Ma tante -- Nadine (Nadejda) Romanoff, née Babanine

Who she was

Nadejda (Nadine, Nadia, Nadinka) Stepanovna Babanina, Madame Romanoff, was Marie Bashkirtseff's maternal aunt, the younger sister of #Maman and a daughter of Stepan Babanine (#Grand_papa) and Julie Cornelius (#Grand_maman). Kernberger (2013, Appendix I) lists her as "Nadine (Nadianka, Nadya) Babanine Romanoff: Marie's aunt, married Thaddeus Romanoff, provides money for the family's stay abroad" and "Stepanovna, Nadezhda: Marie's Aunt Nadya, identified by her patronymic". No source seen gives her birth or death dates.

Not to be confused with Sophie Tutcheff (née Bashkirtseff), Marie's paternal aunt and a family enemy, who appears next to "ma tante" in the early diary (for instance 23 February 1873: "maman, ma tante, Sophie, Emile, Dina, moi"), nor with the wives of her brothers, Marie Babanine (née Kandiba, married to Uncle Stepa) and Nadine Babanine (née Martinoff, married to Uncle #Alexandre). "Ma tante" in the diary is always Nadine Romanoff.

Marie's 1884 preface introduces her as "plus jeune que maman, mais pas jolie, restant sacrifiée et se sacrifiant à tout le monde" (000.0012). The family's scheme to marry her to the rich landowner Thaddeus Romanoff, "très riche célibataire de quarante ans", was carried out about 1866--67, with Maman placed in front as bait and Georges pushing (000.0018). The decision was taken at Odessa after a summer at Yalta: "chacun se dit qu'il fallait en finir et que ma tante ne trouverait jamais un aussi beau parti. Il fallait seulement le consentement du monsieur. Mais c'était une grosse bête habituée à nous tous, et pas le moins du monde amant de maman, quoiqu'on ait dit, ce fut facile. Moi-même j'y déployais mon éloquence de neuf ans" (000.0019; Kernberger dates the scheme "towards 1866 or 1867"). Soon afterwards, "trois jours après notre arrivée", Grand-maman died suddenly (Kernberger dates her death 1867), and Romanoff fell ill with "accès de délire et de folie" (000.0020); in Vienna he was "mieux et plus fou du tout" (000.0022). The family left Russia in 1870 with him and the family doctor #Walitsky (000.0023). Romanoff was dead by about 1871: in March 1875 Marie speaks of events "avant la mort de mon oncle Romanoff", four years earlier (030.0252). The fortune that came to Nadine with him paid for the family's years in Nice and Paris, and Marie's villa on the Promenade des Anglais is listed in Kernberger's glossary as "bought for her by her Aunt Romanoff".

The Romanoff lawsuit

Romanoff's heirs, his sister among them, contested the will and the transactions of his last years on the ground that he was insane. In July 1881 Marie reports the formal charge: "attentat d'escroquerie contre la fortune de M. Romanoff", brought on the complaint of the heirs alone against his widow, Maman and Uncle Alexandre, "sa femme et maman et Alexandre parce qu'ils sont sœur et frère", and "au bout de douze années de tracasseries et de calomnies, tout le monde apparaît innocent" (092.0288). In February 1883 she says the suit lasted ten years and that "on savait que nous finirions par le gagner" (098.0272). Rumours that Romanoff had been poisoned, which the heirs "n'ont pas osé" put in the pleadings, circulated in Nice through Mme Tutcheff and others and reached Paris, where the rumour became that "c'est Mlle Bashkirtseff qui avait empoisonné son père" (098.0272) -- an attack that Marie, who was twelve when it began, answers by saying she "remembered everything".

Ma tante and Marie, 1873--1881

For the first years of the diary Ma tante is the constant companion, chaperone and banker. Marie describes her as at once devoted and exasperating. On 18 July 1873: "Ma tante, tous ces jours, commence à être si bonne pour moi, elle me caresse souvent" (007.0065); on 11 August: "Comme ma tante m'adore !" (008.0005); on 24 August Marie notes that she "dit quelquefois des choses qu'elle ne connaît pas, et toutes défigurées. Seulement pour soutenir la conversation" (008.0154). She refused to let the girls go to a café-concert ("c'est un café, c'est commun, c'est mauvais") on 7 June 1873 (005.0208).

