Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia

2/6/2018 Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia - Wikipedia
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of

Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (Russian: О́льга
Grand Duchess Olga
Алекса́ндровна; 13 June [O.S. 1 June] 1882 – 24 November 1960) was the
Alexandrovna
youngest child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and younger sister of
Emperor Nicholas II.
She 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.
In 1901, at 19, she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, who was
privately believed by family and friends to be homosexual. Their marriage of 15
years remained unconsummated, and Peter at first refused Olga's request for a
divorce. The couple led separate lives and their marriage was eventually
annulled by the Emperor in October 1916. The following month Olga married
cavalry officer Nikolai Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several
years before. During the First World War, the Grand Duchess served as an
army nurse at the front and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the
downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled to the
Born 13 June 1882
Crimea with her husband and children, where they lived under the threat of
Peterhof Palace, Saint
assassination. Her brother and his family were shot by revolutionaries.
Petersburg, Russian
Olga escaped revolutionary Russia with her second husband and their two sons Empire
in February 1920. They joined her mother, the Dowager Empress, in Denmark. Died 24 November 1960
In exile, Olga acted as companion and secretary to her mother, and was often (aged 78)
sought out by Romanov impostors who claimed to be her dead relatives. She Toronto, Ontario, Canada
met Anna Anderson, the best-known impostor, in Berlin in 1925. After the
Spouse Duke Peter Alexandrovich
Dowager Empress's death in 1928, Olga and her husband purchased a dairy
of Oldenburg
farm in Ballerup, near Copenhagen. She led a simple life: raising her two sons,
(m. 1901; annulled 1916)
working on the farm and painting. During her lifetime, she painted over 2,000
Nikolai Kulikovsky
works of art, which provided extra income for both her family and the
(m. 1916; d. 1958)
charitable causes she supported.
Issue Tikhon Nikolaevich (1917–
In 1948, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's regime, Olga fled with her 1993)
immediate family to a farm in Ontario, Canada. With advancing age, Olga and Guri Nikolaevich (1919–
her husband moved to a bungalow near Cooksville, Ontario. Colonel 1984)
Kulikovsky died there in 1958. Two years later, as her health deteriorated, Olga House Holstein-Gottorp-
moved with friends to a small apartment in East Toronto. She died aged 78, Romanov
seven months after her older sister, Xenia. At the end of her life and
Father Alexander III of Russia
afterwards, Olga was widely labelled the last Grand Duchess of Imperial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Olga_Alexandrovna_of_Russia 1/15
Russia. Mother Dagmar of Denmark
Contents
Early life
Court life
War and revolution
Anna Anderson
Danish residency and exodus
Emigration to Canada
Legacy
Ancestry
Notes
References
External links
Early life
Olga was the youngest daughter of Tsar Alexander III and his consort, Marie
Feodorovna, formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was born in the
purple, i.e. during her father's reign, on 13 June 1882 in the Peterhof Palace,
west of central Saint Petersburg. Her birth was announced by a traditional 101-
gun salute from the ramparts of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and similar
salutes throughout the Russian Empire.[1] Her mother, advised by her sister,
Alexandra, Princess of Wales, placed Olga in the care of an English nanny,
Elizabeth Franklin.[1]
The Russian imperial family was a frequent target for assassins, so for safety
reasons the Grand Duchess was raised at the country palace of Gatchina, about
50 miles (80 km) west of Saint Petersburg. Olga and her siblings were not
accustomed to a lavish early lifestyle. Conditions in the nursery were modest,
even Spartan.[2] They slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold
water, and ate porridge for breakfast.[2]
Olga left Gatchina for the first time in 1888 when the imperial family visited
the Caucasus. On 29 October, their return train approached the small town of
Olga (centre front) with her father,
Borki at speed. Olga's parents and their four older children were eating lunch
Alexander III, 1888. Back row (left to
right), her siblings and mother: in the dining-car when the train lurched violently and came off the rails. The
Grand Duke Michael, Empress carriage was torn open; the heavy iron roof caved in, and the wheels and floor
Marie, Grand Duke Nicholas (later of the car were sliced off. Survivors claimed the Tsar crawled out from beneath
Nicholas II), Grand Duchess Xenia the crushed roof, and held it up with "a Herculean effort" so that the others
and Grand Duke George. could escape;[3] a story subsequently considered unbelievable.[4] There were 21
fatalities. Empress Marie helped tend the wounded, and made makeshift bandages from her own clothes.[5] An official
investigation found that the crash was an accident,[6] but it was widely and falsely believed that two bombs had been
planted on the line.[5]
The Grand Duchess and her siblings were taught at home by private tutors. Subjects included history, geography, Russian,
English and French, as well as drawing and dancing.[7] Physical activities such as equestrianism were taught at an early
age, and they became expert riders.[8] The family was deeply religious. While Christmas and Easter were times of
celebration and extravagance, Lent was strictly observed—meat, dairy products and any form of entertainment were
avoided.[9] Family holidays were taken in the summer at Peterhof and with Olga's grandparents in Denmark.[10]
Empress Marie was reserved and formal with Olga as a child, and their relationship
remained a difficult one.[11] But Olga, her father, and the youngest of her brothers,
Michael, had a close relationship. Together, the three frequently went on hikes in the
Gatchina forests, where the Tsar taught Olga and Michael woodsmanship.[12] Olga said
of her father:
My father was everything to me. Immersed in work as he was, he always

