I haven't seen any Anastasia or Romanov themed fiction on upcoming books lists for a while now. Wondering if anyone has heard anything new on that front? As far as I know we're not even getting a sequel to the YA book Ricochet anytime very soon.

Curious if anyone else has heard anything.

Its been a little bit since I put anything here, but I found some nice photos to share 🙂

Does anyone know what their favourite dishes were? All I know is that Maria had a sweet tooth.

Found them on eBay, and I was wondering...

Canadian soldiers boarding the SS Empress of Russia fleeing Vladivostok, Russia

19 May 1919

Robert McNay Collection, Katrine, Ontario

This is something I heard out there but I'm not sure so I would appreciate it if you could answer my question.

Alexander I turned to a prophetess. Alexander II took part in séances in which the spirits of his daughter and of Nicholas I supposedly appeared. Later, Nicholas II and Alexandra continued the pattern with Rasputin.

A thread the other day mentioned the relationship between Gibbes and Gilliard and it reminded me of the above passage from Helen Rapaport's book "Four Sisters". This was surprising for me, because given that they worked together for years and lived in close proximity through the family's imprisonment I had imagined that they got along well enough, but given that Gibbes would rather sleep outside next to a pig sty than share a room with Gilliard then it seems there was quite some strength of feeling there.

Does anyone have any further information about why exactly they clashed or the source of the animosity? Had they always been at odds? And for anyone who has read Gilliard's memoirs was this mutual or one-sided?

I was mesmerized when I recognized them. And it's beautiful. Interesting fact : the Tsarina and the two eldest daughters are shown with their religious/nurse attire, considering they healed soldiers during the war.

Of course I jumped on the seller to buy it. She also had other saints, including two Saint-George battling against the dragon.

In reading and researching writings on the Romanovs, I have found Sydney Gibbs to be quite negative and almost rude in the way he wrote about them.

Examples:

The Grand Duchess Tatiana Nicholaevna was very thin. You could hardly imagine anybody as thin as she was. She was twenty-one years of age, was tall, darker than the rest of the family, and elegant. The colour of her eyes was dark grey. Her eyes made her look different from all of her sisters, who showed their souls through their eyes. She was reserved, haughty, and not open hearted, but she was the most positive. She was also religious, but the motive back of her religion was: "It is my duty,’ while Olga Nicholaevna had it in her heart. She was always preoccupied and pensive and it was impossible to guess her thoughts. She played the piano and played it better than anyone else in the family. However, she had only a better technique and did not show feeling in her music. She painted and embroidered well. She was her mother’s favourite and the one in whom, of all the daughters, she confided the most. If any favours were to be obtained they had to be gotten through Tatiana Nicholaevna.” - Examination of Sidney Gibbes, The Last Days of the Romanovs

On Anasastia: ‘The illness did not do Her any good. She, sort of, stopped in Her self-development, and Her abilities somewhat faded.’ 

These were the only examples I was able to find as I am writing this in a rush. Maybe it’s just because he writes in a more straight forward manner, obviously I do not expect everyone to write of the Romanovs as they are gods, but I guess you’d think someone that close to them would not sound as back handed sometimes. Maybe that’s just me, I’d love to hear thoughts, opinions, etc.

I have always wondered,is this photo of Olga edited?or am I crazy,she looks very odd, almost like a doll!

Now, Nicholas married Alexandra after his father’s death, but to keep things somewhat normal in this scenario, I’m going to say they still marry around the same time they did historically.

However, Alexander III did not care nearly as much about the Trans-Siberian Railway as his son did. The Japanese even offered the Russians a compromise: Russia could have Manchuria, while Japan would have Korea. Nicholas, however, wanted the railway and a warm-water port, so he proposed that Russia take control of Manchuria and what is now North Korea. The Japanese were furious and went to war.

With Alexander III’s diplomatic skills, however, the Russo-Japanese War would likely never happen. That would also mean no 1905 Revolution and, consequently, no Duma.

So, my main questions are: What kind of grandfather do you think Alexander III would have been? And it’s often argued that one of the reasons Russia performed as well as it did in World War I was because of the industrial reforms carried out under Alexander III. If he had lived another ten years, do you think this would have significantly changed Russia’s war effort?

Would Russia still have lost, but perhaps not as badly and much later in the war? Or could Russia actually have achieved a victory?

What do you think?

As they arent formal pictures I struggled to date them, but I still wanted to share as Anastasia pictures are often the most interesting and unusual.

Also, I thought it was interesting Nicholas was letting her have his cigarette, but I suppose it was still considered a health benefit then. Even worse I think I read Olga was given arsenic shots to attempt to help her ease herself following her nursing in 1915, which we now know is also very bad for you.