The Romanov Daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria & Anastasia

[Music] the romanov daughters thank you to june's journey for sponsoring this video the daughters of tsar nikolai ii of russia and his wife alexandra fiodrovna were born into the wealthiest royal family in the world olga tatiana maria and anastasia had glittering futures ahead of them with the prospects of marrying the grandest royals in europe and living their days in the lap of luxury but their little brother's devastating illness and their parents detachment from the realities outside of the palace walls resulted in four astonishingly naive and sheltered young women and ultimately the downfall of their entire family let's take a look at the tragically brief lives of the four romanov daughters [Music] ulga the first child was born on november 15 1895. among her godparents was her great-grandmother queen victoria of the uk her mother alexandra had been raised in the spartan manner of english victorian children and she raised her own daughters in the same style they slept on hard camp beds wore hand-me-down clothes and took cold baths every morning from childhood olga was noted for her compassion and desire to help others as well as her moodiness bluntness and temper as a small child she grew impatient sitting for a portrait and told the painter you are a very ugly man and i do not like you one bit she was the most studious of her siblings her swiss tutor wrote she had good reasoning powers as well as initiative a very independent manner and a gift for swift and entertaining repartee she loved to read and would often snatch a new novel before that zarina had a chance to read it she joked that her mother must wait for olga to determine if it was appropriate for her to read she also kept up with politics by reading the newspapers but novels and newspapers were her only glimpse into the life of everyday people and such an existence was a hard concept for the imperial princess to grasp she had no notion of money and thought that a millionaire who came to the palace had given her a new hat as a gift when olga was eight her cousin princess elizabeth of hessen by rein also eight came to visit the romanovs for christmas cousin ella contracted typhoid fever and died during the visit olga remarked that her playmate must have gone to spend christmas with god olga was especially close to her father she wore a necklace of the icon of saint nicholas in his honor the tsar often enjoyed games of tennis swimming and taking long walks with olga during which she would confide in him olga loved her mother dearly but as she entered adolescence their relationship became strained alexandra developed back pain and suffered a host of physical complaints which likely came down to stress and hypochondria she frequently took to her room for days at a time and ignored her children when she did emerge her daughters and son walked on eggshells around her for fear of setting off another bout of heart pains or receiving her admonitions about their behavior olga in particular was held up to a high standard and expected to be an example for her younger siblings alexandra reprimanded sixteen-year-old olga for failing to control her seven-year-old brother alexi at a family dinner during which he teased the guests refused to sit up in his chair wouldn't eat his food and licked his plate alexa was the youngest of the five romanov children after four daughters his birth was highly anticipated by the family and the empire but within days of his birth it was discovered that the zarovich had hemophilia a life-threatening disorder which prevented the blood from clotting the precious and fragile alexi was cherished and coddled by his mother and his older sisters this family vulnerability allowed for mystic healer grigory rasputin to infiltrate the romanov inner sanctum in addition to providing religious self to alexi and his mother rasputin became a companion and confidant of the daughters their governesses were horrified that rasputin was allowed to visit the girls in their bedroom while they were in their nightgowns one of the children's nurses accused the monk of raping her but the tsarina refused to believe it saying everything rasputin did was holy she had the nurse dismissed it was widely whispered that rasputin had seduced the zarina and the four princesses though there is no historic evidence of this when pornographic cartoons began circulating the tsar ordered rasputin to take leave of his family for a while because of these accusations and his growing influence on the political decisions of the tsar members of the extended romanov family brutally murdered rasputin when the four sisters heard the news of their friends demise they stayed up all night together weeping olga later wrote that she had understood how her mother's devotion to rasputin had contributed to the family's downfall and recognized that he had to be killed but she wished it hadn't been done so terribly as olga grew up she blossomed from an awkward child into a beautiful young woman she had a fresh complexion deep blue eyes and quantities of light chestnut hair the only young men she and her sisters had ever known were their guards and the sailors on board the royal yacht the girls all had crushes on these officers and olga fell in love with sailor pavel voronov but such a relationship could never be olga wrote in her diary of her heartbreak on pavel's wedding day society was beginning to buzz about prospective royal grooms for the teenage princess a ball was thrown to celebrate olga's 16th birthday she wore a pink gown and had her hair put up for the first time her parents gave her a diamond ring and a pearl and diamond necklace symbols that she had become a woman but olga had no idea how to behave at a ball and speak to gentlemen she came across as childish