Some more information about Helena and her life in Russia:
She was very much loved by her Russian family.She guarded her husband's younger siblings,she often walked with her sister in law Tatiana,organized hot-chocolate "parties" for his younger siblings George and Vera,often corresponded with "Aunt Olga",Ioann's aunt.She was called "чародейка"(enchantress) because of her influence over her husbands family.
As a wife of the oldest son of this branch she was expected to take many duties.As she once said,she has passed the exam set by her mother in law Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna and her ladies in waiting by successfully organizing Christmas charity for the poor kids.Later,more and more duties just followed.
Soon after she married Balkan wars started in her native Serbia.She asked for permission from her father King Peter I and from the Emperor Nicholas II to get back to Serbia and start leading medical detachment as a nurse.She got 200 rubles for that detachment from her father in law,Grand Duke Konstantine and everyone of the Konstantinovichi clan came to say goodbye at the train station.
She stayed with her medical detachment in Serbia not just during the first,but also during second Balkan war.One of the soldiers said that during the war she followed her father everywhere on the war line and worked from dawn 'til late in the evening.
It is interesting that she was followed everywhere in her journey by her lady in waiting-Princess Scherbatova,who also worked as hard and also as a nurse.I am not sure,but probably her lady in waiting was Princess Alexandra Alexeevna Scherbatova(1881-1920),daughter of Prince Alexei Scherbatov and Countess Maria Stroganova.
When Helena returned to Russia she took several nurse courses and officially became a nurse in the First Imperial Army,alongside Grand Duchess Maria Pavlona-younger and followed the Army everywhere.But,because of the Imperial army retreat,they were forced to close the hospital and return to Sankt Peterburg.
She often corresponded with her husband in French and called him "my sweet Prince Jean" and after his death she never thought of starting another kind of relationship.
It is interesting that when the revolution came,she managed to safely help almost everyone who served her,from her German maid Johanna to S.N.Smirnov,who was the manager of the Pavlovsk estate...
During the exile,she choose firstly to live in Serbia because there lived the "people she could still trust".She lived there only until her father's death in 1921 and due to the difficult relationship with her younger brother-King Alexander,she left to France soon after...it is said that after her exile she hated everything connected to Russia due to her family's fate and all the bad memories that prevailed...
Here is a color version of Helena with her brothers:
