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I don't want to be your relative's judge; of course you wouldn't want to harm him plus he probably had nothing to do with that.

Perhaps I spoke out of turn; all I know about Russia is what I've read which is patchy. I don't know what they make for export (other than oil and possibly wood), but for the tourist industry and probably natives as well they make a lot of beautiful wooden products, usually birch, matriosha (sp?) dolls, bowls, samovars (boy had a senior moment on that), beautiful shawls (I have one my sister gave me), can't think of what all else.

I think you are right in what you said, you know how it is when hate is drummed into you and it takes on a life of its own. Thanks for the link to Olga's scrapbook; I looked at a lot of the photos of her.

I read elsewhere that it was -81F in one part of Siberia today, hard to imagine temps that low.

I picked up several books and artistic items on ebay a few years back. My screen name comes from one of the books which I loaned my son and never got back. It was about a little Russian fox named Aliska which became almost tame and a household pet, they took it to the country for the summer, had to go back to their city home and left it with neighbors to look after it. It disappeared shortly after, kind of sad. They bought the little fox at an outdoor market like our flea markets.

I don't want to be your relative's judge; of course you wouldn't want to harm him plus he probably had nothing to do with that.

Well, most likely not although I wondered what his leanings would be if he had to make the call with the Royal Family. I'm afraid in my thought experiment of going back in time with my buddies to save them, we would be at odds, I would give every advantage not to harm him but I'm afraid his forces and mine would be fighting against each other. I guess like all civil wars, you have relatives on both sides.

Perhaps I spoke out of turn; all I know about Russia is what I've read which is patchy. I don't know what they make for export (other than oil and possibly wood), but for the tourist industry and probably natives as well they make a lot of beautiful wooden products, usually birch, matriosha (sp?) dolls, bowls, samovars (boy had a senior moment on that), beautiful shawls (I have one my sister gave me), can't think of what all else.

You did not speak out of turn, I would need to know more before I would emigrate. I have no plans or wishes to do so, but again if I was, I would need to know more. During the Communist era, the Soviets did make interesting looking radios and TVs and even calculators, I would dearly love to get my hands on some of those. They also made their own copies of popular personal computers then like their "Agatha" (Agat), an Apple ][+ or //e clone plus their own systems. I'm kind of surprised yet kind of fascinated they even had their own computer geek subculture like we did in the 1980's. There was one article in their "Radio" (radio/electronic) magazine where you can build your own computer, much like our TRS-80 from Radio Shack plus one where you can use a calculator to control a toy tank. The Russians are very smart people, they can do a lot with what little they have. I'm trying to copy a do it yourself TV antenna from "Radio" Magazine do I can use it to get more hi-def stations.

I think you are right in what you said, you know how it is when hate is drummed into you and it takes on a life of its own. Thanks for the link to Olga's scrapbook; I looked at a lot of the photos of her.

Yeah, unlike some royal families, the guys were good looking and the ladies were drop dead gorgeous. I really like Maria and Olga, I would be proud to escort any of them to a dance or have then sit by me in a black 1984 Buick Grand National T-Top turbo, or any car, pop in some "Duran Duran" or "Foreigner" in the cassette player and cruise around Pittsburgh. B-D From what I have read, they were very kind, loved animals and Alexi himself had empathy for people, well they all did. Shame he had hemophilia, I'd like to see him as grown up.

I read elsewhere that it was -81F in one part of Siberia today, hard to imagine temps that low.

Yeah, it gets bitter cold there. Come to think of it, some of the cars they mad for the Communist bigshots over there had a 24 volt ignition system to give them the extra power to start in cold weather.

I picked up several books and artistic items on ebay a few years back. My screen name comes from one of the books which I loaned my son and never got back. It was about a little Russian fox named Aliska which became almost tame and a household pet, they took it to the country for the summer, had to go back to their city home and left it with neighbors to look after it. It disappeared shortly after, kind of sad. They bought the little fox at an outdoor market like our flea markets.

That would be cool to see, you can find interesting stuff like that at flea markets, thrift stores and so on.