I think the above postcard is an interesting one, if you look closely the Russian Tsar Nicholas II is on the right hand side, just below the mouth of the cannon, he’s the one with his cap askew. I think he has some of his family with him too.
This postcard crosses two interests of mine, the First World War and Russia, pre and post revolution. The photo seems to have been taken outside the Kremlin. Sadly it hasn’t been used and has absolutely no writing on the back of it so there are no clues to the date but it must have been before March 1917 as that is when the tsar abdicated. I wonder if that cannon was ever intended for use, it seems amazingly ornate for a weapon of destruction. Maybe everything way back then was embellished in what we think of as that heavy Victorian style.
It’s a bit confusing date wise because the Russians were still using the Gregorian calandar which makes it March the 2nd when he abdicated but in the Julian calendar which we all use now it was March 15th – oh who said beware the ides of March?! Obviously it wasn’t an unlucky date for Julius Caesar only.
If you’re interested in Russian history have a look at http://history1900s.about.com/od/Russian-Revolution/a/Russian-Revolution-Timeline.htm.
Looks like this is the weapon in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Cannon
– sorry I can’t yet put a date on your p/c đŸ™‚
Valerie in NZ,
Thanks for that link, that’s definitely the cannon in the postcard, you missed your calling if you aren’t a detective! I think that if the boy next to the tsar is Alexei then it must have been around 1916 as he seems quite big.
Cool postcard–like a portal to the past.
JaneGS,
Yes it is, I was thinking that it is just as well that they didn’t know what was in their future as the Romanovs can’t have had long to live when the photo was taken.