Crystal soul and the story of her love. Princess Olga Nikolaevna

Olga Nikolaevna - Grand Duchess, withthe eldest daughter of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II and the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was born on November 15, 1895 in the Alexander Palace.

“... The work skillfully and deftly argues in her unusually beautiful and gentle hands. All of her, fragile and tender, somehow especially carefully and lovingly bends over the soldier's shirt that she sews ... Her melodious voice, her graceful movements, her whole lovely thin figure is the personification of femininity and friendliness. She is bright and cheerful. I involuntarily recall the words spoken to me by one of her teachers: "Olga Nikolaevna has a crystal soul" ... "

Olga was born on November 3, 1895. She became the first child in the family of the 27-year-old king.

“An ever-remembering day for me,” Nicholas II wrote in his diary, “during which I suffered a lot! At one in the morning, dear Alix began to have pains that did not allow her to sleep. All day she lay in bed in great agony - poor! I could not look at her indifferently. At about 2 o'clock dear Mama arrived from Gatchina; the three of them, with her and Ella, were relentlessly with Alix. At 9 o'clock. exactly heard the children's squeak and we all breathed freely! During prayer, we named our daughter Olga, sent to us by God! When all the unrest passed, and the horrors ended, a simply blissful state began at the consciousness of what had happened! Thank God, Alix survived the birth well and felt cheerful in the evening. I ate late at night with Mom and when I went to bed, I fell asleep instantly!

The next day, the emperor again confides his overwhelming feelings to paper: “Today I was present at the bath of our daughter. She is a big baby, 10 pounds in weight and 55 centimeters in length. I can hardly believe that this is our child. God, what happiness! Alix lay in bed all day ... she felt good, little darling too.

November 6th. Monday. “In the morning I admired our lovely daughter; she doesn't look like a newborn at all, because she's such a big baby with a hairy head."

From the Diaries of Nicholas II.

Time has shown that the name for the girl was chosen very well. The eldest of the tsar's daughters was beautiful, and it was precisely Russian beauty that was beautiful, she was smart, and as for the firmness of her character, she did not care. Olga inherited from her mother wonderful blond hair with a golden tint, large Blue eyes and wonderful complexion. Over the years, Olga became more and more attractive. “It was a lovely creature. Anyone who saw her immediately fell in love, recalled Lily Dan. - As a child, she was ugly, but at the age of 15 she somehow immediately got prettier. Slightly above average height, fresh face, dark blue eyes, lush light blond hair, beautiful arms and legs…”

And here is another description of her appearance from one of her associates: “Grand Duchess Olga was a slender girl of medium height, very proportionately built and surprisingly feminine. All her movements were distinguished by softness and elusive grace. And her glance, quick and timid, and her smile, fleeting - either thoughtful or absent-minded - made a charming impression. Especially the eyes. Large, large, blue, the colors of the Ural turquoise, burning with a soft, radiant sheen and attracting.

From her mother, a regal posture and grace passed to her, from her father - a purely Russian appearance. Her face was more like her father's. “Olga Nikolaevna smiled as well as the Sovereign,” recalled the head of the imperial palace guard A. I. Spiridovich. Everyone unanimously said that Olga went to the Romanov breed. Nicholas II doted on the child, while Olga from an early age idolized him. She was called “daughter of the Father”. “Their relationship with the Sovereign was charming,” recalls P. Gilliard. The sovereign for the daughter was at the same time the king, father and comrade; this sentiment "went from religious worship to complete trust and the most cordial friendship".

Immediacy, honesty and an innate sense of justice were the hallmarks of Olga Nikolaevna. It was said that in her character she more than others resembled a mother, who in her actions and motives was invariably distinguished by sincerity and directness. “I will never forget,” recalled A. Taneeva, “how, as a seven-year-old girl, she (Olga) played with her sister Tatyana, cousin and cousin, the children of Grand Duke Mikhail. One boy made a deliberate wrong move. Olga burst into tears and ran up to me with the words: “Do you know what he did, Anya? He told me lies."

It happened that Olga was stubborn and said to her face what she thought, sometimes even sharply. Could be explosive. But everyone noted that with age this smoothed out and Olga became softer, more affectionate, more sensitive, while maintaining the honesty characteristic of her in her early years.

From childhood, Olga Nikolaevna was instilled with important moral norms, as evidenced by the letter of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to her thirteen-year-old daughter dated January 1, 1909: “My dear little Olga! May the New Year 1909 bring you much happiness and blessings. Try to be exemplary - a good and obedient girl. You are the eldest and should set an example for others. Learn to please others, think of yourself last. Be gentle and kind and never be harsh or rude. Talk and act like a real lady. Be patient and polite, try to help the sisters in everything. If you see that someone is sad, try to comfort him and show your clear, beaming smile. You are so good at being gentle and sweet with me, be the same with your sisters. Show your loving heart.

And most importantly, learn to love God with all the strength of your soul, and He will always be with you. Pray to Him with all your heart. Remember, He sees and hears everything. He loves his children dearly, but they must learn to do His will.”

And the words of Alexandra Fedorovna turned out to be prophetic, the eldest of the sisters left unforgettable memories in people's memory ... “She impressed those around her with her affectionate, charming sweet treatment of everyone. She behaved with everyone evenly, calmly and amazingly simply and naturally, ”said General M.K. Diterikhs.

Olga's abilities were excellent, and she was called the most gifted of the royal children, she had a philosophical mind, her judgments were distinguished by great depth. “She could play the most complex pieces of music by ear, her voice was not strong, but clear,” wrote a friend of the Empress. - All teachers were amazed at her memory, which she, of course, inherited from her father. Nothing could distract her if she was immersed in her studies, but it was enough for her to read the lesson, once or twice, to know it by heart.

Olga Nikolaevna was remarkably smart and capable, and teaching was a joke to her, which is why she was sometimes lazy, recalled A. Taneeva.

Was religious. She took over her faith in many ways from her mother. In Tsarskoe Selo, the Grand Duchess loved to visit the Church of the Mother of God of the Sign on Kuzminskaya Street. Already in the days of imprisonment, Olga sadly admitted in one of her letters: “Today it is very quiet, a ringing is heard in the Catherine's Cathedral; I so want sometimes to go to the Sign ... "

Her faith was deep, and it was said that she was inclined towards mysticism. Growing older, Olga fell in love with solitude, wrote poetry, often sat for a long time behind a book. Favorite writers were Chekhov, Turgenev and Leskov. She kept a diary and quite a lot of correspondence.

In the hours free from business, the Grand Duchess rode, could shoot at a target with her brother, played the piano and sometimes sang. The closest of her friends was Margarita Khitrovo. There was nothing special in this life, but many noticed some unusual seriousness in Olga ... She was unusually attentive to people and sensitive to someone else's misfortune. “I will never forget the subtle, completely inconspicuous, but such a sensitive attitude towards my grief ...” - wrote about the elder Grand Duchess E.S. Botkin.

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was adored and idolized by everyone; the wounded liked to tell me about her the most,” wrote S. Ofrosimova.

A vivid example from the memoirs of one of the soldiers how all the wounded loved her, how she helped them in any way she could.

“In address, Grand Duchess Olga was delicate, shy and affectionate. By its very nature, it was kindness incarnate. I remember once it was hard and unpleasant for me: dressings were my nightmare. The mere consciousness that, they say, in 20 minutes they would take me for a dressing, threw me into cold and heat: I had to endure such terrible pains. On this day, I was just about to have a dressing.

Princess Olga came. She looked at my upset face and, smiling, asked:

- What's wrong with you? Hard?

I frankly told her what the matter was.

The Grand Duchess smiled again and said:

– I am now.

And indeed, from that time on, they began to inject morphine into me not 3-4 minutes before the start of the dressing, as they did before, and when he did not have time to act, but in advance - 10 minutes before.

Another time, the Grand Duchess wrote a letter to Lieutenant Sergeev with her own hand to her family home, since the latter had been amputated right hand. In general, amazing things were told about the kindness of Princess Olga in the infirmary ... "

The same officer S. P. Pavlov wrote: “Concerts were often held in the infirmary ... Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, who had a wonderful ear for music, usually accompanied. For her, for example, it cost nothing to pick up an accompaniment to a melody completely unfamiliar to her. Her playing was subtle and noble, the touch soft and velvety. I still remember one waltz, an old grandfather's waltz - soft, graceful and fragile, like an expensive porcelain toy - my favorite waltz Grand Duchess Olga. We often asked Grand Duchess Olga to play this waltz for us, and for some reason it always made me very sad.

