Elena Stroganova-Sheremeteva, daughter of GDss Maria Nikolayevna

I thought Elena was close to the Romanovs. I remember reading that GD Konstantin Konstantinovich invited her to take part in a little soirée at the Marble Palace together with Maria Feodorovna, Evgenia of Oldenburg and Maria of Baden, but maybe she only got invited because he had a platonic crush on her. :-)

Some extra info on Sophia Vladimirovna, daughter of Elena Sheremeteva.  She was on friendly terms with Empress Maria Fedorovna and other Romanovs. Empress MF very often mentions “Sonya Dehn” or “the Dehns” and her visits to them  in her diaries of 1917-1918 years (the Crimea period of some exiled  Romanovs).

Also in her childhood Sophia and her brother Sergei played with  Empress MF’s children -  in 1884 year little GDss Xenia in her letters to a friend says that “children of Elena Sheremeteva come to us every day and little one [Sophia] even stays all day long with Baby [GDss Olga Alexandrovna]. She is so sweety”.

Finally a photo of Elena Stroganova-Sheremeteva -  in her teens of 1874-1875 years



Pretty girl.

[Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovitch]

Interesting additional info on Sophia Dehn, daughter of Elena.

While reading the diaries of Empress Maria Fedorovna I came across the lines that "Sonya Dehn visited me with her little boy". In the  genealogical sources I've never seen any mention on Sophia's child or children and thought the Dehns were childless..This puzzled me but yesterday in a Russian genealogical almanach with obituaries I found Alexander Dehn (1908-1979) and the  intriguing info such as:

Alexander Dmitrievitch Dehn (1908, Switzerland - 1979, New York). Painter. Son of Countess Varvara Vorontsova-Dashkova (widow of Count Ivan) and Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovitch. After his birth a friend of his mother, Sophia Vladimirovna Dehn, adopted him. He spent his childhood in Italy where his adopted father Dmitriy Dehn was on naval service . Alexander was a well-known artist and often showed his water-clolours at American galleries.


So, here we have an illegetimate son of GD Sergei M. and the situation when a descendant of a morganatic marriage of a Romanov (Sophia Sheremeteva-Dehn) adopted another Romanov  : )
The brief info I've found on Countess Varvara, mother of Alexander Dehn:

Varvara Davidovna,nee Orlova (1870, Paris -1915, Petrograd), spouse of Count Ivan Illarionovitch Vorontzov-Dashkov (1866-1897), son of famous Count Illarion. Varvara abd Ivan had 3 children, and the last child Ivan was born in 1898,posthumously, when the Countess became a young widow.
She was quite pretty:



Here's she in 1903, famous ball at Winter Palace.

She had very elegant face...

[Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovitch]

yesterday in a Russian genealogical almanach with obituaries I found Alexander Dehn (1908-1979) and the  intriguing info such as:

Alexander Dmitrievitch Dehn (1908, Switzerland - 1979, New York). Painter. Son of Countess Varvara Vorontsova-Dashkova (widow of Count Ivan) and Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovitch. After his birth a friend of his mother, Sophia Vladimirovna Dehn, adopted him. He spent his childhood in Italy where his adopted father Dmitriy Dehn was on naval service . Alexander was a well-known artist and often showed his water-clolours at American galleries.


So, here we have an illegetimate son of GD Sergei M. and the situation when a descendant of a morganatic marriage of a Romanov (Sophia Sheremeteva-Dehn) adopted another Romanov  : )
The brief info I've found on Countess Varvara, mother of Alexander Dehn:

Varvara Davidovna,nee Orlova (1870, Paris -1915, Petrograd), spouse of Count Ivan Illarionovitch Vorontzov-Dashkov (1866-1897), son of famous Count Illarion. Varvara abd Ivan had 3 children, and the last child Ivan was born in 1898,posthumously, when the Countess became a young widow.

Thanks for this - this is very interesting, as there was discussion about this on the Europeans Royals Message Board about a year ago, when a poster asked who were the real parents of Alexander. He felt that it was very unusual for someone to be allowed to adopt a child as heir, and that the rank of Dmitri Dehn was not high enough to merit such a privilege under ordinary circumstances. There was some discussion about whether Alexander's adopted mother might also have been his REAL mother by birth, hence her being allowed to adopt him.

