Rasputin with (center) Bishop Hermogen, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia. Alexandra ordered him exiled when he beat Rasputin with a crucifix. Bishop Illidor, once friends with Rasputin, concocted a plan to assassinate Rasputin
Swiss tutor to the children, Pierre Gilliard
Celebrating 300 years of Romanov Dynasty
Vintage
The Processional behind Nicholas and Alexandra
Alexei and Papa at Stavka
The children at Livadia in the Crimea
Monsieur Gilliard and officials
Rasputin as the Pied Piper making Nicholas II dance
September 15 1916 Alexei’s departure to Mogilev and the Headquarters (Stavka). Alexandra was there to bid him and her husband goodbye.
Felix Yussopov, the lead conspirator of Rasputin’s murder, and his wife Irina. One of the richest men in Russia, he saw the handwriting and moved to Paris.
1907 Alexei at age 2. Note the double headed eagle on the Faberge frame.
1896 Grand Duchess Olga visited her great Grandmother Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Yes, that’s quite a face on Olga!
1914 Parading before the troops
Gregori Efimovich Rasputin
August 4 1914 Meeting the Russian Orthodox priests before the Winter Palace Declaration
The Standart and their Russian Imperial Navy crew. It was a floating palace.
The Double Eagle: Symbol of the dual sovereignty of the Tsar, secular and religious
Anastasia does not look thrilled being carted with Marie
June 28 1914 Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and assassinated in Sarajevo. The excuse for Kaiser Wilhelm to declare war. His portrait is above.
Rasputin’s home in his birthplace Pokrovskoye Siberia, the only two story house in the village. He was revered in the village.
Rasputin as puppet master over Nicholas and Alexandra
Grumpy faces. It appears children had just been reprimanded.
Underground newspapers in Petrograd spread salacious rumors about The Tsarina and Rasputin
Alexei at Stavka studying with Le Professeur Gilliard
Slow march before arriving at Winter Palace in St Petersburg
1906 Opening of the Duma, the first elected representative body in 300 year Romanov history. Autocrat Nicholas II despised the Duma.
Romanov family icon
Leaving The Winter Palace after Nicholas II’s rousing speech to commence WWI
Rasputin was always on call when Alexei suffered a hemophiliac attack. He entered the palace secretly. The Tsarina depended on him. This was the greatest secret of the age. The Russian people could never know that the Tsarevich had an incurable disease for the royals ‘were descended from heaven’.
The Double Eagle and the Catherine Palace
1912 The Royal Family
Easter Egg 1911
Priests giving prayers to the troops
Alexei motoring in French made Delaunay-Belleville
Catherine Palace Dining Room
1917 poster of the family
At age 3 on board the Royal Yacht Standart
Palace Gates of Tsarskoe Selo
The Romanovs as icons
Gilliard and Alexei motoring through palace grounds
Tsarskoe Selo park, with man made pond built by Turkish prisoners of war
Unearthed skulls from the pits outside of Ekaterinburg. Marie and Alexei’s bodies were thrown down a separate pit.
1904 OTMA Olga age 9, Tatiana age 7, Marie age 5, Anastasia age 3
Swimming at Lavadia, the summer vacation palace in Crimea
The motorcycle brigade
Portrait of the assassination
Catherine Palace
Nikki, Alexei and Olga examining a machine gun
1902 Poster
Family as icon
1906 Nicholas had a court photographer follow the family everywhere. Alexei still in curls.
Olga Tatiana and Marie
International paper reporting on the assassination
Mathilde Kschessinska, prima ballerina of the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg
Breakdown on the road to war
The Royal Yacht Standart, commissioned by Tsar Alexander III. Built in Copenhagen Denmark in 1893
Alix in a fine chapeau
Olga and Tatiana. The Tsarina had the girls attired the same all the time
Infantry marching off to war
Field hospital at the front
Katinka in Mama’s cart
Catherine Palace Stairway
Nikki with his cousin King George V of England, almost twins.
Olga and Tatiana looked very much alike
Family collage
The Royal Garage of Nicholas II. There were always two cars in the entourage, should one break down
1909 Alexei in Mama’s mauve room
The Royal family
A wind blown day on The Standart
Next door neighbors of the Protopopovs
Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna and Tsar Nicholas II
1909 Nikki, England’s King George V, his son Prince Albert and Alexei, all looking quite dapper. George had 6 children.
January 2 1905 Bloody Sunday. Unarmed demonstrators fired upon by the Imperial Guard. The massacre provoked public outrage and massive strikes. A key event leading to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Protopopov home in Tobolsk
Nikki waits for the previously corralled beasts to come through the chute. This was a turkey shoot only with bigger animals. Even so, there is a bodyguard behind him
Blood relationships from Queen Victoria and Tsar Nicolas I, including Prince Philip of England, husband of Queen Elizabeth.
