Gagarina Princess Biography

Photo codec from relatives was born in St. Petersburg. Princess Father, Prince Obolensky Dmitry Alexandrovich, senator, in - died; Mother Obolenskaya Daria Petrovna, nee. I received home education. Honorary maid of honor. A talented artist took part in the organization of a number of art workshops, in the "new art workshop". Chairman of the Society of Folk Entertainment in St. Petersburg, in-chairman of the art colony on the Kholmoki estate near Porkhov.

She married Prince Andrei Grigoryevich Gagarin, in the family - five sons and three daughters. In October, she was arrested on charges of “counter -revolution”, as her diary was removed during the arrest, in which “disapproving reviews about the actions of government power” were noted. Sent to Moscow and imprisoned in Butyrskaya prison. The legal department of the Moscow Political Red Cross filed a petition for early liberation from custody or on the forced appointment of her to work in the People’s House to them.

Lenin in a requisitioned estate in the cholm of the Pskov region. B - freed, left for Holomki, helped her daughter Sophia, the head of the people's house. From December 22 - the widow's husband died. In January, the elder sons were bought from the Bolsheviks, went abroad. She lived in Paris, played in amateur performances, C-performed in the troupe of L. later lived in a consistent of Pennsylvania, wrote memories.

The author of memoirs "ReminisCences of Old Russia". I was then 5 years old and apparently I was not very modest, since in the huge halls of the Winter Palace I felt at home and played at ease with the great princes Sergei and Paul. I well remember the Empress sitting on the raspberry sofa. The crinolines were then in fashion and the empress had a voluminous skirt with the waxes. She was tall, with beautiful features, two long slightly curled curls framed her face, there was a lace cap on her head.

The empress was very kind to me, caressed and kissed me, she gave me a lot of Easter eggs with gifts, the smallest of them was gold, he could be worn on a chain ... This was the first and last time I saw the empress. A few years later I saw her already in the coffin. Alexander II was an unusually pleasant person. Everyone who talked with him was fascinated by his charm, especially women.

The empress in the last years of her life was almost disabled and the king lived almost openly with one of her maids of honor, Ekaterina Dolgorukova, who married 6 weeks after the death of the empress. Princess Dolgorukova had beautiful long blond hair, she cut off them when the emperor was killed and laid in his coffin. We were accepted in a small cozy living room. The walls and furniture were upholstered by the new chintz, watercolors and family photos were hung everywhere, there were trinkets on the tables, there were many books on the shelves.

What a contrast with the pompous and majestic apartments of their predecessors. The empress possessed a unique charm and accepted us with such grace and simplicity that I had the impression that I know her all my life. We talked pleasantly when a little boy suddenly ran in a white sea jacket. It was the unfortunate future emperor Nicholas II. On that day, he came running to call his mother to a picnic in the forest.

The next time I saw the empress during a ball in Gatchina in honor of the Empress's birthday. This was my first ball and my debut in the St. Petersburg light. In the break between the dancing, the empress smiling told me that she was very glad to see my debut in the light at home. Such a thin charm and friendly attention from the empress to a young eighteen -year -old girl forever conquered the heart of this girl.

Since the 16th century, all Russian kings were crowned in the old capital. On the day of coronation, all the maids of honor gathered in the palace at 7. We were about two hundred, all were dressed in court dresses, the lower part of which was from a white satin, in front of the gold, and the upper part, also embroidered with gold and sleeves from red velvet. On our heads we had red velvet kokoshniki with a white veil, which fell on the back.

We walked in pairs from the palace through the red porch along the square to the Assumption Cathedral, in which the coronation took place. Our procession was led by the little Grand Duke Nikolai, the heir to the throne, he was dressed in a Cossack uniform. Soon after we took our places in the left chapel, the emperor and empress entered the cathedral. They had mantles sewn with gold and trimmed with ermine.

They were accompanied by a brilliant retinue from the state-dame, the highest state and military officials, in the cathedral they were met by the archbishops of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev, a huge number of small clergymen in magnificent vestments sewed with gold and silver. At this time, the marvelous choir filled the sacred arches of the temple with the solemn melodic sounds of Russian Orthodox tunes.The moment was very exciting when the emperor knelt in front of the altar all the others stood, in a loud confident voice read the prayer and laid the imperial crown, filed by the archbishop.

