title: A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story
author: Sergei Mironenko
description: The letters of Nicholas II, last tsar of Russia, and his wife, Alexandra, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, provide a glimpse into a vanished world. Their letters (many never before published), Nicholas's diary, plus assorted letters, telegrams, and memoirs of everyone from Anastasia to Rasputin are all the more compelling in view of the tragic fate of the oblivious couple and their family. Indeed, as early as 1895 Nicholas gives a speech in which he mentions, "I will retain the principles of autocracy as firmly and unbendingly as my unforgettable late father." Historians Maylunas and Mironenko have done a tremendous job in organizing a massive amount of material from many different languages (Nicholas, for example, kept his diary in Russian and wrote to his wife in English). This terrific work is strongly recommended for all library collections where there is an interest in Russian history and the Romanovs.?Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.<br />Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # OLD PORTRAITS
  
  
  ### Ivan Turgenev
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
    
  
  
  ABOUT thirty miles from our village there lived, many
  
  
  years ago, a distant cousin of my mother's, a retired officer of the
  
  
  Guards, and rather wealthy landowner, Alexey Sergeitch Teliegin. He
  
  
  lived on his estate and birth-place, Suhodol, did not go out anywhere,
  
  
  and so did not visit us; but I used to be sent, twice a year, to pay
  
  
  him my respects—at first with my tutor, but later on alone. Alexey
  
  
  Sergeitch always gave me a very cordial reception, and I used to stay
  
  
  three or four days at a time with him. He was an old man even when I
  
  
  first made his acquaintance; I was twelve, I remember, on my first
  
  
  visit, and he was then over seventy. He was born in the days of the
  
  
  Empress Elisabeth—in the last year of her reign. He lived alone with
  
  
  his wife, Malania Pavlovna; she was ten years younger than he. They
  
  
  had two daughters; but 