Bismarck is the Russian love of the iron chancellor. Eduard Topol: Bismarck

Although all the characters in this novel have their historical prototypes and namesakes, in the artistic fabric of the novel they are, nevertheless, the fruit of the author's imagination and fiction, which in no way intended to offend anyone's honor or reputation, but, on the contrary, wanted to glorify them. high feelings.

At the end of July 1862, the carriage of Otto von Bismarck, hired along with horses in Bordeaux, rolled through the south of France, through the Pyrenees to the Basque Country. His own horses remained in a village near Berlin, furniture and belongings were still in St. Petersburg, where he served for two years as an envoy of the Prussian king, his wife and children - in Pomerania, and Bismarck himself, in his own words, "on the sidelines again" and just envoy of the Prussian king in France. It may be good for someone to be a royal envoy in Paris at the age of 47, but for Bismarck ...

In the spring, when Berlin smelled of war between Parliament and the King, Albrecht von Roon, Minister of War and friend of his childhood, began to persuade Wilhelm I to strengthen the cabinet of ministers with Bismarck, and for this he even summoned Bismarck from St. Petersburg. But at the last moment, Augusta, Wilhelm's wife and a liberal in the spirit of British trends, told her husband that Bismarck was a reactionary, an intriguer and a cynic, and he remained an envoy, though not in Russia, but closer to Berlin - at the court of Napoleon III. How and in what way he could be useful in Paris, Bismarck did not know, "while the influence that I enjoyed in St. Petersburg with Emperor Alexander was not without significance from the point of view of Prussian interests." But no one argues with kings, and Bismarck went to Paris - as Roon told him - "to be ready" ...

However, in the summer, Paris is empty, everyone is leaving, and in anticipation of "to be or not to be," Bismarck begged the king for a vacation and set off to travel. Of course, here, in the south of France, it is beautiful - the sun, orchards, vineyards, and the weather is not at all like in Prussia or Russians in St. Petersburg. The sky is not even blue, but lilac, life is bursting out of the earth with gardens, vines and myriads of such flowers that their smells are dizzying no worse than young Burgundy. But the beautiful Mouton Rothshild, Lafitte, Pichon, Laroze, Latour, Margaux, St. Julien, Beaune, Armillac and other wines that he tastes here do not relieve him of the blues and the consciousness that life is flowing away or has already flown away ...

“Besides, it’s so boring here,” he wrote to his wife Johanna from the road, “that the thought of spending weeks here is unbearable. Because of the selfishness and lack of sociability of the French, no one wants to get to know each other better, and if you are looking for this, then they begin to think that you want to either borrow money or violate their family happiness.

On August 6, Bismarck stopped in Biarritz, at the Hotel d'Europe, in order to move on a couple of days later. Since eight years ago, Napoleon III built a luxurious, Moorish-style castle Villa Eugenie here for his wife Eugenie and began to spend every summer in it, Biarritz has turned from a small fishing village into almost the most fashionable resort - in the summer everyone comes here court of Louis Napoleon, European and even Russian nobility. But Bismarck was going to stay here for two days, no more, and wrote to Johanna that all letters for him should be sent to Bagneres de Luchon. Moreover, he met with Louis Napoleon quite recently, in June, when he arrived in Paris as an envoy, and now he was not at all eager to meet again with this not very smart, but very arrogant ruler, who dreams of surpassing his great uncle.

However, literally the next day, on the Biarritz promenade of high-society holidaymakers, he suddenly heard:

Von Bismarck! Bonjour! What fates?!

He stopped, startled. This was Prince Nikolai Orlov, the Russian envoy in Brussels, the son of the famous Russian courtier Alexei Orlov and the nephew of the Decembrist Mikhail Orlov, who accepted the capitulation of Paris in 1814. However, Nikolai Orlov himself became famous as a hero of the Crimean War, holder of the Order of St. George, golden weapons and other highest awards of the Russian Empire. But during the assault on the Turkish fort Arab-Tabia, he received nine severe wounds, lost his left eye and the mobility of his right arm, was treated in Italy and in Frankfurt (where Bismarck met him), and then moved to diplomats and now wore a black eye patch. But Bismarck was not struck by him at all, but by the young beautiful blonde who held his arm.

“Katarina,” Orlov told her, “let me introduce you to Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian envoy.

