Anastasia: The autobiography of H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna of RussiaSmith, Eugenia
History
Anastasia: The autobiography of H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia
Smith, Eugenia
Anastasiia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess, daughter of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, 1901-1918
Zaslovsky hated everybody. He even kicked our friendly dog Lisa,
because the dog wanted to make friends with him. He also beat the dog
in the yard and stepped on our cat without any reason. He said that
before he left he would do away with all our pets. We suffered and our
animals clung to us. When they heard his loud voice downstairs, they
all ran and hid under Mother’s chaise longue. Eventually the soldiers
drove Zaslovsky away and he went back to Ekaterinburg.
In the meantime our finances were getting low and Anna Vyrubova made
an arrangement with a banker named Yaroshinsky to send us some money
through Soloviev, the husband of Matriona, Rasputin’s older daughter.
Marie and I knew Yaroshinsky from Tsarskoe Selo. He had financed
Marie’s and my hospital and we had seen him occasionally. He spoke
poor Russian with a Polish accent. He told us once that he had an
uncle who was a cardinal in Italy. Soloviev was entrusted with several
thousands of rubles and some letters to be delivered to us. We did not
know Soloviev but knew that Anna trusted him and that he had delivered
some letters to Tobolsk previously. We received only thirty thousand
rubles out of the three hundred thousand that were sent to us by
Anna. Later in Ekaterinburg we were shown copies of all letters and
records of the money, which Soloviev took as a payment for spying on
us. Because he was the husband of Matriona, Anna had confidence in him
in financial and other matters. Dr. Botkin told Father that Yurovsky
said that Soloviev and Yaroshinsky were friends of General Pilsudski,
Lenin and Trotsky and of Voykov (who later, it seems, signed the death
verdict of the Imperial family).
We still had about 35-40 employees whose wages we were unable to meet.
Food became a problem. We had no sugar, coffee or butter. When the good
people of Tobolsk learned of the conditions in the Governor’s house
they sent us whatever they had. Some of the merchants and the heads of
the city had met Father in 1891 when, on his way home from Japan, he
had made an extensive tour throughout Siberia. At that time the museum
of Tobolsk was established and Father deposited a great deal of money
in the Imperial banks for the upkeep of this museum. Magazines and
articles were sent to us and we read them with interest. Incidentally
it was twenty-seven years later, in July also, when the murder took
place in Ekaterinburg, July 16th-17th, 1918.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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