AVT/V, 1:4–5.

  9. KhiG 4, pt. 1 (1997): 67–69.

  10. ZU, 155–56, 160–61; KhiG 1 (1996): 144.

  11. ZU, 162–68; VMG/D, 276; KNG, 134–46; AVT/V, 1:2; Rendle, “Family, Kinship,” 39–42; idem, “Problems of Becoming,” 12–13.

  12. A. E. Trubetskoi, “Kak my pytalis’ spasti tsarskuiu sem’iu,” DS 2 (1995): 61–68; S. E. Trubetskoi, Minuvshee, 255; VMG/D, 173, 208; Fusso, Russian Prince, xii–xiii; Smirnova, “. . . pod,” 251.

  13. S. E. Trubetskoi, Minuvshee, 171–73. On the underground, see Kuz’mina, Kniaz’ Shakhovskoi, 265–66; OPR, 9, 9n.2; Golinkov, Krakh, 55–56, 62; Rendle, Defenders, 205–206, 228–29; Volkov-Muromtsev, Iunost’, 159.

  14. Ocherki russkoi smuty, 3:74–76.

  15. Leggett, Cheka, 279–91; DS 4 (1996): 364–78; 9 (1999): 272–90; OPR, 167–68; Klement’ev, V bol’shevitskoi moskve.

  16. OPR, 9 and 9n.2.

  17. ZU, 157, 173–75; ZVG, 5:79–80.

  18. Mikhail’s letter is attached to “Zapiski kn. M. S. Trubetskoi,” in A. B. Tatishchev Collection, box 4, HIA.

  19. ZU, 177–78.

  20. Ibid., 179–91; RGADA, 1287.3.90, 32–32ob; 1287.3.91, 1; 1287.3.107, 35–38ob; KNG, 123–24.

  21. ZU, 193–94; KhiG 4, pt. 1 (1997): 70–71; Muratov, Rod, 97.

  22. RGADA, 1287.3.100, 225–25ob.

  23. KNG, 129–30.

  24. Ibid., 356–57.

  25. RGADA, 1263.3.97, 8–8ob, 34–35.

  26. Almedingen, Tomorrow, 230; S. E. Trubetskoi, Minuvshee, 160, 181–83. See also Kovalevskii, Dnevniki, 25–27, 44; Meiendorff, Through Terror, 96, 102, 132; Britneva, One Woman’s Story, 87–88; ZVG, 4:87; IDG, 69–70, 85; Alekseev, Usad’ ba andreevskoe, 59–61; Sollohub, Russian Countess, 142–44.

  27. ZU, 205.

  28. “Zapiski kn. M. S. Trubetskoi,” in A. B. Tatishchev Collection, box 4, HIA, 28.

  29. RGADA, 1263.3.104, 14–15ob; AVT/V, 1:4.

  30. RGADA, 1263.3.99, 42–43ob.

  31. Ibid., l. 57–58ob.

  32. Ibid., 1263.3.95, l. 3–4ob.

  33. Ibid., 1287.3.100, 180–80ob, 187, 194ob, 223.

  34. Ibid., 158–59ob.

  35. ZU, 21–17; RGADA, 1263.3.107, 35–38ob; 1263.3.106, 46–47ob, 75–75ob.

  36. Leggett, Cheka, 96; Rendle, Defenders, 223–28; idem, “Officer Corps.”

  37. Volkov, Tragediia, 240, 245, 259–61; Smirnova, Byvshie liudi, 254; Dekrety, 5:327, 426.

  38. PG, 73–74, 577–80; Koval’, Kniaz’ Vasilii, 207–208, 275–306; See also Skriabina, Strannitsy, 56.