I and my husband, Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, have been deeply touched by the genuine outpouring of good wishes that so many of Our countrymen have offered Us on the occasion of Our marriage, and for which We convey to them Our heartfelt gratitude.

In these happy days My thoughts go back to that solemn moment in My life when, having reached My dynastic majority, I swore on the Holy Gospel an oath to observe and preserve the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire on the order of succession to the Throne. Having accepted the rights and duties connected with them, I was filled with profound faith in the might of Divine Providence and with readiness to accept all Its dispositions, both light and heavy. And now the marriage I have entered is firmly linked in my mind with the fulfillment of the duties that lay before Me.

In My love for Russia and My fear for the destiny of Her Peoples who now suffer torture both spiritually and physically, I am firmly convinced that the political, economic, and living conditions in our Motherland require intelligent reform and improvement from the future historical and legitimate Governmental authority, guided by the principles of freedom of religion, labor, and freedom of thought.

Being fully at one with the thoughts, precepts, and guidance of my beloved Imperial Parents, and confident of the active support of My August Husband, I consider it useful to hear views, balanced, well-grounded, and in accord with the basic principles stated above, not only of people made wise by their life-long experience, but also of those of the younger generations, whose hopes, aspirations, and love of Our Native Land it is especially necessary for me to understand.

These are the things I want to say at this time as I embark on a new period in My life, once again asserting My full readiness to devote Myself, together with My Husband, to the service of the Fatherland, liberated through mutually agreeable measures from the alien forces which now enslave it.