The Lost Crown (46 page)

Rasputin

Did he truly have healing powers? No one knows. Some scholars believe he used hypnosis to soothe the tsarevich, while others claim his “powers” were well-timed coincidences. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. A story told through the eyes of the imperial family can only show what the Romanovs themselves believed: that Grigori Rasputin healed Aleksei through the power of prayer. Traditionally Rasputin has held a vivid reputation as a drinker and a womanizer. At the time of his murder, the majority of Russians believed he was a demon who possessed the empress, made vulgar public displays, and meddled in politics. Yet to the imperial family, he showed nothing but virtue. Which of these two extremes is closer to the truth? Again, for my story it doesn’t matter— whether they were true or not, the gossip and rumors were enough to destroy Rasputin in the end, and with him, the Romanov dynasty.

Russian Nicknames

Although Russians consider it stiff and formal to call close friends and relations by given names, at first glance the family of Nicholas II seems to be an exception. While they had dozens of cloying pet names—Wify, Huzzy, Boysy, Sunny, Sunbeam, Baby, girlies, etc.—their letters and diaries show almost no trace of traditional Russian diminutives. Privately, Nicholas and Alexandra favored English nicknames for each other: Nicky and Alix rather than Kolya and Shura. As for the children, I’ve found a scant handful of letters in which the empress refers to three of her daughters as Olenka, Tatianochka, and Mashenka. Even the children addressed and signed their letters and notes among themselves with their given names—though once in a while Anastasia closed a letter with “Nastasya” or “Nastaska.” Only Maria Nikolaevna stands out from the pattern for being routinely called Mashka by her sisters.

In spite of the documentary evidence, the Romanovs considered themselves quintessentially Russian, so chances are slim that they would have ignored this ingrained facet of Russian culture. The imperial children spoke Russian among themselves as well as with their father, so although I can’t prove it, I believe it’s almost certain they used the expected diminutives—Olya, Nastya, Alyosha—when speaking to one another. As a compromise, I reserved those nicknames for moments of tenderness or stress. I should also admit that Tanya is a far more common diminutive for Tatiana than Tatya. I chose Tatya because I like the sound of it, and because I do know that the imperial children addressed Tatiana Botkin as Tanya, and I wanted to avoid confusion.

In the west, Anastasia’s nickname, Shvybzik, is commonly believed to mean “imp” in Russian. It doesn’t. In fact, it means nothing at all in Russian. Instead, it seems the imperial family adopted a German word,
schwipsig
(meaning “tipsy”), to describe their impish prankster, altering the pronunciation in the process.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

ONLINE

Alexander Palace Time Machine

The world’s preeminent Romanov website—a treasure trove of photos, letters, books, articles, and more.

http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/mainpage.html

Frozentears

A media-rich memorial to the last imperial family.

www.frozentears.org

Livadia.org

A tribute to the Romanov children, featuring scrapbook-style biographies and photo albums of each grand duchess.

www.Livadia.org

Romanov Memorial

A virtual tour of the Ipatiev house.

http://www.romanov-memorial.com

Yale Beinecke Albums

Browse six of Anna Vyrubova’s personal photo albums, loaded with candid snapshots of the grand duchesses and their family.

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/dl_crosscollex/romanov_album.htm

BOOKS & FILMS

Hundreds of books and documentaries have been produced about the Romanovs; these are especially good starting points:

Anastasia’s Album, by Hugh Brewster

Last Days of the Romanovs, by Helen Rappaport

A Lifelong Passion, edited by Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko

Nicholas and Alexandra, by Robert K. Massie

Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra, by Peter Kurth

Last of the Czars. Produced by Discovery Networks, in association with Brooks Associates Limited, 1996.

Russia’s Last Tsar. National Geographic Video, distributed by Time Warner, Inc., 1995.

Visit the Alexander Palace Time Machine’s Bookfinder (
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/book_finder.html
) for information on dozens more current and out-of-print Romanov titles.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Alekseyev, Veniamin Vasillievich.
Last Act of a Tragedy: New Documents about the Execution of the Last Russian Emperor Nicholas II
. Ekaterinburg, Russia: Urals Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 1996.

Alexandrov, Victor.
End of the Romanovs
. New York: Little, Brown, 1966.

