Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia - Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution

Kira, named after her father, was born in Paris while her parents were in exile. Her parents' marriage had not been approved by Tsar Nicholas II due to the fact that her maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were siblings (the Russian Orthodox religion forbids the marriage of two first cousins), and so they had been forced to leave Russia. In addition, her mother had divorced her former husband, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, the brother of the Empress Alexandra. Her parents were later restored to favor and returned to Russia.

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family fled to Finland. Kira, eight at the time, recalled that her family was permitted to leave by the Provisional Government of Russia. For the first time they rode on a public train. "For the first time there were no royal trappings ... i.e. red carpets, special comforts, etc.," she recalled. In Finland, her 40-year-old mother gave birth to a son, Vladimir. The family waited in Finland for more than a year, hoping that the White Russians would defeat the Bolsheviks and they could return to Russia. "How I wish I could see you," 9 year-old Kira wrote to her aunt, Queen Marie of Romania, in May 1918. "Here it is quite cold though it ought to be summer. Boy (baby Vladimir) is so sweet. When he is hungry and Nana is preparing his lunch, the tears simply stream down his cheeks with hunger." Kira spoke of gathering mushrooms in the woods, going to the movies on Fridays, and of lessons, but also mentioned that they were running out of sugar. Her mother wrote to relatives in other countries begging for baby food to give the baby Vladimir.