The Nicholas and Alexandra Picture Thread


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^^ Oh, t is SO beautiful Anastasia! :) She is very gorgeus in that picture!
 
I love the pic of Alix looking out to the water on the ship- ahhh to know what her thoughts migh have been.....?
 
More photos of my favourite Empress- Alexandra. I like the photo of her holding Lili Dehn's baby. This particular photo is great.


I also love the rest of these photos.





 
One of my favorite royal pictures: Nicholas and George V a year before WWI broke out:

456px-Tsar_Nicholas_II_%26_King_George_V.JPG


From Wikipedia (here); Nicholas is on the left; the main difference to me is that the Tsar's face is thinner than George's.

At home, I have a thick (American) atlas of the world from 1911, and in it are detailed write ups of each country from some time before 1905, before Bloody Sunday. The final paragraph has an eerie sense of foreboding to it:

Who can forecast the development of Russia? With a total war-footing of more than two and one-half million troops, an irresponsible monarch, a discontented populace, and the dogma of hereditary aggression as a ruling motive of imperial action, dare we augur peace?
Click to expand...

The write up finds conditions in the empire "sufficient to stamp Russia not only as the most despotic, but most barbarous, of civilized nations." But personally I do not blame Nicholas or Alix for this. I see the Tsar as simply the person on top of a desperately rotten system, someone trying to deal with a complex government far too disconnected from a battered people. He was an irresponsible monarch, but sadly ruled in a land that could not handle an irresponsible monarch. Russia was a power keg by the time Nicholas got to the throne, and I personally think no one could have saved the Tsarist Empire.

Nicholas' hesitation over major decisions, Alix's aloofness, the specter of Rasputin, and the divine right of kings mentality were major setbacks, but they alone did not ensure Nicholas would see revolution. Instead, I point to the bloody history before Nicholas, the backwardness of Russia economically, industrially, militarily, politically, etc. I'm fascinated by Russian history (and am majoring in the language in college), and I'm one of those people who emphasize trends in history. Russia's Tsarist history was leading to disaster; Nicholas was the wrong ruler to be caught in the middle but I'm not sure there could have been a "right" tsar at the time.

P.S. I read through the thread, and figured out who Minnie was but who was Ducky?

Nicholas at age 8 (1876) from PictureHistory
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Oh my God! Nicholas and George look more like brothers than like cousins!

About whether or not another tsar could have prevented the revolution, who knows? But it seems like Nicholas and Alix didn't improve the situation either.
 
Nicholas and George V when together, were often mistaken for one another by family and courtiers. Their mothers as sisters had a strking resemblance to one another so it is understandable the two rulers resembled each other. Nicky was so cute as a young boy as shown in the last photograph.
 
Quite right, Vasillisos. If I recall correctly, Nicky represented his parents at the marriage of George V and May of Teck in 1893. During that visit, he was, to his great amusement, mistaken by someone for his cousin, which he mentioned in a letter home to Minnie and Sasha.
 
Thank you for sharing these very rare pictures of the Tsar. I couldn't help looking at the rest of the pictures of the other Russian leaders. Very fascinating!
 
Whoa! Is that a photograph of Nicholas's bare bottom?? I am surprised that photograph was not destroyed once it was developed.
 
Vasillisos, it sure is ~:ROFLMAO:~. It's not the first time I've seen the Sovereign in the altogether....there is a film clip extant, which I've seen a number of times, showing Nicholas II swimming with other men, including the heir, and they're all swimming that way! At one point, I believe you can see him diving off a deck or a boat.

When watching that clip, I distinctly got the impression that bare-bottom swimming was quite respectable and ordinary. Of course, I rather think that would emphatically not be the case when in mixed company.
 
I've seen the first two pictures before. I believe they are in my Peter's book: Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas & Alexandra and another book I cannot remember. It was by one of the Grand Duchess George's decendants, I think. Please correct me if I am wrong.:flowers:
 
I have no doubt that there was nothing scandalous about the men swimming in the nude because there were no women present. I am just surprised that a photograph was taken and it was not destroyed or suppressed once it was developed. But maybe the Tsar was not aware of its existence or maybe he did not care. But I suspect Alexandra would have been appalled.
 
I am sure there is a legitimate reason for keeping inappropriate photos. In truth, I am surprised that such photos were allowed to be taken at all.
According to the article, Nicholas II could not stand the summer heat well. Thus, he swam in cold waters in the Gulf of Finland.
 
Vasillisos Markos said:
I have no doubt that there was nothing scandalous about the men swimming in the nude because there were no women present. I am just surprised that a photograph was taken and it was not destroyed or suppressed once it was developed. But maybe the Tsar was not aware of its existence or maybe he did not care. But I suspect Alexandra would have been appalled.
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Quite right about Alexandra, Vasillisos. It's entirely possible that the pictures in question actually were suppressed at the time. I cannot imagine that the imediate or extended family would have been happy with their publication, as it would seem to me that it would have been felt that they were disrespectful to or detracted from Nicky's image. Perhaps they only surfaced from private sources in later years.
 
It's funny how some of us in the early 21st century appear more taken aback by innocent and private nudity than they were at the beginning of the 20th. Photographs of a naked Tsar (see Russo) and film of him diving naked (see Pamela) have been around for yonks. It would be a rare family, commoner or royal, that didn't and doesn't have photographs or home movies that are considered "family" and private and not intended for public consumption.

Sorry, but I don't understand why these recently released pics of the Tsar's bare bottom should cause such surprise when more revealing pictures are on the record.
It's not as if these images of nude Nicky were postered around St Petersburg or reproduced on cigarette cards to be swapped and collected by schoolboys.
 
Well, then, are there similar photographs taken of Nicky's contemporaries? If so, I've never heard of them. You seem taken aback that others would express surprise at these photographs. I am no prude but it seems to me, at that time in history, august persons such as the Tsar would not allow photographs to be taken. Am I wrong in this belief?
 
The first part is hard to answer because, for example, we haven't a clue what's in the private family albums of the Windsors, and probably never will.
As to the Tsar, he was both photographed and filmed, so august though he was, he didn't appear concerned. I imagine that he assumed they would remain safely within the confines of the private family albums and archives. But they didn't, and we are fortunate to glimpse the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias enjoying a private pursuit that was not much different to that of many of his subjects.
 
Warren, were these photos/videos of the Tsar naked released recently by the Russian government? Or have they been in circulation for a while?
 
vsriCo said:
Warren, were these photos/videos of the Tsar naked released recently by the Russian government? Or have they been in circulation for a while?
Click to expand...
Warren knows the specifics, however, they ARE in books. Tsar by Peter Kurth has many of them in it. And another one I can't remember the book. It was a whole book devoted to photos of the IF. All their personal snapshots. The library had it.
 
Well, Peter Kurth's book is from the early nineties. I haven't seen them in books published before the fall of the communist government so my guess is that after 1989 the files in Russia were opened, resulting in these pictures popping up.
 
Margeno, I think the book I am referring to is The Romanovs: Love, power and Tragedy by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Bokhanov. It is full of many photographs and was published in 1993 which supports your theory.
 
I first saw the film of the Tsar swimming naked in a 1990s doco about the lead-up to WWI; it's been in a few others since then.
 
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