spared that daily half-hour. ... once my father showed me a very old
album full of most exciting pen and ink sketches of an imaginary city
called Mopsopolis, inhabited by Mopses [pug dogs]. He showed it to me
in secret, and I was thrilled to have him share his own childhood secrets
with me.[13] Portrait of Grand Duchess
Olga Alexandrovna in 1893
by Valentin Serov
During 1894 Olga's father became increasingly ill, and the annual trip to Denmark was
cancelled.[14] On 13 November 1894, he died at the age of 49. The emotional impact on
Olga, aged 12, was traumatic,[15] and her eldest brother, the new Tsar Nicholas II, was propelled into a role for which in
Olga's later opinion he was ill-prepared.[16]
Court life
Olga was due to enter society in mid-1899, but after the death of her brother George at the age of 27, her first official
public appearance was delayed by a year until 1900.[17] She hated the experience, and later told her official biographer Ian
Vorres, "I felt as though I were an animal in a cage—exhibited to the public for the first time."[18] From 1901, Olga was
appointed honorary Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. The
Akhtyrsky Hussars were famous for their victory over Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Kulm in 1813, and wore a
distinctive brown dolman.[19]
By 1900 Olga, age 18, was being escorted to the theatre and opera by a distant cousin, Duke Peter Alexandrovich of
Oldenburg, a member of the Russian branch of the House of Oldenburg.[20] He was 14 years her senior and known for his
passion for literature and gambling.[21] Peter asked for Olga's hand in marriage the following year, a proposal that took the
Grand Duchess completely by surprise: "I was so taken aback that all I could say was 'thank you'," she later explained.[22]
Their engagement, announced in May 1901, was unexpected by family and friends, as Peter had shown no prior interest in
women,[18] and members of society assumed he was homosexual.[23] At the age of 19, on 9 August 1901, Olga married 33-
year-old Peter. After the celebration the newlyweds left for the Oldenburg palace on the Field of Mars. Olga spent her
wedding night alone in tears, while her husband left for a gambling club returning the next morning.[24] Their marriage
remained unconsummated,[25] and Olga suspected that Peter was pushed into proposing by his ambitious mother.[26]
Biographer Patricia Phenix thought Olga may have accepted his proposal to
gain independence from her own mother, the Dowager Empress, or avoid
marriage into a foreign court.[27] The couple initially lived with her in-laws
Alexander Petrovich and Eugénie Maximilianovna of Oldenburg. The
arrangement was not harmonious as Peter's parents, both well known for their
philanthropic work, berated their only son for his laziness.[24] Olga took a
dislike towards her mother-in-law; although Eugénie, a close friend of the
Dowager Empress, gave her daughter-in-law many gifts, including a ruby tiara
that had been a present to Joséphine de Beauharnais from Napoleon.[24] A few
weeks after the wedding, Olga and her husband travelled to Biarritz, France, Front row from left: Olga, King
Chulalongkorn of Siam, Dowager
from where they sailed to Sorrento, Italy, on a yacht loaned to them by King
Empress Marie Feodorovna, Tsar
Edward VII of Great Britain.[28] Nicholas II and Crown Prince
Vajiravudh during the king's visit to
On their return to Russia, they
Russia in 1897
settled into a 200-room palace (the
former Baryatinsky mansion) at 46
Sergievskaya Street (today Tchaikovsky Street), Saint Petersburg.[29] The
palace, a gift from Tsar Nicholas II to his sister, now houses the Saint
Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Olga and Peter had separate
bedrooms at opposite ends of the building, and the Grand Duchess had her
own art studio.[28] Unhappy in her marriage, she fell into bouts of depression
that caused her to lose her hair, forcing her to wear a wig. It took two years for
The Baryatinsky mansion, Saint
her hair to regrow.[24]
Petersburg, in 2009
Near the Oldenburg's estate, Ramon in Voronezh province, Olga had her own
villa, called "Olgino" after the local town.[30] She subsidized the village school
out of her own pocket, and established a hospital.[31] Her daughter-in-law later wrote, "She tried to help every needy
person as far as her strengths and means would permit."[31] At the hospital, she learned basic medical treatment and
proper care from the local doctor.[32] She exemplified her strong Orthodox faith by creating religious icons, which she
distributed to the charitable endeavours she supported.[31] At Ramon Olga and Peter enjoyed walking through the nearby
woods and hunted wolves together.[33] He was kind and considerate towards her, but she longed for love, a normal
marriage and children.[28]
In April 1903, she was introduced to a Blue Cuirassier Guards officer Nikolai Kulikovsky by her brother Michael during a
royal military review at Pavlovsk Palace.[34] Olga and Kulikovsky began to see each other, and exchanged letters regularly.
The same year, at the age of 22, she confronted her husband and asked for a divorce, which he refused with the
qualification that he might reconsider after seven years.[35] Nevertheless, Oldenburg appointed Kulikovsky as an aide-de-
camp, and allowed him to live in the same residence as Oldenburg and the Grand Duchess on Sergievskaya Street.[36] The
relationship between Kulikovsky and the Grand Duchess was not public,[37] but gossip about their romance spread
through society.[38]
From 1904 to 1906, Duke Peter was appointed to a military post in Tsarskoye Selo, a complex of palaces just south of Saint
Petersburg. In Tsarskoye Selo, the Grand Duchess grew close to her brother Nicholas and his family, who lived at the
Alexander Palace near her own residence.[39] Olga prized her connection to the Tsar's four daughters.[40] From 1906 to
1914, Olga took her nieces to parties and engagements in Saint Petersburg, without their parents, every weekend
throughout the winter.[40] She especially took a liking to the youngest of Nicholas's daughters, her god-daughter Anastasia,
whom she called Shvipsik ("little one").[41] Through her brother and sister-in-law, Olga met Rasputin, a self-styled holy
man who purported to have healing powers. Although she made no public criticisms of Rasputin's association with the
imperial family, she was unconvinced of his supposed powers and privately disliked him.[42] As Olga grew close to her
brother's family, her relationship with her other surviving brother, Michael, deteriorated. To her and Nicholas's horror,
Michael eloped with his mistress, a twice-divorced commoner, and communication between Michael and the rest of the
family was essentially cut off.[43]
Public unrest over the Russo-Japanese War and demands for political reform increased in the early years of the twentieth
century. At Epiphany 1905, a band of revolutionaries fired live rounds at the Winter Palace from the Peter and Paul
Fortress. Olga and the Dowager Empress were showered with glass splinters from a smashed window, but were
unharmed.[44] Three weeks later, on "Bloody Sunday", at least 92 people were killed by Cossack troops during a
demonstration,[45] and a month later Olga's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was assassinated.[46]
Uprisings occurred throughout the country, and parts of the navy mutinied.[47] Olga supported the appointment of the
liberal Pyotr Stolypin as prime minister, and he embarked on a programme of gradual reform, but in 1911 he was
assassinated.[48] The public unrest, Michael's elopement, and Olga's sham marriage placed her under strain, and in 1912,
while visiting England with her mother, she suffered a nervous breakdown.[49] Tsarina Alexandra was also unwell with
fatigue, concerned by the poor health of her hemophiliac son, Alexei.[50] Olga stood in for the Tsarina at public events, and
accompanied her brother on a tour of the interior, while the Tsarina remained at home.[51]
War and revolution

