When a Rose is Not a Rose

A rose is a rose, except when it is not.  In an alternate reality a rose might be… a Romanov.

Here is some history that didn’t happen.

Tsar Nikolas II was so happy upon the birth of his first born in 1895 that he declared her to be tsarevna.  (For this story I had to make up a word in Russian for a concept that never existed: future empress of Russia).  Little Olga Nikolaevna would one day be the ruler of Russia, whose title would be after his, making her Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias.

The people were surprised but also joyful.  After all, Catherine the Great had shown how well a woman can wield power, although in her case it was after she wrested the crown from her husband Peter III (Her grandson, Paul I, issued a decree that women could never be in line to become ruler, and it was this decree that Nikolas reversed).  The people eagerly passed on stories they heard about pretty little Olga as she grew up.

During her early childhood Olga was sheltered with her younger sisters, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and little brother Alexei (who in real life was known as tsarevich, future tsar of Russia).  The family tragedy was that Alexei was hemophiliac, a disorder known as “the royal disease” having come down from Queen Victoria of England through the bloodline of Alexei’s mother, Tsaritsa Alexandra.  The tsaritsa was understandably preoccupied with the precarious health of her youngest, and unfortunately fell under the influence of a rogue monk by the name of Gregory Rasputin who claimed himself to be more important than doctors in preserving the life of Alexei (“do not let the doctors bother him too much”  -- actually often good advice for that era). Finally Rasputin’s spell was broken by a church bishop, who disciplined Rasputin for his profligate ways, and sent him off to a monastery.

As we can find written today in Wikipedia, “Olga loved to read and, unlike her four siblings, enjoyed school work.”  Her French tutor, Pierre Gilliard said "She had good reasoning powers as well as initiative, a very independent manner, and a gift for swift and entertaining repartee." She enjoyed reading about politics and read newspapers. Olga also reportedly enjoyed choosing from her mother's book selection. When she was caught taking a book before her mother read it, Olga would jokingly tell her mother that Alexandra must wait to read the novel until Olga had determined whether it was an appropriate book for her to read.”

When Olga was 18 it was decided that she was old enough to think about marriage.  Although the tradition had been that Russian princes would look to Europe to find a consort, with both love and politics being involved in the decision, the circumstances for Olga looked different.  Besides, it was her desire to marry a Russian.  Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was suggested, but since a long trip for educational purposes was always an important part of training for members of the Romanov imperial house, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna decided to seek her future husband during a long tour around Russia. 

The grand duchess traveled with a large entourage, and at each stop there were cotillion dances and concerts and other social occasions in the evening where young people could mingle under proper supervision.  During the day Olga met with local officials, who were impressed when she sent their concerns by telegram to her father Tsar Nicholas II.  A court official, Alexander Mossolov, said that Olga was a person with an almost “angelic kindness.”

Olga met the man who would become her husband while she was in Bashkortostan.  Yusuf Arsal was the son of a prominent Tatar family, of high enough position to be worthy of being her escort.  But as a Sunni Muslim he was expected to convert to Russian Orthodoxy before marriage.  In an arrangement not dissimilar to what had been worked out for her German Lutheran mother, Olga allowed Yusuf to be converted to Orthodoxy without having to renounce his former faith.  As a consequence, Yusuf was seen regularly going to church with Olga, but at the time of Ramadan went back to Bashkortostan to visit his family of origin.

It was widely known around Russia, that unlike her arch-conservative father, Grand Duchess Olga supported the idea of Russia becoming a constitutional monarchy like the United Kingdom.  As a consequence when her father’s reign got in trouble, there were increasingly strident calls for his abdication and her elevation to the throne. 

Under great pressure Nikolas II did abdicate in 1914 in favor of his daughter, who at the time was just 18 and recently married.  Tsarista Olga Nikolaevna immediately had to deal with the consequences of the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  As Count Witte told the French Ambassador Paleologue, “from Russia's point of view the war was madness, Slav solidarity was simply nonsense and Russia could hope for nothing from the war.”  The tsarista informed her French and English allies that Russia would not rush precipitously to war.  And although Russia did eventually enter into the Great War, millions of Russian lives were saved by Tsarista Olga’s decision to build up Russian strengths first.

FOOTNOTE:  The above account is correct in the small details and wrong on all the big points.  
1.  Olga was never considered to be named successor to her father. Her invalid brother was next in line.
2.   Rasputin controlled the woman who controlled the tsar until the night of his murder.
3.  Neither Rasputin nor Empress Alexandra nor Tsar Nikolas II showed competence in running the country.
4.   Nikolas II didn't abdicate until 1917 when he was absolutely forced to do so.  By then his ruinous military campaign in World War I staggered the country with huge losses. Out of 15.5 million men mobilized, over half were killed or became casualties or prisoners of war.
5.  Olga and the rest of her family were assassinated by Bolshevik Communists while under house arrest in Yekaterinburg in 1917.  Olga never had the chance to be married.

I leave it to the reader to imagine how different 20th Century history around the world might have been if Olga Nikolaevna had become constitutional monarch of Russia.