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360:, "Once in the beginning of July , late at night, when we had been long asleep, there was a knock at my door. Waking, I saw upon the threshold of my bedroom Marianne Zarnekau, one of my stepmother's daughters by her first marriage. She explained that we must immediately dress and go to Petrograd. She had come from there in an automobile to fetch us. According to information which had come to her the uprising of the Bolsheviks was set for the next day . . . "
31:
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420:, told how in about 1923 a nun arrived at their home in Moscow and announced mysteriously that the Tsar and all the family were alive 'somewhere close to the border'. She asked for, and was given, wooly socks to warm the imperial feet. Those who had been able to deal with the little matter of the Tsar's rescue were now apparently having trouble in getting him the right size in socks."
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477:. I married Count Zarnekau, and we were terribly poor. All of our properties had been seized and we had nothing. I helped to found the first dramatic school in Communistic Russia. Then I went to Paris and starred many seasons on the stage. . . . This spring I starred in 'Window Panes.' I do not long for the old Russia. America is so much more interesting."
459:, the ex-Countess was signed to appear on NBC. The Schenectady NY Gazette for 7 January 1938 reported "One of Europe's noted actresses, Mariana Fiory, once a member of the Russian royal family, is to make her first appearance in American radio when she plays in the Radio Guild on WJZ-NBC at 2. The production is Ibsen's
476:
In
October 1939, Hollywood columnist May Mann caught up with Mariana Fiory at a smart Russian perfume bar on Fifth Avenue and heard a similar story. "I was too young. I did not know what the revolution was all about. We left our palaces and lived crowded in rooms. We were glad to have our lives. . .
235:
While
Marianne attended school, her mother gave birth to two more daughters: Irina Pavlovna Romanovskaya-Paleya (1903–1990) and Natalia Hohenfelsen, Countess von Hohenfelsen (1905–1981). Both girls went on to become fashion models in the 1920s, and Natalia Paley later became a Hollywood movie star.
215:
wives of other
Romanov Grand Dukes, Olga never bore the title of "Princess Romanowsky", a name that would have associated her visibly with the Imperial Family. As was customary with morganatic Romanov marriages, moreover, neither Olga nor her children were ever considered to be dynastic members of
468:
The
Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle spotlighted her with a brief interview on 5 November 1938. "The Countess Mariana Zarnekau, daughter of Grand Duke Paul and cousin of the late Russian Czar, scorns titles, knows nothing about dictators, and has no quarrels with Stalinists, but 'adores' the stage and the
436:
In 1930, Marianne divorced Count von
Zarnekau, her third husband, and launched her acting career in Europe under the stage name of "Mariana Fiory". In February 1930, she appeared at the Theatre Mathurins in Paris, starring in the role of a German soldier's grieving fiancee in "The Man I Killed," a
314:"When we arrived at 8 Theatre Square, where Marianne lived, we were stopped by two soldiers who let us through only after taking down our names. All the highest society was at Marianne's! Some ladies she barely knew arrived in order to express sympathy with her. Officers came up to kiss her hand."
294:
During World War I, when things began going badly on the
Russian Front, the newspapers accused Rasputin of exercising a dark and malevolent influence over the Tsar and Tsarina. Considering it their duty to defend the empire and the honor of the Imperial dynasty, family members (and left and right
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Marianne told the reporter she was "very, very ready" to discourse at length on the worthlessness of royal connections. "What did the revolution do for me? Why it set me free, and gave me the chance to fulfill a lifelong ambition to enter the old
Imperial Dramatic School and study for the stage."
480:
During World War II, Marianne moved to
California, where she appeared with Robert Taylor and several Russian actors in the MGM movie "Song of Russia" (1944), the story of an American symphonic conductor, trapped in Russia during World War II, who helps with the resistance. Marianne plays "Nina."
219:
Marianne von
Pistohlkors thus became, at age 15, a countess, and later the daughter of a princess. Upon the Grand Duke's return from France to St. Petersburg in 1905, Marianne also gained two siblings, children of her stepfather's first marriage, whom she had not previously known: a step-sister,
243:
According to Gen. Alexander
Spiridovich, chief of the Tsar's Secret Personal Police, it was this rivalry between the competing salons of St. Petersburg that eventually resulted in the monk Gregory Rasputin being introduced to the Imperial Family. Rasputin arrived at St. Petersburg in 1907, won
324:
According to one author, the Tsar kept their names out of the case because he did not want more public displays of sympathy for the murderers of Rasputin. He also knew that his sickly uncle, Grand Duke Paul, was very upset by Dimitri's involvement in the murder and was taking badly the Tsar's
239:
Between 1905 and the time of Rasputin's murder in 1916, Princess Olga Paley worked hard to make the court of Grand Duke Paul a popular rival to that of the Tsar. The family entertained many important figures in St. Petersburg society, and the house thus became a center of court intrigue.
