Unknown artist. Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov

Unsuitable women

Nikolai, the eldest son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet, accounted for nephew of Emperor Alexander II. The first of the kind of Romanov graduated from the Higher Educational Institution, was fond of collecting. At 21 I received a squadron squadron squadron.

In the same 1871 he became interested in the American dancer Fanny Lir, who came to Russia in search of a light earnings and adulter. Fanny, the peer of Nicholas, a divorced woman with a child was not best company For the Grand Duke.

New Passion - Central Asia

Nikolai's parents tried to prevent love and sent him to a military campaign to Khiva. The expedition was severe, with losses, but ended successfully. Nikolay showed a rare excerpt (reassured the soldiers who went crazy from thirst), miraculously survived, loved Middle Asia. Russian geographical flattened the interest of a member of the imperial family, Nikolai appointed the head of the expedition to the Amudarya area.

Not paying attention to the mother's attempts to find a suitable bride, Nikolai, together with Fanny went to Europe. I spent the condition for the beloved and collection of paintings, openly sailed with money. At Villa Borghese, he liked the sculpture of the reclining Venus with an apple, and he ordered the same sculptural portrait of Fanny's beloved.

Brought parents

In 1874 it turned out that Nikolai steals from the family. His mother discovered that from the salary of blessing her marriage icons disappeared large diamonds. Jewels were found in the pawnshop, the mark led to the adjutant Nikolai Konstantinovich. The Grand Duke of the guilt did not recognize what he swore on the Bible did not repent and stipulated the adjutant.

Lied open and in the eyes: his mother remembered perfectly, as Nikolai complained about the migraine after breakfast, and she offered him to go home, and to rise in her bedroom, where the icon was standing.

Nicholas have discovered many debts, receipts and bills - and the slightest repentance. The family should have punished the Son for theft and Low Behavior.

The worst of sins

It was possible to split a 24-year-old Nikolai in the soldiers, to survive on the hard work, but the father treated the honor of the names of Romanov. Two sentences made a great princess. Officially, after a medical examination, he was admired. And the family decided to delete it from all documents, the property to give to younger brothers, henceforth it was forbidden to mention his name.

Nikolai was sent forever from St. Petersburg, prescribing to live under the supervision until the end of the life, and Fanny refrused from the country. For seven years, he changed ten cities, but wherever he appeared, brought some trouble. In 1874 and 1876, two women who did not fit Nicholas at all, declared their pregnancy from him.

No propriety

In 1878, he secretly married the hope of Draier, who gave him two children. All this time, Nikolai preached revolutionary ideas. Officially, he stopped exist for the family, and in the summer of 1881, Alexander III sent him a link to Tashkent.

(In the 1899th Cousin Nikolai Emperor Alexander III recognized his marriage legitimate, hope was given to the princely title, children - surname Iskander.) In 1895, continuing to live with his wife, Nikolai led to come over with a 16-year-old Cossack who gave him three children.

In 1900, he again concluded a marriage, which was soon terminated. Valeria Khmelnitskaya was a nobleman, Petersburg was reassured, sent a commission, recognizing Nicholas incapacitated, and Khmelnitsky was sent out of Tashkent.

Olga's sister visited him in 1904, after the visit she wrote: "He completely lost all the ethical principles defining what can be done and what can be demanded."

Aryk in a hungry steppe

Nikolai and other interests were in. He organized scientific expeditions, published his discoveries. In Tashkent, he introduced irrigation systems, digging aryki in the hungry steppe (according to the law the land belonged to the one who was irrigated), was engaged in other useful endeavors. On his content, the imperial family highlighted 10 thousand rubles per month.

He gladly met the revolution. In 1918 he died of a pulmonary disease, and the Bolsheviks organized him a funeral in the Cathedral of Tashkent.

Venus and Sophia

For a long time, his mother saw tea in the garden, decorated with copies of ancient sculptures. Finally, someone pointed it to her portrait similarity: Venus with an apple turned out to be a sculpture of the mistress of Prince Fanny Lir. The statue was hidden on the lawn, and then they were taken out of St. Petersburg.

Already in Tashkent Nikolai promised to order an icon for the Cathedral under construction. When the icon of Hagia Sophia in the precious salary arrived, held a prayer. All generals were attached to the image of wisdom. And later it turned out. That the face on the icon is written with the portrait of Sophia Perovsky.

Portraits of their cousin Alexandra III Nikolay wrote out packs and used as targets. About his adventures can be told a lot, but Nikolai was not ordinary hooligan. The cause of his behavior, depraved and offensive to others, was rooted, most likely, in mental illness. After his death, the collection of paintings and objects of art collected by him became the basis of the exposition of several museums.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Graduate of the Academy of General Staff, in which he entered on his own initiative in 1868. The Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich became the first of the Romanov, who graduated from the Higher Educational Institution, and among the best graduates with a silver medal. After completing his studies, he traveled abroad, where he began to collect his collection of Western European painting. After traveling in Europe, the Grand Duke entered the Leb Guard Equestrian Regiment, and after a while he became a squadron commander at 21. At this time, at one of the ball masquerads, he meets the American dancer and an adventurer in nature - Fanny Lir, who by that time had already managed to travel in Europe, to be married and had a juvenile daughter. They started a novel.

The stormy romance of the Grand Duke was disturbed by his father and mother. The discussion of this problem has even led to the meeting of his parents who by that time did not live together. His father found quite a suitable pretext to remove him from St. Petersburg - In 1873, Nikolai Konstantinovich went as part of the Russian Expeditionary Corps under the command of General Skobelev's campaign on Khiva.

The Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who had already had the title of Colonel, in this campaign received fighting baptism. He headed by the avant-garde of the Kazalinsky squad, which suffered the greatest losses, followed one of the most difficult routes, through the Kyzylkum desert. The first speaking group, headed by him, fell into such a dense artillery fire, which in the detachment of their return was no longer waiting. In this campaign, Nikolai Konstantinovich showed personal courage and was an example for others. For participation in the Hivinsky campaign, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir.

After returning out Central AsiaHe was fascinated, he was seriously interested in orientalism.

He began to participate in the work of the Russian Geographical Society: there, among scientists, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Amarya expedition was matured among scientists. Her goal was to maximally study the edge of Russia and subjected to a detailed scientific analysis of his potential. Such plans extended, captured a brilliant outline of the sovereign. In geographical society, there were, of course, be happy to the August attention. Nikolai Konstantinovich was elected by an honorary member of this society and appointed the head of the expedition.

After returning from the Hivinsky campaign, he again went to Europe in the company of his beloved - Fanny Lir. There he continued to replenish his artistic collection.

But in the spring of 1874, when he was 24 years old, an event happened, which completely changed the life of the Grand Duke.

Family scandal (theft)
In April 1874, Nikolai Konstantinovich's mother - Alexander Iosifovna discovered in a marble palace to the loss of three expensive diamonds from the salary of one of the icons, which, in his time, the emperor Nicholas I blessed his son Konstantin with the German princess, in marriage of Alexander Iosifovna. The Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich caused the police, and soon the diamonds were found in one of the pawnshops of St. Petersburg.

At first they went to a person who attributed diamonds in the pawnshop - the adjutant of the Grand Duke E.P. Varnakhovsky, the opinion of the guilt of which has been preserved so far. At the interrogation on April 15, he categorically denied involvement in the steal and said that only in the pawnshop stones transferred to him the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich.

Nikolai, who was present at the interrogation, swore on the Bible, which is not guilty - what, as they said, aggravated his sin. Father he said that he was ready, reversing the Varnachovsky, not just an adjutant, but his comrade, take the blame for himself. Emperor Alexander II, who took the case under personal control, connected to the investigation of the chief of the Gencarm Country Count Schivalov.