Bismarck bowed his head. Fortunately, his high growth allowed him to do this without taking his admiring eyes off her.

Katerina, looking down, sat down a little.

“Baron,” continued Orlov, “allow me to introduce: my wife, Princess Ekaterina Nikolaevna Trubetskaya. But now Orlova-Trubetskaya!

- Prince, congratulations! Bismarck said. - She is beautiful! I'm already in love! What hotel are you in?

We are in Europe. And you?

At that moment Katharina raised her blue eyes to Bismarck and...

Ekaterina (Katarina) Orlova, the only daughter of Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy (cousin uncle of Leo Tolstoy) from the family of Russian-Lithuanian princes Gediminovich, maternal granddaughter of Field Marshal Count Ivan Gudovich, who during the 2nd Turkish war took Gadzhibey (now Odessa) , Kiliya and Anapa, as well as the Baku, Sheki and Lezgin khanates.

God! Bismarck told himself. How long have you not stopped breathing from a woman's gaze, did not dry up in your mouth and did not get cold in the lower abdomen!

Probably, Bismarck's eyes betrayed his thoughts, because this blue-eyed fairy with high Slavic cheekbones, bowing ceremoniously, immediately arrogantly lifted her thin shoulder, took her husband by the arm and walked with him further along the promenade.

And he stood and looked after them. From the height of his height, over the hats, hats and umbrellas of walking European aristocrats and dandies, for a long time he saw this delightful head with flaxen hair.

“Photographs of that time show us Bismarck in the prime of life, a man of athletic build, whom the years have not yet made overweight and heavy to lift. A neat head, perhaps even a little small for his broad shoulders. Bushy eyebrows over prominent brow ridges give the face something intimidating. A look that suppresses, it reflects a huge energy. But the general impression is softened by a slight ironic smile, which seems to play at the corners of his mouth and is reflected in the look of his large blue eyes; a look that could be as serious, sharp and penetrating through as it was indefinite and impenetrable. In general, the impressive appearance of a person who does not lack either self-control or the ability to influence morally on others ... "( From the book N. Orloff. « Bismarck and Katarina Orloff» , Berlin 1930).

Do I need to say that they met for dinner that same evening at the Hotel d'Europe? And they were already drinking champagne on the second floor, in the Orlovs' apartment, where by the window, wide open to the sea, there was a piano, and Katarina played Chopin with it.

At the piano, and even after a glass of champagne, she was even more charming than during the day on the promenade. The pink sunset crushed and shone in her flaxen locks, swaying with the sea breeze, the foamy surf played along with her blows of the waves against the shore, and her whole thin body trembled so much in time with this newfangled Chopin that Bismarck simply could not take his eyes off her.

Standing next to him at the open window, Prince Orlov suddenly said in a low voice:

“I heard your king is in conflict with Parliament?”

Bismarck (Bismarck) Otto Eduard Leopold von Schönhausen, the great "iron chancellor" and "father of the German nation." A man who skillfully manipulated entire powers; the greatest monarchs bowed before his sophisticated mind. And he submitted to the young Russian beauty - Ekaterina Orlova-Trubetskoy. What really connected them: friendship, love?

More and more like a game of fate. The young twenty-two-year-old Princess Ekaterina Orlova-Trubetskaya, wife of Nikolai Orlov, the ambassador of the Russian Empire to Belgium, stopped in Biarritz in August 1862. Just eight years before the events described, the small fishing village of Biarritz was transformed into the best European resort, as the young couple of French monarchs, Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie, chose a place for their summer holidays there. The emperor built a stunning castle in the Moorish style. Well, as usual, close associates followed their monarch everywhere.

At the same time, Otto von Bismarck, who was then the envoy of the Prussian king in Paris, also arrives in Biarritz. He stays at the Hôtel d'Europe for just a couple of days. But a chance meeting changed his plans.

Subsequently, Nikolai Orlov (the grandson of the husband of the Russian princess) described Otto's feelings for the princess as follows: “Never a single woman charmed Bismarck as much as Katarina Orlova. He is subdued not so much by her youth and beauty - he met enough beautiful women in his life and passed by, admiring, but not lingering - but by a certain pristineness and freshness of her nature. After all, although she was a lady from high society, she also had a joyful, carefree simplicity, and to all this - witty and entertaining. She herself said that two different people coexist in her - “Princess Orlova” and “Katty”. Kathy is a mocker, a cheat, a spontaneous, addictive nature. She loves all sorts of tricks, it gives her pleasure to frighten her comrades with her recklessness, climbing sheer cliffs or climbing a high viaduct ... Just one week in her company was enough for Bismarck to be captivated by the charms of this young attractive 22-year-old woman. He will try to turn everything into a joke, but, in truth, he begins to have a feeling for the princess that surpasses purely friendly disposition.

