1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:19,639 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener discretion advised. If you 3 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: were living in eastern Toronto in the year nineteen sixty, 4 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,560 Speaker 1: you might have seen an old woman bustling in and 5 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: out of a little apartment that she lived in above 6 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: the local barbershop. She might have nodded at the patrons 7 00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: of Ray's Barbershop and Gerrard Street East, which was located 8 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,880 Speaker 1: a short walk away from Lake Ontario, with a view 9 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 1: to New York State across the water. The woman was 10 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: a widow who spoke with boundless love for her late husband. 11 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: She adored her grandchildren. She was an artist, often seen 12 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: with a paint brush in her hand. But this woman 13 00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: also had unusual guests come visit her from time to time, 14 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 1: people whose bearing and dress appeared undeniably regal. Rumor had 15 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: it that when Queen Elizabeth the Second visited Canada, the 16 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: Queen herself invited the old woman onto the Royal yacht. 17 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: Rumor had it that if you looked closely around the mouth, 18 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 1: the old widow bore a slight resemblance to the Queen. 19 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: They were, after all, first cousins twice removed, and if 20 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: you looked even closer at the old woman's face, you 21 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,199 Speaker 1: might have seen that she had a haunted look about 22 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: her eyes. Because this woman who lived above the local 23 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:49,640 Speaker 1: barber shop in Canada was no ordinary widow. She was 24 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the last living member of Russia's 25 00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: once fearsome Romanov dynasty, not the only descendant, but the 26 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: last person alive who had actually lived during the Romanov's 27 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,080 Speaker 1: three hundred year reign. She was the final vestige of 28 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: a lineage that had ruled Russia from sixteen thirteen to 29 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:20,720 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. Grand Duchess Olga was a decorated nurse who 30 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: served on the front in World War One, a mother 31 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: who escaped Russia while pregnant with a child in tow. 32 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: But most of all, she was the last living remnant 33 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 1: of the dynasty that had ended in revolution and the 34 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: gruesome murder of her brother's entire family, including most famously, 35 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:47,600 Speaker 1: the little Princess Anastasia. Grand Duchess Olga had called the 36 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: young Anastasia the little One, and she had loved the 37 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: girl with all of her heart, and Grand Duchess Olga 38 00:02:55,800 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: had been deceived later in life by Anastasia, Ja's most 39 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:05,920 Speaker 1: famous pretender, and after all of that, there she was 40 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: in Toronto at the end of her life. You can 41 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 1: almost see her, aged seventy eight in nineteen sixty, the 42 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: year JFK was elected president, when Elvis Presley and Chubby 43 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: Checker played on the radio. It was there that Olga 44 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:28,679 Speaker 1: Alexandrovna lived and eventually died, above the clippers and hair 45 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:32,799 Speaker 1: shavings of the barber shop below. The public had been 46 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: obsessed with the possible survival of the little Grand Duchess Anastasia, 47 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: but the public largely ignored this other Grand Duchess of 48 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: the Romanovs, who was still living in their midsts. The 49 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: one survivor left behind. I'm Danish Schwartz and this is 50 00:03:53,320 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: noble blood. The Grand Duchess Olga was born on June thirteenth, 51 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, at the Peterhoff Palace in Saint Petersburg. 52 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: She was the youngest and last child of her father, 53 00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: Czar Alexander, the third of the Romanov dynasty, and her mother, 54 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 1: Grand Duchess Dagmar Baby. Olga's birth was heralded with a 55 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: one hundred and one gun salute, a sign of how 56 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: cherished she would feel in her youth before it would 57 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: all get taken away with the revolution that was still 58 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: decades in the future. At this point, Olga had a 59 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: very happy childhood. Her big, burly father adored her, and 60 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: she adored him. He was everything to her. In her 61 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: own words, some observers even remarked that they were soulmates. 