Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia before World War I broke out, Grand Duchess Anastasia visited her brother, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, and his family in England. When many eagerly greeted the outbreak of war, after the Austrian ultimatum, she wrote to Tsar Nicholas II: ""I hope that the war will not happen and that we even can say ‘perhaps in a few days, we’ll all be together again'"". The conflict split her family. Her son was a reigning prince in Germany and her younger daughter was the Kaiser's daughter in law. On the opposite side, her brothers in Russia were fighting to defeat
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1890–1958) as you described to me in your last letters." The marriage had positive political and diplomatic implications for both Russia and Sweden and Tsar Nicholas II gave his consent. Grand Duke Paul was not consulted. From Peterhoff, Maria Pavlovna went to Grand Duchess Elisabeth’s rural estate, Ilinskoe, near Moscow, where Wilhelm joined them for a month before he left on a cruise to America. The young couple maintained their intimacy through letters. Maria imagined herself in love: “It’s lovely to have somebody, even far away, who love you more than anything and whom you love more than everybody on earth“,