The blessed Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich and his family. Biography of Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich How the family of Nicholas II lived

From the first days of his reign, Nicholas II dreamed of an heir. The Lord sent only daughters to the emperor.

Tsesarevich was born on August 12, 1904. The heir to the Russian throne was born a year after the Sarov celebrations. The entire royal family fervently prayed for the birth of a boy. Alexey inherited all the best from his father and mother.

His parents loved him very much, he reciprocated them greatly. His father was a real idol for Alexei Nikolaevich. The young prince tried to imitate him in everything.

The royal couple did not even think about what to name the newborn. Nicholas II had long wanted to name his future heir Alexei.

The Tsar said that “it’s time to break the line between Aleksandrov and Nikolaev.” Nicholas II was also attracted to the personality of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, and the emperor wanted to name his son in honor of his great ancestor.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 18, 1901. The Emperor waited a long time for an heir, and when the long-awaited fourth child turned out to be a daughter, he was saddened. Soon the sadness passed, and the Emperor loved his fourth daughter no less than his other children.

They were expecting a boy, but a girl was born. With her agility, Anastasia could give any boy a head start. She wore simple clothes inherited from her older sisters. The fourth daughter's bedroom was not richly decorated.

The princess always took a cold shower every morning. It was not easy to keep track of her. As a child she was very nimble, she loved to climb where she could not get caught and hide.

When she was still a child, Grand Duchess Anastasia loved to play pranks and also make others laugh. In addition to cheerfulness, it reflects such character traits as wit, courage and observation.

Maria Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 27, 1899. She became the third child of the Emperor and Empress. Grand Duchess Maria Romanova was a typical Russian girl. She was characterized by good nature, cheerfulness and friendliness. She had a beautiful appearance and vitality.

According to the recollections of some of her contemporaries, she was very similar to her grandfather Alexander III. The princess loved her parents very much and was strongly attached to them, much more than the other children of the royal couple.

The fact is that she was too small for her older sisters (Olga and Tatyana), and too old for her younger sister and brother (Anastasia and Alexei) Nicholas II.

Maria had big blue eyes. She was tall, with a bright, ruddy face - a true Russian beauty, she was the embodiment of kindness and cordiality. The sisters even took advantage of this kindness a little.

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 11, 1897, and was the second child of the Romanovs. Like Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Tatiana in appearance resembled her mother, but her character was that of her father.

Tatyana was less emotional than her sister. Her eyes were similar to the eyes of the Empress, her figure was graceful, and the color of her blue eyes harmoniously combined with her brown hair. She was rarely naughty and had amazing, according to contemporaries, self-control.

She had a highly developed sense of duty and a penchant for order in everything. Due to her mother’s illness, she often took charge of the household; this did not burden the Grand Duchess at all. Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova inherited her mother’s facial features, posture, and golden hair.

From Nikolai Alexandrovich, the daughter inherited inner world. She, like her father, had an amazingly pure Christian soul. The princess was distinguished by an innate sense of justice and did not like lies.

Now about his two other sons - Konstantin and Nikolai and their two branches - "Konstantinovichi" and "Nikolaevich". Both had two marriages, like their brother Emperor Alexander II, but both Constantine and Nicholas had their second marriages to ballerinas.

Nikolai Nikolaevich (1831-1891) and Konstantin Nikolaevich (1827-1892)

Moreover, Nikolai did not register his second marriage, but cohabited without divorcing his first wife, who, by the way, became a saint. More on this later, but now a little about the three daughters of Nicholas I - Olga, Maria, Alexandra.

Olga Nikolaevna (1822-1892) Maria Nikolaevna (1819-1876) Alexandra Nikolaevna (1825-1844)

Maria Nikolaevna (August 18, 1819 - February 21, 1876) - the first mistress of the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg, president of the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1852-1876. She was the eldest daughter and second child in the family of Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. Unlike many princesses of that time, whose marriages were concluded for dynastic reasons, Maria Nikolaevna married for love. Married: Duchess of Leuchtenberg. Despite Maximilian's origins and his religion (he was a Catholic), Nicholas I agreed to marry his daughter with him, provided that the couple would live in Russia and not abroad.

The wedding took place on July 2, 1839 and took place according to two rites: Orthodox and Catholic. By decree of July 2 (14), 1839, the emperor granted Maximilian the title of His Imperial Highness, and by decree of December 6 (18), 1852, he bestowed the title and surname of Prince Romanovsky on the descendants of Maximilian and Maria Nikolaevna. The children of Maximilian and Maria Nikolaevna were baptized into Orthodoxy and raised at the court of Nicholas I; later Emperor Alexander II included them in the Russian Imperial family. From this marriage, Maria Nikolaevna had 7 children: Alexandra, Maria, Nikolay, Evgenia, Evgeny, Sergey, Georgy.

Of these, daughter Evgeniya gave birth to her only child - Peter of Oldenburg. The same one with whom Nicholas II’s sister Olga lived in an unhappy marriage for 7 years. Another daughter Maria , married the elder brother of Grand Duchess Olga Fedorovna, about whom I already wrote. But the daughter of Maria Nikolaevna - Alexandra died in infancy. Granddaughter of Maria Nikolaevna from her son, whose name is Eugene , was shot by the Bolsheviks. Georgiy - the only one of the brothers entered into a dynastic marriage, but his two sons did not leave offspring, so the family died out.

