Tag: Rasputin

The Tragic Romanov Sisters of Russia

The Tragic Romanov Sisters of Russia

 

 

The tragic Romanov sisters were the grand duchesses of Russia, the four daughters of Tsar Nicholas II and his empress Alexandra. Their names were Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia in order of birth. These young girls were also the great granddaughters of Queen Victoria as Nicholas and Alexandra were both grandchildren of the queen. It was normal for cousins to marry and interbreed as royalty had to marry royalty not commoners.

However, if the grand duchesses had married even to commoners, their lives may have been saved. Instead, they were murdered at the ages of 22, 21, 19 and just 17 years old, along with their young brother Alexey, just 14. The tsar, tsarina and servants shared their fate of death by firing squad. Such was the tragedy of the Romanov sisters.

Victims of the Russian Revolution

The whole Romanov family were the victims of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Due to social unrest, the progress of WWI and political machinations, the tsar was advised to abdicate in early 1917. Not a strong man or leader, Tsar Nicholas II agreed readily. He unwittingly signed his own death warrant and that of his young family.

The Bolsheviks took control of Russia and imprisoned the royal family in their own beautiful Alexander palace at Tsarskoe Selo near Petrograd. For five months they lived a peaceful domestic existence there under guard. Then the powerful Bolsheviks transported them like prisoners east into Siberia to a town called Tobolsk.

Here in this Siberian backwater, they led a dull existence with no visitors or outings until May 1918.  This date was their scheduled transport to Ekaterinburg further southeast. It would be their final destination and place of execution. Despite this fall from royalty and the consequent change in living conditions, the family remained hopeful and united.

Suffering of the tragic Romanov sisters

According to historian, Helen Rappaport, the family suspected their ultimate fate, especially towards the end at Ekaterinburg. Their living conditions were becoming more dire and heavily guarded. The Red guards mocked them in many acts of disrespect. It is horrible to think of the suffering of these pretty teenage girls, their invalid brother and their devoted parents.

The Romanovs were not nasty people, but a close loving family trapped in the wrong time in history. Nicholas II though born into a royal dynasty was not a natural leader. He preferred the quiet of the countryside, walks, nature and reading. He also was a wonderful, devoted father and husband. His German born wife, Alexandra, also fiercely loved her husband and children. However, she was more autocratic and prouder. As such being German born and appearing haughty, Alexandra became very unpopular with the Russian people especially when she became close to the spiritual monk, Rasputin.

WWI and then the Revolution

Once WWI erupted, Russia and Germany became enemies. Any German affiliation was suspicious, and Alexandra became even less favored. To the Bolsheviks, this was the time to act to depose the 300-year tsardom of Russia.

It did not matter that Alexandra, and her teen daughters were serving as nurses in Petrograd. They worked long days in the hospitals alongside many ordinary Russian women. They loved their country and wanted to be of service. Olga and Tatiana as the older girls dressed wounds, helped in operations and comforted the wounded. They were sisters of mercy and devoted to their country.

The younger girls Maria and Anastasia also volunteered at the hospital after their lessons at the palace. Did this service make them appear less royal? Should they have upheld their position and remained distantly aloof as most royals are?

Four sweet Romanov sisters

When I read about the sisters in Helen Rappaport’s enthralling books, I could only admire their spirit and kindness. They were sweet innocent girls in a time of horrible terror. As sisters they were very close both in age and association. Born just two years apart from each other over a ten-year period; Olga, Tatiana and Maria in the last years of the 1800s, and Anastasia in the new 20th century. Three years later their baby brother, Alexey was born to much fanfare. An heir, a son, at last. The sisters never resented the gender bias of succession. It was normal for the times. Succession was usually via a son not a daughter.

Hemophilia, a German empress and a mad monk

But the long-awaited son had inherited the deadly royal disease of hemophilia. This reality was to seal the Romanov’s fate. Though the family tried to hide this weakness from the world by withdrawing from public events, the truth finally came out as Alexey grew past babyhood.

By then Rasputin was a frequent visitor as he could heal the boy’s bleeds when they occurred. Injuries easily happened due to normal little boy bumps during play.  A frail heir, a mad monk, a German empress; it was not a combination to endear the family to the Russian population. Besides they were at war with Germany, Alexandra’s homeland. The people were also hungry and fearful of the progress of the war.

