Favorites and Least Favorites

[Penny_Wilson]

Me, I rather like Michael Alexandrovich right now. I'd like to know more about his personality and motivations than we found out in the Crawfords' book.  I don't know why they called it "Michael and Natasha" because it seemed to me that he was just a prop in her bio.  I think he was deeper, more intelligent, and far more in tune with the times than they portrayed.

In the past, I have liked OTM, but not so much A and A.

My most enduring Romanov has been KR.  He's massively interesting, and there's always more to learn...

Penny

[David Newell]

Who is my fav Romanov, well that is a hard question! It would have to be Alexandra Fyodorovna. I have always been fascinated by her. As I have grown older I have understood her a little better. I do not say that I understand her, but I can see her points of view a little clearer. She came from a small provincial court and I think this had an enormous effect on the way she saw the Russian court in her early days. The education she had recieved and her knowledge of the constitutional monarchy of her grandmother created huge conflicts within her. I think Queen Victoria knew AF's failings and this is why she was against the marriage. I do not agree with some of Greg Kings conclusions about AF in Ekaterinburg, (but the new book on the Ipatiev house by him and Penny is the best book I have ever read on the subject, bravo you two, excellent work!!!!) I don't think she was a very different mother from many of the time. I mean of her class and education. I think by the time of Ekaterinburg she was an emotinal and physical wreck. But she could still call on reserves of strength, this I think she had learnt from the struggles with AN's illness.
Many have said that Nicholas II would have made a good constitutional monarch, but I am not sure AF would have been a good constitutional consort. You have to be seen to be that. She had similar traits to her mother and grandmother, reliance on men not of the family, i.e. John Brown. I have never believed the relationship with Raspution to have been physical. I am not convinced that Nicholas was always controled by AF, her letters are full of why have you  not, when will you and you must listen to our friend. But I do hold her in a special place, I think she did love Russia, but her misfortune was to be in love with a Russian that was rapidly changing and had no place for the Autocracy. She was a good mother and devoted wife and what would any of us have done if we had the constant knowledge that our children or spouse could be blown up at any moment. Would you not have wanted to withdraw to a place of safety, mentally and physically.
She fascinates me and I have to say I am a little obsessed by her. Her faith has always been an example to me, I wish I had such devotion.

David Newell, London April 2004

[investigator]

I think it would have to be Maria the Dowager Empress.  She has always interested me because of the Anastasia mystery and also because she is considered to be the most tragic figure of history.  I can understand that because she lost all her family her sons and her grandchildren.  how she survived all that? She i think was a very interesting woman.  I admire her strength and personality.

[Janet_Ashton]

Currently, mine is Konstantin Nikolaievich - a  reforming Romanov and an admirable man in my opinion (though ultimately like many Grand Dukes not a very good husband!). I am also fascinated by Miechen - for me, the most interesting people are not necessarily the nicest ones! Historically, my "favourite" in this sense has been Alix.

Janet

[olga]

olga nikolaevna and olga alexandrovna.

[jackie3]

I wouldn't argue with any of the choices made by others - the Romanovs (like the Stuarts and Plantagenets) seem to have had several generations of members who could have whole books devoted to them.

Personally I'd have to say that I feel the most for the Tsarina, Alix, a soul (like Marie Antoinette) still lied about and defamed for things she didn't do long after her death.

I'm most intrigued by Tsar Alexander I even if he wasn't Feodor Kumich. Vacillating yet strong, sneaky yet sincere. Raised by Catherine the Great to be her liberal successor only to not grant the reforms he had been taught as a child. An accomplice in the coup that toppled (and killed) his father Tsar Paul who was guilty for the rest of his life. A reluctant ally of Napoleon and yet also the monarch who let Moscow be burned rather than let Bonaparte have it and then led the Allied forces into Paris. A man with mistresses yet by the end of his life a religious mystic who may/may not have faked his own death.

I'm most entranced by GD Maria Nicolaivena whose pictures seem to show her very soul, its almost as if she's looking at us in many of the pictures all these years later - a different feeling from the others' photos. And for someone who was so good and nice and obviously beautiful (one can see why Lord Mountbatten kept her picture with him till he the day he died), she seems to have had low self-esteem, sometimes felt unloved and was commonly called fat. I can't imagine how she must have felt.

