Why do I always get stuck with the conspiracy theories?
So, I've been working on my extended essay. That's my big, huge, macho, large essay that I have to finish for my IB diploma, and it also doubles as my culminating project, meaning I get to graduate from high school. So...I've been reading a lot of websites and books and whatnaught. My guiding question for my essay is as follows (we can pick any subject, any topic): "To what extent, if any, did the hemophilic status of Czarevitch Alexei Nikolaevitch Romanov effect the outbreak and outcome of the Russian Revolution of 1917?" It's a history topic, by the way.
So, while I've been researching, I've realized that I always get stuck in places of research with ridiculous conspiracy theories. This one lived, that one lived, they were all saved by random aliens, Rasputin was a nice guy (yeah right). Et cetera. I think my favorite one that I found was a website where they were putting out all the most random garbage about how Rasputin was a nice guy who made prophecies and healed through the power of God, Alexei didn't really have hemophilia, he had "aplastic crisis" (which, by the way, has pretty much only one common symptom), and a lot of you'll never believe trash presented as facts. And then, it presents the idea that the reason two bodies were missing is because they successfully burned where the others did not, and says that that is a conspiracy theory. DUDE! That's the first logical thing you've said (by the way, they found the bodies this year. As far as they can tell, they're the remaining Romanovs). Or just other great stuff.
Great ones I've found today: "I've read that Alexei was 5'6'' or 5'7'' when he died but he fluctuated the year before his death between 80 lbs and 105 lbs. Do you think he was anorexic?" SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. You're imprisoned in Ekaterinburg by people who really aren't too happy with you, you're bleeding in random places sometimes, internally and externally, sometimes in your stomach (common one for him), and you've been kind of small your entire life. Yep. He's anorexic all right. Or "I've seen pictures of all of the Romanov children smoking. Do you think the pictures are just posed?" No. It was the 1910s. Most people smoked. Even children. And the Romanov children weren't really children when they died. They were in their teens and twenties. The youngest was almost 14. And why would they pose the pictures? And why would the children's personal letters and diary entries make references to cigarettes?
One that just bugs me is the Dmitri Pavlovich one. How come in every single, stinking, stupid history situation someone has to be labeled sexually deviant? Some people say that Dmitri Pavlovich was bi, and that he had a relationship with Yussopov and that's why they went and killed Rasputin. Hello. The guy was like the biggest womanizer in Russia, and had no evidence of bisexuality. This same source says that's why the impending engagement between him and the Czar's daughter, Olga, was called off. They didn't want a bi Czar. They were homophobes. ;-) Anyways, in all reality, Olga called off the engagement, because she was very uptight in many respects, and didn't want to marry a womanizer. She said so in her diary. Anyways...moving on.
Anyhow, I love the ones where people say Alexei lived through the shooting. HELLO! The kid was so injured from a previous incident (cited by some as a suicide attempt) that he could not walk (his father carried him to the place where they were to all be executed), where they fired round upon round of machine gun followed by concentrated machine gun fire on Alexei (they don't want any heirs to the throne popping up unexpectedly a couple of years later) followed by bayonets to Alexei. I'm sorry, a normal person couldn't live through that, let alone a hemophiliac.
Anyways, I must end saying that I love my topic all the same. Fascinating, but so sad as well. I really do like Russian history, and I really am fascinated by hemophilia (fascinated is not the word I'm looking for...maybe intrigued?), so it's a great topic for me.
TIME FOR ROMANOV PICTURES!
Czarevitch Alexei, probably about 1910 or so (making him either six or seven). I could find out for sure, but I don't want to. Isn't he a cute kid though?
The Romanov family. From the girl seated on the left and then clockwise spiralling in to the Czar, we have Maria, probably Olga and Tatiana (might have those two backwards. Once again, I could check but don't feel like it), Anastasia, Alexei, Alexandra and Nicholas II. The picture is probably about 1912-1914.
