The Romanovs | Imperial House of Russia

Premiered Jul 15, 2024 | The Romanovs - The documentary spans the period from the heyday of the ruling family to the legacy of the Romanovs.

The Romanovs (2014)
Director: Manfred Oldenburg
Genre: Documentary, History
Language: English
Release date: 5. August 2014 (Germany)

Synopsis:

No other family has shaped Russia as much as the Romanovs. For three centuries, the tsarist dynasty ruled over the largest country in the world. The Romanovs manifested their power through marriage politics, armed force and dictatorial rigour. Myths and legends surround the ruling dynasty. Great names are associated with them, revered and feared in equal measure.

Peter the Great modernised the country and made it a major European power. With Catherine the Great, a German woman conquered the Russian tsarist throne. With wit and cunning, she became the most powerful woman in the world. Under Nicholas II, the Tsarist Empire came to an end. In one of the most brutal political murders of the 20th century, the last tsar, his family and his most loyal servants were killed on the night of 16-17 July 1918.

In those days, the Bolsheviks hunted down members of the Romanov family throughout Russia. 18 members of the dynasty and countless people from their circle fell victim to them. However, some were able to flee the country in time. Around 60 members of the tsarist family are still living around the world today.

The filmmakers visited the descendants of the Romanovs. The elderly brothers Prince Nicholas and Prince Dimitri take a personal and knowledgeable look back at their family history. The fate of the Tsar's family, which they have actively helped to clarify, remains with them to this day. Chief investigator Vladimir Solovyov gives an impressive account of how the murder of the century, with all its brutality and many mysteries, was solved. Xenia Sfiris, the great-niece of the last tsar, bears witness to life at the Russian tsar's court in the past. She gives a first-hand account of her grandparents' memories of the tsar's family and of the tsar's whisperer Rasputin, who was legendarily murdered in her grandparents' house with the help of her grandfather.

The film documents the events that took place in the Tsarist Empire in a visually stunning way. It takes the viewer on a journey of discovery through the history of Russia. In St. Petersburg, the Romanov palaces present themselves as stone witnesses to former power and immeasurable wealth, while in Yekaterinburg the scars of the past from the massacre of the tsarist family are omnipresent. Even behind the gates of the Moscow Kremlin, where the history of Romanov rule once began, it was possible to capture rare footage from the centre of power.

The documentary spans the period from the heyday of the ruling family to the legacy of the Romanovs. Based on selected biographies, the film reflects on the history of Tsarist Russia and deals with the overarching question of how the 300-year rule of the Romanovs shaped the country. In an exciting and entertaining way, the film also explores the origins of today's balance of power. The legacy of the tsars can still be clearly felt in today's Russia - and not just in the imposing buildings built by the Romanovs. Anyone observing today's politics in Russia will discover many parallels to times long past.

Romanovs: Imprisoned, Murdered, Exhumed : A Shocking Story of Tragedy and Death

Aug 4, 2020 | Using archival material, this film tells the story of the imperial family’s imprisonment, murder, exhumation, and state burial in 1998. This film includes excerpts from the memoirs of the killers, as well as a detailed interview with Geli Ryabov, the man who was given information by the son of the killer Yakov Yurovsky, the commandant of the Ipatiev house, which led Ryabov and Al. Avdonin to identify a precise location and to begin informal exhumations, eventually discovering the first burial site with the corpses of five members of the Romanov family and those of their retainers. The film also features rare footage with King George V, Alexander Kerensky, Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, and scenes from the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

The original version of the film was produced and released in 2001, by Homevision Studio. This version is a special edition by The Romanov Royal Martyrs Project, featuring new music, newsreel footage, and colorized pictures by Olga Shirnina.

The video is produced as part of the project for the book The Romanov Royal Martyrs, which is an impressive 512-page book, featuring nearly 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, colorized by the acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina (Klimbim) and appearing here in print for the first time.

Last of the Czars: Death of the Dynasty (1996)

Jan 4, 2013

Tsar Nicholas II: His Reign, His Faith, His Family

Jul 12, 2018 | Under Nicholas, there were enormous strides in agriculture and industrial production. There were huge economic leaps forward, and enormous progress in health, education, and social services. The evidence of this is easy to find in census information and diplomatic annuals. The fact that this has been ignored or considered unimportant in face of the end of the reign is not surprising.

