Some notes on the education of Nicholas II's daughters

There are many records remaining which give us some insight into the education of Nicholas II’s daughters, for example, class journals for Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia are held in Empress Alexandra's fonds in the Russian State Archives (GARF), which contain records of what they studied each day as well as marks. Maria Nikolaevna’s journals are in her own fonds. Many of the Grand Duchesses exercise books are also held by GARF, in particular, a large number of Grand Duchess Maria’s Russian, English, French, German and Arithmetic exercise books survive. Along with the exercise books, some written compositions by the Grand Duchesses also survive.

The class journals gave a brief summary of what was being studied each day along with some remarks on how the lessons went. If the work was marked, then the grades were also recorded. Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia’s journals from 1916 and 1917 show both Grand Duchesses receiving many 4s and 5s - the equivalents of Bs and As in western grading systems. For Olga Nikolaevna, we have the journals from 1905, 1906, 1908-1911 (which continues in to 1912), 1913-1914. For Tatiana Nikolaevna: 1905-1914. For Maria Nikolaevna: 1906-1917. For Anastasia Nikolaevna: 1908-1916.

The Grand Duchesses studied Russian, English, French, German, Arithmetic, History, Geography, Art, Music, Dance, Gymnastics, Law of God, Natural Sciences. Olga and Tatiana (at the very least) had physics lessons at the "Real School", but not with other students. I am not sure if Maria and Anastasia had lessons there, they may have been too young.

Following, we shall look into some of the records of Grand Duchesses Olga, Maria and Anastasia.

Grand Duchess Olga

Grand Duchess Olga’s 1911 class journal shows a literature heavy workload in her language studies. In January she was reading Hamlet, Ivanhoe, The Pickwick Papers, doing dictation from here works, writing letters and retelling works she had read such as “Write an account of ‘Boris Godunov’” or “Write the story of ‘Lochinvar’ in poetry book p 155.”

A page from Olga’s 1912 class journal for English GARF 640-2-104

Some of November 1911’s lessons. GARF 640-2-104

French lessons involved oral exercises, dictation, readings, grammar etc. Olga was doing well in French and received 5s (As) for her classwork.

Some of Olga’s French records, GARF 640-2-104

Russian lessons also involved the same type of exercises: dictation, grammar, readings, retellings and compositions. Between 1905 - 1910, Olga’s Russian tutor Petr Petrov typed out some of her compositions, making a booklet of them, with illustrations by the Grand Duchess. Here is a translation of all of 9 year old Olga's composition "The Crystal Star" with her original illustrations included at the end.

Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there was a Tsar and a Tsaritsa. They had no children. One time, the Tsaritsa fell ill and she had a daughter, Tamara. 20 years after her birth, her parents died. She was an orphan. Every day she went to the grave of her mother and father. One time, she was sitting and thinking, “how pitiful I am, I have no one; all the other children have everything they want. If I were the daughter of a star, how happy I would be.” No sooner had she thought this, then she found herself with the stars. She was very, very happy about this. She was with the stars every day. One day, she went for a walk and saw a star which told her, “In one year, you will have children who you must love.” Tamara was very happy and went back to her star. As it happened, in a year’s time, she had children whom she loved very much. Their names were: Lida, Elena and Zoya. She wanted to take her children for a walk with her, but the star told her, “Don’t take them with you because they are little.” She obeyed the star, “Dear star, may I go to the moon, which I dearly love?”

“You may, but you must be home by 12 o’clock at night.

Chapter 2

At 12 noon, she went to the moon. She had a lot of fun there. She completely forgot about her children. Suddenly, there was a crash of thunder and lightning flashed, and it was then she remembered her star. She rushed home, fed her children and went to her star.

Chapter 3

Sometime after that, Tamara took her children to the star who had told her she would have children. The star was overjoyed. Suddenly she saw something sparkling. Then she took little Zoya in her arms, Elena on her back and Lida by the hand and ran home to her star and said, “Dear Star, I saw something!”

“What did you see?” asked the star.

“I saw a flame.”

“A flame!” said the star, “but do you know what caused the flame?”

“No, I don’t!”

“It is a sign that you are very disobedient; I told you that you needed to come back to me by 12 at night that time that you went to the moon.”

Tamara began to cry bitterly. The star forgave her. Then she went out into the garden and picked flowers, and in one of the flowers, she found a tiny baby. She took it in her arms and hurried home. It was a little boy called Peter.

Chapter 4

Tamara had four children. In age they were Lida – 7, Elena – 7, Zoya – 7 and Peter – 1 year old. When they were 20, Tamara died. They were awfully grieved by it. On the third day after Tamara’s death, they buried her in the same place that her parents were buried.

O.N

Tsarskoe Selo

The 1st picture was drawn at the end of Chapter 2. The second picture at the end of the story showing Zoya and Lida at their mother's funeral. (She wrote Lidiya in the picture, but Lida throughout the story.) GARF 673-1-1

Maria Nikolaevna

Maria was achieving 4s and 5s (Bs and As) is Russian in 1916-1917. Her class journal records come to an abrupt stop in February 1917 with her last English lesson recorded as being on 23 February doing dictation, reading from Crawford, copying and learning from corrections of her previous work, and composition writing.

Maria Nikolaevna’s 1917 Class Journal GARF 685-1-184

Maria’s lesson timetable for 1910-1911 survives and gives a good idea about what all the sisters were studying and the amount of time given to each lesson and subject per week. However, it should be remembered that lesson schedules were often interrupted for various reasons.

Below is a page from Maria’s exercise book where she has been practising writing short recounts, her tutor’s corrections show she still had a lot of work to do. The spelling and sentence structure likely give an idea of Maria’s English pronunciation and way of speaking too.

