Maria's letters & notes

[clockworkgirl21]

I've always wondered if Maria really was kind-hearted enough to write that letter on her own, or if Olga made her write it.

[edubs31]

Well, to my eye, it looks as though that "scribble" was written by the same person who composed the text of the card (not Maria), and it seems to be the date "1909". Yes?

I couldn't see it until you said it, but yes -- I agree!

Nice observation there Inok! Guess that's what happens when you're trying to make sense out of something you assume to be a word and turns out to be numerical instead.

[Rodney_G.]

The fact that she signed it first isn't necessarily the giveaway because the whole 'OTMA' thing meant they might often sign letters in order of their age. But the handwriting certainly seemed to match Olga's signature below.

What is scribbled next to Maria's name on the bottom left? Is that a name (such as "Alexey"), a word, or just illegible scribble...any thoughts?

Well, to my eye, it looks as though that "scribble" was written by the same person who composed the text of the card (not Maria), and it seems to be the date "1909". Yes?

Inok Nikolai

PS: What is the provenance of this letter? From the text, it seems to be addressed to the Empress' sister-in-law and brother, Ernie -- don't you think?

Well, you're a better man than I am ,Inok Nikolai, or at least your vision and/or imagination are, in discerning '1909' there. Nice catch.

[blessOTMA]

I've always wondered if Maria really was kind-hearted enough to write that letter on her own, or if Olga made her write it.

I think it was  combination....

[Olga Maria]

Some inaccurate translations by me from the Russian text here:

Alexandra’s letters to Maria:

“Maria dear, do not forget to go to the Confession and Communion. Read the book that Father gave you. Anya and I are doing the same. God bless you from your old mama.”

“Maria, my child, do not be such a wild one. It is necessary for you to obey your elder sisters so that you won’t catch a cold. I hope that you will spend a wonderful time on the yacht. Sleep well. Blessings from your old mama.”

“My dear Maria, you will read this after we leave. I’m very sad to leave you my children, and I will be thinking constantly of you all. You’re with the elder ones, and must therefore look after the younger ones. Never leave Baby for two days…”

“Go to the hospital at the Grand Palace and visit the wounded. Is Grudno going to visit your hospital? Be sure to entertain her well. Look after Sonia when you’re already free. Send a message to me. When you wake up next morning, write to me about what you have done (yesterday), and in the evening, about how you spent your day. I’ll see you in Sunday morning at the church…”

Maria’s letters to Alexandra:

“…You know this is very strange. When I left Alexei’s room after praying with him, I felt as if I came from Confession… a pleasant, heavenly feeling.”

“My dear Mama, you told me that you would like to go to the Holy Mysteries. You know, I too wanted to be there at the beginning of Lent. I hope you will have a good visit there. I kiss you and Papa many times. Anastasia sends you a kiss. How much I would like to go with you to Communion on the 14th. God bless you. Your Maria.”

“Mama dear, I wish you a Happy Christmas and hope that God will give you strength to walk back to the hospital. Sleep well. Your loving daughter, Maria. I love you dearly and wholly.”

“My beloved Mama, I am so pleased that you will see dear Papa very soon. Anastasia or I will read the prayer with Baby.”

-------------------------

I’m very delighted to see and read these : )  I hope my inaccurate translation has done justice to the real meaning of these letter excerpts!
They have a very affectionate relationship. I feel from how they wrote each other that they have a very deep and affectionate mother-daughter relationship. It’s a big disappointment for me that they only talked about Maria’s crushes through spoken conversation! I wonder how Maria told her mama Alexandra about it! Alexandra has reacted positively to it, and even encouraged it ^^ Sweet~~!!!

[edubs31]

Extremely sweet correspondence. These were a joy to read, as you say, and I thank you for posting.

I can see where Alexandra's critics would be prone to latch onto the one ("Go to the hospital...") letter. This is the sort of written correspondence generally used to highlight the faults of the Empress as an overbearing mother, passive aggressive, and at times insensitive towards her daughter's feelings. We see here that she's more or less instructing Maria on what to do with her day and then telling her to keep a journal and report back to her on those duties she's obliged to carry out. It sounds, at times, less motherly and more like a professor issuing a homework/project assignment.

