Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna, Duchess of Wuerttemberg

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

I'm a twin (the oldest one) and my sister is an inch taller and we hardly look alike.

that's a very good point....i don't know why i forgot about fraternal twins.   

sometimes my brain is self-cleaning 

[Svetabel]

i started a thread w/ a related question, but nobody has responded, so i'll try here:

can someone please tell me why Vera Konstantinovna was sent to Württemburg?        the piece in book THE GRAND DUCHESSES was rather cryptic, but never elaborated.     she had seizures (due to epilepsy?), and was a sleepwalker, i believe.   and i gather she could be difficult to manage at times, but she was certainly not the first, nor the only, difficult child in the Romanov clan.    besides, the nurseries were virtual establishments unto themselves, and need not ruffle the routines of their parents.    there were nurses, nannies, governesses & servants to "deal" with a problem child.   so why, in this case, was the child seperated, so drastically, from her family?     granted, the life she found in Württemburg was a good one, all things considered, but why did it happen in the first place?

any thoughts, insights and/or info would be appreciated.

Of course there were enough nannies, nurses and servants to care for a problem child. Possibly the Grand Ducal pair (Konstantin and Alexandra) were advised to sent away their daughter as in Germany the doctors/ physicians/medical advisers were much better than in Russia. I mean  Grand Duchess needed a complex therapy , with the best experts in such "problems", and living in Germany was more convienient (and cheaper) than visiting the experts in Europe every year for 2-3-4 times . Just my thought.

Though I'll look through the diaries of GD KN, possibly he writes something about his youngest daughter...

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

i started a thread w/ a related question, but nobody has responded, so i'll try here:

can someone please tell me why Vera Konstantinovna was sent to Württemburg?        the piece in book THE GRAND DUCHESSES was rather cryptic, but never elaborated.     she had seizures (due to epilepsy?), and was a sleepwalker, i believe.   and i gather she could be difficult to manage at times, but she was certainly not the first, nor the only, difficult child in the Romanov clan.    besides, the nurseries were virtual establishments unto themselves, and need not ruffle the routines of their parents.    there were nurses, nannies, governesses & servants to "deal" with a problem child.   so why, in this case, was the child seperated, so drastically, from her family?     granted, the life she found in Württemburg was a good one, all things considered, but why did it happen in the first place?

any thoughts, insights and/or info would be appreciated.

Of course there were enough nannies, nurses and servants to care for a problem child. Possibly the Grand Ducal pair (Konstantin and Alexandra) were advised to sent away their daughter as in Germany the doctors/ physicians/medical advisers were much better than in Russia. I mean  Grand Duchess needed a complex therapy , with the best experts in such "problems", and living in Germany was more convienient (and cheaper) than visiting the experts in Europe every year for 2-3-4 times . Just my thought.

that's a very good point as well.   it never occurred to me the doctors / specialists / etc, she needed might have been in Germany....   

that's a very good point. (you very well, may have answered my question...)     

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[Svetabel]

that's a very good point as well.   it never occurred to me the doctors / specialists / etc, she needed might have been in Germany....   .
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Why not? German doctors had a very good fame.

I've just briefly looked through the diaries of GD KN (Vera's father) of 1857-1861 years and noted such a thing. He writes about his children not so much (but constantly provides details about his wife Alexandra - he calls her in the Ukrainian style "zhinka" aka "wifie" ("жинка")) and generally about eldest daughter Olga ("our beauty Olga") and sons Nikolay ("dear Nikola") and Konstantin ("sweet Kostuha")...almost nothing on Vera    . except her bad colds. Definitely poor Vera was not a beloved child in the family.

[Svetabel]

BTW, Brian,

thanks for the pics. I've never seen that one of Vera and her daughters - I bet the picture was taken in a studio in Russia ! Snow, more snow...

[grandduchessella]

Thanks Brian (I didn't even know Vera had a bio) and Sveta (since I probably have no chance of ever reading KN's diaries, being completely Russian illiterate) for sharing. I love the insights that diaries provide and really appreciate these insights provided--and those of Serge in another thread.

Does Vera seem to have had much relationship with her Russian siblings? She was at the Alice/Andrew wedding so it seems there was a relationship with Olga. She, not surprisingly, seems much more German than Russian--did she visit Russian much?

One of her daughters, Elsa, I think, was originally engaged to the son of another Russian Grand Duchess--Alfred Coburg, son of Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna.

