Margarita Sergeevna Khitrovo, "Rita" (1895-1952)

[blessOTMA]

New to me as well! Thank you! Never saw the beach one as full...plus
I've never seen Rita being so pretty ! Love the drawings and the photo
 of the big pair with Rita! Lovely!! Many thanks ! 

Oh, there's no doubt they have (forgiven).

Indeed

[Lady Macduff]

I came across this on Tumblr today, labeled with her name. In the first picture it appears that her head was shaved. Did that coincide with the grand duchesses' haircuts?

[blessOTMA]

OTMA's hair cuts happened well after the revolution and so would not be connected with Rita's here...she may have been ill herself at this time and got her hair cut that way... or the nurse's wimple may have bothered her when she had hair .

 I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

[Sarushka]

I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

They had private rooms at the lazaret?

[Rodney_G.]

OTMA's hair cuts happened well after the revolution and so would not be connected with Rita's here...she may have been ill herself at this time and got her hair cut that way... or the nurse's wimple may have bothered her when she had hair .

 I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

I don't know if this is just a quibble, blessOTMA, but I think the children's  smooth haircuts were done just a few months after the Feb/March revolution, so I don't know that I'd say "well after" it. If we can't date Rita's haircut pretty definitively we can't connect it to OTMAAs' very well one way or another.

Rita could possibly  have caught the measles which necessitated the close haircutting  from any of OTMA who were working with her in the lazaret,except that none of OTMAA appeared in the lazaret after the first disturbances at Tsarskoe Selo made it difficult or dangerous  to do so.

Meanwhile, nice catch of that day bed and the same garment in the photos!

I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

They had private rooms at the lazaret?

Yes, I think so. Nothing fancy, just existing small rooms for the personal use and privacy of the Imperials,especially Alexandra, when they were there.

[Sarushka]

OTMA's hair cuts happened well after the revolution and so would not be connected with Rita's here...she may have been ill herself at this time and got her hair cut that way... or the nurse's wimple may have bothered her when she had hair .

 I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

I don't know if this is just a quibble, blessOTMA, but I think the children's  smooth haircuts were done just a few months after the Feb/March revolution, so I don't know that I'd say "well after" it. If we can't date Rita's haircut pretty definitively we can't connect it to OTMAAs' very well one way or another.

According to Nicholas and Alexandra's diaries, the children's hair was shaved on 3/16 June 1917.

[Antonina]

They had private rooms at the lazaret?

Yes, it was mentioned in some memories, I don't remember where. And I've seen a photo signed as "Tsarskoe Selo lazaret, in Alexandra's own room".

[Rodney_G.]

OTMA's hair cuts happened well after the revolution and so would not be connected with Rita's here...she may have been ill herself at this time and got her hair cut that way... or the nurse's wimple may have bothered her when she had hair .

 I have seen these photos before...but since then  I have seen a photo  TN with Vladimir Kiknadze and they are sitting on that day bed that Rita is on here . I know that because the same  garments  are hanging behind her...so I would say this photo was taken in the family's private rooms in the hospital . 

I don't know if this is just a quibble, blessOTMA, but I think the children's  smooth haircuts were done just a few months after the Feb/March revolution, so I don't know that I'd say "well after" it. If we can't date Rita's haircut pretty definitively we can't connect it to OTMAAs' very well one way or another.

According to Nicholas and Alexandra's diaries, the children's hair was shaved on 3/16 June 1917.

Yes, the date of the children's hair shearing is known, but not Rita's so we just can't  equate the occasions for now. Interesting that their hair cutting is exactly three months after the definitive end of the Romanov dynasty.

[blessOTMA]

I consider 3 months well after and certainly well after Rita's  cut since it had to be in the AP hospital ...so before 1916
when she was in the Crimea.

Private room/s Where ever Alix's day bed was,  as shown in the photo of TN with Vladimir Kiknadze sitting on it .

Call it the  lazaret mauve room . It doesn't look big 

What's odd  is it seems  to be the exact group of garments behind Rita  as with TN with Vladimir Kiknadze I meant hung the same way, which was how I caught it ...perhaps the two photos were taken at the same time?

[Antonina]

''At home we used to speak only russian, I learned in a russian school (in Novi Sad, Jugoslavia), where all the flower of russian emigration taught  us. The ex-lady in waiting of the Tsar's court Margarita Sergeevna Hitrovo (Erdely) tought us German. She has read us the last letter of the empress Alexandra Fedorovna, written some days before bolsheviks shot all the tsar's family''.

http://www.pravmir.ru/vse-nadeyalis-v-skorom-vremeni-vernutsya-v-rossiyu-1/

[blessOTMA]

It's too  bad Rita  didn't write her memories.. I believe she died before it was advisable to call attention to oneself ( in the 50's? )  ! But she must of had some great stories.

[amelia]

Did she die in Russia?
Amelia (Eva McDonald)

[rudy3]

She died in the USA, see reply #65 (by Inok Nikolai) in this thread for a picture of her grave.

[Inok Nikolai]

Margarita Sergeevna Khitrovo "Rita" came from a large family. Almost all of them survived the Revolution.

Rita was born in 1895 and died in New York in 1952. She married Vladimir Georgevich Erdeli b. 1883 d. New York 1959. He had a son Nikolai with his first wife Elizabeth Nikolaevna Stroganova. I don't know if Rita had any children of her own.

