Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (November 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 6,132 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Hélène Vladimirovna de Russie]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Hélène Vladimirovna de Russie}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia
Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark
Born	(1882-01-17)17 January 1882 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	13 March 1957(1957-03-13) (aged 75) Athens, Kingdom of Greece
Burial	Royal Cemetery, Tatoi Palace, Greece
Spouse	Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark ​ ​ (m. 1902; died 1938)​
Issue	Olga, Princess Paul of Yugoslavia Princess Elizabeth, Countess of Toerring-Jettenbach Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia
Mother	Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (29 January 1882 – 13 March 1957), sometimes known as Helen, Helena, Helene, Ellen, Yelena, Hélène, or Eleni, was the only daughter and youngest child of

Elena and her three surviving older brothers, Kirill, Boris, and Andrei, had an English nanny and spoke English as their first language.^[1] The young Elena had a temper and was sometimes out of control. At four years old, she posed for the artist Henry Jones Thaddeus.^[2] She grabbed a paper knife and threatened her nurse, who hid behind Thaddeus. "The little lady then transferred her attentions to me, her black eyes ablaze with fury," recalled Thaddeus.^[3] Elena, raised by a mother who was highly conscious of her social status, was also considered snobbish by some. "Poor little thing, I feel sorry for her," wrote her mother's social rival, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, "for she is really quite sweet, but vain and pretty grandiose."^[3]

Marriage and children

She was engaged to

• Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903–1997); married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (1893-1976) in 1923 and had issue:
  • Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (1924–2016); married firstly to Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (b. 1934) from 1955 to 1967 and had issue; married secondly to Princess Barbara of Liechtenstein (b. 1942) in 1973 and had issue.
  • Prince Nikola of Yugoslavia (1928–1954); did not marry and had no issue.
  • Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia (b. 1936); married firstly to Howard Oxenberg (1919-2010) from 1961 to 1966 and had issue; married secondly to Neil Balfour (b. 1944) from 1969 to 1978 and had issue; married thirdly to Manuel Ulloa Elías (1922-1992) in 1987, no issue.
• Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (1904–1955); married Carl Theodor, Count of Törring-Jettenbach (1900-1967)in 1934 and had issue:
  • Hans Veit, Count of Törring-Jettenbach (b. 1935); married Princess Henriette of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (b. 1938) in 1964 and had issue.
  • Countess Helene of Törring-Jettenbach (b. 1937); married
    Archduke Ferdinand Karl Max of Austria
    (1918-2004) in 1956 and had issue.
• Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906–1968); married Prince George, Duke of Kent (1902-1942) in 1934 and had issue:
  • Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (b. 1935); married Katharine Worsley (b. 1933) in 1961 and had issue.
  • Princess Alexandra of Kent (b. 1936); married The Hon. Sir Angus Ogilvy (1928-2004) in 1963 and had issue.
  • Prince Michael of Kent (b. 1942); married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz (b. 1945) in 1978 and had issue.

Grand Duchess Elena suffered from ill health after the birth of Princess Marina, which caused her husband anguish.

According to her niece, Princess Sophie of Greece, Grand Duchess Elena's priorities, throughout her life, remained as follows: “God first, the Grand Dukes of Russia then and finally everything else.”^[10] Thus, the Grand Duchess and her husband, Prince Nicholas, visited Russia annually to visit their relatives.^[11]

Life in exile

The family was later affected by the turmoil of the

While living in France Grand Duchess Elena became deeply involved in charity work for Russian exiles, particularly children. Short of money due to their exile from Greece and the loss of their Russian income, Prince Nicholas and his family lived in reduced, but elegant, circumstances. Grand Duchess Elena's fabulous jewel collection, as well as Prince Nicholas' own artwork, were their sources of income.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elena Vladimirovna of Russia.

Sources

• ISBN 0-7509-3049-7