Son of Maria Nikolaevna Nikolay in 1868 in Bavaria he entered into a morganatic marriage with Nadezhda Sergeevna Annenkova, in his first marriage - Akinfova (1840-1891), which caused the displeasure of the emperor. The Duke of Leuchtenberg was forced to leave Russia. This union was recognized as legal only 11 years later, and Nadezhda Sergeevna, by decree of Emperor Alexander II, received the title of Countess of Beauharnais in 1879. They had two children - Georgiy And Nikolay.
Sergey, son of Maria Nikolaevna, was not married and left no offspring. Sergei Maximilianovich was killed with a bullet wound to the head. Prince Romanovsky became the first member of the Russian Imperial House to die in the war. He is buried in the Grand Duke's tomb in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In his memory, a chapel was built in the name of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Lesnoy.

Maria Nikolaevna's first husband, Maximilian, died at the age of 35, and she married again in 1853 to Count Grigory Alexandrovich Stroganov (1823-1878). The wedding was performed on November 13 (25), 1853 in the palace church of the Mariinsky Palace by the priest of the Trinity Church of the Gostilitskaya estate of Tatiana Borisovna Potemkina, Ioann Stefanov. This marriage was morganatic, concluded in secret from Maria Nikolaevna’s father, Emperor Nicholas I, with the assistance of the heir and his wife. From this marriage Maria has two more children - Gregory And Elena.

Olga Nikolaevna, the second daughter of Nicholas I was born in the Anichkov Palace on August 30 (September 11), 1822 and was the third child in the family of Emperor Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna. On her mother's side, Princess Olga came from the Prussian royal house of Hohenzollern. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were the kings of Prussia, Frederick William II and Frederick William III. Attractive, educated, multilingual, and interested in playing the piano and painting, Olga was regarded as one of the best brides in Europe. After the wedding of her sister Maria, who married a prince below her in rank, Olga Nikolaevna’s parents wanted to find her a promising husband. But time passed, and in life Grand Duchess For Olga, nothing has changed. Those close to me were perplexed: “How, at nineteen years old, still not married?” And at the same time there were many contenders for her hand. Back in 1838, while staying with her parents in Berlin, the sixteen-year-old princess attracted the attention of Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. But neither she nor her family liked him. A year later, Archduke Stefan took possession of her thoughts. He was the son of Palatine Joseph of Hungary (the wife of the deceased Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna) from his second marriage. But this union was prevented by Stefan’s stepmother, who did not want to have a Russian princess as a relative out of jealousy towards the first wife of Archduke Joseph. By 1840, Olga decided that she would not rush into marriage; she said that she was already well, she was happy to stay at home. Emperor Nicholas I declared that she was free and could choose whoever she wanted. Olga Nikolaevna's aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich) began making efforts to marry her off to her brother Prince Frederick of Württemberg. He was sent a refusal. But I had to wait a long time for an answer to the counter-proposal of marriage with Stefan. The letter from Vienna said that the marriage of Stefan and Olga Nikolaevna, who professed different faiths, seemed unacceptable for Austria. An archduchess of Russian origin could become dangerous for the state due to the fact that unrest could arise among the Slavic population of the “explosive” regions of Austria. Stefan himself said that knowing about Albrecht’s feelings, he considered it right to “step aside.” This uncertainty had a depressing effect not only on Olga, but also on her parents. She has already begun to be considered a cold nature. The parents began to look for another match for their daughter and settled on Duke Adolphus of Nassau. And this almost led to a break with Mikhail Pavlovich’s wife, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. She had long dreamed of marrying her youngest daughter Elizabeth to him. Nicholas I, caring about maintaining peace in the imperial house, decided that the prince was free to make his own choice between his cousins. But Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who had not forgiven her niece for neglecting her brother, was now worried that Adolf would give preference the king's daughter to the detriment of her Lily. But Adolf, who came to Russia with his brother Maurice, asked for the hand of Elizaveta Mikhailovna. The emperor had nothing against it, but was surprised. At the beginning of 1846, in Palermo, where Olga was accompanied by her mother, the Empress, who had been there for some time to improve her health, which had deteriorated sharply after the death of her youngest daughter Alexandra, she met the Crown Prince of Württemberg, Charles, and agreed to his marriage proposal. The wedding took place in Peterhof on July 1 (13), 1846, on Alexandra Feodorovna’s birthday and on the day of her wedding to Nikolai Pavlovich. It was believed that this number should bring happiness to the new couple. Bells rang all day long, even houses in St. Petersburg were decorated with illumination. The emperor wished his daughter: “Be to Karl what your mother has been to me all these years.” Family life Olga's life turned out quite well, but they had no children.

Alexandra Nikolaevna (June 24, 1825 - August 10, 1844), the youngest daughter of Nicholas I, was famous for her beauty and easy-going character, and was distinguished by her amazing kindness and musical character. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 19, leaving her husband, Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hesse-Kassel (1820 - 1884), a widower. She didn't give birth to children. Therefore, Frederick married a second time to the Prussian Princess Anna.