This video is produced as part of the project for the book "The Romanov Royal Martyrs”, which is an impressive 512-page book, featuring nearly 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, colorized by the acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina (Klimbim) and appearing here in print for the first time.

Putin's Russia and the Ghost of the Romanovs | The Economist

Jul 17, 2018 • Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family, the Romanovs, were murdered 100 years ago today by Marxist revolutionaries. What does this anniversary mean for Vladmir Putin?

Survivors - What Happened to the Romanov Family?

Nov 19, 2020 • It’s now about a hundred years since the Russian revolution. Millions of people became victims of the revolution. As was the Tsar, Nicholas II and his family, killed in a hail of bullets one night of July 1918. just over thirty members of the Tsar’s family managed to flee from Russia. What happened to them? Where did they go?

In this interview documentary with historic flashbacks the American-Russian lawyer Albert Bartridge in San Francisco tells us what happened to some of them. One of the survivors was Prince Vasili Romanov, nephew to the last Tsar Nicolaus II. He became one of Albert’s close friends and told him many stories about the narrow escape from the Revolution, onboard an English warship, and the life that followed, for him and his family, in a completely new existence

Editor and dubbing mixer is Olle Tannergård; cinematographer is Gunilla de Besche Öhrvall.

Original music: Magnus Dahlberg
Produced in 2018

Russia's Lost Princesses – Documentary 2/2

1. The Gilded Cage: Interviews with leading historians, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction reveal the childhoods of Tsar Nicholas II's four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia - and the truth behind the fairytale images. The sisters were the most photographed princesses of their day, attracting the same frenzied press attention as Princess Diana later would, but their public profile masked the reality of their strange and very isolated upbringing. | Views on YouTube: 5,131,685


2. The World Turned Upside Down:

Remarkable Private Pictures of the Russian Royal Family Found in a Remote Urals Museum

THE SIBERIAN TIMES: Tsar Nicholas II appears in a photograph to be teaching his daughter Grand Duchess Anastasia how to smoke.

Another picture taken by the emperor dated 1916 shows Tsarevich Alexei - heir to an autocratic throne that would be abolished the following year - posing on a tree in winter with his beloved pet spaniel Joy.

These images of the Russian royal family, captured in photographs taken by the Tsar himself or his children, mostly date from the years of the First World War, and some very soon before the Romanov dynasty crumbled, to be rapidly replaced by Communism.

Found in a vault in Zlatoust, the album shows the private moments of the royals as the storm clouds gather over a dynasty that had ruled for more than three centuries.

The smoking picture shows the youngest princess Anastasia, then 15, evidently imbibing from a cigarette with every encouragement from the Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias. At the time there was not the same stigma attached to smoking and in fact a year earlier Anastasia had written to her father: 'I am sitting here with your old cigarette that you once gave me, and it is very tasty'. » | The Siberian Times Reporter | Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Diary of Olga Romanov: Smoking Cigarettes »

Romanovs: The Real Story

Unknown and unrevealed facts, which evince that many truths in regard to the life and death of the Romanovs remain silenced or distorted to this day. Nicholas II was surrounded by the forceful presence of his mother, the Dowager Empress, and his uncles. This generation of Romanovs could have, under normal circumstances, expected another two decades of service to and influence over their nation, and it was with both regret and misgivings that they kissed the hands of their new young sovereign and his Hessian bride.

This video is produced as part of the project for the book "The Romanov Royal Martyrs”, which is an impressive 512-page book, featuring nearly 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, colorized by the acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina (Klimbim) and appearing here in print for the first time.

The Romanov Dynasty and the Hunt for Russia's Incredible Tsar's Treasure

By tracing the way, in which the royal treasures were appreciated in the nearly 100 years since the murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918, we get a very intimate and special look at Russia and its heritage – past and present.

The Romanovs. The History of the Russian Dynasty

It was 20 years before the beginning of the XX century. The country was in fever. Never before tsar’s power had been as unstable as at that time. It was Alexander III Aleksandrovich who had to take on responsibility for the future of the empire. He was able to extricate the country from economic crisis and turn it into one of the world’s mightiest powers. It was in this condition – at the peak of its power – that the country was inherited by Nicholas Aleksandrovich Romanov. Nobody could even guess at that time that the Russian Empire would collapse soon and Nicholas would be its last ruler, the last monarch of the great dynasty, the House of Romanov.

