During her long life, she was in the spotlight of publicity in the Grand Duchy of Finland many times. Aristocratic family connections and the favour shown by the Imperial Family, her marriage to the “Russian Croesus” Paul Demidov and the generous participation of Aurora Karamzin’s family in charitable work made her well known. She is remembered in particular as the founder of the Deaconess Institute.
Background
Ethnicity:
Her father, Lieutenant-Colonel Carl Johan Stjernvall, and her mother, Eva Gustava von Willebrand, both came from noble Finnish families of Swedish origin.
At an early age, Aurora Stjernvall was introduced to the magnificent capital of the empire and, under the care of a governess, to the accomplishments required of a young aristocrat. French became her second mother tongue alongside Swedish, the language of her home. The court naturally occupied a central position for the young members of the family. And the standard attitudes and forms of behaviour required by life at court were to a large extent adopted without question.
Career
Aurora was appointed a lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra Fedorovna the elder who was consort to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, and a lady of the bedchamber of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna the younger and Empress Maria Feodorovna. She was made a dame of the Order of Saint Catherine, the highest honor for ladies in Imperial Russia. Her main duty was to be continually near the Tsarina; to function as a secretary, to read aloud to her, to receive and entertain visitors and to act as a playmate for the imperial children both inside and out of doors. A lady-in-waiting accompanied the Empress on journeys and visits and to the theatre and charitable institutes, as well as helping at court in the organising of concerts and private theatrical performances.
Achievements
Connections
In 1836 she married Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov; he died in 1840. In 1846 she remarried to Andrei Karamzin. Aurora's only child was Prince Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (9 October 1839 – 26 January 1885). In 1870 he succeeded his childless uncle, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, as the 2nd Prince of San Donato.