Kleinmichel

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.”

Grand Duchess Olga and Grand Duchess Tatiana

More than a remote connection; corresponding with OTMA

July 25, 2022 No Comments

OTMA – was the acronym the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia gave themselves; it was taken from the first letters of their Christian names – Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. Four Grand Duchesses, four beautiful young women whose lives were cut short some 104 years ago. Four girls

Pine, oak, birch and aspen; notes from years ago on the Potchep forest

March 6, 2022 No Comments

The war in Ukraine has turned my thoughts to my grandmother. Her father’s estates were situated in western Russia, not far from the current border with Ukraine. I remember her telling me how beautiful Kyiv was, so she must have visited it at least once. Recently I again sorted through

At least they had a Nice honeymoon before the march to war

February 27, 2022 No Comments

On February 14, 1914, my maternal grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff (neé Countess Kleinmichel) were married in the Feodorovsky Cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo – I have written about their wedding here and talked about it here on YouTube. So 108 years ago they would have been on their honeymoon. I

Happy New Year from a Great-Grandmother to her Granddaughter

January 2, 2022 No Comments

On 1 January 1946 my great-grandmother, Catherine Nicolaievna Jakowzoff (formerly Countess Kleinmichel), sent a Christmas / New Year greeting to her granddaughter, my mother. The images of the card and the photo she sent are above. At the time of writing my great-grandmother was 81 and living in France, and

She was a model in Paris, but did she work for Chanel?

December 12, 2021 No Comments

I recently attended the Chanel exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Despite whatever opinion you might have of Coco Chanel, her designs were both elegant and timeless. And they were beautifully made. But as I walked around the exhibition, I remembered that my great-aunt Ella, my maternal grandmother’s sister

Alex de Fircks