Olga's Letters

[thelastimpofrussia]

Just checked all of my sources, all I could find was it was mentioned in the Alexander Palace Main website (Olga N. Bio) and on Livadia.org. I will go and check again with written sources, as I didn't check those.

[Sunny]

I'll check on Le tsarevitch, maybe if i could find a french version we could make comparison.

[Sarushka]

The lack of her saying Papa does make it seem a little less believable...

That could just be a matter of translation.

I *think* I saw a letter that said this, but if Sarushka hasn't seen it, I'm not sure if anyone has!

I thought I saw a slightly larger excerpt a few years ago, but I've never been able to relocate it. I distinctly remember that I was reading on a park bench during my lunch break and ran across something that made me think to myself, Oh there it is!, so it must have been an English-language book. For a long time I was sure it was the reprint of The Last Grand Duchess, but I haven't been able to find anything in there since. I suspect I've associated that I've-found-it moment with the wrong factoid.

Sources I've checked:
APTM
Livadia.org
Lifelong Passion
Fall of the Romanovs
Pered Rasstrelom
Le Tsarevitch

There are about a dozen letters from Olga in Pis'ma Tsarskoi Sem'i iz Zatocheniia that I have no translations for yet. A few letters in that book are known to be forgeries, though, so if it is in there it's not automatically a guarantee of authenticity.

[Sunny]

Le Tsarevitch[/i]

I was searching in Le tsarevitch in this moment not knowing you have already done it, and found nothing, of course. 

[thelastimpofrussia]

That's okay Sunny, at least you were kind enough to look!

So for the moment, we aren't exactly sure if it is a real quote or a letter.... Sarushka, can you scan for certain words like evil, love, Father, and etc?

[Sarushka]

The quote appears in Peter Kurth's Tsar (pg 221) as well as Rappaport's Last Days of the Romanovs (pg 166). Unfortunately, neither book gives a source.

It does not appear in Gilliard, Dehn, Buxhoeveden, or Vyrubova. (Based on a search for "conquer.")

[thelastimpofrussia]

Helen Rapport please get on! sarushka, sorry for asking so much of you, but could you maybe cross check their sources? I only have LDE by Rapport *cries* just joking I have never seen the quote so full though!

"Father asks to have it passed on to all who have remained loyal to him and to those on whom they might have influence, that they not avenge him; he has forgivin and prays for everyone; and not to avenge themselves, but to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love."

[Sarushka]

Found it on pg 375 of Pis'ma Tsarskoi Sem'i iz Zatocheniia. (I'd type it out in Russian, but the spelling is pre-revolutionary and the cyrillic keyboard converter I use does not include all the necessary letters.)

As usual it gives only the famous quote with no further context, no date, and no recipient. It does, however, list a source -- a Russian journal called Православная Жизнь [Orthodox Life] July 1968, No 7, pgs 3-4.

Again, Pis'ma contains letters that have since been proven as forgeries, so I'm still suspicious. I further have no idea whether Orthodox Life is considered reliable.

[thelastimpofrussia]

Does anyone by some mysterious chance have the above magazine? I don't, sadly, and I'm not entirely sure that the quote is paraphrased from her father... The way she words it (if it is indeed hers) gives it a little more religious tone...

[blessOTMA]

"Father asks to have it passed on to all who have remained loyal to him and to those on whom they might have influence, that they not avenge him; he has forgiven and prays for everyone; and not to avenge themselves, but to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love."

Thanks for finding that full quote! If it's an actual quote, to me, she's speaking about Nicholas.

[Sarushka]

Does anyone by some mysterious chance have the above magazine?

The magazine is published by the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY, and it is still in print:
http://www.jordanville.org/orthodoxlife.html

I'll try emailing the monastery to see if they keep back issues in their archive.


Incidentally, Jordanville is the same publisher of Pis'ma Tsarskoi Sem'i iz Zatocheniia.

[Sunny]

"Father asks to have it passed on to all who have remained loyal to him and to those on whom they might have influence, that they not avenge him; he has forgivin and prays for everyone; and not to avenge themselves, but to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love."

Now there's no chance i was right: she is definitively referring to Nicholas.
Well,. guys, sorry, then; i misunderstood, no chance... ^^ I'll try to put my "Catholic mind" a bit aside next time!

[thelastimpofrussia]

I sent an email too, hope it works!

[Sarushka]

Helen Rappaport's source was pg 596 of Divnyi Svet. Once again no further context or information regarding the original letter is given, but Divnyi Svet does reference a 1990 issue of a California-based journal called Orthodox Word as its source for the quote. I've emailed Orthodox Word requesting a copy of the article. I suspect it's is going to circle me right back to the Jordanville publications, but you never know...

[Sarushka]

Helen Rappaport's source was pg 596 of Divnyi Svet. Once again no further context or information regarding the original letter is given, but Divnyi Svet does reference a 1990 issue of a California-based journal called Orthodox Word as its source for the quote. I've emailed Orthodox Word requesting a copy of the article. I suspect it's is going to circle me right back to the Jordanville publications, but you never know...

Orthodox Word's source is a book called Pis'ma Tsarstvennikh Muchenikov iz Zatocheniya. It's not a book I'm familiar with, and does not seem to be in print. I *might* be able to interloan a copy from University of Michigan, but hopefully someone here will have one and save me the trouble...