Olga got up early in the morning, sometimes going to bed at 2 am. For days on end, she did not take off her nurse's costume. When the ambulance trains arrived, Olga, together with her mother the Empress and her sister, did dressings, often to the point of complete exhaustion. Olga could hardly bear the sight of open wounds, but, forcing herself, she was attentive and accurate. She dressed the wounded with such kindness and care that the soldiers and officers thanked God with tears, who sent them an angel in the flesh.

A strong susceptibility and sensitivity to someone else's grief made the work of a sister of mercy incredibly difficult for Olga. Anna Taneeva recalled that after two months of work in the hospital, Olga could barely stand on her feet. Only a strong will and ardent faith helped her not to fall under the weight of the cross laid on her.

Let us continue the memories of the Grand Duchess, retold by S. Ofrosimova, whom we know, during charity fairs in the Catherine Palace: “Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna sits obliquely from me ... An irresistible force attracts me to her - the power of her charm. I can hardly work when she sits so close to me, and I keep looking at her charming face. I only then embarrassedly lower my eyes to work, when my gaze meets her intelligent, kind and gentle eyes, I am embarrassed and lost when she speaks to me affably ...

In the strict sense of the word, she cannot be called beautiful, but her whole being breathes with such femininity, such youth, that she seems more than beautiful. The more you look at her, the prettier and prettier her face becomes. It is illuminated by an inner light, it becomes beautiful from every bright smile, from her manner of laughing, throwing her head back, so that the whole even pearl row of snow-white teeth is visible.

Skillfully and deftly the work is argued in her unusually beautiful and gentle hands. All of her, fragile and tender, somehow especially carefully and lovingly bends over the soldier's shirt that she sews ... Her melodious voice, her graceful movements, her whole lovely thin figure is the personification of femininity and friendliness. She is bright and cheerful. I involuntarily recall the words spoken to me by one of her teachers: "Olga Nikolaevna has a crystal soul."

The arrest of the Royal Family in March 1917 and subsequent revolutionary events had a strong impact on Olga Nikolaevna. “The horror of the revolution affected her much more than others,” said Sophie Buxhowden. “She has completely changed, her cheerfulness has disappeared.”

From the memoirs of M. K. Diterichs: “Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna left in people who studied her nature the impression of a person who seemed to have experienced some great grief in life ... Sometimes she laughs, but one feels that her laughter is only external, and there , in the depths of her soul, she is not at all funny, but sad. “She was a born thinker, and as it turned out later, she understood the general situation better than any of the members of her family, including even her parents,” said Gleb Botkin, the son of medical doctor Yevgeny Botkin, who died along with the Royal Family. “Finally, I got the impression that she had no illusions about what the future held for them, and as a result, she was often sad and anxious.”

After the arrest, Olga Nikolaevna's health deteriorated greatly, she often fell ill. She was the first of the sisters to contract measles; the disease took a severe form, turned into typhus, proceeded at a temperature of 40.5 °.

“Olga Nikolaevna has changed a lot,” writes Sophie Buxgevden. “The anxieties and excitement of not having parents, and the responsibility that fell on her when she remained head of the house to care for a sick brother, made a change in a tender, beautiful twenty-two-year-old girl, turning her into a withered and sad middle-aged woman. She was the only one of the Princesses who was acutely aware of the danger in which her parents were.

Having moved to the Ipatiev house, Grand Duchess Olga from the most talkative, very charming and cheerful girl turned into her own shadow, kept aloof and sad. The guards recalled that “she was thin, pale and looked ill. She rarely went for walks in the garden and spent most of her time with her brother.” According to one of the escorts, Netrebin, all last days from July 4 to 16, which stood just at the central post at the entrance to the prisoners’ quarters, “the former princesses behaved cheerfully, sometimes they talked ... The eldest of them was disgustingly thin, she was only skin and bones. She kept herself like a mother ... "

And, nevertheless, despite all the bitterness of the situation, the faith and love for all people instilled in Grand Duchess Olga taught her to forgive insults, villainy and bullying. hard days conclusions, gave rise to humility and meek prayer for enemies in her young heart. A poem by Sergei Bekhteev, rewritten by Olga Nikolaevna's hand, was later found in Ipatiev's house:

Send us, Lord, patience
a year of stormy, gloomy days,
wear national persecution
torture of our executioners.
Give us strength, oh right God,
To forgive the villainy of the neighbor
And the cross is heavy and bloody
To meet with Your meekness.
And in the days of rebellious excitement,
When enemies rob us,
To endure shame and insults,
Christ the Savior, help!
Lord of the world, God of the universe.

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova - daughter of Nicholas II, the eldest child. Like all members of the imperial family, she was shot in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg in the summer of 1918. The young princess did not live long, but rich life. She was the only one of Nikolai's children who managed to attend a real ball and even planned to get married. During the war years, she selflessly worked in hospitals, helping soldiers wounded at the front. Contemporaries warmly remembered the girl, noting her kindness, modesty and friendliness. What is known about the life of the young princess? In this article we will tell in detail about her biography. Photos of Olga Nikolaevna can also be seen below.

The birth of a girl

In November 1894, the wedding of the newly-made Emperor Nicholas with his bride Alice, who after the adoption of Orthodoxy became known as Alexandra, took place. A year after the wedding, the queen gave birth to her first daughter, Olga Nikolaevna. Relatives later recalled that the birth was quite difficult. Princess Xenia Nikolaevna, Nikolai's sister, wrote in her diaries that doctors had to pull the baby out of her mother with forceps. However, little Olga was born healthy and strong child. Her parents, of course, hoped that a son, a future heir, would be born. But at the same time, they were not upset when their daughter was born.

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova was born on November 3, 1895 according to the old style. Doctors took childbirth in the Alexander Palace, which is located in Tsarskoye Selo. And already on the 14th of the same month she was baptized. Her godparents became close relatives of the king: his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna and uncle Vladimir Alexandrovich. Contemporaries noted that the newly-made parents gave their daughter a completely traditional name, which was quite common in the Romanov family.

early years

Princess Olga Nikolaevna was not long only child in family. Already in 1897, her younger sister, Tatyana, was born, with whom she was surprisingly friendly in childhood. Together with her, they made up the "senior couple", that's what their parents jokingly called them. The sisters lived in the same room, played together, studied together, and even wore the same clothes.

It is known that in childhood the princess was distinguished by a rather quick-tempered disposition, although she was a kind and capable child. Often she was too stubborn and irritable. From entertainment, the girl loved to ride a double bicycle with her sister, pick mushrooms and berries, draw and play with dolls. In her surviving diaries, there were references to her own cat, whose name was Vaska. His Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna loved him very much. Contemporaries recalled that outwardly the girl was very much like her father. She often argued with her parents, it was believed that she was the only one of the sisters who could object to them.

In 1901, Olga Nikolaevna fell ill with typhoid fever, but was able to recover. Like other sisters, the princess had her own nanny, who spoke exclusively in Russian. She was specially taken from a peasant family so that the girl would better learn her native culture and religious customs. The sisters lived quite modestly, they were obviously not accustomed to luxury. For example, Olga Nikolaevna slept on a folding folding bed. Her mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, was engaged in upbringing. The girl saw her father much less often, as he was always absorbed in the affairs of governing the country.

Since 1903, when Olga was 8 years old, she began to appear more often in public with Nicholas II. S. Yu. Witte recalled that before the birth of his son Alexei in 1904, the tsar seriously considered making his eldest daughter his heiress.

More about parenting

The family of Olga Nikolaevna tried to instill modesty and dislike for luxury in her daughter. Her teaching was very traditional. It is known that her first teacher was the reader of the Empress E. A. Schneider. It was noted that the princess loved to read more than other sisters, and later became interested in writing poetry. Unfortunately, many of them were burned by the princess already in Yekaterinburg. She was a fairly capable child, so learning was easier for her than other royal children. Because of this, the girl was often lazy, which often angered her teachers. Olga Nikolaevna loved to joke and had an excellent sense of humor.

Subsequently, a whole staff of teachers began to study her, the eldest of whom was the Russian language teacher P.V. Petrov. The princesses also studied French, English and German. However, at the last of them, they never learned to speak. Between themselves, the sisters communicated exclusively in Russian.

In addition, close friends of the royal family pointed out that Princess Olga had a gift for music. In Petrograd, she studied singing and knew how to play the piano. Teachers believed that the girl had perfect hearing. She could easily reproduce complex pieces of music without notes. The princess was also fond of playing tennis and was good at drawing. It was believed that she was more predisposed to art, and not to the exact sciences.