Alfer’ev, E. E.
Pis’ma Tsarskoi Sem’i iz Zatocheniya
. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1974.

Baker, Raegan.
The Diary of Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaievna 1913
. Pickering, Ontario: Gilbert’s Royal Books, 2008.

Bardovskaya, Larisa.
Tsarskoe Selo: The Imperial Summer Residence
. St. Petersburg: Alfa-Color Art Press, 2005.

Barkovets, Olga, and Aleksandr Krylov.
Tsesarevich
. Moscow: Vagrius, 1998.

Barkovets, Olga, and Valentina Tenikhina.
Nicholas II: The Imperial Family
. St. Petersburg: Abris, 2004.

Bokhanov, Alexander, Manfred Knodt, Vladimir Oustimenko, Zinaida Peregudova, and Lyubov Tyutunnik.
The Romanovs: Love, Power and Tragedy
. London: Leppi Publications, 1993.

Botkin, Gleb.
Lost Tales: Stories for the Tsar’s Children
. New York: Villard Books, 1996.

———.
The Real Romanovs
. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1931.

Brewster, Hugh.
Anastasia’s Album
. London: Little, Brown, 1996.

Buxhoeveden, Baroness Sophie.
The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia
. London: Longmans, Green, 1928.

Bykov, Paul.
The Last Days of Tsardom
. London: Martin Lawrence, 1934.

Dehn, Lili.
The Real Tsaritsa
. London: Thornton, Butterworth, 1922.

Diterikhs, M. K.
Ubiistvo Tsarskoi Sem’i
. Moscow: Veche, 2008.

Eagar, Margaret.
Six Years at the Russian Court
. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1906.

Esmond, H. V.
In and Out of a Punt: A Duologue
. London: Samuel French, Ltd., 1902

Eugénie de Grèce.
Le Tsarévitch: Enfant Martyr
. Paris: Perrin, 1990.

Fomin, Sergei.
Skorbnyi Angel
. St. Petersburg: Obshchestvo Svyatitelya Vasiliya Velikogo, 2005.

Fuhrmann, Joseph T.
The Complete Wartime Correspondence of Tsar Nicholas II and the Empress Alexandra, April 1914–March 1917
. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999.

———.
Rasputin: A Life
. New York: Praeger, 1990.

Gilliard, Pierre.
Thirteen Years at the Russian Court
. New York: George H. Doran, 1921.

Ginsburg, Mirra.
How Wilka Went to Sea and Other Tales from West of the Urals
. New York: Crown, 1975.

Grabbe, Alexander Graf.
The Private World of the Last Tsar
. Boston: Little Brown, 1984.

Grattan, H. P.
Packing Up: Farce in One Act
. London: Samuel French, Ltd., 1904.

Halliburton, Richard.
Seven League Boots
. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1935.

Khrustalev, V. M.
Dnevniki Nikolaya II i Imperatritsy Aleksandry Fedorovny: 1917–1918
. Moscow: Vagrius, 2008.

King, Greg.
The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II
. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

———.
The Last Empress: The Life and Times of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia
. New York: Carol, 1994.

King, Greg, and Penny Wilson.
The Fate of the Romanovs
. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

Kozlov, Vladimir.
Dnevniki Imperatora Nikolaya II.
Moscow: Orbita, 1991.

Kozlov, Vladimir, and Vladimir Khrustalëv, eds.
The Last Diary of Tsaritsa Alexandra
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.

Kurth, Peter.
Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra
. London: Little, Brown, 1995.

Lieven, Dominic.
Nicholas II: Twilight of the Empire.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Lyons, Marvin.
Nicholas II: The Last Tsar
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1974.

Massie, Robert K.
Nicholas and Alexandra
. New York: Scribner, 1967.

———.
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter
. New York: Random House, 1995.

Massie, Robert K., and Marilyn Swezey.
The Romanov Family Album
. New York: Vendome Press, 1982.

Maylunas, Andrei, and Sergei Mironenko.
A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story
. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996.

McLees, Nectaria.
Divnyi Svet
. Moscow: Russkiy Palomnik, 1998.

Mel’nik-Botkina, Tat’yana.
Vospominaniya o Tsarskoi Sem’e
. Moscow: Zakharov, 2004.

Michael, Prince of Greece.
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Family Albums
. London: Tauris Parke Books, 1992.

