[maine-iac7]

Such a beautiful family. The children were being raised much like we do in the everyday household. Their mother, Zarina Alexandra (Fedorovna), granddaughter of Queen Victoria, raised them to pick up after themselves, make their own beds, etc. (She taught them that they were not to expect servants to clean up for them) for which they got a weekly allowance - a small one, the same as we give our kids...It was a very democratic household.

The tragedy for them and the world resulted in the illness of their only son and heir, who suffered from leukemia - and they fell under the spell of the devil himself, Rasputin, who seemed to be the only one that could save is life after an episode of bleeding...

[waxer1]

Alexi did not have leukemia. He was a hemophiliac, a bleeder.

There is a great book called Nicolas and Alexandra I read years ago. Would like to read it again.

If I am not mistaken, Tzar Nicolas had an older brother who had died and he asended to the throne. He was not raised to run the kingdom and he hated being tzar. As a result so many mistakes were made by listening to advisors and such he surrounded himself with.

I think Rasputin was the last straw and the shooting of people who appeared in the court yard of one of the palaces to protest involvement in the war, and the starvation of people, resulted in abocation and subsequently the death of the entire family.

Just facinating history.