The Diary of Olga Romanov

A translated edition of the wartime diaries kept by Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, covering the period from the outbreak of World War I through her father's abdication in March 1917. Olga began the diary in 1905 at age ten; these wartime entries, held in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, are translated into English here for the first time by Helen Azar. They cover the period when Olga and her sister Tatiana served as Red Cross nurses in a military hospital alongside their mother, Empress Alexandra, while their younger sisters Maria and Anastasia visited wounded soldiers to raise morale. The entries grow more troubled as Russian military losses mount and Rasputin's influence ends with his murder. After Olga's own diary breaks off at the abdication, Azar continues the account using letters from family intimate Anna Vyrubova, Nicholas II's personal diary, and the observations of Alexander Kerensky, head of the Provisional Government, following the imperial family into house arrest.