Tea at Trianon: A New Look at the Last Tsar

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

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

A New Look at the Last Tsar

From The Moscow Times:

Last year, the 100th anniversary of the execution of the last members of the Romanov dynasty passed in Russia without much official attention. The exception was in Yekaterinburg, where the family was killed and where thousands of pilgrims gathered to mark the day of their murder. But in Moscow the State Historical Museum has been running an exhibition that provides, in a rather low-key way, a look back at the last tsar, his family and his rule. It is to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nicholas II.

The exhibition presents over 750 photographs of the tsar and family, paintings, objects and memorabilia, and some commentary from people who knew the tsar and his family. Many of the exhibits are rarely shown or have never been shown before. Alexei Levykin, director of the museum, told The Moscow Times that, "We are showing the viewers historical primary sources, which are the most objective reflection of what happened. We are not trying to impose any points of view. We are just giving visitors a chance to see images of the emperor and the era."

The exposition starts with photographs taken in the period from 1870 until the mid-1910s. Hundreds of photographs depict Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra Fyodorovna, and the children. Most of the photographs were taken in the palaces in Tsarskoye Selo and Peterhof, the former imperial residences of Russian tsars outside St. Petersburg. Some of the pictures were taken in the private apartments of the tsar’s family.

On the walls of the gallery are quotes by friends of the royal family, such as this memory of Alexei, the tsarevich, from the children’s French tutor Pierre Gilliard: “Alexei Nikolayevich was the center of the closely-knit family. All affections and hopes were focused on him. The sisters adored him, and he was the joy of his parents. When he was well, the whole palace seemed transfigured; it was a ray of sun illuminating everything and everyone around.” (Read more.)