Posted on 12/25/2005 2:58:41 PM PST by GermanBusiness
I've been dating a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia for over a year whose grandfather was apparently given a lethal injection by the communists when he went in for a routine physical in the late 1940s.
His name: Fyedor Korablyev, born 16 February 1907
Even before the apparent murder, the family has been afraid to talk about any relation to the Romanov Family but an older family member has just told me that Alexei Romanov died as a monk in Siberia in 1960.
The world is aware that Alexei's bones were never found. He was not executed with this family in 1918. He and his sister Maria survived. A man named Heiko supposedly claimed to be Alexei to his American wife...and she announced this after his death in the 1970s...but her attempts to have the DNA tested somehow "fell through".
I wonder why she doesn't try harder.
See the below link for more detail on that.
I actually have more details of the family story including a possible location of Alexei's grave, but because of the explosive nature of it all, and because of the history of pretenders, I am not going to say something here that is either stupid or worthy of headlines.
The family I know is not dishonest or status-seeking in any way. But it is possible that many Russian families developed "secret traditions" that they were Romanov descendants...as a way of coping with the hardships of Soviet life. They may be believing a falsehood without knowing it. But they are too scared to find out and it does not seem to be a fear of learning that it all isn't true. It is more a nagging fear of what the authorities might still be trying to hide.
I would just like to ask:
1) Does anyone out there have access to the real remnants of the Romanov Family whose representatives could quickly check some things of interest...if they are still interested?
2) Are there extended family trees available that could identify the above individual (the grandfather) if that name, which was used under Stalin's reign, was actually the name the grandfather used before the Bolshevik's took over.
Here is an interesting link regarding the fact that Alexei Romanov's bones and the Grand Duchess Maria's bones were never found, while the pretenders so far have all been proven to be just that: pretenders.
http://members.surfeu.fi/thaapanen/Articles/st12.html
I have specific information that, if I can confirm a few points, I would fly to a specific Siberian destination one weekend to investigate further.
I am so stealing that.
{Anyway, the best source I've found so far for at least identifying family members is: Romanov Family Tree]
It is interesting that this online family tree just lists Alexei and Maria as having died on July 17, 1918.
But DNA evidence now says this is not true. Those two kids did NOT get interred with their family at the Peter and Paul Fortress on July 17, 1998. That is a fact.
Now in doing research the past 2 hours, I am unable to find any family connection linking a "Fyedor Korablyov" with the Romanovs. I will be talking with more Korablyov relatives tomorrow about the mystery.
It would be interesting, as well as sad, to find out that "Fyedor Korablyov" was given the lethal injection in that Kazakstani hospital in the late 40s by people who suspected that he was Alexei himself, renamed. It is pretty clear that my girlfriend's grandfather was executed that way. Her mom was supposed to be killed as well, but the janitor of the hospital got the little girl the heck out of there.
If he was Alexei...then I'm dating his granddaughter. :-)
[If he was Alexei...then I'm dating his granddaughter. :-)]
But then, if I marry her, we will have haemophiliac boys. :-(
"Also, one of the soldiers involved in the execution and the body disposal . . . mentioned taking aside the bodies of the tzarevich and the tzarina and specifically destroying those bodies"
This may have been a story concocted to account for the fact that those two bodies were missing. According to Radzinsky ("The Last Tsar"), Yurovsky, the head of the execution squad, was also a photographer. Presumably he wanted photographic proof of the bodies all lined up,
to prove they were dead. But since two were missing,
he skipped the photo (which would have proved the matter to the world.)
There have also long been rumors of a photo of the Romanovs in the basement. (They were possibly led there, by one account, with the excuse that they were to have a photo taken--the camera was even set up.) Radzinsky searched for the photo in the KGB archives but was unable to find it.
My son has a mild form too. When he was first diagnosed I read everything I could get my hands on about the disease. An interesting book on the subject is Queen Victoria's Gene. The author's do make the case that her official fathere wasn't ther real father, but I found the history of her progeny to be the most interesting aspect of the book. Her children/grandchildren sat on most of the thrones on Europe and WWI was really a Cousin's War fought by Victoria's descendants.
Actually there are rumors that Putin may be descended from a cadet line of the Romanov family--there was a noble family in his ancestral region with some Romanov ancestry and a name (which I forget) which could have been shortened to Putin, and Putin himself has some passing resemblance to a few 19th century Tsars.
They have been curiously silent about Tsar Nicolas and his wife and daughters and whether any of the immediate family survived.
The networks never showed it, not wishing to encourage such nuts. But WTAE-TV played it twice this early morning on the news. I wouldn't be surprised if they played it on the noon news or even later.
It was beautiful! I hope you get to see it....... or, I hope you get to see it
;-)
You too could concoct a 'plausible' Nigerian email scam.
If you see pictures of Tsar Nicholas and King George V together, they could be brothers almost twins, the resemblance is that close.
I have read that Diana had more 'royal' blood flowing through her veins than Charles did. (I do not remember where)
Did they show it during the game?
No. A friend of mine was at the game and told me all about it. Apparently Chatham really leveled him. I think the guy tried to file a lawsuit but the judge told him to drop dead.
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/mainpage.html
You might want to check this site out and post your information.
There were a lot of Romanov cousins who safely fled to other countries.
I do not necessarily agree with any of the three of you and have also been long interested in the fate of the Romanovs. I was gullible enough to believe in Anna Manahan as Anastasia until DNA proved that she was a Polish former factory worker who carried off the acting performance of the century. I have also been partial to a theory that Aleksei survived and became the Polish KGB defector Oleg Penkovskiy who was murdered in the US by the soviet KGB and had visited with Manahan. All of which marks me as gullible on the Romanov romantic epic.
Additionally, I may well be less knowledgeable than any of you on the Romanovs. I know that my eldest daughter has made more of a study of them than I have.
[Polish KGB defector Oleg Penkovskiy]
Penkovskiy's DNA could be easily checked. We know where his grave is. But neither his DNA nor that of the famous "Heiko" was checked. Why not?
If I were to get better confirmation from family members in Russia, I could find the crypt in a monastery in Siberia and we could see if we want to actually DO a DNA test.
And see if Putin would WANT us to do a DNA test.
I cannot believe that I am caught up in a sort of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" type mystery (sorry, I meant "Davinci Code Mysery" but instead referred to a much better book than The Davinci Code).
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