The most vivid pages of Russian history and the establishment and consolidation of Russian state power are associated with the eighteen Russian Tsars of the House of Romanov which include such historic names as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I and Alexanders I, II and III. The dynasty ended with the brutal assassination of the last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family by the Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg in 1917.

The Romanov dynasty played a hugely important role in world history, and the series highlights the life stories and characters of the tsars, recounting their rise to power and their contribution to the dynasty, their merits and their faults, their achievements and mistakes, their victories and defeats in war.

Last of the Czars

The End of the Romanov Dynasty

On March the 2nd, 1917, two representatives of the Duma, arrived in Pskov to receive Nicholas’ II abdication. That was the end of the Romanov Dynasty. The video follows the events from the February Revolution 1917 until the murder of the Romanov family and the discovery of their remains, in 1991.

One of the main features of this video is the film with V. Shulgin, one of the two Duma members who met Tsar Nicholas II and received from him his abdication statement. Shulgin related the story in 1957, after Stalin’s death, in a film that was shot in the very same train compartment where they met Nicholas II and received his abdication.

This video is produced as part of the project for the book "The Romanov Royal Martyrs”, which is an impressive 512-page book, featuring nearly 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, colorized by the acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina (Klimbim) and appearing here in print for the first time.


Explore the book HERE »

Order the book HERE »

The Last of the Romanovs | Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna

The extraordinary story of Tsar Nicholas’ sister and her journey from the palaces of St. Petersburg to death in obscurity above a barbershop in Toronto. A life full of passion and love, set at the backdrop of an entire century. She was raised at the Gatchina Palace outside Saint Petersburg. Olga was her father’s favorite, but Tsar Alexander III died when she was only 12. After the Russian Revolution, Olga escaped to Denmark with her second husband and their two sons, in February 1920, where they lived as farmers. Finally, in 1948, she relocated with her immediate family to a farm in Campbellville, Ontario, Canada. At the end of her life and afterwards, Olga was widely labeled the last Grand Duchess of Imperial Russia.

This video is produced as part of the project for the book "The Romanov Royal Martyrs”, which is an impressive 512-page book, featuring nearly 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, colorized by the acclaimed Russian artist Olga Shirnina (Klimbim) and appearing here in print for the first time.

The Last Christmas of the Romanovs

Christmas 1917 would be the last for the Romanov family. Isolated from the world, exiled in Siberia, they lived the joy of the feast of love, distributing gifts to the members of their staff that they had made themselves. Under house arrest and closely guarded, they were able to organize a traditional Christmas that was in many ways their closest family holiday.

Nicholas and Alexandra | by HRH Prince Michael of Kent | Parts 1 & 2

Narrated by Jack Perkins, presented by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, includes interviews with Prince Nicholas Romanov (1922-2014), and people who were born in the late 19th century, and witness to Nicholas II's reign.

For almost a century their fabled dynasty and tragic fate have been enveloped in myth and surrounded by mystery. Now, with the opening of the former Soviet Union, the true story of Nicholas and Alexandra can be told. This groundbreaking production, filmed on location throughout the former Soviet Union and Europe, presents a treasure trove of information and documents that have been kept secret for decades. Intimate diaries, letters, and personal effects from the once-sealed imperial archives tell the astonishing story of the Romanovs' reign. Chilling eyewitness accounts, testimony from executioners, and a somber exhumation finally put to rest the enigma of their dynasty's horrifying end. Stunning, fact-filled and grand, this is the ultimate chronicle of a romance that changed the world.

Originally produced by A&E Biography, 1998.

Putin's Russia and the Ghost of the Romanovs | The Economist

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family, the Romanovs, were murdered 100 years ago today by Marxist revolutionaries. What does this anniversary mean for Vladmir Putin?

Documentary: Russia – Land of the Tsars

Russia's Lost Princesses: Documentary

Interviews with leading historians, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction reveal the childhoods of Tsar Nicholas II's four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia - and the truth behind the fairytale images. The sisters were the most photographed princesses of their day, attracting the same frenzied press attention as Princess Diana later would, but their public profile masked the reality of their strange and very isolated upbringing.

Documentary: Last of the Tsars - Nicholas II & Alexandra