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 Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia copy of Alexandra's portrait to the Üröm Mausoleum. Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, (: 9 August 1783 [OS 29 July] at Saint Petersburg – 16 March 1801 in Buda) was a daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and sister of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. She married Archduke Joseph of Austria, Governor of Hungary.) Her marriage was the only Romanov-Habsburg marital alliance that ever occurred. Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was born in Saint Petersburg as the third child and eldest daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and his second wife