NIkolay Nikolaevich the Elder (1831-1891) - Russian military leader and statesman; third son of Emperor Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna; Field Marshal General (April 16, 1878). He was called Elder from November 24, 1856, according to the Highest command - to distinguish him from his first-born son, who was born then, named by the same name; also had a court nickname - Uncle Nizi. Member of the State Council (1855) and honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In his youth, judging by his diary entries, he was in love with Maria Anna of Prussia, but the marriage did not take place due to close kinship. There is also a version that Maria Alexandrovna Pushkina (Hartung) was in love with Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, perhaps they had a secret affair, which is why she did not get married for so long. In 1856, in St. Petersburg, he married Alexandra Friederike Wilhelmina, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Oldenburg Konstantin Friedrich Peter (in Orthodoxy Alexandra Petrovna).
Children:
Nikolay (1856—1929);
Peter (1864—1931).

After 10 years, the marriage de facto broke up; Nikolai Nikolaevich publicly accused his wife of adultery with the rector of their palace church and the confessor of the Grand Duchess, Archpriest Vasily Lebedev. Nikolai Nikolaevich expelled Alexandra Petrovna from the Nikolaevsky Palace, taking away jewelry, including his own gifts. Emperor Alexander II took the side of the Grand Duke, taking, however, all the costs of maintaining the exiled daughter-in-law at his own expense. She never returned to St. Petersburg and ended her days in the Kiev Pokrovsky Monastery, which she founded. Canonized as a Venerable UOC.

July 17 marks the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family - Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and son Alexei.

What were the royal children from the holy family like? What did you dream about and what have you already achieved in your short but wonderful destinies?

What was the family of Nicholas II like? eat it iconographic image: seven “I”s that have become unity, like Andrei Rublev’s holy angels. There is a photo in which the four Grand Duchesses are sometimes so similar that they can be confused.

In fact, the royal children are very different. And although they always tried to be together, each life is its own separate story with a tragic end.

Princess Olga: “I am Russian and I want to live in Russia”

“Very well-read,” “remarkably smart,” “a crystal soul,” “had perfect pitch,” “loved solitude and books.” This is what they said about Grand Duchess Olga, the Tsar’s eldest daughter. She was born in November 1895, a year after her parents' wedding. She received communion for the first time after baptism, when she was 11 days old, in the church of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace.

By nature she is sensitive, not inclined to leadership. She willingly gave up the role of host to her sister Tatyana, although she was a year and a half younger. They dressed the same, slept in the same room, shared secrets of their hearts.

Olga was called "daddy's girl." If she couldn’t answer a question, she said: “Ask dad.” She wore a medallion with a portrait of Nicholas II around her neck. This image will later be found in Yekaterinburg, in Ganina Yama.

Sometimes there were disagreements with my mother. Alexandra Feodorovna found her a groom - the Romanian Prince Carol. Olga mockingly called him Karlusha. When the topic of marriage came up, she said: “I’m Russian and I want to live in Russia.” She was carried away Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. Handsome, athlete, brave officer, he did not hide his hostility towards Rasputin. The queen was categorically against such a son-in-law, and her daughter resigned herself to her will.

In her diaries, Olga rarely writes “I”, mostly “we”. Four sisters came up with a common “name” OTMA - based on the first letters of their names. They played tennis together, went horseback riding... But pain, suffering, death were nearby. Little Alexey was seriously ill. My mother had nervous attacks. In the fall of 1914, the Grand Duchess went to work as a nurse in the infirmary.

“Olga fed needles with thread during the first amputation,” the queen wrote to her husband. - One soldier died during the operation - such horror! The girls showed courage, although they had never seen death so close... How close death is!”

Going to Siberia, the princess took with her several icons and books in Russian and French. Between the pages she placed dried flowers from Tsarskoe Selo - a reminder of former happiness.

She didn’t know what awaited them, but judging by some of her actions, she had a premonition of a lot. In Tobolsk, she burned almost all of her diaries, and shortly before the execution, she copied “Prayer” into a notebook - poems secretly given to the family by the poet Sergei Bekhteev: “...And at the threshold of the grave / Breathe into the lips of Your slaves / Superhuman forces / Pray meekly for your enemies!”

Princess Tatiana: “May God’s blessing protect you!”

The second daughter was named Tanya, like the Larins in Eugene Onegin. But it didn’t turn out according to Pushkin: Olga was dreamy, but Tatyana turned out to be energetic, rode excellently, patronized the Uhlan regiment and was proud of it.

Outwardly, she resembled Alexandra Feodorovna and, of all the sisters, she was perhaps closest to her mother. The courtiers noted Tatiana's refined beauty, aristocracy, determination and practical intelligence. When the queen was ill, the second daughter was in charge of the routine in the house, sometimes she was jokingly called the tutor. She often accompanied the king on walks. The sisters knew: if dad you need to ask for something, Tanya is the best person to do it.

In September 1911, Pyotr Stolypin was killed before her eyes. She was sitting in a theater box with her father when shots were fired. The girl saw the blood on his jacket, heard his last words... “This made a strong impression on Tatyana, she cried for a long time,” Nicholas II wrote to his mother.