And so it was in fact. The young Russian beauty turned the future chancellor's head. His wife Johanna regularly received anonymous letters describing her husband's adultery with the princess, but since she could not do anything, she burned them in disgust in the fireplace. However, Otto von Bismarck himself did not particularly try to hide their connection. In letters to Johanna, he noted: “Next to me is the most charming of all women, whom you will also fall in love with when you get to know better,” and Maine frankly admitted to his sister that he fell in love with the “naughty princess” from the very first days.

Most recently, the historical novel by Eduard Topol “Bismarck. Russian Love of the Iron Chancellor”, based on the records and testimonies of contemporaries of Bismarck and Orlova. “Of course, I did not believe in any “Platonic novel” and began to dig - in the Lenin Library, in the archives of Germany, I even worked in Washington, in the US Library of Congress. And every time I found new clues, bit by bit I collected a complete picture of what happened 150 years ago. It turns out that Bismarck corresponded, and not only with Kathy (as Orlova was called by her relatives and close friends), but also with his wife, whom he literally immediately told that he had fallen in love with another! Yes, and the tabloid newspapers of that time gossiped about the connection of the Prussian diplomat with the wife of the Russian diplomat. It was only later, when the Russian and German peoples experienced several bloody wars, the very fact that Bismarck - an icon for any patriotic German - loved the Russian princess, began to be carefully hidden under the carpet, ”E. Topol told the Gordon Boulevard newspaper.

Of course, Princess Orlova, the only daughter of Prince Nikolai Trubetskoy (cousin uncle of Leo Tolstoy) from the family of Russian-Lithuanian princes Gediminovich, was beautiful. Johanna Bismarck, although she was smart and witty, next to Katerina seemed angular, she lacked elegance and charm. Everyone liked Katerina. Having received a brilliant European education, she was fluent in French, English, German. Therefore, with Otto it was quite simple for her. Together they walked along the streets of Biarritz, swam, since the crippled hand of Nikolai Orlov excluded any communication with the sea.

After 17 days of the Biarritz idyll, Otto von Bismarck devoted himself entirely to politics. The first performance seemed like a disaster. The deputies of the lower house of the Prussian Landtag met him with hostility, showering him with shouts and curses. However, this did not bother Bismarck. After waiting for silence, he opened the cigar case and took out an olive branch (given by Kathy): "I brought this olive branch from Avignon as a sign of peace ...". The famous speech ended with a call for the unification of Germany "with iron and blood." And in the chest pocket of the "Iron Chancellor" was another gift from Princess Orlova - a small agate keychain with the inscription Kathi. He did not part with him until the end of his days. According to the will, of all the numerous orders and awards, only this keychain and a cigarette case were placed in the coffin with Otto, in which he kept a branch of an olive tree from the vicinity of Pont du Gard.

Current page: 1 (total book has 9 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 6 pages]

Eduard Vladimirovich Topol

Bismarck. Russian love of the iron chancellor

Part one BIARRITZ, or Big man have a big heart

However, literally the next day, on the Biarritz promenade of high-society holidaymakers, he suddenly heard:

Von Bismarck! Bonjour! What fates?!

“Katarina,” Orlov told her, “let me introduce you to Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian envoy.

Bismarck bowed his head. Fortunately, his high growth allowed him to do this without taking his admiring eyes off her.

Katerina, looking down, sat down a little.

“Baron,” continued Orlov, “allow me to introduce: my wife, Princess Ekaterina Nikolaevna Trubetskaya. But now Orlova-Trubetskaya!

- Prince, congratulations! Bismarck said. - She is beautiful! I'm already in love! What hotel are you in?

We are in Europe. And you?

At that moment Katharina raised her blue eyes to Bismarck and...

God! Bismarck told himself. How long have you not stopped breathing from a woman's gaze, did not dry up in your mouth and did not get cold in the lower abdomen!

