In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Cheka firing squad (the Soviet secret police) fired volley after volley into Nicholas Romanov, Czar of all the Russias, and his family: Empress Alexandra, son Nikkei, and four daughters, Maria, Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia. In the March 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks successfully overthrew the Romanov’s régime […]
Category Archives: Russian Revolution
Putin, Chamberlain, and Hitler
On 2 March 2014, President of Russia, Vladimir Putin ordered Russian motorized infantry to invade the Ukraine’s CrimeanPeninsula. Such a military incursion violates international treaties and specifically the Soviet Union’s/Ukraine’s treaty of 1954. The Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, deeded the Crimea to the Ukraine as a gesture […]
Russian Julian Calendar
Imperial Russia used the “old style” Julian calendar that was seriously out of kilter with the solar seasons and religious holidays—in particular Christmas and Easter. The Russian Orthodox Church had political and religious issues with the Pope in Rome that dated back centuries, and refused to change to Pope Gregory XIII’s Gregorian reform calendar introduced […]
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great of Russia, (1729 to 1796). Reigned from 9 July 1762 to 17 November 1796. Catherine became Czarina on the death of her husband, Czar Peter III. Her reign is a study in contrast. Legend has it that she organized a plot to have some of her sycophants murder Peter, and that her […]
Trans-Siberian Railroad
The Trans-Siberian Railroad is the longest railway line in the world connecting Moscow to Vladivostok at 5,753 miles, and has branch lines to Ulan-Bator, Mongolia; Beijing, China, 4,888 miles; and Pyongyang, North Korea, 6,380 miles. This railroad spans seven times zones and takes eight days to complete the Moscow to Vladivostok trip. By the mid […]
Black Orchid
A key character in my novel St. Catherine’s Crown is Black Orchid—an incredibly beautiful and seductive female—as only an oriental female can be. She is narcissistic to a faretheewell. Quick to hot temper when provoked, inordinately vain, and having no moral compass; she gets what she wants by whatever means are necessary: treachery, seduction, prevarication. […]