Relationships with parents, sisters and brother

According to contemporaries, Princess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova was distinguished by modesty, friendliness and sociability, although she was sometimes too quick-tempered. However, this did not affect her relationship with other family members, whom she loved infinitely. The princess was very friendly with her younger sister Tatyana, although they had almost opposite characters. Unlike Olga, her younger sister was stingy with emotions and more restrained, but she was diligent and liked to take responsibility for others. They were practically the same age, grew up together, lived in the same room and even studied. Princess Olga was also friendly with other sisters, but due to the difference in age, such closeness as with Tatyana did not work out for them.

Olga Nikolaevna also maintained good relations with her younger brother. He loved her more than other girls. During quarrels with his parents, the little Tsarevich Alexei often stated that he was no longer their son, but Olga. Like other children of the royal family, their eldest daughter was attached to Grigory Rasputin.

The princess was close to her mother, but she developed the most trusting relationship with her father. If Tatyana looked like the Empress in appearance and character, then Olga was a copy of her father. When the girl grew up, he often consulted with her. Nicholas II valued his eldest daughter for her independent and deep thinking. It is known that in 1915 he even ordered to wake up Princess Olga after he received important news from the front. That evening they walked along the corridors for a long time, the king read telegrams aloud to her, listening to the advice that his daughter gave him.

During World War I

According to tradition, in 1909 the princess was appointed honorary commander of the hussar regiment, which now bore her name. She was often photographed in full dress, appeared at their reviews, but that was the end of her duties. After Russia's entry into the First World War, the Empress, along with her daughters, did not sit out behind the walls of her palace. The king, on the other hand, rarely visited his family at all, spending most of his time on the road. It is known that mother and daughters sobbed all day when they learned about Russia's entry into the war.

Alexandra Fedorovna almost immediately introduced her children to work in military hospitals located in Petrograd. The eldest daughters went through full-fledged training and became real sisters of mercy. They took part in heavy operations, looked after the military, made them dressings. The younger ones, because of their age, only helped the wounded. Princess Olga also devoted a lot of time to social work. Like other sisters, she collected donations, gave her own savings for medicines.

In the photo, Princess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, together with Tatyana, works as a nurse in a military hospital.

Possible marriage

Even before the start of the war, in November 1911, Olga Nikolaevna turned 16 years old. According to tradition, it was at this time that the Grand Duchesses became adults. In honor of this event, a magnificent ball was organized in Livadia. She was also presented with a lot of expensive jewelry, including diamonds and pearls. And her parents began to seriously think about imminent marriage eldest daughter.

In fact, the biography of Olga Nikolaevna Romanova could not be so tragic if she nevertheless became the wife of one of the members of the royal houses of Europe. If the princess had left Russia in time, she could have survived. But Olga herself considered herself Russian and dreamed of marrying a compatriot and staying at home.

Her wish might well come true. In 1912, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, who was the grandson of Emperor Alexander II, asked for her hand. Judging by the memoirs of contemporaries, Olga Nikolaevna also sympathized with him. Officially, the date of the engagement was even set - June 6th. But soon it was torn apart at the insistence of the empress, who categorically did not like the young prince. Some contemporaries believed that it was precisely because of this event that Dmitry Pavlovich subsequently took part in the murder of Rasputin.

Already during the war, Nicholas II considered the possible engagement of his eldest daughter with the heir to the Romanian throne, Prince Carol. However, the wedding never took place, because Princess Olga categorically refused to leave Russia, and her father did not insist. In 1916, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich, another grandson of Alexander II, was offered to the girl as a suitor. But this time, the Empress rejected the offer.

It is known that Olga Nikolaevna was fascinated by Lieutenant Pavel Voronov. Researchers believe that it was his name that she encrypted in her diaries. After the beginning of her work in the hospitals of Tsarskoye Selo, the princess sympathized with another military man - Dmitry Shakh-Bagov. She often wrote about him in her diaries, but their relationship did not develop.

February Revolution

In February 1917, Princess Olga became very ill. First, she came down with an ear infection, and then, like other sisters, she contracted measles from one of the soldiers. Subsequently, typhus was also added to it. The illnesses were rather difficult, Princess for a long time lay delirious with high temperature, therefore, she learned about the unrest in Petrograd and the revolution only after her father abdicated from the throne.

Together with her parents, Olga Nikolaevna, who had already recovered from her illness, received the head of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky, in one of the offices of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace. This meeting greatly shocked her, so the princess soon fell ill again, but from pneumonia. She finally recovered only by the end of April.

House arrest in Tsarskoye Selo

After her recovery and before leaving for Tobolsk, Olga Nikolaevna lived under arrest in Tsarskoye Selo with her parents, sisters and brother. Their mode was quite original. Members of the royal family got up early in the morning, then walked in the garden, and then worked for a long time in the garden they created. Time was also devoted to the further education of younger children. Olga Nikolaevna taught her sisters and brother English language. In addition, due to the transferred measles, the girls' hair fell out badly, so it was decided to cut them off. But the sisters did not lose heart and covered their heads with special hats.

Over time, the Provisional Government cut their funding more and more. Contemporaries wrote that in the spring there was not enough firewood in the palace, so it was cold in all the rooms. In August, a decision was made to transfer the royal family to Tobolsk. Kerensky recalled that he chose this city for security reasons. He did not see it possible for the Romanovs to move south or into central Russia. In addition, he pointed out that in those years, many of his associates demanded that the former tsar be shot, so that he urgently needed to take his family away from Petrograd.

Interestingly, back in April, a plan was being considered for the Romanovs to leave for England through Murmansk. The provisional government did not oppose their departure, but it was decided to postpone it due to the serious illness of the princesses. But after their recovery, the English king, who was Nicholas II's cousin, refused to accept them because of the deteriorating political situation in his own country.

Moving to Tobolsk

In August 1917, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna arrived in Tobolsk with her family. Initially, they were supposed to be placed in the governor's house, but he was not prepared for their arrival. Therefore, the Romanovs had to live for another week on the ship "Rus". The royal family liked Tobolsk itself, and in part they were even glad of a quiet life away from the rebellious capital. They were settled on the second floor of the house, but they were forbidden to go out into the city. But on weekends, you could visit the local church, as well as write letters to your family and friends. However, all correspondence was carefully read by the guards at home.

The former tsar and his family learned about the October Revolution belatedly - the news came to them only in mid-November. From that moment on, their situation deteriorated significantly, and the Soldiers' Committee, which guarded the house, treated them rather hostilely. Upon arrival in Tobolsk, Princess Olga spent a lot of time with her father, walking with him and Tatyana Nikolaevna. In the evenings, the girl played the piano. On the eve of 1918, the princess fell seriously ill again - this time with rubella. The girl quickly recovered, but over time, she became more and more withdrawn into herself. She spent more time reading and hardly took part in home performances that other sisters put on.

Link to Yekaterinburg

In April 1918, the Bolshevik government decided to move the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. First, the transfer of the emperor and his wife was organized, who were allowed to take only one daughter with them. At first, the parents chose Olga Nikolaevna, but she had not yet recovered from her illness and was weak, so the choice fell on her younger sister, Princess Maria.

After their departure, Olga, Tatyana, Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei spent a little more than a month in Tobolsk. The attitude of the guards towards them was still hostile. So, for example, the girls were forbidden to close the doors of their bedrooms, so that the soldiers could come in at any time and see what they were doing.

Only on May 20, the remaining members of the royal family were sent after their parents to Yekaterinburg. There, all the princesses were placed in one room on the second floor of the house of the merchant Ipatiev. The daily routine was quite strict, it was impossible to leave the premises without the permission of the guards. Olga Nikolaevna Romanova destroyed almost all her diaries, realizing that their situation was getting worse. Other family members did the same. The surviving records of that time are brevity, because it is unflattering to describe the guards and the current government could be dangerous.

Together with her family, Olga Nikolaevna led a quiet life. They were engaged in embroidery or knitting. Sometimes the princess took the already sick crown prince for short walks. Often the sisters sang prayers and spiritual songs. In the evenings, the soldiers forced them to play the piano.

The execution of the royal family

By July, it became clear to the Bolsheviks that they could not keep Yekaterinburg from the Whites. Therefore, in Moscow, it was decided to eliminate the royal family in order to prevent its possible release. The execution was carried out on the night of July 17, 1918. Together with the family, the entire retinue that followed the king into exile were also killed.

