Grand Duchess Marie Nicholaevna Romanov

[Evanescence]

I don't believe there is a thread about her so I'll start one. I've read so much about Olga and Anastasia but not much about Tatiana (apparantely not many people like her) but the least talked about is Maria (as I call her). I've read that she was of incredible beauty and health also that when she was little she was chubby and called "bow wow" it's hard to imagine Maria and her family's execution. Here's my favourite pic of her.  

[Elisabeth]

Maria is my favorite of the children after Olga. She seems to have been a genuinely good person, who charmed everyone she met. Klavdia Bitner, the children's governess in Tobolsk, said that from her observations of the family, she had concluded that Olga loved Maria best of all her sisters.

[leanora]

" By common agreement, Marie was an angel, plump and pretty with "eyes like saucers", a warm and loving girl who wanted to marry a russian soldier and have twenty children. Once, when marie had been caught in some mischief or other, her father joked how glad he was to discover she was only human: "I was always afraid of the wings growing".. marie was so good that the others girls referred to her as their step-sister"   (from the book of Peter Kurth)

During the family exile, she was said to be solid, absolutely reliable, "darling mashka, an angel and the best of us".. sophie Buxhoeveden said that the experience of the revolution had turned her overnight "from a child into a woman"

[lilavanderhorn]

Marie is my favorie too.  here is one of my faves of her.

Her features really stand out to me in this one.  More so than her siblings.


from livadia.org

[jackie3]

I've got a soft spot for Marie too. She seemed a tender-hearted sensitive girl who took pains to be nice (she is said to have known not only the first names of the servants and staff but their families as well) and was teased about her weight and crushes and bossed around by her sisters even her younger one who was definitely the stronger personality. Yet Marie developed into a strong personality - not only physically strong (she is said to have been able to lift her tutor) but emotionally as well - she was the last of the Imperial Children to fall sick when the Revolution came and it was she who with her mother went out in the night alone to talk the guards not to abandon them. She was the one also chosen to go with N&A to Ekaterinburg. Physically she lost the weight and became by modern eyes perhaps the most beautiful of the GDs and IMO one of the loveliest of any photographed modern royal. Her eyes still speak to you many years later, lomg after the murderers destroyed her life in that hellish cellar. I'm always reminded of KR's (I think) quote that as a babe she seemed like one of Botticelli's Angels come to life and in every picture of her I've seen she always seems a little different and yet you can't look away.

Some pics from lividia.org:

and

[jackie3]

More from livadia.org

[jackie3]

And my favorite (also via livadia.org):

[Abby]

AHHH! Finally, a thread for my favorite Grand Duchess...
there was probably not as much "mystery" around her as there is around Anastasia's "survival", Tatiana's discipline and Olga's tragic bearing, but Marie is sooo interesting to me because of not only her physical beauty but her gentle nature and her steadfast trust in everyone. She was so innocent and unpretentious, and she suffered so horribly for nothing. In every photo I see
of her she is usually smiling and her good nature shows through. I wish I could be more like her but I have to admit that I complain about a lot of things  
That picture of her with the shaved head is one of my favorites, because, even with no hair she is still incredibly beautiful and her radiant face stands out from her siblings'.

but i like these too:

[grandduchessella]

Marie is definitely my favorite of the 4. I also think she was the most beautiful, mostly due to her large eyes and her pure spirit. Her goodness really did shine through. She probably had the most uncomplicated character of the 4 & always reminded me of my favorite of Little Women--Beth (only without the shyness)--in how she endeared herself to all those who met her. I think it was Gilliard or Gibbes who said she would've made a wonderful wife and mother. She apparently knew all the names of wives & children of the soldiers & sailors that surrounded the family and would ask after them. Her cousin Earl Mountbatten developed a childhood crush on her and (much like the Kaiser did with Ella) kept a picture of her the rest of his life.

[Val289]

I love all the pics posted of Marie here - her personality really shines through.  I have always thought her to be the warmest and most uncomplicated of the girls.  She was the one who wouldn't hesitate to talk to anybody, and the one who was the most approachable.  I always recall to mind the story (I don't remember the source) that once she was caught eating some little cookies (or biscuits) that Alix loved to have with her tea.  She wasn't really reprimanded, but Nicky just said that he was afraid of her growing wings one day.........

[RomanovFan]

Here's a link to a site all about Maria Nikolaievna.
(Lavadia.org)
http://www.livadia.org/mashka/
....and how do you post photos and not just the link? I still haven't figured that out....can someone help? Thanks.

[grandduchessella]

It's interesting that you say that grandduchessella, because I have always seen the connection to Beth and Marie as well. Wow, I didn't know someone else thought that, too.

That's one of the great things about the site, isn't it?    I'm always attracted to those personalities--probably because I don't have those calm temperaments.  

[Evanescence]

This is an excerpt from http://www.livadia.org/mashka

"She was constantly held up as an example to her elder sisters. They declared she was a step-sister. Vainly I pointed out that in all fairy tales it was the elder sisters who were step-sisters and the third was the real sister. They would not listen, and shut her out from all their plays. I told them that they could not expect her to stand that kind of treatment, and that some day they would be punished. One day they made a house with chairs at one end of the nursery and shut out poor Maria, telling her she might be the footman, but that she should stay outside. I made another house at the other end for the baby, then a few months old, and her, but her eyes always kept traveling to the other end of the room and the attractive play going on there. She suddenly dashed across the room, rushed into the house, dealt each sister a slap in the face, and ran into the next room, coming back dressed in a doll¹s cloak and hat, and with her hands full of small toys. 'I won't be a footman, I'll be the kind, good aunt, who brings presents,' she said. She then distributed her gifts, kissed her 'nieces,' and sat down. The other children looked shamefacedly from one to the other, and then Tanyana said, 'We were too cruel to poor little Maria, and she really couldn't help beating us.' They had learned their lesson - from that hour they respected her rights in the family."

That sounds so cute and adorable, I can't imagine how a girl like that would have been brutally murdered for only one crime, loving her family and country.

[felix]

There's a really nice photo of Marie in Victor Alexandrov's book.  It may be from the Alexander Palace or Tobolsk. Possibly the last one taken of her.  F.

[Lanie]

Since it looks nothing like Anastasia.  You're thinking of a different photo shoot I think, the one from 1904 with little Anastasia and the others on the bench, right?  Anastasia is wearing something completely different from the 1900 photo of Maria.  It is wrongly identified as Anastasia in the book Nicholas II: The Imperial Family--the ones of O, T and M are correct and correctly dated but the one of 'Anastasia' is Maria in around 1900.

Is this the 'group' photo you're talking about?



Here's Maria from about 1900:


I apologize if the photos are huge, I should have resized them... but I'm too lazy, haha.