Borodino 1912

From a 1912  Russian newspaper: ceremony marking the 100th anniversary  of the  battle of Borodino

And now the 100th anniversary of that newspaper article :-) Awesome stuff Anne, thanks for sharing!

In the photo at the train station on the second page I'd love to know who everyone is starring & smiling at! My guess is Alexei is being greeted and there is a cute/funny exchange taking place...just maybe?

Also can anyone translate some of the captions for us non-Russian readers?

And now the 100th anniversary of that newspaper article :-) Awesome stuff Anne, thanks for sharing!

you are welcome...of course its a pleasure to share it with fellow AP members =)

In the photo at the train station on the second page I'd love to know who everyone is starring & smiling at! My guess is Alexei is being greeted and there is a cute/funny exchange taking place...just maybe?

I believe the family is being given the traditional bread and salt  and Alexei  in among them.( I think I see his hat in there!lol ) But there does to be some joke going on looking at the expressions.

Also can anyone translate some of the captions for us non-Russian readers?

That  would be great!

Now it's 200 years since that battle.

It looks like besides Nicholas Alexandra,and Alexi, The other two young women in matching white dresses are Olga and Tatania. The men in white coats in some of the pictures are goverment officials, in the 4th row first picture there are men in foriegn military uniforms one looks french to me. in reading Nicholas and Alexandra, Nicholas did review the troops on horseback these were detachments of the units that had fought at Borodino. and suposedly he was introduced to some 122 year old that had fought in that battle. Sadly the old russian Imperial army ceased to exhist in 1917-18 and i don't think there is any link to them from the Red army that succeeded it. I don't know if the current Russian goverment is going to comemorate it or not or how they are going to handle it if they do. I don't know what the Soviets did on the 150th anaversery. in doing some researh I found the Russian order of battle in the wikipedia. I did some comparisons to the 1914 order of battle and found the following:
many guards regiment where Nicholas was honorary Colonel of
Maria Feds Chevalier guards & 2nd Life Pskov dragoons
Kiev grenidiers Ellas regiment
Phanagodia grenandiers HIH GD Dmitri Pavlevich (is this the same man who helped kill Rasputin?)
Lithunian lancers HM King Victor Emanual III, He was the really short 5' 1/2" king of Italy less said about him the better.

I hope this is of some use . Thanks for posting the pics Anne.

there are men in foreign military uniforms one looks french to me.

yes and there is another type of military with them, possible German?or perhaps Itailian ...would the women with them be thier wives?
 Whatever,  they are all in a great mood!


in this photo , with NII in the middle, I can see GD Michale A, GD Marie P. the elder ...I'm sure other more knowledgeable fourm members can pick out other family members

I did some comparisons to the 1914 order of battle and found the following:
many guards regiment where Nicholas was honorary Colonel of
Maria Feds Chevalier guards & 2nd Life Pskov dragoons
Kiev grenidiers Ellas regiment
Phanagodia grenandiers HIH GD Dmitri Pavlevich (is this the same man who helped kill Rasputin?)
Lithunian lancers HM King Victor Emanual III, He was the really short 5' 1/2" king of Italy less said about him the better.

I hope this is of some use .

Indeed!

Thanks for posting the pics Anne.

My pleasure.  I'm glad to host the photos and  have others capture them ....since the actual newspaper is falling apart...and so some history is not lost . I recently saw film snips of this day as well. AF, Alexis and Olga in a carriage...like can be seen in the photos . Thanks for your efforts!

 I am glad you found my information usefull. More on the picture in the forth row 1 st picture I think the man in uniform on the extreme left in French the next man in uniform looks Russian center rear looks french and the extrme right could be Italian. French officer uniforms at this time had a black tunic and red trousers which shows up all black in B&W photos of the period. They could be high ranking Generals or colonels. The Italian  I not sure of it does look he is wearing a Italian army cap of the period. Not the Grand Armee that fought at borodino contained besides troops from France troops from Italian states, German states, and Poles.
 BlesOtma I will agree some of the people look like they are having a good time. I don't think any of them even in their worst dreams realized what was coming especialy the Russians.

French the next man in uniform looks Russian center rear looks french and the extreme right could be Italian. French officer uniforms at this time had a black tunic and red trousers which shows up all black in B&W photos of the period.

