Things that annoy you because you're a Romanov fan

[RomaFan96]

I thought this question might get a few funny answers because there are some things that annoy us BECAUSE we are fans of the Imperial Family. They wouldn't annoy us if we weren't. I thought it would be cool/fun to see what everyone else thought

A couple of my "Romanov annoyances" are:

1. When the Grand Duchesses get referred to as "Princesses" (i.e Princess Anastasia). This happens a lot when they get reported in the British press and I'm just like "THAT'S NOT THEIR TITLE." Like calling someone Miss instead of Mrs.

2. When people watch the Anastasia cartoon and instantly think Anastasia survived. This doesn't really invoke a feeling of annoyance for me, actually. More feelings of "if only you knew...." and "don't get me started on why she didn't"

3. People mispronouncing the name Romanov. Names being mispronounced gets on my nerves  in general. Growing up with an uncommon name, it happened to me a lot in school and other places. Ro-MAN-ov. Not RO-man-ov as its often pronounced here.

4. When people make claims about the Imperial Family that you just know are not true. I can remember when I studied Imperial Russia as part of my A Levels a year ago, my class all seemed convinced that Alexandra had an affair with Rasputin. I can see why they would think that but Romanov fans know it's just not true. And it's really hard to argue your case when everyone else takes stuff at face value.

5. When people question my interest in the Imperial Family. I just find them a lot more interesting than Justin Bieber and One Direction.

Does anyone else have any more amusing annoyances?

[edubs31]

I'm on board with you on some of these. But others seem more like petty grievances than genuine annoyances...

1) Don't hear this too often but yes I suppose it merits correcting.

2) I think this has been a source of irritation for any serious Romanov fan since...well...forever.

3) Eh, now you're overdoing it a little. This never bothered me and I too slip into "Rome-enough" from time to time. There are a number of ways to pronounce Anastasia too...It's not like we're confused about who you're referring to here.

4) This false information that gets accepted as fact bothers me as well. There are any number of myths and misconceptions about Rasputin though so I feel like it's simply water under the bridge.

5) My cats are more interesting than Justin Bieber and One Direction. The only people who would question why you're more interested in Romanovs/Russian history than current teeny-bopper fads are not worth your time in the first place.

[Laura Mabee]

3. People mispronouncing the name Romanov. Names being mispronounced gets on my nerves  in general. Growing up with an uncommon name, it happened to me a lot in school and other places. Ro-MAN-ov. Not RO-man-ov as its often pronounced here.

Guilty as charged. Growing up, all documentaries and films I watched pronounced it  RO-man-ov. It's very hard to change.  : (

[Georgiy]

The one about pronunciation is an interesting issue. Here in New Zealand, many place names are in Maori. English pronunciations give mangled results, so there is a big effort made for people to say them correctly. On the other hand, who among you say "talk-your" for Tokyo, yet that is closer to the correct pronunciation. No one pronounces my wife's name, Olga, correctly either. I think it is important to make an effort to pronounce things as closely as possible to the original, but within the limitations of one's own language. Bearing that in mind, correct pronunciation of Romanov and Anastasia is not beyond English speakers.

[Превед]

One of my Romanov annoyances is that people don't acknowledge that they weren't really Romanovs, but Holstein-Gottorp-Romanovs! :-)

[TimM]

When you're watching a movie set in Imperial Russia and can't help noticed all the things they got wrong.

This is why my friend won't dare watch any such movie with me in the room.

[TheLionandTheEagle]

People who think Rasputin was a monk.

[1130 WNEW]

If Rasputin wasn't a monk, what was he?

Also, as with Marie Antoinette, most of what average people know of Alexandra is post-mortem lies by the revolutionaries.

[Превед]

If Rasputin wasn't a monk, what was he?

He was a strannik (Russian: стра́нник), which means a religious wanderer or pilgrim. (From страна, country, region.)

His Wikipedia article says:
Rasputin's claimed vision of Our Lady of Kazan turned him towards the life of a religious mystic. Around 1893, he travelled to Mount Athos, but left shocked and profoundly disillusioned, confronted with sodomy as he told Makary. By 1900, Rasputin was identified as a strannik, a religious wanderer, visiting holy places on foot and living from charity. However, he always went home to help his family with sowing and the harvest. He is sometimes considered a yurodiviy ("holy fool"), and a starets ("elder"), but he did not consider himself a starets, who lived in seclusion and silence.

[Aliss_Kande]

Strictly speaking, OTMA were "Grand Princesses", not "Grand Duchesses", but there is no English equivalent of that title.  I can let that one go, but a shiver goes up my spine each time.

My biggest pet peeve is when photos are mislabeled.  Not the rare, poor quality, can't properly see who it is pics, but the 1913 family photos where all the girls are labeled wrong.  I've seen it wrong in so many "history" books.

[Превед]

Strictly speaking, OTMA were "Grand Princesses", not "Grand Duchesses", but there is no English equivalent of that title.  I can let that one go, but a shiver goes up my spine each time.

If it's any solace, I can point out that the English language, despite often being hailed as having the globally richest vocabulary, couldn't render the sheer awesomeness of OTMA's title with "grand princesses" either. "Grand princesses" makes you think of some elevated, pretentious and staid form of an ordinary princess, like a princess royal or la grande mademoiselle, but as you know in Russian they were not великие принцессы / velikie printsessy, some elevated form of minor princesses from Central European dwarf "grand" duchies like Hesse, Luxembourg, the Brothers Grimms Märchenland or outright Disneyland, but великие княжны, velikie knyazhny, Großfürstinnen, which sounds so ice-cold yet multicoloured that they can only be shown on black-and-white photos due to technical deficiencies in our current fallen age. Thats how I like to think of it, anyways. :-)

[Ally Kumari]

This is really minor, btu I get very frustrated whenever somebody claims that "Tatiana" means "Fairy Queen". IT-DOES-NOT. I am sorry that her name´s origin is not poetic enough but that does not mean you can just conjure up a meaning that will suit your wants better.

[TimM]

When they mispronouncing the names.

The old In Search Of episode about Anna Anderson, for example.  Leonard Nimoy kept mispronouncing Tatiana's name as "Titania"!

[1130 WNEW]

Clearly Mr. Nimoy had other things on his mind at that particular moment...

My own pet peeve - guys who sexualize and objectify OTMA. They were brutally murdered. We don't need to know what sexual antics some spotted geek wishes he could have OTMA perform.

[Превед]

We don't need to know what sexual antics some spotted geek wishes he could have OTMA perform.

Tell them evil uncle Serguey and lecherous uncle KR would come, drag them to a bathhouse and punish (!) them with imperial impunity if they touched OTMA!

BTW the older I get the more I think spots on lads are adorable...... (*Lecherous grand dukes Serguey and KR chuckle.)