Princess Anastasia of Montenegro

Princess Anastasia Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (4 January [O.S. 23 December 1867] 1868 – 25 November 1935) was the daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro (1841–1921) and his wife, Queen Milena (1847–1923). Through her second marriage, she became Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova of Russia. She and her sister "Militza" (Princess Milica), having married Russian royal brothers, were known colloquially as the "Montenegrin princesses" or the "Black peril" during the last days of Imperial Russia, and may have contributed to its downfall by the introduction of Grigori Rasputin to the Empress Alexandra.^[1]

Princess Anastasia was born in Cetinje, Montenegro, on 4 January 1868, a member of the House of Petrović-Njegoš, which had continuously ruled the Principality of Montenegro since 1697, and the third child and daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and his young consort, Princess Milena, the daughter of Montenegrin Voivode and Senator Petar Vukotić. Although named Anastasia at birth after her paternal grandmother, Anastasija Martinović (1824–1895), she was often known as Princess Stana Petrovich Njegosh of Montenegro, a childhood nickname that she retained with close friends and family throughout her life. Anastasia was born as the third consecutive daughter of the princely couple. Although they were happy about the birth of a child, the parents could not hide their sorrow that a male heir had not been born, each expressing it in their own way. They were comforted by Nicholas’s mother, who told them that she had dreamed the heir would be born and that her dreams usually came true. Little Anastasia was baptized by her godfather, the young Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia, who had also baptized her two older sisters. Her black hair, dreamy large eyes with long eyelashes, and well-proportioned features suggested that she would grow up to be unusually beautiful. Slim and graceful, she learned to walk and make her first movements effortlessly. Anastasia was harmonious in her demeanor, affectionate, devoted to her parents, and easily won the affection of everyone at the princely court. She was particularly close bond with her father’s mother, who took her everywhere.

From a very early age, she loved spending time with the children of her father’s subjects, even though contact with ordinary people was strictly forbidden. She was far too spirited to avoid playing with her peers. Their father encouraged the girls to brave the capital's harsh winters by long hours of sledding, ice skating, and snow-shoeing along the frozen ground. In spring and summer, when the temperatures turned more hospitable, they made long excursions climbing into the nearby mountains, trekking and taking picnics, and there were also holidays at their father's Villa Topolica on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The girls were taught to ride bareback, to shoot and hunt, play golf, and could drive a four-in-hand easily. Still, Nicholas and Milena were conscious of the need to raise respectable princesses with an eye to their future marriages. They employed Swiss and German governesses and tutors, who were tasked with teaching them foundational and advanced lessons, as well as languages, deportment, and a host of skills deemed necessary to the well-bred lady, including painting, drawing, and dancing. Under this strict system, as one press article of the time recorded, the princesses “developed from tomboy girls into women of unusual grace and beauty, of exceptional personal distinction and of remarkable talent in many directions.” Anastasia herself displayed a natural talent and love for poetry, inherited from her father, and took a true interest in domestic handicrafts, especially embroidery. Skilled with the needle, she could arrange golden threads on traditional Montenegrin shirts, with the help of her grandmother Anastasia—a task considered essential for every young girl at the time.

All children of the ruler at the Montenegrin court were guided toward good literature, the study of foreign languages, and knowledge of their national history. Piano lessons were mandatory, and results depended on talent, determination, and perseverance. Raised in a patriarchal environment, in the spirit of the Orthodox faith, and taught the manners of European ladies, the princesses were sent to Russia from a very young age, at the invitation of Emperor Alexander II, to continue their education and gain further cultural refinement.^[2]

Anastasia arrived at the Smolny Institute in 1876, a year after her older sisters, Zorka and Milica. They were placed under the special care of the Headmistress, enjoyed separate quarters and personal upkeep, and had their own dedicated tutor and maid, while still attending classes alongside the other pupils. In addition, by personal order of Alexander II, the State Treasury provided a one-time payment of 1,000 rubles “for accommodation” and an annual allowance of approximately 1,500 rubles for each girl’s expenses.

A special rooms were assigned only to the highest-ranking pupils, located next to the headmistress’s apartment. The girls dined with the headmistress, along with other pupils who took turns having lunch there, while tea was served in their own rooms. They would also retreat to their rooms after lessons ended. On Sundays and holidays, they were joined by young companions, who were allowed to play and dance with the Montenegrin princesses. Often, the princesses visited the Tsar’s family as guests, and at Christmas a court carriage would be sent for their outings, which included other students of the institute. In Smolny, Nichola’s daughters mingled with their fellow pupils without any particular airs of superiority.^[3]

According to Baron Carl Wrangell‑Rokassovsky, Anastasia and her sisters were not particularly popular during their time at the Smolny Institute. A relative of his, who attended the Institute alongside them, recalled that the sisters “were extremely poor, but expected the other girls to share with them the expensive presents they received from their homes.” Their position, however, reportedly improved after an official visit by their father, Prince Nicholas, to St. Petersburg, where Emperor Alexander III hosted him at a banquet in the Winter Palace and toasted him as “his only true friend.” Following this event, the Montenegro sisters’ status at Smolny was elevated immediately to that of royalty, and teachers were instructed to address them with royal etiquette. Wrangell‑Rokassovsky noted that Anastasia, in particular, became arrogant and haughty, often refusing to recite her lessons by simply replying “Nyet!” while remaining seated. During this period, the sisters’ increasingly assertive and domineering behavior began to show, eventually causing tensions with other students, though the youngest sister, Elena, remained well regarded.

