Raised the children of the emperor: what fate awaited the Swiss tutor Romanov

How unusual can a French teacher's career be? The fate of Pierre Gilliard is the same case. Especially if you teach the children of the emperor of Russia.

Leaving Russia in 1920 on the deck of an American ship sailing from Vladivostok, Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss citizen who raised the children of the Romanovs, Grand Duke Alexei and four Grand Duchesses, felt gloomy. “I deep in my soul keep memories of the terrible events that I witnessed, deep down. I saw one of the greatest empires in the world fall”- he wrote in his diary.

There is nothing surprising in such melancholy. Gilliard spent the previous three years in Siberia - first together with his students, and then separately from them.

He well knew that they were all shot by the Bolsheviks. The fact that he survived was a miracle.

Sixteen years earlier, in 1904, the Russian adventures of Gilliard began much more fun. Initially invited to teach French in the family of Duke George Leuchtenberg, Gilliard soon moved into the royal family: the eldest daughters of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, Olga and Tatyana, needed a tutor.

Inviting Swiss French teachers was a fairly common practice in imperial Russia. Emigrants from Switzerland were mostly Protestants, and Russians preferred them more than Catholics. In Russia, about 6000 people lived there.

Since 1909, Gilliard worked in the family of the emperor daily. He lived in St. Petersburg, traveled to Tsarskoye Selo five times a week. Soon he became a tutor for all four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, trying his best to teach them how to speak French. "It was not easy."- he noted in his memoirs.

"My students were in no hurry, the imperial family went to the Crimea for several months ... Returning, they forgot a lot"- the teacher complained. Nevertheless, he noted that all the great princesses were smart and polite girls, always ready to learn.

Perhaps the funniest case that Gilliard mentioned in his memoirs occurred when he and Olga, the eldest daughter, read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The girl came across a word merde (in French "shit") and asked him what that means. Gilliard blushed. It was inappropriate to translate this to a young noblewoman. She went to her father, Emperor Nicholas II, and he explained to her that this is a "very strong word that cannot be repeated."

Over time, Gilliard became more than a teacher, he became friends with his family so much that Empress Alexandra trusted him with the training of the heir to the throne, Alexei, suffering from hemophilia. "Without a doubt, this disease ... led to the tragic loneliness of the imperial family and the difficult care that they had to hide from everyone."- the tutor recalled. Historians agree with him: preoccupied with the illness of his son, Nikolai and Alexander lost control of the country.

Nevertheless, Gilliard adored Alexei and the whole family: "When he could, the boy enjoyed life, rejoiced. He never boasted of being the heir to the imperial family. That was the last thing he thought about.". The Swiss tutor was the one who informed Alexei that his father abdicated in March 1917. The boy, as Gilliard mentioned, asked: "Who will rule Russia now?"

After the 1917 revolution, when the Romanovs ceased to be the ruling dynasty, Gilliard followed them in conclusion. First to Tsarskoye Selo, then to Tobolsk. The teacher continued to engage and encourage the children even in custody. In addition, he loved taking pictures. We owe him many photographs of the last days of the Romanovs.

In April 1918, the Bolsheviks divided the family: Nicholas, Alexander and Maria were transferred to Yekaterinburg, and Gilliard was ordered to stay with the rest of the children. In May, the family reunited in Yekaterinburg, but the Bolsheviks unexpectedly released the Swiss, as well as Charles Sydney Gibbs, an English teacher, and Alexander Teglev, Pierre's future wife.

"I still do not understand why the Bolsheviks freed us"- the tutor wrote in his memoirs. Indeed, it was a happy coincidence: in the city of Tyumen, he, Teglev and Gibbs were nearly shot. Fluent in Russian, he said that he was protected by international law and was a Swiss citizen. This stopped the Bolsheviks from being shot. Soon, the White Army entered Tyumen and freed Gilliard and his colleagues.

The ex-tutor took part in the civil war, worked as an intelligence officer and translator in the Kolchak army. He entered Yekaterinburg with the whites. He did this in order to find out that all the Romanovs whom he loved so much were shot on July 17, 1918. Pierre Gilliard could not believe that the Bolsheviks would even kill children, but, unfortunately, this was true.

The teacher promised Alexandra Tegleva, whom he married, that they would return to Russia as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But this did not happen. He died in Switzerland in 1962 at the age of 83.

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