at rferl.org you can see then 1911 and now 2010 color pictures of the Russian Empire taken by S.M. Prokhudini-Gorsko who was hire by Nicholas to take them. Some places haven't changed that much others sure have. One of the pictures is of Tobolsk. No doubt the IF looked at these pictures one evening and I can see one of the children asking where is Tobolsk located little knowing they would be sent there one day.
Haunting isn't it?
On a similar note do you think maybe just one of the family members might have said, "Hey, these look so nice. Why don't we have ourselves photographed in color?". And if those words were spoken then where the hell are those photos today???!!!
Sorry just a small pet peave of mine :-) We have thousands of beautiful black & white photos of the family that have survived to this day but NOTHING in color?! Ridiculous I say!
Well, Prokudin himself said that, when leaving the then Bolshevik Russia, he hid those photographs of the Imperial family in a safe place.
He would not have been allowed to take them out, and they would have been confiscated (and probably destroyed).
So the big question remains: Where are they now?!
BTW: The US Library of Congress bought Prokudin's collection from his children. You can view all the photos on the L of C's web-site.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/
