Maria's letters & notes

That letter is so great Georgiy I  love it! Thanks for posting it. What a wonderful pleasure to see it very funny. Maria perhaps had a good sense of humor.

So then, Olga goes to ring the duty room where Kulyukin was on duty, and a duty guard answers and asks, "Who is on the phone?" She answers, "Olga Nikolaevna."      "Which Olga Nikolaevna?"     "You don't know Olga Nikolaevna? The one who lives above you?"    "No idea what you are on about."     "Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna - have you got it?!"

This is so funny I was laughing so hard on this part of the letter. It is so great.

 Ekaterinburg, on May 4, 1918, addressed to Zénaïde Sergévna Tolstoy,

Translation: "Christ is risen! My Dear Zinotchka, I congratulate you on the holy holiday season. I apologize for being late, but we left just before the holidays. It was very unexpected for us. Alexei was just sick and sisters were with him, we soon expect from us. Tell Rita, there are no long, we saw fugitivement early Sedioucha. Today, three weeks ago that we left T. [Tobolsk]. It's very sad not to be together, especially now during the holidays [it refers to the absence of his sister Olga, Maria and Anastasia and her brother Alexis réstés to Tobolk]. For the moment we installed. The house is small, but clean. Too bad it is in the city, so the garden is very small. I do not know how we are going to arrange when others arrive. There are few rooms. I live with Mom and Dad in a room, we spend almost all day. Actually, we went into the garden. It's wet and it's raining. During the trip the weather was superb. Until Tyumen, 260 verstes, on horseback. The road was terrible, horrible bumps. (...) The wrapping paper was élimé in some places. The cigarettes were emptied of their tobacco. But curiously, the glass objects were not broken. The drugs that we have indeed arrived transported. We overlapped two days and spent a night in a village. We crossed the Irtysh on horseback, but the Toura foot and then a few squares on a tray. Mom has supported this road admirably well, now, of course, she was tired and had a headache almost every day. Dr. Botkine came with us. The poor, on the tour, has suffered from colic kidneys. The pain was very strong. We stopped in a village, where he rested two hours in a isba and departed with us further. Fortunately, the pain came to a halt. How are you all? The sisters have written us to have from you. If you want me, here's my address: "Ekaterinburg, Regional Executive Committee, to the President, to me." Do you have news about Tili? Sincerely yours, and Nik. Dm. I embrace you very much, and Rita, and children. I wish you the best. May God keep you. It is terribly sad that it had never been able to go to the Cathedral and venerate the relics of Saint John of Tobolsk [this saint who died in 1715 and canonized against the advice of the Holy Synod at the request of Rasputin in 1911 ]. "

M.

Thank you from the heart for the translation Alexande64.

My poor Maria.

If I´m not wrong, "yours and Nik. DM" reffers to her love to Nikolay Demenkov....she was still in love with him....

Does anyone ever heard what happened to the boy? Did he die in the war? Would someone feel bad, if I write a fiction about him?

It is natural to share the letters that can be found and which may be of interest to other forum members

its so funny! poor Olga! she must have been hurt!!

Yeah, she was probably a little miffed at first, but maybe she was able to laugh about it later. This is just futile speculation on my part, but I wonder if it bothered her that Tatiana was recognized immediately when she wasn't.

Oh, and thanks for the additional letter, Alexandre64. 

I can picture the scene;

Olga rushes out, incensed, searching for her sister. When she finally finds her, she grabs Tatyana by an arm, while Tatyana is asking Olga what is going on, bring her back to the phone, and tells her sister to call. Tatyana calmly picks up the phone, and Olga, waiting expectantly to see if the same thing will happen to her sister, gets more incensed when she sees that everything is going fine for her sister, and leaving the room loudly, while Tatyana is not really fully understanding what was going on... 

Very funny!   

I can picture the scene;

Olga rushes out, incensed, searching for her sister. When she finally finds her, she grabs Tatyana by an arm, while Tatyana is asking Olga what is going on, bring her back to the phone, and tells her sister to call. Tatyana calmly picks up the phone, and Olga, waiting expectantly to see if the same thing will happen to her sister, gets more incensed when she sees that everything is going fine for her sister, and leaving the room loudly, while Tatyana is not really fully understanding what was going on... 

Very funny!   

LOL! Exactly! 

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

I can picture the scene;

Olga rushes out, incensed, searching for her sister. When she finally finds her, she grabs Tatyana by an arm, while Tatyana is asking Olga what is going on, bring her back to the phone, and tells her sister to call. Tatyana calmly picks up the phone, and Olga, waiting expectantly to see if the same thing will happen to her sister, gets more incensed when she sees that everything is going fine for her sister, and leaving the room loudly, while Tatyana is not really fully understanding what was going on... 

Very funny!   

Perfectly! lol *excuse my slang*
i wish i could have been there!!

i love letters like this!
are there anymore?

Pehaps Alexander64 has more to share.

I'll check if I have some in my scrapbook...they are in French, but I can translate them. It's from the Tobolsk period I think...now I'll see if I can find them...

just going back up the thread a bit

someone said that Maria was the honorary commander of the 5th Kazan dragoons

without going off the topic too much does anyone know of  what regiments the other G.D's
were honorary commanders of??.

and  please excuse my ignorance - but what regiments might the Tzar have had a personal connection to
was it the Kazan ones??

My friend was kind enough to translate several Maria´s letters from Tobolsk to English. Here´s the first one:

Maria Nikolaevna to Z. S.Tolstoy

"We have a quite life. We take walks twice a day, as usual. Now it's fine weather, though these days it's been very cold. It's still warm at your place? I'm envious that you see beautiful sea.
Today at 8 in the morning we had breakfast.
I'm so happy that they let us go to church. Certainly, it can't be compared to our church but it's much better then sitting at home.
At the moment we all are in the room. My sisters are writing too, and the dogs are running around and jumping at our knees.
I often recall Tsarskoe selo and jolly concerts in army hospitals. Do you remember how funny it was when wounded men danced?
I also recall our walks in Pavlevsk, your small crew, morning walks.
I feel like all this hasn't happened a long time ago, has it?
But now I have to stop writing.
I wish you all the best, to your family and Dalya.
Many kisses.
Greetings from my heart.
Maria

without going off the topic too much does anyone know of  what regiments the other G.D's
were honorary commanders of??.

Olga: 3rd Elizavetgradsky Hussars
Tatiana: 8th Vosnesensky Uhlans (lancers)
Anastasia: 148th Kaspiansky infantry


Here's a thread with more information and photos: OTMA's regiments

My friend was kind enough to translate several Maria´s letters from Tobolsk to English. Here´s the first one:

Maria Nikolaevna to Z. S.Tolstoy

"We have a quite life. We take walks twice a day, as usual. Now it's fine weather, though these days it's been very cold. It's still warm at your place? I'm envious that you see beautiful sea.
Today at 8 in the morning we had breakfast.
I'm so happy that they let us go to church. Certainly, it can't be compared to our church but it's much better then sitting at home.
At the moment we all are in the room. My sisters are writing too, and the dogs are running around and jumping at our knees.
I often recall Tsarskoe selo and jolly concerts in army hospitals. Do you remember how funny it was when wounded men danced?
I also recall our walks in Pavlevsk, your small crew, morning walks.
I feel like all this hasn't happened a long time ago, has it?
But now I have to stop writing.
I wish you all the best, to your family and Dalya.
Many kisses.
Greetings from my heart.
Maria

Is that from 10/23 December?

10 th December 1917, Tobolsk

Excellent! I had that letter in Russian but not English.