While some will look at this as being a bit cold and patronizing I think this is a perfect example of how we read too much into things and draw conclusions based on our preconceived notions of people. To me Alexandra is acting wisely here. There is never any doubt of her love and affection towards her third child, but she's also not playing games. This is wartime and the family's hospital work, which the Empress was overseeing, was of the utmost importance. She knows her daughters better than anyone and is perfectly aware that while Marie was never anything but sweet and well meaning that she also had a propensity towards distraction and laziness. That Marie at times could float adrift and was more likely to engaged in lengthy chats with wounded officers, who she was often smitten with, then carry out her daily responsibilities.

Alexandra seems to be making a preemptive strike is all. Perfectly understandable given Marie's nature.

[Olga Maria]

Great insight there, edubs31, and like always, you're most welcome!

I can see where Alexandra's critics would be prone to latch onto the one ("Go to the hospital...") letter.

There is another letter like that:

“Dear Maria,
Please distribute this picture of mine to all officers in the Big Palace. If these are much, return the rest to me. Then I send you bread for them (holy unleavened bread) which should be warmed up and eaten. I also send an image to our wounded officers. I don’t know how many they (the wounded men) are and who are not Orthodox. Many officers will be transferred to your hospital. I hope that you will send me a letter. God keep you. 1000 kisses from your old mama who misses you so much.”

I posted this in the "Working in Lazaret" thread that's why I didn't post it here yesterday ^^

It sounds, at times, less motherly and more like a professor issuing a homework/project assignment. 

I was struck with the same thought when I read it for the first time.

This is the sort of written correspondence generally used to highlight the faults of the Empress as an overbearing mother, passive aggressive, and at times insensitive towards her daughter's feelings.

Exactly! I thought more people would be persuaded to believe that she had indeed been like that.

Pondering about what the reason might be behind her writing that way to Maria, I realized that perhaps it is one of the ways she thought for her to be connected with her daughters, and tell them things in detail so that they won’t be confused of what to do. And after reading your perceptive post, I agreed with this that you said:

This is wartime and the family's hospital work, which the Empress was overseeing, was of the utmost importance. She knows her daughters better than anyone and is perfectly aware that while Marie was never anything but sweet and well meaning that she also had a propensity towards distraction and laziness. 

That makes sense. Like what you said, Alix made sure Maria did her part in helping their beloved countrymen [which all of them wanted to do]. What is good leadership if you just let your subjects do as they please? If you don’t confirm that they accomplished their tasks? I think Alexandra knew the answers to that. She knew that for success to be achieved, everyone must do their share. And she’s being fair with everyone involved in their work.

I also think that in Maria’s replies to those letters, Alexandra hadn’t just let her write about how she carried out the assigned tasks to her. Between the lines of Alexandra’s letters, I could read that she told Maria: “Also tell me about the other things you did. Have you seen someone that attracted you? Have you seen Demenkov? Were the nurses/patients kind? Who have you befriended?, Were your lessons difficult/easy? ... etc ”  Something like that. But she won’t write those things in the letter/note because she knew Maria would understand her dear mama also wanted to know those things : ) 
Or, they know they don’t need to write such in letters for they can talk about those at home. I think Alexandra wanted to discuss duties with her daughters only through paper, for they only would discuss interesting things vis-à-vis : )

[KarinK]

Romanov Russia Today:

“We have just finished dinner. Alexei has come to Mother’s to pray. Sisters are sorting out the flowers sent from Livadia by the Yanovs. Mother is trying to send Anastasia to bed but she is desperately trying to find Shvybzik, who is missing. Everybody is calling him but he would not come, the git. He was found at last 10 minutes later. We all thought that he was under the sofa. Mother started to bark and Shvybzik answered. He appeared to be sitting under Mother’s couch and we all put a great effort in pulling him out of there. I continue writing next morning at 8 a.m. I’ve just drawn back the curtain and was delighted to see that it was 19 degrees above zero in the sun. Alexei has come into our bedroom and is now lying in my bed and is playing with Anastasia and Shvybzik. [OT] are still sleeping. Shvybzik is squeaking. I think, he wants to see the “Governor”. He has done it already and Anastasia has run in with a small shovel and took it away…”
— 
Maria in a letter to her father, 18 & 19 of April, 1915

It seems that a translation of this letter was also included in a pdf file shared in this thread in July 2012, but the link led to "page not found." Does anyone know if it is still possible to find that file somewhere?

