Romanov's in Romania (1914), Russian Empire
Summary
Taken from the documentary Russia's Lost Princesses. This is when there where marriage negotiations between Tsar Nicholas’s eldest daughter, Olga, and Carol II of Romania. When the Romanov’s visited their Romanian counterparts, the Carol and Olga struggled to make a connection. Olga’s modest personality did not blend well with Carols casanova character.
Carol did not find Olga’s high cheek-boned face and her curt and sensitive mannerism appealing as Olga was known to be rather independent and opinionated (one might say that Olga was ahead of her time) but also very compassionate and sensitive. And to make sure that Carol would not try to make any advancements on Tatiana (17), Maria (15), or Anastasia (13), all four of them spent time tanning before going on this voyage and as a result the Romanian nobles where put off by the Romanov daughters appearance (as darker skin was not considered the standard of beauty for Princesses at the time).
After this the events of the revolution unfolded in Russia. Carol then married Zizi Lambrino a year later and Olga and her family would all be executed five years later.
But imagine how different history could have been if Olga or Tatiana married Carol (I think Anastasia and Maria where far too young to even think about getting married at this time). There are many things to take into consideration like would the Bolshevik's declared war on Romania and tried to assassinate Carol and whichever Romanov daughter he married? Would Romania have been able to defeat the Bolshevik's in War? Would WWII have gone on longer? How different would the world be today?
Notice how after the family picture is take, Maria eagerly walks over to Olga and picks up the baby she was holding. This is a demonstration of Maria's love for children.
There were special court cameramen and photographers who captured the daily life of the Romanov family. The Company of von Gun filmed the Tsar, and with the permission of the Ministry of the Court, showed these films in movie theatres beginning in 1907. Before the February 1917 Revolution, the von Gun Company was the main provider of the Tsar's chronicles in the Russian film industry. After 1907 other filmmakers were permitted to film the Royal family, including A. Drankov, V. Bulla (the elder), Khanzhonkov Company, Pate Company, and others. Before the beginning of World War I a newsreel became popular capturing military parades, holidays, reviews and drills. Many are devoted to the Fleet. They document everyday life of the Baltic Sea and Black Sea squadrons. Some of the newsreels document the fire of the Maly Theatre in Moscow, mass gymnastics, auto and motor races, zoos and animal preserves, and the life of peoples of the Russian Empire. The objects of filming were political and cultural figures, the construction of warships, the Moscow flood, the testing of new agricultural equipment and the oil industry in Baku. There are also films showing the towns of Russia, etc. During World War I, cameramen captured events on all fronts. Before 1915, the exclusive rights to film battles belonged to the Film Department of the Skobelev Committee. The Skobelev Committee of the Assistance to the Wounded Soldiers of the General Staff was founded in November 1904 as a public organization. By the order of the Scobelev Committee many cameramen filmed the events of the World War I, such as Englishman Arcol (representative of Pate Company, filmed on South-Western and Caucasus fronts), cameramen E.D. Dored (represented American companies) and P.V. Ermolov, (filmed events on Caucasus front); P.K. Novitskiy (Gomount Company), N.M. Toporkov, K.E. von Gan, A.K. Gan-Jagelskiy, made filming in the General Headquarters. Other cameramen such as: A. G Lemberg, S, Zebel, Trushe, etc. also worked at the fronts. Cameramen filmed the war not only on the fronts but also from the rear. Since the first month of the war until 1917 the Scobelev Committee produced about 70 newsreels. From 1914 to 1915 cameramen of the Scobelev Committee produced 21 series of the newsreel "Russian Military Chronicle". The materials of this newsreel were used many times for the separate films made by Scobelev Committee and other film companies. Read more at: http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/rao/archives/rgakfd/textind10.html
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