Ordinary not royal lives

Despite their royal birth, the Romanov sisters had never enjoyed a life of opulence, gala events and public adoration. On the contrary, they spent their young lives mostly at the Alexander Palace doing lessons. They also were dutiful in caring for their ailing mother and brother.

Their mother, Alexandra was not a well woman. She long suffered from neuralgia, sciatica and headaches and then had heart problems too. She often did not attend royal functions with her husband because of these issues. Olga and later Tatiana attended instead. This was unusual and talked about in unflattering terms. Alexandra’s absence was seen as haughtiness. She was not a much-loved empress of the Russian people.

The sisters liked soldiers not princes

For a while, in their later teen years, the older two grand duchesses, Olga and Tatiana attended balls and soirees. The Russian people loved them. They were beautiful and gracious to all. By the time Olga was 18, there was talk of marrying her to Prince Carol of Romania. The families met at the Crimea where they loved to go each summer.

However, Nicholas and Alexandra left the decision to Olga. They wanted her to marry for love as they had. Olga did not fancy Prince Carol nor he, her. Carol preferred her pretty, jolly young sister, Maria. But Maria was too young at the time to marry. So, nothing eventuated.

Olga along with her sister, Tatiana, preferred the company of the handsome soldiers who guarded the palace and royal yacht. Later during the war, they had crushes on soldiers they nursed in the hospital. But always, their royal position prevented an alliance. Olga, Tatiana and later Maria could only dream of these men. They were off limits. The young Romanov sisters would all die virgins, never knowing the physical love of a man. Why didn’t anyone save the Romanovs?

What were the Romanov sisters like?

So, what were these Romanov girls like? As you can see from the photo on the cover of Helen Rappaport’s book, Olga had a wide, pretty face and Tatiana, the beauty, a more delicate appearance like her mother. Tatiana’s eyes were beautiful, and her heart shaped face made her very noticeable as a beauty. She was a devoted daughter and nurse and very organized. Her mother relied on her abilities. Olga could be moody, perhaps understandably as she was denied a normal life for a young woman of her time. Palace life was isolating and denied her socialization with other young people especially men of her age.

Olga, the eldest

By 20, Olga should have married but offers from royal princes did not come. By then the war raged and it was not the time to ally with mighty Russia. Besides by then the royal houses of Europe were aware of the presence of the deadly hemophilia in the Romanov family. They did not want it in their own. Modern DNA analysis of the Romanov sister’s remains proves that only Anastasia, the youngest was a carrier. They need not have feared, but they did. This was natural as there is no cure for haemophilia.

Instead of a life and family of her own, Olga remained with her sisters and parents until 22. It was her age when she, along with her family, faced death by firing squad.

 

Maria and Anastasia

The younger sisters, Maria and Anastasia, had more solid builds than their slender older sisters. Maria had a sweet, happy nature and a lovely smile and eyes. Anastasia the youngest was the plainest looking and a precocious child. She was inattentive to lessons, cheeky and at times disrespectful. Her tutors had a hard time with her. But she did enliven the family gatherings. During the last days of imprisonment in Siberia, it was Anastasia who cheered the freezing government prison house with her charades and one act plays.

The tragic deaths of the Romanov sisters.

One of the last sisterly sessions of camaraderie was a sewing session at the final prison house. The sisters sewed the royal jewels into their dresses to secure them from looting by the Red Guards. Not long after, other guards took the family to the concrete basement of their last prison house in the early hours. Here they lined up with their servants and tutors supposedly for a photograph. It is telling that the usual guards refused to be the assassins of the family. Other men with less allegiance did the killing.

The hired killers sent volleys of bullets towards the unsuspecting family and staff.  Unfortunately, these hidden jewels in the girls’ dresses made the bullets from the murderous firing squad ricochet around the basement. The last jeweled treasures of the glorious Romanov reign prevented a swift death for the girls.

