She was considered more Russian than the Russians even though she       
          was German by birth. Ranking third lady of Russia---after the Empress      
          Alexandra and Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna---with her husband          
          Grand Duke Vladimir she held the most glittering court in Russia.          
          Vladimir and Marie had their home in the Vladimir Palace, built in         
          Florentine style, which was lavishly and luxuriously  furnished with       
          many antiques. The nursery for their children alone consisted of eight     
          rooms: a dining-room, two saloon ante-rooms, night-nursery,                
          dressing-room, bathroom and so on.                                         
             Imperious as she might have been, she was nevertheless a doting         
          grandmother. To the delight of her granddaughters---the Princesses         
          Olga, Elizabeth and Marina of Greece---she would take them into her        
          dressing-room to show them her spectacular collections of jewels.          
             In the beginning of World War I, she ran a military hospital at         
          Kislovodsk in the Caucasus. In January 1917, recognising the damaging      
          influence of Empress Alexandra, she invited Michael Rodzianko,             
          President of the Duma, to lunch. Here she maintained that the Empress      
          should be removed, even annihilated. However, Michael Rodzianko was        
          shocked and nothing came of it.                                            
             Grand Duchess Marie stayed in her house at Kislovodsk until 1920.       
          The house was searched for her no less than twenty-two times by the        
          Bolsheviks, but each time in vain, though sometimes she had to flee        
          into the mountains. Only when the White Russian General Wrangel said       
          he could no longer protect her, did she agree to being put on a train      
          for the Black Sea port of Novorossisk. During this journey of seven        
          weeks, this grand Grand Duchess had to share her tiny compartment with     
          a number of other refugees. The only food was soup thickened with          
          black bread. They not only slept when and wherever they could, but         
          sanitation was almost non-existent.                                        
             From Novorossisk she boarded an Italian ship and went to Venice.        
          Via Paris, she then went to Switzerland, arriving a physical wreck.        
          Now white-haired and thin, she was worn out by her long ordeal. It had     
          been almost six years since she had seen her Greek granddaughters.         
          Though deprived of almost everything, the first thing to be restored       
          was her robust sense of humour. For some time she stayed with her          
          family, only to leave them for her favourite spa at Contrexeville in       
          France. Here she died only two months later, 6 September 1920.  
 

Source: Leo van de Pas