Agrippina, Countess von Zarnekau
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| Agrippina | |
|---|---|
| Countess von Zarnekau | |
 Portrait of middle-aged Countess Zarnekau | |
| Full name
Agrippina Constantines asuli Japaridze, Countess von Zarnekau | |
| Born | October 25, 1855 Racha, Georgia, Russian Empire |
| Died | October 18, 1926 (aged 70) Kutaisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Noble family | Japaridze |
| Spouse(s) | Prince Tariel Dadiani Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg |
| Issue
Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau Countess Ekaterina von Zarnekau Count Nikolai von Zarnekau Count Alexei von Zarnekau Count Petr von Zarnekau Countess Nina von Zarnekau | |
| Father | Constantine Japaridze |
| Mother | Melania Japaridze |
| Religion | Eastern Orthodox |
| Occupation | aristocrat, socialite and patron of art and education |
Agrippina, Countess von Zarnekau (née Agrippina Constantines asuli Japaridze;[1] Georgian: აგრაფინა ჯაფარიძე, გრაფინია ფონ ზარნეკაუ) (October 25 [6 November o.s.], 1855 - October 18, 1926)[2] was a Georgian aristocrat, socialite and patron of numerous educational establishments in Russian Imperial Georgia. She was known for her scandalous divorce and her even more controversial role in the secret marriage of Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia, which caused a rupture in the Russian Imperial Family. Her name is associated with architectural gems that still stand in Tbilisi and western Georgia, some of which continue to be subject of rumors surrounding the countess' eventful life and her tragic, solitary demise.
Family and early years[edit]
Agrippina was born Agrippina Constantines asuli Japaridze in the upper Racha region of Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia, to a family of titleless Georgian nobility, Constantine and Melania Japaridze. Her father Constantine died young in 1860 when Agrippina was five years old and her mother Melania moved to Kutaisi, where she remarried. In this new city Agrippina was sent to the St. Nino School (today, School No. 3), where she received her education along with Olympia Nikoladze, sister of Georgian statesman Nikolos Nikoladze and other members of relatively well-off Georgian families.[3]
In 1876, at the age of 21, Agrippina married a Georgian nobleman named Tariel Dadiani, whose wife Sophia had died and left him with four children. Agrippina is thought to have given Tariel at least several children (possibly Miquel, Levanti, and Nino), although this claim is disputed by sources close to the family,[3] with others disagreeing on the number and gender of offspring.[4] The marriage was not a particularly happy one, partly due to Prince Dadiani's gambling addiction, which may have played a role in Agrippina's future decisions.
Second marriage[edit]
In the 1880s, Kutaisi became a new location for the 1st Cavalry Regiment of the Hopersky Kuban Cossacks, commanded by Duke Oldenburg, who had previously participated in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) and later became a general. Oldenburg was a 30-year old single, well-born bon vivant known for his extravagance and eccentricity, reasons that may have contributed to his assignment away from the Imperial capital by his relative Alexander III of Russia.
At that time, the Black Sea coast in Georgia had become a popular place for wealthy Russians to visit on vacation, and the arts scene in Tiflis began to thrive. Constantine Petrovich became a guest at the social salon of Barbara Bonner Baratashvili ("Babale"), whose mansion at 9 Reutov Street attracted many poets, painters, and writers. It was here that Constantine Petrovich first saw Agrippina. She was starring in the lead role of the play The Knight in the Panther's Skin, beautifully decorated by Hungarian painter Mihály Zichy.
Oldenburg was impressed with Agrippina in this successful play to the point that Agrippina's husband was furious about the Duke's excessive attention towards his wife. There are many rumors as to how Oldenburg convinced Tariel to accept a divorce, with the prevailing opinion being that the Duke offered him an enormous sum of one million gold rubles, although there is no concrete proof of this extravagant transaction.[5] The event was considered scandalous in Georgia's high society, although its significance was overblown by numerous questionable rumors, such as that Agrippina was lost by her husband to Oldenburg in a game of cards, or that she had entered into an extramarital affair with Oldenburg before her divorce.[3] Following the separation, the custody of Agrippina's children from her previous marriage were transferred to Tariel and his relatives, with no additional information as to whether there was any further interaction between them and their mother.
