Helen of Serbia

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Helen of Serbia
Princess Jelena with her brothers George and Alexander and cousin Pavle
Born	November 4, 1884 Rijeka, Croatia
Died	October 16, 1962 Nice, France
Occupation	Royalty.
Spouse	Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia
Parents	Peter I of Yugoslavia and Princess Zorka of Montenegro
Children	Prince Vsevelod Ivanovich of Russia and Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna of Russia.

Princess Jelena of Serbia (November 4, 1884 - October 16, 1962), later known as Princess Elena Petrovna of Russia, or sometimes Princess Helena Petrovna or Princess Helen Petrovna, or Princess Ellen Petrovna or Princess Hélène Petrovna, was the daughter of King Peter I of Yugoslavia and his wife Princess Zorka of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of George, Crown Prince of Serbia and Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Helen was also a niece of Anastasia of Montenegro, or Stana, wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich of Russia, and of Milica of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Peter Nikolayevich of Russia, the women who introduced Grigori Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra.

The strong-minded, purposeful Helen, whose mother died when she was a small child, was brought up largely under the care of her aunts Stana and Milica and educated in Russia at the Smolny Institute, a school in St. Petersburg for well-born girls. "She was a very sweet-faced though plain girl, with beautiful dark eyes, very quiet and amiable in manner," wrote Margaret Eagar, governess to the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II. Eagar wrote that Helen, then about seventeen, often came to tea with another of her aunts, Princess Vera of Montenegro, and cousins. Young Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was very fond of her. (Margaret Eagar, Six Years at the Russian Court.)

A fourth aunt, Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, invited her for a visit and introduced her to Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia. He proposed marriage soon after. It was a love match, a surprise to the family because the gentle, introverted Ioann had thought of becoming a Russian Orthodox monk. (Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and The Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004, p. 56.) "Perhaps you know that Ioanchik is engaged to Helene of Serbia, it is so touching," wrote his distant cousin, 14-year-old Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, to her aunt, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, on July 14, 1911. "How funny if they might have children, can they be kissing him? What foul, fie!" (Alexander Bokhanov, Dr. Manfred Knodt, Vladimir Oustimenko, Zinaida Peregudova, and Lyubov Tyutyunnik, translator Lyudmila Xenofontova, The Romanovs: Love, Power and Tragedy, 1993, p. 127.) The couple married on August 21, 1911, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Helen studied medicine at the University of St. Petersburg following their marriage, a career pursuit she had to give up when she gave birth to her first child. (Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004, p. 56) The couple had two children, Prince Vsevelod Ivanovich (January 20, 1914 - June 18, 1973), and Princess Ekaterina Ivanovna (July 12, 1915 - ). The three children and seven grandchildren of her daughter Princess Ekaterina, or Princess Catherine, who married and later separated from Marchese Farace di Villaforesta, are the only great-grandchildren of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna.

Helen voluntarily followed her husband into exile when he was arrested following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and tried to obtain his release. Ioann was imprisoned first at Yekaterinburg, Siberia and later moved to Alapaevsk, a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, by the Bolsheviks, where he was murdered on July 18, 1918 along with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich Romanov; Ioann's brothers Konstantin Konstantinovich and Igor Konstantinovich, his distant cousin Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Varvara Yakovlevna, a sister from the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's convent. They were herded into the forest by the local Bolsheviks, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft and grenades were then hurled into the mineshaft.

Ioann had persuaded Helen to leave Alapaevsk and go back to their two young children, whom she had left with Ioann's mother, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna of Russia, but Helen was arrested at Yekaterinburg and imprisoned herself at Perm in 1918. During her imprisonment, the Bolsheviks brought a girl who called herself Anastasia Romanova to her cell and asked her if the girl was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. Helen said she didn't recognize the girl and the guards took her away. (Peter Kurth, Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson, 1983, p. 43.)

Swedish diplomats obtained permission for Helen's mother-in-law Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna to leave Russia with Helen's children, Vsevelod and Ekaterina, and her own two children, Prince George Konstantinovich and Princess Vera Konstantinovna, in October 1918 aboard the Swedish ship Angermanland. Helen remained imprisoned at Perm until Norwegian diplomats located her and had her transferred. She was then kept prisoner at the Kremlin Palace before finally being allowed to leave and join her children in Sweden. (Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004, p. 213.)

Helen eventually settled at Nice, France. She never remarried.