Unknown photos of the last royal family were brought to Yekaterinburg: Nicholas II walked an elephant and gave his daughter a light. Terrible secrets of the Romanov family (19 photos) Photos of the royal family
“Komsomolskaya Pravda” for the first time publishes rare photographs of the emperor from his personal album, which spent almost a century in the storage rooms of the Ural Museum [KP exclusive]
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To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, a real relic was brought to Yekaterinburg - a photo album that belonged to Nicholas II. It contains 210 rare photographs of the royal family, most of which have never been published before. Almost all the photos were taken by Nikolai Alexandrovich or his children.
The emperor was very fond of photography and got his wife Alexandra Fedorovna and children addicted to it,” historian and employee of the Patriarchal Compound Museum Milena Bratukhina tells KP. - There was even a photo workshop in one of the park pavilions in Tsarskoye Selo. Nikolai Alexandrovich shot mainly with American cameras, and the Empress ordered photographic equipment from Great Britain.
The photographs are dated 1913-1916. The album contains many shots of army life. Then the First World War was going on, and the Tsar and his heir Alexei often visited the troops. But the main value of this album is the cards from the daily life of the royal family. Among the pictures there is even a photo with an elephant. It turns out that the first zoo in Tsarskoye Selo Park in St. Petersburg appeared under Nicholas I. It closed in 1917. The children of Nicholas II often came to the Tsarskoye Selo elephant sanctuary with their parents. The Emperor wrote about this in his diary: “He and Alexei brought an elephant to our pond and had fun bathing it.”
The album has been in the Zlatoust Local History Museum since the 30s of the last century. For many years it was carefully stored in storage rooms, and only a few knew about its existence. When the “royal” theme came out of the ban, the album was presented to the general public. But you can’t just watch it - only a few people can touch the album. Once a day they turn only one page and immediately put it under glass: museum staff fear for the safety of the photographs.
How the album ended up in Zlatoust is a mystery, says Nadezhda Prikhodko, director of the museum in Zlatoust. - Everyone knows that the royal family spent the last days of their lives in Yekaterinburg, which is 300 kilometers from our city. There is a version that the director of the Museum of the Revolution, Comrade Chevardin, brought the relic from Yekaterinburg. The museum was located in the house of engineer Ipatiev, and it was there that the august persons lived before their death. In 1933, Chevardin was transferred to Zlatoust, and he may have brought the album with him to save it from destruction. According to the second version, the photograph was transported by a revolutionary nicknamed Kasyan, also known as Dmitry Mikhailovich Chudinov, one of those who escorted the royal family from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. He lived in Zlatoust. And after the terrible reprisal against the Romanovs, he appropriated some of their belongings, and it is possible that this album, too.
“KP” thanks the Chrysostom Local Lore Museum and the Yekaterinburg Diocese for the photos provided.
1914 The royal family traditionally went on a summer trip to the Black Sea on the yacht “Standart”. But the photographs: Grand Duchesses Tatiana, Maria Olga, (from left to right) and Anastasia (in the center). The girls have been accustomed to this yacht since childhood. When they grew up, their parents allowed them to bathe on their own. The Grand Duchesses loved to fool around on deck and communicate with officers and courtiers.
1914 Peterhof. The Emperor poses on the shore. Most likely, this photo was taken by one of his children.
1916 Nicholas II and his youngest daughter Anastasia are relaxing in the city garden of Mogilev (during the First World War there was the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief). The Grand Duchess is 15 years old. And don’t let this shot shock you - at that time smoking was not something immoral. In 1915, Anastasia, when the Tsar was at Headquarters and she was in St. Petersburg, wrote to her father: “I’m sitting with your old cigarette that you once gave me, and it’s very tasty.” Of course, the Grand Duchesses did not smoke in public. And this photo is more of a joke.
1916 Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in one of the parks in Tsarskoe Selo. In the hands of the heir to the throne is his beloved black spaniel Joy (translated from English as “joy”). The dog was with Alexei until the end of his days. The boy took him with him into exile. The dog outlived its owner - after his death, the spaniel was sent to London to Buckingham Palace. Please note: the shadow of the author of the photo, the king, is visible in the photo.
