Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

in Munich." Alexandra said looking straight ahead. "Here you have to defend yourself against
psychic influences. People go into a deep trance at the drop of a hat, the tables start dancing,
the dead rise, fashionable women shriek.... Imagine, the Empress makes all decisions under
the spell of an unwashed religious mystic. It is he who effectively runs the country by
suggestion. It is horrible and deeply disturbing. I stay miles away from ‘spiritually’ gifted people
and their seances."
She wiped her hair out of her eyes and turned to Claudia. "But to be invited to work with
your father is a great honor. I would have to work out some arrangement with Konrad and
Helena to be able to visit you for a longer time. After Konrad’s extended absence he will miss
me," she sighed, "or so I hope. Otto is at school, I have patients to take care of, and my father
is getting old. We need to consider a visit to Tiflis."
She knew that Claudia’s invitation would not leave her in peace.
Late one night, they were having dinner, Tamara came home highly excited. Her face
was blotched, her hair disheveled. Very unusual for her, she was obviously partly drunk. She
could barely contain herself. "Stolypin is dead!" she shouted. "Finally they succeeded in
assassinating the bloodsucker."
They stared at her in shocked silence.
Eventually Niko was able to get the details out of her. Four hours earlier Stolypin had
been shot by an extremist at close range in the sold-out Kiev opera under the horrorstruck
eyes of Emperor Nicholas and the Empress.
Niko crossed himself and very quietly pointed out how serious this tragedy was. Stolypin
had been the only man capable of stemming the total disintegration of Russia.
"Exactly," screamed Tamara, interrupting him, "by shooting, exiling, and imprisoning
thousands of revolutionaries! The Emperor has become a mere puppet of the Empress and
Rasputin, her starets. Do you want to save this rotten regime? Nicholas has to go. If he doesn’t
abdicate of his own, we shall push him off his throne!" she shouted.
"And then what?" retorted Niko exasperated. "You are drunk! Let’s discuss this matter
when you have sobered up."
Tamara collapsed at the edge of the table. Tears streamed down her face. Vladimir got
up and tried to calm her.
She pushed him away. "Leave me alone, you imperialist. You only make fun of me, you
have no clear opinion and no marrow in your bones."
Vladimir sat defeated and smiled, embarrassed, at the others. He gestured with his
hand to show that this was one of their usual, irrational fights.
Tamara rose, shot him a withering look, and disappeared into the bathroom.
"In principle, as far as Nicholas and the Empress are concerned, I don’t disagree with
her," said Niko pensively. "But Stolypin would have been the only man who could have
persuaded Nicholas to abdicate."
Alexandra rallied to Tamara’s help. "Niko, keep in mind that Stolypin was the archenemy
of Socialists and Marxists. I don’t agree with her, but I am not surprised by Tamara’s
rhetoric. This was the third assassination attempt at Stolypin. I don’t have to tell you what
happened to the revolutionaries who tried to ambush him before. In the present political climate
Stolypin could never have rallied the left behind him."
Tamara returned slightly more composed. She ater a few spoons of soup and looked at
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