Biographies of the Imperial Court – Page 2

November 18, 2015Helen Azar 4 Comments

ROMANOV FAMILY: TSAREVICH ALEXEI’S LOYAL SAILOR

This story is dedicated to the most loyal, but too often forgotten, servant of the Romanov family: Klementy Grigorievich Nagorny.

Sailor Klementy Nagorny with Tsarevich Aelxei — Sailor Klementy Nagorny with Tsarevich Alexei

Klementy Grigorievich Nagorny, the last Dyad’ka (“Uncle”, or sailor nanny) caretaker of Tsarevich Alexei, was born in 1887 in the Village of Pustovarovka, to a peasant family. Nagorny became a sailor on the Imperial Yacht “The Standart”, and eventually was appointed as assistant caretaker of Tsarevich Alexei, to the Boatswain A.E. Derevenko. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY: TSAREVICH ALEXEI’S LOYAL SAILOR

November 10, 2015Helen Azar No Comments

ROMANOV FAMILY FRIEND: ANNA VYRUBOVA

Close friend of the Romanov family, Anna Vyrubova in old age, in exile after the Russian revolution.

ROMANOV FAMILY FRIEND: ANNA VYRUBOVA

Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, nee Taneyeva, a noblewoman at Russian imperial court, became a very close friend to Empress Alexandra and the entire Romanov family. It was said that Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra almost considered her their fifth daughter.

“Anya”, as the family members affectionately referred to her, even worked as a Sister of Mercy along the side of the Empress and her daughters, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, after the First World War began.

In early January of 1915, Anya boarded a train from Tsarskoe Selo to St Petersburg, and was involved in a very serious, near fatal accident. She survived, but was left crippled for the rest of her life. There is a myth that Grigori Rasputin, who was brought to see Anya shortly after the accident, was the one who saved her life.

November 3, 2015Helen Azar No Comments

ROMANOV FAMILY: THEIR REAL “KITCHEN BOY” – LEONID SEDNEV

Leonid "Lyonka" Sednev. the Romanov family's kitchen boy. — Leonid “Lyonka” Sednev, the Romanov family’s “kitchen boy”, the last playmate of Tsarevich Alexei, and the only survivor of the House of Special Purpose.

In 2004 author Robert Alexander published a novel called “The Kitchen Boy“, which shortly became a bestseller. About 10 years later, a Hollywood movie with the same title went into production, to be released in late 2015.

But who was the real “kitchen boy” – Leonid Ivanovich Sednev – a boy who was just a year older than Tsarevich Alexei and the latter’s last friend and comrade. The boy who faithfully served the Romanov family at the Ipatiev House, their last household in Ekaterinburg, until just a day before their murder.

Leonid “Lyonka” Sednev became the only human survivor from the “House of Special Purpose”- the last residence of the Romanov family, where the family of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, met all their deaths. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY: THEIR REAL “KITCHEN BOY” – LEONID SEDNEV

October 26, 2015Helen Azar No Comments

TSAR NICHOLAS II’S AEROPLANE MAKER: IGOR SIKORSKY (1889 – 1972)

Born in Kiev (Russian Empire) on May 25, 1889, world famous Russian aircraft engineer, inventor and philosopher Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was the youngest child of a well-known psychiatrist, professor of the University of Kiev – Ivan Sikorsky and his wife Maria, nee Temryuk-Cherkasova.

From 1903 to 1906 Igor studied at the St. Petersburg Naval Academy. In 1907 he entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where he joined the “Aeronautics Mechanical Circle”. In the next few years, Sikorsky built his first two simple coaxial helicopters. The capacity of the unit built in 1909 reached 9 pounds, and was presented at a two-day aeronautic exhibition in Kiev later that year. None of helicopters built until this point could take off with a pilot, so Sikorsky switched to building airplanes. In January 1910 he tested an aero-sleigh of own design and also flew the first plane of his construction: C-2. The following year he received his pilot license.