Letters of princes Alexander and Sergey Mikhailovich

The collection publishes letters of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Sergey Mikhailovich Romanov to friends of childhood, with whom they played in the Gatchina Park, where they called themselves potatoes, or "Vanya and Potatoes". This company included the heir and Tsarevich Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich and others.
Letters are devoted to their trip to India and Ceylon. Despite the fact that the letters were signed by both princes, their author was Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, which can be seen from the content. In them, he sets out his impressions of a trip on the Tamara yacht to the Mediterranean countries - Italy, Greece, Turkey, then to Egypt, and then through the Indian Ocean to the shores of India, Batavia and Ceylon. During the trip, they collected rich information about the political and social life of the countries of southern Europe, Africa and Asia, their nature, traditions and customs of the peoples inhabiting them and the relations of the local population with the colonial authorities. All these observations are presented in published letters. They revealed the details of their meeting with the heir to Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, which occurred on Ceylon on February 8, 1891