The Romanov Family

It is a beautiful belief,
That ever round our head
Are hovering on angel wings,
The spirits of the dead.

            In 1894, a couple was married in St. Petersburg, Russia.  Their marriage was formed from pure love, unlike most marriages between royalty at the time.  The couple were the new Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov and Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova.  Their marriage and reign was to have a lasting impression on individuals and the world.

        The new ruling Imperial couple of Russia had five children, born at approximate two-year intervals: Olga, born in 1895, Tatiana, in 1897, Maria, in 1899, Anastasia, in 1901, and Alexei, in 1904.

         The Romanovs were a typical intimate family, filled with smiles and laughter.  Nicholas and Alexandra were called by close friends and family "Nicky" and "Alix."  The tsar and tsaritsa loved their children to the utmost, and they had the best bringing up possible.  They were all very close, and missed each other when separated.  The children and their mother pined for Nicholas while he was away on official trips; Alexandra wrote sadly, "Sleep well, my treasure...my bed will be oh, so empty."  Letters and notes were exchanged frequently as a common means of communication between the family.  Despite their common qualities, however, each person had a distinctive personality.

       Olga, born November 3 at the old Russian calendar (13 days behind the Western), in 1895, was the oldest, with thick blond-auburn hair and blue eyes set in a wide Russian face.  She was the most purely Slavic of the four girls, and loyal to Mother Russia, like her father.  Olga was closest to Nicholas, reading to and walking with him.  She had a stubborn and impetuous nature, but was extremely charitable and did not hold grudges.  Olga liked to read and was very quiet.  She was extremely religious.

        Tatiana, born eighteen months after Olga in 1897, had finely shaped features, grey-blue eyes, and dark brunette hair.   She was slender, elegant, and feminine, appealing to the young men she met.   Tatiana was the most like her mother, slow to open up.  She was, on the other hand, bursting with good nature, an uncomplaining spirit, and self-confidence.  It was she who was "The Governor," considered the eldest instead of Olga.  "You felt she was the daughter of an Emperor," someone once said of the obvious grand duchess.  Tatiana was religious like Olga and Empress Alexandra; when still young she began to read theology and religious literature, mulling over deeply theological questions.

        Maria, her birthdate set in June of 1899, was glowing with health and beauty.  She was rosy-cheeked, with an amount of baby fat before she reached adolescence.  Big-boned and physically strong like her grandfather Alexander III, Maria was called 'the great softie' for her tenderness towards others.  She would have made a good mother and wife; a tutor says that "by nature, she was the archetypal mother."  Maria was constantly getting crushes on young officers, and was teased incessantly by her family.

        Anastasia was the youngest, and destined to become the most famous because of her tragic life story.  Born in 1901, she had brown hair tinted with auburn and distinct, unique Russian blue eyes that sparkled with mischief and fun.  She disliked schoolwork and was always playing practical jokes.  Her imitations of anyone whom she saw as having the slightest flaw made the family double up in laughter.  She had an excellent theatrical gift.  Anastasia had a cutting wit and knew it.  It was one of her chief ways of getting what she wanted.

        Tsarevich Alexei was born at the end of July, 1904.  The long-awaited heir to the Russian throne, he had contracted the dreaded, incurable disease of hemophilia from his great-grandmother Queen Victoria.   Hemophilia, which causes the blood to not clot properly, cannot be cured.   Alexei, as sunny and mischievous as Anastasia when he was well, was usually sick, lying in bed and crying.  Everyone pampered him, and Alexei was ripe for jokes when able.  Once, he dived under the dinner table over which Tsar Nicholas was presiding and pulled off a lady's shoe.  When told to put it back, Alexei promptly placed a ripe strawberry in its toe and put it back on, producing a scream from the poor lady in question.

