Preachy Keen

historyofromanovs:

Romanov Birthdays → Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, December 4

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia was the youngest son of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Michael came into this world on December 4, 1878 at the Anichkov Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His father and older brother Georgy both died in the 1890s, leaving Michael as heir presumptive to the throne. Michael was Tsarevich from 1899 until 1904, the year Nicholas’s son Alexei was born.

The sibling that Michael had the most closest relationship with was his younger sister, Grand Duchess Olga. Michael was raised in the company of Olga, who nicknamed him “Floppy” because he “flopped” into chairs; his elder siblings and parents called him “Misha”. Conditions in the nursery were modest. The children slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold water, and ate a simple porridge for breakfast. Michael, like his siblings, was taught by private tutors and was cared for by an English nanny.

Michael and Olga frequently went on hikes in the forests around Gatchina with their father, who took the opportunity to teach both of them woodsmanship. Physical activities such as equestrianism were also taught at an early age, as was religious observance. Though Christmas and Easter were times of celebration and extravagance, Lent was strictly observed—meat, dairy products and any form of entertainment were avoided. Michael was 15 when his father died suddenly of an illness. Michael’s eldest brother, Nicholas, became Tsar, and Michael’s childhood was effectively over.

Like most members of his family, Michael was enrolled in the military. He completed training at a gunnery school and joined the Horse Guards Artillery. Michael was perceived as unremarkable, quiet and good-natured. He performed the usual public duties expected of an heir to the throne. In 1901, he represented Russia at the funeral of Queen Victoria.

In 1912, Michael married an commoner named Natalia Brasova. Two weeks after the marriage Michael wrote to his mother and brother to inform them. They were both horrified by Michael’s action. His mother said it was “unspeakably awful in every way”, and his brother was shocked that his brother had “broken his word … that he would not marry her”. In a series of decrees over December 1912 and January 1913, Nicholas relieved Michael of his command, banished him from Russia, froze all his assets in Russia, seized control of his estates, and removed him from the Regency. Society in Russia was shocked at the severity of Nicholas’s reprisal, but there was little sympathy for Natalia.

Upon the outbreak of World War I, Michael telegraphed the Tsar requesting permission to return to Russia to serve in the army, providing his wife and son could come too. Nicholas agreed, and Michael traveled back to Saint Petersburg. In March 1917, Nicholas abdicated the throne from himself and his son to Michael. Michael, however, also renounced the throne upon the minute he learned that the throne was his. During his imprisonment, Michael was sent to Perm where he was killed on June 13, 1918. He was the first Romanov family member to be murdered by the Bolsheviks. His body, buried in an unmarked grave in a wooded area, was never recovered.

collective-history:

The Disappearance and Mystery of the Amber Room

The Amber Room was constructed in 1701 in order to be installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first king of Prussia, at the urging of his second wife, Sophie Charlotte. 

Although originally intended for installation at Charlottenburg Palace, the complete panels were eventually installed at Berlin City Palace. The Amber Room did not, however, remain at Berlin Castle for long. Peter the Great admired it on a visit and in 1716, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the first king’s son, presented it to him, and with that act cemented a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden. 

On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa, which launched three million German soldiers into the Soviet Union. The invasion led to the looting of tens of thousands of art treasures, including the illustrious Amber Room, which the Nazis believed was made by Germans and, most certainly, made for Germans.

As the forces moved into Pushkin, officials and curators of the Catherine Palace attempted to disassemble and hide the Amber Room. When the dry amber began to crumble, the officials instead tried hiding the room behind thin wallpaper. But the ruse didn’t fool the German soldiers, who tore down the Amber Room within 36 hours, packed it up in 27 crates and shipped it to Königsberg, Germany. The room was reinstalled in Königsberg’s castle museum on the Baltic Coast.

The Amber Room was never seen in public again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that components of the Amber Room survived the war. There have been numerous conflicting reports and theories, among them that the Amber Room was destroyed by bombing, hidden in a now-lost subterranean bunker in Königsberg, buried in mines in the Ore Mountains, or taken onto a ship or submarine which was sunk by Soviet forces in the Baltic Sea.

Another bizarre aspect of this story is the “Amber Room Curse.” Many people connected to the room have met untimely ends. General Gusev, a Russian intelligence officer, died in a car crash after he talked to a journalist about the Amber Room. Another example is Georg Stein, Amber Room hunter and former German soldier, who in 1987 was murdered in a Bavarian forest.

Either way, many different individuals and groups, including a number of different entities from the government of the Soviet Union, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, without any success, and thus, the mystery remains. 

right but what are these photos of then?

lickystickypickywe:

An extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II.

He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images.

The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun.

Collected here are a few of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948.

god this is fucking fantastic