Judging by the memories of the Bolsheviks who carried out the sentence, the Romanovs did not know what awaited them. They were ordered to go down to the basement because shots were heard from the street. It is known that Olga Nikolaevna, before being shot, stood behind her mother, who was sitting on a chair due to illness. Unlike other sisters, the eldest of the princesses died immediately after the first shots. She was not saved by the jewels sewn into the corset of her dress.

The last time the guards of the Ipatiev house saw the princess alive was on the day of the murder on a walk. In this photo, Olga Nikolaevna Romanova is sitting in a room with her brother. This is believed to be her last surviving image.

Instead of a conclusion

After the execution, the bodies of members of the royal family were taken out of the Ipatiev house and buried in Ganina Yama. A week later, the Whites entered Yekaterinburg and conducted their own investigation into the murder. In the 30s of the XX century, a girl appeared in France, posing as the eldest daughter of Nicholas II. She turned out to be the impostor Marga Bodts, but the public and the surviving Romanovs practically did not pay attention to her.

The search for the remains of members of the royal family was fully engaged only after the collapse of the USSR. In 1981, Olga Nikolaevna and other members of her family were canonized as saints. In 1998, the remains of the princess were solemnly reburied in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

It is known that the eldest daughter of Nicholas II was fond of poetry. Often she is credited with the creation of the poem "Send us, Lord, patience", written by Sergei Bekhteev. He was a famous monarchist poet, and the girl copied his creation into her album. Olga Nikolaevna Romanova's own poems have not been preserved. Historians believe that most of them were destroyed after exile. They were burned by the princess herself, along with her diaries, so that they would not fall into the hands of the Bolsheviks.

July 24 is the name day of Grand Duke Olga Nikolaevna Romanova, daughter of Emperor Nicholas II

Yulia Alexandrovna Den, a friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, recalled later, already in exile: “The eldest of the four beautiful sisters was Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. It was a lovely creature. Anyone who saw her immediately fell in love. As a child, she was ugly, but at the age of fifteen she somehow immediately got prettier. Slightly above average height, fresh face, dark blue eyes, lush light blond hair, beautiful arms and legs. Olga Nikolaevna took life seriously, she was endowed with intelligence and a complaisant character. In my opinion, it was a strong-willed nature, but she had a sensitive, crystal soul. A devoted friend of the Tsar's family, Anna Taneeva-Vyrubova, remembering the eldest daughter of the Tsar, as if supplementing Yulia Alexandrovna Den:

“Olga Nikolaevna was remarkably smart and capable, and teaching was a joke to her, which is why she was sometimes lazy. characteristic features she had a strong will and an incorruptible honesty and directness in which she was like her mother. She had these wonderful qualities from childhood, but as a child Olga Nikolaevna was often stubborn, disobedient and very quick-tempered; later she knew how to restrain herself. She had wonderful blond hair, large blue eyes and a marvelous complexion, a slightly upturned nose, resembling the Sovereign.

5.

Baroness Sophia Buxgevden also left her own, equally harmonious, “in love” description of the Tsesarevna: “Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was beautiful, tall, with laughing blue eyes ... she rode beautifully, played tennis and danced. Of all the sisters, she was the smartest, the most musical; according to her teachers, she had absolute pitch. She could play any melody she heard, transcribe complex musical pieces ... Olga Nikolaevna was very direct, sometimes too frank, always sincere. She was very charming and most cheerful. When she was in school, the poor teachers had to experience many of her various tricks that she invented to play a trick on them. Yes, and having matured, she did not leave a chance to have fun. She was generous and immediately responded to any request, acting under the influence of a heartfelt, hot impulse and a great sense of compassion, strongly developed in her .... "

From the memoirs of Baroness M. K. Dieterikhs:

“Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was a typical good Russian girl with a big soul. She made an irresistible impression on those around her with her tenderness, her charming, sweet treatment of everyone. She always kept herself even, calm and amazingly simple and natural. She did not like housekeeping, but she preferred solitude and books. She was developed and very well-read; She had an aptitude for the arts: she played the piano, sang, and studied singing in Petrograd (she had a wonderful soprano) and drew well. She was very modest and did not like luxury.”

6.

Whom do all these beautiful portraits remind us of? Every now and then you catch yourself thinking that when you approach this charming image, you immediately remember the ideal of all girls - a kind and modest princess from a fairy tale (* exactly - a princess, not a queen! - S.M.).

Fragile, tender, refined, not loving housekeeping ... And the “purely Russian type”, inherent, according to Taneeva, to Olga Nikolaevna, does not interfere, but harmoniously complements this image. And the very place for a real Princess is at the ball ... And Olga went there.

On the day of the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty, her first adult appearance took place.

“That evening her face burned with such joyful embarrassment, such youth and thirst for life, that it was impossible to take your eyes off her. Brilliant officers were brought to her, she danced with everyone and femininely, blushing slightly, thanked at the end of the dance with a nod of her head, later S. Ya. Ofrosimova recalled.

And here is how Anna Taneeva described the time of the girlish triumph of the elder Tsesarevna:

“This autumn, Olga Nikolaevna turned sixteen years old, the age of majority for the Grand Duchesses. She received various diamond items and a necklace from her parents. All the Grand Duchesses received pearl and diamond necklaces at the age of sixteen, but the Empress did not want the Ministry of the Court to spend so much money immediately on their purchase for the Grand Duchesses, and she came up with the idea that twice a year, on birthdays and name days, they received one diamond and one pearl. Thus, Grand Duchess Olga had two necklaces of thirty-two stones, collected for her from early childhood.

In the evening there was a ball, one of the most beautiful balls at the Court. We danced downstairs in the big dining room. The southern fragrant night looked through the huge glass doors, wide open. All the Grand Dukes with their families, officers of the local garrison and acquaintances who lived in Yalta were invited. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, for the first time in a long dress made of soft pink fabric, with blond hair, beautifully combed, cheerful and fresh, like a lily flower, was the center of everyone's attention. She was appointed chief of the 3rd Elisavetgrad Hussar Regiment, which made her especially happy. After the ball there was dinner at small round tables.”

A picture has been preserved that depicts this same ball. In the center of it is the Grand Duchess Tsesarevna Olga Nikolaevna paired with a slender and tall young man in the uniform of a life guard, hussar. They are selflessly circling in a whirlwind of the waltz, and the secular audience looks at them with hundreds of pairs of eyes, parted, freeing up space for such an easy enthusiastic soaring of youth.

She froze admiringly, forgetting about the music, right in the middle of the dance steps, even the parental Imperial couple themselves, apparently just opening the ball. The Sovereign and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna are anxiously watching their daughter, whose silhouette seems even more airy, weightless, against the background of the scarlet velvet of endless boxes and the dancing hall shining with the lights of hundreds of candles ..

The author of this picture is unknown to the general public, it miraculously survived in one of the private collections, but on it the artist somehow managed to convey with a palette and brush strokes all the charm of the moments of a rapidly passing youth and, in general, the transience of life.

The canvas seems like a mirage, all the figures on it can disappear in an instant, get lost in a dense cloud of fog, or be dissolved in a huge crowd, which now so respectfully parted in front of the dancers. With bated breath, you think that the artist was right. Life adult daughter The Emperor of Russia began as a magical mirage, which, however, soon melted away without a trace.

7.

This mirage was brilliant, magical, and everything in it was connected with the ceremonial, magnificent life of the brilliant Russian Court - appearances with the Sovereign at celebrations, at court balls, in theaters; with the Empress - at charity bazaars, on numerous trips around Russia.

Many memoirists for a long time still remembered the slender, graceful figure of the eldest Grand Duchess, who joyfully adorned the brilliant royal exits.

But all this external, brilliant, ceremonial, ostentatious, for a casual, superficial observer, for the crowd, all that constituted some kind of finished image of the Grand Duchess and made her so similar to her sisters; all this did not harmonize at all with the genuine modest and simple everyday life Olga Nikolaevna, nor with the true structure of the inner world of a girl who managed to develop, and often even show her deep individuality. A girl who always had her own thoughts and thoughts, and her difficult paths were outlined not for a superficial, but for a deep perception of life.

8.

AT last years before the war, when the Grand Duchess was eighteen years old, one could speak of her as an established young character, full of irresistible charm and beauty; many who knew her in those years quite fully and strikingly consonantly outline the structure of her complex and clear at the same time inner world. P. Gilliard recalled with trepidation about his students during these years:

“The Grand Duchesses were charming with their freshness and health. It was 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 lively bond.

