June 17, 1901: Birth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Part III.

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David Lloyd George, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, King George V of the United Kingdom, Red Army, Tsarskoe Selo, White Army, Yekaterinburg, Yurovsky Note

After the Bolshevik revolution in October 1917, Russia quickly disintegrated into civil war. Negotiations for the release of the Romanovs between their Bolshevik (commonly referred to as ‘Reds’) captors and their extended family, many of whom were prominent members of the royal houses of Europe, stalled. The rejection of asylum from the United Kingdom sealed their fait.

The Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George preferred that the Russian Imperial Family went to a neutral country, and wanted the offer to be announced as at the request of the Russian government. The offer of asylum was withdrawn in April 1918 following objections by King George V, (first cousin of Nicholas II) who, acting on the advice of his secretary Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, was worried that Nicholas’s presence might provoke an uprising like the previous year’s Easter Rising in Ireland.

Photo from 1913. Grand Duchess Anastasia stands next to her father with her arm around her brother, Tsarevich Alexei.

As the Whites (anti-Bolshevik forces, although not necessarily supportive of the Emperor) advanced toward Yekaterinburg, the Reds were in a precarious situation. The Reds knew Yekaterinburg would fall to the better manned and equipped White Army. When the Whites reached Yekaterinburg, the imperial family had simply disappeared. The most widely accepted account was that the family had been murdered.

This was due to an investigation by White Army investigator Nicholas Sokolov, who came to the conclusion based on items that had belonged to the family being found thrown down a mine shaft at Ganina Yama.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

The “Yurovsky Note”, an account of the event filed by Yurovsky to his Bolshevik superiors following the killings, was found in 1989 and detailed in Edvard Radzinsky’s 1992 book, The Last Tsar. According to the note, on the night of the deaths, the family was awakened and told to dress.

They were told they were being moved to a new location to ensure their safety in anticipation of the violence that might ensue when the White Army reached Yekaterinburg. Once dressed, the family and the small circle of servants who had remained with them were herded into a small room in the house’s sub-basement and told to wait. Alexandra and Alexei sat in chairs provided by guards at the Empress’s request.

House in Yekaterinburg where the Imperial Family was murdered.

After several minutes, the guards entered the room, led by Yurovsky, who quickly informed the Emperor and his family that they were to be executed. The Emperor had time to say only “What?” and turn to his family before he was killed by several bullets to the chest (not, as is commonly stated, to the head; his skull, recovered in 1991, bears no bullet wounds).

The Empress and her daughter Olga tried to make the sign of the cross but were killed in the initial volley of bullets fired by the executioners. The rest of the Imperial retinue were shot in short order, with the exception of Anna Demidova, Alexandra’s maid.

Demidova survived the initial onslaught but was quickly stabbed to death against the back wall of the basement while trying to defend herself with a small pillow she had carried into the sub-basement that was filled with precious gems and jewels.

Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Anastasia and the dog Ortino in captivity at Tsarskoe Selo in the spring of 1917

The “Yurovsky Note” further reported that once the thick smoke that had filled the room from so many weapons being fired in such close proximity cleared, it was discovered that the executioners’ bullets had ricocheted off the corsets of two or three of the Grand Duchesses. The executioners later came to find out that this was because the family’s crown jewels and diamonds had been sewn inside the linings of the corsets to hide them from their captors.

The corsets thus served as a form of “armor” against the bullets. Anastasia and Maria were said to have crouched up against a wall, covering their heads in terror, until they were shot down by bullets, recalled Yurovsky. However, another guard, Peter Ermakov, told his wife that Anastasia had been finished off with bayonets. As the bodies were carried out, one or more of the girls cried out, and were clubbed on the back of the head, wrote Yurovsky.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna in captivity at Tobolsk in the spring of 1918

June 17, 1901: Birth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Part II.

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Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperors of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Russian Empire, Russian Revolution, World War I

World War I and Russian Revolution

During World War I, Anastasia, along with her sister Maria, visited wounded soldiers at a private hospital in the grounds at Tsarskoye Selo. The two teenagers, too young to become Red Cross nurses like their mother and elder sisters, played games of checkers and billiards with the soldiers and tried to lift their spirits. Felix Dassel, who was treated at the hospital and knew Anastasia, recalled that the grand duchess had a “laugh like a squirrel”, and walked rapidly “as though she tripped along.”

In February 1917, Anastasia and her family were placed under house arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo during the Russian Revolution. Nicholas II abdicated on March 15 [O.S. March 2] 1917. As the Bolsheviks approached, Alexander Kerensky of the Provisional Government had them moved to Tobolsk, Siberia. After the Bolsheviks seized majority control of Russia, Anastasia and her family were moved to the Ipatiev House, or House of Special Purpose, at Yekaterinburg.

