See Hillwood's Russian glories and gardens

The entrance to Determined Women at the dacha at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens/by Patricia Leslie

The Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens is a respite of soothing and enchanting glorious springtime colors where guests may wander lush grounds, and walk green pathways to admire endless flower gardens.

A sense of peace and serenity prevails; time is unhurried.

One pathway leads to a small Russian dacha*, built about 1969 and the setting of an exhibition of 100 pieces from the collection of Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887-1973) who lived and died at Hillwood and made it what it is today: luxurious galleries and a museum of incredible works of art.

The Grand Duchesses, the four daughters of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia, 1916, two years before they were murdered.

 Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, 1906, whose daughters are pictured above.

Left:  Star of the Order of Saint Anna, 19th cent. St. Petersburg, silver, diamonds and enamel. Translated from the front:  To those who love justice, piety, and faith. In the center is the Russian imperial eagle.

Right:  Badge of the Order of Saint Anna, 19th cent. Russia, gold, diamonds, enamel/by Patricia Leslie

Ms. Post's inheritance as the only child of her parents no doubt made possible her philanthropic efforts and marshaled her business smarts (she founded General Foods with her second husband**).

At age 27 she was the richest woman in the U.S.

Her father had founded the Post cereal company.

Georgii Musikiiskii (miniaturist), after Johann Gottfried Tannauer, Abraham Heydrich (watchmaker), 1725, watch with miniature portrait of Catherine I, Peter the Great's second wife, gold, silver, diamonds, enamel, copper, St. Petersburg. The ceiling lights at the exhibition are reflected on the watch/by Patricia Leslie

Back of the watch above/By Patricia Leslie

Her admiration of influential women and their designs, works, and artistry form the basis of the exhibition, Determined Women: Collectors, Artists, and Designers at Hillwood which begins in the 1700s and continues to present day. (A curator has added recent pieces about, for example, Stacey Abrams.)

For any cultural and history Russophile like me, the dacha brimming with priceless, historical pieces is another magnificent "find" in Washington, D.C.

After Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun, Portrait of Marie Antoinette and Children, after 1787, at Versailles with the jewel cabinet of Marie Antoinette on the right.

Christina Sanders Robinson (1796-1854), Portrait of Nicholas I, 1840, Russia. His grandmother was Catherine the Great.

Two evening dresses of Ms. Post, the one on the left by Thum (1865-1954), 1920-1925, and the one on the right, by Hattie Carnegie (1886-1956), 1935-1940/by Patricia Leslie

Embroidery by Aunte Mollie Post, Marjorie Merriweather Post's baby bonnet, n.d./by Patricia Leslie

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, designer, altar cloth, c. 1899, Russia/by Patricia Leslie

 

 Needlework by Caroline Lathrop Post, 1854/by Patricia Leslie

Joseph E. Davies was Ms. Post's third husband who took her to Moscow when he was U.S. ambassador to Russia, 1937-1938. Those years coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin's sale of Russian imperial and pre-revolutionary works, money he needed for his industrial agenda.

Carpe diem!

And Ms. Post did! Now, outside of Russia, her Russian collection is considered the best in the world. (What would Mr. Putin exchange for it? Or, some of it?)

Many more Russian artifacts are on display in the mansion.

From left: Maid of Honor Cypher Pin, 1796-1801.  The cypher states for Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Paul I.  These pins were worn on the left side of the breast by Maids of Honor to the Empress. Gold, diamonds, Russia.

Center: Another Maid of Honor Cypher Pin, 1907. Attributed to the firm of Karl Karlovich Hahn.  The pin consists of the ciphers in Russian letters of the last two Empresses, Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna. It was given in 1907 to Irene Rimsky-Korsakoff (1883-1972) (Madame Mishtowt of D.C.). The ciphers are topped by the imperial cleft crown of Russia, all set in diamonds with gold and silver, St. Petersburg

Right: Attributed to Carl C. Blank, Lady of Honor Insignia with miniature portraits of Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, 1912. Gold, diamonds, silver, silver gilt, glass, St. Petersburg/by Patricia Leslie

Three busts of Empress Catherine II. 