        The family travelled a great deal of the time, mostly from one imperial residence to another.  In the winter, they would stay at the Alexander Palace in the tsarist estate of Tsarskoe Selo, 15 miles from St. Petersburg.  Tsarskoe Selo meant "The Tsar's Village" in Finnish.   There, they would have lessons and when time was free, play in the snow.  The lessons bored the children.  Anastasia wrote to her Russian tutor from Livadia:

       "Our rooms here are very large and clean and white and we have real fruit and grapes growing here....I am so happy that we don't have those horrid lessons.  In the evening we all sit together, four of us [the grand duchesses], the gramophone plays, we listen to it and play together....I didn't write to you because Alexei came for me and said that I should be going swimming.  Papa has now been swimming for a few days, and I am going today for the first time....I don't miss Tsarskoe Selo at all, because I can't even tell you how bored I am there."

       When the first hints of spring came, they would board the Imperial train with its golden double-headed Romanov eagle on every car and go down to Livadia, in the Crimea beside the Black Sea.  Livadia was a vacation from the everday stresses of being Russia's royal family.  At Livadia, there were no policemen, no gawking citizens or inquisitive reporters.  They could actually go into shops and buy things at the small seaside town of Yalta, nearby Livadia.  Once, Alexandra and her friend Anna Viroubova entered a Crimean shop while it was raining.  The Tsaritsa let down her umbrella, forming a puddle on the floor.  The storekeeper gestured angrily towards a rack, saying, "Madame, this is for umbrellas."  Alexandra did so.  Only when Anna addressed her as "Alexandra Feodorovna" did the man know that his customer was his empress.

        Withing months, spring faded into summer and the Romanovs would once again go back to Tsarskoe Selo.  They returned only to repack and go up to Peterhof.  They did not stay in the Great Peterhof Palace, however; instead, they made themselves comfortable in the private, relaxed atmosphere of a small villa, or dacha, on the Peterhof grounds.  Alexandria Dacha, as it was called, had also been nicknamed 'the farm.'  It was at Alexandria Dacha that Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei were born.  In this coastal area, the children had great fun playing in the water and on the beach.  From Peterhof, the family would board the Imperial yacht Standart.  This was a floating palace, complete with bouidors, studies, staterooms and a dining hall.  On the Standart, they made the trip along the Finnish shores, stopping frequently to walk and gather flowers and mushrooms.  Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei chose a certain Finnish island as their favorite, and their own. (At the time, Finland was owned by Russia.)  This island, Shkery, was a pleasant place.   A swing was constructed there.  The "swing" was a gigantic tree trunk placed firmly upright in the ground, surrounded by rope swings.  The children swung tirelessly around it, and returned after a few hours on shore to the Standart, which would then go about the rest of the cruise.  Around September, the floating palace was abandoned for Tsarskoe Selo once more.

         Actually, Nicholas and Alexandra disliked the more fancy palaces of the Peter Is Great Palace at Peterhof, the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, all furnished finely with crystal chandeliers, Faberg� pieces, and gold leaf in profusion.   Alexandra preferred the comfortable private atmosphere of the smaller palaces, which she decorated in her own taste: English chintz, mauve, and lilacs.  Her daughters unquestioningly accepted what their mother approved.  Nicholas admired a woodsy, cozy country look.   His studies were furnished with simple silver Faberg� frames, dark wood, and leather.  One of his favorite rooms was in the wooden hunting lodge at Spala.

         The Romanov family's life at home was almost perfect, excepting the cloud of hemophilia that hung over Alexei and Alexandra's heart problems.  However, their life in public was not as flawless.

