tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36100279.post6606877576089312548..comments2023-11-02T06:18:52.845-05:00Comments on Past Elder : A Different St Nicholas - and Alexandra. 17 July 2014.Past Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10541968132598367551noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36100279.post-72048218778604633692014-08-07T12:43:46.659-05:002014-08-07T12:43:46.659-05:00This is in no way meant of be a criticism of your ...This is in no way meant of be a criticism of your posting. The subject of Russia and Lutherans in Russia is so vast that it could not be held in a work as large as “War and Peace”. Just a few comments that your posting stirred up in my memory.<br />I have been a Lutheran all of my life, but due to a complex family history I grew up in a Russian Orthodox family. Actually they were all second generation Russian Orthodox, because their father (Adjutant to Nicholas II) had been a Lutheran who converted to Orthodoxy. When Nicholas and Alexandra were declared saints by the Russian Orthodox Church (Actually it was the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile; the one from Russia made the move many years later), one of my Russian relatives came up to me with joy radiating on her face. She said, “Did you hear that the Czar and his wife have been declared saints?” I responded, “In our Church they were always saints.”<br />In all likelihood, the Romanov dynasty ended with Peter II, since he was not the father of Paul I. Most probably his father was Sergei Saltykov, the first of Catherine’s many lovers. Her husband, Peter II hated her and never consummated their marriage. I know that there were DNA tests conducted on the remains of the Imperial family, but the results were not compared with the DNA of any other Romanov descendants (if there are any) whose families developed parallel with the descendants of Paul I.<br />Since Peter II, grandson of Peter the Great, every Russian Czar married a German princess, except Alexander III. His wife was Danish. Taking into account the animosity between Danes and Germans after Prussia, under Bismarck, took over Schleswig Holstein, this created additional friction between Alexandra and her mother-in-law. By blood, Nicholas II was 1/64 Russian. <br />It is estimated that there were about 4 million Lutherans in Russia when the revolution broke out. By 1937 this was reduced to about 2 million, with not a single pastor. As best I can ascertain, there are about 200,000 Lutherans in Russia today.<br />Probably the most famous Russian Lutheran was Fabergé, the one of the jeweled eggs fame.<br />As to the victims of Soviet repression, the casualties during WWII should also be considered. Loss of life among the military for the Soviet Union was about 14 million, or double the total losses of Germany, France, the UK, and the US. This is a reflection both of the lack of weapons (until these were supplied under Lend Lease by the US), but even more so of a disregard for human life. Millions were sacrificed to meet Field Marshall Stalin’s schedule even when there was no strategic necessity for it.<br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. MarquartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com