Personal Attributes of Nicholas II

Nudity among men was taken in stride, it was the women, I assume,  who were the shy ones, more Victorian in attitude.....

AGRBear[/quote]

I think women still are a bit shy about appearing nude in front of other women. It's perculiar that for instance men don't mind showering in common showers with other men, whereas most women would. However my (straight) male friends would never sleep in the same bed with another man, while women won't care at all about sharing her bed with a female friend.

Yoyo

It was also a very common thing for the Russian army to swim/bathe in the nude communally.  We have an original print by the artist Samokish which shows a group of cavalry men bathing themselves and their horses while nude, in a river. The cavalry men I mean, of course the horses ARE nude too...

The cavalry men I mean, of course the horses ARE nude too...

But what if they were shy? They might have wanted to wear underwear or something..........

When I first read the subject heading of this thread, I thought you were referring to something entirely different. Those of you who have read carefully Venyamin Alekseyev's book on the murder of the Romanovs will know what I mean. But I'm not going to go into details because to do so might be considered morbid or prurient by some.

not fair. tell something, even if only privately.

I think I read that after stripping the corpses someone felt the Tsar's rear end and discovered it to be remarkably, um, well, let's just say that the Tsar was a very fit man who enjoyed exercise and had a body that reflected that.

It just doesn't make sense. There are plently of beautiful photographs of Alexei and his family WITH clothes. I don't know how nude photos would be necessary, unless.....  

I remember seing an old film of  N bathing with his generals, and they were all nude. There was NOTHING  weird or nasty among men to do so. It was  some sort of "General and common" custom...

I agree Valmont--it was a "manly man" kind of thing.  I guess we were all a little taken aback that someone who is starting up a Romanov website is looking for nude photos.  One would think that there would be other photographic priorities.  

But, if we have misunderstood, so be it.  But to my knowledge the only naked photos of Nicky and Alexei are of them swimming.

Exactly!!  This thread is rapidly deteriorating....

I've seen all the photos in question and they aren't so bad.  There's nothing nasty or x-rated about them at all.  I'm surprised nobody has posted the photo of Nicholas swimming (the one that's in the book Tsar).  You see his butt, big deal; he obviously didn't care who saw him like that...

But I would not post pictures of Alexei (swimming with no clothes on) -- on this or any other website.  As innocent as they are, you would just be asking for trouble.

There are some in Vyroubovas albums, but none fully naked,  the rest, full monty ones... are in, as far as I know, the Imperial Family's personal albums in GARF. I suspect Alexei took them, but no way to know for sure. Someone else may know more than I do.

"FullMonty"? lol, that's funny. I wanted to ask, what does GARF stand for?

It was so common in that day that nobody really paid attention, i guess. it is still a little unusual though.

But i have yet to see any pics of women in the court swimming naked! Only Nicholas, and some sailors etc. in the Finland pictures.

If anyone has read the album "Royal Russia" i was stunned at first to find a picture of Derevenko rinsing off a nude Alexei. Needless to say i was about 9 when i saw it, ( lol)
i was a little weary to pick up the book again. But i found out that they were nude a lot when they swam, and didn't Nicholas and Alexandra bathe nude(well, duh, nude!) once in a pond because they thought it would help them concieve(which they did)?

And i think the person who snapped the Tsar's nekked butt was Anastasia..it seems like something she would do! lol

I wanted to ask, what does GARF stand for?

Those are the initials for the Russian State Archives (but I can't remember what they stand for.)

"and didn't Nicholas and Alexandra bathe nude once in a pond because they thought it would help them concieve(which they did)?

I think, if I've got the right occasion, that this is a little different. It was during a pilgrimage to Sarov & it had a religious significance.

...what does GARF stand for?

GARF = Gosudarstveniy Arhiv Rossiyskoy Federatziyi  (State Archives of the Russian Federation)