I have been studying about the Romanov's lately. This lady "Princess Helen of Serbia survived the Bolshevic purge of the Romanov family and eventually moved to Nice, France and lived until 1962. She was interested in Medicine even in that lifetime.
Princess Helen of Serbia - Wikipedia,
Princess Helen of Serbia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other royal consorts titled "Helen of Serbia", see Helena of Serbia.
| Princess Helen | |
|---|---|
| Princess Elena Petrovna of Russia | |
 |
|
| Spouse | Prince John Constantinovich of Russia |
| Issue | Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia Princess Catherine Ivanovna of Russia |
| House | House of Karađorđević (by birth) House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov (by marriage) |
| Father | Peter I of Yugoslavia |
| Mother | Princess Zorka of Montenegro |
| Born | 4 November 1884 Cetinje, Montenegro |
| Died | 16 October 1962 (aged 77) Nice, France |
Contents
Early life
The strong-minded, purposeful Helen, whose mother died when she was a small child, was brought up largely under the care of her aunts Stana and Milica and educated in Russia at the Smolny Institute, a school in St. Petersburg for well-born girls. "She was a very sweet-faced though plain girl, with beautiful dark eyes, very quiet and amiable in manner," wrote Margaretta Eagar, governess to the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II. Eagar wrote that Helen, then about seventeen, often came to tea with another of her aunts, Princess Vera of Montenegro, and cousins. Young Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was very fond of her.[2]Engagement and marriage
Princess Elena Petrovna and Prince Ioann Konstantinovich. Engagement photograph
Helen studied medicine at the University of St. Petersburg following their marriage, a career pursuit she had to give up when she gave birth to her first child.[5] The couple had two children, Prince Vsevelod Ivanovich ( 20 January 1914 – 18 June 1973), and Princess Catherine Ivanovna born in Pavlovsk on ( 12 July 1915 - died in Montevideo, Uruguay on 14 July 2007). The three children and seven grandchildren of her daughter Princess Catherine, who married and later separated from Marchese Farace di Villaforesta, are the only great-grandchildren of Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Elisabeth Mavrikievna.[6]
Revolution
Helen voluntarily followed her husband into exile when he was arrested following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and tried to obtain his release. John was imprisoned first at Yekaterinburg, Siberia and later moved to Alapaevsk, a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, by the Bolsheviks, where he was murdered on 18 July 1918 along with Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich; John's brothers Constantine Constantinovich and Igor Constantinovich, his distant cousin Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergei's secretary, Fyodor Remez; and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's convent. They were herded into the forest by the local Bolsheviks, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft and grenades were then hurled into the mineshaft.Imprisonment
John had persuaded Helen to leave Alapaevsk and go back to their two young children, whom she had left with John's mother, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna of Russia, but Helen was arrested at Yekaterinburg and imprisoned herself at Perm in 1918. During her imprisonment, the Bolsheviks brought a girl who called herself Anastasia Romanova to her cell and asked her if the girl was Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. Helen said she didn't recognize the girl and the guards took her away.[7]Exile
Swedish diplomats obtained permission for Helen's mother-in-law Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna to leave Russia with Helen's children, Vsevelod and Catherine, and her own two younger children, Prince George Constantinovich and Princess Vera Constantinovna, in October 1918 aboard the Swedish ship Angermanland. Helen remained imprisoned at Perm until Norwegian diplomats located her and had her transferred. She was then kept prisoner at the Kremlin Palace before finally being allowed to leave and join her children in Sweden.[8]Helen eventually settled at Nice, France. She never remarried.
Notes
- Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004, p. 213.
References
- Margaret Eagar, Six Years at the Russian Court,, alexanderpalace.org
- Peter Kurth, Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson, 1983.
- Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1967
- Paul Theroff, An Online Gotha
- Charlotte Zeepvat, Romanov Autumn, 2000.
- Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, 2004.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Helen of Serbia. |
- Helena Petrovna, a thread at alexanderpalace.org
- An Online Gotha, Romanov genealogy, almanachdegotha.org
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