Romanovs' Last Winter Ball

Romanovs' Last Spectacular Ball
#romanov #russianimperials #1903winterball #tsarnicholasII

In 1903, the Romanovs, Russia’s last royal family, held a lavish costume ball. Even though the drums of revolution had already begun to beat among the impoverished workers in Imperial Russia, the doomed aristocracy gathered so as to celebrate the 290th anniversary of the House of Romanov dynasty. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch wrote in his memoirs: “(It was) the last spectacular ball in the history of the empire…a new and hostile Russia glared through the large windows of the palace... while we danced, the workers were striking, and the clouds in the Far East were hanging dangerously low.” The party took place at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
The Czar invited 390 guests and the ball ranged over two days of festivities. The first day featured feasting and dancing and a masked ball was held on the second. All the visitorswere in bejeweled 17th-century style costumes. Empress Alexandra was dressed as Tsaritsa Maria Miloslavskaya while Tsar Nicholas II dressed up as Tsar Alexei.
Some of the clothes worn to the 1903 Ball have survived till this day.
The entire Imperial family gathered for a photograph on the staircase of the Hermitage theater, the last time they would all be photographed together.
A year after the Winter Ball, Russia was engaged in a disastrous war with Japan. The financial repercussions of this war took their toll on the Russian economy. Thus making the 1903 Winter Ball, Imperial Russia’s Last Great Display of Careless Extravagance.