Hello!
My formal title is "Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna Romanova of All the Russias" but it is much simpler to say that I am Maria or Marie, depending on which language one's using. Please do not bother yourself with titles (Your Imperial Highness? That's embarrassing!). I am the third daughter of Nikolai Alexandrovich (Nicholas II) and Alexandra Feodorovna, the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. I was born on June 14, 1899 (June 26 New Style) at 12:10 pm and I share my name day (July 22/Aug 4) with my Grandmama, the Dowager Empress, Maria Feodorovna.

I have golden-brown hair, big blue eyes, and a warm smile. My favorite scent is Coty's "Lilas" and my favorite "pet" was a mouse that lived in my bedroom wall! Many people say I am quite pretty, but I am not slim and elegant like my older sisters. Oh no! I take after my grandpapa, Tsar Alexander III, and am strong--surprisingly so for a girl. I can lift my male tutors off the ground! But back to sisters. I have three: big sisters Olga (Olishka) and Tatiana (Tatia, "the governess"), and little sister Anastasia (Nastya, our imp, or "shvibzik"). The sisters 'OTMA' also have a dear little brother, Aleksey (Alyosha, our Baby).

"Marie was a fine girl, tall for her age, and a picture of glowing health and colour. She had large and beautiful grey eyes. Her tastes were very simple, and with her warm heart she was kindness itself. Her sisters took advantage somewhat of good nature, and called her 'fat little bow-wow' ('le bon gros tou-tou'). She certainly had the benevolent and somewhat gauche devotion of a dog.'

Pierre Gilliard

I am sweet, well-behaved, and Papa jokes that I am such an angel, he is "always afraid of the wings growing"! I don't know about being an angel--I can be most stubborn--but I suppose in comparison to my sisters (especially naughty little Anastasia), it may be a title well-earned! Most everyone calls me "Mashka", although I'm also known as Mandrifolie. My sisters sometimes call me "good fat bow-wow" (le bon gros tou-tou)! Rather mean of them, don't you think? In letters I am often just "M." and I am called simply Maria Nikolaievna by our tutors and servants. No grand titles at home, thankfully! As for languages, we girlies spoke Russian with Papa and English with Mama. We studied French our 'Zhilik', Pierre Gilliard.

I'm a fair piano player and a good artist (many think I had the most artistic talent amongst OTMA); but I don't really take either too seriously. Another thing about me is that I love children: I tend to snatch babies away from their mothers and smother the little dearies with kisses! I cannot wait until I am married and have little ones of my own! I am not overly interested in some grand marriage to a prince--I'd be just as happy (probably happier!) with a handsome Russian soldier. People say I am affable and flirtatious; and yes, I am something of a flirt. I like very much to talk and play billiards with officers, and I often develop crushes on these dashing young men--everyone picks on me for it! But I have my own admirers! Prince Louis of Battenberg (Auntie Victoria's son. His nickname is "Dickie" and he kept a picture of me in his room all his life. I think that is so sweet!) and Prince Carol of Romania both wanted to marry me (Carol was first interested in Olga, but that didn't work out. It didn't work out with me, either).

"Marie Nikolaievna was like Olga Nikolaievna in colouring and features, but all on a more vivid scale. She had the same charming smile, the same shape of face, but her eyes, "Marie's saucers," as they were called by her cousins, were magnificent, and of a deep dark blue. Her hair had golden lights in it, and when it was cut after her illness in 1917, it curled naturally over her head. Marie Nikolaievna, alone of the sisters, had a decided talent for drawing, and sketched quite -well, always with her left hand. "Mashka," as her sisters called her, was ruled entirely by her youngest sister, Anastasia Nikolaievna, nicknamed by her mother "the imp."

Sophie Buxhoeveden

The Great War really changed everything. Mama, Olga, and Tatiana studied and became Red Cross nurses. Mama also converted several palaces into hospitals for our dear Russian soldiers. Anastasia and I were too young to be nurses, but we visited the wounded and did little things. We talked with the soldiers, played games with them, and would help them write letters home to their families and sweethearts. It was also during the war that I met My Kolya. His full name was Nikolai Dmitrievich Demenkov, and I admit it -- I was crazy about him! I would playfully sign letters to Papa as "Yours, Mrs. Demenkov." I would see him at church, talk to him out of an open window, and watch for him from Mama's balcony. Kolya was later sent to the front. I talked to him on the telephone and sewed him a shirt before he left. I never saw dear Kolya again.

