An
1898 portrait of Nikolai and Alexandra. Nikolai
in military uniform and a serene looking
Alexandra, in a richly embroidered dress, wearing
her favorite necklace.
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The most valued treasure for
the Tsar and the Tsarina was their family, a
secluded world inaccessible to outsiders. All the
members of the family were united with sincere
feelings of love, mutual respect and friendship.
The relations between the parents and their
children were cordial and simple, without a shade
of estrangement and formality which had been the
norm in the families of Nicholas' ancestors when
the children had been fully in care of numerous
nurses,
Governesses and tutors.
Nicholas II was very fond of photography; he was
quite an expert and had excellent taste. With his
good-natural humor and a keen eye, he caught
funny little scenes and characteristic features
of people. The children would later start keeping
photo-albums of their own, in which they would
paste pictures and write captions. "The
Little Girls" - Maria and Anastasia - even
colored in the photographs.
Five children were
born to the Tsar and the Tsarina.
On November 3, 1895, their first-born arrived,
and the happy father would record in his diary:
"At exactly 9 p.m. I heard the baby squeak
and we all breathed freely. The daughter sent to
us by God was named Olga… When all the worries
were gone and all the horrors were over, there
began quite a blissful state of awareness of what
had happened".
It was the beginning of a
special state, the infinite plenitude which was
expressed in one single word: FAMILY.
Within the next six years
three more daughters joined them: Tatiana, on May
29, 1987; Maria on June 14, 1899; Anastasia on
June 5, 1901. On July 30, 1904, the long-expected
Heir, Tsesarevitch Alexei, was born, and his
arrival seemed to settle the problem of direct
succession to the Throne, which had been a matter
of serious concern for the Imperial couple. |
Children were divided into "The
Big Ones" (Olga and Tatiana) and "The Little
Ones". Each of the Grand Duchesses had a Russian
nurse, and as the girls grew older, the nurses became
their maids. The girls were brought up "in the
English manner": they slept on hard camp bed, with
few pillows; they took a cold bath every morning and a
warm one every evening; their clothes were simple, very
often outgrown dresses and shoes were handed down from
the elder to the younger. The daughters spoke English
with their mother and Russian with their father; Alexei
spoke only Russian.
When the time came, teachers from
St. Petersburg's University and gymnasiums were brought
in. Drawing master was Dmitry Kardovskiy, professor of
the Academy of Arts, famous for his historical paintings.
Of all the tutors the favorites were Pyotr Vasilyevitch
Petrov, who taught Russian language and literature, their
tutor of French, the Swiss Pierre Gilliard, children
called him Pyotr Andreyevitch, or sometimes playfully
"Zhilik"; and the Englishman Sydney Gibbs, or
even "Sig", a pet-name formed of the first
letters of his full Russian name which formed the name of
a freshwater fish of the salmon species. Their religious
instructor was Father Alexandre Vasilyev. All these
people remained faithful to the Tsar's Family until their
last day.
The children's life and classes were
strictly scheduled, the timetable having been approved by
the Tsarina. Like their mother, the Grand Duchesses were
good at embroidery and knitting. Alexei could knit a
little too. In a letter to his father, he informed that
he had begun "knitting a scarf of wool of different
colors".
The tutors submitted regular reports
to the Tsarina. She recorded pupils' progress and
peculiar features.
Tsesarevitch was "very
inquisitive and very quick on the uptake". He liked
to have stories read to him, had a good memory and easily
memorized poems. Grand Duchess Olga Nikolayevna displayed
the greatest aptitude for learning. By the age of eight
she developed "an interest in reading, diligence,
and a sound tenacious memory"; she was
"resourceful and witty". The infant Tatiana
always tried to follow Olga's example. She had a good
memory and was fond of reading, but she was physically
less strong and tired easily, and was rather slow at
mathematics. As Sobolev, the mathematics tutor, pointed
out, one of the major difficulties the girls came across
was that they knew "little about everyday relations
which refer in arithmetic problems". Both sisters,
Olga and Tatiana, were quite good at playing the piano
and had excellent voices.
In winter, the family lived at
Tsarskoye Selo, in the Alexander Palace. On fine days the
children played in the park; they went sledding or
skating, made snowmen, or even built fortifications of
snow. When the weather was bad the youngest came down
from the upper floor rooms into the Tsarina's sitting
room - the renowned "Mauve Boudoir" adorned
with a mass of flowers, lilacs or roses. A big basket
with toys was there for the children, and they would sit
playing on a vast carpet that covered the floor, while
their mother relaxed on her couch.
They spent summers in Peterhof, on
the coast of the Gulf of Finland, staying in the
Alexandria residence, or sailing to the Finnish fiords on
the imperial yacht Standard, which had been built for
Tsar Alexander III in Denmark. In the spring and autumn,
the family went to the Crimea. Here, specially for
Nicholas II's family a fascinating, Italianate palace
named Livadia was erected. Everybody in the family
believed that it was the loveliest place in the world.
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