Olga's diaries/Help translating entries

[matushka]

Thank you, Hikaru, that is marverllous! Blagodariu. I allow me to disagree only with your beginning. I think that we do not have the begining of the sentense, and then: " i dnyom sidela", dnyom, ne utrom. Look on the next entry how Olga Nikolaevna write this word. Exactly like this. So somebody come and was sitting in the afternoon, then they go together (s ney) v igralnuyu with Alexis. Is that right?
I made a mistake for the next entry: not the 29 [of february], but the 23.

[hikaru]

Alexey was in the play room already. They came to his place and then they had a tea with Alexey.
I think ( It is only my suggestion that the first word is not finished word "Utrom" . There is no word Ya "I" there.

[matushka]

In a letter of Olga to Valentina Ivanovna Chebotareva written in Tobolsk (Thank you Sarushka , ON is writting about an "Olga Kolz." I was asking me, could not that been this Olga who came to them? Who is she? I think I don't know her. It seems to be someone of the lazaret.

[s.v.markov]

I read on another thread that someone is working on all the OTMA diaries, and there may be a book on them in the next year or so. Does anyone know any details? I for one would be very interested to read the diaries, especially Olga's, in order to cross-reference it with accounts we have by other people. It would be useful to see her 'take' on things, and compare her view with that of other memoirists. I do not think it would be just a matter of 'Had tea at 4' etc., although there would inevitably be some of that. Consider this piece by B I Kaptelov (Director of Central State Archive of the October Revolution of the USSR) in his preface to Prince Michael of Greece's 'Family Albums' : 'In the surviving diaries, her (Alexandra's) eldest daughter, Olga, who stood out among the others for her aptitude for learning and her particularly captivating gentleness and femininity, unaffectedly describes the life of the royal family, one day much like another, in the harsh war years. She speaks of the obligatory church services, the work in the infirmary and on the committee for the relief of war victims, the monotonous daily domestic life at Tsarskoye Selo, broken by visits to their father at headquarters ......' We have all seen pictures of the outside of the GDs' diaries, and some limited extracts~ how good it would be to see the diaries in their entirety and read them for ourselves!

[Bev]

bloshki was bridge.

[Lemur]

I read on another thread that someone is working on all the OTMA diaries, and there may be a book on them in the next year or so. Does anyone know any details? I for one would be very interested to read the diaries, especially Olga's, in order to cross-reference it with accounts we have by other people. It would be useful to see her 'take' on things, and compare her view with that of other memoirists.

I can't wait! Her perspective and inside information will be very valuable in getting the truth about the family. Any news on this book's release? I want it!

[Teddy]

I think that their diaries are interesting enough to be published, because they were afterall the daughters of the Tsar. You don't must expect that they will write with full of emotions, but more like their father and mother. In those days a diary was used to remember what you did that day, not to tell a certain person in 2006, what you emotions were on a specific moment.

[RealAnastasia]

Yes, Teddy. This is true. I read somewhere (I'd read so many books that I forget where I find this or that info) that Royals used to kept dull diaries, mostly about events, without any comment. The King George V of England had one exactly in the same way than Nicholas. But I also read that other Royals used to have TWO diaries: one with events and data, and another with comments. It was excpected that a Royal teenager (and some high society boys and girls) would have a diary. "Nice" people had them, even if they were not always very interesting.

And of course, we may not mistake "diaries" with "memoirs".

RealAnastasia.

[Georgiy]

Bloshki is indeed tiddlywinks. We can get Russian chocolates here, and my wife collects the wrappers which we can use for bloshki. Bridge in Russian is, in fact, called 'bridzh'.

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, the diaries they had back then were mostly matter of fact. They were not really about emotions-often, we have to guess those, placing them in context of course. I never heard of two; interesting though. Often it was just the framework of events, and not what they meant to the person writing it that we have.I think Olga's were like this.

[Georgiy]

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.

[azrael7171918]

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:

Could you tell me a little about this book. When was it published and is it available.


Azrael

[Georgiy]

It is a Russian book, published this year, called Avgusteyshie Sestry Miloserdiya - compiled by N K Zvereva. You might be able to get hold of it from kniga.com or ozon.ru

[rgt9w]

Does the book say anything else of interest about what GARF has related to the Grand Duchesses?

[Georgiy]

It tells you how many things are in the files of each of the Grand Duchesses and what sort of categories they fall into e.g. exercise books, compositions, photo albums etc.