The Russian Revolution was a difficult and confusing time for all of us. People say that the Revolution turned me "from a child into a woman." I don't know about that, but there certainly were a lot of frightening things that happened. I was the first of us to learn of Papa's abdication (I was in the next room with Lili when Mama found out). I was also the last one to catch the measles (I later caught it and pnemonia!), so I had to help Mama run errands and things while the others were ill. The doctors did not think I was going to survive my double illness of measles and pnemonia, but thankfullly, I did. Because of the medicines, OTMA and Aleksey were losing our hair at an alarming rate, so Mama had our heads shaved. How funny we looked! We lived under house-arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo until Alyosha's birthday in August of 1917.

"She [Maria] was a wonderful girl, possessed of a tremendous reserve force, and I never realised her unselfish nature until those dreadful days. She too was exceeding fair, dowered with the classic beauty of the Romanovs: her eyes were dark blue, shaded by long lashes, and she had masses of dark brown hair. Marie was plump, and the Empress often teased her about this; she was not so lively as her sisters, but she was much more decided in her outlook. The Grand Duchess Marie knew at once what she wanted, and why she wanted it."

Lili Dehn

We had hoped to be sent to Livadia, in the Crimea, and there was talk of us being sent to England where Mama and Papa's cousin George was King. But we ended up in Tobolsk, Siberia. We lived simply in Tobolsk, and even though it was dreadfully boring (as I am sure Baby would tell you!), it wasn't really bad. That was, until we found out that Papa was to be taken from Tobolsk in spring of 1918, apparently for a trial in Moscow, although my dear Papa committed no crimes! Mama decided to go with Papa, and I was chosen to go with her.

Why was I chosen to go with Mama and Papa? Olga was too depressed to go -- not that anyone could blame her. We had been through so much! From Tsarskoe Selo to Tobolsk, and now Tobolsk to somewhere else. Tobolsk wasn't really that bad. Truly, I could have made myself happy there. But yes, Olga was in very bad spirits and Mama thought she'd be best to look after Aleksey (who was ill at the time. He had hurt himself again) and Tania--our resourceful Governess--needed to stay in Tobolsk to look after the household. Anastasia was sixteen; "too young to be considered," according to Mama. So I was chosen. I was eighteen and would turn nineteen in June. Everyone thought I was reliable, in good spirits, and would be good company for Mama.

People often point to this as a demonstration of my bravery, saying such things as "Maria was the bravest of the girls because she left Tobolsk with her parents." I don't know how brave I was--we all cried and were terribly frightened. I think it was more about love than bravery. We seven were all so devoted to each other. So Mama, Papa, some others and I left Tobolsk and ended up not in Moscow, but in Ekaterinburg, in the Urals, after being intercepted by the local Soviet (Papa remarked that he wished we had ended up just about anywhere else. The newspapers said people didn't like him much in the Urals). We took up residence in the house of a man named Ipatiev. It was awful--lots of "unpleasant surprises"--but I wrote to my sisters and brother and I tried my best to cheer them up:

"It's difficult to write about anything cheerful, because there's all too little cheerfulness here. On the other hand, God doesn't abandon us. The sun shines, the birds sing, and this morning we heard the bells sounding matins.... Oh, my darlings, how I long to see you!"

We were all so happy when Olga, Tatia, Ana and Aleksey finally reached Ekaterinburg. Life in Ipatiev's house was downright horrid, but we were finally all together again--that's all we ever really wanted anyway. Tatiana, Anastasia and I tried to make the best of it befriending some of the younger, nicer guards. I turned 19 on June 14/27, 1918, and it was the last birthday we celebrated. In the early morning hours of July 4/17, my whole family was killed. I thank God that we were at least together on that dreadful night! Because we bore our sufferings with Christian piety, we are now saints in our dear Russian Orthodox Church.

Pictures: Growing Up Mashka

Little baby me with Olga and Mama Me all dressed as a little girl formal portrait from 1910
Another portrait, age 14 or 15 At the hospital! Me sitting prettily on Mama's balcony.

Text by "Mashka"

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