British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron visit to Russia, 9–14 June 1914

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The squadron arrived at Kronstadt Island on Monday 9 June to a gun salute from Russian destroyers, thousands of pleasure boats with flags flying, and crowds of cheering Russians thronging the quayside opposite. Pictured are HMS Princess Royal and the Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov.

Russian destroyer Zabaykalets with the British squadron in the background.

HMS Blonde (source)

HMS Boadicea

HMS Lion

HMS Queen Mary

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The tsar entertained Admiral Beatty and his officers to lunch at Peterhof, and at a garden party at the summer villa of Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich at Tsarskoe Selo the girls all plied the British officers with questions. The inquisitive Anastasia was the most demanding; "her childish voice rang out above the hum of conversation", recalled Meriel. "You will take me up into your conning tower," she implored, and added mischievously, "Couldn't you let off one of the guns and just pretend it was a mistake?"

Цветинский. 11 Июня. Среда.
Утром был урок музыки. В 11 ч. я с Georgie и Изой пошли пешком в Большой Дворец, который ему показывали. Завтрак был большой, с 11 английскими офицерами- моряками. В 3 ч. мы 4, Мама, Папа и Georgie поехали к д. Борису в сад, где т.Ducky и д. Кирилл устроили garden-party для англичан. Их было человек 50. Несколько атаманцев, стрелков, гусар (был Борис Голицин). Много дам. Очень было хорошо. Сидели под большими зонтиками. Очень тепло. Чай пили у нас на балконе. После возились у Georgie в комнатах. Обедали 2 Папа, Мама, Georgie и т. Ольга. После обеда Georgie уехал в Москву, а мы проводили т. Ольгу на моторе пол дороги до Петергофа. (Diary of Tatiana Nikolaevna - 1914, ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 37-38; Следствие длиною в век)

Georgie came to stay with his cousins at Tsarskoe Selo, during which time the officers of the Shtandart thought he paid a lot of attention to Tatiana, with whom he agreed to exchange letters.

Photo by MaritimeQuest (source)

The Russian Imperial Family on board of, probably, one of the Royal Navy ships. Admiral David Beatty is present (fourth from the right, standing) as well as Tsar Nicholas II (seventh from the right, standing). Q 69052

On the last day of the squadron's official visit, 14 June, a morning of brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies, the imperial family returned the admiral's visit, dining on board HMS Lion, after which the girls were shown round "every corner" of the ship by four eager young midshipmen who had been specially chosen by him. One of them, Harold Tennyson, remembered the thrill and honour: "I showed round Princess Olga, who is extraordinarily pretty and most amusing. The most cheery and pretty quartette I have met for some time, and roared with laughter and made jokes the whole time. If only they were not Princesses, I should not mind getting off with one!"

Nicholas II: When Maria turned 15, I took her aboard the British squadron that came on a friendly visit to our capital. We observed command cruiser ‘Lion’ and cruiser ‘New Zealand’. Brits were hospitable and amiable and showed us everything we displayed interest in #Romanovs100

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Alexandra Feodorovna on board HMS New Zealand. The New Zealand coat of arms is on the top left.
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A farewell ball for 700 guests was to be held later that evening on board the Lion and New Zealand specially roped together for the purpose, but much to the visitor's dismay Alexandra refused to allow her daughters to attend. Meriel Buchanan noticed a look of "wistful regret" on the faces of the British officers as they said goodbye to the four Romanov sisters.

The girls, as always, accepted their mother's decision "without demur or argument", though they had looked a little "crestfallen" and when Olga boarded the imperial launch taking them back to Peterhof "she looked back at the big grey ship, and waved her hand to the officers standing to attention on deck". She smiled, but there were tears in her eyes. It was a moment that, decades later, Meriel Buchanan would recall with an intense regret tinged by hindsight: "Happy voices, smiling faces, golden memories of a summer afternoon, of a world that could still laugh and talk of war as something far away."