Anastasia and Milica emerged from the Smolny as well-educated, intellectually curious young ladies – Milica even won the Gold Medal for Outstanding Academic Performance given by Empress Maria Feodorovna. Both were quite religious, and interested in philosophy and more esoteric ideas. Milica, in particular, was of a more intellectual bent. Stana was undoubtedly the quieter and more reserved of the pair, but she, too, was widely read and shared her sister's artistic streak.^[4]

Both Princesses possessed of a number of attractive qualities that might entice suitable husbands. In looks they were striking, with slightly darker complexions, dark eyes, and lithe figures. “Because the Prince did what he could to earn Alexander III’s good will,” Witte wrote, “it was only natural that the Emperor should show some attention to these young ladies upon their graduation from the institute. And this was enough to encourage some of the young men of the Imperial Family to seek their hands in marriage.”^[5]

The first Romanov to show interest in one of the Montenegrin princesses was Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich. Born in 1864, he was a son of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich the Elder (the third son of Emperor Nicholas I) and his wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna, formerly Duchess of Oldenburg.

He had one brother, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich the Younger, known within the family as Nikolasha. Despite a difficult and often traumatic childhood, largely shaped by the troubled relationship between his parents, Grand Duke Nicholas seems to have emerged largely unscathed. He grew into a physically imposing figure—standing six feet seven inches tall—and devoted himself to a military career. The French ambassador Maurice Paléologue described him as a man of “fierce energy… incisive, measured speech, flashing eyes and quick, nervous movements,” yet beneath this commanding exterior he believed there lay “something irascible, despotic and implacable,” traits he felt connected the Grand Duke to his Muscovite ancestors. Nikolasha would later become Anastasia’s second husband.^[6]

On the eve of Milica’s marriage to Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich, the engagement of Anastasia to the widowed Prince George Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg was also announced. The widower had a reputation as a rake, and it has been suggested that Emperor Alexander III encouraged the match in the hope that George would settle down and end the gossip surrounding him. Whether this was true or not, the union appears to have been more of an arranged marriage than a romantic alliance. When later asked if he had ever loved Anastasia, George reportedly replied, “Not a single day!” The marriage does not seem to have been particularly inspiring for Anastasia, who may have accepted the proposal primarily as a way to remain in Russia and close to her older sister Milica, who set the condition to live in Russia only if they stay together. Nevertheless, he was born into the influential French House of Beauharnais, settled permanently in Russia, enjoyed considerable wealth and connections, and eventually became the 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg..^[7]

Due to the groom’s French ancestry, a special congratulatory message on the occasion of the engagement was sent by Auguste Gérard, the French Republic’s minister at the Montenegrin court, to Princess Consort Milena.^[8]

On 28 August 1889 N.S., at the Russian Imperial Palace, Princess Anastasia married Prince George Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg (later the Duke of Leuchtenberg.) The Duke had previously been married and widowed, with one son, Alexander Georgievich, from his prior marriage to Therese of Oldenburg.

The wedding itself was not as lavish as that of her sister two months earlier, nor did it match the grandeur of other celebrations within the imperial family. Emperor Alexander III was not present, as he was visiting his in-laws in Copenhagen; before his departure, he was seen off by Prince Nicholas and other cpurt dignitaries. Nevertheless, the Emperor personally gave his blessing to the engaged couple. The wedding celebration was held outdoors at the Sergievka Palace, the summer residence of the Duke of Leuchtenberg, while the venue itself took place in front of a beautiful white marble church built during the reign of Nicholas I of Russia, who had once given away his beloved daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, in marriage to Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg, admitting him into the Imperial house and granting him the style of Imperial Highness and the title “Prince Romanovsky.”

At 2:00 p.m., the invited guests began to arrive, starting with Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, followed by relatives of the bride: Božo Petrović-Njegoš and his younger brother Blažo Petrović Njegoš (1855-1918), who served as an adjutant to Prince Nicholas. They were soon joined by Queen Olga of Greece and her sister Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna of Russia, Prince Nicholas and the heir Danilo, as well as Grand Dukes Alexei Alexandrovich, Sergei Alexandrovich with his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich, Peter Nikolaevich with his wife Grand Duchess Milica Nikolaevna, Nicholas Mikhailovich, and other members of the Imperial family. White tents were set up in front of the church, and domestic and foreign journalists were positioned nearby, giving them a clear view of the proceedings.

At 2:30 p.m., Prince George Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg arrived with his adjutant, followed by the remaining high-ranking guests. After 4:00 p.m., couriers arrived on horseback, followed by a four-horse carriage carrying Princess Anastasia from Peterhof Palace, escorted by Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg. The witnesses at the wedding included Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich and Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich on her husband's side, while on her side they were her brother Hereditary Prince Danilo and Prince Arsen Karadjordjević. Her dress and long veil were carried by Sergei Sheremetev and Sophia Sheremeteva, nephew and niece of the groom, children of Colonel Vladimir Alexeevich Sheremetev and George's half-sister, Countess Elena Grigorievna Stroganova.^[9]

The church service lasted nearly an hour. After it concluded, the wedding party proceeded to the palace in order of precedence. Leading the procession was young Alexander Georgievich Romanovsky, the groom’s son from his first marriage, carrying an icon. A large crowd of high-society spectators had gathered in front of the church. Inside the palace, a reception was held, after which the guests dispersed. George and his new wife Anastasia then departed for his country estate near Tambov. Around 7 p.m., a signed Imperial decree was issued stating that, upon her marriage, Princess Anastasia was to bear the title Her Imperial Highness. The bride sent the following telegram to her mother in Cetinje:

"Dear Mother,

By the grace of God, I have been married, with your and father’s blessing. Happily, I am departing today for Tambov with my husband. My regards to you, our family, and beloved Montenegro.

