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Tatyana BotkinaDaughter of the physician Nicholas II E
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Tatiana Botkina: Biography
Tatiana Evgenyevna Melnik-Botkina (1898-1986) was the daughter of court physician Yevgeny Sergeevich Botkin and the author of memoirs about the Russian imperial family.
Early Life
Tatiana was the third child in the Botkin family, born to Yevgeny S. Botkin and his wife Olga. Her parents divorced in 1910, and custody of the children was granted to their father. Tatiana's older brother Dmitry died in action during World War I, while her brother Yuri emigrated to France and later perished in Germany in 1941.
Connection to the Imperial Family
Although Tatiana was not particularly close to the Russian imperial family, she had a good acquaintance with them. She first met the children of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in 1911 and subsequently played with them during their vacations in Crimea. During World War I, Tatiana worked in a hospital alongside Grand Duchess Anastasia. Tatiana, her brother Gleb, and their father accompanied Nicholas II's family into exile but only as far as Tobolsk. When Nicholas II was transferred to Ekaterinburg, Tatiana and Gleb were unable to join them. When Tatiana requested to be reunited with her father in Ekaterinburg, Nikolay Rodionov, a representative of the Soviets in the Urals, informed her that it would be dangerous for her to go there. He warned her that the family would likely be executed, and even if he were to grant them permission to travel to Ekaterinburg, they would be arrested upon arrival and sent back to Tobolsk as they would not be allowed to settle in Ekaterinburg.
Life After the Execution
After learning about the execution of the tsar, his family, and their servants from the reports of Yakov Yurovsky, Tatiana deeply believed that her father had died while protecting the emperor. In the autumn of 1918, Botkina married Konstantin Melnik, an officer of the Cossack Rifle Regiment whom she had known since her time in Tsarskoye Selo. They were able to leave Russia through Vladivostok and eventually settled in Rives, Isere Department. The couple had three children: Tanya, Evgeny, and Kostya. After a few years, Tatiana divorced her husband and spent the remaining years of her life near Paris.
