The Diary of Olga Romanov (10 page)

From there we went to
Znamenskaya
church. On the way [we] saw the memorial for the 1,000 year anniversary of Russia, but it was too dark already, so we didn't get out. There were a lot of people in the streets, some crowding around the motors, in other words—everything as it should
be. We went to the chapel where the Mother of God appeared in the oven and to 2 infirmaries…. There was a good amount of people at the station and trumpeters from Reserve regiments. They played the Ulan march and some waltz since we did not leave for a long time. They had to haul both motors into the train. Both bishops were there of course…they even climbed into the train and we hugged again. Your cavalry officer Nakashidze was there too. Remember him from Blagoveshensky hosp.[ital] with a serious head wound? I forgot to say that we also went to the orphanage for refugee boys, and they brought [more] from another one—the girls. On the train sat in little ones' car with Kolesnikov. Well, that's all.
May God keep you.
I kiss you affectionately, my Papa, my jewel.
Your
Plastun
.
⁴⁹

—

Wednesday. 30th December.

Mitya had a physical, later he came back and almost the entire time we sat together, played checkers and did just plain nothing. He is so good, Lord knows…. Grandma had breakfast. At 2 o'clock saw darling Papa off with Mama. So sad. From there to
Znamenie
. At 3 o'clock to a Christmas party at the House of Invalids. Later we 2 rode around in a troika with Isa. Had dinner with Mama in the playroom. In the evening talked with Mitya. Unexpectedly he received instructions to go to the Caucusus for about two days. So sad. Early to bed, have a head cold.

1
. Vladimir Kiknadze: “K” of the 3rd Regiment of his Imperial Majesty. A Georgian and favorite of Grand Duchess Tatiana.

2
. A code Olga uses throughout the diaries to refer to one of her crushes.

3
. Chapel in the cellar of Feodorovsky Cathedral.

4
. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden (1884–1956), lady-in-waiting to Alexandra.

5
. Tatiana Konstantinovna, KR's daughter and Olga's cousin.

6
. KR's daughter-in-law.

7
. Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich (1879–1956), son of Grand Duke Vladimir.

8
. Written in code or shorthand, which Olga does in her diary occasionally, presumably for privacy. Antonina Voronskaya has decoded this text to read: [He?] felt sick, and so ashamed, [I] cannot look anyone in the eyes and himself.

9
. Olga and her three sisters.

10
. A game.

11
. Female religious pilgrim.

12
. Crimean villa of one of the grand dukes.

13
. Anastasia's nickname, meaning “the imp” in German.

14
. Georgian Princess Sonia Orbeliani, friend of the imperial family.

15
. Horse-drawn vehicle.

16
. Marie was happy to see her crush Nikolai Dmitrievich Demenkov.

17
. A derogatory term for a Jewish person. Olga was a product of her environment, and contemporary Russia was extremely anti-Semitic, especially in aristocratic circles.

18
. Nicholas's valet, who was killed with the family in Ekaterinburg.

19
. The name day is the feast day of one's namesake saint.

20
. Admiral N. O. von Essen, the Russian Baltic fleet commander, died in May 1915 from pneumonia.

21
. Olga is referring to an unknown, unrelated incident here.

22
. From Yerevan.

23
. From Nizhny Novgorod.

24
.
Feld-yeger
literally means field huntsman.

25
. Officers from Yerevan, Georgia.

26
. Valentina Ivanova Chebotareva was a fellow nurse at the royal infirmary and friend to the grand duchesses.

27
. Dmitri Shakh-Bagov, ensign of His Majesty's Guard's Yerevan 13th Guards Grenadier.

28
. Nicholas recently appointed himself commander-in-chief of the army instead of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich.

29
. Father/priest.

30
. Margarita Khitrovo (1895–1952), lady-in-waiting and friend of Olga.

31
. Countess Olga Paley, morganatic wife of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich and mother of Prince Vladimir Paley.

32
. Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (1897–1918), son of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich and his morganatic wife Olga Paley and first cousin to Nicholas II.

33
. Movie projector.

34
. Rasputin's wife, Paraskovia, and daughters Varvara (Varya) and Maria (Matriona).

35
. Princess Sonia Orbeliani, Georgian friend of the imperial family.

36
. The imperial children's Russian tutor.

37
. Konstantin Konstantinovich.

38
. Dmitri Shakh-Bagov.

39
. The Sisters of Mercy nurses.

40
. Rasputin.

41
. Arsenic injections were used to treat various disorders by contemporary doctors.

42
. Catherine Adolfovna Schneider, lady-in-waiting to Alexandra.

43
. Countess Anastasia Henrikova (1887–1918), lady-in-waiting to Alexandra and friend of the imperial family who followed them into exile and was murdered by the revolutionaries.

44
. Dr. Evgeni Botkin (1865–1918), court physician who went into exile with the imperial family and was murdered along with them.

45
. Child of one's wet nurse.

46
. Ioann Konstanovich, Andrei Vladimirovich [?].

47
. St. Varvara the Martyr, an Orthodox saint.

48
. Female elder or holy woman.

49
. An infantry Cossack regiment.

1916

R
ussia continued to be a part of the war effort, but 1916 was no more successful than the previous year. Things were starting to look dire for the empire, and many of Nicholas's relatives believed that Rasputin's closeness to Alexandra and the children was casting a dark shadow over the Romanov dynasty. Much to her horror, Olga found out that her first cousin Dmitri, as well as her cousin-in-law, Felix Yusupov, were involved in the conspiracy and murder of Grigori Rasputin, in an effort to make the Romanovs appear once again stable in the eyes of many skeptical Russians. Olga documented her sadness over Rasputin's death, but seemed unaware of the poor shape that Russia's military was in, despite still being involved with local hospitals that treated the wounded.

