Kateryna Desnytska - Princess Na Pitsanulok

On April 27, 1886, in Lutsk, a daughter, Kateryna, was born into the family of State Councillor (civil general) Ivan Desnytskyi. Her father was the chief judge in Lutsk and died when she was still very small (Ivan Desnytskyi's grave has survived in the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Lutsk). Desnytskyi's wife moved with her children Kateryna and Ivan to Kyiv, closer to relatives. However, she soon died as well. The brother and sister, having borrowed money from their uncle, moved to Petersburg. Kateryna went to study on nursing courses. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was underway, and after finishing the courses the girl decided to go to the front. Even before leaving for the front, at one of the parties she met a Life Guards hussar, the second son of the King of Siam (Thailand), Chakrabon. The state of Siam (from 1932, Thailand) is located in Southeast Asia; at the beginning of the 20th century it was practically the only country in this region that managed to avoid colonial subjugation. In 1891, the first Russian delegation arrived in Siam. Tsarevich Nicholas (the future Nicholas II) also visited the distant kingdom. And in 1897 the King of Siam visited Petersburg. Then, during a meeting with the King of Siam, Tsar Nicholas II suggested to the high guest that he send one of his sons to study in St. Petersburg. The proposal was received favorably. And already in the spring of 1898, the king's second son by his beloved wife Saovabha, Chakrabon, arrived in the Russian capital. He was enrolled in the Imperial Page Corps, where exclusively children of the Russian noble elite studied. Having brilliantly graduated from the Page Corps, the Guards Hussar Chakrabon continued his studies at the General Staff Academy. The prince lived under the care of the tsarist family - in his own apartments in the Winter Palace. Prince Chakrabon's life differed little from the life of Petersburg high-society youth. In 1905, at one of the youth parties, Chakrabon met a red-haired girl who made a great impression on him - it was Kateryna Desnytska. At the front - during the Russo-Japanese War - Kateryna cared for the wounded, while Chakrabon, awaiting a meeting, sent her love messages from the Russian capital. The feelings were mutual; however, the Siamese prince understood that marriage to Kateryna would lead to complications in the royal family. Nevertheless, in 1906 they married. The girl from Lutsk became the life companion of an unusual hussar and at the same time a Siamese princess, receiving the name Na Pitsanulok. The news of his son's marriage in Russia caused displeasure to King Chulalongkorn; it was a gross violation of established traditions. For a long time Chakrabon's family did not recognize his choice, but the Romanov tsarist family took care of Kateryna. However, the young wife, having received the title of Siamese princess, for the sake of the future displays special tact and endurance. Kateryna Desnytska - Na Pitsanulok, living in Siam in Paruskawan Palace, gradually entered the course of her new life. On March 28, 1908, Desnytska and Chakrabon had a son, who was named Chula Chakrabon. In 1911, Chakrabon received the rank of colonel of a hussar regiment of the Russian army and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. In 1912 he was minister of war and heir to the Siamese throne. In that period in Siam, under the influence of the Chinese Revolution, a movement for constitutional monarchy was spreading. Chakrabon was with the conspirators, but a few days before the coup he betrayed his associates to his brother the king. In 1920 Chakrabon died; Kateryna set off for China and ended her life in 1960 in Paris. The novella 'Distant Years', written in 1946, belongs to the pen of the famous Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky. Several pages in it are devoted to a fairy-tale story about Marusya Vesnytska, whose prototype is Kateryna from Lutsk. Even during K. I. Desnytska's lifetime, human imagination created a legend that she, the Queen of Siam, died too young (Paustovsky also writes about this). The son of Chakrabon and Kateryna, Chula Chakrabon, became a famous historian, author of a number of monographic studies on the history of Southeast Asian countries. Narysna, Chakrabon's granddaughter, is also to this day a world-famous historian. Events of a century ago have yet another continuation - the royal guard of Thailand is still dressed in the uniforms of Russian hussars. Oleksii Zlatohorskyi