Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
Section 15, Lot 254
York Cemetery
Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was born in Peterhof Place, Saint Petersburg, Russia on June 13, 1882, the youngest daughter of Czar Alexander III. At the turn of the century, political unrest and revolutionary forces rocked the three-hundred-year-old Romanov Empire with political extremists struggling against one another for power. By 1917 distaste for the Tsar’s leadership had grown to overwhelming proportions, as had the strength of the revolutionaries. The royal family were placed under house arrest at Tsarskoye Selo where, though restricted, they were treated fairly. In July, 1917, they were moved to Tobolsk in Siberia. With the fall of the government, the Bolsheviks gained power and the circumstances of the Romanov family changed. They were taken to Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg where their treatment deteriorated to the point of physical and mental abuse. On July 16, 1918, the family was led to the basement, ostensibly to await rescue. Instead, On July 17, on the personal order of Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), then Soviet premier, the family, including Nicholas II, last Czar of All Russias, were executed by a firing squad. Historical accounts of the Romanov’s list Olga as deceased in 1918, with her family. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, in her own account stated that after a year in seclusion, she and her second husband, Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky, finally escaped to Denmark where they remained until emigrating to Canada in 1948. They settled on a 200-acre farm near Milton. Olga Koulikovsky died on November 24, 1960 in Toronto at the age of 78.