Romanov sisters
Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia
Biography
It was summer of 1899. The weather was cold and rainy, but still the air was heavy with anticipation. Tsarina Alexandra, who was staying at the Alexandria Dacha in Peterhof, has came near the very end of her third pregnancy. The poor woman suffered through it more than ever and for months couldn´t even walk properly. Since the second month she was tormented by naussea and cramps, also the fears grriped her, because her eldest daughter Olga had a typhoid fever. The silent pressure on her was greater than the last time and she knew it. "I never like making plans. . . . God knows how it will all end..." she wrote in a letter to her sister in April of that year. When finally the labour pains began, there was great anxiety for the life of young mother and her child, but to a great relief of all both were saved. It was July 14th according to the old calendar. But the relief was soon replaced with disapointment. And the Tsar himself, as loving and caring as he was, could not manage his own feelings and had to take a long walk through the gardens before he was able to go to see his wife and a new baby. A third daughter. None of this is reflected in his diary entry from that day however:
„A happy day: the Lord sent us a third daughter - Maria, who was safely born at 12:10! Alix hardly slept all night, and towards the morning the pains got stronger. Thank God it was all over quite quickly! My darling felt well all day and fed the baby herself. Mama arrived from Gatchina at 4 o'clock. The immediate family gathered in church for a Te Deum. Had tea with Mama; wrote telegrams and went through the unbearable papers. I only managed to get out into the fresh air after dinner - the evening was marvellous.“
„What a joy that everything has ended safely and the anxiety of waiting is over at last,“ wrote his sister Xenia, „but what a disappointment that it isn´t a son. Poor Alix! We, of course, are delighted either way – whether it´s a son or daughter!“
But it was still harder to pretend it wasn´t important for Russia to have an heir. Grand Duke Konstantin knew that as well. „At 2 o'clock I received a telegram: THE GRAND DUCHESS MARIA NIKOLAEVNA. And so, there's no Heir. The whole of Russia will be disappointed by this news.“
The baby was named Maria, possibly to honour the Dowager Empress, and it was a name more fitting than any other. It is of Hebrew and Egyptian origin and it means „The God´s loved one“ and at the same time „The bitter sea of sorrow“.
„She was born good, I often think, with the very smallest trace of original sin possible,“ recalled her nurse Miss Eagar. „The Grand Duke Vladimir called her „The Amiable Baby,“ for she was always so good and smiling and gay....Lately speaking of the child, a gentleman said that she had the face of one of Botticelli's angels.“
The baby truly looked magnificent – plump, with rosy cheeks and fair hair curling over her head, but the most remarkable were her eyes. Deep and large orbs under a fine dark eyebrows were of the most amazing „Romanov“ blue, and lined by long dark lashes. The eyes that would later earn a nickname of their own within the family - „Marie´s saucers“.
The little girl was christened on July 9th 1899 at Grand palace church in Peterhof. Her godparents were her grandmother Maria Fyodorovna, then other relatives like Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovitch, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, Prince George of Greece and Prince Henry of Hesse by the Rhine. Thanks to Margaret Eagar we have a beautiful description of that day. The ceremony lasted for several hours, and although she was invited by the Empress herself, had troubles getting into the church, because she didn´t speak Russian and the guards didn´t know any other language. After she finally reached the destination, one of the priests came to her and in a mixture of tongues asked her how hot the water should be. But let Miss Eager speak for herself:
„I answered him in French and English, but he did not seem to understand. I then showed him on my fingers the number of degrees, and a group of interested and excited priests prepared the font for the child. Presently in came all the invited guests -- ambassadors and their wives, all in the dresses of their various courts. The little Chinese lady looked very sweet and bright. She wore a gorgeous blue-figured silk Kimono, and had a little round blue cap on her head, a red flower over one ear and a white one over the other. The Roman Catholic church was represented by a cardinal with his red hat and soutane, and the head of the Lutheran Church in Russia was also present, wearing a black gown with white ruffles. The Poles are for the most part Roman Catholic, and the Finns Lutheran or Reformed church. There were also present the suites of the various courts. The Dowager and young Empress have five hundred ladies belonging to their court --"Demoiselles d'honneur" as they are called. These ladies all dress alike on such occasions, in scarlet velvet trains embroidered in gold, with petticoats of white satin. While the elder ladies, "Les dames de la cour," wear dark green, embroidered in gold.
When all were assembled, the small heroine was carried into the church by Princess Galitzin, the senior lady of the Court. She carried a pillow of cloth of gold, on which reposed the little Marie Nicolaivna in the full glory of her lace robes lined with pink silk, and wearing a little close-fitting cap or bonnet. The Emperor, the Dowager Empress, the other god-parents and all the Grand Dukes and Duchesses and foreign royalties followed. According to the law of the Russian Church the parents are not allowed to remain in the church during the baptism, so the Emperor, having received the congratulations of his relations, withdrew from the church, returning afterwards for the Confirmation, and to bestow the Order of St. Anne upon his little daughter. The baby was then undressed to her little shirt, which was the same that the Emperor had worn at his baptism. It was, alas! stolen from the church that day and never recovered. She was then dipped three times in the font, the hair was cut in four places, in the form of a cross. What was cut off was rolled in wax and thrown into the font. According to Russian superstition the good or evil future of the child's life depends on whether the hair sinks or swims. Little Marie's hair behaved in an orthodox fashion and all sank at once, so there is no need for alarm concerning her future.
