Title: Royalty Grand Duchess Olga Correspondence To Her Sister Grand Duchess Xenia 1916-1920

 

Description:

 

      Grand Duchess Olga Correspondence to her Sister Grand Duchess Xenia 1916-1920 - A Remarkable Romanov Family Correspondence from one of Russia's most celebrated Royal women:   *Written in English to avoid the censors with some Russian, French and Danish *Written from Kiev where Grand Duchess Olga worked as a nurse caring for wounded soldiers 1915-1917  At this time, Grand Duchess Olga (Olga) was living with her mother, Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, at the Maryinsky Palace in Kiev waiting for the annulment of her marriage to Prince Peter of Oldenburg.
Also in Kiev is Grand Duchess Xenia's husband, Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovich, known as Sandro.
The letters include the visit of the Tsar in October 1916; the Tsar supported Olga and gave her an annulment so that she could marry the love of her life, Colonel Nikolai Kulikovsky.
It is from their grandson that these letters have become available for the first time on the open market.
Each letter is accompanied by notes prepared by the Kulikovsky family noting important events written about in the letters.
The letters from Olga to her sister Grand Duchess Xenia (Xenia) who remains in Petrograd during World War 1 include a reference to Rasputin in January 1917.  Events move fast and the February Revolution of 1917 brings an end to the letters for a period because the Dowager Empress, along with her two daughters and other members of the Romanov family move to one of their estates in Crimea.
The situation deteriorates in Russia after the Bolshevik uprising and the Armistice of 1918.This dangerous situation results in the assassination of the core Romanov family although Olga is the exception having married a commoner, Nicholas Kulikovsky; she has free movement and accompanies her husband to Novominskaya where Kulikovsky fights the Bolsheviks during their Civil War. Olga's letters to her sister Xenia resume in January 1919 describing her simple country life.
Grand Duchess Olga is sad that the Allies do not help Russia 'How I wish that you and Mama would follow Sandro's advice (Grand Duke Alexander, husband of Xenia) and go to England.
If only she could grasp the fact that this life of writing, uncertainty and horrors will go on.

 

I really hate the Allies...when will they really help - or won't they.
No tanks yet here - nothing that can help us.
  In February 1919, the situation is no better-Grand Duke Alexander was not allowed to enter Britain.
'I try to squash the idea: if really those devils could, in cold blood, kill all those innocent people (the Grand Dukes shot in Petrograd and Grand Duchess Elizabeth in Perm) perhaps they have done the same with the beloved family (Tsar Nicholas, the Tsarina, and three children) Oh no!
No! It can't be.
Olga and her family are forced to Rostov.
By 1920, they are in the Kuban, the last piece of White Russian territory with the Cossacks.
Olga has great admiration for the spirit, self-reliance, and skills of the Cossacks.
Her last letter from Russia in February 1920 is from the port of Novorossisk which is signed off 'Your loving old refugee sister'. The final letters in the archive both dated March 1920 describe their arrival in Prinkipo in Turkey.
The last letter, written from Belgrade, shows how Olga longs to be somewhere quiet and looks forward to being reunited with her mother in Denmark.

 

The correspondence of 52 letters is offered with signatures of Prince Peter of Oldenburg and Grand Duchess Olga.
  Translation and interpretation by the key authors and internationally renowned specialists Coryne Hall and Karen Roth- Nicholls.
    With the advent of the Centenary of the Revolution in Russia, the shooting of Tsar Nicholas and the end of the first World War, these letters are important and tell the vital story of the Romanov family in this turbulent time.
   

 

Condition: Used

 

Delivery option: Collection & Delivery

 

Category: Collectables