The Mysterious Alexandra Tarasova-Yusupov Read online

  THE

  MYSTERIOUS ALEXANDRA TARASOVA-YUSUPOV

  A Novel of a Woman who was, as Churchill said, “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”

  BY

  CARL DOUGLASS

  PO Box 221974 Anchorage, Alaska 99522-1974

  [email protected]—www.publicationconsultants.com

  ISBN Number: 978-1-59433-829-8

  eBook ISBN Number: 978-1-59433-830-4

  ISBN Numbers, Library of Congress Number, Publication Dates, Publishers Information

  Copyright 2018 Carl Douglass

  —First Edition—

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form, or by any mechanical or electronic means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case not without the written permission of the author and publisher.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  CONTENTS

  Disclaimer

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Book One

  Chapter One: A Scion is Born

  Chapter Two: The Making of a Horseman

  Chapter Three: Coming of Age

  Chapter Four: Discovery

  Chapter Five: A Little Problem

  Chapter Six: A Life-Changing Day

  Chapter Seven: The Warriors

  Chapter Eight: First Blood

  Chapter Nine: A Step Ahead

  Chapter Ten: Senior Staff Military School

  Chapter Eleven: Proof

  Chapter Twelve: Birth of a Princess

  Chapter Thirteen: Debut of a Business Tycoon

  Chapter Fourteen: Loss of a Ship and a Great Lesson

  Chapter Fifteen: Forced to Begin Learning the Family Business on Land

  Chapter Sixteen: More Evidence

  Chapter Seventeen: A Feast for a Princess

  Chapter Eighteen: An Evening to Remember

  Chapter Nineteen: Staff Officer

  Chapter Twenty: Ottoman Incursions

  Chapter Twenty-One: Possible Yusupov Connection

  Chapter Twenty-Two: How the mighty have Fallen

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A New-world and a New Life

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Big Business in Millionka

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Balagansk

  Chapter Twenty-Six: A Little More Evidence

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Budding Relationship

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Growing Together

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Whirl-wind Courtship

  Chapter Thirty: A Marriage in Every Sense

  Chapter Thirty-One: Another Discovery

  Chapter Thirty-Two: High Seas Commerce

  Chapter Thirty-Three: High Seas, High Stakes Commerce

  Chapter Thirty-Four: A Bit of Secret Commerce

  Chapter Thirty-Five: Tense Times

  Chapter Thirty-Six:

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Even More Tense Times

  Chapter Thirty-Eight: Uncharted Waters, Unsure Future

  Chapter Thirty-Nine: More Evidence

  Chapter Forty: On to Sitka

  Chapter Forty-One:

  Chapter Forty-Two: War with the Sulu Sea Pirates

  Chapter Forty-Three: Military Transfers

  Chapter Forty-Four: Christmas, 1881

  Chapter Forty-Five: The Growing Schism

  Chapter Forty-Six: The Final Break and New Lives

  Chapter Forty-Seven: Parting of the Ways

  Book Two

  Chapter Forty-Eight: Arrival in Melbourne

  Chapter Forty-Nine: Success in Melbourne

  Chapter Fifty: Salvation in Sydney

  Chapter Fifty-One: Family in Sydney

  Chapter Fifty-Two: An Australian Marriage

  Chapter Fifty-Three: Financial Security

  Chapter Fifty-Four: Approaching a New World, a New Life

  Chapter Fifty-Five: Another Marriage?

  Chapter Fifty-Six: Australian Adventure

  Chapter Fifty-Seven: Top of the World

  Chapter Fifty-Eight: Strange New Interests

  Chapter Fifty-Nine: Australian Children

  Chapter Sixty: Financial Conflicts

  Chapter Sixty-One: Ideological Conflicts

  Chapter Sixty-Two: Intransigent Positions of Alexandra and Kyle and the Consequences

  Chapter Sixty-Three: Missions’ End

  Chapter Sixty-Four: The Australian Rift of the Early 1900s

  Chapter Sixty-Five: Hooroo to Australia

  Book Three

  Chapter Sixty-Six: Church History

  Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Way Home

  Chapter Sixty-Eight: Return to Shanghai

  Chapter Sixty-Nine: Advice from an Old Friend

  Chapter Seventy: Welcome Back Home

  Chapter Seventy-One: Unsung Heroes

  Epilogue

  DISCLAIMER

  This book—The Mysterious Alexandra Tarasova-Yusupov–is a novel, a fiction. None of the persons ever actually lived nor did the events described take place in the way they are described although there are known historical figures and events included. There are familiar places in the book such as Moscow, Vladivostok, Victoria, Australia, and Shanghai. An effort has been made to describe those places as they might have been at the time the author sets the story. The principle character, Alexandra Tarasova-Yusupov, is very loosely based on a real person who lived at the time in both the Russian Empire and in Australia. She came to the author’s attention through the work of Marvin and Kay Rust, former missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Melbourne, Victoria Province, Australia. The Rusts and others donated their time to Victoria to update and digitize the provincial records. In the course of their work they discovered a beautiful Russian woman who moved to Australia—with scant history before that–where she prospered. After several decades in Australia, the woman returned to Russia mysteriously, and was never heard of again. Her Australian husband applied for a probate of her estate a decade or two after her disappearance but was never granted a death certificate or any control of her sizable assets for equally mysterious reasons. Beyond those skimpy facts, the woman has slipped away into the mists of time.