Agrippina and Constantine wed on October 20, 1882 and in the following 10 years the couple had six children, three boys and three girls.[2] Despite the initially cold reception and criticism from Count Witte that Agrippina's French was not good enough,[3] many at the Imperial court, including Tsar Nicholas II, were charmed by her, with later Western newspaper reports describing her as "an exceedingly lovely girl...from one of the most picturesque regions [of the Empire]".[6] Moreover, marriage with Agrippina is thought to have transformed Duke Oldenburg into a more serious man, who later started a champagne and cognac factory in western Georgia. He also became heavily involved in the expansion of railroads to Poti, an emerging seaport at the time. Countess von Zarnekau, for her part, financed the education of numerous Georgian students abroad and later provided for and served on the governing board of the St. Nino School. Although originally a noblewoman, at no point before had the countess come into so much wealth.
Title[edit]
Due to Agrippina's status as a titleless noblewoman, her marriage was recognized as morganatic, with Constantine's father Duke Peter disallowing his daughter-in-law and grandchildren to carry the titles of Duke and Duchess of Oldenburg. He, however, created a special title of Countess von Zarnekau for Agrippina, which were carried later on by all her children. It is noteworthy that according to a prevailing myth in Georgia, Agrippina was initially offered another German-sounding title, possibly von Bose, which she had to decline because in Georgian it sounded like a Georgian word for a whore (Georgian: ბოზი; bozi).[3] This claim is of unknown merits and could simply be a humorous attempt by Agrippina's contemporaneous ill-wishers to draw an unfavorable association between her divorce and her new-found life and titles. It is also unknown whether the Oldenburgs had any connections with the von Bose or if there are any other German noble titles/lands that bear resemblance of the unfavorable Georgian word in question.
Agrippina's role in the secret wedding of Grand Duke George[edit]
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Despite her increasing acceptance at the Imperial court, Agrippina became embroiled in yet another major scandal when she and her husband facilitated a secret marriage of the Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia to a local Georgian noblewoman from the house of Nakashidze, who was Agrippina's cousin. The Duke was gravely ill and because his weak lungs could not take the weather of St. Petersburg, he was moved to southern Georgia near Likani, where the air is particularly beneficial for people with chronic respiratory disorders.[7]
There Grand Duke George spent much time with Agrippina and Duke Oldenburg who, like many of the aristocrats in Georgia, traveled to the area frequently. "George spent much of his time in the company of...Oldenburg and of the latter's wife, who bears the title of Countess Zarnekau, and it was under their roof that he met a very beautiful girl, a daughter of the princely Caucasian (Georgian) house of Nakachidze...George became infatuated with the young princess, and, in defiance of the commands of his brother and the entreaties of his mother, persisted in marrying her, although he was at the time Czarewitch and next heir to the crown...Duke Constantine of Oldenburg and his wife, Countess Zarnekau, had furthered, instead of hindered the match, the princess being a cousin of the countess, and the latter, together with Constantine, was present at the wedding."[8]"The couple lived together until George's death in 1899. They had two sons and one daughter."[9]
Because George Alexandrovich was considered of very weak health and expected to die within years, the Emperor Alexander III refrained from banishing and depriving his disobedient son of his rank. At the same time, however, the marriage was not even recognized as morganatic, since it was concluded without the Emperor's permission, causing a rupture in the Imperial family's once happy relations. At the court, the Oldenburg family was "held responsible for all the matrimonial imbroglio of Czarewitch George, and also for the latter's estrangement from his mother, brothers and sisters during the closing years of his life."[8]
Links to Georgian nationalists[edit]
The marriage was considered scandalous not only because it was morganatic but also because the lineage of the Nakachidzes were thought to be connected with Georgian noblemen trying to overthrow the Russian Tsar. Namely, a young Georgian nationalist, Prince Victor Nakachidze, was convicted in late 1885 for participating in a nihilist bomb plot to kill the Tsar.[10] Through his relatives, Prince Nakachidze had connections to Agrippina and to the family of Agrippina's former husband, the Dadiani family, which was then living in exile at Nice.