Yours, Stana."

Meanwhile, in Cetinje, a solemn thanksgiving service was held to mark the wedding. The Montenegrin people, with deep devotion and reverence, offered heartfelt prayers to Almighty God for the well-being of the newlyweds and their parents. In the Metropolitan Cathedral, Te Deum laudamus (“We Praise Thee, O God”) and other solemn hymns and prayers were sung. The service was officiated by Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban, assisted by the Cetinje protopresbyter Krsto Matanović, by protodeacon Filip Radičević, and by other clergy.

Among those present at the thanksgiving were Her Highness Princess Darinka, Their Serene Highnesses Prince Petar Karađorđević and Prince Mirko, the expectant Princess Zorka, and the princesses Olga, Elena, and Anna. Also in attendance were all ministers who remained in Cetinje, high state dignitaries and members of the Great Court, all local civil and military authorities, the chargé d’affaires of the Russian Imperial Mission P. D. Wurzel, the chargé d’affaires of the French Republic Comte René de Sercey, and other representatives of foreign courts—each in full gala dress—together with a large number of devout citizens of Cetinje of both sexes.

Princess Darinka was escorted to and from the church by Prince Petar Karađorđević. In front of the royal residence and the Church, a company of ceremonial Perjaniks stood guard and rendered military honors. After the divine service, all present, according to their rank, proceeded to the royal palace, where Her Highness Princess Milena received the loyal people’s congratulations on the marriage of her third-born daughter.^[10]

Unlike the union between Peter and Milica, however, the Leuchtenberg marriage proved a disaster from the beginning. Her husband spent his nights gambling and drinking. Their marriage was considered “tempestuous and stormy,” and George reportedly “insulted and outraged her from the very first day of their marriage.”^[11] Within a few years, George had abandoned his wife and openly lived with his mistress in Biarritz – “So the Prince is washing his filthy body in the waves of the ocean,” Alexander III commented about one such trip.^[12]

All of this left Anastasia humiliatingly rejected and alone in St. Petersburg. The coupled had a villa at Peterhod, the Sergievskaya Dacha, where they lived in summer, but Anastasia wanted her own property, someplace where she could escape. In 1898 she purchased Villa Tchair, a small estate in the Crimea overlooking the Black Sea. Her husband provided the necessary funds, probably thinking that keeping Anastasia busy with a project would mean less headaches over his behavior. The estate took its name from the nearby peak of Tchair-Dag, meaning “meadow garden” in Tatar. In 1902 she hired Nicholas Krasnov, the architect who had designed her sister Milica's palace at Dulber, to build a small, gleaming white, neoclassical villa at Tchair, complete with colonnades and terraces overlooking the surrounding rose gardens filled with Greek and Italian statuary and the Black Sea.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Time spent away from St. Petersburg provided some relief from the barely concealed hostility that Milica and Anastasia faced at the Imperial Court. Countess Lili von Nostitz, a severe, frequently unreliable, and somewhat melodramatic critic, went so far as to declare that Anastasia’s name “was a byword for intrigues,” accusing the sisters of contributing to the downfall of Imperial Russia.^[17]

According to Nicholas II’s sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the two Montenegrins were heartily disliked. “The sisters were nicknamed Scylla and Charybdis, and nobody dared to make a move until the Montenegrin ladies were where they considered they should be.”^[18] Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna also recalled, “These two ladies were not very popular in the family and were of a quite different mentality. They were extremely well-read, clever, but very, very ambitious.”^[19]

Princess Elizabeth Naryshkina-Kurakina, who served at court, recalled that the Empress was emotionally drawn to Duchess Stana, viewing her “as a neglected wife, because her husband spent most of his time abroad. And as her financial condition was in a state of disorder, the Empress not only consoled her in her loneliness but also assisted her materially.”^[20]

In 1901 her husband George had become 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg, but the change had done nothing to improve his character: he still drank and gambled heavily and wanted nothing to do with his wife. Anastasia's marriage existed in name only. It was one of the things that had drawn her closer to the Empress. In these years of unhappiness, a romance developed between Stana and Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievich. The Grand Duke had a long affair with a woman named Maria Pototskaya, but by autumn of 1905 he ended the liaison.^[21] Unwilling to continue living a lie, Stana asked her husband for a divorce. “Anastasia asks me to give her my consent to a separation,” Duke George wrote to Nicholas II, “so that she can enter into a new marriage with His Imperial Highness Nicholas Nikolaievich.” Stana, he insisted, had “demanded” the break; the Duke did not want “to stand in the way of her happiness.”^[22] Empress Alexandra, too, pressed her husband to grant the divorce, which was officially announced on November 15/28, 1906.

