Olga Aleksandrovna (1882 – 1960) was born in regal splendour at Peterhof Palace in Sct. Petersburg as the youngest of Emperor Aleksander III and Empress Maria Feodorovnas´5 children. She lived trough a protected childhood in various palaces, very much “the small one” being guarded and yet strangely alone. In 1901 she married her 33-year-old second cousin, Prince Peter of Oldenburg, a marriage arranged by her imperious mother and the Princess of Oldenburg. In 1916 the marriage was dissolved, largely through Olgas own strong-will. She had actually at this time lived for many years with her husbands´adjudant, Colonel Nikolai Kulikovsky, in secrecy.

During the Russian Revolution, the Kulikovsky family, now with two smaller children, had lived with the Dowager Empress at the Crimean Peninsula, then had chosen to flee. They lived for some time at Novo Minskaya, the home-town of the Empress´Cosack Yaschik´s family. They fled to Denmark in 1920 and occupied rooms at Hvidøre. Then, at the Dowagers´death in 1928, moved to a farm Rygaard and then to Knudsminde, another farm at the town of Ballerup.

Grand duchess Olga and her family lived in Ballerup from 1930-1948, occupied largely by farming. With a household full of hens and chickens, gardening was a great, newfound pleasure. In her sparetime, and as a dedicated painter, she took-up watercoloring and painting, having spent her childhood as pupil with the court painters Stanislav Zhukovsky, Vladimir Makovsky and Sergei Vinogradov. The family made themselves at home in Ballerup and many friendships were formed in the local community. Sometimes, when money was scarce, Olga payed her bills in paintings.