Cinderlizzie, you shall go to the Ball.

ohsoromanov:

Nicholas just doing his thing and being an Emperor.

themauveroom:

Grand Duchess Olga, 1914. 

I recently rented Gleb Botkin’s memoir The Real Romanovs from the library. Frankly, I had my doubts about it even before I opened it, because Gleb Botkin was one of the impostor Anna Anderson’s biggest supporters and an eccentric overall. I don’t think he ever quite got over his father’s death, and as a result was a bit batty later in life. 

My suspicions about Gleb were confirmed when, in his descriptions of the Grand Duchesses, he called Olga “the least pretty of the four, but because of her personality, the most attractive.”  I don’t know why, but for some reason I took this as a personal insult. Out of all of the girls, I identify most with Grand Duchess Olga. She was intelligent, bookish and sensitive with a tendency towards moodiness and outspokenness which I must admit are two of my more outstanding flaws.

I have always thought that all of the Grand Duchess were equally as beautiful in their own ways, and honestly I thought that Gleb took a cheap shot at poor Olga for no particular reason. (By the time he wrote this book she was most certainly not around to defend herself, nor for that matter were many who knew her.) To be fair, Gleb does go on to describe Olga’s remarkable intelligence and her sweetness, but I still think it was a rotten thing to say. 

I couldn’t force myself to read the book in its entirety. Aside from the jab at Olga, Gleb also makes some unpleasant remarks about Nicholas (for instance: that as a child Gleb had heard of a decision the Tsar had made and remarked to his father that it was unwise, and from that moment on began to doubt the Tsar’s effectiveness as a ruler) and says that the Grand Duchesses had “common playmates,” who taught them rude manners. He claims that as a result they were at a loss for how to behave during public occasions. I find it extremely difficult to believe that girls who had been trained from babyhood to observe court protocol could be led astray by their playmates and forget themselves in public. The Empress would have had a stroke! 

Don’t get me wrong here, I know that the Imperial Family were by no means perfect people. I most certainly do entertain ideas about their flaws and misguided actions. However, I do believe that they were good people who loved one another and their country. Nicholas was a good man, and consequently he could not be an effective Tsar. (Even his own mother admitted that he was “too good” on numerous occasions.)

This was supposed to be a post about Grand Duchess Olga, but I guess I got a little carried away. Here is the moral of the story: Gleb Botkin’s memoir is not a very reliable source, so read with caution. 

otma-romanov-forever:

Happy birthday Tatiana Nikolaevna (29/05/1898 in orthodox calendary)

(Source: malenkaya-rose)