From left, by Felix Chopin (1813-1892), made in Russia, c. 1867. 

In the center is a marble by an unknown sculptor, made in Russia, after 1771. 

On the right, by August Spiess, designer (1817-1904), the Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg, after 1872 after a model by Jacques-Dominique Rachette (1744-1809) based on a marble original by Fedot Ivanovich Shubin (1740-1805)/by Patricia Leslie

Mather Brown (1761-1831), King Louis XVI Saying Farewell to his Family, 1793, U.S.A.

A pathway at Hillwood/by Patricia Leslie

At Hillwood/by Patricia Leslie

Determined Women at Hillwood/by Patricia Leslie

Despite its small size, the exhibition packs two rooms with photographs, paintings, sculpture, jewelry, embroidery and more, a "must see" for Russian cultural aficionados.

But you don't have to love Russian history, culture, and people to want to come since it's more than all things Russian. Artists and designers from other nations, especially France, are represented, along  with dress designers of her own whom Ms. Post admired.  And, I am guessing it was a relative who made Ms. Post's baby bonnet.

Pictures, descriptions and locations of all the objects in the exhibition may be found here. 

After she and Mr. Davies divorced in 1955, Ms. Post established Hillwood where she is buried on the grounds. (She reclaimed her maiden name after her fourth and last marriage.)

Of note: Ms. Post built and owned Mar-A-Lago in Florida, another of her "notable" five homes before Donald Trump, the present owner, bought it in 1985 for about $10 million. She had willed it to the National Park Service which deemed it too expensive to maintain. Forbes places the current value around $160 million.

The Hillwood exhibition accompanies a new publication, The Houses and Collections of Marjorie Merriweather Post ($60, hardcover; $30, paperback).

*A dacha is a small Russian country house or villa. In 2017, approximately 60 million Russians or more than 40 percent of the population of 145 million, were estimated to own one.

**Ms. Post's husbands were, in order:

Edward Bennett Close (married 1905; divorced 1919)

Edward Francis Hutton (m. 1920; d. 1935)

Joseph E. Davies (m. 1935; d. 1955)

Herbert A. May (m. 1958; d. 1964)

What: Determined Women: Collectors, Artists, and Designers at Hillwood

When: Now through Sunday, June 18, 2023, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Where: Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20008

Admission: Suggested donations are $18 (adults), $15 (seniors), $10 (college students), $5 (child, ages 6 -18) and free for members and those under age 6. $3 discounts are available for adults and seniors who make reservations online for weekdays, and $1 off, for weekends. For busy times (Mother's Day, anyone?), reservations are highly recommended.

Directions via bus, rail, car

Parking: Free and on-site

For more information: 202-686-5807

Café onsite

patricialesli@gmail.com

Nyet! Book review: Candace Fleming's 'Family Romanov'

On July 17, 1918 the Romanov family of seven and their servants were murdered at this site in Yekaterinburg, Russia which was then the Ipatiev House. In later years, the Politburo and Premier Boris Yeltsin resisted the growing sacredness of the site and the pilgrims who visited the Ipatiev House and ordered it torn down in 1977. In its place, one of the largest churches in Russia, the Church on the Blood was erected.  It opened in 2003/Patricia Leslie

This statue honors the memory of the Romanov children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei at Ganina Yama where the bodies of the children, their parents, and servants were thrown into a pit, 9.5 miles from the murder site/Patricia Leslie

Lily fields at the Ganina Yama pit where the Bolsheviks threw the bodies which they burned with acid for two days before moving them to their second graves, a field 4.5 miles away. When this picture was made 100 years after the family assassinations, large photographs of family members hung on the wooden walkway which surrounded the lily field. Above are two of the Romanov daughters. Every year at the Church of the Blood in Yekaterinburg, thousands gather for services on the anniversary of the murders and then walk four hours to the iron pit at Ganina Yama for more ceremony/Patricia Leslie

