#demidova palace

[otmaaromanovas]

hi! So I was just rewatching the movie Romanovs an Imperial Family and I noticed that at Tobolsk they (the guards) took pictures of the family (front and side profiles) and I was also just watching Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) and I noticed that they also took pictures at Tobolsk. Did this happen in real life or is it just a myth? (If it’s a myth you can put it on the list for your series :)

Thank you!

Hi! Thank you so much for your question lovely! It made me dig a lot deeper into whether this was actually true and I am pleased to say that it isn't a myth, but something that actually happened. Here are some details!

Pierre Gilliard's diary mentions the family having to have identification photos taken. On 17 September 1917 he wrote that "ID cards with numbers, equipped with photographs" were taken of the family. According to Paul Gilbert, who runs the Nicholas II website and has a great article about this, Alix also wrote about this in her diary.

Pierre Gilliard also wrote about this in his memoir Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, Page 286:

In September Commissary Pankratof arrived at Tobolsk, having been sent by Kerensky. He was accompanied by his deputy, Nikolsky—like himself, an old political exile. Pankratof was quite a well-informed man, of gentle character, the typical enlightened fanatic. He made a good impression on the Czar and subsequently became attached to the children. But Nikolsky was a low type, whose conduct was most brutal. Narrow and stubborn, he applied his whole mind to the daily invention of fresh annoyances. Immediately after his arrival he demanded of Colonel Kobylinsky that we should be forced to have our photographs taken. When the latter objected that this was superfluous, since all the soldiers knew us—they were the same as had guarded us at Tsarskoie-Selo—he replied: " It was forced on us in the old days, now it's their turn." It had to be done, and henceforward we had to carry our identity cards with a photograph and identity number."

It's worth mentioning that all the staff that worked at the palace before the Revolution did indeed have to carry ID passes with photographs.

We have a brilliant example of what one of these passes in Tobolsk might have looked like in the form of passes for Botkin and Demidova, which are now Museum of the Family of Emperor Nicholas II in Tobolsk. I sadly couldn't find Demidova's, so have just attached Botkin's.

Captioned: 'Identity card (pass) E. S. Botkin for the right to enter the house number 1 (“Freedom House”) dated November 6, 1917.'

Which brings me on to a lady named Maria Mikhailovna Ussakovskaya. For clarification, I don't know if she was the person who took the photos for definite, but she was a prominent photographer in the area and could have been hired to take the photos. She did 100% have some connection to the Romanov family, as I'll explain later.

Maria was a photographer in Tobolsk, in fact she was the first woman photographer from the region that operated professionally, and she had her own salon. She even photographed Rasputin - you can see her surname embossed on the cabinet card here, reading Уссаковская

She photographed the family's entourage, too, as the staff were able to move freely about Tobolsk. Shown here are (left-right): Catherine 'Trina' Schneider, Count Ilya Tatishchev, Pierre Gilliard, Countess Anastasia 'Nastenka' Hendrikova, and Prince Vasily Dolgorukov. Note Maria's surname embossed again onto the card, showing it was taken and produced at her salon.

Invoices for the family show that the Romanovs had several payments sent to Ussakovskaya for postcards and "correcting negatives", so we know that there definitely was a relationship between the two parties. She took photos of the exterior of the house in Tobolsk, and postcards were sent by the Grand Duchesses showing the house, so they might have used her photos.

Letter sent from Maria to Nikolai Demenkov, her 'crush'

Which then begs the question of what happened to these ID photos...

Apparently, Maria Ussakovskaya's daughter Nina owned some photographic plates of the Romanov family. It's not explained whether these were casual photos taken of the family, or ID photos, but according to Paul Gilbert "in 1938... fearing arrest, [Nina] destroyed all the photographic plates".

Owning any Romanov or Tsarist related items, including photographs and postcards, was an arrestable offence. The rise of the gulags in the 1930s with the Stalinist regime probably prompted Nina to destroy what she owned.

Personally, I don't have much hope that any of the photos of the family will ever turn up. But there is always a small chance, I suppose :)

To conclude: yes, this happened, photos were definitely taken of the family for identification passes. Pierre Gilliard is a trustworthy source and the fact that it was written in his diary and also Alix's diary is pretty much concrete evidence. The existence of Maria Ussakovskaya and her association with the family also points towards this, alongside the bills and invoices sent to the family at Freedom House.

Maria with her husband, Ivan.

SOURCES:

The woman who photographed the Imperial Family in Tobolsk by Paul Gilbert

Thirteen Years at the Russian Court by Pierre Gilliard

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Christmas Party at the Demidova Palace.

Yes, you counted correctly, I got 20 sims in one place. It's almost all of the royal family, excluding 2 toddlers and 2 babies. It took an embarrassingly long amount of time and made me very frustrated at points, but at least I got some decent pictures from it.

