Pictures of family portraits of royal families. Unknown photos of the last royal family were brought to Yekaterinburg: Nicholas II walked an elephant and gave his daughter a light

Abdicating the throne, Nicholas II tried to agree on the fulfillment of certain conditions for himself and his family. At that moment, the Romanovs were not yet going to be sent to Tobolsk, so the abdicated emperor insisted on the absence of tight guards and unhindered travel to the family in Tsarskoye Selo. Most of all, Nikolai hoped that the children would be able to stay at home for a long time without risk to their own safety. At that time, they were ill with measles and any travel could worsen their condition. Romanov Sr. also asked for permission to travel to England for himself and his family.

First, the Provisional Government agrees to fulfill all conditions. But already on March 8, 1917, General Mikhail Alekseev informs the tsar that he "may consider himself, as it were, under arrest." After some time, from London, which had previously agreed to accept the Romanov family, a notification of refusal comes. On March 21, former Emperor Nicholas II and his entire family were officially taken into custody.

A little more than a year later, on July 17, 1918, the last royal family of the Russian Empire will be shot in a cramped basement in Yekaterinburg. The Romanovs were subjected to hardships, moving closer and closer to their gloomy finale. Let's look at rare photos of members of Russia's last royal family, taken some time before the execution.

1. After the February Revolution of 1917, the last royal family of Russia, by decision of the Provisional Government, was sent to the Siberian city of Tobolsk to protect it from the wrath of the people. A few months earlier, Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, ending more than three hundred years of Romanov rule.

2. The Romanovs began their five-day journey to Siberia in August, on the eve of the 13th birthday of Tsarevich Alexei. The seven members of the family were joined by 46 servants and a military escort. The day before reaching their destination, the Romanovs sailed past Rasputin's home village, whose eccentric influence on politics may have contributed to their gloomy end.

3. The family arrived in Tobolsk on August 19 and began to live in relative comfort on the banks of the Irtysh River. In the Governor's Palace, where they were placed, the Romanovs were well fed and they could communicate with each other a lot, without being distracted by state affairs and official events. Children put on plays for their parents, the family often went to the city for religious services - this was the only form of freedom allowed to them.

4. When the Bolsheviks came to power at the end of 1917, the regime of the royal family began to tighten slowly but surely. The Romanovs were forbidden to visit the church and generally leave the territory of the mansion. Soon coffee, sugar, butter and cream disappeared from their kitchen, and the soldiers assigned to protect them wrote obscene and offensive words on the walls and fences of their dwelling.

5. Things went from bad to worse. In April 1918, a commissar, a certain Yakovlev, arrived with an order to transport the former tsar from Tobolsk. The empress was adamant in her desire to accompany her husband, but Comrade Yakovlev had other orders that complicated everything. At this time, Tsarevich Alexei, suffering from hemophilia, began to suffer from paralysis of both legs due to a bruise, and everyone expected that he would be left in Tobolsk, and the family would be divided during the war.

6. The demands of the commissioner to move were adamant, so Nikolai, his wife Alexandra and one of their daughters, Maria, soon left Tobolsk. They eventually boarded a train to travel via Yekaterinburg to Moscow, where the headquarters of the Red Army was located. However, Commissar Yakovlev was arrested for trying to save the royal family, and the Romanovs got off the train in Yekaterinburg, in the heart of the territory captured by the Bolsheviks.

7. In Yekaterinburg, other children joined their parents - they were all locked in the Ipatiev house. The family was placed on the second floor and completely cut off from the outside world, boarding up the windows and placing guards at the doors. Until the end of their days, the Romanovs were allowed to go out into the fresh air for only five minutes a day.

8. In early July 1918, the Soviet authorities began to prepare for the execution of the royal family. Ordinary soldiers on guard were replaced by representatives of the Cheka, and the Romanovs were allowed to go to worship for the last time. The priest who conducted the service later admitted that none of the family spoke a word during the service. For July 16 - the day of the murder - five truckloads of barrels of benzidine and acid were ordered to quickly dispose of the bodies.

9. Early in the morning on July 17, the Romanovs were gathered and told about the advance of the White Army. The family believed that they were simply being transferred to a small lighted basement for their own protection, because soon it would not be safe here. Approaching the place of his execution, the last tsar of Russia passed by trucks, one of which will soon contain his body, not even suspecting what a terrible fate awaits his wife and children.

