Princess Louise later Duchess of Argyll with her sister Princess Helena later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein in 1860. Third and Fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
[1/??] Paul Dierden + Sarah Manning - Orphan Black
↳ “If I was in your position, I’d fall in love with her too .”
Romanov Birthdays → Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, June 18
Famously known as the “Princess Anastasia” in the legend who supposedly escaped her doom, Grand Duchess Anastasia was born on 18 June 1901 at Peterhof. When Anastasia was born, her parents and extended family were disappointed to have a fourth daughter, because they wanted a son who would be heir to the throne. Emperor Nicholas II went for a long walk to compose himself before going to visit Empress Alexandra and the newborn Anastasia for the first time. One meaning of her name is “the breaker of chains” or “the prison opener.” Another meaning of the name is “of the resurrection,” a fact often alluded to later in stories about her rumored survival.
Anastasia was the fourth child and last daughter of five children. Anastasia had blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair as a child, and fine light brown hair as a teenager. She was a witty girl and had a strong sense of humor. Her sharp, witty remarks sometimes hit sensitive spots. Anastasia’s personality was lively and infectious, for which she gained the name “Sunshine” or “shvibzik,” the Russian word for “imp,” from her family. While often described as gifted and bright, she was never interested in the restrictions of the school room. Various accounts who knew Anastasia described her as a gifted actress. As a child, Anastasia sometimes tripped the servants, played pranks on her tutors, climb trees and refuse to come down.
A distant cousin, Princess Nina Georgievna, recalled that “Anastasia was nasty to the point of being evil.” Once, during a snowball fight at the family’s Polish estate, she rolled a rock into a snowball and threw it at her older sister Tatiana, knocking her to the ground. However, Anastasia was also kind at heart as Anastasia burst out into tears after realising she had possibly come very close to hurting Tatiana. She was also less concerned about her appearance than her sisters and despite being a grand duchess, she never cared much about manners. When she was ten years old, Anastasia ate chocolates without bothering to remove her long, white opera gloves at the St. Petersburg opera house.
During World War I, Anastasia, along with her sister Maria, visited wounded soldiers at a private hospital on the grounds at Tsarskoe Selo. The two teenagers, too young to become Red Cross nurses like their mother and elder sisters, played games of checkers and billiards with the soldiers and tried to uplift their spirits. Felix Dassel, who was treated at the hospital and knew Anastasia, recalled that the grand duchess had a “laugh like a squirrel,” and walked rapidly “as though she tripped along.”
Nicholas II abdicated the throne in February 1917 and Anastasia and her family were placed under house arrest at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo during the Russian Revolution. The family were then moved to Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg. The stress and uncertainty of captivity took their toll on Anastasia as well as her family. At Tobolsk, she and her sisters sewed jewels into their clothing in hopes of hiding them from their captors, since Alexandra, Nicholas and Maria had been searched upon arriving in Ekaterinburg, and had items confiscated.
However, even in the last months of her life, she found ways to enjoy herself. She and other members of the household performed plays for the enjoyment of their parents and others in the spring of 1918. Anastasia’s performance made everyone howl with laughter. A couple days before their execution, Anastasia and her sisters appeared in good spirits as they joked and Anastasia stuck her tongue out at Yakov Yurovsky when he turned his back and left the room. Anastasia and her family were murdered by surprise in the early hours of 17 July 1918 by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under the command of Yurovsky.
