Russia! My astonished child's eyes see huge palaces, beautiful parks, fountains, gardens, amazing gatherings of relatives, military parades, religious services in churches glittering with gold, jewels so breathtaking you can hardly believe they are real [... ] My eyes also see long corridors, vestibules, and halls, of a size beyond compare, opening one into another, and our feet trotting timidly over wide stretches of floors, so unbounded and polished, that we seemed to walk on ice. And everywhere, a very characteristic smell: a mixture of turpentine, Russian leather and cigarette smoke, with a fragrance, unique in its own way, that distinguished the imperial palaces. Imperial is the right word, fantastic, like in fairy tales [...] every superlative is at its place in that Russia of the Tsars, that Russia full of splendour, which today is no more...
[6/8] Moments: The execution of Russia’s last imperial family (July 17, 1918)
[...] in the early hours of the morning of Wednesday 17 July, they [the Romanovs] were unexpectedly awoken by their captors and ordered to dress (The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport).
In their bedroom, the girls carefully slipped into their jewel-lined camisoles, making sure every tiny eye hook was securely fastened before donning their plain white blouses and black skirts. Alexei, too, put on an undershirt concealing gems, while Alexandra tied a cloth belt containing several rows of large pearls around her waist (The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming).
[The family was] Told that they were being moved downstairs for their safety from unrest and artillery fire in the city, they complied without question. In an orderly line Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children, Dr. Botkin and their three loyal servants Demidova, Trupp and Kharitonov, walked quietly down the wooden stairs from their apartments, across the courtyard and into a digny basement room. As they went, there were ‘no tears, no sobs and no questions’ (The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport).
Yurovsky began reading from the paper: “In light of the fact that your relatives in Europe [are] continuing their aggression against Soviet Russia [it] has been declared that [you are] to be shot��. “Lord, oh my God!” stammered Nicholas. He turned to his family. [...] “I can’t understand you”, said Nicholas. “Read it again, please”. Yurovsky did. “What?” Nicholas cried again. “What?” (The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming).
Putin was so desperate that he allowed his chef, troll coordinator, and mercenary organizer Yevgeny Prigozhin to recruit criminals from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine. An 80% casualty/desertion rate is not something that can be viewed as a success.
Satanist cannibal released after fighting in Ukraine
The Moscow Times has reported that a self-confessed member of a Satanist sect, who was serving a twenty-year prison sentence for murder and the desecration of dead bodies, has been freed after completing six months of military service in Ukraine.
Nikolai Ogolobyak and other Satan worshippers, including one nicknamed “Hitler,” beheaded two of their four victims — then removed their hearts and…
Putin’s critics have long noted his obstinate refusal to publicly utter the name of imprisoned opposition politician Alexei Navalny. But on Sunday, when asked by loyalist journalist Andrei Kolesnikov about Moscow theater director Zhenya Berkovich and Moscow leftist Boris Kagarlitsky, both of whom have been arrested on flagrantly trumped-up charges of “condoning terrorism,” Putin claimed never to…
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was the youngest child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia. Her older brother was Tsar Nicholas II.
She was raised at the Gatchina Palace outside Saint Petersburg. Olga's relationship with her mother, Empress Marie, the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, was strained and distant from childhood. In contrast, she and her father were close. He died when she was 12, and her brother Nicholas became emperor.
In 1901, she married Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, who was privately believed by family and friends to be homosexual. Their marriage of 15 years remained unconsummated, and Peter at first refused Olga's request for a divorce. The couple led separate lives and their marriage was eventually annulled by the Emperor in October 1916. The following month Olga married cavalry officer Nikolai Kulikovsky, with whom she had fallen in love several years before.
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia with her granddaughter Xenia Kulikovskaya-Romanova. They're both so sweet and the sweetest is that they named her after Olga's sister, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna Romanova. ❤️❤️
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna with her crush, Dmitri Shakh-Bagov
“And plus a letter came from Shakh-Bagov—Olga Nikolaevna threw all her things around from delight, and threw a pillow up on a top shelf. She felt feverish and she jumped around: "Can someone have a stroke at 20 years old? I think I am having a stroke!" But Varvara Afanasievna declared: "Young blood is warm; the years pass, and the blood cools off.”
— Valentina Ivanovna Chebaotareva, friend and fellow Sister of Mercy to Grand Duchess Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna, February 1916
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna making funny faces in Peterhof, 18th May - 19th August 1907.
Photos from:
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna's 1903-1908 Album / page 13b, photo n°170
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna's 1904-1907 Album / page 14, photo n°186