For his role in the bomb plot, Prince Victor Nakachidze was sentenced to death and sent to Siberia. However, with the aid of his wife, Mlle. Roedel, he managed to escape, travelling across the Pacific to the United States. The couple eventually resurfaced in London.[11] By 1893, when Duke Constantine Petrovich promoted the secret marriage between the Tsar's brother, George, and the Princess Nakachidze, the Nakachidze family had a very clear track record as violent Georgian nationalists and enemies of the Tsar. The Grand Duke George's decision to ally himself to the Nakachidze family was therefore seen as an offensive move, one that put the Tsar's life in serious danger. Georgian revolutionaries saw George's marriage as an opportunity to assassinate Nicholas II of Russia and replace him with a much more liberal Tsar, one who was friendly to Georgian interests.
In 1896, Prince Victor Nakachidze resurfaced in Italy, where he gave up making bombs and masterminded an attempt to kill Tsar Nicholas II with poison. Observing that the Tsar often wore dress gloves, Nakachidze's circle studied the history of the Borgias at a local library in Milan, learned how to make powerful poisons, and recruited an agent in the palace at St. Petersburg to replace the Tsar's dress gloves with poison-coated gloves. This murder attempt, reported in September 1896 by the international press, was very nearly successful. Doctors specializing in toxicology were summoned quickly to the palace and Tsar Nicholas made no public appearances for more than a week.[12]
The scandal reaches its apex[edit]
Agrippina's and her husband's infamous matchmaking got out of control when, during the now-renowned 1903 Winter Palace masquerade, Duke Constantine Petrovich made the fatal error of pressing the claims of the Grand Duke George's children in front of the entire Romanov family. Following the 1899 death of the Grand Duke, the three children from his morganatic marriage and their mother were left without any resources. Duke Constantine, therefore, appealed to the Tsar on their behalf, "urging that the wife be recognized as a morganatic consort and that the children receive titles and their future be assured...When his entreaties met with no response, he allowed his indignation to get the better of his discretion, and expressed himself so freely about the Court of St. Petersburg as still further to embitter the Czar and the widowed Empress against him."[13]
The international press ran the story repeatedly for almost four straight months, from September 1903 to January 1904. Headlines announcing a rival claimant appeared in major newspapers across the globe[14][15][16][17] The response from the court of Tsar Nicholas II was swift, brutal, and effective. The marriage contracted by Grand Duke George Alexandrovich and Princess Nakachidze was declared illegitimate and void on the grounds that it had not received the legally required permission of the Tsar. Furthermore, Duke Constantine Petrovich was declared to be insane. The Tsar appointed his older brother, the Grand Duke Alexander Petrovich, to be his guardian.[18]
Constantine Petrovich "was deprived of many of his offices and dignities, was ordered to keep away from St. Petersburg, and...was summarily divested by an imperial decree of the control of his property, especially of his estates in the Caucasus, and of the immense wine industry that he had built up there, the management of these various interests being assigned to a trustee appointed by the Emperor. "This was a blow from which Constantine never recovered. He died abroad in disgrace, tended by his wife and his children."[8]
Last years and death[edit]
Largely estranged from the Imperial court as a result of the Grand Duke George affair, Agrippina moved with her husband to France, where he died in 1906.[6] Agrippina is thought to have buried her husband at the Coastal Monastery of St. Sergius near St. Petersburg, following which she stayed in Russia for several years. As the revolutionary currents became increasingly threatening, most of her children, who were all married well, escaped to France, with the exception of Alexei, who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