—

From the memoirs of V. I. Chebotareva:

January 1916.

Tatiana Nikolaevna is so touchingly affectionate, was helping with preparations, sat in the corner [and] cleaned the instruments, and on the 4th came in the evening to boil the silk…. asked me about my childhood, if I had any brothers and sisters, where is my brother, what is his name. Finally [I] convinced her to go have [her] palm read. Rita arranged it in the prep room. [She] ran with curiosity. Olga assures [us] that she dreams of remaining a spinster, while Shakh-Bagov is reading on her palm that she will have twelve children. Tatiana Nikolaevna has an interesting palm: her life line suddenly stops and makes a sharp turn to the side. They assured us that this means she will pull off something unusual.

On the 6th, the heir came and was running in the hall in a wheelchair. Then he did not want to show the medals to Rita,
¹
and started playing dominoes, got fascinated by glass fractions, spilled ink on himself, laid out the dominoes into indents and was very happy—[it looks like] “a sandwich with caviar.”

16 January.

Today Tatiana Nikolaevna walked with me upstairs after [doing the] dressings, to do Popov's dressings. The poor child is terribly embarrassed; grabs my hand: “So awfully embarrassing and frightening…one never knows whom to acknowledge and whom not to.” From Olga it sadly slipped out: “One cannot say anything on the telephone, [someone is always] listening in, they will report it, but not the truth, will lie like they did recently.” What exactly she was referring to [I] did not have the chance to ask, but Voikov mentioned something—I never learned the details, evidently the “special censorship” is in its bloom.

…[I] was looking through some older memos. Seems [earlier] I missed Olga Nikolaevna's characteristic note “Dreams of happiness”: “To get married, [to] always live in the countryside, winter and summer, [to] see only good people, no one official.”

—

From a letter of a wounded officer, February 21, 1916:

I was a patient at the infirmary the entire April of 1916. The white nurses [nurses wearing white?] and kind doctors I thank very very much….

“When the Tsar's children came to visit,

It became easier to breathe for all,

The suffering suddenly went away

From us ailing soldiers,

And even in our future anguish,

Perhaps already gray haired,

We will remember these visits,

Like magic childhood dreams…”

Your Imperial Majesty's Hussar, Posadnoy. 21/II/1916

—

From the memoirs of V. I. Chebotareva:

February 1916.

Tatiana Nikolaevna cross-examined what O. said—since [he] returned from Evpatoria. [She] was apparently waiting to hear about K.: “They went for six weeks, didn't they?” They say that K. is returning any day. And plus a letter came from Shakh-Bagov—Olga Nikolaevna threw all her things around from delight, and threw a pillow up on a top shelf. She felt feverish and she jumped around: “Can someone have a stroke at 20 years old? I think I am having a stroke!” But Varvara Afanasievna declared: “Young blood is warm; the years pass, and the blood cools off.”

—

Wednesday. 30th March.

After [getting] a massage to the infirmary. Did the same things as always. Mama came after the service. During the day we 2 rode with her. At 4 o'clock to the Red Cross for
moleben
. Had a music lesson. Aunt Mavra and Elena had dinner, and after that she read to us a long letter from Vera, “about those awful days they lived through in Montenegrin and about [their] miraculous redemption…” and about
many more [things] that happened to them. Anya came over at 10 o'clock. At 11 o'clock to bed. Papa telegraphed, [he] departed from Kamenetz-Podolsk.

Wednesday. 6th April.

To church in the morning and in the evening. Aleksei has awful pains in his arm. He did not sleep all night. During the day [he was] lying down in the playroom. We sat with him and Mama and painted. Rode with Trina. In the evening 2 [degrees] and heavy fog. At 10 o'clock [we] confessed downstairs. Papa telegraphed.

Tuesday. 12th April.

Maria, Anastasia, Isa and I went to inspect my medical train #4. From there to the infirmary. Papa telegraphed from Smolensk. At 2 o'clock went to Matveyesky infirmary with Mama, after that to the Red Cross. Rode with Nastenka. Again after 6 o'clock. Dmitri had tea and at 3 1/2 we 5 with him and Mama to a concert at Anya's…. Mama is very tired.

—

From the memoirs of nurse S. Y. Ofrosimova
:
²

In my mind's eye I see them [the grand duchesses] again, sitting across from me as in that distant past.

Diagonally from me is the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. She draws me to her with irresistible force—the force of her charm. I almost cannot work when she is sitting that close to me, I just keep looking at her enchanting little face.

And only then, when my eyes meet her intelligent, kind and gentle eyes, do I look down at my own work, embarrassed and confused when she starts talking amiably to me….

She cannot be called beautiful, but all of her being exudes such femininity and such youth, that she seems more than beautiful. The more you look at her, the more comely and more charming is her face. It is illuminated by an inner light, it appears more and more wondrous with each bright smile, her manner of laughing, throwing her head back, so that you can see the even row of her snow-white pearly teeth.

Skillfully and deftly, her unusually beautiful and delicate hands perform their work. In a particularly careful and loving manner, all of her fragile and delicate being leans over soldier's shirt which she is sewing….

One cannot help but recall the words spoken to me by one of her tutors: “Olga Nikolaevna has a crystal soul.”

—

Friday. 15th April.

Walked to the infirmary with the little ones.
³
…At 2 o'clock went to Kokorevsky infirmary with Mama, and after 3 o'clock met darling Papa. [We] broke the ice remnants with the sailors under the bridge. Papa and Mama took a walk. She—in a wheelchair. After tea, [we] rode with Isa. In the evening Papa read to us.