The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia (18 page)

Olga (front) and Tatiana (left) play in the surf in the Crimea,
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. 1909. On the right, holding a Kodak Brownie box camera, is Alexandra’s good friend Anna Vyrubova.

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The imperial couple in the Crimean scenery,
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. 1910.

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A retouched lantern slide showing Rasputin with the Romanovs,
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. 1910. In the front row from left to right are the children’s nurse, Tatiana, and Marie. In the second row from left to right are Alexandra, Rasputin, Alexei, and Anastasia. Standing behind the
starets
is Olga.

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Prime Minister Peter Stolypin, one of Rasputin’s greatest foes.

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Anastasia and Alexei cuddle in a chair on the terrace of the family palace in the Crimea, 1910.

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Olga (center) and Tatiana study with Pierre Gilliard at the palace in the Crimea,
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. 1911.

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Anastasia looks over Olga’s shoulder as the older girl reads,
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. 1912.

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Alexandra reveals both her weariness and sadness in this candid photograph taken in the doorway of Alexei’s sickroom at Spala in 1912.

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Alexandra sits at her recovering son’s bedside just days after the hemophilic episode that almost killed him.

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Nicholas and Alexei on the balcony of the Alexander Palace,
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. 1913.
By tradition, the family maintained close ties with the armed forces, and both father and son liked to wear uniforms. The boy’s leg is still bent at the knee, owing to the events at Spala.

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This portrait of the Romanov family is one of a series taken to mark the tercentenary in 1913. Eight-year-old Alexei sits before his parents, while eleven-year-old Anastasia sits next to Nicholas. In the back from left to right are thirteen-year-old Marie, fifteen-year-old Tatiana, and seventeen-year-old Olga.

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