Mathilde Kschessinska — dancer with roots in the Russian Empire
Mathilde Kschessinska was the prima ballerina assoluta of the Imperial Russian Ballet and a central figure in the final years of Tsarist Russia. She had a famous relationship with the future Tsar Nicholas II before his marriage, and her St. Petersburg mansion became the Bolshevik headquarters in 1917. She emigrated to Paris where she ran a ballet school until the 1960s.
Tracing the roots — St. Petersburg
Born in Ligowo near St. Petersburg in 1872 to Polish-born dancer Feliks Krzesiński and his Russian wife, Kschessinska was trained at the Imperial Ballet School and became the most celebrated dancer of the Romanov court. Her life — from the Tsar's mistress to Parisian emigrée and teacher — traces the entire arc of Russian imperial culture's collapse and dispersal.
.svg?width=900)
St. Petersburg. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.