Omens

THE LIFE AND TRAGEDY OF ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA EMPRESS OF RUSSIA--A Biography-- Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden-- Longmans Green ($7.50).

THE INTIMATE LIFE OF THE LAST TZARINA--Princess Catherine Radziwill-- Dial Press ($5).

Two Stories. When Victoria's granddaughter, German Alix of Hesse, came to her new Russian home as affianced bride of the Cesarevitch, the emotions of an emotional people ran riot, mingling curiosity and doubt with vague glamorous expectations and pity. Of Anglo-German lineage--would she sympathize with Slavic-Byzantine fancies and foibles? Profoundly religious, she had resisted a change of faith, then, suddenly veered, passionately to avow Greek orthodoxy--was it for love of the Cesarevitch, or for ulterior reasons? Considering the influences of liberalism, political if not moral, at her British grandmother's court--would she encourage her royal spouse to grant a constitution? In any event, the poor child was to be pitied coming as she did to a gloomy court that awaited the death of Alexander III.

The wait was not long, and in the midst of mourning an insignificant German princess became empress of all the Russias. Her mother-in-law, Marie Feo-dorovna, beloved of the people, was so steeped in sorrow that she paid very little attention to Alexandra; but the various grand duchesses took pains to make her difficult position yet more difficult with their resentful jealousies. Bashful, awkward, guileless, Alix, now Alexandra Feo-dorovna, disdained the gentle art of flummery, and was only took frank in her disapproval of Russian frivolity.

Most glittering and ceremonious of festivals was the last Russian coronation, May, 1896. Each in her gilded coach, two empresses followed in slow procession, the first, Dowager Empress Marie, to be greeted with huzzahs of adoration; and the second, Alexandra, with a sudden silence, variously interpreted. Baroness Buxhoeveden, friend and lady-in-waiting to the last empress, says the crowds were struck dumb with holy awe. But Princess Radziwill, member of the St. Petersburg aristocracy Alexandra failed to please, calls the dumbness "a solemn, ominous silence . . . majestic absence of emotion on the part of the multitude."

Alexandra's unpopularity, if such indeed it was, steadily increased. Her constant advice to the tsar was that he show himself man and ruler by adamantine autocracy. Her constant offering to the nation was daughter after daughter, and never an heir to the throne. Troubled by this her failing, she resorted to mystic seances (Princess Radziwill includes table-tipping, which the Baroness denies) conducted by a smooth character who turned out to be ex-jailbird and Parisian hairdresser. This Philippe prophesied a son; the Empress believed herself with child; a date was publicly announced, and excitement ran high. But no child appeared--the Empress having suffered the undignified phenomenon of phantom birth.

Years later the Cesarevitch actually was born, a sickly child, victim of an hereditary disease in Alexandra's family. Again the harassed Empress resorted to religion, and Rasputin, notorious mendicant, promised a cure. In gratitude, Alexandra fell completely under the spell of this man--she was his dupe, and he in turn the dupe of countless office-seekers, climbers, charlatans.

Between them all the monarchy fell.

The Significance. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was variously accused of misguiding her royal spouse, of sympathizing traitorously with her Vaterland during the War, of antagonizing the Russian aristocracy, and terrorizing the peasantry--in short, of causing downfall to the Russian empire. That this one woman should be held responsible for the inevitable revolt against centuries of abuse is patently ridiculous. But she served as convenient symbol--though less charmingly than Marie Antoinette.

Both biographies exonerate the Empress, but from extremes of viewpoint. With infinite richness of detail, and anecdote of close personal relationship that ended only hours before the tragic finale, the Baroness depicts her mistress as devoted mother, and faithful servant of Russia, indefatigable in charity, painstaking in her advice to the tsar. The Princess, on the contrary, emphasizes Alexandra's ineptitude for social leadership; her temperamental incompatibility with Russian subtleties of mood and method; her stubborn persistence in meddling with political affairs which she did not understand.

The Authors. Princess Radziwill, whose Russian property was of course confiscated during the revolution, is now a naturalized U. S. citizen, and can safely draw the line at being buried by a Bolshevik priest. She also draws the line at the League of Nations ("humbug," "rubbish") but not so safely, because her daughter is an ardent employe of the secretariat. The Princess lives in Manhattan, works for an importer, writes occasional amusing intensities for the press.

Baroness Buxhoeveden was one of the few faithfuls who followed the royal family into their dreary Siberian exile, herself narrowly escaping their gruesome fate. She was constant companion to the grand duchess, but has not recognized the authenticity of the young woman who last year claimed to be Anastasia, escaped.