Chapter Four

The Russian Bible

Some girls will tell you that when you are stressed, mad, or just needing to get out of the house, shopping is the best remedy. Yet, for me it only made me more stressed out. I couldn't let myself enjoy Saturday's shopping trip with Mandy a few of our other friends for our graduations dresses. My mind was consumed with questions and assumptions about the photographs and all the hidden treasure my mother and I had pulled down from the attic.

 "So, have you found out if the photograph was your great grandmother or not yet? Oh! What about this one?" Mandy asked me as she held up a dark blue sundress.

 "Oh I like that one for you, and no I haven't yet. I'm going to show Mr. Poloski tomorrow and then ask my great grandmamma on Thursday more about it." I replied as I went to go search through another rack filled with dresses.

 "No, I mean what you think about it for yourself. I think you would look great in it, what do you think Rach?" Mandy asked as she placed the blue dress up against me showing our other friend Rachel Hopkins. Rachel was great to go shopping with, she could always find the best deals and you could say she was the fashion diva of our group. Somehow she always manages to wear random article of clothing but yet it was always stylish.

 "I looked at her shaking my head, oh no, I'm not really a blue dress kind of girl." I said as I turned around to keep looking.

 "Yeah, I agree with Lisa, she needs a dark purple or ooo what about this one Lisa?" Rach said as she held up a dark red satin dress. My eyes followed the lines and the style of the dress, it wasn't really my style...with it being a strapless, just above the knee dress.

"Oh Lisa, you are so trying it on." Mandy said as she started pushing me towards the dressing room with some other dresses. Today just wasn't really my luck, possibly I just wasn't in the mood to shop around anymore so nothing really was catching my eye. However I convinced myself I'd try on a few more dresses and then let them finish their shopping as I went to go check out the vintage store a few shops down.

As I stepped out of the dressing room I looked at myself in the mirror, okay yeah I was totally not wearing this one, I thought. It clanged to every inch of my body, yeah very not me.

"Yeah no, sorry Lisa, I thought it would look great, what about this one." Rachel said as she handed me a white cotton dress with dark purple flowers at the bottom.

I let out a loud sigh as I took the dress and went back into the dressing room. But as I zipped up the dress, it was if I was having a mental flashback, as if I was having déjà vu. I came out and I literally didn't see me but the same young girl in a faded brown and cream photograph. The dress had a vintage look to it, with the cotton ruffling around the collar and shoulders.

"Oh, now that looks great Lisa!" Mandy exclaimed.

"Yeah you should totally get that one." Rach agreed.

"Yeah maybe, how much is it?" I asked as I tried to feel for the price tag.

"Oh yikes well it's one hundred twenty-five dollars." Mandy said with bit of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah, I can't afford this, and there's no way my mom will agree with the price." I said as I looked back in the mirror.

"Maybe you could see if there are any discounts with it though." Rachel said with hope in her voice.

"Yeah maybe I'll just have to think about it, I'm going to go change and go Nantiques while yall keep shopping." I said as I entered back into the dressing room.

"Aww, don't you want to keep looking with us?" Mandy asked, she knew that I would say no, but she always asked.

"Nah, I'm not really in the mood to do clothes shopping. Yall finish shopping, I'll be fine." I said as I came out of the dressing room.

"Well, we'll text you when we're done." Rachel said as we parted ways.

Saturday shopping trips always took forever, at least in my opinion. Even if you found what you were looking for, it took at least thirty minutes to check out because of all the people that shopped. However, my favorite store was Nantiques, I loved the vintage clothing, books, furniture, and all the other objects that the store offered. Even though it was busy, somehow you could just relax and lose yourself among the shelves and tables.

 As I entered my eyes scanned over the normal items that were always for sale. The same lamps, chairs, and tables in the front...all covered with china and cloth.

 "Hi there and welcome to Nantiques, what can I help you find today?" The elderly shop owner asked as he smiled from the other side of checkout counter.

"I'm just looking, thanks though." I replied softly, but then I started wondering if this place would have much antique items from Russia.

 "Actually, do you have Russian items?" I asked quickly.

 "Ah yes, this way," he said as he walked towards the back corner of the store.

 "Here we are, is there something you are looking for dear?" He asked.

"Well, do you have anything about the Imperial era or anything from the early nineteen hundreds?"

 "Hmmm, not much, but here are some books and a few other items. Let me know if you need any more assistance." He said as he was called away by another customer.

As I turned my attention to the items, I began to realize that most of the books were written in Russian, Okay, time to translate mind. I coached myself.

I picked up one book that was titled, "History of Russia", glancing through briefly, scanning the pages, but realize that this wasn't going to help me at all. Just as I was about to give up and leave, one book title caught my attention, "Russia Bleeds Red" it was the same title as the headline of the newspaper clipping that I had found up in the attic. It was all in Russian, but from what I could translate, this book was filled with the history of the Imperial family that had been killed by Communists at the time. I looked to see a price for the book, but couldn't find any, so I took it up to the register.

