2. The real story
On april 26th 1846, the following news item appeared in the French newspaper ‘Le Progrès’ (translated from French).
“--This beautiful madame de K…. , who underwent the trial of the knout in Warsaw, for having, according to the Gazette d’Augsbourg, corresponded with the propaganda in Paris, is Mme de Kalerdgi, the proper niece of M. von Nesselrode. This noble woman did not get this ignoble punishment for having corresponded with the propaganda in Paris, but for having helped the escape of M. count Dombrowski, the husband of one of her youth friends.
Countess Orloff, the aunt of the minister, was only whipped, for having received at her home people with bad thoughts. But the devotion to friendship of Mme de Kalerdgi, made her deserve the knout properly. If we give the names of these nobility victims, it is to show that the Tsar’s knout can hit innocence, grace, beauty, devotion, everything respectable and sacred, everywhere, like in Russia.
We know, nobility in Russia is exempt of all kinds of corporal punishment. Then why the Russian authorities violate this principle? She first lets the noble sign a declaration that he has not been beaten. The a trap opens, half off the body passes and the executioner blindly hits with the whip and the knout.
--The Tsar apparently believes his knout dishonours! But those who have taken in, boast on it. When women or child are accused of weakness, they shout vigorously : “I also underwent the trial of the knout!”
Two months earlier, the Prussian partition of Poland had seen an uprise. It had been crushed, but it also had stirred political unrest in the Austrian and Russian parts of Poland. One week after ‘Le Progrès’, 'The Pictorial Times' of May, 2nd, 1846, published the following :
“
The knout.
The infliction of this terrible instrument of punishment is particular to Russia and it has been described as of extreme severity, even at times to the [?] of life, for strong men have been known to sick under it. Under these circumstances, we cannot but condemn its application, except in very urgent delinquencies, and can we look upon it but as detestably barbaric when we found that females are compelled to undergo the tortures. A French paper, the ‘Progrès’ makes the following statement : “Madame Kalerdgi, who received the Knout in Warsaw, for having, according the Augsburger Gazette, kept up correspondence with the Propaganda in Paris, is niece of M. de Nesselrode. But it is not owing to a correspondence with that Propaganda, but because she aided the escape of count Dombrowski, the husband of one of her intimate friends that she had to suffer that dreadful punishment. Countess Orloff, the aunt of the minister, was whipped for having received persons in her home who were disjoined(?) towards the government. If we give the names of these illustrious victims, it is to show that the knout of the Czar spares nothing, innocence, youth, beauty or devotion – even beyond the limits of Russia”
Our artist has given an accurate representation of that punishment, and we do most sincerely hope that our fair countrywomen will manifest their sympathizing humanity by petitioning our most gracious Sovereign to interpose her friendly alliance with the Emperor Nicholas, in order that such practices against females may cease for the future.”
‘Our artist has given an accurate representation of that punishment’. Indeed, the news about the knouting had been added with an illustration of the event. It had as subtitle : ‘Madame de Kalerdgi receiving the knout’ (a text not reproduced in my parent’s history book by the way).
Shortly after, another account of the punishment was published, in the book ‘Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas’, by Charles Frederick Henningsen (1846),, p. 336-337. The author describes in that chapter an uprise in Poland in that year.
“
In Bohemia, as in Silesia, the serf-peasantry also rise against the robot. In the Russian dominions we hear of the arrest of Madame Kalerdgi, the daughter of General Nesselrode, commanding the gendarmerie (the immediate executive of the secret police in the kingdom of Poland,) and brother of the Russian premier of that name, of whom an account is given in a previous chapter. This lady, to save one of those implicated in the late conspiracy, undertook to procure a passport, which through her father she was enabled to obtain, and with which her protégé escaped across the frontier. The deception was discovered and traced home to the unhappy lady, who was seized in the dead of night and sent off in custody to St. Petersburg. Though her father was minister for foreign affairs, she had been denied during several weeks all communications with her friends and family, and was reported to have been knouted and sent off to Siberia. More recent letters from St. Petersburg deny the fact of her having been knouted, alleging that the mistake must have originated in her being confounded with a Madame Orloff, who for participation in the recent attempt had received, not the knout, but the plitt. The difference between the knout and plitt is, simply, that where the skillful executioner can give a mortal stroke with a single blow of the knout, it requires two of the plitt, which from the first of May is to replace it throughout the empire, by order of Nicholas; of whom we shall soon read in the German papers, that he has benevolently abolished that mode of punishment, without any mention of the slower torture substituted for it.
