Olga Ilyin, a pen name for Olga Baratynskaya or Olga Alexandrovna Boratynskaya (8 August 1894 (N.S.)-6 November 1991) was a Russian-born American poet and novelist. [1] Her works were published in Russian, German and English.
Olga, called Lita by her relatives, was born at Gorky Street in Kazan in prosperous circumstances. [2] [3] [lower-alpha 1] At the turn of the century, this manor was one of the spiritual and cultural centers of the city. Her father was a lawyer and a member of the City Duma. In 1906 Grigory Rasputin suddenly paid a visit to the Baratynsky family and told them he could read people's mind.
At the very beginning of dinner, when Nastya was about to put a plate of soup in front of Rasputin, he got out a comb, and he began to run it through his oily hair. The plate was quickly cleared away, and Nastya waited with stony disdain for him to finish his task. [5]
Her father arranged a room in good hotel, but when he came back the next day, Rasputin found the doors locked. She met him again in Saint Petersburg visiting her aunt Anna Dmitrievna Shipova, but escaped to her room. [6] Her description of Rasputin and his behavior is a small but no doubt valuable contribution to history. [7] For several years in a row Lita came to the capital in Summer and got acquainted with the intricacies of court life and court etiquette, met with Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg and other members of the House of Oldenburg.
Around the age of 14, illness led to visits with her aunt Katya to Davos, where she was recovering. [8] Back after more than a year, attending Mariinsky women's gymnasium, the medical faculty of Kazan University and Higher Women's Courses she began writing poetry. The first publications were made in the Kazan magazine "Life" (1913). She met with colonel Kirill Borisovich Ilyin, since July 1914 a hussar of the Pavlograd regiment. [9] When World War I broke out, she joined the Red Cross. On 16 February 1917 they married and had a child named Boris. During the Kazan Operation the city was attacked by the Red Army; a third of the population left. Olga moved out with a 9-days-old baby.
She traveled separately from her husband by train to Kurgan in the Ural Mountains and was arrested in somewhere in Siberia. [10] [11] In Krasnoyarsk, the refugees were cut off from the fighting units. She lived there for five months and in May 1920 she returned with her son to Kazan. [12] In December 1620 her husband arrived in Harbin, where thousands of Russian Émigrés gathered. In 1922, she succeeded to reach this fashionable and booming Chinese city. They were eventually able to emigrate to the United States early 1923. [13] They settled in San Rafael, California, where she became a shopkeeper, and sold beads and women dresses. In SF she soon joined a literary circle. In 1925 some of her poems were published. In 1930 she a became a novelist. [3] [14] Her husband became one of the painters of the new Golden Gate Bridge, which opened in 1937. [15] They lived at the end of Clay Street near Presidio of San Francisco. [16]
Her first novel in English, Dawn of the Eighth Day, is about Nita Ogarin, an aristocratic daughter who marries an army officer soon killed in the Bolshevik Revolution. [3] Her second novel, St. Petersburg Affair, is set in the 1850s. Kyra Beherev, an aristocratic heiress, agrees to marry Count Anatole Melin to appease her aunt, Princess Shubalov. [14] The couple initially decides to remain abstinent and divorce within a year, but they consume their marriage, only to have affairs with other people later. [14] Her third novel, White Road: A Russian Odyssey, is about an aristocratic heiress who decides to flee Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. [2] In 2014 Visits to the Imperial Court she recounts her experiences as a young girl. [17]
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus gaining considerable influence in late Imperial Russia.
Maria Feodorovna, known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was Empress of Russia from 1881 to 1894 as spouse of Emperor Alexander III. She was the daughter of Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Maria's eldest son became the last Russian monarch, Emperor Nicholas II. Maria lived for 10 years after Bolshevik functionaries killed Nicholas and his immediate family in 1918.
Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, was the Empress of Russia as the consort of Emperor Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917. She was the last empress consort of Russia. A favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was, like her grandmother, one of the most famous royal carriers of haemophilia and bore a haemophiliac heir, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. Her reputation for encouraging her husband's resistance to the surrender of autocratic authority and her known faith in the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin severely damaged her popularity and that of the Romanov monarchy in its final years. She and her immediate family were all killed while in Bolshevik captivity in 1918, during the Russian Revolution. In 2000 the Russian Orthodox Church canonized her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer.
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Petersburg.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.
Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston was a Russian aristocrat from the Yusupov family who is best known for participating in the assassination of Grigori Rasputin and for marrying Princess Irina Alexandrovna, a niece of Tsar Nicholas II.
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a son of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova ; 16 July 1884 – 20 July 1964) was a Russian Empire lady-in-waiting, the best friend and confidante of Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska was a Russian ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet and a ballet instructor.
The Yusupovs were a Russian Imperial noble family descended from the monarchs of the Nogai Horde, renowned for their immense wealth, philanthropy and art collections in the 18th and 19th centuries. Most notably, Prince Felix Yusupov was famous for his involvement in the murder of Grigori Rasputin.
Poor Nastya is a Russian telenovela originally aired in the Russian Federation from 31 October 2003 to 30 April 2004 on STS, and in Ukraine from 10 November 2003 to 7 May 2004 on 1+1. Set in 19th century imperial Russia, the series achieved international success and was shown in China, Israel, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Greece, Bulgaria and more than twenty countries worldwide. With a budget of $11.8 million, it is the most expensive Russian television project so far. A sequel was planned, but never produced.
Princess Helen of Serbia was a Serbian princess, the daughter of King Peter I of Serbia and his wife Princess Zorka of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of George, Crown Prince of Serbia and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Helen was also a niece of Queen Elena of Italy, Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia and of Princess Milica of Montenegro, wife of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia, the women who introduced Grigori Rasputin to Tsarina Alexandra.
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was the elder daughter and fourth child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia and the sister of Emperor Nicholas II.
Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna of Russia, born Princess Cäcilie of Baden, was the youngest daughter of Grand Duke Leopold of Baden and Sophie Wilhelmine of Sweden.
Olga Dmitryevna Forsh, née Komarova, was a Russian/Soviet novelist, dramatist, memoirist, and scenarist.
Gleb Aleksander Ilyin was a Russian-American painter known for his portraiture and landscape paintings.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child of the last Tsar of the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas II, and of Empress Alexandra of Russia.
Olga Lebedeva was a Russian translator, linguist and Orientalist. She was a founder of the Society of Oriental Studies in St Petersburg. Writing as Madame Gülnar, Gülnar Hanım, Gülnar Lebedeva and Olga de Lebedeff, she was one of the first to introduce Russian literature to Turkey. She is recognised for her pioneering contributions to the literary networks between the Ottoman and the Russian empires at the end of the 19th century.
Olga Borisovna Kudeshkina is a Russian former judge of the first qualification class of the Moscow City Court, Candidate of Legal Sciences. She was deprived of the status of a judge after she made public allegations of political interference in the justice system of Russia.