Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia and Tsesarevich Alexei.
For those of you who would like to read the original paper on the identification of two Romanov children, please click on the “Romanov Mystery Solved” link below. We will probably never know for sure if the remains of the missing girl discovered with Tsesarevich Alexei’s remains are those of Grand Duchess Maria or Grand Duchess Anastasia, as the “little pair” were too close in age and the investigators have no confirmed DNA sample to compare. But the most important thing is that the entire Romanov family is now accounted for. Let’s hope the two children will be buried with the rest of the family soon!
The article below was translated from Russian by Helen Azar.
French philosopher François-Marie Arouet, or Voltaire.
Note from the translator:
When I first showed up at the Tsarskoe Selo Rare Book Fond for my library school internship, I found out that they just made an amazing discovery: two previously unidentified books from the vast collection of books once owned by the famous French philosopher, François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. At this time, it was thought that all of Voltaire’s books, which were brought to Russia by Empress Catherine the Great upon his death, were accounted for, and thousands of his marginalia had been transcribed and published. But it seemed that two of these books slipped through the proverbial cracks. Voltaire’s handwriting in the marginalia of these two books, held for years in The Rare Book Fond at the Tsarskoe Selo Museum. Somehow no one recognized them for what they were, for all these years. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY AND VOLTAIRE
All members of the Romanov family were avid photographers. Luckily for us, because they left behind hundred upon hundreds of photographs! They often mentioned photographs in their diaries and letters, as well as one of their favorite past times: “pasting” their photographs into albums. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY AND THE CAMERA
OLGA ROMANOV AND DANCING
Grand Duchess Olga Romanov dancing with an officer aboard imperial yacht.
From the diary of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna:(more…)
OLGA ROMANOV: GRAND DUCHESS OLGA NIKOLAEVNA OF RUSSIA
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanov (1895-1918)
A very large baby girl joined the Romanov family on November 15 (Old Style: November 3) 1895, in St Petersburg, Russia. On that day her father, Tsar Nicholas II, wrote in his diary: “A day I will remember forever . . . at exactly 9 o’clock a baby’s cry was heard and we all breathed a sigh of relief! With prayer we named the daughter sent to us by God ‘Olga’!”
Baby Olga’s aunt, the Grand Duchess Ksenia’s diary entry for 3 November was a bit more cynical: “The birth of a daughter to Nicky and Alix! A great joy, although it’s a great pity it’s not a son! . . . The baby is huge – weighing 10 pounds – and had to be pulled out with forceps!”
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanov was the first of Tsar Nicholas II’s and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna’s five children. Born at the Anichkov Palace where the newlywed Russian imperial couple initially settled, the first of four daughters, Olga Romanov was born “in the purple” – during the imperial reign of her parents. Her Russian title “Velikaya Knyazhna” is most precisely translated as “the Grand Princess”, which means that Olga Romanov, as an “Imperial Highness”, was higher in rank than other princesses in Europe who were merely “Royal Highnesses”. “Grand Duchess” is the more common English translation. Read more OLGA ROMANOV: GRAND DUCHESS OLGA NIKOLAEVNA OF RUSSIA