But especially of all four, the devoted Monsieur Pierre Gilliard singled out everything - after all, it was Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna who later gave his best student the following description: “The eldest, Olga Nikolaevna, had a very lively mind. She had a lot of discretion and at the same time spontaneity. She was of a very independent character and possessed a quick and amusing resourcefulness in her answers... I recall, incidentally, how, in one of our first grammar lessons, when I was explaining conjugations and the use of auxiliary verbs to her, she suddenly interrupted me with an exclamation: “Ah, I understand, auxiliary verbs are servants of verbs; only one unfortunate verb ‘to have’ must serve itself!”... At first it was not so easy for me with her, but after the first skirmishes, the most sincere and cordial relations were established between us.

9.

Yes, all contemporaries who knew her, as one said that Olga had a great mind. But it seems that this mind was more philosophical than practical, worldly ...

Those close to the Romanov Family recalled about her sister Tsesarevna Tatyana Nikolaevna that she quickly navigated various situations and made decisions. And in these cases, Olga Nikolaevna could willingly and freely yield to her beloved sister the "palm". And she herself was not averse to abstract, calm speculation, and all her judgments were distinguished by great depth. She was passionately fond of history, her favorite heroine was always Catherine the Great. In response to the remarks of the Empress, the mother whom she respectfully idolized, that in the elegant memoirs of the Great Great-great-great-grandmother, basically, only beautiful words and little deeds, Olga Nikolaevna immediately and vividly objected:

“Mom, but beautiful words support people like crutches. And it depends on people whether these words will grow into wonderful deeds. In the age of Catherine the Great, there were many beautiful words, but there is a lot to do ... The development of the Crimea, the war with Turkey, the construction of new cities, the successes of the Enlightenment. The Empress involuntarily had to agree with her daughter's clear and wise logic.

10.

But more than other children, Grand Duchess Olga nevertheless looked like her Father, Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich, whom she, according to teacher Sidney Gibbs, “loved more than anything in the world.” She adored him, her relatives called her that - "daddy's daughter." Dieterikhs wrote: “Everyone around her was given the impression that she had inherited more of her father’s traits, especially in her softness of character and simplicity of attitude towards people.”

But, having inherited a strong father's will, Olga did not have time to learn, like him, to restrain herself. “Her manners were “tough”," we read in N.A. Sokolov. The elder princess was quick-tempered, although quick-tempered. The father, with amazing kindness and not slyness, knew how to hide his feelings, his daughter - a true woman - did not know how to do this at all "She lacked composure, and some unevenness of character distinguished her from her sisters. We can say that she was a little more capricious than her sisters. And Grand Duchess Olga's relationship with her mother was a little more complicated than with her father. All the efforts of mother and father were aimed at in order to keep the clear light of the "crystal soul" of their eldest child, perhaps the most difficult in character, and they quite succeeded in this.

Life physician Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin wrote about Olga Nikolaevna:

“I will never forget the subtle, completely inconspicuous, but such a sensitive attitude towards my grief ... * (* During the First World War, E. S. Botkin's eldest son died, dearly beloved by him. The doctor was very keenly worried about his terrible loss. - C . M.). In the midst of my dark thoughts, Olga Nikolaevna ran into the room - and, really, it was like an angel flew in. sunlight her souls warmed all who were near.

11.

The external beauty, which, according to others, so clearly manifested itself in the princess at the age of fifteen - at a difficult time when a girl turned into a girl, was largely the result of the constant upbringing and growth of the soul of this girl, and only displayed her inner beauty. But with other parents, everything could have been different if the urge for independence, which Gilliard recalls, had been rudely suppressed or, on the contrary, would have been left without any attention, turning a strong, strong-willed, sensitive girl into a capricious and power-hungry creature.

Here are excerpts from letters - examples of how the mother - the Empress answered some capriciousness and waywardness of her beloved eldest daughter:

“You are so nice to me, be the same with your sisters. Show your loving heart." “First of all, remember that you should always be a good example to the younger ones ... They are small, they don’t understand everything so well and will always imitate the big ones. Therefore, you must consider everything you say and do.” "Be a good girl, my Olga, and help the four youngest ones to be good too."

“My sweet, dear girl, I hope everything went well. I have thought so much about you, my poor thing, knowing well from experience how unpleasant such misunderstandings can be. You feel so unhappy when someone is angry with you. We must all endure trials: both adults and small children, God teaches us a lesson in patience. I know that this is especially difficult for you, because you feel everything very deeply and you have a hot temper. But you must learn to curb your tongue. Pray quickly for God to help you. I had so many stories with my governess, and I always thought it was best to apologize, even if I was right, just because I was younger and could suppress my anger faster.

M. * (* An unidentified person, probably the nanny of the Tsesarevich and the younger princesses - Maria Vishnyakova. - S. M.) is so good and devoted, but now she is very nervous: she has not been on vacation for four years, her leg hurts, she caught a cold, and is very worried when Baby is unwell. * (* Heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich. - S. M.) And it’s hard for her to be with children (not always obedient) all day. Try to always sympathize with her and do not think about yourself. Then, with God's help, it will be easier for you to endure. God bless you. I kiss you very gently. Your mother". “Yes, try to be more obedient and don't be too impatient, don't get angry about it. It really upsets me, because you are now very big. You see how Anastasia begins to repeat after you.

“My child. Don't think that I angrily said goodbye to you for the night. It wasn't. Mom has the right to tell the kids what she thinks, and you left with such a sullen face. You don't have to do that, baby, because it upsets me, and I have to be harsh when necessary. I spoil my girls way too often. Sleep well. May God bless and keep you. I kiss you hard. yours old mama". (*Excerpts from the letters of the Empress Daughter of the Empress are quoted from the book by M. Krivtsova, stored in the web archive of the author of the article. - S. M.)

12.

In this soft full of love exhortation, one can feel both maternal firmness and the daughter's blessing for a resolute struggle with her shortcomings. The Empress understood, more than others, that Olga Nikolaevna seemed to have a great depth and subtlety of feelings, sometimes hidden behind a certain nervousness.

She generally seems more mysterious than her sisters. We often read how spontaneous and cheerful Olga Nikolaevna was, how gratifying it was for those around her, what indescribable charm and simplicity always emanated from her.

But here is what, for example, the same Baroness M. K. Diterichs writes: “At the same time, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna left in people who studied her nature the impression of a person who seemed to have experienced some great grief in life ... Sometimes she laughs, but it is felt that her laughter is only external, and there, in the depths of her soul, she is not at all funny, but sad. Olga Nikolaevna was very devoted to her father. She loved him unconditionally. The horror of the 1905 revolution affected her much more than others. She has completely changed, her cheerfulness has disappeared.

It must be said that sensitive ladies-in-waiting and experienced court ladies were not mistaken. The princess grew up quickly.

13.

The spiritual subtlety of the daughter of the Tsar did not allow her, over time and age, to perceive only the bright side of the world, and its upheavals - the 1905 rebellion, the events in Moscow, extremely exacerbated the impressionability of nature. The impetuous spiritual experience of the lovely Russian princess was also facilitated by the fact that, as a teenager, she experienced an acute feeling of falling in love, and could even endure some great personal drama hidden from everyone. The correspondence of the Empress with her husband, the Sovereign, and Olga herself point to something similar. In these letters we will find a concrete example of what was already discussed above - how sensitively and carefully the August parents treated the feelings of their children: “Yes, N.P. is very nice,” the Empress writes to her eldest daughter. I don't know if he is a believer. But there is no need to think about it. And then various stupid things come to mind and make someone blush. “I know who you were thinking about in the car - don’t be so sad. Soon, with God's help, you will see him again. Don't think too much about N.P. It upsets you." And further, in another letter: “I noticed a long time ago that you were somehow sad, but you didn’t ask questions, because people don’t like being questioned ... Of course, to return home to the lessons (and this is inevitable) after a long vacation and a cheerful life with relatives and pleasant young people is not easy ... I know well about your feelings for ... poor thing. Try not to think too much about him…. You see, others may notice the way you look at him, and conversations will begin ... Now that you are already a big girl, you should always be careful and not show your feelings. You cannot show your feelings to others when these others may consider them indecent. I know that he treats you like a little sister and he knows that you, the little Grand Duchess, should not treat him differently.

Darling, I cannot write everything, it will take too long, and I am not alone: ​​be courageous, cheer up and do not allow yourself to think so much about him. This will not lead to good, but will only bring you more sadness. If I were healthy, I would try to amuse you, make you laugh - everything would be easier then, but this is not so, and nothing can be done. God help you. Don't be discouraged and don't think you're doing something terrible. God bless you. I kiss you hard. Your old mother."

