The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters)

THE ROMANOV SISTERS

HELEN RAPPAPORT



THE ROMANOV SISTERS

The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

ST. MARTIN’S PRESS NEW YORK

In memory

of Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanova

four extraordinary young women

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Contents

List of Illustrations
x

Glossary of Names
xi

Author’s Note
xvii

Prologue
– The Room of the First and Last Door
1

One
– Mother Love
9

Two
– La Petite Duchesse
26

Three
– My God! What a Disappointment! . . . A Fourth Girl
44

Four
– The Hope of Russia
63

Five
– The Big Pair and The Little Pair
82

Six
– The
Shtandart
97

Seven
– Our Friend
109

Eight
– Royal Cousins
123

Nine
– In St Petersburg We Work; But at Livadia We Live
141

Ten
– Cupid by the Thrones
160

Eleven
– The Little One Will Not Die
176

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Twelve
– Lord Send Happiness to Him, My Beloved One
189

Thirteen
– God Save the Tsar
207

Fourteen
– Sisters of Mercy
229

Fifteen
– We Cannot Drop Our Work in the Hospitals
243

Sixteen
– The Outside Life
255

Seventeen
– Terrible Things Are Going on in St Petersburg
275

Eighteen
– Goodbye. Don’t Forget Me
298

Nineteen
– On Freedom Street
322

Twenty
– Thank God We Are Still in Russia and

Still Together
339

Tweny-one
– They Knew It Was the End When I Was

With Them
356

Twenty-two
– Prisoners of the Ural Regional Soviet
370

Epilogue
– Victims of Repression
377

Acknowledgements
382

Notes
386

Bibliography
448

Index
465

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List of Illustrations

ix

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

x

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Glossary of Names

Listed below are the most frequently occurring names in the text, in

the form in which they are generally cited.

OTMA = the sisters’ own acronym for Olga, Tatiana, Maria and

Anastasia

AKSH: acronym of Alexander Konstantinovich Shvedov, one of

Olga’s favourite officers in the Tsar’s Escort

Alexandra (Shura) Tegleva: OTMA’s nurse and later general

maid; married
Pierre Gilliard

Alice
:
Princess Alice of Great Britain, later Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, Alexandra’s mother

Alicky: Queen Victoria’s pet name for Alexandra, used to

distinguish her from Alix, who in the British royal family was

Alexandra, Princess of Wales

Alix: Nicholas’s pet name for his wife Alexandra

Anna (Nyuta) Demidova: Alexandra’s maid in waiting

Anna Vyrubova: Alexandra’s close friend and confidante; later

appointed a maid of honour

Bibi: pet name for Varvara Vilchikovskaya, OT’s friend and nurse at

the annexe.

Chemodurov: Terenty Chemodurov, Nicholas’s valet.

Count Benkendorf: Pavel Benkendorf, chief marshal and master

of ceremonies at the imperial court

Count Frederiksz: Vladimir Frederiksz, head of the imperial

household

Count Grabbe: Nikolay Grabbe, commander of the Tsar’s Escort

Derevenko: Andrey Derevenko, Alexey’s sailor
dyadka

Dickie: Louis of Battenburg, later Lord Mountbatten, OTMA’s

cousin

xi

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GLOSSARY OF NAMES

Dmitri Pavlovich
:
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, OTMA’s cousin

Dmitri (Mitya) Malama: Tatiana’s favourite wounded officer at

the hospital

Dmitri (Mitya) Shakh-Bagov: Olga’s favourite wounded officer

at the hospital

Dolgorukov: Prince Vasili Dolgorukov, adjutant general, with

Nicholas at Stavka

Dr Botkin: Evgeny Botkin, physician to the Imperial Family

Dr Derevenko: Vladimir Derevenko, Alexey’s personal physician

(no relation to
the other Derevenko
)

Dr Gedroits: Princess Vera Gedroits, senior surgeon at the Court

Hospital

Duchess of Coburg: Maria Alexandrovna, also Duchess of

Edinburgh

Ducky: pet name for Princess Victoria-Melita of Saxe-Coburg, first

wife of
Ernie
, Alexandra’s brother

Ekaterina (Trina) Schneider: Alexandra’s court
lectrice
;

chaperone to OTMA

Elizaveta Ersberg: Alexandra’s maid in waiting

Elizaveta Naryshkina: Alexandra’s mistress of the robes from

1909; the most senior lady at court

Elizaveta Obolenskaya: Alexandra’s lady in waiting

Ernie: Grand Duke Ernest of Hesse and by Rhine, Alexandra’s

brother

General Mosolov: Alexander Mosolov, head of the Court

Chancellery

General Spiridovich: Alexander Spiridovich, Chief of the Kiev

section of the Okhrana; from 1906 head of the tsar’s personal

security services

Gleb Botkin: son of
Dr Botkin
; with him at Tobolsk

Grand Duchess Vladimir: Maria Pavlovna the elder, wife of

Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich; also known in the family

as Miechen

Grand Duke Georgiy: Georgiy Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s younger

brother and tsarevich till the birth of Alexey in 1904

Grand Duke Konstantin: Konstantin Konstantinovich, father of

Ioannchik

xii

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GLOSSARY OF NAMES

Grand Duke Mikhail: Mikhail Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s youngest

brother

Grand Duke Nikolay
:
Nikolay Nikolaevich; Nicholas’s uncle, and until 1915 C-in-C of the Russian Army. Second husband of

Stana
.

