Grand Duchess Olga's Lesser Known Love: Vladimir Molokhovets
In early January of 1914, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna experienced an already anticipated heartbreak: her beloved "S."- Pavel Voronov, married Countess Olga Konstantinovna Kleinmichel. The entire imperial family was present at their wedding in Feodorovsky Cathedral, including the Grand Duchess herself.
As usual, in early Spring, the family travels to the Crimea. Each day, they have a late breakfast with various officers from the imperial yacht as guests.
In early April, there is a first mention in Olga's diary of a young officer named Molokhovets, "a very tall and dear midshipman".
Born in 1890, Molokhovets is five years Olga's senior. He was appointed junior duty officer on The Standart at the end of 1913, around the time Olga was feeling tormented by her beloved "S."'s engagement.
During the month of April, 1914, Vladimir Molokhovets is regularly invited to the imperial family's breakfasts, tennis games, walks. He is now often seen in the family's private photos. Olga Nikolaevna captions his name casually in her 1914 photo albums. There is nothing to indicate that Molokhovets has become a new favourite of the eldest grand duchess. But about a month later, in May, 1914, everything changes. Olga starts to emphasise her meetings with him in her diary. "Sat with Molokhovets. He is such a darling... cosy and terribly nice..." "such a dear, cosy face".
The preparation and holding of the Yalta charity bazaar brings the young people closer together. Olga Nikolaevna is clearly interested in the young officer and tries to spend more time with her new friend, as they paste photographs into souvenir albums.
Much like a year earlier, when Olga looked through a field glass searching for her beloved "S ", she now did the same to look at her new love interest: "[looked] through a field glass at the boat training. Saw Molokhovets." "So happy, especially because spent all day with Molokhovets".
On the first day of June, before departure from Livadia, in the evening Olga sits with Molokhovets, not realising that she will never see Livadia again. Shortly, the yacht will head to Romania to visit their royal family, and possibly make a dynastic match for Olga, with the heir to the Romanian throne, Prince Carol.
After meeting the prince, Olga doesn't mention him in her diary, but does comment that Molokhovets stood on guard.
Being indifferent to the prince of the blood as a potential husband, Olga is relieved when she and her family sail off from Romania, "at 11 left to sea. Such happiness. Sat with darling Molokhovets in telegraph cabin ... Terribly nice."
That evening - the last on the yacht, Olga tried to spend "a lot of time with Molokhovets. He is so dear."
When it was time to say goodbye to the officers of The Standart, Olga was devastated, but it was Vladimir that she singled out, and even admits her love for him. "It's disgusting to have to leave them all. Terribly sad without them and darling Molokhovets. I fell in love with him."
About a month later, everything changes, as the first world war breaks out.
During the war, the deck of The Standart was replaced, and the grand duchesses asked if they could have a piece of the old deck as a memento. Years later, in his memoir, an older Vladimir Molokhovets reminiscences about that, and hopes that "maybe this small piece of wood from their beloved yacht, - connected to so many happy memories from their short lives, was with them in the far away Siberia... "
Perhaps, as she looked at that piece of wood, Olga was remembering the happy days she spent with "darling Molokhovets". In a 1917 letter that Olga wrote to her friend Margarita Khitrovo, from Tobolsk on 17 October, she asked "And Molokhovets, where is he?"
Vladimir Molokhovets survived the war and the revolution, was able to escape abroad and lived the rest of his life in England. It is unclear if he ever married (if you know, please comment!), but he died in Oxford in 1966, at the age of 77. He is buried in Headington Cemetery in Oxford; I was
able to get a photo of his grave. There is no tombstone there, just grass...
Information from original Russian source: https://saltkrakan.livejournal.com/10...
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