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

[nena]

Three Maria's diaries exists -- 1912,1913 and 1916 volume. Only Anastasia's are missing.

[blessOTMA]

I  would love to see what we have of the girl's diaries published side by side on a page for a given date.
It would be interesting how each described the same day and events . I do hope to see Marie's someday

[Sunny]

I  would love to see what we have of the girl's diaries published side by side on a page for a given date.
It would be interesting how each described the same day and events . I do hope to see Marie's someday

I would love it to!! We're philologists inside, Annie! LOL
Anyway i found O and T original russian diaries in a couple of russian sites, but no way to see Maria's ones. Does anyone knows abything about them? Are they still secret, or something? Or maybe it's just because of the handwriting, like Helen was so kind to point out? (i did not know it - thanks Helen!)

but the rest (1914-17) are in the works.

Good job, Helen. I'm following you on fb ^^

[thelastimpofrussia]

Could you PM me Olga and Tatiana's Russian diaries? Links I mean! Thanks in advance

I can't wait until 1914-1917!!!

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. Love to read Marie's & Tatiana's, the two more attractive of the girls. 

[helenazar]

Three Maria's diaries exists -- 1912,1913 and 1916 volume.

Just curious how you know that these particular 3 years of Marie's diaries exist... Thanks!

[Sarushka]

Three Maria's diaries exists -- 1912,1913 and 1916 volume.

Just curious how you know that these particular 3 years of Marie's diaries exist... Thanks!

See page 10 of Royal Sisters of Mercy.

[Rodney_G.]

Three Maria's diaries exists -- 1912,1913 and 1916 volume.

Just curious how you know that these particular 3 years of Marie's diaries exist... Thanks!

See page 10 of Royal Sisters of Mercy.

Lacking access to Royal Sisters Of Mercy I have to assume the idea is that  it mentions that Maria's diaries for those years exist and are presumably where? GARF?

Also, does anyone know if Maria's diaries have been quoted elsewhere?

[Sarushka]

Lacking access to Royal Sisters Of Mercy I have to assume the idea is that  it mentions that Maria's diaries for those years exist and are presumably where? GARF?

Sorry, didn't mean to be cagey.

Yes, that's correct. Royal Sisters of Mercy lists all the diaries of Olga, Tatiana, and Maria that are held at GARF. None of Anastasia's are known to have survived. I believe Georgiy originally posted the full list, but I don't recall what thread it's on.

[nena]

Lacking access to Royal Sisters Of Mercy I have to assume the idea is that  it mentions that Maria's diaries for those years exist and are presumably where? GARF?

Sorry, didn't mean to be cagey.

Yes, that's correct. Royal Sisters of Mercy lists all the diaries of Olga, Tatiana, and Maria that are held at GARF. None of Anastasia's are known to have survived. I believe Georgiy originally posted the full list, but I don't recall what thread it's on.

Yes, correct:

The book "August Sisters of Mercy" has in the introduction information about what GARF has in its archives by the Grand Duchesses. About the diaries, the information is as follows:

Olga: 12 diaries from 1905 - 1917, with the 1910 volume missing. The first entry on 01/01/05 begins "I was at Church with Mama and Papa." Olga's last diary entry was on 15/03/17.

Tatiana: 9 diaries from 1907 - 1916, with the 1911 one missing. The last entry is on 24/10/16. The exercise book she used for a diary for the rest of the year and into 1917, apparantly, she destroyed.

Maria: 3 diaries: 1912, 1913 and 1916.

Anastasia: No diaries. All appear to have been destroyed or lost. There are however some of her exercise books, compositions, drawings, letters etc.

All 4 of course have photo albums and photos in the archives, too.

Thanks a lot to Georgiy! But I now see that Sarushka quotes the same on the 1st page of this thread.

[helenazar]

Thanks.  I actually do have "Sisters...", but I haven't read the entire book yet... I was basically loosely going by one of Nicholas's diary entries where he wrote that Marie and Anastasia burned their diaries... He specifically mentioned the two girls. I wonder what made Marie keep those 3 notebooks and burn the rest.

[Rodney_G.]

Thanks.  I actually do have "Sisters...", but I haven't read the entire book yet... I was basically loosely going by one of Nicholas's diary entries where he wrote that Marie and Anastasia burned their diaries... He specifically mentioned the two girls. I wonder what made Marie keep those 3 notebooks and burn the rest.

Possibly she was only able to burn her current diary. That is, there's a good chance that her three earlier ones simply weren't at hand, as in storage perhaps.  There wasn't really time oropportunity  to organise  a proper bonfire, which might have been pretty big, or suspicious. Or, equally possible, she may have felt, rightly, that the earlier diaries would be seen as less 'incriminating' for her parents, at least as opposed to a 1917 one which might have included things about the war, political unrest, etc.

[Sarushka]

Possibly she was only able to burn her current diary. That is, there's a good chance that her three earlier ones simply weren't at hand, as in storage perhaps.  There wasn't really time oropportunity  to organise  a proper bonfire, which might have been pretty big, or suspicious. Or, equally possible, she may have felt, rightly, that the earlier diaries would be seen as less 'incriminating' for her parents, at least as opposed to a 1917 one which might have included things about the war, political unrest, etc.

That's always been my presumption as well. After all, Nicholas doesn't state how many of their diaries the Little Pair burned.

Nicholas personally packed all of his previous diaries into a crate upon his departure from Tsarskoe Selo, and IMO they were never unpacked -- he repeatedly expressed concern about that crate as well as another crate of papers belonging to Alexandra when the guards began pilfering the IF's belongings from the shed in Ekaterinburg. So I think it's likely that the bulk of the girls' diaries were similarly packed away.

Maria's 1914 & 1915 diaries could have been lost or stolen. As I recall, Aleksei's 1918 diary was found at the home of one of the guards...

[thelastimpofrussia]

Or, since the 1914 and 1915 ones contained information about WW1 could it have been a reason to burn them? In 1916 not much news would have been recorded about it, and therefore not burned. Just a speculation on my part.

[Georgiy]

Perhaps the non-current diaries were left at Tsarskoe-selo. I can't remember off hand, but I am pretty certain some of Maria's diary from 1916 is published in Sisters of Mercy.