The child was then brought behind the screen, where she was dressed in entirely fresh clothing, and the robe of cloth of silver was put on her and the Mass proceeded. She was again carried into the church and anointed with oil. Her face, eyes, ears, hands and feet, were touched with a fine brush dipped in oil. She was now carried round the church three times by the Dowager Empress, supported on each side by the god-fathers. Two pages held up the Empress's train. The Emperor, who had re-entered the church when the baptismal ceremony was over, came forward and invested her with her Order in diamonds, after which the procession retired in the same order that it had entered the church. The baby was brought to the church in a gilt and glass coach drawn by six snow-white horses, each horse led by a groom in white and scarlet livery with powdered wig, and she was escorted by a guard of Cossacks.“
From the earliest age her love for her father could be seen. Once, less than a two years old, the baby toddled to him during breakfast, hugged his leg and with her face turned up she smiled brightly. The nurse came hurriedly to take the girl away, but the Tsar himself asked her to bring a chair for Maria instead. „It touches me,“ he explained, „to see so much affection.“ Ever since she learned to toddle she would permanently try to sneak out of the nursery to „go to Papa“. When she saw him walking in the garden, she would call to him from the open window, he would then wait for her to come and carried her on his walks.
In 1901 the Tsar he fell dangerously ill with typhoid during the summer stay at Livadia. Maria´s grief over not being able to see him was immense. The nursery door had to be locked or the girl would have escaped into the corridor and disturb the ill man by her efforts to get to him. Miss Eagar recalls: „Every evening after tea she sat on the floor just inside the nursery door listening intently for any sounds from his room. If she heard his voice by any chance she would stretch out her little arms, and call "Papa, Papa," and her rapture when she was allowed to see him was great. When the Empress came to see the children on the first evening after the illness had been pronounced typhoid fever, she happened to be wearing a miniature of the Emperor set as a brooch. In the midst of her sobs and tears little Marie caught sight of this; she climbed on the Empress's knee, and covered the pictured face with kisses, and on no evening all through his illness would she go to bed without kissing this miniature."
In later years Anna Vyrubova reported, that when Nicolas asked her to do him a company during a walk in the park, Marie always seemed to be a little jealous, but that it never intefered with their friendship. Nicholas returned her love with equal devotion.
Maria´s first journey to abroad was in the autumn of 1899, when she was just several months old. The family went to Kiel and later to Wolfsgarten in Hesse and paid a visit to Empress´ brother Ernst. His daughter Elisabeth “Ella“, who was four years old, very much wished for siblings, and was delighted to have her cousins around. When the visit came to an end, she begged hard that Tatiana might be adopted as her little sister. She said the Imperial couple wouldn´t miss her so much as they would Olga or baby Maria. When that failed, she focused her attention to the baby. With anxious eyes she followed all the details of the baby's toilette until she thought she had mastered them. She then asked her aunt about giving the baby girl to her. She was, of course, refused, but didn´t give up all hope just yet. Diplomatically she kept constantly assuring all that it was actually a very ugly baby, and all would be much better and happier without that stupid little thing. At last she thought she had attained her object, and suggested that as the baby was so entirely horrible they should throw it away! All the attempts failed and little Elisabeth in her short life never had a sibling of her own.
Much less friendly were Maria´s two elder sisters. They were completely happy as they were and didn´t need their parents to pay attention to somebody else. Baby Maria would feel their childish jealousy as soon as she started to walk. In a letter to his mother Nicholas wrote, that his baby daughter was already walking well, but the elder two were deliberately bumping and pushing into her, if one didn´t watch them. They refused to accept her as a partner in their plays and called her „step-sister“, because she was so good and obliging and hardly ever got into trouble. Their nurse teased them about it, saying that in fairy-tales the step-sisters usually were the true Princesses, and also warned them, that one day they just may be punished for their ignorance towards Maria. This prophecy came true eventually.
Olga and Tatiana made a little „house“ for themselves in the play room by stretching blankets over the chairs. Little Maria was excited about it, but was greatly disapointed, when the elder sisters refused to let her play with them. They were willing to accept her only as a footman. The nanny made a similar house for Maria and her younger sister Anastasia, who was but few months old, and so not much of a playmate. With disapointed eyes Maria was looking to the other corner of the room, where the most interesting play was at it´s best. Suddenly she „dashed across the room, rushed into the house, dealt each sister a slap in the face, and ran into the next room, coming back dressed in a doll's cloak and hat, and with her hands full of small toys. "I won't be a footman, I'll be the kind, good aunt, who brings presents," she said. She then distributed her gifts, kissed her "nieces," and sat down. The other children looked shamefacedly from one to the other, and then Tatiana said, "We were too cruel to poor little Marie, and she really couldn't help beating us." They had learned their lesson-from that hour they respected her rights in the family.“
As caring and loving Miss Eager was, she was also a great lover of political discussions. Once she was discussing Dreyfuss affair with another servant while bathing little Maria. She was so interested in the discussion, that she didn´t even notice, that her little charge has just scrambled out of the tub. Just as she was - naked and dripping - the girl would run through the corridors of the Alexander palace, until her aunt, Nicholas´ younger sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, would find her, take her into her arms and returned to the bathroom. The nanny was still discussing the politics!