and graceless nonetheless the possible grooms considered for the highly eligible princess were minnie and included her cousin grand duke dmitry pavlovic of russia crown prince alexander of serbia and edward prince of wales but the thought of leaving home terrified olga she wanted to marry a russian and stay near her parents while on a trip to meet prospective husband prince carol of romania she and her sisters deliberately sunburned their faces and she ignored carol so that he would not pursue a relationship when olga was 19 world war one broke out she her mother and sister tatiana volunteered as nurses with the red cross the young women relished this rare exposure to life outside the palace and getting to know their fellow nurses and the officers in their care during a break the girls ditched their royal attendant and for a thrill went into a shop but they were dismayed when they realized that they didn't have any money and indeed had no idea how to buy something so they asked a nurse friend how olga fell head over heels for a wounded officer named dimitri cherbogov whom she called her golden mitia she was distraught when he recovered and had to return to the front and delighted when he was again injured and came back to the hospital but olga had a hard time dealing with the pain and death she saw in the operating theater she suffered outbursts of grief and rage during which she threw objects and broke windows she underwent the common treatment for depression and nervous disorders injections of arsenic and she gave up nursing on her 20th birthday olga took control of some of her sizable fortune and began to give to charity while out for a drive she saw a young child on crutches she learned that the parents were too poor to afford treatment and she paid the child's medical bills as the eldest olga was the most aware of the tensions building in the country and the impending downfall of the monarchy when the devastation of world war one came to an end the young men and women who survived wanted to live life to the fullest and they pushed for and realized more freedom than they had ever had before the thrilling decade of the 1920s is one of my favorite eras in history that's why i love to play june's journey follow june parker back to the roaring twenties and solve a murder mystery it's easy to relax while exploring at the glamorous mansion and get lost while finding hidden objects and uncovering new clues in the elegantly illustrated scenes the game is a little challenging but also easy to unwind with and has some intriguing twists and turns to keep you coming back for more so if you want to solve a hundred-year-old murder mystery and support my channel then download june's journey for free by clicking on the link in the description and now back to history tatiana tatiana was born on june 10th 1897. she and her sister olga were named for the sister heroines of their father's favorite novel alexander pushkins eugene einegen their russian titles velikaya nayasna translate best to grand princess or imperial princess higher than any other princesses in europe but not to be outranked the english referred to them as grand duchesses she and her sister olga were referred to in the family as the big pair they shared a room and were devoted to one another when olga was six she came down with typhoid fever and had to be separated from four-year-old tatiana who was distraught and fearful for her sister tatiana was the undisputed leader of the band of siblings they nicknamed her the governess and sent her as their representative to ask favors from their parents she was less intelligent than her older sister but more even-tempered and hardworking she was elegant and artistic enjoyed embroidery and could dress her mother's hair as well as a professional stylist she was the daughter closest to the sarina she knew how to give her mother the attention she craved and spent hours reading to her they also shared a deep religious devotion tatiana was especially dedicated to rasputin and kept a notebook filled with his sayings as a teenager she was given the rank of honorary colonel and assigned a regiment which she and olga inspected often she held many infatuations with soldiers but also expressed a childish horror at the idea of her cousin prince iun kissing his new wife when the princess was 15 she and olga accompanied their parents to the opera while in the imperial box they witnessed prime minister pyotr stalin being fatally shot by an assassin tatiana was especially traumatized by the event as they grew into adulthood tatiana was much more sociable than olga and took on more public appearances from an early age tatiana was considered the most beautiful of her siblings she had dark auburn hair blue gray eyes and fine features prince alexander of yugoslavia was quite taken with a vivacious princess and was caught gazing at her during family dinners his father wrote to hers about the possibility of an engagement but the tsar responded that he would allow his daughters to decide who to marry however betrothal negotiations ended with the outbreak of world war one during the war tatiana was a dedicated nurse and spent countless hours caring for the wounded and organizing supplies she complained that because she was only 17 she was kept away from the more trying medical cases like her sister tatiana had a favorite patient cavalry officer dimitri malama he gave her a french bulldog puppy whom the princess named ortipa the dog was with tatiana until the end of her life maria good-natured and affectionate maria was born on june 26 1899. she took after her 6-3 grandfather tsar alexander iii and was tall broad and remarkably strong as a child she enjoyed lifting up her adult tudor she had light brown hair and large blue eyes that were known in the family as maria's saucers the princess was particularly