Maria without jewels in Ipatiev house

[Bob_the_builder]

References to Maria, from Empress's diary.
14/27 June Marie's 19th B.D
16/29 June The others went out, Maria remained with me.
<If she was in disgrace, why was she allowed out the day between?>
18 June/1 July Others walked, Marie remained with me.
20 June/3 July Maria and Niuta washed my head.
25 June/8 July Maria remained at home with me
29 June/12 July The others went out twice, Maria remained with me.
2/15 July read with Maria Jesus Son of Sirach 26-31

There is absolutely nothing she writes that suggests anything had changed with her relationship. As they had been doing for weeks, the girls took turns to stay indoors with the Empress. I don't think Yurovsky is the most reliable person to comment on family relations between the Romanovs.

But there is a large gap in her diary where the alleged incedent occured, as is with Nicholas's. I don't think they would have written about it anyway.

[Georgiy]

There is no gap in the Empress's diary. She wrote faithfully everyday up until her death. The Tsar had already started skipping days in his diary before Maria's birthday. On Maria's birthday he writes "Our dear Maria tured 19 today." This is his last reference to any of his daughters. He only wrote a few more times in his diary.
As to whether or not they would write about any incidents, I don't know, but during the war in her letters the Empress wrote when she was mad at her daughters for their behaviour.

[TheAce1918]

As to whether or not they would write about any incidents, I don't know, but during the war in her letters the Empress wrote when she was mad at her daughters for their behaviour.

As in...?  Disobedient?  Quiet?  Or simply behaving as teens often do?

[LisaDavidson]

All of the above. They were in many respects an ordinary family, and as with most parents, they discussed the minute details of family life.

[Bob_the_builder]

Sorry about that. So Nicholas had already been skipping dates in his diary before the alleged "incident". But I still want to know, were they allowed to bring jewels with them to Tobolsk? Because if they weren't, then it means they would have had to sow the jewels into the clothes before they left Tsarskoe Selo.

[TheAce1918]

I wouldn't know.  My guess is that the deeper into Siberia they went, the more strict the rules and treatment upon them by the Bolsheviks.  Perhaps texts by Gilliard...or someone who was with them up until they left on the Rus, might have a few hidden details? 

Call it silly, but it would seem the safer alternative...sewing their jewelry within their clothes (more specifically corsets I think) for fear of what might happen in the future.  At Tsarskoe Selo, they had a more leanient treatment in contrast to Tobolsk or Ekaterinburg.

[Georgiy]

From what I have read they took their jewels to Tobolsk. Sewing of jewels into their chemises was done after the Tsar, Tsaritsa and Maria were taken to Ekaterinburg, at the instigation of Alexandra telling her remaining children in Tobolsk to 'dispose of the medicines.' Maria also wrote and said conditions were not like they were at Tobolsk. As far as I remember, either Gilliard or Buxhoeveden writes in their memoirs that the concealing of jewels took place in Tobolsk.

[TheAce1918]

I want to say that both had mentioned something.  On a safer note, I'd say Gilliard mentioned said incident.

[Alixz]

Posted by: Robert_Hall 

"They took a trainload of household chattels with them and even more was sent on later, why not jewels as well? "

One of things that we all have to understand is that "deprivation" to the Romanovs was not the same as it would be to us.  In fact they took train loads of household goods and clothing and other personal and precious objects with them into Siberia and exile.  After all, Kerensky wasn't trying to set them up for execution, he was trying to "protect them"  (too bad he didn't send them to the Crimea).  But it was poetic justice that the Tsar and his family would be sent to Siberia as many others had been sent by Nicholas II and all of the tsars before him.

About the time the Soviet Union fell, a friend of mine joked that it was time for Gorbachev and his wife to "sew their American Express cards into the hems of their clothing."     

The tsar and Alix and Marie left Tobolsk on April 25 and arrived in Yekaterinburg on April 30.  The three grand duchesses and Alexei didn't leave Tobolsk until May 20 and arrived in Yekaterinburg a few days later.

Those who remained in Tobolsk had almost a month to sew the jewels into their clothing.

They were only in Yekaterinburg for about 79 days and most of their possessions were stored outside the Ipatiev house in a shed or barn.  By this time, what they had brought with them from Tsarskoe Selo had been pared down quite a bit.  What they had on them had to be used again and again.  I would imagine that the clothing with the jewels sewn into it would have been kept quite close to them.

I once read that they slept with their corsets or chemises on.  Any girl of good virtue would sleep with at least a chemise as well as a nightgown.  So if the jewels were sewn into little bags that were worn between two chemises, they would have them on their person at all times.

Was Alix psychotic or deranged enough at this point to let the matter of a little flirtation make her angry with one of her daughters?  Maybe.  Maybe she would think that "we are in deep trouble, how could this young girl ignore that and act as if nothing serious is going on?"  Maybe she still saw class distinction as important and didn't want Marie to "sully" herself with someone of a lower class.

Maybe this maybe that 

[Robert_Hall]

I would beg everyone to remember that Raisa Gorbachev was much admired and died of leukemia in 1999.  She did not have a lot of jewels, nor time to bother with  such things.

About the time the Soviet Union fell, a friend of mine joked that it was time for Gorbachev and his wife to "sew their American Express cards into the hems of their clothing."     

[Alixz]

Robert,

It was just a tongue cheek joke     No disrespect was intended.  Just a comparison to past regime changes in Russia and then in the USSR.


And they probably didn't even have "American Express" cards, more likely "Soviet Express" cards   

Just a small bon mot!

[Alexandre64]

bonjour, il est possible que Maria portait des bijoux aux débuts de leur emprissonement car dans le livre "Le précepteurs des Romanov, le destin russe de pierre Gilliards" à la page 33, il dit que l'impératrice en avait une quantitée avec elle.
Est-ce que c'est les bijoux caché dans les oreillers où étaient ils caché dans les vêtement?

[KiKi]

Thanks for this thread.  I have been wondering about this since I read it in The Final Chapter. 

[jws81863]

Looking at the references to Alexandra's diary to Marie, isn't it possible she attended Alexandra to prevent further fraternization or incidents? Or perhaps she stayed indoors with Alexandra as an act of contrition?

References to Maria, from Empress's diary.
14/27 June Marie's 19th B.D
16/29 June The others went out, Maria remained with me.
18 June/1 July Others walked, Marie remained with me.
20 June/3 July Maria and Niuta washed my head.
25 June/8 July Maria remained at home with me
29 June/12 July The others went out twice, Maria remained with me.
2/15 July read with Maria Jesus Son of Sirach 26-31

[Sarushka]

I would have to look at the other dates and compare how often the other girls stayed in with their mother before I could speculate on that. Maria was certainly not the only one who stayed in during the final days.