“Photographs of that time show us Bismarck in the prime of life, a man of athletic build, whom the years have not yet made overweight and heavy to lift. A neat head, perhaps even a little small for his broad shoulders. Bushy eyebrows over prominent brow ridges give the face something intimidating. A look that suppresses, it reflects a huge energy. But the general impression is softened by a slight ironic smile, which seems to play at the corners of his mouth and is reflected in the look of his large blue eyes; a look that could be as serious, sharp and penetrating through as it was indefinite and impenetrable. In general, the impressive appearance of a person who does not lack either self-control or the ability to influence morally on others ... "(From the book N. Orloff. Bismarck und Katarina Orloff", Berlin 1930).

Standing next to him at the open window, Prince Orlov suddenly said in a low voice:

“I heard your king is in conflict with Parliament?”

- Another one! Bismarck replied, not taking his eyes off Katharina's hands, which flew over the keys like two hummingbirds.

- Which? Orlov asked.

Bismarck chuckled.

- And then your Berlin mission does not know!

“Well…” Orlov hesitated and took a sip of champagne. “I just want to know first hand.

Bismarck preferred to remain silent and, carefully, so as not to drop the ashes on the expensive Persian carpet, the pride of Monsieur Garder, the owner of the hotel, shook his cigar out the window. Since the Russian emperor is the nephew of the Prussian king, Berlin is flooded with Russian diplomats and spies, and the Russian embassy is located on Unter den Linden, almost a stone's throw from the royal palace. All palace intrigues, news and gossip, they learn there before the Prussian cabinet.

Orlov, however, continued with true Russian pressure:

- They say you played democracy there. The Socialists have seized Parliament and are blocking all the king's decrees...

Bismarck laid a hand on his shoulder.

- I'm on vacation, prince.

But at that moment, young Orlova had already given herself over to music so sensually that Bismarck's diplomacy decided to punish Orlov's persistence:

- Did your wife grow up in France?

And Orlov, with purely Russian frankness, immediately fell into a trap.

- I was even born here! he said proudly. - The Trubetskoys have their own castle - "Bellefontaine" in Samois-sur-Seine, near Fontainebleau near Paris.

“Now I understand why the French support the Poles who are rebelling against Russia.

Orlov was amazed:

- Why?

– Because all French women are crazy about the erotic music of this Pole Chopin.

For only a fraction of a second, Orlov thought about how he should react to this barb. And then he burst out laughing, but with that deliberate and loud laugh, which a few years ago was known at conferences in Frankfurt by his current boss and Russian chancellor, Prince Gorchakov.

“The Poles need to be skinned”, they have always been a Prussian and Russian headache! One has only to let them raise their heads, as they will immediately climb into the great nations and unite with the French in order to either pinch the Germans from two sides, or attack Russia in alliance with anyone - with the Lithuanians, with Napoleon ... Therefore, the division of Poland under the protectorate Russia, Prussia and Austria, begun by Frederick the Great and Catherine II, is the only way to pacify their gentry ambitions and establish silence in Europe. At the same time, they are so talented that, defeated and dismembered, they cannot calm down, quietly settled throughout Europe and persistently climb into the most influential posts in Russia, Austria and even Prussia. And now these new, after the Kosciuszko uprising, Polish riots against the Russian "spoilers"! Thirteen million Poles, forever opposed to Russians and Germans - God forbid, if their current scattered rebellions unite ...

And the French newspapers immediately, of course, shouted their standard "Poland Liberation!", And the French madam and mademoiselle, melting from Chopin's "darling", were so imbued with sympathy for the "oppressed" nation that even Louis Napoleon openly expresses "unfortunate" sympathy for the Poles. Of course - in defiance of Russia and in retaliation for the war of the 14th year ...

Bismarck was sitting in his room on the ground floor of the Hotel d'Europe, puffing on his cigar and listening to Katharina play, looking out over the night sea. The Orlovs' apartment was right above his room, and now there, above it, she was playing his favorite Beethoven, the Seventeenth Sonata. But when I got to the third part of ALLEGRETTO…

The music suddenly stopped, he heard a loud thud, as if something had fallen from a chair, and ...

