What got you interested in the Romanovs?

[pushkina]

what seems like a thousand years ago, when i was very little, maybe six, i saw a hallmark special, anastasia.  it began with a dramatization of the cellar murder. it was the movie with ingrid bergman. i felt as if i had seen the cellar scene before.

then, when i was nine or ten, i saw robert massie on the old mike douglas show.  he was talking about his new book, N&A. he talked about the cellar murder; i decided i needed to know more. the summer i was ten, i bought a paperback copy at the supermarket and read it.  from then on, i was entranced. in fact, when we were little, our cousins used to play a game, hiding from the nazis.  after that, i  changed the game for the younger set: hiding from the bolsheviks. i was always anastasia.

that summer, after i finished the book, i began teaching myself russian from a grammar and dictionary from the public library.  from that time, every summer whilst i was in school, i took up my russian.  but i really didn't learn much until later.

i so loved the family; i felt related to them and so close to them. i was almost delusional. i had three fascinations then: rome, russia (and from then revolutions) and the beatles.  i was still young enough to be playing with dolls and i set my dolls all up as members of the family or the suite. i had a stuffed skunk who was rasputin. then as i grew older the beatles (and music in general) took over for a time.

in university i majored in iranian area studies as an undergraduate.i went to iran and then there was the revolution. then i went to u of penn, where there was not only a great iranian studies department but a famous prof of russian history, alexander riasanovsky. i did a lot of russian history there and decided to combine the study of iranian current events with russian history and did graudate work comparing the two revolutions.

while working on it, i had the chance to meet some of the iranian royals who, seemed to have read their russian history, so they told me. they looked at the example of the tsar and his family and ran when they could.

BTW, i carried that old copy of N&A all over the world with me until someone in tehran asked me to please "lend" it to them.  we were in a bomb shelter during the iraq-iran war, being shelled. we were all terrified but that person most of all. to help her take her mind off the shelling, i did so and i've never seen it since.

and the first web site i found when i first connected to the web in 1995 was...the alexander palace time machine.

[Maria_Vanya]

2 years ago, I was sitting in class and my teacher told us all to get out a book and read, and knowing how forgetful I am, I didn't have a book with me. My friend sitting next to me had 2 books, one was the diary of Anastasia, from the Royal Diary collection. I grabbed it and was flipping through the back where the pictures are(acting like I was reading ) I saw one of the family sitting on thier prison roof and it made me more interested in knowing about them. I am very glad I didn't have a book that day or I probably would never have been as interested in the Romanovs as I am today, and thanks to my friend who even had the book in the first place! It's been 2 years that I have grown to liking their family and I haven't stopped liking them one bit since then.

[koloagirl]

 
Hello all!   New on the board, so bear with me please!

I guess when I first read the infamous
"Nicholas and Alexandra" book by Massie
and the movie afterwards....
having been a devotee of Queen Victoria
and all things thereabout....
it was natural that I became very interested in the Romanov family as well--easy transition!  And
of course, such tragedy and drama in their lives.

What has kept me interested all these
years is something hard to explain, but
that all of you seem to have also.....that
"somehow I feel I know them"
feeling you get when you read
about them or especially, see pictures.  
Something like the way I felt about the late
Princess Diana.....such warm, genuine
people in such elevated stations....but somehow you can just imagine them as friends!  

They all have that "certain something" that keep us all interested and loving them all this time later, don't they?
I'm sure the fact that they were so lovely looking didn't hurt either!
Janet R.    

[Abby]

When I was in elementary school I saw a documentary with my parents about Anna Anderson on A&E or one of those channels and I asked them a bunch of questions about it but all I got out of the conversation was that a Russian king was called a "Czar" and I thought it started with a "Z" and I thought that was weird. LOL I was young.
But then when I was in 8th grade we had to do presentations about something historical in front of the class and for some reason I decided to research whatever it was that the "Zar" documentary on A&E was about. I found "Anastasia's Album" in my school library and after that I was hooked! Here I am 7 years later on this forum!  

[Dnisi]

    This is my first time ever posting a message - so nice to meet everyone here!  I first became interested in the Romanovs because of their fascinating geneology.  In college, I took a Russian history course which I loved.  That led to doing my senior thesis on Rasputin's relationship with the Imperial Family.  I'm planning to go back to grad school and get my Master's Degree in Archival Studies.  Who knows maybe I could someday get to actually see some of the Romanov treasures (perhaps wishful thinking!)

[livadia]

Tenth grade.  World history.  Mr. White gave me his copy of Massie's Nicholas & Alexandra to shut me up, because I had finished the readings for our WWI unit and wanted more.  LOL.  When I saw the photo of Anastasia Nikolaievna in her kokoshnik and court gown, I nearly fainted - she looked very much like my mom did as a child.  

