ARISTOCRACY As a sample of Peterbourg aristocracy the Royal kin of Gottorp Romanov may serve. They were typical Peterbourgians of West-European culture. Their genealogy is well-known. The founder of the Dynasty was Peter III, son of Karl Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein Gottorp, and Anna, daughter of Peter I of the latter's second marriage. When Peter III came to power, no more masculine descendants of the Dynasty of Romanov existed. Therefore, Peter III adopted the name Romanov and gave it to his descendants. In this way a kind of a new dynasty - that of Holstein Gottorp Romanov - came into being. It is interesting to cast a glance at the table of origins of emperors of the kin Romanov:
This Table shows origins of the Gottorp Romanov Emperors after Peter III. Of course this does not mean any racial grounding of their non-Russian character. The latter was not genetic but cultural only, determined by their West-European tradition, which was indispensable for each true Peterbourgian. The majority of true Peterbourgians were of the similar origin, although not Royal, at the beginning of the 20th c. Nevertheless such origins made even an anthropological difference between all of them and the majority of Russians who belonged to a more diverse type with a lot of different anthropological, often Asiatic, features. In spite of their own anthropological diversity, the Ethnic Russians very well recognised own people only according to the appearance. This became especially obvious after the Bolshevik revolt of 1917, when the word "white bone" and racial hatred toward "the people in hats" gained currency. In Russia the different appearance was a sign of a different culture. This clearly meant a national difference. Of course, the Emperors comprehended this - Nicolas I, 1825-1855, once even uttered having "no drop of Russian blood in his veins". The same was felt by many Peterbourgians as if their "fault" against the ethnic Russian nation and finally led to a kind of patrioticised "Russian madness", when ethnic Russian dresses and Pseudo-Byzantine church architecture became popular under the 2 last Emperors Alexandre III and Nicolas II. The Russian-Slavophil policy of them was opposite to the policy of their ancestor Peter I, in its turn. In this way they prepared their own catastrophe because they had no comprehension of the ethnic Russian people and character. Such their policy led to the war of 1914 against Germany and to the ruination of the Dynasty together with Sanct-Peterbourg itself.
Nicolas II and Alix Gottorp Romanov (the 2nd
and the 3rd from the left in the 3rd row) among their
relatives in Gr. Britain. In
the 2nd row German Kaiser Wilhelm II is sitting 1st from the left,
Empress Alexandra with the Heir Alexis
Emperor Alexandre II with his 2nd wife
Princess Dolgorukova
Emperor Aleksandre III embracing daughter Olga,
wife Empress Maria
Dagmar embracing son Michael,
GD Michael, brother of Nicolas II, playing croquet. 1906.
GD Dmitry, cousin of Nicolas II. 1910.
Nicolas II and Grand Duke Nicolas Nikolaevitch Gottorp Romanov.
Sister of the Empress, future saint, Elisabeth
with her husband GD Serge Gottorp Romanov
Count Serge Witte, a far-sighted opposer of the
war against Germany
On the left: friend of the Empress, a foolish psycho-sexopat
Anna Vyrubov née Taneev,
Member of Duma Vladimir Puryszkiewicz, murderer of "starets" Gregory Rasputin. |