Everyday life of NAOTMAA - your quick questions

[CountessKate]

I don't think it could have been via a sister - at least not during a formal dinner, and there would have been no need at an informal dinner.   I would have thought it would have been done via the numerous footmen (or nautical equivalents) in constant attendance, whom they would have known well and indeed instructed beforehand to watch out for notes to be passed.  A small notecase (Faberge, naturally) with attached pencil could be hidden inside a glove and notes scribbled on their laps when not actually eating.  As Grand Duchesses, they would have been stuck with the most senior and probably boring dining partners at formal dinners and would have needed a bit of light relief such as mischeviously passing messages to one another.

[Sarushka]

A number of first-hand sources make note of the girls' overall immaturity, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if this note-passing was done the way Romanov_History_Buff proposes. Otherwise, passing and reading private notes openly would likely have been considered rude by other members of the dinner party - formal or otherwise. For that matter, I'm not sure how formal dinners were on board the Standart. My impression is that things were more relaxed on board the yacht.

As for the girls' dinner partners, Olga was regularly paired with Sablin, and Tatiana with Rodionov. Both girls were quite familiar with "their" officers. Olga even had a crush on Sablin in 1913. Sablin and Rodionov routinely joined the imperial family for picnics, tennis matches, and deck games during cruises. I'm not sure how indulgent the officers were toward the girls, but it doesn't strike me as impossible for them to have acted as go-betweens in the Big Pair's note-passing.

[po3a]

I am a knitter and I am interested in knowing how much knitting went on with the Imperial family? Anyone know who taught Alix to knit?  Did Alix teach all of her daughters to knit? How often did they knit and what kind of things did they knit?
Thanks,
Po3a

[tatianolishka_1]

There are seemingly HUNDREDS of photographs depicting the girls knitting, sewing, or doing other needleworks. Alix refused to have the girls be idle and almost always had a needleworks project in hand. There is a lovely photo of a young Anastasia sitting on a piano bench in the Mauve Boudouir knitting a rather large blanket that indicates some level of skill.

Alix was likely taught by a maid at her father's court, or possibly her mother if she was taught very early on.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

The photo of Anastasia knitting...

[PAVLOV]

What a marvellous photograph ! So clear, all the details.
Many members of Royal families in Europe were knitters, and did needlepoint.
King George Vl did needlepoint, and knitted. Queen Mary taught all her children. She did not believe in anyone wasting time by doing nothing.
I think Alexandra started a "knitting circle' when she first became Empress, but that this was sneered at by the members of the court. It was not a success.
I think knitting was a sort of Royal tradition.
I wonder what she was knitting, looks like a blanket for one of the royal pets !  Maybe she was just knitting for the sake of it.
       

[po3a]

I am really interested in what life was like for Alix when she first arrived in Russia.  We all know about all the big adjustments she had to make in her new life---I'm interested in the small day to day things she experienced.  I would love to learn more about the knitting circle she tried to start...ideas on where I could find that kind of Information?

[amy]

Thank you all for your wonderful contributions. I hadn't really considered what they wrote on let alone that it could have been easily concealed. After you mentioned this, CountessKate, I had an "a ha!" moment. The same with your impressions of the relaxed atmosphere on the Standart, Saruska.

In all it makes sense. While not an earth-shattering find, it is consistent with what is already known of the daughters.

[Olga Maria]

A pity their works are not photographed up to this time.

[Sarushka]

Do Apapa and Amama actually mean 'grandpa' and 'grandma' in Russian (or Danish, or anything else) or were those terms pet names invented and used exclusively by the imperial family?

To my knowledge only babushka and dedushka mean 'grandfather' and 'grandmother,' in Russian, but I'm not fluent enough to know whether or not Apapa and Amama might be equivalent to American colloquialisms like nana, poppa, gram, and gramps.

[Belochka]

Do Apapa and Amama actually mean 'grandpa' and 'grandma' in Russian (or Danish, or anything else) or were those terms pet names invented and used exclusively by the imperial family?

Neither words are Russian.

[Ena]

Do Apapa and Amama actually mean 'grandpa' and 'grandma' in Russian (or Danish, or anything else) or were those terms pet names invented and used exclusively by the imperial family?

To my knowledge only babushka and dedushka mean 'grandfather' and 'grandmother,' in Russian, but I'm not fluent enough to know whether or not Apapa and Amama might be equivalent to American colloquialisms like nana, poppa, gram, and gramps.

These terms come from King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark.  I don't know if they are Danish in origin, but Constantine II of Greece acknowledged that out of tradition, his grandchildren refer to him and Queen Anne-Marie as "Apapa" and "Amama".

[Sarushka]

Thanks for the info.

Does anyone know what name OTMAA used to address their grandmother, Marie Fedorovna? Babushka? Amama? Grandmama? I don't seem to have any letters from OTMAA to MF in my collection.

[V_Corona]

Dear Sarushka, a quote from an article written by David Chavchavadze:
"...My mother’s mother was Princess Marie of Greece and Denmark, daughter of King George I and Queen Olga of the Hellenes. I called her Amama, the name Danish children used for grandmothers....Amama and her husband Apapa produced two children, Nina (my mother) and Xenia, born in 1901 and 1903..."
"...My other grandmother, born a Russian bearing the untitled but noble name of Rodzyanko, became a princess by marrying Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, and when they were divorced she married another Russian prince, Peter Troubetzkoy. I was instructed to call this grandmother  “Babady,” obviously some child’s corruption of “babushka,” which means “grandmother,” not “kerchief” in Russian..."

[nena]

Thanks for the info.

Does anyone know what name OTMAA used to address their grandmother, Marie Fedorovna? Babushka? Amama? Grandmama? I don't seem to have any letters from OTMAA to MF in my collection.

In which form? Photos or in written> I have Aleksei's from July 10th 1914, and one of Olga we translated, do you remember?



He called her 'Babushka'. :-D It is diminutive, as far as I know.

Мы сегодня были у бабушки въ саду и нашли много грибовъ. Ольга.

We were today in Grandma's garden and found many mushrooms. Olga.

So Olga also called her 'Babushka'.