Marie, often referred to as the most beautiful of the girls, was the third child of Nicholas and Alexandra. She was born 14 June 1899 at Peterhof. She was born just two weeks before her Uncle, the Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich (heir to the throne because Nicholas and Alexandra did not have a son) was to die a premature death from Tuberculosis. Georgy, as the rest of the family and all of Russia, had hoped that Marie would be a son and a new heir to the throne. Georgy's health kept him away from the family for 8 years and he regretted deeply not getting to know his 3 nieces.

Marie had thick, light brown hair and large, dark blue eyes which her family referred to as "Marie's saucers". Her sisters would kid her about her plumpness and called her the bow-wow. Marie dreamed much about marriage and children of her own. She was warm-hearted and quite the flirt with the sailors from the yacht, Standart. She had just turned 19 when she was murdered by the Bolsheviks.