A handwritten letter from Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to Colonel V. A candle

The original letter. Written in his own hand by the sister of the last Russian emperor Xenia, with a personal signature. The letter is addressed to Colonel L-Gv. Preobrazhensky Regiment to Vladimir Svechin. The size of the form is 89*113 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

Xenia Alexandrovna (March 25 [April 6], 1875, Saint Petersburg — April 20, 1960, Windsor, Great Britain) was a Grand Duchess of the Russian Empire from the house of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and the sister of Nicholas II. Ksenia Alexandrovna was born on March 25 (old style), 1875 in St. Petersburg. She was the fourth child and the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna. The Grand Duchess spent her childhood and youth in Gatchina in the Great Gatchina Palace, where her parents preferred to live. She was her mother's favorite, and she looked like her "dear Mother." Xenia's first and only love was Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (Sandro), who was friends with her brothers and often visited Gatchina. She was "crazy" about the tall, slender brunette, believing that he was the best in the world. She kept her love a secret, telling only her older brother, the future Emperor Nicholas II, a friend of Sandro. Ksenia was Alexander Mikhailovich's first cousin (in the direct male line through the Russian Emperor Nicholas I) and fourth cousin (through Karl Ludwig of Baden). According to tradition, the princesses of the imperial house married foreign princes. Related marriages within the Romanov family were not welcome, so the parents did not immediately agree to this union. On July 25, 1894, a wedding took place in the church of the Great Peterhof Palace in Peterhof. Then the newlyweds proceeded to the Ropshinsky Palace.

On July 3, 1895, Ksenia Alexandrovna gave birth to her first child, daughter Irina, at Her Imperial Majesty's Own dacha "Alexandria" (Peterhof). In total, during the first 13 years of marriage, she gave birth to 7 children: one and six sons. Grand Duchess Xenia loved her husband wholeheartedly, accepting all his interests. When she was abroad with her husband, Ksenia visited with him all those places that could be considered "not quite decent" for a royal daughter, even tried her luck at the gaming table in Monte Carlo. However, the married life of the Grand Duchess did not work out. My husband has new hobbies. Despite having seven children, the marriage actually broke up. But Xenia Alexandrovna did not agree to a divorce from the Grand Duke. Despite everything, she managed to keep her love for the father of her children until the end of her days, and she sincerely worried about his death in 1933.

In 1913, Xenia Bay (Barents Sea, Novaya Zemlya Archipelago) was named in honor of Xenia Alexandrovna, the name was given by the participants of the G. Ya. Sedov expedition.

During the First World War, Ksenia Alexandrovna was active in the field of charity. She had a personal temporary military ambulance train, with the team of which she repeatedly traveled to the battlefields. In Petrograd, she created and headed a hospital for the wounded and recovering[6]. The revolution found the Grand Duchess in Petrograd. She unsuccessfully tried to meet with Nicholas II, who, after his abdication, was kept under house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo with his family until August 1917. In February 1917, the princess and her children moved to Gatchina, and then to Kiev. When it became impossible to stay in Kiev, with the permission of the Provisional Government, she and her family moved to Crimea, where she lived in Dulber until 1919 (under house arrest for some time) and was evacuated during the Crimean Evacuation of 1919 along with the rest of the Imperial family on the British battleship Marlborough. In 1919, Ksenia Alexandrovna, along with her mother and other relatives, emigrated abroad. At first she lived in Denmark, then, after her mother's death, she moved to England. George V gave her and the children free use of Frogmore House Cottage near Windsor Castle. At the same time, her husband was forbidden to live there on the grounds that he had cheated on his wife before the First World War. Ksenia Alexandrovna died in April 1960 in the Wilderness House on the territory of the Hampton Court palace complex, where she moved after the death of King George V. According to her dying will, the body of the Grand Duchess was transported to the south of France and buried on April 29, 1960 at the Roquebrune cemetery, next to her beloved husband, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich.

V. V. Svechin (May 13/25, 1871, Dubrovka village, Tver Province – September 22, 1944, Paris, poh. to the treasure. Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois). Colonel of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky regiment, a public figure. He graduated from the Imperial College of Law (1893). He enlisted in active military service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Life Guards. In 1905, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Emperor Nicholas II. In 1908 he participated in the Second Automobile Exhibition in Moscow. Vice-President of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society. Participated in the World War. He emigrated to France, lived in Bordeaux, then in Paris. He worked at the Renault factory. In 1921, in Paris, he was one of the founders and a member of the board of the Union for the Liberation and Rebirth of Russia. Member of the Board of the Russian Public Committee for Famine Relief in Russia. Since 1924, Deputy Chairman of the Guards Association Committee. In 1936-1939, he was the editor of the Preobrazhenskaya Chronicle magazine. A member of the Society of Legal Lawyers, he was a member of the Committee of the Society's Treasury (1930s). In 1936, he participated in the jubilee celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Imperial College of Law. In 1922, he organized the Union of Zealots of the Memory of Emperor Nicholas II, and since 1936 he has been its chairman. In 1939, he was a member of the Committee for fundraising for the benefit of Russian military invalids. He was awarded the Legion of Honor. Member of the Parish Council of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. Participated in the construction of the Cross-monument of the royal family (1944). He published the book "To the Blessed Memory of Emperor Nicholas II the Great Martyr" (Paris, 1933). It was published in the magazine "Sentry". He is the author of memoirs (Bulletin of the Foreign Treasury, 1932), an essay "General Kutepov" (collection "General Kutepov", Paris, 1934), and others.

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