The tank brigade
Alix’s fabled mauve room
Military Parade in St.Petersburg
1903 Celebration of 300 years of Romanov dynasty
1912 Alexei in the uniform of the Preobrajensky Guards
Nicholas II and 1st Mate
At the Ipatiev house, “The House of Special Purposes”
1907 Alexei at age 3
1911 Sailor Alexei holding court
1912 Spala, Poland The Romanovs vacationed there many times, welcomed by the King of Poland.
Corporal Alexei with his sailor troops
Icon of the Tsarevich
Lead assassin Yakov Yurovsky. “Your relations have tried to save you. They have failed and now we must shoot you now”.
Rasputin’s frozen body recovered from the Neva a few days after
Nicholas II reviewing troops stationed in the city of Mogilev. Stavka was the name for the military headquarters.
Tennis anyone? Nikki and daughters at Spala
Katinka on Festival Day
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov a/k/a Vladimir Lenin. head of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration the Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party.
Alexei with Allied officers. England’s General Hansbury-Williams is to his left.
Tsarskoe Selo fountains
Olga, Tatiana and Marie at play
1906 Alexei at age 2
Alix in the mauve room
1894 Coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra, Princess Alix of Hesse (Painting commissioned by Queen Victoria)
Father Gregori’s piercing eyes
The Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. The smaller palace on the grounds and residence of Nicholas II and his family
Rasputin pulled from the Neva River, early January 1917
Military generals curried favor with Rasputin due to the influence he wielded over Alexandra. With Nikki away at the front, Alix became the administrative head of the country. He counseled her. If Rasputin did not like you, you would be assigned a post in Siberia, fired or exiled. Rasputin had an agenda to stay in power.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein a/k/a Trotsky; Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician and second in command to Lenin
Catherine Palace
Prayer before the Winter Palace Declaration
Anastasia and her faces!
Nicki and Alexei under guard at Tyumen. The family would then be transferred to Ekaterinburg
Faberge Easter Egg. One was presented each year to Nicholas and Alexandra and their family
The Killing Room
Mathilde, aid and mentor to OTMA at Tsarskoe Selo
“With God in Thought but Mankind in the Flesh”
Fascinating photograph of Revolutionary Guards and Olga and Tatiana
Icon of the Romanovs, the last royal family
Tobolsk family at work carving figurines
Windmills of Siberia
The Holy Devil, as characterized by both nobles and the church.
The French newspaper reports on the war “The Illustrated War”
All those murdered on July 17 1918. Servants who remained loyal, Dr. Botkin and even Jemmy, Alexei’s puppy
1906 Alexei playing the balalaika with sailors on The Royal Yacht Standart
Under guard at Tsarskoe Selo after the Revolution
Obscene posters were hung throughout the city
Rasputin poster suggesting his power and influence over royals and generals
War is HELL
Rasputin, born in 1869 in Pokrovskoye of Tobolsk Governorate Siberia. He is holding his daughter Maria, who wrote books after her father’s murder.
OTMA
Alix and the Big Sisters volunteered in the Petrograd hospital for Russian soldiers injured at the front
A heartbreaking photograph, knowing what would eventually happen
Preparing for a military ceremony
English newspaper article
Rasputin wielded great influence on all levels of Russian society: politically, militarily and culturally. To Alix, he was “Our Friend”.
OTMA through the years
Men of Tobolsk and fellow workers with Sergei
On board. Rare photo of Alix smiling
Exterior of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg
Corporal Alexei proud to journey to Stavka with his father
Alexei icon as the 1st Russian Boy Scout
The dining room at Spala
Icon of Our Lady of Kazan
“The Chemist’s War”. Tear gas was disabling and non lethal. Lethal gasses were phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas.
Catherine Palace
Anna Vyrubova, best friend and confidant to Alix
Faberge Easter Egg
Mathilde exposing her non-existent waist
1897 Alexandra with 2 year old Olga and baby Tatiana
Alexandra and the Big Sisters after their nurses training
Alexei’s tricycle. He was not allowed to ride a two wheeler
Three young Tobolsk ladies on Festival Day
August 12 1914 at Winter Palace. Thousands of Russians awaited the speech of Nicholas II to rally them to war versus Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. Nicholas was wearing the uniform of the Mixed Guard Grenadier Regiment.
1894 Khodynka Fields Commemorative Cup
OTMA suffering measles. They thought it amusing to have their heads shaved, a remedy.
In Rasputin’s apartment. Daily there would be lines of women wanting favors and asking for spiritual guidance. The police reported his movements daily.
Battlefield of Heroes
An hour later after this photograph was taken, Alexei jumped back on the boat. He hit the oarlock on his thigh, generating the Tsarevich’s worst bout with the Beast
March 15 1917 Nicholas’ office on train where he signed original Abdication
The family and ship officers on deck
1894 Commemorative Coronation Plate