The entire Romanov family loved to listen to music, especially what were known as the Russian “romance” songs”, but also opera arias. According to Tatiana Botkin-Melnik, daughter of the Romanov family physician, even during the war years singers from Imperial Theaters often came to the infirmaries and gave performances and concerts, which the Grand Duchesses and Tsarevich Alexei loved to attend.
Read more ROMANOV FAMILY: THEIR FAVORITE SONGS
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.
Read more TSAR NICHOLAS II’S AEROPLANE MAKER: IGOR SIKORSKY (1889 – 1972)
There is now a possibility of exhumation of the remains of Tsar Alexander III in order to have a “more accurate data” for the study of the Romanov family remains, in particular those of Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Maria, Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
“To remove the last doubts” about the authenticity of the remains of the Romanov family, the Patriarch of Moscow and All the Russia offered to open the tomb of Alexander III, at a meeting of the Committee for the Reburial of the Romanovs. Currently this issue is being addressed by the Investigative Committee of Russia. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY REMAINS UPDATE: EXHUMATION OF TSAR ALEXANDER III?
DID YOU KNOW that in 1891, during the future Tsar Nicholas II’s trip to Japan, he showed great interest in Japanese traditional crafts, and as result got a traditional dragon tattoo on his right arm.
There are only a few photographs which show this tattoo, below are a couple of them: Read more NICHOLAS II: TSAR WITH A DRAGON TATTOO
His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II, Her Majesty Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and the ten-month-old Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, arrived in Cherbourg, where they were met by President of France Felix Faure. So began “The Russian week” in France, which ended on 27 September with a parade in Chalon. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY IN PARIS, 1896.
October 2015. Additional tests on the remains of the Romanov family are being conducted with the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. The process was put in motion after it was decided that it was now time to finally bury the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria, and the date for the burial was chosen: 18 October, 2015 – Tsarevich Alexei’s Namesday. It is unclear whether the burial will take place on this date, but the hope it that it will take place sooner rather than later. Which new scientific tests are scheduled to be performed on the Romanov remains? Let’s take a look. Read more ROMANOV FAMILY: NEW DNA TESTS ON REMAINS