The stress and uncertainty of captivity took their toll on Anastasia as well as her family. At Tobolsk, she and her sisters sewed jewels into their clothing in hopes of hiding them from their captors, since Alexandra had written to warn them that she, Nicholas and Maria had been searched upon arriving in Yekaterinburg, and had items confiscated. Their mother used predetermined code words “medicines” and “Sednev’s belongings” for the jewels.

However, even in the last months of her life, she found ways to enjoy herself. She and other members of the household performed plays for the enjoyment of their parents and others in the spring of 1918. Anastasia’s performance made everyone howl with laughter, according to her tutor Sydney Gibbes.
In a May 7, 1918, letter from Tobolsk to her sister Maria in Yekaterinburg, Anastasia described a moment of joy despite her sadness and loneliness and worry for the sick Alexei:

We played on the swing, that was when I roared with laughter, the fall was so wonderful! Indeed! I told the sisters about it so many times yesterday that they got quite fed up, but I could go on telling it masses of times … What weather we’ve had! One could simply shout with joy.

In his memoirs, one of the guards at the Ipatiev House, Alexander Strekotin, remembered Anastasia as “very friendly and full of fun”, while another guard said Anastasia was “a very charming devil! She was mischievous and, I think, rarely tired. She was lively, and was fond of performing comic mimes with the dogs, as though they were performing in a circus.” Yet another of the guards, however, called the youngest grand duchess “offensive and a terrorist” and complained that her occasionally provocative comments sometimes caused tension in the ranks. Anastasia and her sisters helped their maid darn stockings and assisted the cook in making bread and other kitchen chores while they were in captivity at the Ipatiev House.

In the summer, the privations of the captivity, including their closer confinement at the Ipatiev House negatively affected the family. According to some accounts, at one point Anastasia became so upset about the locked, painted windows that she opened one to look outside and get fresh air. A sentry reportedly saw her and fired, narrowly missing her. She did not try again.

June 17, 1901: Birth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Part I.

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Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, Grigori Rasputin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (June 18, 1901 – July 17, 1918) was the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, and his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, (Alix of Hesse and by Rhine) the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort. As an infant, she was noted to be very pretty.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was the younger sister of Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, and Maria, and was the elder sister of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia.

When Anastasia was born, her parents and extended family were disappointed that she was a girl. They had hoped for a son who would have become heir apparent to the throne. Emperor Nicholas II went for a long walk to compose himself before going to visit Empress Alexandra and the newborn Anastasia for the first time.

Emperor Nicholas II of Russia

The fourth grand duchess was named for the fourth-century martyr St. Anastasia, known as “the breaker of chains” because, in honor of her birth, her father pardoned and reinstated students who had been imprisoned for participating in riots in St. Petersburg and Moscow the previous winter.

“Anastasia” is a Greek name (Αναστασία), meaning “of the resurrection”, a fact often alluded to later in stories about her rumored survival. Anastasia’s title is more precisely translated as “Grand Princess”. “Grand Duchess” became the most widely used translation of the title into English from Russian.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, (Alix of Hesse and by Rhine)

The Tsar’s children were raised as simply as possible. They slept on hard camp cots without pillows, except when they were ill, took cold baths in the morning, and were expected to tidy their rooms and do needlework to be sold at various charity events when they were not otherwise occupied. Most in the household, including the servants, generally called the Grand Duchess by her first name and patronym, “Anastasia Nikolaevna”, and did not use her title or style.

She was occasionally called by the French version of her name, “Anastasie”, or by the Russian nicknames “Nastya”, “Nastas”, or “Nastenka”. Other family nicknames for Anastasia were “Malenkaya”, meaning “little (one)” in Russian, or “Schwipsig”, meaning “merry little one” or “little mischief” in German.

Young Anastasia was a vivacious and energetic child, described as short and inclined to be chubby, with blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair. Margaretta Eagar, a governess to the four grand duchesses, said one person commented that the toddler Anastasia had the greatest personal charm of any child she had ever seen.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was less concerned about her appearance than her sisters. Hallie Erminie Rives, a best-selling American author and wife of an American diplomat, described how 10-year-old Anastasia ate chocolates without bothering to remove her long, white opera gloves at the St. Petersburg opera house.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and her older sister, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna were known within the family as “The Little Pair”. The two girls shared a room, often wore variations of the same dress, and spent much of their time together. Their older sisters Olga and Tatiana also shared a room and were known as “The Big Pair”. The four girls sometimes signed letters using the nickname OTMA, which derived from the first letters of their first names.

Her mother relied on the counsel of Grigori Rasputin, a Russian peasant and wandering starets or “holy man,” and credited his prayers with saving the ailing Tsarevich on numerous occasions. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna and her siblings were taught to view Rasputin as “Our Friend” and to share confidences with him.

