Trove of documents detail private lives of the members

From telegrams about hunting parties to anguished letters over the Bolshevik takeover, a trove of documents detailing the private lives of Russia’s Romanov family has returned home 100 years after the 1917 revolution.

The archive, containing letters, photographs and drawings, was taken to Europe by members of the royal family who fled the chaos and persecutions of the revolution. In July, the state-owned Russian bank Sberbank bought the archive for $84,000 after its owner, who did not want to be identified, put them up for sale.

Now, as the country marks the centenary of the end of royal rule, the collection has gone on display at a museum in Tsarskoye Selo, the former summer residence of the tsars on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg.

“These letters and telegrams reveal the everyday life of the imperial family, whose members truly loved each other,” Irina Raspopova, a conservationist at the museum, said.

‘Huge interest’

“These archives are of huge interest to researchers. We were lucky to find them,” she said.

The collection, which counts over 200 pieces dating from 1860 to 1928, features letters written by Tsar Nicholas II, Russia’s last, as well as his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna, his father Alexander III and several other Romanov family members.

The documents, written in Russian, French and English on paper yellowed by time, show the pampered daily lives and leisure of the Russian royalty.