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Ekaterinburg Marks 400th Anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:58 -0500

HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and Patriarch Kirill I visiting the Romanov exhibit in Ekaterinburg

The Head of the Russian Imperial House, HIH Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill I, have arrived in Ekaterinburg to take part in the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, including the 145th anniversary of the birth of Emperor Nicholas II on May 18th, 1868.

The first stop was Ganina Yama where His Holiness laid the first stone for a new church and its consecration. The original wooden Church of the Mother of God was destroyed during a fire in 2010.

This was followed by a litany, and prayer at the cross marking the spot where the bodies of the last tsar, his family and faithful retainers were dumped into the abandoned mineshaft by the Bolsheviks in the early morning hours of July 18th, 1918.

His Holiness said: "During the 300-year-reign of the Romanov dynasty, Russia was a great power stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The country's economic, social and political development were quickly outpacing those of other nations. In modern terms, its GDP was close to the second place in the world."

Patriarch Kirill I consecrates the new Church of the Mother of God at Ganina Yama

On the last tsar, he added: "The Monastery at Ganina Yama is a holy place. It provides an opportunity to remember the spiritual heroism of Nicholas II and his family, who accepted their deaths in gentleness, peace, forgiveness of enemies, in all humility and surrendering to God's hands. It is important that in light of the fact that the gravest crimes were committed on this site, that we erected this monastery."

"Despite the fact that during Soviet times everything connected with the royal family was distorted, despite the ridicule and reproach, like a concrete slab through which grass can not grow, their memory has always been alive in the hearts of people," he said.

Several thousand faithful arrived at Ganina Yama by bus, car and on foot from Ekaterinburg, and other towns in the surrounding region of Sverdlovsk.

The next stop was Ekaterinburg, where the Patriarch and Grand Duchess Maria stopped at the Church on the Blood, built on the site of the former Ipatiev House. Together they visited the nearby Patriarchal Compound where an exhibition featuring rare archival materials related to the House of Romanov is on display. The exhibit also included a collection of watercolours and personal items of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the youngest sister of Nicholas II.

In the evening, His Holiness held a Divine Liturgy at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Ekaterinburg.

FOR SALE - Painting by HIH Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:10:02 -0500

A Russian View of Monarchy

Sat, 18 May 2013 05:42:00 -0500

Russians Don't Like Idea of Bringing Monarchy Back - Poll

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:56:08 -0500

A poll conducted by the Levada Center shows that the majority of Russians are confident that Russia does not need a monarchy and Russia's last emperor Nicholas II was not the best leader. The 145th anniversary of the birth of Russia's last Emperor Nicholas II will be marked on May 18th.

The study shows that 10% of the respondents (against 9% in 2000) favor the restoration of monarchy in Russia. These people are mainly workers (14%), public servants (13%), respondents aged between 25 and 55 (13%), people with vocational degrees (13%), and supporters of Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (13%).

An overwhelming majority of the respondents (76%, against 91% in 2000) oppose the restoration of monarchy in Russia. These people are mainly students (85%), people with disabilities (83%), businessman (82%) Russians older than 55 (81%), people with university degrees (80%), supporters of Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov (89%) or businessman Mikhail Prokhorov (86%).

Twenty-five percent of the respondents believe Nicholas II "was not a very good leader and made many mistakes, which he, however, redeemed with his death as a martyr." Twenty-three percent of the respondents call him "an innocent victim of the bolshevik terror," 18% believe that Nicholas "abdicated, gave up the country at a difficult moment, and is responsible for what happened to the country after 1917." Another 12% said Nicholas II "reduced the people of Russia to poverty caused a catastrophe in the country, and was overthrown by the people."

Note: the results of this poll do not reflect the opinions of Royal Russia and its administration - PG

Memorial Chapel to Holy Royal Martyrs Opens at Livadia

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:11:17 -0500

A memorial chapel to the Holy Royal Martyrs has been erected at Livadia in the Crimea. The seven-meter chapel is located at the entrance to the palace-museum. Inside the tiny chapel is a beautiful icon made of mosaic tiles depicting Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their son Tsesarevich Alexis, and their four daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia standing in front of the Livadia Palace.

Catherine the Great's Hunting Rifle on Exhibit

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:42:51 -0500

Photo Credit: Cody Firearms Museum

The Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming unveiled its display of 64 unique pieces this week, on loan from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

The unusual firearms include a .50-caliber hunting rifle by a Russian gun maker named Permajakov dating from the 1700s for Empress Catherine the Great. The rifle is inlaid with her name and Russian symbols and also incorporating a green velvet cheek piece on the rifle’s stock ensuring her comfort while shooting. Additionally, a gold inlaid image of Catherine herself is on the barrel near the breech.

Russian Craftsmen to Recreate Parts of Lost Amber Room

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:35:38 -0500

A colour autochrome of the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace taken before the Second World War

Russian craftsmen in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad are to recreate parts of the legendary Amber Room, a Tsarist-era antiquity which was looted by German forces at the end of World War II.