In the autumn of 1907, Anastasia’s aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was escorted to the nursery by the Emperor to meet Rasputin. Anastasia, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns. “All the children seemed to like him,” Olga Alexandrovna recalled. “They were completely at ease with him.” Rasputin’s friendship with the imperial children was evident in some of the messages he sent to them.

In February 1909, Rasputin sent the imperial children a telegram, advising them to “Love the whole of God’s nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework.

However, one of the girls’ governesses, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva, was horrified in 1910 that Rasputin was permitted access to the nursery when the four girls were in their nightgowns and wanted him barred. Nicholas asked Rasputin to avoid going to the nurseries in the future. The children were aware of the tension and feared that their mother would be angered by Tyutcheva’s actions. “I am so afr(aid) that S.I. (governess Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva) can speak … about our friend something bad,” Anastasia’s twelve-year-old sister Tatiana wrote to their mother on March 8, 1910. “I hope our nurse will be nice to our friend now.”

End of Part I.

March 11, 1899: Birth of King Frederik IX of Denmark

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Christian IX of Denmark, Christian X of Denmark, Frederick IX of Denmark, Frederick VIII of Denmark, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Ingrid of Sweden, Kingdom of Denmark, Margarethe II of Denmark

Frederik IX (Christian Frederik Franz Michael Carl Valdemar Georg; March 11, 1899 – January 14, 1972) was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

Four generations of Danish Kings. L-R. Christian IX, Christian X, Frederik VIII. in front future Frederik IX

Prince Frederik was born on March 11, 1899 at Sorgenfri Palace in Kongens Lyngby on Zealand during the reign of his great-grandfather King Christian IX. His father was Prince Christian of Denmark (later King Christian X), the eldest son of Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Louise of Sweden (later King Frederik VIII and Queen Louise). His mother was Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a daughter of Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, the second of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife, Princess Cecilie of Baden.

Christian IX died on January 29, 1906, and Frederik’s grandfather Crown Prince Frederik succeeded him as King Frederik VIII. Frederik’s father became, Crown Prince Christian and Frederik moved up to second in line to the throne. Just six years later, on May 14, 1912, King Frederik VIII died, and Frederik’s father ascended the throne as King Christian X. Frederik himself became Crown Prince.

Frederik was educated at the Royal Danish Naval Academy (breaking with Danish royal tradition by choosing a naval instead of an army career) and the University of Copenhagen. Before he became king, he had acquired the rank of rear admiral and he had had several senior commands on active service. He acquired several tattoos during his naval service.

In the 1910s Frederik’s mother Queen Alexandrine considered the two youngest daughters, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, of her cousin Emperor Nicholas II as possible wives for Frederik until the subsequent execution of the Romanov family in 1918. In 1922, Frederick was engaged to Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, his second cousin. They never wed.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia

Instead, on 15 March 1935, a few days after his 36th birthday, he was engaged to the 25 year old Princess Ingrid of Sweden (1910–2000), a daughter of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf (later King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden) and his first wife, Princess Margaret of Connaught. They were related in several ways. In descent from Oscar I of Sweden and Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, they were double third cousins. In descent from Paul I of Russia, Frederick was a fourth cousin of Ingrid’s mother.

Ingrid of Sweden

They married in Stockholm Cathedral on 24 May 1935. Their wedding was one of the greatest media events of the day in Sweden in 1935, and among the wedding guests were Frederik’s parents King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, and King Leopold III and Queen Astrid of Belgium and Crown Prince Olav (future King Olav V of Norway) and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, (born a Princess of Sweden).

Upon their return to Denmark, the couple were given Frederik VIII’s Palace at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen as their primary residence and Gråsten Palace in Northern Schleswig as a summer residence.

Their daughters are:

* Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, born April 16, 1940, married to Henri de Laborde de Monpezat and has two sons
* Princess Benedikte of Denmark, born April 29, 1944, married to Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and has three children
* Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, born August 30, 1946, married to King Constantine II of Greece and has five children

On 20 April 1947, Christian X died, and Frederik succeeded to the throne as King Frederik IX of Denmark. He was proclaimed king from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace by Prime Minister Knud Kristensen.

Frederik IX’s reign saw great change. During these years, Danish society shook off the restrictions of an agricultural society, developed a welfare state, and, as a consequence of the booming economy of the 1960s, women entered the labour market. In other words, Denmark became a modern country, which meant new demands on the monarchy.

Changes to the Act of Succession

As King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid had no sons, it was expected that the king’s younger brother, Prince Knud, would inherit the throne, in accordance with Denmark’s succession law (Royal Ordinance of 1853).

However, in 1953, an Act of Succession was passed, changing the method of succession to male-preference primogeniture (which allows daughters to succeed if there are no sons). This meant that his daughters could succeed him if he had no sons. As a consequence, his eldest daughter, Margrethe, became heir presumptive. By order of March 27, 1953 the succession to the throne was limited to the issue of King Christian X.

