Author Topic: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated  (Read 323657 times)

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Offline ChristineM

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #105 on: February 12, 2005, 06:17:10 AM »
Griffh

Unfortunately you have learned the hard way.   There are a lot of unscrulpulous people out there.   NEVER send originals of anything to anybody - in fact beward of what you send at all.   You must check out their credentials first.   I can understand why you thought a publisher would be trustworthy.   To give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they misplaced them.

I speak as one who has had their fingers burned and you would be shocked if you knew the extent to which this goes on.  

As you say, no-one can take your memories.   These are the dearest things we possess.

tsaria

Offline griffh

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #106 on: February 12, 2005, 09:22:38 AM »
Thank you for your comforting remarks and very good advise Tsaria.  That is very helpful and makes me feel stronger and wiser to have read what you have said.  But you know the bright side is that I would have given everything I had to be apart of a this discussion board because I have known so few individuals who I could discuss these ideas with.

Kamlowsky the way the books came back to me was very much the way they all came originally to me.  I started collecting when I was twelve and books cost $.50 and the expensive ones cost $1.75.  

In NYC there were the most enormous used book stores on lower Park Ave near Astor Place.  I mean these book stores were two and three stories high.  Every Saturday I would gather up all my spare change and look and look through the stacks and try to listen with my heart instead of look with my eyes and I would be directed to certain books.  Often they would be in the wrong section, or sometimes the owner of the book store would see how intensely I was looking and would take me to a special section devoted to women, or Russia or something where there would be an incredible stash of memoires.  

The way "Imperial Stepdaughter" came to me was really amazing.  I was walking down the street in NYC and in front of a book store there were stands of books that had been salvaged from a fire.  The covers were in pretty bad shape but the contents were ok.  

The books looked so dismal that I did not want to stop and look through them so I kept on walking.  Just as I was passing infront of the third stand, I swear to you that a voice told me to stop and reach in the pile of books and I did and pulled out "Imperial Stepdaughter"  I tell you that was such an exciting moment, it was as if the book had called out to me.  I held it so closely to my shirt that my shirt was covered with ashes, but suprisingly when I got home and carefully cleaned the outside of  the book most of the ashes just washed off and the actual binding was in good shape.  That is why I so loved that book.  I felt as though I had saved it from the Revolution.  The other thing about Imperial Stepdaughter that made is so rare to me is that is was published in 1941, a decade after most of the Russian Court memories had been published.

It took a few years for those books to reappear in my life but they all managed to with the exception of Imperial Stepdaughter.  I will just tell about how Anna Viroubova's memories reappeared in my library as her book was one of the one's I lost to the publisher.  

Several years after the loss, I had kind of forgotten or actually had given up the idea that I would ever be able to find Anna's book again and then I was invited by a prominent NYC judge to attend a showing of Prince Alexander Tarsaidze's collection of movies at the Union Club.  He had collected all the available movies taken of the Imperial family.  The movies included newsreal cuts and home movies.  Until then I had never seen the Empress or her family in motion and I suppose I made a bit of a scandal as I kept gasping in amazement because I was so overcome by seeing them move.  

Well afterwards there was a small reception and the Judge took me over to a book case and showed me the collection of memories that the Union Club has and among them was Anna's book.  It just tore my heart to see it.  The judge told me how rare the book was and that it was a first edition, just as mine had been.  I did not tell him that once I owned that book.

Well about a year later I drove out to Jersey to a flea market and as I was walking up and down the dusty lanes of vendors I saw a man with books and magazines.  Something came to me to ask him if he had Queen Marie of Romania's second book "Ordeal of My Life."  He shouted back to his wife to ask her if they had that book on Marie.  She handed him a book and he handed it to me and said, "Is this the book you are looking for?"  I looked down and saw I was holding Anna Viroubova's book.  Its terra cotta binding with that sort of wonderful Byzantine-deco jade green design just overwhelmed me with joy.  I held it so closely to my body that finally the man asked me whether I wanted to hold it or buy it.  I very reluctantly gave it back to him so he could see how much I had to pay.  He opened the book and looked up and said that I would have to pay him $2.00.  I really don't know how I kept from passing out right there and then, but somehow I managed to find my wallet and pay him.  He kept reassuring me that it was a fair price for an old book.  I had temporarily lost my power of speech and just kept nodding my head in agreement.  