[gem_10]

Hi there! My interest to the Romanov Family started when I was 12 years old, about 7 years ago. I visited my friend in their house and we watched the animated movie "Anastasia". Ever since I was a child, I really love watching and reading fairy tales. When I watched the movie, it has a different and lasting impression to me. For on thing, it is not like a usual fairy tale movie. It is something unique and almost factual. I really love the snow scenes, the color of their dresses, their palace... it is really amazing and very unique. I rememberhow it gave me the feeling of mystery. When I was a child, the first thing that comes into my mind everytime I heard the word "Russia" is mystery. I don't know. Perhaps it is the people's way of life, their costumes, the winters, their huge and incredibly beautiful and unique palaces, the onion-shaped domes of the churches, the colors gold and red.... After I had watched the movie, I started looking in our encyclopedia about Nicholas II to see if Anastasia and her grandmother did exist. When I found a picture of Anastasia and her family, everything changes. Ever since then, I started researching in our school libraries and when I had gained access in the internet, I started researching about Anastasia's mother, Alexandra.

[Michelle]

I TOTALLY 100% agree with you on the whole Russia thing, lunarmaiden!  Whenever I heard the name Russia I always conjured up this huge vast land of mystery and splendor and lost princesses.  Russia and the aura of mystery it invokes is just astounding.

[Eurohistory]

Listening to stories told to me by a nephew of the last tsarina when I was a child and teenager...how could one not fall for the wonderful story of splendour, grandeur and utter tragedy...what better human story to study!

Arturo Beéche

[Eurohistory]

Actually HOLA is the precursor of HELLO.

Arturo Beéche

[Martyn]

May I respectfully enquire Arturo, if it isn't too personal a question, who was the nephew of the Tsarina?

[Eurohistory]

Martyn, not at all, I do not mind you asking whatsoever.

I grew up in Costa Rica.  Prince Sigismund of Prussia (middle son of Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine, elder sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna) and his family (Charlotte Agnes, Barbara and Alfred) settled in my country in the 1920's  At the time my great-grandfather was the governor of our state (province).  Having studied in pre-war London, he knew much about Europe's royal families.  He and Prince Sigismund hit it off and a family friendship started, which is maintaned with Prince Alfred by me to this day.  In fact, Prince Alfred of Prussia was the guest of honor at the III Eurohistory Conference (October 2000), a royal studies symposium we host here in San Francisco every Fall.

Sigismund and my great-grandfather were about the same age.  They became very good friends  and both families visited each other frequently. My grandmother helped Princess Charlotte Agnes with a bee honey business (grandmother had all her friends recycle glass containers) and very ofetn when she went to see Princess Charlotte Agnes at their farm in the mountains outside the town I grew up in, I tagged along.

I love, have loved, books since I was a small child.  Prince Sigismund had an amazing library at San Miguel and he always allowed me to go through it.  I sat down countless afternoons listening to his reminiscences, I guess no one else was interested.

Sigismund died in 1978, my fourteenth year, and I still remember him quite vividly.  I found some photos of him and his wife at my grandmother's not too long ago, private shots, that brought very fond memories. I visit his grave, and that of his wife, every time I go home.

Prince Alfred let San Miguel go to wreck.  he has always been a free-spirit and has very little interest in anything royal.  All was basicaly lost, except some of the books his father owned, which Alfred claims will come to me when he passes.

Arturo Beéche

[Janet_W.]

What a wonderful introduction into the study of European monarchies! And I'm sure many of us would be interested in finding out more about your Eurohistory Conference. Do you have a website?

[Eurohistory]

Yes my magazine and bookstore have a website at http://www.eurohistory.com

Several posters here are involved in writing/editing of The European Royal History Journal and have given presentations at the Eurohistory Conference.  The next one is on October 16-17, 2004 here in San Francisco at the Sheraton Hotel at Fisherman's Wharf.

This year we have as out guests of honor Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara of Yugoslavia, who will be spending a week with us, courtesy of Eurohistory.  Several events are planned for them and for conference attendees to spend time with them.

Arturo Beéche

[Martyn]

Thank you Arturo for sharing that information with us.  I am now totally in awe of you!
I have already taken a quick look at your site, which I think, requires some time to explore fully (and I hope to)
That must have been wonderful to have known Prince Sigismund and indeed to know Prince Alfred so intimately, and to receive those reminiscences directly from someone who was so closely related to the people that we discuss on this site.  How marvellous.
Personally, I can't remember when I first encountered the story of the IF - I think that I may have been 6 or 7 years old (so many years ago) but there was something about their story that captured my childish imagination.
Since I have been visiting this site, I have felt very privileged to be in contact with people who have so much knowledge and love for the subjects that we discuss here; long may it continue.