          At the first, there had been misconceptions about Empress Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas.  In Russia, a wedding after the funeral of a family member was a bad omen.  Alexandra, who was whispered about as "the woman who has come to us behind a coffin," wed her husband only weeks after her new father-in-law's death and funeral.  "One's feelings one can imagine," the newlywed Alexandra wrote to her sister shortly after the wedding. "One day in deepest mourning lamenting a beloved one, the next in smartest clothes being married."  Another time, she observed, "Such was my entry into Russia.  Our marriage seemed to me a mere continuation of the masses for the dead with this difference, that now I wore a white dress instead of a black."  Now, especially as World War I fell upon them with Germany as their enemy, the Russians were complaining that Alexandra was "Nemska" (the German woman), and boldly declared that she was a traitor to the Motherland.  Another rumor, totally untrue, began to make the rounds, and quickly became a hot item for the tabloids: the Siberian peasant/hypnotist Grigorii Rasputin, who indulged in wild orgies with St. Petersburg women and was a perfect monk before the empress, was having an affair with Alexandra--and her four daughters.  That was of course ridiculous, for Olga, the eldest, was only nineteen in 1914, and Anastasia was thirteen.

         Alexandra, furious at the insult to "our Friend" (Rasputin), whom she only knew as being holy and righteous, denied the charge.  The tales persisted, however, and the Tsar was powerless to stop them.  In fact, Russians verbally slaughtered the poor family.   They called Nicholas a puppet to his wife, who was in turn being hypnotised by the power-seeking Rasputin.  Articles by Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and even 15-year-old Anastasia's "lovers" were published in newspapers as truth.

        The four girls knew the most about the absurd accusations against their parents.  Olga took it the hardest.   All of them tried to keep the secret from their brother Alexei.  Meanwhile, Alexandra's health was deteriorating.  She had heart problems, and "No one need know," as she gasped to her friend and confidant Anna Viroubova more than once, as her lips turned blue and her breathing became shallow.  1916 brought back trouble, resulting in sciatica, a condition that causes a sharp pain from the foot to the hip when walking.

The Revolution: 1917-1918

     In February of 1917, the country was in the ripe mood for revolution.  One could feel it in the air, as people openly despised their sovereigns and scorned autocracy.  They wanted the Bolsheviks--also known as the Soviets and the Red Army--to take over.

       Nicholas, at Mogilev in March, was fully aware of it.  He was talking with ministers and officials, and trying to preserve the autocracy.  However, it was not to be so.  On March 12, 1917, on the train back to Tsarskoe Selo, Tsar Nicholas signed away his and Alexei's rights to the throne, offering it to his brother Grand Duke Mikhail.  Mikhail, fearing for his life, declined.  The last of the Romanov tsars was gone, and a "democratic" man, Alexander Kerensky, formed a Provisional Government and the White Army.  The White Army, or Whites, were enemies of the Bolsheviks, but not friends of imperialism either.

         Meanwhile, at Tsarskoe Selo, Olga, Tatiana, and Alexei had fallen ill of measles.  They remained in a dark room, their heads shaved.  Maria also became sick, and Anastasia soon found out that her mother was ill too.  She stayed up all night with Alexandra's friend Lili Dehn.   "But the train is never late," worried Anastasia protested to Lili when it was suggested that the blizzard detained her father. "Oh, if only Papa would come quickly.  I'm beginning to feel ill."  And indeed, by the time Nicholas arrived back home, Anastasia too had her head shaved and was sick in bed.  Tatiana was temporarily deaf from the fever, and could not understand what Provisional Government guards were doing in and outside the house, guarding their every move.  Alexandra had to write down the circumstances on paper for her to read.

         Everyone was devastated by the sudden, complete fall of their positions and "Mother Russia."  They were also disgusted by their guards' behavior.  Most of them were brash, rude, and shouted at the family as they worked in the vegetable garden they were planting on the grounds of the Alexander Palace.  A horrified Anna Viroubova, who was to be taken off to a prison a few weeks later, recounted: "With their fists and with the butts of their guns they pushed the Emperor this way and that as though he were some wretched vagrant they were baiting on a country road. 'You can't go there, Gospodin Polkovnik (Mr. Colonel).'  'We don't permit you to walk in that direction, Gospodin Polkovnik.'  'Stand back when you are commanded, Gospodin Polkovnik.'  The Emperor, apparently unmoved, looked from one of these coarse brutes to another and with great dignity turned and walked back to the palace."  Some, however, were kindly towards their quiet and attractive prisoners.  The four grand duchesses had numerous photographs taken with some of them.  One came up one day to sit down beside Alexandra on a blanket spread on the grass.  He talked with her, accused her of variouse pro-German crimes, and she answered calmly.  When he got up, he said more respectfully, "Do you know, Alexandra Feodorovna, I had quite a different idea of you.  I was mistaken about you."  Two of the family's friends, lady-in-waiting Baroness Sophie "Isa" Buxhoevden, and Countess Nastia "Nastenka" Hendrikova, helped with the garden.  Later, Countess Hendrikova was to be killed for refusing to renounce her loyalty to the Imperial family, and Baroness Buxhoevden would betray their only escape attempt, buying her own freedom.

