Her Ontario neighbours knew the Grand Duchess only as a simple immigrant grandmother who occasionally had a visit from the Queen
Olga was still nursing when the 1917 revolution forced her brother from power — although, just before Nicholas II’s abdication, he granted Olga an annulment in order to marry Kulikovsky. The newlyweds soon fled to Crimea with Olga’s mother and sister, and it was while under Bolshevik house arrest that Olga gave birth to her first son.
Olga and Nikolai tried to ride out the Russian Civil War in the Caucasus, but when Bolshevik victory became inevitable, they fled to Denmark, eventually settling at a modest farm that became a tourist destination for Russian monarchists. By selling off Olga’s Romanov jewels her maid smuggled out of Russia, the couple purchased a 200-acre farm in Campbellville, Ont., and took an immediate liking to the country, with the former Grand Duchess saying, “the vast open spaces remind me of Russia and gave me a feeling of comfort.”Article content
While Olga never hurt for cash — she left her inheritors about $200,000 in stocks and bonds — she lived frugally and harboured no illusions about a dramatic return to power. Posthumous biographer Patricia Phenixfrom admirers, royalty, old members of her regiment — and an endless succession of would-be scammers.Article content
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