No, he couldn't be mistaken - fired up by Beethoven, they did THAT right on the floor! So much so that the chandelier swayed over Bismarck's head, and Katharina moaned and screamed, and these moans and cries of hers reached him through the open window. Oh, this throaty cry with hoarseness and passion! Bismarck clenched his teeth with such force that he bit into his best cigar, which cost almost a whole thaler!

“The psychological side of his portrait is no less expressive. Complex, multifaceted nature. An excellent swimmer, a brilliant shooter and an outstanding rider. He inherited his love for land and forest from his ancestors... At the same time, Bismarck is a very educated person. He is extremely well-read, he has a brilliant mind, he more or less speaks six languages well ... ”(N. Orloff.“ Bismarck and Ekaterina Orlova ”).

Bismarck of 1862 "very tall ... black-haired ... snub-nosed ... with a pale face and a wasp waist ... Be afraid of him: he says what he thinks" (B. Disraeli, England).

“Count Bismarck is a tall man; restless in nature; a large, high forehead, showing benevolence combined with stubbornness. Large eyes, deep-set and soft, they become formidable when the fire of anger ignites in them. The hair is combed up and covers the back of the head. He wears a warlike mustache that covers his ironic smile” (M. Wilbort, Parisian journalist, 1866).

“During conversation, the hard line of the mouth becomes visible behind the moustache; a row of small strong teeth is also visible, which he retained until the end of his life. His hands, even in old age, looked like the hands of a fifty-year-old, there were no senile spots on them ”(S. Wittman. “Memoirs of Bismarck”).

Of course, the next day he did not show that he heard their marital passions.

As after a night thunderstorm and a storm that torments the sky and waves in pitch darkness, tears the sails and cuts the earth with ejaculations of lightning and showers - just as in the morning after these wild passions, peaceful nature suddenly becomes quiet, gentle and innocent in the rays of the awakened sun, so does Katarina - literally all - shone that morning with such innocence and meekness that he wanted to whip her peach cheeks. And only his aristocratic upbringing and haughty smile, hiding in the corners of Katarina's slightly swollen lips (and, of course, the presence of her husband), held back his heavy hand.

But this arrogance of a tenth-generation princess, who traces her ancestry to the participants in the Battle of Kulikovo, infuriated his cadet soul. Why do these young bitches, having barely tasted their nightly power over men, allow themselves to think that they reign over the whole world?

However, I repeat, Otto von Bismarck did not show either his fury or male interest in her.

Leaving the resort crowd behind the rocks, overgrown with flowering heather, the three of them enjoyed the pristine nature of Biarritz. Prince Orlov, unable to swim because of the infirmity of his right hand, lay stretched out on the dry grass and smoked, while Bismarck and Katharina swam nearby. At night, the sea recedes quite far here, and the coastal lagoons are pretty shallow, but by morning the surf fills these natural bowls with clean, cool and transparent emerald water. Katarina was so delighted with the high sky, the fresh morning, the lilac haze over the mountains and the gentle chilling water that she went naughty like a girl, and with her mischief pacified Bismarck's wrath. Moreover, even in her closed, with a dozen frills and ruffles, bathing suit, she was so piercingly erotic that, diving after her, Bismarck and at a depth, in completely cold water, felt a feverish clouding of the mind and tension of all his members.

“Never a woman has fascinated Bismarck as much as Katarina Orlova. He is subdued not so much by her youth and beauty - he met enough beautiful women in his life and passed by, admiring, but not lingering - but by a certain pristineness and freshness of her whole nature. After all, although she was a lady from high society, she also had a joyful, carefree simplicity, and to all this - witty and entertaining. She herself said that two different people coexist in her - “Princess Orlova” and “Katty”. Kathy is a mocker, a cheat, a spontaneous, addicting nature. She loves all sorts of tricks, it gives her pleasure to frighten her comrades with her recklessness, climbing sheer cliffs or climbing a high viaduct ... he can’t hide his German accent, and then he treats her like a “mechante enfant” - a naughty child ... Just one week in her company was enough for Bismarck to be captivated by the spell of this young attractive 22-year-old woman. He tries to turn everything into a joke, but, in truth, he begins to have a feeling for the princess that surpasses a purely friendly disposition ”(N. Orloff.“ Bismarck and Ekaterina Orlova ”).

At the entrance to a small grotto, Prince Orlov deftly built a fire and roasted chestnuts and mussels brought by Engel, Bismarck's servant and coachman. And Bismarck and Katarina, having climbed a nearby rock, sat and looked at the sea, green and white from the foam and the sun.