“Dear child! Thanks for the note. Yes, dear, when you love someone, you experience his grief with him and rejoice when he is happy. You ask what to do. You need to pray with all your heart that God will give your friend strength and calmness to endure grief without grumbling against God's will. And we must try to help each other to carry the cross sent by God. You need to try to lighten the burden, to help, to be cheerful. Well, sleep well and do not fill your head with extraneous thoughts too much. It won't make any sense. Sleep well and try to always be a good girl. God bless you. Gentle kisses from your old mother."

14.

The Grand Duchesses had no secrets from Alexandra Feodorovna. They knew that she would carefully and carefully guard any of their secrets. And so it happened. The name of the first love of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna has not been found out by any researcher, historian, and simply - by an inquisitive reader!

It remains to be added here that, in the opinion of the author of the article - an essay, this in no way could be the Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov, the "cousin - nephew" of Nicholas II, as some serious authors - historians write (E. Radzinsky, for example.). By the style of the letters, by the reservations of the Empress - mother, one can understand that we are talking not about a family member, otherwise Alexandra Feodorovna would not have been lost in conjectures about the religious feelings of her daughter's chosen one: Dmitry Pavlovich Romanov grew up in a close circle and she knew everything about him. Probably, it was one of the young officers - soldiers lying in the Palace infirmary, belonging to a good noble family, and, probably, who lost someone close in the war: father, brother, uncle - as the empress speaks of grief, which suddenly befell young man But. I repeat, all these are just weak guesses, versions, legends. The real name of the “hero of the novel” of the Russian Tsesarevna was not named: neither by History, nor by the royal couple, for the secret of the heart of the eldest daughter was inviolable for parents ..

But the "wedding question", one way or another, still stood before the royal family. And pretty sharp.

15.

In January 1916, when Olga was already in her twentieth year, talk began about marrying her to Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. But the Empress was desperately against it. Grand Duke Boris was eighteen years older than the beautiful princess! The empress wrote to her husband indignantly: “The thought of Boris is too unsympathetic, and I am sure that our daughter would never agree to marry him, and I would understand her perfectly .... The more I think about Boris, - the Empress writes to her husband a few more days later, - the more I realize what a terrible company his wife will be drawn into ... "

The company, indeed, was nowhere worse: ballerinas, actresses, high-society ladies with a dozen lovers in epaulettes and without, players and spenders of all stripes!

Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich was very "famous" in the Romanov family for his countless love affairs and noisy revels. Naturally, the hands of the eldest Grand Duchess would never have been given to a groom with such a reputation, and Royal Family firmly made it clear to the old womanizer. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the mother of an unfortunate applicant, “almost an empress” of the St. Petersburg beau monde, could not forgive her porphyry-bearing relatives for such an affront for the rest of her life! But the daughter's peace of mind for loving parents was more expensive than the sidelong glances of relatives hurt in ambitions and all sorts of secular gossip around ..

In Olga’s head and heart there were completely different thoughts - “these are the holy secrets of a young girl, others should not know them, it would be terribly painful for Olga. She's so receptive!" - the Empress wrote carefully to her spouse, tremblingly protecting inner world her clear and at the same time complex soul.

16.

But like any mother, the Empress, of course, was worried about the future of her children. “I always ask myself who our girls will marry, and I can’t imagine what their fate will be,” she wrote bitterly to Nikolai Alexandrovich, perhaps clearly anticipating a great misfortune. From the correspondence of the Sovereign and the Empress, it is clear that Olga longed for great female happiness, which bypassed her.

Parents sympathized with her, but more and more often they wondered: is there a couple worthy of their daughter? Alas... They couldn't name anyone. Even the old devoted valet of the Empress A. Volkov, who was very fond of the elder Tsesarevna, grumpily remarked: “What a time has come! “It’s time to marry off daughters, but there is no one to marry, and the people have become empty, tiddly!”

17.

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

From the beginning of 1914, for the poor Grand Duchess Olga, a straightforward and Russian soul, this issue became extremely acute; the Romanian Crown Prince (now King Carol II) arrived with his beautiful mother, Queen Mary; the close associates began to tease the Grand Duchess with the possibility of marriage, but she did not want to hear.

After all, she knew that “princes are not free, like girls - they don’t take girlfriends according to their hearts, but according to the calculations of other people, for the benefit of a stranger ..” * (* Ostrovsky A.N. “Snow Maiden”).

18.

“At the end of May,” recalls P. Gilliard, “a rumor spread at the Court about the impending betrothal of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna to Prince Carol of Romania. She was then eighteen and a half years old.

Parents on both sides seemed to be sympathetic to this suggestion, which the political environment made desirable. I also knew that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sazonov, was making every effort to make it come true, and that the final decision should be made during the forthcoming trip of the Russian Imperial Family to Romania.

At the beginning of July, when we were once alone with the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, she suddenly said to me with her characteristic frankness, imbued with that frankness and gullibility that allowed our relationship, which began at a time when she was a little girl: “Tell me the truth, do you know why we are going to Romania?”

I answered her with some embarrassment: "I think that this is an act of courtesy that the Sovereign shows to the Romanian king in order to answer his previous visit."

“Yes, this may be an official occasion, but real reason?.. Ah, I understand you shouldn't know her, but I'm sure everyone around me is talking about it and that you know her.

When I bowed my head in agreement, she added:

"Well, so! If I don't want it, it won't happen. Papa promised me not to force me… but I don’t want to leave Russia.”

“But you will be able to come back here whenever you please.”

- “Despite everything, I will be a stranger in my country, and I am Russian and I want to remain Russian!”

On June 13, we sailed from Yalta on the imperial yacht Shtandart, and the next day in the morning we approached Constanta. Solemn meeting; an intimate breakfast, tea, then a parade, and in the evening a sumptuous dinner. Olga Nikolaevna, sitting next to Prince Carol, answered his questions with her usual friendliness. As for the rest of the Grand Duchesses, they could hardly hide the boredom they always experienced in such cases, and constantly leaned in my direction, pointing with laughing eyes at older sister. The evening ended early, and an hour later the yacht departed, heading for Odessa.

The next morning, I learned that the matchmaking proposal had been abandoned, or at least postponed indefinitely. Olga Nikolaevna insisted on her own.”

This is how P. Gilliard ends this interesting memoir and adds in exile: “Who could have foreseen then that this wedding could save her from the pending hard fate.”

(11/15/1895 [Tsarskoye Selo] - 07/17/1918 [Yekaterinburg]) Russia

Beloved daughter of Emperor Nicholas II, she inherited everything from him the best sides his soul: simplicity, kindness, modesty, unshakable chivalrous honesty and all-encompassing love for the Fatherland - natural, not ostentatious, as if absorbed from birth .. A long-term pupil and eldest daughter of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, she took from her sincere and deep evangelical faith, directness , the ability to control oneself, the strength of the spirit.

Of all the daughters of the Emperor, only she was lucky enough to dance at adult, not “pink” balls * (* “Pink” or “children's” balls were called, where girls of 13-15 years old were present. - S. M.) .. Of all their friendly sisterly four with an intricately enchanting aroma of a monogram - seal - signature: "OTMA", only she managed to experience the gentle touch of the wings of First Love. But what did it bring her, that light, weightless touch? A sharp, incomparable feeling of happiness, a captivating fascination of a gesture, a look that reflected an obscure trembling of the heart, or - the bitterness of pain and disappointment, so familiar to all of us from the first moment of the creation of the world, to us, the daughters of Eve and the heirs of Lilith?

Nobody knows for sure. The name of her Beloved has not yet been precisely established by any of the historians. Only - guesses, fantasies, legends ..

“The holy secret of the soul of a young girl” (* Phrase of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna from a letter to her husband, Emperor Nicholas II. - S. M.) remained with her forever. Her diaries almost did not survive - she burned them, almost all of them, during one of the searches in the terrible Yekaterinburg prison. The last of them, the dying one, seems extremely stingy, encrypted, faceless. But there is so much pain and desire to live in it, such a thirst for finding the forever lost golden thread of a calm, harmonious family world in which she grew up and which she lost ... Then, in February 1917 .. And, perhaps, much earlier, in the fall of 1905 - th…

Her letters to her father - the Emperor are stored in the archives behind seven seals and locks. Perhaps archivists and researchers think that publishing in large numbers the naive reasoning of a young girl of the “royal family - tribe”, who spent almost her entire life in muslin dresses and lace scarves (* often knitted with her own hand - S.M.) is not at all - not at all interesting. Of course they are right. The rapid 21st century, with its high technologies, virtual worlds and a strange, dissonant against the background of all this, too sharp a fall down of the Soul, not sinful, no, but simply - exhausted by contradictions and bodily passions - this century is so far from the slowness of the early twentieth, where her Life passed, where her personal Fate was written on the tablets of Memory, that you are no longer surprised at the apparent uselessness of this Fate, to us, lazy and incurious, mocking, firm, rational descendants! Everything leaves without a trace, like gold dust in the sand of Time, the Universe, Eternity. And eternity is so cold! But .. But my gaze again stops at fragments of letters and documents, and the soul is burned by lines of memories dividing its Path into “before” and “after” .. And I think. And I begin to weave an unpretentious lace from simple, old memories, letters, paintings, books, sketches, fragments of quotes ...

