NOTE: the following article was originally published in Royal Russia No. 14, Summer 2018, and updated with additional information and photos on 3rd March 2026. While this article is dated, I believe that it is still relevant and will be of interest to my readership – PG

On 17th April 2018, the collection of letters written by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) from the family archive of Princess Nadezhda Vladimirovna Volkonskaya were presented as a gift to the All-Russian Museum of Alexander Pushkin. The solemn ceremony took place in the Concert Hall, situated on the embankment on the Moika River in St. Petersburg.

“This archive is unique – it is not known to anyone, the letters have never been published any where, nor have they ever been translated into Russian. A total of 65 letters (in French) written by Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna and addressed to Madame René Brizak, from the 1920s to the 1930s, during years in exile in Denmark”, noted a museum spokesperson.

René Brizak was a prominent couturier in St. Petersburg, during the 19th to early 20th centuries. Madame Brizak’s fashion house was situated at Malaya Konyushennaya, 8, which employed 60 dressmakers. She designed dresses and gowns for members of the Imperial Family and aristocracy. Among her most prominent clients were Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and her four daughters, as well as the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Many of these gowns are today in the Collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The owner of the archive is Princess Nadezhda Vladimirovna Volkonskaya, the maternal great-granddaughter of Madame Brizak. Her great-grandmother was friends with Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, because they both spoke excellent English. “I am very happy that I am giving these letters to the All-Russian Museum of Alexander Pushkin. I planned to return them to my homeland, to Russia, for several years already. And now my soul is at peace,” said the princess.

PHOTO: one of the letters written (in French) by Grand
Duchess Olga Alexandrovna to Madame René Brizak

The correspondence of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Madame Brizak was of a systemic nature and came to an end due to the demise of the latter. At first glance, the letters are personal: Olga Alexandrovna describes everyday life, writes with special tenderness about her children Tikhon and Guri, her beloved husband Nikolai, shares family joys and sorrows, and worries about her friends in Russia.

However, the persons and events mentioned in them go beyond private, because they are connected with history, culture, public and political life – with the life of Russians in emigration. Among the characters of the letters are numerous relatives – members of the Russian Imperial family, Princess Margaret of Denmark, Countess Maria Vorontsova-Dashkova, King George V of Great Britain, as well as artists, musicians, literary publishers and theater figures.

From the letter of the Grand Duchess of April 1920: “In the end, we had to leave our homeland. We absolutely could not live there anymore. But it was very painful to break away from what I had loved all my life, so many friends remained. Here in Denmark you can calm down a bit’ …. Olga Kulikovskaya. The Palace of Marienburg.

Olga Aleksandrovna Kulikovskaya-Romanova was born on 14th June [O.S. 1st June] 1882, she was the youngest child of the Emperor Alexander III and the Empress Maria Feodorovna, as well as the younger sister of Emperor Nicholas II.

She became one of the few representatives of the Imperial family who managed to escape Bolshevik Russia after the 1917 revolution. She emigrated to Denmark, and later – to Canada, where she died on 24 November 1960. During the First World War, she worked in the hospital as a sister of mercy, and also engaged in charity.

Madame René Brizac (née Valentine Emans De Ricles), was born in London on 17th February 1865. At the age of twenty, she went to Russia, right after her marriage with the son of the founder of the St. Petersburg couturier A. Brizak, the main designer and Supplier to the Imperial Court. The couple had four children. Madam Brizak was a talented fashion designer, she created such styles that later gave the memoirists a reason to mention that the female half of the family of Nicholas II “dressed simply, but with taste.” The first House of Haute Couture in Russia lasted about 50 years and was closed by the decree of Lenin in 1918.

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In 2019, Princess Nadezhda Volkonskaya published Сердцем с Вами, Ольга / My heart is with you, Olga which includes 65 letters written by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna to the famous couturier Madame René Brizac, when both women were living in exile from Russia. Their correspondence lasted ten years (from 1920 to 1930), until the death of the latter.

Below, are some of excerpts from her letters to Madame Brizac:

“Dear Madame Brizac! I am happy, every time I receive a letter with your handwriting on the envelope,” Olga Alexandrovna writes, she then goes on to tell how she had to stop sending parcels to friends in Russia because of new restrictions. “It’s terrible to think how they will be without them now. They are starving.”

Olga also writes about the impostor who pretended to be her niece Grand Duchess Anastasia – Anna Anderson.

“You understand the absurdity of the story as well as we do! More and more I am convinced that this story was conceived for the sake of blackmail and money. Let us say that I am mistaken, but how can it be then, that her governess, Madame Gilliard, who knew Anastasia when she was six weeks old, and that Monsieur Gillard, who was also with the dear family until they parted in June, 1918, could also be mistaken?”

Olga rejoiced at every guest from Russia. She was impressed by the Don Cossacks, and she sincerely regrets their fate.

“Our people are so poor, they are exploited, they come from Bulgaria, where they worked in the mines, in various terrible places. Dear, poor Russians, what a difficult life they now have!”

Olga writes bitterly about the Russian general kidnapped by the NKVD [Soviet secret police] in Paris in January 1930:

“How horrible it is to have what happened in Paris!” Poor General Kutepov! Who would have thought that such a thing could happen today, in the civilized world, in broad daylight!”

It should be noted that Сердцем с Вами, Ольга / My heart is with you, Olga was only published in the Russian language, in a limited edition of only 700 copies. The design was designed by Vyatka artists Olga Kolchanova and Alexander Selezenev.

In addition to translation [from French to Russian], the book also contains digitized originals of the original letters, which is the best way for the reader to personally get in touch with the story of Grand Duchess Olga Romanova-Kulikovskaya.

© Paul Gilbert. 6 March 2026