Maria's letters & notes

[blessOTMA]

Marie's letter mentioning AN and TN and a troika,  reminds me of this photo. Marie spoke wistfully  of visiting "thier dead" while in captivity... in a way our impetus to honor this family,  started with thier own wish to honor  and not forget others  and the lengths they would go to do so. How worthy they are of our remembrance.

[Rodney_G.]

Marie's letter mentioning AN and TN and a troika,  reminds me of this photo. Marie spoke wistfully  of visiting "thier dead" while in captivity... in a way our impetus to honor this family,  started with thier own wish to honor  and not forget others  and the lengths they would go to do so. How worthy they are of our remembrance.

You are so right, Annie. Let's face it, such an impulse, such a genuine thoughtfulness, is rare in most people, and almost unheard of in young people. At that age I was typically selfinvolved and , sorry to say, unlikely to have gone out of my way to honor the deserving fallen as they did .And while they had their own serious immediate trials to deal with!  I'm truly impressed.

[Inok Nikolai]

I'm going to hope for more letters in spite of (because?) of this.

Well, here is a link to some excerpts which I put together a few years ago as a names-day present for the Abbess of one of our convents.

They are from all four Grand Duchesses, so I'm not sure where is the best thread to post them.

http://www.saintannas.com/Archived_Docs_HTM/Excerpts%20from%20Grand%20Duchesses.pdf

[Sarushka]

Well, here is a link to some excerpts which I put together a few years ago as a names-day present for the Abbess of one of our convents.

They are from all four Grand Duchesses, so I'm not sure where is the best thread to post them.

http://www.saintannas.com/Archived_Docs_HTM/Excerpts%20from%20Grand%20Duchesses.pdf

These are a treat! (Especially the one with Olga and the moose head.)

[koloagirl]

Aloha all!

What wonderful reads!  I too love the "moose head" story!  Love GD Olga for having some sympathy for the poor, young moose as well!

The other one I laughed out loud about was the Grand Duchesses rushing thru the imperial halls on their bicycles - what an image that conjurs up!  LOL

Thank you so much for sharing those!

Janet R.

[edubs31]

This feels like uncovering the Dead Sea Scrolls, just marvelous to read. Each daughter's personalities come through so clearly and, to me at least, what and how each of them write is not surprising but reaffirming.

Olga) Smart and sensitive. Often pith with a lively imagination and dry sense of humor.

Tatiana) So obviously the Governess. Great attention to detail and always assessing the situation even if her remarks, at times, come off a wee bit critical.

Maria) Surrupy sweet as always. An angel who never has a bad word to say about anyone. I was almost in tears reading her last letter post-abdication to Nicholas. Who better to smooth the aching heart after such a painful ordeal than lovely Marie?

Anastasia) Playful, dedicated and extremely clever. Her typical impish anecdotes are here but I'm very impressed by her grasp of language and how she articulates things. Only 13 when her first clever sounding letter was written too!

[blessOTMA]

oh my lord, Inok Nikolai , Thank you!  Any more news on when the book will appear?

[Vanya Ivanova]

Yes, thank you so much Inok Nikolai, for taking the time to post these wonderful translations, its a real treat to read them, and hear Maria's 'voice' as it were so clearly for a change in the letter recounting the visit to the cemetery. The real sense of duty she had combined with a complete lack of affectation really stands out. What a genuinely lovely and fun person Maria must have been.

Anne, thanks also for the picture of the girls in the troika, those horses look so magnificent in their studded bridles and bells!

[Antonina]

Love it! Thanks Inok!

I love this letter! There are some words about this episode in Chebotariova's diary, and whom would you think was implicated in it? Vladimir Kiknadze!
Here's Matushka's approximate translation (from Kiknadze thread):
"5.03
The 3rd of March the Emperor came back to the army. They (ON and TN) came very early, and had to go to say good buy at 12 o'clock. The day before were, evidently, others plans. K. was sure that they will come back after the train. At 12.00 they phoned, called Rita, and then, of course, K. I was in road (...) and saw (...) K. On the left I heard the sound of their car and saw their pretty faces. I could not understand how did they could go out at that time. They had the permission to go to the cemetery. "We had such a desire to see K. , we came by car to the door of the lazaret and then went to the cemetery."

And than Chebotareva described all the girls' adventures at the cemetery))))

[Rodney_G.]

Inok Nikolai, you're the best! But I'm still somewhat lost about the source of these letters. You've posted an earlier link but my lack of Russian skills prevents me from understanding the source. Are these from GARF? From different sources? Or from your own efforts at collection?
Like many viewers here I'm incredibly glad to see them in English, but July,2012  is really extremely late in the day to find so many new letters and other sources. It's not as if there haven't been countless seekers after original Imperial Family material for decades. This site alone has made tremendous efforts since its inception more than a decade ago. So, I N, if you could clarify?

PS you're still the best

[Inok Nikolai]

oh my lord, Inok Nikolai , Thank you!  Any more news on when the book will appear?

Ah! I was afraid that this might cause one of you to pose the "$64,000 Question": WHEN is the book coming out?!

We were discussing that topic here just the other day. Everything but the actual printing of our books is done here within the monastery itself.
We have one father in charge of publications who is very talented and knowledgeable. He does all the typesetting and book design.
And other fathers do the actual proofreading.

However, the printing of our spiritual and liturgical translations always takes precedence, naturally, so it's not easy to give a firm publication date right now for the Letters from Captivity.

D. v., we would hope to publish the book in 2013, to mark the 400th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty, which would be a logical and appropriate time.

At present we are entering all the corrections and notes which we have accumulated over many years.

(And we are still hoping to receive copies of the two collections of letters which are not yet contained in our book.)

Actually, one of our reasons for having made this project public on this forum was to commit ourselves to completing it after all these years. We've crossed the Rubicon now...!

PS: And, at a later date, I would like to present a list of "Who's who?" of those mentioned in the letters, but whom we still have not been able to identify. I intend to search this Forum carefully for clues, but no doubt some of you could solve a mystery or two for us too. So, stay tuned...

[Inok Nikolai]

Inok Nikolai, you're the best! But I'm still somewhat lost about the source of these letters. You've posted an earlier link but my lack of Russian skills prevents me from understanding the source. Are these from GARF? From different sources? Or from your own efforts at collection?
Like many viewers here I'm incredibly glad to see them in English, but July,2012  is really extremely late in the day to find so many new letters and other sources. It's not as if there haven't been countless seekers after original Imperial Family material for decades. This site alone has made tremendous efforts since its inception more than a decade ago. So, I N, if you could clarify?

PS you're still the best

Well, the source for the one long letter from Grand Duchess Maria Nicholaevna was Post No. 185 above, from Grand Princess Shandroise.
http://agios.org.ua/wiki/index.php/Мария_Николаевна_%28великая_княжна%29._Письма

The home page of that site has letters from the other members of the Imperial family too.

Then too, the Russian web is full of sources; it's hard to remember where everything came from, especially since we have been at this since the wooly dinosaur days before the Internet existed!

I know that many of those same letters and diary entries were also published in the Russian book "Most-august Sisters of Mercy", which was reviewed on the Alexander Palace Time Machine site:
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/books.html?sku=64

So nothing I posted is really new; it's just in English now.

[Rodney_G.]

That was helpful, IN. I think I've presumed too many of  the IF's letters had been available in English, thus underestimating the likely majority of them still extant,but mostly in Russia and in Russian.

[blessOTMA]

[edubs31]

Ha! Cute Anne!

You could create and illustrate a OTMA comic book based on the daily events they describe in their letters and diaries...