The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution

[Inok Nikolai]

I've just begun to read The Diary and am enjoying it a lot. But I've missed out on some of the earlier chat and hope I don't bring up now  points and  issues previously discussed.
 
Some problems arise simply from the difficulty of pinning down all of Olga's references. This is understandable and I think Helen  and her collaborators have done extremely well under the circumstances.

Just jumping in here with this, for example: Page 7
"Thursday.24th July

We 2 slept with Mama, went onto Alexandria.... Returned for breakfast and left before dinner.    Passed by dear Yalta , overcast and rainy..."

Dear Yalta? This is five days after the declaration of war in St. Petersburg. Since this can't be the Crimean seaport, what might this Yalta be?

And on page 13, Olga refers to a church  consecration with all the relatives there.Olga mentions " Uncle Kostya with his wife Elena, Kostya , Igor and Georgiy".  Uncle Kostya was Konstantine Konstantinovich , KR, whose wife was Elizaveta (also "Mavra"). Elena was his daughter-in'-law, Elena of Serbia.

I guess this could simply be an error on Olga's part although it is a bit odd, since she presumably knew these relatives well enough.

And finallly, for now, a question not so much about this book and Olga's diary, but about Olga herself. Just  thirty-three days after the German declaration of war, and even a shorter time after the first  Russian battles,Olga is in her hospital  on Thursday, August 21 and actively dealing with wounded men. I didn't think she was thrown into nursing  head first so to speak so early. I thought it was more like a few months before she was doing real nursing work. like late September or so.

Comments?

1) From Peterhof, on the Finnish Gulf, they sailed on the smaller yacht, "Alexandria", to Petersburg. Along the way they passed the "Standart", which was at anchor in the Neva river.
[Perhaps the mention of the Standart brought Yalta to mind?...]

2) In the Russian, there is a comma after "wife": Uncle Kostya and his wife, Elena, Kostya, etc....

3) Not certain about the timing of her Red Cross work.

I. N.

[Inok Nikolai]

PS: In point 1 above, I meant to say that mention of the Standart might have made the *translator* think of Yalta.

G.D. Olga herself does not mention Yalta in that diary entry.

[helenazar]

Thanks for pointing it out, I will double check on the July 24th, 1914 entry.  I can't really imagine that I would have gotten confused between "Standart" and "Yalta", so Olga must have said something about Yalta there.... I have to find the original diary page and see what it says

[helenazar]

2) In the Russian, there is a comma after "wife": Uncle Kostya and his wife, Elena, Kostya, etc....

Yes, that's exactly it. I even remember correcting this in the final version of the manuscript (adding the comma) but for some reason it slipped through the cracks in the first printing... This may have been corrected in the 2nd printing, I will check.

[Inok Nikolai]

And finallly, for now, a question not so much about this book and Olga's diary, but about Olga herself. Just  thirty-three days after the German declaration of war, and even a shorter time after the first  Russian battles,Olga is in her hospital  on Thursday, August 21 and actively dealing with wounded men. I didn't think she was thrown into nursing  head first so to speak so early. I thought it was more like a few months before she was doing real nursing work. like late September or so.

Comments?

The diary entries by the Grand Duchesses for August 1914 indicate that they returned from the solemn ceremonies in Moscow to Tsarkoe Selo on Saturday, August 9. By Tuesday, August 12, the older two were in the new barrack-annex hospital bandaging the wounded. It seems that for several weeks they limited themselves to such work, and preparation of supplies, etc. Meanwhile, they and the Empress were taking courses with Dr. / Princess Gedroits -- the chief surgeon.

They passed their examinations and received their Red Cross certificates as full-fledged sisters of mercy only on Nov. 6th.

[Antonina]

The Russian might say: "it seems that Nicholas Demenkov is stuck in O.[dessa]..." -- which, after all, was where he was then located, and it was his home town too.

Thank you, I like the version about passing strangers. Can I ask why do you know that Demenkov's home town was Odessa?

[Inok Nikolai]

Thank you, I like the version about passing strangers. Can I ask why do you know that Demenkov's home town was Odessa?

From Nicola De Valeron's posting of May 17, 2010, in reply to one of your own posts!

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=1266.msg440070#msg440070

[Rodney_G.]

2) In the Russian, there is a comma after "wife": Uncle Kostya and his wife, Elena, Kostya, etc....

Yes, that's exactly it. I even remember correcting this in the final version of the manuscript (adding the comma) but for some reason it slipped through the cracks in the first printing... This may have been corrected in the 2nd printing, I will check.