So this is the way most all my books came back to me and then I found abebooks.com.  However I still listen with my heart and maybe someday it will lead me to Imperial Stepdaughter.



Offline griffh

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #107 on: February 12, 2005, 10:03:59 PM »
Thank you Tsaria for such a kind offer to inform me if you find a source for Imperial Stepdaughter.  That really touched me.  And yes my life has been very up and down but I think that things are beginning to level off.  I don't know if age does that or if wisdom does that, but again I was really deeply touched by your kind offer.  

And thank you Kamlowsky for your blessing.  It is so intereting to have been on this self appointed mission all of these years with no real goal insight except a thirst for knowledge about such an incredible time in history in such a wonderful country whose history, good, bad or indifferent I so love.  It has been a wonderful journey.  I am so grateful to Bob that our of his generosity he has created a wonderful place for all of us to gather and share ideas and really become a resource for each other.  


Sunny

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #108 on: February 15, 2005, 06:52:44 AM »
Dear Griffh,

I recently purchased a reprint of Imperial Step-Daughter, from Royalty Digest. Don't know if you are only looking for an original. Have added the address, in case you might be interested.

minet.royalty@btinternet.com

Sunny
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Sunny »

Offline griffh

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #109 on: February 15, 2005, 05:52:39 PM »
Oh! Sunny! how totally cool.  Do you have Royalty Digest's website address?   That is totally amazing.  Every since I shared that story I keep wondering if her name was actually Natalia or was Nadeja, or was it something entirely different.  Well anyway I will be shortly finding the answer out.   What a wonderful fourm this is.  I just can't get over it.  

Currently I am reading the installments of Aline, the novel about Alexandra that appeared in Harpers Magazine in 1894 just before she was married to Nicholas.  Richard Harding Davis, the reigning
American journalist and writer, wrote the novel after seeing a society photograph of her and instantly falling in love.  His close friend, the world famous illustrator, Charles Dana Gibson illustrated the book.  

It is slowly dawning on me as I read the three installments how perfectly Alix fit into the smart young Gibson Girl ideal of the time.  It also occured to me that no one, not even the ravishingly beautiful Ella, had ever been the heroine in a novel that swept America and Europe.  Even Queen Victoria read Aline.  

So when Alexandra rushed to the Crimea in second class accomodations and was not given much attention, it hardly matter as she was already an international sensation.  

I surmise that the great acclaim of Aline must have caused a sort of Princess Di turmoil for Alix.  I am sure that such public acclaim must have really cause Minnie to protect her turff with a vengence.  She was not going to let this 22 year old girl upstage her during one of the greatest personal losses of her life.  I am sure that the backlash from Aline must have been one of the reasons that Alix was pushed into the background to such a great extent.  

I am sure very few people will agree with my conjectures.  Well on the brighter side, thank you again Sunny for your help.  I just cant't wait to get my hands on that book, it will be like talking to a an old friend that I have not seen for years and years.  My books truely are my friends as I am sure they are for all of us.  thanks again griff
   

Sunny

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #110 on: February 15, 2005, 06:31:23 PM »
Dear Griffh,

You will find the book on this page:

http://www.picrare.com/Royalty_Digest/RDBookForSale/RDReprints.htm

Helen, who answers emails at Royalty Digest, is very helpful

Thomas Jefferson got it right when he said: "I cannot live without books".   ;)

Sunny

samcr

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #111 on: February 21, 2005, 05:15:46 AM »
I think both Nicolas and Alexandra were russia's worst night mare , he was weak and didnt have the foggiest what he was meant to be doing, As for Alexadera she was about as helpful as a stuffed fish! she was total rapped up in her own little world,
also why have they made them saints???
what good did any of them do in this world, its not as if they gave anything to the russian people!! ok so the children died young, lots of people died in russian in that period of history !!!

bluetoria

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #112 on: February 21, 2005, 08:50:55 AM »
Quote
I think both Nicolas and Alexandra were russia's worst night mare , he was weak and didnt have the foggiest what he was meant to be doing, As for Alexadera she was about as helpful as a stuffed fish! she was total rapped up in her own little world,
also why have they made them saints???
what good did any of them do in this world, its not as if they gave anything to the russian people!! ok so the children died young, lots of people died in russian in that period of history !!!