[history-of-fashion]

1837 Karl Bryullov - Eva Aurora Charlotta Demidova (née Stjernvall)

(Constantine Palace)

[nikolacvna-archive]

❣

❈ ✼ ❈    kiss the princess, win a frog?  ( accepting!!! )   //   @splitcrown

8.  A DYING KISS    ( i am so sorry oh my god i’m so freaking sorry )

a great, terrible oblivion lies in the distance which stretches between them.

it seems to last forever   —   hanging suspended, eyes locked, neither one able to draw breath into twin sets of aching lungs.   for her, it is shock  ;;   peridan should not be here, should not be riding up to the palace on a white steed ahead of a roiling storm of red.    she pushed him away, and that should have been it.   they said goodbye, and he ought to be gone.   ( out of the way… safe. )

peridan should not be here,  pushing her,  throwing her out of the way in the microseconds between fate and tragedy.   he should not be in the path of the storm sent to swallow her world.   ( then again, he is such a large part of her world, still, that it seems fitting. )   yet there he stands, and as the storm closes around him, all tatiana can do is scream.

she has seen the red storm consume, witnessed the devastation left in its wake.   poor demidova, doctor botkin, nagorny…  dashed to the ground, lifeless, black veins standing out in their necks against paper-white skin.    she has gazed into those hollow eyes and prayed to lose herself within them, but the sight of it swallowing peridan is too much to bear.   her fault for staying behind as the rest of peridan’s army rode off with her family, for insisting they reach safety before herself…  and peridan, in that same self-sacrificial streak, insisted on staying the longest.   there is no one left to die but the two of them, and peridan…  peridan, peridan, peridan…

through the mist.  through the haze.   peridan falls.

the scream which tears from her throat is animalistic, devastated and devastating.   she doubles in on herself, like a puppet whose strings have been severed.  her knees hit the ground, and she crawls, pressing forward on burning palms until she has reached the place where her heart lies broken on the ground.

she has seen only the moments after, not the seconds…   she has not seen the mist’s victims die.   she could not have prepared for the nightmare of those final breaths, drawn in through a rattling chest   —  they eyes bulging, the lips run black, thick blood clogging dying veins.   in his writhing, she sees the echo of the man she loves  ;;  his gentle hands caress her, his soft voice teases her ear, he smiles in the moonlight in the moments after she first kissed him.    he is alive, but he is fading, fading so fast, and he hurts…

( and he should not be here, damn aslan, damn her, damn it all to fury and back.  what has been the use of a devout life if she could not save the man she loves?  what is the use of believing if aslan himself could not breathe vitality back into his body? )

she caresses his face, holding him close to her chest as he convulses.  hot tears land on his cheeks   ;;   she swipes them away in desperation.     ‘ please, please, no…  no, no, peridan… ’

helpless.   she is utterly helpless.

driven by one last desperate instinct,  she presses forward.   her lips meet his, and for a moment, they are warm.   she swallows a breath he pushes into her lungs  ;;  a hand comes up to grip her shoulder, fingers digging in and holding fast.

their lips break.  his hand falls away.

her shudder is the dying gasp of future giving way to endless night.  when she looks down into empty eyes, something within her shatters   —   the faith, the love, the devotion which makes up the fabric of them both has already suffered its dying blow, and crucial lifeblood pools around them, eager to drown.   tatiana sighs, caresses his face, and breaks.   

she tips her head back to the storm, and allows it to consume her.

[heavyarethecrowns]

Royals who died Young Spam

The Romanov Children

Grand Duchess Olga ( November 15 1895 – July 17, 1918)

Grand Duchess Tatiana  (10 June 1897 – 17 July 1918)

Grand Duchess Maria  (June 26 1899 – July 17, 1918)

Grand Duchess Anastasia (June 18 1901 – July 17, 1918)

Tsarevich Alexei (12 August 1904 – 17 July 1918)

After an uprising in Russia against the Monarchy the Tsar abdicated in March 1917. At first the family was held under house arrest at Alexander Palace before being moved to Tobolsk due to the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the former governor's mansion in considerable comfort

After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment grew stricter, and talk of putting Nicholas on trial grew more frequent. As the Bolsheviks gathered strength, the government in April moved Nicholas, Alexandra, and their daughter Maria to Yekaterinburg under the direction of Vasily Yakovlev. Alexei was too ill to accompany his parents and remained with his sisters Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, not leaving Tobolsk until May 1918. The family was imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in Yekaterinburg's Ipatiev House, which was designated The House of Special Purpose

The Romanovs were being held by the Red Army in Yekaterinburg, since Bolsheviks initially wanted to put them on trial. As the civil war continued and the White Army (a loose alliance of anti-Communist forces) was threatening to capture the city, the fear was that the Romanovs would fall into White hands.

