Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia

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Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, ca. 1914.
Born November 15, 1895
Tsarskoye Selo, Russia
Died July 17, 1918
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Parents Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra Fyodorovna of Hesse

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (Olga Nikolaevna Romanova) (In Russian Великая Княжна Ольга Николаевна), also known as Olishka or Olya. (November 3 (O.S.)/November 15 (N.S.) 1895 – July 17, 1918), was the oldest daughter of Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra of Russia. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her being canonized as a passion bearer of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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[edit] Overview

Olga was the eldest sister of the Grand Duchesses Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia of Russia, and of the haemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. She was most often paired with her sister Tatiana. The two girls shared a room, dressed alike, and were known as "The Big Pair." "As a child she was plain, at fifteen she was beautiful," wrote her mother's friend Lili Dehn. "She was slightly above the medium height, with a fresh complexion, deep blue eyes, quantities of light chestnut hair, and pretty hands and feet."[1] From her earliest years she was known for her compassionate heart and desire to help others, but also for her temper and blunt honesty.

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna
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Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

Olga loved to read and, unlike her four siblings, enjoyed school work. She enjoyed reading about politics and read newspapers. Olga also reportedly enjoyed choosing from her mother's book selection. She would usually take a book before her mother read it and tell her "You must wait, Mama, until I find out whether this book is a proper one for you to read."[2]

"The eldest, Olga Nicolaevna, possessed a remarkably quick brain," recalled her French tutor Pierre Gilliard. "She had good reasoning powers as well as initiative, a very independent manner, and a gift for swift and entertaining repartee."[3] She was close to her father, but her relationship with her mother was somewhat strained during her adolescence and early adulthood. "Olga is always most unamiable about every proposition, though may end by doing what I wish," wrote Alexandra to Nicholas on March 3, 1916. "And when I am severe -- sulks me." [4]

"Her chief characteristics ... were a strong will and a singularly straightforward habit of thought and action," wrote her mother's friend Anna Vyrubova, who recalled Olga's hot temper and her struggles to keep it under control. "Admirable qualities in a woman, these same characteristics are often trying in childhood, and Olga as a little girl sometimes showed herself willful and even disobedient." [5]

The family doted on the long-awaited heir Tsarevich Alexei, or "Baby," who suffered frequent attacks of haemophilia. Olga's younger sister Maria also reportedly hemorrhaged in December 1914 during an operation to remove her tonsils, according to her paternal aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, who was interviewed later in her life. The doctor performing the operation was so unnerved that he had to be ordered to continue by Maria's mother, Tsarina Alexandra. Olga Alexandrovna said she believed all four of her nieces bled more than was normal and believed they were carriers of the haemophilia gene like their mother. [6]Although carriers of the haemophilia gene are not themselves haemophiliacs, they also sometimes have lower than normal blood clotting factor and can have symptoms similar to haemophiliacs.[7]

Before World War I, there was some discussion of a marriage between her and Prince Carol of Romania, but Olga did not like Carol and the plans were, in any event, put on hold upon the outbreak of war. Prince Edward, eldest son of England's George V, and Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia were also discussed as potential suitors, though none were considered seriously. Olga told Gilliard that she wanted to marry a Russian and remain in her own country. She said her parents would not force her marry anyone she could not like.[8]

In late 1913, Olga fell in love with Pavel Voronov, a junior officer on the imperial yacht Standart, but such a relationship would have been impossible due to their differing ranks. Voronov was engaged a few months later to one of the ladies in waiting. "God grant him good fortune, my beloved," a saddened Olga wrote. "It's sad, distressing." [9] Later, in her diaries of 1915 and 1916, Olga frequently mentioned a man named Mitya with great affection. [10]

Other suitors within the family were suggested, among them Olga's first cousins once removed Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia and Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich Romanov. Alexandra refused to entertain the idea of her innocent daughter marrying the jaded, much older Boris Vladimirovich. She was also aware that Olga's heart lay elsewhere.[11]

At age twenty, Olga obtained the use of part of her large fortune and began answering calls for charity. One day when she was out for a drive she saw a young child using crutches. She asked about the child and learned that the youngster's parents were too poor to afford treatment. Olga set aside an allowance to cover the child's medical bills.[12]

During World War I the whole family served a part in the war. Olga, her sister Tatiana, and her mother Tsarina Alexandra trained to become Red Cross nurses. They treated wounded soldiers at a hospital on the grounds of Tsarskoye Selo. The war eventually took its toll on Olga's nerves. According to the accounts of courtiers, Olga knew the financial and political state of the country during the war and during the revolution as well. She reportedly also knew how much the Russian people disliked her mother and father.

