#romanov

☽ QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER SISTER EMPRESS MARIA FEODOROVNA ☾

I used to try to attach myself to my Aunt Alix after dinner, for of all the relations she was my favourite, perhaps because she was the most beautiful person in my small world. Even after all these years I remember her as I saw her then, the grace of her every movement, the sweetness of her smile. No woman ever possessed to greater degree that inde-finable quality known as charm. That, combined with beauty, will turn anyone's head, unless they be made of stone. Everyone who knew her came under its spell, grown-ups as well as children, for she could talk to either with equal fascination. She was very witty, brilliant in repartee and a wonderful mimic, yet her wit was never cruel.

Aunt Minnie, the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, was a smaller and less beautiful edition of her sister; she had the same charm, the same tact, but had more strength of character. Although she was small she could enter a room so majestically that everyone would stop talking and turn to look at her. She was a great smoker, but wanted no one to know it but the family, so if anyone else entered the room she would immediately hide her cigarette behind her back. | Prince Christopher of Greece

Young, lively and full of joie de vivre... the sisters set each other off and became the centre of a glittering crowd wherever they went. | Louisa, Countess of Antrim

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia in Sevastopol, 1909