Yuri Gagarin and Vostok designer Sergei Korolev before the historic space flight in 1961.
Russia, the Kievan Rus, and the Mongols: Crash Course World History #20
In which John Green teaches you how Russia evolved from a loose amalgamation of medieval principalities known as the Kievan Rus into the thriving democracy we know today. As you can imagine, there were a few bumps along the road. It turns out, our old friends the Mongols had quite a lot to do with unifying Russia. In yet another example of how surprisingly organized nomadic raiders can be, the Mongols brought the Kievan Rus together under a single leadership, and concentrated power in Moscow. This set the stage for the various Ivans (the Great and the Terrible) to throw off the yoke and form a pan-Russian nation ruled by an autocratic leader. More than 500 years later, we still have autocratic leadership in Russia. All this, plus a rundown of some of our favorite atrocities of Ivan the Terrible, and a visit from Putin!
Russian soldiers in costume for a performance during a lull in World War I fighting (1916).
Although I’d love the rumours to be true; I highly doubt that any of the Romanovs survived.
In 1991, the bodies of 5 of the Romanovs and 4 servants were exhumed; Alexandra’s DNA was matched to that of Prince Philip and Nicholas was identified by a rare anomaly in his genome that he shared with his brother George. Alexandra’s DNA confirmed that 3 of the bodies found in the grave were those of her daughters. This arose speculation that two of the children had escaped the massacre; one of them being Alexei. In 2007, a second grave was found 70m away from the original. The pelvic remains of the two bodies indicated that they belonged to a female aged 15-19 and a male aged 12-15. Further DNA analysis then confirmed that the remains did indeed belong to two children of the Tsar.
If you like, you can read the full report on the identification process here.
I personally believe that this accounts for all five children; but if strong evidence to suggest otherwise was to arise; I’d definitely reconsider. Thank you for this really interesting question! :)
I haven’t! Although I’ll definitely be taking a look; the relationship between the three is very interesting. Thank you!
A Lifelong Passion is my favourite; it chronicles the letters and diary entries written by the family and provides an insight into the revolution and other events from their point of view. It also illustrates how deeply Nicholas and Alexandra loved each other.
Ekaterinburg is another good one that details the final days of the Romanovs in captivity.
Russia is also a book I really like, it’s less focused on Nicholas and his family but it chronicles the history of Russia from its very beginnings through to the current day.
and alexanderpalace.org/palace is by far my favourite website for Romanov history :)
