If you were to walk into a tiny, cramped apartment above a beauty salon on Gerrard Street in Toronto back in 1960, you might have found an elderly woman with kind eyes painting watercolors. She lived simply. She didn’t wear jewels. She chatted with neighbors like anyone else.
Most people didn't realize she was Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II and the daughter of Alexander III. She was the last "Grand Duchess" of Imperial Russia, born into the unimaginable wealth of the Romanov dynasty, only to die in exile as a commoner's wife.
Her life wasn't just a "fall from grace." Honestly, it was a long, slow escape toward the simple life she actually wanted.
The Spartan Princess of Gatchina
Forget the Disney version of royalty. Olga’s childhood at Gatchina Palace was surprisingly rough. While the palace had 900 rooms, she and her siblings—including the future Tsar Nicholas II and her favorite brother, "Misha"—slept on hard camp beds with flat pillows. Her father, Alexander III, was a massive, bear-like man who hated the pomp of the court. He taught her to love the outdoors and the "simple way."
Then things got messy. When she was 12, her father died. Her brother Nicholas, who was never really ready for the job, became Tsar. Suddenly, the protective wall around Olga’s world started to crack.
✨ Don't miss: What Really Happened With the Brittany Snow Divorce
At 19, she was pushed into a marriage with Duke Peter of Oldenburg. It was a disaster. Peter was 14 years older, a gambling addict, and widely believed to be homosexual. The marriage was never consummated. Olga spent years trapped in a gilded cage, losing her hair from the stress and forced to wear a wig until it grew back.
Love at First Sight (and a 13-Year Wait)
Everything changed in 1903. Olga was at a military review when she saw a tall, handsome cavalry officer named Nikolai Kulikovsky. She later told her biographer, Ian Vorres, that it was "fate." Basically, she fell in love instantly.
But you couldn't just get a divorce in the Romanov family. Nicholas II, despite loving his sister, refused to grant an annulment for thirteen years. He believed marriage was for life. So, Olga did something wild: she convinced her husband to hire Kulikovsky as his aide-de-camp. For years, the three of them lived in the same house—a bizarre, awkward arrangement that high society whispered about constantly.
The Great War and the End of the Empire
When World War I broke out, Olga didn't sit in a palace. She went to the front as a Red Cross nurse. She was actually under fire, earning a medal for gallantry. It was during the chaos of the war, in 1916, that Nicholas finally gave in and annulled her first marriage. She married her officer, Nikolai Kulikovsky, in a tiny ceremony in Kiev.
🔗 Read more: Danny DeVito Wife Height: What Most People Get Wrong
Then the Revolution hit. While the Bolsheviks were executing her brother and his entire family in a basement in Yekaterinburg, Olga and Nikolai were on the run in the Crimea. She was pregnant with her first son, Tikhon. They lived under house arrest, not knowing if each day would be their last.
She survived because of a weird technicality—the local revolutionary councils in Yalta and Sevastopol couldn't agree on who had the "right" to kill her. That delay gave her enough time to escape.
From a Danish Dairy Farm to Ontario
By 1920, Olga, Nikolai, and their two young sons made it to Denmark. They lived with her mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, but the atmosphere was tense. Her mother never quite accepted Nikolai, the "commoner."
After her mother died in 1928, Olga used her small inheritance to buy a dairy farm in Ballerup. She spent her days mucking out stalls and feeding chickens. She was happy. She was also a prolific artist, painting over 2,000 watercolors to help pay the bills.
💡 You might also like: Mara Wilson and Ben Shapiro: The Family Feud Most People Get Wrong
But the ghosts of Russia wouldn't leave her alone. She was frequently visited by "Anastasia" imposters, most famously Anna Anderson. Olga met her in Berlin and quickly realized she was a fraud. "My niece would have known me," she simply said.
The Move to Canada
After WWII, the Soviet Union started eyeing Russian emigres in Denmark. Fearing kidnapping or worse, the family packed up and moved to Canada in 1948. They bought a 200-acre farm in Campbellville, Ontario.
Imagine that: a daughter of the Emperor of All the Russias, in her 60s, hauling pails of water in the Canadian winter. She loved it. She told friends the vast Canadian landscape reminded her of Russia. To her neighbors, she was just "the lady who paints."
The Legacy of the Last Grand Duchess
Nikolai died in 1958. Broken-hearted and physically frail, Olga moved to a small bungalow and eventually into that tiny apartment above the beauty salon in Toronto, staying with Russian friends.
She died on November 24, 1960. When she was buried at York Cemetery, the funeral was attended by members of the Canadian military—the successors to the regiments she had once led as an honorary colonel in Russia.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs:
- Look for her art: Olga's watercolors are often found in private collections, including those of the British Royal Family. They aren't just "royal hobbies"; she was a trained artist who studied under masters like Zhukovsky.
- Visit the sites: If you're in the Toronto area, you can visit her grave at York Cemetery. It’s a humble marker for a woman who could have been an Empress.
- Read the source: To get the most accurate picture, find a copy of The Last Grand Duchess by Ian Vorres. It’s based on direct interviews he did with her before she passed.
- Fact-check the "Anastasia" myths: Olga’s dismissal of Anna Anderson remains one of the most credible pieces of evidence against the many Romanov survival myths.