In September 1914, on the initiative of the Grand Duchess, a committee to help victims of the war was created. General Mosolov recalled that the tsar’s seventeen-year-old daughter “actively, intelligently and intelligently” participated in all matters. It was then that her talent as a sister of mercy manifested itself. She assisted during complex operations and confidently and skillfully bandaged severe wounds. The doctors noted that they had rarely met such a calm and dexterous surgical nurse.

Thanks to her strong character, she became a support for her mother. After her arrest, in Siberia, she looked after her: she helped her dress, styled her hair, and tried to distract her from difficult thoughts. On December 31, 1917, she gave me a beautiful notebook for the diary. She captioned it: “To my beloved dear mother, best wishes for a Happy New Year. May God’s blessing be with you and protect you always!”

On the evening of July 16, 1918, Tatyana read the Bible to Alexandra Fedorovna until late. A few hours later they were woken up, told to get dressed and go down to the basement - ostensibly to move to another building, but first to take photographs. The whole family was lined up. Later, participants in the execution said that Tatyana stood next to the queen, closer - the last thing she could do for her mother...

Princess Maria: “It’s terribly sad that we were unable to venerate the relics of the saint”

The third daughter was considered similar to her grandfather, the hero Alexander III. At the age of 18, she raised her teacher for fun in English lean Charles Gibbs. A stately Russian beauty with luxurious hair and big eyes (in her family they were affectionately called “Mashkin’s saucers”), she was distinguished by her good nature, simplicity, and knew how to find mutual language with different people - with officers, soldiers and even with Red Guards.

As a child, she was told about the heavenly patron saint, Saint Mary Magdalene, who was left alone in the cave where Jesus was buried and was the first to see the risen Savior. The Grand Duchess was also not a timid person. In February 1917, when an armed uprising began in Petrograd, and the tsar had not yet returned from the front, she and Alexandra Fedorovna were not afraid to go out to the soldiers who were guarding them. The sounds of gunfire could be heard in the distance; the rioters could have attacked the palace. “The queen and her daughter moved from one line to another, encouraging the soldiers, forgetting about the mortal danger they were exposed to,” recalled maid of honor Anna Vyrubova.

Later, in Yekaterinburg, the arrested princess communicated with guards recruited from local workers. Their greasy jokes shocked Olga and Tatyana, but Maria did not lose her temper: she calmly and sternly answered the rude people. She tried to teach one guard, Ivan Skorokhodov, music.

On June 14, a month before the execution, she turned 19 years old. I really wanted to take a group photo as a souvenir! But the guards forbade it. Skorokhodov prepared a gift for her that day - he wanted to secretly smuggle a birthday cake into Ipatiev’s house. He was detained by a security patrol at the entrance. The pie was confiscated, and the guy was almost imprisoned. He didn't come again.

Courage and strength were combined in Mary with a gentle character. “Masha, carry me!” - the sick crown prince called when he wanted to move to another room. And how fervently she prayed for her brother! “When I left Alexei’s room after prayer, I felt as if I had come from confession... Such a pleasant, heavenly feeling,” she wrote to her mother.

“We are always happy when they let us into church,” she told her friend in the spring of 1918. “But it’s terribly sad that we have never been able to venerate the relics of St. John of Tobolsk".

It is not known exactly who killed her. According to security officer Medvedev, after the first salvo, the surviving Maria rushed to the locked door - she pulled and tried to open it. Then Commissar Ermakov discharged his pistol at her...

Princess Anastasia: “How funny the Red Guards are armed!”

Even in the ceremonial photos there is a smile in her eyes, and her lips seem to be about to smile. Short, broad-boned, little Anastasia was not at all worried about her build; on the contrary, she joked about it and called herself “shvybzik.”

Being the youngest is a special advantage: everyone’s favorite “little egg”, “sweetheart”, “little one” had maximum freedom. At the age of four, she crawled under the table and pinched the legs of the grand dukes (for this she was punished by her dad). In the park she easily climbed a tall tree and refused to come down. I was hiding in the cupboard from the doctors. She painted the crown prince's face in the manner of an Indian with strawberry juice. She put on false teeth and scared everyone. She also loved to eat chocolate, draw and swing on a swing.

She quickly realized her role in the house - to be a source of fun, to defuse the situation. Sorrowful mother, strict Tatyana, thoughtful Olga could not stand it and began to laugh, looking at her comic improvisations. But little Alexey became her main fan. “You need to play in the theater,” he said. Nastya immediately took on an official look: “No. I have other responsibilities."

When the Tsarevich was ill, she sat for hours by his bed, read aloud, told stories that she immediately made up on the fly, and in each one, after all the ups and downs, good prevailed.

She was 15 years old when the family was arrested. In Tobolsk, I sawed logs with my father, rode down an icy mountain, and played comedy plays for my family. Every day I found a reason for joy and shared it in letters: “The weather is wonderful now, the sun is shining so well!”, “I’m tanned more than anyone, like an acrobat!”, “I fell from a swing - it was such a wonderful fall!”

“How funny the Red Guards are armed - they are literally hung with weapons, something hangs or sticks out everywhere,” she wrote to her parents in the spring of 1918. “We arranged the iconostasis for Easter terribly well!” And at the end of the letter: “Dear, dear, how sorry we are for you. We believe that the Lord will help his own!!!”

