From King Solomon to Tsar Nicholas and Tsarevich Aleksei

I have published some photos here of the significant leaders from the past century. My goal in selecting the photos is to underscore the leaders as a regular mortals and to emphasize that supernatural genius is projected. There are six albums rescued by Tsarina’s friend and confidante Anna Vyrubova in the Yale’s Beinecke Library. Some of the photos where published on Flicker, some are still unpublished or available in the library catalogue. I have selected the photos that mostly show the only son of Tsar Nicholas, Tsarevich Aleksei.

How do you measure a king? Kings are paranoid, they know that nobody is telling them the truth. The only true measure of a king is what happens after a king dies when there is no longer any point in the flattery. King Solomon is considered a wise king although certainly he didn’t write any of the wise books attributed to him. He inherited the kingdom from his father Kind David who in turn unified the northern and southern tribes of Israel, most likely by force. King Solomon ascension to the throne involved a murky sequence. The contender to the throne David’s oldest son Amnon raped his half sister Tamar, Tamar’s brother Absalom murdered Amnon. Then Absalom proclaimed himself a king while David was still alive, Amnon was also killed. Adonijah was the oldest surviving son of King David. He fell in love (likely had an affair) with David’s concubine who kept the old king warm at night. After his father died Adonijah wanted to marry the concubine. When Solomon found out he sent an assassin to kill his brother Adonijah. Only after all the incest and the murders did the “wise” king took over his father’s kingdom (of course the preceding posthumous smears are to be filed under the “winners write history”, AKA the Bible).

To support his lavish court, the massive construction projects including the Jerusalem Temple, the palace, the stables and his legendary debauchery of biblical proportions King Solomon taxed the hell out of the tribes, especially the northern tribes. When King Solomon died, Rehoboam, the leader of the northern tribes, came to Solomon’s son Jeroboam to complain: “Your father made our yoke hard. Lighten this hard labor…” Jeroboam refused and the kingdom immediately fell apart.” The fractured kingdom was now exposed, the destruction and the eternal exile followed.

In this photograph Tsarevich Aleksei appares older than in any other photos, this photo is probably on the run after the revolution, before the Romanov royal family was slaughtered in 1918. Possibly one of the last (if not the last) photos for both.

The above photo is an official royal card, all the other photos are from the family albums.

Tagged as: history, israel, leaders, revolution, romanov, russia