The fact that the phrase "little soul" comes up so often is an indicator that some portion of the letter was written in Russian.
"Little soul" is a literal translation of the Russian word "dushka." When writing in English, the IF used common English endearments like darling, dear, and dearie -- I've never seen the English phrase "little soul" in the IF's letters.
IMO, it's most likely that the letter was written in a mixture of languages. Alexandra in particular had a habit of rendering Russian names and words in their original cyrillic, even in her English letters and diaries. "Dushka" is exactly the kind of word that members of a multi-lingual household would NOT translate themselves -- it loses something when translated literally.
Also, to my knowledge the use of foreign languages was not banned until the IF's arrival in Ekaterinburg. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Alexandra had been writing to Anna Vyrubova in English while in Tobolsk.
Here's another "For The Record" comment based on our research:
These letters (between the members of the Imperial family while separated in Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg) were originally written in Russian. Of course, they may have contained a few words in other languages, as often happens in the Imperial family's correspondence.
The letters were translated into French for Princess Eugenie by Nicholas Komstadius, whose family had been acquainted with the Grand Duchesses in Tsarskoe Selo.
(He and his family likewise received a few letters from captivity in 1917-1918.)
We corresponded with N. Komstadius when he was already living in an old folks home near Paris. He died there in April of 1989.
Princess Eugenie herself also died in 1989; her book containing the letters was published posthumously in 1990. The footnotes are those of Princess Eugenie.
According to her introduction to the book, Princess Eugenie found the letters in a cookie tin in the cellar of her parents' home (near Paris) after her mother's death! Pr. Eugenie stated that she had no idea how they got there, and that her parents never told her about them. In her book she theorizes about how they may have come to them — but most of her ideas are pretty far-fetched and inconclusive.
Her father was Prince George of Greece ("Big Georgie"), the one who accompanied the future Tsar Nicholas II on his tour of the Orient when he was still just the Heir.
It was Pr. George who parried the second sword-blow aimed at the Tsarevich in Otsu, Japan, in 1891. George and Nicholas were first-cousins.
Here is how the letters might have ended up with Pr. George:
It is a known fact that in 1922 a Russian peasant, who had escaped from Soviet Russia, showed up in Riga with a packet of letters and photos from the Imperial family from captivity. These letters and photos were forwarded to some Princess in Paris. One letter from that packet is now at Yale — we have a copy, plus an explanation of how it got there. Other letters from that same packet ended up in the hands of some of the Romanov princes (Mikhailovichi) here in America, which they have shared with us. While the letters were still in Paris, most likely some of them were given directly to Prince George, or perhaps someone else who received them at that time later gave them to Pr. George — since he was N II's cousin.
The biggest problem with these letters is that Princess Eugenie and Nicholas Komstadius did not always fully understand the rather cryptic text and abbreviations of the original Russian, and thus, both the French translation itself and the footnotes contain errors and misconceptions. This is evident if one attempts to reconstruct the Russian text from the French translation. Then too, researchers now have access to much more information concerning the sixteen months of the Imperial family's imprisonment than Princess Eugenie and N. Komstadius did twenty years ago.
Members of this forum who also read French, and have a knowledge of the events of 1917-18, can themselves, no doubt, detect some of these errors in the French versions of these letters.
Mr. Alferieff, the compiler of the original collection of letters from captivity, knew Princess Eugenie, and he requested that she allow him to include her eighteen letters in his book.
She declined because she wanted to publish them first in her own proposed book, which, as stated above, was finally printed posthumously in 1990.
As you know, the eighteen letters contained in Princess Eugenie's book are unique in that they were written by the members of the Imperial family to one another during the period of their separation in the spring of 1918. That is what makes them so moving.
Obviously, for our own book, we would much prefer to translate from the Russian originals into English. Therefore, for many years we have been asking Princess Eugenie's heirs for photocopies of those eighteen letters and permission to publish them. So far, we have not been successful.
An acquaintance of Princess Eugenie's pointed out to us that perhaps her archives have simply not been put in order, and therefore, it may be that no one knows where the originals are located. Nevertheless, we feel that it is very worthwhile to keep trying to locate copies of the original Russian texts. Perhaps Mr. Komstadius had a set of photocopies when working on the translation? We certainly hope that this matter can be resolved before we have to go to print with our own book.
Update:
As you know by now, these letters have now appeared in English in Helen Azar's new book
The Last Romanovs: In Their Own Words, as translated by Eva and Daniel McDonald.
Helen Rappaport also cites them in her latest book,
The Romanov Sisters.
On p. 363 of Chapter 21, she gives passages from Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna’s long letter to Empress Alexandra in Ekaterinburg . Then on p. 446, note 38, she mentions the “third-hand” translations of the letters from Princess Eugenie’s book -- i.e. from Russian to French to English. Something which we have discussed here on the Forum.
Helen Rappaport also cites an earlier translation of them by Rev. Terence Wilson, published in 1993:
On p. 455 of her bibliography, she cites the source:
Royalty Digest: A Journal of Record 3, nos. 25, 26, 27, 28, June–October, 1993.
Can anyone out there send me copies, or loan them to me? We would very much like to read that translation too.
Thanks in advance!
Inok Nikolai