  The Yusupov family, alluded to in Alexandra, is legendary in pre-Soviet revolutionary empire history as one of the richest families in the world, decidedly the richest family in Russia–even wealthier than the tzars. Their influence was comparable to that of the imperial family. The characters based on the Yusupov family are briefly mentioned by name, but the principle protagonist—an important scion of the family—is entirely a product of the author’s imagination. Considerable license has been taken in describing actual events and dates in China, Australia, Russia and the Yusupov family’s histories but actual events and places are included that are part of history and lore for the purpose of creating a realistic setting for the actions of the novel. Changes from history (such as some dates and places) to serve the story are included unapologetically at the discretion of the author.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The author is indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Rust and their fellow missionaries for their assiduous efforts to discover any and everything possible about the woman who has morphed into the main character of this novel and for their insistence that I write a book about their fascination with the mysterious woman. They worked with a number of other expert archivists from the LDS church and the State of Victoria to update and to scan in the treasured archives before they are lost to the elements and various invading creatures. To name a few of those tireless and generous contributors who have saved Australia millions of dollars: Delbe
rt and LaRae Dillingham, Jim and Marilyn Freeman, Daniel Wilksch, Lupe Pulu, and Dee Madden.

  It was of interest to this author to see the passion of these dedicated missionaries not only to their work, but to the concept that the person whose name and brief factual history they had unearthed was a real person who lived and who cries out for her life to be so fully discovered that she can take her place with other “saints” whose factual identities will be preserved in the remarkable genealogical archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That church library exists for the benefit of anyone who might develop an interest in any one of those identities so preserved. This author regrets that this book must be one of fiction since there is not enough information available to permit more than a footnote to the life of this undoubtedly remarkable woman.

  The author is forever grateful to Evan Swensen and his publishing company, Publication Consultants, for the generous help to craft this book into one acceptable under his stringent writing and publishing requirements. He is owed a similar debt of gratitude for the previous books published under the author’s name by Publication Consultants. The friendship and advice of members of Author Masterminds is also greatly appreciated.

  The author obtained invaluable historical insight from the following publications, to name a few:

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 1962, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956, 1973

  Count Lyov Nikolayevich Tolstoy: The Cossacks, 1863, War and Peace, 1869, Anna Karenina, 1877), The Cossacks, 1863, Family Happiness, 1859, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, 1886

  David Cordingly, Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, Random House Paperback, May 9, 2006

  Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment, 1866, The Idiot, 1869, The Brothers Karamazov, 1880

  Geoffrey Blainey, A Shorter History of Australia, Vantage Books, 1994

  Homer—Translated by Robert Fitzgerald: The Iliad, The Odyssey

  John R. Bernasconi, The Wordsworth Guide to Antiques and Fine Arts, Wordsworth References, 1971

  Josh Provan, Ching Shih, The Pirate Queen of the China Sea, Hong Kong Maritime Museum

  Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, A History of Russia, Oxford University Press, 2004

  Philip Gosse, The History of Piracy, (Dover Maritime) Paperback, August 31, 2007 (original, 1932)

  Phillip Knightley, Australia: A Biography of a Nation, Vantage, 2001

  Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, USNR, The Constitution Gun Deck, a Naval Historical Center Publication

  Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding, 1986

  Robert Service, The Last of the Tsars, Nicholas II and The Russian Revolution, Macmillan, 2017

  The Editorial Committee of Chinese Civilization: A Source Book (Author), China: Five Thousand Years of History & Civilization, Paperback, April 30, 2007

  The Military History of Tsarist Russia, Editors: Kagan, F., Higham, R., Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

  DEDICATION

  To Alexandra Sokolova Nakis, may she know that she is loved.

  Lest we forget.

  [Alexandra Abramovna Tarasova-Yusupov Bradshaw] “is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…” To paraphrase and to take liberties from Churchill’s famous quotation regarding Russia.

  —Winston Churchill, BBC radio broadcast,

  October, 1939

  BOOKS BY CARL DOUGLASS

  Neurosurgeon Who Writes with Gripping Realism

  FICTION

  Last Phoenix-A Novel of Betrayal and Revenge, A Story of the CIA’s Phoenix Program

  Gog and Magog—Yawm al-Qiyamah, Yawm al-Din, The Day of Judgment

  Sheep Dog and The Wolf-A Story of Terrorism and Response, and the Sheep Dogs Who Protect

  Trojan Horse in the Belly of the Beast, Three Books:

  – Though They Come From the Ends of the Earth-Book One

  – Dancing with the Devil-Book Two

  – Trojan Horse in the Belly of the Beast-Book Three

  Finders Keepers, Losers Weep-A Novel of Innocence Betrayed and the Search for Restitution

  Gog and Magog—Yawm al-Qiyamah, Yawm al-Din, The Day of Judgment

  Saga of a Neurosurgeon Series, Six Books:

