Hello -
I am interested in information about Anna Demidova, the Tsarina's last chambermaid (was she a chambermaid or did she hold a different title?). My searches bring up some information about her death, but I am more interested in who she was as a living person. Did she have a special relationship with the Empress? Why was she the maid chosen to accompany Alix? Was she married? Did she have any surviving family? I noticed her grand-neice attended her reburial cerimony.
I would be very grateful to anyone who could provide any information on who she was, what her personality was like, where she was from, annecdotes, etc. Please forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere; I tried my best to search for previous threads.
So far I know only the following: Anna Stepanovna Demidova, I believe age 40 at death (?), chambermaid to the Empress (NOT a lady-in-waiting, as Yurovsky mistakenly identified her?). Was she from a "noble" family? If she was a chambermaid, didn't that make her a single woman? I base this assumption on the below info, taken from
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/ctCostume.html :
"Attendants to the Empress (or after 1894, Empresses) and the Imperial family wore court gowns in two colors, garnet red and emerald green. The hierarchy was sophisticated and rigid. The highest title was that of Chief Stewardess of the Household, who, as a married woman, wore a green velvet court gown embroidered in gold, with a train, the length of which was determined by her rank (chin'). After the Chief Stewardess came Ladies-in-waiting (second and third class in the ranks of the Imperial Household, determined by length of service.). The Ladies-in-waiting were married women of noble birth selected by the Empress. They also wore the green velvet, but with shorter trains. The fourth class of female attendants was Full Maids of Honor of the Bedchamber. These unmarried women of the highest nobility wore the same types of gowns, but in crimson velvet. They also had small capes, which covered the bare shoulders revealed by married ladies. These women served the empresses exclusively. In the mid-nineteenth century, there also existed the positions of Chief Ladies (the fifth class) who were the equivalent of Ladies-in-Waiting, but served the Grand Duchesses and Princesses of the Blood, and the sixth class position of Chief-Ladies-In-Waiting and Maids of Honor of the Bedchamber. By 1881, the fifth through seventh classes were abolished as redundant.
The ladies of the Court also had some insignia - stewardesses of the household, ladies-in-waiting and maids-of-honor could wear portraits of the Empresses decorated with diamonds on the right side of the breast, if they had been so honored by the Empress. These women were known as "Damy Portrety" or Dames-a-portrait. The maids-of-honor were required to wear "chiffres" crowned monograms of the Empresses or Grand Duchesses whom they served decorated with diamonds on St. Andrew's blue ribbon on the left side of the breast. Many of the highest level of these women were also members of the Order of St. Catherine, and these women also wore the sash, and badge of the order.
The title of Maid-of-Honor was awarded most frequently. In 1881 189 of 203 ladies of the Court were Maids-of-Honor and by 1914 - 261 of 280. The titles of Maid-of-Honor and Maid-of-Honor of the Bedchamber could be given only to single women. Under Nicholas I a "suite" of Maids-of-Honor was established, and assigned to serve the Empress and the Grand Duchesses. They were 36 all in all and were called "Maids-of-Honor of the suite." The Maids-of-honor who were not "of the suite" had no permanent duties. The Maids-of-Honor of the "suite" received their dowry from the Court when they married. Some of them received higher titles after their marriages, but most were dismissed from the Court after their marriage. These women still had the right to be introduced to presence of the Empress, and were invited to the Grand Balls in the Winter Palace with their husbands irrespective of their husbands' official ranks. These women were highly prized as wives because of their unequalled Court Access, even after the termination of their employment at court."
