An exhibition dedicated to one of the most well-known dancers of the 19th century - the prominent Russian ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska (1872-1971) – has been opened in St. Petersburg.

      Specially for opening of the exposition the organizers have prepared a movie, in which an actress playing the ballerina is communicating with visitors of the museum.  She tells about the house and about her private life. Her mansion recognized as a unique monument of modernist style epoch, was often visited by Feodor Chaliapin, Sergei Diaghilev, Carl Faberge and the Romanovs princes.  The museum show-windows are full of documents, which remained in Kshesinsky’s house after her emigration to Paris.  

      A special place among them belongs to her love correspondence with the Cesarevitch Nikolay Aleksandrovich.  However, it is very difficult to read what the ballerina wrote in these letters, because her handwriting was microscopic.  Mathilde’s ballet dress and her home interior decorations recreate the atmosphere of that epoch.

      The exhibition takes place in the State Museum of Political History of Russia.