The lily field at Ganina Yama with Nicholas II pictured at far left/Patricia Leslie

Fearing the Whites would find the bodies, the Bolsheviks moved them 4.5 miles from Ganina Yama to a field across these railroad tracks, the second burial site. This site was discovered in the late 1970s and kept secret until the Russian government changed in 1989/Patricia Leslie

 The second burial site of the Romanovs/Patricia Leslie

The entrance to the Chapel of St. Catherine the Martyr inside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg, the third and last burial site of the Romanovs/Patricia Leslie

The Chapel of St. Catherine the Martyr, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg, with the remains of the Romanovs and their servants, now saints of the Russian Orthodox Church/Patricia Leslie

At the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, St. Petersburg/Patricia Leslie



It's as if a publisher ordered a writer to find the most negative research possible and turn it into a book, and that's exactly what Candace Fleming did with her 2014 The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia.

Fleming and her team found all things bad they could possibly locate about the Romanovs and then packed them into her book. Only when the family begins the last leg of their journey to Siberia and certain death, does Fleming show any sympathy and, maybe a little remorse, over the outcome.  

She describes the five children as "young savages" whose parents cared little about their children's education (not true). She ridicules an eight-year-old's behavior (show me a perfect eight-year-old), and the grammar of a 13-year-old. Tsk, tsk.

From criticizing the children to sneering at the family's pets, clothing, languages, childcare, schooling and illnesses, Fleming goes overboard to paint the family as n'er do wells, dilettantes with nothing more to do than smoke (Nicholas), frown and lay around (Alexandra), ignore their offspring and fail to keep up with their studies (the children).  (I suppose Fleming has never been a parent.) 

What was good about the Romanovs?  Oh, yes, the women played nursemaid during the War.

Even the speaker's condescending attitude makes its way onto the pages while she reads the book, no doubt given instruction to read in a haughty manner. She succeeds!

Designed to influence young readers, it's no wonder adults are not Fleming's market since anyone with a smidgen of Romanov knowledge would quickly recognize this portrayal as a lopsided, petty picture of a family sacrificed on the altar of politics.

On her website Fleming carries a trailer for the book which makes light of the family and their plight, accompanied by whimsical music.

Hundreds of books have been written about the family and this sad chapter of Russian history which elicit our sympathy and attempt to understand rather than ridicule. Who else does this? It may be the first time Fleming has been compared to Trump.
patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review, 'The Race To Save The Romanovs'

Ahem.
 
After reading The Race To Save The Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, I submit a better title is: The Race To Flee The Romanovs since ...

Nobody wanted 'em!
 
Not the Spanish, or the Danes, the Finns, the Swedes, the French, or the Germans. (Perish the thought! The Germans? The book quotes Nicholas and Alexandra that they would rather be dead than be rescued by Germans, and so they were.)

The English? My dear chap, certainly not the English, heaven forbid, for although Cousin George V was Nicky's first cousin and lookalike twin (their mothers were sisters), how dare the English to even consider, consider (!), harboring the Russian royal family and giving the English underclasses the very idea of revolution, like the Russians!
 
Please, spare us all, which the English did not.
 
What does family have to do with it anyway at a time like this, when your arse might be shot by subjects tempted to follow revolutionaries who might (dare to even ponder the possibility(!)) overtake the English throne?
 
The very thought of it! Which, the English tried not to think of it.
 
No way was the King of England going to help his family in distress, his wife, Queen Mary, whispering sweet reinforcements in his ear: nyet! (Naturally, Queen Mary arguably could be called a force behind George's failure to rescue, but that the respected Race author, Helen Rappaport, the writer of many Romanov books, would stoop to insert a rumored conversation between Gore Vidal and Princess Margaret, yes, that Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, about the weaknesses of her grandmother leaves one to ask: Prithee, why denigrate your work with this trifle?)  

