| Princess Olga Yurievskaya | |
| Full Name: | Russian О́льга Александровна Юрьевская |
| Noble Family: | Yuryevsky (by birth) Merenberg (by marriage) |
| Father: | Alexander II of Russia |
| Mother: | Catherine Dolgorukova |
| Religion: | Russian Orthodox |
| Birth Date: | 7 November 1873 |
| Birth Place: | St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Death Place: | Wiesbaden |
| Place Of Burial: | St Elizabeth's Orthodox Church, Wiesbaden |
Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (Russian: О́льга Александровна Юрьевская; 7 November 187310 August 1925) was the natural daughter of Alexander II of Russia by his mistress (later his wife), Princess Catherine Dolgorukova. In 1880, she was legitimated by her parents' morganatic marriage.
After her father's assassination in 1881, her mother brought her up in France. In 1895, she married a German nobleman, becoming Countess Merenberg, and spent most of the rest of her life in Germany.
Olga was born at Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 7 November 1873, while her mother was still the mistress of Tsar Alexander II.[1] Her parents' morganatic marriage on 6 July 1880 legitimated her, and she acquired the surname of Yurievsky, the title of Princess (knyagina) and the style of Serene Highness (Svetlost).[2]
Her father was assassinated in March 1881, when she was seven, and after that her mother took her three surviving children, Olga, George, and Catherine, to live in France. A second brother, Boris, had died in infancy.[3]
Olga's mother took a house in Paris and later others on the French Riviera. In 1891, she bought a house in Nice which she called the Villa Georges, in the boulevard Dubouchage. In France, the family was able to afford some twenty servants and a private railway carriage.[3] [4] However, the immediate family of the new Tsar, Nicholas II, looked on Catherine and her children with some disdain.[5]
On 12 May 1895, in Nice, Olga married Count George-Nicholas von Merenberg (1871–1948), a grandson of Alexander Pushkin, becoming Countess Merenberg and the sister-in-law of Sophie of Merenberg, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia.[3] Catherine asked the Tsar to be the sponsor of the wedding, but his mother, Maria Feodorovna, was appalled by the idea, so Nicholas declined. He later recalled that Catherine had been offended.[5]
Most of the rest of Olga's life was spent in Germany, including the war years of 1914 to 1918. She had three children, one of whom died in infancy, and herself died in 1925 at Wiesbaden, aged 51.[3]