RUSSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1688, 20 March 1917, Page 1

RUSSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY.

Nicholas 11., Emperor of All the Russians, who is ' reported to have abdicated, was born on the 6th May, 1868, the eldest son of the late Emperor Alexander 111., and of Princess Dagmar, daughter of the late King Christian IX. of Denmark. He ascended the throne on 20th October, 1894, and on 14th November in that year was married to Princess Alexandra Alix, daughter of Ludwig IV., Grand Duke of Hesse (born 25th May, 1872). He has one son, the Grand Duke Alexis, who is the heir to the throne, and four daughters, all older than the son. Their names are Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia. The reigning family of Russia descend, in the female line, from Michael Romanoff, elected Tsar in 1613, after the extinction of the House of Rurik; and in the male line from the Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, born in 1700, scion of a younger branch of the princely family of Oldenburg. The union of his daughter Anne with Duke Karl Friedrich of HolsteinGottorp formed part of the great reform projects of Peter 1., intended to bring Russia into closer contact with the Western States of Europe. Peter I. was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine, the daughter of a Livonian peasant, and she by Peter IL, the grandson of Peter, with whom the male line of the Romanoffs terminated, in the year 1730. The reign of the next three sovereigns of Russia, Anne, Ivan VI., and Elizabeth, of the female line of Romanoff, formed a transition period, which came to an end with the accession of Peter HI., of the house of Holsten-Goltorp. All the subsequent Emperors, without exception, connected themselves by marriage with German families. The wife and successor of Peter HI., Catherine 11., daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, general in the Prussian army, left the crown to her only son, Paul, who became the father of two Emper-

ors, Alexander I. and Nicholas, and the grandfather of a third, Alexander 11, All these sovereigns married German princesses, creating intimate family alliances, among others, with the reigning houses of Wurttemberg, Baden, and Prussia.

The Emperor is in possession of the revenue from the Crown domains, consisting of more than a million of square miles of cultivated land and forests, besides gold and* other mines in Siberia, and producing a vast revenue, the actual amount of which, is, however, unknown, as no reference to the subject is made in the budgets or finance accounts, (he Crown domains being considered the private property of the Imperial Family.

The Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich is the Tsar’s only brother, and was born in 1878.