(Michael) Ignatieff's Aristocratic Russian Roots

Montreal Gazette ^ | January 3, 2009 | Juliet O'Neill

[Loyalist]

During the recent parliamentary crisis, a Liberal MP's constituent proposed the governor-general appoint "a fellow aristocrat, His Highness Count Ignatieff" to form an alternative government.

It was tongue-in-cheek advice. But, as in all good humour, it contained kernels of truth.

If it weren't for nearly a century of history since the Bolshevik Revolution, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff would be a count today; perhaps living on the grand estate bequeathed to his ancestors by Catherine the Great, Empress of all the Russias.

That's a big if, of course. In fact, the Mestchersky country palace, where his grandmother Natasha was born a princess, was destroyed in 1917, the first year of the revolution that brought the 300-year Romanov dynasty to a bloody end.

[Loyalist]

His Excellency Count Ignatieff has remembered perhaps a few ancestral habits besides presumption to office:

Michael Ignatieff looks down his aristocratic nose on Ukranians.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Important point. The Bolsheviks did not overthrow the Tsar. That was done by the Russian Provisional Government, who ruled Russia for seven months before themselves being overthrown by the Bolsheviks.

[gogogodzilla]

Jesus Christ, people. Talk about ‘class envy’.

What next? Maybe everyone of German ancestry that has ‘von (whatever)’ as a last name should also be called out for condemnation, too?

After all, someone with a last name of ‘von (whatever)’ is descended from the German aristocracy...

Maybe kill all the Levite’s while we’re at it, too. Descendants of the priests that ran the temple in Jerusalem, you know.