Dolgorukaia, Alexandra (1836–c. 1914)

Russian noblewoman who was briefly the mistress of Alexander II. Name variations: Aleksandra Dolgorukaya or Dolgorukova; "La Grande Mademoiselle." Born Alexandra Sergeevna Dolgorukaia in 1836; died around 1914; eldest of five daughters of Sergei Dolgorukii; married General Peter Pavlovich Al'bedinskii (governor-general of the Baltic Region), around 1861; children: one son.

Alexandra (or Alexandrine) Dolgorukaia was born in 1836, the eldest of five daughters of Sergei Dolgorukii. Once one of the most influential noble families in tsarist Russia, the Dolgorukiis had status but not wealth by the middle of the 19th century. In part for this reason, Alexandra took a position in 1853 as lady-in-waiting to Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt , the wife of the future tsar of Russia Alexander II. Maurice Paléologue has described Alexandra as "remarkable for her intelligence and her beauty."

This combination proved irresistible to Alexander who, as one writer noted, "was particularly susceptible to female charms." A liaison between the two was apparently encouraged by some conservative members of the court who wanted to break the stabilizing influence Marie had over her weak-willed and often vacillating husband. The ploy worked in one sense in that when Marie was informed in 1857 of Alexander's affair with "La Grande Mademoiselle," as Alexandra came to be known in court circles, Marie rebuked her unfaithful husband and was momentarily estranged from him. The ploy, however, may also have been counter-productive to conservative interests in that Alexandra appears to have recognized the desperate need for agrarian reform in Russia and therefore both encouraged and supported Alexander in his efforts to emancipate the serfs. By the time the reform was finally implemented in 1861, their romance had cooled.

Dolgorukaia, with the tsar's blessing, married General Peter Pavlovich Al'bedinskii who was promptly sent off to be governor-general of the Baltic Region. She had at least one son by Al'bedinskii and long outlived her husband, dying on the eve of the First World War at the age of 77. She is perhaps best known today through Ivan Turgenev's novel Smoke whose heroine Irina was modeled after "La Grande Mademoiselle."

R. C. Elwood , Professor of History, Carleton College, Ottawa, Canada