Did N smoke ?

[myhusbandswife]

Thank you, I love the little details like that!

[Sasha_Katerina]

i dont have the picture on my computer but you can see that they all share cigs in the set of photos with tatiana, nicholas, and gd dmitri, they have all been passing around a cigarette in these photos. does anyone have these?

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

What interesting topic!! I would never imagined that Nicholas would like to promote that
habit to his daugthers, or that Tatiana smoked with him. About OMA, do you know if they
smoked too? Or if they just tasted a cigarete. I doubt if really he could feel better smoking

[Grand Duchess Jennifer]

All of OTMA smoked to calm their nerves. There's photographic evidence, just search "smoking" in the search bar. This thread has a large amount of information and has some photos:

http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=43.0

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Thank you very⁹⁹⁹ much!!

[historyfan]

What interesting topic!! I would never imagined that Nicholas would like to promote that
habit to his daugthers, or that Tatiana smoked with him. About OMA, do you know if they
smoked too? Or if they just tasted a cigarete. I doubt if really he could feel better smoking

Remember, we're talking about a time when smoking was not only considered ok, it was considered healthy (controlled weight and appetite, calmed nerves).  Now, of course, we know much differently.  Then, they had a totally different view.

[historyfan]

Alexandra did not smoke.  I do know that one emigre Cossack kept an old burnt match that he had used to once light a cigarette for the Emperor, and that often, guests would quietly pick up a butt from one of the cigarettes the Emperor had smoked as a souvenir.

She did indeed, at least occasionally.  She makes reference to it in Fuhrmann's "Wartime Correspondence".

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Remember, we're talking about a time when smoking was not only considered ok, it was considered healthy (controlled weight and appetite, calmed nerves).  Now, of course, we know much differently.  Then, they had a totally different view.

That's true, the thing that I was wondering was if he could really calm his nerves... What different ideas
about smoking!

[Constantinople]

Coonsidering the horrible end the family came to, it really doesnt matter which health affecting habits they indulged in.

[Magdalena]

She did indeed, at least occasionally.  She makes reference to it in Fuhrmann's "Wartime Correspondence".

can you please post the excerpt where she mentions it? I would be really grateful:)

[Alixz]

I was surprised to see this question asked again and again.

Nicholas smoked like a chimney and had the bad breath and bad teeth to prove it.  He also didn't like going to the dentist (like most of us) and I have read that his teeth were stained and full of cavities.

I have also read that all of the Grand Duchesses, including Anastasia, smoked with their father's permission.  I have also read that Alexandra smoked as did all of her sisters (I know that FA says no to this) but I know that I have read it in more that one source.

Smoking was a "right of passage" for most young people until the Surgeon General began to speak out against it in the mid 20th century.

All of this has been discussed before and if you use the "search" engine in the forum, you should be able to find the thread you are looking for.

[bestfriendsgirl]

I've always wondered how Nicholas II could reconcile smoking like a freight train with being so physically active. Even taking into consideration the fact that the tobacco he smoked probably wasn't near as toxic as that in cigarettes today, you'd think that after constantly getting short of breath while rowing, playing tennis, etc. he'd put two and two together and try to quit.
Also, it surprises me that Alix and OTMA smoked ... in that era, in America at least, smoking by women and especially young girls was considered "trashy."

[Mandie, the Gothic Empress]

the Empress and her daughters smoked in private but never in public, which in public is consider trashy for women to smoke.

I'm suprise that the Empress smoked even having weak lungs (after the birth of her son, she had leg and chest pains constantly) , since she had breathing problems and pains. today, a doctor would have told her to quit smoking.

[Alixz]

I remember reading that the Empress had "conditions" and that she told the doctor what was wrong with her and he treated it whether or not she actually had those conditions or not is a question we will probably never know the answer to.

The doctor treated her for what she said she had and if he disagreed with her, he would no longer be her doctor.

I don't think that doctors back then even knew that smoking was bad for the health.  It was a right of passage and "en vogue" for ladies of the aristocracy to smoke.

The Empress and the Dowager Empress both tired to hide that they smoked, but that always reminds me of one of my aunts who, to this day, ties to hide that she smokes.  We all humor her because we have all known since our childhoods that she smokes.  She is in her 80s now and we all just pretend that the cigarette isn't behind her back all the time.

[TimM]

Of course, they didn't know how bad smoking was for your health back then.