Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

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Their slightly feminist-tinged conversation improved their relationship. Finally, Alexandra suggested that Tamara should put her radical beliefs to the test and move in with Vladimir. For a few seconds Tamara, taken aback, stared at her, and then began to laugh. "I thought you were in love with Vladimir and had a secret affair with him!" Alexandra candidly explained to her that she did love Vladimir, but that she was not engaged in any affair with him. She assured Tamara that she was no competitor of hers. "Apart from that, according to your philosophical conviction," Alexandra admonished her, "‘free love’ and all, you should be able to allow me to love the same man." Alexandra avoided the word jealousy. Tamara would have to learn how to conquer this violent "bourgeois" emotion on her own. Tamara moved in with Vladimir who rented an apartment for them. Thereafter her relationship with Alexandra greatly improved. And Vladimir was elated. "I know that as a doctor I am sworn to secrecy," said Alexandra one evening to Konrad. "However, guess who appeared at my office today." Konrad feigned disinterest. "A few days ago was lovely Tamara, visited me seeking my help to prvent her from getting prgnant. I told her of what I know and recruited her for an experiment: In lieu of payment they will keep a careful diary of their periods and when they have had intercourse, so I can get a statistics of the fertile days of a woman. Nobody has ever dared doing that." Konrad raised his brows. "You are impossible Alexandra, to invade the most intimate privacy of your patients!" "They don’t have to tell me their bedroom stories, just the scientific data. I impressed them with our scanty medical knowledge of this most important process in a woman’s life. They are sober women, intelligent and very willing to participate in my study." He grimaced. "I will not tell you anything any more," she scorned, "if you cannot understand this much. But I do have to find a reliable, trustworthy, and competent abortionist for my patients. I cannot perform the required surgical procedure, and my potions are a miserable way to abort a pregnancy." 282
Maritial Restlessness Konrad Learns Chinese 1910 Konrad had grown increasingly irritable. He felt bored. The daily routine of teaching two courses at the university and a seminar at the institute was interrupted only by endless faculty meetings and an occasional chat with a colleague. At home Vladimir’s visits were predictable, literary rumors, his problems with Tamara, or his attempts at writing. Alexandra was kept busy at her practice by a growing number of new patients, many young women, students, mistresses, writers, musicians, and artists. Often interesting people, but Alexandra never brought her patients home. Elisabeth ran the routine household affairs. Alexandra prepared breakfast and dinner. At night they shared reading or playing with the children. Konrad had become a family man, his greatest joy was reading to Otto. Last year they had read parts of Marco Polo’s travels. With glowing eyes Otto had listened to the fabulous cities Polo visited along his way to Mongolia. Now Otto read by himself Schwab’s Illustrated Greek Myths, a copy Konrad had owned as a child. On weekends they went riding together, he and Otto, who now had his own threequarterhorse stabled in Lakhta. He loved these rides. Alexandra, with this excuse or that, stayed away from their father-son excursions. It was not only their relationship that drifted self-absorbed through the days and months. Since Witte's economic success and Stolypin’s draconian suppression of the revolutionary elements, St. Petersburg had sunk into a lazy life of dissipation: affairs, literary intrigues, duels, plays, ballets, and operas. The intelligentsia was ensconced in comfortable bourgeoise apartments, dachas, and country houses. More and more people spent their vacations in Western Europe or on the Crimea. The "revolutionary" scene had turned quiet, the censorship relaxed, no more strikes. The radical leaders languished in prisons, in Siberia or in exile. Despite the Tsar’s attempts at curtailing Parliament, which led to a quick succession of four Dumas, part of Witte’s constitution had survived. By 1910 the world had become peaceful, satiated, and complacent. It came as a welcome relief to Konrad when George Dadiani renewed his offer to go to China with him. George had changed their itinerary, instead of taking the train directly to China, they would make a detour on the Transbaikal railway through Central Asia via Samarkand and Tashkent. They would go during the late fall and winter of 1911, when Central Asia and Southern China would not be so hot. Konrad’s heart jumped. Since his childhood reading of Marco Polo’s adventures, Samarkand and Tashkent were even more colorful dreams of his than China. Alexandra encouraged him. "Maybe you can visit Shakh-i-Zabz and see the last ivan of Tamerlan’s Aq Sarai," she suggested. "God, where are Izabel and Marti hiding? What do you think, I will invite Niko and Claudia for part for the time you are away. I long to see them, and they will be good company." Konrad was relieved. He threw himself headlong into Chinese. The Chinese wife of a sinologist at the university gave him private lessons. Every week 283
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Konrad and Alexandra The Chronicle
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24.The Dahl's House, Katharina, 190
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One piece of luggage after another
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I sank into a restless sleep and th
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jokes. Fifteen years ago Leist had
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goats, and driven from behind by sh
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two of us." Tiflis 1898 Tiflis and
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comprehension that fortune had sent
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Wine Merchants, Tiflis Bazaar, 1890
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I can never completely shake off vi
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couches. They were given big towels
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Alexandra Dadiani Tiflis 1898 She w
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Dadiani laughed so heartily that Ko
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eally introverted. We love tragedy,
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"Konrad, come and join us, it must
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Chekhov's "Chaika" and Henri the Go
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He handed her the necklace. She str
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curtain. Konrad, raised on the clea
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Henry nodded. "I know what you mean
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"I know you feel overawed by the ta
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Alexandra's Necklace Konrad’s emo
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Georgia on Horseback 1898 Konrad’
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Konrad laughed. "That was exactly w
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came from the desert, a jackal or a
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Around the white cathedral that tow
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The Engagement Konrad and Alexandra
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find the love she needed. He had pu
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The half hour ride took them up a v
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After the dance ended, a deep silen
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Ilia Chavchavadze, Tiflis, 1900 (Wi
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Irakli raised his glass. "Do bury t
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New Year 1899 The jeunesse d’oré
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"May I look at your watch? What is
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possibility of a physical abduction
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well in Telavi, return tomorrow. A
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Alexandra described the sequence of
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It was Easter night. On his last vi
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hoarsely, "Mein Gott, you are right
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sharply. Konrad smiled. "We left he
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that no publisher would touch the m
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The Last Feudal Wedding in Kakheti
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Alexandra sees in me. A remarkably
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Alexandra had phonetically translit