Rita's parents were Sergei Konstantinovich Khitrovo (1865-1931) a "Gentleman in attendance" Lyubov Vladimirovna Molostovova (1865-1923)

She had several siblings:

1) Maria (1899-aft 1921) m. Konstantine Nikolaevich Bogdanovich
They had four children: Nikolai b. 1914, Vera b. 1916, Tatiana b. 1920 d. 1921, and Maria b. 1921.

2) Konstantine (1890-1919) He was an artillery officer. He died in Voronezh.

3) Vladimir (1891-1968 ) m. Olga Alexandrovna Shepeleva-Voronovich (1892-?) He died in France. They had a son Sergei b.Kislovodosk 1919

4) Arkadi (1892-1893)

5) Alexander (1894-1951) m. Lydia Nikolaevna Rozenbach (nee Viddinova). He served as a Colonel in an artillery regiment. He died in Venezuela They had two children: Nikolai b.Ekaterinodar 1919 and Maria b. 1921.

6) Sergei (1896-1920) m. Alexandra Grigorevna Strizhevskaya. He served as an officer in a grenadier regiment.

7) Mikhail (1898-?)

8 ) Lyubov (1902-?) m. Lev Alexandrovich Grekov (1902-1952) Lev was an officer in the Atamanskogo? Regiment. He died in San Francisco. They had a daughter Maria b. Cannes 1938

9) Xenia (1907-1967)

So poor Rita lost two of her brothers in the Civil War.

M. S. Khitrovo's grand-niece has again sent us some more details to the above information which she asked us to share with you all:

***********************


Margarita Sergeevna Khitrovo "Rita" came from a large family. Almost all of them survived the Revolution.

Rita was born in 1895 and died in New York in 1952. She married Vladimir Georgevich Erdeli b. 1883 d. New York 1959. He had a son Nikolai with his first wife Elizabeth Nikolaevna Stroganova. I don't know if Rita had any children of her own.  This has been already cleared. See Reply 65 above: http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=204.msg511717#msg511717

Rita's parents were Sergei Konstantinovich Khitrovo (1864-1931) a "Gentleman in attendance" Lyubov Vladimirovna Molostovova (1868-1923), a direct descendant of Generalissimus suvorow.

She had several siblings:

1) Maria (1899-aft 1921) m. Konstantine Nikolaevich Bogdanovich
They had four children: Nikolai b. 1914, Vera b. 1916, Tatiana b. 1920 d. 1921, and Maria b. 1921.

2) Konstantine (1890-1919) He was an artillery officer. He died in Voronezh.

3) Vladimir (1891-1968 ) m. Olga Alexandrovna Shepeleva-Voronovich (1892- 1986) He died in France. They had a son Sergei b.Kislovodosk 1919 – 1989  Both parents and son died in France and are buried in the cemetery of St. Genevieve de Bois

4) Arkadi (1892-1893)

5) Alexander (1894-1951) m. Lydia Nikolaevna Rozenbach (nee Viddinova), (1892 – 1975).  He served as a Colonel in an artillery regiment. He died in Venezuela. They had two children: Nikolai b. Ekaterinodar 1919 - 2011 and Maria b. Belgrade - 1921- 1986. All died in Caracas, Venezuela. Lydia Nikolaevna had been married to Gleb N. Rozenbach who died young in Montpellier, France, while in graduate medical school.  She returned to Russia as a widow and later married Alexander Sergeevich Hitrovo.

6) Sergei (1896-1920) m. Alexandra Grigorevna Strizhevskaya. He served as an officer in a grenadier regiment.

7) Mikhail (1898-1981) m. Vyakosava Antonovna Novak (1896 – 1974)  They had no children, moved in the early 60’s from Caracas, Venezuela to San Francisco, CA where they lived until they passed away.

8 ) Lyubov (1902-1983) m. Lev Alexandrovich Grekov (1902-1952) Lev was an officer in the Atamanskogo? Regiment. He died in San Francisco. Lyubov died in Geneva, Switzerland. They had a daughter Maria b. Cannes 1938 – 2012 in Geneva, m. Michael Zinovieff (b. 1938), two sons, one deceased.

9) Xenia (1907-1967).  Returned to Russia from Yugoslavia and worked at the Suvorow Museum until her death.
Couldn’t envision herself living forever as an emigrant away from her beloved Russia.  Never married.

So poor Rita lost two of her brothers in the Civil War. One was killed as he dismounted his horse to help his wounded “denschik”, the other one was taken prisoner and crucified by the Bolsheviks.  Apparently a common way to execute a death sentence at the time.

[Inok Nikolai]

Rita's portrait:


Full size: http://www.nashaepoha.ru/_Images/Editor/botkin_27.JPG

That same photo of M. S. Khitrovo appeared in the Sept. 3, 1917, Issue 34, of "Iskry", under the heading: "A Conspiracy Against the Republic"!

http://www.odin-fakt.ru/iskry/za_khlebom__34_1917/

("Iskry", the illustrated supplement to the Moscow newspaper "Russkoe Slovo", not to be confused with Lenin's socialist newspaper "Iskra".)

It also has an article (with photos) on the transfer of the Imperial Family to Tobolsk.