the romanovs and cameras

One of the reasons I believe the story about the Romanovs has endured for so long has less to do with the fact the family is royalty and more to do with the treasure trove of pictures they took and left behind. Most of the photos of the Romanovs aren't of them in court dress, looking serious. Those photos were officially taken and released (see photo to the left, of Tatiana, Olga and Marie, taken in 1901). The majority of the photos we have of the Romanovs were taken themselves. They were huge fans of cameras and were even photographed carrying them around sometimes. The girls would publish the photos and even color them in occasionally. The result is a wonderful compilation of photos that shows the family beyond the court jewels and beautiful dresses.

The Romanov's story is one tinged with sadness, from Alexei's illness to the family's untimely and gruesome deaths. Yet those photos serve as a better legacy in my mind. The children could pass for kids today - laughing, joking, smiling together. It is these photos that I believe are responsible for the Romanovs' story enduring so long. You look at the photo to the right, for instance, of Tatiana (top), Marie (left) and Anastasia playing at Livadia. Those could be your children, your neighbors, the kids you grew up with. The fact that they are Russian royalty only adds to the drama. If all we knew about the Romanovs came from court photos with the girls in jewels and kakoshniks, would they really be remembered in the same way? I doubt it. And I am thankful they had cameras.

anastasia's cousin, princess irina alexandrovna

Today is the anniversary of the death of Princess Irina Alexandrovna, the daughter of Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia (or as is more commonly written, Xenia) Alexandrovna, Nicholas's sister.

Irina was born on July 15, 1895, the first of Alexander and Xenia's seven children. In a family of perpetual sons, she was also their only daughter. Like most of her family, she spoke French better than she spoke Russian and was sometimes called by the French version of her name, Iréne.

Her husband, Prince Felix Yussupov, was incredibly scandalous for the time period. He was known to dress in women's clothing and had several homosexual relationships. Despite this, Irina still wanted to marry him, and they would go on to have a very happy relationship. Their only child, Irina Felixovna, was born in 1915.

Felix is more known for his part in the murder of Rasputin. Because of this, Irina and Felix were banished from Russia in 1916, effectively saving their lives. They lived out the remainder of their lives in Paris. Felix died in 1967; Irina died three years later.

And the story comes full circle: a DNA sample was taken from Irina's granddaughter Xenia Sfyris to identify the remains of Nicholas and his family in 1997.

movies about the romanovs

It's not surprising that most movies made about the Romanovs have embellished or completely made up the story, which is very surprising to me. After all, this story has enough drama based on the facts! Two movies stand out, one slightly more


"Anastasia" is a 1997 animated movie from Fox. This movie illustrates two points: 1. Sticking to history - and reality - isn't such a bad idea, and 2. Fox really can't compete with Disney when it comes to animation. In this movie meant for children, Anya is an orphaned teenager who wants to find her family, so she leaves the orphanage and accidentally stumbles into the royal palace, where two con artists hoping to cash in on the dowager empress's reward money, see the similarity between her and the imperial children and train her to say all the right things. Oh yeah, and Rasputin comes back from the underworld to curse Anya because she escaped from death. Anya is of course the true grand duchess, and ends up falling in love with one of the con artists. Even when I was young, this movie made me cringe. (And yet, do I still have the soundtrack and occasionally blast it when I'm driving for fun? Perhaps.)


"Nicholas and Alexandra" is a 1971 film that, being based on the book of the same title by Robert K. Massie, is much more historically accurate. It also includes Russian society and the depravity of the everyday lives of normal Russian people - giving context to how the Revolution came about. I loved the portrayal of the relationship of Nicholas and Alexandra, which was one of the most enduring marriages among royalty, rivaling that of even Alexandra's grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The movie also focuses on Alexei's hemophilia, and Rasputin is heavily featured, creepy as ever. The acting is slightly melodramatic, though in the typical style of those days. If nothing else, I appreciate this film for the way it sticks to the facts, minus a few minor tweaks.




There is also a 1956 film called "Anastasia" with Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner. It is based on Anna Anderson's story, which I am fundamentally against promoting. I have it in my Netflix queue, but haven't decided if I want to see it. I mostly like historicals that stick to what happened.


