r/romanovs

I just saw this rare picture in one of the (many) "Anastasia" short novels they issued after the movie release. It follows narrowly the movie script, and if it sometimes cut some éléments (the full Raspoutine ark in the shortests books), it never creates new scenes.

So I am wondering if that "fun" reference to the Stephen King book "The Shining", where young Danny gets attacked by the big leafy animal topiaries outside of the Overlook Hotel, was actually considered in the "Anastasia" movie, leading to the Pont Alexandre III final showdown (we only see spiky vines attacking her in order to she gets here in the movie). I shall try to get my hand on one of the early scripts to check that!

(on the pictures order I posted, you see first attacking topiaries and then the topiaries coming to life at the top of the hedges, but you have to consider that the "top" pages (74-75) are before the "attack" pages(78-79))

I find this kid's existence in the Anastasia universe confusing to say the least.

His name is Prince Ivan, and he's shown as ruling from Moscow (setting him before Peter the Great), but he's also a Romanov? (Ludmilla says his ring that he gives to Bartok is a Romanov ring.) Except there weren't any ruling Romanovs named Ivan that I can find any records of. The link in the wiki for this character just takes you to a real life page of a relative of the first Romanov tsar who never ruled because they lost the election going on at that time. That... Seems... Like... A Stretch...

We also know (in addition to the fact he's supposed to be a Romanov) he can't be a young Ivan the terrible because Bartok has a signed portrait of that tsar as an adult.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Who IS this kid? 😂

Fèves (feva beans) are made of china (porcelaine) and put in the galette des rois (king cake) that we eat at Épiphanie, 6th January. The one who finds the fève is elected king, with a cardboard golden crown, and apoints his queen.

In Orthodox Church, Christmas actually takes place the 6th or 7th January!

That book seems pretty popular. Haven't read it yet. It seems pretty moving. Anastasia is elderly in 1981, living in London, and is still traumatized.

Be careful, the Irish author John Boyne ranks himself in the "Terf" movement (like J.K. Rowling), so if that mattes to you and you don't want to give him money, you may want to find this book in a thrift shop, garage sale, on eBay... :>

An interesting French (but it seems it got translated to Spanish so there might be an English version) story where a deeply loyal valet impersonated one of the guards to save her. The execution is pretty graphic...

The three books span on 80 years and tell her restless alternative story, where all of her ennemies wanted her to stay dead : other Romanov, Germany, former allies...

It was created by Ordas, Cothias, and Berr.

Although born into unimaginable privilege, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia often longed for a quieter, more ordinary life away from court ceremony and royal expectations.

Friends and family remembered her as intelligent, sensitive, and deeply uncomfortable with the stiffness of imperial life.

During the First World War, Olga and her sister Tatiana worked as nurses in military hospitals, where Olga became emotionally affected by the suffering she witnessed and preferred the honest company of wounded soldiers to aristocratic society.

In a diary entry by Valentina Chebotareva, dated 27th of January 1916, Olga once confessed that what she truly wanted was simply “to get married, to always live in the countryside in winter and summer, to see only good people and no one official.” Her diaries and letters also reveal how trapped she sometimes felt by her position as the daughter of the last Tsar of Russia, especially as political unrest grew around the Romanov family. Rather than embracing grandeur, Olga seemed to crave normality, privacy, and genuine human connection — dreams that history ultimately denied her when she and her family were executed during the Russian Revolution in 1918.

I've just come across this image of Mashka that I've never seen before on Pinterest.

It depicts Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna relaxing in the "bookcase nook" in the Mauve Room of the Alexander Palace (Tsarina Alexandra's favourite room).

One of my favourite things about Mashka is how photogenic she is. In every picture I see of her, whether she's posing for one of her famous portraits (one of which hangs above my bed), or caught in a candid moment by someone. She looks so calm here, and the lamp just above her head makes her hair look beautifully shiny!

I wonder what she's doing? Reading? Writing?

The 1916 ball in the animated movie seems to be heavily inspired by the IRL 1903 costume ball (you can see various guests, little Anastasia, and what appears to be Alexandra all in 16th century costume). But the Tsar is wearing what he'd wear to an ordinary ball; I kind of wish the animators had taken inspiration from his actual 1903 costume, because it's really beautiful, especially colourized.

We could have just seen him in his regular regal uniform in the Once Upon a December scene and had him in costume during the beginning.

The movie is still gorgeous regardless, I just think it would have been a cool detail if they'd included it.

She must have been nine years old on that nice picture.

Source : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Anastasia_Nikolaevna_of_Russia_with_her_tutor_Charles_Gibbes.jpg

In the later years, Maria used to live in Gatchina palace (Alexander III loved that place and lived there most of the time). Then World War I broke out and she moved to Yelagin palace (Saint-Petersburg). Thereafter, following the attempted coup against her son (where she was kinda involved... maybe it should have succeded :(), she was "semi-exiled" on behalf of Alexandra to Mariinskyi palace (Kyiv, I prefer writing it with the Ukrainian spelling following... Russia's infamous butchery). After the Revolution, she had to leave Kyiv and went to Crimea with another Romanovs, but don't know where (Livadia? Yalta? other?). I don't know at which point she couldn't bring her precious eggs with her, and what was their last place before they were seized by whoever in charge (Kerensky's Governement or the Soviet).

When he inherited the Crown, Nicolas II moved from Gatchina to Alexander palace (Tsarskoye Selo), the Winter palace (Saint-Petersbourg) had been "empty" for many years. So I guess Alexandra's eggs staid at Tsarskoye Selo? It's not quoted that they tried to bring them to Tobolsk, and anyway, they would have been confiscated as a lot of other stuff.

Picture : Maria and Alexandra's Fabergé eggs during an exhibition (Von Dervis mansion, Saint-Petersburg, in March 1902)

Source : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vitrines_with_Faberg%C3%A9_eggs.jpg via the very rich Webpage https://www.wintraecken.nl/mieks/faberge/research/1902-vd.html (go there!)

Is this Joy or the first dog, Shot?