#Natalia Sergeievna

[otmaaromanovas]

Mikhail Alexandrovich with his step-daughter, Natalia Sergeievna, whom he accepted as his own child

"Having kissed us both, Uncle Misha went away. He never came back. Thus, almost casually, there went out of my life a man whom I shall always love and who I regard more than anybody else as my parent. I owed and owe everything to him"

Natalia writes very fondly about Mikhail, whom she called 'Uncle Misha, in her memoirs, 'Step-Daughter of Imperial Russia'.

"Then eventually I met the Grand Duke. He came to tea one summer afternoon- I was decked out in a white silk smock, which I secretly thought rather plain, my two long straight black plaits were undone, my nails cleaned, and I was ushered in. To my immense surprise and disappointment, I did not see anybody resembling Jehovah, but a very slim and tall young man, with the thinnest waist and a charming smile, rose from a chair and said "So that's it, is it? My God, what eyes!". I was completely tongue-tied and speechless, even the gift of a large box of delicious sweets could only produce a very inaudible thank you." "Now he was part of the household and I accepted him quite normally and was told to call him Uncle Misha. I soon lost my shyness of him and used to clamber on his knee and follow him about..."

Mikhail wrote about Natalia often in his diary, affectionately calling her 'Tata':

"...we slid down the hill to the greatest pleasure of Tata and Baby." "At 9 1/4 Tata and I went to the Farm, rode from there on horseback through Remiz past the tea house. Farther along we crossed the railroad and rode past Paritz, Kolpano and to Priorat. By the guard house near Warsaw Station we got into an automobile and went home." "...In the morning Tata and I took a ride on horseback at the Zoo."

Sources:

Step-Daughter of Imperial Russia, Natalia Majolier

Michael Romanov : Brother Of The Last Tsar, Diaries And Letters, 1916-1918, Helen Azar , and Nicholas B.A. Nicholson

[officialroyalty]

Countess Natalia Sergeievna Brasova, morganatic daughter-in-law of Alexander III