Shuvalov three o'clock interrogated in the marble palace of the arrested Nikolai Konstantinovich in the presence of a father, who later wrote in his diary: "No repentance, no consciousness, except when the denial is already impossible, and then I had to pull the core for the residential. Fierracy and a single tear. They spent all that he had saints left, to facilitate the farthest fate to him with a comprehensive repentance and consciousness! Nothing helped!"

Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that the diamonds were abducted by Nikolai Konstantinovich, and the money had to go to the gifts of the mistress of Prince - the American dancer Fanny Lir. At the "Family Council" - the general meeting of the members of the monarch of the family after a long debate (as options were offered - to give to the soldiers, to betray the public court and send to the cautious)) was decided that the minimum damage to the prestige of the royal family was made. It was decided to recognize the Grand Duke Nicholas of the University, and then, by decree of the emperor, he was forever sent out of the capital of the Empire. Fanny Lir was expelled from Russia with the prohibition of ever coming back here. With the Grand Duke, she never met.

The Great Prince Nikolai Konstantinovich was announced, in fact, two sentences. The first - for the public - was recognized by him insane. What followed that from now on and forever it will be in custody, on forced treatment, in complete isolation. The essence of the second sentence - the family - was that in papers relating to the imperial house, it was forbidden to mention his name, and the inheritance belonged to him was transferred to the younger brothers. He also deprived of all the titles and awards and struck out the lists of the regiment. He was sent from St. Petersburg forever and was obliged to live under arrest in the place where he would be indicated.

In 1917, Fanny Lir memoirs appeared in the Argus magazine, where she told about his august novel, the bitter fate of Nikola (as close people called him), whose guilt she did not believe for a minute, as well as how ended Her journey to Russia.

Fanny wrote in his memoirs that in the capital of the Grand Prince kept in a strait shirt, pumped up with medicines and even beat. The soldiers who embarked in Nikola rushed over him, although yesterday he was still inseparable for them, and offered the arrested children's toys. Nikolai Konstantinovich himself, judging by the recording left him, regretted that he did not hit the cautious.

In the memoirs of Fanny Lir there is a record, very eloquently characterizing this woman who has been born and grew up in the family of a Protestant priest: "This is such a loss in the family of ordinary people," Miss Lir wrote, "she would have been hidden; Here, on the contrary, the police raised on their feet ... ".

There is another oddity in this matter. Despite the fact that Nikolai Konstantinovich's parents and his August relatives did not leave the confidence that Nikolai Konstantinovich was taken away with the love of the curtain and the lack of funds for satisfaction of her whims, the fact that during the search in the writing desk Nikolai Konstantinovich was discovered A much big one that was obtained for the stolen diamonds laid down in the pawnshop.

He was taken away from St. Petersburg in the fall of 1874. Before his last "stop", in Tashkent in the summer of 1881, that is, for incomplete 7 years, he replaced at least 10 residence. He was nowhere to find at least some kind of home, to acquire connections, to put roots. It was winding around Russia: Vladimir Province, Uman - 250 miles from Kiev, the place of Tivrovo, near Vinnitsa, and so on.

When he was sent to Orenburg, Nikolai Konstantinovich assumed that there would be no supervision for him very strict, since there, on the border of the endless desert in extremely severe climatic conditions, combat operations were constantly accomplished. Indeed, here in Orenburg, the local authorities on a lot of "non-disabilities" closed his eyes. It was in Orenburg in 1877, 27-year-old Nikolai published his work "Waterway to Central Asia, specified by Peter Great", released without indicating the name of the author. Here he managed to travel to the depths of Kazakh steppes - riding, along with the same enthusiasts, he did the way from Orenburg to Perovsk. He was captured by the idea of \u200b\u200bbuilding railway From Russia to Turkestan. The project sent to Petersburg was recognized by unprofitable due to the low-rise land.

In Orenburg, the Grand Duke performed extraordinary actions. So, in the winter of 1878, he marked with the daughter of the urban policeman with the hope of Alexandrovna Dreier. The wedding was secret, but rumors crawled - and the corresponding report flew to St. Petersburg. As a result, a special decree of the Synod marriage was terminated, and the Draier family was ordered to leave the city. A young wife flatly refused to leave her husband. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna, being a Cossack family, was a firm character - Multi-rope in the steppes riding horses traveled next to Nikolai Konstantinovich, as it should not be emphasized. Hope Alexandrovna Nikolai Konstantinovich in honor of Alexander Macedonsky (Iskander Zulkarna? Yana) called "Princess Iskander."

Being in the link, the Grand Duke showed a kind of peculiarity - sometimes he threatened to put on all his orders and go to the people, who, in his opinion, would have to free exile. At the same time when imperial courtyard Rumors began to spread about the forced meetings of the Operal Prince with the People's Glybnoye. According to rumors they were even friends.

The younger brother of the Orenburg Arrestant, the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, did not approve the hard line of the Imperial House: "Will the painful position be held soon, from which poor Nikola does not give any way out? The most meek man could be withdrawn from patience, Nikola has a rather strength to endure his conclusion and moral prison. "

After returning in the end, the arguments of common sense, the cousin of the Opt Great Prince - Emperor Alexander III allowed to legalize the Morganistic marriage, however, while the young was prescribed to go to the Turkestan region, to Tashkent.

In Tashkent
In Turkestan, the Grand Duke lived first under the name of Colonel Volynsky. Later he began to call himself a claimder. This name is all his descendants - the princes of Iskander. Subsequently, he married another lady - in Darya Watchmotine - 15 Summer daughters of the Tashkent resident belonging to the Cossack class. He had several children from this union. At the same time, he could appear in society simultaneously with his two "wives".

From Hope Alexandrovna, the Grand Duke had two sons - Artemy and Alexander. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna herself under the name "Prinjea Iskander" has repeatedly visited St. Petersburg, trying to establish connections with Romanov's relatives. Perhaps she did not quite succeed in this, but their children were taken to study in St. Petersburg a privileged PJUST case.

Being contradictory, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich was capable
And at full noble deeds. Having received 300 thousand rubles from the emperor to the building of the palace, he launched this money to build in Tashkent theater. A luxury palace for his stay, built in the center of Tashkent, is now one of the most notable attractions of Tashkent - now this is the home of international techniques of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.

With the name of the Grand Duke Mille and the memories of eyewitnesses they also associated a row of sometimes curious, and sometimes quite serious secular and near secular scandals in Tashkent. The ambiguous position of Nikolai Konstantinovich was also promoted - on the one hand, on the one hand, it continued to be under house arrest, the decision about which no one has canceled, on the other hand he continued to remain a great prince, and thus stay under the auspices of the imperial home, and in addition A popular person among the local European population of the city.

Entrepreneurship Grand Prince
The Grand Duke was engaged in entrepreneurship, he was the owner of a number of enterprises in Tashkent - a soiled plant, photographic workshops, billiards, the sale of kvass, rice processing, soap-made and cotton manufactory, registering, in order to avoid rooded wrath, all organized enterprises to his wife. For money received from their entrepreneurial activity, they were built by the first cinema in Tashkent (also as a business project) - "Hiva", he was engaged in the laying of irrigation canals on his own money in the hungry steppe.

Revenues from his entrepreneurial activity constituted an impressive amount - until one and a half million rubles per year. For comparison: from St. Petersburg, the prince sent 200 thousand rubles per year.