62 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: Olga lived more simply than we might imagine of a 63 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: Russian royal. Her biographer Ian Vores notes that she slept 64 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: on a slim mattress with one hard pillow, but then 65 00:04:57,279 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: he goes on to tell us that she spent her 66 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: days a in a nine hundred room palace, so she 67 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: still lived far more opulently than most. The resident palace 68 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: ghost of Oga's childhood was Paul the First, the assassinated 69 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: son of Catherine the Great. Even as a child, Olga 70 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,480 Speaker 1: was even keeled in the face of death. I never 71 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: did see his ghost, she would later tell her official biographer, 72 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: and it made me despair. I would have liked to 73 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:32,799 Speaker 1: meet him. Olga's beloved father was unusually doting and present 74 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: for a Czar of Russia, but he was also gone 75 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: too soon after a shockingly short bout of kidney disease. 76 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: He died in Olga's mother's arms in eighteen ninety four, 77 00:05:46,200 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: when he was forty nine years old. Olga was only twelve. 78 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: It was the first of a long series of heartbreaks 79 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:58,599 Speaker 1: that fate had in store for her. Olga's brother took 80 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: the throne as Nicholas the Second, twenty six years old, 81 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:07,280 Speaker 1: and everyone agreed ill prepared for the rule. He was 82 00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: to be the last Czar of Russia and the end 83 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:14,480 Speaker 1: of the three hundred year rule of the Romanovs, but 84 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,920 Speaker 1: Olga didn't know that yet. She had her own personal 85 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: problems to deal with. In nineteen oh one, just before 86 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,599 Speaker 1: her nineteenth birthday, the same year her niece Anastasia was born, 87 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: Olga was attending a seemingly normal party. Suddenly she was 88 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: swept unceremoniously to a sitting room upstairs. Inside was Duke 89 00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 1: Peter Alexandrovitch, a distant cousin of hers, who was fourteen 90 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:44,799 Speaker 1: years older. Olga didn't understand what she was doing alone 91 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,720 Speaker 1: in a room with him, and what he did next 92 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:51,800 Speaker 1: made even less sense to her. In Olga's own words, 93 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:56,360 Speaker 1: I was just tricked. I saw old cousin Peter, standing there, 94 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: extremely ill at ease. He did not look at me. 95 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: I heard him stammer through a proposal. I was so 96 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:06,039 Speaker 1: taken aback that all I could say was thank you. 97 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: She had gotten engaged without realizing what was happening. The 98 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: proposal was a shock, largely because everyone at court and 99 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: across Saint Petersburg assumed that Peter was gay. He probably was. 100 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: Olga's marriage to him would go unconsummated. Olga spent the 101 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: night of her betrothal crying. The problem wasn't only that 102 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 1: Peter had no interest in women. He was a gambler who, 103 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: according to Olga's biographer quote, loathed pets about the house, 104 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: open windows and walks. Seems like a fun guy. So 105 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: poor Olga, once the beloved, littlest daughter of her father, 106 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,160 Speaker 1: the Czar, was married to a man who could not 107 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: make her happy. She was so depressed that she lost 108 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: her hair for some time and had to wear a wig. 109 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: Unable to focus on domestic bliss, Olga focused instead on 110 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: a white villa she had built for herself, called Olgino. 111 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: It was where she spent her happiest times. Out near 112 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: the peasant classes, Olga discovered an interest in nursing and 113 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: a passion for helping the poor and wretched. It was 114 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: a passion that would hurt her years later, when a 115 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: woman in ill health pretending to be Anastasia would try 116 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 1: to trick her. And perhaps Olga's life would have gone 117 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,960 Speaker 1: on that way, happy at her villa, lonely at home, 118 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: if not for the fateful day in nineteen o three 119 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:46,080 Speaker 1: when she spotted Nikolay Kolokovski. He was the tall man 120 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:51,040 Speaker 1: standing in a guard's uniform at a military review, and Olga, 121 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: with all of the quashed love she had felt in 122 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: her youth rising up in her heart, met his eye. Suddenly, unexpectedly, 123 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:04,400 Speaker 1: Olga's life became a love story. Suddenly she was a 124 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: fairytale princess meeting her prince charming. She described it as 125 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:13,160 Speaker 1: love at first sight. Quote. I was twenty two years old, 126 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 1: she said, and I loved for the first time in 127 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: my life, and I knew that my love was accepted 128 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:24,080 