Maria Romanov: Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters, 1913-1918 Hardcover – 29 Nov. 2019

Helen Azar provides a wonderful service for all those interested in the Romanovs with her translations of their letters and diaries. Here it is the turn of Maria, the third daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, and her lively personality shines from these pages. Historians have always described Maria as a loving and friendly girl, but in her diaries we see evidence of a sparkly sense of humour too. The story in which she got stuck in snow in a graveyard is told with true comedian’s style. And I love her descriptions of the “officer who stinks and is afraid of dressings” and the one who is “fat and not too smart”. There is more personality here than in Olga’s and Tatiana’s diaries and letters, in my opinion, and I absolutely loved reading it. No wonder Nicholas said Maria's letters made him laugh!Helen Azar does an admirable job of working out who or what is being referred to, which is no mean feat given the Russians' love of nicknames, and she adds footnoted explanations of games and ceremonies referred to. Her introduction is a summing-up of the Romanovs' fate, and a vivid description of the lovely personality of Maria herself.Ultimately, of course, the book is very poignant. Maria is trying to put on a brave face in Tobolsk when she writes “All in all things are pretty good”. There are scarcely any complaints or signs of fear. She sounds remarkable, and reading this book really underscores the tragedy of what ultimately happened to the family.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Maria was a kind-hearted girl who loved her parents and siblings. She was particularly close to her father and her younger sister Anastasia. Though she was a grand duchess she was just like any other teenage girl and liked to have fun. She really liked children, too. It is very sad that such an innocent and good girl was deprived of her her freedom, her youth, her joy of living and eventually also her life and that in a very brutal and cruel manner. She should never have suffered such a terrible fate. She should have led a very long and satisfying life. I'm sure she would have been a great mother and also a great aunt to the children of her siblings. Unfortunately history can be very injust and human beings very evil. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Letto a pezzi, mi aspettavo un po' più materiale. Secondo me sarebbe bello se avessero fatto un libro con le foto delle OTMA e di Maria, magari anche con quelle dei suoi dipinti e dei suoi abiti. Poi è un peccato Maria Romanov avesse bruciato assieme ad Anastasia parte dei loro diari altrimenti magari avremmo più testimonianze e pagine di diario! Comunque io ho l'eBook quindi magari se c'è la versione cartacea è diversa

I got the book because Maria Romanov is my favorite Romanov sister, also, I am trying to get a collection of the 4 Romanov Sisters' Books (I already got books of Maria's 2 older sisters, Olga Romanov & Tatiana Romanov, which are both excellent!! The 4th, or the 4th of the 4 Romanov Sisters' book, Anastasia, has not been released yet). This book is excellent & accurately mentions the life of the Last Tsar & his family through the eyes of Tsar's 3rd Daughter, Maria Romanov, or Grand Duchess Maria. Maria is actually one of the 4 daughters of the Last Tsar of Russia, or, one of the 4 Romanov sisters. Maria is the 3rd oldest of her 4 sisters. Her 2 older sisters are, Olga, who's the oldest, and Tatiana, who's the 2nd oldest sister. The 4th, Maria's younger & also the youngest Romanov sister, is Anastasia. The 4 Romanov sisters refer themselves as the OTMA (O, which is Olga the oldest. Next, T, which is Tatiana, the next oldest. Then, M, which is Maria, finally A, which is referred to Anastasia, who is the youngest of the 4 sisters). Also, the 4 sisters are also broken into 2 pairs, the Big Pair (the 2 older sisters, Olga & Tatiana) and the Little Pair (the 2 younger sisters, Maria & Anastasia). The book accurately illustrates Maria's different writing style of her written diaries vs her written letters. In writing her (Maria's) diaries, she really doesn't go much in detail, just plain routine writing. Based on her written diaries, it's much more of a chore to than fun & games for her to write diaries, because Maria is among the most gregarious, or the most social of her 4 sisters, she (Maria) would rather spend more of her time with people than writing diaries. Sadly, only few of her diaries survived. Maria had burned most of her diaries in the Spring of 1918, because of inspection being done with her family shortly before the family was being transferred from Tobolsk, Russia to Ekaterinburg, Russia (that spring of 1918, is only a few months before the whole Romanov Family would be murdered by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg in July 1918). Until recently, for almost a century after the family's death in 1918 , it was believed that the only diary that existed from Maria was from 1916. But, it was recently discovered that the other diaries from her also still exist (years: 1912, 1913, as well as 1916).However, in her letters, that's much different from her diaries. Her letters proves her love in writing letters. In her letters, that when Maria really comes to life!! These letters accurately shows Maria's true personality (Being naturally a happy person. Her sweet, angelic & positive personality as well). Even though Maria might not be quite a clown or a prankster like her younger sister Anastasia, her (Maria's) letters shows Maria really has a sense of humor, and, at times, her comedian type personality as well. On top of that, her letters also shows Maria is an excellent storyteller. The point is, Maria goes much more into detail, or depth in her letters than in her diaries. So, if you are interested in GD Maria, or, if Maria is your favorite Romanov sister (which is actually case with me), than I highly recommend getting this book (by Helen Azar & George Hawkins). After reading this book, it feels like I get to "know" GD Maria personally, or, it feels like the Grand Duchess is actually "speaking to me" when I read this book.

Finalmente l'ho visto immediatamente disponibile e l'ho acquistato subito. Da precisare che non è da leggere tutto di seguito come un romanzo, è più un libro di approfondimento per appassionati. Il diario e le lettere della dolce e bella Maria, terza figlia dello zar Nicola II, canonizzata dalla chiesa ortodossa. Una raccolta di documenti storici.

Lovely book, I liked it. Contains many letters and diary entries.