Mme Basilewsky

Overview

The mother of Mme Doubelt and, by that, of the other Basilewsky daughters (Princess Souvoroff, Mme Kondareff, Mme Smelsky), a Russian multimillionaire widow of seventy-one in 1883 (presumably the wife of the old Basilewsky, the gold-mine owner of 075.0121; the diary does not say so). Marie reports the gossip, which she presents as hearsay, that the Metropolitan Isidore of St Petersburg, aged eighty-four, has for years been tied to her «par une amitié que l'on dit criminelle».

In Marie's diary

• 18 September 1883 (101.0381–0382): the letter her mother obtained through Mme Doubelt from the Metropolitan to Prince Orloff «doit être bonne», since «le saint père est lié depuis des années à Mme Basilewsky (mère de Mme Doubelt)»; «Mme Basilewsky est archi-millionnaire, elle a soixante et onze ans et le Métropolite en a quatre-vingt-quatre, il s'appelle Isidore» (see METROPOLITAN, MME_DOUBELT).

The tags of 101.0381–0382 still point to BASILEWSKY and should move here.

Sources

The diary paragraphs cited; footnote 101.0381.1 on Isidore (Nikolsky).