"Seeing off the English squadron", 20 June 1914

"Проводы Английской эскадры", 20 июня 1914 года

HMS New Zealand. Georgie was stationed on this ship

HMS Lion

HMS Princess Royal
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Sources:

• Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, page 220-222
• Илья Григорьев, Flickr and Следствие длиною в век
• Tatiana Z on Flickr
• ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 37
• ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 39-40
• ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 41
• ГАРФ Ф. 651 оп. 1 д. 317 л. 44-45 

Mary Jane Kelly and the Romanov family

Skeleton №3 (Romanova Olga)

I love Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia (OTMA). I often prefer only the good times seen in their private photographs and archive footage. But there's no ignoring the fact that these beautiful girls were murder victims. Whenever I read about the murders, I cannot help but think of Mary Jane Kelly, one of the victims of Jack the Ripper 129 years ago. The grisly photograph of her badly mutilated corpse is probably what OTMA looked like when the Bolsheviks mutilated them prior to disposing their bodies.

I sometimes imagine myself travelling in time to witness the disposal of the Romanov family and their servants, retrieving their bodies as soon as the monsters were done with their dirty work so they can be given a proper burial somewhere safe and far away from Russia (assuming rescue was not possible). But considering the mutilations, I never would've recognized OTMA even if I saw them. For instance, the bastard Yakov Yurovsky wanted to dispose of Alexandra and her son Alexei in a seperate grave, but claimed in his memoirs that he mistook Anna Demidova's body for the empress. In fact, the body was Maria's.

I compare the Romanov murders with the Ripper victim for the following reasons:

1) They were murdered.

2) Their bodies were deliberately mutilated. I won't go into the gory details, only that the Ripper used a blade to mutilate his victims. For the Romanovs, the Bolsheviks used sulphuric acid, rifle butts and spades. Fire was also used to burn the bodies of Maria and Alexei, leaving only a few partial bone fragments for amateur archaeologists to find in 2007.

While the Ripper did it for sadistic pleasure, the Bolsheviks did it to disfigure the Romanovs beyond recognition. One could argue that since the Bolsheviks despised the imperial family, they were likely to have derived satisfaction from mutilating them. Their bodies were also "completely naked", as was Mary Jane Kelly. The Bolsheviks stripped the Romanovs to loot their belongings, burning their clothes in a bonfire, whereas Mary Jane Kelly's clothes were left folded on a chair.

Only photos of the Romanovs' skeletal remains after their exhumation in 1991 exist. But to have an idea of what they may have looked like at the time of their disposal, I look no further than the grisly photograph of Mary Jane Kelly's corpse. Obviously I won't post the photo here because it's far too graphic. It's somewhat less intense seeing a skeleton.

3) Both crimes remain unsolved to this very day. Unlike the Ripper victims, we know the individuals responsible for murdering the Romanov family. Except that the perpetrators were working for the Bolshevik regime, led by Vladimir Lenin. Lenin is still venerated in Russia today, so prosecuting him for the Romanov murders will likely never happen.

Some claim that prosecution is pointless because the perpetrators are long dead. But death of old age should not exempt them from guilt, nor should time diminish the severity of a crime. The purpose of an investigation is to determine criminal responsibility for the murders and, as far as I'm aware, there was never any formal inquiry into Lenin's role or anyone from the Bolshevik regime for that matter.

In 2012, the Kremlin conducted a posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky. If a dead lawyer can be prosecuted, then so can the Romanov murderers. However, as I've mentioned before, the Romanov family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. Although communism is no longer state ideology in Russia, they still refuse to acknowledge or expose atrocities committed during the Soviet era. For them it's better to deny and forget.

There are two differences between the crimes. One is the photographs of the victims. While there are many lovely photographs of the Romanov family, no photos of Mary Jane Kelly before she was murdered exists. Entering her name on Google Images will always return grisly results. And while the Romanovs are buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Mary Jane Kelly's grave has been lost to time. She was buried in St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone, London. However, her gravestone does not mark her exact resting place.

