Olga's official suitors, marriage prospects, and proposals

[Romanov_fan]

 It's unlikely Carol of Romania would have talked to Alexander of Serbia about Olga, at least in the sense they had a romantic interest in her. Alexander of Serbia seems to have had indeed, but Carol defintely never did. I'm sure they had shared grief about the tragic death of a royal relative who they both knew, but beyond that, on Carol's part he wasn't ever attracted to her.. Anyway, by 1931 I'm sure they both had moved on. That was some years after Olga's death.

[Raegan]

If we are able to read Olga's 1914 diary, we might find out something, I am sure. There is only Nicholas' quote from that book. I'll see better, if I find something, I'll post.  ;-)

I have Olga's 1914 diary, so I will look into this issue a little more. :-)

[nena]

Thank you soo much, Reagan , look at early 1914 entries, around January/February -- if she mentioned something about Alexander of Serbia, please, learn us more. Or even her thoughts about him or Carol of Romania.  ;-)

[LisaDavidson]

It's also important to remember that royal courtships of this period generally followed certain forms that probably would not be done today. For instance, with so many monarchies, there was great care when a couple did not suit (ala Carol of Romania and Olga N) to make sure that the respective countries were not offended by any rejections. For this and other reasons, there was generally a go between who would foster a budding mutual interest, and equally diplomatically let a still interested party know that the other party was no longer interested.

In the case of Nicholas and Alexandra, her sister Ella and his sister Xenia seemed to have filled this role. With Alexander and Olga, Princess Elena was obviously the go between. What I'm saying is that there might not be alot about Alexander K in Olga N's diary (having not read it, I couldn't say), but it might be that when Olga had contact with Elena that they discussed AK (or not). And, the diary entries themselves may or may not help us in gauging Olga's feelings.

My guess would be she was not uninterested, because her parents were inclined to let her reject suitors, not wanting her to be unhappy. Since the contacts continued, it is possible that Olga was interested in AK as a potential husband.

[nena]

Ходили слухи и о неравнодушии к великой княжне будущего короля Югославии Александра I Карагиоргиевича, который несколько лет учился в Петербурге. Сама Ольга, по-видимому, ему симпатизировала и писала в дневнике: «Она (имеется в виду сестра Александра Елена, бывшая замужем за одним из великих князей) кусочек Александра, и я люблю ее».


There were rumors, also, about the partiality of Grand Duchess to the future King of Yugoslavia Alexander I [Karagiorgievich], who several years studied in Petersburg. Olga, herself, apparently,  sympathized him and she wrote in her diary: “She (it is intended the sister of Alexander Helen, who was married after one of the Grand Dukes) is the piece of Alexander, and I love him/her”.

I found this!  ;-) . I am sorry for bad translation, I did it quickly.

[Ally Kumari]

It seems she would have prefered Alexander to Carol Which religion was Alexander? Wasn´t he Orthodox? If so, it may have been another plus for him in Olga´s eyes...

[nena]

Alexander was Orthodox, for surely -- I know he studied at St. Petersburg, as NII was godfather to some Karageorogevich Family members, as AIII was too. I know he knew Felix Yussupov, and even Dmitrii Pavlovich, they studied together.  I don't recall a source.

More about Olga's possible marriages, in Russian, look here. About Pavel Alexeevich Voronov, Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich, etc.

[Grand Duchess Ferah]

I  also read somewhere that Olga most definitely  wanted to marry someone who belonged in the Orthodox Church.

I have Olga's 1914 diary, so I will look into this issue a little more. :-)

That would be  so great, Raegan!

[Romanov_fan]

Ходили слухи и о неравнодушии к великой княжне будущего короля Югославии Александра I Карагиоргиевича, который несколько лет учился в Петербурге. Сама Ольга, по-видимому, ему симпатизировала и писала в дневнике: «Она (имеется в виду сестра Александра Елена, бывшая замужем за одним из великих князей) кусочек Александра, и я люблю ее».


There were rumors, also, about the partiality of Grand Duchess to the future King of Yugoslavia Alexander I [Karagiorgievich], who several years studied in Petersburg. Olga, herself, apparently,  sympathized him and she wrote in her diary: “She (it is intended the sister of Alexander Helen, who was married after one of the Grand Dukes) is the piece of Alexander, and I love him/her”.

I found this!  ;-) . I am sorry for bad translation, I did it quickly.

Where did you find this? Olga said that she wanted to marry someone Russian once, so I would assume she meant Orthodox.

[LisaDavidson]

It seems she would have prefered Alexander to Carol Which religion was Alexander? Wasn´t he Orthodox? If so, it may have been another plus for him in Olga´s eyes...

But it was never one or the other. Regardless of who may or may not have been interested in her, neither Carol nor Olga was interested in the other at all, and neither set of parents was inclined to force their offspring to marry someone they were not interested in.

[jehan]

Where did you find this? Olga said that she wanted to marry someone Russian once, so I would assume she meant Orthodox.

Olga may have said that (I remember reading it too).  But I don't think you can assume that something one states at the age of 18 will hold for the rest of their lives.  She probably meant it at the time, but who knows what would have happened had she met and fallen in love with a foreign prince?  And if I remember correctly, it was said after the Romanian episode, and may have been said to save face and possibly to avoid international/diplomatic hurt feelings.

After all, her mother at 18 (and older) stated she would never change her religion either!

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, it was after the Romanian episode. I think she told Pierre Gilliard that. Carol of Romania and Olga's proposed marriage, which never happened and would not have worked out had it happened, due to Carol is well known,  and is in pretty much every book about the Romanovs. But Alexander of Serbia and Olga's interest in one another or marriage which seems to have been much more genuine isn't as famous, I'm not sure why. Anyone know? By the way, Nena do you or anyone else know where the book " Love is stronger than death" which you said is Serbian, but has been translated to English might be availiable? Anyone sell it online? I checked but couldn't find anything, without an author's name for the book.

[nena]

Publisher is one Serbian Orthodox Church, published in 2008, as far I know, it wasn't translated into English - it is. how to say, translated from Russian archives, documents, books, etc.

true is, Olga wanted to marry someone from Orthodox Religion, even Russian. By end of 1915 and beginning of 1916, I have read, she was prepared to marry Boris Vladimirovich, also on list are also Edward VIII (not sure, if I correct write name). 

[Romanov_fan]

Oh, when you translated the title of the book into English, I thought you said the whole book was translated into English. I couldn't find the book on the book finder here, likely because it is very recent. Maybe Sarushka has heard of it. Does the book have pictures or is it just text? It's true there were ideas about marrying her to the likes of Boris Vladimirvitch, but Alexandra would never have allowed that, nor would Olga have wanted that. The principal Russian suitor for her hand was Grand Duke Dmitri, and of course that ended after he murdered Rasputin.

[*Tina*]

Where did you find this? Olga said that she wanted to marry someone Russian once, so I would assume she meant Orthodox.

I believe what she said was "I'm Russian and I want to remain Russian". I also think she said it to Gilliard - before she went to Romania to meet Carol. I'm not 100% sure though.