Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna

Birth of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

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Maria was born on 26th June 1899, she was the third child and daughter, of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra.

Maria and her younger sister, Anastasia, were known within the family as "The Little Pair".

The two girls shared a room, often wore variations of the same dress, and spent much of their time together.

Maria was a gorgeous young girl, with many relatives and family friends constantly commenting on her natural beauty.

Her family nicknamed her blue eyes “Marie’s saucers,” while her great-aunt claimed Maria to be “a real beauty…with enormous blue eyes.”

Once, a gentleman even said that Maria had the face of Botticelli’s angel.

A young Maria enjoyed innocent flirtations with the young soldiers she encountered at the palace, and on family holidays.

She particularly loved children and, had she not been a Grand Duchess, its been reported that she would have loved nothing more than to marry a Russian soldier, and raise a large family.

As a young girl, Maria met one of her greatest admirers...

Her first cousin, Louis Mountbatten, had a wild crush on her, and she remained dear to his heart until his passing in 1979.

Although Mountbatten kept a photo of Maria at his bedside, he staunchly believed that no photograph, could ever do Maria’s beauty justice.

He even admitted to wanting to marry her.

When WWI started, Maria wanted to find a way to give back, but was too young to join the Red Cross as a nurse like her older sisters and mother.

Instead, she visited the wounded officers at Tsarskoye Selo.

To help raise their morale, Maria and her sister Anastasia, played checkers and billiards with the officers at the private hospital.

Due to her brother’s constant struggle with hemophilia, Maria and her family heavily relied on the infamous Grigori Rasputin, whom they considered a holy man that could cure Alexei.

Because of Rasputin’s impact on the Romanov family and Alexei’s healing, the family instructed Maria to view Rasputin as a friend and often trusted him with secrets.

This proved to be a terrible mistake.

Maria and her siblings felt completely safe in the presence of Rasputin, and often allowed him to visit them before bed while wearing their nightgowns.

Maria’s governess didn’t approve of Rasputin having access to the girls while vulnerable, and the Tsar eventually asked him to cease his visits to the nursery.

The governess scandalized the family by reporting on Rasputin’s visits to the nursery.

She claimed that Rasputin often sat with and caressed the children, especially Maria.

Rumors sprang up and spread like wildfire, claiming that Rasputin had not only seduced the Tsarina, but also Maria and her sisters.

Eventually, some of the letters written between him and the girls circulated through society, and cartoonists drew him and the Grand Duchesses in compromising positions.

Maria’s family desperately looked for a way to end this scandal once and for all.

Tsar Nicholas decided to cast Rasputin out of St. Petersburg for the foreseeable future.

In 1914, Maria faced a life threatening ordeal.

During an operation to remove her tonsils, she almost passed from blood loss.

At the time of Maria’s surgery, doctors knew that her brother Alexei had haemophilia, but also felt that Maria and many of her family members might carry symptoms of the disease.

Even if she didn’t have haemophilia, Maria still bled more than usual which put her at risk while doing normal activities.

In 1917, Maria and the Romanov family faced a violent revolution against them, which called for the end of their dynasty and Imperial rule.

The Bolsheviks overthrew Maria’s family and Imperial government, and Nicholas gave up the Russian Throne.

This meant that the Romanov’s dynasty in Russia was over, and that Maria’s family no longer had royal power.

Her family remained under the protection of guards, and officials permitted them to live in their home in Tsarskoye Selo.

Unfortunately for Maria’s family, it wasn’t enough for Nicholas to just abdicate the throne.

Officers incarcerated Maria and her family, in November 1917, and guards kept a vigil eye on them at all times.

Later, in an effort to keep them safe, officials sent Maria and her family to live in Siberia, at the residences in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg.

While Maria was in Ekaterinburg at Ipatiev House, she attempted to befriend her guards, and soon learned their names and details about their wives and children.

She showed them pictures from her photo albums, and talked with them about their families~ and her own hopes for a new life in England, if she was released.

The guards remembered her fun-loving personality, and undeniable beauty, her friendliness and unabashed flirtatious nature.

On July 16th 1918, the guards told the Imperial family, that they were being moved again, for their safety.

The family packed their bags and were ready to go as soon as possible.

The family emerged from their rooms carrying pillows, bags, and other items to make Alexandra and Alexei comfortable.

Anastasia carried one of the family's three dogs, a King Charles Spaniel, named Jimmy.

Once the family were in the lower level basement of the house, Yurovsky, a Soviet Revolutionary and professional photographer, asked Maria’s family to pose for him.

The family took their positions with Nicholas standing behind Alexei, and Maria and her sisters beside their mother, Alexandra.

Yurovsky ordered them to stand, and read the sentence of execution.

Maria and her family had time only to utter a few incoherent sounds of shock or protest before the death squad under Yurovsky's command began shooting.

It was the early hours of 17th July 1918.

While the firing squad struck both of Maria’s parents, three of her servants, and the family’s doctor on the first try, Maria initially didn’t sustain any injuries.

She scrambled desperately toward the doors located at the back of the room, but to her horror, couldn’t pry them open, the guards had sealed them shut with nails.

Because of the heavy smoke, the guards were only able to see the bottom halves of the surviving victims.

As such, the military commissar, Peter Ermakov, aimed for Maria’s thigh, injuring her.

She joined her sister Anastasia on the floor, the two girls surrounded by the sounds of certain death.

Maria watched in horror as her siblings Alexei, Olga, and Tatiana were brutally executed.

Only she and Anastasia remained.

Ermakov focused on Maria and her sister Anastasia, who hadn’t yet been hit.

He tried to strike her with his bayonet, but thankfully Maria had sewn jewels into her clothes, which ended up protecting her midsection from the knife.

When the bayonet didn’t work, Ermakov struck her head, leaving her unconscious and making him believe she’d succumbed.

But Maria continued to fight for her life.

When the attack on the Romanov family ended, the guards transported the bodies of Maria and her family from the house onto a truck to bring them to a burial ground.

Certain allegations state that either Maria or her sister Anastasia actually woke up on the way onto the truck and started screaming.

Allegedly, Ermakov tried to strike the screaming survivor once more with his bayonet, and failed for a second time.

When he realized he couldn’t succeed using his bayonet, he decided to bash either Maria or Anastasia across the face until she stopped screaming.

The exact details surrounding Maria’s death remain a mystery to this day.

There is no doubt that Maria’s last moments were filled with fear, helplessness, and excruciating pain.

Maria still lost her life alongside her beloved family members, all victims of a gruesome execution.

After many decades not knowing where the Romanov family laid, officials found Maria and her family’s grave in 1991. Discoverers originally found the grave, almost a decade prior, but at the time, the Russian government decided to keep it a secret. However, when they finally opened the grave, they found something very strange....

When officials finally excavated the grave, they realized that only nine bodies instead of the expected 11 actually laid at that site.

While many believed it was Anastasia who was missing, scientific advancements eventually proved otherwise.

The grave included Maria’s father and mother, as well as her sisters Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, their family doctor, their valet, their cook, and her mother’s maid.

However, Maria and Alexei were both missing.

Almost two decades later, officials finally found Maria and Alexei’s bodies near Yekaterinburg, in a place that matched Yurovsky’s description.

The Bolshevik officers burned the bodies and left only partial bones.

Yet, when archaeologists took a look at the skeletons, they confirmed that the bones belonged to individuals of Maria and Alexei’s ages.

As of yet, Maria and her Brother's, Alexei's remains, are yet to be interred with their family, in a hope that more of their remains can be found.

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Factinate.

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