devoted to her father and would often escape her governess to go to papa once climbing out of her bath and running naked through the house in search of him otherwise she was a very well-behaved child she once stole some biscuits and when her governess asked her father how she should be punished he laughed and said that he was glad to see that she was only a human child and not an angel maria and her younger sister anastasia were known as the little pair and were often dressed alike maria was usually dominated by her energetic younger sister and was forever apologizing and fretting over anastasia's troublemaking maria had a bad case of middle child syndrome her sisters teased her and called her fat little bow wow and she often sought reassurance from her mother that she was indeed as loved as her siblings like them she had innocent flirtations with the soldiers who guarded the family she had a particular fondness for children and had she been an ordinary girl would have been quite content to marry a soldier and have a large family her english cousin louis mountbatten had a crush on her and kept a picture of her on his bedside until his own assassination in 1979 at 15 maria had her tonsils removed during the surgery she hemorrhaged and the doctor was so unnerved that he wanted to stop the operation but was ordered to finish by the tsarina this meant it was likely that maria was a carrier of the deadly hemophilia gene known as the royal disease which her mother had passed to her brother alexi this was confirmed by forensic pathologists studying her remains decades later had she lived to marry maria likely would have passed this dreaded disease onto even more unfortunate royal children during world war one maria and anastasia were too young to train as nurses alongside their mother and elder sisters so they contributed by playing checkers and billiards with the wounded soldiers and caring for the children of the nurses maria wrote to her father that she thought of him at the front when she was feeding the little children anastasia on june 18th 1901 the tsarina gave birth to her fourth child and fourth daughter russia had strict laws that barred women from inheriting the imperial throne enacted by tsar paul the first who had despised his mother catherine the great the court was deeply disappointed at yet another thwarted chance at a male heir tsar nikolai had to take a long walk to compose himself before visiting his wife and new baby but in spite of their sex nikolai and alexandra loved all of their daughters dearly anastasia is a greek name meaning of the resurrection and this fact would later play into the growing legends about her when anastasia was three her mother gave birth to the long long-awaited male heir alexi the tsarina adored her only son calling him her sunbeam but in his first months his parents observed that minor bruises did not heal and alexi bled from the naval he was diagnosed with hemophilia a dreaded disease that at the time meant an early death to those it struck alexandra knew well the danger her precious child was in as her own brother freddy had died from the disease at the age of two she spent nearly all her time with alexi coddling and protecting him from harm alexi was also adored by his older sisters and he overshadowed them in the eyes of their parents the zarina began to see her daughters not as individuals but as a collective calling them otma for the initials of their names they were all four dressed alike or in pairs with olga and tatyana making up the big pair and maria and anastasia the little pair anastasia had blonde hair and blue eyes she was a bright and vivacious child who preferred climbing trees to sitting still in the classroom her governor said that she was the most charming child she had ever known and a courtier noted that in naughtiness she was a true genius she loved to play pranks and cheat at games with her playmates a cousin was horrified that she ate chocolates without bothering to remove her white opera gloves [Music] all the time the five romanov children were growing up in the cocoon of the palace and their parents love russia was going through seismic changes tsar nikolai refused to make reforms to help his people and shocking inequality haunted the empire with three million soldiers dead in the war poverty and starvation rampant and protests in the streets the people would no longer abide the golden family living in crystal palaces their time was quickly coming to an end [Music] in the next video we'll follow the four romanov daughters as they try to smile through their father's forced abdication and their stifling house arrest we'll see how they met their tragic fate follow the decades of rumors surrounding their possible escape and meet anna anderson and a few of the many other people who claimed to be one of the children who had eluded doom a special thank you goes to my patrons megan kowalczyk and tenebrism don't want to wait to see the rest of the series patrons get exclusive early access to almost all of my multi-part series on patreon early if you would like to become a patron and help me make more fascinating history videos check out the link in the description thank you for watching

Channel: History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday

Views: 238,972

Keywords: queens of the world, queens of europe, Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, princess anastasia, anastasia, did anastasia survive, tsar nikolai of russia, russian history, russian revolution, execution of the romanovs, romanov family, empress alexandra feodrovna, tsarevich alexei, emperor nicholas ii of russia, russian royal family, grand duchess maria, anna anderson, royal imposter, grand duchess olga, romanoff, olga tatiana maria anastasia

Id: HonSnudWIDQ

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021