Nikolai Konstantinovich turned out to be an excellent entrepreneur. He one of the first to add to the most profitable area of \u200b\u200bthe industry in the Turkestan Territancy - the construction and operation of cotton-cleaning factories. At the same time, he used the most advanced technical ideas of his time - at its plants used wasteless technological cycle - the cotton seeds remained after processing raw fiber, used as raw materials on the oils, and the cakes were walking both on fertilizer and focus.

With its first irrigation work, he has gained great popularity among the population. Their first of them is to bring from the Chirchik on the right bank of the Canal River, called I Iskander-Aryk.

Then these lands were only a few houses of the poor Dehkan, alaying from Ghazalkent. After the Iskander-Aryka, the "great" village of Iskander was laid here. Aside with the village, the Grand Prince broke a large garden. During the construction of works on the Iskander-Aryk, Nikolai Konstantinovich produced an archaeological autopsy of the Kurgan channel located at the channel, from which weapons were removed and other items.

In 1886, the Grand Duke began to "the conclusion" of Syrdarya Water, wanting in order not to irrigate at least part of the hungry steppe between Tashkent and Jizzak, spending a lot of energy and personal funds. Works related to the conduct of the channel cost the prince over a million rubles (for comparison: the cow was then 3 rubles). On the coastal cliff near the river, at the head facility near Bekabad, the large size of the letter "H" was carved, crowned with the crown.

On irrigated lands, 12 large Russian settlements rose. Nikolai Konstantinovich wrote: "My desire is to revive the deserts of Central Asia and relieve the government with Russian people of all classes." By 1913, there were already 119 Russian villages.

But the favorite idea of \u200b\u200bthe Grand Duke was the project of recovery of the "old current" Amu Darya in Caspian. Back in 1879, in Samara, he organized a society for the study of the Central Asian ways, which aims to select the direction of the Turkestan Railway and the study of the Amborey's turn in Uzuba. In March 1879, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich published a brochure called "AMU and Uzuba" (the book came out without specifying the author's name). In it, the author, relying on the evidence of sources - the works of antique and medieval writers, - argued that the river repeatedly changed its direction "exclusively by the will of man." But the government did not support the prince's prince - it traveled to the development of a project reversal of the river.

In the Brochure "AMU and Uzuba", the Grand Duke wrote: "Russia over the past 25 years old for the most part Central Asia, but the once blooming Turkestan went to the Russian in a state of decline. It is endowed with nature with all the favorable conditions for the rapid development of his rich production forces. Expanding the irrigation network by spreading the limits of oasis, the Turkestan can be made one of the best Russian areas. " The plan for "turning Amudarya" is probably quite fair, it was also uncomfortable. But the expedition itself, which has done more than a thousandthricular path at completely unrecorded places, brought material of exceptional value. It was also noted by scientific circles, and even the bosses in St. Petersburg, who rewarded all his participants, with the exception of the Grand Duke.

In Central Asia, it was always highly valued by work related to irrigation, especially new lands that were not used before the agricultural crops. Therefore, the above-mentioned irrigation events of Nikolai Konstantinovich, the largest for their time and besides, not in compulsory, but with the wage of all participants, contributed to the rapid spread among the local population of the popularity of the Grand Prince. He paved for his funds 100-kilometer irrigation canal, revived 40 thousand tits of lands.

Collection of Grand Prince
The collection of European and Russian painting paintings, collected by the Grand Duke and brought from St. Petersburg, was the basis for creating a museum of arts in Tashkent in 1919 in Tashkent, having one of the richest collections of European painting paintings among Art Museums of Central Asia.

The fate of one sculpture
During his second trip to Europe Nikolai Konstantinovich and Fanny Lir visited Rome at Villa Borghese. Here he admired the famous sculpture of Antonio Kanov, depicting Polina Borghese, younger sister Napoleon, in the form of a naked beauty lying on the marble bed in the form of Venus-winner with an apple in her left hand. Nikolay Konstantinovich immediately ordered the sculpture of Thomazo Solari making an accurate copy of the sculpture, but instead of Polina Borgoz on a marble bed should have been lying his beloved - Fanny Lire.

In his memoirs, Miss Lir recalled that the unpleasant impression that she called the plaster mask imposed on her face, with the help of which the sculptor later reproduced in marble the features of her face. The sculptor assured them that at the end of the work the sculpture will be sent to St. Petersburg. He kept his promise.

After many years, when the Grand Duke was already in Tashkent Exile, his mother, Alexander Iosifovna, made him a gift. During a walk in the park, she stumbled upon a marble sculpture of a semi-naked woman with an apple in her hand. She found out in this woman Fanny Lir - the beloved of his eldest son. And soon the sculpture packed in the wooden box was sent to Tashkent Nikolai Konstantinovich. Later, this marble sculpture has become one of the decorations of the Tashkent Museum of Fine Arts.

Today, only a small photo of the sculpture of Thomaso Solari sculpture is the only opportunity to see a woman, a meeting with which predetermined a completely special one, who does not like anyone, the fate of one of the great princes of Romanov.

Great Prince and Revolution
Last russian emperor Nicholas II, brought to a scandalous relative with a cousin nephew, but he never allowed him to return to the capital. Therefore, the renunciation of the emperor in February 1917 the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich perceived with delight. In the spring of 1917, the Office of the Premiere of Kerensky, among many welcomers, received a telegram from Turkestan from the Grand Duke.

It is worth noting that Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky perfectly knew the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich in Tashkent, since almost 10 years they lived next door.

The death of the Grand Prince
However, after coming to power in Tashkent, the coalition of the Bolsheviks and Left Socialists in November 1917, and the establishment of the Soviet authorities in Turkestan, the relationship with the new government did not work out. On January 14, 1918, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov was arrested and on one sources on the same day shot, according to others, "died with unexplained circumstances," on the third "died of lung inflammation."

This ended full of dramatic collisions The life of the Grand Duke, most of which he spent in the Turkestan region and left a bright trace here.

He was buried near the church of St. George - Josepho-Georgievsky Cathedral, located opposite the entrance to the Palace of Prince. Later B. soviet time This church "reproed" into the puppet theater and cafe-dumplings, part-time ice cream. Some time after receiving Uzbekistan, the uneducibility of these buildings - the old puppet theater and cafe-dumplings were demolished. Currently, there is a small opening at this place.

A family
Wife (15.2.1878-7.3.1900) Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Draier (1861-1929?) (Daughter Orenburg. Politzmeterster) She and children received the nobility and the county title (February 1917) under the name Iskander. Titul was not issued by the official decree.

There was a museum's loophone, then she was fired. According to eyewitnesses, she in the last years of life she looked like a real bench, walked in ripped clothes and was fed that they left her hubars in the door, remembered the kindness of the Grand Duke. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna died in 1929 from the bite of a mad dog.

Children
* The Senior Son of Artemy (r. 1883) for the same version died during the Civil War, fighting on the side of the White, on the other - died of typhus in Tashkent in 1919.
* Younger Son, Alexander (r. 1887), a combat officer, fought in the Army of Wrangel, then evacuated in Gallipoli, and then to France, where he died in 1957.

The second time in 1901 was married to Barbara Khmelnitsky (1885-). Marriage is not recognized.

Relocial ties
* Alexander Aleksandrovna Demidova's mistress (Ur. Abaza)

Children
* Nikolay (1875-)
* Olga (1877-)

In 1888, from Emperor Alexander III, the nobility with the name "Volynski" and the patronymic "Pavlovichi", because At this time, the husband of their mother (from 1879) was Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarok-Elston (1853-1938), his uncle Prince Yusupova, the future killer Rasputin.

* Lover Daria Eliseevna Watchpit (1880-1953 / 1956)

Children
* Svyatoslav (-1919) - Shot
* Nikolay (-1919/1920)
* Daria (1896-1966)

The central Russian archive stores the case (documents) of the Grand Duke.

