If you are reading this month’s book, The True Memoirs of Little K, you may be interested in seeing what the real Mathilde Kschessinska, or Little K, looked like. I know that I was!
Mathilde Kschessinskaya costumed for the title role in Petipa's La Camargo. St. Petersburg, circa 1902.
Mathilde Kschessinskaya was born in 1872 and in 1896 was named Prima Ballerina of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater. Scandal seemed to follow her wherever she went. When she was 17 years old she was involved with the future Tsar Nicholas II and it was Nicholas or as she called him Niki that gave her the nickname of Little K. Their affair went on for three years and ended when Nicholas married Princess Alix, with whom he had been in love with since he was a young boy. After a Menage a trois with two Grand Dukes of the Romanov family Mathilde gave birth to her only son, Vovo. Vovo never knew for certain who his father was. Mathilde Kschessinskaya’s autobiography entitled Dancing in St. Petersburg: The Memoirs of Kschessinska was published in 1960. She died at the age of 99.
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