A page from Maria’s English exercise book, 1909, GARF 685-1-3

Anastasia Nikolaevna

Like Maria Nikolaevna’s class journal, the results in Anastasia’s class journal reflect good results in her learning. Like Maria, Anastasia’s language lessons involved dictation, readings, letter writing and compositions. In English, Anastasia had a lot of spelling corrections to do according to the class journal.

Class Journal of Anastasia Nikolaevna for 1916 showing her German lessons. GARF 640-2-121

Composition of Anastasia, written at Livadia December 1911, typewritten in January 1912

“Alone”

A woman lived on the Estates of the Kazakovs. She was, I believe, around 30 years old. She was always pale and in pain. She had no husband, and so she was very sad, but she wasn’t able to get married because she was so ill. She had quite a big house, all white and covered in wisteria. Her name was Elena Vladimirovna. She only rarely got visitors .but quite often the same equipage would drive up and the same officer always left from there...and on one of those days, I will relate to you what happened. Elena Vladimirovna was in a great deal of pain that day. A wagon arrived at the house that day and a young officer jumped out of it. The doorman, dressed in red, met him. He threw off his cloak, ran down the stairs and stopped outside Elena Vladimirovna’s door and listened. It was completely quiet in the room. The only sound that could be heard was that of a little dog snoring. Then he opened the door and went in. The door creaked and Elena Vladimirovna opened her eyes. In the silence, the only sound that could be heard was her voice asking, “Who’s there?” The young officer answered, “It is me, your friend Kolya.” Kolya was a sailor, a midshipman. He served on a cruiser. He was still altogether very young, he was only 24 years old. He had a father and mother, three sisters and one brother besides him. Kolya went up to Elena Vladimirovna’s bed, leaned over and asked, “Well, Elenushka, how is your health today?” He took her hand, shook it and then kissed her pale, thin hand. Elena looked at him, smiled, and a pale blush covered her cheeks. She asked with her quiet, weak voice, “The doctor told me I am very ill, but I feel that I have got better now.” She raised herself up and then sank down into the bed again. 

 “Oh, am I perhaps disturbing you, my dove Elenushka?” But no answer came, and Elena closed her eyes. He quietly leaned over Elena and said, “I’ll leave for now, and come back tomorrow if you wish.”

 She said, “Come to me tomorrow.”

 He tiptoed out of the room and went into the corridor. He was very disturbed on account of Elena who felt so unwell.

 On the next day, again a wagon arrived and two people got out of it - one, the same officer and the other was dressed in civvies. They went onto the porch, put down their things and went to her in the room. Kolya knocked and entered while the doctor stood waiting for Kolya. This time, Elena was on the sofa by the window .window. He went up to her and said, “Hello, my dove, how are you feeling today? Has the doctor been to you today?”

 “No, the doctor hasn’t been, nor will be, and I feel dreadful.” She looked out the window and smiled sadly. Kolya smiled and said, “Well, I have brought a doctor to you. Would you like me to bring him to you, or not?”

 “Yes, ask him to come to me…”

Kolya went to the door, and said to the doctor that he could go and see her. The doctor came and asked her about a lot of different things and said that she is very, very unwell and could not live much longer. When the doctor had gone, Elena said, “Well, you see, Kolya, just as I thought, I shall die soon, I felt it, even though the doctors never told me. But I still I think that I shall not see you for a long time”...

 She closed her eyes and then opened them again. He asked, “Do you want to go to the bed?”

 “Yes.”

 He took her to the bed and said, “It is time for me to go the equipage, or they’ll tell me off.” She asked him to stay a little longer with her and he did. After an hour he began to make his farewells. She said, “Farewell forever, my sweet Kolya. I shall never see you again.” And with those words, she kissed him very, very firmly. He kissed her too, and said a few more words and left as it was already half past twelve. He sat in the carriage, already without the doctor and went home. 

 That night, Kolya had a dream that Elena was walking about in white over some kind of dead person. In the morning when he awoke, he felt it was all very strange. As soon as he had his coffee, he headed off to Elena’s. When he stepped onto the porch and rang, no one came. He looked at his watch and saw that it was only 10 o’clock, and he thought something was amiss, because everyone would come to her at 9. He rang again and it was only then a lackey came and opened the door. Kolya asked, “Why didn’t you open the door to me earlier?”

 The lackey said nothing and ran up the stairs. He also went up and could smell the fragrance of incense. “What’s this,” Kolya asked himself. “Could she really be dead? No, it can’t be! She can’t be dead,” and he went up even faster and saw through the open door, the Deacon and all the people in black, and the lackey and psalmist were singing. Then he understood. Elena, his Elena, was dead. He went into the room and saw the casket on the table. He went up to the maid and asked her, “Do you know when Elena Vladimirovna reposed?” She replied that Elena Vladimirovna had died at six in the morning. “The whole time she was calling for you and saying your name.” He went into the room where the panihida was being held and after it was over, asked the Deacon when the burial would take place. The Deacon replied that it would be in three days otherwise there would not be enough time to prepare everything for Elena Vladimirovna. Kolya could say nothing in his grief. Elena was so beautiful, all in white, herself pale, on her head, her favourite wreath, which she asked to be put on her when she died, as Kolya had put it on her…

 Three days later, when Kolya went to her house for the burial, he shed so many tears at her grave, especially when he farewelled her and when the grave was filled in, he thought, “My Elenushka has been taken away, and I shall never see her again, and I shall have joy, but she shall not, no, and I wanted to marry her. I loved her so much, like a wife, but now it is all over, she is no more.”

 After the burial, he immediately left the cemetery, and it seemed to him that he was completely alone, with no one to love him. He cried bitterly.

The End.