Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
Olga Alexandrovna c. 1910
Born(1882-06-13)13 June 1882 [O.S. June 1]
Peterhof Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died24 November 1960(1960-11-24) (aged 78)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Burial
York Cemetery, Toronto
Spouse
Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg
(m. 1901; ann. 1916)
Nikolai Kulikovsky
(m. 1916; died 1958)
Issue
  • Tikhon Nikolaevich (1917–1993)
  • Guri Nikolaevich (1919–1984)
HouseHolstein-Gottorp-Romanov
FatherAlexander III of Russia
MotherDagmar of Denmark

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (Russian: Ольга Александровна; 13 June [O.S. 1 June] 1882 – 24 November 1960) was the youngest child of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. She was also the younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia.

Olga was raised at the Gatchina Palace outside Saint Petersburg. Olga's relationship with her mother, Empress Marie, the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, was strained and distant from childhood. In contrast, she and her father were close. He died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas became emperor. During World War I, she served as an army nurse and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled with her husband and children to Crimea, where they lived under the threat of assassination. Her brother Nicholas and his family were shot and bayoneted to death by revolutionaries.

Olga escaped from Russia with her second husband and their two sons in February 1920. They joined her mother, the Dowager Empress, in Denmark. In exile, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's regime, Olga and her immediate family moved to a farm in Campbellville, Ontario, Canada. Olga and her husband moved to a bungalow near Cooksville, Ontario. Colonel Kulikovsky died there in 1958. Two years later, as her health deteriorated, She moved with friends to a small apartment in East Toronto. She died aged 78, seven months after her older sister, Xenia.

Notes

References

  • Crawford, Rosemary; Crawford, Donald (1997). Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 9780753805169
  • Klier, John; Mingay, Helen (1995). The Quest for Anastasia. London: Smith Gryphon. ISBN 1-85685-085-4
  • Kulikovsky-Romanoff, Olga (Undated) "The Unfading Light of Charity: Grand Duchess Olga As a Philanthropist And Painter" Archived 2018-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, Historical Magazine, Gatchina Through The Centuries, retrieved 6 March 2010
  • Kurth, Peter (1983) Anastasia: The Life of Anna Anderson|. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-02951-7
  • Massie, Robert K. (1995). The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. Random House. ISBN 0-099-60121-4
  • Phenix, Patricia (1999). Olga Romanov: Russia's Last Grand Duchess. Viking/Penguin. ISBN 0-14028-086-3
  • von Nidda, Roland Krug (1958) Commentary in I, Anastasia: An autobiography with notes by Roland Krug von Nidda translated from the German by Oliver Coburn. London: Michael Joseph.
  • Vorres, Ian (2001) [1964]. The Last Grand Duchess. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 1-55263-302-0