romanov sisters – Page 2 – The Romanov Family

August 5, 2017Helen Azar 1 Comment

EMPRESS ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA AND OTMA: MATCHING BRACELETS

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with her son Alexei. A gold band bracelet can clearly be seen on her right wrist.

Yakov Yurovsky: “Alexandra Feodorovna loudly expressed her displeasure when I wanted to remove from her wrist a gold bracelet that was tightly fastened there and which was impossible to remove without the help of some tool. She announced that she has been wearing this bracelet on her wrist for 20 years, and now there is an attempt to forcibly remove it. Taking into account that all the daughters were wearing the same bracelets, and that these bracelets did not seem to have any special value, I left it alone.”

June 18, 2017Helen Azar 1 Comment

GRAND DUCHESS ANASTASIA NIKOLAEVNA: 18 JUNE, 1901 – 17 JULY, 1918

By Christine Romanoff

*Sketch of Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess of Russia. Charcoal on Canvas, used with the kind permission of the artist, Igor Babailov.

The “witty, vivacious, hopelessly stubborn, delightfully impertinent, and in general a perfect enfant terrible, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was born on June 18, 1901 in Peterhof.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with her infant fourth daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.

This comedic characterization of Anastasia was firmly stated by Gleb Botkin, son of Romanov physician, Dr. Evgeny Botkin. Gleb was to also add that “she undoubtedly held the record for punishable deeds in her family, for in naughtiness she was a true genius!”

June 17, 2017Helen Azar No Comments

ROMANOV FAMILY: OTMA TROIKA

OTMA: Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.

From the memoirs of Sofia Yakovlevna Ofrosimova:

MARIA ROMANOV: STRANGE EPISODE WITH BREAKING WINDOWS (THE CAPRICE)

MARIA ROMANOV: STRANGE EPISODE OF BREAKING WINDOWS (THE CAPRICE)

The Big Caprice and the Podkaprizovaya Road in Alexander Park.

The Grand Duchesses in Tsarskoe Selo circa 1915

In a 1915 letter from Grand Duchess Maria to her father, she described a very strange episode of the grand duchesses breaking glass panels with their parasols on the Caprice overpass in Alexander Park.

“15 September… We walked to the Caprice and walked up the stairs. You know [a diagram drawing]. And then, when we got up there, Olga took her parasol and attacked one of the windows viciously, and broke 3 glass panels, then gave me the parasol, and I broke a window too and Anastasia [did] too. “”

For a long time, I was very confused by these lines, and could not figure out what happened, or why the girls would engage in an act that was nothing short of vandalism. So when I got back to Tsarskoe Selo last December, I decided to take a careful look at that area to see if I could find any clues.

June 9, 2017Helen Azar No Comments

GRAND DUCHESS MARIA NIKOLAEVNA: BRETHREN CEMETERY OF TSARSKOE SELO

In 1914, soon after the start of the First World War, near the Kazan Cemetery, a special section of land was assigned for burial of deceased soldiers from Tsarskoe Selo infirmaries. Originally the cemetery contained 400 graves and was named “The Heroes’ Cemetery”, but by early 1915 it was renamed ‘The Brethren Cemetery of Tsarskoe Selo”. From this time it came under the special patronage of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.