On 1 August 1914, just before the start of World War I, Olga's regiment, the
Akhtyrsky Hussars, appeared at an Imperial Review before her and the Tsar at
Krasnoe Selo.[52] Kulikovsky volunteered for service with the Hussars, who
were stationed on the frontlines in Southwestern Russia.[19] With the Grand
Duchess's prior medical knowledge from the village of Olgino, she started work
as a nurse at an under-staffed Red Cross hospital in Rovno, near to where her
own regiment was stationed.[53] During the war, she came under heavy
Russian imperial family, 1914. Left
Austrian fire while attending the regiment at the front. Nurses rarely worked so
to right: Grand Duchess Olga
close to the frontline and consequently she was awarded the Order of St.
Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Maria,
Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, George by General Mannerheim, who later became President of Finland.[19] As
Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Russians lost ground to the Central Powers, Olga's hospital was moved
Tsarevitch Alexei, Grand Duchess eastwards to Kiev,[54] and Michael returned to Russia from exile abroad.[55]
Tatiana
In 1916, Tsar Nicholas II annulled the marriage between Duke Peter
Alexandrovich and the Grand Duchess, allowing her to marry Colonel
Kulikovsky.[56] The service was performed on 16 November 1916 in the Kievo-Vasilievskaya Church on
Triokhsviatitelskaya (Three Saints Street) in Kiev. The only guests were the Dowager Empress, Olga's brother-in-law
Grand Duke Alexander, four officers of the Akhtyrsky Regiment, and two of Olga's fellow nurses from the hospital in
Kiev.[57]
During the war, internal tensions and economic deprivation in Russia continued to mount and revolutionary sympathies
grew. After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in early 1917, many members of the Romanov dynasty, including Nicholas and his
immediate family, were detained under house arrest. In search of safety, the Dowager Empress, Grand Duke Alexander,
and Grand Duchess Olga travelled to the Crimea by special train, where they were joined by Olga's sister Grand Duchess
Xenia.[58] They lived at Alexander's estate, Ay-Todor, about 12 miles (19 km) from Yalta, where they were placed under
house arrest by the local forces.[59] On 12 August 1917, her first child and son, Tikhon Nikolaevich was born during their
virtual imprisonment. He was named after Tikhon of Zadonsk, the Saint venerated near the Grand Duchess's estate at
Olgino.[19]
The Romanovs isolated in the Crimea knew little of the fate of the Tsar and his family. Nicholas, Alexandra, and their
children, were originally held at their official residence, the Alexander Palace, but the Provisional government under
Alexander Kerensky relocated them to Tobolsk, Siberia. In February 1918, most of the imperial family at Ay-Todor was
moved to another estate at Djulber, where Grand Dukes Nicholas and Peter were already under house arrest. Olga and her
husband were left at Ay-Todor. The entire Romanov family in the Crimea was condemned to death by the Yalta
revolutionary council, but the executions were delayed by political rivalry between the Yalta and Sevastopol Soviets.[60] By
March 1918, the Central Power of Germany had advanced on the Crimea, and the revolutionary guards were replaced by
German ones.[61] In November 1918, the German forces were informed that their nation had lost the war, and they
evacuated homewards. Allied forces took over the Crimean ports, in support of the loyalist White Army, which allowed the
surviving members of the Romanov family time to escape abroad. The Dowager Empress and, at her insistence, most of
her family and friends were evacuated by the British warship HMS Marlborough. Nicholas II had already been shot dead
and the family assumed, correctly, that his wife and children had also been killed.[62]
Olga and her husband refused to leave Russia, and decided to move to the Caucasus, which the White Army had cleared of
revolutionary Bolsheviks.[63] An imperial bodyguard, Timofei Yatchik, guided them to his hometown, the large Cossack
village of Novominskaya. In a rented five-room farmhouse there, Olga gave birth to her second son, Guri Nikolaevich, on
23 April 1919.[64] He was named after a friend of hers, Guri Panayev, who was killed while serving in the Akhtyrsky
Regiment during World War I. In November 1919, the family set out on what would be their last journey through Russia.
Just ahead of revolutionary troops, they escaped to Novorossiysk, and took refuge in the residence of the Danish consul,
Thomas Schytte, who informed them of the Dowager Empress's safe arrival in Denmark.[65] After a brief stay with the
consul, the family was shipped to a refugee camp on the island of Büyükada in the Dardanelles Strait near Istanbul,
Turkey, where Olga, her husband and children shared three rooms with eleven other adults.[66] After two weeks, they were
evacuated to Belgrade in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes where she was visited by Regent Alexander
Karadjordjevich, later King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Alexander offered the Grand Duchess and her family a permanent
home, but Olga was summoned to Denmark by her mother.[65] On Good Friday 1920, Olga and her family arrived in
Copenhagen. They lived with the Dowager Empress, at first at the Amalienborg Palace and then at the royal estate of
Hvidøre, where Olga acted as her mother's secretary and companion.[67] It was a difficult arrangement at times. The
Dowager Empress insisted on having Olga at her beck and call and found Olga's young sons too boisterous. Having never
reconciled with the idea of her daughter's marriage to a commoner, she was cold towards Kulikovsky, rarely allowing him
