What got you inerested in Russian history / the Romanovs

wOW! Cool, Elisa!

I'm so relieved you think so, Tasia! One never knows exactly what one is doing in the wee small hours of the morning. Jet lag, jet lag, jet lag, ugh.

At any rate, I just wanted to say, if anyone takes anything away from my list of how I got interested in Russian history, it is my strong feeling that they should take this: please let your kids watch television, especially public television and the History Channel (which I know a lot of people here call the Hitler Channel, perhaps rightly so, but still, it does cover many important historical events aside from World War II). I mean, if I hadn't ingested huge dollops of the BBC/Masterpiece Theater as a child, who knows what might have become of me? I hate to think.

I'm just saying this because I know people, who from the very, very, very best of intentions, don't let their kids watch any television. While I understand they're afraid of what unadulterated trash and even horrors their children might come across, if exposed to the boob tube, I do think there are lots of programs out there which are both educational and entertaining, which stimulate the imagination and make the intelligent individual want to "read more about it," as the ad used to go.

Elisabeth

I agree. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s my parents gave us a pretty free hand in watching news, current affairs and children's programmes, but in the evenings we watched what they watched - or went to bed. In consequence I saw a good deal of TV which bored me silly, but a lot of good stuff as well - the BBC 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina', 'Fall of Eagles' and sundry documentaries.

In order to develop a critical faculty you need to read/watch rubbish as well as good stuff!

Ann

3. A very young and as yet not famous Anthony Hopkins as Pierre Bezukhov featured opposite Morag Hood as Natasha Rostova in the BBC production of Tolstoy's War and Peace, shown on Alistair Cooke's Masterpiece Theater in the early 1970s. Stellar. Probably nobody else here remembers this program, it was too long ago.

I remember that series very well! Had a crush on Angela Down (Princess Maria Bolkonskaya)...

I came to Russian history at the age of 9 whilst at primary school.
Always interested in history (something always fostered by my parents) I read a book of short stories...one was the story of  Faberge's Imperial eggs...the other told in very simple terms was the legend of Anna Anderson/Anastasia.Very soon afterward I was allowed to stay up to watch the Ingrid Bergman version of Anastasia and then a beloved aunt sent me Robert Massie's authorative biography...

'remember that series very well! Had a crush on Angela Down (Princess Maria Bolkonskaya)...'

I had a crush on Sylvester Moran, who played Nikolai Rostov. Sad to say, the next time I saw him on TV he was anything but dashing in the role of somebody's father in a Ruth Rendell crime yarn.

Ann

I'm pleasantly surprised to find here so many fans of the 70s BBC production of War and Peace. Here I thought I was all alone in my memories!

Lots of people who watched it at the time seem to have had a crush on Angela Down (Princess Maria Bolkonskaia)! So interesting! I remember liking her very much as well. But whatever happened to Morag Hood, who played Natasha? I had a definite crush on her, and like her, first fell in love with Prince Andrei Bolkonskii, then with Pierre Bezukhov (really, Anthony Hopkins excelled in this role). But of course one is naturally fickle at the age of ten.

What I chiefly remember about this series, aside from Pierre/Hopkins wandering around a field during the Battle of Borodino, looking utterly helpless and befuddled in his specs, are lines like these:

"Oh, Natasha!'
"Oh, Sonya!"
"Oh, Nikolai!"
"Oh, Andrei!"

I became very interested in Russian history after walking onto Nevsky Prospekt for the first time and being totally amazed by the regal buildings and awesome atmosphere. I knew nothing about what I was looking at and felt so ignorant.
When I got home I read all I could about everything I saw on Nevsky and I have been researching it and the city history ever since (ten years!).
I have even created a website to enlighten others about my favorite street.