1911 photo postcard Tsar Nicholas II and son, military parade Peterhof

$100.00 CAD

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Scarce photo of the Tsar and his son, the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaeivich, walking in uniform down a road at the Peterhof estate, near St. Petersburg. Both sides of the road are lined with soldiers, all have their caps off, including the Tsar and Alexei.

At this time Alexei was about 7 years old. In 1918 he, along with his father was executed by firing squad. He was by then thirteen. To this day he has not been buried with the rest of his family.

On back, unused. Printed in French ‘CARTE POSTALE’.

Card is in poor condition, it has ‘lived’ a hard life.

On front: nick on top border, crease/nicks UR/LR corners, small scratch on photo UR corner, stains, burn (?) marks. Very toned on back.

(Red text is an electronic watermark that is not physically part of the photo for sale)

 

Nicholas II (1868 –1918), known as Saint Nicholas in the Russian Orthodox Church, was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. He was given the nickname Nicholas the Bloody or Vile Nicholas by his political adversaries due to the Khodynka Tragedy, anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, the violent suppression of the 1905 Russian Revolution, the executions of political opponents, and his perceived responsibility for the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) Soviet historians portray Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects.

After the 1905 Revolution, they fled St Petersburg for security reasons, spending their time in Tsarskoe and Peterhof.

 

Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, the Tsarevich Alexsei Nikolaeivich. He and his family were imprisoned and transferred to Tobolsk in late summer 1917. On 30 April 1918, Nicholas, Alexandra, and their daughter Maria were handed over to the local Ural Soviet council in Ekaterinburg; the rest of the captives followed on 23 May. Nicholas and his family were eventually executed by their Bolshevik guards on the night of 16/17 July 1918