The restoration plan by the regional government of Kaliningrad, the Russian Baltic exclave with the world's largest known amber deposits, is part of a campaign to stop illegal mining in amber-rich areas near the Baltic coast.

Experts estimate that 60-100 tons of amber is mined illegally every year in the Kaliningrad Region, which is believed to hold more than 90 percent of the world's total known amber reserves and is home to the world’s only strip-mined natural amber deposit.

King Frederick I invited German craftsmen to decorate the main hall of his palace with amber panels shortly after his accession to the Prussian throne in 1701. But after the king’s death in 1713, his son Frederick Wilhelm I put an end to the expensive work, and put the amber panels on the walls of a small room of the Large Royal Palace in Berlin.

Three years later, he gave the panels as a present to Russia's Tsar Peter I, who stored them in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. It was only in 1743 that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna decided to use the amber panels to decorate one of her main chambers in the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

The original decorations were enlarged and were eventually turned into the legendary Amber Room, often referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world."

The decorations were looted during World War II by Nazi German forces, and taken to Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) where they were lost in the fierce fighting and air raids there at the end of the war in 1945. Only two small parts of the room's decoration were eventually rediscovered and returned to Russia.

According to the region’s Culture Minister Svetlana Kondratyeva, the recreated room will be installed in the 1899 building of the Konigsberg State Amber Factory following its renovation, which will then be transferred to the city’s Museum of Amber.

Museum visitors will be able to watch the craftsmen at work replicating the room through a glass pane.

Russian News Agency Shares Images from Newly Discovered Photo Album of Nicholas II

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:21:36 -0500

||| Nicholas II Photo Album - Courtesy KP.RU |||

The Russian news agency Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP.RU) have published nearly half of the 210 photographs from the recently discovered photograph album of Tsar Nicholas II on their web site.

The album was recently discovered in the vault of the Municipal Regional Studies Museum in the Ural city of Zlatoust. It is currently on display at an exhibition in Ekaterinburg.

For more information on this photo album, please refer to the following articles at the following links;

||| Newly Discovered Photos of Nicholas II and His Family Found in Ural Museum |||

||| Rare Nicholas II Photo Album Found in Ural Museum |||

Monument to Nicholas & Alexandra Unveiled at St. Petersburg

Mon, 13 May 2013 06:04:27 -0500

A monument to Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was unveiled yesterday in the courtyard of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, St. Petersburg. The church is situated along the Obvodny Canal near the Warsaw Railway Station.

This is the first monument dedicated to the Imperial couple and the second monument to the last Russian Empress in Russia, the other can be found at Ganina Yama, near Ekaterinburg.

The unveiling of the monument marks the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty and the 120th anniversary of the wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who were married in 1894. The construction of the monument was paid for by donations raised by members of the church.

Beautiful Orthodox Churches of Russia No. 11

Sun, 12 May 2013 06:57:37 -0500

The Church of St. John the Baptist at Chesme Palace is located in the far south area of St. Petersburg. Considered by some to be St Petersburg's single most impressive church, it was built under Catherine the Great as the house church for the Chesme Palace, a resting post between St. Petersburg and the Summer Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.

The church was designed by the German-Russian court architect Yury Felton. It was consecrated in 1780, on the tenth anniversary of Russia's naval victory over the Turkish fleet at Chesme Bay, which occurred on the birthday of John the Baptist, hence the church's name. At one point, the church was also in the possession of the knights of the Order of St. George when it was given the third name, "St. George’s Church."

In 1916 the body of Grigorii Rasputin rested in the Chesme Church before his burial at Tsarskoye Selo.

A wedding-cake structure with striped crenellated walls and five gothic turrets in place of traditional onion domes, this truly unique church has survived almost fully intact to this day, despite the fact that it was turned, along with the Chesme Palace, into part of a forced labour camp by the Soviet government - the cross on the central turret was replaced with a hammer, tongs and anvil to symbolize the toil of the proletariat. In 1923, the church was closed and used as a storehouse. Just before the Second World War, the complex was given over to the Institute of Aviation Technology, which still occupies the nearby palace to this day.

During 1970–75, the church was fully restored under the supervision of the architects M.I. Tolstov and A.P. Kulikov. In 1977, the church became a museum of the Battle of Chesme, with artifacts from the Central Naval Museum. The building was eventually returned to the Orthodox Church in 1990. The interior, which originally had Italian icons, was destroyed in a fire in 1930. However, it was restored when the church was refurbished. Inside the church, there are many iconic paintings and one particular painting of interest is that of Christ’s arrival in Nazareth. When it was a naval museum, there was a vivid painting, in rich colours, depicting the sea battle and Russian victory over the Turks, in place of the “Christ the Saviour in the iconostasis-less altar apse”. Sadly, nothing remains of the original interiors.

Today, the church is extremely popular with local worshippers. Regular services are held, and numerous visitors come to pay their respects to the war dead. It is interesting to note that the church has been used as a burial site for war heroes almost since its consecration, and the area around the church became a graveyard for soldiers who died during the Siege of Leningrad (1941-43).