Romanova Maria Nikolaevna: biography and photos

Maria Romanova - one of the daughters of Nicholas II. All the twists and turns of her fate were associated with belonging to the crowned family. She lived a short life, which ended on a summer night in 1918 because of the massacres of the Bolsheviks. The figure of Mary, her sisters, brother and parents became symbols of the tragic history of Russia and the senseless cruelty of the Civil War.

Birth

The third daughter of the last Russian Tsar Romanov Maria Nikolaevna was born June 14, 1899 in Peterhof, where the summer vacation of the imperial family took place. The third pregnancy of Alexandra Feodorovna was not easy. She even fainted, which is why she had to spend the last few weeks in a special gurney. Approximate and doctors seriously feared for the life of the mother and child, but, in the end, the birth was successful. The girl was born strong and healthy.

Romanova Maria Nikolaevna was baptized on June 27. The ceremony was conducted by John Janishev, the spiritual father of the imperial family. In Peterhof church at that moment there were about 500 people - relatives, foreign envoys, courtiers, maid of honor. The solemn ceremony ended with a salute of 101 shots, church chants and a bell ringing. True, the very next day Nikolay's father's joy was replaced by bitterness because of news about the death of brother George, who died of tuberculosis.

Childhood

Her nurse Maria and her sisters were Margarita Iger, an Englishwoman. She worked in Russia for six years and, returning home, she published her memoirs about the royal family. Thanks to these memoirs and many other documents left by witnesses and contemporaries, today it is possible to restore thoroughly the features of the personality and character of the Grand Duchess. Romanova Maria Nikolaevna was a cheerful and moving girl with dark blue eyes and light blond hair. In adolescence and adolescence, she was distinguished by high growth.

Because of the simplicity and good-natured nature of the princess in the family began to call Masha. Mary often used the name. The habit of calling relatives in English manners was the norm for the royal family. Most of all, Maria was friends with her younger sister Anastasia, under the influence of which she was very naughty, and later she began to play tennis. Another favorite hobby of girls was music - often they included a gramophone and leaped to his melody until exhaustion. Under the daughters' bedroom was Alexandra Fyodorovna's room, in which she hosted various officials. The uproar often led to embarrassments, because of which the empress had to send a lady-in-waiting there. Maria and Anastasia were considered the "younger" couple as opposed to the "elder" - Olga and Tatiana.

As a child, the sisters had a general reduction in OTMA (according to the first letters of names), by which they signed letters. The Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova spent most of her life with her family in Tsarskoe Selo. Her parents did not like the St. Petersburg Winter Palace - it was too big and there were often drafts that often caused children's illness.

Every summer the family went on a cruise on the yacht "Standart". They traveled mainly along the Gulf of Finland and small islands. The Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova comparatively rarely went abroad. Twice she visited numerous relatives in England and Germany. The royal family, thanks to numerous marriages, was closely associated with all European dynasties.

In early childhood, the girl spent a lot of time with her nanny. Many interesting and curious episodes of the biography of the royal family were connected with Margarita Yeager. For example, because of her nanny Romanova Maria Nikolaevna acquired the Irish accent of English (she was born in Belfast). "Skewed" led to the fact that the royal family hired a new teacher, Charles Sydney. He corrected the Irish accent of Mary and her sisters.

The girl began to study at eight. Her first subjects were calligraphy, reading, God's law and arithmetic. Then foreign languages (English, French, German) and natural sciences were added. Also, the piano playing and dancing were taught, without which Maria Nikolaevna Romanova could not do without. The daughter of Nicholas 2 had to correspond to her status and possess all the skills accepted among girls in the highest aristocratic environment. Maria was best given English, on which she often communicated with her parents.

Education

The girl's mother was very strict. Quite differently behaved Nicholas. My father often scolded Maria and her other children where Alexandra Feodorovna could punish or abolish. The Empress kept her daughters in shear gloves - followed the circle of their communication. When the girls grew up, the mother began to fear their rapprochement with any aristocratic families or even cousins. From the point of view of Alexandra Feodorovna, correct education must necessarily have been deeply orthodox. The influence of the mother markedly affected the views and the characters of the daughters. All of them (especially Olga, but also Mary) became mystical and zealous Christians.

Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, like her sisters, never married - prevented the war. Of course, the king's daughters were seen as potential brides of future heirs to the thrones in other European powers. However, as contemporaries noted, Maria, because of her deep Orthodox faith, did not want to marry a foreigner at all. Together with her sisters, she dreamed of a marriage with a Russian aristocrat in her homeland.

Alexandra Fedorovna, having isolated her daughters from any outside companies, made them infantile. Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, already grown up, could talk like a 10-year-old girl. Deprived of communication with contemporaries and living according to the peculiar rules of the court, she experienced certain difficulties in dealing with the adult world.

