Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia's letter to her mother Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, Easter 1909

Source:

Olga Grigor'eva at lastromanovs on VK

https://vk.com/lastromanovs?w=wall-56510987_51069

Above: Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.

Above: Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, formerly Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (born June 14/26, 1899, died July 17, 1918) was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonisation as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

During her lifetime, Maria, too young to become a Red Cross nurse like her elder sisters during World War I, was patroness of a hospital and instead visited wounded soldiers. Throughout her lifetime she was noted for her interest in the lives of the soldiers. The flirtatious Maria had a number of innocent crushes on the young men she met, beginning in early childhood. She hoped to marry and have a large family.

She was an elder sister of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, whose alleged escape from the assassination of the imperial family was rumoured for nearly 90 years. However, it was later proven that Anastasia did not escape and that those who claimed to be her were imposters. In the 1990s, it was suggested that Maria might have been the grand duchess whose remains were missing from the Romanov grave that was discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia and exhumed in 1991. Further remains were discovered in 2007, and DNA analysis subsequently proved that the entire Imperial family had been murdered in 1918. A funeral for the remains of Maria and Alexei to be buried with their family in October 2015 was postponed indefinitely by the Russian Orthodox Church, which took custody of the remains in December and declared without explanation that the case required further study; the 44 partial bone fragments remain stored in a Russian state repository.

The letter:

1909 г.

Христосъ Воскресе!

Моя милая Мама. Какъ твое здоровье? желаю Тѣбе хорошо провести праздникъ. цѣлую крѣпко.

Марія

With modernised spelling:

1909 г.

Христос Воскресе!

Моя милая Мама. Как твое здоровье? желаю Тебе хорошо провести праздник. целую крепко.

Мария

English translation (my own):

1909.

Christ is Risen!

My dear Mama. How is your health? I wish you a good holiday. A big kiss.

Maria