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Marie was the most beautiful of the sisters, with thick, golden hair and deep blue eyes so large that within the family they were known as "Marie’s Saucer’s.”

The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II By: Gregory King

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Happy 110th birthday to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov of Russia!

Alexei Nikolaevich of the House of Romanov, was the Tsarevich and heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire. Alexei was a simple, affectionate child and was like any boy who liked to play with toy guns, and canons and run around and get dirty. Alexei grew to be quite tall for his age, with long thin oval face and gentle features, wonderful light chestnut hair with tinges of bronze, and big grey-blue eyes like his mother’s. He had a lively mind and strong opinions, and was also very thoughtful. It soon emerged however, that the young boy suffered from haemophilia. They said he wouldn’t live up to his teenage years.

Alexei Romanov was well aware that he might not live to adulthood. When he was ten, his older sister Olga found him lying on his back looking at the clouds and asked him what he was doing. “I like to think and wonder,” Alexei replied. Olga asked him what he liked to think about. “Oh, so many things,” the boy responded. “I enjoy the sun and the beauty of summer as long as I can. Who knows whether one of these days I shall not be prevented from doing it?” "An unforgettable and great day, on which we received so evident a sign of God’s love. At a quarter past one in the afternoon, Alix had a son, who was named Alexei during prayers" - Tsar Nicholas II Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov was brutally murdered (along with the rest of his family) at the age of only fourteen years old. Happy birthday and Rest in Peace.

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“An unforgettable and great day, on which we received so evident a sign of God’s love. At a quarter past one in the afternoon Alix had a son, who was named Alexei during prayers. Everything proceeded at a remarkable pace. As always I was with Mamma in the morning…then I joined Alix to eat…Half an hour later the happy event took place. No words are adequate to thank God for the consolation he has bestowed on us in this year of difficult tribulations.” - Nicholas II’s diary entry, August 12, 1904 

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I just came out to have a good time and I honestly am feeling so attacked right now.

Rasputin when Felix Yusupov pulled out his gun at dinner (via oh-felix-yusofine)

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The Burial of the Russian Imperial Family in the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 17 July 1998.

Exactly 80 years after their murders, five members of the Imperial Family and their four faithful companions are laid to rest with great holy ceremony in the St Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. petersburg. In attendance were Russia’s president at the time, Boris Yeltsin and his wife (pictured, bottom right). At the funeral, Yeltsin said:

“Today is a historic day for Russia. For many years, we kept quiet about this monstrous crime, but the truth has to be spoken.”

He went on to describe the murders as one of the most shameful pages in Russian history, and urged Russians to close a “bloody century” with repentance.

It was the first time many of the Imperial Family’s descendants had returned to Russia. Pictured bottom, left, the current descendants who attended the funeral, with HH Prince Nicholas Romanovich at its head. Princess Maria Vladimirovna attended with her son, separately. HRH Prince Michael of Kent also attended, in personal capacity. (He is cousin to Tsar Nicholas II through his grandmother, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna, and through his great-grandfather King George I of the Hellenes)

The remains of HIH the Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters have yet to be laid to rest beside their family.

The funeral is available to watch on youtube: part I | part 2 | part 3

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July 17, 1918 – Execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in Yekaterinburg.

Two days after my arrival I made my first entry into Ipatiev’s house. I went through the first-floor rooms, which had served as the prison; they were in an indescribable state of disorder. It was evident that every effort had been made to get rid of any traces of the recent occupants. Heaps of ashes had been raked out of the stoves. Among them were a quantity of small articles, half burnt, such as toothbrushes, “hairpins, buttons, etc., in the midst of which I found the end of a hair-brush on the browned ivory of which could still be seen the initials of the Tsarina, A. F. I went down to the bottom floor, the greater part of which was below the level of the ground. It was with intense emotion that I entered the room in which perhaps - I was still in doubt - they had met their death. Its appearance was sinister beyond expression. The only light filtered through a barred window at the height of a man’s head. The walls and flour showed numerous traces of bullets and bayonet scars. The first glance showed that an odious crime had been perpetrated there and that several people had been done to death. But who? How? I became convinced that the Tsar had perished and, granting that, I could not believe that the Tsarina had survived him. At Tobolsk, when Commissary Yakovlev had come to take away the Tsar, I had seen her throw herself in where the danger seemed to her greatest. I had seen her, brokenhearted after hours of mental torture, torn desperately between her feelings as a wife and a mother, abandon her sick boy to follow the husband whose life seemed in danger. Yes, it was possible they might have died together, the victims of these brutes. But the children? They too massacred? I could not believe it. My whole being revolted at the idea. And yet everything proved that there had ken many victims. Well, then?..

