Author Topic: Did N smoke ?  (Read 15645 times)

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Dust_of_History

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Re: Did N smoke ?
« Reply #30 on: March 21, 2011, 07:20:32 PM »
Alexandra herself once stated that nicotine is very harmful. So I think they knew that smoking was somehow bad for their health. Maybe they just didn't know that smoking can cause cancer and/or other serious diseases.

historyfan

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Re: Did N smoke ?
« Reply #31 on: March 21, 2011, 08:37:53 PM »
Alexandra herself once stated that nicotine is very harmful.

Just curious - where did you read that?

Dust_of_History

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Re: Did N smoke ?
« Reply #32 on: March 22, 2011, 05:26:34 PM »
I read that in the book "Alexei - The Son of the last Tsar" by Elisabeth Heresch. The incident took place when Alexandra got cigarette smoke in her face whereupon she said something like: "Nicotine is poisonous. You should stop smoking." Her neighbour replied: " Your Majesty, I have been smoking for more than 70 years now and it has not caused any harm to me yet." Sorry, I can't remember exactly ;-)

Naslednik Norvezhskiy

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Re: Did N smoke ?
« Reply #33 on: March 22, 2011, 10:26:38 PM »
Lol, I can imagine that the peasants, who althought not having open fireplaces nevertheless probably had quite bad ventilation and a good bit of smoke in their wood-heated izbas and banyas, thought their masters' predilection for smoking the tobacco instead of snuffing or chewing it quite strange! There is probably a very good reason why Cinderella (and her Norwegian counterpart Espen the Ash Lad) don't smoke! :-) Not even speaking of those of NII's Finnish subjects who were slash-and-burn farmers and took "Karelian smoke saunas"!

The subject of the Tsar not even Marlboro Man could turn into a smoker:


Eero Järnefelt: Kaski / Raatajat rahanalaiset - Slash-and-burn or Drudges of Money
(The painting was inspired by famines from failed harvests in 1892-1893 in Finland (note the swollen stomach of the girl). In the sparsely populated interior of Northern Finland it was still possible to cut down the forest, burn it and grow very rich crops in the ashes.)
« Last Edit: March 22, 2011, 10:55:24 PM by Фёдор Петрович »