in her presence. At formal functions, Olga was expected to accompany her mother alone.[68]
Anna Anderson
In 1925, Olga and Colonel Kulikovsky travelled to Berlin to meet Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Olga's niece, Grand
Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Anderson had attempted suicide in Berlin in 1920, which Olga later called
"probably the only indisputable fact in the whole story".[69] Anderson claimed that with the help of a man named
Tchaikovsky she had escaped from revolutionary Russia via Bucharest, where she had given birth to his child. Olga
thought the story "palpably false",[70] since Anderson made no attempt to approach Queen Marie of Romania, during her
entire alleged time in Bucharest. Olga said:
If Mrs. Anderson had indeed been Anastasia, Queen Marie would have recognized her on the spot. ... Marie
would never have been shocked at anything, and a niece of mine would have known it. ... There is not one
tittle of genuine evidence in the story. The woman keeps away from the one relative who would have been
the first to recognize her, understand her desperate plight, and sympathize with her.[70]
Anderson stated she was in Berlin to inform Princess Irene of Prussia (sister of Tsarina
Alexandra and cousin of Tsar Nicholas II) of her survival. Olga commented, "Princess
Irene was one of the most straightlaced women in her generation. My niece would have
known that her condition would have indeed have shocked [her]."[70]
Olga met Anderson, who was being treated for tuberculosis, at a nursing home. Of the
visit Olga later said:
My beloved Anastasia was fifteen when I saw her for the last time in the
summer of 1916. She would have been twenty-four in 1925. I thought
Mrs. Anderson looked much older than that. Of course, one had to make
allowances for a very long illness ... All the same, my niece's features
could not possibly have altered out of all recognition. The nose, the
mouth, the eyes were all different.[71] ... As soon as I sat down by that bed Olga's niece, Anastasia,
was killed in 1918, but her
in the Mommsen Nursing Home, I knew I was looking at a stranger. ... I
remains were not
had left Denmark with something of a hope in my heart. I left Berlin with discovered until many years
all hope extinguished.[72] after Olga's death. Many
impostors claimed to be
Anastasia.
Olga also said she was dismayed that Anderson spoke only German and showed no sign
of knowing either English or Russian, while Anastasia spoke both those languages
fluently and was ignorant of German.[73] Nevertheless, Olga remained sympathetic towards Anderson, perhaps because
she thought that she was ill rather than deliberately deceitful.[74] Olga later explained:
... she did not strike me as an out-and-out impostor. Her brusqueness warred against it. A cunning impostor
would have done all she could to ingratiate herself ... But Mrs. Anderson's manner would have put anyone
off. My own conviction is that it all started with some unscrupulous people who hoped they might lay their
hands on at least a share of the fabulous and utterly non-existent Romanov fortune ... I had a feeling she was
'briefed,' as it were, but far from perfectly. The mistakes she made could not all be attributed to lapses of
memory. For instance, she had a scar on one of her fingers and she kept telling everybody that it had been
crushed because of a footman shutting the door of a landau too quickly. And at once I remembered the real
incident. It was Marie, her elder sister, who got her hand hurt rather badly, and it did not happen in a
carriage but on board the imperial train. Obviously someone, having heard something of the incident, had
passed a garbled version of it to Mrs. Anderson.[72]
Conceivably, Olga was initially either open to the possibility that Anderson was Anastasia or unable to make up her
mind.[75] Anderson's biographer and supporter Peter Kurth claimed that Olga wrote to the Danish ambassador, Herluf
Zahle, at the end of October 1925: "My feeling is that she is not the one she believes—but one can't say she is not as a
fact".[76] Within a month she had made up her mind. She wrote to a friend, "There is no resemblance, and she is
undoubtedly not A."[77][78] Olga sent Anderson a scarf and five letters, which were used by Anderson's supporters to claim
that Olga recognized Anderson as Anastasia.[79] Olga later said she sent the gift and letters "out of pity",[80] and called the
claims "a complete fabrication".[80] When Olga refused to recognize Anderson as Anastasia publicly and published a
statement denying any resemblance in a Danish newspaper,[81] Anderson's supporters, Harriet von Rathlef and Gleb
Botkin, claimed that Olga was acting on instructions received from her sister Xenia by telegram, which Olga denied in
private letters and sworn testimony.[82][83] She told her official biographer, "I never received any such telegram."[80] The
telegram was never produced by Anderson's supporters, and it has never been found among any of the papers relating to
the case.[84] Xenia said,
[Anderson's supporters] told the most terrible lies about my sister and me ... I was supposed to have sent
Olga a telegram saying, 'On no account recognize Anastasia.' That was a fantasy. I never sent any telegrams,
or gave my sister any advice about her visit to Berlin. We were all apprehensive about the wisdom of her
going, but only because we feared it would be used for propaganda purposes by the claimant's supporters. ...
My sister Olga felt sorry for that poor woman. She was kind to her, and because of her kindness of heart, her
opinions and motives have been misrepresented.[85]
Danish residency and exodus

