Exploring the Lives of the Romanov Sisters During Turmoil

Royalty throughout history is often a topic of fascination. One of the royal families I found interesting growing up was the Romanov family and how many people thought Anastasia Romanov survived the assassination and escaped to live elsewhere. I am trying to remember when I first heard about the Romanovs. I do remember asking my mom growing up if Anastasia had survived. I was hoping to listen to a miraculous survival story. I loved history even as a child, and when I asked the question, all I could think of was the books I could check out from the library on whether she had survived. It didn’t last long. My mom told me that, unfortunately, the whole family was killed by the Bolsheviks. My mom carefully explained that DNA testing had confirmed that all members of the family were killed. As a child, I wanted history with happy endings, or at least what I deemed to be interesting endings. A family who was killed didn’t pique my elementary school-aged brain. I then took AP World and European History, and the teacher was passionate about European history and did a good job talking about the Romanov royal family.
I did start doing more research and reading. Still, when I became a fan of the History Extra Podcast, I realized they covered various topics, including interviewing a historian who had written several books. Helen Rappaport has written several books focusing on the daughters of Czar Nicholas and what they experienced in their short lives. I discovered that their mother, Empress Alexandra, struggled with physical and mental illness. Her daughters ended up being caretakers of not only their mother but their younger brother, who is well-known to have dealt with hemophilia. Olga and Tatiana worked as nurses during WWI. It was challenging and upsetting work. They assisted with surgeries and taking care of the patients. The younger two daughters, Maria and Anastasia, had hospitals built in their honor, and they would visit with the wounded service members. Eventually, Russia withdrew from WWI. As I’ve learned more about the four dutchesses, I was struck by how ordinary so many of their struggles were.
Attempting to take care of an ill brother and ailing mother, the parentification that resulted from these struggles, and the desire for everyday life are all themes most people can relate to. Soldiers who met Maria and Anastasia at the hospitals they visited reported having many questions about what the outside world was like. What makes the ending of the story of the Romanov family even sadder is that the days after they were killed, the Vatican offered to take in the family and support them financially. The government didn’t want to admit that they had killed the women, so they withheld that information and circulated false stories about what had happened to the women. What drew me to the story of the Romanov family, which I initially thought was a mystery, is not what has had me reading and learning more for years.
I find the stories of an immediate family caught up in the whirlwind of political turmoil and an extended family paralyzed and unable to act to save their Russian cousins the most fascinating. Some have blamed George the V for not doing more to save his Russian relatives. Helen Rappaport rightly points out that there isn’t much that he could have done. As the current monarch in England, he was a constitutional one. They govern and reign because the people of their country allow it. The government would have had to invite the Romanovs to the U.K. if they had been willing to support them financially, then King George the V could have asked them to live in the U.K. It must have been tough to watch your cousin and his family struggle, limited in your ability to end their suffering.
It is important to remember that history was lived by real people, and the challenges they faced and the pain and fear they felt were real. Understanding that historical events happened to real people makes history more interesting and complex.