25 Chapters of My Life

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The Grand Duchess Olga wrote her memoirs as a personal account of the final years of Imperial Russia. The youngest daughter of Alexander III and sister of Nicholas II, Olga was brought up in a happy and loving environment, where the wealth and majesty of the Russian court seemed forever assured. With an artist's eye for detail, she records her life against the background of the historical events, which shook the world.

Her marriage to Prince Peter of Oldenburg failed, and she saw at first hand the horror and suffering while nursing in a field hospital during The Great War. At the onset of the Revolution in 1917, Olga and her new husband Nicholas Kulikovsky moved first to The Crimea and in early 1919 to the Caucasus, which was under White Russian control. When the Red Army moved in, Nicholas and Olga, with their two children, managed to escape to Denmark, and her mother's home. After the end of WWII the family emigrated to Canada to avoid the dangers posed by Soviet occupation of Danish territory. They settled in Toronto and Olga died there in 1960, the last Grand Duchess of the Imperial family.

Grand Duchess Olga's account is all the more poignant for her matter-of-fact narrative, which fails to hide her deep humanity towards those less fortunate than herself. Containing many letters and pictures this is the first time her personal account has been fully published in English.