The Dowager Empress died on 13 October 1928 at Hvidøre. Her estate was sold and
Olga purchased Knudsminde, a farm in Ballerup about 15 miles (24 km) from
Copenhagen, with her portion of the proceeds.[86] She and her husband kept horses, in
which Colonel Kulikovsky was especially interested, along with Jersey cows, pigs,
chickens, geese, dogs and cats.[87] For transport they had a small car and a sledge.[87]
Tihon and Guri (age thirteen and eleven, respectively when they moved to
Knudsminde) grew up on the farm. Olga ran the household with the help of her elderly,
faithful lady's maid Emilia Tenso ("Mimka"), who had come along with her from
Russia. The Grand Duchess lived with simplicity, working in the fields, doing household
chores, and painting.[87]
The farm became a center for the Russian monarchist community in Denmark, and
Royal Danish Guard (1935),
painted by the Grand many Russian emigrants visited.[88] Olga maintained a high level of correspondence
Duchess in exile in with the Russian émigré community and former members of the imperial army.[65] On
Denmark 2 February 1935 in the Russian Orthodox Church in Copenhagen, she and her husband
were godparents, with her cousin Prince Gustav of Denmark, to Aleksander Schalburg,
son of Russian-born Danish army officer Christian Frederik von Schalburg.[89] In the
1930s, the family took annual holidays at Sofiero Castle, Sweden, with Crown Prince Gustaf of Sweden and his wife,
Louise.[90] Olga began to sell her own paintings, of Russian and Danish scenes, with exhibition auctions in Copenhagen,
London, Paris, and Berlin. Some of the proceeds were donated to the charities she supported.[65]
Neutral Denmark was invaded by Nazi Germany on 9 April 1940, and was occupied for the remainder of World War II.
Food shortages, communication restrictions, and transport closures followed. As Olga's sons, Tikhon and Guri, served as
officers in the Danish Army, they were interned as prisoners of war, but their imprisonment in a Copenhagen hotel lasted
less than two months.[91] Tikhon was imprisoned for a further month in 1943 after being arrested on charges of
espionage.[92] Other Russian émigrés, keen to fight against the Soviets, enlisted in the German forces. Despite her sons'
internment and her mother's Danish origins, Olga was implicated in her compatriots' collusion with German forces, as she
continued to meet and extend help to Russian émigrés fighting against communism.[93] On 4 May 1945, German forces in
Denmark surrendered to the British. When economic and social conditions for Russian exiles failed to improve, General
Pyotr Krasnov wrote to the Grand Duchess, detailing the wretched conditions affecting Russian immigrants in
Denmark.[94] She in turn asked Prince Axel of Denmark to help them, but her request was refused.[95]
With the end of World War II, Soviet troops occupied the Danish island of Bornholm, and the Soviet Union wrote to the
Danish government accusing Olga and a Danish Catholic bishop of conspiracy against the Soviet government.[96] The
surviving Romanovs in Denmark grew fearful of an assassination or kidnap attempt,[97] and Olga decided to move her
family across the Atlantic to the relative safety of rural Canada.[98]
Emigration to Canada
In May 1948, the Kulikovskys travelled to London by Danish troopship. They were housed in a grace and favour apartment
at Hampton Court Palace while arrangements were made for their journey to Canada as agricultural immigrants.[99] On 2
June 1948, Olga, Kulikovsky, Tikhon and his Danish-born wife Agnete, Guri and his Danish-born wife Ruth, Guri and
Ruth's two children, Xenia and Leonid, and Olga's devoted companion and former maid Emilia Tenso ("Mimka") departed
Liverpool on board the Empress of Canada.[100] After a rough crossing, the ship docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia.[101] The
family lived in Toronto, until they purchased a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm in Halton County, Ontario, near
Campbellville.[102]
By 1952, the farm had become a burden to Olga and her husband. They were both elderly; their sons had moved away;
labour was hard to come by; the Colonel suffered increasing ill-health, and some of Olga's remaining jewelry was
stolen.[103] The farm was sold, and Olga, her husband and her former maid, Mimka, moved to a smaller five-room house at
2130 Camilla Road, Cooksville, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto now amalgamated into Mississauga.[104] Mimka suffered a
stroke that left her an invalid, and Olga nursed her until Mimka's death on 24 January 1954.[105]
Neighbours and visitors to the region, including foreign and royal dignitaries, took interest in Olga, and visited her home;
these included Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, in 1954,[106] and Louis Mountbatten and his wife Edwina, in August
1959.[107] In June 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Toronto and invited the Grand Duchess for lunch on
board the royal yacht Britannia.[108] Her home was also a magnet for Romanov impostors, whom Olga and her family
considered a menace.[109]
By 1958, Olga's husband was virtually paralyzed, and she sold some of her remaining jewelry to raise funds.[110] Following
her husband's death in 1958, she became increasingly infirm until hospitalized in April 1960 at Toronto General
Hospital.[111] She was not informed[112] or was not aware[113] that her elder sister, Xenia, died in London that month.
Unable to care for herself, Olga went to stay with Russian émigré friends, Konstantin and Sinaida Martemianoff, in an
apartment above a beauty salon at 716 Gerrard Street East, Toronto.[114] She slipped into a coma on 21 November 1960,
and died on 24 November at the age of 78.[115]
She was interred next to her husband in York Cemetery, Toronto, on 30 November 1960, after a funeral service at Christ
the Saviour Cathedral, Toronto. Officers of the Akhtyrsky Hussars and the Blue Cuirassiers stood guard in the small
Russian church, which overflowed with mourners.[116] Although she lived simply, bought cheap clothes, and did her own
shopping and gardening, her estate was valued at more than 200,000 Canadian dollars (about $1.5 million as of 2013[117])
and was mostly held as stock and bonds.[118] Her material possessions were appraised at $350 in total, which biographer
Patricia Phenix considered an underestimate.[119]
Legacy
Olga began drawing and painting at a young age. She told her official biographer Ian Vorres:
Even during my geography and arithmetic lessons, I was allowed to sit with a pencil in my hand. I could
listen much better when I was drawing corn or wild flowers.[120]
She painted throughout her life, on paper, canvas and ceramic, and her output is estimated at over 2,000 pieces.[121] Her
usual subject was scenery and landscape, but she also painted portraits and still lifes. Vorres wrote,
Her paintings, vivid and sensitive, are immersed in the subdued

