Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia was the eldest child and first daughter of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.
Background
Her father enjoyed having her keep him company while he worked in his study. Her mother was still brought to tears by the mention of her eldest child decades after her death. Her father placed a dried flower from her funeral mass in his diary and marked the page in black to signify mourning.
Career
She died from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half. She was nicknamed "Lina" or "Sashenka" within her family. They were thrilled when they had a second daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, because they had so missed having a little girl.
At one of the meetings, the table rose a few centimeters, spun and rapped out the words to "God Save the Tsar!" The Tsar and others present claimed he felt the touch of ghostly fingers.
The spirits responded to questions asked by Alexander II, answering by rapping the letters of the alphabet, which he wrote down painstakingly on paper in front of him. A lady-in-waiting later complained that the answers were meaningless and wondered why they were more interested in playing games than providing real answers to the Tsar"s questions.
A blue silk frock worn by Alexandra was still on display in the Winter Palace fifty years after her death, according to Margaretta Eagar. "A pretty golden-haired child she was, too, judging from her portrait," wrote Eagar, a nurse for the four daughters of Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.
Eagar also wrote that the name Alexandra was considered unlucky in the Romanov family by the late 19th century because so many Romanov Alexandras had died as children or in their teens.
The British public had wondered why none of the Tsarina"s daughters was named in her honor. Eagar explained that the name was not used, despite the fact that Alexandra was their mother"s name, because it was considered so unlucky. Other ill-fated Alexandras were Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna.
Eagar wrote that other branches of the family had named daughters Alexandra, but none lived past age twenty-one.