- You are so big! - she said. - Looks like a rock.

- And you are an elf. Or an angel, he replied. - You ... Do you, in general, go to the potty?

She was outraged:

- I AM? On a pot? Of course not!

- I thought so…

But she was still offended, jumped up and ...

"You cheeky bastard!"

And she jumped into the sea from such a height that Bismarck's heart stopped.

And she surfaced and, angrily floundering, swam into the open sea. Bismarck and Nikolai were frightened - after all, there, behind the rocks, there are already ocean waves.

- Back! Nikolay shouted to her from the shore. - Katie, get back!

Of course, Bismarck immediately jumped after her, caught up with her, and she herself was already exhausted, but stubbornly did not want to return to the shore, she even fought off Bismarck ...

And in the evening in the hotel she again played the piano for them, this time Mendelssohn, and Bismarck, standing at the window, whistled to her.

- Is it true that in your youth you had a reputation as a zhuire and a dangerous man? she asked without interrupting the game.

He chuckled.

- Is it your Berlin mission collecting a dossier on me?

- And on your account really thirty duels?

No, only twenty-eight.

She rolled her eyes in horror.

“And you shot at people?”

- Not always. Basically we fought on espadrons.

“I have won twenty-seven duels. But please note - I did not call them ...

"You're still awful!" Horrible! - And Katarina hit the keys with such force that this Jew Mendelssohn must have woken up in a coffin.

“They have already explored the entire coast and stumbled upon completely charming, uninhabited places, came up with names for them that they would search in vain on the map and which from now on are their kingdom and patrimony. Thus came the Lighthouse Tower Grotto, Leaky Rock, a small island among the cliffs, which they christened "Katty's Nest", and Seagull Cliff, which was their favorite place. Here they spend many hours reading, writing letters, dreaming and having picnics. On August 19, Bismarck left us a vivid picture of their small group: Prince Orlov lies stretched out on dry grass and smokes, Bismarck and Katharina sat comfortably next to each other, writing, using their books like a music stand; she writes to her parents, he to Johanna: “A quarter of a mile north of Biarritz, in the rocks near the coast, there is a narrow gorge covered with turf, overgrown with bushes and shady; invisible to anyone, I look behind two rocks covered with flowering heather, at the sea, now green, now white from foam and sun; next to me is the most charming of all women, whom you will also fall in love with when you get to know better ... ”(N. Orloff.“ Bismarck and Ekaterina Orlova ”).

Bismarck and the Orlovs dined together in the Orlovs' rooms. In addition, this small company was together during the day ... The prince, a pupil of the old gentleman's school and somewhat embarrassed by his disability, provided his wife, who was 13 years younger than him, with maximum freedom, almost unlimited. For Bismarck, this was a short-term idyll, but it allowed him to relax and forget about politics ... He openly wrote to his sister Mail that he had fallen in love with this “mischievous princess” ”(W. Richter. Bismarck. London, 1964).

No, she positively enjoys teasing him. Even when at sunset he quietly sits on the beach in a deck chair, smokes his pipe and writes another letter to his wife (and Katarina sees this from above, from her window), she suddenly appears with large figs on a dish, settles down next to him in a deck chair and begins to absorb these figs with such defiant sensuality ... And then, bursting out laughing, leaves him figs and runs to the sea, dancing on the edge of the surf. And he continues to write to Johanna: “She is original, beautiful and young. I’m ridiculously healthy and happy next to her ... - Then he looks at Kathy, jumping in the waves, and, recollecting himself, adds: - As happy as I can be happy away from you, my dears ... ”

- Uncle! she says, jumping in front of him on one leg and wringing out her wet hair. “May I call you uncle?”

He chuckles.

– When I lived in Russia and learned your language, I liked some of your proverbs. Especially one: even if you call it a mushroom, just put it in your basket as soon as possible.

Putting on a Bismarckian wide-brimmed straw hat, she sits beside him.

– Did you like Russia?

