Anastasia's letters and notes

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

Aug. 16, 1916, p.171
"...In the evenings Olga and Maria and I sometimes ride our bicycles about the rooms at full speed. Olga tries to catch me up or vice versa. We fall down some- times but are still alive. The lessons are over and I am going to have breakfast (she is using a German word for "breakfast" written in Russian) with Mother and sisters though I don't know if they have come back."

Thank you for posting it, Ingrid -- could then this one be taken from same summer? :



And she had lessons before breakfast, strange, I though it was served before lessons.

You're welcome, too. Yes, I just noticed that now.Thanks for making me notice that.
 Maybe Nastas just took a little food earlier before starting her lessons.

I was googling through the net earlier and I found a version of “The Last Grand Duchess” by Carolyn Meyer in the Google Books. The book was just viewed through pictures so these letters here were typed by me! Whew! Not all pages are available for viewing though, that’s why there ae just couple of letters:



10/23 September 1917
   We’re allowed to attend early Mass at the church down the street. The soldiers form long lines and we walk between them. Still, the people of Tobolsk seem friendly and have even sent us gifts of butter and eggs.
   We’re getting acquainted with he soldiers. They’re no happier than we are about being here! Mashka has learned the names of at least a dozen, as well as their wives and children. And Papa and Alexei sometimes go into the guardhouse to play games with the men. They’re especially nice to Alexei. Only Mama is completely miserable. She doesn’t complain but I see it on her face.


21 September/4 October 1917

   It’s already much colder here than at Tsarskoe Selo. By midafternoon the sun has set, and we’ve turned on the lamps. I try not to think of Livadia!
   Papa’s only complaint is that he doesn’t get his mail regularly. He hasn’t seen a newspaper and doesn’t know what’s happening. I wonder if he still writes on his diary everyday. What is there to write when there’s nothing to write?!


An excerpt of a letter (the day was not placed)

…Theodore, are fairly civilized , but the rest are terrors. Nikita, who’s a year older than I am, once accused me of biting him. This is definitely not true, because I would never get close to him.


28 January/10 February 1914

   What a splendid wedding! Irina was a beautiful bride, and everybody was talking about her lace veil, which once belonged to Marie Antoinette, queen of France. Papa gave her in marriage–––he’s probably practicing for the four of us!
Irina’s husband is Felix Yussupov, who Papa says is heir to the largest fortune in Russia.    As a wedding gift, papa gave them a bag of diamonds, which seemed strange to me because Felix probably already has all the diamonds he wants.
   To my surprise, my cousins behave like perfect gentlemen. But we left soon after the ceremony, because Mama wasn’t feeling well. The boys may have been up to their usual tricks as soon as we were gone.


An excerpt of a letter again…

…of the maids was always whispering loudly, “Anastasia, please be still!”” Not an easy thing, with a dripping nose.


8/21 February 1914

   The pictures I took of Alexei and my sisters are finished. Last evening we pasted photographs in our photo albums, with Papa supervising as usual. He is so fussy; the least little smudge of paste disturbs him. I always seem to have more smudges than all the rest put together.
   The picture of Alexei and Vanka turned out best––Alexei’s expression is quite imperial, and the old donkey, probably shivering under his thick gray hide, appears completely miserable.
   I also took perfectly dreadful photographs of Olga and Mashka, in which Mashka looks fat and Olga looks stupid. I shall threaten to send them to their future husbands if they don’t treat me nicely. No matter how I try to catch her off-guard. Tatiana never looks fat and stupid.


Excerpt again…

…carriage so that we could witness the spectacle of our brave soldiers marching down Nevsky prospect to the railway station, where they board trains headed for the front. There were lots of wives and children weeping and waving and cheering as their husbands and fathers went off to war. It was sad but thrilling.


24 August/6 September 1914

   Luncheon at Grandmother’s at Gatchina Palace. She forbade all talk about the war and instead turned her bright eyes in my direction and asked me to tell her about my study of French poetry.
   That was a disaster, of course. But after luncheon, when we went back to Aunt Olga’s, it was a different story. All the young men talked of nothing but the war. Lieutenant Boris plans to take his dress uniform with him when he leaves for the front, so he’ll be ready for the victorious parade through the streets of Berlin. No one seems to give the least thought that he might get wounded or even killed. They expect to be home by Christmas.

My most ardent THANKS!!! Some I´ve seen for the first time.

EDIT: However I´= m affraid they´re not the real Anastasia´s letters.... Is that book a fact or fiction? some of those letters are just little too "sophisticated"...

     Olga is hitting Maria, and Maria is shouting like an idiot. A dragoon and a big idiot.

totally love this one. Always makes me laugh.

Very funny!, Anastasia had a very sharp sense of humor. 

My most ardent THANKS!!! Some I´ve seen for the first time.

EDIT: However I´= m affraid they´re not the real Anastasia´s letters.... Is that book a fact or fiction? some of those letters are just little too "sophisticated"...

Unfortunately I have to agree, I hope that these letters are the real letters written by Anastasia, but it's true that these are too sophisticated...Anastasia was spontaneous.
However these letters are beautiful! 

My most ardent THANKS!!! Some I´ve seen for the first time.

EDIT: However I´= m affraid they´re not the real Anastasia´s letters.... Is that book a fact or fiction? some of those letters are just little too "sophisticated"...

Unfortunately I have to agree, I hope that these letters are the real letters written by Anastasia, but it's true that these are too sophisticated...Anastasia was spontaneous.
However these letters are beautiful! 

You're correct -- the letters and diary entries in Carolyn Meyer's The Last Grand Duchess are all fictional.

Thank you Sarushka. It looked like it, but I wasn´t sure... Didn´t want to underestimate Anastasia, but her letters are always full of grammatical mistakes and also her style is more plain.

My most ardent THANKS!!! Some I´ve seen for the first time.

EDIT: However I´= m affraid they´re not the real Anastasia´s letters.... Is that book a fact or fiction? some of those letters are just little too "sophisticated"...

Unfortunately I have to agree, I hope that these letters are the real letters written by Anastasia, but it's true that these are too sophisticated...Anastasia was spontaneous.
However these letters are beautiful! 

You're correct -- the letters and diary entries in Carolyn Meyer's The Last Grand Duchess are all fictional.

Thank you for the information Sarushka!

I completely thought those were letters of Nastas but just underwent further grammatical corrections in order for those to be more understandable. Thank you Sarah for informing us.

Oh it's okay! 
In first reading I thought that these were the real letters of Anastasia me too...however thank you very much!, the letters are beautiful.

Were some of the siary entries of the GDs written in English or all are written in Russian?

I guess they were written in Russian because Olga's 1913 diary was in Russian, and I don't think part of their diaries would be Russian and another part English.

[Mathematic, art and history in ♥]

We can't be sure in Anastasia's case, but I believe so, but it doesn't mean that not any of entires wasn't not in English. my personal believe is they sometimes mixed all languages they know, while were writting letters/diaries. I know letters written by Aleksei in French, English and Russian. Same with Aleksei's diaries, I think.

Were some of the siary entries of the GDs written in English or all are written in Russian?

Most likely Russian. All the photographs I've seen of the children's diaries show Russian entries. I think there might have been *one* French entry in Aleksei's 1916 diary, but that's it so far. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were occasional words or names in other languages. For example, Alexandra wrote her diary in English, but used cyrillic for Russian names and places.