Many members of the Imperial Family were horrified. Never before had any member of the Imperial House been allowed to divorce their spouse, no matter how wretched the marriage. Nicholas II’s sister Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna greeted the news of the pending divorce and future marriage to Nikolasha by declaring that it was “awful... disgusting nonsense.”^[23] Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was appalled. In his diary, he recorded: “Authorization of this marriage can only be seen as a connivance, due to Nikolasha's closeness to the Emperor and that of Stana to the young Empress; it breaks all church convention, which forbids first cousin to marry.... Stana is Nikolasha's first cousin, if not by birth, then by virtue of her first marriage.” He noted that Nicholas Nikolaievich, at least according to gossip, was insisting that it was the spirit of Monsieur Philippe (he had died in 1905) who had influenced events to such an outcome.^[24]

Nicholas II had to authorize any marriage within the Romanov family. He agreed that the divorced Stana could marry the Grand Duke. To his mother, Nicholas explained that the Holy Synod had no issue with the marriage, provided it did not take place near St. Petersburg and that the ceremony was “a modest one.” “You would hardly know him now,” he added of the Grand Duke, “so happy he is, and so lightly does he bear the burden of his service.”^[25] The decision was made, but the Dowager Empress wrote to her son: “I do not attempt to hide from you the fact that the news of the proposed marriage surprised me very much.... What worries me is that it all reflects upon you: as things are now, it would seem better to avoid anything that could rise to criticism. fBut since it is all settled, there is no use in discussing it further.”^[26]

Together, Anastasia and George had two children:

• Sergei Georgievich, 8th Duke von Leuchtenberg (4 July 1890 – 7 January 1974).
• Elena Georgievna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, Princess Romanovskaya (3 January 1892 – 6 February 1971). She married on 18 July 1917, in Yalta, Count Stefan Tyszkiewicz (1894–1976, London). He was the son of Count Władysław Tyszkiewicz and his wife, Princess Krystyna Maria Lubomirska. By birth, he was a member of powerful and wealthy Tyszkiewicz family, one of few families which belonged to Magnates of Poland and Lithuania.^[27]

On 29 April 1907, at the age of 39, Anastasia was married to Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia. Both her husbands were descendants of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855): the first one was his grandson through a maternal line, and the second one was his grandson through a direct male line.^[28]

The wedding took place in the private chapel attached to the Great Palace at the Imperial estate of Livadia in the Crimea on 29 April/12 May 1907. It was a relatively simple affair. The bride did not have any attendants, but she wore a satin gown and “a costly diamond tiara.” Peter and Milica were there, and the Yalta Garrison provided a guard of honor and presented arms as the couple left the church.^[29] According to Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, her mother the Dowager Empress was “beside herself, and so upset that she had to take tranquilizing drops.” ^[30]

After a honeymoon in Montenegro and a cruise along the Adriatic coast, the newly married couple settled into a quiet life. They divided their time between their Znamenka Palace, Villa Tchair in the Crimea, and a small, neoclassical palace that the Grand Duke commissioned at No. 2 Petrovskaya Quay, on the Petersburg side of the Neva River, just across from Trinity Square.^[31] Occasionally they would spend time at the Grand Duke’s country estate at Perchina in Tula Province, where he kept a costumed dwarf as a novelty and devoted himself to his true passions: his pack of magnificent Borzois, his hunting and, oddly for the militaristic man, his collection of fine china.

Nicholas Nikolaievich and Stana had no children of their own, but she continued to raise the son and daughter from her previous marriage. Since the age of twelve Stana's son Sergei had been enrolled in the Cadet Corps, training for a position in the Imperial Russian Navy, which he was awarded after his graduation in 1911. Elena was seventeen when her mother remarried and was still completing her secondary education. She had inherited Anastasia's somewhat exotic appearance, which marked her out for attention in St. Petersburg high society.^[32]

Unlike her first amrriage, Stana's second marriage proved to be as happy and fulfilling as her first marriage had been sad and filled with bitterness. When they separated he wrote her daily, addressing Stana as “My Angel,” “My Divine Salvation,” and assuring her, “I love you. Your own heart will tell you how much I love you.” ^[33] According to Princess Julia Cantacuzène, Stana “venerated her husband, and he seemed to find great comfort in her sympathy and companionship through all the years to follow. She cared as little for society as he and his old friends sufficed her.” She remembered Anastasia once confiding, “When any one has been as unhappy as I, she is glad to have a home with a kind husband, and to be quiet; and neither the Grand Duke nor I need amusement or noise; also, we dislike greatly going out.”^[34] Perhaps the worst that could be said of Stana was that she increasingly influenced her husband in his pro-Slavophile views and was later vociferous in promoting the idea of Russia going to war in support of the ever-troubled Balkans.

Both Anastasia and her second husband Nicholas were religious Eastern Orthodox Christians, with a tendency to and interest in Persian mysticism. Since the Montenegrins were a fiercely Slavic, anti-Turkish people from the Balkans, Anastasia reinforced the Pan Slav tendencies of Nicholas. Her sister, Princess Milica (Cetinje, Montenegro, 26 July 1866 – Alexandria, Egypt, 5 September 1951), was married to Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievich Romanov of Russia, brother of Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich. The two Montenegrin princesses were thus also sisters-in-law, as their husbands were brothers.^[35]

Anastasia and her sister were intrigued by the more mystical side of the Eastern Orthodox religion; they were early supporters of the French seer "Dr." Philippe Vachot^[36] and of the starets Rasputin, and introduced both in turn^[5] to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Tsarina of Russia.^[5] According to popular Russian belief, the influence of Rasputin was instrumental in the downfall of the Romanov family.

