The 12th annual Imperial Bouquest Festival opened at Pavlovsk Palace on July 14th. The theme of this year's festival was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Russia's victory over Napoleon's armies in 1812.

The festival is now held every year in honour of the palace's original owner, the Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828). During her years at Pavlovsk, the wife of Emperor Paul I had a great love for flowers and oversaw the development and maintenance of some of the most beautiful gardens in Russia. Having an avid interest in flower arranging, she filled the rooms of the palace with arrangements and bouquets that she created herself using fresh, fragrant blooms from her gardens and greenhouses year round.

This years' festival involved over 100 florists, and guests were entertained with a fashion show and music in the Rose Pavilion (pictured lower right). The festival lasted two days, July 14-15, 2012.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 20 July, 2012

Russian Monarchists have registered their own political party seeking the revival of the Russian Empire, but the head of the Romanov Imperial House is opposed saying that it would add strife to the society.

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanov believes “a monarch must unite people” while the establishment of such a party only leads to disintegration, Romanovs’ attorney German Lukyanov was quoted as saying by Russian news portal Lifenews.

The time for a monarchist regime in the country has not come yet and a revival of the empire is currently impossible, he said.

“No parties can help in this full-time job since a monarch can come to the throne only by the will of one’s people and God,” Lukyanov stated.

However, the head of the party, former MP Anton Bakov, stated that the Grand Duchess’ opinion will not stop the party in its desire to restore the Great Russian Empire.

If Maria Vladimirovna does not want the Romanov Dynasty to come back to power in Russia, there are other descendants and representatives of the Tsar’s family “who will surely” support us, he told Life News.

On Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Justice reported on its website that the Monarchist party was officially registered on June 25 this year.

Its chairman, 46-year-old millionaire Bakov is known for having founded a virtual state – the Russian Empire – located on a coral atoll called Suvorov near the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. According to its website,  those willing to become nationals of the state, may apply for a passport via e-mail for the price of just 1000 roubles (about $US 31).

© Russia Today. 19 July, 2012

An estimated (though unconfirmed) 40,000 Orthodox faithful took part in the 21-km pilgrimage from the Church on the Blood to Ganina Yama on the night of July 16/17, 2012.

The above video courtesy of Вести.ru offers a glimpse of the procession from this years' Tsar's Days Festival at Ekaterinburg. 

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 19 July, 2012

In the next few weeks I will be adding a new section to my web site, Royal Russia that will be dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty in 2013.

This new section will include news and other information about the festivities, exhibitions and other events planned in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other cities across Russia, plus any events planned for other cities and countries.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 18 July, 2012

The Holy Royal Martyrs were commemorated at Tsarskoye Selo today, in services at both the Alexander Palace and the nearby Feodorovsky Cathedral.

A prayer service was held in the Semi-Circular Hall of the Alexander Palace. It was through the doors of this room of the palace that the Imperial Family left the palace for the last time on August 1, 1917.

In the nearby Feodorovsky Cathedral a night liturgy was held in memory of the Holy Royal Martyrs. The service was led by Bishop Markell of the Peterhof Cathedral. The liturgy has been held every year since 2000 and is attended by hundreds of Orthodox faithful who live in Pushkin and the surrounding towns and villages.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 17 July, 2012

The bells of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg will be restored by the end of this year, says the Deputy Director of Operations Boris Pokrovsky.

The bells were cast in 1845-1846, according to the drawings by Auguste Montferrand. They were dismantled during the Soviet regime in 1931.

Nine new bells will be cast with work expected to be completed in November to late December. Once completed, the bells will then hoisted and installed in their original locations. The largest of the bells will be installed in the south-west bell tower.

Pokrovsky announced that the bells will ring out during major religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

In 1818, Emperor Alexander I commissioned Auguste Montferrand to build St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Construction lasted 40 years and was completed in 1858, three years after the death of Emperor Nicholas I.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 16 July, 2012

 

Part of a 19th Century banquet service that once belonged to Emperor Alexander III of Russia—is set to come under the hammer at West Midlands’ auction house Cuttlestones on Friday 14th September 2012.

All matching, the twelve pieces comprise six soup bowls and six plates that were made at, and carry the marks of, the Imperial Porcelain factory in St Petersburg. The delicate design combines scalloped edges with gilt decoration; each piece emblazoned with the cipher of Alexander III beneath the Imperial crown. In exceptional condition, carrying no cracks or chips and with just minor rubbing to the gilt, these are a very special find – as Adrian Simmons, specialist ceramics valuer at Cuttlestones, explains:

“These are an unusual offering of pre-revolutionary Russian porcelain, and have a cast iron Royal connection. It is very rare for matching groups to come onto the market, normally just odd ones and pairs appear.

© Cuttlestones. 16 July, 2012

A memorial chapel dedicated to Tsar Nicholas II has opened in the village of Lyuba which is situated in the Omsk region of Siberia.

The chapel opened on July 14th, a year after a memorial plaque in honour of Nicholas II had been erected on the spot.

The former Russian emperor, along with his wife Alexandra, and their daughter Maria stopped at the Lyubinskaya Station after being transferred from Tobolsk to the Ekaterinburg in 1918.

In the summer of 1917 the Provisional Government in Petrograd sent the Imperial family to Tobolsk. In October, the Provisional Government fell after a successful coup by Lenin.

In April of 1918 Yakov Sverdlov ordered that Nicholas be sent to Moscow to stand trial. However, their train was stopped at the Lyubinskaya Station on April 28th. Eye witnesses recall seeing the last emperor and empress walking on the platform of the station while awaiting their fate. In an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with the Bolsheviks on the transporting of the Imperial family members to Moscow, Vasily Yakovlev, the special plenipotentiary commissar of the Central Executive Committee took them instead to Ekaterinburg.

After that, any possibility of escape or rescue was gone. To this day, some historians believe that regardless of Yakovlev’s motives, that the fate of the Emperor and his family might have been different had the family been moved to Omsk. For a brief period during the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), Omsk served as the capital of the anti-Bolshevik Russian State and held the Imperial gold reserves.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 15 July, 2012

Pyotr Stolypin, one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia and Prime Minister under Tsar Nicholas II, used to say “Russia without samovars is not Russia!” Alexei Lobanov, a collector of samovars from St. Petersburg, likes to repeat this statement. His collection of savovars, metal containers, which were traditionally used in Russia to heat and boil water, are on display in the Tsaritsino museum in Moscow from July 12 to September 9.

Although he is a professional lawyer, Alexei continues to supplement the family collection of samovars which was started by his great-grandfather and his father. Their family collection counts more than 200 exhibits. In an interview with the Voice of Russia Lobanov confessed that he is now so deep into the subject that he knows what is what as good as a professional ethnographer.

"Our collection will shed more light on the development of samovar as a symbol of Russian culture," Lobanov says. "Samovar appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 18th century, and our collection includes a spate of rare hand-made samovars that were in use in Russia between the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century.Subsequent years saw the beginning of mass production of samovars which were of little interest to me," Lobanov adds.

A metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water, a samovar turned into an important attribute of a Russian household.

In previous years, Lobanov’s samovars were on display in Paris, Prague and the Norwegian town of Bodo, attracting scores of visitors. The hope is that the Moscow exhibition will not be an exception.

© The Voice of Russia. 15 July, 2012

Emperor Nicholas II and his family attend the opening of the Red Cross Hospital at Kostroma on May 20th, 1913.

© Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia. 14 July, 2012