After the execution royal family Whites entered Yekaterinburg. In Ipatiev’s house, in the room where the grand duchesses lived, investigators found a drawing of Anastasia: two birch trees and between them an empty children’s swing.

Tsarevich Alexei: “If I die, erect a small monument to me in the park”

“For the Lord punishes whomever he loves.” How so? The confessor explained to the little crown prince: “God is testing us, and if you endure and do not grumble, it will bear spiritual fruit.”

It was difficult to endure. At the age of eight, Alexey fell, hurt himself, and developed a strong fever. Three weeks of torment day and night. “If I die, erect a small monument to me in the park,” he asked his parents.

In the summer, the boy lay down in the grass and looked at the clouds. "What are you thinking about?" - asked his sister Olga. “A lot of things,” answered the Tsarevich. - Enjoying the sun and the beauty of summer while I can. Who knows, maybe one of these days I won’t be able to do this anymore.”

There are many icons in his bedroom; in the center of the icon case is “The Resurrection of Christ” with a piece of stone from Golgotha. Every evening my mother comes here and they pray together. Then Alexey immediately turns off the light. Why so fast? “Mommy, I feel light only when you are with me. And when you leave, there is darkness all around.”

Does God hear their prayers? Alexey is the heir, he must become strong, at the head of Russia. When this happens, he will make sure everyone is happy! Together with dad, they get out of the car at a small station. Some employee bows to the Tsar: a large family, poverty... “From this day on, you will receive from me another 30 rubles a month,” the Tsar promises him. The crown prince standing next to him adds: “And from me - 40.”

In August 1914 in Moscow, he walks with his mentor on Vorobyovy Gory. On way back, in the Yakimanka area, a crowd of ordinary people surrounded the car. They are delighted, everyone tries to touch him. Hosanna to the king's son!

In the spring of '17, he, like the whole family, was under arrest. Bright Week, a boy walks in the garden. Drunken sailors shout to him: “Hey, future king!” He looks at them and suddenly answers: “Christ is risen, brothers!” Having stopped grinning, the sailors stretch out to their full height: “Truly he is risen!!!”

Their last New Year in Tobolsk: a Christmas tree without toys stands on the table. “Lord, help us! Lord have mercy!" - the crown prince writes in his diary. In Yekaterinburg, he injured his knee and fell ill again. Security officer Yakov Yurovsky came to see him. He examined the leg and recommended a bandage. He could also kiss Alexei - following the example of Judas, the traitor of Christ.

Before his execution, the Tsarevich was seated on a chair. When Yurovsky pulled out a pistol, Nikolai shielded his son. And then he collapsed under a hail of bullets. Alexey remained sitting. I moaned for a long time. Even many years later, the executioners were surprised at his “strange vitality.”

Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with their children, the Grand Duchesses (from left to right) Olga, Maria, Anastasia, Tatiana and Tsarevich Alexei.

I don’t really like painted photographs, but they are the ones that best show how beautiful the girls really were. My favorites are Olga and Maria. Here they are on the right.

The girls themselves came up with the idea of ​​being called “OTMA” - a monogram based on the first letters of their names. And they were all divided into a group of older ones (Olga and Tatyana) and younger ones (Maria and Anastasia). But they were very close to each other.

Tsarevich Alexei's teacher Pierre Gilliard: " The Grand Duchesses were charming with their freshness and health. It would be difficult to find four sisters so different in character and at the same time so closely united by friendship. The latter did not interfere with their personal independence and, despite the difference in temperaments, united them with a living connection. From the initial letters of their names they made common name"Otma" Under this common signature they sometimes gave gifts or sent letters written by one of them on behalf of all four."

Perhaps due to the fact that they led a rather closed life. Their mother was quite strict with them.

“The upbringing of daughters in the royal family was indeed strict, since Alexandra Feodorovna herself, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was raised this way, and Emperor Nicholas was not spoiled by his father, Emperor Alexander III, as a child. The princesses slept on camp beds, little covered, and took a cold bath every morning Alexandra Feodorovna, herself very modest in her clothes and choice of hairstyles, did not allow her daughters to dress up either. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna fully embraced this attitude towards luxury and, according to her recollections, dressed very modestly, constantly reprimanding other sisters in this regard. Every ruble, "The money saved on a luxurious dress went to charity in the royal family. Perhaps Alexandra Feodorovna, if she were an ordinary mother, would have spoiled her daughters, but she felt a constant responsibility for her subjects: when the First World War began, new dresses stopped being made altogether."

The Empress's maid of honor S. Ya. Ofrosimova recalled: “The life of the Princesses was neither cheerful nor varied. They were brought up in a strict patriarchal spirit, in deep religiosity. This instilled in them that faith, that strength of spirit and humility that helped them to endure without complaint and light hard days imprisonment and martyrdom. The Empress did not allow the Princesses to sit idle for a single second. They had to be always busy, always in action. Wonderful works and embroideries from their graceful, quick hands."

But from Nikolai’s letters to his wife, and from the diaries of the girls, it is clear that the family was very loving. And the only reason for such closeness was that their mother, knowing the world and society, tried to protect them from its corrupting influence.