„Angel“ Maria was good and obliging, but sometimes not even she could resist the temptation. When still very little, she was one day with her sisters in her mother´s budoir. Alexandra used to have tiny vanilla-flavoured wafers called biblichen, of which the children were fond, but were never allowed to ask for anything from the tea table. Miss Eagar was quite surprised when she was suddenly called into the budoir, and as soon as she stepped in, she saw little Maria 
standing in the middle of the room, her eyes drowned in tears, swallowing something hastily. „Dere! I've eaten it all up,“ the girl claimed. „You tant det it now!“ The nurse suggested bed at once as a suitable punishment. The Empress agreed, but Nicholas intervened and begged that the little one might be allowed to remain. „I was always afraid of the wings growing, and I am glad to see she is only a human child.“
During the war between Russia and Japan, the children were constanly hearing laments and their innocent hearts were filled with hate, because they had no idea, who were Japaneese people - Olga even thought of them as monkeys! At that time Miss Eager was reading an ilustrated paper and there was a picture of baby children of Crown Prince of Japan. Maria, followed closely by toddler Anastasia, came running across the room. When they saw the picture, they wanted to know, who those strange queer children were.
"I told them, and with a look of hatred coming into her sweet little face Marie slapped the picture with her open hand. "Horrid little people," said she; "they came and destroyed our poor ships and drowned our sailors." I explained to her that it was not these little children, who were only babies younger than Anastasie. So she said, "Yes; those little babies did it. Mama told me the Japs were all only little people."
But still deep down Maria was a good soul and from the very beggining was always the one to comfort the others in their sorrows. Once a whooping cough spread in the palace and all the children fell to it. The nurse told the children to be careful and not to cough on anyone, or that person could take the disease from them. Little Anastasia was once sitting in the nanny´s lap, coughing and choking away, when Maria came to her and putting her face close up to her said: „Baby, darling, cough on me.“. Greatly amazed, Miss Eagar asked why did she do that, and the child explained: „I am so sorry to see my dear little sister so ill, and I thought if I could take it from her she would be better.“
Perhaps her sensitive nature, perhaps actions of the child´s fantasy, were the causes for a strange „vision“ that Maria and Anastasia encountered in 1903. The Imperial family was present at the wedding of Princess Alice of Battenberg to Prince Andrew of Greece in Hesse. Suring the stay they again met with their favourite cousin Ella. After the wedding celebrations were over the family, Grand Duke Ernst and his daughter went all to Poland. There Elisabeth contracted a typhoid fever andthe children were not allowed to see her. During one night, when doctors and nannies were taking care fo the child, a children´s screaming broke out in another room, where Maria and Anastasia slept. The nurse rushed in and found them standing in their beds, terribly frightened.
„They told me there was a strange man in their room who had frightened them. Now the rooms were in a suite, and they could be entered only from the dining-room, or from the second bedroom, and this bedroom in its turn could only be entered from the room in which the little Princess lay ill. It will therefore be seen that no one could have entered their room without our knowledge. The doctor and the little Princess's own faithful servant-man had been in the dining-room all night. I thought the night-light might have thrown a shadow which frightened the children into thinking there was someone in the room. I therefore changed its position, but still the children were afraid, and said he was hiding over by the curtain. I lit a candle, and taking little Anastasie in my arms, carried her round the room to prove to her that there was absolutely nothing to frighten her.
The doctor came in and tried to soothe Marie, but it was useless; she would not be soothed and Anastasie refused to return to bed, so I took her in my arms and sat down to try to comfort her. She buried her face in my neck and clung to me trembling and shaking. It was dreadful to me to see her in such a fright. The doctor being obliged to go I lighted a candle and left it on a little table close to Marie's bed, and sat down near it, that I might be beside both children. Marie kept talking about the dreadful person, and starting up in wild horror every now and then. The doctor came in and out, and told me the strange doctor had come and had given the little sufferer an injection of caffeine; her heart seemed stronger and he began to have hope.
When next Marie began to talk about the mysterious stranger I said, "A strange doctor had come to help Dr. H. to make cousin Ella quite well, and perhaps he might have come to the door in mistake, or you might have heard him speak, but there is no one in the room now." She assured me that the stranger was not a doctor and had not come through that door at all, and did not speak. Suddenly she stood up and looked at something which I could not see. "Oh!" she said, "he is gone into cousin Ella's room." Anastasie sat up on my knee and said, "Oh! poor cousin Ella; poor Princess Elizabeth!" She fell asleep almost immediately after, but it was some time before I could loosen the clasped arms, and little Marie slept also quietly. As soon as possible I laid her in her little bed and returned to the sick room.“
Little Ella died several days later. Because there was a danger the children may fall ill too, they were quickly transffered home to Tsarskoe Selo. The memory of the poor beloved cousin never left them. One day Maria was looking at a picture of a blind girl and asked the nurse why she was blind. Nanny replied that God sometimes made people blind, but none knew why. But Maria didn´t agree. „I know someone who knows.“ The nanny replied: „No, dear, I think not; no one knows.“ But the child would have her way: „Cousin Ella knows. She is in heaven, sitting down and talking to God, and He is telling her how He did it, and why.“
Maria and Anastasia were, like their two elder sisters, best friends and companions, even though their characters were absolutely dissimilar. Where Anastasia pranked and joked, Maria would apologize. Many times she fell under Anastasia´s influence and would be guided by her into various mischief. Both girls were of merry nature and understood each other well. Their room was right above their mother´s budoir. Sometimes, when the girls knew Mama had visitors, they would play phonograph loudly and they would dance to the rythm of the song, making a terrible noise. The room occassionaly served as a tennis court, but as far as we know, even though the walls were hitten often, nothing was ever broken. As a middle child Maria sometimes felt unloved and somehow left out. She expressed this in letters to her mother, who assured her that „I and Anastasia don´t have any secret. I don´t like secrets.“ and even though Maria loved her brother with a tender devotion, she couldn´t help but to be a bit jealous of him once in a while.