- Under King Friedrich Wilhelm the Fourth, after eight years of serving as a Prussian representative in the Sejm of the German Confederation in the free city of Frankfurt am Main, I almost got the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. But Frederick had a stroke, and his brother Wilhelm became regent, whose wife cannot stand me for my intolerance towards the socialists. And I was immediately sent away - to St. Petersburg, your Russian glacier on the Neva. In March 1859, it took me seven full days to get there from Berlin across the snowy Polish and Russian plains. However, the Russian Tsar and Tsarina were so supportive of me! Received as a family messenger. And on the occasion of the spring parade, the emperor took care of me as exclusively as if he had arranged this parade for me. During the passage of the troops, he brought me closer to him and explained each type of his troops and who commanded them. And when, when the guests were leaving the royal palace, they shouted from the porch: “Prusku paslannika!”, then all the Russians turned around with such a wide smile, as if they had just knocked over a glass of schnapps ... And where is your husband? What is he doing?

He is writing a treatise.

- On the abolition of flogging in Russia ...

- Truth?

- Yes. Whipping is awful, right? In France, it was canceled in the last century! You have it in Germany too, don't you? And in Russia, imagine, even today, when the world already has such a civilization, people are flogged with whips, lashes, gauntlets. Up to three hundred hits! Horror! Nicolas says that this is a real evil in Christian, moral and social relations!

Your leisure prince H.A. Orlov devoted history and art; he compiled an excellent collection of drawings by the old masters. His Note "On the abolition of corporal punishment in Russia and in the Kingdom of Poland", submitted by him to Emperor Alexander II, had a wide resonance ...

Warm September rain suddenly swept in from behind the Pyrenees, holidaymakers briskly ran from the beach under awnings and umbrellas, and Bismarck and Kathy moved to the Miremont cafe, famous for its melt-in-the-mouth raspberry croissants. Sitting down at the table, Bismarck immediately ordered the waiter a dozen of these croissants for Katie ("Uncle, why do I need a dozen? I'll eat two at most!"), And three dozen oysters and a bottle of white Chablis for himself ...

“You started talking about yourself and Russia,” Catty reminded.

“Yes, of course,” agreed Bismarck. - In St. Petersburg, I rented the house of Countess Steinbock on the English Embankment. Hunting parties, of course, were not lacking; I hunted elk, bear, wolf and kept cubs in my house, which I sent when they grew up to the zoological gardens in Frankfurt and Cologne. Sometimes a bear would suddenly appear at the table, to the great amusement of society, walk very decently on the tablecloth between plates and glasses, or grab an attendant footman by the leg, and roll down the hill arranged in the dining room ...

(In front of the astonished Cathy, the first dozen oysters had already disappeared in his mighty stomach ...)

- You, princess, have not been to Petersburg yet? If you go, I would recommend appearing on the street in a carriage only with the signs of one of the highest Russian orders. Even on horseback, but in civilian clothes, it is not always possible to avoid the danger of being a victim of intemperate language or careless driving of prominent dignitaries, who are distinguished by their special clothes. And in conflicts with them, only with a whip you can achieve recognition of your equality with their master. However, I took out only pleasant memories from my stay in Russia ... Gorchakov, whose unlimited confidence I enjoyed, let me read, while I was waiting for him, still unopened reports from Berlin before he looked through them himself. Flirting with his confidence, he said: "Vous oublierez ce que vous ne deviez pas lire" - in which, of course, I gave my word, having looked through these dispatches in the next room. At the same time, every time I happened to be in St. Petersburg in one of the imperial palaces - Tsarskoye Selo or Peterhof, to confer with Prince Gorchakov, who lived there in the summer, I found in the palace room allotted to me a breakfast served for me from several dishes, with three or four varieties excellent wine; I have never had to drink others on the imperial table at all. Your health, dear! You may not drink, but take a sip, please!..

(Here the end of the third dozen oysters came to an end, and Bismarck ordered three dozen more.)

- Undoubtedly, a lot was stolen in the kitchen of the Russian emperor, but the guests did not suffer from this; on the contrary, their portions were calculated on the abundant leftovers in favor of the servants. Perhaps the palace servants, who used unfinished wines, had time, as a result of many years of experience, to acquire an exquisite taste and would not have tolerated the disorder that affected the quality of food and drink served to the table ...

The rain ended as suddenly as it began, the warm evening sun, as if nothing had happened, emerged from behind the melting clouds, and several heavy sailing fishing boats slowly entered the harbor at once.

- Oh, uncle, look, storks!

Indeed, from the shore, from somewhere in the northeast, five white storks flew in and majestically sat on the buoys of the fishing pier.