10. In the basement, Nikolai was told that he was about to be executed. Not believing his own ears, he asked again: "What?" - immediately after which the Chekist Yakov Yurovsky shot the tsar. Another 11 people pulled their triggers, flooding the basement with the blood of the Romanovs. Aleksey survived after the first shot, but Yurovsky's second shot finished him off. The next day, the bodies of members of the last royal family of Russia were burned 19 km from Yekaterinburg, in the village of Koptyaki.

With the advent of new technologies, the history of a large country and a single event or person can be viewed from a different angle. Specialists-restorers do a tremendous amount of work every day to turn historical photographs from black-and-white and faded into color and high-quality ones.

Today we will look at new restored photographs of the royal family. Many of them are unique, since most of the photographs of the imperial family are still kept in the photo archives of England and the United States, and there are practically none of them in the public domain.

Emperor Nicholas II and Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich

Nikolai Nikolaevich Jr. devoted his entire life to military service. On the eve of the First World War, he was appointed by Nicholas the Supreme Commander of all land and sea forces.

All his life, awards and ranks rained down on the prince as if from a cornucopia. Nikolai Nikolaevich - received the nickname "Cunning" in the army for excessive ambition, a thirst for power.

Nicholas II on the platform of the station, to the right of the emperor - Colonel A.A. Mordvinov, January 30, 1916.

Still Tsarevich Nicholas, still Princess Alix, April 1894

Tsar Nicholas with his four daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia

Emperor with his son and army officers in 1915.

Alexey and Nikolai - Livadia Palace

Nicholas II with his daughter Tatyana and sister Olga Alexandrovna, as well as an officer on the deck of the Shtandart yacht

Tsar Nicholas and his family

Alexander III family photo, 1889.

Left to right: Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; Tsar Nicholas II; Ernst Ludwig; Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Coburg 1897

Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna during a visit to Great Britain with King Edward VII and the future King George V. 1909 Barton Manor

Imperial family in Crimea.

Nikolai and Admiral Sablin talking to Alexandra aboard the imperial yacht Standart, 1912

Alexey with his parents in Headquarters

Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei.

Family. Grand Duke Ernie, Tsarina Alexandra with Tsar Nicholas II, Princess Irene and Henry of Prussia, Princess Elizabeth and Grand Duke Sergei, Princess Victoria and Prince Louis of Battenberg.

Alix and children

One of the last and most famous family portraits of the imperial family, 1913

The Russian Imperial Family aboard the Polar Star, 1905. It seemed like a windy day!

Grand Duchesses of Russia with their English aunt Victoria.

Tsar Nicholas II with his second daughter in Germany

The Romanov family left a rich photographic legacy to their descendants. The Imperial family was photographed by the best photographers of the Russian Empire. On trips abroad, they certainly ordered photographic portraits from famous foreign masters. In the family of Nicholas II, everyone was passionate about photography.

In the photographic heritage of the Romanovs, especially many pictures are associated with the family of Nicholas II. The Imperial family was portrayed by many famous photographers. There are studio shootings of the outstanding masters of Russian photography G. Denier, S. L. Levitsky, A. Pasetti, C. Bergamasco. During their stay abroad, the royal family was photographed by famous foreign photographers: in Denmark - L. Danielson, M. Steen, G. Gansen, in Poland - L. Kovalsky, in Germany - O. Skovranek, F. Telgman and others. When the Romanovs visited the cities of the Russian Empire, shooting was entrusted to the best urban 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 K. E. von Hahn and Co.". The atelier was opened in Tsarskoe Selo in 1887. It was owned by the wife of an assistant senior mechanical engineer Kazimir-Ludwig Evgenievna Yakobson, nee Gan. 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 filmed 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 "Standard", in Finnish skerries, in Livadia, hunting on estates Slept and Belovezh. These pictures rarely reached the public and made up their own photo archive of the imperial family. In 1911, A. K. Yagelsky received the honorary title of Photographer of the Court of His Majesty.

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 pull. Finnish skerries. 1911. (rosphoto.org)

Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia. Tsarskoye Selo. 1903. (rosphoto.org)

The famous reportage photographer K. K. Bulla took a lot of pictures of Nicholas II. In 1904, he received permission to film "views of the capital, as well as celebrations in the Highest Presence." From the General Staff of the Military Ministry, Bulla had a certificate of permission "to make photographic surveys during maneuvers and exercises of the troops of the Guards and the St. ships and in general all events relating to marine life.

The heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. 1911. (rosphoto.org)

Many personal albums with photographs were left by the Romanovs themselves - the emperor, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, all the 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 in by the emperor himself, personally gluing and signing photographs. Each member of the family had personal photo albums, usually annual or two or three years together.

Emperor and Empress in costumes of Russian tsars of the 17th century. (rosphoto.org)

Another category of the photographic heritage of the Romanovs 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 their holidays. The Romanovs themselves, their personal photographer A.K. Yagelsky and the emperor’s associates took the greatest number of family photographs precisely on vacation, when members of the august family were left to their own devices and were 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, maids of honor, ladies of state, officers of the imperial yacht Shtandart and a number of other people.

Royal hunting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. (rosphoto.org)

The fate of the photographic heritage of the Romanov family in Soviet Russia is rather confused and bears the imprint of the tragic fate of its owners. After the execution, documents and photographs of the Romanovs' house were repeatedly transferred from archive to archive. The photographic heritage is still insufficiently studied. We do not even know the approximate number of photographic objects in the state storages of the Russian Federation; it is also not known what heritage has been preserved in the CIS countries and abroad.

Nicholas II in his office, 1900. (rosphoto.org)

X artist Valentin Serov became famous as a portrait master. Among his customers were representatives of the imperial dynasty of the Romanovs - Serov painted more than ten portraits of the most august persons. We offer you to see 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 like a living one." The artist managed to capture a brief moment of elusive childhood: in the picture we see Mikhail growing up, already almost a teenager. He is a little thoughtful, but in his eyes there is still a childish reverie. The Tsarevich is dressed according to 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 taken to work only three sessions, 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, for 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 salvation of the royal family in a railway accident, a church and a chapel were erected here. At the celebrations for their consecration, a portrait of the family of Alexander III hung in a separate pavilion, but many viewers 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

Alexander III Valentin Serov wrote several times. A group portrait of the imperial family in 1893 became the only canvas painted during the life of the monarch. The appearance of Alexander III in the painting of 1899 had to be recreated from memory. Valentin Serov also relied on photographs by the imperial photographer Sergei Levitsky.

In the picture, Alexander III looks both majestic and good-natured. He is depicted against the background of Fredensborg Palace in Copenhagen in 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 visits to Denmark, Alexander III always wore an officer's uniform: a cocked hat with blue and white plumes and a scarlet dress uniform. On it, in addition to the highest Russian 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 the 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 officers' fund of the Royal Life Guards.

Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II

Portrait of Emperor Nicholas II. 1900

Home portrait of Nicholas II, a gift to Alexandra Feodorovna, the artist created in just two meetings with the emperor. The original version of the painting has not been preserved: the revolutionaries who captured the Winter Palace ripped open the canvas with bayonets. However, Serov, having barely completed the portrait in 1900, immediately made a copy of it. He was worried about the fate of the painting, because the empress did not like her very much. During the sessions, Alexandra Feodorovna closely watched the artist and generously gave out 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 written in broad free strokes without subtle light transitions, the details of the canvas are not worked out. But the execution of the picture reflects the idea of ​​Valentin Serov. The artist wanted to show, first of all, a person - tired in the service, who came home after work. The canvas lacks the usual attributes of royal portraits - solemn interiors, ceremonial clothes, the highest awards. Nicholas II is depicted in the jacket of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, which he wore every day.

The canvas is stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Exit of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna from Matins

Exit of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna from matins. No later than 1901

Typically, portrait drawings were created by artists of the 19th century 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 built the composition of the picture so that the viewer looks at the image from the bottom up, because of this, the empress seems more majestic. Passing by the subjects, she detachedly responds to their signs of attention. With smooth lines, Valentin Serov drew a strict and refined cut of her dress, an airy cape dropped from her shoulders. On the contrary, he depicted those around him with emphasized straight and broken lines, their faces are practically indistinguishable, and their figures are angular.

About Alexandra Feodorovna, a foreigner by origin, it was often said that her relationship with the court did not work out. During solemn ceremonies, the empress behaved with restraint: she was embarrassed by communication with strangers. However, official events were an obligatory part of court life. Nicholas II wrote about one of them in his diary: “At 2 o'clock in Zimny, the ladies' steelyard began - 550 ladies! My dear Alix looked remarkably beautiful in a Russian dress.” In those years, the ceremony of kissing hands was called the steelyard.

A drawing depicting Empress Alexandra Feodorovna can be seen in the State Russian Museum.