Grand-maman

Moderate Aktualizováno: 2025-12-07

Research Status: Moderate Last Updated: 2025-12-07 Diary Coverage: Book 00 (preface written 1884)

Identity

Grand-maman refers to Marie Bashkirtseff's maternal grandmother, the mother of Maria Stepanovna Babanina (Marie's mother). She was part of the Babanin family, Russian nobility with estates in Ukraine.

Death and Its Consequences (00.20)

Grand-maman died suddenly in 1870, just three days after the newlywed Romanoffs returned to Tcherniakovka following their marriage in Odessa. Marie recounts:

"Trois jours après notre arrivée grand-maman mourait subitement. Et Romanoff devint malade avec des accès de délire et de folie."

(Three days after our arrival, grandmother died suddenly. And Romanoff became ill with fits of delirium and madness.)

Timing and Sequence

The chronology was: 1. Emperor Alexander II met Marie's mother and promised to see her in Yalta 2. The family went to Yalta; Romanoff was also there 3. After returning to Odessa, the family stayed at same hotel as Romanoff 4. The family persuaded Romanoff to marry Ma tante (Sophie) 5. The couple returned to Tcherniakovka estate 6. Three days later, Grand-maman died suddenly 7. Romanoff immediately suffered a mental breakdown 8. The family left Tcherniakovka for Europe in June 1870

Impact on Family Departure

After Grand-maman's death, the family became "libres avec cette grande fortune" (free with this great fortune) and departed for their long-dreamed European journey: "le rêve si longtemps caressé par Georges, maman aussi" (the dream so long cherished by Georges, Maman too).

The traveling party included:

Grand-papa (her widower, finally experiencing the Europe he knew only from books)
Maman (her daughter Maria Stepanovna)
M. et Mme Romanoff (her daughter Sophie and new son-in-law, who needed medical care)
Marie and Paul (her grandchildren)
Dina (her granddaughter)
Dr. Lucien Walitsky (family physician, needed for Romanoff's mental condition)

Grand-maman's sudden death was thus the trigger that freed the family financially and psychologically to leave Russia forever.

Role in Raising Marie (00.11-00.13)

Marie's retrospective preface reveals that she lived primarily with her grandmother during early childhood:

"Moi, j'étais toujours avec grand-maman qui m'idolâtrait, à la campagne."

(I was always with grand-maman who idolized me, in the countryside.)

While Marie's mother (grand-maman's daughter) traveled to Crimean sea baths and received suitors, young Marie remained at the countryside estate with her grandmother and aunt (ma tante).

The Gavronzi Custody Battle:

When Marie's father (Constantin Bashkirtseff) and grandfather (the General, Paul Grigorievitch) kidnapped Marie and Paul to force their mother's return, grand-maman led the rescue mission. Marie vividly recalls the confrontation in the yellow pavilion at Gavronzi:

Marie and Paul terrified in one room
Grand-maman in another room, "furieuse, comme une femme dont la vie se passait à crier après ses domestiques, vociférait des injures" (furious, like a woman whose life was spent yelling at her servants, shouting insults)
Marie's father in a third room separated by a corridor, intimidated, responding respectfully without showing himself
Grand-maman and the uncles successfully retrieved the children by force

This incident reveals:

Fierce Protector: Grand-maman did not hesitate to confront family members with fury
Commanding Presence: Described as habitually yelling at servants
Effective: Successfully intimidated Constantin Bashkirtseff into releasing the children

Appearances in Marie's 1884 Preface

The Invalid's Soup Incident (00.29)

When Marie's first governess, Madame Melnikoff, departed suddenly in a romanticized manner, the family treated it as a potential crisis for young Marie:

"Et ma famille gobeuse et poseuse a cru que ce départ devait me rendre malade, on me regardait ce jour-là avec compassion et je crois même que grand-maman a fait faire un potage exprès, un potage de malade."

(And my gullible, affected family believed this departure should make me ill; they looked at me that day with compassion, and I even believe that grand-maman had a special soup made, an invalid's soup.)

This anecdote reveals:

The grandmother's caring nature and belief in nourishing remedies
The family's tendency toward emotional dramatics
Young Marie's awareness (even then) of the performative aspects of the family dynamics

Deep Affection and Loss (00.41)

Marie writes movingly about her grandmother's death:

"J'étais encore sous l'impression de la mort de grand-maman que j'aimais beaucoup, beaucoup, et qui passait des heures à me dire que j'étais divine et à me donner les noms les plus tendres et les plus fous."

(I was still under the impression of the death of grand-maman whom I loved very, very much, and who spent hours telling me I was divine and giving me the most tender and most crazy names.)

This reveals:

Deep Affection: Marie loved her grandmother intensely
Doting Relationship: Grandmother spent hours lavishing praise on young Marie
Formative Influence: Grandmother reinforced Marie's sense of being special and "divine"
Lasting Impact: Marie was still processing the grief when recalling these memories in 1884

The Georges Problem (00.42)

Marie reveals a darker aspect of her grandmother's legacy - enabling her troubled son Georges:

"Pauvre grand-maman, si elle n'avait que moi, mais il y avait cette canaille de Georges qu'elle s'est toujours obstinée à regarder comme un 'malheureux enfant' et qu'elle a légué à maman qui a cru dès lors obéir aux vœux de sa mère mourante en sacrifiant sa réputation, sa vie et ses enfants aux monstruosités de cet être ignoble."

(Poor grand-maman, if she had only me, but there was that scoundrel Georges whom she always stubbornly regarded as a 'poor unfortunate child' and whom she bequeathed to maman who believed thereafter she was obeying her dying mother's wishes by sacrificing her reputation, her life and her children to the monstrosities of this ignoble being.)

This passage reveals:

Problematic Uncle: Georges was clearly troubled, possibly criminal
Enabling Pattern: Grandmother always excused Georges as a "poor unfortunate child"
Deathbed Legacy: On her deathbed, grandmother made Marie's mother promise to care for Georges
Destructive Obligation: Marie's mother felt bound to sacrifice everything for Georges
Family Dysfunction: The entire family enabled Georges's bad behavior (traveling hundreds of leagues, visiting prisons, bribing gendarmes)

Family Dynamics

The grandmother played a protective role in the family. When Marie's father kidnapped Marie and her brother Paul (when Marie was seven) to force their mother to return to him, the grandmother and uncles used threats to retrieve the terrified children.

Related Entries

#Maman - Marie's mother, grand-maman's daughter
#Ma_tante - Marie's aunt who helped raise her
#Paul - Marie's brother, also raised by grand-maman
#Papa - Constantin Bashkirtseff, confronted at Gavronzi
#Paul_Grigorievitch_Bashkirtseff - The General, Marie's paternal grandfather
#Gavronzi - Estate where the custody battle occurred
#Georges - Troubled family member grand-maman enabled
#Madame_Melnikoff - The governess whose departure prompted the soup incident
#Russia - The family's homeland

Sources

Marie's 1884 preface (Book 00, paragraphs 00.11-00.14, 00.29, 00.41-00.42)
Historical research on Babanin family dynamics

%%2025-12-07T14:30:00 RSR: Created based on Book 00 preface and historical research on Babanina family. Grand-maman died before 1870, prompting family's departure from Russia.%% %%2025-12-07T16:00:00 RSR: Updated with details from paragraphs 00.11-00.13 about her role raising Marie and the Gavronzi custody battle.%%