There are a lot of historic buildings in St. Petersburg which due to their inhabitants had “an English accent” in the past: the Winter Palace, the Anichkov Palace, and the Yusupov Palace.
4.1. The Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace
The Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace in Nevsky Prospect is one of the brightest examples of the Russian palaces with the English life-style. [Слайд 5]
According to the old manuscripts the first Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace was built in 1747 for Prince Mikhail Andreevich Belosselsky during the reign of Tsarina Elizabeth. It was a small building designed in the French style with a large private garden and a launch onto the canal.
After the death of Prince Mikhail Andreevich Belosselsky the palace was inherited by his son Prince Alexander Mikhailovich who was a close friend of Tsar Paul I. Due to their friendship Paul I allowed the revival of the ancient title of Prince of Belozersk. Since that time the family would be known as the Belosselsky-Belozersky family. Soon they would give their name to their palace.
Some time later Princess Elena Pavlovna, the widow of the son of Alexander Mikhailovich, decided to reconstruct the building. A new palace was
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built under the control of Andreas Stackensneider, the court architect of Tsar Nicholas I. Soon the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace became the most lavish palace in Russia with the most lavish balls and concerts in St. Petersburg. It was a great honor to be invited here. The palace looked similar to the Rastrelliesque Stroganov Palace on the Moika canal. Sculptor David Jensen was asked to produce a replica of it. It was originally painted a deep green with white accents, and faux bronze decoration. After the major renovations in 1847- 48, the palace - complete with piano nobile (the second story containing minor rooms with finer views), concert hall, rare paintings, and palace church - got a dazzling Rococo appearance.
At that period there was not evident “English trends” in the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace though it was constructed in accordance to fashionable European demands. The owners followed Russian traditions but in an aristocratic way.
4.2. The Sergei Palace
The maintenance of the palace demanded a lot of money and at last it was put up for sale. It was at the time of the engagement of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Alexander II to Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and the Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in 1883. The couple needed a residence in the city and found this building suitable. It became their principal residence after its purchase by Sergei Alexandrovich. He gave the palace his name and its present red exterior and unforgettable interior with a vast library and a Slavic revival church. Actually since that time the Russian history of the Belosselsky-Belozersky Palace has got an English accent.
In Russia Princess Elisabeth, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, an elder sister of the future Russian Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna, became Grand Duchess Elisaveta Fedorovna or Ella as she was called by her relatives. After her first meeting with her future husband she fell in love with everything connected
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with him. She quickly grew to love Russia and embraced the Orthodox faith. The Grand Duke was a deeply religious man who strictly observed the fasts, went to church frequently and visited monasteries. The Grand Duchess followed her husband everywhere. Privately she told her friends that she experienced a wonderful feeling of mystery and grace, so different from what she had felt in her native Lutheran church. Soon she made up a decision to convert to Orthodoxy which would support her up to her death.
Well-educated, intelligent, aristocratic, Elisaveta Fedorovna wanted to be good in everything. So she learnt Russian cuisine and public traditions, national holidays and outstanding personalities. Every day she had an hour and a half lesson of the Russian language and even tried to read Dostoevsky in original. But as she wrote to her grandmother Queen Victoria old good England hadn’t let her off at all. It was everywhere: in wet misty “London” weather, in the “English Passage” in Nevsky, and even in “her grandmother’s Victoria halls with atlantes and caryatids” (the symbol of inner power and forbearance – Elisaveta’s life credo) in the Sergei Palace. All in all contemporaries considered her “to be a strange creature with the life full of contradictions and mysteries” [4]
According to the latest European fashion at the fan-shaped staircases visitors were met by a servant. Usually he had such an arrogant expression on his face that anyone could think that at least he was the closest relative of the Grand Duke. Not far from him at the big rich-decorated mirror there was Sergei Alexandrovich himself, “tall and fair with delicate features and beautiful light green eyes,” [4] in the uniform of Commander of the 1st Battalion Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment. Elisaveta Fedorovna was standing upstairs and only her reflection could be seen in the mirror. (European etiquette should be kept).