          In August of 1917, Lenin's Bolsheviks were marching on St. Petersburg, seeking to destroy the Whites.   Kerensky sent the Imperial family by train to Tobolsk, a city far away in Siberia.   There, in the former governor's house, the Imperial family and many of their attendants lived for several months, smuggling letters to friends.  Dr. Botkin, the empress's doctor, was permitted to open a shop in Tobolsk, assuming that nothing underhanded would happen.  However, Anastasia devised a scheme: Dr. Botkin's son, Gleb (who would later be "Anna Anderson's" supporter), painted humorous pictures of animals in human clothing.  Before, Anastasia would make up stories to go with the pictures.  Now, she requested Dr. Botkin to have Gleb send her his paintings through his father.  Dr. Botkin would bring the paintings, Anastasia would write a funny story to go with it, and smuggle it back.  On and on it went.  In November of 1917, the event later to be known as the Soviets' October Revolution sent the White Army and Provisional Government flying, and the old guards were replaced with new, ruder enemy ones.  Throughout this, Nicholas was posessed with an unearthly calm.  Olga wrote in a last letter to a friend, "Father asks to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love."

          Finally, in early 1918, Nicholas was ordered by the Bolsheviks to go with them to a small mining town in the Urals, Ekaterinburg.  Thus, Nicholas made his last earthly journey with Alexandra and Maria to the empty Ipatiev House.  A few months later, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Alexei, and their servants Dr. Evgevny Botkin, Anna Demidova, Trupp, Kharitonov, and the tsarevich's sailor-companion Nagorny arrived at that fateful house that impended doom in its very atmosphere.  Beforehand, however, Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia had sewed all of the fabulous Romanov jewels into their corsets, coats, dresses, hats, and even large buttons.  In the Ipatiev House, Baroness Buxhoevden was mysteriously set free, and Nagorny was taken away "for safety," though he was killed days later for his rightfully angry attitude towards the Soviets.

            What happened in the Ipatiev House we can only tell through the family's diaries, the rare accounts of the Bolshevik guards, and Anastasia/Anna Anderson's own tale.  The rough peasant guards called insults at the prisoners throughout the day.  They came in and took what they wanted, scrawled pornographic pictures and words on the walls of the lavatory, and would not let the girls lock the door when they used the toilet.  In the evening, Olga and Tatiana were forced to play the guards' favorite songs on the piano: "You Fell As A Victim in the Struggle" and "Let's Forget the Old Regime" were two of them.  What we can glean is that, according to a priest who performed a church service for them on July 14, 1918, "something had happened to them."  Anastasia later, in tears, informed a friend of that "something."  It was that all of the grand duchesses and Alexandra had been raped by the Bolshevik guards in the Ipatiev House.  Everyone was forced to watch, and Nicholas gave himself up so Alexei would not be touched: "It makes me ill even today to think about it."  And no wonder.  Anyone who has been through even remotely the same would not speak of it--even think of it--for potentially years afterward.  Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were always huddled in their room, terrified that someone could break in at any moment.

