ALEXANDRA & ELISABETH

ALEXANDRA & ELISABETH

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Two beautiful Russian Princesses, two devoted sisters.

To be a princess in Victorian-era Europe, meant you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and you joined a set of elites, one of life’s lucky lottery winners.

Endless balls and parties, changing from one costume to the next.

Wealthy noble suitors professed their love, proposed, and showered you with the finest gifts.

Theatre, ballet, opera, concerts, sporting events, afternoon tea.

Such a hectic social calendar, and so little time.

Life was a dream, a fairytale.

Until one fateful day in 1918.....

Against this backdrop were born two sisters ~

Princess Elisabeth,“Ella” born 1864, and Princess Alexandra "Alix", born 1872.

They were part of a large noble German family, of seven children.

Growing up, they lived a modest life by royal standards, even though their father Ludwig IV, was from one of the oldest and noblest houses in Germany, and their mother was Queen Victoria’s daughter, Alice.

They swept floors, cleaned their own rooms, and even accompanied their mother to care for soldiers, at a nearby hospital when war broke out between Austria and Prussia.

Ella was charming and kind, and considered to be one of the most beautiful of all the princesses in Europe.

Alix had sparkling blue eyes and red gold hair, she was Queen Victoria’s favorite granddaughter.

In June 1884, Ella married the Grand Duke of Russia, Sergei Alexandrovich.

Sergei was the fifth son of Russian tzar, Alexander II.

At their wedding, fate also struck Ella's little sister Alix, when she met 16-year-old Nicholas, the future Tsar Nicholas II.

Residing in one of the Kremlin palaces and a summer home outside of Moscow, Ella and Sergei lived happily, hosting frequent parties.

Ella encouraged the young Nicholas to pursue her sister Alix, much to the dismay of their Grandmother Queen Victoria, who somehow had a sixth sense for what was coming.

Alix fell deeply in love with Nicholas.

When Tsar Alexander III died in 1894, he left Nicholas as the new Emperor of Russia.

It was a whirlwind ride for Alix, she became Empress on her wedding day.

Shy and nervous, Alix was disliked from the beginning by the Russian people, who saw her as cold and curt.

On the other hand, Ella was loved by the Romanov family, and the Russian people in general.

Ella was as helpful as she could be, to her little sister.

Despite producing five beautiful daughters, the Russian people frowned upon Alix's distaste for Russian culture, and her inability to produce a male heir to the throne ~ until Alexei, her little ‘sunbeam” arrived in 1904.

Then on a cold February morning of 1905, Ella’s husband Sergei was assassinated inside the Kremlin by a Socialist-Revolutionary.

Sergei had previously rounded up 20,000 Jews, and evicted them from their homes for no reason and without warning.

Devoutly religious, Ella herself prophesized that

“God will punish us severely”.

It was just the beginning......

Unfortunately, Ella and Sergei didn’t have any biological children.

Consumed with sadness and guilt, Ella became a devout nun.

Selling her possessions in 1909, she worked tirelessly for several years, helping the poor and sick in Moscow, often in the worst slums.

She donated money to help build the Convent of Saints, Martha and Mary in Moscow.

This would be her home until her death.

In 1916, Ella saw her sister, Alix for the last time.

Things were also spiralling out of control for Alix too.

She had isolated herself from the Russian court, doting on her son and becoming a recluse.

She believed in the divine right of kings, that it was not necessary to seek the approval of the people.

It was this thinking, and her unwillingness to embrace her people, that sealed her fate ~ and that of her entire family.

Dangerously weakened by World War I, Imperial Russia’s government, could not bear the financial burden.

Mass hunger became the norm for millions of Russians, who refused to accept it any longer, and turned on their monarchy.

The The Imperial Family became prisoners....

In the early hours of 17th July 1918, The Imperial Family were murdered, in a basement of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.

Nicholas was shot in the chest several times, and a bullet entered the left side of Alix’s skull just above her ear, exiting from the right side.

Their children met a similar fate.

Alix was 46 years old.

The Romanov's were no more.

In July 1918, Lenin ordered the arrest of Ella.

The Bolsheviks took Ella, with her seven royal relatives and imprisoned them.

After the execution of her sister Alix, Tsar Nicholas II, and their five children, it was now Ella's turn.

The Soviets were cleaning their country, from the royals.

A day after her sisters death, early in the morning of 18th July 1918, The Bolsheviks took Ella and her relatives, to an abandoned iron mine.

Ella was the first to be beaten, and hurled down the shaft.

Then the others followed, and a hand grenade was thrown down to kill them, but only one man died.

According to one of the murderers, Ella and the others survived the fall, and after the grenade was tossed down, he heard Ella and others praying, and singing a hymn.

Down went a second grenade and finally, wood was shoved into the entrance and set alight.

Ella was dead, at 53.

After the revolution, her convent erected a statue of Elisabeth in the garden.

It read simply:

" To the Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna ~

With Repentance"

Elisabeth and Alix were no more.

Two sisters caught up in the winds of change.

Two beautiful princesses, two loving sisters ~ whose lives were cut short, because ideas changed.

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Source~fiveminutehistory/medium .com/Wikipedia

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix) with her sister, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Fedorovna (Ella) 1898