Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. The four sisters in the year the Great War began. The War that would bring the Revolution, the revolution that ended everything.
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| Tatiana's hair wasn't cut short for fashion's sake - Irene Castle's "Castle Bob" was still a year off - she's been ill with typhus the year before and her hair had been cut as a preventative measure, common practice at the time; when all four girls came down with measles three years later, just as the Revolution was breaking out, they would all have their heads shaved. |
These are the original photos, around fifty five years ago, my mother who was a close friend from HIH Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, daughter of the assassinated Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovich of Russia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, gave to my mother her own copies of these photos, plus others from her aunt Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fiodorovna,one of the Empress' eldest sister and her husband Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich of Russia.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! As the Grand Duchess died in 1958, did she leave these to your mother then? Or did she give them to her previously? I know she lived in Buenos Aires for some time, and then during the war, before returning to Europe, if that's where your mother knew her. (I only ask that, as I see from your profile that you live at least part of the time in Argentina.) Thank you for the information!
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