         According to the popular theory supported by many historians, at midnight on July 16-17, 1918, Yakov Yurovsky ordered a rented truck brought up to the Ipatiev House.  He then walked upstairs and awakened the family, telling them to dress quickly and come downstairs, for there might be shooting in the town and he did not want to have them killed.  He gave them thirty minutes.  The family dressed quickly, the girls putting on their jeweled corsets and matching white blouses and dark skirts.   Anastasia picked up Tatiana's little King Charles spaniel, Jemmy.  Nicholas carried Alexei as the small procession of eleven people made its way down to the cellar.   Nicholas and Alexei came first, followed by Alexandra, the grand duchesses, and the servants: Trupp, Kharitonov, Anna Demidova, and Dr. Evgevny Botkin.  They entered the cellar, and Alexandra queried, "What, no chairs?  May we not sit?"  Yurovsky ordered chairs brought in for Alexandra and Alexei, and they gratefully sat down.  However, everyone was tense.  Yurovsky posed them for a photograph, saying that the people in Moscow wanted proof that the Romanov family was still alive.  When they were all in their proper positions, Yurovsky read a document that declared Nicholas Romanov and his family were to be killed.  Nicholas whirled, crying, "What?  What?"   Instantaneously, Yurovsky barked a command.  Eleven Bolsheviks, guns aimed, burst through the cellar door.  At this, Yurovsky raised his revolver and shot the czar.

        This was the signal for all to begin firing.  Alexandra and Olga, crossing themselves, were shot in the head.   Trupp, Kharitonov, and the doctor were also killed.  The others were not so lucky.  The bullets flew around the room, ricocheting off of the girls' corsets.   Demidova shielded herself with a cushion; into the cushion was sewn a box of jewelry.  Finally, screaming and crying, the maid gave up.  The enraged murderers plunged their bayonets into her body more than thirty times.

        Gunsmoke blurred everyone's vision, and the Bolsheviks fired again and again.  One astonished Red guard fired at the boy several times.  He would not stop moaning.  Frantic, the man fired his revolver into his ear.  Alexei lay still.  Meanwhile, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were rushing about the room, screaming in terror.  Maria and Anastasia sat in a corner, shielding themselves from the hail of bullets with their arms.   Maria was killed, and Tatiana toppled over.  She hit Anastasia, standing behind her.  The little dog Jemmy fell from Anastasia's arms.  The Bolsheviks plunged their bayonets into the girls a few more times, and all was still.  Blood lay in thick pools, and one by one, the bloodied bodies were loaded onto the truck.  As they were carrying Anastasia out on a sheet, she suddenly sat up and screamed.   Horrified, they turned on her with rifle butts and bayonets.  In a moment, she was still.  The last of the Romanovs and their servants were carted off to be buried in a mass grave and their clothing burned.

           Though horrific, it would have been much better than what really happened.  In actuality, the tsar and possibly the tsarevich, and the four servants were killed execution-style in the Ipatiev House cellar.  Their bodies were buried in a mass grave outside Ekaterinburg, and the Imperial family's clothing and possessions burned.  Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, wearing their jewel-sewn clothing, were rushed off secretly to Perm, 200 miles away and the next Bolshevik stronghold.  Abused and kept imprisoned under the strictest secrecy, the youngest, Anastasia, still managed to escape.   After being captured, beaten, and ridiculed three times, she was finally able to get away.  With their bodies and those of their servants here to prove it, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, and Maria were most likely murdered and their corpses sent back to Ekaterinburg to be piled unceremoniously into the mass grave.

          Their story is a tragedy, one that makes one want to cry or become melancholy for days.  To think that such a family devoted to each other, their God, and their ideals should be so cruelly, so dispassionately defiled and then painfully killed.  The bodies of Nicholas, Alexandra, and their three eldest daughters were given a final resting place in the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg on July 16, 1998, nearly 80 years after their deaths.

          I sit looking at their photographs--they took so many of their tight-knit, intimate life--their possessions, and their diaries, and wish so badly that I could turn back the clock, to prevent those things that happened.  The revolution had no right to cut off their life.  The beautiful daughters, the devoted parents, the sweet little hemophiliac son.  But since no amount of wishing will give them back, all I can do is let the world know.

Maria, Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, 1904

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