Alexandra Lapierre - Between Love and Honor

Maria Nicolaïevna(1819–1879): grand duchess, eldest daughter of Nicholas I. Married the first time to Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg in 1839, widowed in 1853. She was secretly engaged to Gregory Alexandrovitch Stroganov, without her father’s knowledge and with the complicity of Tatiana Borissovna Potemkina, in the church at Gostilitsy, but married for the second time only in 1856, after her father’s death.

Mikhaïl Nicolaïevitch(October 13, 1832–1909): fourth son and seventh child of Nicholas I, student at the First Cadet Corps of Saint Petersburg with Jamal Eddin. In September 1849, when the uncle for whom he was named, Mikhaïl Pavlovitch, died of a heart attack in Warsaw, he took over the command of all of his regiments, including the Vladimirsky Lancers, to which Jamal Eddin belonged. He became viceroy of the Caucasus in 1862.

Mikhaïl Pavlovitch:grand duke and younger brother of Nicholas I, born in 1798, died of a heart attack in September 1849, during maneuvers in Warsaw. Married Elena Pavlovna in February 1824. He was in charge of the administration of all the military schools of Moscow and Saint Petersburg and was inspector general of the First Cadet Corps and the Pages’ Corps. Jamal Eddin chose to belong to the regiment of Grand Duke Mikhaïl Pavlovitch, whose ward he had been since his arrival in Russia. Thus he joined the Vladimirsky Lancers in 1849.

Milyutin, Dmitri Alexeyevitch(1816–1912): after various posts in the army, requested transfer to the Caucasus in 1839. He served under General Grabbe, participated in the siege of Akulgo, and was wounded several times during the campaign. He took notes on all he saw and was the author of drawings of the mountain and the two plateaus used by the Russians. His journal gives a day-by-day account of the siege and does not fail to mention Russian atrocities. He returned in 1840 and spent three years in Saint Petersburg, leaving for the Caucasus once again in 1843. This tour was even more frustrating than the last, since his superiors ignored his suggestions for pacification. He thought of resigning from the army but found a post at the military academy. In 1848, he attracted the attention of the minister of war, with whom he became close. In November 1854, he presented a report on the wars of the Caucasus to Nicholas I. In 1856, Alexander II took his information into account before sending him back to combat Shamil for a third time. He followed Prince Bariatinsky, the new viceroy, in March 1856. He was present at Gunib when Shamil surrendered in 1859. He returned to Saint Petersburg in July 1860. A few years later, he became minister of war.

Mohammed al-Yaragli (Sheik):spiritual master of two of the imams of Dagestan, Khazi Mullah and Shamil. Partisan of the holy war.

Mohammed Ghazi:second son of Shamil, born in April 1833 in Ghimri, proclaimed heir to the imam, naïb of Karata, and married Kherimat, daughter of Daniyal Bek, in 1851. Died at Medina in 1902.

Mohammed Sheffi:third son of Shamil, born in 1839 in Baïan, died in 1904 in Piatigorsk.

Muraviev, General Count Nicholas Mikhaïlovitch(known as Muraviev-Karskii, to distinguish him from his son, “the hanger of Warsaw,” and several others who shared his name, “Karskii” meaning he who took the city of Kars, 1794–1866): general in charge of Russian troops in Warsaw in 1854. It was he who received the letter of Czarevitch Alexander, son of Nicholas I, describing the abduction of the Georgian princesses by Shamil and the necessity of informing Lieutenant Jamal Eddin. In his memoirs, he describes the young man’s surprise and his reactions. He himself became general in chief of the Army of the Caucasus and made part of the trip to the mountains at the beginning of 1855 with Jamal Eddin. He reported regularly to the minister of war concerning Jamal Eddin’s situation after the latter returned to his father.

Mohammed Mirza Khan:heir to Queen Pakkou-Bekkhe at Kunzakh, pro-Russian.

