Elena Pavlovna is not the most familiar combination of name and patronymic in the context of the history of the royal family in Russia. This is not Maria Fedorovna, not Elizaveta Petrova, and certainly not Peter Alekseevich, she is not mentioned in historical textbooks. And the trouble is not great: she was only the wife of the fourth son of Emperor Paul I, that's where the seventh water is on jelly ...
Meanwhile, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Romanova is one of the most remarkable historical female figures in the royal family of the Romanovs. And, without a doubt, the most underrated.
To begin with, it will be useful to exclude a possible confusion with another Elena Pavlovna Romanova, the native daughter of Paul I. Two signs will help us here: the daughter of Paul I was the Grand Duchess, and his daughter-in-law (our heroine) had the status of Grand Duchess.
The second sign is more stable. They lived at different times. The imperial daughter-in-law was born in 1806, three years after the death of the princess (the daughter of Paul I died at a young age in 1803).
Paris childhood
Here, Princess Elena Pavlovna had everything that was supposed for future Russian princesses. She was a typical semi-finished product for the production of the final product in the form of a European princess and a candidate for someone's daughter-in-law. Her girlhood was called Charlotte Maria Württemberg, she was the granddaughter of King Frederick I, born in Stuttgart. It would seem that the standard and uninteresting biography of the next German girl "from a good family."
But the fate of outstanding people often contains extremely interesting facts of childhood and adolescence, which then affect the events of adulthood. In the biography of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, such facts, of course, exist.
The happy loss of stereotypes is associated with the girl’s father, Prince Paul Karl Friedrich Augustus. He simply fled from his home with his family to Paris, unable to withstand constant quarrels in the palace with his older brother, future king William I.
Charlotte Maria fell out of the assembly line for preparing German princesses for European thrones. It was a serious test for a little girl. She had to study in a Parisian boarding house along with her daughters from the new rich bourgeois families, who treated her with all the passion of children's hatred. Problem solving, struggle with difficulties and self-affirmation: all this future Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna had to learn at the age of 12.
Prince Paul, the father of young Charlotte Maria, was a multifaceted and interesting person who led an active social life with an intellectual accent. He often took his daughters to the famous Parisian salon, owned by the biologist Cuvier, with wonderful people of that time as guests. Andre Amper, Prosper Merimet, Alexander Humbold, Eugene Delacroix: scientists, artists, writers and humanists ultimately influenced the formation of the personality of a young girl. The future famous Thursdays of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna Romanova in the Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg were organized in the image of this particular Paris salon.
Married at fifteen
When moving to an unfamiliar cold country at a very young age, the problems did not end there. It was all a matter of the bridegroom; it was a real misfortune. Not only that, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich was simply an ill-mannered and poorly educated soldier. The cherry on the cake was his amazing hatred of everything connected with marriage to a German princess.
This hatred was the fruit of the influence of the elder brother of Constantine after his own family failure. The anointing with the entry into the Orthodox faith, betrothal and wedding took place in 1824 under pressure from the mother of the groom - the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna. Everyone noticed the coldness of the groom, along with this everyone noted the upbringing and charm of the young bride. It only remained to hope for the famous Russian “it will be tolerated - will fall in love”.
Just a year after the wedding, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her husband moved to the newly completed Mikhailovsky Palace. Life together could not be called easy. Against the background of the magnificent education of Princess Elena Pavlovna, her husband, the "good moron", has read only one book in his life - the army charter. So, at least, members of the Romanov family spoke of him.
The young wife of Mikhail Pavlovich Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna wholeheartedly tried to smooth out the roughness of life together. The couple had five girls, with whom they also had a lot of problems because of health. Two girls survived, and only one Ekaterina Mikhailovna survived to adulthood. One of the most remarkable works of Karl Bryullov is a portrait of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna with her daughter. Young, beautiful, smart and well educated. These facts were recognized by everyone: they began to love and respect her. Even Mikhail Pavlovich put up with marriage.
Even at a young age, in 1828, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna received two of the most important institutes of the then Russian health care: Mariinsky and Povivalny from Empress Maria Fedorovna. Enough affairs from the very beginning of married life.