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"Listen my love, try to lie absolut
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over dark waters to an undisclosed
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The Wolfsons Fiesole and Florence 1
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anecdote: my brother studied theolo
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vanishing lines. They are not shown
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Alexandra tried to compare both pai
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Sisakians, she found, disconcerted,
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existed no viable political alterna
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Russian aristocrats are blind or si
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The ball became a great, albeit con
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He was not interested in controllin
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would have fainted." Niko laughed.
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women as you are now. His skill suc
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erated him. Had he not himself said
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Otto's Birth 1900 At four in the mo
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at the height of the contraction sh
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today you look even more gorgeous."
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Alexandra had waited for him and fi
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The Gulf of Finnland near Lisi Nos
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Count Nikolai Prshevalsky had broug
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The entire ground floor had been op
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She finally learned to distinguish
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pouring out of the palais, the elec
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Indian Masters were fabricated by h
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Berlin 1904 Alexandra had received
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pretty women. They are hanging on S
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He pointed at a monument everybody
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Rheinsberg 1904 They traveled by tr
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under Friedrich’s eyes. Friedrich
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off her horse, and embraced her. Ar
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lethargy and got me into this adven
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"Look, I will give you a recipe for
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The Dahl's House Katharina Weisshub
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know in medicine of when these days
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"I urgently need some new clothes a
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They went to the late show in an ol
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irresponsibly than ever. Instead of
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those of Soranus and the plants Ale
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available to the women of the twent
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asked Alexandra with her cool dark
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She glanced furtively at Katharina.
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"You guessed right," she said in Ge
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He switched back to German. "Can on
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"It describes Wagner arriving at th
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the cello, a red rectangle driven b
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Had Herr Schönberg or Herr Webern
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scores? She had not heard either ye
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Fashing Munich 1905 Once a year Dio
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cuirass. The audience watched breat
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They sank into each other’s arms.
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They woke up late next morning. Kon
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Walking on Ice After the cold and f
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in the shadows, and green edges aro
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Germany an alternative. He surely d
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Professor Dahl began to laugh. "I s
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Friedrich and Katharina get married
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Alexandra was the first to notice t
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arena. Aïda in the immense Roman o
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Fiesole 1905 "Walter, we have not s
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Last time Walter had taken her to t
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Alexandra's Time "Friedrich," said
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points I felt the eyes of the Gods
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Meeting Clara Westhoff München and
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"I rented the large dining hall and
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Despite the scarf, Alexandra could
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adoration of her bizarre beauty. Ev
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and do not flush in breathless wave
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Snowbound in Eydtkuhnen 1905 "Konra
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the platform. Someone unrolled a re
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The von Bredow's Snow Casle From be
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They tiptoed downstairs and along t
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Return to St. Petersburg 1905 Konra
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Ever since Claudia’s outbreak in
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A Visit to Kandinsky Murnau 1913 Al
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sexual arousal, dance rhythms, and
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He invited them to dinner in the vi
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any thought to. A group of children
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Petersburg. They will have a simple
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you smile meekly and remain silent.
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herself to sleep. With the last mai
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of his faithful. One night around t
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ead and the resignation of the Empe
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Vladimir gulped down his glass of v
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Their Flight to Georgia May 1918 In
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It was an unreal night, the scare a
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negotiate the bad mountain tracks.
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was very much of her own mind. Meli
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director at the hospital until the
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Kräuterfrau, a herbalist in the Ge
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He paused and took a sip from his g
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German Troops in Tbilisi 1918 - 191
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would crown the tombstone on his gr
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we are late." "Tell me what was you
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adventure on that German ship to Ha
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"Friedrich, who was a very successf
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Alexandra’s diminutive scribble w
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The snotty character in the shaft-b
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final reckoning with Georgia. Withi
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again war was raging behind the mou
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She undid it and let it flow into m
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ut she did not explain why―a Sufi
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weeks among the obscurer Greek writ
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A List of people "Konrad and Alexan
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Sources Little information exists o
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