Even though I have been buried in the Empress' War Correspondence, I have followed every news item that Bob has so generously posted for all of us. I have also followed each of Bob’s posts and found them incredibly interesting. He had solved issues for me that I had not been clear about before.
At such a moment I just want to add how grateful I am for this Alexander Palace website and for its loving dedication to the IF and for the fact that it is the only place I can unite with persons who feel the same thrill of history that this event has produced within my heart. Every since I have found out about this discovery of Alexis and Maria’s remains, I have tried to tell some of my friends about this historic find but it has meant very little or nothing to them. If it were not for this wonderful website I would feel so alone in my joy and would have no one to share my elation with.
I must also add how grateful I am to Margarita for her tenacious historic sense of exactness and her emphasis on the accurate translation of the Russian language. Whilst working with Margarita I grew to deeply appreciate her continuous battle to establish a scientific sense of accuracy in the debate that raged over the remains of the IF. I grew to appreciate her detailed sense of events in connection with the murder of Rasputin and her constant concerns over the translation of the Russian language which more often than not incorrectly translated. It is so characteristic of Margarita’s marvelous ethic to give us, not only her very accurate translation of the Russian text about the discovery of the remains of Alexis and Maria, but to also give us the Russian text to compare against her translation. Bravo la Contesse.
I could add that Margarita has a vast library of Russian first source material, not to mention her medical expertise, and that this vast fund of information comprises the basis of her carefully researched conclusions which allows her to bring reason and common sense to debates that still rage and probably will continue to rage over the remains of the IF. However if I did make such claims in her behalf, I might be accused of being biased. So I will just say that both Bob and Margarita have an enviable research data base.
While reading the following excerpts from the Empress’s War Correspondence for April 1915, when Nicky was on his victory tour of Galicia, I could not feeling a certain heartbreaking connection between the fate of Alexis’ framed photograph and the discovery of his remains. Alix wrote Nicky:
Letter No. 60 Tsarskoe Selo, April 8th, 1915
I send you in remembrance [of the Russian victory at Przemysl] an Image of St. Simeon - leave it for always as a guardian angel in your compartment - you will like the smell of the wood. -
Imperial Train. Proshourov. 12 April, 1915
MY PRECIOUS DARLING,
First of all, my warmest thanks for your two letters and the ikon of St. Simeon the Holy, and for Baby's photograph, which I have, alas I dropped out of the box and broken the glass. That happened in Przemysl...Nicky
Nicky’s thanks Alix “…for Baby’s photograph, which I have, alas I dropped out of the box and broken…”
These words of Nicky seem so poignant and prophetic for after almost a century of searching, we have at last found the shattered pieces.
