romanovsonelastdance:No one could have been more gifted bythe gods than the Grand Duchess Elizabeth
romanovsonelastdance:No one could have been more gifted bythe gods than the Grand Duchess Elizabeth was, yet, perhaps, as thesaying goes, “she had too much beauty for good luck,” for herlife was one of sorrow. She was still young when her husband waskilled by a Nihilist bomb. In the midst of her grief she had theforgiveness of spirit to intercede with the Czar for the life of theyoung student who had murdered him. And when, in spite of herefforts, he was sentenced to execution, she went to see him in prisonand promised to look after his mother, which promise she faithfullykept, for she never failed to send sufficient money for her needs aslong as she lived. After the death of her husband Elizabethretired into a convent she had founded, and lived there quietly,forgotten by the world, until the Revolution, when the convent wassacked by the Bolsheviks and she was dragged out and imprisoned inSiberia with other members of the Imperial Family. Onemorning the Red Guards came into the room where they were all herdedtogether and told them to get ready for a journey. “Where to?”they asked, hoping that they were to be sent back to St. Petersburg. But their jailors were evasive and would only tell them that it was“somewhere far away.”So they were made to walk to adesolate mine-shaft. Into this they were all thrown one after anotherand left to die from their injuries and exposure. Weeks afterward aparty of Admiral Koltchak’s White Army found their mangled bodies,some of them roughly bandaged with strips of linen torn fromunderclothing, showing that they had lived for some time after theirfall. Elizabeth went to her death singing a hymn, like theothers. At the last moment she asked only to be allowed to cover herhead with her cape so that she could not see the pit as she wasthrown into it. Prince Christopher of Greece, Memoirs -- source link