Books, Manuscripts & Music

Tsar Alexander II and Catherine Dolgorukova

Tsar Alexander II and Catherine Dolgorukova Correspondence between Tsar Alexander II and his lover Catherine Dolgorukova, comprising c. 440 letters by the tsar and c. 138 letters by Dolgorukova, in total approximately 2331 pages, 8vo, St. Petersburg [and elsewhere], 19 August 1866 to 27 December 1879, housed in three quarter burgundy morocco clamshell cases, occasional creasing, previously folded The letters are divided as follows: (i) 119 letters from Alexander II to Catherine Dolgorukova, dated 19 August 1866 – 1 January 1867 and 30 August – 29 September 1868. (ii) 138 letters from Catherine Dolgorukova to Alexander II, dated 18 August 1866 – 30 December 1866. (iii) 321 letters from Alexander II to Catherine Dolgorukova, dated 2 January – 27 December 1879. THE MOST SUBSTANTIAL COLLECTION OF TSAR ALEXANDER II’S UNPUBLISHED LETTERS EVER TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION. Dating from 1866-1879, these letters shed new light on one of the most dramatic and clandestine love affairs in the history of the Romanovs. The pair began their correspondence in August 1866, writing to each other daily, often multiple times per day. This collection includes their correspondence from the summer of 1866 to the end of the year, before jumping briefly to 1868, and then relaying the entirety of 1879 from the tsar’s perspective. Numerous love letters between Tsar Alexander II and Princess Catherine Dolgorukova have come to auction in the past 20 years; such a large sequential collection featuring letters from both parties, however, has never before appeared for sale. Written primarily in French – the language of the Imperial Russian court – with occasional flourishes of Russian, the letters are characteristically unsigned by their senders, who address each other with terms of endearment rather than with names. The collection provides an intimate insight into the infamous affair, telling a love story through letters. Alexander first met the princess in 1859, when she was twelve years old; their love affair began in 1864, but was not consummated until July 1666 – a mere month before the beginning of this correspondence. Alexander references that very night several times: “the evening of the 12th July, I must repeat once more, I will never forget and you know why.” (19th August 1866). Months later, he mentions that night again: “I will never stop blessing the day, the 12th July, which decided our fate and brought us together, making us into one single being, forever.” (12th November 1866). The pair did not hesitate in discussing their intimate life; they had their own secret codeword for sex – “bingerle” – which features throughout their correspondence, with the tsar describing their “delirious” intimate moments (29th September 1879). The collection highlights the intensity of the couple’s infatuation with one another. Katia laments her sad existence without her lover: “everywhere I go without you I am missing something, my heart and soul are tormented” (18th August 1866). Alexander reassures her, “Remember, that what I love about you, it’s you, such as you are.” (21st August 1866). Writing to each other daily, the pair demonstrate their equal desperation to hear from one another. Their correspondence appears all-consuming; Katia writes, “I spend all my time at the window, hoping to see the postman with some news from you” (19th August 1866). Other letters convey the anguish caused by each other’s occasional silence. Alexander writes of the “cruel disappointment” he felt at having not received a letter from his “beloved angel” (22nd August 1866); a day later, he receives three of Katia’s letters at once, in the last of which Katia unjustly accuses him of forgetting about her: "This is the third letter that I have written you to which you have not responded; I believe you have completely forgotten me; it is completely fitting to say "out of sight, out of mind", that is the case with you, who causes me such sorrow." (20th August 1866). Katia also voices jealousy over the tsar’s meeting with other women, writing that she was “furious” that Alexander had “dared accept the invitation” to a rendez-vous with another woman: “She’s very pretty, isn’t she?” (28th August 1866). The subject of the pair’s correspondence was not limited to their love for one another, however; Alexander’s letters also feature references to the political affairs of the time. On 22nd August 1866, the tsar writes of his meeting with Emperor Wilhelm I, during a particularly time of tense relations between Russia and Germany. “I’m very worried for us, but politically I am pleased with this visit, as I expect good results for our relations with Germany, which were becoming increasingly tense and could have ended in a serious quarrel, i.e. a new war, God forbid!”. Despite Alexander’s positive review of Wilhelm’s visit, just a month later Germany and Austria-Hungary would sign the Dual Alliance, promising mutual military support in the case of an attack by Russia. Other letters are more sombre, concerning significant historical moments in the tsar’s life; Alexander’s letter from 2nd April 1879 recounts the assassination attempt made against him by Alexander Soloviev, a Russian revolutionary. He writes to Katia: “You understand, dear angel, that my first movement after having been, for the third time, miraculously saved from death, was to come and tell you myself”. Reporting Soloviev’s execution on 28th May 1879, Alexander forebodingly writes, “I fear that this is far from the end.” Less than two years later, on 1st March 1881, Alexander would be assassinated in Saint Petersburg. LITERATURE: Montefiore, The Romanovs: 1613-1918, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016; Radzinsky, Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar, trans. Antonina W. Bouis, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005

View 1 of Lot 66: Tsar Alexander II and Catherine Dolgorukova | Correspondence, c. 570 letters, 1866-1879

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