The marriage lasted twenty-six years. The main events in the life of the princess began after the death of her husband Mikhail Pavlovich in 1849.
New life "Madame Michelle"
Widowhood began at forty-two. Such an age among women of the nineteenth century was traditionally considered to be very mature, little was expected of them. But here Elena Pavlovna fell out of the stereotype. All around noted her beauty and charm in addition to an active public life. It should be noted that the princess wore mourning for her husband all her life until her death.
The Mikhailovsky Palace acquired a new meaning, becoming the place of the "center of the entire intelligent society" of St. Petersburg. The receptions of Princess Elena Pavlovna Romanova were unique. These were the famous "morganatic" Thursdays, where members of the royal family and people who could not officially be represented at the royal court gathered and met.
This was possible thanks to the personal qualities of the princess. Now it would be called charisma, empathy and high emotional intelligence. Then there were no such concepts, but Elena Pavlovna possessed these skills to the full. Her ability to build a conversation and make sure that all participants in the conversation was comfortable and interesting, became legendary. She could do everything: highly intellectual forums, and brilliant holidays, which were always original.
Everyone loved her evenings, no one missed the opportunity to call in at Mikhailovsky Castle for an appointment. These Thursdays became a place for discussion of many progressive transformations and reforms in the Russian state. Everything that happened in Russia during the significant period of the 1860-1870s was discussed and planned at the receptions of the Grand Duchess.
The conservatory in the palace
Patronage has long been accepted in European aristocratic circles. The support of arts and science in the form of august attention was a mandatory attribute of persons from royal families. It is pleasant to leave a mark on history, patronage of art obliges little to nothing, and good entertainment in a routine life, scheduled by the minute.
Elena Pavlovna was not so. She gave herself to her many initiatives with all her heart and with real donations. In order, for example, to establish and open a conservatory in St. Petersburg, she sold her diamonds. Moreover, the initial conservative classes were opened in the place where she lived - in Mikhailovsky Castle.
As a result, her patronage of the Russian Musical Society and the St. Petersburg Conservatory was "legalized" by decree of Emperor Alexander II.
Russian artists, musicians and writers found in her person a reliable friend, ally and associate. A considerable number of picturesque portraits of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna is a good confirmation of this. Artists loved to write it, they did it from the heart. This is evident in the portraits.
Now public health
The Grand Duchess was an excellent, as they would say, top manager. She managed to transform the whole industry, which is traditionally the most complex and ungrateful in the social sphere of activity - healthcare, including the protection of children's health.
In memory of the dead daughters, she founded and opened orphanages near Moscow in Pavlovsk. The Maximilianovsk Polyclinic was the first in Russia to receive patients regardless of class and gender. Elena Pavlovna imposed a managerial order there, additionally creating a stationary unit. Subsequently, this hospital of the “new generation” was constantly in the princess’s attention zone, it began to enter the informal association “Office of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna”. The Elisavetinsky Children's Hospital with the St. Helena School, in which she was the main trustee, also entered there.
The St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education (Imperial Clinical Institute of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna) owes its appearance to the Princess, who, together with her close associate professor E. E. Eichwald, has invested a lot of effort in creating a new type of educational clinic. For the healthcare system of that time, it was a truly revolutionary form of training and continuing education for doctors.
The era of mercy: blood, war and prejudice
The main thing in the field of health care was associated with the concept of mercy, which for Russia at that time was also new. Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna organized the Holy Cross Exaltation Community of Sisters of Mercy. Dressing stations and mobile infirmaries in its composition were an important, but not the most difficult component of the work.
The main obstacle was the prime public bias against involving Russian women in helping the wounded and sick. The main address of the princess's appeal with calls for help were women without family responsibilities (there were many of them). To overcome social resistance, Princess Sister of Mercy Elena Pavlovna traveled to hospitals every day and in front of everyone did dressings of bleeding and purulent wounds.
