In particular, I'm thinking of the then-incurable haemophilia that inflicted Alexei, the couple's son and heir, and the consequences that flowed from the way Nicholas and Alexandra chose to respond to this tragedy of fate: their clinging stubbornly to the idea of absolute monarchy, their turning to Rasputin. Such responses ensured epic and tragic consequences for their family, the Russian empire, and, indeed, the world.
Not long after, I found in the library of my high school the book upon which the film is based, Robert K. Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra. So began a fascination with the Romanov family that continues to this day.
Above: The Russian Imperial family pictured in 1913.
Although there are definitely times and circumstances when such a prayer is wise and helpful, I've come to realize that it is unhelpful and unhealthy to apply it to one's self-understanding as a gay person. Arriving at and embodying this realization was quite the journey for me, and one that I'm sure many of my readers can relate to. Homosexuality is not an affliction or a disease requiring a cure; it's not a "cross" that must be borne. I've come to see that when, for example, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church make people feel bad about their sexuality and label the loving expression of homosexuality as "sinful," they are doing exactly what Jesus condemned the pharisees of his day for doing: placing unnecessary burdens, false crosses, onto people.
Life presents us with enough actual "crosses," enough genuine hardships to deal with. We don't have to make up false ones. I think that just striving to live lovingly and authentically as a gay person is challenge enough. For most gay people, living this challenge does not lead them to view their sexual orientation as an "affliction;" it does not lead them to believe that any and all sexual expression of their orientation is sinful; it does not lead them to strive to live lives of sexual abstinence. Compelling people to do these things and to think in these ways indicates a lack compassion and an unmindfulness of God's presence in the lives and relationships of gay people.
Fascinating, isn't it? . . . how the personal and the epic are so momentously intertwined in the story of the Romanovs!
I find aspects of their story moving and inspiring to this day. And I devote the rest of this post to explaining why . . .
After Tsar Nicholas II's abdication in March 1917, the imperial family were held captive in Russia – first by the Provisional Government and then, after the October Revolution, by the Bolshevik regime. The family included Nicholas, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children – the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and the Tsarevich Alexei.
Above: The Romanov's arrival at Yekaterinburg as depicted
in Nicholas and Alexandra. In reality, only Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria
arrived together at the Ipatiev House; Olga, Alexei, Tatiana and Anastasia
arrived later due to Alexei's illness in Tobolsk.
in Nicholas and Alexandra. In reality, only Nicholas, Alexandra and Maria
arrived together at the Ipatiev House; Olga, Alexei, Tatiana and Anastasia
arrived later due to Alexei's illness in Tobolsk.
Yet even in this mire of darkness, the light of love defied extinction.
The dining room is dark . . . There is dust everywhere, we can't figure it out, since there aren't any carpets . . . Even this paper is dirty . . . Everyone who comes into the house inspects our rooms . . . It's difficult to write about anything cheerful, because there's all too little cheerfulness here. On the other hand, God doesn't abandon us. The sun shines, the birds sing, and this morning we heard the bells sounding matins . . .
– Maria
Soon spring is coming to rejoice our hearts. The way of the cross first – then joy and gladness. It will soon be a year since we parted, but what is time? Life here is nothing, eternity is everything, and what we are doing is preparing our souls for the kingdom of Heaven. Thus nothing, after all, is terrible, and if they do take everything from us, they cannot take our souls . . .
– Alexandra
Father asks to have it passed on to all that they are not to avenge him. He has forgiven and prays for everyone. They are not to avenge but to remember that the evil which is in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love.
– Olga
The atmosphere around us is electrified. We feel that a storm is approaching, but we know that God is merciful – our souls are at peace. Whatever happens He will look after us.
– Alexandra
On the night of July 16-17, 1918, the family was awakened and told to dress. They were led into a basement room and ordered to wait for vehicles which would evacuate them from the city. For days Yekaterinburg had been under threat by an advancing counter-revolutionary army, so the family no doubt accepted the reason given for their hasty departure.
Above: The final moments of the Romanovs as depicted
in Nicholas and Alexandra. The family was executed together with four
faithful servants: Doctor Eugene Botkin, chambermaid Anna Demidova,
cook Ivan Kharitonov, and footman Alexei Trupp. Only Doctor Botkin,
however, is depicted in the film. He is played by Timothy West.
in Nicholas and Alexandra. The family was executed together with four
faithful servants: Doctor Eugene Botkin, chambermaid Anna Demidova,
cook Ivan Kharitonov, and footman Alexei Trupp. Only Doctor Botkin,
however, is depicted in the film. He is played by Timothy West.
Minutes passed. In time the guards re-entered the room. As revolvers were raised and directed at the family, Nicholas was heard to murmer Jesus' words: "They know not what they do." Within seconds he was shot dead.
A volley of bullets followed. Alexandra's last action was to make the sign of the cross, as was her daughter Olga's. Those that survived this first onslaught were brutally dealt with. Maria and Anastasia were bayoneted and clubbed to death on the floor of the cellar. The fourteen-year-old Alexei was shot in the head as he lay semi-conscious on the floor clutching his dead father's coat.
