Helen Azar
Auteur van The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution
Over de Auteur
Fotografie: from Free Library of Philadelphia
Werken van Helen Azar
The Diary of Olga Romanov: Royal Witness to the Russian Revolution (2013) — Redacteur — 55 exemplaren
Tatiana Romanov, Daughter of the Last Tsar: Diaries and Letters, 1913–1918 (2015) — Redacteur — 14 exemplaren
Maria Romanov: Third Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1908–1918 (2019) — Redacteur — 10 exemplaren
Journal of a Russian Grand Duchess: Complete Annotated 1913 Diary of Olga Romanov, Eldest Daughter of the Last Tsar… (1900) 9 exemplaren
MARIA and ANASTASIA: The Youngest Romanov Grand Duchesses In Their Own Words: Letters, Diaries, Postcards. (The Russian… (2015) 9 exemplaren
In the Steps of the Romanovs: : Final two years of the last Russian imperial family (1916-1918) (In their own words) (2018) 7 exemplaren
1913 Diary of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna: Complete Tercentennial Journal of the Third Daughter of the Last Tsar… (2017) 6 exemplaren
Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1916-1918 (2020) — Redacteur — 6 exemplaren
Anastasia Romanov: The Tsar's Youngest Daughter Speaks Through Her Writings (1907 - 1918) (2021) — Redacteur — 4 exemplaren
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If a reader has read the wonderful Four Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses by Helen Rappaport, then here is some of her source material and it is absorbing. Here is Olga Nikolaevna unimpressed by Carol of Romania, beginning a grownup life, and worrying about her brother Alexei Nikolaevich, the last Tsesarevich and her mother Empress Alexandra. There are intriguing glimpses of her father coming back and forth from the front, the Empress trying to run the country, arguments between the older generations of the imperial family and the terrible murder of Rasputin as the Revolution rushes towards them.
With the explosion of the First World War, Grand Duchess Olga began to nurse wounded soldiers, and, amidst the damaged bodies, she developed crushes on several of the soldiers she was nursing. Like many royalties (including all her siblings) she adores soldiers and the army. Understandably, she was furious when Austria declared war on Russia, so much so that this reader dropped her copy of this book and disturbed her cat.
There is a slight mystery in that she stopped writing her diary when the Tsar abdicated. This contrasts with her mother, the Empress Alexandra who continued to write her diary to within days of the whole family’s assassination. With the untidy end to Grand Duchess Olga’s diary the editor utilises other sources to tell as much as is possible of her heroine’s final months.
These include her father’s Tsar Nicholas II’s diary. It is a welcome conjoining of sources and often surprising. Despite his abdication, the toll of the First World War and the stress of close confinement (with all its fears but also pettiness) the Tsar records how well he slept. Touchingly he read Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel and a sequel while imprisoned. Extracts from the memoirs of Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova (1884 – 1964), the lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra, and Princess Vera Ignatievna Gedroits (1870 – 1932) are included. The latter was a Russian doctor who worked with the Romanov nurses. Their responses are important to note and to this story.
The ending is inevitable, but its retelling is no less distressing and regrettable. Told through the surviving wartime diaries of Grand Duchess Olga this is a valuable record of one intelligent and sensitive young woman witnessing the catastrophic destruction of her family and her country. Thank you, Helen Azar and Westholme Publishing.… (meer)