Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian writer, wrote those words. I’m sure they were written from experience. My grandparents, Paul and Olga Woronoff understood how important hope is to life. If they had not had hope they might not have survived through the tumultuous years that their homeland of Russia threw
Every country lays claims to having great artists and performers and Russia is no exception. One of the most influential and talented singers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Russia was Feodor (Fyodor) Chaliapin. He has been described as having both an imposing figure and voice, with
Last week marked the sad anniversary of the murder of Russia’s Imperial Family; Tsar Nicholas II, the Empress Alexandra and their five children – Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei. They, together with a handful of their loyal servants, were brutally executed by the Bolsheviks, in the basement of the
A couple of weeks ago I made a video about the wedding of my maternal grandparents, Olga and Paul Woronoff, for the YouTube channel “In the Steps of the Romanovs” created by Helen Azar. Helen has translated and published the diaries of the Grand Duchesses, and has found a few
You would think it would be easy to pinpoint the important dates in your ancestor’s life if they had written a memoir. Unless, of course, your ancestor was a minimalist with dates – like my grandmother. My grandmother wrote a memoir, Upheaval, but instead of using dates or years to
On 10 May 1990 my great Aunt Tata celebrated her 100th birthday. Beginning life as Countess Natalia Kleinmichel, older sister of my grandmother Countess Olga Kleinmichel, Aunt Tata saw in her birthday as Sister Mary of the Resurrection. The celebrations were recorded in this newspaper article from France, seen above