Within a few years of Stana's marriage to Nicholas Nikolaievich, both sisters – as well as their husbands – found themselves in disfavor with Empress Alexandra. As Rasputin's power and influence grew, so, too, did his list of enemies. In 1907, when local members of the clergy in his native Pokrovskoye accused him of belong to the heretical Khlysty sect, the Orthodox Church launched a formal investigation. It has been claimed that Milica was somehow behind the investigation, that it was her revenge against the peasant for his having insinuated himself into the Imperial Household and no longer needing her support. This is nonsense, as historian Douglas Smith has pointed out: “Neither Milica nor anyone else in the capital had anything to do with the initial investigation.”^[37] In 1907 Milica still supported the peasant: that year she introduced him to Anna Vyrubova, extolling his virtues and gifts – actions unlikely from someone supposedly trying to undermine his influence.^[38]

The break between the sisters and Rasputin doesn't seem to have occurred until sometime around 1909. By this time, the peasant was beginning to horrify many in the church, government, and society with his increasingly brazen behavior and boasts about the power he claimed to wield over Nicholas and Alexandra. Any number of divergent accounts pretend to explain the break between the sisters and the peasant. Author Edvard Radzinsky claimed that Milica and Stana fell out with Rasputin when the peasant refused to support the latter's marriage to Nikolasha. This is nonsense: he raised no objections and supported the union to the extent that the sisters sent him gifts to thank him. Others suspected that it was all the result of some sort of nebulous plot – the kind that litter the story of the last Romanovs – designed to undermine the increasing influence of Anna Vyrubova over the Empress. Since – or so this theory goes – Vyrubova had become the principal contact between the peasant and the Imperial Family, Milica and Stana wanted to eliminate her as a presence at court, even if it meant sacrificing Rasputin. Major-General Vladimir Voeikov, who later became Palace Commandant, suggested this was the case, writing in his memoirs that Stana asked him not to visit Vyrubova.^[39]

“I suppose,” said Militsa's grandson Prince Nicholas Romanov, “that there might have been some element of jealousy. I know Grandmother disliked Vyrubova intensely. She insinuated herself into the Imperial couple's trust, and took advantage of her position, as later became apparent when she got involved in political questions. But I don't think Grandmother resented any loss of influence. She was more than content to focus her energies on her beloved husband and her children. And remember that by this time she was living at Dulber Palace, so her contact with the Empress was already limited.^[40]

But there is a more likely explanation for the break between the sisters and Rasputin. According to Militsa's son Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia, the relationship started to fall apart one evening when Rasputin asked the Grand Duchess to intercede on his behalf with the Empress over the latest scandal, she refused – by this time she, too, was harboring serious doubts about the peasant. “Rasputin,” Roman wrote, “insisted on the importance of his mission as a religious figure. He spoke a host of religious arguments so peculiar that my mother interrupted him, saying that his views sounded very heretical. These words annoyed Rasputin, and he accused my mother of bias against the popular beliefs of the people.” Things continued to deteriorate: When Rasputin made some “rude” comments about St. Seraphim of Sarov, Peter “expelled him and told him to stay away.”^[41]

Whatever the cause, soon Milica and Stana – and their respective husbands – joined the ranks of former supporters like Theophan in denouncing Rasputin as a charlatan.^[42]

But when the sisters approached Empress Alexandra, their former protector and confidant rejected any objections to Rasputin. Insisting that she could not be mistaken in her judgment, Alexandra adopted an entrenched attitude: those who spoke out against the peasant were dismissed as enemies. The sisters later spoke of “a violent scene” during which the Empress grew increasingly hostile.^[43] As courtier Alexander Spiridovich noted, “it did not escape the public that a great chill existed between the Empress and the Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Militsa.” Finally, after listening to their repeated warnings about the peasant, Alexandra simply told the sisters that their former friendships had ended.^[44] In her letters to Nicholas II, Alexandra would increasingly rail against the “black sisters” and “the crows,” calling them “my greatest enemies.”^[45]

The sisters soon retreated to their estates in Crimea, keeping their distance from the Imperial court. They seldom took part in official functions, attending only when protocol required. In 1911, when Milica and Stana's niece, Princess Helen of Serbia, married Prince Ioann Konstantinovich, the sisters deliberately stayed away from the capital. Their absence was motivated less by any perceived snub from the Imperial family than by their suspicion that Serbia was scheming against their father’s realm, the Kingdom of Montenegro.^[46]

This attitude reflected the undying patriotism and loyalty the two sisters always felt for their native land. “Grandmother and Aunt Stana,” said Prince Nicholas Romanov, “felt themselves thoroughly Russian, but they never stopped being true Montenegrins. Nothing could diminish their love for their homeland.”^[47] Milica established a funded a kindergarten in Cetinje, interviewed and hired the teachers, and paid for its upkeep.^[48] In August 1910, the two sisters, along with their husband, traveled to Montenegro for a momentous event. On the fiftieth anniversary of his coming to the throne, Prince Nikola assumed the title of King in a ceremony at Cetinje.

When the Balkan Wars erupted in 1912, Milica and Stana both temporarily returned to Montenegro to supervise relief efforts. “I work all day,” Milica wrote, “accommodating the constant arrival of the wounded...There are too many of them to provide enough help.”^[49] She constantly wrote to Nicholas II, imploring her to intercede on her father's behalf and promoting his views.

In the summer of 1914, the President of France, Raymond Poincare, paid a state visit to Russia. The sisters and their husbands joined the banquets at Peterhof and reviews at Krasnoye Selo, but the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg a few weeks earlier had everyone's nerves on edge. Milica and Anastasia, in particular, fully anticipated that a European war would soon erupt, one that they thought would benefit their homeland of Montenegro. Maurice Paleologue, the French Ambassador to Russia, remembered how, at a dinner given for the President by Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievich, the two sisters seemed to bubble over with excitement: “The Grand Duchess Anastasia and her sister, the Grand Duchess Milica, gave me a boisterous welcome.” Stana burst out: “Do you realize that we're passing through historic days, fateful days... At the review tomorrow the bands will play nothing but the Marche Lorraine and Sambre et Meuse. I've had a telegram (in pre-arranged code) from my father today. He tells me we shall have war before the end of the month.... What a hero my father is... He's worthy of the Iliad! Just look at this little box I always take about with me. It's got some Lorraine soil in it, real Lorraine soil I picked up over the frontier when I was in France with my husband two years ago. Look there, at the table of honor: it's covered with thistles. I didn't want to have any other flowers there. They're Lorraine thistles, don't you see! I gathered several plants on the annexed territory, brought them here and had the seeds sown in my garden.... There's going to be war... There'll be nothing left of Austria.... You're going to get back Alsace and Lorraine.... Our armies will meet in Berlin... Germany will be destroyed.” Only a stern look from the Emperor managed to silence this cascade of provocative prophecies.^[50]