After that, everyone who was in the cathedral knelt, and the emperor stood up. Then he laid the small crown on the head of the empress standing on his knees.

It is necessary to mention a strange coincidence: during the coronation, a dove flew into the temple and circled over our heads for a while. Now the pigeons are considered the emblem of the world, and Tsar Alexander III was called the peacekeeper, since in more than two hundred years he was the first to unleashed war in whose reign. After the religious ceremony, the imperial couple went to the Archangel Cathedral - to honor the memory of its predecessors - the first Russian kings.

Before returning to the palace, their majesty greeted the people from the Red porch. For several days, court coronation celebrations lasted. I remembered the first court ball called Kurtag very well. The imperial couple, foreign princes and princesses, the most eminent guests entered the hall to the solemn sounds of Polonaise. It was a magnificent sight: couples in their beautiful outfits performed against the backdrop of ancient frescoes, the ladies were practically covered with diamonds, rubies and other precious stones.

Coronation celebrations lasted about two weeks. In foreign embassies and private houses, balls were given every day. After all this turmoil, Moscow again plunged into a quiet measured provincial life. Over the course of these three to four months, the imperial family lived in St. Petersburg in a small cozy Anichka Palace. The huge Winter Palace during the time of Alexander III was used only for court balls and techniques.

The first official court ceremony began at 11 o’clock in the afternoon-the imperial surname, led by the sovereign and the sovereign, accompanied by maid of honor, state-dame and court ranks, left the palace chapel after the service. A reception began, during which the emperor and the Empress received New Year's congratulations. Similar ceremonies took place three to four times a year on big holidays.

The Hermitage Ball was luxurious, after which in the art gallery was given lunch served for guests. The young Empress Maria Fedorovna loved to dance. The unofficial balls were the most fun. During the cotillon - a dance of many different figures - all the dancing ladies were awarded fresh flowers brought from Nice. I remember one of these quoteds, which lasted until the morning.

The emperor, who never danced, stood on the threshold of the ballet hall, watching his sleepy eyes as his pretty spouse was spinning in the whirlwind of a waltz, although it was already time to go to sleep. Then the emperor whispered something to the conductor when the next dance began, the musicians began to leave the orchestra one at a time. The disappearance of the violins was not very noticeable, but when the drums remained, the drum and the laughing conductor, the dancers had to complete the ball willy.

The empress really liked this joke and the guests left the ball in high spirits. Obolenskaya, born on September 26 in St. Petersburg. Husband Prince Andrei Grigoryevich Gagarin, artist engineer, director of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, died in January in the family there were six children. In E - the organizer of the art school "New Workshop", in the art colony on the Kholomki estate near Porkhov.

In October - arrested for the "counter -revolution". In the spring-one of her close acquaintances made a detailed certificate of her activities for the training in the legal department of the Moscow Ring Road. At the request of the husband of the arrested Andrei Grigoryevich Gagarin, the former director of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, Maria Dmitrievna was transferred to Moscow to Butyrskaya prison, which is now contained.

The basis of the arrest was apparently the following circumstance. The son of Maria Gargarina, Gregory, who lived with his mother, was arrested in the month of September last year, as a former officer and was subject to execution, but, thanks to a happily coincidence for him, he managed to escape from the wounded man. Subsequently, it became known that, in this way, he reached the advanced German posts, which at that time occupied the city of Pskov.

Meanwhile, among the papers selected during the arrest of the arrest, her diary turned out to be, in which, of course, there could be no indications of any action or participation in actions aimed against the Soviet regime, because one can undoubtedly vouching that M. Gagarin was completely alien to any counter-revolutionary organizations. However, this diary could consist of, perhaps, disapproving reviews about the actions of government.

Be that as it may, M. Gagarina, a decision of the Cheka, was announced, according to which it is subject to imprisonment to the concentration camp until the cessation of the civil war. Not to mention the barely well -deserved suffering, which the elderly woman will have to be subjected to the existing regime of concentration camps, the work of M. Gagarina as a rather talented artist, an educated and cultural woman, could no doubt be better used in her characteristic deed than in gross work.

Gagarin served a lot of art. She founded a special school of painting called "New Workshop". This school exists to this day and was adopted by the Commissariat of Education. The artist Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky, who was one of her employees in the aforementioned school, may testify about the arts in the field of arts Gagarina.