I was wondering what originally got everyone here interested in the Romanovs (specifically, I mean in Nicholas II's family) and what has inspired you to maintain that interest? For me, I first became acquainted with their story in 1992 as a thirteen year old girl when I saw an article about them in ¡Hola! magazine (the Spanish equivalent to Britain's "Hello!" magazine). There were several pictures of the children and I was especially captured by the beauty of the little girls in their 1906 picture that shows headshots of the four sisters in a row. A caption below said that those lovely little girls would eventually be murdered, and I couldn't believe that such beauty and innocence could be so mercilessly obliterated. I started researching more about their story and the more I found the more I was interested, especially in finding family photographs like those found in the wonderful "family album" books that came out in the 1990's, such as "The Romanovs: Love, Power, and Tragedy" and Prince Michael's "Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums."
The more I read about this family, the more human they became to me and I felt as if I almost knew them personally after having read so much about them. I could actually relate to them as fellow human beings and not as inaccessible royals. I could personally relate to Alexandra's shyness and being misunderstood for it, her love and devotion for her family above everyone and everything else, etc. To me, this family was not just some abstract and arrogant royal family you would just read about in a history book but never be able to relate to, but real people with compassion, charity, innocence, love, and overall good hearts. I like the fact that they were so different than other royals, that they were involved more in their quiet family life than in socializing and politics (although, of course, this was a great detriment for them as rulers), that they cared about their more humble subjects, and how they maintained tremendous dignity and patience in their last days. They seemed more like ordinary people than great rulers, despite their incredible wealth and prestigious bloodlines. Even when stripped of their ranks and wealth, they could have lived happily just as well among ordinary middle class persons, as that was in their humble souls. I remember seeing pictures of the Grand Duchesses as adolescents kneeling in the dirt with and holding peasant children, and I thought that perfectly captured their essence and made them seem all the more real, as I couldn't imagine many princesses of royal blood dirtying their clothes with mud and dirt to hug poor and dirty little peasants, and even taking care to record their names and put their photos in their albums. They seemed like people we could all be friends with today if we had the chance.
Finally, something to consider as a final thought is would we be nearly half as interested in their story if they had not met such a tragic end? If they were just any other royals who lived out their lives in peace and comfort, I don't think they would have such a following, even if their lives had turned out to be interesting. Knowing their fate is what makes their story that much more compelling, even though of course I wish they could have been spared of that terrible end and not perhaps had such a fascinating story as a result.