After all, it’s only in the movies that the sisters of mercy walk among the wounded in smart snow-white aprons and starched scarves. A hospital with the wounded is always blood, pus, a terrible smell and suffering. In addition to dressings, it is also necessary to remove the vessel from under the bed patient, who is not at all a quiet angel for education and behavior.
The work was the hardest in every sense, so Princess Elena Pavlovna considered the strength of the religious faith of the sisters of mercy to be the most reliable way to cope with difficulties. Mercy here was real.
On a significant day, November 5, 1854, speaking as a sister of mercy, Princess Elena Pavlovna handed a cross with St. Andrew's ribbon to each sister from the first Cross Exaltation graduation. The next day, all thirty-five graduates left for Sevastopol to Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov, the great Russian surgeon and another faithful like-minded princess. In total, about two hundred sisters of mercy of the new generation worked under the patronage of Nikolai Ivanovich. This was the beginning of a new important stage in the development of public health, not only in Russia.
The principles of organizing emergency work have been adopted by the modern International Red Cross. Its founder, Henri Dunant, wrote in due time that the Red Cross owes its Crimean military experience to Her Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna ...
Russian reforms from the Mikhailovsky Palace
For more than twenty years, the famous "morganatic" Thursdays have been held discussing the problems and issues of culture, politics, literature, etc. In the Russian history of the 19th century, nothing like this happened anymore. In addition to a wide, diverse agenda for discussions, their quality and depth were noted. The best minds of society were invited to the Mikhailovsky Palace, regardless of their status, rank and social status. This feature was of extremely high value, since the princess and the empress and other persons from the royal family of the Romanovs were regular guests of the princess.
Thus, Alexander II had a unique opportunity to communicate with individuals whose views were foreign to him and who would never have been able to get his audience outside the walls of Mikhailovsky Castle. And advanced people had the opportunity to convey their ideas directly to the Tsar’s ears, which they could not have done without the tact and communication talent of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. Few people understood how she managed to form groups of guests in such a way that the emperor was not tired, and the guests were comfortable, and the atmosphere was relaxed.
The princess believed that a narrow circle of fellowship only brings harm, in which the horizon narrows, and instead of firm will stubbornness forms. This heart asks for convenient and comfortable communication with friends. But the mind does not need to be pampered, it needs contradictions, new ideas and knowledge of everything that is done outside the walls of the home.
The famous Thursdays of Princess Elena Pavlovna were for the advanced minds of Russia in the mid-19th century a place that would now be called a social platform. Well, the princess herself played the role of a top-level content manager. All the great reforms of that time began with discussions there, in the Mikhailovsky Palace. The abolition of serfdom including.
Charles initiative and the abolition of serfdom
Elena Pavlovna was a very non-poor woman. She owned many villages in various Russian provinces. One of the pearls in her possessions was the Karlovka estate, which later became famous, located near Poltava. The famous Charles Initiative is connected with him.
The fact is that the participation of Elena Pavlovna in reform projects has always been as resourceful as possible. For the conservatory, she sold diamonds, for the community of sisters of mercy, gave the whole wing of the palace to warehouses, and even financed nursing studies.
Well, when the question of the abolition of serfdom began to be discussed in the most serious way, Elena Pavlovna completely stopped trifling. Seeking to set an example to the Russian nobility, in 1856 she liberated about fifteen thousand peasants in her Karlovka.
As usual with responsible people, this was not just liberation, but a carefully designed project with a phased plan for the personal liberation of each peasant with the allocation of land for redemption. After agreeing with Sovereign Alexander II, Elena Pavlovna appealed to the landowners of Poltava and neighboring provinces with a request for assistance in the liberation of serfs within the framework of general rules and justifications.
The compiled analytical note and comments on the course of this difficult reform were handed over to the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich for further use of the experience in Karlovka as a successful example of the reform.
Many called Elena Pavlovna the first and therefore the main spring of the abolition of serfdom in Russia. The main developer and ideologist of the reform, N. A. Milyutin, was the princess's closest associate, and the Milyutinsky working group on the planning and implementation of the reform simply lived in her palace on Kamenny Island for the entire duration of the plan.
For his dedication in the liberation of the peasants, Alexander II awarded the princess with a gold medal “To the Reform Worker”.
