Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

By mid August a great battle near Soldau-Tannenberg in East Prussia was in progress. The churches were crowded withworshippers. Alexandra had a terrifying recurrence of her vision of a year ago.The general euphoria suddenly collapsed, when the rumors of a terrible defeat turned into certainty. Two weeks after thebattle, the high command reluctantly admitted the loss of one-hundred-thousand men, dead, missing, or taken prisonersby the Germans, and fifty-thousand wounded.By the fall of 1914 the Russian armies had lost another hundred-thousand men in the retreat from East Prussia. TheGermans were advancing on the Baltics, the Austrians in the south.Refugees and wounded poured into St. Petersburg. All medical practitioners in town were pressed into emergencyservice. Alexandra and Helena were fortunate, they were allowed to work side by side in the hospital where they hadtrained. They worked in shifts. It was good to be close to each other, their job was gruesome. Many of the young menbrought from the front were in dreadful condition, many died under their hands. But this horrible work kept Alexandrafrom brooding. Every day demanded all of her. After a ten-hour shift she returned home exhausted.To detract from the East Prussian defeat the Emperor declared a Holy War to recapture Constantinople from the TurkishInfidels. Alexandra’s worries about her parents grew, but Tiflis remained peaceful. The Ottoman Empire was so shakythat Russian troops soon occupied large parts of Eastern Anatolia.At the same time the city government decided to change the "German" name St. Petersburg, which Peter the Great hadgiven his foundation, to Petrograd.In April, Otto was working on his homework, an enormous explosion blew out all windows in their apartment. Elizabethfound Otto lying dazed and covered with glass on the living room floor. He was unharmed. Wild speculations of aGerman bombardment ran through the city. Reality was worse than that, an explosion in a large munitions factory inPetrograd had destroyed the weapons reserves of the army. By summer 1915 only every third Russian soldier had aweapon and had to ration his ammunition.As the extent of the military defeat in East Prussia became evident, the Emperor demoted the arrogant chief of staff ofthe Western Army, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, and sent him as Viceroy to Tiflis. Vorontsev was dismissed.Jordania carefully watched this change of guard and for the first time discussed an armed uprising against Russia withthe inner circle of his faithful.One night around that time a secret emissary of Jordania's appeared at Vladimir’s apartment trying to recruit Tamara asan informer for the Georgian Socialists.Tamara used baby Asmat as an excuse to decline this dishonorable offer, but she had caught fire. Valdimir and she hada fierce argument behind closed doors: Tamara demanded that they should leave for Tiflis at once, this was the momentfor her to enter politics. They finally reached a compromise. Vladimir would take her and Asmat to Tiflis and then return toPetrograd. Aside from Alexandra they told none of their friends of the appearance of Jordania’s emissary or the reasonfor their leaving for Georgia. Vladimir gave the safety of Tamara and Asmat in the face of the increasing chance of aGerman breakthrough as an explanation.From his trip to Georgia Vladimir brought back a large envelope from George Dadiani.Alexandra pulled out three documents covered with official tax stamps and the signature of the Zugdidi magistrate: adeed of twenty acres of land to Alexandra Dadiani and Konrad Rost and ten acres each for Otto and Sophia Rost.Alexandra laughed facetiously. "Look, we are getting rich, George makes us landowners. Crazy, in these times."But the transactions reflected the depressing times. The new socialist Duma of Georgia had resolved to finally put theRussian land reform of the 1870s into full effect. So far the Georgian landowners and the Russian crown, which hadbought up the best third of Georgia, had been powerful enough to hold on to their possessions. From now on the largestpiece of land any person could own would be ten acres. Cunningly, George had decided to simply distribute the bestparcels of his land to his relatives.He wrote.You don’t have to do anything except sign the enclosed documents and send them back. I will continue to take care ofthe tea plantations as before—except our combined land holdings will shrink from over four hundred acres to less thanone hundred and sixty. What I cannot write over will go to the peasants in three-acre parcels or be swallowed by thestate, without compensation. A terrible shame, because on parcels of that size you cannot run a profitable tea business.‘They’ are out to ruin my life’s work.Tighten your belts, this will be the end of your easy living! I will pay you the profits from what I can squeeze from yourshare of land, less ten percent administrative costs. That will be it. Thank God, you have your own incomes. For the timebeing you will not be able to buy anything luxurious anyway—the stores are empty, right?Your honest George.P.S. If it were possible, I would leave the country with my family. I can no longer watch the disintegration of an orderwhich is over a thousand years old, not to mention my very personal pain of seeing the work of my ancestors and that ofmy own life being destroyed.That night Alexandra wept about the ruin of her family.Beset by similar, though smaller, troubles Tamara’s father came down to Tiflis and concluded an armistice with his194