“The Empress was afraid of the bad influence of secular young ladies and did not even like it when her children saw their cousin, Irina Alexandrovna. However, they did not suffer from boredom; when they grew up, they were constantly carried away and dreamed of this and that. In the summer they played tennis, walked, rowed with the officers of the yacht or guards. These childish, naive hobbies amused their parents, who constantly made fun of them. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (sister of Emperor Nicholas - M.K.) organized youth meetings for them. Sometimes they drank tea with their friends. Mm Brisac was their dressmaker; they dressed simply, but tastefully, in the summer - almost always in white. They had few gold things. At the age of 12 they received their first gold bracelet, which they never took off" .

Maria, Tatiana, Anastasia, Olga, Alexey.

Olga Nikolaevna (23 years old at the time of death)

« Of the four, Olga and Maria Nikolaevna were similar to their father’s family and had a purely Russian type... She had wonderful blond hair, large blue eyes and a marvelous complexion, a slightly upturned nose, resembling the Emperor"- recalled the maid of honor A. A. Vyrubova.

One day, one of the adult guests asked jokingly, pulling her out from under the table, where she had crawled, trying to pull some object off the tablecloth:

- Who are you?

“I am the Grand Duchess...” she answered with a sigh....

- Well, what a princess you are, you couldn’t reach the table!

- I don’t know myself. And you ask dad, he knows everything... He will tell you who I am.

Olga answered seriously and hobbled on her still unsteady legs, towards the laughter and smiles of the guests.(E. Radzinsky. “Nicholas II Life and Death”. Chapter 5 The Royal Family.)

"X Her characteristic features were a strong will and incorruptible honesty and directness... She had these wonderful qualities since childhood, but as a child Olga Nikolaevna was often stubborn, disobedient and very hot-tempered"- Anna Vyrubova wrote in her memoirs.
« She played the piano, loved poetry and literature... She couldn’t stomach housekeeping and women’s interests in general and was not practical in life“- said Ersberg (the maid).

She also loved Russia very much, just like the other sisters, and did not think of leaving her, even for the sake of marriage. Olga was supposed to marry the Romanian king, but went against her mother’s will. Now I’m very curious how everything would have turned out if the wedding had taken place. And it’s a shame that this happened - at least someone from their family would be alive.

“The years seem distant to me,” recalls A. A. Taneyeva, “when the Grand Duchesses were growing up and we, those close to us, thought about their possible weddings. They didn’t want to go abroad, but there were no suitors at home. From childhood, the thought of marriage worried the Grand Duchesses, since for them marriage was associated with going abroad. Especially Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna did not want to hear about leaving her homeland. This issue was a sore point for her, and she was almost hostile towards foreign suitors.”

They say that she was in love with her cousin, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov. And it was because of him that she rejected the king’s matchmaking. But although the young man was beautifully built, witty and cheerful, he was also a gambler and loved to party.

Here's the pie:

Tatiana (left) and Olga in the center.

During the First World War, Olga and Tatyana worked at the Tsarsko-Selo hospital. They worked hard and just like any other sisters of mercy. They took part in complex operations, amputations, and helped and cared for the sick. They wrote about each of them in their diaries.

From Olga Nikolaevna’s diary:

October 6
“The Sign”, dressing. I have Mikertumov of the 16th Mingrelian Grenadier Regiment, wounded in the arm. Gainulin - 4th Caucasian Rifle Regiment, also in hand. Lyutenko of the 202nd Gurian Regiment, they cut his chest. A piece of bone was removed under chloroform. Tatyana Arutinov of the 1st Caucasian Rifle Regiment had shrapnel removed from his cheek and neck, which came out through his left eye...”

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana (in the center) and Anna Vyrubova (Taneeva).

Maria, Tatiana, Anastasia, Olga

Baroness Buxhoeveden, the Empress's maid of honor, recalled that she once had to address Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna in full form... with a deep curtsy and full title. The Grand Duchess was confused and, blushing, rushed to the elderly Baroness with the words: " Are you crazy? Why do you call me that?!"The sisters preferred to be called simply by their first name - patronymic.

"I got the impression that she had no illusions about what the future held for them and, as a consequence, was often sad and worried."- Gleb Botkin recalled.

From “the most talkative” (S. Pavlov), “very charming and the most cheerful” (S. Buxhoeveden) Grand Duchess Olga turned into her own shadow and, having moved to Ipatiev’s house, behaved aloof and sad. The guards recalled that “she was thin, pale and looked sick. She rarely went for walks in the garden and spent most of her time next to her brother.”

Olga and Tatiana

Tatyana Nikolaevna (21 years old at the time of death)

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, it was Tatyana who was considered the brightest of the sisters; they said that she was very photogenic. She was very elegant and knew how to present herself in society. She was the leader among them. Mom’s favorite, through her it was easier to achieve some concessions from strict parents.

“Tatyana Nikolaevna was by nature rather reserved, had a will, but was less frank and spontaneous than her older sister. She was also less gifted, but she made up for this deficiency with great consistency and evenness of character. She was very beautiful, although she did not have the charm of Olga Nikolaevna... With her beauty and natural ability to behave in society, She overshadowed her sister, who was less concerned with Her person and somehow faded away.”, - recalled P. Gilliard (teacher).

