ALEXANDRE II (1818-1881) Tsar de Russie

Lot 151
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25000 - 30000 EUR
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Result : 13 839EUR
ALEXANDRE II (1818-1881) Tsar de Russie
57 L.A. (9 incomplete), and 42 autograph bills for telegrams (9 signed "Alexander" or "Al"), 1866-1880, to Catherine DOLGORUKI (Katia); about 190 pages in various sizes (some in pencil), some with his crowned cipher; in French, sometimes with a few words or lines in Russian, some entirely in Russian. Important love correspondence from the Tsar to Katia Dolgorouki, testifying to their extraordinary love story, but also to the Tsar's involvement in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. The affair of Alexander II with Catherine (Katia) DOLGOROUKI (1847- 1922) began in 1866. She was eighteen years old, he forty-seven. In 1870, the installation of Katia in a room of the Winter Palace, above the imperial apartments where resided the Tsarina Marie Alexandrovna, made a huge scandal at the Court. In 1872, she gave him a son, George, and two daughters, Olga and Catherine. The long-suffering Tsarina died on June 3, 1880, and only forty days after her death Alexander made Catherine his wife, giving her the title of Princess Yurievskaya. The couple's legitimate life was short-lived, as the Tsar was the victim of a bomb attack on March 13, 1881. He was brought back to the palace mortally wounded and died a few hours later in the arms of Katia. Widowed, Princess Yurievskaya went into exile in Nice, France, where she died in 1922, taking with her her precious correspondence that the new Tsar Alexander III had tried to recover and destroy. The letters are numbered, and bear the date and time, like a conversation diary. They are written mainly in French, with a few sentences in Russian, usually in the Latin alphabet, and a secret vocabulary (such as the bingerles designating their erotic lovemaking). For security reasons, they do not include Catherine's name and are not signed. The final formula in Russian: "мвойн на всегда" (yours forever), takes the place of a signature. The letters are written from Tsarskoe-Selo, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Schwalbach, Weimar, Paris, Sevastopol, Stuttgart, Jugenheim, Helsingfors, Moscow, Kischinev, Ploesti, Zimnista etc. Throughout this correspondence, Alexander shows himself to be an attentive and ardent lover, frequently evoking their "bingerles" (lovemaking), and assuring Katia of his love: "It overflows", he repeats; "my true life is in you" (August 27, 1866)... "Oh! what I would have given to you to be able Oh! what I would have given to be able to spend my night near you and not to fear scenes and gossip on all sides " (January 5/17, 1868)... " I see that the lack of our bingerles is already beginning to have its ordinary effect on you" (Berlin 1/13 May 1870)... "Oh! Oh, what happiness to adore each other as we do and to be each other's life. [...] dear angel, I slept admirably thanks to you, my ideal, my treasure, my everything and I still feel all impregnated with our delirious bingerles of yesterday " (6-7/18-19 May 1870)... "You saw and felt that your husband had enjoyed his lovely little wife to the point of delirium"; he feels "more bewitched and more in love than ever" with his adorable elf (June 29/July 11, 1870)... Her letter has "flooded him with sunshine as always": he finds in it "more than ever the reflection of our heart, which has been happy to be one for 6 years" (July 5/17, 1872)... "my whole life is in you" (February 1/13, 1877)... "I still feel all impregnated with the spirit of my love" (February 1/13, 1877). I still feel all impregnated with our delirious bingerles of earlier. It was good to shout" (January 8/20, 1879)... Finally, the day after their wedding: "This enjoyment that we give each other, when we love each other as we do, cannot be compared to anything" (July 7/19 [1880])... Alexander sometimes mentions work with ministers and his "work", engagements at the Prussian Court, hunts and performances (such as an audition of Lohengrin in Weimar), but he privileges their intimate and family life (they are "Peperle" and "Memerle"). Their children play an important role in this correspondence: from afar, he hopes that their son "still sometimes thinks of his Papa, who adores him and sighs at not seeing him and dear Olga"; he expects to find Gogo (Georges) and his adorable mother in Ems (April 25 / May 7, 1874)... May God bless Katia's upcoming birth, "and may He give you back all the happiness you have not ceased to give me for almost 10 years"; he admires the appetite and mood of the little ones, and regrets not having been able to attend their bedtime (31 December / 12 January 1875)... That his son claims to be washed by him "proves once again how much he thinks in everything about his Peperle and that he feels loved" (January 11/23, 1877); he is amused by George's incessant questions and their reading, but suffers from having to punish him for a lie: "the way he asked me to forgive him touched me, for he was more tender than ever" (January 20/February 1
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