In the education of the Emperor's daughters, there were still many strange features. For example, for a while, the supervision of the girls went to Catherine Schneider, the bishop of Alexandra Feodorovna. A German by birth, she had a bad idea of Russian realities. Her horizons were limited to the rules of yard etiquette. Finally, the parents treated Mary and her sisters as little girls, even when they were already approaching the threshold of the twentieth anniversary. For example, Alexandra Feodorovna personally checked every book that her daughters received.

Brother and Rasputin

Mary was the third of four daughters of the king. In 1904 the Emperor finally had a son, Alexei, who became heir to the throne. The boy suffered from hemophilia - a serious disease, because of which he repeatedly found himself on the edge of life and death. The aureole of the cesarevitch was a secret family. About him knew a few, including Maria Nikolaevna Romanova.

My daughter Nikolai was very fond of her younger brother. This deep sentimental feeling became the reason of attachment to Grigory Rasputin. Siberian peasant, who came to St. Petersburg, was able to help the heir to the throne. He relieved the boy's suffering. The main means of this strange pilgrim was prayer. His mysticism further strengthened the fanatical faith in Christianity of the Emperor's daughters. After the murder of Rasputin, Maria attended his burial service.

During the war

According to the Romanov tradition at the age of 14, Mary was made a colonel of the 9th Dragoon Kazan Regiment. Exactly one year after this event, the First World War began. German Emperor Wilhelm II was a cousin of Mary's paternal uncle. On the day of the war, the girl was crying bitterly - she did not understand why the next of kin could not agree among themselves.

Romanova Maria Nikolaevna knew nothing about what bloodshed was. The events of the Russo-Japanese War and the first revolution fell on an almost unconscious age. Now the girl had to plunge into completely different conditions of existence. Maria and Anastasia worked in hospitals - sewing clothes for the wounded, preparing bandages, etc. While Olga and Tatyana became full-fledged sisters of mercy, their younger sisters were still too young for this. Maria and Anastasia arranged balls in hospitals, played cards with the soldiers, read them. The third daughter of Nikolay liked to start conversations with the wounded, to question them about children and families. Each girl was given a gift to the soldier. Often these were images and icons. During the war, one of the hospitals in honor of Mary was named Mariinsky.

In addition to the fact that Wilhelm was the closest relative of the royal family, Alexandra Fedorovna herself was also of German descent. These facts have become fertile ground for rumors that the empress, princesses and in general the whole crowned family, in one way or another, sympathizes with the enemy. These speculations were especially popular among the military. In hospitals, some soldiers and officers deliberately started talking about the German Kaiser in order to prick girls. Maria's direct questions about "Uncle Willy" every time answered that she does not consider that her uncle and does not want to hear about him.

The February Revolution

In February 1917, Princess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova was in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. At the end of the month in Petrograd, mass protests of the city's residents began, dissatisfied with the lack of bread. On March 2, the spontaneous actions ended in the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne. At that time the Emperor was at GHQ on the front. On the way to Petrograd, while on the train, he signed a renunciation (for himself and for his son).

The news of the decision of the father Maria found out thanks to the Grand Duke Pavel Aleksandrovich, specially arrived at the Alexander Palace. The building was surrounded by a detachment of soldiers still loyal to the oath. On March 8, Count Pavel Benckendorff informed the Romanov family that from this day on she was under house arrest. Nikolai arrived at the palace the next morning.

On the same day, a measles epidemic broke out in the building. Marana Romanova also got infected. The third daughter of the emperor fell ill after her older sisters. The temperature rose very high. The concurrent cold may have caused pneumonia. For several days the princess did not get out of bed, she began to feel nonsense. Otitis soon increased. The girl even for a while was deaf in one ear.

House arrest

After recovery, the former princess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova returned to the usual measured life in Tsarskoe Selo. On the one hand, the schedule of her day did not change - she continued to study, and spent her free time in entertainment with her family. But there were also noticeable changes. Princes began to do more cleaning of the house, cooking, etc. The time for walks was reduced. Members of the Romanov family could not leave Tsarskoye Selo, a grating crowd greeted them near the bars. The free press (especially the left-wing newspapers) vilified the renegade emperor and his family in every possible way.

The situation was getting worse every day. The fate of the Romanovs was not clear. Living in Tsarskoe Selo, the members of the dynasty were in limbo. After the abdication, Nicholas asked Kerensky to send him to Murmansk, from where he and his family could move to England to his cousin George V. The Provisional Government gave its consent and set about negotiations with London. Soon, preliminary consent came from England. However, the departure was postponed for a while. This was done for the reason of all the same measles, which the princesses were ill, including Romanova Maria Nikolaevna. The daughter of Alexandra Feodorovna recovered, but in April George had already withdrawn his invitation. The British king changed his mind because of the unstable political situation in his own country. In the parliament, the left has raised a flurry of criticism toward the monarch because of his intentions to shelter a deposed relative. The English ambassador George Buchanan, while telling Kerensky about the will of his king, wept. Nikolai's news about the cousin's demarche took firm and calmly.