Since she was small Marie was a very lovely girl and her beauty increased with every passing year. Although it was Tatiana, who was considered the beauty of her time with practically perfect appearance, it was Maria who inherited the classical beauty of the Romanovs. Almost all who met her recalled her being a true „Russian beauty“. Looking at the old black and white photographs we can only agree with that statement. Marie was always tall for her age and tended to be chubby as a girl, though she lost the baby fat in later years. She had very gentle features and even though according to Anna Vyrubova she had „rather thick lips which detracted a little from her beauty“ she had a very charming, almost a shy smile. Her face was framed by masses and masses of brown wavy hair with golden glints in it. But what was really special about her appearance, what truly enhanced all those who met her were her eyes – two large orbs of the most beautiful „Romanov“ blue, which her cousins and later whole family called „Marie´s saucers“. Maria greatly resembled her paternal grandparents Alexander III. and Maria Fyodorovna. Let´s read what those, who actually met her, wrote:
"Marie was a fine girl... a picture of glowing health and colour. She had large and beautiful grey eyes. Her tastes were very simple, and with her warm heart she was kindness itself. Her sisters took advantage somewhat of her good nature, and called her 'fat little bow-wow' ('le bon gros tou-tou'). She certainly had the benevolent and somewhat gauche devotion of a dog." - Pierre Gilliard
"Marie Nikolaievna was like Olga Nikolaievna in colouring and features, but all on a more vivid scale. She had the same charming smile, the same shape of face, but her eyes, "Marie's saucers," as they were called by her cousins, were magnificent, and of a deep dark blue. Her hair had golden lights in it, and when it was cut after her illness in 1917, it curled naturally over her head." - Sophie Buxhoeveden
"She was a wonderful girl, possessed of a tremendous reserve force, and I never realised her unselfish nature until those dreadful days. She too was exceeding fair, dowered with the classic beauty of the Romanovs: her eyes were dark blue, shaded by long lashes, and she had masses of dark brown hair. Marie was plump, and the Empress often teased her about this; she was not so lively as her sisters, but she was much more decided in her outlook. The Grand Duchess Marie knew at once what she wanted, and why she wanted it." - Lili Dehn
"With her large grey, luminous eyes, her classical features, and langourous movements, she was the true type of Russian beauty; the most good natured and artless of the four sisters, with endearing qualities which drew people to her." - Alexander Grabbe
But perhaps the best description come from Sofie Orimosofova:
"Maria Nikolaevna can easily be called a Russian beauty. Tall, healthy, with sable eyebrows and a bright blush on her open Russian face, she is especially lovely to a Russian heart. You look at her and involuntarily imagine her dressed in the Russian boyar's sarafan; snowy muslin sleeves around her hands; on the highly decorated bodice semi-precious stone; and above her white brow, a kokoshnik with the traditional pearls. Her eyes illuminate her entire face by a unique, radiant luster; they sometimes seem black as long eyelashes throw shadows over the bright blush of her soft cheeks. She is merry and alive, but she has not yet awakened completely to life; probably concealed in her are the immense forces of a real Russian woman."
How very true those last words were we will yet see. Although endowed with kindness and beauty Maria did not have the ellegance of her elder sisters and was rather clumsy. While rehearsing a dance with the officers on the royal yacht, the twelve-years-old Maria „was gyrating awkwardly in the arms of an officer as the Emperor came in to watch... 'That's not the way to do it, Marie,' he said. 'Don't hang on to your partner's arms like that. You are too far away, and he can't guide you properly....The GD Marie, still not seeming to grasp what he meant, continued to roll about heavily....“ Much more serious embarassement came to Maria during her first official occassion. When she reached the age of sixteen, she was supposed to appear on an important state dinner. „She looked extremely pretty in her pale blue dress, wearing the diamonds that her parents gave to each of their daughters on her sixteenth birthday. Poor child! she felt that the world was coming to an end and that she was disgraced in its eyes for ever, when she slipped in her new high-heeled shoes and fell down as she was entering the dining-hall, on the arm of a tall Grand Duke. On hearing the noise, the Emperor remarked jokingly, "Of course, fat Marie."
