page_title: Catherine Radziwill
section_title: Literary career
hierarchical_section_title: Catherine Radziwill / Literary career
caption_attribution_description: English: Princess Catherine Radziwill with a red ribbon around her neck with inscription by the artist's wife 'no. 60 rue At. Boldini/Emilia Boldini Cardonay' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 47 x 56.5 cm.
context_page_description: Princess Catherine Radziwiłł was a Polish-Russian aristocrat. Born in Russia into the Polish-Lithuanian House of Rzewuski, her maternal family was the Russian Dashkov-Vorontsov family. In 1873 she married the Polish-Lithuanian Prince Wilhelm Radziwiłł.
  She was a prominent figure at the Imperial courts in Germany and Russia, but became involved in a series of scandals. She combined her love for the luxury of the courts, social life, gossip and intrigue with her literary talent and she wrote two dozen books on European royalty and the Russian court, including Behind the Veil at the Russian Court and her autobiography It Really Happened.
context_section_description: In 1884, Nouvelle Revue published a series of articles written as letters to a young diplomat by the elderly Count Paul Vasili. The articles were critical of Berlin society and full of damaging gossip about the imperial court. The publication of the articles, collected in the book Berlin Society, created a great scandal at the court.  Count Paul Vasili was a fictional character and a subsequent investigation indicated Auguste Gérard, the empress' French reader, as the author. Only in 1918 in her book Confessions of the Czarina, Radziwill admitted that she was the author of Berlin Society. The confusion was aggravated as other anonymous writers also began to use the pen-name Count Paul Vasili.
  After the publication of Berlin Society, Radziwill began to be seen with suspicion in Berlin and she traveled extensively with her husband. When her father died in Russia in April 1888, Radziwill decided to stay in St. Petersburg where her youngest son, Casimir, was born the same year. At the Russian court, Princess Radziwill had a prominent position. She became a friend and admirer of Konstantin Pobedonostsev. Her political leanings, very liberal while in Berlin, turned to staunchly conservative in Russia. She also began an affair with General Peter Alexander Cherevin, court commandant, head of the Third section of the Okhrana, and one of Tsar Alexander III's few trusted friends. During the late 1880s and early 1890s, Princess Radziwill reached the pinnacle of her life and of her influence at the court. Her situation suffered a sharp down turn with the deaths of Tsar Alexander III in 1894 and of her lover Cherevin in early 1896. Estranged from her husband and children, she earned some money writing articles for American magazines and newspapers chronicling British society, but she accumulated debts.
  In the summer of 1899, Radziwill left for South Africa setting her eyes on South African-based British magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes. They initially became friends, but Rhodes, who some writers and academics have suggested was homosexual, pulled away from her. Nevertheless, he paid her debts and sent her back to London; there Radziwill published the book The Resurrection of Peter, defending Rhodes. 
  
  A scandal in London involving debts accumulated by her son Nicholas (that she tried to pay by claiming a stolen pearl necklace on a London Hotel) sent her back to Cape Town in the summer 1900. There she met Harry Hindle, son of James Hindle of Bradford, masonry contractors on the new Town Hall and Post Office and building associates of Cecil Rhodes at Groote Schuur. Harry and Catherine had a son out of wedlock. His name was Alexi who would later grow up in New York. It would not be until 1971 when he visited South Africa to track down his half-sister living in Durban. However, that did not keep Radziwill from again becoming a news item:
  Princess Radziwill who was charged with having forged bills for large amounts up to £6000- on Mr. Rhodes was arrested on the 24.Sept.1901 for fraud but released on bail the same day until she was charged in the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, Oct.1901 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment after three days of trial. In her own evidence she stated that she had received the bills signed in blank by Mr. Rhodes from Mrs. Scholtz but there appear[sic] to be no doubt that she forged the bills and then attempted to prevent action being taken by threats of publishing correspondence which she alleged was of a compromising nature from Mr Rhodes and Lord Milner. Her methods were, as the Attorney-General described them, the ordinary armoury of the blackmailer: and she had made use of her social position for purposes of intrigue and fraud. She was a fine specimen of the lady adventurer of detective fiction and we may expect her reappearance in a roman à clef dealing with South Africa.
  Radziwiłł spent the two years in jail where she occupied herself in writing. She was fortunate to end up spending only 16 months in prison for her crimes, being released in March of 1903. It is not known what happened to little Al
caption: Princess Catherine Radziwiłł with a red ribbon around her neck, by Giovanni Boldini
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Princess Catherine Radziwill with a red ribbon around her neck", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "101", "Image YResolution": "101", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.11", "Image DateTime": "2010:12:28 16:13:11", "Image Artist": "Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara 1842-1931 Paris)", "Image Copyright": "http://www.christies.com/Lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5403539", "Image ExifOffset": "2484", "Image XPTitle": "[80, 0, 114, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 99, 0, 101, 0, 115, 0, 115, 0, 32, 0, 67, 0, ... ]", "Image XPComment": "[42, 0, 119, 0, 105, 0, 116, 0, 104, 0, 32, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 115, 0, 99, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara 1842-1931 Paris)", "Image XPSubject": "[80, 0, 111, 0, 114, 0, 116, 0, 114, 0, 97, 0, 105, 0, 116, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5200", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6996", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2242", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1842", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}