1916 The Emperor plays with his son on the banks of the Dnieper. The two of them arrived in Mogilev on October 1, 1915. The Tsar believed that this trip would benefit the future heir to the throne - instead of ordinary classes with a teacher within four walls, Alexey could see the life of ordinary boys.
1914 Tsarskoye Selo. The Tsarevich and his teacher's children are playing war. Alexey spent his entire childhood with them. The boys played together, drew, made snowmen and went canoeing.
1914 Tsarskoye Selo. Nicholas II and his son ride a boat in a local pond. The Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Maria are waiting for them on the shore. Nicholas II devoted a lot of time to his children, especially his only heir.
Despite the fact that the royal family in Russia was an example to follow, many rulers hid terrible secrets from the people. Every king and queen had sins behind them, which admirers of the royal family try not to talk about. This post will tell us about these terrible secrets.
Mikhail Fedorovich (from 1613 to 1645)
The first of the Romanovs was crowned king at the age of 16, and at that time he could barely read. The next year, by his decree, the three-year-old son of Marina Mnishek, allegedly the grandson and heir of Ivan the Terrible, to whom several cities had managed to swear allegiance, was hanged in Moscow. This was after the severe Troubles, and fear of new possible impostors forced the elimination of the competitor publicly.
Alexey Mikhailovich (1645-1676)
The father of the future Emperor Peter the Great was a religious maniac, sometimes he prayed for six hours in a row and dealt with those who missed church services: without asking the reasons, he ordered them to be thrown into an icy river.
Peter I (1682-1725)
History describes many terrible scenes when Peter showed himself to be violent, inhumanly cruel and inadequate to the point of madness. Here are just some facts. Streltsy executions. 26-year-old Peter personally chopped off heads in front of a huge crowd and forced each of his retinue to take up the ax (unless the foreigners refused, justifying themselves by saying that they were afraid of incurring the hatred of the Russians). The mass executions actually turned into a grandiose show: the crowd was poured free vodka and they roared with delight, expressing devotion and love to the dashing sovereign. In a drunken stupor, the king immediately invited everyone to be an executioner, and many agreed.
Lifetime portrait of 44-year-old Peter, artist Antoine Pen:
“The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, Vasily Surikov:
Death of Tsarevich Alexei. In acute conflict with his eldest son, Peter forced him to abdicate the throne and began to zealously investigate his misdeeds, for which he specially created the Secret Chancellery. 28-year-old Alexei was sentenced to death for treason and, after the verdict, was tortured in prison: in the presence of his father, he received 25 lashes. According to some reports, this is why he died. And Peter the next day noisily feasted, with an orchestra and fireworks, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava.
“Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof”, Nikolai Ge:
“Maria Hamilton before execution”, Pavel Svedomsky:
Execution of a mistress. The next year, Peter sent his former mistress, one of the most beautiful ladies-in-waiting at court, Maria Hamilton (Gamontova), to the chopping block, having learned that she had twice caused miscarriages and strangled the third baby. Although at that time she was already living with someone else, the king, apparently, suspected that the children could be from him, and was furious at such “murder.” At the execution, he behaved strangely: he picked up Mary’s severed head, kissed it and calmly began to lecture the people on anatomy, showing the organs affected by the ax, after which he kissed the dead lips again, threw the head in the mud and left.
Anna Ioannovna (1730-1740)
The niece of Peter I, like himself, was a great hunter of entertainment with the participation of dwarfs and “fools” - court jesters. If many of them were indeed distinguished by their wit, then the inventions of the empress herself, which brought her into wild merriment, were rather obscene. Once, for example, one of her favorites, the Italian violinist Pietro Miro, nicknamed Pedrillo (Petrillo, Parsley), laughed off an attempt to make fun of his ugly wife, saying that his “goat” was pregnant and would soon bear “kids.” Anna Ioannovna immediately came up with the idea of putting him into bed with a real goat, dressed for laughs in a peignoir, and forcing the whole courtyard to bring them gifts. Pedrillo, who pleased his mistress, became richer by several thousand rubles on that day alone. “Jesters at the Court of Empress Anna Ioannovna”, Valery Jacobi (Pedrillo on the left, depicted with a violin; in the center of the picture in a yellow caftan the famous jester Balakirev jumps above everyone else):
The Empress generally adored all kinds of obscenity, especially gossip and stories of a pornographic nature. Knowing this, specially selected girls were sent to the court who were capable of conducting such conversations and inventing more and more new stories with juicy details.
Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-1762)
The daughter of Peter I was known as a beauty from childhood and did nothing but have fun and take care of her own appearance, remaining almost uneducated. She had never read and even as an adult did not know that Great Britain was an island. Most of all, Elizabeth was interested in masquerades and especially the so-called “metamorphoses,” where all the ladies had to appear in men's attire, and the men in women's attire. Moreover, the empress was convinced that her court rivals had ugly legs and that in men's leggings everyone except her was making a mockery of themselves. One of the successful rivals, state lady Natalya Lopukhina, who was considered a beauty, was “mercifully” spared by Elizabeth from the death penalty, instead ordering her to be flogged, her tongue torn out and exiled to Siberia. Officially, Lopukhina was arrested and tortured in the case of a political conspiracy, but unofficially it was the empress’s revenge for the repulsed gentlemen and ridicule in her youth.
Natalya Fedorovna Lopukhina, engraving by Lavrenty Seryakov:
Finally, Elizabeth doomed the legitimate heir to the throne, appointed before her death by Anna Ioannovna, to a terrible existence. Emperor Ivan VI was only a year and a half old when Peter's daughter staged a coup and secretly ordered him to be thrown into prison, forever separating him from his parents and protecting him from human contact. The “famous prisoner,” as he was called after the strictest ban on mentioning his name, was stabbed to death by guards at the age of 23, already under Catherine II.
Catherine II (1762-1796)
33-year-old Catherine overthrew and arrested her own husband and second cousin Peter III, a relationship with whom had not worked out from the very beginning. They got married when she was 16 and he was 17 years old. According to one version, he was infantile almost to the point of dementia and avoided marital duty for 9 years, allegedly not knowing what to do in bed with a woman. According to another version (and Catherine admitted this in her biographical notes), he did not love her and made no attempts to get closer. At the same time, he openly took mistresses and even planned to marry one, but died under unclear circumstances 10 days after his deposition.
Coronation portrait of Emperor Peter III, Lukas Conrad Pfanzelt:
Meanwhile, the unhappy marriage made Catherine herself the greatest mistress on the Russian throne. She gave birth to her first child, the future Emperor Paul I, only in the 10th year after the wedding, which gave rise to rumors that he was not from Peter, although he looked like him. The empress had two more children from different lovers, and she gave birth to one in complete secrecy from her husband - in order to distract the emperor and take him away from the palace, her faithful valet started a fire in her own house.
Contemporary painting “The Triumph of Catherine”, Vasily Nesterenko (at the empress’s right hand is her famous favorite, Prince Grigory Potemkin)
The “depraved empress” took her last favorite at the age of 60: he became the 21-year-old nobleman Platon Zubov, whom she enriched unspeakably and who, five years after her death, participated in the murder of her son Paul I.
Platon Aleksandrovich Zubov, artist Ivan Eggink:
Alexander I (1801-1825)
Catherine's 23-year-old grandson came to power as a result of a conspiracy against his own father: he was convinced that if Paul was not overthrown, he would destroy the empire. At the same time, Alexander did not allow murder, but the perpetrators - officers inflamed with champagne - decided otherwise: in the middle of the night they struck the emperor with a powerful blow to the temple with a golden snuffbox and strangled him with a scarf. Alexander, having learned about the death of his father, burst into tears, and then one of the main conspirators said in French: “Stop being childish, go reign!”
Alexander II (1855-1881)
Having ascended the throne, Alexander, who had previously lived in a happy marriage with many children, began to have favorites, with whom, according to rumors, he had illegitimate children. And at the age of 48, he began secretly dating 18-year-old Princess Katya Dolgorukova, who years later became his second wife.