What she lacked in ellegance she was given in physical strengh. That she definitely inherited from her grand father, who was famous for bending silver rubles and pokers for the amusement of his children. When Maria was in her later teens she was able to lift her tutors off the ground! General Voeikov reported the following incident: „When I was sidling to palace, I had impression that I'll in every moment, on roof of restaurant and covered gallery, see Imperial Children which are playing along with their running on zinc roof. They often climbed there across Emperor's window of his cabinet. First Maria Nikolaevna went out, which was weirdly strong, and then, she hoisted sisters and brother. After running, they came back, but in invert hierarchy: M.N. sloped off sisters and brother, then she alone, without any help, slipped down the roof holding by brink.“
We also know that Alexei, when he was sick and wanted to be moved, stretched out his arms and pleaded: „Mashka! Carry me!“
Although not the brightest pupil, Maria was gifted with great talent for drawing – doing so always with her left hand, while she used her right one for all other activities. She was usually bored during all other lessons and preferred to daydream. She was blessed with a „royal“ memory when it came to people and her nurse was often bewildred when the girl recognized faces of men and women she only saw once walking on the street and knew exactly what they were wearing the other day. She used to call these people „my friends“.
Of all her sisters Maria was least comfortable with her rank of Grand Duchess. Being very simple in her tastes her favourite companions were ordinary people and she was only sorry not to be able to meet them regularly. She knew all the soldiers and servants in the palace by name, as well as officers and sailors aboarch imperial yachts. She would often stop to talk to them and she knew exactly where they lived, if they were married and how many children they had. She would often put aside her own pocket money for the poor ones with families. Her greatest dream was to be wife and mother, and even though she probably exaggerated a bit when she once stated she wanted to marry a soldier and have twenty children, those around her were convinced she would indeed make some man really happy. She was very natural with children. It was reported that without a moment hesitation she would just snatch a baby from its mother´s arms and shower it with kisses. When she was about 15, she wrote to her father: "Yesterday afternoon Anastasia and I were at the nurses´ school, the children drank tea and I fed them with gruel and I thought about you when the gruel ran down their chins and we cleaned their chins with spoons."
Her love of soldiers certainly run in the family and Maria showed it since the earliest age. Miss Eager wrote: "One day the little Grand Duchess Marie was looking out of the window at a regiment of soldiers marching past, and exclaimed, "Oh! I love these dear soldiers; I should like to kiss them all!" I said, "Marie, nice little girls don't kiss soldiers." She made no remark. A few days afterwards we had a children's party, and the Grand Duke Constantine's children were amongst the guests. One of them, having reached twelve years of age, had been put into the Corps de Cadets, and came in his uniform. He wanted to kiss his little cousin Marie, but she put her hand over her mouth and drew back from the proffered embrace. "Go away, soldier," said she, with great dignity. "I don't kiss soldiers." The boy was greatly delighted at being taken for a real soldier, and not a little amused at the same time. "
Like all her sisters Maria got a uniform of her own and was proud to be able to dress deep green one belonging to her as to Honorary colonel-in-chief of the 9th Kazansky Dragoon Regiment of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna.
Affectionate and endearing she was, the girl thought she was in love when she was only 11. She shared her feelings with her mother, who adviced her: "I had long ago noticed that you were sad, but did not ask because one does not like it when others ask. Try not to let your thoughts dwell too much on him. 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. Be brave and cheer up and don't let your thoughts dwell so much upon him. It's not good and makes you yet more sad."
One of her cousins, Prince Louis of Battenberg (later Mountbatten), called Dickie within family, was for years completely under Maria´s spell, which he admitted quite freely on several occassions.
„I was mad about her, and determined to marry her. You could not imagine anyone more beautiful than she was!“ and „Oh, they (OTMA) were lovely and terribly sweet, far more beautiful than their photographs show. I was crackers about Marie, and was determined to marry her. She was absolutely lovely. I keep her photograph on the mantlepiece in my bedroom - always have.“ are just two of his confessions. Louis did indeed keep one of Maria´s 1914 formal pictures with him until his own violent death in 1979.
When the world war broke out, Maria was a girl of 15 and not allowed to be trained as nurse. Still she and Anastasia wanted to help at least in some form. Under their patronage a hospital was founded and the two girls would often visit the wounded soldiers, making them company, playing cards, read aloud and bringing flowers. Maria soon learned names of many of them and according to her custom was asking them about their wifes and families and homes, raising good memories and will to live. Yet even in those days the young girl could find amusement, as the following letter reveals: "It was such fun! Krylov lost the biggest and the best scrap-iron in the middle of the pond, having fallen on the prow. Then Khadov went to help him get the scrap-iron out, and they both nearly dipped. Finally I went to hold them by the uniforms. All this was happening on a piece of ice already drifting, so some sisters held it with hooks. In command today was not Fedotov, but the other one, you remember, he came to the tower, the one with such chubby cheeks? So we call him "cheeks". He made a terrific fuss and shouted orders from the bank. Mama was sitting there on the bank in her armchair, and we laughed long and hard!"
Before the war broke out, Maria´s two elder sisters, now both young and beautiful ladies, were considered the most desirable brides in
Marie also didn´t seem to mind that she wouldn´t be the next Queen of Romania. During the war years Maria, her sisters and mother sometimes visited the Tsar and Alexei at the war headquarters in
"Tommorow Anya invite...Viktor Erastovitch and Demenkov for tea (and all of us). Maria is of course extremely happy !”
"Nicolas D. is in service. Maria is doing much noise and screaming at the balcony."
And Anastasia of course noticed something too: "Maria was extremely happy, because the fat Demenkov was there whenwe came out of the church..."