282:, and a classmate of Marianne's older brother Alexander; secondly in 1912 to Christopher von Derfelden, another of Alexander's classmates in the Horse Guard; and thirdly, on 30 October 1917, to Count Nicholas Constantinovich von Zarnekau, a cornette in the Horse Guard and the son of
231:
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna became a Princess of Sweden and wrote a series of well-received memoirs. Grand Duke Dmitri was an excellent horseman who participated in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and later, along with Marianne, became a suspect in Rasputin's murder.
309:
She, like Grand Duke Dimitri, was later arrested by the Tsar's secret police following the murder. However, the Tsar later ordered her release. Sympathies were on Pistohlkors' side, according to her mother's memoirs,
275:. Alexander and his wife were thus drawn into Rasputin's circle of supporters, and their conversation at family gatherings strongly affected the opinions of Princess Olga and Grand Duke Paul.
452:'s play "Dans le Noir" at the Barbizon-Plaza theatre. Mariana then appeared in "The Shining Hour" with a stock company in New Hampshire, and apparently decided to settle in the U.S.
221:
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441:. Playwright Maurice Rostrand reportedly wrote the play specifically for Marianne. The show was a hit and won glowing reviews. Marianne went on to Rome, to star opposite
379:, and despite constant pleas for his release by Princess Paley, he was shot on 29 January 1919 and buried in a mass grave. His remains were not discovered until 2011.
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According to Burke's Peerage, Marianne herself married three times: firstly in 1908 to Lt. Col. Peter Petrovich Durnovo, the son of the Tsar's chief of secret police,
203:
Only after much pleading by relatives did the Tsar finally relent in 1905 and allow them to return to St. Petersburg. Olga was then granted the Russian title of
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Mariana Fiory, the former Countess von Zarnekau, arrived in the United States in 1936. She first appeared on the New York stage in February 1937 as the lead in
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decision to exile Dmitri to the Persian front. The Tsar presumably did not want to add to the grand duke's suffering by also charging his stepdaughter.
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for his wife and her children to be granted titles of nobility. They were styled as Count/Countess von Hohenfelsen and granted a coat of arms.
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Olga Valerianovna von Pistohlkors eventually obtained a divorce and married Grand Duke Paul on 10 October 1902 in a Greek Orthodox Church in
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None of the male co-conspirators ever publicly denounced Pistohlkors or the other woman suspected of involvement, ballerina and film star
124:. She became one of the first women of nobility to attend the Imperial School of Dramatic Arts, and she appeared under the stage name of
465:
In late 1938, Marianne played "Tessie Konstantin" in the Broadway production of the satire "Waltz in Goose Step" at the Hudson Theatre.
116:; June 30, 1890 – May 14, 1976) was a Russian-born aristocrat and later an actress. She was a suspected co-conspirator in the murder of
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174:, and an older sister, Olga Erikovna von Pistohlkors. When she was still a young girl, her mother began an affair with the widowed
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Marianne and Nicholas von Zarnekau managed to escape from Russia some time after 1923 with the help of her first husband, Peter
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on the night that Rasputin was lured there on 17 December 1916. "Malanya's also taking part," Yussupov wrote to his wife
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Marianne von Pistohlkors was allegedly one of two women and several men present in the palace belonging to
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and his pregnant wife, Alexandra Taneyeva (both at far left), at a gathering of Rasputin's admirers in 1914
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Produced by Joseph Pasternak and directed by Gregory Ratoff, "Song of Russia" premiered in February 1944.
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Natalie Paley, younger sister of Marianne von Pistohlkors, became a Hollywood starlet in the 1930s.
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Spiridovich, Gen. Alexander "How Rasputin Met the Imperial Family," Alexander Palace Time Machine
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Genealogisches Handbuch der baltischen Ritterschaften Teil 1,2: Livland, Lfg. 9-15, Görlitz 1929
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Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958), step-sister of Marianne von Pistohlkors
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by marrying without his permission, they were banished from Russia and moved to France.
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The Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and her second husband, Prince Sergei Mikhailovitch
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Mann, May "Sparkling Dark Eyes," Ogden UT Standard Examiner, 27 October 1939, p. 10
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admirers, and was adopted in 1908 by Anna Vyrubova, a close friend of the Tsarina.
