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
The Grand Duchess Olga was a nice looking young blonde, about
twenty-three; her type was Russian. She was fond of reading, capable and
mentally well developed; spoke English well and German badly. She had
some talent for art, played the piano, sang, (she learned singing in
Petrograd; her voice was soprano), and she painted well. She was very
modest and did not care for luxury.
Her clothes were modest and she restrained her sisters from extravagance
in dress. She gave altogether the impression of a good, generous-hearted
Russian girl. It looked as if she had had some sorrows in her life and
still carried traces of it. It seemed to me that she loved her father
more than she loved her mother. She also loved her brother, and called
him “The Little One” or “The Baby.”
The Grand Duchess Tatiana was about twenty. She was quite different from
her sisters. You recognised in her the same features that were in her
mother--the same nature and the same character. You felt that she was
the daughter of an emperor. She had no liking for art. Maybe it would
have been better for her had she been a man. When the emperor and
empress left Tobolsk nobody would ever have thought that the Grand
Duchess Olga was the senior of the remaining members of the imperial
family. If any questions arose it was always Tatiana who was appealed
to. She was nearer to her mother than the other children; and it seemed
that she loved her mother more than her father.
The Grand Duchess Maria was eighteen; she was tall, strong, and better
looking than the other sisters. She painted well and was the most
amiable. She always used to speak to the soldiers, questioned them, and
knew very well the names of their wives, the number of their children,
and the amount of land owned by the soldiers. All the intimate affairs
in such cases were always known to her. Like the Grand Duchess Olga, she
loved her father more than the rest. On account of her simplicity and
affability she was given the pet name by the family of “Mashka.” And by
this term she was called by her brother and by her sisters.
The Grand Duchess Anastasia, I believe, was seventeen. She was
over-developed for her age; she was stout and short, too stout for her
height; her characteristic feature was to see the weak points of other
people and to make fun of them. She was a comedian by nature and always
made everybody laugh. She preferred her father to her mother and loved
Maria Nicholevna more than the other sisters.
All of them, including Tatiana, were nice, modest and innocent girls.
There is no doubt they were cleaner in their thoughts than the majority
of girls nowadays.
The czarevitch was the idol of the whole family. He was only a child and
his characteristic features were not yet worked out. He was a very
clever, capable and lively boy. He spoke Russian, French and English,
and did not know a word of German.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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