Sunrise Landscapes of Middle Asia Desert.

The inscription on the stones: "Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich".

Photographs of the Grand Duke.

Biograd Romanova N.K. Golender B. gives an interview (synchronously).

Photos Romanov N.K. In childhood, with his mother and father -Evinik, Konstantin Nikolayevich.

Portraits Portraits of Parents Romanov N.K.

Portrait of the emperor Alexander II.

Photos of the brothers and sisters of the Grand Prince.

Photos of the Marmara Palace in St. Petersburg, Pavlovsky Palace, the estates are fit.

Photo of the Grand Prince in a family circle, during his study at the Academy of General Staff.

Romanov N.K. After graduating from the Academy.

Historian Hermann V. gives an interview (synchronously).

Photo Romanov N.K. After graduating from the Academy.

Between the hills there is a train.

View of the Cathedral of the Parisian Our Lady.

Railway.

Photos of species of Athens, Rome.

Illustrations from the life of Guards officers.

Photo Fanny Lir.

Golender B. gives an interview (synchronously).

Photo LIR on the background of species of Paris.

Cacan in Moulin Rouge.

The horse crew drives up to the palace.

Photos Romanov N.K. and Lire on the background of dancing on the ball.

Picturesque portrait of Catherine II.

Statues and paintings from the Romanov collection N.K. In the exposition of the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan.

Portraits Lire and Romanov N.K. In the newspaper, portraits of the parents of the Grand Prince.

Map of Turkestan.

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: Landscape of one of the Central Asian cities.

Hivinsky Khan sits in the crew.

Newsreel of the early 20th century: Desert landscapes.

Men dance in front of the spectators sitting around.

Persons viewers and dancers.

General view of a circle with dancing.

Germanov gives an interview (synchronously).

Players from X / Film: Emperor Alexander II escorts troops at the station.

Gaming footage of the fighting Russian troops in the Khiva campaign, the portrait of the commander of General Kaufman.

Pictures depicting fighting.

The text of the letter Romanov NK to Lire.

The fighting of Russian troops, cavalry attacks.

Photo of the Grand Duke at the end of the Hivinsky campaign.

Gaming footage of the fighting.

Photo Romanov N.K.

Landscapes of Turkestan.

Photo of the Grand Duke in the Parade Mundar of the Leb Guard Equestrian Shelf.

Text Letter Romanov N.K. to lire.

The inner view of the Orthodox church, candles are burning.

Types of winter St. Petersburg.

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: Caravan of camels enters the gate of the fortress in Khorezm.

Types of Khiva quarters.

General view of the old city (from above).

See St. Petersburg.

Portrait of Grand Prince Constantine.

Portraits of Alexander II and Nikolai I.

Engravings and photos of the outdoor type and interior interiors of the Marble Palace.

Portraits Romanov N.K. and lire.

Germanov gives an interview (synchronously).

Text of Memoirov Lir.

The gaming frames of the imperial exit in the winter palace.

LIR memoir teams in various publications in Russian and English.

Text entry in the diary Romanov NK

View of Palace Square in St. Petersburg.

Newsreel 1913: Crews are passing along the Palace Square.

Horse crew rides in the steppe road.

Postcard with a view of Orenburg.

Portrait of Romanov N.K. During his stay in Orenburg.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Panorama of the desert.

Mazar in the desert.

Desert landscape.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Scientific works written by Romanov N.K. in Orenburg.

Types of the Central Asian desert.

Pursue a caravan camel.

View of the part of the Amudarya (from above).

Desert landscape.

Photos of the Grand Duke and Emir of Bukhara.

The text of the letter of the Grand Duke Emir.

Interior view of the premises of the Emir Palace in Bukhara.

View of a part of Bukhara.

View of the part of the Amudarya (from above).

Sailing boats on the river.

Types of amamarya coast.

The book of the professor of the expedition of Profreading Professor Sorokina on traveling to Central Asia.

In the desert there is a caravan.

Photos of Orenburg streets.

Photos Romanov N.K. And his wife von Drayer N.A.

The text of the Synod Decision on the recognition of the marriage of the Grand Duke illegal.

Gaming shots: Emperor Alexander II adopts a report in the Winter Palace.

Photo Romanov N.K and his wife.

Photo by Alexander II with sons.

Photos of Alexander III.

There is a train.

Photos of Tashkent species in the 1880s.

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: Types of Tashkent quarters.

Arba is passing down the street.

People on the street.

People ride on the iszhaki.

Types of city bazaar.

Potter at work.

People pray on the square in front of the mosque.

Tips on the street at work.

People ship goods on camels.

The caravan comes out of the gate.

Photos of buildings and streets "European" part of Tashkent.

Newsreel of the 1920s: Tashkent Streets.

People ride down the street on the iszhaki.

A woman cleans the carpet in the courtyard at home.

People on the banks of the canal, the girl is gaining water.

Peaches on branches.

People dig an irrigation canal in one of the villages.

Landscapes of the surroundings of Tashkent.

View of the channel "Iskander" in the Chirchchik Valley, built with the participation of the Grand Duke in 1883-1885.

Views settlement Iskander in Uzbekistan.

The text of the record in the diary of the Grand Duke.

Types of Amudarya.

Irrigation canals.

Dehkan plow the earth.

Types of settlement Iskander, based by the Grand Duke.

Thoughts of mountain streams.

Mountain stream on the slope.

Newspaper messages and photos of charitable events involving Romanov N.K.

Photo of the residence of the Grand Duke in the center of Tashkent.

The text of the record in the diary of the Grand Duke.

Photos and drawings of the house of the Grand Prince.

Modern view of the building.

Internal interiors of premises in the house Romanov N.K.

Finishing the walls of halls in the house.

"Eastern" rooms in the house.

Household buildings and fluege.

Fragments of the decorations of the house of the Grand Duke (house of receptions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan).

Fragments of the design of the premises.

Pictures on the walls.

Carving on walls and doors.

Art historian gives an interview (synchronously).

Fragments of the palace room decorations.

Art historian gives an interview.

Newsreel of the 1910s: Construction of irrigation canals in Central Asia.

Nikolai I channel arising from Syrdarya.

Channel photography.

Photos of houses in villages arising along the canal at the end of the 19th century.

General channel types.

Photos of Russian immigrants.

Types of buildings and buildings of estates " Golden Horde Hungry steppe, "based by the Grand Duke.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Photo by Chusovitina D.E., the second wife of the Grand Duke.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

The text of the record from the diary of the Grand Duke.

Photo of Khmelnitsky V.

Church building in the Trinity village near Tashkent.

Icons and candles in the house chapel of the Great Prince Palace in Tashkent.

Game shots from X / Movie: General with a retinue.

The text of the record from the diary of the Grand Duke.

Gaming shots from X / Film: Passing urban and gendarmes.

There is a passenger train.

Landscapes outside the car.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: Equestrian carriages leave the gate of the palace in Tashkent.

The imperial family during their stay in the royal village.

Photo of the Grand Duke in Chalme.

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: Departure of horse crews from the gate of the Palace in the royal village.

Type of part of the exposition of the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, paintings and statues from the collection of the Grand Duke.

Tree thread samples.

Collections and paintings collected by the Grand Duke.

Fragments of the building of the Great Prince Palace in Tashkent.

Daughter Hajar, pupils of the Grand Prince, gives an interview (synchronously).

The clock donated by the Grand Duke of his pupil.

Players from X / Movie: The trader closes the bench, the policeman passes by.

Portrait of a hajar in old age.

The granddaughter Hajar gives an interview (synchronously).

Water flows along the channel channel.

Rotate wheels of the water mill.

