By nightfall of their first day in the city, they had secured and occupied Mollie's -- a popular Irish pub on Ulitsa Rubinsteina around the corner from Nevsky Prospekt -- to make sure that their queen would be safe in the city, of course.
To their dismay, the English sailors found themselves answering questions from the OMON riot troops as to why the English would seek out an Irish pub. Well, the Russians do read the news.
Despite her being the first British sovereign to visit a Russian city, the queen should feel quite connected to St. Petersburg. After all, her unfortunate Romanov relatives founded the city. They, members of Russia's last and only truly royal dynasty, made St. Petersburg what it is now, and most of them are buried here.
The aura and the ghosts of the Romanovs inevitably though invisibly escort the queen in her strolls through the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage, the Yussupov and Mariinsky palaces, and all those surviving monuments of our imperial age.
Her Majesty's subjects have made a contribution toward Russia's effort to remember its royal past: Last year English forensic specialists scrupulously studied the remains of the Russian royal family and documented conclusively that the bones were those of Tsar Nikolai II, Tsaritsa Alexandra and three of their children.
One might wonder whether Her Majesty might also want to give a boost to one of the surviving relatives. For weeks St. Petersburg has been abuzz with stories about the possible enrollment of Georgy Romanov, 13, into Admiral Nakhimov Naval Academy. The academy, ironically, oversees the care of the revolutionary cruiser Avrora, a hallowed Bolshevik relic. Georgy is the grandson of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the great nephew of the late Nikolai II.
Some say there are political problems that may impede Georgy's admission into the academy. However, the only true monarchist I know, Andrei Baranovsky, who has been the chairman of the St. Petersburg Monarchist Union, told me with a grin when I last saw him that Georgy may flunk the physical: The school apparently had said Georgy must work off some pounds before he can be admitted. Perhaps Her Majesty can put in a good word on his behalf.
For all we know, though, the queen may be as far detached from Russian issues as the sailors from her escort, and in her own royal fashion may simply have a good time in this, Russia's most European, most hip town.
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