Shortly after the King had delivered his New Year’s Address to the Nation at the 1971/72 turn of the year, he became ill with flu-like symptoms. After a few days rest, he suffered cardiac arrest and was rushed to the Copenhagen Municipal Hospital on January 3. After a brief period of apparent improvement, the King’s condition took a negative turn on 11 January, and he died 3 days later, on January 14, at 7:50 pm surrounded by his immediate family and closest friends, having been unconscious since the previous day.

He was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Queen Margrethe II. Queen Ingrid survived her husband by 28 years. She died on November 7, 2000. Her remains were interred alongside him at the burial site outside Roskilde Cathedral.

On this date in History: June 26, 1899. Birth of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia. Part I.

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Emperors of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria, Grand Duchess Marie Nikoleavna of Russia, Grand Princess, House of Battenberg, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Nicholas II of Russia, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, (June 26, 1899 – July 17, 1918) was the third daughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine).

Contemporaries sources described Maria as a pretty, flirtatious girl, broadly built woman with light brown hair and large blue eyes that were known in the family as “Marie’s saucers”. Her French tutor Pierre Gilliard said Maria was tall and well-built, with rosy cheeks. Tatiana Botkina thought the expression in Maria’s eyes was “soft and gentle.” As an infant and toddler, her physical appearance was compared to one of Botticelli’s angels. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia nicknamed her “The Amiable Baby” because of her good nature.

Maria’s siblings were Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, and Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. Maria’s Russian title (Velikaya Knyazhna Великая Княжна) is most precisely translated as “Grand Princess”, meaning that Maria, as an “Imperial Highness” was higher in rank than other Princesses in Europe who were “Royal Highnesses”. “Grand Duchess” is the most widely used English translation of the title.

However, in keeping with her parents’ desire to raise Maria and her siblings simply, even servants addressed the Grand Duchess by her first name and patronym, Maria Nikolaevna. She was also called by the French version of her name, “Marie,” or by the Russian nicknames “Masha” or “Mashka”.

Maria had a talent for drawing and sketched well, always using her left hand, but was generally uninterested in her schoolwork. She was surprisingly strong and sometimes amused herself by demonstrating how she could lift her tutors off the ground. Though usually sweet-natured, Maria could also be stubborn. Her mother complained in one letter that Maria was grumpy and “bellowed” at the people who irritated her. Maria’s moodiness coincided with her menstrual period, which the Empress and her daughters referred to as a visit from “Madame Becker.”

Lord Louis Mountbatten and Grand Duchess Maria

Young Maria enjoyed innocent flirtations with the young soldiers she encountered at the palace and on family holidays. She particularly loved children and, had she not been a Grand Duchess, would have loved nothing more than to marry a Russian soldier and raise a large family. Until his own assassination in 1979, her first cousin, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, (born a Prince of the House of Battenberg) kept a photograph of Maria beside his bed in memory of the crush he had upon her. However, because the Russian Orthodox Church has a rule against first cousins marrying, it is highly improbable that approval for the match would have been obtained.

Alexandra’s letters reveal that Maria, the middle child of the family, sometimes felt insecure and left out by her older sisters and feared she wasn’t loved as much as the other children. Alexandra reassured her that she was as dearly loved as her siblings. At age eleven, Maria apparently developed a painful crush on one of the young men she had met. “Try not to let your thoughts dwell too much on him, that’s what our Friend said,” Alexandra wrote to her on 6 December 1910. Alexandra advised her third daughter to keep her feelings hidden because others might say unkind things to her about her crush. “One must not let others see what one feels inside, when one knows it’s considered not proper. I know he likes you as a little sister and would like to help you not to care too much, because he knows you, a little Grand Duchess, must not care for him so.”

On this date in History. July 17, 1918. Murder of the Czar and his family.

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Assassination, Czarevich Alexei of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Russia, Russian Revolution

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the Murder of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his entire family. My apologies for being a day late.

Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five childre, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia and Alexei and four servants, personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife’s maid Anna Demidova, and the family’s chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp, were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.

In Memoriam: July 17, 1918

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Bolsheviks, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, Ipatiev house, Nicholas II of Russia, Russian Imperial Family, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Yekaterinburg

On this day 94 years ago came the senseless and viciously cruel and evil slaughter of the Russian Imperial Family at the hands of the Bolsheviks in the basement room of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg, Russian. I didn’t want to say too much about this senseless act instead I thought I would just share photos of the family and remember them at happier times.

Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich (b. 1868)
Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (b. 1872)
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (b. 1895)
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (b. 1897)
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (b. 1899)
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (b. 1901)
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (b. 1904)