Yes because of that perhaps  the best way to identify the diffrent military uniforms  is by the silhouette of thier caps....

  blessOTMA I will agree some of the people look like they are having a good time. I don't think any of them even in their worst dreams realized what was coming especially the Russians.

Indeed, I agree. Even if one felt there would eventually be violence between Germany and Russia over the Balkans....few would have guess it would become a fire storm engulfing  the whole of Europe and beyond.

James touched on this above...

I'm fascinated by this supposedly 122-year old veteran of the war that the Tsar was introduced to, spoke with, and was quite emotionally overwhelmed by on the hundredth anniversary of the battle. Do we know anything more about this person?

Logic suggests that this person was a fraud. Not only because he more than likely was not 122 at the time but probably could not possibly have served in the military in 1812 regardless of his age. With this in mind it's too bad Nicholas was so taken in by him. Here is some information I dug up that was interesting to me and might be to some of you...

- The only verified 122-year old in history is well known French woman Jeanne Calment who died in 1997.
- Current oldest living person is 115-year, 294-day old American Besse Cooper who was born in Tennessee and currently lives in George.
- The only other person to have supposedly lived past the age of 120 was Shigechiyo Izumi of Japan. He was 120-years, 237-days when he passed away in 1986 but his claim has largely been refuted.
- The oldest verified Russian (or Russian Empire) in history was Lillian Joelson who died at the age of 111 in 2007.
- There are only three verified supercentenarians to have been alive before 1800 that could possibly have fought in an 1812 war. None of them lived past the age of 113, and all of them died well before 1912.
- Currently there are thirty claims and only 23-verified living people who were born before 1900. We are quickly drawing to a close our living links to the 19th century :-/

He was mentioned in the book "Nicholas and ALexandra" but that all I know about him. I am very sceptical he was that old.

Sounds to me that Nicholas fell victim to a con.  This guy could have studied the battle and passed himself off as a vetran.

I don't know if it was  a general Russian convention to "believe"  your elders in such matters...honoring age more than facts... Was Nicholas fooled or being polite? But  I do know Stalin loved hearing about very ancient people that were from  Georgia  like himself and so I believe a good number were "produced " with creative record keeping  ...and that's  how the much later  famous dannon yogurt ads in the 1970's got thier start  ....which featured  very elderly  Georgians and thier reliance on yogurt for their longevity lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYng_oCaL3w

I'm fascinated by this supposedly 122-year old veteran of the war that the Tsar was introduced to, spoke with, and was quite emotionally overwhelmed by on the hundredth anniversary of the battle. Do we know anything more about this person?

All I know is that his surname was supposedly Vintonuik (source: Nicholas's letter to his mother on 10 September 1912).

Apparently, Nicholas was also introduced to "several other old men" who recalled the French invasion - now, they would have to be at least 105!

I'm fascinated by this supposedly 122-year old veteran of the war that the Tsar was introduced to, spoke with, and was quite emotionally overwhelmed by on the hundredth anniversary of the battle. Do we know anything more about this person?

All I know is that his surname was supposedly Vintonuik (source: Nicholas's letter to his mother on 10 September 1912).

Apparently, Nicholas was also introduced to "several other old men" who recalled the French invasion - now, they would have to be at least 105!

Yes even this beggars belief although it's certainly possible unlike the 122 year old claim. You're right, they'd have to have been at least 5 or 6 (and probably older to really have a strong recollection) at the time and then have a story to share with the Tsar a hundred years later. I'm rating this one as "unlikely" and the other claim as being an almost guaranteed hoax.

 Well, certainly a Borodino  battle vet of that age is extremely unlikely, bordering on the absurd, but not impossible. My impression from unremembered readings, is that local officials were desirous to please their emperor for the occasion, and either in good faith  or otherwise, produced their veteran of the battle. Nicholas, with his military pride, wanted to believe in the oldtimer's survival, and was not inclined to be sceptical. And a memorable time was had by all!

If this Vintoniuk were the real deal, however, it would have been known all along, that is , for decades and decades he would have been known as someone from the time of the battle. A local, even national celebrity,  of sorts, for ages. His existence wouldn't have been 'discovered ' within weeks or so of the commemoration in 1912.

If not of his critical thinking or scepticism, I think the story speaks well of Nicholas' patriotism and national pride. "Ya gotta believe", indeed!