Speaker 1: and returned. Of course, there was still the small matter 129 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:28,120 Speaker 1: of her being married. Olga knew she needed to take 130 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 1: care of that, so, flushed with the urgency and passion 131 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:35,359 Speaker 1: of new love, she cornered her husband in the library 132 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 1: at home, just as he had once cornered her at 133 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: a party with his unwelcome proposal. She told her astonished 134 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 1: husband that she was in love and she needed them 135 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,320 Speaker 1: to get divorced. Olga was surrounded by his books and 136 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:53,240 Speaker 1: backlit by the open door. Her husband had no sexual 137 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,880 Speaker 1: attraction to her, had never pretended to any from the 138 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: moment of their proposal Throughout the two years thus far 139 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 1: of their marriage. She must have been flushed there in 140 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,760 Speaker 1: the library, requesting her freedom from him. I can imagine 141 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 1: her excited round cheeks, the hair on her neck standing up. 142 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: Though history does not remark upon her as a great beauty, 143 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,160 Speaker 1: to modern eyes, she was beautiful. One photo of her 144 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: as a young woman shows her with a delicate, long 145 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:28,559 Speaker 1: neck encircled by a single strand pearl necklace, her expression 146 00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:33,679 Speaker 1: somewhere between serene strength and coming fear, her long hair 147 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:38,720 Speaker 1: flowing down her back. There in the library, she stood 148 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:43,560 Speaker 1: facing her husband. But Peter, of course, said that they 149 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:47,240 Speaker 1: could not get a divorce right then, maybe in time 150 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: seven years. He proposed a sabbatical that would waste the 151 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: best years of her life with him. Yet Olga's husband 152 00:10:55,800 --> 00:11:00,320 Speaker 1: was calculating not cruel. A gambler to the last, took 153 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,920 Speaker 1: on another kind of gamble, probably hoping for a win 154 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 1: win scenario. He appointed his wife's great love to be 155 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: his own aide, moving Nikolay Kolokovski into their house. Olga 156 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:17,640 Speaker 1: spent over a decade as a married woman who lived 157 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,120 Speaker 1: alongside a man who was the love of her life, 158 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: a strange but not unworkable domestic drama. If only that 159 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:31,640 Speaker 1: had been the greatest challenge of her life. During those 160 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,960 Speaker 1: years married to Peter but in love with Kolokovsky, Olga 161 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:39,720 Speaker 1: did have familial love in her life as well. In particular, 162 00:11:39,920 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: she took a liking to her brother Nikki's children. The 163 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: Emperor Nicholas the second had four daughters, and Olga's favorite 164 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: was the youngest, like Olga had been herself, Little Anastasia, 165 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: Olga said, was always my favorite. I liked her fearlessness. 166 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: She never went or cried even when hurt. She was 167 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 1: a fearful tomboy. Goodness only knows which of the young 168 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,920 Speaker 1: cousins had taught her how to climb trees, but climbed 169 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:15,480 Speaker 1: them Anastasia did, even when she was quite small. Anastasia 170 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: was feisty, bold, spirited, Olga lovingly called her quote the 171 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:24,320 Speaker 1: Little One. Aunt Olga would take the Little One and 172 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,840 Speaker 1: her sisters out to see the world beyond the palace gates. 173 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 1: She delighted in Olga's impish talent for imitating palace guests, 174 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 1: even as inside Olga's own heart she wondered whether she 175 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:42,280 Speaker 1: would ever get to have children herself. Her husband had 176 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: never slept with her, and the man she loved lived 177 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:48,839 Speaker 1: in the home with them, but they could not share 178 00:12:48,920 --> 00:12:52,880 Speaker 1: a bed. And then war came for the world, and 179 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 1: the problem of marriage, childlessness and true love was shunted 180 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:01,320 Speaker 1: aside for Olga as it was for the rest of Russia. 181 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: In nineteen fourteen, she left to serve as a nurse 182 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:09,960 Speaker 1: on the front. It was astonishing the tsar's own sister 183 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: donning a nurse's uniform as the Great war raged, kneeling 184 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: to apply a tourniquet, her hands splashed with wounded soldier's blood. 185 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: And yet it's completely true. Olga had always had a 186 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,840 Speaker 1: soft spot for the infirm, even when her brother Nikki 187 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: was losing favor with his people. As Russia retreated and 188 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:38,200 Speaker 1: soldiers died and morale nosedived, she continued to care for 189 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:42,600 Speaker 1: the wounded. At one point, an angry fellow nurse attempted 190 00:13:42,679 --> 00:13:46,880 Speaker 1: to kill the tsar's sister by smashing a giant glass 191 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,559 Speaker 1: jar of vasileene on her head, but Olga escaped intact. 