Is it really strange that a thread which is supposed to show alexei naked is used by some persons to talk about his crypto and his ability to have children?
So what are we supposed to discuss on this thread? Gazillions of photos of Alexei have been posted on this forum and elsewhere. The
only thing that makes this photo unique is his nakedness. People post endlessly about his looks, his eyes, and other physical traits -- all known to them only through photographs. Well, this photo just adds to the database on his physical traits, all others of which have been commented upon.
There is a long tradition in Russia of public nudity, including the ubiquity of mixed gender public banyas (baths) even in rural villages, where bathers rushed naked from the steam house out into the snow for a quick cooling down. In fact, the Plague Riot of 1771 in Moscow was instigated, in part, by the government's closing of the public bath houses in an attempt to curb the spread of the plague. It would seem Muscovites could brave the plague better than the temporary loss of their public bathing.
Somewhere long ago on this forum there was a thread about a collection of erotic furniture assembled by Catherine II that included rather graphic depictions of various body parts, presented almost invariably in joking fashion. I doubt that considerable banter about one's "equipment" was all that rare in Russia, from village to palace.
Yes, Alexei was but a little boy. But that also means he was not a demigod beyond the reach of banter. The passage of 90 years since his death would seem to have restored our ability to look at him as a person, not some elevated mythic creature who is beyond slight, reproach . . . or humor. Were the dead of any stripe to be perpetually sacrosanct, a fair portion of comic literature would not exist.