Newsreel of the beginning of the 20th century: People clean the track of Aryka, weigh cotton.

Workshop of a cotton processing plant in Tashkent.

Workers in the factory shop.

Germanov gives an interview (synchronously).

Photos of buildings and interior premises of libraries based by the Grand Duke.

Germanov gives an interview (synchronously).

Buildings at the building of the Great Prince Palace in Tashkent.

Germanov gives an interview (synchronously).

Photography building of the palace.

Photos of visits to the younger brother of the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Tashkent.

Photos of the parents of the Grand Duke and his sister Olga - the Greek Queen.

Newsreel 1912-1913: Nicholas II receives bread-salt.

Arrival of Emir Bukhara Seyid Alim-Khan to St. Petersburg.

Celebration of the 300th anniversary of the house of Romanovs.

General view of the Palace Square.

Nicholas II and Empress on the balcony of the Winter Palace.

People build an irrigation canal.

Photos of the part of the Romanovsk irrigation canal and the memorable stele in honor of the channel input.

Channel opening photos.

Photo of the Grand Duke and his wife in 1916.

Palace of the Grand Duke in Tashkent.

Pictures collected by the Grand Duke.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Portrait Chusovitinova D.E.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Photos of buildings in Khiva, built by the Grand Duke.

Portrait of Drayer-Iskander N.A.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Newsreel 1932: Types of bazaar in Tashkent.

Photo Dreier-Iskander at the Bazaar in Tashkent.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Portraits of Natalia Alexandrovna Iskander, granddaughters of the Grand Prince.

Golender gives an interview (synchronously).

Newsreel 1917: revolutionary events In Petrograd in March 1917.

Revolutionary demonstration in Tashkent.

divisions of the Red Army, operating in Central Asia.

Rides a cavalry squadron.

Photos of the buildings of cinemas built by the Grand Duke.

Newsreel 1917: People on the streets of Tashkent.

Persons of people.

The photos of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Tashkent, the fence of which was buried Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich.

Portrait of a Grand Duke.

The inscription on the rocks in the desert: "Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich".

Prince A. N. Iskander about father November 3rd, 2011

Repost from the magazine jnike_07
Prince A. N. Iskander

An interesting testimony found in the memoirs of Prince Alexander Nikolayevich Iskander, born on November 15 of Art. Art. 1889 in Tashkent, died in the Grass on January 26, 1957, was buried in the Russian cemetery in Nice. This is the younger son led. kn. Nikolai Konstantinovich Iskander-Romanova (1850-1918), whose death I told. The father was the grandson of Nicholas I and the cousin of Nicholas II, the Son, respectively, is the great-grandfather of Nicholas I and the last king's secondary brother. Kest Mother KN. A. N. Iskander, by the way, was the sister of the Father - led. kn. Olga Konstantinovna (1851-1926), the first Queen of Ellinov.

In 1911, it is among the graduates of the 67th year of the Alexandrovsky lyceum, the former Pushkin Tsarskoye Lyceum. Enrolled in the Life Guard of the Kirassirian Majesty of the Empress Empress Maria Fedorovna Regiment. That is, despite the fact that his father was an eternal exile of the Romanov family, his mother, the hope of Alexandrovna Draier, the daughter of the Orenburg policeman, managed to establish connections with the Romanov family through the mother-in-law - led. kn. Alexander Iosifovna, widow led. kn. Konstantin Nikolayevich, Brother Alexander II, according to Romanov family terminology - "Aunt Sunny". N. A. Dreier became the princess of Iskander, and two of their sons attached to prestigious educational institutions. He served shortly to the regiment of Tsaritsyn Kirassir, KN. A. N. Iskander damaged the leg in Italian ride in the area and after treatment was sent to the faithful (now Alma-Ata) officer for orders at General Folbaum, the military governor of the Semirechensk region.

After the beginning of the First World War, he returned to his regiment of Tsaritsyna Kirassir and registered the whole war in his composition, as he writes about himself: "By covering himself with the glory of a fearless warrior." The October Revolution found him in the Crimea, where he was in the hospital in Evpatoria after wounded in his leg. On February 1, 1918, he leaving the Crimea to Tashkent to his parents. However, having arrived in Tashkent, no longer finds in the living Father. In Tashkent at this time, His wife Olga Rogovskaya lived with two minors. Until January 18, 1919, he calmly lives in the city and works in the prosecutor's office. Then adjoins the rebellion of the Turkestan military commissar of Kostik Osipova, Eser, the former ensign. Everything that managed to make the officer partisan district Colonel Rudnev, so it was called, it is to rob the bank and free from the prison of Fergana Basmar Madamibek. Then the rebellion was instantly depressed by the working railway workshops and the Red Army.

The officers went to the "Heavenly Hike", so KN. A. N. Iskander called his story-memories. In winter, through the impassable mountain passes of the Caukal Range, pursued by the detachments of the Red Army, they stubbornly searched for salvation in the Fergana Valley. Gold Chervonians from the Tashkent Bank, which they paid with local conductors helped them very much. In the Fergana Valley, they were met by Madaminbek people who did not forget his liberation from Tashkent prison. Biography KN. A. N. Iskander is similar to an adventurous novel. From Fergana, the remains of the officer partisan detachment make their way to Bukhara to Emir and residents english intelligence. Then go to Iran, move to the Mensive Blue Georgia, the Poti port is transferred to the Crimea to the Baron Wrangel. In 1920 KN. A. N. Iskander still managed to play in his regiment of Tsaritsyn Kirassir already in the Vrangelian army, with which she was evacuated to Constantinople.

In part, of course, he was aunt Olya, the godmother and the Greek queen, in emigration helped, but to work by a secondary brother Nicholas II had to work hard. He moved to France, married the daughter of General Khanykova, Sucheril, like all Russian emigrants, tried to have his own business on sings of cucumbers in Belgium, but broke. At the end of his life, he was writing memoir stories (the first publication in the Paris newspaper "Russian Thought" in 1951) who did not lose their historical interest.

At least this fact is about how his father led. kn. N. K. Iskander-Romanov, helped Russian migrants in Turkestan.

I already wrote about the policy of ethno-substation, which was conducted by the representatives of the Romanov family and who had reached Ekaterina II during the reign. And what makes the "Romanov family"? Also, by the way, a man without a drop of Russian blood and married to German. He does the opposite! This is how the son writes about this in the memoir story "Palace". The case is happening in 1896 in Tashkent, because the author indicates that he was then seven years old:

"Every Migrants Father (in the manuscript of the book. A. N. Iskander writes the word" father "from a capital letter, probably, you can leave it, in meaning) Gave: a couple of piglets, two chickens, two ducks and a spleen and, of course, some The amount of money, for the construction of the economy. I remember how the Cossack came with the Cossack for gifts once arrived. As it happened, I don't know, but only one pig breakdled and rushed in the garden, and behind him the Cossack with the Cossack and several gardeners. I, of course, He took a hot participation in fishing, rushing behind him with laughter and shouts. And I was very laughing when the pigle was caught, and the interesting fun ended. It was me then seven years old, and maybe that less. They took the pigs to the newly educated Village - Nikolsky.

It takes more than a year. I come with parents to the former "hungry steppe" and in the village of Nikolsky looked, of course. I ask the Cossack buddies:

- Where are piglets?

- Pigs? - exclaims with a laugh all family. - And, here, go, we will show you.

Give and show huge crushed pigs! One of them is already walking with small, pretty piglets.

- But that piglets you chased! - Says, tenderly smiling, Cossack, pointing to a pig with piglets.

