Tea at Trianon: The Popularity of the Romanovs

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Popularity of the Romanovs

Today. To quote the New York Times:

A replica of Russia’s grand imperial crown, made of nearly 11,500 diamonds, will be on display in Moscow until early January at the State Historical Museum near Red Square, the latest of dozens of exhibitions across Russia devoted to the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty.

The exhibitions are on a wide range of subjects related to the dynasty, which came to power with the election of Mikhail Romanov in 1613, and ended with the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918. On Saturday an exhibition called “Sports and the Romanov Family” opens in Sochi, the Black Sea resort city that will be hosting the Winter Olympics in February. The overriding theme, however, has been the glory of the Russian state under the Romanovs, and its links to Russia today.

In November, a high-tech exhibition at the Manege hall near the Kremlin wall was attended by President Vladimir V. Putin and drew more than 300,000 visitors during its three-week run. It highlighted the Romanovs’ achievements, and underscored the dangers of revolt.

References to Mr. Putin scattered through the exhibition drew fire from critics who said the show was intended to give historical credence to what some see as his czar-like tendencies. The exhibition ended with a banner displaying a quote from a much-cited speech in September. “Too often in our nation’s history, instead of opposition to the government we have been faced with opponents of Russia itself,” Mr. Putin said. “And we know how it ended, with the demolition of the state as such.”

The Manege exhibition was organized by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the abbot of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery, who has a reputation for being close to Mr. Putin. It is scheduled to travel to several Russian cities. Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s culture minister, has said that it might eventually become a permanent exhibition in Moscow. Nicholas II, his wife and five children were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000 as “passion bearers” for their “humbleness, patience and meekness” during their imprisonment and execution by the Bolsheviks. (Read more.)