light of her beloved Russia. Besides her numerous landscapes
and flower pictures that reveal her inherent love for nature, she
often also dwells on scenes from simple daily life ... executed
with a sensitive eye for composition, expression and detail. Her
work exudes peace, serenity and a spirit of love that mirror her
own character, in total contrast to the suffering she experienced
through most of her life.[121]
Village Church in Autumn (1920),

Her daughter-in-law wrote, watercolour painting by the Grand
Duchess
Being a deeply religious person, the Grand Duchess perceived
the beauty of nature as being divinely inspired creation. Prayer
and attending church provided her with the strength not only to
overcome the new difficulties befallen her, but also to continue
with her drawing. These feelings of gratefulness to God pervaded
not only the icons created by the Grand Duchess, but also her
portraits and still life paintings.[94]
Her paintings were a profitable source of income.[122] According to her daughter-in-law, Olga preferred to exhibit in
Denmark to avoid the commercialism of the North American market.[123] The Russian Relief Programme, which was
founded by Tikhon and his third wife Olga in honour of the Grand Duchess,[124] exhibited a selection of her work at the
residence of the Russian ambassador in Washington in 2001, in Moscow in 2002, in Ekaterinburg in 2004, in Saint
Petersburg and Moscow in 2005, in Tyumen and Surgut in 2006, at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and Saint Michael's
Castle in Saint Petersburg in 2007,[125] and at the Vladimir Arsenyev Museum in Vladivostok in 2013.[126] Pieces by Olga
are included in the collections of the British queen Elizabeth II and her husband Philip, the Norwegian king Harald V, and
private collections in North America and Europe.[121] Ballerup Museum in Pederstrup, Denmark, has around 100 of her
works.[127]
Ancestry
Ancestors of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
16. Paul I of Russia
8. Nicholas I of Russia
17. Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg
4. Alexander II of
Russia
18. Frederick William III of Prussia
9. Charlotte of Prussia
19. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
2. Alexander III of
Russia
20. Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse
10. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
21. Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
5. Marie of Hesse
and by Rhine
22. Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden
11. Wilhelmine of Baden
23. Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
1. Grand Duchess Olga
Alexandrovna of Russia
24. Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-
Sonderburg-Beck
12. Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-
Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
25. Countess Friederike of Schlieben
6. Christian IX of
Denmark
26. Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel
13. Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel
27. Louise of Denmark
3. Dagmar of Denmark
28. Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel
14. Prince William of Hesse-Kassel
29. Caroline of Nassau-Usingen
7. Louise of Hesse-
Kassel
30. Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark
15. Louise Charlotte of Denmark
31. Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Notes
1. Vorres, p. 3
2. Phenix, pp. 8–10; Vorres, p. 4
3. Vorres, p. 11
4. Harcave, p. 32
5. Vorres, p. 12
6. Phenix, p. 20
7. Vorres, pp. 18–20
8. Phenix, pp. 12–13; Vorres, pp. 26–27
9. Vorres, p. 30
10. Phenix, pp. 11, 24; Vorres, pp. 33–41
11. Phenix, p. 8; Vorres, p. 25
12. Vorres, p. 24
13. Vorres, pp. 9–11
14. Vorres, pp. 48–52
15. Phenix, pp. 30–31; Vorres, pp. 54, 57

