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Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna photographed by Levitsky and signed by herself in 1901

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Modern portrait of Anastasia endrikova and Ekaterina Schneider, two faithful attendants of the Imperial family, who were brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918

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Happy Tatiana, from the Hesse Darmstadt archives

A close up photograph from a screen was posted by Ольга on Pinterest, who has been posting a number of rare photographs!

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Tatiana and probably Olga.

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Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich, Prince Felix Yusupov, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna on Yelagin Island, August 1914.

Photo from: SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP - Albums of Herbert Galloway Stewart

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The Photo vs Behind the Scenes

Photo 1: Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia with Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia, pushing maternal first cousin Prince Georg Donatus of Hesse and By Rhine in a cart, Wolfsgarten 1910

Photo 2: the same people on the left along a nanny or governess, maybe Prince Heinrich of Prussia standing on the stairs, and Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia playing with Prince Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine, Wolfsgarten 1910

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Anastasia Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna and Tatiana Nikolaevna in Mogilev, August 24th 1916

From Anastasia’s 1915-1916 Album

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Anastasia Nikolaevna being held by Margaretta Eager and Tatiana Nikolaevna at the beach in Livadia, Fall 1902

From Nicholas’ 1900-1903 Album

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Empress Alexandra's tea set from the Mauve Room along with some perfumes and accessories.

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Alix cooking during a hunting in Poland; 1900's.

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Grand Duchess Xenia, 1894

“Sandro and I are depressed that still nothing has been decided about the wedding [her and Sandro’s]. You must understand, Nicky, that it’s a terrible bore and quite impossible to bear! Please will you mention it to both Mama and Papa when you return, as they will of course talk to you about your wedding. You are still only newly betrothed, but when three months have gone by you will also begin to get tired, as I do, and to feel that it simply isn’t possible to hold back any longer, especially when there isn’t even any mention of a wedding.”

- Extract of a letter from Xenia to Tsesarevich Nicholas, 14/26th April

“My darling little Xenia

I send you my most tender thanks for the sweet little egg and lovely little brooch; I was deeply touched at your having thought of me. The others are all in Church, and I am sitting alone, so use the opportunity for writing to my Chicken. Alas! Only two days and then we [her and Nicky] part, I feel miserable at the idea - but what can’t be cured must be endured. You are to be envied seeing Sandro every day, and I shall not see my Nicky for over a month. 

I cannot describe my happiness - it is too great, I can only thank God on my knees for having guided me thus. And what an angel the dear boy is; how glad you will be to have him back again. You will write to me sometimes, won’t you, if Sandro is not the whole day with you. Give him my love. We went for a drive yesterday in the rain, but not to the Rosenau, today I have no doubt we shall go there. I am going to spend a night at Darmstadt on my way to England, so shall see the young couple again - they look so happy and content, but it does seem too funny Ernie being married. It is so damp to day that I have had to have a fire made.

Now enough for today. With many a loving kiss I remain ever your very loving old Hen Alix.”

- Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine to Xenia, 18/30th April

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Evpatoria ~ May 1916

Photo 1: Tatiana Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna (partially hidden behind Tatiana), Alexei Nikolaevich, Olga Nikolaevna (partially behind alexei) and Alexandra Feodorovna

Photo 2: Olga Nikolaevna, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tatiana Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna (hidden behind Tatiana) and Anastasia Nikolaevna (partially hidden)

Photo 3: Tatiana Nikolaevna and Alexandra Feodorovna talking with some women

Photos from Sophie Buxhoveden’s 1916 Album

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Seen in full for the first time in over a century: Tatiana on the balcony

Previously, this photo has only ever been seen in a low quality, cropped version. Thanks to Ilia (LastRomanovs on flickr), the original photograph has now been discovered in the 1916 photograph album of lady-in-waiting Sophie Buxhoeveden.

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Could you tell me a little about Olga's nervous breakdown?

Of course!

In the fall of 1915, Olga had to take time off from working in the hospital as she was “pale and anemic” and also “green and weary,” according to her mother and Valentina Chebotareva, a nurse who was close to the Grand Duchesses during the war. She was given arsenic injections and made to spend time resting. Arsenic injections were given to people who were suffering from depression or other nervous complaints, such as anxiety attacks. She did not return to hospital work on a regular basis until January of 1916. When she did return, she was no longer permitted in the operating room and did paperwork, handed out medications, changed out the flowers on bedside tables and visited with the patients.