192 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:54,839 Speaker 1: It was to be the story of her life. She 193 00:13:55,320 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: escaped intact, even when her family did not. As the 194 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:06,800 Speaker 1: nineteen tens wore on, Olga's brother was becoming increasingly unpopular. 195 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,600 Speaker 1: As tzar, he could not please his people, but he 196 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:14,960 Speaker 1: was able to offer one final gift to his youngest sister. 197 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixteen, he granted her the long awaited annulment 198 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:26,400 Speaker 1: from her husband, Peter. She immediately married her longtime love Kolikovski, 199 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,720 Speaker 1: but there was no grand Russian wedding for Olga. She 200 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: spoke her vows wearing a Red Cross uniform. Yet she 201 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,640 Speaker 1: felt that quote something like new strength came to me. 202 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,600 Speaker 1: And then and there, in that chapel, standing beside my 203 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: beloved Kukushkin, I resolved to face the future, whatever it brought. 204 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: That future was to be darker than she might have imagined. 205 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:57,520 Speaker 1: In the bitter cold of winter nineteen seventeen, the February 206 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:03,400 Speaker 1: Revolution succeeded in ending the Russian monarchy, Olga's brother Nicholas 207 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 1: abdicated the throne. It was a dangerous time to be 208 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: a Romanov. Olga and her now husband fled south, but 209 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: their train was intercepted and they were captured. Olga thought 210 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:21,720 Speaker 1: she was going to die. She was a dynastic Romanov, 211 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:26,479 Speaker 1: the non creepy soulmate of her father, the late Czar Alexander, 212 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: A loving sister recently gifted the blessing of love by 213 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:35,640 Speaker 1: her brother, who was being hunted by the revolutionaries. The 214 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: soldier who held Olga and her husband in captivity did 215 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: not make eye contact with her. He did not want 216 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 1: to look at those he might have to murder. But 217 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:52,120 Speaker 1: the Soviets could not decide between Sevestopol and Yalta, whose 218 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:56,520 Speaker 1: duty it was to chop off Olga's royal head. So 219 00:15:56,720 --> 00:16:00,520 Speaker 1: Olga and her husband Nikolay were essentially placed under house 220 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 1: arrest in Crimea while Olga feared for the rest of 221 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: her family. What had become of her brother, her nieces, 222 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:12,040 Speaker 1: the Sarvich, her only nephew, and what had become of 223 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:17,240 Speaker 1: the little one Anastasia. Olga heard horrific rumors about what 224 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: might have happened to her brother and his family, but 225 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:23,880 Speaker 1: she didn't want to believe them. The Emperor and his 226 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,240 Speaker 1: family had disappeared, Olga and her mother hoped against hope 227 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: that they had escaped, perhaps to England. If you want 228 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,800 Speaker 1: the story on that possible escape, go back to a 229 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: very early episode of Noble Blood called Our Dearest Cousin Nikki. 230 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:48,840 Speaker 1: The Russian sky seemed dark, almost bloody. Olga gave birth 231 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:53,120 Speaker 1: to her first child, a son, essentially under house arrest. 232 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:57,080 Speaker 1: She was pregnant again when she and her husband managed 233 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,320 Speaker 1: to escape, this time to the Caucuses. They kept fleeing, 234 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,359 Speaker 1: facing extreme danger. At one point, Olga and her two 235 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,840 Speaker 1: boys were kicked out of a moving train into a 236 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: freezing night, but Olga's story was to survive. At last. 237 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,400 Speaker 1: She and her little family wound up in Denmark, where 238 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 1: they finally settled into their exile in nineteen nineteen. Her mother, Dagmar, 239 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:29,280 Speaker 1: had been Danish. Only later would Olga really let herself 240 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:33,480 Speaker 1: hear about the brutal end to her brother's family, the 241 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:38,119 Speaker 1: story that would enrapture the world. They were brought into 242 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:43,360 Speaker 1: a basement by Bolshevik revolutionaries and shot and then bayoneted 243 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:48,320 Speaker 1: until they were all dead. The myth of The Survival 244 00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: of the Lost Romanov Anastasia is full of wild hope, 245 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:00,200 Speaker 1: painful delusion, Disney and Broadway musicals, but most of all pretend. 