Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

Tamara and Vladimir
Alexandra and Helena's Medical Explorations
St. Petersburg 1908
Tamara had moved in with them. At first Alexandra felt responsible for her cousin. After
their return from Georgia Tamara had immediately begun to pursue her admission to the legal
faculty of St. Petersburg University and had succeeded in entering it in the spring of 1908. It
had been her idea to engage in political sciences. Encouraged by radical friends she met at the
university, she soon developed a strong determination to run her own life, and Alexandra
respected that, even if she did not share her persuasion. Her father had been selectively
informed of her academic successes, but was left in the dark about Tamara’s politics and her
increasingly close relationship with Vladimir.
Vladimir’s attachment to Alexandra had not escaped Tamara’s intuition and had made
her inexplixably defensive towards Alexandra. Alexandra only learned of the state of affairs
between them through Vladimir, who would occasionally ask his older Georgian friend for
advice in the, to him, often bewildering emotional outbreaks of Tamara.
Vladimir was unhappy and frustrated. He had asked Tamara to marry him. She rejected
not him, but the institution of marriage. At the same time, out of an inherited pride, she
exasperated him by refusing to sleep with him.
With the help of a generous, low-interest loan from her father, Alexandra and Helena
had rented three rooms in the Liteini district, bought some second-hand equipment and opened
a doctor’s office: Alexandra Dadiani-Rost & Elena von Üxküll, General Medicine. They decided
on an unusual policy: they would charge their patients according to their means. Students and
the poor paid only a token fee for a doctor’s visit, and truly needy cases, nothing. Soon their
social attitude and their conscientious work brought them a small but growing number of
interesting clients. Alexandra fought fiercely for the right of women to own their bodies. Helena,
although just as direct as Alexandra, was smoother and less abrasive. An ideal pair.
Helena became a frequent visitor to the Rost’s apartment. Her intelligence and cool,
north German reserve was much appreciated by all and especially by Konrad.
The one person with whom Helena regularly lost her poise was Tamara, whose radically
left-wing position was getting more vociferous with time. The two women would engage in
fierce arguments over Lenin’s ideology, which only Konrad with his level-headed sarcasm
could calm. Both combatants liked and respected his judgment. Vladimir, not wanting to incite
his girlfriend’s temper any further, usually stayed out of these political discussions. He
watched, quietly amused, Tamara’s fireworks, which, like most of Lenin’s slogans, was less
practical than inflammatory.
By spring of 1910 Tamra's and Vladimisr's relationship had become tense. At this point
Tamara visited Alexandra in her office. Alexandra, touched by her trust, had given her sober
medical advice on how to avoid a pregnancy without mentioning Vladimir or giving her a moral
lecture.
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