Perhaps it was only natural for the sisters to adopt such views. As a Slavic country, Montenegro felt a deep kinship with both Russia and Serbia, and when Austria presented the latter with an ultimatum Milica and Stana were sure that war was inevitable. But somehow tales went round that the two Montenegrins either had knowledge beforehand of the assassination in Sarajevo and actively assisted the Serb assassins, or that they strenuously worked behind the scenes to influence Nicholas II to declare war against Germany and Austria, or both.^[51] Thus, Countess Lili von Nostitz insisted that the sisters “played no small part in bringing Russia into the Great War.”^[52] But by 1914 the sisters enjoyed no influence over the Imperial couple: Nikolasha remained a prominent player, though Nicholas II's ministers and advisers were far more responsible for pushing the Emperor into the conflict.

Anastasia's husband, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1856–1929), was Commander in Chief of the Russian Army during the first year of World War I, carrying out campaigns on the Austro-German front and in the Caucasus. His Supreme Commandership was terminated by Tsar Nicholas on 21 August 1915.^[53]

Nikolasha took up residence at Stavka, the Russian Army Headquarters, first located in the town of Baranavichy and then in the city of Mogilev. Stana moved to Kiev, where she worked in a military hospital after completing her Red Cross training, while her son Sergei, who had graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1911, served with the Black Sea Fleet.

Stana and Nikolasha rarely saw each other in these months. The Grand Duke always asked the Emperor for permission on the rare occasions he invited his wife to join him at Stavka for a day or two. In early 1915, he wrote to Nicholas II, thanking him for allowing Stana to visit: “the meeting with my dearly beloved wife has given me great moral strength,” he assured the Emperor.^[54]

Unfortunately for the Grand Duke, his failures as leader only exacerbated the myriad problems – poorly trained recruits, shortage of arms, and incompetent leadership – that plagued the Imperial Army and led to humiliating losses. When, in August 1915, Warsaw fell to the advancing Imperial German Army, the loss sealed the Grand Duke's fate. For some time, Empress Alexandra had been hysterically accusing Nicholas Nikolaievich of actively plotting against the Emperor in the hope that he could one day see himself upon the Imperial throne. She was not alone: Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich warned the Emperor that Milica and Stana were doing everything in their power to increase Nikolasha's prestige in the hope that he could seize the throne.^[55]

Undoubtedly Milica and Stana were astute enough to read the current situation: the war revealed the weakness of the Imperial Government, which was increasingly populated by inept figures at the recommendation of Rasputin and according to the demands of the Empress. The ongoing Rasputin scandals as well as Alexandra's unpopularity and hints that, as a former German princess, she was secretly plotting a separate peace with her cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, did much to harm the prestige of the Imperial Family. Public opinion no longer held the Romanovs in great esteem. “Grandmother realized the environment,” said her grandson Prince Nicholas Romanov, “but she felt that her hands were tied. She had absolutely no influence with the Imperial couple, and it is doubtful that they would have listened had she been able to warn them.”^[56]

There is little evidence that the sisters engaged in any specific plot directed against Nicholas II: indeed, the idea would have been anathema to Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievich, who once described the Emperor as a cross between man and God. But Empress Alexandra, already deep in her loathing of the sisters over Rasputin, repeatedly warned her husband that her former friends were engaged in efforts to undermine the throne. Rasputin, she reported to Nicholas, told her that Nicholas Nikolaievich and “the crows” wanted “to get him the Petrograd throne.”^[57] In September 1915, she complained: “Milica and Stana spread horrors about me in Kiev that I am going to be shut up in a convent.”^[58]

Rasputin constantly warned Alexandra against his former protector Nicholas Nikolaievich. The Empress parroted his advice, insisting that the Grand Duke was plotting against her husband. She wanted her husband to assume the Supreme Command himself – and indeed Nicholas II had long felt compelled to do so. But perhaps more to the point, Alexandra could never forgive the fact that Nikolasha, along with his wife Stana and her sister Milica, had turned openly against Rasputin. In letter after letter to Nicholas II, she denounced him as “Our Friend’s enemy, and that brings bad luck.”^[59]

When Nicholas II finally announced that he was assuming Supreme Command and relieving Nicholas Nikolaievich of the post, the Grand Duke took the news gracefully: “God be praised!” he exclaimed. “The Emperor releases me from a task that was wearing me out.”^[60]

The Emperor sent Nicholas Nikolaievich to the Caucasus, far away from the centers of power. The Grand Duke was named Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army, directing Russia’s efforts against the Ottoman Empire. Stana joined him in Tiflis with her daughter Princess Elena, as did his brother Peter, who acted as his Chief of staff, as well as Milica and their children. In 1916 Prince Roman Petrovich joined his uncle's forces in the Caucasus, and served on the Turkish front. Princess Marina Petrovna continued to work as a Red Cross nurse, while Milica organized and fund relief trains. Princess Nadezhda Petrovna – called Nadia in the family – had also joined the Red Cross. She had suffered a personal loss in the war. By early 1914, she had fallen in love with Prince Oleg Konstantinovich, the handsomest and most talented of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich's numerous children. Milica, gossips insisted, objected to the romance: although as a Prince of the Imperial Blood Oleg held the same rank as Nadia, the Grand Duchess supposedly wanted a grander match for her second daughter. Whether or not this was true, the pair was unofficially engaged but, two months into the fighting Oleg was fatally wounded and he succumbed to blood poisoning – the only Romanov to die in battle in the First World War.

