Princess Olga Paley, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, sixth son of Alexander II, has an interesting recollection of how, at the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks came to requisition her palace at Tsarskoye Selo

Princess Olga Paley, the morganatic wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, sixth son of Alexander II, has an interesting recollection of how, at the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks came to requisition her palace at Tsarskoye Selo. The Soviet had resolved to occupy the palace for want of premises. Paley received the delegated member of the Soviet in person and informed him that the Bolsheviks could not possibly take the palace, since it contained a great many valuables and works of art. "And under the Soviets this will be a pigsty!" To sweeten the pill, she graciously recommended that they take instead, for Soviet needs, the palace of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, known as Miechen, widow of Alexander II's third son, Prince Vladimir. All the more so since by then Miechen's palace had already been plundered. And the Bolsheviks, strange to say, complied. The most amusing part is that Paley goes on to recall how she wrote to Miechen asking her to take over her son's summer cottage, as it was easier to heat, and Miechen replied: you may occupy my palace too, if need be. The poor woman did not know that her beautiful house had long since been turned into a pigsty, and not without the participation of her obliging relative had been taken over by the Reds.