ON THIS DATE IN THEIR OWN WORDS: GRAND DUKE DMITRI TO NICHOLAS II. 3 OCTOBER, 1910.

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich to Nicholas II:

Petersburg. 1910. 3^rd October.

My dear Uncle,

Forgive me that I have not written in so long, but I have very little time now, as the studies have already entered winter track.

The last time I saw you and Aunt in Peterhof was on the 9^th June, before your departure to the Baltic Port. At that time I moved to Krasnoe and was enjoying it. I liked it an awful lot, service at the squadron interested me very much. Then I also had field trips with my tactics professor, colonel Belyaev. Here are also other things I wrote to you, Aunt Michen (the rock of the family) was awfully nice to me. She was probably trying to prove that it could be really nice without you at Tsarskoe Selo, if I could only live with her for a bit, but she didn’t succeed very well. I felt sad somehow, every time we rode by the Alexander Palace with Kirill or Aunt Michen.

Oh yes! It was so charming at Krasnoe, and I only just got a good taste of it and got used to the officers and lower ranks and was enjoying being with them at the big parade, when a telegram from Papa turned up, – that I had to immediately go to him in Bavaria. You can only imagine how happy I became! It turned out later that some nice people wrote to Papa that my health is getting ruined, that I practically have tuberculosis, – and of course Papa got frightened, but I was not touched by his fright at that moment at all!

So reluctantly I had to leave Krasnoe, the wonderful weather that established itself there, and exchange all that for Bavaria, with its awful weather and almost as awful life. We lived in a hotel there, named Steinmetz Hotel, first class, but there was not a lot of first class there: the rooms were dark, damp, and my mood plummeted tremendously there. In addition to all that, the weather was devilish, beastly cold, and daily rain.

Having spent five weeks in this paradise, I departed for Sweden. I must tell you of course that at the end of my stay at G[illegible], Aunt Marie arrived with her daughters and then it got better, as we rode in motors often, took walks and saw a lot of beautiful places, a lot more than if I just stayed at Papa’s. He did not like to walk in the mountains, napped during the day, and read aloud in the evenings!

It was wonderful at Maria’s. I can honestly say that I did not expect this, as in the past years it was unremarkable, but I repeat that this time it was wonderful in Stenkmmar. The weather was delightful, I went hunting a lot. I was even invited to an elk hunt by the king; it was perfectly pleasant: although I did not kill anything, but there were a lot of elk. 11 of them were killed in two days. His majesty Le Roi was awfully congenial, and seeing that I was not terribly lucky, he put me under his own numbers (very very graciously).

Besides that, we often went to balls from Stenkmmar, and in the evenings the people visited us, and in the end time went by so quickly and pleasantly, that the two weeks I stayed there went by like one day.

I returned to Petersburg on the 5^th of September and started school almost right away. I do not go anywhere much, as no one is in Petersburg yet, only to the theaters.

With great anticipation I am awaiting your arrival, in order to make “klops-shtos of yellow in the middle”.

Perhaps I will go to Moscow in late October, and by the way I wanted to speak with you about that. The thing is that my Fanagoryitzy are stationed in Moscow now. What shall I do? Most likely they will want to see me there. What do you order? Should I go see them this year or delay this visit until next year, under the guise of my coming into adulthood? Because if I go to them, I will have to do it officially. If you think I should delay my visit to the Fanagoryitzy until 1911, I can limit it to only receiving the regiment commander when I am in Moscow.

Now I must end! Forgive me if I bored you with such a long message. Give Aunt my sincere love. May God let Friedberg benefit her. I hope so much that she returns to us very strong.

I embrace you and the children.

Yours, Dmitri.