Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

the platform. Someone unrolled a red flag. Singing revolutionary songs and waving their fists
they marched on the border station. Konrad called Alexandra to come and watch the
commotion. The group vanished in the snowstorm. Apparently the strikers had let them pass.
A German-speaking gentleman observing the scene made a few carefully phrased
comments on the dangerously chaotic Russian proletariat and then introduced himself as
Freiherr von der Schulenburg, a member of the German embassy in St. Petersburg. Round
and jolly with a pink complexion, he seemed the most unlikely diplomat.
When introducing him to Alexandra, Konrad mentioned that his wife was Georgian, and
von der Schulenburg immediately asked whether they knew Joachim von Bredow. Konrad told
him that they had just seen the Bredows in Munich and invited him for a glass of cognac.
Schulenburg’s travel companion, Prince Konstantin de Oldenbourg an older, distinguishedlooking
Russian diplomat in full uniform, greeted Alexandra with a perfect handkiss. He had
known her grandfather Chavchavadze in the late 1870s when he had been stationed in Tiflis
during the Turkish campaign. Also, his wife, Agraphina Japaridze, was Georgian.
Oldenbourg asked. "Were you the Samaritan who requisitioned the locomotive to take
that woman to the hospital last night?"
"I am a physician, it was my duty to help the hapless woman."
"Of course, but to persuade this hard-nosed, German station master to lend you his
engine, is hardly part of your medical education."
He raised his glass and with the boisterous charm of an adopted Georgian toasted her.
"My respects, Princess Dadiani-Rost! We diplomats were unable to do as you did. A worthy
daughter of your illustrious ancestors!"
"Oh, well, a woman sometimes has more power than an official of his Majesty the
Emperor!" remarked Alexandra with her father’s laugh.
They whiled away the night, Oldenbourg telling heroic anecdotes from his
Transcaucasian campaigns—he had been the commander of the feared Kubán-Cossack
Cavalry.
On the fifth day of their forced detention the sun rose on a world covered in hoarfrost.
Fantastic ice formations hung from the telephone wires and encrusted the bare branches of the
trees. Deep snow blanketed the countryside. Konrad suggested to go for a walk. As they were
getting ready to leave a gentleman in a heavy bearskin coat appeared asking for Professor and
Frau Dr. Rost.
He introduced himself as Friedrich von Bredow, a cousin of Joachim’s. Joachim had
called from Munich asking him to care for Konrad and Alexandra, would they accept an
invitation to his manor house? It was only an hour’s distance from here. He would deliver them
back to the station tomorrow morning.
Konrad asked how Joachim had discovered that they were stranded in Eydtkuhnen.
Von Bredow said that Alexandra’s rescue of the pregnant woman had been carried by
the papers as part of a report on the snowbound train. In fact two other colleagues of Joachim
were on the train, Herr von der Schulenburg and Prince Oldenbourg. If they would allow him,
he would like to invite them too. Three comfortable sleighs were waiting. Bredow was delighted
that they had already met the two diplomats.
Alexandra consulted with the station master who assured her with many bows that the
train would not leave without them. Should the border open during the night, he would
telephone Herrn von Bredow, and "selbstverständlich Frau Doktor" he would hold the train until
224