Anna Aleksandrovna Vyrubova (1884-1964), Part 2

[Rodney_G.]

I always wondered about a book that I have LES JOURNAUX SECRETS DE ANNA VIRUBOVA. It is a very bad edited book, I bought years ago in France. It is very unflattering towards the Imperial Family and involved bad doings of Grand Duke Dimitry Pavlovich. There is much more, I have not read it for years. Dos anyone kjnow anything about this book?

Amelia

My understanding is that this book is a fraud.

[Hilla]

I just watched today a document I had recorded a couple of weeks ago called Keisarinnan hovineito (The empress' lady in waiting). It's a Finnish-Russian document that tells about Anna Vyrubova's life based on the interrogation proceedings made when she had escaped to Finland and also on other studies of her life. They had even dramatized parts of her interrogation. I thought it was interesting to hear how she had really replied to all those questions they made instead of reading some book that doesn't actually tell much.

I just realized that I haven't been paying a lot of attention on this woman at all, not even her life in Finland though I'm Finnish myself. Of course I did know about her escape to Finland and that she's buried here but I didn't know that she was a nun or that she lived her last years in a typical 1950's-60's city flat. I think I have to read this whole thread through now to fill in this empty spot in my knowledge.

[Inok Nikolai]

Just a FYI:

Today, February 3/16, the Feast of St. Symeon the God-receiver and St. Anna the Prophetess, is Anna Vyrubova's names-day.

(Luke 2: 25-38)

Of course, later she was tonsured a nun as Mother Maria.

[Превед]

Just a FYI:
Today, February 3/16, the Feast of St. Symeon the God-receiver and St. Anna the Prophetess, is Anna Vyrubova's names-day.

She was specifically named after Анна Пророчица and not Святая Анна - бабушка Иисуса Христа / богопраматерь?

[Maria Sisi]

I recently read "A Lifelong Passion" and now I'm in the middle of "The Complete Wartime Correspondence" and I'm kind of shocked at how bad Anna comes out. I understand why everyone else (Felix, Maria Pavlovna younger, Alexander Mikhailovich, the French Ambassador) had negative things to say about her but I was really shocked at the tone Alexandra's letters had.

When she talks about Anna in her letters to Nicholas she's either annoyed with her or mothering her like a child. Anna is pretty much included in EVERY letter yet I barely heard anything of Lili D or Sophie B when I thought they were Alexandra's friends too but I guess they had lives of their own and weren't attached to the Alexandra's hip like Anna appeared to be. It doesn't feel much like a friendship and feels more like Alexandra simply tolerating her because Anna pretty much blindly worships her and she was lonely for friendship.

It was also a little weird to me that Nicholas would always include Anna when he was "tenderly kissing and blessing" the family at the end of his letters. Its no wonder she crossed the line with him! Alexandra mentions a few times that Anna complains to her that she isn't seeing Nicholas that much and that she has to tell her that he is busy. And instead of cutting her off like most people probably would they seem to laugh it off as some teen crush and then proceed to remind Nicholas not to encourage her too much. It just seems crazy to still keep her around or not confront her about it.

Now the big question I have is did Anna ever learn about how Nicholas and Alexandra privately viewed her? I know some of their correspondence was published in her lifetime but I personally doubt she read any of it out of respect. I get the feeling she would have been pretty shocked by it.

[Inok Nikolai]

I understand how you feel and what you mean.

I would just like to add that after the Revolution, Empress Alexandra and Anna pretty much patched things up.

Although earlier the Empress had written to Tsar Nicholas that things would never be the same between her and Anna, Anna's continued devotion to the Imperial family after the Revolution, the sufferings she endured because of it, and her support for them in captivity, made amends.

The Empress' letters to Anna from captivity in Siberia are full of effusive expressions of love, devotion, and gratitude. She even tells Anna that all is forgotten and forgiven. So even if Anna saw the war-time letters, she had in her possession the "last word" from the Empress on their relationship.

[Maria Sisi]

I understand how you feel and what you mean.

I would just like to add that after the Revolution, Empress Alexandra and Anna pretty much patched things up.

Although earlier the Empress had written that things would never be the same between them, Anna's continued devotion to the Imperial family after the Revolution, the sufferings she endured because of it, and her support for them in captivity, made amends.

The Empress' letters to Anna from captivity in Siberia are full of effusive expressions of love, devotion, and gratitude. She even tells Anna that all is forgotten and forgiven. So even if Anna saw the war-time letters, she had in her possession the "last word" from the Empress on their relationship.

That is true at the end they did make up although I guess the beginning letters made such an impression on me that the last ones kind of flew over my head.

Still I'm not sure I would be so pleased to learn my nickname was "the cow" or something like that. It would honestly make me rethink the whole friendship although even I know Alexandra was always sincere and genuine in her writing and wouldn't have lied so I guess Anna knew that too and wouldn't have been offended.

One thing "Wartime Correspondence" mentions in a footnotes that I didn't know is that during the war as Alexandra and Rasputin's influence on politics increased so did Anna's. He even mentions that Anna stated using the royal "we" when talking. I know she was used as a go between for Alix and Rasputin and I'm pretty sure that's all it was and nothing else. Perhaps her little roll as go between went to her head and it was another one of her things that annoyed Alexandra, I don't know.

I believe Alexandra would have been much better served with a friend who wasn't so blindly worshipful of her but I guess that was her appeal. I think if you blame Alexandra for a lot of things then Anna should get part of the blame for them too for feeding the ignorance of the situations.

[Ally Kumari]

[Queen_Missy]

Does anyone else think Anna looks a lot like Beatrice in these two pictures?

http://cdn.royalcollection.org.uk/cdn/farfuture/P66O_xLNz0G6igiiL0gAsqnciWQ9GsCP8cF3yNThqko/mtime:1423380402/sites/royalcollection.org.uk/files/collection-online/3/1/235535-1323787785.jpg
(Beatrice is second from the left)

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2009/347/f/1/Anna_Vyrubova_II_by_AlixofHesse.png

[Joanna]

HM Own Chancellery - Alexander S. Taneyev
Nicholas II curiosity! - Anna Vyrubova's childhood home

https://winterpalaceresearch.blogspot.ca/2016/07/hm-own-chancellery-alexander-s-taneyev.html

Joanna

[Cathy]

A friend sent these sites for amazing pictures of the current renovation of Anna's house:

http://www.gorodpushkin.ru/news/1391848

http://www.gorodpushkin.ru/news/1355965

Enjoy the new perspectives.
Cathy

[Queen_Missy]

Anyone noticed this resemblance? <a href="https://neuespalais.tumblr.com/post/156053248664/has-anyone-else-noticed-the-resemblance-between">https://neuespalais.tumblr.com/post/156053248664/has-anyone-else-noticed-the-resemblance-between</a></div>

[JamesAPrattIII]

Does anyone have any information on Anna Vs husband? Ron Moe in his book "Prelude to the Revolution The Murder of Rasputin" has him dying of the Flu in the Crimea in 1919? He was at the battle of Tsushima does anyone know what ship he was on?