Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova is a close friend of the last Russian empress, her nature is ambiguous, mysterious, in many respects slandered. For many, Vyrubova became a real symbol of tsarism; she was considered responsible for the mistakes of the crowned patroness, including for the promotion of Rasputin and his harmful influence on the royal family.
Childhood and youth
Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova (nee Taneeva) was born in 1884 in St. Petersburg. On the maternal side, she was the great-great-granddaughter of the commander Kutuzov. The Taneev family was close to the court, the girl's father, Alexander Sergeevich, served as secretary of state and general manager of the imperial chancellery. The girl received excellent home education, and then passed the exam and received the right to teach independently. In 1904, young Anna was received at court as the maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
At the age of 22, Anna married Alexander Vyrubov, a nobleman, a naval officer with excellent career prospects. However, family life from the very beginning went unsuccessfully - later Vyrubova assured that she remained a girl, since her husband managed to get drunk before the first wedding night and forever inspired the young wife with disgust for the intimate side of marriage. A year later, Anna asked her husband for a divorce and soon received it.
After failures in her personal life, the young lady-in-waiting focused on the service, turning into an obliging, respectful, executive confidante of the empress. She introduces the patroness to urban gossip and rumors, entertains and consoles Alexandra Feodorovna. Together with the royal family, Vyrubova moved to Tsarskoe Selo and soon became the closest and, perhaps, the only friend of the crowned person.
At this time, the young maid of honor met Grigory Rasputin. Imbued with the magnetism of this controversial personality, Vyrubova became one of the most devoted adepts of the “holy elder”. It was she who introduced Rasputin to the empress and contributed to his penetration into the closest circle of the imperial family.
Life after the revolution
At the beginning of World War I, Anna returned to Petrograd and worked as a nurse in the infirmary with the Empress and the Grand Duchesses. In 1915, she got into a train accident and was seriously injured, forever dooming her first to a wheelchair and then to crutches.
After the arrest of the royal family, Vyrubova, along with the imperial family, settled in Tsarskoe Selo, but soon fell under arrest on charges of an anti-government conspiracy. The investigation tried to prove her connection with Rasputin, but the case fell apart and Vyrubova was acquitted. She had to spend several months in Trubetskoy casemate in absolutely unbearable conditions.
Anna returns to Petrograd, but after a few weeks she is again arrested. Her release was assisted personally by Leon Trotsky. Fearing further persecution, the demoted maid of honor hides with friends for some time, and a year later finally leaves Russia. She will spend the next 40 years of her life in Finland, taking tonsure in one of the Orthodox monasteries. Anna Vyrubova wrote a biography, Pages of My Life, published in one of the Parisian publishing houses. There are also fake diaries written in her name, but their authorship was refuted by Vyrubova herself.