If you're looking for nonfiction material, there unfortunately aren't very many out there. The one I have seen that I enjoy is only available in VHS form, though I very occasionally see it on the History Channel. "The Revenge of the Romanovs" earns points because it includes home movies of the Romanovs themselves (without sound, of course), as well as interviews with the men who found the family's grave outside Ekaterinburg. It also shows scientists analyzing the Romanov bones, as well as the state funeral the family was given in 1998.

I'd love recommendations of other movies or documentaries!

a note about dates

Important days in Russian history are often written with two different dates. That is because during the time of the Romanovs, the calendar was written in the Julian year, rather than the Gregorian style, which came about later. Most dates have been modified to reflect the new style that we all use today, and I'll continue to use this - but just know that the Romanovs often operated 12 days behind!

the curse of the name alexandra

The name Alexandra pops up infrequently throughout the Romanov family tree, but with it comes misfortune to almost every bearer of that name.

The youngest unfortunate Alexandra was the eldest child of Alexander II and his wife Maria, Alexandra Alexandrovna. Born in 1842, she was a favorite of her father and mother. But Alexandra died at age six of meningitis, leaving her parents devastated.







An even earlier unlucky Alexandra was Alexandra Pavlovna, aunt to Alexander II and daughter of Paul I (Catherine the Great's son). She was first heartbroken over an almost-engagement to the King of Sweden that fell through when he discovered a clause in the marriage contract stating Alexandra would retain her Orthodox faith. She finally married Archduke Joseph of Austria, a union that would prove both short-lived and unhappy. Alexandra Pavlovna died when she was only 17 years old of childbed fever; her baby, a girl named Alexandrine also died.


Alexandra Nicholaevna was a niece to Alexandra Pavlovna and the sister to Alexander II. When she met Prince Frederick "Fritz" of Hesse, a prospective bridegroom for her older sister, Olga, the couple immediately fell in love. They were allowed to marry in 1844, but Alexandra soon became ill with tuberculosis. To make matters worse, she also found out she was pregnant. She eventually went into labor three months premature and gave birth to a son, Wilhelm. Both mother and baby soon died.



Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna was actually born a princess of Greece and Denmark, and is a maternal aunt of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband. When Alexandra was 19, she married Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, a son of Alexander II. At the end of her second pregnancy, Alexandra was walking with a friend along the Moskva River and jumped from the bank into a boat anchored along the shore. She fell as she landed, and collapsed the next day in tremendous pain. She eventually gave birth to a son, Dmitri Pavlovich, but died soon after. Miraculously, her son, born during the seventh month of pregnancy, survived, thanks to his uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Alexander III. Paul was so grief-stricken, he tried to leap into Alexandra's coffin as it was lowered into the ground. Dmitri and his older sister Maria were raised mostly by their uncle Sergei and his wife Elizabeth Feodorovna (also a sister to the tsaritsa Alexandra), which was a comfort to the couple, who had never been able to have children themselves. Paul eventually remarried morganatically.


Perhaps the only fortunate Alexandra was Alexandra Iosifovna, wife of Konstantin Nicholayevich, brother to Alexander II. She was born Alexandra Friederike Henriette of Saxe-Altenberg. It is said she looked so much like Alexandra Nicholaevna, her husband's late sister, that her mother-in-law burst into tears upon meeting her. She and Konstantin would eventually have six children, but the happiness they had initially started with did not last. While her husband was unfaithful to her (as was so common in those days), she lived to be 80, dying in 1911, truly one of the last of the Old Order.



But it would be the tsaritsa who was the last Alexandra. As each of her daughter's names were announced, many in England wondered why none were named for their mother. Margaret Eagar explained the name was considered unlucky by the family.

And of course we know of the fate of the last Alexandra, sadly another unfortunate story.

Thanks to Wikipedia and "Romanov Autumn" by Charotte Zeepvat for information and photographs of these Alexandras!

what's a grand duchess anyway?