16. Vorres, p. 55
17. Phenix, p. 45; Vorres, pp. 72–74
18. Vorres, p. 74
19. Kulikovsky-Romanoff, p. 4 (http://history-gatchina.ru/owners/olga/olga4e.htm)
20. Belyakova, p. 86
22. Vorres, p. 75
23. Phenix, p. 52
25. Olga said: "I shared his roof for nearly fifteen years, and never once we were husband and wife" (Vorres, p. 76); see
also Massie, p. 171
26. Vorres, pp. 75, 78
27. Phenix, p. 46
29. Vorres, p. 81
30. Vorres, pp. 78–79
32. Vorres, p. 79
34. Crawford and Crawford, p. 51; Phenix, p. 62; Vorres, pp. 94–95
36. Crawford and Crawford, p. 52; Phenix, p. 73; Vorres, pp. 94–95
37. Vorres, pp. 95–96
38. A Cuirassier's Memoirs by Vladimir Trubetskoy, quoted in Phenix, p. 73
39. Vorres, pp. 97–99, 101
40. Massie, p. 171; Vorres, pp. 102–103
47. Vorres, p. 113
48. Vorres, pp. 117–119
50. Vorres, p. 122
51. Vorres, p. 123
52. Vorres, p. 125
55. Phenix, p. 101
56. Phenix, p. 103
57. Grand Duke Alexander's Memoirs, Once A Grand Duke, p. 273, quoted in Phenix, p. 104

59. Phenix, p. 118
62. e.g. Letter from King George V to Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, 2 September 1918, quoted in Hough, p.
326
64. Phenix, p. 129
66. Phenix, p. 132
67. Vorres, pp. 167–171
68. Beéche, p. 116
69. Olga quoted in Vorres, p. 173
71. Olga quoted in Massie, p. 174 and Vorres, p. 174
73. "My nieces knew no German at all. Mrs. Anderson did not seem to understand a word of Russian or English, the two
languages all the four sisters had spoken since babyhood.": Olga quoted in Vorres, p. 174
74. Klier and Mingay, p. 156; Vorres, p. 176
75. Klier and Mingay, p. 102; Massie, p. 174; Phenix, p. 155
76. Letter from Olga to Herluf Zahle, 31 October 1925, quoted in Kurth, p. 119, but with a proviso that the original letter
has never been seen
77. Letter from Olga to Colonel Anatoly Mordvinov, 4 December 1925, Oberlandesgericht Archive, Hamburg, quoted in
Kurth, p. 120
78. Olga wrote in a letter to Tatiana Melnik, 30 October 1926, Botkin Archive, quoted in Kurth, p. 144; and a letter dated
13 September 1926 quoted in von Nidda, pp. 197–198: "However hard we tried to recognize this patient as my niece
Tatiana or Anastasia, we all came away quite convinced of the reverse." In a letter from Olga to Princess Irene, 22
December 1926, quoted in von Nidda, p. 168, she wrote, "I had to go to Berlin last autumn to see the poor girl said to
be our dear little niece. Well, there is no resemblance at all, and it is obviously not Anastasia ... It was pitiful to watch
this poor creature trying to prove she was Anastasia. She showed her feet, a finger with a scar and other marks which
she said were bound to be recognized at once. But it was Maria who had a crushed finger, and someone must have
told her this. For four years this poor creature's head was stuffed with all these stories ... It has been claimed,
however, that we all recognized her and were then given instructions by Mama to deny that she was Anastasia. That
is a complete lie. I believe this whole story is an attempt at blackmail."
79. Klier and Mingay, p. 102; Vorres, p. 177
81. National Tidende, 16 January 1926, quoted in Klier and Mingay, p. 102 and Phenix, p. 155
82. "I can swear to God that I did not receive before or during my visit to Berlin, either a telegram or a letter from my sister
Xenia advising that I should not acknowledge the stranger.": Sworn testimony of Grand Duchess Olga, Staatsarchiv
Hamburg, File 1991 74 0 297/57 Volume 7, pp. 1297–1315, quoted in Phenix, p. 238
83. "They state that we all recognized her and that we then received an order from Mama to say that she is not
Anastasia. This is a great lie!": Letter from Olga to Princess Irene, quoted in Klier and Mingay, p. 149
84. Phenix, p. 238
85. Xenia to Michael Thornton, quoted in a letter from Thornton to Patricia Phenix, 10 January 1998, quoted in Phenix,
pp. 237–238
87. Hall, p. 58
88. Phenix, p. 170