In her book, Ms.Rappaport quotes letters, diaries, published materials, new documents she and her researchers uncovered, and government archives where she could gain access, some archives still under wraps after all these 100 years. ("It's none of the public's business," the royal keepers sniff.)
 
The Bolsheviks shot, bayoneted, and burned the family on July 17, 1918, and announced Nicholas's death only, which the British press barely bothered to report.  The English Royal Family desired to keep all matters Romanov quiet (surprise!) to avoid stirring up their own messes, excuse, masses and besides, the rest of the family, Alexandra and the five children were sequestered somewhere else, safe and sound in Siberia.
 
Weren't they?
 
No one cared too much about the imprisoned family anyway after they and close staff members were hauled east towards Siberia from St. Petersburg the year before they were murdered (the map in the book, quite confusing).
 
Before all the family deaths were revealed (much to the consternation of the world, but let's not talk about it), the Bolsheviks used them as negotiating tools to try and gain release of prisoners, Ms. Rappaport writes.
 
Alexandra, formerly of Germany, wife, mother  and  seemingly despised by all Russians and Brits (she did favor Rasputin, lest anyone need the reminder) suggests another unpopular wife of a national leader, Mary Todd Lincoln, both women whom some blame for their husbands' demise and deaths. (To this duo, please add Queen Mary. Is anyone working on a book about the trio? I would like to read it.) 
 
Ms. Rappaport's Race has a fine glossary of characters at the front which helps keep identifications straight, but not every name is included. (If you are going to list some, then why not list them all?)
 
I am thinking about the omission of Dmitri Malinovsky (pages 222-223), Nicholay Sokolov (pages 134 and 135), not to be confused with Viktor Sokolov (on the same page as Nicholay [page 223] and more), cousins and Princes Vladimir and Alexander Trubetskoy, pages 134, 136-137, and Konstantin Nabokov (the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom whose name is found on page 248 and four other pages, whose surname is the same as Vladimir's of Lolita fame and are they related, I wondered? Yes, his uncle, I discovered in a web search). 

There were more names not identified in the glossary, but my paper ran short, and I grew weary of listing and looking them all up.
 
And then there was the tiny (in small print) Romanov family  tree and all their European royalty relations spread over two pages, necessitating a magnifying glass, and surely, there is a better way to display the lineage in larger print for all those beyond the age of 55 who might read this book and take a gander at the family tree!
 
(RE: The map of the Romanovs' prison route. Where was England? We know where England is, but its relationship to Finland and Russia would have helped here.)

Was this a race to get the book out in the centennial year of the Romanovs' murders?

Rumor of an escape route to Japan and then, the US, is mentioned (?).

patricialesli@gmail.com

Church-on-the-Blood, the site of the Romanovs' executions, Yekaterinburg, Russia

The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

This is the church built on the site where Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children and four staff members were shot and bludgeoned to death on July 17, 1918.  Its formal name (based on a plaque pictured below) is Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg. It was consecrated in 2003.  

The murders happened in the basement of the Ipatiev House which stood here until the Soviet government demolished the house in 1977. The main altar on the first floor of the church is directly over the site of the murders.

The Ipatiev House was the last place the Romanovs lived, imprisoned there for 78 days until the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, ordered their deaths.

The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

A statue of the Romanov family at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Nicholas II holds his son, Alexei, at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Another view of the statue at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
 
The statue as seen from the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

The statue as seen from the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Another view of the statue at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Inside on the top floor of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

The ceiling of the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

The Romanov family tree at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
 
In honor of Nicholas II's patron Saint (Stephen?) at the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

On the ground floor, a few steps from the execution site, is an exhibition with photographs and artifacts of the Romanovs and the Russian Revolution at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018 

In the exhibition is a framed newspaper photo of the demolition of the Impatiev House which stood at the site of the Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Romanov artifacts at the museum at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