In the gray light of dawn the bodies were removed by truck to a deserted area of forest outside the city where they were stripped and thrown down a mine shaft. Days later, a group of Bolsheviks returned, retrieved the bodies, and loaded them again onto a truck. Fearing that the remains of the Romanovs would be discovered, they planned to take them to another abandoned mine shaft deeper into the forest. Enroute, the truck became stuck on a muddy forest track. A decision was quickly made to bury the bodies in a shallow grave by the road.
For sixty years this was indeed the case, as the bodies of the Romanovs and the four faithful servants killed with them in the cellar of the Ipatiev House, remained undiscovered in their forest grave. For a further ten years, the bodies' location had to be kept secret for fear of reprisals from the Communist regime. Only in 1991, after the collapse of Communist Russia, was it possible to excavate and begin the long process of identifying the remains of the Romanov family.
In 1995 author Peter Kurth noted that:
Through all the years since the death of the Russian Imperial family, two images have remained in the public mind. One is the famous formal group photograph taken during the 1913 tercentenary [celebrations of the Romanov dynasty]. In it Alexandra is seated next to Nicholas, Alexei sits in front in his sailor suit and the four Grand Duchesses, in their white silk and pearls, stand protectively behind their parents.
The other is the grisly snapshot of the cellar at Yekaterinburg after the White Army had driven the Bolsheviks out of the city. This photograph shows the pitted wall from which the murderer's bullets had already been dug and the floor where the victims had stood, scattered with debris.
The events in Yekaterinburg during the summer of 1918 embody, I believe, a definite spiritual perspective. The Yekaterinburg experience liberated the Romanov family from the privileges that had tended to unrealistically taint their view of life and the human condition. Free from such burdens, their spirituality grew and blossomed in the pit of suffering and brutality that was for them Yekaterinburg.
In Yekaterinburg the Romanovs were no longer exalted royalty, but an abandoned and frightened family who, through their response to the chaos and negativity around them, came to perceive more clearly the strengthening and transforming presence of God in their midst.
Virginia Cowles in her book The Romanovs, encapsulates this period of the family's life beautifully and succinctly when she writes:
The sixteen months that followed the overthrow of the monarchy revealed a new and noble Nicholas and Alexandra. These lamentable rulers, these tragic, misguided autocrats, who possessed not an inkling of understanding of the swift currents swirling around them, endured the trial and humiliation to which they were submitted with such rare dignity and courage that none but the coldest heart can fail to admire them. Their love for each other, their unquestioning faith in God, gave them a nobility that shines through the mists of time. The vacillating monarch became a man of strength; the censorious consort, a woman of compassion . . .
Above: Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman as the imprisoned
Tsar and Tsaritsa in Nicholas and Alexandra.
The flowering of this love, strength and compassion might never had occurred had the Romanovs remained enthroned, or had they escaped Russia and lived safely and comfortably as exiles elsewhere in Europe. Such is the potential mystery and paradox of crisis and suffering.
The Romanov's experience in Yekaterinburg confirms, I believe, a basic spiritual truth: the sacred force we commonly term God may not always be able to direct or alter our external, physical circumstances. Yet if we open ourselves to its presence – in the depths of our own being, in those around us, and in creation – we can be transformed inwardly. Even the Yekaterinburg experiences of our lives can be radically transformed into events of transcendent beauty – the light of which can not only warm and strengthen us, but guide, comfort and strengthen others.
Give patience, Lord, to us Thy children
In these dark, stormy days to bear
The persecution of our people,
The torture falling to our share.
Give strength, Just God, to us who need it,
The persecutors to forgive,
Our heavy, painful cross to carry
And thy great meekness to achieve.
When we are plundered and insulted
In days of mutinous unrest
We turn for help to thee, Christ-Saviour,
That we may stand the bitter test.
Lord of the world, God of Creation,
Give us Thy blessing through our prayer
Give peace of heart to us, O Master,
This hour of utmost dread to bear.
And on the threshold of the grave
Breathe power divine into our clay
That we, Thy children, may find strength
In meekness for our foes to pray.
– A poem found in the Ipatiev House
inserted in one of Olga's books
and written in her own hand.
Above: The Romanov family in a 1913 portrait.
Above: Nicholas and Alexandra on board the
imperial yacht Standart, 1914.
imperial yacht Standart, 1914.
Left: Grand Duchess Olga.
Right: Grand Duchess Tatiana.
Left: Grand Duchess Maria.
Right: Grand Duchess Anastasia.
Left: Tsarevich Alexei.
Above: Nicholas and Alexandra, 1912.
Above: Alexandra and her daughters, 1913.
(From left: Olga, Tatiana, Alexandra, Anastasia and Maria).
(From left: Olga, Tatiana, Alexandra, Anastasia and Maria).
Above: During World War One, Alexandra and her two
eldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana, trained and worked as nurses.
eldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana, trained and worked as nurses.
Above: The Romanov family in 1915.
Above: Alexandra and Alexei, 1912.
Above: Nicholas and his children in captivity
at Tobolsk in the winter of 1917.
Above: The last known photograph of Nicholas and Alexandra,
taken at the Governor's House in Tobolsk, late summer 1917.
Left: One of the last photographs of Empress Alexandra, pictured center with her daughters Tatiana and Olga in captivity in Tobolsk, 1917.
Above: The last known picture of Alexei and Olga – May 1918.
They are on board the riverboat Rus, being transported
from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.
See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• More Remnants of a Life Past
