inside the palace
Above: A beautiful portrait of the grand duchesses. From left to right: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia: 1906
The children lived a life seemingly oblivious to Russian resentment outside the palace gates. Their lives consisted of drawing, painting, being educated in English, Russian, German, and French, (90, Kurth)reading, writing, arithmetic, and piano. They occasionally visited their beach palace, Livadia, on holidays. They lived in the lap of luxury with all the finest clothing, jewels, diamonds, pearls, elaborate furniture, and children's toys. Their toys were, "hardly more glamorous...than those showered on the children of wealthy St. Petersburg aristocrats or Moscow industrialists," (163, Beeche).
The children also had their own apartments in their own wing of Alexander Palace. When Alexandra married Nicky, she refurnished this area to make herself at home. Her favorite room was the Mauve Room where she would sew, knit, and read. The children's nursery apartments were, "hung with flowered cretonne and furnished throughout with polished lemonwood," (163, Beeche). Across the Mauve Room was, "Nicholas's study, his dressing rooms and a large indoor saltwater swimming pool," (99, Kurth).
The children also had their own apartments in their own wing of Alexander Palace. When Alexandra married Nicky, she refurnished this area to make herself at home. Her favorite room was the Mauve Room where she would sew, knit, and read. The children's nursery apartments were, "hung with flowered cretonne and furnished throughout with polished lemonwood," (163, Beeche). Across the Mauve Room was, "Nicholas's study, his dressing rooms and a large indoor saltwater swimming pool," (99, Kurth).
The best part of all was their close-knit family who lived together. The grand duchesses lived in the same roof but all had distinct personalities. The girls aunt, Grand Duchess Elisabeth, knew them as "Olga the Clever, Tatiana the Fair, Marie the Good, and Anastasia the Terror...they are all interesting in their way," (159, Beeche). As their French tutor Pierre Gilliard remembered, "It would have been difficult to find four sisters with characters so dissimilar yet perfectly blended," (159, Beeche). Their mother, Alex, ensured that her lovely children would have the happy childhood she never had. Alex's own childhood was tainted with tragedy so she raised her children, "with father and mother present from beginning to end, and an excess of love and affection, "(161, Beeche). Each child had their own nurse who styled the girls long hair and dressed them. Alexandra chose the girls "clothes and dressed them identically," (90, Kurth). Many of the girls porcelain dolls were gifts from Alexandra's British relatives. On sunny days the children rode on tricycles or bicycles. As family friend Anna Viroubova put it: " Monotonous though it may have been, the private life of the Emperor and his family was one of cloudless happiness," (96, Kurth). It was a child's paradise.
Right: One of the Grand Duchesses dolls still here today.