Grand Duke Pavel
:
Pavel Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s uncle; father of
Dmitri Pavlovich
and
Maria Pavlovna
.

Grand Duke Petr: Petr Nikolaevich, husband of
Militza

Grigory /Father Grigory: Grigory Rasputin, the imperial

family’s religious guru

Ioannchik: Prince Ioann Konstantinovich, OTMA’s second cousin

Ivan Sednev: OTMA’s footman;
Leonid Sednev’s
uncle

Iza Buxhoeveden: Baroness Sophia Buxhoeveden, Alexandra’s

honorary lady in waiting; the post was made official in 1914

Katya: Ekaterina Zborovskaya, sister of
Viktor Zborovsky
, Anastasia’s most regular correspondent in captivity

Kharitonov: Ivan Kharitonov, cook; with the family at Tobolsk and

Ekaterinburg

Klavdiya Bitner: the children’s tutor at Tobolsk; later married

Evgeny
Kobylinsky

Kobylinsky: Evgeny Kobylinsky, commander of the guard at Tsarskoe

Selo. Commandant of the Governor’s House at Tobolsk

Leonid Sednev: kitchen boy; with the family at Tobolsk and

Ekaterinburg. Nephew of
Ivan Sednev

Lili Dehn: Yuliya Dehn, one of the ladies closest to Alexandra in

the final years, but who held no official position at court

Louise: Princess Louise of Battenburg; daughter of Alexandra’s

sister Victoria; later Queen Louise of Sweden; OTMA’s second

cousin

Madeleine (Magdalina) Zanotti: Alexandra’s most senior

personal maid, who had come with her from Darmstadt

Margaretta Eagar: OTMA’s governess; dismissed in 1904

Mariya Baryatinskaya: Princess Mariya Baryatinskaya, Alexandra’s

maid of honour

Mariya Fedorovna: the dowager empress, Nicholas’s mother; a

sister of the Princess of Wales, later Queen Alexandra. Also

known in the family as Minny.

xiii

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GLOSSARY OF NAMES

Mariya Geringer: Mariya Fedorovna Geringer, Alexandra’s

principal lady in waiting responsible for her jewellery

Maria Pavlovna: Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the younger,

sister of Dmitri Pavlovich and OTMA’s cousin

Mariya (Tudels/Toodles) Tutelberg: Alexandra’s maid in

waiting

Mariya Vasilchikova: Alexandra’s lady in waiting; dismissed 1916

Mariya Vishnyakova (Mary): OTMA’s under nursemaid; later

nursemaid to Alexey

Mashka: Maria’s pet name in the family

Meriel Buchanan: daughter of the British ambassador to St

Petersburg, Sir George Buchanan

Militza: Princess Militza of Montenegro; wife of Grand Duke Petr

Nikolaevich

Nagorny: Klementy Nagorny, Alexey’s sailor
dyadka

Nastya/Nastaska: Anastasia’s pet name in the family

Nastenka (Anastasia) Hendrikova: Alexandra’s personal maid of

honour

Nikolay (Kolya) Demenkov: Maria’s favourite officer from the

Guards Equipage

Nikolay Rodionov: officer on the
Shtandart
, Tatiana’s favourite tennis partner

Nikolay Sablin: Nikolay Pavlovich Sablin, officer on the
Shtandart
and a close friend of the imperial family. No relation to Nikolay

Vasilievich Sablin.

Nikolay Vasilievich Sablin: a favourite officer on the Shtandart.

No relation to
Nikolay Pavlovich Sablin
.

Olga Alexandrovna: OTMA’s aunt, Nicholas’s youngest sister

Onor: Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hoensolms-Lich, second wife of

Alexandra’s brother
Ernie

Pankratov: Vasily Pankratov, commissar in charge of the imperial

family at Tobolsk; dismissed January 1918

Pavel Voronov: officer on the
Shtandart
with whom Olga fell in love in 1913

Philippe: Maitre or Monsieur Philippe, French ‘healer’ and mystic

Pierre Gilliard: the girls’ Swiss tutor in French

Princess Helena of Serbia: wife of Ioannchuk

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GLOSSARY OF NAMES

Princess Golitsyna: Mariya Golitsyna, Alexandra’s mistress of the

robes till her death in 1909

PVP
:
Petr Vasilievich Petrov, the girls’ tutor in Russian language and literature

Rita Khitrovo: Margarita Khitrovo, a friend and fellow nurse at

the annexe hospital

Sandro: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich,
Xenia
’s husband

Sergey Melik-Adamov: a favourite of Tatiana’s at the hospital

Shurik: pet name for
Alexander Shvedov

Shvybzig: Anastasia’s pet name, given to her by her aunt Olga; also

the name of her dog that died in May 1915

Sofya Tyutcheva: OTMA’s maid of honour and unofficial

governess; dismissed in 1912

Stana
:
Princess Anastasia of Montenegro; wife of the Duke of Leuchtenberg; remarried 1907 to
Grand Duke Nikolay

Sydney Gibbes (Sig): English tutor to OTMA and later Alexey

Tatiana Botkina: Dr Botkin’s daughter, with him at Tobolsk

Tatishchev: Count Ilya Tatishchev, an adjutant general in the

imperial suite; with Nicholas at Stavka