Naqshbandi:Sufi brotherhood to which Shamil belonged.

Neidhardt:general who replaced Grabbe and Golovine in 1843, whose vulgarity influenced the decision of Daniyal Bek, sultan of Elisou, to change sides and support Shamil.

Nicholas, Baron Leontine Pavlovitch:husband of Sophie Chavchavadze, brother-in-law of David and, by marriage, of Anna Chavchavadze. Commander of the fort at Khassav-Yurt, two days’ ride from Dargo-Veden, Shamil’s headquarters where the princesses were held, in 1854–1855. Jamal Eddin got along so well with him that he continued to request books from him during his detainment by his father.

Nicholas I(Gatchina, June 25, 1796–Saint Petersburg, February 18, 1855): third son of Paul Petrovitch Romanov and Maria Feodorovna. Married Charlotte of Prussia, known as Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, in 1817. His reign began December 14, 1825.

Nicholas Nicolaïevitch(Tsarskoye Sielo, July 27, 1831–April 13, 1891): Third son of Nicholas I. Educated in the First Cadet Corps with Jamal Eddin, who was his age. Against his own wishes, he married Princess Alexandra Petrovna of Oldenburg February 6, 1856.

Olenin, Alexey Nicolaïevitch(1764–1843): illustrious grandfather of Elizaveta Petrovna Olenina, fiancée of Jamal Eddin. Member of the State Council, president of the Beaux-Arts Academy, director of the Public Library of Saint Petersburg, archaeologist, historian, the incarnation of Saint Petersburg intellectual life. At his country house in Priutino, he received his greatest contemporaries in the world of literature and art.

Olenin, Piotr Alexeyevitch(1793–1868): painter, second son of Alexey Nicolaïevitch Olenin. He and his older brother Nicholas Alexeyevitch fought at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. Father of Jamal Eddin’s fiancée.

Olenina, Anna Alexeyvna(1808–1888): youngest daughter of Alexey Olenin and Elizaveta Marcovna, sister of Piotr and aunt of Elizaveta, Jamal Eddin’s fiancée. Pushkin had proposed marriage to her at Priutino in 1829.

Olenina, Elizaveta Petrovna:born February 26, 1832, at Torjok, died in 1922 at the age of ninety. Fiancée of Jamal Eddin. She would marry several years after his death. Her family encouraged her to write her memoirs, and she described at length her tragic love affair with Jamal Eddin, whose memory she still worshipped.

Olga Nicolaïevna(1822–1892): second daughter of Nicholas I. Married Charles I of Wurttemburg in 1846.

Orbeliani, Elico (Prince Elizbar, Ilya Dmitrievitch Orbeliani, Elico)(1817–1853): married May 1, 1852, to Princess Varvara of Georgia. Ten years earlier, in 1842, he had been Shamil’s prisoner in Dargo for eight months. Younger brother of the famous poet Grigol Orbeliani, he too was a career officer in the Russian army. He was a colonel when he died at Oguzlu December 8, 1853, killed by the Turks. Elico Orbeliani had only one son, born shortly before his death.

Orbeliani, Prince Grigol(1804–1883): renowned Georgian poet and older brother of Elico Orbeliani, husband of Varenka of Georgia. He was commander of the fort at Temir-Khan-Chura during the exchange of March 10, 1855.

Pakkou-Bekkhe:queen (khanum) of Kunzakh, in Avaria, assassinated with all her children by the second imam, Hamzat Bek, and Shamil, in August 1834.

Paskyevitch, Prince Ivan Fedorovitch(Warsaw, 1782–1856): victor of the Russo-Turkish war, in 1826 he replaced Yermolov as viceroy of the Caucasus. He was recalled in October 1831 to fight the Poles, whose resistance he crushed mercilessly. From this time on, he was always accompanied by his guard of Cossacks and Muslims. In 1849, he was in charge of repressing the Hungarian uprising. He was much loved by Nicholas I, who called him his “father colonel.”