The Ural Regional Soviet agreed in a meeting on 29 June that the Romanov family should be liquidated. Filipp Goloshchyokin arrived in Moscow on 3 July with a message insisting on the Tsar's execution. It was agreed that the presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet should organize the practical details for the family's execution and decide the precise day on which it would take place when the military situation dictated it, contacting Moscow for final approval. The killing of the Tsar's wife and children was also discussed but had to be kept a state secret to avoid any political repercussions; British consul Thomas Preston and German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach made repeated enquiries to the Bolsheviks concerning the family's well-being. As Trotsky would later explain, "The Tsar's family was a victim of the principle that form the very axis of monarchy: dynastic inheritance", for which their deaths were a necessity

There are several accounts of what happened and historians have not agreed on a solid, confirmed scope of events. According to the account of Yurovsky (the chief executioner), in the early hours of 17 July 1918, the royal family was awakened around 2:00 am, got dressed, and were led down into a half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house. The pretext for this move was the family's safety, i.e. that anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg, and the house might be fired upon.

Present with Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were their doctor and three of their servants, who had voluntarily chosen to remain with the family: the Tsar's personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife's maid Anna Demidova, and the family's chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp. A firing squad had been assembled and was waiting in an adjoining room, composed of seven Communist soldiers

Nicholas was carrying his son; when the family arrived in the basement, the former empress complained that there were no chairs for them to sit on.  Yurovsky ordered two chairs brought in, and when the empress and the heir were seated, the executioners filed into the room. Yurovsky announced to them that they had been condemned to death by the Ural Soviet of Workers' Deputies. A stunned Nicholas asked, "What? What?" and turned toward his family. Yurovsky quickly repeated the order and shot the former emperor outright

The executioners drew revolvers and the shooting began. Nicholas was the first to die; Yurovsky shot him several times in the chest (sometimes incorrectly said to have been in his head, but his skull bore no bullet wounds when it was discovered in 1991). Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria survived the first hail of bullets; the sisters were wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems sewn into their clothing, which provided some initial protection from the bullets and bayonets. They were stabbed with bayonets and then shot at close range in their head

The bodies were taken for burial in secret. The bodies were stripped of their clothing and valuables by Yurovsky's men, the former piled up and burned while Yurovsky took inventory of their jewellery. The plundered belongings became the property of the new Soviet government. The bodies were then lowered into the shallow pit and sprinkled with sulphuric acid. Yurovsky separated the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters Anastasia, to be buried about 15 metres (50 ft) away, in an attempt to confuse anyone who might discover the mass grave with only nine bodies. Alexei and his sister were partially burned and their charred bones dismembered using spades and tossed into a smaller pit. Only 44 partial bone fragments from both corpses remained, which were not found until August 2007

[ageofwrathrpg]

Name: Kim Seung-gi Age: 137 Ability: Regenerative Healing Faction: CIVILIAN as a POLICE MAJOR Faceclaim: Doona Bae Availability: OPEN

THE STORY || CW: Army

Born the Winter of 1880 amidst the rapid decline of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, Seung-gi was the only child of a Byeolgigun soldier. Trained by her father and his Japanese superiors, Seung-gi was a darling of their battalion and lived for battle. During a training session at age 10, she discovered she had the same regenerative ability as her father, who she later learned was well over a century old himself. By her fourteenth birthday, Korea was caught in the middle of a war between Japan and China. Determined to hit the enemy where they lived, she traveled northwest to China, taking out as many adversaries as she could. She kept traveling northwest until she found herself in Imperial Russia and amongst other Vilas like herself. She agreed with them, that they were superior to humans, and damn tired of living in the shadows. She was amongst the original Rosteks who marched into Moscow on that fateful day in December of 1900.

Though she lived for the fight, she began to disagree with the original leader’s ideology. Vilas were superior, but — considering her very own mother had been ‘normal’ — that did not mean humans were expendable. When encountering Vilas who feared their abilities and wished to be human, the Rostek leader would declare them “abominations” and have them swiftly executed without explanation or mercy. At this, Seung-gi promptly switched sides, joining the human army to use her expertise and knowledge of the Rosteks to fight her former comrades. But it was the prejudice toward her fellow Vila soldiers from their human colleagues that caused her to go AWOL. It was with another Vila harboring the ability of Power Mimicry that she was able to deceive and assassinate the Rostek leader. Despite this, the group persisted and the conflict continued. Seeing no end to this seemingly never-ending battle, she left the war altogether with intent to travel the world before the Rosteks inevitably destroyed everyone and everything.

