On March 20, 2022, Nonna Alekseevna Artemieva, the curator of the Family Mausoleum of the Imperial House of Romanoff, turned 85 years old.

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Nonna Alekseevna Artemieva was born in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) on March 20, 1937 into the family of a naval officer. As a child, she lived through the terrible hardships of the Siege of Leningrad.

 

She moved with her family to the places where her father was posted: she graduated from high school in Feodosia (in Crimea) and entered the oldest transport educational institution in the country—the Leningrad Institute of Railway Engineers. She completed her degree, however, in 1961, at the institute in Kharkov, where she began her career in the defense industry, to which she devoted most of her professional life.

 

In 1967, already married and having a family of her own, Nonna Alekseevna returned to Leningrad and was reassigned to the naval shipbuilding industry, which required additional training, and so she enrolled in the Leningrad Institute of Engineering and Economics.

 

In 1992, Nonna Alekseevna reached retirement age and left her work in the defense industry. With the blessing of Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, she began a completely new form of service to her country, now for the Church, participating in the process of returning to the Russian Orthodox Church the many church buildings that had been desecrated and left for ruin during the years of official state atheism. She was a key figure in helping to organize restoration work on countless churches.

 

Nonna Alekseevna provided essential and timely assistance in preparing a vault for the burial of the Head of the Imperial House of Russia, H.I.H. The Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich in the New Mausoleum of the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Ss. Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. The Grand Duke’s grave was placed next to that of his grandfather, H.I.H. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.

 

It was then that she met the new Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, her mother the Dowager Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, and the young heir, H.I.H. The Grand Duke George of Russia. It was also then that Nonna Alekseevna accepted the blessing of Metropolitan Ioann to restore the New Mausoleum and prepare it for use as the burial place for other members of the Imperial Family. This “obedience” she performed for the next 30 years.

 

In 2003, Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga blessed Nonna Alekseevna to transfer from the Eparchial Administration to the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, becoming the curator of exhibits of the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the New Mausoleum, with a simultaneous appointment as assistant to rector of the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Hegumen Alexander (Fedorov), a positon she holds to this day.

 

For her many achievements and dedication, Noona Alekseevna Artemieva has received many state and Church awards over her career.

 

In 2017, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. The Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, awarded Nonna Alekskeevna the Imperial Order of the Holy Great Martyr Anastasia the Alleviatrix of Maladies. She was also awarded the Imperial Commemorative Medals “Anniversary of the Nation’s Triumph, 1613-2013,” “In Memory of the 400^th Anniversary of the House of Romanoff, 1613-2013,” and the Imperial Medal “In Memory of the 100^th Anniversary of the Great War, 1914-1918.”

 

Her Imperial Highness has sent the following Rescript to Nonna Alekseevna Artemieva on the occasion of her 85^th birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROM THE HEAD OF THE IMPERIAL HOUSE OF RUSSIA

 

 

To Nonna Alekseevna ARTEMIEVA

 

Dear Nonna Alekseevna,

 

I send heartfelt congratulations to you on your 85^th birthday.

 

From the very beginning of our return to our native Russian land, you have been with us in both sorrow and joy. I appreciate enormously your efforts to preserve our nation’s historical heritage, including its many churches. I am deeply grateful for your invaluable contribution to the preservation of the resting places of our ancestors in the Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral and the restoration of the chapel-mausoleum of St. Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky, where my parents and grandparents rest. Your prayers and moral support have helped us in our service to our country.

 

I wish you good health, steadfast strength, and God’s help in all your endeavours.

 

My son and heir, Grand Duke George of Russia, and his spouse, Princess Victoria Romanovna, join me in wishing you a very happy birthday.

 

Yours very sincerely,

 

[The original is signed in Her Imperial Highness’s own hand:]

 

MARIA

 

 

Madrid, March 7/20, 2022