Maria Nikolaevna

Maria, the Angel, was born in June 14, 1899, to her parents, the then ruling Emperor and Empress of Russia. Though her birth caused a little despair to Alix at having an heir, she and Nicholas were happy of having a daughter again. She had the tame, big, blue eyes and wavy hair a little less light than her elder sister, Tatiana. She was the “Typical Russian Beauty” and taller than Olga did on their last years. When being described by Pierre Gilliard, she was said to be tall and rosy-cheeked. Her other nicknames were Mashka, Marie, and Mandrifolie. 
She was the almost-perfect one. Because of that, her elder sisters cruelly called her “stepsister”. Her tastes were simple and she was also so shy. She and Anastasia were called the “Little Pair” and they are said to be so close together. At a young age of four, she fancied many boys and most of them are young soldiers. Then, she made a big dream of becoming a mother and marrying a Russian soldier when she grows up. She also loved to have many children of her own. She loved babies so much that she could snatch one from a mother and then drowns it with kisses. Sadly, she didn’t make these because of her immature death. 
She didn’t put much interest with schooling. Instead, what she did were just daydream and talk about having a family. Mashka was the best painter among the four. She comfortably uses her left hand on painting and drawing. Sometimes in her classes, she would demonstrate to her tutors how she could lift them up. Her tutors said that it was an evidence of an inherited characteristic from her grandfather, the broadly built Czar Alexander III. When she was roughly 10 years old, Maria had a very acute crush with a boy. Alexandra told her to conceal her feelings for people might say something bad about her crush. 
She often had a sweet nature but one account says that she stole a wafer from her mama’s table although it was prohibited (she cannot resist the temptation of the wafers). Alix forced her to go to bed as a punishment but Nicholas dissented with her. “I am always afraid of the wings growing. I am glad to see she is only a human child.”, Nicholas objected from that incident. When her sister Anastasia got so mischievous to other people, she would always be the one to apologize. She was once called “Fat Little Bow Wow” because she was plump. Alexandra complained about her weight but was relieved when she approached adolescence since she lost the baby fat. Maria was also not as elegant as her elder sisters were. She got along well with Anastasia on that matter. Maria’s height was the one that made Anastasia feel bad about her although they were both fat. Maria was about 5’7 tall. 
She developed a huge crush on Demenkov, a Russian soldier. She would sit on the window just to see Mr. Demenkov pass by. On her letters to her papa, she would jokingly sign her name as “Mrs. Demenkov”. Maria felt sad when Demenkov was sent away. She sew a shirt for him as a remembrance. Ivan Kleschev, one of the guards of the Ipatiev House, said that he would rescue Maria alone from that house himself and eventually marry her. Ivan Skorokhodov, another guard at Ekaterinburg, smuggled in a birthday cake for the Grand Duchess’ last birthday at June 26, 1918 (Maria’s birthday was celebrated on this day after 1900). Maria slipped away from her family to celebrate the moment with Ivan. Unfortunately, Ivan’s superiors held a surprise inspection of the house and the two were discovered. From that day, Ivan was removed from his position because of his discovered friendliness to Maria and possibly to the rest of the prisoners.
At their time of death past one o’clock a.m. of July 17, 1918, she survived the initial attack, having ran away from the killers and began banging on a storage room’s door crying for help. She was shot on the thigh by a drunken commissar, Peter Ermakov. Ermakov was not contented that he stabbed her with a bayonet and shot her in the head, but he had not been able to aim properly because he was drunk. She fainted after that and remained alive. As the bodies were checked for pulses, Maria screamed causing Ermakov to stab her again. When he failed to kill her, he struck her on the face until she got silent. Up to this day, her cause of death is still a mystery When the bodies were transported to the special Fiat that would lead their bodies to an improper burial site, one lady screamed as one body was put above her. It could have been Maria but the guard clubbed the lady’s head, making the place quiet again. Maria, the dearly Angel, had set forth to Lord in July 17, 1918, at the early age of 19. I will see you again, my Mashka. Au revoir for now.