. During the opening years of the war, the Tsarina, Alexandra had enrolled herself as well as Olga and Tanya as Red Cross nurses. She also converted several imperial palaces into hospitals. The girls had inherited fortunes when they were born, but the money was safely tucked in banks all over Europe and America. Instead they got small allowances for pocket money, never purchasing anything too extravagant, they often shopped in basic stores buying perfume, writing paper, diaries and camera film. If not, they simply donated what little they were given to those who needed it.
The youngest of the Romanov children was the Tsarevich, Aleksey who was only thirteen. When he was born in 1904, he was the prime focal point of Russia. The Empire was suffering greatly from her war with Japan, revolutionaries were calling for reform and the country was sliding deeper and deeper into depression. The birth of the heir to the throne, to some, was just the key to straighten out Mother Russia. But there was a grim secret that played itself out in the grand halls of the imperial palace at Tsarskoe Selo (The Tsar’s Village). When the baby was a few weeks old, he began bleeding from the naval. His mother fearing the worst called in the imperial physicians to check him out. Her fears were realized when ‘Baby’ contracted hemophilia from Alexandra. It was the imperial curse disease that spread through Europe, affecting only the sons of mothers who were carriers of the condition. Alexandra knew first hand about hemophilia, several of her relatives from Germany and England had died from it, and now she had passed it unintentionally to the future Tsar. Like his older sisters, Aleksey lived a usual grand life, but with tightened security around the clock. It came to the point where he was mostly kept bundled up in the palace or publicly flanked by two imperial navy ‘nannies’ whose direct job was to protect to the prince. Though he needed it, Aleksey would constantly find ways to act like other children. Whenever he asked for a bicycle, a large party or even a simple round of just playing about, his mother would often reply “But darling, you know you cannot…” Which would force Aleksey to stare back hurt, finally one day he bellowed to his mother and sisters, “Why? Why cannot I be like other boys?” Before they could come up with an answer, he turned away and ran to his room crying. The five women of his life, stood helpless and heartbroken. It was a secret they all guarded since he was a newborn.
For those that personally knew them, one would say that the imperial children were the closest siblings they had ever seen. And even though their parents wove a protecting barrier for them against the outside world, they all had cringing desires to sprout wings and soar.
When war broke out in August of 1914, Russia was, like the kingdoms of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain and the Republic of France, ecstatic. The sense of nationalism, God, Tsar and country rode with the people of the ancient state of Russia. Like many on the continent, the high hopes of the future overshadowed the real problems that had engulfed Russia since the middle ages. The effects of an imperialistic rule over the people, the conditions of the harsh industrial revolution as well as the social reforms that were mutating Europe. The people hoped that their Tsar would be better to them, after all he was the ‘little father’ of Russia, surely he could feed his starving peasants and loyalists while at the same time maintain an empire that covered a sixth of the world’s land.
None of it was meant to be, Nicholas was a man who easily sided with his aides and generals on extremely serious issues, often times confiding in the empress with many of his decisions. As a child, Nicholas Romanov was never really educated on governing power and state politics, hence his political weaknesses. He simply resorted to the old ways of rule. With the Tsar refusing political reform and the conditions of Russian peasant life never changing, the Great War only brought everything to the breaking point. Russian forces invaded Germany and Austria, silencing the Austro-Hungarians for a short time, while being defeated at Tannenberg by the Germans. Over Russia’s three year participation, loss after loss mounted over the Nicholas’s impending workload. He took direct control of the army, believing that he should command his men to a victory that some at home believed would never come. And it never did. On February 15, 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated his throne in his name, and Aleksey’s name, fearing too well that with his son’s weak health he would never be able to control things. He left the throne to his brother Michael who refused it and gave it up after a day. Russia then became a democratic nation under the leadership of revolutionaries headed by Alexander Kerensky…also the pet-project of a parliament (The Duma) was re-established as an important diplomatic institute. At first, the royal family was kept under house arrest at Tsarskoe Selo; Kerensky’s plan was to have them successfully exiled to another nation most likely Britain. However the British government feared revolution themselves and stopped such plans. Other nations such as Japan, Greece and France too halted talks. Another possible evacuation point was America, but, like Europe everything was postponed due to America’s entry into the war that year.
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