Historical Anecdotes

[hikaru]

When Peter the Great came second time to the France,
he noted that one noble changed his clothes every day.
Peter said: "It seems to me that this man disappointed with his couturie".
(The point is that on Peter time russians used not to change clothes so often)

[hikaru]

This one of the period of Russo-Japanese War

When Nicholas expressed his regret about the several battleships which were flooded by japanese , he said
with some nuance of careless:
" I think of it as of the flea's bite"
(Actually he did care very much about losted battleships, but he did not want to show his real feelings before people and he wanted to show to the world that Russia is very strong .So the lost of 3-4 ships is not a problem at all. Maybe in this case, it was his mistake)

[hikaru]

This comical/tragic story is about Tercenentary and revolution.

For 300th anniversary of Romanov dynasty , in Alexandr Garden near Moscow Kremlin, an obelisk (some kind of monument) was raised. (1913 year)
On this column the names of  all 19 Romanov Tsars were carved on.The column  was crowned by the double-headed eagle , as the symbol of Russian Empire.

When Lenin transfered to Kremlin in 1918 and then made Moscow as the capital of new socialistic russia,
he had to make monuments of new gods and of new
valuables in short time.
They had no money and no time.
So, he decided to engrave new names of Socialist thinkers  and revolutionaries of the human history on the Romanov's names. He  also replaced eagle on the head by a golden globe to symbolize the earth.
The "new monument" have got the name "
Obelisk to the Fighters on Freedom".
Now we can see the following names on the column:
(sorry for spelling) Marx, Engels,
Libknekht, Lassaly, Babely, Kampanella, Melie, Uinstley,
Thomas More, Saint-Simone, Valian, Fourie , Zhores, Proudone, Bakunin, Chernyshevsky, Lavrov, Mikhaylovsky and Plekhanov.

Maybe someday, former names will be carved again.
(If you will try to see very steadfast, you could see the
place of formal names and  there's traces)

[hikaru]

I have just heard this amazing story at the opening ceremony of the World Championships on Figure Scating:

In 1908 in the world championship in London the first place took the scateman from Russia - Panin-Kolomenkin.
He worked at the police department of Tsarskoe Selo and liked figure scating very much.
But the Department where he worked prohibited  him to go to the World Championship to London.
So he decided to use only one part of his name - Kolomenkin. He went ot London and  He won the championship .
But when he returned home, he was obliged to make choice - work in Tsarskoe Selo or figure scating.
He choose work.

[La_Mashka]

During the reign of Tsarina Elizabeth, she was walking on the gardens of the Catherine Palace...

Suddenly she saw her palace up in flames!    and ran towards it screaming:  My palace is in flames!  My house is on fire!  ...

as she approached it, she realised it was the GOLD  that was glittering very much because of the bright sunny day  

[hikaru]

This is quite sad and strong anecdote about Nicholas:
(this is from one book printed abroad in 1909)
Nicholas used to write on the paper which he has read "prochyol s udovolystviem" ( i.e. read with pleasure)
When Nicholas have got the long telegramme about the murder of his beloved oncle Sergey Alexandrovich, Nicholas automatically wrote down: " read with pleasure".

It was artificially made anecdote. But a lot of people
of that time thought that it was true.

[hikaru]

Catherine the Great was very human person.
She woke up in the 6 in the morning , drank coffee and
worked alone till 9 o'clock.
If she felt cold she never asked pechka man or other servants for new firewood  because she did not want to wake them up.
Her slogan was : " It is necessary to have the skill to live; and it it necessary to have the skill to let the people live"

[moonlight_tsarina]

This is quite sad and strong anecdote about Nicholas:
(this is from one book printed abroad in 1909)
 Nicholas used to write on the paper which he has read "prochyol s udovolystviem" ( i.e. read with pleasure)
When Nicholas have got the long telegramme about the murder of his beloved oncle Sergey Alexandrovich, Nicholas automatically wrote down: " read with pleasure".

It was artificially made anecdote. But a lot of people
of that time thought that it was true.

That's horrible! Yet, funny thinking of the trouble he probably got into...

I believe there is a picture of the three girls hanging out the window of the room.  