I was shocked. In the courtyard he was already wandering herd of ducks and, picking in the ground, led by a black and red cock, a solid number of chickens. Diva is given, to which quickly in good feed, the feathers of the kingdom spread! "

So it turns out that he led. kn. N. K. Iskander-Romanov The first of his former royal family began to help Russian migrants. Even 10 years before the wretched Stolypin reform. According to the stabbing, the peasants also helped, gave loans on the security of the land, paid the viewing passage. Only here are 20% of the peasants who took loans, broke up, and 16% of the immigrants did not stand up on new lands and returned.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Graduate of the Academy of General Staff, in which he entered on his own initiative in 1868. The Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich became the first of the Romanov, who graduated from the Higher Educational Institution, and among the best graduates with a silver medal. After completing the study, he traveled abroad, where he began to collect his collection of Western European painting. After traveling in Europe, the Grand Duke entered the Leb Guard Equestrian Regiment, and after a while he became a squadron commander at 21. At this time, at one of the ball masquerads, he meets the American dancer and an adventurist by nature - Fanny Lir, who by that time had already managed to travel in Europe, to be married and had a juvenile daughter. They started a novel.

The stormy romance of the Grand Duke was disturbed by his father and mother. The discussion of this problem has even led to the meeting of his parents who by that time did not live together. His father found quite a suitable pretext to remove him from St. Petersburg: In 1873, Nikolai Konstantinovich went as part of the Russian expeditionary troops on a hike.

The Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who had already had the title of Colonel, in this campaign received fighting baptism. He headed by the avant-garde of the Kazalinsky squad, who had the greatest losses, followed one of the most difficult routes, through the Kyzylkum desert. The first speaking group, headed by him, fell into such a dense artillery fire, which in the detachment of their return was no longer waiting. In this campaign, Nikolai Konstantinovich showed personal courage and was an example for others. For participation in the Hivinsky campaign, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd degree.

After returning from Central Asia, which he was fascinated, his seriously interested in orientalistics. He began to participate in the work of the Russian Geographical Society: there, among scientists, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Amadurian expedition was matured. Its purpose was to maximize the edge of Russia conquered and subjected to a detailed scientific analysis of his potential. Such plans extended, captured a brilliant outline of the sovereign. In geographical society, there were, of course, be happy to the August attention. Nikolai Konstantinovich was elected by an honorary member of this society and appointed the head of the expedition.

After returning from the Hivinsky campaign, he again went to Europe in the company of his beloved - Fanny Lir. There he continued to replenish his artistic collection.

But in the spring of 1874, when he was 24 years old, an event happened, which completely changed the life of the Grand Duke.

Family scandal

In April 1874, Nikolai Konstantinovich's mother - Alexander Iosifovna, discovered in the marble palace, the loss of three expensive diamonds from the salary of one of the icons, which, in his time, the emperor Nicholas I blessed the marriage of his son Konstantin with the German princess, in marriage became Alexander Iosifovna. The Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich caused the police, and soon the diamonds were found in one of the pawnshops of St. Petersburg.

At first, they went to a person, who took the diamonds in Lombard - the Adjutant of the Grand Duke E. P. Varnakhovsky, the opinion of the guilt of which was preserved and later. At the interrogation on April 15, he categorically denied involvement in the steal and said that only the stones transferred to him the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich in Lombard.

Nikolai, who was present at the interrogation, swore on the Bible, which is not guilty - what, as they said, aggravated his sin. Father he said that he was ready, reversing the Varnachovsky, not just an adjutant, but his comrade, take the blame for himself. Emperor Alexander II, who took the case under personal control, connected to the investigation of the chief of the Gencarm Country Count Schivalov.

Shuvalov three o'clock interrogated in the marble palace of the arrested Nikolai Konstantinovich in the presence of a father, who later wrote in his diary: "No repentance, no consciousness, except when already denied is impossible, and it had to pull out the living on a residential. Fierracy and a single tear. They spent all that he had saints left, to facilitate the farthest fate to him with a comprehensive repentance and consciousness! Nothing helped!"

Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that the diamonds were abducted by Nikolai Konstantinovich, and the money had to go to the gifts of the mistress of Prince - the American dancer Fanny Lir. On the Family Council - the general meeting of the Members of the Monach family after a long debate (as options were offered: to give to the soldiers, to betray the public court and send to the cautious)) was decided that the minimum damage to the prestige of the royal family was made. It was decided to recognize the Grand Duke Nicholas of the University, and then, by decree of the emperor, he was forever sent out of the capital of the Empire. Fanny Lir was expelled from Russia with the prohibition of ever coming back here. With the Grand Duke, she never met.

Nikolai Konstantinovich was actually two sentences. The first - for the public - was recognized by him insane. What followed that from now on and forever it will be in custody, on forced treatment, in complete isolation. The meaning of the second sentence - the family - was that in papers relating to the imperial house, it was forbidden to mention his name, and the inheritance belonged to him was transferred to the younger brothers. He also deprived of all the titles and awards and laid out the lists of the regiment. He was sent from St. Petersburg forever and was obliged to live under arrest in the place where he would be indicated.

In 1917, Fanny Lir memoirs appeared in Argus magazine, where she told about her August novel, the bitter fate of Nikola (as his loved ones called), whose guilt she did not believe for a minute, as well as how ended Her journey to Russia.

Fanny wrote in his memoirs that in the capital of the Grand Prince kept in a strait shirt, pumped up with medicines and even beat. The soldiers who embarked in Nikola, rushed over him, although yesterday he was not in place for them, and offered toys arrested. Nikolai Konstantinovich himself, judging by the recording left him, regretted that he did not hit the cautious.

In the memoirs of Fanny Lir there is a record, very eloquently characterizing this woman himself, born and grew up in the family of a Protestant priest: "This is a loss in the family of ordinary people, - wrote Miss Lir, - she would have been hidden; Here, on the contrary, the police raised on their feet ... ".

There is another oddity in this matter. Despite the fact that Nikolai Konstantinovich's parents and His relatives did not leave the confidence that Nikolai Konstantinovich was leaving the love of the curtisank and the lack of funds to satisfy her whims, remains immutable the fact that during the search in the written table Nikolai Konstantinovich was discovered. A much big one that was obtained for stolen diamonds lacrored in the pawnshop.

Link

Nikolai Konstantinovich was taken from St. Petersburg in the fall of 1874. Before his last "stop", in Tashkent in the summer of 1881, that is, for incomplete 7 years, he replaced at least 10 residence. He was nowhere to find at least some kind of home, to acquire connections, to put roots. Links were: Vladimir Province, Uman - 250 Wools from Kiev, Tivrovo Place, near Vinnitsa, and so on.

When he was sent to Orenburg, Nikolai Konstantinovich assumed that there was no supervision behind him very strict, since there, on the border of the endless desert in extremely heavy climatic conditions, military operations were constantly accomplished. Indeed, here in Orenburg, the local authorities on a lot of "non-disabilities" closed his eyes. It was in Orenburg in 1877, 27-year-old Nikolai published his work "Waterway to Central Asia, specified by Peter Great", released without indicating the name of the author. Here he managed to make trips in the Kazakh steppes - riding, along with the same enthusiasts, he did the way from Orenburg to Perovsk. He was captured by the idea of \u200b\u200bbuilding the railway from Russia to Turkestan. The project sent to Petersburg was recognized by unprofitable due to the slightly population of land.

In Orenburg, the Grand Duke performed extraordinary actions. So, in the winter of 1878, he marked with the daughter of the urban policeman with the hope of Alexandrovna Dreier. The wedding was secret, but rumors crawled - and the corresponding report flew to St. Petersburg. As a result, a special decree of the Synod marriage was terminated, and the Draier family was ordered to leave the city. A young wife flatly refused to leave her husband. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna, being a Cossack family, was of a hard character - all-hard trips on the steppes on horseback, traveled next to Nikolai Konstantinovich, as it should not be emphasized. Hope Alexandrovna Nikolai Konstantinovich in honor of Alexander Macedonsky (Iskander Zulkarna? Yana) called "Princess Iskander."