Instead, they suffered in terror as rounds of bullets flew around the bunker, injuring but not killing them. In the end, the assassins used bayonets to kill the innocent young Romanov sisters. An end not fitting for their status nor their kind, innocent souls. It was this terrible savage act that ended the reign of the tragic Romanov sisters. Why didn’t anyone save the Romanovs? Read this previous blog to discover.

Joni Scott is an Australian author with four published books. Whispers through Time and Time Heal my Heart are historical fiction and set in the early 1900s around the era of WWI. The Last hotel and Colour Comes to Tangles are contemporary fiction and set in exotic locations. Visit her website at joniscottauthor.com.

Photo is of the cover of Helen Rappaport’s wonderful historical book.

Romanovs, Rasputin and the Russian Revolution

Romanovs, Rasputin and the Russian Revolution

Queen Victoria of Britain had nine children and most of them married into the royal families of Europe. This was normal in the 1800s as the royal families interbred rather than marry someone untitled. But such inbreeding led to the persistence or magnification of bad genetic traits.

One such genetic defect was haemophilia, a bleeding disease. A gene part (called an allele) codes for hemophilia. This allele is on the X chromosome so if a male inherits the affected X, he gets the rare blood clotting condition. This inherited disease passed through Victoria’s descendants either via female carriers with XX make up or affected males with XY. Read more below. Let’s examine this fascinating topic of Romanovs, Rasputin and the Russian Revolution. It has a lot to do with hemophilia which will be explained below so keep reading.

Hemophilia and the Romanovs

Alexei, the tsarevitch and only son of Romanov tsar Nicholas II of Russia had this game changing hemophilia gene defect. Because of this he led an over-protected life of restricted activity lest he bleed to death from an injury. His four older sisters, the grand duchesses, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia being girls, did not have the disease. They could have been carriers of it.

Historian, Helen Rappaport eludes to this in her brilliant books. Modern DNA analysis of the duchesses remains reveal that only Anastatia was a carrier. The gene lottery was more kind to the daughters than the son. The chance of being a carrier if your mother is one is 50% yet three of the girls were not carriers purely by chance.

Hemophilia is caused by a gene mutation

It all started with Victoria it seems. It is important to know that females have two X chromosomes to determine gender and males have an X and a Y. Therefore, scientists denote females by XX and males by XY. Variations to this pattern are very rare.

Victoria carried a gene mutation on one of her X chromosomes that can causes hemophilia to be expressed in a male. This is because there is no other normal X to mask it. Females have two X’s so one affected X will only cause them to be a carrier.

A gene mutation is an accidental change in the genetic code of an individual. It can occur during the copying of genes as the cells multiply and most of the time these small changes do not affect anything adversely. However, if a mutation affects the coding or instructions for an enzyme or metabolic factor this mutation can be deadly for the person who has or inherits the mutated gene code.

In the case of hemophilia, the gene alteration prevents adequate production of clotting factor 8 and 9 which are essential for the body’s response to a hemorrhage of any magnitude.

The gene mutation for hemophilia is on the X chromosome

Such was the case for Queen Victoria’s mutation. How it occurred no one knows. She may have inherited this genetic alteration from a parent or it happened first in her gene code. It was only noticed after the event when one of her sons, Prince Frederick started having blood clotting issues. Because the defect for the gene determining the clotting factor 8 was on one of her two X chromosomes and is a recessive ie not dominant allele, her other normal X chromosome masked the defect.

Queen Victoria consequently did not suffer from the disease. Females with the defective X chromosome do not have hemophilia.

In the late 19th century, genetic science was in its infancy. The occurrence of this gene mutation had been noticed because it was in the royal family. From then on the royal families of Europe were watchful for its appearance in their sons. With the line of succession usually via the male descendants this was a worry. Victoria only became queen because there were no male descendants to take the throne.

The need for a male heir for the Romanovs

Male gender-based succession has led to many lives lost throughout history. There are those who killed to get the throne. Kings like Henry VIII killed his wives because they could not give him a male heir. Then there was the War of the Roses where everyone killed everyone for hundreds of years just to secure royal succession. Much blood was shed. But for one small boy in Russia last century, no blood could be shed. Alexei’s blood could not clot and allow the smallest wound to heal. Yet he was the boy destined to inherit his father’s tsardom.