Kolya, as Marie called him, was later sent to the front. Marie made a shirt for him with her own hands, and sent it to him. They also spoke to each other on telephone several times - he assured her once that he liked the shirt very much and it was just his size, another time he sent her several photographs. But this innocent relationship was never meant to blossom fully. They never saw each other again. Nikolai was swept by the civil war and emigrated to
Happy years of careless childhood and growing up were unmercifully fading away. Marie, who was considered by her parents as one of the“Little Ones“ was for a long time treated like a child. When she was 16, she spoke like 13 years old because of that. The time for her to grow up came without warning on the wings of first Russian revolution. When the unrest began in Petersburg, Marie, just like rest of her family, was quite unaware of it. Her elder sisters, Alexei and Anna Vyrubova were ill with measels. Their mother and sisters were taking care of them - of course not alone. Tsarina´s close friends were there - Anna Vyrubova, Sophie Buxhoeveden and Lili Dehn. Anna came down with measels herself, but the one person, who didn´t left the palace, although she had little son at home, was Lili Dehn. Thanks to her memories we can judge how Alexandra and her daughters faced the situation.
"When I first knew the Grand Duchess Marie, she was quite a child," she writes, "but during the Revolution she became very devoted to me, and I to her, and we spent most of our time togethershe was a wonderful girl, possessed of tremendous reserve force, and I never realised her unselfish nature until those dreadful days."
Lili was sleeping in the red drawing room, where two couches had been arranged as a bed. Anastasia lent one of her nightgowns to Lili and Marie had put a lamp and an icon on the table. And also a pictures of her little son, which they had chosen from their collection of photos and hastily framed. Anastasia at last fell ill with measels just like her sisters and joined them in the sick room. Now only Marie remained at her mother´s side and very much became "her legs". She was running messages, because the electric current for the lift had been cut off, and she was trying to persuade her mother to rest. It was Sophie Buxhoeveden, who wrote: “These days, in which she was her mother´s sole support, turned her from a child into a woman."
It was then, when the message of the riots in Petersburg finally reached their ears. Fearing the crowds could attack the palace, Alexandra decided to speak to the loyal soldiers, who were guarding them. She took Marie with her. The night was very cold and in the distance the sounds of guns were heard. According to Sophie, the scene was quite unforgettable: "It was dark, except for a faint light thrown up from the snow and reflected on the polished barrels of the rifles. The troops were lined up in battle order in the courtyard, the first line kneeling in the snow, the others standing behind, their rifles in readiness for a sudden attack. The figures of the Empress and her daughter passed like dark shadows from line to line, the white Palace looming a ghostly mass in the background. Firing from near by sounded in wild gusts."
Anna Vyrubova remembers: "From one guard to another they passed, the stately woman and the courageous young girl, undaunted both in the face of deadly danger, speaking words of encouragement, and most of all of simple faith and confidence."
The night walk almost cost Maria´s life. She knew she was coming down with measels when she stepped out to the chilly night. She shared it with Sophie, who suggested to het to go to bed at once. But Maria refused. She didn´t intend to be ill "till Papa is back" and swore Sophia to secrecy, so she wouldn´t tell her mother. They had no news of where Nicolas was or what he was going trough. Then it was, when finally Grand Duke Paul came into the palace and demanded to see Alexandra. Marie and Lili were waiting for her in the next room. Lili Dehn later described what happened:
"The interview took place in the red drawingroom. Marie and I were in the adjoining study, and from time to time we heard the loud voice of the Grand Duke and the agitated replies of the Empress. Marie began to get apprehensive.
"Why is he shouting at Mamma? she asked. "Don't you think I had better see what's the matter, Lili? "No, no," I said, " we had better remain here quietly."
"You can remain, but I'll go to my room," she answered. "I can't bear to think Mamma is worried." Hardly had the Grand Duchess left the study when the door opened and the Empress appeared. Her face was distorted with agony, her eyes were full of tears. She tottered rather than walked, and I rushed forward and supported her until she reached the writing-table between the windows. She leant heavily against it, and, taking my hands in hers, she said brokenly
"Abdique!"
.................................
The sound of bitter weeping now attracted my attention. In one corner of the room crouched the Grand Duchess Marie. She was as pale as her mother. She knew all!"
A little later, a servant came in and announced in a low voice the dinner was served. The Empress pulled herself together. With Lili she came out of the room and then she looked around, aksing where Maria was. Lili returned to the next room. There she found Marie, who was still crouching in the corner. "She was so young, so helpless, so hurt, that I felt I must comfort her as one comforts a child. I knelt beside her, her head rested on my shoulder. I kissed her tear-stained face. "Darling," I said, " don't cry... You will make Mamma so unhappy. Think of her."
At the words, "Think of her," the Grand Duchess remembered the unswerving devotion of the children towards their parents. Every thing was always subservient to Mamma and Papa. "Ah... I'd forgotten, Lili. Yes, I must think of Mamma," she answered. Little by little her sobs ceased, her composure returned, and she went with me to her mother."
Later Marie told the story to Anna Vyrubova. She said: "Mama cried terribly. I cried too, but not more than I could help, for poor Mama's sake."
But more horrors were waiting for Marie.