Departure from Tsarskoe Selo

In the conditions of a burst of anti-monarchist sentiments, the Provisional Government decided to move the Romanovs away from Petrograd and Moscow. Kerensky personally discussed this issue with Nikolai and his wife. In particular, the option of moving to Livadia was considered. But, ultimately, it was decided to send the former crowned family to Tobolsk. On the one hand, Kerensky urged Nicholas to leave the Tsarist village, explaining that the Romanovs would be in constant danger there. On the other hand, the head of the Provisional Government could choose Tobolsk in order to please the left, claiming that the renounced emperor was a serious danger and a figure around which radical monarchists come together.

The train with the Romanovs left Tsarskoye Selo on August 2, 1917. The composition was under the flag of the Red Cross. The Provisional Government tried to hide all evidence of the movements of the royal family. Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, whose photo had always been seen in the newspapers, along with her relatives, disappeared from public view. The train arrived in Tyumen on August 5. Then the Romanovs were transferred to a steamer and on Tobol reached Tobolsk, where they settled in the house of the former governor. With family moved a few servants - the maid of honor and the teacher.

Tobol'sk

The life of the Romanovs in Tobolsk was calm and undistinguished. But soon clouds began to gather over the family. In October 1917, power in Petrograd passed to the Bolsheviks. Unlike the Provisional Government, they did not feel any tolerance for the royal family. The new government was going to judge Nicholas. For this purpose it was planned to transport the entire family to Moscow or Petrograd. Leo Trotsky was going to become the prosecutor at the trial .

The new protection of the Romanovs in Tobolsk treated them much more unkindly than before. In April 1918 the convicts (except Nikolai) burned their diaries and letters, fearing searches and raids. This was done by Romanova Maria Nikolaevna. The girl's biography promised to be completely different, but in the circumstances of the revolutionary chaos of the daughter of the tsar, there was nothing left but to give up the last reminder of the former carefree life.

On April 23, Commissar Yakovlev informed Nicholas of his intention to take him away from Tobolsk. He tried to argue, but then the prisoner was reminded of his servitude status. The Bolsheviks were going to take Nikolai one, but, in the end, with him went Alexandra Fedorovna and Romanova Maria Nikolaevna. The third daughter gathered in the road after her mother chose her. Most likely, Alexandra Feodorovna decided to take Maria with her because she was the physically strong of four sisters at the time.

None of the travelers knew where they were being taken. Nicholas supposed that the Bolsheviks were going to send him to Moscow in order that he personally sign a separate Brest peace. Among the escorts there was also no unity. After all sorts of intrigues among the Bolsheviks in late April, the prisoners were brought to Ekaterinburg. Upon arrival in the city, almost all of the retinue of the family were sent to a local prison.

Death

The Romanovs were placed in the house of the engineer Ipatiev. A month later, on May 23, the rest of the family arrived there. The last days of the Romanovs can be judged by Nicholas's diary. He led him throughout most of his conscious life and did not abandon it even after this habit was simply dangerous. In the evenings, Maria and her relatives spent time with a bezik (a popular card game) or played skits from performances. Together with her father, she read Tolstoy's War and Peace.

In early July, the Bolsheviks realized that they would inevitably have to surrender Yekaterinburg to the approaching white. The retreat was only a matter of time. In the circumstances, the leaders of the party decided to get rid of the royal family. Evidence of how the fate of the Romanovs was being decided is contradictory, but today historians generally agreed that the last word was for Lenin and Sverdlov.

At night, from July 16 to July 17, 1918, a truck approached Ipatievsky's house, which was soon used as a corpse. The Romanovs and their servants were sent down to the basement. Until the last second they did not suspect their fate. The head of the firing squad read out the fateful resolution, and then fired at the former tsar. Then the rest of the Bolsheviks did the same thing with the rest of the imperial family.

The tragic death of the Romanovs shocked many: monarchists, liberals, foreign public. Over the years, Soviet power has perverted the facts of treacherous murder. Many of his circumstances became known only in recent decades. Especially the Romanovs were grieving in emigration. Each poem dedicated to Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, every obituary and every witness of contemporaries who knew and saw the princess, unanimously testified that she was an outstanding girl, worthy of her high status and unfairly deceased at the whim of the new government. Remains of the daughter of the king (and her brother Alexei) were discovered only in 2007, although the burial of the rest of the Romanovs was found in the early 1990s. In 2015, the government decided to reburial them.