For Anastasia and her older sisters--Olga, Tatiana, and Marie--and later her brother, Alexei, home within the Winter Palace's 1,000 rooms was the family's private apartment. Less opulent and imposing, the chambers reflected Alexandra's English upbringing with her grandmother, England's Queen Victoria. An observer noted, "English was the language which she always spoke and wrote to the Emperor.... the Empress always thought of herself an English woman."
Russia Under The Czars, describes Nicholas "as handsome, charming, gentle to the point of weakness, and religious to the point of mysticism." When he met the beautiful, and equally religious and mystical, Princess Alix of Hess-Darmstadt (Germany), they were immediately drawn to one another. The match was as unpopular as it was strong. Russia was on unfriendly terms with Germany, and the czar's family disliked Alexandra's English upbringing. As time went on, and she had not produced the requisite male heir, she retreated from public life.
Both parents agreed that discipline was important; hence, the children slept on hard camp cots with no pillows, made their own beds, and took a cold bath every morning just as their father had done as a boy. Their studies included four languages, in addition to music, drawing, and needlework.
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