Poor Mischa was betrayed by his nasty wife and, instead of fleeing, went in answer to their summons – on the advice of his wife -- to police headquarters. He was never seen or heard of again. He was kind but, I suspect, suffered all his life from being very small indeed, in contrast to his brother and to most of his friends. Coli, his elder brother, died when escaping, but his wife got to us for a time and then joined her sons in France.
Lily (Princess Scherbatoff) was shot in the revolution, with her beautiful young daughter and her husband's old aunt. We have never known what happened to the rest of the family. It was too risky to them to make enquiries. Only the family of Vera Denissieff survived, as far as we know. Lindsay, who was Ambassador at Washington, did much, but we could do nothing, and what we did know was told by people who had escaped.
We had no news from Russia, until Vera's daughters turned up. Their French governess was a brave woman. Somehow she got them to Archangel and found an English ship there, bullying the Captain to take them to England. I do not remember all the details, but eventually the three Denissieff girls and Mania the governess got to Nice, where Aunt Nell (with still help from relations) took them in.
Now they are all married. Iya married a man named Serebriakoff and had a daughter. Nelly married a nice young Polish count, Kyril Armfelt, a very nice man. They eventually settled in Paris, where he died. Nelly is still there. Their daughter went to Ballet school and became the leading ballerina of the International Ballet. When retired, Helene married a Swiss dancer. They are now a happy couple, living and working in Basel (Switzerland), both with good jobs. After Aunt Nell died, Uncle Serge lived for several years at Nice, looked after by Nelly and the others.
Serjack escaped and wanted to get into the Army but was very much upset that he was sent in the regiment back to a Russian front. He had meant to fight the Germans. However, he did extremely useful and very dangerous work, and his colonel continually recommended him for promotion and a medal. The War Office, though, could only think of a Russian as not trustworthy and finally the Colonel gave up, as he was threatened, if he continued. When Serjack got out of the Army, he went to the White armies, still struggling for the Tsar, and died there of the prevalent Typhus.
Mariamne married Sandy Smith, whose father was for 25 years M.P. for part of Aberdeenshire. She now has eight grandchildren, all girls! She is very kind to me. Her two sons are doing well. I hear from Mariamne, and occasionally hear of some of the family in France. She is living in half the house at Pitcaple – Crowmallie House – and looks after her two sons and their little daughters. The younger son has a job in Borneo, but all the family come home for leave.
POOR MISCHA
Michael Sergeyevich Plaoutine, second son of General Sergei Nikolaevich Plaoutine and Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle. His arrest took place on September 1, 1918, and he was murdered by the Bolsheviks on September 4, 1918. The "nasty wife" was Selina Rogers, daughter of Henry George Rogers and Louisa Becker, and ex-wife of British Ambassador Arthur William Webster Woodhouse.
COLI
Major General Nikolai Sergeyevich Plaoutine, first son of General Sergei Nikolaevich Plaoutine and Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle. At this time in our research, no one appears to know whether Coli was murdered by the Bolsheviks at his home or died fighting against them in a White-Russian Cavalry regiment. EV's statement implies the first but doesn't rule out the second.
COLI'S WIFE
His wife was Princess Maria Mikhailovna Raevskaya, lady-in-waiting to the Empress and daughter of Mikhail N. Raevskaya and Maria G. Gagarin. She managed to escape Bolshevik Russia in 1920, through the kingdom of Serbia (now Yugoslavia). Her visit to EV and her mother, who were living in Ipswich, would have occurred on this flight. The sons in France were Nicholas Nikolaevich Plaoutine, Serge Nikolaevich Plaoutine, and George Nikolaevich Plaoutine. Her second son, Michael Nikolaevich Plaoutine, was shot in Odessa in 1920, the year in which the Red Army invaded and captured the city. It is possible that Colie's wife was forced to flee at the same time.
LILY
Princess Elizaveta Sergeyevna Plaoutine, daughter of General Sergei Nikolaevich Plaoutine and Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle, and wife of Prince Sergei Borisovich Scherbatoff. Lily was murdered, in her home, by the Bolsheviks in 1921.
LILY'S BEAUTIFUL YOUNG DAUGHTER
Princess Irena Sergeyevna Scherbatoff, fourth child of Prince Sergei Borisovich Scherbatoff and Princess Elizaveta Sergeyevna Plaoutine. Princess Irina was murdered, at home with her mother and "Aunt", by the Bolsheviks in 1921.
HUSBAND'S OLD AUNT
Princess Khovanskaya, a Scherbatoff aunt. One of her nephews left memoirs, in which he also claimed that this Aunt was murdered with Lily, at the time of her execution by the Bolsheviks.
VERA DENISSIEFF
Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine, daughter of General Sergei Nikolaevich Plaoutine and Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle, wife of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff. Vera died in her home, on May 24, 1917, of pneumonia.
LINDSAY
Ambassador Ronald Charles Lindsay, son of James Ludovic Lindsay (26th Earl of Crawford) and Emily Florence Bootle-Wilbraham, making him a cousin of EV's mother and Aunt Nell (mother of Lily and Vera).
VERA'S DAUGHTERS
Elena "Nelly" Denissieff, Iya Denissieff, and Mariamne Denissieff, three daughters of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine (Vera being cousin to EV). At the beginning of the Russian Revolution, the girls were removed from harm's way and sent to live with their Plaoutine grandparents in Nice (Aunt Nell and Uncle Serge). Their French governess was one Mme Maria Labarre. Among EV's personal papers was found a letter from Mariamne, containing the story of the Girls' escape from Russia in 1917. You can read it here.
IYA
Iya Denissieff, second daughter of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine, wife of a Mr. Serebriakoff (with whom she had two children).
NELLY
Elena "Nelly" Denissieff, first daughter of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine, and wife of Count Kyril Armfelt. She died after EV wrote these reminiscences.
SERJACK
Serge Denissieff, son of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine, and soldier with the British 3rd Batallion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. In August 1919, he was awarded the Military Medal. In January 1920, for bravery in the field with the British forces in North Russia, he was awarded a bar to his Military Medal.
MARIAMNE
Mariamne, daughter of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine. First married to her cousin, George Plaoutine, by whom she had one daughter, Helene. Mariamne's husband, daughter and mother-in-law were killed, on December 30, 1942 (as they were just getting up from the dinner table), during the bombing of Philippville in Algiers. Only Mariamne and her two step-children survived. Her second husband was Robert Alexander "Sandy" Smith. Her two sons are Andrew Alexander Smith and Robert Serge "Bob" Smith. Bob currently lives at the family home, Crowmallie House, in Pitcaple, Inverurie, Scotland.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) The Plaoutine Family in Russia (1888)
2) Serjack Denissieff in Lycee Uniform (c. 1917)
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