From this contradiction it thus appeared that not only a niece of the premier, but one of the family of the minister of the secret police, was equally implicated — ^the almost invariable result of every inquiry into Russian reports, that of discovering a trifling inaccuracy but at the same time bringing to light some deeper villainy or greater severity. It has since been said in a newspaper paragraph, that Madame Kalerdgi has been exiled to Dresden : the letters received from St. Petersburg make no mention of this modification of her sentence. “
How did the daughter of the head of the Gendarmerie and the secret police in Russian Poland, and the niece of the Tsars minister of foreign affairs and chancellor get into that trouble? Who was she, Madame Kalerdgi?
The 1846 accounts mention her as a daughter of Nesselrode, head of the police in Poland and brother of the Russian prime minister. Her father was then likely Frederick Charles von Nesselrode (1786 – 1868) a Russian aristocrat of German descent. In 1831, he was appointed head of the Gendarmerie in Russian Poland. His brother Karl Robert von Nesselrode (1780-1862) was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia from 1814 to 1856, and indeed also Chancellor (equal to ‘prime minister’ as mentioned by Henningsen) of the Russian Empire from 1845 on.
The Wikipedia biography of Frederick Karl von Nesselrode states that a daughter Maria was born in 1822 from a marriage that got broken up soon thereafter. Maria was sent to Saint Petersburg, where her uncle, the minister of Foreign Affairs, took care of her education.
This daughter became known later as Maria Kalergis, after her marriage with a rich but jealous landowner Jan Kalergis (of Greek origin). This couple also had a short living together, but although they separated, they never divorced formally. Madame Kalergis was known as a beautiful, and an intelligent woman, admired by many high ranked men, a talented pianist, and a very devoted patron of arts in Warsaw, where she held a cultural salon. She spoke six languages. After her husband’s death, she married Sergej Muchanow, then head of the police in Warsaw.
“The president of the Imperial Theatre was M. Muchanow, a man of great intelligence. His wife, Madame Kalerdgi, had been a celebrated beauty. She was a Princess Nesselrode, a grande dame Russe. Napoleon had been one of her admirers and had wished to marry her. Madame Kalerdgi was very musical and numbered Chopin among her friends. She was also a great friend of Alfred de Musset, of Liszt and of Wagner. The latter dedicated several works to her. She held a charming salon, and every celebrity who passed through Warsaw, went to her house, where all who had talent, all who loved art and music, were entertained. The Rubensteins went often there, often Joachim, Tansig, Bulow, Wilhelm and all artists of rank. Madame Kalerdgi possessed a most refined nature. She was full of esprit. When she applauded at the theatre, the actors knew they had done well. She was of the greatest assistance to Madame Modjeska in her artistic work.” (The story of Helena Modjeska, by Mabel Collins, 1883).
There is however one interesting element in the Maria Kalergis biographies : neither a knouting nor an exile to Siberia are mentioned anywhere. In the possession of an English passport, she could travel around Europa for many years. There is a stay in Paris from 1847 to 1857, whereafter she returned to live in Warsaw, but nothing special is mentioned about her whereabouts in 1846.
So what could be the story? This is my personal interpretation from the available facts :
It is without doubt that the Madame Kalerdgi mentioned in the knouting accounts in The Pictorial Times, Le Progrès and Henningsen’s book, all published in 1846, point to the same person the same person as the ‘celeb’ Maria Kalergis, since Frederick Charles Nesselrode had only one daughter.
The background of these stories is the uprise in the Prussian part of Poland in 1846, that apparently also caused trouble in the part of Poland under Russian rulership. There is also some confusion between the sources. According to the newspapers, the knouting had taken place in Warsaw. According to Henningsen, who mentions her as the daughter of the minister of foreign affairs (who was actually her uncle), she had been brought to St. Petersburg for the punishment. But Henningsen also brings up doubts : at the time of the punishment, knouting had been abolished by Tsar Nicholas. It could be that there had not been whippings of two women (Kalerdgi and Countess Orloff), but only of the latter one.
Actually, it appears that the article in 'Le Progrès' had been based on a false rumor, in the confusion of the troubles in Poland, a rumor stating that Maria Kalergis had been knouted, while it had in fact been Countess Orloff. A confusion that could have arisen from the fact that both women were relatives of the Charles von Nesselrode, Chancellor of the Russian Empire?
About a week later, 'The Pictorial Times' took over the story, and added an artist’s rendering of the ‘knouting of Madame Kalerdgi’. It was of course a juicy newspaper scoop : a young, beautiful, educated celebrity of noble descent, niece of the Tsar’s own chancellor, admired and desired by many men of high rank, had fallen into the hands of the police and was tied to a pole, half stripped and brutally whipped under the supervision of several onlookers. No better pretext than a pamphlet against this cruel punishment of the knout for publishing this dramatic picture of a half-naked, bare breasted young woman in distress. Amidst the Victorian age! A depiction of an event that most likely never took place.
What a depth research can reveal about a picture.