"Um sorry, this doesn't have a price on it, could you tell me how much this is?" I asked the elderly man that had helped me before.

"Ah, I forgot we had this book. You're interested in the Russian Imperial family?" He asked as he looked at the cover and through a book that I could only assume was filled with a list of inventory and their prices.

"Yes, well I'm having to do a project about my family history, and I came across a newspaper clipping that had this headline title." I explained.

"Ah, very interesting. You should hold on to that clipping, it could be worth a lot of money. This book doesn't seem to have a price, but I'll give it to you for, let's say ten dollars, since you're trying to discover your roots." He said with a smile.

"Oh, thanks, that would be great. Thank you so much." I replied gratefully as I took out the money and put the book inside my purse. I am going to love showing this to Mr. Poloski along with his other books that he was bringing on Monday.

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"Here you go Lisa, hopefully these will help you trace your Russian family, were you able to figure out the correct name?" Mr. Poloski asked as he put some of his collection of books on my desk.

"No not really, I found an old photograph, that had my great grandparent but the name was different on there. And then I found this book that had the same name in it." I said as I showed Mr. Poloski the book I had bought.

"Ah, 'Russia Bleeds Red', yes, I've read this one before, but only while I was in graduate school, where did you find this?" He asked as he started to examine the pages.

"At a store in the mall, but who exactly were the Bolsheviks?" I asked as I pointed out the name on one of the papers.

"The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 was initiated by millions of people who would change the history of the world as we know it. When Tzar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, the Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life they sustained. They were basically the start of the Communist party that would in the end massacre the entire Romanov family." Mr. Poloski explained.

"So, were the Bolsheviks actual people or were they just the name of the group? Because in a photograph I found the names of the people were Bolshevik." I asked, still trying to wrap my head around all this new knowledge.

"Well, both actually. Many people who did not want to be identified with the communist party in fear that if the Imperial family did escape they all would be found and killed for being a traitor, so they would keep their real last names a secret and take on the group name Bolshevik." He said.

So if say my great grandmamma had the last name of Bolshevik but she now goes by Vasiliev, what could that mean? I wondered. Was she part of the communists that killed the Imperial family? Was she in fact a spy? It was all adding up, but yet when I looked at Nunna, I didn't see a traitor, I didn't see someone that could or would kill someone.

"Here, this book may help you more; I like to call it 'The Russian Bible'." Mr. Poloski said with a smile as he handed me a large thick book. "This has basically everything about Russia in it, and it even has special photographs that hardly any of the other History and World History books have." He continued.

As he left me to search and look through the book, I kept finding more of the name Bolshevik, and then after a few minutes that's when I saw it, the photograph that I still had yet to discover. It was a photograph of the entire Imperial Russian family. My eyes stared at the little girl who wore a white Victorian style dress with a crown, yet it wasn't the clothes that caught my attention, but the pair of intense, beautiful eyes that stared back at me. The only difference was that these eyes held joy and happiness in them, not the sadness like in the brown faded photograph of what I assumed was my great grandmamma and the row of soldiers and again with the other soldier and the baby.

"Excuse me, Mr. Poloski, what were the names of this Imperial family?" I asked as I pointed at the picture.

"Oh, well that there was Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia who's grandmother was Queen Victoria of England, their first daughter there is Olga Nicholovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, and her sisters Tatiana Nicholovna, Marie Nicholovna, and her younger brother Alexis Nicolaievich, Tsarevich, the heir to the throne." He explained.

"And what about her?" I asked as I pointed to the girl who was in two photographs from the box in the attic.

"That there is the youngest daughter of the Imperial family, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholovna. There's a myth that she wasn't killed during the Communist massacre, but there's no evidence that she ever survived. The commander of the communist party said that they counted five female bodies among the dead that dark day, but who's to really say she was the fifth, I guess we'll never know the truth?" He said as he looked up at me with a smile as he finished telling the story.

I smiled softly, my mind going a gazillion miles a minute as I stared at the little girl named Anastasia. Did I have two photographs of this Duchess in my room? Was the girl in the photographs actually my great grandmamma? So many questions, and only one solution, I had to have a nice little chit-chat with Nunna, Mrs. Vasiliev. Too bad I was going to have to wait until Thursday’s visit. Well, this is going to be a lovely visit. I thought sarcastically to myself.

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Author's Note:  Hey Yall, I hope you enjoyed Reading!  Please take a moment to click the orange VOTE button that's on the left hand side of the screen.  Thanks so much for all your support.

This chapter is dedicated to MaskWithATruth for explaining to me about the Bolshevik party, helping me to create my own little twist of the name. Thanks again!