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Anastasia Nicholaievna / Re: Anastasia Pictures V
« on: January 01, 2019, 07:55:47 PM »
Ally Kumari, I believe you are right! Where did you find it?
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I'm not aware of any evidence which suggests that Alexandra had any more sheltered upbringing than her contemporaries among royal spouses such as Marie of Edinburgh, Mary of Teck, Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, or Margaret of Connaught, or Margaret of Prussia.
Indeed, she had a lot of exposure to the highly sophisticated British court and the Russian Imperial court, at the level any unmarried princess in that environment would have had, and more than many (the former Princess Dagmar of Denmark included).
Any social awkwardness was completely of the kind expected of a sheltered young woman and was not the subject of any remark prior to her marriage that I have discovered, and indeed not really called into question for some time after her marriage, when her pregnancies made it quite appropriate for her not to interact more in society.
But I don't see how either Maria Feodorovna or Alexander III would have been able to predict that from Alexandra's behaviour before her marriage or find it in other princesses many of who would hmave appeared just as shy and demure.
Wasn't their main objection to Alexandra based on what they saw of her during her previous visits to Russia? Maybe it was people, and historians, writing in hindsight, after all the disasters, but it seems according to them she made a poor impression on the aristocracy and the Tsar and Tsarina during the 1889(?) visit. They found her pretty but cold, a disappointment compared to the lovely Ella who won everybody over the moment she arrived.
Many books and documentaries say during the visit she appeared very shy and quiet with those outside the family circle (sound familiar?), and kept everybody at arms length even when sharing the same room, and Maria Feodorovna, being the social butterfly she was, believed Alexandra's character was the antithesis of what a Russian Empress should be. The 1889 visit was basically a prologue, a preview of things to come and that the Tsar and Tsarina saw it or at least that's what they all claim.
That combined with the Tsar and Tsarina aiming far higher. They wanted more prestige (Margaret of Prussia) or potential political benefits (Helene of Orleans). A princess from a mere German Dutchy wasn't good enough for the heir to the Russian throne (never mind the fact that Alexander's own mother came from that Dutchy, although his anti-German feeling was coloring his thoughts by that time). They had bigger things in mind and Alexandra of Hesse-Darmstadt wasn't considered to fit the criteria even if her grandmother was Queen Victoria.
If the 1889 visit did play a huge part in their objections to Alexandra then I'm willing to believe that if Alexandra had Ella's personality there would have been no strong objections by Alexander and Maria. The only thing prolonging it would have been the question of religion.
Is the third photo in the following link the Grand Duchess' Bathroom No. 9? Note the transom and small corridor.
https://winterpalaceresearch.blogspot.ca/2017/10/imperial-family-photograh-albums.html
Joanna
I would also say that Ortino disclosing his Judaism at the very beginning of his first post, less we discern any sort bias on his behalf, was impressive as well. Not that taking a strong position on antisemitism requires such a disclosure or requires one to be Jewish in the first place...it's just nice to hear the honesty up front.
I was about to begin a new topic on what I'm about to say, but thought that it could well fit in here.
Mind you, this is a very sensitive issue since I have known many survivors of the Holocaust. I therefore find it difficult to contend with the knowledge that Jewish people participated in so many acts of brutality.
A glimpse of Anastasia´s 1906 portraits
And of all the children
Curious on why Anastasia's and the group's didn't have crosses over theirs but instead in the corner although taken by the same photographer.
1906
And little Masha herself
Oh my this is rare. Now I am wondering if both photos were taken in Alexandra's dressing room in the Alexander Palace and that is the door to her bath.
Joanna
Do you know the room and palace this photo was taken in?
Joanna
Well, you have posted a link to an article written by Mr. Krajewski, I suppose you have found it using Google, because he isn't much known as an scholar in the field of Russian history.
1. One of the books I quoted from was first published in 2006: The War of the World, by Niall Ferguson.
"Altogether 3,675 persons were arrested for participation in pogroms in 1881, of whom 2,359 were tried, giving the lie to the notion that the pogroms were officially instigated."
"[Pogroms of 1904-05] The evidence of orchestation by the Minister for the Interior himself has been exposed as bogus. Indeed, Pleve seems to have taken steps to mitigate the situation of the Jews in the Pale in the wake of the Kishinev pogrom...."
"I do not care to pass my suppositions for facts",
The view that the tsarist regime instigated the pogroms is debunked. No current historian with a minimum of credibility will push it. It is rubbish. It has been thrown to the "dumping site for theories proven wrong" together with the geocentrism, the world Jewish conspiracy and phrenology.
That's the translation of "challenged" in a professional journal for historians. They have to use mild language, in order not to hurt the feelings of those who supported the outdated view.
1. Jews were overrepresented among the Bolsheviks.
2. No completely satisfactory explanation has been proposed to explain this fact.
3. One of the reasons of 1) that was mentioned is that the economic, social and legal discrimination pushed the Jews to rebellion against the Russian autocratic regime. This view may be countered by the fact that Jews were also vastly overrepresented among the members of the Communist Party of the United States of America, one of whose aims was the violent overthrow of the American democratic regime, which does not discrimate against the Jews.
4. Nicholas and Alexandra were not rabid antisemites.
They may have shared some of the prejudices common in their age, reinforced by the fact that Jews were overrepresented among revolutionaries. But they would take time in the middle of a terrible war to help one Jewish man and Alexandra wished legal equality for the Jews.