imperial-russia: Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia What an hour for that woman … she who

imperial-russia:

Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia

What an hour for that woman … she who would listen to no one except Rasputin, and separated herself little by little from all the members of the family, then from the whole of society, never showing herself any more, shutting herself up either in Tsarskoe or in the Crimea … What may her feelings be to-day? How does she bear it, separated, as she is from her husband, he not able to get to her and all her children down with measels. A ghastly situation. I sit and ponder over it and to me it seems tragic and fearful beyond words. … What influence will it have on the War, on our fate? Tragic questions to which I find no answer.

Queen Marie of Romania upon hearing about the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II