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wing parties in the Imperial Duma) began to plot against him, her and Rasputin.
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Burke's Royal Families of the World, Vol. 1, Burke's Peerage, 1977, p. 244ff
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Through a friendship with Wally Castelbarco, the daughter of composer
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in the weeks before the murder. Pistohlkors' nickname was Malanya.
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386:(1893-1966), chose to stay in St. Petersburg, finally escaping to
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It proved a false alarm and the family returned to their homes in
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At about this time, Marianne and her new husband, Count
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In March 1918, Marianne's half-brother, the poet Prince
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Memories of Russia 1916 - 1919 by the Princess Paley
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Les Dernieres Annees de la Cour de la Tzarskoe Selo
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Portsmouth NH Herald and Times, 15 July 1937, p. 11
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216:the Imperial House before the Revolution of 1917.
663:The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II
416:"Countess de Zarnekau, an ex-patriate living in
445:, a popular Italian film actress of the 1930s.
271:, the sister of the Tsarina's lady in waiting,
612:"Waltz in Goose Step (1938)" BroadwayWorld.com
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761:White Russian emigrants to the United States
170:As a child, Marianne had an older brother,
165:Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia
196:In 1904, Grand Duke Paul arranged through
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647:The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga
528:"Olga Valieranovna Karnovich" Peerage.com
390:in 1919. Princess Olga Paley escaped via
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284:Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg
176:Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
35:Marianne in a masquerade costume (1914)
226:Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich of Russia
222:Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia
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510:Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, p. 105
635:Burke's Royal Families of the World
265:Alexander Erikovich von Pistohlkors
172:Alexander Erikovich von Pistohlkors
182:, who later became a famous poet.
161:Erik Augustinovich von Pistohlkors
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781:Russian people of Finnish descent
705:Anthony Summers and Tom Mangold.
687:Melville H., Marquis de Ruvigny.
159:and her first husband, Maj.-Gen.
114:Марианна Эриковна фон Пистолькорс
45:Marianna Erikovna von Pistohlkors
638:, Vol. 1, Burke's Peerage, 1977
207:, and her son, Vladimir, became
198:Prince Regent Leopold of Bavaria
155:, Russia, she was a daughter of
437:dramatization of the war novel
398:on 2 December 1929, at age 64.
377:St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress
771:20th-century Russian actresses
644:and Constantine V. Pleshakov,
122:Countess Marianne von Zarnekau
94:Arms of the Pistohlkors family
16:Russian aristocrat and actress
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312:Memories of Russia 1916-1919.
501:Doubleday, 2000, pp. 476-477
564:Radzinsky, pp. 441, 476-477
519:Radzinsky, pp. 476-477, 482
157:Olga Valerianovna Karnovich
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681:The Rescue of the Romanovs
263:Marianne's older brother,
257:Alexander von Pistohlkors
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696:Alexander Spiridovitch,
690:The Nobilities of Europe
684:, Devon-Adair Co., 1975
537:Radzinsky, The Last Tsar
304:Princess Irina of Russia
163:. He was an adjutant to
99:Marianne von Pistohlkors
736:Song of Russia TCM Page
726:Mariana Fiore IMDB Page
711:Fontana/Collins, 1977
666:, Random House, 1993.
576:Radzinsky, pp. 476-477
469:Brooklyn waterfront."
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675:, Anchor Books, 2001
650:, Basic Books, 2001,
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394:in 1920, and died in
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354:Nicholas von Zarnekau
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708:The File on the Tsar
439:L'Homme que j'ai tue
411:The File on the Tsar
167:, the Tsar's uncle.
144:Grand Duke Paul and
128:in MGM's 1944 film,
23:Marianne Pistohlkors
766:Russian monarchists
497:Radzinsky, Edvard,
146:Princess Olga Paley
83:Princess Olga Paley
669:Edvard Radzinsky,
660:Edvard Radzinsky,
499:The Rasputin File,
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290:Murder of Rasputin
269:Alexandra Taneyeva
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72:(1976-05-14)
55:30 June 1890
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70:14 May 1976
745:Categories
656:0465024637
629:References
347:Alapayevsk
339:Bolsheviks
213:morganatic
136:Early life
51:1890-06-30
248:Marriages
211:. Unlike
418:Brussels
403:Dournovo
384:Putiatin
151:Born in
693:, 1909
407:Belgium
392:Finland
388:Romania
110:Russian
101:, born
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79:Mother
485:Notes
396:Paris
343:Urals
329:Exile
652:ISBN
67:Died
41:Born
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