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

that's a very good point as well.   it never occurred to me the doctors / specialists / etc, she needed might have been in Germany....   .
.

Why not? German doctors had a very good fame.

I've just briefly looked through the diaries of GD KN (Vera's father) of 1857-1861 years and noted such a thing. He writes about his children not so much (but constantly provides details about his wife Alexandra - he calls her in the Ukrainian style "zhinka" aka "wifie" ("??")) and generally about eldest daughter Olga ("our beauty Olga") and sons Nikolay ("dear Nikola") and Konstantin ("sweet Kostuha")...almost nothing on Vera    . except her bad colds. Definitely poor Vera was not a beloved child in the family.

i sincerely hope i'm wrong, but i'm beginning to wonder if Vera was considered an embarrassment......?    that would be a very sad situation.    but, then again, Vera had a much better, & ultimately happier, life in Württemburg.

i'm guessing if they (ie: Vera & her parents -- or her mother, at least) were actually estranged, they eventually made peace.    there are certainly more fotos of Vera (and her daughters) w/ her mother in later life.

[Svetabel]

Does Vera seem to have had much relationship with her Russian siblings? She was at the Alice/Andrew wedding so it seems there was a relationship with Olga. She, not surprisingly, seems much more German than Russian--did she visit Russian much?

She frequently visited Russia and her relatives but was almost a German in her views and opinions. GD KR, her brother, felt sorry for her early widowhood and lonely life but anyway was quite irritated about Vera's character and her opinions on life around . Seems for her Russian family Vera was always an ugly duckling who never became a beautiful swan.

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Seems for her Russian family Vera was always an ugly duckling who never became a beautiful swan.

i can relate to that.

[Maria_Pavlovna]

I'm a twin (the oldest one) and my sister is an inch taller and we hardly look alike.

that's a very good point....i don't know why i forgot about fraternal twins.   

sometimes my brain is self-cleaning 

Lol, that ok. 

[Svetabel]

Grand Duchess Vera

pictures from e-bay



Moody little girl I'd say. Get the look of her face - it's very typical for her even in later years.



and a picture from on-line (I don't remember the exact source  ). Old Vera and her very old Mother...

[brnbg aka: liljones1968]

Grand Duchess Vera
(picture from e-bay)



Moody little girl I'd say. Get the look of her face - it's very typical for her even in later years.

trust me, that's the look of a very sad little girl.         

a very, very, sad little girl.




i don't think i've never seen that foto before, or i don't remember ever seeing it.

in either case, i'm unlikely to forget it now (which makes me think i haven't seen it before).
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she just looks so sad.
(that's what that look says to me...)

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[jfkhaos]

I think it's a shame that little Vera was sent away, but I guess I can say that it ultimately saved her (or might have saved her from the myriad group of Romanovs that suffered) during the time of the Russian revolution.  I have read on this thread that some of her father's diary entries barely speak of her, but what abt her mother's?  Since there are pictures from a later time that show her mother and her together, I have to wonder how relations between the two of them existed once both were adults.  Is there anything from any written documentation from Alexandra Iosifovna that exists to enlighten the subject?

[Svetabel]

I think it's a shame that little Vera was sent away, but I guess I can say that it ultimately saved her (or might have saved her from the myriad group of Romanovs that suffered) during the time of the Russian revolution. 

But she died in 1912 and never saw that Russian revolution.

[Svetabel]

Seems Vera was never close to any of her Russian family. Her father and mother prefered sweet and smooth-tempered eldest daughter Olga, her brothers (Konstantin and Dmitriy) did not have a chance to know her more as she was early sent away to Germany. Eldest brother Nikolay was exiled (and we don't know what he thought abour Vera). In fact Vera's name (and her daughters' as well) is often mentioned in the diaries of her relatives but somewhat in passing.

GD KR (Kosntantin, Vera's brother) mentioned in his diary in May 1884: "I was glad, Gracious Heaven!, about Vera's departure. I was frightened of her influence on my wife. Vera is tactless in spite of all her merits. She became disaccustomed of Russian life, our habits and customs,and  now she critizes one and all ".
In 1912, just after Vera's death :"I was not close to Vera last years but we always loved each other".

Actually Vera was very religious as all her siblings, but living in a Protestant circle had such an effect on her that in 1909 she changed her religion and became a Protestant. Emperor Nicholas II forbade all Russian newspapers announcing this fact.