“...Grand Duchess Tatiana; for example, before going to the infirmary, she gets up at seven o'clock in the morning to take a lesson, then goes to bandages, then breakfast, more lessons, touring the infirmaries, and when evening comes... she immediately takes up needlework or reading<...>Doctor Derevenko, a very demanding person in relation to nurses, told me after the revolution that he rarely met such a calm, dexterous and efficient surgical nurse as Tatyana Nikolaevna.”

From Tatyana Nikolaevna’s diary:

Saturday, September 13, 1914
“...Today I had two operations, my yesterday’s Girsenok, they cut his leg and took out pieces of crushed bone, and then the same thing from Olgin Ogurtsov’s right hand. Then we sat in the 3rd ward. We went to see the others."

September 26
“There was a lesson in the morning. At 9.45, my dear Papa arrived, alive, healthy and cheerful. Thank God!... Bandaged: Konstantinov of the 111th Don Regiment, Skutin of the 109th Volzhsky Regiment, Bobylkin of the 286th Kirsanovsky Regiment. Then Mama arrived and bandaged the officers. I attended the dressings of Malama, Ellis and Pobaevsky. Poor guy, his arm still hurts. We sat with ours.”

Both princesses are not even 20. And so day after day for 3 years. Names of new arrivals, descriptions of injuries, records of operations and dressings. What you involuntarily pay attention to first of all is the inherent sense of responsibility for each soldier and officer entrusted to them by doctors. Subject personal diaries, that is, data on the patients’ temperature, changes in their well-being, the first signs of improvement and, finally, recovery and discharge become a personal matter.

Like Olga, Tatyana quickly found admirers among the hospital beds. There were enough of them, but Dmitry Malama was especially singled out. According to the stories of relatives, Dmitry Malama, having learned about the execution of the royal family, lost all caution, began to deliberately seek death and was killed in the summer of 1919 in a horse attack near Tsaritsyn.

Her I.Highness V.K. Tatyana Nikolaevna in the uniform of a nurse of the Tsarskoye Selo hospital at the bedside of the seriously wounded cornet D.Ya. Malama

“Olga Nikolaevna keeps insisting that she dreams of remaining an old maid, and based on her hand, Shah-Bagov predicts twelve children. Tatyana Nikolaevna has an interesting hand: the line of fate is suddenly interrupted and makes a sharp turn to the side. They assure that she must do something extraordinary.”(from the diary for January 1916 of the elder sister of the Imperial Palace Infirmary, Valentina Chebotareva)

P The first time after operations in the infirmaries, they closed their eyes, carrying out basins of blood and cut off arms and legs. Then we got used to it. If you can get used to this at all...

Together with their father, Olga and Tatyana were at the Kiev Opera House during the murder of Stolypin. They could clearly see that enormous power does not save from death and is often the direct road to it. They also could not be surprised by betrayal. During the arrest of the Empress and her children by the Provisional Government, members of the retinue were asked to choose whether to remain with the prisoners or leave the palace. Most of the most devoted " to the august persons"chose to disappear. About 10 people remained nearby: Countess Gendrikova, Lily Dehn, Anna Vyrubova, doctor E. S. Botkin, Baroness Buxhoeveden, Count Benckendorff.... You can list them on your fingers.

Doctor Ostrogorsky, a famous pediatrician, who previously came every morning to examine sick children. (The crown princes* fell ill with a severe form of measles, which turned into typhus. Alexei was also sick, but avoided typhus), refused to arrive at the request of the ex-empress, citing the refusal by the fact that the road to Tsarskoye Selo "too dirty and dangerous!“All this happened after March 14, 1917. Nicholas had just abdicated the throne and had not yet come to his family.

Hear it for the first time! Where is the link to such a statement? Who wrote, on what basis? What then do DNA studies of the found remains near Yekaterinburg mean? Yes, some Romanovs managed to leave when a Danish subject, Empress Mother Maria Fedorovna, came to Crimea to pick them up, but Nikolai himself and his family were already under arrest in Yekaterinburg at that time. And if so, then where are Nicholas’s daughters or their descendants now? So I don't believe these statements. They are not supported by facts and evidence. They have no basis, because... in this case, the descendants of the great duchesses would have responded long ago. Even if Tsarevich Alexei died in infancy from his illness. But where did the girls go? So, dear friend, I do not believe this statement. And if another new historian like Fomenko made this up, then I won’t believe it. In this case, you will have to believe the nonsense that the ancient Ukrainians are 400 thousand years old, that the Egyptians descend from the ancient Ukrainians, that the Ukrainians populated the entire globe and the whole civilization came from them. In short, all this nonsense.

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At one time, KGB officers placed documents on Gorbachev’s desk (according to media reports) indicating that the Empress and her daughters were sent to the Perm region to live in some monastery. I have two books about this. First: A. Summers, T. Mangold “The Romanov Case or the Execution that Never Happened”, second: V. Sirotkin “Anastasia - the story of salvation.” In addition, a friend of mine (from school) named ROMANOV served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Perm region, he told me that local residents knew that the royal family lived in some kind of monastery. The legend about the execution was created specifically so that no one would look for the family. Officially, the Yekaterinburg authorities reported to the Government about the execution of ONLY Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov himself; there are no official documents about the execution of the family.
While researching the issue, I discovered a lot of inconsistencies in various publications about the shooting. Therefore, I DO NOT BELIEVE that the Bolsheviks shot innocent, beautiful WOMEN. The version of this execution is needed by the ENEMIES of the Bolsheviks and Soviet power.