What was she like, the eldest Tsesarevna, the beloved daughter of Emperor Nicholas II, the sister of mercy of the Tsarskoye Selo infirmary, the Russian princess from a bright fairy tale with a sad tragic end?

What she was like, this airy fairy in a gauze dress, with a pink ribbon in her hair, the very little girl whom the midwife predicted a happy fate at birth, because the head of the newborn was densely covered with light blond ringlets - curls.

I am trying to guess and write, draw strokes and zigzags of her Destiny for you. And I have to start with the worst.

Tsesarevna and Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova died in an instant, along with her parents, having received a bullet right in the heart. Before her death, she managed to cross herself. She was not bayoneted alive like the rest of her sisters. If this can be considered happiness, then yes, the eldest daughter of the last Sovereign of Russia was very lucky!

But let us turn to the beginning of such an “unusually happy journey” of a porphyry-bearing child. To his birth and infancy. To the first chapters of life.

She was born on November 315, 1895 in Tsarskoye Selo. She was a cheerful, lively girl, a favorite of her father, who at first compared her "achievements" with the "achievements" of her sister Xenia's daughter, Irina. And he wrote in his diary, not hiding his pride: "Our Olga weighs a little more." “At the christening, ours was calmer and didn’t scream like that when they were dipped ...”

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

I am the Grand Duchess ... - she answered with a sigh.

Well, what a princess you are, you didn’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 still unsteady legs, towards the laughter and smiles of the guests ... (E. Radzinsky. "Nicholas II: Life and Death." Ch.5. The Royal Family.)

Quite tiny, all princess girls were taught by their mother to hold a needle or hoop for embroidery, knitting needles, and make tiny clothes for dolls. Alexandra Fedorovna believed that even little girls should be busy with something.

Olga loved to play with her sister Tatyana, who was born on May 28, 1897 (also in Tsarskoye Selo). Russian speech was mixed with English and French, sweets, biscuits and toys were equally shared... Toys passed from the older to the younger. In the evenings, the girls quieted down near their mother, who read fairy tales to them or quietly hummed English folk songs. The older girls were incredibly happy with their father, but they rarely even saw him in the evenings, they knew that he was busy ...

When he had a free minute, he took both fair-haired babies on his knees and told them fairy tales, but not English, but Russian, long, a little scary, filled with magic and miracles ...

Little mischievous girls were allowed to carefully stroke their lush, fluffy mustaches, in which a soft, slightly sly smile was hidden.

They grew up, the viscous boredom of grammar lessons, French, English began. Strict governesses followed their posture, manners, movements, and the ability to behave at the table.

However, everything was unobtrusive and simple, no frills in food and treats. Lots of reading. Yes, and there was not much time for pranks, soon Olga had younger sisters - Maria (born June 26, 1899, Peterhof) and Anastasia (born June 18, 1901, Peterhof). They all played together and learned by playing. The older ones looked after the younger ones.

All four slept in the same room on folding camp beds. Even the young princesses tried to dress the same way. But the content of the desks was different for everyone ... favorite books, watercolors, herbariums, albums with photographs, icons. Each of them diligently kept a diary. At first these were expensive albums with gold embossing and clasps, on a moire lining, then - after the February storm and arrest - simple notebooks with pencil notes. Much was destroyed during searches in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, much, as I have said more than once, is unknown, or disappeared without a trace ...

The girls went in for sports a lot: they played ball, rode a bicycle, ran and swam well, were fond of then newfangled tennis, horseback riding, doused themselves with cold water in the mornings, and took warm baths in the evenings. Their day was always scheduled by the minute by the strict Empress - mother, they never knew idle boredom.

Olga and Tatiana during summer holiday in Finnish skerries they liked to look for small pieces of amber or beautiful pebbles, and in the glades of Belovezhya and Spala (Poland) - mushrooms and berries .. They appreciated every minute of relaxation that they could spend with their parents or in solitude - reading and diaries.

So, hand in hand with the inseparable beauty of her sister Tatyana and her younger sisters, to whom she treated with maternal tenderness and strictness, Olga Nikolaevna, the eldest child in a friendly and loving family, imperceptibly turned captivatingly from a plump, lively girl with a somewhat broad face, into a charming teenage girl.

Yulia Alexandrovna Den, a friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, recalled later, already in exile: “The eldest of the four beautiful sisters was Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. She was a sweet creature. Anyone who saw her immediately fell in love. but at the age of fifteen she somehow immediately became prettier. A little above average height, a fresh face, dark blue eyes, magnificent light blond hair, beautiful arms and legs. Olga Nikolaevna took life seriously, was endowed with intelligence and an accommodating character. To my look, it was a strong-willed nature, but she had a sensitive, crystal soul. A devoted friend of the Tsar's family, Anna Taneeva-Vyrubova, remembering the eldest daughter of the Tsar, as if supplementing Yulia Alexandrovna Den:

“Olga Nikolaevna was remarkably smart and capable, and teaching was a joke to her, which is why she was sometimes lazy. She was characterized by a strong will and an incorruptible honesty and directness in which she resembled her mother. She had these wonderful qualities from childhood, but as a child Olga Nikolaevna was often stubborn, disobedient and very quick-tempered; later she knew how to restrain herself. She had wonderful blond hair, large blue eyes and a marvelous complexion, a slightly upturned nose, resembling sovereigns.

Baroness Sophia Buxgevden also left her own, equally harmonious, “in love” description of the Tsesarevna: “Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna was beautiful, tall, with laughing blue eyes ... she rode beautifully, played tennis and danced. Of all the sisters, she was the most intelligent, the most musical, according to her teachers, she had absolute pitch. She could play any melody she heard, transcribe complex musical pieces ... Olga Nikolaevna was very direct, sometimes too frank, always sincere. She was very charming and the most When she was studying, the poor teachers had to experience many of her various tricks that she invented to play a trick on them. And as she grew up, she did not leave a chance to have fun. She was generous and immediately responded to any request, acting under the influence of her heart , hot impulse and a huge feeling of compassion, strongly developed in her .... "

Original taken from radiant_kristal to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

The royal parents decided that if a boy was born, they would call him Paul, if a girl - Olga, which was approved by Empress Maria Feodorovna. Princess Olga was born in Tsarskoye Selo on November 3, 1895, at 9 o'clock in the afternoon. She was baptized by the court protopresbyter and confessor Yanyshev in the church of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace on November 14 - the birthday of Empress Maria Feodorovna and the first wedding anniversary of her parents; her godparents were Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich; after communion of the newborn, Empress Maria Feodorovna placed on her the signs of the Order of St. Catherine. Parents could not get enough of the appearance of the child.

Olga and her younger sister Tatyana made up a "big couple". The girls lived in the same room, slept on camp beds, wore the same clothes and were very friendly, despite the significant difference in temperaments.

From childhood, Olga grew up very kind and sympathetic. She deeply experienced other people's misfortunes and always tried to help. Olga is also attributed to excessive temper and irritability. It is worth noting that she was the only one of the four sisters who could openly object to her father and mother and was very reluctant to submit to her parents' will if circumstances so required.

“The eldest Olga Nikolaevna was quick-witted and, being very reasonable, at the same time showed self-will, great independence in handling and expressed quick and funny objections ... She learned everything extremely quickly and was able to express a peculiar opinion about what she studied.<...>She was very fond of reading during her free hours ”(P. Gilliard).

Olga loved to read more than other sisters, later she began to write poetry. Teacher French and a friend of the imperial family, Pierre Gilliard, noted that Olga learned the material of the lessons better and faster than the sisters. It was easy for her, because of that she was sometimes lazy.

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova distinguished herself by her abilities in the study of sciences, she loved solitude and books. The Grand Duchess was very smart, she had creative abilities. Olga behaved with everyone simply and naturally. The princess was surprisingly responsive, sincere and generous.