Out of all of the Grand Duchesses, Olga was the most sensitive. Originally, both Grand Duchesses, their mother, and Anna Vyrubova worked in the operating room at the lazaret. Tatiana and the Empress were able to withstand the horrors of war much better than Olga was. One account describes another nurse coming upon poor Olga in a closet vomiting into a towel after a particularly gruesome operation. 

In addition, I believe that Olga had a great deal of frustration. As the oldest child,Olga was expected to set an example for the others by her behavior. She was also essentially a pawn in the European marriage market. As the eldest daughter of the Tsar, she carried with her an immense fortune and the promise of a friendship with a very large and powerful country. As I have  mentioned in a previous post, Olga fell in love with an officer of the Standart  named Pavel Voronov in 1913 , but the match seems to have been sabotaged by her parents and Voronov married someone else in early 1914. The entire Imperial family attended Voronov’s wedding, so Olga had to watch the man she loved marry someone else and pretend to be happy about it. I’m sure she was heartbroken. By this time Olga’s cousin Irina, who was the same age, was already married to Felix Yusupov. I think it grated on her that at twenty years old she was still stuck at home catering to her mother, and this did not seem likely to change any time soon, especially with the war going on. Quite frankly, both Olga and Tatiana should have been married by 1915 or 1916, but the war (and Alexandra Feodorovna)intervened rather cruelly. I think that Olga also knew that when she did marry, it would most likely not be a match of her choosing and would not be for love.

In a September 1915 letter to her father, Grand Duchess Maria writes of an incident when Olga smashes windows in a pavilion in the park on a whim. Maria and Anastasia followed suit, as they thought it was all in fun. In fact, I think this was a reflection of Olga’s frustration and anger with the situation in the country and with the horrors she witnessed at the hospital. 

To be honest, I think that one of Alexandra’s most glaring parenting errors was the extent to which her children were sheltered and isolated from the rest of the world. When the war began and she decided that the elder two girls would have to do their part, she forgot to consider that they were absolutely in no way prepared for what they would witness. I think that the shock of the reality of war, that people were actually trying to kill one another, was too much for Olga. I absolutely think that Tatiana suffered as well, but unlike her elder sister “the governess” never lost her head in a crisis. 

Finally, I think that Olga was fairly politically savvy for her age. Some of her contemporaries, like Baroness Buxhoeveden, seemed to believe that Olga had a better idea of the precarious situation in Russia than her parents did. She definitely worried about this, as in 1916, she appears to have told her father that she was afraid and he gave her a tiny revolver that she kept in her boot. Olga also knew that Rasputin was destroying the image of her family. She saw how he helped her brother and calmed her mother, but when he was killed Valentina Chebotareva records her as saying: “Maybe it was necessary to kill him, but not so terribly-we are a family, one is ashamed to admit they are relatives.“ To me, this says that Olga knew that Rasputin’s pernicious influence was facilitating her mother’s systematic (albeit accidental) destruction of the Russian government. All of the girls were distraught by Rasputin’s murder, I think mostly because it was done by family members and it was directed at their mother. 

Olga was a very sensitive and thoughtful young woman. I have always been particularly fond of her, and I think that she would have grown into an even more remarkable woman if she had lived. This was a fairly long-winded response, but I hope it answers your question!  

Sources: Russia, My Native Land by Gregory Chebotarev, Alexandra’s Letters to Nicholas: 1914-1917, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court by Pierre Gilliard, The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna and Left Behind by Baroness Buxhoeveden, The Diary of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna: 1913, The Alexander Palace Time Machine Forum

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:)

Romanovs and wheelchairs.

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One of the grand duchesses (possibly Anastasia or Maria?) being a gymnast presumably inside the Alexander Palace. March 1914

From Maria’s 1913-1914 Album

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Grand Duchess Anastasia and Valentina Ivanovna Chebotareva at the Alexander Palace during WWI.

She wrote about her impressions working as a nurse alongside Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna during WWI in her diary, which you can read here.

Note: I've seen these photos also labelled as Anastasia and Vera Gedroits, but I don't believe it to be her.