Pavlovsk | Nicholas II

The fate of the kokoshniks presented to OTMA in Kostroma (1913)

PHOTO: each kokoshnik is crowned with an embroidered double-headed eagle (top); the kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Tatiana, Olga and Anastasia Nikolaevna (bottom)

In 1913, the Romanov Dynasty celebrated it’s 300th anniversary. In February of that year, Emperor Nicholas II presided over the celebrations marking the Romanov Dynasty tercentenary. On 6th March (O.S. 21st February), a ‘Te Deum’[1] was performed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan in St. Petersburg, followed by a state reception at the Winter Palace.

Between 15th to 28th May 1913, the Emperor and his family made a pilgrimage across the Russian Empire, retracing the route down the Volga River that was made by the teenage Michael Romanov from the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma to Moscow in 1613 when he finally agreed to become Tsar.

The Imperial Family travelled on the Mezhen from Nizhny Novgorod to Kostroma to take part in the events marking the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty that year.

The Governor of Kostroma Gennady Nikolaevich Botnikov greeted Emperor Nicholas II at the pier, with the traditional bread and salt[2] during the Imperial Family’s visit to the historic Russian town.

On the occasion of the celebrations marking the Tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty, Emperor Nicholas II ordered four kokoshniks, one for each of his four daughters. It was during their visit to Kostroma, that the grand duchesses were presented with the kokoshniks, made by the nuns of the Nikolaevsky Starotorzhsky Monastery[3].

The kokoshniks were made of velvet in a colour scheme typical of the Art Nouveau era: the kokoshnik of Grand Duchess Olga was a peach colour, Grand Duchess Tatiana’s is lilac, Grand Duchess Anastasia is in shades of rose. The colour of Maria’s kokoshnik is not known.

The kokoshniks were embroidered with gold threads and mother-of-pearl beads with stylized images of a double-headed eagle, mythical birds and floral ornaments. The kokoshniks looked elegant and delicate, emphasizing the youth of the grand duchesses. Each kokoshnik came in a case with a metal plaque on which dedicatory inscriptions were engraved. They were kept in the children’s rooms, located on the second floor of the Eastern Wing of the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

What happened to the kokoshniks after the 1917 Revolition? The Kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Olga and Maria, were sold abroad in the 1930s. The kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia, were evacuated during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45). All four kokoshniks have miraculously survived to the present day.

The kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia are today in the collection of the Pavlovsk State Museum; the kokoshnik of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna is in the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum; and the kokosnkik of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna is today in a private collection in the United States. Many years back, the author of this article saw a photo of Maria’s kokoshnik, but it has since been lost.

PHOTO: the kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia Nikolaevna

The first time the author of this article saw the kokoshniks of Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia was in the Costume Museum, which is located in one of the wings of Pavlovsk Palace. The museum showcases elegant evening gowns, dresses, fans, shoes and other personal items of members of the Russian Imperial Family, from the 18th to early 20th centuries.

It was here, that the kokoshniks were displayed, surrounded by glass display cases containing a number of elegant gowns and dresses from the wardrobes of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. I thought it odd that they were among the collection of Pavlovsk Museum, especially given that neither the Dowager Empress, nor her son Nicholas II and his family, ever lived at Pavlovsk. As it turns out, they are all part of the collection of the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

CLICK on the following LINK to read my article Thousands of items at Pavlovsk have not been returned to the Alexander Palace

PHOTO: the kokoshnik of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

In 2014, the kokoshnik belonging to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna came up for auction in New York. It was purchased by the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum for $15,000 USD. The Sotheby’s auction house acted as an intermediary in this deal between the private collector and the museum.

Like the others, the headdress is made in a traditional Russian style in the shape of a crown, covered with peach-coloured velvet, embroidered with silk and silver threads and decorated with precious stones: rubies, emeralds, moonstone and mother-of-pearl. In the center of the crown there is an embroidered double-headed eagle. On the inside, the kokoshnik is covered with peach-coloured silk fabric, with long satin ribbons along the edges.

The packaging of the headdress with the Cyrillic inscription has also been preserved: “To the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Nikolaevsky Starotorzhsky Convent, the city of Galich, Kostroma province. 1913».

“The acquisition of this relic is of particular importance for our museum, since the collection of memorial items of members of the last Tsar and his family is a priority for us. This kokoshnik will be displayed in the exposition of the Alexander Palace,” says Ekaterina Potselueva, curator of the women’s costume collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum.

It is hoped that the kokoshnik of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna will one day be returned to Russia, and that the two kokoshniks in the collection of Pavlovsk Palace will also be returned to the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, from where they were all originally kept before the Revolution and the Great Patriotic War.

NOTES:

[1] The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered as “Thee, O God, we praise”. In the Orthodox Church, it is sung as part of the moleben of thanksgiving.

[2] When important, respected, or admired guests arrive, they are presented with a loaf of bread (usually a korovai) placed on a rushnyk (embroidered ritual cloth). A salt holder or a salt cellar is placed on top of the bread loaf or secured in a hole on the top of the loaf.

[3] The Nikolaevsky Starotorzhsky Monastery has not survived to the present day. In 1936, the monastery was closed by the Soviet authorities. In the 1950s, the monastery buildings were transferred to the Galich Pedagogical School. In 1994 work began on the restoration of the monastery’s Trinity Cathedral, based on archival drawing, documents and photographs. Sadly, work was suspended due to lack of funding.

