Katya & The Prince of Siam

In the spring of 1903, the annual Review took place on the Champs de Mars. Fifty or sixty thousand troops – Cuirassiers, Cossacks, Ataman of the Tsarevitch, Dragoon Guards, Mounted Grenadiers, Chevaliers-Gardes of Empress Marie, Gendarmes of the Guard, the Cossacks of the Emperor, the Hussars and many more – filed in glittering array before their Tsar. After an hour of brilliant manoeuvres, the Review ended with the traditional breathtaking Cavalry Charge. Withdrawing in perfect formation, a considerable distance from the Imperial entourage, which included the Empress and Grand-Duchesses in open carriages, the Cavalry took up position. Silence fell, broken only by the clink of harness. Then a whip-crack command echoed from regiment to regiment and, helmets gleaming, lances glinting, the entire force thundered towards the Tsar but, within a few feet of him, at a shrill command, reined back, halted and stopped dead.

After this splendid finale to another phase of their life in Russia, Chakrabongse and Poum had special leave to visit their native land in the autumn and winter of 1903-1904. Received at Singapore by one of Chulalongkorn’s aide-de-camps, they continued their journey in the royal yacht, and three days later were welcomed by the King with a state reception in Bangkok. Chakrabongse stayed with his brother, Crown Prince Vajiravudh, at Saranrom Palace – where the Tsar had stayed when Tsarevitch in 1893. He was given a commission in the First Infantry Regiment, King Chulalongkorn’s own bodyguard.

All manner of lavish banquets, fêtes and entertainments had been planned to demonstrate his father’s satisfaction with his excellent achievements in Russia, – satisfaction fully shared by his mother, Queen Saowabha. But when Chakrabongse fell more than a little in love with a pretty princess, one of his numerous half-sisters, Chulalongkorn was displeased and told him: ‘Such marriages are out-of-date. You are heir-presumptive and can marry anyone you wish’, meaning of course that his son could pick and choose among the highest in the land when the right time came for him to do so.

While consanguineous marriages were still commonplace, it is likely that Chulalongkorn felt they were no longer desirable and it is even more likely that the King considered that marriage at this point would interfere with his son’s future prospects and progress in Russia. Chulalongkorn could not foresee how much he would regret his words and the interpretation that would be put on them in time to come.

Leaving Siam in January 1904, Chakrabongse and Poum arrived in Singapore in the royal yacht, and boarded the SS Roon, on their way to Russia via Genoa. The Secretary of the Siamese Legation in Tokyo, who was sailing with then, told them war was imminent between Russia and Japan – information which they disbelieved as did everyone else on board. Yet on landing at Genoa, they heard that two Russian warships had already been sunk by the Japanese at Port Arthur.

This conflict – most unpopular in Russia – had support from circles close to the Tsar, who thought that ‘a small victorious war’ would provide diversion from increasing revolutionary unrest. But, as it turned out, the war was a disaster and a great loss of prestige for the Russian army, while the flickering flame of revolution burned still higher and more steadily.

The repressive Minister of the Interior, Pleve had been assassinated in 1904 to be replaced by the more liberal Mirsky (a short lived appointment). In December 1904 a manifesto promising some form of nation-wide elections was drafted, and the highly charged atmosphere led in early 1905 to a general strike of Petersburg workers. On 9th January 1905, 150,000 workers, their wives and children, led by the priest Father Gapon marched to the Winter Palace to petition the Tsar to grant reforms, only to be met with unprecedented violence and repression with hundreds left dead or wounded. Hundreds of thousands of workers reacted with solidarity strikes and throughout January St. Petersburg was in turmoil.

Amidst such an atmosphere of political tension, in the early spring of 1905, Chakrabongse called at Madame Chrapovitzkaya on her ‘At Home’ day where, released from the formality of the Court and the rather enervating company of the sentimental young ladies with whom he danced and flirted at correct social evenings, he felt indeed more at home. For the people he met here had ideas and interests extending to wider horizons and their intelligent talk and banter refreshed and stimulated him.