OTMA - reduction, consisting of the first letters of the names that used daughters Nicky and Alix - Princess Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. With this reduction girls signed postcards to their parents, family and friends. They also used it in their diaries.
So were all four in one room on folding, camp bed. Even the young princess tried to dress the same. But the contents of desks in all it was different ... favorite books, watercolors, herbaria, photo albums, icons.
Each of them diligently kept a diary. First it was expensive albums with gold embossing and clasps on the moire lining, then - after the February storm and arrest - a simple notebook with penciled notes. Much was destroyed during the searches in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, much as I have said many times, it is unknown - or disappeared without a trace ...
Girls are doing a lot of sports: playing ball, riding a bike, well ran and swam, then newfangled fond of tennis, horseback riding, in the morning poured cold water in the evening in a warm bath. Their day has always been painted by the minute strict Empress - a mother, they never knew of idle boredom.
They grew up and started viscous boring grammar lessons, French, English. Strict governess watched their posture, mannerisms, movements and ability to behave at the table. However, it was all gently and easily, no extravagance in food and sweets. A lot of reading. Yes, and plenty of time for mischief there was. They played together and learned by playing .. Senior to look after younger.
 Olga, the eldest daughter.
She was born November 15, 1895 in Tsarskoe Selo. It was fun, lively girl, her father's favorite, which is the first time compared her "achievements" with the "achievements" of his sister's daughter Xenia - Irina. And wrote in his diary, not hiding pride: "Our Olga weighs a little more." "At my christening, was calm and not cry when dipped ..."
One day, someone from the adult guests asked playfully, pulling it from under the table, where she climbed, trying to pull the tablecloth some object:
- Who are you?
- I - Princess ... - She replied with a sigh.
- Well, what are you princess, and the table could not reach!
- I do not know. And you ask Dad, he knows everything ... He will tell you who I am. Seriously said Olga, and tottered on unsteady legs yet to meet the laughter and smiles of the guests ...
Very tiny, all-girl Princess's mother had been trained to hold the needle or hoop for embroidery, knitting needles for knitting, the master of the tiny clothes for dolls. Alexandra believed that even little girls must be busy with something.
Olga loved to play with her sister Tatiana, born May 28, 1897, (Also in Tsarskoe Selo). Russian speech was mixed with English and French, equally shared sweets, biscuits and toys ... Toys shifted from older to younger. In the evening, a girl died down around his mother, reading them stories or quietly singing a British folk songs. Father senior girls rejoice unspeakably, but even in the evening saw him rarely, knew that he was busy ...
When issued a free moment, he took the crumbs of both light-brown hair to her knees and told them stories, but not the British, and Russian, and long, a little scary, filled with magic and miracles ... Little baggage allowed to gently stroke pompous and bushy mustache, which was hiding a soft, slightly mischievous smile.
Olga and Tatiana during the summer holidays in the Finnish archipelago liked to look for small pieces of amber or pretty pebbles, and the glades Belovezha and slept (Poland) - berries and mushrooms .. They appreciated every minute of rest, which could carry out together with their parents or in seclusion - for reading and diaries.
So in hand with beauty inseparable sister Tatiana and my younger sister to whom she was treated with maternal tenderness and rigor, Olga, the older child in a friendly and loving family, without noticing it magnificently transformed from a plump, lively little girls with a broad face, a charming girl - a teenager.
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