246 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:06,159 Speaker 1: Anyone familiar with the historical stories about Anastasia's possible survival 247 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 1: will be familiar with the name Anna Anderson. If you 248 00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:13,960 Speaker 1: aren't an Anastasia enthusiast listener, then you should know that 249 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:17,640 Speaker 1: Anna Anderson was the most famous of the women who 250 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:22,440 Speaker 1: came forward claiming to be the beloved lost daughter, the 251 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: sole survivor of the Russian Revolution, the miraculously enduring Anastasia. 252 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:33,120 Speaker 1: And the reason that Anna Anderson was the most famous 253 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:38,240 Speaker 1: impostor of all was in large part the perceived acceptance 254 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:44,119 Speaker 1: of her as Anastasia by Anastasia's own dear aunt, Olga. 255 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:49,560 Speaker 1: In October of nineteen twenty five, Olga left Denmark, not 256 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,320 Speaker 1: as a refugee this time, but as a seeker. She 257 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: was headed to Berlin to visit a young, very ill 258 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: woman who claimed to be her niece, Anna sion Stasia. 259 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 1: The young woman had been pulled from a canal. In Berlin, 260 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,760 Speaker 1: Olga found her very thin, frail in a hospital bed. 261 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 1: Though the young woman seemed to understand Russian, she would 262 00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: speak only German. Still, she had the same joint problem 263 00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:21,960 Speaker 1: that Anastasia had in her feet, she knew a nickname 264 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 1: that only the Imperial nieces would have known. And most 265 00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,280 Speaker 1: of all, in the moment when the Grand Duchess Olga 266 00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 1: saw her, Olga told the Danish ambassador that her heart 267 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:41,280 Speaker 1: told her this was the little One, or did she so. 268 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,720 Speaker 1: Much of the truth of the story of Olga's meeting 269 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: with Anna Anderson wound up recanted and changed later, perhaps 270 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:54,040 Speaker 1: in service of truth or perhaps out of embarrassment, which 271 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:58,520 Speaker 1: means that we can't be entirely sure. What actually happened 272 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: is that, after meeting the girl, Olga did not dismiss her. 273 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,600 Speaker 1: She wrote five letters to the girl imploring her to 274 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 1: get well. She also asked her own people to investigate 275 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: the matter more deeply, writing in a letter that she 276 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:20,359 Speaker 1: could not definitively say the woman wasn't Anastasia. So the 277 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:26,320 Speaker 1: question is, did Olga believe the pretender? History doesn't know. 278 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:32,240 Speaker 1: Olga's own memoirs were written after the fact, after Olga 279 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: had decided to insist that she had never believed Anna 280 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: Anderson and never had a moment's hesitation, but here's what 281 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: I think. We have to remember who we're dealing with. 282 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:51,119 Speaker 1: Olga Alexandrovna was, according to her granddaughter, quote, kindness itself 283 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,800 Speaker 1: to anyone in need. This was the daughter of the 284 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,639 Speaker 1: tsar who found happiness serving the peasants at her villa, 285 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:01,919 Speaker 1: the brother of the Emperor, who had worked as a 286 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:05,760 Speaker 1: humble nurse to wounded soldiers at the front. The woman 287 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:09,520 Speaker 1: who later in life would respond to every letter she 288 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:13,720 Speaker 1: received in Toronto quote, be they from kings or crackpots. 289 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,160 Speaker 1: It's no surprise that Olga would give a frail, wounded 290 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: woman in Berlin the time of day, if only for 291 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: a brief time, whether or not she believed she was 292 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,359 Speaker 1: her niece. And I think this too. When Olga was 293 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: traveling to Berlin beside her husband, all she could see 294 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,880 Speaker 1: was the little one in her mind. God, how badly 295 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:41,160 Speaker 1: Olga must have wanted the story to be true. Let 296 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: Anastasia be alive for just a moment more, she must 297 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:48,160 Speaker 1: have been thinking as she stepped into that hospital room, 298 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:56,120 Speaker 1: Let me, for one moment pretend. Ultimately, both Olga and 299 00:21:56,320 --> 00:22:01,520 Speaker 1: the world rejected Anna Anderson's claim, recognizing the younger woman 300 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:06,680 Speaker 1: for what she was. An impostor. Years later, DNA evidence 301 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 1: would make that undeniable. It's hard to avoid noticing that 302 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,840 Speaker 1: one of the most interesting parts of Olga's life was 303 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 1: the way it intersected with the life of a more 304 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:23,840 Speaker 1: famous person, Anastasia, more famous because her tragic life was 305 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: cut short, and cut short brutally at only seventeen. Olga 306 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: escaped both her niece's fame and her fate. She was 307 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: blessed with a long and mostly happy life, but