Very interesting that Sergei Mikhailovich was the father - so there were actually at least four people in his menage a trois with Andrei and Kschessinka, and he paid her back in kind for giving him the runaround....

so there were actually at least four people in his menage a trois with Andrei and Kschessinka, and he paid her back in kind for giving him the runaround....

Exactly : ) . All this is really interesting, just yesterday I looked through a bio on Count Vorontosv-Dahskov and saw in it 3 group-hotos of his family in the 1890s - there is all his family including Varvara with husband and GD Sergei M. : ) So he had been close to their family for years.

so there were actually at least four people in his menage a trois with Andrei and Kschessinka, and he paid her back in kind for giving him the runaround....

Exactly : ) . All this is really interesting, just yesterday I looked through a bio on Count Vorontosv-Dahskov and saw in it 3 group-hotos of his family in the 1890s - there is all his family including Varvara with husband and GD Sergei M. : ) So he had been close to their family for years.

It is very ironic for Sergei that his biological son grew up another family under a different patronymic while Sergei raised Vova Kschessinsky, who had his patronymic at that point but was quite possibly not his son!
As Maria Pavlovna wrote scathingly of Andrei's affair: "It is complicated as there is a child, and he believes himself the father, as Sergei Mikhailovich also believes himself the father..."

so there were actually at least four people in his menage a trois with Andrei and Kschessinka, and he paid her back in kind for giving him the runaround....

Exactly : ) . All this is really interesting, just yesterday I looked through a bio on Count Vorontosv-Dahskov and saw in it 3 group-hotos of his family in the 1890s - there is all his family including Varvara with husband and GD Sergei M. : ) So he had been close to their family for years.

Could you please furnish details of the Vorontsov Dashkov book.Is it in English? I have always been fascinated in the life of the Viceroy..his elegant wife who died in exile in 1924 and their 6 children.

so there were actually at least four people in his menage a trois with Andrei and Kschessinka, and he paid her back in kind for giving him the runaround....

Exactly : ) . All this is really interesting, just yesterday I looked through a bio on Count Vorontosv-Dahskov and saw in it 3 group-hotos of his family in the 1890s - there is all his family including Varvara with husband and GD Sergei M. : ) So he had been close to their family for years.

Could you please furnish details of the Vorontsov Dashkov book.Is it in English? I have always been fascinated in the life of the Viceroy..his elegant wife who died in exile in 1924 and their 6 children.

The book is in Russian.
D.I.Ismail-Zade. I.I.Vorontsov-Dashkov. Governor of the Caucasus. published 2005. the ISBN   5-9524-1971-2

The edition is really wonderful, with interesting text and 3 inserts of family portraits and photos.

Thankyou

More info on Elena Stroganova-Sheremeteva.

Even after her marriage to Grigoriy Milashvetich (the Romanovs were quite shocked with such allaince) Elena was often seen at the court and Emperor Nicholas II was deferring to her opinions on some political questions (!!! I think he was just very polite to his mother’s friend).
But in 1902, in the height of Monsieur Philippe’s influence on Empress Alexandra F., Elena was very near to disgrace as she sided with Philippe’s enemies and Alexandra tried to turn Nicholas against Elena.

There are some mentions on Elena’s appearance and character in the diary of GD Sergei and memoirs of Countess Vera Kleinmikhel. GD Sergei described her as “hippopotamus” due to Elena’s fatness and Vera Kleinmikhel said more kindly “very tall and very corpulent, the cleverest and kindest woman”. Countess Vera was a friend of Elena’s daughter Sophia Dehn, so she hardly intended to paint Mme Milashevitch in dark tones.

[the lady in the striped dress is Elena Stroganova-Sheremeteva]

Here is a photo I had posted a long ago at the topic about GDss Xenia.

The Imperial family and their suite in the 1887-1888 in Finland.



After some searching and comparing I think the lady in the striped dress is Elena Stroganova-Sheremeteva. And that's why:

1. She was quite close to Empress MF and her inner circle.

2. She and her husband almost every year went on a vacation with the Imperial Family to Finland

3. She looks (even sitting) very tall and with inclination to stoutness - and such was Elena's appearance as her contemporaries described her.

4....and the most interesting - she has a strong resemblance to GDss Maria Nikolayevna and Emperor Nicholas I. Also she resembles her photo a s a girl (posted by me above).