[Inok Nikolai]

Romanov Russia Today:

“We have just finished dinner. Alexei has come to Mother’s to pray. Sisters are sorting out the flowers sent from Livadia by the Yanovs. Mother is trying to send Anastasia to bed but she is desperately trying to find Shvybzik, who is missing. Everybody is calling him but he would not come, the git. He was found at last 10 minutes later. We all thought that he was under the sofa. Mother started to bark and Shvybzik answered. He appeared to be sitting under Mother’s couch and we all put a great effort in pulling him out of there. I continue writing next morning at 8 a.m. I’ve just drawn back the curtain and was delighted to see that it was 19 degrees above zero in the sun. Alexei has come into our bedroom and is now lying in my bed and is playing with Anastasia and Shvybzik. [OT] are still sleeping. Shvybzik is squeaking. I think, he wants to see the “Governor”. He has done it already and Anastasia has run in with a small shovel and took it away…”
— 
Maria in a letter to her father, 18 & 19 of April, 1915

It seems that a translation of this letter was also included in a pdf file shared in this thread in July 2012, but the link led to "page not found." Does anyone know if it is still possible to find that file somewhere?

I am the one who posted it. The document was being "hosted" on a parish web-site in Boston MA. As I had warned people here on the Forum concerning other Romanov materials found on that site, eventually the parish was going to clean up the site and probably delete things not related directly to the parish.
It seems that that is what has now happened, although I myself was not told anything. Can PDFs be posted on Photobucket? I have an account there.
In the meantime, I could send you or others a copy as an attachment to a PM or email.
Please advise.
Inok Nikolai

[KarinK]

I am the one who posted it. The document was being "hosted" on a parish web-site in Boston MA. As I had warned people here on the Forum concerning other Romanov materials found on that site, eventually the parish was going to clean up the site and probably delete things not related directly to the parish.
It seems that that is what has now happened, although I myself was not told anything. Can PDFs be posted on Photobucket? I have an account there.
In the meantime, I could send you or others a copy as an attachment to a PM or email.
Please advise.
Inok Nikolai

If you could send me the file in a PM, that would be wonderful! I've never tried to upload a PDF to Photobucket but I've read that it can't be done. Perhaps Google Docs might be one place where files would stay up for a long time?

[Inok Nikolai]

I am the one who posted it. The document was being "hosted" on a parish web-site in Boston MA. As I had warned people here on the Forum concerning other Romanov materials found on that site, eventually the parish was going to clean up the site and probably delete things not related directly to the parish.
It seems that that is what has now happened, although I myself was not told anything. Can PDFs be posted on Photobucket? I have an account there.
In the meantime, I could send you or others a copy as an attachment to a PM or email.
Please advise.
Inok Nikolai

If you could send me the file in a PM, that would be wonderful! I've never tried to upload a PDF to Photobucket but I've read that it can't be done. Perhaps Google Docs might be one place where files would stay up for a long time?

Okay, it's now in Google Docs.

This is the first time that I have put anything there, so I hope it works.

Let me know.

I. N.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0_u8gqAdHu7T0FJTlRWX04yeGc/edit?usp=sharing

[edubs31]

Wonderful to read and thank you for posting! Interesting to see how often Olga joined her younger sisters in the horseplay. And by her younger sisters I mean Anastasia more than anyone else.

I got a real kick out of reading this...

Your loving little 13-year-old daughter, first name: Nastasya; patronymic: Nicholaevna; and last name: Romanova.… Hurrah! 1,000,000 kisses.

She had a clever and witty way of expressing herself. Even being the youngest and less studious than her two eldest sisters I find Anastasia's letters to be the most interesting, entertaining, and nearly as charming as Marie's.

[KarinK]

Thank you! These letters are absolutely wonderful, I feel like I could have kept on reading for hours. What a charming look at their everyday lives, with many little details that show their personalities.

[Maria the Beautiful]

I really enjoyed reading these again.   We're lucky to have access to so many of the IF's letters.   They make them seem so much more alive and down to earth than just reading biographies.   Thanks Inok!   Good to see you posting here again.

[Inok Nikolai]

The one that always makes me shudder involuntarily is the one where they tell Papa about riding their bicycles up and down the palace corridors -- no doubt weaving in and out among the priceless vases, statues, antique furniture, etc., at top speed.
Ouch!