1913 Diary of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, transl. by Marina Petrov

[blessOTMA]

I´d love to see an edition of OTMAA´s letters. I would buy that no matter how high the prize would be.

  I couldn't agree more.

[Ally Kumari]

There are some of Tatiana's letters in the Louise Mountbatten book...

There are many excerpts in Lifelong Passion, but to have an edition(s), complete or at least partly complete would be just too fantastic.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. That would be really great ! 

[Georgiy]

Large amounts of Tatiana's diaries are in "Sisters of Mercy", so I guess for Russians her handwriting isn't impossible to transliterate.

Confirming, according to sisters of mercy, there are indeed 3 extant diaries of Maria's. Her letters indeed have more interest, like them all, the diaries are more about what they did rather than what they felt. No diaries of Anastasia's available, at least not at GARF.

[blessOTMA]

It seems their diaries were kept mostly as a function of  their positions as Grand Duchesses and were a kind of reporting ...where as their letters were about and from themselves and loved ones ....hence the difference in tone . Both the reporting and the true feelings are welcomed dispatches from the high sisters .

[Eric_Lowe]

Would love to see him.

[Eric_Lowe]

I mean the papers of Marie. I should have said it not "him".

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

Do all of OTMA's letters exist in full somewhere online? Or is there someplace with a lot of their full lettters? I know that on the main AP site there are pages for OTMA's letters but only exerpts not full.

[Sarushka]

Many Russian letters by OTMA are published in full in Avgusteyshie Sestry Miloserdiya (Royal Sisters of Mercy), and some excerpts were translated into English for inclusion in A Lifelong Passion, but the grand duchesses' complete letters have never been published all in one place.

[matushka]

In the Imperial family, writting a diary was seen as an exercise of style, an exercise to express thoughts and facts in a summarized way, on a regular basis. An exercize of discipline. You will find confirmation of this reading war time correspondance of Nicolas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, at the beginning of 1916, when they discussed the fact that Alexei just began too write a diary. It was really not done to express feelings in an extended way. Think that Maria, Olga (not sure) and Gilliard helped Alexei carry on his diary! Certainly nothing personnal would be written here!

[Sarushka]

In the Imperial family, writting a diary was seen as an exercise of style, an exercise to express thoughts and facts in a summarized way, on a regular basis. An exercize of discipline. You will find confirmation of this reading war time correspondance of Nicolas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, at the beginning of 1916, when they discussed the fact that Alexei just began too write a diary. It was really not done to express feelings in an extended way. Think that Maria, Olga (not sure) and Gilliard helped Alexei carry on his diary! Certainly nothing personnal would be written here!

That's exactly right. Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Petrovich all dictated various entries in Aleksei's 1916 diary due to his illness and/or laziness.

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

Many Russian letters by OTMA are published in full in Avgusteyshie Sestry Miloserdiya (Royal Sisters of Mercy), and some excerpts were translated into English for inclusion in A Lifelong Passion, but the grand duchesses' complete letters have never been published all in one place.

I meant, do some of their complete letters, like, half or even just the fulls of the ones on the main AP site, exist online?

[Eric_Lowe]

That would be great !

[clockworkgirl21]

Another thing I noticed, Olga would write that it was "warm" even if it was winter and snowing. Something with the translation?

[blessOTMA]

Interesting point. It might be a relative term...it's 20 degrees outside, and not -20 lol!