Alexandra Zhukovskaya

Alexandra Vasilievna Zhukovskaya (11 November 1842 in Düsseldorf – 26 August 1899 in Wendischbora, Germany), was a Russian noble and lady in waiting. Biography She was the daughter of Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky and Elizabeth von Reutern. Her father was the illegitimate son of a landowner named Afanasi Bunin and his Turkish housekeeper Salkha. She was made lady-in-waiting at the Russian Imperial court. At the age of twenty, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the 4th son of Alexander II, according to the generally accepted opinion, secretly married Zhukovskaya (there is no exact information when and where: according to some sources in Italy, according to others – 9/21 September 1868 in Russian Orthodox Church in Geneva), but the marriage was not approved by the emperor and dissolved by the Synod, since Alexandra was no match for him. According to other sources, the relationship between Alexandra Vasilyevna and the Grand Duke remained only an extramarital affair (although in letters he called her "wife"). At the time of the beginning of the novel, he was 19, and she was 27 years old.