There were people who helped the disguised princes get on the train
Roundup. Stop of the train. Many have been arrested. Heirlooms were found in the family. Shooting, how did it happen in those years? No! We managed to escape again.
But the terrible is just ahead.
“At that time, families did not let men go anywhere, fearing for them, and only women acted …”
Prince Ivan will be arrested three times. Later, Prince Ivan recalled:
“… at night a Chekist will suddenly come in, light up the electricity, rudely wake up his victim, hit him with a rifle butt and ask:“ How do you feel, Your Excellency? ” The gray head will go low and low; the victim is silent and only a tear will quietly roll down his cheek … During the night from 15 to 25 people were shot …
Yes, I am glad, of course, that I escaped from this hell, but I must say that I saw the edge of the sky there: so wonderful and sublime was the mood of many; among them I sometimes felt like a really Christian … “
And the following was told about the prince in prison. At night, seven hostages were “dressed up” to dig a hole.
“Should I dig a hole for our execution? ” – they asked … Only the prince did not ask anything, but he also stopped and persuaded others: “Do not be faint-hearted, gentlemen, let’s go to work as soon as possible; The Lord will not leave us – whether we go to death or not – He is always with us! ””.
The princess was far from prejudice of opinions: the red ones sometimes showed a “human face”, while the whites showed obvious envy.
“The memory of many terrible, unfair and terrible things left an irresistible feeling of revenge in the soul of the people. The best of them always unconsciously move in their souls: “If only the gentlemen lived in our skin for a little bit” …
How many victims this massacre of whites and reds gave! Some died soon … others languished longer, and many languish to this day, exhausted by tuberculosis, neurasthenia, complete disability and other ailments. We cannot count the number of these martyrs … ”, Vera Dmitrievna said.
The “new” life, as if appreciating the powerful nature of the Russian woman, the wife-mother-mistress, tested the princess Vera with all kinds of trials: both large and small (but therefore no less terrible), all kinds of human malice.
“Life began both ridiculous, and strange, and inconvenient – it was impossible to get used to it,” writes Vera Dmitrievna.
A kitten clumsily drowned in front of her eyes, whom she rescued, cured, and the neighbors later threw him out of the window; the wickedly plucked flowers that the youngest son planted, deprived of all the joys necessary in childhood, it hurts forever. But this is not the horror that she experienced during the Red Terror during 1919-1920. and which can make a person mad. The family ended up in Odessa. Vera Dmitrievna lived with her children and her old mother in the mansion of her relative, a former member of the State Council, Alexei Nikolaevich Lobanov-Rostovsky. By a fatal coincidence, it was in this mansion that the Chekists daily shot their victims:
“I walked on human blood for two weeks, my soles and heels were stained red.”
I walked on human blood for two weeks, my soles were stained red
Miraculously, the Lobanovs again remained unrecognized.
The nightmare of the Red Terror, which only miraculously bypassed the princely family for the time being, forced them to come to the only solution that would allow the family to survive – to a new escape from Odessa along the Dniester waters across the border with Romania. During the long journey to a foreign land, the family again faced danger, prison and hardship. In the figurative expression of the princess – “Fire to the right, water to the left, a wall in front, and an abyss behind.”
At the end of the journey, members of the Lobanov-Rostovsky family ended up in Bulgaria. For some time, under the Bulgarian Tsar Boris, the family lived happily. But not everyone managed to escape. The Lobanovs’ daughter, Anna Ivanovna, has disappeared forever in Sovdepia. In 1932, trying to return home, their son Ivan Ivanovich was shot. And in 1921 another son died – a white officer Nikita, who, thanks to courage, miracle and the prayers of his relatives, repeatedly escaped where it seemed impossible to survive. But salvation turned out to be only a “delay”. The aftermath of the Civil War caught up with him three years later, ending his young life. The princess recalled:
“He spent three years in a bloody bath, was wounded many times, was held captive by the Bolsheviks several times, stood at the“ wall ”the same number of times, and although every time he was miraculously rescued, he still did not avoid shocks. He also suffered from typhus; not yet cured, he went into battle, suffered from the consequence of frostbitten feet after the Reds drove him without boots to be shot in the snow, when, already falling from exhaustion, he was repulsed by a detachment of whites that arrived in time. And again: blood, blood and blood! This is what kind of continuous torment my son’s life was from the age of nineteen to twenty-two. The result was the death of Nikita in August 1921 … “[4]
Vera Dmitrievna left this world in 1943, not learning about the arrest of the family of another son – Dmitry Ivanovich, godson of the Grand Duchess, who, together with his daughter-in-law Irina Vasilievna (nee Vyrubova) and 11-year-old grandson Nikita, ended up in prison and passed their own, prepared for him the way of ordeals. I did not find out about their failed escape, the execution of Dmitry Ivanovich, about the terrible fate in the camp of the eldest son of Nikolai Ivanovich. Her grandson told about this in his memoirs [5].
These are the thoughts and aspirations about Russia expressed by Princess Vera, expressing the essence of Bolshevism in a chased style. Maybe her words will soon become a “quote from the classics”:
“Bolshevism is often identified with communism. But the latter represents only an abstract, albeit harmful, delusional ideal, rented by the Bolsheviks, working on the basis of evil and deceit. Soviet power (or Bolshevism) has no moral foundations. And it serves, consciously or unconsciously, secret dark forces. Decorated with what is currently beneficial to her for the destruction of the Christian world. Communism was a props for her. It turned out to be extremely inconvenient on a national scale. Therefore, he was shamelessly discarded. I believe that Bolshevism is living out its last period. “
Vera Dmitrievna addresses the entire Russian diaspora scattered around the world:
“I ask my readers, who are still young, to visit my homeland, when, having thrown off the shackles of slavery, it will rise to a new life after trials unprecedented in the world. When, realizing herself and happy, she will again be covered with the crosses of temples and monasteries. Then the wisdom of old shines in her again, to admonish and comfort her neighbor. Then it will be called again, as before, “Holy Russia”. ”
Everyone is chasing happiness. And it is in our hands – only no one sees it and does not want to see it
Despite the great misfortunes that befell Princess Vera and her family, she managed to keep the light in her soul.
“Years passed, the youth of the soul was gone forever. I not only turned over the pages of the book about life and death, but also read its impressive lines. And I realized by experience that death on earth, this tragic end of our earthly life, could only occur from disobedience to the Creator, disobedience leading to the loss of our peace and joy. I also learned from experience that everyone is chasing happiness. And it is in our hands – only no one sees it and does not want to see it, but, on the contrary, every day they move further and further away from it. “
Photo: Prince Nikita Dmitrievich Lobanov-Rostovsky, grandson of Prince Ivan and Princess Vera. St. Petersburg. “House with Lions”, owned by the Lobanov-Rostovsky.