This icon depicts the Imperial Family as passion bearers of the Russian Orthodox Church.
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This icon depicts the Imperial Family as passion bearers of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"She was by nature a thinker," remembered Gleb Botkin, the son of the family's physician, Yevgeny Botkin, "and as it later seemed to me, understood the general situation better than any member of her family, including even her parents. At least I had the impression that she had little illusions in regard to what the future held in store for them, and in consequence was often sad and worried."[13]

The family was arrested during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was imprisoned first at their home in Tsarskoye Selo and later at private residences in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, Siberia.

In a letter from Tobolsk, Olga wrote, "Father asks to ... remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love ..."[14].

Though she tried to draw comfort from her faith, Olga was reportedly deeply depressed and lost a great deal of weight during her captivity. "She was thin, pale, and looked very sick," recalled one of the guards, Alexander Strekotin, in his memoirs. "She took few walks in the garden, and spent most of her time with her brother." Another guard recalled that the few times she did walk outside, she stood there "gazing sadly into the distance, making it easy to read her emotions." [15] Later, Olga appeared angry with her younger sister Maria for being too friendly to the guards, reported Strekotin.[16] Olga had been traumatized following the harassment she and her sisters Tatiana and Anastasia experienced from their guards aboard the steamship Rus that ferried them to Yekaterinburg in May 1918.[17]

On July 14, 1918, local priests at Yekaterinburg conducted a private church service for the family and reported that Olga and her family, contrary to custom, fell on their knees during the prayer for the dead.[18] Olga was twenty-two when she was murdered with her family at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. The assassination was performed by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky.

In 2000, she and her family were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church. The family had previously been canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as holy martyrs.[19]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dehn, Lili, 1922. "The Real Tsaritsa", ISBN 5-3000-2285-3
  2. ^ Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1967, p. 133.
  3. ^ Gilliard, Pierre (1970). "Thirteen Years at the Russian Court", Ayer Company Publishers Incorporated, ISBN 0-4050-3029-0
  4. ^ Bokhanov, Alexander, Knodt, Dr. Manfred, Oustimenko, Vladimir, Peregudova, Zinaida, Tyutyunnik, Lyubov, Xenofontova, Lyudmila (1997), p. 124. "The Romanovs: Love, Power, and Tragedy", Leppi Publications, ISBN: 095216440X
  5. ^ Vyrubova, Anna. "Memories of the Russian Court". alexanderpalace.org. Retrieved on December 10, 2006.
  6. ^ Vorres, Ian. The Last Grand Duchess, 1965 p. 115.
  7. ^ http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=180&contentid=45&rptname=bleeding
  8. ^ Massie, p. 252
  9. ^ Zeepvat, Charlotte (2004), p. 110, "The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album", Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7
  10. ^ Bokhanov et. al., p. 124
  11. ^ Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, editors; Darya Galy, translator, A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, 1997, p. 453
  12. ^ Massie, p. 136
  13. ^ Greg King and Penny Wilson, The Fate of the Romanovs, 2003, p. 46.
  14. ^ Peter Christopher, Peter Kurth, and Edvard Radzinsky, Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 221.
  15. ^ King and Wilson, p. 238
  16. ^ King and Wilson, p. 246
  17. ^ King and Wilson pp. 140-141
  18. ^ King and Wilson, p. 276
  19. ^ Shevchenko, Maxim (2000). "The Glorification of the Royal Family". Nezavisemaya Gazeta. Retrieved on December 10, 2006.

[edit] References

  • Alexander Bokhanov, Dr. Manfred Knodt, Vladimir Oustimenko, Zinaida Peregudova, Lyubov Tyutyunnik, trans. Lyudmila Xenofontova, The Romanovs: Love, Power, and Tragedy, 1993)
  • Peter Christopher, Peter Kurth, and Edvard Radzinsky, Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra
  • Lili Dehn, The Real Tsaritsa, 1922[1]
  • Pierre Gilliard, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court [2]
  • Greg King and Penny Wilson, The Fate of the Romanovs, 2003.
  • Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1967.
  • Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, 1995
  • Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, eds., A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, 1997.
  • Maxim Shevchenko, "The Glorification of the Royal Family," a May 31, 2000 article in the Nezavisemaya Gazeta, [[3]
  • (Russian) The Murder of Russia's Imperial Family, Nicolay Sokolov. Investigation of murder of the Romanov Imperial Family in 1918.
  • Ian Vorres, The Last Grand Duchess, 1965
  • Anna Vyrubova, Memories of the Russian Court." [4]
  • Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004.


[edit] External links

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