"The Romanovs" - documentary

I have written on this blog previously how much the subjects of Romanovs always fascinated me - it started many years ago with the story about presumably lost princess Anastasia and somehow trough the years I got my hands on every book about her and last days of Romanov dynasty. However, I always knew there is much more than just the end in that basement of Ipatiev house and for quite some time I had curiosity to find out more about the rest of Romanovs, the ones who preceded what was the final chapter. I understand that there was another dynasty ruling Russia for centuries before - Rurik's - but Romanovs for themselves appear as fascinating bunch, perhaps a little bit too complicated to grasp since we talk about several centuries.

Lo and behold, I stumbled upon this wonderful documentary which tells the story starting from the very beginning - it is genuinely Russian documentary, directed by Maxim Bespaly and although the visual style is obviously inspired by "National Geographic" style documentaries, the story itself is definitely all about Russian past. Its absolutely fascinating and every episode usually deals with two Romanov rulers - I enjoyed it so much that somehow could not move from the first three and watched them several times until now on vacation decided to give it another go and watched everything from the start (again) and now finally I am on episode 5 which should deal with Peter the Great successors - it appears a bit confusing though, since there were so many people involved and everybody is either Alexei or Peter or Catherine (and that Catherine is not even on horizon yet) but luckily different actors are involved so at last visually one can make a distinction who is who. 

There is a very interesting episode dealing with a Peter the Great's older sister Sophia Alekseyevna who is remembered as a first female ruler of Russia - the country was not really ready for a female ruler (although in England there was already Elizabeth on the throne and France had Catherine de Medici) and even if appears Sophia was more than capable to make decisions, history was not kind to her - Russians remember her as a forceful shrew who dared to take the throne, which for that time was something unheard of and as usual, they associate strong woman with promiscuity that curiously was completely accepted when coming from Peter the Great. Sophia was eventually forced to enter the monastery - lifelong prison sentence, in other words - which is exactly the life the rest of her sisters and female royal cousins lived, always locked behind the walls and hidden from the world. Nowadays Sophia would have been successful and formidable politician, but she was just born too early.

Since I have to give seminars about Fabergé eggs as a part of my job, usually I have to mention the role of Romanovs in the whole story - without them we would not have these famous decorative creations - so naturally this documentary is right up my alley and it was extremely educative and enlightening. I just love historical documentaries and this is a wonderful discovery.