Russia as a butterfly woman, the Imperial Russian flag represented on her wings. From a series of postcards depicting the allies as butterfly women. (The counterpart is a series depicting the Central Powers as stinging insects.)
RussieRussiaReverse:Editions "Aux Alliés" Paris, Helio. L. Géligné, 255. Bd. Raspail, Paris; Visé Paris No 12
"During the evening the only topic of conversation was the conspiracy,—the regiments of the Guard which can be relied on, the most favourable moment for the outbreak, etc. And all this with the servants moving about, harlots looking on and listening, gypsies singing and the whole company bathed in the aroma of Moët and Chandon, brut impérial which flowed in streams!To wind up, there was a toast to the salvation of Holy Russia."
Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia in the Russian capital Petrograd, writing of a dinner party given by Prince Gabriel Constantinovitch for his mistress. 'The guests included the Grand Duke Boris, Prince Igor Constantinovitch, Putilov, Colonel Shegubatov, a few officers and a squad of elegant courtesans.' The Putilov factory in Petrograd was the leading provider of arms and ammunition to the Russian army. Its workers were prominent in strikes, demonstrations, and other revolutionary activity in 1917. Paléologue writes repeatedly of the open discussions of the removal of Tsar Nicholas and his wife among members of the royal family and the upper classes, politicians, and business people.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 157–158, publisher: George H. Doran Company
1917-01-09, 1917, January, conspiracy, Imperial Russia butterfly
