Vintage photos of Russian leaders of the past.

18-cb

For over 100 years, the young ladies graduating from the halls of the Smolny Institute contributed in no small measure to the brilliance, influence and glory of the Russian nobility within the Empire and throughout European high society. This noble influence endured until the atheistic and egalitarian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Tsarina Maria died in Pavlosk, Russia, on November 5, 1828.