The Kindiakovs continued...

Sophia Alexandrovna:
    Sophie grew up in her early years at Kindiakovka, but started travelling with her mother at a young age. She learnt to mix with some important families in Europe, her mother hoping she would learn to blend in and find a good husband. Perhaps she was indulged by her mother, as she became a very headstrong young woman, tending to want what she could not have. She clashed vehemently with her mother, and their relationship became a very difficult one.

    Sophie fell in love with what was considered to be an unsuitable young man. He was unsuitable because he did not have any money, and had no future prospects of an inheritance. Her mother intervened and prevented the relationship from continuing. This was a huge disappointment, and Sophie seemed to blame her mother for her unhappiness from this time on and continued to harbour a resentment for Emilie.

    Later when Sophie met her husband, Robert Percy ffrench, she was happy for a time until she became uncontrollably jealous. A daughter, Kathleen, was born in June 1864.  Sophie's behaviour became erratic, and she fell in with what was considered unsuitable company: liberated women. It was at this time she may have started to experiment with drugs - morphine was the fashionable drug of the time. The responsibility of being a mother didn’t seem to settle her down, and finally Alexander and Emilie had to rescue Sophie and Kathleen and bring them back to Russia. They were shocked by the scandalous gossip passed on to them about their daughter Sophie.

    Basically Sophie surrendered Kathleen to Alexander and Emilie, to be brought up at Kindiakovka. Sophie was shunted aside and sent to another estate, Golovino, where it was thought she couldn’t cause problems. However, it wasn’t long until she missed her friends and the European life, and pleaded with her parents to allow her to live in Europe for some time. Alexander agreed and supported her very modest lifestyle at the French Riviera, where she had several Russian friends.

    She got into trouble from time to time and eventually returned to Russia and settled at Golovino, from where she continued to trouble her parents.

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An Irish Woman in Czarist Russia     
      by Jean Lombard