Tea at Trianon: Monument to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, November 16, 2018

Monument to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

From Royal Russia News:

On 24th October, a monument to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1895-1918), the eldest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II was established in the Russian city of Novy Oskol, situated 90 kilometers northeast of Belgorod. Founded in 1905, the school was then named Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Women’s High School. Today, the oldest educational institution in the city, is simply referred to as Olginskaya High School. Funds for the construction of the educational institution were donated by the grand duchess herself. The idea to perpetuate the memory of the eldest daughter of Nicholas II came about in March 2017 – click HERE to read article. At first school projects were created, and then a competition among sculptors took place. The best, according to the competition commission, was the work of Belgorod sculptor Boris Sergienko. The sculptor said that he tried as accurately as possible to convey the image of the grand duchess, by studying old photographs, and archival materials. (Read more.)