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Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia ((ロシア語:О́льга Алекса́ндровна); – 24 November 1960) was the youngest child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II. She was raised at the Gatchina Palace outside Saint Petersburg. Olga's relationship with her mother, Empress Marie, the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, was strained and distant from childhood. In contrast, she and her father were close. He died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas became emperor. In 1901, she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, who was privately believed by family and friends to be homosexual. Their marriage of 15 years remained unconsummated, and Peter at first refused Olga's request for a divorce. The couple led separate lives and their marriage was eventually annulled by the Emperor in October 1916. The following month Olga married cavalry officer Nikolai Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several years before. During the First World War, the Grand Duchess served as an army nurse at the front and was awarded a medal for personal gallantry. At the downfall of the Romanovs in the Russian Revolution of 1917, she fled to the Crimea with her husband and children, where they lived under the threat of assassination. Her brother and his family were shot by revolutionaries. Olga escaped revolutionary Russia with her second husband and their two sons in February 1920. They joined her mother, the Dowager Empress, in Denmark. In exile, Olga acted as companion and secretary to her mother, and was often sought out by Romanov impostors who claimed to be her dead relatives. She met Anna Anderson, the best-known impostor, in Berlin in 1925. After the Dowager Empress's death in 1928, Olga and her husband purchased a dairy farm in Ballerup, near Copenhagen. She led a simple life: raising her two sons, working on the farm and painting. During her lifetime, she painted over 2,000 works of art, which provided extra income for both her family and the charitable causes she supported. In 1948, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's regime, Olga emigrated with her immediate family to a farm in Ontario, Canada. With advancing age, Olga and her husband moved to a bungalow near Cooksville, Ontario. Colonel Kulikovsky died there in 1958. Two years later, as her health deteriorated, Olga moved with devoted friends to a small apartment in East Toronto. She died aged 78, seven months after her older sister, Xenia. At the end of her life and afterwards, Olga was widely labeled the last Grand Duchess of Imperial Russia. ==Early life== Olga was the youngest daughter of Tsar Alexander III and his consort, Marie Feodorovna, formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was born in the purple, ''i.e.'' during her father's reign, on 13 June 1882 in the Peterhof Palace, west of Saint Petersburg. Her birth was announced by a traditional 101-gun salute from the ramparts of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and similar salutes throughout the Russian Empire.〔Vorres, p. 3〕 Her mother, advised by her sister, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, placed Olga in the care of an English nanny, Elizabeth Franklin.〔 The Russian imperial family was a frequent target for assassins, so for safety reasons the Grand Duchess was raised at the country palace of Gatchina, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Saint Petersburg. Olga and her siblings, however, were not accustomed to a lavish early lifestyle. Conditions in the nursery were modest, even Spartan.〔Phenix, pp. 8–10; Vorres, p. 4〕 They slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold water, and ate a simple porridge for breakfast.〔 Olga left Gatchina for the first time in the early fall of 1888 when the imperial family visited the Caucasus. On 29 October, their return train approached the small town of Borki at speed. Olga's parents and their four older children were eating lunch in the dining-car when the train lurched violently and came off the rails. The carriage was torn open; the heavy iron roof caved in, and the wheels and floor of the car were sliced off. The Tsar crawled out from beneath the crushed roof, and held it up with "a Herculean effort" so that the others could escape.〔Vorres, p. 11〕 There were 21 fatalities. Empress Marie helped tend the wounded, and made makeshift bandages from her own clothes.〔 An official investigation found that the crash was an accident,〔Phenix, p. 20〕 but it was widely assumed that two bombs had been planted on the line.〔Vorres, p. 12〕 The Grand Duchess and her siblings were taught at home by private tutors. Subjects included history, geography, Russian, English and French, as well as drawing and dancing.〔Vorres, pp. 18–20〕 Physical activities such as equestrianism were taught at an early age, and they became expert riders.〔Phenix, pp. 12–13; Vorres, pp. 26–27〕 The family was deeply religious. Although Christmas and Easter were times of celebration and extravagance, Lent was strictly observed—meat, dairy products and any form of entertainment were avoided.〔Vorres, p. 30〕 Family holidays were taken in the summer at Peterhof and with Olga's grandparents in Denmark.〔Phenix, pp. 11, 24; Vorres, pp. 33–41〕 Empress Marie was reserved and formal with Olga as a child, and their relationship remained a difficult one.〔Phenix, p. 8; Vorres, p. 25〕 However, Olga, her father, and the youngest of her brothers, Michael, had a close relationship. Together, the three frequently went on hikes within the Gatchina forests, where the Tsar taught Olga and Michael woodsmanship.〔Vorres, p. 24〕 Olga said of her father: During 1894 Olga's father became increasingly ill, and the annual trip to Denmark was cancelled.〔Vorres, pp. 48–52〕 On 13 November 1894, he died at the age of 49. The emotional impact on Olga, aged only 12, was traumatic,〔Phenix, pp. 30–31; Vorres, pp. 54, 57〕 and her eldest brother, the new Tsar Nicholas II, was propelled into a role for which in Olga's later opinion he was ill-prepared.〔Vorres, p. 55〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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