OTMA

From left, Tatiana, Anastasia, Olga and Marie around 1902. Notice how the "big pair" and "little pair" are each dressed alike!

I've mentioned the acronym OTMA a few times and wanted to explain what it means. OTMA stood for the grand duchesses - Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia. The grand duchesses were dressed alike, either all together or in their pairs, so it makes sense that they developed an acronym for themselves. In an age when even parents of identical twins are discouraged from letting their children identify too much as part of a twosome, it's interesting to consider what being OTMA, rather than Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasia, did to the grand duchesses. But the evidence that survives suggests the girls saw no problems with it; they were devoted to their family, with the older girls refusing to even consider marrying outside of Russia later in their lives.

anastasia's quirks

Marie, top, and Anastasia making faces during their captivity at Tsarskoe Selo

Anastasia Nicholaevna was a jokester. One of her family's nicknames for her was shvibzik, "imp" in Russian.

She was not the best student. Her French tutor Pierre Gilliard described her as "... almost a wag. She had a very strong sense of humour, and the darts of her wit often found sensitive spots. She was rather an enfant terrible, though this fault tended to correct itself with age. She was also extremely idle, though with the idleness of a gifted child."

Like all her family, Anastasia loved taking pictures - and she often used to color her hats or clothes after the photographs were printed.

She also enjoyed painting, though she admitted she was not as talented as older sister Olga.

Despite stories, rumors, accounts and movies all pointing to the contrary, Anastasia did not survive the shooting in the cellar in 1918. That story, which has persisted nearly 100 years after the family's deaths, was finally put to rest in 2008. More about this soon - though I doubt one blog entry will be enough!

Thanks to Pierre Gilliard's wonderful memoirs, "Thirteen Years at the Russian Court." You can read Pierre's memoirs here.

anastasia's world: the alexander palace

The Alexander Palace

The world Anastasia was born into was a world of glamor, but also a world of extreme poverty. Russian peasants had difficult lives, to say the least, and the tsar and his family lived an incredibly sheltered life behind the palace gate.

Likewise, the Romanov children were also raised in a controlled environment. They did not socialize very much beyond their immediate family; even the extensive Romanov cousins were hardly around the grand duchesses and tsarevich. Besides their native Russian and French, which was the official language of the court, the children were taught German and English, though they spoke these languages badly. The girls were dressed alike even through adulthood, and life usually revolved around the tsarevich's precarious health.

The family traveled around to various countries - royal European houses being what they were, Nicholas and Alexandra could claim relation to almost every royal family - but when they were in St. Petersburg, they lived at Tsarskoye Selo, the Tsar's Village. The grounds at Tsarskoye Selo included two palaces - the blue Catherine Palace and the yellow Alexander Palace. The Alexander Palace was favored by the family, and it was here they spent most of their time.

The palace was modernized during Nicholas's reign and included electricity and even a screening booth to show motion pictures. It was to the Alexander Palace Nicholas returned in 1917 as Colonel Romanov, rather than the Tsar of All the Russias, after his abdication. This would also be the first of three places the imperial family was held under arrest during the revolution.

thanks to Wikipedia for information and a picture!

about the romanov names

Unlike some of the western countries, where royal children often had four or five (or more!) names, the Russians simply had two: one was the first name, while the other was the patronym. The patronym combines a child's father's name with the ending vich for a son or evna/ovna for a daughter. Thus Anastasia's middle name was Nicholaevna - daughter of Nicholas. In keeping with the simplicity and informality in which they were raised, Nicholas and Alexandra insisted on their children being called by their first name and patronym, rather than "Grand Duchess Anastasia" or "Her Imperial Highness." In fact, the children would rebuke servants for calling them anything but their informal names - which were still a mouthful! It's little wonder they ended up shortening these even further: Olishka, Tatianochka, Masha, Nastyusha and Baby for Alexei Nicholaevich the tsarevich.

Shorter still was the acronym the sisters would often use when referring to themselves as a group: OTMA.

picture courtesy of livadia*org

who was anastasia?

she was a grand duchess of russia, but she was also half-german. she lived in some of the most beautiful palaces in the world, but she also slept on a camp cot.

just who is this girl anastasia anyway?

it's a question i'm going to try to answer through this blog. anastasia and her family left us a wonderful treasure of photographs, letters and other mementos that let us figure out for ourselves who they were. they lived in a different world - both figuratively and literally - but their stories are not so unique. anastasia may have been a grand duchess, but she was also a daughter and a girl who loved to make others laugh.

anastasia, mugging for the camera, peterhof, 1911

photo courtesy of livadia.org

the beginning

Welcome to my blog about all things Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna, or as she was known in Russian, Великая Княжна Анастасия Николаевна Романова.

Anastasia lived a short life for one so well-known. She was only 17 years and 21 days old when she died, but she is still the most famous Russian royal. I find her life fascinating, and I hope you will, too!