R is for Romanov

 Emperor Peter the Great -  the founder of Saint Petersburg

Portrait by Paul Delaroche, 1838

Pyotr Alexeyevich, Peter the Great, Pietari Suuri

born on May 30. 1672

tsar from April 2. 1682,
 first emperor of Russia from October 22. 1721 

died on January 28. 1725

The Hermitage

 The Wax Effigy of Peter the Great

Sculptor: Rastrelli, Bartolomeo Carlo. 1675-1744

RU-2785301

travel time 10 days
distance travelled 1,148 km

sent by Elena in Moscow

Emperor Nicholas II or Nikolai II, Saint Nicholas II of Russia in the Russian Orthodox Church was the last Emperor of Russia. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Soviet historians portray Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader whose decisions ed to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects.

Born 18 May 1868 Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. Shot to death 17 July 1918 (aged 50)  Yekaterinburg, Russia. Burial 17 July 1998

Portrait by V.Serov. 1900

ES-354019

travel time 8 days

distance travelled 3,416 km

sent by Anna Torremolinos, Spain

Portraits from Russia

Olga of Württemberg

Timofei Andreyevich Neff (1804-1876)
 Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, later Queen Olga of Württemberg

Olga was the second daughter of Nicholas I of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna, Charlotte of Prussia. She was thus a sister of Alexander II of Russia. She married Charles I of Württemberg, with whom she had no children.
Olga grew up as part of a close family of eight sisters and brothers. She had two elder siblings: Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Grand Duchess Maria of Russia; and five younger siblings: Grand Duchess Alexandra of Russia, Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia (died in infancy), Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia and Grand Duke Michael of Russia.

Private swap  from Nikolai, St. Petersburg

Portrait Portrait of Maria Lopukhina, 1797

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757-1825) was a Russian painter of Ukrainian origin who dominated Russian portraiture at the turn of the 19th century.

Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina (1779–1803), née Countess Tolstaya was the eldest daughter of Count Ivan Andreevich Tolstoy - a major-general in the army - and Anna Fedorovna Maikova. She had three brothers (Fyodor, Peter, Yanuary) and three sisters (Vera, Anna and Ekaterina). The great novelist Leo Tolstoy was Maria's first cousin once removed. Her father's younger brother, Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy, was Leo Tolstoy's grandfather. 

Just six years after the portrait was painted, in 1803, Maria died from tuberculosis

Private swap from Masha, Kiev, Ukraine

St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia

St. Petersburg

Received on: 20 Jul, 2013
Distance: 1,216 km (756 miles)
Travel time: 31 days

Katya lives near Moscow and she picked her card from my favourite list, a card of Emperor Nicholas II,  Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and children Grand duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia and Tsesarevich Alexis.
OTMA in the card was the autograph of Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. As OTMA, they jointly gave gifts and signed their correspondence.

Received on: 17 Jul, 2013
Distance: 2,106 km (1,309 miles)
Travel time: 31 days
Emperor Nicholas II and his family members in front of Winter Palace in 1906.

Julia is a student from Ufa but now she lives in St. Petersburg and she likes her town very much because it has wonderful museums, parks, roofs it is just amazing.

 Moscow

Received on: 6 Aug, 2013

Distance: 520 km (323 miles)

Travel time: 15 days

Lubyanka Square and Chapel of St. Panteleimon.

Olga sent this old card of Lubyanka square which is better known for former KGB- building.

Received on: 8 May, 2013
Distance: 1,155 km (718 miles)
Travel time: 16 days
Kremlin,  late 19th  and early  20th century

Alina Lives in Moscow and she sent this old view card of Kremlin.
Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow.
Over the centuries, the Kremlin had become the center of Russian state, political and spiritual life. By the late 19th - early 20th century Kremlin was a shining monument to Russia’s history, statehood and culture, and the symbol of Moscow as the first capital of the Russian empire.