Rest in peace, Mary Jane Kelly.

The Romanov family in Sevastopol, 12-15 May 1916

Images may not be in sequence.

Посещение императором Николаем II г.Севастополя. Император Николай II с наследником-цесаревичем Алексеем и сопровождающими их лицами обходят почетный караул от Черноморского флотского экипажа на Севастопольской пристани во время встречи.

Посещение императором Николаем II г.Севастополя. Император Николай II, наследник-цесаревич Алексей, командующий флотом Черного моря адмирал А.А.Эбергард у машинного трюма на линкоре "Императрица Мария".
(Source)

Посещение императором Николаем II Севастополя. Император Николай II, императрица Александра Федоровна, наследник-цесаревич Алексей, вел. княжны Ольга, Татьяна Николаевны в сопровождении свиты проходят по пристани, направляясь на смотр военных кораблей. (Source)

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Посещение императором Николаем II Севастополя. Император Николай II, императрица Александра Федоровна, наследник-цесаревич Алексей, вел. княжны Ольга, Татьяна Николаевны, морской министр, адмирал И.К.Григорович, князь Игорь Константинович и др. на катере перед отправкой на смотр военных кораблей. 12 мая 1916 года
ГА РФ, ф. 673. оп. 1 д. 206 л. 7

Посещение императором Николаем II г.Севастополя. Император Николай II, императрица Александра Федоровна, наследник-цесаревич Алексей, дочери императора, вел.княжны: Ольга, Татьяна, Мария и Анастасия Николаевны, командующий флотом Черного моря, адмирал А.А.Эбергард (2-й слева) в группе офицеров на палубе линкора "Императрица Екатерина Великая". 12.05.1916 г.

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Imperatritsa Mariya

сканирование0034 by RusCadet

Августейшая Семья и команда линкора "Императрица Мария". Севастополь, 12 мая 1916 года
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https://twitter.com/NicholasII_1917/status/1000021131712229378

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Anastasia, Nicholas II, Tatiana, Maria, Olga, Alexei and Igor Konstantinovich

ГА РФ, ф. 673. оп. 1 д. 206 л. 7

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Nicholas II and Maria Nikolaevna. Behind them is the destroyer Leytenant Shestakov (лейт. Шестаков)
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Император Николай II, морской министр, адмирал И.К.Григорович, командующий флотом Черного моря, адмирал А.А.Эбергард, наследник-цесаревич Алексей, вел. княжны Ольга, Татьяна, Мария, Анастасия Николаевны, князь Игорь Константинович и др. на катере перед отплытием на осмотр минной бригады. Дата съемки: 13.05.1916

Николай II посещает эсминец 'Дерзкий' в Севастополе, 13 май 1916 г.
Nicholas II visits the destroyer Derzky in Sevastopol, 13 May 1916.

Летопись войны 1914-15-16 гг.
Посещение Их Величествами с Августейшими детьми Севастополя и черноморской эскадры в мае 1916 г. (К статье «Воспоминания») [3 фото.] – стр. 1697

https://twitter.com/NicholasII_1917/status/1000016931007721473

ГА РФ ф. 673 оп. 1 д. 206 л. 9 об. фото 119

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Anastasia Nikolaevna (source)

https://twitter.com/Botkin_1917/status/1007543233050808320

Царская Семья приветствует команду линкора Императрица Мария. Севастополь, 14 мая 1916 года
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ГА РФ ф. 683 оп. 1 д. 123 л. 16 фото 298

https://www.facebook.com/Romanovs100/photos/a.1409059169199684/1497554703683463/?type=3

ГА РФ, ф. 683 оп. 1 д. 125 л. 5 фото 62

"Гидроавиация 14-го Мая [1916 г.]"
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ГА РФ. Ф. 683. Оп. 1. Д. 125. № 85

NH 100162

More low quality photos can be found on RGAKFD (Website has been reworked so here's a new link: Посещение императором Николаем II Севастополя, Одессы. 9-15 мая 1916).