PHOTO: photos of Grand Duchess Xenia and her family
are among the archive donated to GARF

NOTE: the following article was originally published in Royal Russia No. 13, Winter 2017, 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 6th December 2017, a portion of the archives of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960), the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was presented to the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) in Moscow. The gift was presented to GARF by the Chairman of the St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation Konstantin Malofeev, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the media group Tsargrad.

The archives of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna was purchased five years ago at an auction in London. It consists of 95 documents, which include five diaries, family photos unknown to Russian archivists, and in a separate canvas bag decorated with a satin ribbon, 25 letters from Xenia’s brother Grand Duke George Alexandrovich to their mother Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Especially valuable, are her diary entries of 1914-1919, in which she details the events of the First World War, the collapse of the monarchy and the Russian Revolution. “These documents allow us to see a crucial and very complicated period in the history of our country through the eyes of a representative of the imperial family,”- said the head of the Federal Archival Agency Andrey Artizov, who took part in the ceremony. “I want to emphasize that the archives of the Grand Duchess have not been studied and are almost unknown to both historians and the general public, so its future publication will be of particular interest” – he added.

PHOTO: In happier times, Emperor Nicholas II and his siblings from left to right: Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, Emperor Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. Year and location unknown

After the revolution, in 1919, the Grand Duchess along with her mother – the widowed Empress Maria Feodorovna, her family and relatives, left Russia forever. In exile Xenia Alexandrovna lived first in Denmark, and then moved to the UK, where she died on 20th April 1960, at Wilderness House, situated on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames England.

The State Archive of the Russian Federation currently have in their collection 44 notebooks with Xenia’s diary entries dating from 1884 to June 1914. The five additional diaries, which refer to 1914-1919 now complete the collection, and are of immense historical importance. The last entry was made on the day which Xenia departed Crimea with her mother Maria Feodorovna and family. Her last tragic record of 1919 reads: “We are leaving Russia!”.

Konstantin Malofeev, the entrepreneur and founder of the St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, said: “The main task of our organization is historical enlightenment, the cleansing of Russian history from slander and distortion. This can not be achieved without painstaking work with historical sources. Hence our close attention to various archival documents and the desire that they be accessible to the broad scientific community. After all, thorough study of sources and their publication is a necessary step towards establishing historical truth.”

PHOTO: one of five diaries of Grand Duchess Xenia donated to GARF

The acquisition of the archives was made in 2012, in London. “After we contacted the owners,” Konstantin Malofeev said, “and they found out that we are from Russia and are going to return this archive home, they removed the archive from the auction and we agreed to buy it separately.”

The Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna’s archive is part of a large project carried out by the Society St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, to return to the people the knowledge of life in Russia before 1917.

FURTHER READING

The jewel albums of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna + PHOTOS

© Paul Gilbert. 9 March 2026