Being in the link, the Grand Duke showed a kind of peculiarity - sometimes he threatened to put on all his orders and go to the people, who, in his opinion, would have to free exile. At the same time, rumors about the former meetings of the Opel Prince with the People's Zhelyabov began to spread under the imperial courtyard. According to rumors they were even friends.

The younger brother of the Orenburg Arrestant, the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, did not approve the rigid line of the Imperial House: "Will the painful position be held soon, from which poor Nikola does not give any exit? The meek man himself could be thus able to withdraw from patience, Nicola has a rather strength to make his conclusion and moral prison. "

After returning in the end, the arguments of common sense, the cousin of the Opt Great Prince - Emperor Alexander III - allowed to legalize the Morganatic marriage, however, while the young was prescribed to go to the Turkestan Territory, to Tashkent.

In Turkestan

In Turkestan, the Grand Duke lived first under the name of Colonel Volynsky. Later he began to call himself a claimder. This name is all his descendants - the princes of Iskander. Subsequently, he married another lady - in Darya Watchmotine - 15-year-old daughter of the Tashkent resident belonging to the Cossack class. He had several children from this union. At the same time, he could appear in society simultaneously with his two wives.

From Hope Alexandrovna, the Grand Duke was two sons: Artemy and Alexander. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna herself under the name "Prinjea Iskander" has repeatedly visited St. Petersburg, trying to establish connections with Romanovskaya Rodnoy. Perhaps she did not quite succeed in this, but their children were taken to study in St. Petersburg a privileged PJUST case.

Being controversial, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich was capable of very noble deeds. Having received 300 thousand rubles from the emperor to the building of the palace, he launched this money to build in Tashkent theater. And the luxurious palace for his stay, built in the center of Tashkent, and is now one of the most notable attractions of Tashkent - now it is the house of international techniques of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.

It is known, Nikolai Konstantinovich established 10 scholarships for immigrants from Turkestan, who were not able to pay for study in the main educational institutions Russia.

With the name of the Grand Duke Mille and the memories of eyewitnesses they also associated the row of sometimes curiosities, and sometimes quite serious secular and near-light scandals in Tashkent. This was also promoted by the ambiguous position of Nikolai Konstantinovich - on the one hand, it was formally continued to be under house arrest, the decision about which no one canceled, on the other hand, remained a great prince and thereby stayed under the auspices of the imperial home, and besides, was very popular Man among the local European population of the city.

Entrepreneurship Grand Prince

The Grand Duke was engaged in entrepreneurship, he was the owner of a number of enterprises in Tashkent - a soiled plant, photographic workshops, billiards, sale of kvass, rice processing, soap-made and cotton manufactory, registering, in order to avoid rooded wrath, all organized enterprises were decorated on his wife. For money received from their entrepreneurial activity, they were built by the first cinema in Tashkent (also as a business project) - "Hiva", he was engaged in the laying of irrigation canals on his own money in the hungry steppe.

Revenues from his entrepreneurial activity accounted for an impressive amount - up to one and a half million rubles per year. For comparison: from St. Petersburg, the prince sent 200 thousand rubles per year.

Nikolai Konstantinovich turned out to be an excellent entrepreneur. He one of the first to add to the most profitable area of \u200b\u200bthe industry in the Turkestan Territancy - the construction and operation of cotton-cleaning factories. At the same time, he used the most advanced technical ideas of his time - at its factories used wasteless technological cycle - the cotton seeds remained after processing raw fiber, they used as raw materials on the oils, and cake went both on fertilizers and focus. Skot.

With its first irrigation work, he has gained great popularity among the population. The first of these is the removal of the Chirchik on the right bank of the Canal River, named Iskander-Aryk.

Then these lands were only a few houses of the poor Dehkan, alaying from Ghazalkent. After the Iskander-Aryka, the "great" village of Iskander was laid here. Aside with the village, the Grand Duke broke a large garden. During the construction of works on Iskander-Aryk, Nikolai Konstantinovich produced an archaeological autopsy of the Kurgan channel located at the channel, from which weapons removed and other items.

In 1886, the Grand Duke began to "the conclusion" of Syrdarya water, wanting to irrigate at least part of the hungry steppe between Tashkent and Jizzak, spending a lot of energy and personal funds. Works related to the conduct of the channel cost the prince over a million rubles. On the coastal cliff near the river, at the head facility near Bekabad, the large size of the letter "H" was carved, crowned with the crown.

On irrigated lands, 12 large Russian villages rose. Nikolai Konstantinovich wrote: "My desire is to revive the deserts of Central Asia and relieve the government with the possibility of their settlement by Russian people of all classes." By 1913, there were already 119 Russian villages.

But the favorite idea of \u200b\u200bthe Grand Duke was the project of recovery of the "old current" Amu Darya in Caspian. Back in 1879 in Samara, he organized a society for studying the Central Asian paths, which aimed at choosing the direction of the Turkestan railway and the study of the Amborey's turn to Uzuba. In March 1879, the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich published a brochure called "AMU and Uzuba" (the book came out without specifying the author's name). In it, the author, relying on evidence of sources - the works of antique and medieval writers, - argued that the river repeatedly changed his direction "exclusively by the will of man." But the government did not support the prince's prince - it traveled to the development of a project reversal of the river.

In the Brochure "AMU and Uzuba", the Grand Duke wrote: "Russia overwhelmed by the most part of Central Asia over the past 25 years, but the once blooming Turkestan went to Russian in a state of decline. It is endowed with nature with all the favorable conditions for the rapid development of his rich production forces. Expanding the irrigation network by spreading the limits of oasis, the Turkestan can be made one of the best Russian areas. " The plan for the "turning of the Amudarya" is probably quite fair, it was also considered inappropriate. But the expedition itself, which has done more than a thousandthricular path at completely unrecorded places, brought material of exceptional value. It was also noted by scientific circles, and even the bosses in St. Petersburg, who rewarded all his participants, with the exception of the Grand Duke.

In Central Asia, it was always highly valued by work related to irrigation, especially new lands that were not used before the agricultural crops. Therefore, the above-mentioned irrigation events of Nikolai Konstantinovich, the largest for their time and besides, not in compulsory, but with the wage of all participants, contributed to the rapid spread among the local population of the popularity of the Grand Prince. He paved for his funds 100-kilometer irrigation canal, revived 40 thousand tits of lands.

Collection of Grand Prince

The collection of European and Russian painting paintings, collected by the Grand Duke and brought from St. Petersburg, was the basis for creating a museum of arts in Tashkent in 1919 in Tashkent, having one of the richest collections of European painting paintings among Art Museums of Central Asia.

The fate of one sculpture

During his second trip to Europe Nikolai Konstantinovich and Fanny Lir visited Rome at Villa Borghese. Here he admired the famous sculpture of Antonio Kanov, depicting Polina Borghese (EN), the younger sister of Napoleon, in the form of a naked beauty lying on the marble bed in the form of the Venus-winner with an apple in his left hand. Nikolai Konstantinovich immediately ordered the sculpture of Thomazo Solari manufacturing an accurate copy of the sculpture, but instead of Polina Borghese on a marble bed should have been lying his beloved - Fanny Lir.

In his memoirs, Miss Lir recalled that the unpleasant impression that she had caused a plaster mask imposing on her face, with the help of which the sculptor later reproduced in marble the features of her face. The sculptor assured them that at the end of the work the sculpture will be sent to St. Petersburg. He kept his promise.

