Read Online The Romanov Sisters (Four Sisters) by Helen Rappaport - Free Book Online
Authors: Helen Rappaport
Tags: Family & Relationships, History, Biography & Autobiography, Europe, womens studies, civil war, Royalty, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, WWI, 1910s
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of course expressed in any of the heavily censored
Russian press. The whole of St Petersburg had been eagerly anti-
cipating the event, to be announced by the boom of cannons across
the Neva. When the moment came ‘people opened their windows,
others rushed out into the street to hear and count the volleys’. But alas the number of rounds fired was only 101; for a first son and
heir it would have been 301.37 The news reached many of the thea-
tres in St Petersburg just as people were leaving at the end of the
evening performance. It ‘duly called forth patriotic demonstrations
from the audiences, in response to whose wish the Russian national
anthem had to be played several times’.38 In Paris’s Little Russia, a Te Deum was sung at the St Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church
on rue Daru in celebration of the tsaritsa’s safe delivery. But the
British press was quick to note an element of dismay in Russian
political and diplomatic circles: ‘A son would have been more
welcome than a daughter, but a daughter is better than nothing’,
observed the Pall Mall Gazette .39 At a time when Russia and England were still to some extent political rivals, the Daily Chronicle wondered
* The Russian equivalent of Obstetrician-in-Ordinary.
33
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FOUR SISTERS
whether baby Olga ‘might be made a peg to hang an Anglo-Russian
understanding on’ at some future date. The seed was sown for a
rapprochement between the Russian and British royal families, and
what better way than through a future dynastic marriage?
On 5 November 1895 an Imperial Manifesto was issued in St
Petersburg greeting Grand Duchess Olga’s birth: ‘Inasmuch as we
regard this accession to the Imperial House as a token of the bless-
ings vouchsafed to our House and Empire, we notify the joyful event
to all our faithful subjects, and join with them in offering fervent
prayers to the Almighty that the newly born Princess may grow up
in happiness and strength.’40 In a magnanimous gesture to celebrate
his daughter’s birth, Nicholas announced an amnesty for political
and religious prisoners, who were given a free pardon, as well as
remittances in sentence for common criminals.
But not everyone shared the optimistic view of little Olga’s future;
early in the new year of 1896 a curious story appeared in the French
press. Prince Charles of Denmark (soon to be married to Princess
Maud of Wales, daughter of Alexandra’s cousin Bertie) had, it
appeared, been ‘exercising his ingenuity in drawing the horoscope
of the Czar’s infant daughter’. In it the prince predicted critical
periods in Olga’s health at ‘her third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and
eighth years’. In so doing, he felt unable to ‘guarantee that she will even reach the last-named age, but if she does she will assuredly
reach twenty’. This, the prince concluded, would grant ‘twelve years
of peace to be thankful for’. For ‘it is certain . . . that she will never live to be thirty’.41
*
The moment her new great-granddaughter was born, Queen
Victoria, as godmother, took it upon herself to ensure that the baby
had a good English nanny and promptly set about recruiting one.
But she was horrified when Alexandra announced her intention to
breastfeed, just as her mother Alice had done. The British press
quickly got wind of what, for the times, was sensational news. It
was unheard-of for sovereigns – particularly imperial Russian ones
– to breastfeed their children. The news had ‘astonished all the
Russians’ although a wet-nurse was also to be appointed as essential
34
693GG_TXT.indd 34
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LA PETITE DUCHESSE
back-up. ‘A large number of peasant women . . . were gathered from
various parts’ for the selection process. ‘None of them was to be
the mother of fewer than two or more than four children, and those
of dark complexion were to be preferred.’42 Alexandra’s first attempts at
Russian press. The whole of St Petersburg had been eagerly anti-
cipating the event, to be announced by the boom of cannons across
the Neva. When the moment came ‘people opened their windows,
others rushed out into the street to hear and count the volleys’. But alas the number of rounds fired was only 101; for a first son and
heir it would have been 301.37 The news reached many of the thea-
tres in St Petersburg just as people were leaving at the end of the
evening performance. It ‘duly called forth patriotic demonstrations
from the audiences, in response to whose wish the Russian national
anthem had to be played several times’.38 In Paris’s Little Russia, a Te Deum was sung at the St Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church
on rue Daru in celebration of the tsaritsa’s safe delivery. But the
British press was quick to note an element of dismay in Russian
political and diplomatic circles: ‘A son would have been more
welcome than a daughter, but a daughter is better than nothing’,
observed the Pall Mall Gazette .39 At a time when Russia and England were still to some extent political rivals, the Daily Chronicle wondered
* The Russian equivalent of Obstetrician-in-Ordinary.
33
693GG_TXT.indd 33
29/10/2013 16:17
FOUR SISTERS
whether baby Olga ‘might be made a peg to hang an Anglo-Russian
understanding on’ at some future date. The seed was sown for a
rapprochement between the Russian and British royal families, and
what better way than through a future dynastic marriage?
On 5 November 1895 an Imperial Manifesto was issued in St
Petersburg greeting Grand Duchess Olga’s birth: ‘Inasmuch as we
regard this accession to the Imperial House as a token of the bless-
ings vouchsafed to our House and Empire, we notify the joyful event
to all our faithful subjects, and join with them in offering fervent
prayers to the Almighty that the newly born Princess may grow up
in happiness and strength.’40 In a magnanimous gesture to celebrate
his daughter’s birth, Nicholas announced an amnesty for political
and religious prisoners, who were given a free pardon, as well as
remittances in sentence for common criminals.
But not everyone shared the optimistic view of little Olga’s future;
early in the new year of 1896 a curious story appeared in the French
press. Prince Charles of Denmark (soon to be married to Princess
Maud of Wales, daughter of Alexandra’s cousin Bertie) had, it
appeared, been ‘exercising his ingenuity in drawing the horoscope
of the Czar’s infant daughter’. In it the prince predicted critical
periods in Olga’s health at ‘her third, fourth, sixth, seventh, and
eighth years’. In so doing, he felt unable to ‘guarantee that she will even reach the last-named age, but if she does she will assuredly
reach twenty’. This, the prince concluded, would grant ‘twelve years
of peace to be thankful for’. For ‘it is certain . . . that she will never live to be thirty’.41
*
The moment her new great-granddaughter was born, Queen
Victoria, as godmother, took it upon herself to ensure that the baby
had a good English nanny and promptly set about recruiting one.
But she was horrified when Alexandra announced her intention to
breastfeed, just as her mother Alice had done. The British press
quickly got wind of what, for the times, was sensational news. It
was unheard-of for sovereigns – particularly imperial Russian ones
– to breastfeed their children. The news had ‘astonished all the
Russians’ although a wet-nurse was also to be appointed as essential
34
693GG_TXT.indd 34
29/10/2013 16:17
LA PETITE DUCHESSE
back-up. ‘A large number of peasant women . . . were gathered from
various parts’ for the selection process. ‘None of them was to be
the mother of fewer than two or more than four children, and those
of dark complexion were to be preferred.’42 Alexandra’s first attempts at
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