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Thousands of items at Pavlovsk have not been returned to the Alexander Palace

Posted on February 18 by Paul Gilbert

In 1951, by a government decree, the Alexander Palace was transferred to the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. The Naval Department used the building as a top-secret, submarine tracking research institute of the Baltic Fleet.

Any hope of the Alexander Palace being reopened as a museum – as it was before the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) – were now lost. The palace’s collection, which consisted of thousands of items, and which had been part of the evacuated items held in the Central Depository of Museum Collections of Suburban Palaces-Museums, were at this point transferred to the Pavlovsk Palace State Museum.

From 1951, the Alexander Palace would remain strictly off-limits to visitors for the next 45 years. When it appeared that the Soviet Navy intended to vacate the complex, the Alexander Palace was included in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

In the summer of 1997, a permanent exhibition dedicated to Emperor Nicholas II and his family was opened in the Eastern Wing of the palace. It was at this time that my annual Romanov Tour became the first group from the West to visit the interiors of the Alexander Palace.

Despite the exhibition, the rest of the palace remained under the administration of the Naval Department, who continued to occupy the Western Wing. It is due to their occupancy in this section of the palace, that very few of the original interiors and their elements survived.

PHOTO: he Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, as it looked in the 1990s, when the palace was still surrounded by a security fence and watchtower.

It was not until October 2009, according to the order of the Federal Property Management Agency, that the Alexander Palace was placed under the administration of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve.

After an extensive restoration project which began in the autumn of 2015, the private apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna opened to public on 13th August 2021.

Visitors to the Alexander Palace can now visit the New Study of Nicholas II, Moorish Bathroom of Nicholas II, Working Study of Nicholas II, Reception Room of Nicholas II, the Valet’s Room, PLUS the Maple Drawing Room, Pallisander (Rosewood) Living Room, Mauve (Lilac) Boudoir, Alexandra’s Corner Reception Room, the Imperial Bedroom, the Small and Large Libraries and the Marble/Mountain Hall.

Today, more than 6 thousand items from the funds of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve are displayed in the recreated interiors of the Alexander Palace.

In a recent interview with Art Newspaper Russia, the Director of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve Olga Taratynova talked about the restoration of the Alexander Palace and the reconstruction of the Private Apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

“The Alexander Palace suffered much less than the Catherine Palace,” said Taratynova. “Unlike the Catherine Palace, it was not destroyed by fire [as a result of shelling by the Nazis]. Instead, it endured a different fate. The Alexander Palace served as the residence of the family of the last Emperor, and it is a miracle that anything survived at all,” she added.

“For Alexander] Pushkin’s anniversary in 1949, an exhibition dedicated to him was opened in the palace, and for this purpose, a number of interiors were lost. Soviet dogma of the time believed that Art Nouveau was a decadent style, citing no need to preserve it. And then the building was transferred to the Ministry of War. In 2009, when the Alexander Palace was transferred to us [the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve], we quickly carried out “cosmetic repairs” in three of the State Halls and opened them to the public. But all the things were in Pavlovsk. They were transferred there in 1951, and have remained there ever since, Taratynova continued”

PHOTO: Director of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve Olga Taratynova

“In preparation for the reopening of the Private Apartments of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovan in 2021, they [Pavlovsk State Museum] gave us about 200 items from their collection for “temporary use”. We knew from inventories and photographs, that these items originated in the Alexander Palace], and knew exactly where they were historically located. So I can’t complain, Pavlovsk assisted us. But they did not return everything, of course, because many of the items have been on display in Pavlovsk Palace for many years now.” [On the third floor of the latter palace is dedicated to the history of Russian furniture, many items from the Alexander Palace are on display here – PG].

“Now in the Alexander Palace, we have tried to create the atmosphere of a beloved home. This was really the case – a closed space, where Nicholas II invited only a small circle of close friends and trusted associates. And in the apartments of Alexandra Feodorovna and the children, only extended family members and devoted servants were allowed. We tried to focus on the atmosphere, we even added sound: in some rooms, for example, you can hear, the sounds of billiard balls, in others – a distant piano playing. There are also smells – first of all, the scent of lilacs, because Alexandra Feodorovna loved them very much, they now bloom in her rooms. We revived this tradition two years ago, our gardeners have been growing lilacs even in winter,” Olga Taratynova concluded.

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Prior to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, the Alexander Palace housed more than 52.5 thousand items, of which more than 44.8 thousand items were lost [destroyed or stolen] between 1941 to 1945. From the 7.7 thousand items which survived, a significant part of the items are now in the collection of other museums in Russia. Among these were 5,615 items, which were moved from the Alexander Palace to the Pavlovsk State Museum Reserve in 1951. Of these, nearly 200 pieces were originally from the Alexander Palaces’ three ceremonial halls: the Portrait, Semi-Circular and Marble Halls. These include 39 pieces of porcelain, 41 paintings, 73 decorative bronze pieces, and 28 pieces of furniture.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in particular since the restoration of the Alexander Palace, the return of these objects has been a bone of contention between the two palace-museums. During a visit to Pavlovsk several years ago, I raised the subject with one of the Directors [who shall remain anonymous] at Pavlovsk. “If we return these exhibits to the Alexander Palace, then we [Pavlovsk] will have nothing,” he declared.

Personally, this author believes that Pavlovsk have a moral responsibility to return all of the items transferred there in 1951. The history of these items is connected to the Alexander Palace, not Pavlovsk Palace. It seems that the current Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova, should step in to right this historic wrong. Let us hope that she does the right thing, and order the return of the 5,615 items to the Alexander Palace, where they can be put on display in the rooms from which they originated.