89. "Fødte Mandkøn" [Born Males]. Kirkebog [Parish Register]. 1915-1945 (in Danish). Den Ortodokse Russiske Kirke i
København. 1934. p. 14.
90. Vorres, p. 186
91. Phenix, p. 174
92. Phenix, p. 176
95. Phenix, p. 178
96. Phenix, p. 179
98. Mr. J. S. P. Armstrong, Agent General for Ontario, quoted in Vorres, p. 191
99. Vorres, pp. 188, 190
100. Vorres, p. 193
101. Vorres, p. 196
102. Vorres, pp. 196–198
103. Vorres, pp. 207–208
107. Vorres, p. 221
109. Vorres, pp. 200–205
110. Vorres, p. 219
112. Vorres, p. 225
113. Phenix, p. 242
115. Vorres, p. 227
117. CPI inflation calculator (http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/inflation_calc.html), Bank of Canada, retrieved 9 March
2013
118. Phenix, p. 249
119. Phenix, p. 250
120. Vorres, p. 26
121. Vorres, Ian (2000) "After the Splendor... The Art of the Last Romanov Grand Duchess of Russia" (http://www.si.edu/o
ahp/olga/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20060412195312/http://www.si.edu/oahp/olga/) 12 April 2006 at the
Wayback Machine., Smithsonian Institution, retrieved 9 March 2013
122. Grand Duchess Olga, quoted in Kulikovsky-Romanoff, p. 7 (http://history-gatchina.ru/owners/olga/olga7e.htm)
124. Phenix, p. 1
125. "Majestic Artist: 125th birth anniversary of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna" (http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/exhib/l
enta/exhibition2007/exhibition203/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20101221121530/http://rusmuseum.ru/eng/
exhib/lenta/exhibition2007/exhibition203/) 21 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine., Russian State Museum,
retrieved 9 March 2013
126. Gilbert, Paul (16 January 2013) "Exhibition of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna's Watercolours Opens in
Vladivostok" (http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/news/518news.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20150512070859/http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/news/518news.html) 12 May 2015 at the Wayback
Machine., Royal Russia News, retrieved 9 March 2013
127. Ballerup Museum (http://www.ballerupmuseum.dk/eng) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20091212120008/http://
www.ballerupmuseum.dk/eng) 12 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine., retrieved 9 March 2013
References
Beéche, Arturo (ed.) (2004) The Grand Duchesses. Oakland: Eurohistory. ISBN 0-9771961-1-9
Belyakova, Zoia (2010) Honour and Fidelity: The Russian Dukes of Leuchtenberg. Saint Petersburg: Logos
Publishers. ISBN 978-5-87288-391-3
Crawford, Rosemary; Crawford, Donald (1997) Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia.
London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-7538-0516-9
Hall, Coryne (1993) The Grand Duchess of Knudsminde. Article published in Royalty History Digest.
Harcave, Sidney (2004) Count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia: A Biography. New York: M. E.
Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-1422-3
Hough, Richard (1984) Louis and Victoria: The Family History of the Mountbattens. Second edition. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78470-6
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" (http://history-gatchina.ru/owners/olga/index.htm), Historical Magazine, Gatchina, Russia: 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. London: Random House. ISBN 0-09-960121-4
Phenix, Patricia (1999) Olga Romanov: Russia's Last Grand Duchess. Toronto: Viking/Penguin. ISBN 0-14-028086-3
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
External links
HIH Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Memorial Fund (http://www.fund-olga.ru/fond/en/fund-en.htm)
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna-Royal Russia (http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/romanovs/grandduch
ess01.html)
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Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of

Russia. Mother Dagmar of Denmark

My father was everything to me. Immersed in work as he was, he always

War and revolution

Danish residency and exodus

Her paintings, vivid and sensitive, are immersed in the subdued

Village Church in Autumn (1920),

10. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse

15. Phenix, pp. 30–31; Vorres, pp. 54, 57

58. Phenix, pp. 115–117; Vorres, pp. 149–150

88. Phenix, p. 170

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