Person:Olga Constantinovna of Russia (1)

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (; 18 June 1926) was queen consort of Greece as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920.

A member of the Romanov dynasty, she was the oldest daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. She spent her childhood in Saint Petersburg, Poland and the Crimea, and married King George I of Greece in 1867 at the age of sixteen. At first, she felt ill at ease in the Kingdom of Greece, but she quickly became involved in social and charitable work. She founded hospitals and schools, but her attempt to promote a new, more accessible, Greek translation of the Gospels sparked riots by religious conservatives.

On the assassination of her husband in 1913, Olga returned to Russia. When the First World War broke out, she set up a military hospital in Pavlovsk Palace, which belonged to her brother. She was trapped in the palace after the Russian Revolution of 1917, until the Danish embassy intervened, allowing her to escape to Switzerland. Olga could not return to Greece as her son, King Constantine I of Greece, had been deposed.

In October 1920, she returned to Athens on the fatal illness of her grandson, King Alexander I of Greece. After his death, she was appointed regent until the restoration of Constantine I the following month. After the defeat of the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 the Greek royal family were again exiled and Olga spent the last years of her life in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Olga Constantinovna of Russia, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.