historical women + instagram | olga, tatiana, maria, and anastasia nikolaevna romanova
happy (belated) birthday @tiny-librarian!
Father asks me to tell all who have remained loyal to him…that they should not avenge him, for he has forgiven everyone and prays for them all…that they should remember that the evil there now is in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil that will conquer evil–only love. […] Give my love to all who remember me. (Olga Nikolaevna, 1917-18)
Goodbye. Don’t forget me. (Anastasia Nikolaevna, 1917)
In the early morning hours of July 17, 1918, the former tsar of Russia Nicholas II; his wife, Alexandra; and their five children were led into the basement of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they lived under house arrest following the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution. They were accompanied by Dr. Botkin, the family physician, and three of their most loyal servants. Once inside, the unsuspecting household was informed that they had been sentenced to death. Their executioners, many of whom were likely drunk, began shooting almost immediately. Chaos and cruelty ensued, and within half an hour, the slaughter was finished. Eleven brutalized bodies lay on the floor.
Nicholas, though woefully unsuited to his role as an autocrat, was a loving husband, a pious Christian, and a beloved, doting father. His marriage to Alexandra, the unpopular and melancholy German-born empress, was a true love match. Their four daughters had all grown into beautiful, conscientious, and charming young women who shared a deep dedication to their family and their country. Yet while the grand duchesses often referred to themselves as a unit, “OTMA,” they had distinct personalities. Alexei, the only son and youngest child, was a spirited boy who had persevered in his lifelong battle with hemophilia, a terrifying and often fatal blood disorder. As a family unit, the Romanovs were close-knit, affectionate, and deeply religious, as shown by the thousands of photographs and letters they left behind.
Rumors persisted for decades that one or more of the Romanov children had survived the tragedy in Ekaterinburg. These were fueled in part by the Bolsheviks’ initial claims that they had executed only Nicholas, not the empress or her children. Nicholas’ mother, the Empress Dowager, believed until her death in 1928 that her son and grandchildren were alive.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the remains of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their daughters were exhumed from a forest outside of Ekaterinburg. DNA testing subsequently proved their identities, and they were given a state funeral in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. (The Russian Orthodox clergy, however, would not refer to them by name during the service.) Nevertheless, speculation about potential survivors persisted for almost fifteen years due to the two missing bodies. In 2007, these too were finally discovered and determined through DNA and forensic analysis to belong to Alexei and either Maria or Anastasia. After almost ninety years, it could at last be conclusively proven that the tsar’s entire family was, indeed, murdered together on that awful night in 1918.
Despite the best efforts of the Bolsheviks and of the later Soviet government to erase them, many people in Russia quietly honored the memories of the imperial family. The Ipatiev House became a place of pilgrimage even after its demolition in the 1970s. The end of the Soviet Union led to a gradual revival of Russian Orthodoxy, which the Soviets had repressed. With this religious resurgence came both open remembrance and widespread veneration of the murdered Romanovs. They were canonized in 2000, and in 2003 a cathedral built on the site of the Ipatiev House–the Church of the Blood–was consecrated in their honor. Because of their sainthood, however, there is still controversy within the Russian Church over the family’s remains, even in the face of repeated scientific authentication. As a result, though many hoped that a proper funeral for the entire family would occur in time for the hundredth anniversary of their deaths, such a ceremony has yet to occur.
Nicholas II, 50 (b. 1868) • Alexandra, born Alix of Hesse, 46 (b. 1872) • Olga Nikolaevna, 22 (b. 1895) • Tatiana Nikolaevna, 21 (b. 1897) • Maria Nikolaevna, 19 (b. 1899) • Anastasia Nikolaevna, 17 (b. 1901) • Alexei Nikolaevich, 13 (b. 1904) • Eugene Botkin, 53 (b. 1865) • Anna Demidova, 40 (b. 1878) • Aloise “Alexei” Trupp, 62 (b. 1856) • Ivan Kharitonov, 46 (b. 1872)
aesthetics | OTMA–Olga, Tatiana, Maria & Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova
It is not evil which conquers evil, but only love.
also for my dear @tiny-librarian on her birthday! Kitty: I know that you struggle with your birthday every year because of the date and that it makes you sad–but you’ve always helped keep the memories of these girls alive, and there’s something almost poetic about that, don’t you think? ♥
Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, had four daughters—Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and the now-infamous Anastasia—who are often collectively called OTMA. The girls were, despite their differences, all charming, beautiful, loving and innocent. Helen Rappaport pieces together the tragically short lives of these young Russian grand duchesses through their own letters and diaries, as well as the later memoirs of those who knew them, in this ambitious biography.
“There are four of these little girls. They are bright, intelligent children, but nobody in Russia wants them, unless it be their parents,” observed another editorial commenting on the simple, unspoilt lives of the consistently overlooked imperial daughters. … [T]here was no doubt how much Nicholas and Alexandra loved their daughters—their “little four leaved clover” as Alexandra described them. “Our girlies are our joy and happiness, each so different in face and Character.”
Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