Their extensive erotic correspondence has been preserved - perhaps the most frank on behalf of the head of state: “In anticipation of our meeting, I am trembling all over again. I imagine your pearl in the shell"; “We had each other the way you wanted. But I must confess to you: I will not rest until I see your charms again...”
Nicholas II (1894-1917)
The most terrible secret was and remains the death of the family of the last Russian emperor. For many years after the execution in the basement without trial or investigation, the Soviet authorities lied to the whole world that only Nikolai was killed, and his wife, four daughters and son were alive and well and “transported to a safe place where nothing threatens them.” This gave rise to popular rumors about the allegedly escaped princesses and Tsarevich Alexei and contributed to the emergence of a huge army of impostor adventurers. In 2015, at the insistence of the Church, the investigation into the death of the royal family began “from scratch.” A new genetic examination has confirmed the authenticity of the remains of Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and three Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia, found near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Faces of Nicholas II and Princess Anastasia reconstructed from the remains:
Then they began to compare them with the genetic materials of Alexei and Maria, found in 2007. The timing of their burial depends on the willingness of the Church to recognize the remains
X artist Valentin Serov became famous as a master of portraiture. Among his customers were representatives of the imperial Romanov dynasty - Serov painted more than ten portraits of august persons. We invite you to look at the paintings of the famous Russian portrait painter and get acquainted with five representatives of the royal family.
Portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich as a child
Portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich as a child. 1893
About the portrait of his son, painted by Valentin Serov, Alexander III said: “Mishenka is as alive.” The artist managed to capture a brief moment of elusive childhood: in the picture we see Mikhail growing up, almost a teenager. He is a little thoughtful, but there is still a childish dreaminess hidden in his gaze. The Tsarevich is dressed in the fashion of the late 19th century - in a white sailor suit. Thousands of ordinary boys also wore them at the turn of the century.
This painting is a study for a group portrait of the royal family. The painter was given only three sessions to work, during which Mikhail and his sisters Ksenia and Olga posed for him. The rest had to be written from memory. For Serov, this approach was unusual: he usually worked for a long time, several months in a row, paying special attention to detail.
The group portrait was first exhibited in 1894 in the village of Borki, Kharkov province. In honor of the rescue of the royal family in a train accident, a church and chapel were built here. At the celebrations of their consecration, a portrait of the family of Alexander III hung in a separate pavilion, but many spectators mistook it for an icon and stopped to cross themselves.
Today, the portrait of Mikhail Alexandrovich is kept in the State Russian Museum.
Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich
Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich. 1897
Portrait of Alexander III
Portrait of Alexander III. 1899
Valentin Serov wrote to Alexander III several times. The group portrait of the imperial family from 1893 was the only painting painted during the monarch’s lifetime. The appearance of Alexander III in the 1899 painting had to be recreated from memory. Valentin Serov also relied on photographs of the imperial photographer Sergei Levitsky.
In the painting, Alexander III looks both majestic and good-natured. He is depicted against the backdrop of Fredensborg Palace in Copenhagen, wearing the uniform of an honorary colonel of the Danish Royal Life Guards. This title was awarded to the Emperor by King Christian IX in 1879. Since then, during his visits to Denmark, Alexander III always wore an officer's uniform: a cocked hat with a blue and white plume and a scarlet ceremonial uniform. On it, in addition to the Russian highest awards, you can also see Danish ones: a blue ribbon, a star of the Order of the Elephant, a star and a cross of the Order of Danebrog.
The artist traveled to Denmark several times to make sketches from nature. One of the sergeants posed for him near the palace instead of the emperor. The original imperial portrait is kept in Copenhagen, in the officer fund of the Royal Life Guards.
Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II
Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II. 1900
The artist created a home portrait of Nicholas II, a gift to Alexandra Feodorovna, in just two meetings with the emperor. The original version of the painting has not survived: the revolutionaries who captured the Winter Palace ripped open the canvas with bayonets. However, Serov, having barely finished the portrait in 1900, immediately made a copy of it. He was worried about the fate of the painting because the Empress did not really like it. During the sessions, Alexandra Feodorovna closely watched the artist and generously gave advice on how to “correct” the face of Nicholas II in the portrait. In the end, Valentin Serov could not stand it, handed the empress a palette with brushes and invited her to finish the work herself.
