In hindsight

"There was such glitter and such splendour, but everything seemed false and laboured .. as I looked at all the festive illuminations, and attended one ball after another I had the strange feeling that, although we were celebrating in the same way as we had for centuries, some new and terrible circumstances were appearing around us, due to forces beyond our control."

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, younger sister of the Tsar, recalling the celebrations for the 300-year anniversary of the Romanov dynasty held 3 years earlier, from 6-8 March 1913.

Olga, incidentally, survived the revolution, and escaped to Denmark (her mother was Danish), where she and her husband led a simple life, running their dairy farm and she becoming known for her paintings.