Clotting factor 8 is the essential factor which allows wounds to heal so if it can’t be made by the body, the individual’s wounds no matter how small cannot heal. As well, any falls or bumps can cause internal bleeding which also can be fatal. Such was the fate of little Alexei the heir to the Russian throne.

It is doubly tragic that his parents anguished about not having a male heir for many years before his birth. Alexandra his mother had four normal healthy daughters over a ten-year interval before he was finally born. A boy! The whole of Russia celebrated. The Imperial dynasty of 300 years could continue now. Nicholas’s brother the standing heir stood aside now Nicholas finally had a son.

But it was only days before Nicholas and Alexandra knew their new baby had health issues. His umbilical cord was still bleeding days after the birth. The dreaded royal disease had raised its head again. Already the two young sons of King Alfonso of Spain had inherited hemophilia. Alexandra realized she had passed the fatal gene onto her son. She was a carrier through her mother, Princess Alice of Hesse. Alexandra’s brother had the disease.

Hemophilia occurs in the Romanov male heir

The hemophilia gene mutation is recessive and only expressed if there is no other normal X chromosome to mask it. As males have an XY chromosome make up not XX as females do, the faulty X chromosome from their mother Victoria expressed itself in Victoria’s sons not her daughters. Prince Leopold inherited this fault and had hemophilia and Princess Alice and Beatrice inherited the faulty X trait but because they had another X chromosome from their father that was normal it masked hemophilia. They were carriers not affected by hemophilia themselves.

The defect in their beautiful baby son must be a secret. If the Russian population knew then the tsardom was in peril. Already there was trouble brewing. The people were poor and hungry, and Nicholas and Alexandra were distant, autocratic and lacking in empathy with their citizens. Alexandra as a German princess bride had been unpopular from the start. But Nicholas had married for love not politics. But politics can be ugly and turn on unpopular monarchs. The Russian people did not like Alexandra, the tsar’s wife. This and the poor health of the tsarevitch contributed to the failure to save the Romanovs.

The hemophilia of the Romanov son had to be kept a secret

Alexandra was an introverted, cold woman in public yet at home she was an adoring mother and wife. Really both Nicholas and Alexandra had the personality for their royal roles. They were a homely, family orientated couple wrapped up in each other and their children. They were negligent of their duties in the royal dynasty. This side of royal life did not interest them. They focused inwards on their family not outwards on the Russian people. This became more so once Alexey was born.

Withdrawal from public life

Alexandra withdrew more from public life as she protected her little son and hid his defect from the world. Even other royal cousins did not know as Russia could not know. She must have realized that even if she could by chance have another son, he too could be affected by the disease.

The chance of another son being affected was 50%. Hemophilia had struck twice in Spain’s royal family. There was no certainty that the genetic lottery would spare any future Romanov sons. Besides, Alexandra already had five children and was not a well woman herself. She suffered sciatica, circulation issues and heart problems. Often she would stay in bed for days or weeks. Her mauve boudoir at the Summer Palace in Petrograd was the centre of her existence.

Rasputin, the infamous monk

The family rarely left the palace grounds to mix with the people or travel abroad. When WWI erupted life became more difficult. She was of German origin and Russia was at war with Germany. Plus, her little son was often ill from bruising due to falls. In desperation for help she sought the services of Grigory Rasputin, the mystical monk with healing powers. His inclusion in the royal household made her even less popular with the Russian people.

Russian Revolution

In 1917, while the war raged, the Russian people had enough of their autocratic, uncaring tsar and his wife. There was a revolt and Nicholas reluctantly abdicated. Alexandra was furious. She was not there when he signed the papers and would have stopped him. Stronger than him mentally, she believed in the dynasty and their rights of succession. Nicholas was weak and not a born ruler. His focus was on his family not his country. But because of his abdication and the ensuing politics, his family would pay the ultimate price.

If their little son had not been so delicate, would the Romanov dynasty been able to survive? The occurrence of hemophilia in the one Romanov child who needed to be robust was a tragedy. It was one of the factors in the dynastic and family tragedy of the Romanovs.

To learn more read my linked Romanov article just above or on my blog joniscottauthor.com. Helen Rappaport’s books on the Romanovs are also wonderful informative reading.

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