Sophie Buchshowden left the following description of Grand Duchess Olga: “Olga Nikolaevna was remarkably smart and capable, and the teaching was a joke to her, why She was sometimes lazy. Her characteristic features were a strong will and incorruptible honesty and directness, in which She was like a Mother. She had these wonderful qualities from childhood, but as a child Olga Nikolaevna was often stubborn, disobedient and very quick-tempered, later she knew how to restrain herself She had wonderful blond hair, big blue eyes and a marvelous complexion, a slightly upturned nose, ".

“Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna loved to spend time with books and needlework, she had little interest in housekeeping. She also loved music and singing. She wrote diaries and poems. The character of her soft and kind soul was more like that of her father; also, in her outward appearance, she was more like her father than her mother. It was the daughter of the father ”(Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov)).

According to S. Ya. Ofrosimova, in the strict sense of the word it cannot be called beautiful, “but Her whole being breathes such femininity, such youth that She seems more than beautiful.”

The first daughter of Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova inherited facial features, posture, as well as golden hair from her mother. From Nikolai Alexandrovich, the daughter inherited the inner world. Olga, like her father, had an amazingly pure Christian soul.

“She loved simplicity and paid little attention to clothing. Her moral character reminded me of her father, whom she loved more than anything in the world. She was truly a believer” (S. Gibbs).

Olga was a blonde with somewhat irregular features, a slightly upturned nose and sparkling blue expressive and kind eyes. A beautiful complexion and a sweet smile gave HER appearance a youthful freshness and charm.

“She inherited a lot of her father's traits. She produced on me with her tenderness, with her whole personality also the enchanting impression of a sweet, good Russian girl. She didn't like farming. She loved solitude and books. She was well-read. In general, it was developed. She, it seems to me, much more than all of them in the family understood her position and realized the danger of it. She cried terribly when her father and mother left Tobolsk. Maybe she was aware then of something. She gave me the impression of a person who experienced something unsuccessfully. Sometimes she laughs, but you feel that her laughter is from above, and there, in the depths of her soul, she is not at all funny, but sad. Just like her father, she was simple and affectionate, helpful and friendly with everyone around her. She loved more than others, it seems, Maria Nikolaevna ”(K. M. Bitner).

Comparing the Grand Duchesses, the authors of the memoirs call Tatyana or Maria the most beautiful of them, but they agree that, yielding to them in beauty, Olga Nikolaevna had a charm that attracted sympathy for her at first sight.

AT free time Olga Nikolaevna Romanova loved to ride horses, communicate with her brother, Tsarevich Alexei, and play the piano. When Olga was given the first money for personal needs, she first decided to pay for the treatment of a disabled child, whom she often saw during walks. The boy limped heavily and walked with crutches. Olga had been putting aside part of her personal money for the boy's treatment for a long time.

Yulia Den recalled: “The eldest of the four beautiful sisters was the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. She was a sweet creature. Anyone who saw Her immediately fell in love. medium height, fresh face, dark blue eyes, lush light blond hair, beautiful arms and legs. Olga Nikolaevna took life seriously, was endowed with intelligence and an accommodating character. In my opinion, it was a strong-willed nature. "

Sophie Buhsgevden: "Olga Nikolaevna was devoted to her Father. The horror of the revolution affected her much more than others. She completely changed, Her cheerfulness disappeared."

We have already said that Olga, as a teenager, experienced a feeling of falling in love, later she could even endure some kind of personal drama hidden from everyone. The correspondence of the Empress with her husband and Olga herself point to something similar. In these letters we will find a concrete example of what was discussed above - how sensitively and carefully the August parents treated the feelings of their children: “Yes, N.P. is very nice. I don’t know if he is a believer. But there is no need to talk about him to think. Otherwise, various stupid things come to mind and make someone blush. "I know who you were thinking about in the car - don't be so sad. Soon, with God's help, you will see him again. Don't think too much about N.P. It upsets you." “I noticed a long time ago that you are somehow sad, but you didn’t ask questions, because people don’t like being questioned ... Of course, to return home to the lessons (and this is inevitable) after a long vacation and a fun life with relatives and nice young people it's not easy... I know well how you feel about... the poor thing. Try not to think too much about him, that's what Our Friend said. You see, others may notice the way You look at him, and conversations will start. ... Now that You are already a big Girl, You must always be careful not to show Your feelings. You cannot show Your feelings to others when these others may consider them indecent ... God help you. Do not be discouraged and do not think that you doing something terrible. God bless you. Big kiss. Your old Mom."

Indeed, the Grand Duchesses had no secrets from Alexandra Feodorovna. And now how many daughters will dare to open their hearts to their mother?

In January 1916, when Olga was already in her twentieth year, talk began about marrying her to Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. But the Empress was against it. She wrote to her husband: "The thought of Boris is too unsympathetic, and I am sure that Our Daughter would never have agreed to marry him, and I would have understood Her perfectly." Her Majesty immediately adds: "She had other thoughts in her head and heart - these are the holy secrets of a young girl, others should not know them, it would be terribly painful for Olga. She is so receptive." As a Mother, the Empress was worried about the future of Her Children. “I always ask Myself who Our Girls will marry, and I can’t imagine what Their fate will be,” she wrote bitterly to Nikolai Alexandrovich, perhaps anticipating a great misfortune. From the correspondence of the Sovereign and the Empress, it is clear that Olga longed for great female happiness, which bypassed her. Parents sympathized with her, but they probably wondered: is there a couple worthy of their daughter? Alas... When did the First World War, the young princess, so fond of solitude, prone to everything beautiful, refined, was forced to leave the walls of her cozy palace.

Sisters of Mercy Tatyana Nikolaevna, Olga Nikolaevna, Alexandra Fedorovna.

During the First World War, Olga Nikolaevna, like her mother and sisters, was a sister of mercy. At first, the Grand Duchess was a surgical sister. The work is not easy. Olga could not endure the horrors of surgical operations for a long time. She continued to be a sister of mercy, but not in the surgical department. Meeting new wounded at the station, brought straight from the front, the princess more than once had to wash her sick feet and take care of them. However, the princesses rarely gave themselves away, communicating on an equal footing with ordinary Russian soldiers. During the war, Olga and her sisters were members of the Committee for Assistance to Soldiers' Families, where they did a great job. Olga did a lot for the good of society, but she was very shy about her publicity.

THOSE. Melnik-Botkina: "Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, weaker in health and nerves, did not endure the work of a surgical nurse for long, but she did not leave the infirmary, but continued to work in the wards, cleaning up after the sick along with other sisters."

“The first years of the war, when everyone’s attention was riveted entirely to the front, completely rebuilt the life of Grand Duchess Olga. and public figure... Often the Grand Duchesses themselves had to travel to Petrograd to chair charitable committees in their name or to collect donations. For Grand Duchess Olga, this was an unusual and very difficult task, since She was both shy and did not like any personal performances "(P. Savchenko).

Princesses Tatyana Nikolaevna and Olga Nikolaevna

Let's jump ahead and say that her sister Tatyana, who had a tight circle of family responsibilities, felt like a fish in water in new fields. Olga, it seems, was not created for public life.

Everyone should work to the best of their ability, therefore, both in the committee and in the hospital, Grand Duchess Olga worked less than Tatyana. She appeared to be in fragile health. But was she the princess and the pea?

S. Ya. Ofrosimova: “Everyone adored Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, idolized; the wounded loved to tell me about her most of all. Once they brought a new batch of wounded. , and even washed the feet of the wounded, in order to clean the wounds from dirt and protect them from blood poisoning right there, at the station. After a long and hard work, the Princesses and other sisters placed the wounded in the wards. soldier. The soldier immediately launched into conversation. Olga Nikolaevna, as always, did not say a word that she was the Grand Duchess.

Tired, hearty? - asked the soldier.

Yes, a little tired. It's good when you're tired.

What's good here?

So it worked.

So you don't have to sit here. I would go to the front.

Yes, my dream is to get to the front.

What? Go.

I would go, but the Father does not let me, says that I am too weak in health for this.

And you spit on your father and go.

The princess laughed.

No, I can't spit. We really love each other."

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova selflessly loved her homeland and family, was very worried about the sick Tsarevich Alexei, rejoiced at her sisters, empathized with her mother, and worried about her father.

“Olga Nikolaevna was devoted to her father. The horror of the revolution affected her much more than others. She has completely changed, her cheerfulness has disappeared ”(S.K. Buksgevden).

The family of the Royal Martyrs celebrated the last birthday of their eldest daughter in 1917 in Tobolsk. “Dear Olga,” the Royal Father wrote, “22 years have passed; it is a pity that she, the poor, had to spend her birthday in the current situation.