  – Young Coyote-Book One: Garven Wilsonhulme’s Way to Success-No Quarter Asked and None Given

  – Anything Goes-Book Two

  – Heaven and Hell-Book Three: Garven Wilsonhulme Takes on All Comers in the Jungle of Modern Competition

  – Long Climb-Book Four: Young M.D., Garven Wilsonhulme, Engaged in a Social Poker Game of Winner Takes All

  – Academia: The Law of the Jungle-Book Five: Surgeon in Training, Garven Wilsonhulme, Fang-and-Claw Competition for Glory

  – The Vulture and the Phoenix-Book Six: Neurosurgeon, Garven Wilsonhulme, the Final Great Fight

  All in Jest-Renowned Neurosurgeon in the Fight of Her Life

  NOVELLAS (Twelve)

  Sybil Series

  McGee Series

  1st Novella-The End of the Beginning

  1st Novella-Friends at Homeland Security

  2nd Novella-Uncharted Country, Uncertain Future

  2nd Novella-Crossing the Cult

  3rd Novella-Secrets

  3rd Novella-Wednesday’s Child

  4th Novella-Secrets and Scandals

  4TH Novella-Death on a Pale Horse

  5th Novella-Decisions

  5th Novella-The Boss’s Daughters

  6th Novella-Running with the Big Dogs

  6th Novella—Another Whistle Blower

  NONFICTION

  On Evolution, The Origin of Selection, Order, Progression, and Diversity–out of print

  Something About Religion—out of print

  BOOK ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  A SCION IS BORN

  There are only three events in a man’s life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born; he dies in pain; and he forgets to live.

  —Jean de la Bruyere

  Arkhangelskoye Estate, Moscow, Russia, June 22, 1852

  A squalling, red-faced baby was born after his twenty-year-old mother had been in active labor for twenty-eight hours, and the family feared for her life. His final emergence into the world was considered to be an omen by the peasantry and nobility alike–whether for good or evil–no one was certain. His name–already determined by his authoritarian father–the robust nine-pound boy–upon his first cry—became one of richest members of the richest family in the empire and the entire world for that matter. As soon as he was able to walk and talk, he would begin to have divine right authority of life and death over the family serfs, to command legendary sums of money for his every whim, and would be ranked in the upper five of the empire’s eligible bachelors. He was christened Prince Boris Nikolaiovich Yusupov when he was baptized with three immersions at three-days-old by the venerable family priest, Episkopos Johannes Ivanovich Vasiliev. The most important witness of that ceremony was not his princely father or mother but his godfather, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich son of Alexander II Tzar of all the Russias. Thus, was tiny Boris linked for all of his life to the tzars of Russia.

  The baby’s mother, Princess Tatiana Alexandrovna de Ribeaupierre Yusupov–a lady-in-waiting to the Empress–waited until the baptism ceremony was over, then she took her husband’s hand and led him a short distance away for a brief private conversation.

  “Niki, there is something we should discuss; and today is the appropriate time since Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich is here in our home.”

  “A problem, Tati? Surely not today?”

  “Not a problem, my dear Niki, just something to discuss.”

  “And something of a mystery, I take it.”

  “Not really…not at all, in fact. My young ladies’ group discussed modern health issues and especially obstetrics and infant care this past month since three of us were with child and late in our terms.

  Niki’s resp
onse was a brief affectionate laugh, more of a snort.

  “Don’t belittle them–my dear husband–they are ladies of the most important families in the empire, and the best educated women in all of the Russias. Let me finish what I wanted to discuss with you. The ladies, Especially Countess Helene Charlotte Louise von Phalen, who serves as a lady of the state and the painter, Maria Baehr, are very knowledgeable about what should be done. Both of them studied in Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, the greatest school for the sciences in all of Europe.

  When she finished that inflated sentence, Prince Nikolai, gave her one of his irritating and patronizing avuncular smiles and asked, “Tell me, dearest one, what did you learn?”

  She was aware of his prejudice against learning that women participated in and especially which they taught as science. In fact, he often quoted the Chinese dogma from next door Manchuria, “women’s virtue is without talent”, a particularly odious statement to Irina and her friends—not that she would ever criticize her husband for saying it.

  “The latest safety measure, which is catching on all over the world, is circumcision of baby boys.”

  He started to speak, but she put up her hand to stop him.

  “Wait until I finish, my prince,” she said, “I am assured that babies have fewer infections, and later on in life, their women get fewer infections as well. You will be pleased to learn that male potency is also enhanced, but I hesitate to mention a subject so delicate as that,” she smiled.

  He could not restrain himself to just a disdainful smile, and he laughed heartily.

  “Hogwash! You know where that bit of lunacy comes from don’t you?”

  “Besides the university, no; but, I assume you are about to inform me.”

  “I am indeed, Tati, and to save you embarrassment. The professors there in Berlin are Jewish, and you are learning Hebrew scientific nonsense—about the same as their alchemy of yesteryear. To be blunt, circumcision is as Jewish as their prophet, Moses. We–and I mean you– have to regard any such silliness as being just another effort by the sheenies to elevate themselves.”