GuangZhou, PRC
2006.06.20
Dear Belochka,
I need David's help here. Is she actually a Spanish citizen? Can we be sure of that? I thought that she was a French citizen and that had been reported to me by friends in Paris. David, can you confirm this?
Next, surprise, surprise, but since 1992, at least, she is ALSO a Russian citizen again, by decret of the B. Yelstin and she has travelled to and from Russia on a "spetzpasport", definitely not the ordinary Red one and this I know for a fact from "tamozhniki" friends of mine "no rodinu".
And frankly, to stir things up around here, she is a superb choice. She is by far the most talented, most soberminded, most educated and well-travelled Romanov that has ever existed. She has a presence about her and the quality of her Russian language (unlike that of her father) is quite classical and literary.
Twenty years ago, everyone in the world thought for sure that the "CCCP" would last for centuries. My God, what a plague on humanity it was.
And no frankly, I would not surprised if there were a return to a constitutional monarchy, but as Tania so correctly writes, that is the choice of the Russian people alone.
BUT
The revised and now exceptionally powerful Russian Orthodox Church is extremely monarchist, whether they admit it publickly or not. For centuries, the Monarchy and particularly the Romanovs bestowed their largess upon the Church...and it was not forgotten.
And now, particularly with the younger ranks of Bishops and Archbishops who are so far removed from the Soviet taint, there has been a marked shift, in many cases very publickly, in favor of the monarchy...
In all honesty, the Royal Martyrs were canonized (glorified in the Russian) in 2000 not because the Patriarch and all the former Soviet church nomenklatura wanted it (they didn't) but because of
of the extreme pressure from the younger bishops and archbishops and especially from the abbots and abbesses of the monasteries and the clery in the country.
My thoughts, here, that's all..