Household and folk nicknames in the Romanov family: the regal "Bulldogs", "Ducks" and "Pineapple"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

We all remember that Prince Vladimir was called Red Sun, Catherine was undoubtedly the Great, and Alexander II was the Liberator. These "official" nicknames are, of course, important, but not so interesting, since they were usually given for political reasons. Much more informative are the popular names of the rulers - less flattering and more poignant, as well as domestic ones, with which the Romanovs have always generously endowed their loved ones. Here they can sometimes really tell a lot about a person's appearance, his merits or demerits.

It must be said that only close relatives could afford familiar treatment and nicknames in the face of royal persons. They used them, of course, only when communicating with their families, but in public they often treated each other more respectfully. Children absorbed these unspoken rules from the very first days of their lives. So, for example, even when the offspring of the Romanov family played with other children, they always addressed them by their first name and patronymic and “you”. There is a known case when in 1865 one of the friends asked the seven-year-old Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich if he could be called simply Seryozha, he replied: It is difficult to say how it would have ended, since the boy was ashamed to ask and still treated the little prince with respect.

One of the first kings, whose numerous nicknames have come down to us, was Peter the First. In addition to the epithets "Great" and "Reformer", he was also called "Antichrist" during his lifetime. He traveled under the pseudonym Pyotr Mikhailov, responding with pleasure to "Mr. Bombardier". And, of course, his dear friend Alexander Menshikov called him "Min Hertz" (my heart).

Anna Ioanovna earned the nickname "Bloody" among the people, and more than a hundred years later another Romanov, Nicholas II, also received this terrible epithet after the tragic events on the Khodynskoye field during the coronation celebrations (further circumstances only strengthened him). The unpleasant nickname "Palkin" was received by Nicholas I. In fact, such names sometimes leave a trace in the people's memory much deeper than the positive deeds of the emperors described in history textbooks. So, Nicholas remained as a result better known as an autocrat, in which the army widely used shpitsruten - long flexible rods for corporal punishment.

In general, the name Nikolai appeared in the royal family thanks to Catherine II, until 1796 our tsars were not called that. The fact is that after five girls, the empress perceived the birth of her long-awaited grandson as a real miracle, and at the time of baptism the boy was officially named Nicholas in honor of the holy miracle worker Nicholas of Mirliki. Literally 50 years later, there were so many Kol among the Romanovs that when in 1850 the second son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, had another boy with this name, he complained:

By that time, cute household nicknames had already been adopted within the family - derived from the name, or offensive nicknames, hinting at features of appearance. So, for example, the second son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich - Konstantin Konstantinovich, was called "Herring" for his long growth, brother of Nicholas II, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich was nicknamed "Weeping Willow" - for painful thinness, and another brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, the family called him "Sweet Floppy", as he had a habit of "flopping" into a chair, stretching out his long legs halfway through the room.

The father sometimes called the future Alexander II "Moscow Kalach" - the boy was born in Moscow, and he, in turn, called his son, the future Alexander III, "Bulldog" or "Pug". This heir, apparently, was not handsome in childhood (ceremonial portraits could flatter), since in a letter the emperor wrote to his wife:. In general, Alexander II liked to give his children funny nicknames, which then, sometimes, were glued to them for a long time: his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, the future Duchess of Edinburgh, his loving father nicknamed "Duck" for her gait, or he could affectionately call him "Little Soul" in a letter, and the third son, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, was called in childhood "Fat Man" (the reasons are understandable in principle) and "Kuksoy" - perhaps because of his character.

However, they could have given a nickname in the royal family and not so cute. Under the same Alexander III, Empress Maria Feodorovna, for example, was nicknamed "Wrathful" for her explosive character, and Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich was nicknamed "Misha is a fool." Two Montenegrin princesses, who married the grandchildren of Nicholas I and became Grand Duchesses of the Romanov Imperial House, were distinguished by their love of intrigue and the occult. They were called in the family only "Scylla" and "Charybdis".

The record holder for impartial nicknames, however, can be considered Nicholas II. Another Kolya in the family was called Niki, but nicknames to him over the years of reign just stuck, one is worse than the other: "Tsar-rag", "Tsarskoye Selo gopher", "Pineapple". The latter was very offensive in fact, since it appeared after one not very successful speech of the autocrat, in which the phrase "And on us" abounded:. Judging by the later pearls: or, which has become classic, people remember such punctures, love and willingly quote at all times. By the way, in relation to Nicholas II, nicknames were given to him not only by the people and the opposition. Native uncle, Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, for example, often called his nephew “Our fool Nika”. So we can say that family and folk nicknames write their own history of rulers, and sometimes this alternative version can be very different from the official one.

The youth of monarchs was not always a continuous holiday. Read next: Tsar's childhood: How the royal offspring were brought up and punished in Russia