Moynahan, Brian.
Rasputin: The Saint Who Sinned
. New York: Random House, 1997.

Nekrasov, Nikolai, and Juliet Soskice.
Poems by Nicholas Nekrasov
. London: Oxford University Press, 1936.

Nepein, I. G.
Pered Rasstrelom: Poslednie Pis’ma Tsarskoi Sem’i
. Omsk, Russia: Omskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel’stvo, 1992.

Pankratov, V.
S Tsarem v Tobolske
. New York: Slovo, 1990.

Radzinsky, Edvard.
The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II
. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Rappaport, Helen.
Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs
. London: Hutchinson, 2008.

Rasputin, Maria, and Patte Barham.
Rasputin: The Man Behind the Myth
. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977.

Shelayev, Yuri, Elizabeth Shelayeva, and Nicholas Semenov.
Nicholas Romanov: Life and Death
. St. Petersburg: Liki Rossi, 2004.

Solodkoff, Alexander von.
The Jewel Album of Tsar Nicholas II and a Collection of Private Photographs of the Russian Imperial Family
. London: Ermitage, 1997.

Spéranski, Valentin.
La
≪
Maison à destination spéciale
≫:
La tragedie d’Ekaterinenbourg
. Paris: J Ferenczi & Fils, 1929.

Spiridovitch, Alexandre.
Les Dernières Années de la Cour de Tzarskoïé-Sélo
. Paris: Payot, 1928.

Steinberg, Mark D., and Vladimir M. Khrustalëv.
The Fall of the Romanovs
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.

Swezey, Marylin Pfeifer.
Nicholas and Alexandra: At Home with the Last Tsar and His Family
. Washington, DC: The American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation, 2004.

Syroboyarskii, Aleksandr Vladimirovich.
Skorbnaya Pamyatka
. New York: privately printed, 1928.

Timms, Robert, ed.
Nicholas and Alexandra: The Last Imperial Family of Tsarist Russia
. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.

Townend, Carol.
Royal Russia: The Private Albums of the Russian Imperial Family
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Trewin, John C.
The House of Special Purpose: an Intimate Portrait of the Last Days of the Russian Imperial Family
. New York: Stein and Day, 1974.

Vasyutinskaya, E. F.
Na Detskoi Polovine
. Moscow: Pinakoteka, 2000.

Vorres, Ian.
Last Grand Duchess: The Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna
. New York: Scribner, 1965.

Vyrubova, Anna.
Memories of the Russian Court
. New York: Macmillan, 1923.

Warner, Elizabeth.
Heroes, Monsters and Other Worlds from Russian Mythology
. New York: Peter Bedrick, 1985.

Wilton, Robert.
The Last Days of the Romanovs (including depositions of Colonel Kobylinsky, Pierre Gilliard, Sidney Gibbes, Anatoly Yakimov, Pavel Medvedev, Philip Proskuriakov)
. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1920.

Wortman, Richard S.
Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, Vol. 2
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Yermilova, Larissa.
The Last Tsar
. Bournemouth, UK: Parkstone Press/Planeta, 1996.

Zeepvat, Charlotte.
The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album
. Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton, 2004.

———.
Romanov Autumn
. Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton, 2000.

Zhuk, Yu. A.
Ispoved’ Tsareubiits.
Moscow: Veche, 2008.

Zvereva, Nina K.
Avgusteishie Sestry Miloserdiya
. Moscow: Veche, 2006

ARTICLES

Chebotareva, Valentina Ivanovna. “V Dvortsom Lazarete v Tsarskom Sele. Dnevnik: 14 Iyulya 1915–5 Yanvarya 1918.”
Noviy Zhurnal
vol. 181(1990): 173–243; vol. 182(1990): 202–250.

Atlantis Magazine,
Vol. 4, no. 5 (2003)

King, Greg, and Penny Wilson. “The Departure of the Imperial Family from Tsarskoe Selo.”
Atlantis Magazine: In the Courts of Memory:
12–31.

———. “The Murder of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography.”
Atlantis Magazine: In the Courts of Memory
: 110–140.

———. “The Officer Letters.”
Atlantis Magazine: In the Courts of Memory
: 73–86.

———. “The Romanov Children.”
Atlantis Magazine: In the Courts of Memory
: 6–10.