"We remained in the mauve boudoir until quite late, but, just as we were about to go to bed, Volkoff entered in a state of painful agitation. He managed to tell us that M. Goutchkoff had arrived, and insisted upon seeing the Empress. It was then 11 o'clock.
"But, at this hour - it's impossible," said the Empress. "Your Majesty, he insists," stammered Volkoff. The Empress turned to me - terror and pathos in her eyes. "He has come to arrest me, Lili," she exclaimed. "Telephone to the Grand Duke Paul, and ask him to come at once." Regaining her composure, the Empress rearranged the Red Cross head-dress which she had taken off, and stood waiting in silence for the Grand Duke. Neither Marie nor myself dared speak. At length, after what seemed an interminable agony of suspense, the Grand Duke entered, and the Empress told him in a few words about her ominous summons. The next moment, loud voices in the corridor, and the banging of a door, announced Goutchkoff's arrival in the adjoining room.....
Marie and I clung desperately to the Empress; we were certain that all was now finished. She kissed us both tenderly, and passed out with the Grand Duke Paul.....Marie and I sat side by side on the sofa, the young girl shook with fear, but her terror was not for herself - Marie, like all the children, thought only of her beloved mother.....At last footsteps sounded in the corridor - the door of the boudoir opened - and, to our unspeakable relief, we saw the Empress! Marie ran towards her mother, half crying, and half laughing, and the Empress quickly reassured us. "I am not to be arrested this time," she said. "But, oh! the humiliation of the interview!
Finally after agonizing days without any news Nicholas was coming back home to his family. However for Maria the joy of his return was spoilt with severe illness. She was the last one of her sisters to fall ill. But it wasn´t just measels. Maria caught cold due to her coming out with Mama that night. All she wanted was to be up, when her father would come home. But late that evening, before his coming, she couldn´t hide her illness any longer. Her condition was aggravated by a very severe attack of pneumonia of a virulent kind. She had temprature about
Maria was only repeeating: "Oh, I did so want to be up when Papa comes!" . Then a high fever set in and she lost consciousness. Her last comprehensible words were: "Lili, can you sleep with Mamma to-night?" She didn´t even hear Lili to assure her that she wouldn´t leave Alexandra alone.
Maria´s illness was so serious, that at one point Dr. Botkin wanted Sophie Buxhoeveden to warn Alexandra, that her daughter may not survive. The family and friends wanted to give Maria everything, that could possibly make her more comfortable. Because of that she was the first unmarried Grand Duchess, who slept in a real bed instead of the hard camp-beds.
She wanted to be the first to welcome Nicolas home. Yet when Lili came to tell her Papa was finally back, the girl was delirious, with only intervals of consciousness. Nonetheless she recognized Lili and asked: " Well, Lili, where have you been? I've been waiting and waiting for you. Papa is really here, isn't he?" In the next moment she was back in the fantastic and terrible kingdom of fever. " Crowds of people... dreadful people... they're coming to kill Mamma!! Why are they doing these things? "
Lili, who became very close to Maria during previous days, spent a great amount of time at the girl´s bedside, taking turns with Alexandra. Lili was constantly spoonging the patient´s fevered body and when Maria was counscious, she liked Lili to take a brush and comb her lovely hair, which became tangled as she tossed her head in her feverish dreams. Because of the illness Marie couldn´t even say goodbye to Lili, who was ordered by the Provisional government to leave the family. Before she left, Lili Dehn came to Marie´s darkened room and kissed her flushed cheek, blessed her and went out quietly. That was the last time she ever saw the beloved Grand Duchess. Only her strong and healthy condition, pulled Maria through the illness. She had another fate waiting for her.
The members of the Imperial family were now captives in their own beloved Alexander palace. The family drew their strengh from being all together. Except for one time, they never parted from that moment on. After they were moved to Tobolsk, their life settled down for some time. Even though she was bored, Maria didn´t complain. To her simple nature having her family close in relative peace was enough and one day she surprised Mr. Gibbs stating she would be completely happy if they were allowed to live in Tobolsk forever. In winter children were sick with scarletina - Marie had fever around 39, 5. Through all they had to endure, Marie was still blossoming into even greater beauty. She became much thinner and her hair, which were growing extremely quickly after it was shaved off, were now curling in gentle waves around her face. She became a great favourite to comissar Pankratov and he liked to converse with her. When she hit her eye once, he was so alarmed he immeditely went to ask if she didn´t need any special favour.
Even the calm days at Tobolsk were nearing the end. The family was to be moved to another, "safer", place. Because Alexei was ill and weak after the last attack of hemophilia, he couldn´t travel. Under these circumstances it was decided, that only Nicolas had to leave, and the rest of the family would join him later. No one of the Romanovs liked the idea of being separated again. Especially Alexandra. She couldn´t decide, wheter she would go with her husband, whom she felt to be in danger, or if she rather should stay and take care of her ill son. After hard thinking she decided to join Nicky´s danger. We don´t know why Marie joined them. According to some all four Grand Duchesses settled among themselves, that Marie should go with their parents, because she was physically strongest. Others say, that Alexandra wanted to take one of her daughters with her. She chose Maria, because level-headed Tatiana was needed to take care of Alexei, Anastasia was his most loyal companion and Olga suffered from depression. But most likely it was Marie´s own decision. Aware of hidden menace, she wanted to share the fate of two people in the world she loved the most - Mama and Papa. And so the girl, whose birth was first a great disapointment, became a brave woman, who was there for her family as a strong pillar of reassurance. Before she left, Maria together with Anastasia burnt their diaries.