In late 1916, Nicholas Nikolaievich traveled to Army Headquarters at Mogilev to plead with Nicholas II to grant a responsible ministry to the country and thus avoid what they were convinced was a looming revolution. The Emperor dismissed such concerns. On New year's Day 1917, Prince George Lvov – who in nine short weeks would be named Premier of the new Provisional Government – sent Alexander Khatisian, the Mayor of Tiflis, to ask the Grand Duke to support a palace coup, in which Nicholas II would be forced to abdicate and sent abroad into exile; Alexandra was to be confined to a nunnery, with the Emperor's brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich named as Regent for the young Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaievich.^[61]

The sisters, their husbands and their families were all still living in the Caucasus when the February Revolution broke out in 1917. When Nicholas II abdicated the throne for himself and for his son Alexei, and the Emperor’s brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich refused to accept it unless called upon to do so by a future Constituent Assembly, the 304-year-old Romanov Dynasty came to an end. Soon after, the Romanovs in the Caucasus received a request from Alexander Kerensky, the new Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government, that they move to the Crimea, where they were joined by Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, her two daughters and their families.

Stana and Nicholas Nikolaievich, along with her children Sergei and Elena from her first marriage to the Duke of Leuchtenberg, took up residence in her villa Tchair, overlooking the Black Sea; Milica, Peter and their three children Prince Roman and Princesses Marina and Nadezhda moved into their Palace of Dulber, while the Dowager Empress, her daughters, and her grandchildren lived at nearby Ai-Todor palace, the estate belonging to Grand Duchess Xenia and her husband Grand Duke Alexander.^[62][63]

At first it seemed as if nothing had changed. During this time, Anastasia’s daughter Duchess Elena of Leuchtenberg married Count Stefan Eugeniusz Tyszkiewicz, an officer in the Imperial Horse Guards, in the small St. Nina’s Chapel at Charax palace, the palace owned by Grand Duke George Mikhailovich.^[64] Stefan was the first born son, and second child of four, of Count Władysław Tyszkiewicz and his wife, Princess Krystyna Maria Lubomirska. They were not merely members of the Polish nobility, but had been Magnates of Poland and Lithuania, and Stefan was to be the final heir to the Lentvaris Manor in Lithuania. After escaping the Russian Revolution, they later had one daughter, Countess Natalia Róża Maria Tyszkiewicz (1921–2003), born in Warsaw. She later lived in Geneva, Switzerland, never married, and had no children.^[65]

But the Sevastopol Revolutionary Regional Committee soon acted to curtail such freedom. Early on the morning of May 8/21, groups of armed soldiers from the Sevastopol Soviet arrived at Dulber, Tchair, and Ai-Todor to search for weapons and confiscate valuables. At all three estates, they stormed through rooms, opening drawers, throwing papers on the floor, and seizing such things as Milica’s gardening notes and her daughter Marina’s diaries. Soon, orders arrived from Kerensky in Petrograd that the Romanovs were now to consider themselves prisoners: their automobiles were confiscated, and they were told that any letters they wrote or received would be reviewed by censors to avoid any “counter-revolutionary” conspiracies.^[66]

Anastasia and Nicholas Nikolaievich settled in her Villa Tchair. Soon enough, a German general arrived to speak to the former Supreme Commander; suspecting that the Kaiser wanted to force him into some sort of military collaboration, the Grand Duke sent his wife to speak to the man. Her approach was far from subtle: Anastasia took after him with a broom until he fled the estate.^[67] But in May, lacking the finances to maintain the property, Anastasia sold Tchair to a wealthy industrialist and she and her husband moved in with his brother and her sister to Dulber.^[68]

There was a half-hearted attempt by the Yalta Soviet to raid Dulber but the prisoners and their guards managed to repel the intended attack. And then, one April morning, contingents of occupying German soldiers arrived. The prisoners weren’t happy at the idea of being saved by the Kaiser’s army, but their arrival undoubtedly had saved their lives. The soldiers brought an offer of asylum from Kaiser Wilhelm II, which the prisoners patriotically rejected. They could not, however, reject the armed guard that he ordered to protect them from harm.

Given their freedom, Alexander Mikhailovich and one of his sons moved back to Ai-Todor; Grand Duchess Xenia and her other children soon followed, while the Dowager Empress moved to Harax. She later told Prince Roman how much she appreciated what his parents had done for her at Dulber.^[69]

In July came news of the Murder of the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg in the Urals; there were vague rumors about other members of the Romanov family, and no one knew what to believe. There were eight more uncertain months ahead, as the Civil War played out and power in the Crimea constantly threatened to shift from the Germans to the White Army to the Bolsheviks. Over time, the situation became such that it was already clear to everyone that a return to the old ways would no longer be possible, which put their very existence in that place into question and ultimately caused them to abandon their Russian homeland for good.

In March 1917, the last Tsar was overthrown and the ruling Romanov family removed from power by the Bolsheviks. Amidst the revolution, there were several offers of asylum, from Marie Feodorovna’s Danish royal relatives and from Milica and Stana’s brother-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, but all were rejected. Finally, in April 1919, King George V sent a contingent of military vessels to the Crimea to rescue his aunt the Dowager Empress and other members of the Romanov family. It took a number of days to work out the logistics but finally, on April 11, all of the Romanovs still in the Crimea boarded the HMS Marlborough and at sunset left Yalta for a life of exile in Europe.

