Is Grand Duchess Olga living in Milan

August 27, 1928


Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported today that Grand Duchess Olga, eldest daughter of the Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, was living in Milan in 1921.    The article stated that Olga had married an "Italian officer of Venetian origin who had been a prisoner in Russia,"  who helped her to escape from that country.

The couple, according to the story, had lived in a boarding house on the Corse Buenos Aires.  The manger of the boarding house said that the "supposed Princess" spoke Russian, English and French, and "showed in every way superior breeding."

The woman said her boarder "relapsed into silence," when photographs of Grand Duchess Olga were published in "illustrated magazines."   She asked her guest "point blank" if she were "not really the Grand Duchess." 

The young woman replied: "I was once rich, and you see, I have nothing." 

The newspaper states that the story "was well embroidered by the boarding-house keeper and by a dyer and cleaner" in the neighborhood.   The Corriere della Sera "discards much of the embroidery," but says there may be "some foundation for the yarn."

Olga was born on November 15, 1895.   All "historic accounts" say she and her parents, three sisters and one brother, were "murdered by the Communists at Ekaterinburg in 1918."

There have been reports of "some members of the family" were able to escape, most notably "in the case" of the youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia, but none of these tales have "withstood the tests of their authenticity."