Pierre Gilliard wrote into his diary: " The Tsar and Tsarina and Marie Nikolaievna took leave of us. The Tsarina and the Grand Duchesses were in tears. The Tsar seemed calm and had a word of encouragement for each of us; he embraced us. The Tsarina, when saying good-bye, begged me to stay upstairs with Aleksey Nikolaievich. I went to the boy's room and found him in bed, crying."
Together with Imperial couple left also Dr. Botkin and several others. There were no carriages and only simple carts were pulled into the yard. Maria sat on the floor of one with her moter. When dr. Botkin saw they were shivering with cold, because they didn´t have any clothes for such a weather, he gave them his own coat.
This is another of Gilliard´s diary entries:
"Saturday, April 27th
The man who drove the Tsarina for the first stage has brought a note from Marie Nikolaievna; the roads are founderous, travelling conditions terrible. How will the Tsarina be able to stand the journey? How heartrending it all is!"
The roads were truly terrible, non-paved and muddy, because spring was waking cold Siberia and the ground couldn´t soak in all of the melting ice. They had to change horses several times, everytime when that was being done Maria got out of the cart to adjust the blankets for her mother. Her fingers were so stiff and cold she had to rub them for a long time before she could move them. Then they finally got on the train, where Maria shared a cabit with Anna Demidova. Although they thought they were going to Moscow, the final station was Ekaterinburg and House of Special purpose. At first Maria slept in the room with her parents and almost every day wrote letters to her siblings, many of those letters were lost and never reached Tobolsk.
This is one of the letters which found its way to her siblings:
27 April/10 May, 1918 - Ekaterinburg
We miss our quiet peaceful life in Tobolsk. Here practically every day brings unpleasant surprises. Members of the regional soviet have just been and asked how much money each of us has with them. We had to sign a paper. Since, as you know, Papa and Mama haven't a kopeck, they wrote down 'nothing,' while I had 16 roubles and 17 kopecks, which Anastasia gave me for the journey. They took everyone else's money into safekeeping with the committee, leaving them only a very little - they gave them receipts. They have warned us we are not immune from further searches. Who could believe they would treat us this way after 14 months of detention. We hope things are better with you, as they were when we were there.
When after weeks of worries others arrived, Maria gave up her bed for her little brother and for several days slept with her sisters on the floor.
Even under such conditions Maria remained true to her character. She was friendly with the guards and soon won them over with her charm and kind character. She passed the time by attempting to actually befriend members of the Guard. She showed them pictures from her photo albums and talked with them about their families. Even the leader of the firing squad Yurovski noted into his memo, that unlike depressed Olga and worried Tatiana „she did not behave at all like her elder sisters. Her sincere, modest character was very attractive to the men, and she spent most of her time flirting with them.“
One of the guards recalled that „Marie Nikoleavna seemed the most pleasant... If she had been well fed and if they had let her stay outside, she would have been a true Russian beauty, even though the blood in her veins was more German, Danish and English than Russian. When Marie Nikolevna smiled, her eyes shone with such brilliance that it was a pleasure to see. Her face was more often rosy than those of her sisters. Her laughter was so gay and infectious that one derived pleasure from playing and joking with her. One could see that an invincible strength pushed her character to use force: I remember how one day, in the garden, she seized with strength a big tree branch, which she started to swing on until Yurovsky shouted at her in anger, ‘Citizeness Romanov, stop damaging the trees.’”
All that didn´t stop her from scolding the guards from time to time. The guards were tough man using tough language and Maria without a moment hesitation silenced two of the most coarse persecutors when, boldly, she said, throwing a furious look at them, “How can you not be disgusted with yourselves when you use those shameful words? Do you think that it is with words like these that one moves a well-bred woman and disposes her to favor you? Be delicate and proper men; then we can talk to you.”
„She was not especially like her sisters, somehow she seemed closed off from most of her family. This obviously followed from what had happened, because her mother and eldest sister treated her as if she didn’t belong, like an outcast,“ wrote Yurovski. The last statement, even though somehow exaggerated, makes you wonder what could have happened to anger Alexandra and Olga to grow cold towards Maria. It would seem that she became so very much popular among the guards, that one of them actually took a particular liking in her – and she in him. His name was Ivan Skorokhodov. On the day of Maria´s 19th birthday he managed to smuggle a cake into the house. After a while they both disappeared somewhere for a private moment, but were discovere by two of his superiors. Ivan was immediatelly removed from the house and Maria was also punished – by her family. It was reported that Alexandra often scolded her daughter in "severe and angry whispers." Her sister Olga probably couldn´t understand how she could be so fond of an enemy, and both she and Alix since then avoided her company for a while.
The last several days of her life were probably very hard, even more difficult because of the incident mentioned. When the morning of 16th July 1918 came, she had no idea it was her last. She was optimistic and should we believe the guards, still hoped she would be released and allowed to settle in Russia or England. She still hoped to get married and to make somebody happy. She still hoped to have children of her own. Maria Nikolaevna, the young woman, who breathed her last in the early morning hours of 17th July, was welcomed to the world with awkwardness and left it stricken down by hatred she didn´t deserve.
