u/Unseen_Anarchist

It wasn’t until today I learned the Romanovs at a few points in time had elephants as pets. Nicholas himself often led the elephant to its pond and Alexi was quite fond of the animal. For the most part it wondered around Alexander park. It was estimated to be around 18,000 rubles a year to cover expenses and even ate fried wheat pancakes daily. In 1917 the last Romanov elephant met its unfortunate demise being shot by Bolshevik Soldiers. The remains of one African elephant can still be seen at the Darwin Museum in Moscow (Nicholas had both Indian and African elephants)

I’ve just finished Anastasia and will be done in a day or two with The False Anastasia by the Grand Duchesses French tutor. I have been reading about the Romanovs going on five months now and have enough books gathered that it should take me another year to get through all of them. I have also read and will read more Rasputin books in between some of those as well.

I really wish that when it came to using a free book reward at least when it comes to the highest tier, that a free $7 book actually meant $7.01-7.99. I have a ton of books in my wishlist all priced in that range and very few beneath that. I always try to buy in the range of “very good” to “like new” because if you go down to just “good” it almost always means heavily damaged if that’s the risk you wanna take.

Managed to get an original first edition from 1987, all about Lazar Kaganovich. Will be looking forward to digging into this after I read my many many Romanov books.

This particular album is one of my favorites, being that is was preserved by and assembled by Anna Vyrubova with several quotes from her, as well as the addition of the short story from Massie who has wrote several great Romanov books.

I have been searching quite some time for a first edition of this book written by Rasputins own daughter Maria and Patte Barham. Whats inside is even better. An inscription to a friend of the co-author on their trip to Russia together. I’m sure there is quite an interesting story behind the note. This book has travelled a long way and will be a treasured part of my collection.