Anyways, I personally don't feel that the Romanovs deserved what they got. Yes, Nicholas was exactly the Czar-type. In fact, he was a rotten leader, but he hated it, he never wanted to be Czar, and didn't know what to do. He had some awful advisors as well. However, all of the Romanovs were recorded to be extremely kind and gentle and generous in their personal lives. They just weren't cut out for the ruler thing. Anywho. I should shut up now.
So, while I've been researching, I've realized that I always get stuck in places of research with ridiculous conspiracy theories. This one lived, that one lived, they were all saved by random aliens, Rasputin was a nice guy (yeah right). Et cetera. I think my favorite one that I found was a website where they were putting out all the most random garbage about how Rasputin was a nice guy who made prophecies and healed through the power of God, Alexei didn't really have hemophilia, he had "aplastic crisis" (which, by the way, has pretty much only one common symptom), and a lot of you'll never believe trash presented as facts. And then, it presents the idea that the reason two bodies were missing is because they successfully burned where the others did not, and says that that is a conspiracy theory. DUDE! That's the first logical thing you've said (by the way, they found the bodies this year. As far as they can tell, they're the remaining Romanovs). Or just other great stuff.
Great ones I've found today: "I've read that Alexei was 5'6'' or 5'7'' when he died but he fluctuated the year before his death between 80 lbs and 105 lbs. Do you think he was anorexic?" SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. You're imprisoned in Ekaterinburg by people who really aren't too happy with you, you're bleeding in random places sometimes, internally and externally, sometimes in your stomach (common one for him), and you've been kind of small your entire life. Yep. He's anorexic all right. Or "I've seen pictures of all of the Romanov children smoking. Do you think the pictures are just posed?" No. It was the 1910s. Most people smoked. Even children. And the Romanov children weren't really children when they died. They were in their teens and twenties. The youngest was almost 14. And why would they pose the pictures? And why would the children's personal letters and diary entries make references to cigarettes?
One that just bugs me is the Dmitri Pavlovich one. How come in every single, stinking, stupid history situation someone has to be labeled sexually deviant? Some people say that Dmitri Pavlovich was bi, and that he had a relationship with Yussopov and that's why they went and killed Rasputin. Hello. The guy was like the biggest womanizer in Russia, and had no evidence of bisexuality. This same source says that's why the impending engagement between him and the Czar's daughter, Olga, was called off. They didn't want a bi Czar. They were homophobes. ;-) Anyways, in all reality, Olga called off the engagement, because she was very uptight in many respects, and didn't want to marry a womanizer. She said so in her diary. Anyways...moving on.
Anyhow, I love the ones where people say Alexei lived through the shooting. HELLO! The kid was so injured from a previous incident (cited by some as a suicide attempt) that he could not walk (his father carried him to the place where they were to all be executed), where they fired round upon round of machine gun followed by concentrated machine gun fire on Alexei (they don't want any heirs to the throne popping up unexpectedly a couple of years later) followed by bayonets to Alexei. I'm sorry, a normal person couldn't live through that, let alone a hemophiliac.
Anyways, I must end saying that I love my topic all the same. Fascinating, but so sad as well. I really do like Russian history, and I really am fascinated by hemophilia (fascinated is not the word I'm looking for...maybe intrigued?), so it's a great topic for me.
TIME FOR ROMANOV PICTURES!
Czarevitch Alexei, probably about 1910 or so (making him either six or seven). I could find out for sure, but I don't want to. Isn't he a cute kid though?
The Romanov family. From the girl seated on the left and then clockwise spiralling in to the Czar, we have Maria, probably Olga and Tatiana (might have those two backwards. Once again, I could check but don't feel like it), Anastasia, Alexei, Alexandra and Nicholas II. The picture is probably about 1912-1914.Anyways, I personally don't feel that the Romanovs deserved what they got. Yes, Nicholas was exactly the Czar-type. In fact, he was a rotten leader, but he hated it, he never wanted to be Czar, and didn't know what to do. He had some awful advisors as well. However, all of the Romanovs were recorded to be extremely kind and gentle and generous in their personal lives. They just weren't cut out for the ruler thing. Anywho. I should shut up now.
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