That was in Tobolsk. Here it is.
http://img214.exs.cx/img214/1213/2tobolskanastasiamariatatiana0.jpg
But how could Maria fall out of the window and not get hurt? The window had to have been high up!
I also heard of Olga breaking a window. That's kind of bratty, and I don't remember why she did it. Does anyone know?

[Shvibzik]

 Â  Yes, that's the picture.  If that is after Maria jumped out, the girls don't look very concerned!:D  
  About Olga breaking the window, I've never heard that before.  It doesn't seem like her!:o

[anna]

  Yes, that's the picture.  If that is after Maria jumped out, the girls don't look very concerned!:D  

I don't think this photo was taken after Maria jumped out. Maria jumped out of the window of her father's study in Tsarkoe Selo I think it was.

Anna

[hikaru]

Olga Nikolaevna was very kind child .She was trying to
protect  people around her .
This case had place on 30th July 1908 . It was birthday of Alexei. Family was on "Standart" .
The playmate of the children -naval cabin boy  named Georgy Pinykowsky, played hard games with them and his uniform was in disorder.
Suddenly Georgy saw on the deck his severe teacher of mathematics of  naval school General-Mayor Matskevich, who was extremely angry of the Georgy's appearance.
(This General -Mayor was very well known as the man who could whipe boys till almost death),
The boy became pale and stopped the game.
Olyga tried hard to hear the truth from the boy. When she discovered things, she went to this General and stood on his back. She spited out on her hands and put her hands on the bald head of the General.
General became extremely furious , turned out and..
saw Olyga then smiled like a fool.
Olyga stuck out her tongue at the General and galloped on one foot.
Nicholas II did not see such Olyga's "exploit".

[Sarai_Porretta]

About Olga breaking the window, I've never heard that before.  It doesn't seem like her!:o

This incident about Olga was discussed on this thread (where you can read more details about it):
http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=olga;action=display;num=1102889984

The original reference to this incident is in the letters of Grand Duchess Maria to her father, on the main Alexander Palace site. The letter is dated September 5, 1915, and reads: "We went as far as the "caprice" and climbed the stairs, do you know? And as soon as we reached it Olga took her umbrella and rushed furiously at one of the windows and broke three glasses with her umbrella and I broke another window, then Anastasia did the same thing..."

[Sarai_Porretta]

I don't think this photo was taken after Maria jumped out. Maria jumped out of the window of her father's study in Tsarkoe Selo I think it was.

Yes, that picture with the girls looking down from the window was not the one where Maria fell from the window. There are no pictures of that incident as far as I know. This particular picture was taken in Mogilev in 1916. There is a thread about it here:
http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=family;action=display;num=1104693307

The story about Maria falling out of the window happened in 1912. It can be found on this thread (post by Greg King, 5/3/04): http://hydrogen.pallasweb.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=family;action=display;num=1077194467

The story goes: "One day in 1912 at Livadia, the four Grand Duchesses crept into their father's Study on the upper floor of the White Palace at Livadia in his absence.  The Emperor was unusually protective of his privacy, and almost always locked the room when he was gone, but on this day he had forgotten, and the temptation proved too much.  While the girls were exploring, their mother began to call for them.  As her voice became louder and more insistent, they panicked.  Marie ran for the window, and told her sisters to lower her out; she was dangling by her arms mid-way down the side of the Palace when Alexandra apparently walked into the room, and her sisters let go so as not to get caught.  She fell to the garden, some fifteen feet below, with a thud; luckily, she landed in some shrubbery, and was only bumped and bruised, but their adventure had been discovered and they were forbidden to go out for several weeks thereafter."

[Ming]

This is such a wonderful thread!  What a good idea, and the stories are marvelous.  Thank you all!  I especially enjoy hearing from you, haiku.  Your stories are just delightful.  You should write a book!

[Genevieve]

My favorite story was of Anastasia.  She put a necklace of crackers around her neck and said it so she could eat some any time she wanted to.   I cannot remember the whole quote but it showed her sense of humor.
Another one was she did not get the mark she wanted from a tutor.    She tried to bribe him by giving him a bunch of flowers.   When he  refused to change the mark
she offered them to another instructor who acepted it,because he did not know the story.   Too funny.