While traveling abroad nine years ago, she received a letter that stated the “legendary twins” had been found but were separated by opposing forces. She returned to Moscow to ensure one side did not offset the balance of power again. This time, she found work as a detective for the Moscow Police Department and eventually climbed the ranks to Major.

THE CHARACTER

When encountering Major Kim, it goes without saying that she’s the gutsiest person in the room. She’s fearless, brazen and blunt on top of exceedingly clever, knowledgeable and calculating. Though she refuses to take a side, Kim is also a master at forging documents and secretly provides Vilas with the necessary identification and passports to ensure their safety regardless of affiliation. When prejudice is witnessed between humans and Vilas, she does not hesitate to retaliate (often times aggressively). Though she is not quick to temper, she certainly has a silent and cold, seething way about her that is frightening to anyone who offends her. With her dry sense of humor and dark sarcasm, it is difficult to determine whether or not Major Kim is being serious. When it comes to friends, she has very few; however, to those few, she is fiercely loyal.

CONNECTIONS

Aleksandr ‘Sasha’ Ivanovich Alkaev - Whether coincidence or not, Kim met this poor precog while traveling abroad. She showed him how to live on next-to-nothing and the two became fast friends. She is aware of his precognitive ability and the two have a mutually-beneficial relationship. If he can tell her where conflicts will happen before they do, then she can set up whatever interviews he would like.

Foma Alexandrovich Zharkov//Project M - Foma is Sascha’s very eccentric roommate. She is one of the very select few aware of his true ability and that he is not at all blind. Though she does understand his own self-hatred, she attempts to be as supportive and hopes to someday find a way to help him.

Shura Nikitova Demidova - Back in the 70s, Kim had a knack for teaching young Vilas how to fight. Shura was one of those students. At the time, Kim hadn’t known that her pupil would take what she had learned back to the Rosteks as a trainer of their own. Kim felt betrayed by this and she still does. Whenever their paths cross, Kim is not above knocking Shura down in her place. While Shura may be able to mimic abilities, she cannot hold a candle to over a century of skill.

Lucius ‘Kir’ Viktorovich Ikashev - This large manbaby is the new leader of the Rosteks? Could he be any more of a tantrum-throwing handful? She’s sure he has a reason for whatever he does — but honestly, she sees the destruction and devastation in his wake and is just like “fuck it”. He may have a better handle on controlling his followers than the original Rostek leader, but their potential retaliation and subsequent chaos is the only reason why she doesn’t march into that grand palace and cut off his damn head.

Erik 'Prizrak' Volkhovovich Nechayev - Having fought together over a century ago, he is the Vila with whom Seung-gi had aligned herself to take down the original leader of the Rosteks. They have kept in touch over the decades and their paths have occasionally crossed (usually with him finding her). Occasionally, he’ll mooch her regenerative powers to rejuvenate himself and she doesn’t mind, but she has started to suspect that perhaps the years are playing on his sanity.

[[ More Connections ]] 

ETC

At age 30, she stopped aging. She also stopped keeping track of how old she is.

Due to her age and being well-traveled, Seung-gi speaks several languages including (but not limited to): Korean, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, and Ancient Greek (because she was curious).

With a high tolerance for pain and an ability to regenerate body parts, Seung-gi will sometimes sell her own organs on the black market for some quick, extra cash.

Come to think of it, she does live in a rather nice apartment for a police officer.

Though skilled with blades and guns, her weapons of choice are her fists.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

More Christmas decorations at the Demidova Palace. The King and Queen will be hosting a Christmas party soon.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Princess (soon to be Queen) Catherine, living her best life back at the Demidova Palace. She moved there as a teenager to be a future consort for Prince Nicholas, and then after they married they both moved to the Demidova-Goth manor at Albion Terrace. She's thrilled to be back at the massively extra palace because she's massively extra.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Prince Nicholas and Princess Beatrice (and their children Princess Alexandra and Prince Theodore) moved into the Demidova Palace, in preparation for their upcoming coronation. King Thomas and Queen Cordelia moved into the Demidova-Goth Manor on Albion Square (Nicholas and Beatrice's previous home).

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Cornelia moved into the Demidova Palace with Thomas.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Princess Cecilia, out and about in the Palace.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Princess Alexandra and Prince Theodore aged up to teen and preteen, respectively.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Coronation of King Nicholas and Queen Catherine at the Demidova Palace. The former King Thomas and Queen Cornelia are ready to start their retired lives in the Demidova-Goth manor at Albion Terrace.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Random pics of the teenage prince and princess.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Morgana and Victor’s family birthday party, featuring the new lavender banquet room on the fifth floor of the palace.

[simsfreeplayarchives]

Late evening at the palace. Tatiana teaching Morgana how to put on makeup. Something tells me she’s not interested yet.