The last imperial family, consisting of the emperor, Nicholas
II, his wife empress Alexandra (born princess Alix von Hesse-Darmstadt)
and thier five children, the four grand duchess, Olga, Tatiana,
Marie and Anastasia, the czarevich Alexis. Their primary home
was the Alexander Palace in Tsasrskoe Selo, 30 kilometres outside
the capital, St. Petersburg. Even if they spent a lot of time
there, they didn't spend it all. They had a luxurious yacht, the
Standart, on which the took cruises in the Finnish golf during
the summers. They spent their Easters on Livadia, a grand white
mansion on the Crimea, with the same climate as in south-Europe.
They were a happy, close family, which had a very great interest
of animals, specially pets, for instance Alixis had an elephant
in the palace park, Nicholas had a parrot in his bathroom, Anastasia
had a mouse that lived in the palace walls, Tatiana had a bulldog
named Ortino, Olga had a cat named Vaska and the empress had a
lot of dogs.
When Nicholas Abdicated, it was the familys wish to go to Livadia,
but Kerinsky wouldn't let them. During their time in housearrest,
the family came yet closer, and the family really didn't want
leave Russia (and they couldn't because George V of England didn't
want to invite them, even though the provisional government was
positive to it. Alexander Kerinsky said: "I don't want to
be the emperor's Murat…"), they saw it as their duty
to stay, and as the empress said: "If it is god's will, we
must endure it to the very end…" And so they did…
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Empress Alexandra |
Czarevich Alexis |
Czar Nicholas II |
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The Four Grand Duchess,
Olga, Tatiana, Marie
& Anastasia |