The will, 29 July 1873. On the journey to Vienna, at an inn, Ma tante raised the possibility of dying without a will; M. Anitchkoff dictated one while Marie made jokes. She leaves everything to Marie on condition that Marie pays 25,000 roubles each to Dina, Paul, Georges and Maman and 3,000 to Walitsky (007.0275--0276).

1882--1884

Paris, 1882--83. In August 1882 Ma tante takes Marie to her sittings and goes shopping while she poses, "comme tous les jours" (096.0038). On 24 September 1882 Marie, eating a silent dinner and exchanging "quelques rares paroles" with her aunt, pities and blames herself: "elle n'a rien dans la vie ... on l'a toujours sacrifiée à maman qui était belle, et à présent elle ne vit que pour nous, pour moi et je ne trouve pas moyen d'être gaie et gentille" (096.0292--0293). Marie counts her among the "trois femmes" who pray for her every morning and evening (098.0178).

The Soulima affair. Ma tante had been drawn at nineteen into a quarrel in which her brothers Georges and Alexandre beat someone, "et ça s'appelle au procès" (096.0338): she and Maman had watched it from their windows and were summoned as witnesses (101.0588). In October 1882 she refused to come to Russia because of it, and "m'a lâchée à la frontière", leaving Marie to travel on with Paul (096.0338, 096.0378). In May 1883 Marie argues with her: the unfinished case keeps the family in disrepute in Paris, and Ma tante objects that she does not want "rester deux ans là-bas" (099.0342--0346). When Maman leaves for Poltava on 13 May for Papa's last illness, Ma tante is "enchantée, elle croit que cela lui évitera le voyage. Erreur" (099.0439). In October 1883 Marie learns that the promise that all was settled "à l'occasion du couronnement" was untrue: "ma tante a été appelée de nouveau en septembre, et grâce à un certificat de médecin c'est remis au mois de mai" (101.0588--0589). On 1 October 1884, in the last month of Marie's diary, Ma tante leaves for the hearing; Marie, in tears at a muddle over the dates, shouts at the departure (106.0123).

Salon 1883. On the morning of Marie's mention honorable, Ma tante and Dina told a journalist about Marie's youth (100.0177--0182) and sat behind her at the ceremony on 22 June (100.0191). Ma tante takes Marie to Marshal Canrobert's house at Jouy-en-Josas on 8 July (100.0294) and goes there again on 5 August, when she "nous cherche querelle à Dina ou à moi" (100.0515).

13 June 1883. Two days after the news of Papa's death, Marie writes: "Je crois que la mort qui me ferait le plus de peine ce serait encore celle de ma tante qui s'est dévouée toute sa vie à tout le monde et qui n'a jamais, pas une seule minute vécu pour elle, sauf les heures passées à la roulette de Bade ou de Monaco" (100.0155). She admits she has not kissed her aunt in a year and that she is unkind from "fausse honte" (100.0156--0157). On 21 September she tells her mother and aunt that they will end their days at Monaco, among the croupiers (101.0424).

Inheritance. Marie's share of her father's estate was small (100.0204); the family regarded it as "une petite usurpation parce que ma tante me donnera sa fortune" (101.0415).

Bastien-Lepage's last summer. In August and September 1884 Ma tante goes with the others to the Bastien-Lepages' house, in the Rue Legendre (105.0612, 105.0727, 105.0780). On 5 August she meets Marie with a three-week-old pug puppy (105.0447). Jules Bastien-Lepage "aime beaucoup ma tante. Il dit que c'est l'abnégation et la bonté en personne. Mais au fait, c'est la vérité. Ma tante est bien meilleure que maman et toujours sacrifiée, toujours" (105.0550). Marie, jealous, writes that he loves her better than "maman, ma tante ou Dina... Et encore ce n'est pas sûr" (105.0694).

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