After many years, when the Grand Duke was already in Tashkent Exile, his mother, Alexander Iosifovna, made him a gift. During a walk in the park, she stumbled upon a marble sculpture of a semi-screwed woman with an apple in her hand. She found out in this woman Fanny Lir - the beloved of his eldest son. And soon the sculpture packed in the wooden box was sent to Tashkent Nikolai Konstantinovich. Later, this marble sculpture has become one of the decorations of the Tashkent Museum of Fine Arts.

Great Prince and Revolution

The last Russian emperor Nicholas II, he brought to the scandalous relative with a cousin's nephew, but he did not allow him to return to the capital. Therefore, the renunciation of the emperor in February 1917 the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich perceived with delight. He raised the Red Flag over his home and sent a welcoming telegram to the temporary government.

Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky personally knew Nikolai Konstantinovich in Tashkent, since almost 10 years they lived next door.

The death of the Grand Prince

Soon after October revolution and establishing in Turkestan Soviet power on January 14, 1918 Former Grand Prince Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov died at the dacha under Tashkent from inflammation of the lungs; He was buried at the fence of the military cathedral in Tashkent. In a number of late publications, it was indicated that he was shot by the Bolsheviks, however, the data of the newspaper publications of 1918 and the archives do not confirm this.

In the decision of July 17, 1998, the termination of criminal case No. 18 / 123666-93 "On the clarification of the circumstances of the death of members of the Russian imperial house and persons from their surroundings in the period 1918-1919", made by the senior prosecutor's criminologist of the main investigative department of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, the senior adviser to Justice V. N. Solovyov, who conducted the appropriate verification on the case, in paragraph 10.4 of the decision stated (cited by the site of the Internet project " Tsarist family: The last days, execution, gaining remains "):

10.4. Death of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanova.
In various sources, there were assumptions about the execution or other violent cause of the death of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanova (1850-1918), which for unworthy behavior was exiled to Tashkent Emperor Alexander II in 1874 and the deceased there in 1918 [ so in the text]
Thus, in the periodic edition of Our Gazeta No. 13 of January 17, 1918 (body of the executive committee of the Tashkent Council of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies) a note was published as follows: "The funeral of a citizen of Romanova. Yesterday in Tashkent hosted funerals b. The Grand Duke, a citizen Nikolai Romanova, who died on Sunday, January 14, at 6 am. The body of Romanov is given to the land of the fence of the military cathedral. " Also in the newspaper "New Way" of January 18, 1918, the necrologist of the following content was given: "On the death of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanova (1850), died on the night of January 13-14, 1918 from the inflammation of the lungs at the cottage under Tashkent And he was buried on January 16, 1918 in Tashkent, in the square next to the Military St. George Cathedral. "
The minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Tashkent Council of Soldiers and Workers of the Executive Committee of January 15, 1918, on which the request of Romanov N. K.'s wife was reviewed about the place of his burial - "Listened by the request of the wife of Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanova on the permission to bury the deceased Great Prince of Military Cathedral. Decided to resolve, bury, but with a proposal not to carry out any processes. "
The investigation considers the established fact of the death of Romanova Nikolai Konstantinovich not related to any repressions on the part of the authorities.
…

This ended full of dramatic collisions The life of the Grand Prince, most of which he spent in the Turkestan region and left a bright track here.

He was buried near the church of St. George - Josepho-Georgievsky Cathedral, located opposite the entrance to the Palace of Prince. Later in Soviet times, this church "reproed" into the puppet theater and cafes-dumplings, part-time ice cream. After some time, after receiving Uzbekistan independence, these buildings - the old puppet theater and cafe-dumplings were demolished. Currently, there is a small opening at this place.

A family

Wife (December 15, 1878 - March 7, 1900) Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Drayer (1861-1929?), Daughter of the Orenburg Politzmeter Alexander Gustavovich Dreira and Sophia Ivanovna Opanovskaya. On April 22 (May 4), 1899, the nobility of the Nadezhda Drayer Highestly is commanded to be called the first Faminer "Iskander".

There was a museum's loophone, then she was fired. She found shelter in the closer at the former palace of Nikolai Konstantinovich, lived there in the environment of dogs. According to eyewitnesses, in the last years of life she looked like a real bench, walked in ripped clothes and was fed that they left her hibars in the door, who remembered the kindness of the Grand Duke. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna died in 1929 from the bite of a mad dog.

• The eldest son - Artemy (born 19 (31) of December 1878 in Samara), Highestly granted the surname "Iskander" and the rights, personal nobleman assigned, 12 (24) August 1889. According to one version, died during the Civil War, fighting on the side of the White, on the other - died of typhus in Tashkent in 1919.

Junior Son Nikolai Konstantinovich - Prince Alexander Iskander

The younger son is Alexander (born 15 (27) of November 1887 in Tashkent), Highestly granted the surname of "Iskander" and the rights, personal nobleman assigned, 10 (22) of March 1894. The battle officer, participated in the Anti-Bolshevik uprising in Tashkent in January 1919, fought in the Russian army of Wrangel, then evacuated in Gallipoli, and then to France, where he died in the city of Grass in 1957. Posted by Memoirs O. civil War - "Heavenly Cam".

• Kirill Nikolaevich Androsov (Prince K. A. Iskander; 1915-1992)
• Natalia Nikolaevna Androsova (Princess N. A. Iskander; 1917-1999), all his life lived in the USSR and Russia; engaged in motorcycle racing, performed in the circus (vertical race), master of sports of the USSR on motorcycle races; in great Patriotic War He was the driver on the "half-one".

In 1901, he married Barbara Khmelnitsky (1885-?). Marriage was not recognized.

Extramarize and children

• Alexander Aleksandrovna Demidov Mistress (Yar. Abaza) (1853-1894)

• Olga (1877-1910) - went crazy.
• Nikolai (1875-1913) - participant russian-Japanese war, Colonel Guard retired, wrote a number of works on the history of Russian cavalry.

In 1888, from Emperor Alexander III, the nobility with the name "Volyn" and the patronymic "Pavlovichi", since at this time the husband of their mother (from 1879) was Count Pavel Feliksovich Sumarok-Elston (1853-1938), Native Uncle Prince Yusupova , the future killer Rasputin.

• Loveman Daria Eliseevna Watchpit (1880-1953 / 1956)

• Nikolai (-1919/1920)
• Svyatoslav (-1919) - Shot
• Daria (1896-1966) - lived in Moscow and for some time worked as the secretary of the Soviet writer Marietta Shaginyan.

The central Russian archive stores the case (documents) of the Grand Duke.

Information sources. Links on the topic

• Lyudmila Tretyakova "Extension from the genus Romanov", the magazine "Around the World" No. 4 (2751) from April 2003.
• Forum "Old Tashkent" - Dec 16 2006, 11:41 pm Message # 2190
• AIF - fate. As grandson Nikolai I found himself in Tashkent

• Svetlana Makarenko. Congestive rejected ...
• Palace of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich on the map of Tashkent
• Business Grand Prince

• Yu. A. Kuzmin Russian imperial surname 1797-1917. Bibliographic directory. St. Petersburg, Dmitry Bulanin, 2005, p. 155-156, 267-269 (ISBN 5-86007-435-2)

• Prince Mikhail Greek Every family has its black sheep. Biography of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich. - M.: Zakharov, 2002. - 272 p. - ISBN 5-8159-0263-2

• See also the great princes of the house of Romanov

• : Documents of the archives of the Republic of Uzbekistan recent years Life of the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanova // Article in the journal "Public Archives" No. 6 (2009)