(Update of a previous post) The Tsarevitch Alexei probably knew my grandfather better than I did. In fact, I feel as if I hardly knew my grandfather, Paul Woronoff (or Pavel Voronov as he was known in Russian). He died when I was nine years old, although I have a
It is apparently common knowledge that Empress Alexandra of Russia believed the swastika to be lucky. However, I didn’t know that until I began to look through old French magazines which I inherited. It makes sense though as, according to my grandmother Olga Woronoff, the Empress was deeplyreligious but also
Plagiarism is a hot topic at the moment in the Australian literary scene. Plagiarism is also the reason I have not written a blog post for a couple of months. In late April someone shared with me a Facebook post about my grandfather. Naturally I clicked on the link and
I was born in April so, looking for something to write about this week, I thought I would see if any of my ancestors were also born in April. I found one, a three times great uncle, in the Fircks family who was even born on approximately the same date
On the 13 March 1881 (1 March in the Russian old style calendar) Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. His carriage was bombed in St Petersburg by the group known as People’s Will. Initially the bombs missed their target but, when the Tsar insisted on leaving his carriage to check on
I never imagined my family history would somehow be connected to Poland. Of course I had forgotten that, at various times over the centuries, Poland – or parts thereof, were ruled either as a protectorate of Russia, or as part of the Russian empire. In fact, from the end of