Nicholas and his children in order of birth, 1910

The daughters of the ruler of All the Russias couldn't be called princesses. There were princesses all over Europe. For those priviledged women who could call the tsar their daddy, the only title that would do was Великая Княжна, "Grand Princess." Today it is most accepted as Grand Duchess. Children of emporers, rather than mere kings and queens, were often called by a loftier title. In Austria the children of the Emporer were archdukes and archduchesses. In Russia, they were grand dukes and grand duchesses, indicating that they were "imperial highnesses," instead of "royal highnesses."

As the family continued to multiply at a very quick rate, Alexander III (Anastasia's grandfather) decided in 1885 that only children and grandchildren of the tsar would be grand dukes and grand duchesses. The remainder were referred to as princesses. Only in Russia would being called a princess be a downgrade.

And despite the grandiose titles, the Romanov children were still commonly referred to by their first names and patronyms, going so far as to rebuke the servants for calling them anything else.

tsarina, tsaritsa or czarina?

Alexandra Feodorovna may have been born a Hessian (modern-day German) princess, but she is remembered as a Russian empress. The Russian word for empress (there were no queens in Russia) is царица, translated as tsaritsa. It is also written as tsarina, czarina, or czaritsa. Russian is a very complicated language, one that I speak in a very limited way, but the most accurate way to spell and say Alexandra's title is tsaritsa. That is because the letter "ц" is phoenitcally equivolent to the sound "ts". Nicholas was the tsar (цар), and their son Alexei was the tsarevich (царевич). The "cz" spelling still occurs in some sources, but I've noticed a movement toward the "ts" spelling is more accepted as accurate.

The word "tsar" is close to the German equivolent "k" - both taking their names from the Roman "Caesar."

Incidentally, the last German kaiser, Wilhelm II, was Alexandra's cousin - though they would later become enemies with the dawn of World War One.

anastasia's world: the alexander palace

The Alexander Palace

The world Anastasia was born into was a world of glamor, but also a world of extreme poverty. Russian peasants had difficult lives, to say the least, and the tsar and his family lived an incredibly sheltered life behind the palace gate.

Likewise, the Romanov children were also raised in a controlled environment. They did not socialize very much beyond their immediate family; even the extensive Romanov cousins were hardly around the grand duchesses and tsarevich. Besides their native Russian and French, which was the official language of the court, the children were taught German and English, though they spoke these languages badly. The girls were dressed alike even through adulthood, and life usually revolved around the tsarevich's precarious health.

The family traveled around to various countries - royal European houses being what they were, Nicholas and Alexandra could claim relation to almost every royal family - but when they were in St. Petersburg, they lived at Tsarskoye Selo, the Tsar's Village. The grounds at Tsarskoye Selo included two palaces - the blue Catherine Palace and the yellow Alexander Palace. The Alexander Palace was favored by the family, and it was here they spent most of their time.

The palace was modernized during Nicholas's reign and included electricity and even a screening booth to show motion pictures. It was to the Alexander Palace Nicholas returned in 1917 as Colonel Romanov, rather than the Tsar of All the Russias, after his abdication. This would also be the first of three places the imperial family was held under arrest during the revolution.

thanks to Wikipedia for information and a picture!

about the romanov names

Unlike some of the western countries, where royal children often had four or five (or more!) names, the Russians simply had two: one was the first name, while the other was the patronym. The patronym combines a child's father's name with the ending vich for a son or evna/ovna for a daughter. Thus Anastasia's middle name was Nicholaevna - daughter of Nicholas. In keeping with the simplicity and informality in which they were raised, Nicholas and Alexandra insisted on their children being called by their first name and patronym, rather than "Grand Duchess Anastasia" or "Her Imperial Highness." In fact, the children would rebuke servants for calling them anything but their informal names - which were still a mouthful! It's little wonder they ended up shortening these even further: Olishka, Tatianochka, Masha, Nastyusha and Baby for Alexei Nicholaevich the tsarevich.

Shorter still was the acronym the sisters would often use when referring to themselves as a group: OTMA.

picture courtesy of livadia*org

the beginning

Welcome to my blog about all things Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna, or as she was known in Russian, Великая Княжна Анастасия Николаевна Романова.

Anastasia lived a short life for one so well-known. She was only 17 years and 21 days old when she died, but she is still the most famous Russian royal. I find her life fascinating, and I hope you will, too!