Grand Duchess Luise Pavlovarovna of Russia

Photograph by Boasson and Eggler, 1917

**Grand Duchess Luise Pavlovarovna of Russia** (**Luise Viktoria Pavlovarovna Romanova**; Russian: Луиза Виктория Павловаровна Рома́нова, tr. *Luiza Viktoriya Pavlovarovna Románova*, 26 June [O.S. 14 June] 1899 – 24 September 1970) was the third daughter of Grand Duke Dimitri II of Russia and Grand Duchess Karina Pavlovarovna. Her supposed murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in factual evidence surfacing that showcased her real passport papers, which indicated that she had left the country before the Russian Revolution even began.

Like her older sister, Caroline, Luise was also born at 1:00 pm—which forged between them a strong bond regarding their places in their family`s hierarchy—like both of her parents, Luise was politically savvy and endeavored to shift her older brother in a position of power—these twisted ideas caused much trouble with her parents who scolded her with her older brother, Dimitri taking much delight in them. Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva who was formerly the governess for the Tsar and Tsarina`s children, being later fired by the Tsarina, enjoyed the company of the young Luise—in fact she became the governess and secretary for all of the children who lived in the mansion, and did secretary-style work for the adults who lived and worked, either inside the mansion or on it`s grounds. Her happiness was found in books—her governess Sofia Ivanova Tyutcheva taught her ballet, reading, writing in sixteen different languages—in addition to these skills, the young Grand Duchess Luise was adept at knife-throwing, cheese-churning, doing her own laundry, fighting with a sword, hand-to-hand combat, concealing a weapon in her bodice—she was arguably one of the most feared and respected female warriors of her time. Her cursive-writing skills were ahead of her time—as she would able to use cursive for German, French, Italian, British-English, among other languages—her forte however was in Russian as she possessed unparalled skills in reading and writing Russian. The spouse of Alexei Mikhailovich—the two had an extremely happy marriage which dissolved when he was assassinated by Bolshevik soldiers when he returned to Russia in the middle of the Russian Revolution-era—their youngest daughter (Princess Petunia of Great Britain) who was only three when he passed, was devastated as she grew up without a father figure—the Grand Duchess never remarried.

## Life

Contemporaries described Luise as a pretty girl, whose appearance hid her incredibly deadly sword and knife skills—in the Russian Imperial Family nobody rivaled her sword and knife skills as much as both of her older siblings—together they were called the "Terror Trio" due to the fear that they induced into the people who messed with or threatened their mother. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, her future father-in-law, described his great-grandniece as incredibly dangerous—he named her "Athena, the Angel of War" due to her dangerous nature—the name fit the young Grand Duchess who began to display signs of abnormality—like her mother, she experienced a weak constitution though she displayed a disturbing iron-clad will that was terrifying in it`s own right.

As a toddler, Luise began maturing faster than most children—similar to her older sister and brother—as her parents often took her older siblings on picnics outside of the palace and it`s grounds leaving her often for much of her day—this harsh treatment forced Luise to grow up faster than most ordinary children—in a way, this method was designed to make her less reliant on the people around her. She had an abnormal skill in knife-throwing, being capable of getting behind her enemies in less than a single second—trained from birth in the way of knife-throwing from her mother, she was like her older siblings incredibly protective over members of their Household—when the son of a minor noble slapped a commoner child who had been sitting at the table with them, Luise threatened him with a knife—this protective behavior was one that she picked up from her older brother regarding her older sister. Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna described her niece as "kind-hearted" but "deadly." In her earlier childhood, two members of her parents` household served as her tutors, teaching her to refine her political skills in hopes that a man would desire that in a woman. She was engaged at age twelve to one of her first-cousins, Grand Duke Mikhailovich, being married to him in the following year—by age fifteen she had already given birth to three children (Alexei II, Alexandra II, and Petunia)—being married and having children at a young age took a toll on her body however—she nearly died seven times during childbirth.

### Revolution

Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1917. The young eighteen year old Grand Duchess, her husband, children, parents, siblings, and every member of their Household packed up everything from Gora Palace—the palace itself was burned to the ground with them fleeing to Great Britain—they successfully made it to Great Britain and made contact with their British relations. Luise suddenly fell deadly-ill with a terrible cold several hours before they were going to meet their British relations—the members of her parents` Household frantically tried to treat her every way they knew how—unknowingly to the members of her parents` Household, their British relations had entered Luise`s bedroom to find them scrambling around, until a