The Last Days of the RomanovsSokolov, N. (Nikolai)
History
The Last Days of the Romanovs
Sokolov, N. (Nikolai)
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia, 1868-1918; Romanov, House of
Tchemodouroff told me that the conditions of their life in Yekaterinburg
were bad. For example: at Easter they had cakes. The commissar came and
cut himself big lumps. In general he spoke about rough treatment, but it
was very hard for me to understand him. He told me that the grand
duchesses had no beds.
I have visited Ipatieff’s house but found nothing out of the ordinary.
The house was battered. The stoves were full of burned objects, and I
saw many remainders of burned objects, such as portrait frames, all
sorts of brushes and a little basket in which the czarevitch used to
keep his brushes. A few things were just scattered around, but I did not
see much of their personal belongings.
The emperor used to wear uniform trousers and high boots, which had been
often patched, and a soldier’s shirt. The czarevitch wore khaki
trousers, high boots and a soldier’s shirt.
In regard to the rubies you have shown me, I can state that the imperial
family had quite a number of them in their various articles of jewelry.
The Grand Duchess Olga had a brooch with similar rubies, which was given
to her by Queen Victoria.
The sapphires looked very much like fragments of the stone that the
emperor had in his ring. It was shaped the same way, and I think there
is a complete resemblance between them. The emperor wore the ring on
the same finger with his wedding ring, and he told me that he could not
take it off.
My personal impressions of the imperial family are as follows:
The Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna was about twenty-three years old, she
was fair and had the lightest hair in the family. After her illness she
got much thinner. She had beautiful blue eyes. All her personality was
seen in her eyes. She was straight, just, honest, simple, sincere and
kind. She was easily irritated and her manners were a little harsh. She
was a good musician. She had a talent for music. She composed, though I
do not think she wrote poetry. I believe that Hendrikova wrote some
poetry, as she was well able to do. The Grand Duchess Olga was very
modest. She liked simplicity and did not pay much attention to dress.
Her morals reminded me of those of her father. She was very religious
and it seems to me that she loved her father more than anybody else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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