“It's from Bayonne, right next door,” Bismarck explained. - They live there on the fire tower, I can take you on a tour. And people come here in anticipation of generous handouts from the fishermen, but only if their boats go to the harbor, scooping water with their sides, that is, weighed down by a successful catch. Will you persuade Nicholas to go to Bayonne?

- Of course! Can you tell us more about Russia? Only the truth…

He looked into her eyes.

- In what sense?

“You see…” she hesitated. – My Nicolas is a great patriot of Russia. He only talks about victories.

- And he does it right. And I am a German patriot. If I tell some jokes about Russia, it is not for the sake of humiliating her, but only for your entertainment. However, I won't...

- No, please, uncle! It is very interesting to me.

- Well ... Well, there was such a case. Once the emperor drew attention to the exorbitant amount of fat, which is put on the bill every time the prince of Prussia arrives; as a result, it turned out that on his first visit, the prince, after riding on horseback, wished to eat a slice of bacon at dinner. The claimed lot of fat turned into poods during subsequent visits. The misunderstanding was clarified in a personal conversation between the highest persons and caused an outburst of merriment, which served to the benefit of the sinners involved in this matter.

- Uncle! Stop! You ate six dozen oysters!

- For me it's an appetiser. I once ate one hundred and fifty oysters in a Parisian restaurant. But now I really will stop - oysters are rumored to be very exciting for men ... - and he defiantly looked into her eyes.

But Kathy pretended to ignore the challenge.

- Uncle, let's go back to Russia ...

- Well, let's go back. Speaking of Russia, I am reminded of a fact that Friedrich Wilhelm the Fourth himself told me about. Emperor Nicholas, father of Alexander II, asked Friedrich Wilhelm to send him two non-commissioned officers of the Prussian guard for a back massage prescribed by doctors, during which the patient should lie on his stomach. At the same time, he said: “I will always cope with my Russians, if only I could look them in the face. But from the back, where there are no eyes, I would still prefer not to let them in. Non-commissioned officers were provided without publicity of this fact, used for their intended purpose and generously rewarded. This shows that, despite the religious devotion of the Russian people to the ruler, Emperor Nicholas was not sure of his safety eye to eye, even with a commoner among his subjects. And now let's go to the fishermen, let's see how they feed the storks ...

Usually after dinner, at low tide, Bismarck and Orlovs ride along the shore on dense sand. And at the request of Katie Bismarck again talks about Russia. True, sparing Nikolai's patriotic feelings, he chooses from his experience not the most offensive cases for Orlov.

- I encountered another Russian peculiarity in the first spring days of 1959. Somehow, the court society was walking in the Summer Garden, and the emperor was struck by the fact that a sentry was standing on one of the lawns. When asked why he was standing there, the soldier could only answer that "as ordered." The emperor instructed the adjutant to find out in the barracks, but even there they said that sentries were sent to this guard both in winter and summer, and it was impossible to establish who gave the initial order. And only the old footman remembered that his father said that "Empress Catherine somehow saw the first snowdrop in this place and ordered to make sure that it was not plucked." Fulfilling the order, a sentry was posted on the lawn, since then, year after year, he has been standing there for more than fifty years.

Katty and Nikolai laughed, but Bismarck said:

“Similar facts make us Germans laugh too, but they express the primitive power, stability and constancy on which the essence of Russia is based…

Today at dinner, Bismarck once again noticed with what horror and admiration Katharina was watching, how he swallowed first soup, then eel, cold meat, shrimp, lobster, smoked meat, ham, hot roast and cake and washed it all down with wine from a huge bottle .

But he pretends not to notice her widened eyes and the looks that she exchanges on this occasion with Nikolai.

- Oh, it's so good! he says about the food, deliberately purring with pleasure. – In our family we all large eaters. If there were many of the same capacity in the country the state could not exist; I should emigrate...

The Orlovs laughed, and he continued in German:

- You know, I envy you Russians! .. Yes ... You have gathered a variety of tribes - from the Eskimos in the North to the Circassians in the Caucasus and from the Poles to some Siberian tribes, for which I don’t even know the name. They forced everyone to speak Russian and created a huge empire from Warsaw to Japan! And we Germans occupy half of Europe, and live in different countries - part in France, part in Denmark, part in Austria, and part in Prussia. It's not good!