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And yet: where then are the descendants of these princesses? After all, they were probably married and had children. If so, then NOW, when so many years have passed and everyone looks at the history of the royal family differently, absolutely the whole world would be glad to know that the girls remained alive and now their descendants will tell about it. What then are they afraid of now7 And in general, all these strange tales of all sorts of peasants and other foreigners are not evidence. There is a sea of ​​documents that say otherwise. And no one needs to denigrate now Soviet power and the Bolsheviks: on the contrary: now more and more often they are returning to everything good that was in the USSR. So I don’t believe the author you named. And I don’t think that Gorby would have missed such an opportunity to show everyone that members of Nikolai’s family were alive. He would have tried his best to present it!

Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov), eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was born May 18 (May 6, old style) 1868 in Tsarskoe Selo (now the city of Pushkin, Pushkin district of St. Petersburg).

Immediately after his birth, Nikolai was included in the lists of several guards regiments and appointed chief of the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment. The future tsar spent his childhood within the walls of the Gatchina Palace. Nikolai began regular homework at the age of eight.

In December 1875 he got his first military rank- ensign, in 1880 he was promoted to second lieutenant, four years later he became a lieutenant. In 1884 Nikolai entered active military service, in July 1887 year began regular military service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment and was promoted to staff captain; in 1891 Nikolai received the rank of captain, and a year later - colonel.

To get acquainted with government affairs since May 1889 he began to attend meetings of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. IN October 1890 went on a trip to Far East. In nine months, Nikolai visited Greece, Egypt, India, China, and Japan.

IN April 1894 The engagement of the future emperor to Princess Alice of Darmstadt-Hesse, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England, took place. After converting to Orthodoxy, she took the name Alexandra Feodorovna.

November 2 (October 21, old style) 1894 died Alexander III. A few hours before his death, the dying emperor obliged his son to sign the Manifesto on his accession to the throne.

The coronation of Nicholas II took place May 26 (14 old style) 1896. On the thirtieth (18 old style) May 1896, during the celebration of the coronation of Nicholas II in Moscow, a stampede occurred on Khodynka Field in which more than a thousand people died.

The reign of Nicholas II took place in an atmosphere of increasing revolutionary movement and complications of the foreign policy situation (Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905; Bloody Sunday; revolution of 1905-1907; First World War; February Revolution 1917).

Under the influence of a strong social movement in favor of political changes, October 30 (17 old style) 1905 Nicholas II signed the famous manifesto “On the Improvement of the State Order”: the people were granted freedom of speech, press, personality, conscience, meetings, and unions; The State Duma was created as a legislative body.

The turning point in the fate of Nicholas II was 1914- Beginning of the First World War. August 1 (July 19, old style) 1914 Germany declared war on Russia. IN August 1915 year, Nicholas II assumed military command (previously, this position was held by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich). Afterwards, the tsar spent most of his time at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Mogilev.

At the end of February 1917 Unrest began in Petrograd, which grew into mass protests against the government and the dynasty. The February Revolution found Nicholas II at headquarters in Mogilev. Having received news of the uprising in Petrograd, he decided not to make concessions and to restore order in the city by force, but when the scale of the unrest became clear, he abandoned this idea, fearing great bloodshed.

At midnight March 15 (2 old style) 1917 In the saloon carriage of the imperial train, which stood on the tracks at the Pskov railway station, Nicholas II signed an act of abdication, transferring power to his brother Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who did not accept the crown.

March 20 (7 old style) 1917 The Provisional Government issued an order for the arrest of the Tsar. On the twenty-second (9th old style) March 1917, Nicholas II and his family were arrested. For the first five months they were under guard in Tsarskoe Selo, in August 1917 they were transported to Tobolsk, where the Romanovs spent eight months.

At first 1918 The Bolsheviks forced Nicholas to remove his colonel's shoulder straps (his last military rank), which he perceived as a grave insult. In May of this year, the royal family was transported to Yekaterinburg, where they were placed in the house of mining engineer Nikolai Ipatiev.

On the night of July 17 (4 old) 1918 and Nicholas II, Tsarina, their five children: daughters - Olga (1895), Tatiana (1897), Maria (1899) and Anastasia (1901), son - Tsarevich, heir to the throne Alexei (1904) and several close associates (11 people in total) , . The shooting took place in a small room on the ground floor of the house; the victims were taken there under the pretext of evacuation. The Tsar himself was shot at point-blank range by the commandant of the Ipatiev House, Yankel Yurovsky. The bodies of the dead were taken outside the city, doused with kerosene, they tried to burn them, and then buried them.

At the beginning of 1991 The first application was submitted to the city prosecutor's office about the discovery of bodies near Yekaterinburg that showed signs of violent death. After many years of research into the remains discovered near Yekaterinburg, a special commission came to the conclusion that they are indeed the remains of nine Nicholas II and his family. In 1997 They were solemnly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In 2000 Nicholas II and members of his family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

October 1, 2008 Presidium of the Supreme Court Russian Federation recognized the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II and members of his family as victims of illegal political repression and rehabilitated them.