A display at the exhibition in honor of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, who became a nun after the 1905 assassination of her husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II, assassinated in 1881.  The Grand Duchess was Empress Alexandra's older sister, they, the granddaughters of Queen Victoria and great-aunts of Prince Philip of Great Britain (whose DNA helped identify the bodies of Alexandra and the children).  Because Elisabeth was royalty, she was one of many family members killed by the Bolsheviks who beat her and others on July 18, 1918,  threw them down an iron pit and when they kept singing hymns and would not die, tossed lighted hand grenades down on top of them in the pit. When the prisoners continued singing, the killers ignited a bon fire.  Despite all this, three months later when their bodies were recovered, it was discovered that Elisabeth was able to bandage a fellow victim's wounds while they all were undergoing  torture in the pit.

After he learned of her death, Wikipedia quotes Lenin: "Virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars^."/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

Members of the clergy who were killed by the Bolsheviks, in a display at the exhibition at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

This is the Royal Spiritual and Educational Center on the side of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018
 
Note the flowers and large photographs of the Romanovs (center, above the flowers) at the front of Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

The front of Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg with large family photographs displayed outside the church/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

A plaque in Russian and English languages at Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

From the Vysotsky Viewing Platform, Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, Yekaterinburg/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

At right center in this photo of the city of Yekaterinburg, is Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, taken from the Vysotsky Viewing Platform/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

 The Church-on-the-Blood in the Name of All Saints Shone Forth in the Land of Russia occupies the sky from all angles in Yekaterinburg. This was taken from the new (2015) Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July 25, 2018

On July 27 or September 6 or September 15, 16, and 17 or 22 (Wikipedia and other sources list different days but they give the same year: 1977), the Ipatiev House was destroyed under orders of the Politburo of the Soviet government.

Alarmed by the increasing number of curiosity seekers, historians and religious members who came to the house, and the growing interest shown by Western governments, the Soviets feared the reality of rumors that the Ipatiev House might become a UNESCO World Heritage site.

They were afraid the site would become a shrine. 

It has become a shrine.

The public reason the Soviets gave for the demolition (which was carried out in the middle of the night like the murders) was a "rehabilitation of the street." 

Which they covered with asphalt. 

Boris Yeltsin, the local Soviet leader in 1977, states in his autobiography, that he was ordered to destroy the house, and he, most agree, had no choice. Documents support him.


At this link is his description that visitors "...even came to look at it [the house] from other cities.

"I can well imagine that sooner or later we will be ashamed of this piece of barbarism. Ashamed we may be; but we can never rectify it."

Pictures are not permitted in the holy space where many icons of the family, crosses, candles, and kneeling pads exist to help visitors assuage their pain and agony, and pray for hope, it will not happen again.

A large icon like this one above of the Imperial Family, Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, and their children, Maria, Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Alexei, the youngest and heir to the throne, hangs adjacent to the execution spot at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/From the website of the Church

Some of the first icons of the family have been found in Serbia, made in the 1920s. 

On the centennial of the deaths on July 17, 2018, the Vatican estimated a crowd of 75,000 turned out for a liturgy at Church-on-the-Blood. Then, thousands walked four hours, about 9.5 miles, along the route the bodies were carried and dumped in an abandoned mining shaft, Ganina Yama.  

75,000 came to honor the memory of the Romanovs on July 17, 2018 at Church-on-the-Blood, Yekaterinburg/From the Vatican

Two days after the murders, on July 19, 1918, the killers carried the bodies to another site, fearful their enemies, the Whites who were fast approaching, would try to rescue the Imperial Family and use them for oppositional purposes. 

Royal Russian News has many links, photographs, and drawings of the palaces, contents, and information about the Romanovs.


Here is a link to an interview dated July 2, 2018 with the head of the Department of Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region, Alexander Kapustin about the possible reconstruction of the Ipatiev House. Kapustin says:  "...the foundation of the Ipatiev House is actually buried under the road. Therefore, we are not talking so much about reconstruction as that of a new construction."

The link contains more information about the Ipatiev House, including a 3D video of the reconstructed house. 

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