What does the image of Elena Pavlovna definitely not need?
One cannot but mention the dense thickets of pseudo-historical literature, which are growing at a catastrophic rate around each more or less noticeable figure of the Russian historical landscape.
The princess is confused not only with the daughter of Paul I, Princess Elena Pavlovna, that the trouble is small. The name of the Grand Duchess is surprisingly associated with the strange book of Elena Croatian “Maria Pavlovna. Drama of the Grand Duchess. ” A novel of dubious quality refers to the literary variety of sugary female melodramas. It doesn’t matter what era they were written about, if only the heroine was “Great,” and that she would necessarily suffer. From unhappy love, of course. Apparently, readers of such novels are deceived by two adjacent words: “great” and “princess”.
It is not clear, for example, why Baron Rosen, “an approximate to the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna,” often stands out in requests. The princess was close, there were many like-minded people, there was also a military engineer, Baron Rosen, one of many, not the closest ... Apparently, somewhere in the thicket of historical cranberries, the baron, who loved the Grand Duchess, was hanging around. Or she loved her unrequitedly. And his name was Rosen ...
All this cranberry has nothing to do with the real portrait of Princess Elena Pavlovna. Moreover, her life is so interesting and rich that she does not need spices to revitalize the image. About the princess, it would be nice to shoot a high-quality series, because a large-format film by duration limits will be few. One story with the arrival of Richard Wagner in Russia is worth it. How she helped the artist Ivanov ... How she published Gogol ... That's just the script you need to work hard with the involvement of professional historians to exclude any hints of cheap melodrama or historical distortions.
Nobody has yet written a literary work about the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. But in vain. The novel could have been a success. And no stories, just a novel. Big and real. To then receive for him the literary Nobel Prize. Elena Pavlovna is worth it. Let's wait.
Personal qualities and attempt to resume
She always learned something. Everything was interesting to her. Elena Pavlovna was swift in everything: in her walk, in making decisions and in the ability to charm others.
Old age did not change her. After all, if you understand, you can get old at thirty, this is not a question of physiology, but a state of mind.
Nature and circumstances did a great job of it in childhood. The first gave her a sense of beauty, a lively mind, a willingness to change and learn. The circumstances of life taught her to take a punch, defend her dignity and exceptional patience. If you add a magnificent education and the opportunity to meet with the great minds of our time, the silhouette of an amazing woman who has become a real gift of fate for the Russian royal court will begin to emerge.
It seems that one of the main personal qualities of Elena Pavlovna was her unique inborn empathy - the ability to understand, empathize and put herself in the place of another. In her relations with people, there was never tension and artificiality. Her sincere sensitivity was visible to everyone at once. That is why the princess was always surrounded by many devoted to her people.
Elena Pavlovna knew how to be friends: she was a faithful companion, ready to come to the aid in difficult times. Help has always been quick, effective and efficient; its undoubted managerial talents have affected this issue.
If we speak the language of modern headhunters searching for and hunting for the best top managers, then the business experience, professional achievements and personal qualities of the Grand Duchess will not fit on one page. For example, the unconditional personal competencies of Princess Elena Pavlovna briefly:
- emotional intelligence;
- interpersonal skills and conflict management;
- attracting talented employees and creating an effective team;
- the ability to make complex multi-level decisions;
- ability to think in a global perspective;
- strategic vision;
- effective resource management;
- effective planning;
- focus on results, etc. (the list goes on) ...
Do you know what we did? The universal competency model of a modern leader. Such a model is built for the development of top management, so that in the course of their career they strive for it, gradually gaining the missing skills.
Everything is already on the list of Elena Pavlovna. And if you add functional responsibilities and the results achieved (as they say in modern resumes) to it, we get a description of a rare type of leader who truly influenced state and world processes with the help of unique personality traits. And add a real photo of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, everything is in order with him too. Immediately obvious, this is a major leader.
She died of illness in 1873 at the age of sixty-seven. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev sadly remarked then that hardly anyone would replace her. He turned out to be right; there have never been such other princesses again.