Nowadays all the halls in the palace are still full of “English things”. In the Oak Hall the floor, bookcases, walls are made of oak – the tree of the British
Royal Family. The stained-glass windows give the unique effect of “the
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moonlight” (the secret of which was lost). The 500-kg weight copper chandeliers as in church make the hall solemn. The fireplace is decorated with ornamented tiles brought from London. Gothic style of English castles. Sergei Alexandrovich used this hall as a library. Here he had a great number of rare books in Russian, German, French, Latin, Italian and English (the Grand Duke spoke it fluently). Shelves were full of different things: marble busts of the members of the Tsar’s family, antiques from Constantinople, collections of rarities from Palestine. (It looked like the British Museum). [Слайд 6]
The Picture Gallery was painted in “the color of a faded rose” being in fashion at that time. Sergei Alexandrovich, a real expert and judge of art, had an excellent collection of Italian and Russian paintings. He didn’t only buy canvases by I.Shishkin, V.Vasnetsov, K.Korovin, but also supported them with money. Elisaveta Fedorovna shared the interests of her husband and helped him in everything. Being very talented in painting she gave her pictures for charity to develop Russian art. In spite of the fact that her favorite artists were English ones: William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, she often sent money to Russian painters “in trouble”. She was such a devoted wife and such a charming person that Petersburg ladies wanted to follow her in everything. They copied the silhouettes of her dresses (often sent from London), the pearl diadems in her hair (got from India – the British colony) and the flowers on her dining table (also made by English masters). Her influence on the style of aristocratic life was great. Thus speaking Russian with a light English accent came in fashion in a short time. [Слайд 7]
The Mirror Hall is another place in the palace having a British flavor. The hosts of the palace were fond of music and theatre. Here F.List, A. Rubenstein and P.Chaikovsky presented their new compositions. Here were performed works by outstanding English musicians - Frederic Delius and Sir Edward Elgar. Here
Elisaveta Fedorovna and future Russian Tsar Nicholas II staged “Eugeny Onegin”
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in Russian (Elisaveta Fedorovna recites the monologue of Tatyana Larina and the part of Eugeny Onegin is played by Nicholas) and “Hamlet” in English with the Grand Duchess as Ophelia and Nicholas as Hamlet. [Слайд 8]
Another hall with “Anglo-Russian history” is the Dining Room decorated with nice classical still lives with cupids and exotic fruit. When there were no guests or relatives in the palace the noble family had typical English food. They “enjoyed” porridge for breakfast, meat with potatoes for dinner and “endless rice puddings and baked apples”. [9] But on special occasion visitors had a chance to taste the most delicious dishes in Saint Petersburg: duck fillet with cognac and honey apple, artichoke a-la Leones, starlet in champagne and certainly traditional Victorian cuisine: soup Windsor, Oxford puddings, Queen Charlotte’s omelette
with rum. The color of the flowers on the table was the same as the color of the dress of the Grand Duchess. It was her rule: when she was going to visit somebody she never informed about the dresses ladies should wear. She warned only about the color of the flowers on the tables. After that hosts and their guests had to think through to the end by themselves. It was considered to be an overseas caprice of the overseas Duchess. [Слайд 9]
When there were no concerts or balls in the palace Elisaveta Fedorovna met her guests in the Crimson Sitting Room with a wonderful view of Nevsky Prospect, the Anichkov Bridge and the Fontanka River. This hall was decorated with purple and gold damask drapery, furniture in Thomas Chippendale’s Anglicized Rococo style and unique parquet. It was the most comfortable and cozy room in the palace. Here the Grand Duchess wrote her letters to “old good England”, tried to read Tolstoy or embroidered beautiful landscapes. From time to time she used a secret door of this room – on more tribute to the European fashion. Being unnoticed she listened to different conversations. Elisaveta Fedorovna was aware of everything taking place in her palace. [Слайд 10]
All the main halls were upstairs on the piano nobile. Also there were a
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lot of big and small rooms downstairs. But the dearest place for Sergei Alexandrovich and Elisaveta Fedorovna was their palace church. There were a lot of remarkable icons, sacred things, and rare church utensils. In a special box covered with glass there was kept a family relic - a miraculous icon. In 1888 Sergei Alexandrovich was in a business trip in Palestine. He visited sacred mountain Favor, the place where Jesus Christ spoke to his pupils. Here Sergei Alexandrovich was presented an ancient icon “Transfiguration of Jesus Christ”. It was painted by local masters on the sawn end of the relict tree. Also he took a sacred granite stone from this area. In Saint-Petersburg the icon and the stone were put into a silver frame. It was decorated with the ornament on the uniform of the Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment. This icon was said to be really miraculous: it strengthened faith and weakened sadness, helped feeble people and cured ill ones. In spite of being converted to Orthodoxy Elisaveta Fedorovna said her prayers in English more often than in Russian.
In the spring of 1891, Nicholas II appointed Sergei Alexandrovich as Governor General of Moscow and the family left Saint Petersburg forever. On February 17, 1905 the Grand Duke would be murdered by Ivan Kalyayev, a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party’s Combat detachment. After Sergei’s death, Elisaveta Fedorovna would put on mourning clothes and sell off her magnificent collection of jewels and other luxurious possessions. With the proceeds she would open the Convent of Sts. Martha and Mary and became its abbess. She would open a hospital, a chapel, a pharmacy and an orphanage on its grounds. She would often visit Moscow’s worst slums. There she would do all she could to help alleviate the suffering of the poor. She would be murdered during the Russian Civil War in 1918.
