Empress Alexandra

It is rumoured Empress Alexandra never smiled but my grandmother definitely saw her smiling more than once

July 6, 2025 1 Comment

The first time my grandmother, Countess Olga Kleinmichel, saw Empress Alexandra the Empress wasn’t smiling. In fact, according to my grandmother’s memoir in which she describes the celebration of Grand Duchess Olga’s sixteenth birthday, Empress Alexandra “wore an expression of weariness and sadness which ‘society’ took for coldness and haughtiness.”

Letters of the Tsaritsa to the Tsar 1914-1916, inside cover

The private letters from the Empress frequently inform us about history

August 21, 2022 No Comments

I have often written about letters and my passion for reading other people’s thoughts and descriptions of their lives. I have already written a post on one of the letters written by Empress Alexandra of Russia to her husband, Tsar Nicholas II. It was taken from the book Letters of

What’s in a Name? Was I named in memory of the Empress?

March 27, 2022 2 Comments

Was I named after Empress Alexandra (pictured above), wife of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia? It is a question I have been asked time and time again. It was not something I ever discussed with my mother. How do parents decide on names for their children? I had a few

Disappearance, Scandal and Murder – her letter fears the worst

December 19, 2021 No Comments

Rasputin, friend to Empress Alexandra of Russia and enemy of so many more, was murdered on 30 December 1916 – (17 December in the old calendar). As a follow up to my post a couple of weeks ago, here is how the Empress expressed her fears in a letter, the

Image from the author's postcard collection

Letters to her husband, thoughts of the Empress, December 1916 – Namesday of Nicholas II

December 5, 2021 No Comments

Empress Alexandra, wife of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, wrote frequently to her husband, numbering each of her letters. Several years ago, at a second hand book stall, I found a book of her letters, written between 1914 and 1916. It is called Letters of the Tsaritsa to

The Romanov Family and their Patrons

July 18, 2021 3 Comments

This weekend, the execution on 17 July 1918, of the last Tsar of Russia, his family and their faithful staff, will be commemorated by many. There will be posts on social media and, no doubt, articles in newspapers and services in the Russian Orthodox churches remembering this dark day in

Alex de Fircks