But my favorite is GD Olga Nicholaivena - she seems (from everything I've read) to be the only one who seemed to know what was going on (despite her sheltered upbringing) and where the "Revolution" was heading when it came to the fate of her family - there was a reason she brought a revolver with her to Tobolsk...and yet knowing what was to come she met her fate bravely. She seemed to have the kind personality of her father and the strong "will" of her grandfather Alexander III. If given a chance she could have made a good Tsarina in her own right if her father had changed the succession and WWI had not happened. Or if not that a Regent for her sickly brother. If there was any Romanov since Michael I himself I could talk to given the chance - it would be her.

[Janet Whitcomb]

Olga, you didn't tell us why you chose the two Olgas! And Thomas asked the question, but hasn't answered it himself.

[LisaDavidson]

Olga Alexandrovna, because it took enormous courage for her to have lost so much during her life, and yet she remained whole and sane.

[olga]

Olga Nikolaevna, because like jackie said, she seems to have had a better idea of what was happening outside the palace walls and was the most intelligent of the children.

Olga Alexandrovna:  i think she was seen by the court as boring and plain jane-ish, but she appears to have been more intelligent and grounded than the other members of her family. plus she lost so much of her family and her home, yet sh came out as such a strong and admirable woman. when she died the times of Imperial Russia were gone forever.

[super_stud2045]

My favorite Romanov is Grand Duchess Maria because she was the sweetest and most loyal of the four daughters.



Kimo Gant

[Silja]

Alix, because of her difficult and tragic character.

[Nick_Nicholson]

Well, getting into this conversation is quite difficult, but there are two who have always stood out for me.

konstantin konstantinovitch, because he was always able to look at the world around the romanovs and around Russia with such clarity, without being disloyal.  Also, he was a major scholar, whose translations from English are still used today.

I am also a devout follower of Elizaveta Feodorovna, who managed to accept her country with all its faults, and love it with all her ability--she was also able to love her family members despite their failings...

Nick

[Thomas_A.]

In my opinion there are no family members who are as interesting and fascinating as Alix and Ella!.

I think in my case it is really a kind of "Darmstadt-patriotism" ; it is very important for me that the two "Hesse-sisters" were born here - so near to my place - and so I am able to see all the places related to their roots without any problems.
It is incredible that two princesses from this little Grand Duchy became so well known through their hard destiny.

They're fascinating me because both were kind of "double edged". It is so difficult for me to express it in english... :-/
Ella with her inclination to luxury, jewels and gowns and the rude way she treated her niece Maria Pawlowna and on the other hand her total break away from secular relations and sacrifice for the poor.
Alix is - for me - one of the persons of whom one can say: You love her or you hate her.
She was so incredible stubborn and consequent in her opinion about "right or wrong" and was surely a very important factor for the dynasty's fall. But on the other hand - I had the great opportunity to read some of the
original letters she wrote to her brother Ernie in the Archive in Darmstadt - she was such a loving and devoted woman to those she liked. Her activities in the WWI and the way she cared for her friends (for example Princess Orbelijani) are outstanding.
They both had their good and their bad trades like everybody and that is the most fascinating thing: They were humans!.

[Lisa]

Thomas,
If you have a passion for Ella & Alix,please visit this site:
http://groups.msn.com/theGlitteringAbyss/shoebox.msnw

Did you read my personnal message for you?

[chatelaa]

My favorites are Ella and Alexandra:

(1)  Ella:   Because of her tremendous organizational ability; being devout is one thing, but  to organize a religious order;that is an incredible feat.

(2)   Alexandra:  I always had a sense that her stubborness stemmed from the awful role she had to play.  I suspect the only control she had over all those awful Palace Politics (and I thought University politics were and are Machivellian....!)and intrigue was to distance herself from it all. And distancing is usually considered by others as 'being cold' emotionally.   I can REALLY identify with that trait.  Plus all those babies!  Talk about post partum
depression!  

--Adele