In 1992 Elisaveta Fedorovna was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church as New-Martyr Elisaveta. The Russian Duchess became one of the ten 20th-century martyrs from across the world depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster in London.
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4.3. The Anglo-Russian Hospital in the Dmitri Palace
The history of the palace didn’t come to an end with the departure of the Grand Duke to Moscow. As the couple didn’t have children the Sergei Palace was inherited by their nephew Dmitri Pavlovich and was named the Dmitri Palace. On the day of Dmitri’s birth his mother slept into a coma. Although doctors had no hope for Dmitri's survival, he lived, with the help of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. He gave the premature Dmitri the baths prescribed by the doctors, wrapped him in cotton wool and kept him in a cradle filled with hot water bottles. Grown up Dmitri became a very handsome, intelligent, successful young man. His friends called him “a creation of Faberge”. [18] In spite of his light-minded character Dmitri appreciated everything Sergei Alexandrovich and Elisaveta Fedorovna had done for him and tried to follow them in their initiatives.
Just the Beige Room reminds of the Anglo-Russian events of 1915-1918. Dmitri was greatly impressed with his aunt’s activities in Moscow and in 1915 he offered his palace as a place for the first Anglo-Russian hospital in Saint-Petersburg. Lady Sybil Grey, daughter of Albert, Fourth Earl Grey, one of the organizers of the hospital wrote to London: “The Dmitri Palace is admirably suited for the purpose, and its position in the centre of the Nevsky, a corner house opposite the Empress Marie's palace, is such that the man in the street can see it and know where it is, and who gave it”. [13] Dmitri reconstructed the ground floor and arranged his own rooms downstairs, each room in a different wood. Then all the beautiful halls on the piano nobile were supposed to be hospital wards.
In 1915 the London Times wrote: ” The Anglo-Russian Hospital has a great resonance as it is established with the full support of the British government”. In August a Committee is formed under the patronage of HM Queen Alexandra, aunt of Tsar Nicholas II. Its membership bristles with Lords and Lord Mayors, Field Marshalls and Members of Parliament, to say nothing of the Prime Minister
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and both Archbishops. The first list of them is headed by the King and Queen. It has been suggested that “a hospital is seen as a sort of compromise gesture for the military aid which the Russians request. It is a proposal which has a great response in the British public impressed by the sufferings of the Russian armies”. [17] The realization of this idea was connected with the name of Lady Muriel Paget, the Honorary Organizing Secretary of the Executive Committee, and her assistant Lady Sybil Grey.
After long preparations the hospital was opened and “a Union Jack flutters proudly from the flagpole on the roof of the palace and on its wall there is
an emblem - a woodcut carved by Sir Richard Paget showing a British lion and a Russian double-headed eagle holding up a Red Cross”. [17] All luxurious halls of the most distinguished family in Saint Petersburg were given to Russian soldiers of the World War I and civilians. The hospital’s commandant, Dr Andrew Fleming, was pleased with the way the palace had been adapted for its new medical role. The hospital had accommodation for 200 beds. The English staff consisted of 8 doctors and 30 nursing sisters. [Слайд 11]
The Anglo-Russian was arranged perfectly. The Mirror Hall with the two large reception rooms constituted the three main wards. Near to it there was a duty room, a bathroom, lavatories, and a large dressing room with four tables. Beyond the dressing room there was the patients’ dining room. The operating theatre with anesthetic and sterilizing rooms, the X-ray department and the bacteriological laboratory were on the same floor but in an isolated part of the building. A large room beyond the laboratory was for two surgeons and two dressers, who always slept on the premises. A part of the passage adjoining the church was for the dentist and his outfit.
Over the beds there were plaques commemorating the names of individual donors or individual British towns and cities that had provided the
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money. The most “lucky” was the bed #17 as it was patronized by Elisaveta Fedorovna herself.
Every day started with the pray of the staff before the miraculous Duke’s icon “Transfiguration of Jesus Christ” with the granite stone in the silver frame:
“May all who are sick and ill
Quickly be freed from their illness,
And may every disease in the world
Never occur again.
And as long as space endures,
As long as there are beings to be found,
May I continue likewise to remain
To soothe the sufferings of those who live”. [17]
All in all this English pray or the highly skilled doctors and nurses, the strict discipline or the faith made miracles: the seriously wounded became healthy and the bed-ridden got up. In its two-year life the Anglo-Russian hospital received and cured over 4000 bad-wounded Russian soldiers and citizens.
After the revolution of 1917 the commandant of the Hospital evacuated his staff from Petrograd into Finland. The Russian Hospital in the Dmitri Palace was handed over to the new Russian Red Cross. On 18 January 1918 “the English accent of the Russian palace” disappeared with the last English nurse. Only a special tablet in the Entrance Hall commemorates us that the Anglo-Russian staff “in mutual cooperation alleviated the suffering of Russian soldiers and civilians alike”. [Слайд 12]