Alexandra could not win. If she did nothing she was accused of being 'wrapped up in her own little world.' If she involved herself, she was accused of interfering. She was much more than 'stuffed fish' - she was, if nothing else, a totally devoted wife & mother.
Nicholas may not have been capable of running the country, but I doubt any one else could have done either at such a time. What were his options? To become a total despot? (Although it was against his nature)
To grant a constitutional monarchy - which went against all he had been brought up to believe about the divine vocation of the Tsar.
They both may have made MANY mistakes but they were hardly Ivan the Terrible...no, they were not Russia's worst nightmare: World War I was, the indiscriminate killing in the revolution was, the appalling atrocities of Stalin were, the Communist suppression of the people was...IMO

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by bluetoria »

samcr

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #113 on: February 21, 2005, 10:09:06 AM »
they really didnt help matter's did they , Im sorry but
they could of done so much more , than what they did, he wouldn't listen to anyone apart from his wife!
so Im sorry he may not of been like Ivan the terrible but he did destroy Russian in his way!

Denise

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #114 on: February 21, 2005, 10:57:45 AM »
Quote
they really didnt help matter's did they , Im sorry but
they could of done so much more , than what they did, he wouldn't listen to anyone apart from his wife!
so Im sorry he may not of been like Ivan the terrible but he did destroy Russian in his way!


I think you need to read a bit more about the political climate at the time.  The Romanov dynasty was already on shaky ground when Nicholas became tsar.  Check out some of the threads on this forum under Imperial Russian history and the Russian Revolution.  

There was a lot more going on than Nicholas listening only to his wife!!



Silja

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #115 on: February 21, 2005, 02:47:50 PM »
Quote
why have they made them saints???
what good did any of them do in this world, its not as if they gave anything to the russian people!!


Which is totally immaterial as to whether or not they qualify for sainthood in the Orthodox religious sense.
I can only repeat that the religious idea of sainthood has little to do with our "worldly" idea of an "ideal" human being".

Silja

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #116 on: February 21, 2005, 02:50:21 PM »
Quote
he wouldn't listen to anyone apart from his wife!


A generalization which is false.

samcr

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #117 on: February 22, 2005, 03:27:58 AM »
Im not going to go into what Iv read etc, thats such a bore, but thats my view on Nicholas and Alexander ,
I do realise it just wasn't them, who was in the down fall of Russia, but I do think they were the icing on the cake! so yes old Alexandra was a nightmare!

bluetoria

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #118 on: February 22, 2005, 11:40:03 AM »
Quote
so yes old Alexandra was a nightmare!



I prefer to think that Alexandra lived THROUGH a nightmare. Her whole life was so terribly sad, from the early death of her mother, brother & sister; her anxious personality; her long deliberations of her conversion; the tragedy of Khodinka; her failure for so long to bear a son, and then the son whom she loved being so ill; right through to the Rveolution.
I just think her life was terribly tragic and whether or not she was responsible for some of the misfortunes, she certainly (personally) inflicted no more suffering on others than she herself endured.

Val289

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Re: Alexandra - Slandered and Hated
« Reply #119 on: February 22, 2005, 11:48:21 AM »
Quote


I prefer to think that Alexandra lived THROUGH a nightmare. Her whole life was so terribly sad, from the early death of her mother, brother & sister; her anxious personality; her long deliberations of her conversion; the tragedy of Khodinka; her failure for so long to bear a son, and then the son whom she loved being so ill; right through to the Revolution.
I just think her life was terribly tragic and whether or not she was responsible for some of the misfortunes, she certainly (personally) inflicted no more suffering on others than she herself endured.


bluetoria - So very eloquently stated (as usual!).   I couldn't agree more with what you've just said :)