after 308 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,719 Speaker 1: twenty five contented years spent in Denmark on a dairy 309 00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:46,920 Speaker 1: farm with her husband and children, the Romanov name did 310 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:51,960 Speaker 1: come to haunt Olga again. In nineteen forty eight, fearing 311 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,120 Speaker 1: extradition to the Kremlin. After World War II, sixty six 312 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:59,840 Speaker 1: year old Olga and her family fled to Ontario. Her 313 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,680 Speaker 1: sons married women who were not from royal families, and 314 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: Olga loved her grandchildren. She painted charming in bright scenes 315 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:13,200 Speaker 1: of Russian folk life, replete with colorful flowers and teas. 316 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:18,359 Speaker 1: She was not above using her quote nepo baby status 317 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:22,159 Speaker 1: as a Romanov to help place her paintings in galleries. 318 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:27,080 Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth the Second owned nine paintings by her cousin Olga. 319 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:31,159 Speaker 1: Olga outlived her husband, but she loved him to the last. 320 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:35,960 Speaker 1: As her health deteriorated, fittingly, she was watched over by 321 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: a former Imperial guard who had also found himself in Canada. 322 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,680 Speaker 1: Still she carried the weight of her history. I always laugh, 323 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,920 Speaker 1: she said, for if I ever start crying, I will 324 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: never stop. And at the very end, on November twenty fourth, 325 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:59,560 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, at seventy nine years old, Olga died. The 326 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:03,239 Speaker 1: last living Romanov who had been quote born in the 327 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:08,919 Speaker 1: Purple to a sitting emperor, died above Ray's barbershop in Toronto, 328 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,199 Speaker 1: a reminder that history, with all its great heights and 329 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:24,480 Speaker 1: terrible falls, is never really far away. That's the story 330 00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,160 Speaker 1: of Grand Duchess Olga, the last surviving Romanov. But keep 331 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,119 Speaker 1: listening after a brief sponsor break, to find out what 332 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:44,880 Speaker 1: really happened to her little one, Anastasia. If you've seen 333 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:48,560 Speaker 1: the Disney or Broadway musical, you are probably familiar with 334 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,119 Speaker 1: the legend of the survival of the young Romanov daughter Anastasia. 335 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,879 Speaker 1: People love a story and a fantasy of a missing 336 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:01,600 Speaker 1: princess who managed to survive a massacre. It's fascinating, but 337 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:06,119 Speaker 1: what actually happened to Anastasia. For a long time, the 338 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: world did not know for certain, and in that gap 339 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 1: of knowledge, many pretenders stepped in with compelling stories people 340 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,560 Speaker 1: wanted to believe, including a young woman in Berlin named 341 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:23,119 Speaker 1: Anna Anderson who was institutionalized in a mental hospital after 342 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:27,760 Speaker 1: a suicide attempt, a woman who was most likely a 343 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:32,280 Speaker 1: Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness in 344 00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,120 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. DNA evidence that was discovered in Russia 345 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:40,000 Speaker 1: was analyzed and reported to the public in nineteen ninety four, 346 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,720 Speaker 1: which proved definitively that the remains of Anna Anderson had 347 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,439 Speaker 1: no genetic overlap with the remains of Zar Nicholas and 348 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:53,480 Speaker 1: his wife. Anderson had been an impostor. On top of 349 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:59,119 Speaker 1: disproving the pretender, it was also announced that Anastasia's bones 350 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:04,840 Speaker 1: had been discovered alongside her parents, so the saddest story 351 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,880 Speaker 1: of Olga's favorite niece was the true one. She had 352 00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:14,240 Speaker 1: been shot and killed, her remains identified. The discovery was 353 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:18,919 Speaker 1: made more than thirty years after Olga's death, so Olga 354 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: never had to know for certain about the tragic fate 355 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:40,520 Speaker 1: of her little one. She could always hope. Noble Blood 356 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:44,680 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from 357 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:48,960 Speaker 1: Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Forts, 358 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:54,200 Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zewick, 359 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:59,439 Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, Julia Milani, and Armand Casam. The show is 360 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:04,200 Speaker 1: edited and produced by Noahmy Griffin and rima il Kaali, 361 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Mankey, 362 00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:14,680 Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 363 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:19,600 Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 364 00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.