The portrait of Nicholas II looks unfinished: it is painted with wide, free strokes without subtle light transitions, the details of the canvas are not worked out. But the execution of the film reflects the idea of Valentin Serov. The artist wanted to show first of all a person - tired at work, who came home after work. The canvas lacks the usual attributes of royal portraits - ceremonial interiors, ceremonial clothing, and highest awards. Nicholas II is depicted in the jacket of the Life Guards Regiment, which he wore every day.
The canvas is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's exit from Matins
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna's exit from Matins. No later than 1901
Typically, 19th-century artists created portrait drawings as studies for large paintings. But the watercolor and pencil works of Valentin Serov are independent works of art.
The portrait of Alexandra Feodorovna is made in three colors: black, white and red. The artist constructed the composition of the painting in such a way that the viewer looks at the image from the bottom up, because of this the empress seems more majestic. Passing by the servants, she distantly responds to their signs of attention. Using smooth lines, Valentin Serov drew the strict and sophisticated cut of her dress, the airy cape dropped from her shoulders. On the contrary, he depicted those around him with emphatically straight and broken lines, their faces are practically indistinguishable, and their figures are angular.
It was often said about Alexandra Fedorovna, a foreigner by birth, that her relationship with the court did not work out. During the ceremonies, the empress behaved with restraint: she was embarrassed to communicate with strangers. However, official events were an obligatory part of the life of the court. Nicholas II wrote about one of them in his diary: “At 2 o’clock in the Winter Palace the ladies’ steelyard began - 550 ladies! My dear Alix looked remarkably beautiful in Russian dress.” In those years the ceremony of kissing hands was called steelyard.
A drawing depicting Empress Alexandra Feodorovna can be seen in the State Russian Museum.
Sleigh rides in the snow, hunting, a family walk on the lake in white dresses and wide-brimmed hats - this is what an ordinary family looks like in photographs of the early 20th century. A family facing an unknown future and many years of life and prosperity. At least, these are the thoughts that arise when you first look at the recently discovered photographs. Romanovs.
They show Russia's last royal family looking carefree and cheerful just a few years before they were executed.
The family photographs were taken by photographer Herbert Galloway Stewart, an English teacher hired to teach Nicholas II's nephews, between 1908 and 1916. Currently, 22 annotated photo albums are included in an exhibition at the London Science Museum called The Last Tsar. Blood and Revolution (“The Last Tsar. Blood and Revolution”).
Exhibition curator Natalia Sidlina said that she discovered previously unknown photographs completely by accident. Initially, the art historian was looking for materials for an exhibition about astronauts, and among the objects provided by the curators of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, she came across a wooden champagne crate from the London department store Harrods. “When I opened it, there were 22 photo albums - with photographs of the Romanovs.”
The exhibition dedicated to the Romanovs opened on September 20. Sidlina told The Guardian that the exhibition's organizers wanted to show science, medicine and technology as key moments in the history of the Romanov family - both in their lives and in their deaths.
“The family was very powerful and rich, but the Romanovs were also advanced from a scientific point of view - they had x-rays in the palace, the eldest daughters and the queen were qualified Red Cross nurses, they had access to the latest technologies of their time, at least as far as medicine.
Our exhibition will shed some light on unknown aspects of a very confusing and complex story that attracts so much attention even 100 years later.”
“What struck me most was how these photo albums looked like albums of ordinary families... The Romanovs looked and behaved like the most ordinary middle-class family.”
Nicholas II with children on the lake near the Great Gatchina Palace, St. Petersburg, 1915.
Children of the Romanov family ride on a sleigh.
Nicholas II plays snowballs with children.
Children ride bicycles in the snow.
Children of the imperial family sledding near the palace.
Nicholas II with children hunting.
The Romanov family left their descendants a rich photographic heritage. The best photographers of the Russian Empire photographed the imperial family. On trips abroad, they always ordered photographic portraits from famous foreign artists. In the family of Nicholas II, everyone was passionate about photography.