Despite this tragedy and the increasingly volatile situation, Countess von Zarnekau stayed in Russia so that she could care for her mentally impaired daughter Nino, who was once famous for her alleged ability to summon spirits[19] and was being treated in Kislovodsk, a town renowned for its spas. Nino died in the inauspicious year of 1922, when Bolshevik-conquered Georgia was officially made into a Soviet republic, ensuring that Agrippina would have no safety even in her native land. It is in these years that the countess faced many hardships; her property was confiscated by the Bolsheviks and her children abroad did not or could not send her financial help into the increasingly isolationist Union. Agrippina was forced to live in Western Georgia with and entirely dependent on her relatives there, passing away in 1926 due to lung-related problems. Separated from her entire family, Agrippina's casket was followed by only a few relatives as she was being buried at a presently-unknown cemetery in Kutaisi.[3]
There are many other versions of Agrippina's death. One of the most pervasive beliefs is that she was hanged by the Bolsheviks somewhere in the Brick Gothic-style mansion that her husband had purchased for her in Tbilisi. The mansion, which was built at the turn of the century by a famous architect named Karl Stern, is often claimed to harbor the troubled ghost of the countess. It is possible that these rumors were triggered by the prolonged neglect of the property, which made the Gothic structure look very grim; after the Russian takeover, the mansion's unique chandeliers were taken down, its crystal floor destroyed, wall-decorations painted over and the building converted into a school for the deaf-mute. Throughout the 1990s the villa lay to rot but was restored in 2009 to house the Georgian State Museum of Theatre, Music, Cinema and Choreography at 6 Kargareteli Street, Tbilsi.[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ Also spelled as Agrafina Japaridze, Agrapina Japaridze or Agrafina Djaparidze
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Almanac de Gotha, Volume 144, 1907, p. 64
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Japaridze, 2011
- ↑ Igor Obolensky. The Palace with the Unicord: The Walls of the Past. Modi Magazine, Summer Edition, p 52.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, რა კოლექციას ინახავს თბილისის ერთ-ერთი ულამაზესი შენობა? January 8, 2009
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Washington Post, 12 April 1906, p. 2
- ↑ Marquise de Fontenoy "A Czarowitch's Sons: Secret Marriage of Emperor Nicholas's Dead Brother George" 18 April 1906 New York Daily Tribune, p. 7
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 18 April 1906 New York Daily Tribune, p. 7
- ↑ Anon. "New Heir to Crown Stirs Russians." 25 Sep 1903 Trenton (NJ) Times, p. 9.
- ↑ Nihilists arrested, The Church Weekly, 18 January 1901, p. 44, Col. 3
- ↑ Marquise de Fontenoy, "Militant Princess without a Country," Washington Post, 18 June 1911, p. 4
- ↑ "Nihilists Resort to Borgia's Art: Plot to Kill the Czar by Impregnating His Gloves with Poison Almost Succeeds," [New York] World, 6 September 1896, p. 25, col. 5
- ↑ 18 April 1906, New York Daily Tribune, p. 7
- ↑ "New Heir to the Throne of Russia," Elmira NY Star Gazette, 24 Sept 1903, p. 1
- ↑ "New Claimant to Russian Throne: Prince Cyril, Young Son of Czar's Second Brother, Will Press His Rights," Oswego [NY] Times, 24 Sept 1903, p. 1
- ↑ "Russian Pretender: Son of a Secret Marriage Claims Succession," Poverty Bay [NZ] Herald, 19 Nov 1903, p. 4
- ↑ Tuapeka Times, 6 Kohitatea 1904, p. 4 citing Vanity Fair
- ↑ 24 Sep 1903 Oswego (NY) Times, p. 1
- ↑ Igor Obolensky. The Palace with the Unicord: The Walls of the Past. Modi Magazine, Summer Edition, p 53.
Sources[edit]
- Japaridze, Gocha. "აგრაფინა კისკისაო" ჩვენი მწერლობა, №20, 2011
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