Count Pyotr Kleinmichel is one ancestor I’m not proud of. He’s my maternal 2 x great grandfather and, if you have read the 2nd edition of Upheaval, you will know that my grandmother had only good things to say about him. But she didn’t do the research I did! I
Russia pre Revolution. A fancy dress ball. My grandmother and her partner dancing with no idea of the tragedy to come…
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
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolayevna as a nurse in WWI – postcard from the author’s personal collection
I was reminded by the Facebook post in the group “In the Steps of the Romanovs” that Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, was born on 15th November. The Facebook post is linked to Helen Azar’s video about GD Olga’s
Above is a photo, taken at Ivnia, of my maternal great-grandmother, Countess Catherine Nicholaievna Kleinmichel, her daughters and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich – according to the writing on the back of the photo. I believe my grandmother, Olga Voronov (Woronoff) née Kleinmichel, is second from the left, next to her