In the photographic heritage of the Romanovs, many photographs are especially associated with the family of Nicholas II. The imperial family was portrayed by many famous photographers. What remains are studio photographs of outstanding masters of Russian photography G. Denyer, S. L. Levitsky, A. Pazetti, C. Bergamasco. While abroad, the royal family was photographed by famous foreign photographers: in Denmark - L. Danielson, M. Steen, G. Hansen, in Poland - L. Kowalski, in Germany - O. Skovranek, F. Telgman and others. When the Romanovs visited the cities of the Russian Empire, the photography was entrusted to the best city photographers: F. Orlov in Yalta, M. Mazur in Sevastopol, V. Barkanov in Tiflis, A. M. Ivanitsky in Kharkov, etc.
Emperor. (rosphoto.org)
Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna with their daughters. (rosphoto.org)
The largest collection of photographs of the last Russian emperor and his family was left by the photo studio “K. E. von Hahn and Co. "The atelier was opened in Tsarskoye Selo in 1887. It was owned by the wife of the assistant senior mechanical engineer Kazimira-Ludviga Evgenievna Jacobson, nee Hahn. In 1891, Alexander Karlovich Yagelsky became a co-owner of the atelier, who since 1897 receives the exclusive right to photograph Emperor Nicholas II and his family.
A. K. Yagelsky photographed the emperor during diplomatic receptions and visits, on trips around the country, during military maneuvers and reviews, official court events, on vacation on the imperial yacht “Standart”, in Finnish skerries, in Livadia, while hunting on estates Belovezh also slept. These photographs rarely reached the public and formed the imperial family's own photographic archive. In 1911, A.K. Yagelsky received the honorary title of Photographer of His Majesty's Court.
Parade of troops of the Moscow garrison. Moscow. 1903. (rosphoto.org)
Yagelsky was also the only one who was allowed to film the royal family. From 1900 until his death in October 1916, he was the personal cameraman of Emperor Nicholas II and left a very significant film archive.
Rope tug. Finnish skerries. 1911. (rosphoto.org)
Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. Tsarskoye Selo. 1903. (rosphoto.org)
The famous reportage photographer K.K. Bulla photographed Nicholas II a lot. In 1904, he received permission to photograph “views of the capital, as well as celebrations in the Supreme presence.” From the Main Headquarters of the War Ministry, Bulla had a certificate of permission to “take photographic photographs during maneuvers and exercises of the Guard troops and the St. Petersburg Military District,” as well as a special certificate from the Main Naval Staff, allowing to take photographs “during maneuvers, reviews, exercises, descents and laying ships and, in general, all events relating to marine life.”
The heir is Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. 1911. (rosphoto.org)
The Romanovs themselves left many personal albums with photographs - the Emperor, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, all children, including the heir, were passionate amateur photographers. Since Nicholas II got his first camera in 1896, he has never parted with it. Some of the albums were filled out by the emperor himself, pasting and signing photographs with his own hands. Each family member had personal photo albums, usually annually or for two or three years together.
The Emperor and Empress in the costumes of Russian tsars of the 17th century. (rosphoto.org)
Another category of the Romanovs’ photographic heritage is the photo albums of their close associates, those who, on duty, were with the emperor and his family on trips around the country and abroad, and especially during vacations. The Romanovs themselves, their personal photographer A.K. Yagelsky and the emperor’s associates took the largest number of family photographs on vacation, when the members of the august family were left to their own devices and less bound by the conventions of court etiquette. This close circle, which had the opportunity to take informal photographs of the family of Nicholas II, included large court officials, members of the emperor’s retinue, ladies-in-waiting, ladies of state, officers of the imperial yacht “Standart” and a number of other people.
Royal hunt in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. (rosphoto.org)
The fate of the photographic heritage of the Romanov family in Soviet Russia is quite complicated and bears the imprint of the tragic fate of its owners. After the execution, documents and photographs of the Romanov house were transferred from archive to archive more than once. The photographic heritage is still insufficiently studied. We do not even know the approximate number of photographic objects in the state repositories of the Russian Federation; It is also unknown what legacy has been preserved in the CIS countries and abroad.
Nicholas II in his office, 1900. (rosphoto.org)