Imperial Outpost

A small museum tucked away in a working-class section of east Moscow struggles to keep alive the possibility that someday there will be another czar in Russia. It is the Museum of the Imperial Family, which opened in 1994. (1 Malaya Semyonovskaya, metro “Elektrozavodskaya,” open 11-6 Monday through Friday. Telephone and fax 963-8996. The museum has recently been closed for repairs, but will presumably be open for the summer months. Those who wish to visit are advised to call in advance.)

Like many other institutions in Russia, the Museum of the Imperial Family is not just one thing. It is a museum in the traditional sense of the word, an important outpost of the Romanov family, and an architectural monument all rolled into one.

The primary purpose of the museum, and the one most obvious to the visitor, is educational. “Children and even university students have been educated in enormous isolation from Russian history,” says Yelena Sergeyevna, the museum’s personable director. She has a point. When Soviet education didn’t simply ignore the last two tsars, Alexander III and Nicholas II, it portrayed them as reactionary monsters. To bring the past to life, and to restore something like a sense of continuity to Russian history, the museum regularly conducts tours for school children.

These tours present Russia’s remarkable economic and cultural achievements in the early twentieth century. The children see photographs of the imperial family and learn about their murder and the murder of eighteen other Romanovs. In addition, they see photographs of Grand Prince Vladimir Kirillovich (1917-1992), who for many years claimed to be the head of the Romanov family in exile, and his wife Leonida (and who was laid to rest in St. Petersburg upon his death). They also see photographs of a handsome teenager – and thereby hangs a tale.

This is no ordinary young man – this is Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov (b. 1981), who is presented as the heir to the Russian throne. For his supporters, he embodies the continuity of Russian history. He is the great-great-great grandson of Czar Alexander II (1816-1881). Predictably, however, his claim is disputed by various monarchist factions. They say that he cannot become czar because his father was German. Moreover, some genealogists say that Georgy is really a member of his father’s noble line, the Imperial House of Hohenzollern, rather than a Romanov.

A major purpose of the Museum of the Imperial Family is to establish the legitimacy of Georgy’s claim to the throne. Yelena Sergeyevna is quick to point out that, before Grand Prince Vladimir Kirillovich would agree to visit Russia, he insisted on, and received, Russian citizenship. When he arrived in St. Petersburg in December of 1991, he was the first Romanov to set foot on Russian soil since 1917. Thus, young Georgy is a Russian citizen, too. Although he grew up in Madrid, he has visited Russia several times.

In any event, the Museum of the Imperial Family is worth visiting for its building alone, whose renovation is part of the revitalization of Moscow. All over the city, historical buildings are being refurbished and rehabilitated as offices, apartments, banks, and the like. The museum building, known as the Nosov House, offers a mini-lesson in Russian social and cultural history just before the revolution.

One of the many examples of Moscow Neo-Classicism, it was the residence of a socially prominent couple, the Nosovs. The museum’s main exhibition room, the former ballroom, features twin ionic columns in faux marble at either end. A second exhibition room, on a lower level, was probably the billiard room.

Yekaterina Nosova was born into the wealthy Ryabushinsky family, which was well-known for its interest in art. Possibly as an expression of a desire to confirm her social status, her artistic interests reached beyond her roots in merchant Moscow to aristocratic St. Petersburg. She commissioned Konstantin Somov, a member of the World of Art group, to paint her portrait; it now hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery. Possessing both substantial means and artistic taste, the couple hired two of Russia’s best-known artists, Valentin Serov and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, to decorate the interior of their house. Like Somov, Dobuzhinsky was a member of the World of Art, and Serov was closely associated with the group in the later years of his career. Although none of Serov’s work seems to have survived, Dobuzhinsky’s fine mosaic in the foyer (never before published) offers an enchanting glimpse of the building’s former elegance. The artist presumably created the mosaic in 1910, while he was designing the interiors for the nearby Kazan Railroad Station.

The museum is located in a neighborhood that boasts a couple of other significant buildings. Next to the museum is a building that will be breathtaking when its present restoration is completed. This is the 1903 cottage in the American Shingle style by Lev Kekushev, a well-known architect of the time. And just across the street there is Russia’s – and possibly the world’s – only neo-Gothic light bulb factory!

All in all, a visit to the Museum of the Imperial Family offers many insights into Russia – past, present, and future. RL

Jim Curtis received his Ph.D in Russian from Columbia University and is currently Professor of Russian at the University of Missouri-Columbia.