And finallly, for now, a question not so much about this book and Olga's diary, but about Olga herself. Just  thirty-three days after the German declaration of war, and even a shorter time after the first  Russian battles,Olga is in her hospital  on Thursday, August 21 and actively dealing with wounded men. I didn't think she was thrown into nursing  head first so to speak so early. I thought it was more like a few months before she was doing real nursing work. like late September or so.

Comments?

The diary entries by the Grand Duchesses for August 1914 indicate that they returned from the solemn ceremonies in Moscow to Tsarkoe Selo on Saturday, August 9. By Tuesday, August 12, the older two were in the new barrack-annex hospital bandaging the wounded. It seems that for several weeks they limited themselves to such work, and preparation of supplies, etc. Meanwhile, they and the Empress were taking courses with Dr. / Princess Gedroits -- the chief surgeon.

They passed their examinations and received their Red Cross certificates as full-fledged sisters of mercy only on Nov. 6th.

Thanks, I.N. for providing that. Apparently Olga's beginning actual nursing of patients was fairlsy early on,especially since she and the IF were in Moscow  part of  that time. Good for her andTatiana and Alexandra.

[Rodney_G.]

Thanks for pointing it out, I will double check on the July 24th, 1914 entry.  I can't really imagine that I would have gotten confused between "Standart" and "Yalta", so Olga must have said something about Yalta there.... I have to find the original diary page and see what it says

Ah ,that's good, Helen, because the "dear Yalta" reference does appear as such in my edition and it's hard to account for as is . I'd be interested to know what you find in Olga's full original diary entry.

[helenazar]

Sorry it took so long to look this up, finally had the chance to go through the scans of the diary pages...  Looks like my scan of this particular page is cut off exactly where the purported "Yalta" part may have been. Initially I was working from hard copies but had to return those to the person who originally got them for me, and get my own scans of the pages, which may be not as legible. I don't remember which version I used for this particular entry. It's probably best for me to post exactly what I have and let you guys look at it directly:   https://www.facebook.com/DiaryOfOlgaRomanovRoyalWitness/photos/a.124297104286228.15365.113360175379921/750257278356871/?type=1&theater If anyone can definitely make out exactly what it says, I will ask the publisher to correct it for the third printing. Thanks again, this is you guys are the best!

[Inok Nikolai]

Sorry it took so long to look this up, finally had the chance to go through the scans of the diary pages...  Looks like my scan of this particular page is cut off exactly where the purported "Yalta" part may have been. Initially I was working from hard copies but had to return those to the person who originally got them for me, and get my own scans of the pages, which may be not as legible. I don't remember which version I used for this particular entry. It's probably best for me to post exactly what I have and let you guys look at it directly:   https://www.facebook.com/DiaryOfOlgaRomanovRoyalWitness/photos/a.124297104286228.15365.113360175379921/750257278356871/?type=1&theater If anyone can definitely make out exactly what it says, I will ask the publisher to correct it for the third printing. Thanks again, this is you guys are the best!

A correction on my part:

The diary entry I was reading is indeed from that day, July 24, but it is G. D. Tatiana's diary entry, not G. D. Olga's:

See the Russian text here:
http://emalkrest.narod.ru/txt/det14.htm

Sorry if this has caused any confusion in this discussion.
I. N.

[helenazar]

Oh ok, I see... Yes, because Olga's diary entry for that date is not online and was never published in Russian or in English before. In any case, thanks again.

[Ally Kumari]

I am about half way through this book and I must say that it had fullfilled my expectations beautifully. The diary entries combined with letters make for an intimate glimpse into a world of a young lady, whose world was about to die a quick death soon. Olga really becomes a person of her own, finally - which is something no other book has yet managed to do so well.

[helenazar]

I am about half way through this book and I must say that it had fullfilled my expectations beautifully. The diary entries combined with letters make for an intimate glimpse into a world of a young lady, whose world was about to die a quick death soon. Olga really becomes a person of her own, finally - which is something no other book has yet managed to do so well.

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it!

[wakas]

I'm confused about Olga's letter to Rita Khitrovo on page 139 (from January 14th 1918).

In the book "Pis'ma Tsarskoi Sem'i iz Zatocheniia", this letter is signed Maria .  Also, at the end of it, there is a short note to Rita signed "Olga".


So I'm really confused right now. Who actually wrote the letter? Olga or Maria?