Russia
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Russia’
When Lili Dehn was bundled out of the Alexander Palace in the Spring of 1917, Empress Alix reassured her that they would meet again.
Lili Dehn was a close friend of Empress Alexandra, Queen Victoria’s grand-daughter and consort of Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Empire. In March 1917, the new Communist powers forced the Emperor to abdicate and confined Lili and the royal family to the Alexander Palace. It was not long before Alexander Kerensky of the ‘Provisional Government’ ordered Lili and Alix’s disabled friend Anna to leave.
The Foreign Office had a long tradition of regarding a strong Russian Empire as ‘not in the British interest,’ but John Bright saw only mutual benefit in it.
In January 1878, John Bright MP addressed a meeting in Birmingham on the subject of Russia. Russia and Turkey were at war over Turkey’s treatment of Christians in the Balkans, and there were those in Parliament who said it was ‘in the British interest’ to support Turkey and clip Russia’s wings; but Bright thought that Russian aggression was a Foreign Office myth.
Gregory Rasputin is tricked into attending a dissolute Moscow soirée, and shares his sadness with Englishman Gerard Shelley.
One evening in April 1915, scandal-plagued holy man Gregory Rasputin (1864-1916), a close friend of Empress Alexandra, answered the invitation of pretty, young Marya Mlozov to visit her in Moscow. He was expecting to meet soldiers wounded in the Great War, but stumbled instead into a decidedly bohemian party in full swing. After disappointing Marya by shunning every temptation she put his way, he walked home with Gerard Shelley a picture of dejection.
During the Battle of Inkerman in 1854, one of Lord Raglan’s hospital sergeants had a close encounter with a Russian cannonball.
Lord Calthorpe was aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan during the Crimean War of 1853-6 against Russia. The war was a bloody and costly mistake, but the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on October 24th, 1854, was not the only moment of heroism. A few days after the Battle of Inkerman on November 5th, Calthorpe had this story to share.
The fear that Russia might make an ally of Great Britain drove the would-be Emperor of Europe to extreme measures.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s retreat from Moscow in 1812 is one of the epic tales of history, and a generous one. It has given music Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable Overture, it has given rhetoric that stern officer ‘General Winter’, and it has given us all an object lesson in the deserts of excessive political ambition.
Lucy Cazalet gives an overview of the remarkable Russian ruler, who showed the courage of a prince and the humility of a saint.
Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), Prince of Novgorod, is a saint of the Russian Church, and one of the country’s greatest heroes. As Lucy Cazalet explains here, Alexander showed humility to keep peace with the Tartars, who were content with Russia’s money, but grew tigerish when more actively threatened by the West, who wanted Russia’s soul.