Russian Imperial Navy ship crew members performing a comedy in 1904.

Life on board a navy ship is often rather monotonous. That is why commanders, who care about their crew, often organize various activities in order to avoid boredom. 

In this photograph, taken in 1904 on board a Russian Imperial Navy ship on its way to the Russo-Japanese war, members of the crew have been performing a comedy for their fellow sailors. 

 As we all know, the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905 ended in a catastrophe for the Russians. There is no way of knowing whether these "actors" survived the war. 

(The photo - here coloured by me - was published in the Swedish magazine Allers Familj-Journal in 1904.)

Ladies of Russian aristocratic families making underwear for soldiers in the Russo-Japanese war

The noble ladies in the picture below gathered in St. Petersburg´s Vladimir Palace in order to make underwear for the Russian soldiers fighting in the Russo-Japanese war 1904-1905. The photograph was published in the Swedish magazine Allers Familj-Journal in September 1904. 

Portrait of general Kuropatkin in the early 1900s

Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Куропа́ткин; March 29, 1848 – January 16, 1925) was the Russian Imperial Minister of War from 1898 to 1904, and often held responsible for major Russian defeats in the Russian-Japanese War, most notably at the Battle of Mukden and the Battle of Liaoyang. --

Following the October Revolution, he became very skilled at playing the violin and taught at an agriculture school that he had founded, until his death in 1925.

(Wikipedia)

The picture was published in the Swedish magazine Allers Familj-Journal in 1905. Colouring by me.

Imperial Russia in colour

Here are five old photographs from imperial Russia. I have tried to make them a little more lively by adding colour:

Tsar Nicholas and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (1905 official photograph)

Portrait of Maxim Gorky (about  1905)

Dmitri Trepov, Governor-General of St. Petersburg (1905)

A guard in St. Petersburg during the revolutionary year 1905.

Tsar Nicholas II on his morning ride (1905).

The meeting between Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II in the Gulf of Finland in July 1905

Tsar Nicholas II on board Kaiser Wilhelm's yacht Hohenzollern in 1905.

This photograph shows Tsar Nicholas II arriving at Kaiser Wilhelm II's yacht Hohenzollern on July 23, 1905. On the following day the Tsar signed the Treaty of Björkö (in Finnish Koivisto), a secret mutual defense accord with the German Empire, a treaty which was never to be ratified by the Russians. (And as a matter of fact the treaty was also rejected in Berlin.)

Below is an account of the event from Lamar Cecile's excellent book Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile 1900 - 1941:

"At the end of October 1904, Wilhelm supplied the tsar with a draft alliance, and this led to a flurry of exchanges between the two sovereigns. What emerged from these negotiations was a treaty in which both powers provided the other with military aid in the event either was attacked in Europe or elsewhere. Nicholas, however, was unwilling to commit himself without first consulting his French allies, and Wilhelm's insistence that confidences were properly to be shared only between princes or rulers made no impression on the tsar. The matter therefore lay in abeyance as 1904 turned into 1905. The new year, however, brought a series of grave reverses for Nicholas II: the loss of Port Arthur on 2 January 1905; the colossal defeat of the tsar's Manchurian army at Mukden early in March; and finally, on 27 May, the annihilation in the Sea of Japan of the Russian fleet, which was laboriously making for Port Arthur. In addition, at the end of January 1905, Russia had exploded in what the Kaiser called the "Jew Revolution". Nicholas II's ability to resist Wilhelm's importuning to enter into an alliance was therefore considerably weaker than it had been during their negotiations in the fall of 1904, and he agreed to meet the Kaiser off the island of Björkö in the Gulf of Finland. After the Hohenzollern and the tsar's Polar Star dropped anchor off Björkö on 23 July 1905, Nicholas boarded the German yacht for dinner, in an unusual show of affability, stayed until 3 o'clock in the morning. He assured Wilhelm II, that with the Maroccan crisis defused by Delcassé's fall, there were no further barriers to Franco-German accord. Moreover, the tsar declared that he would never enter into an entente with England, most specifically not one directed against Germany. At nine the next morning, Wilhelm boarded the Polar Star, and he and the tsar retired to Nicholas II's cabin to affix the signatures to the so called  Björkö treaty."                                                   
   
However, as mentioned above, the Björkö Treaty was never ratified:

Although the treaty was signed by the Tsar, it was inevitably a "dead letter" because of Russia's commitment to France. The Russian statesmen Sergey Witte and Vladimir Lambsdorff, neither present at the yacht nor consulted beforehand, insisted that the treaty should never come into effect unless it was approved and signed by France. The Tsar gave in to their pressure, much to the consternation of the Kaiser who did not fail to reproach his cousin: "We joined hands and signed before God, who heard our vows!... What is signed, is signed! and God is our testator!" 

A photograph of Tsar Nicholas II and his family together with officers of the Semenovsky Life-Guards Regiment

In its 16 September 1906 issue the Swedish weekly Hvar 8 Dag published this photograph of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, posing together with officers of the Semenovsky Life-Guards Regiment.

The commander of the regiment, general Min (marked as number one in the picture) was assassinated the day after the photograph was taken. Of course, we all know what happened later to the Tsar and his family.

The Semenovsky Regiment was the second oldest guards regiment in the Imperial Russian Army. In December 1905 the regiment had participated in the quelling of the armed uprising in Moscow.

Tsar Nicholas II (marked with 2) and his family together with officers of the Semenovsky regiment. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna holds the Tsesarevich and heir apparentto the throne, Alexei Nikolaevich.