After landing in Constantinople, Milica, Stana, their husbands and their children first traveled to the Kingdom of Italy, where they stayed as temporary guests of Queen Elena and King Victor Emmanuel, who provided funds to assist in their new lives. The sisters couldn't go home to Montenegro: in 1916 their father King Nicholas I had fled the country when Austrian soldiers threatened the capital. He lost whatever advantage he made have had with the Allies by sending his son to Vienna to formally surrender the country. Both Russia and Serbia thereafter looked on Nicholas as a traitor, and in 1918 he was forced into permanent exile when Montenegro was annexed by the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). He and his wife settled at Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera, and it was here, on March 1, 1921, that the exiled King Nicholas I died; two years later, Milica and Anastasia lost their devoted mother, Queen Milena of Montenegro, when she died on March 16, 1923.

Eventually, Anastasia and Nikolasha moved into a small Château de Choigny in Santeny, some twenty miles outside of Paris. Here they lived quietly, diligently guarded by a considerable number of former Cossacks and officers of the French national police. “They led an extremely modest and retired existence,” recalled Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger, “so retired that they would hardly see anybody.... Their seclusion was so complete that under ordinary circumstances it was impossible to penetrate farther than the entrance to the park. Only upon special orders from the house would the sentinels open the gate to visitors.”^[70]

This was for the Grand Duke's own protection. In exile the Romanovs were scattered and divided. In 1924 Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich proclaimed himself Emperor; the majority of the surviving family supported his claim, but Nicholas Nikolaievich was still a popular figure among the white émigrés and many, ignoring the Fundamental Laws which governed the succession to the throne, looked to him as Emperor in exile. Although Nikolasha never claimed the throne, he did do all in his power to demonize Kirill and those who had recognized his claim, including accusing his cousin of being an alcoholic who was unfit for the position.^[71]

On January 5, 1929, Nicholas Nikolaievich died of pneumonia while staying at his "Villa Thénard" at Cap d'Antibes, which he previously bought under the alias “Borissov,” apparently for privacy/protection reasons.^[72] Dressed in a Cossack uniform, his body was placed in a polished oak coffin and surrounded by a guard-of-honor for two days as members of the public were admitted to pay their last respects. At the funeral, Peter and Milica led a heavily veiled Anastasia; everyone was in tears. On January 9, a long cortege left the villa, winding through streets lined with French troops as a band played Frédéric Chopin's Funeral March.^[73]

Anastasia had been relatively healthy when she first began to fall ill more frequently. The worried family believed these were only temporary “old-age ailments,” as she was already sixty-seven. No one suspected—least of all her son and daughter—that the worst might come. Her sister Milica stayed constantly by her side; the two had been inseparable throughout their lives. When she sensed that Stana was getting worse, she immediately called their younger sister Princess Xenia to come and help care for the patient. She then decided to summon doctors and their sister Elena, who practiced alternative medicine and had cured many people. Although Queen Elena herself was busy with her son, daughters, daughter-in-law, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, she quickly prepared and set out for France.

Suddenly Anastasia’s health began to take a rapid and alarming turn. She felt pain, weakness, and developed a fever. By the time her sister from Italy arrived, Anastasia’s hands were already cold and chills shook her entire body. She often drifted into a deep sleep, from which they managed to wake her only with great difficulty. Afterwards she would become somewhat better and more aware. She spoke of their mother and of playing with her brothers in Cetinje. She asked why their mother had not come yet. The family gathered anxiously, distressed by the sudden deterioration in the Grand Duchess’s condition, for she had been healthy, lively, and cheerful most of her life. She complained of nightmares in her head and of her memory beginning to blur. During those episodes Anastasia would return completely to her childhood, recalling her walks near the Biljarda Palace with her long-departed sister Zorka.

A few days before her death, she asked to be fed, bathed, and dressed nicely. Suspecting nothing ominous, her sisters fulfilled all her wishes. Under her pillow she kept a photograph of herself and Milica walking with their daughters under the Kremlin walls, a picture especially dear to her. She asked Milica to keep the photo when she was gone. A week later, doctors and relatives gathered again around her bedside as she once more slipped into a deep sleep from which they could barely rouse her. She gradually moved from coma into a half-conscious state, during which she recognized almost no one. She often became confused and imagined people who had long since passed away.

During all this time, Grand Duchess Milica herself was beginning to feel unwell, though she never lost hope for her sister’s recovery. Queen Elena, with Xenia’s help, worked tirelessly: changing cold compresses, giving medicine, and rubbing Anastasia with alcohol in an attempt to reduce the fever. Anastasia fought as much as she could, but sleep overtook her. Her eyelashes drooped onto her thin face, her large eyes closed, and in that moment, she fell asleep forever.^[74]

She died in Cap d'Antibes on 15 November 1935, having outlived her husband by six years. Grand Duchess Anastasia (Stana) of Russia and her second husband Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich (Nikolasha) of Russia both died in exile and were originally buried in the church of St. Archangel Michael in Cannes, France.^[75]

Requests to transfer their remains came from their mutual grandnephews, Prince Nicholas Romanov (who died in 2014) and his brother, Prince Dimitri Romanov (who died in 2016), and were made in 2014. Their remains were re-buried in Moscow, at the Memorial park complex of the heroes of the First World War, 2015.^[76]