RUSSIA’S NEW ARISTOCRACY

Evening Star, Issue 17279, 18 February 1920, Page 3

RUSSIA’S NEW ARISTOCRACY

One of the strangest of all the weird developments in Russia since the Bolsheviki assumed control there is the rise of a brand-new aristocracy. “Thev are Russia’s beggars on horseback,” writes Mr Julius Ostmann from Moscow, in an article published by the Marshall Syndicate of I\ew fork, “all of them purse-proud, arrogant, and pompous beyond the precei urJ? u a ’ ltoL ‘ rac , v -” B appears that about i,quu hundred favored citizens constitute tins newly-formed “upper crust” in the land of the Muscovites. According to Mr Ostmann, they were “born in rags.” but now they dress in “ sables, glitter with gems, preen themselves like peacocks in the palaces of West Moscow,” and entertain social ambitions which “ know no limits.”. At the same time they profess Bolshensm’s “Religion of Poverty.” It is further stated that most of them are women; as Russia has always been a woman s land, and is still more so now after Bolshevism has granted women extensive additional rights. Being in on the ground iloor, as it were, when a new aristocracy is, started would seem to be a delightful experience, but it appears that it is not entirely an unmixed blessing, for e\er and anon voices are raised in raucous protest against the doings of those who have thus assumed a station above their fellows. The unwashed millions constituting the “masses” regard the new aristocracy with hatred, envy, and grim contempt, it is said. Not infrequently attacks are made upon them. Cynics of the Press say it will only be a short time until decorations and titles will be adopted, “ and the final stage will be a revived monarchy, with some buxom, brilliant, and dictatorial cook as empress, and rawboned proletarian dishwashers as ladies of the_ court.” Occasionally the antipathy against the “aristocrats” is revealed iii other quarters also. Thus: In April tho antics of the new feminine aristocracy led to a pitched battle in the Moscow local Soviet. A grim and dour Bolshevik named Kiselieff started the fray. Being an obscure bachelor with no glittering women folk to provide for, lie was made wrath by the fact that a kinswoman of the Bolshevik boss Kameneff, by name Barbara Stchukine, occupied the “Hons© of tho Boynrd Romanof,” and was there living an un-801. Ik life of splendor. The house of the Boyard Eomanof is a little palace in the centre of Moscow which was occupied by the Romanof family before their accession to the throne. Here Madame Barbara reigned. _ The Bolshevik bosses habitually create sinecures for their wives or for other men’s wives; and Boss Kameneff duly provided for Madame Barbara. A decree appointed her “ curatress ” of the house. She had a motor car. servants, a handsome wage, and within a week she was living as splendidly as did the wife of the Boyard Romanof heiself. She wove rainbow-hued robes, and gave balls and dinners. These antics were too much for tho four democrat, Kiselieff. He raised such a row at the Soviet meeting that the soaring Madame Barbara had to quit her dwelling. And then Moscow had a new sensation. Irina Lesl-.ut, i con-m of Lenn> •• also a leader of the brand-new aristocracy, moved in as “ curatress ” instead; and the fashionable orgies recommenced. 'lhe empress and unchallenged leader of the Bolshevik 400 is a person well known to America, and a person very different from the haughty kinswomen of Kameneff and Trotsky, who, while they blaze with gems, often display ragged stockings, and who patronise literature which they cannot read. The empress of the Bolshevik aristocracy is the same Madame Andreyeffi whom Maxim Gorky presented to New York in 1905 as his lawful wife, and thereby provoked a scandal which culminated in his having to evacuate several hotels. Andreyeff was then handsome, highly educated, and artistic. She is no longer handsome, and she is fat beyond words. But she is cleverer and more cultivated than ever; and last year when Bolshevism had brought divorce within everyone’s reach, she lawfully married Gorky, whose wife No. X, the ; little school teacher from Nizhni Novgorod, also married again. When Gorky, alter alternately lauding and .assailing Bolshevism with his custi,'.:a>'. friend, the singer Schaliapine, as art and literary adviser of the Soviets, a good post, had to be found for .Madame Gorky, and she was made manageress-in-chief of Petrqgad’s nationalised theatres. Fat a? she is, she still plays in the Alexander 1 heatrs. j

jMadame Gorky began to live in style. While for domestic reasons occupying a modest six-room apartment with Corky, she took over also the whole 20-roomei upper floor of the marble palace which belonged to the late Grand Duke Constantine; and there she organised a politi-cal-literary salon, and gave imposing inceptions. Petrogracl now saw a splendor which rivalled the best days of the Tsardom.

In addition to such obstacles as may be thrown in the path of the new- aristocracy by all the honest-to-goodnoss proletarians and others who, it would appear, have not had a chance to acquire even a square meal as a result of the institution of Bolshevism, let alone glory and fine feathers, it seems there have been and are now other troubles brewing on account of jealousy in the ranks of the “aristocrats” themselves.

Naturally, the green-eyed monster jcalousy gnawed at the hearts of the red-faced, raw-fisted, shawl-clad wives and sisters of the Soviet dignitaries. As Madame Gorky was too powerful to be attacked, they resolved to emulate and outshine her. Olga Gvozdqff, a 20-ycar-old, pretty, and illiterate friend of Boss Zinoveiff, took possession of the Stroganoff Palace in the Nevsky Prospect; and, with money whose origin no man knew, she began in entertain. And others followed. Soon Petrngra.d gloried in a dozen salpns in the best style of Recamier. Hungry and wretched as the city was, yet there were money, fine garments, food, diamonds, witty conversation, and gallant, if unshaven, cavaliers; and when the infection spread to Mother Moscow, where, there was more money and food, and less shaving soap, the aristocratisatioii of Bolshevik Russia was complete. During the winter 1918-19 the centre of the Bolshevik aristocracy was the Khamovnitchesk villa quarter, to the west of Moscow, where Loo Tolstoy long lived aitd worked. Here, after the Bolshevik revolution November, 1917, settled about a score of real aristocrats, among them Prince ,k- Golitsyn, a Count Seheremetieff, and a Count Tolstoy from another branch of the family. All these aristocrats had been driven from their country estates. Some of them ostentatiously espoused the Bolshevik cause with the aim of escaping further unpleasantnesses. The Bolsheviki made capital out of their sham conversion, and then left them alone to lead a tolerably comfortable life. In this quarter happened to live a female relative of Sverdloff, formerly chief of the Moscow Executive Council. The Sverdloff lady held the post of guardian of working girls at 75,000 rubles a year. For reasons of self-interest, the old aristocracy graciously and even obsequiously entertains the new. The climax was reached in tiro spring of this year, when the nearly middle-aged spinster Sverdloff was modestly married by Bolshevik civil rite to Mr Paul Vassiltchikoff, belonging to a much-titled and once millionaire court family, whose best-known member, . Princess Vassiltchikoff, was imprisoned on her estates three years ago for intriguing with Germany for a separate peace.