Thirteen years at the russian court by Pierre Gilliard.

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Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

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Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, 26 June 1899 - 17 July 1918.

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The first picture there is well-known around the internet these days, falsely titled ‘the first selfie’. The real ‘first selfie’ was estimated to have been taken in 1839 by a man named Robert Cornelius. However, this post isn’t to discredit the validity of the picture as the first selfie - it’s not, however it is an early one. People all over the internet are getting to know the picture these days because it’s such an old selfie, but a selfie nonetheless - Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna took this picture in the mirror in 1914, from what appears (from someone who’s studied the Romanovs and their homes) to be her brother Alexei Nikolaevich’s classroom (the only place I could find any matching chairs or table to those). My generation learned who the Romanovs were through the horribly inaccurate but still loveable animated Anastasia movie - after I had found out Anastasia was real, I had decided to research her and her family. I have a feeling that the current generation of young people - children, teenagers, young adults - may find interest in the Romanovs now through this mirror selfie of Anastasia’s.

Added below it is another which I did not even know existed until recently. It’s another mirror selfie, in which Anastasia is present, however it is taken by her elder sister Tatiana Nikolaevna (wearing her nurse’s uniform as she worked as a ‘Sister of Mercy’ during the war). I had concluded originally that the Anastasia selfie was more so just curiosity, that she wanted to see how a picture taken in the mirror would work, however I’m thinking it now that they had a more similar mind to us in this era about selfies. Obviously they did not take many - could you imagine with those cameras? - but the two look happy to be snapping a picture together, and my guess is that they simply wanted a picture of the two of them while nobody else was around to take one. While people go a little overboard these days (myself included), I find that is a highly common reason behind selfies.

So there you have it - royalty of the early 1900s were no different than us (besides of course their money, their status, and their lifestyles) if you consider their minds. These were two girls - I’m guessing this was taken in about 1915 or so, making Anastasia fourteen and Tatiana eighteen - were simply spending time together and wished to take a photograph as the two of them, and thus used a mirror to take it rather than searching for someone to take it for them. It’s kinda interesting to see things like this from around one hundred years ago, when everything was SO different, and notice that you yourself have done the same…

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Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in pensive mood

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Alexei Nikolaevich with his dog Joy during WWI.

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Tsar Nicholas II + son Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich inspecting a bat signal spotlight, around 1915.

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Tsarevich Alexei and his cousins George Donatus and Ludwig of Hesse at Livadia: 1912.

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The Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevich on White Flower Day, 1912.

“In connection with the Empress’s care for the tuberculosis patients in the Crimea there was one day every summer known as White Flower Day, and on that day every member of society, unless she had a very good excuse, went out into the towns and sold white flowers for the benefit of the hospitals. It was a day especially delightful to the Empress and, as they grew old enough to participate in such duties, to all the young Grand Duchesses. The Empress and her daughters worked very hard on White Flower Day, spending practically the whole day driving and walking, mingling with the crowd and vending their flowers as enthusiastically as though their fortunes depended on selling them all. Of course they always did sell them all. The crowds surged around them eager and proud to buy a flower from their full baskets. But the buyers were no whit happier than the sellers, that I can say with assurance.”

- Anna Vyrubova, Memories of the Russian Court

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Alexei behind the roses and his autie Irene in the background.

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Tatiana, Olga, Alexei, Nicholas II, and part of Alix, with the Romanian Royal Family.

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Цесаревич Алексей Николаевич.

Посещение военного госпиталя, фото 1916 г.