Chapter I: Front Matter

The Diary of a Russian Lady

_Barbara Doukhovskoy_]

THE DIARY OF A
RUSSIAN LADY

_REMINISCENCES OF_
BARBARA DOUKHOVSKOY
(_née_ PRINCESSE GALITZINE)

“Lived through but not forgotten”

WITH TWO PORTRAITS

LONDON
JOHN LONG, LIMITED
12, 13 & 14 NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET
MCMXVII

Preface

This book was not intended to be published, and it is to accident that we owe its appearance.

The author, from her childhood, followed affectionate advices and good examples, and noted every day her impressions of everything she saw and heard about her. She puts in these pages all the freshness and sincerity of her woman’s heart.

Circumstances placed the author in the centre of remarkable events. Remaining faithful to the principle of not interfering with her husband’s business, she becomes, however, unwillingly, the spectatrix of particularly interesting facts: the outside of war, of different centres of Russian society, of exotic life in foreign colonies and on our remote frontiers, including the regions of the river Amour in Eastern Siberia.

Our author does not pretend to give a thorough and complete study of political events and society customs. But here we have vivid pictures of different impressions which, linked together, give us a living picture of places, events, and persons; real life in fact is delineated in this book, which has thus become a considerable work.

The author’s innate talent, her education, her faculty of observation, and her deep study of the best Russian and foreign writers, are the cause of the vivid impression produced by her light and clear style. Some portions of these studies entitled “Fragments of the Diary of a Russian woman in Erzeroum,” were printed in one of the most famous Russian periodicals. The welcome they received showed the author to what use she could turn her book for her works of charity, and it is her desire to assist the poor which gave to Barbara Doukhovskoy the idea of publishing her “Memories,” though the great realism of them did not permit of their publication as a whole.

Profiting by the right of having been a friend and a playmate of the author’s husband, I insisted on the necessity of publishing this work.

Not only by the truth and the spontaneity of her impressions, but by the profoundness of her observations and the artistic conception of the whole, the author of this book now embellishes our literature by a work of an exceptional and original character.

C. SLOUTCHEVSKY

Constantin Sloutchevsky, Russian poet, one of the most famous
of the end of the nineteenth century.

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. Early Recollections 13

II. My First Trip Abroad 19

III. My First Appearance in Society 33

IV. My Second Trip Abroad 39

V. My Second Season in St. Petersburg 42

VI. Dolgik 48

VII. In St. Petersburg Again 50

VIII. The Crimea 52

IX. Winter in St. Petersburg 56

X. The Caucasus 60

XI. Marriage 69

XII. Tiflis 73

XIII. Alexandropol 76

XIV. The Turco-Russian War 79

XV. Kars 90

XVI. On my way to Erzeroum 94

XVII. Erzeroum 98

XVIII. St. Petersburg 133

XIX. Moscow 135

XX. Our Journey Abroad 156

XXI. Boulogne-sur-mer 159

XXII. London 161

XXIII. Paris 167

XXIV. On our way to Lucerne 171

XXV. Lucerne 172

XXVI. Interlaken 179

XXVII. Montreux 182

XXVIII. Geneva 189

XXIX. Milan 192

XXX. Villa D’Este 196

XXXI. Cernobbio 199

XXXII. Venice 215

XXXIII. Florence 217

XXXIV. Rome 221

XXXV. Naples 224

XXXVI. Peissenberg 232

XXXVII. On the Rhine 236

XXXVIII. Rotterdam 238

XXXIX. London 240

XL. Moscow 248

XLI. Biarritz 250

XLII. Madrid 255

XLIII. Saragossa 257

XLIV. Barcelona 263

XLV. San Remo 265

XLVI. Paris 267

XLVII. Moscow 268

XLVIII. Copenhagen 271

XLIX. Moscow 274

L. Paris 277

LI. Trouville 282

LII. Moscow 284

LIII. A Trip to Egypt 290

LIV. Constantinople 291

LV. Athens 298

LVI. In Pharaoh Land 299

LVII. Our way Back to Russia 309

LVIII. Promotion of my Husband to the Post of
Governor-General of the Amour Province
in Siberia 313

LIX. Across the Atlantic 316

LX. New York 320

LXI. Niagara Falls 329

LXII. Chicago 332

LXIII. San Francisco 338

LXIV. Across the Pacific 340

LXV. Yokohama 347

LXVI. Tokio 352

LXVII. Kobe 356

LXVIII. Across the Inland Sea 357

LXIX. Nagasaki 359

LXX. Across the Japanese Sea 361

LXXI. Siberia—Vladivostock 362

LXXII. Our Journey to Khabarovsk 363

LXXIII. Khabarovsk 375

LXXIV. Our Voyage around the World 393

LXXV. On our way to Japan 397

LXXVI. Nagasaki 399

LXXVII. From Nagasaki to Shanghai 400

LXXVIII. Shanghai 401

LXXIX. Hong-Kong 405

LXXX. Saigon 410

LXXXI. Singapore 413

LXXXII. Java Batavia 416

LXXXIII. Singapore 421

LXXXIV. Colombo 423

LXXXV. Aden 425

LXXXVI. Suez 428

LXXXVII. Port Saïd 429

LXXXVIII. On the Mediterranean 430

LXXXIX. Marseilles 431

XC. Monte Carlo 432

XCI. Nice 433

XCII. Paris 434

XCIII. St. Petersburg—Coronation of Nicolas II 435

XCIV. Our way Back to Khabarovsk _via_ Odessa 438

XCV. Port Saïd 440

XCVI. Suez 441

XCVII. Aden 442

XCVIII. Colombo 444

XCIX. Singapore 449

C. From Singapore to Nagasaki 450

CI. Nagasaki 452

CII. Vladivostock 453

CIII. Khabarovsk 454

CIV. Back to Russia 458

CV. Vladivostock 459

CVI. Nagasaki 460

CVII. Shanghai 462

CVIII. Hong Kong 463

CIX. Canton 465

CX. Macao 468

CXI. Hong Kong 472

CXII. Saigon 474

CXIII. Singapore 475

CXIV. From Singapore to Suez 478

CXV. Suez 482

CXVI. Cairo 482

CXVII. Port Saïd 485

CXVIII. St. Petersburg 487

CXIX. Our Journey to Tashkend 489

CXX. Tashkend 495

CXXI. St. Petersburg 505

CXXII. A Short Peep at St. Petersburg and Back to
Tashkend 518

CXXIII. Paris World’s Fair 524

CXXIV. Kissingen 532

CXXV. Back to Tashkend 535

CXXVI. Definite Departure for St. Petersburg 537

Index 539

The Diary of a Russian Lady