The Emperor did everything to become the last

On the night of September 17-18, 1977By order of Boris YELTSIN, the mansion of the merchant IPATIEV, which stood in the center of Sverdlovsk, was demolished,in the basement roomwho was shot in 1918NICHOLAS II with his wife, children and three servants. The further from this event, the more reverent the heirs of the Yeltsin regime have towards the tsar. But what can I say about the last ROMANOV? nothing special.The bad things have already been erased from our memory, but he's good, actually,did not do anything, although he had every opportunity to do so.

The Emperor's Fatal Men

Alexander Orlov

Queen Alexandra Fedorovna For a long time she could not give birth to an heir to the throne. Nikolai blamed himself for this. There is a version that in the end he decided to give his wife to another. Allegedly, the queen's choice fell on Major General Alexandra Orlova, commander of Her Majesty's Life Guards Ulan Regiment. He was very handsome, and also a widow. The goal was achieved, and the queen gave birth to a son, Alexei. But during this time, as was reported, she developed strong feelings to his forced roommate. The emperor allegedly decided to send his rival to Egypt to avoid a scandal. Before leaving, he invited him to dinner. They say that Orlov was carried out of the palace unconscious and soon died.

Photo: wikipedia.org

Peter Stolypin

Nicholas II entrusted the administration of the state to Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. Dreaming of leaving a mark on history, he became interested in reforms. The transformations turned out to be so difficult that the people responded with terrorism. Over three years, 768 government officials were killed and 820 were wounded.

The government adopted a law on military courts. Within 24 hours after the murder, the criminal had to be found and brought to justice. Gendarmes often captured innocent people. Previously, Russia executed an average of nine people each year. And during the three years of Stolypin’s premiership, almost 20 thousand were hanged. 62 thousand were sent to hard labor. Instead of working, the peasants hid from the authorities. As a result, a famine hit Russia, affecting 60 provinces.

Grigory Rasputin

In 1912 Rasputin dissuaded the emperor from intervening in the Balkan War, which delayed the start of the First World War by two years. Later, he strongly spoke out in favor of Russia's withdrawal from the war, concluding peace with Germany, renouncing rights to Poland and the Baltic states, and also against the Russian-British alliance. The “holy elder” Gregory convinced Nicholas II that the continuation of hostilities would end in the collapse of the empire.

The same persecution was organized against Rasputin in the press; he was called a German spy, the Tsarina’s lover and a sex maniac. The police did not confirm these rumors, but under public pressure the tsar turned away from Rasputin. Soon, with the active participation of the British intelligence service, he was killed, and the king lost his spiritual mentor.

The Emperor's Fatales

Matilda Kshesinskaya

Cheerful polka Matilda Kshesinskaya Dad gave Nicky to his phlegmatic son Alexander III . The family decided that it was time for him to become a real man, and ballet was something like an official harem, and such a relationship was not considered shameful among the aristocracy. In Guard jargon, trips to ballerinas for sexual gratification were called “potato trips.”

Having married, Nicholas II decided to leave Matilda in the “family”, transferring her to the care and joy of the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. Together they made Kshesinskaya one of richest women empire, which greatly undermined Russia's military budget.

Having immigrated to France after the revolution, the dancer married her grandson there Alexandra II, Grand Duke Andrey Vladimirovich and received the title of Most Serene Princess Romanovskaya.

Anna Akhmatova

They met in Tsarskoye Selo, where Anna Akhmatova lived next door to a park in which the sovereign often walked alone. The emperor was so overwhelmed by passion that he completely withdrew from state affairs, handing them over to Stolypin.

In his memoirs “A Tale of Trifles,” recalling the period from 1909 to 1912, the artist Yuri Annenkov assured: “The entire literary public at that time was gossiping about the romance of Nicholas II and Akhmatova!” Contemporary of the poetess, literary critic Emma Gerstein, wrote: “She hated her poem “The Gray-Eyed King” - because her child was the king’s, not her husband’s.”

Akhmatova herself never denied rumors of an affair with the emperor.

Alexandra Fedorovna

Wife of Nicholas II, née princess Victoria Alice Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt or just Alex, she didn’t fit in right away. Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, General Alexander Mosolov, testified that the tone of this hostility was set by her mother-in-law Maria Fedorovna, who fiercely hated the Germans.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Count Sergei Witte wrote that Nicholas II “married a hysterical, completely abnormal woman who took him into her arms, which was not difficult given his lack of will. Thus, the empress not only did not balance out his shortcomings, but, on the contrary, greatly aggravated them.”

Touches to the portrait

• He dreamed of ridding the empire of crows and cats. Whenever possible, he shot them himself and carefully recorded his successes in his diary.
• He considered himself an attractive man and loved to pose. I spent 12 thousand rubles a year on photographs with my family.
• At the age of 24 he received the rank of colonel and sewed about a thousand uniforms. When receiving foreign ambassadors, he put on the uniform of the corresponding state.
• I smoked constantly. He started the day with a glass of vodka, but most of all he loved port wine, which was poured for him at dinner from a separate bottle.
• I exercised daily and followed a diet. Ate a little, but often, giving preference boiled eggs, beef and fish.
• The financial portal Celebrity Net Worth named Nicholas II"the richest saint", estimating his personal wealth at $300 billion.
• Together with his wife, he was a member of the occult secret order of the Green Dragon, whose symbol is the swastika.

A dozen betrayals, tragic failures and mistakes,leading to the death of the emperor:

1. Nicholas II took the throne in Crimea, where his father died in Livadia Alexander III. The heir cried and said that he was not ready to become king. Even birth mother, empress Maria Feodorovna, did not want to swear allegiance to this son, begging him to give up the throne to his younger brother Mikhail.
2. On the day of his coronation, May 18, 1896, Nicholas II received the nickname Bloody. Then, due to the negligence of the authorities on the Khodynka field when distributing royal gifts to the people - a cod, a piece of sausage, a gingerbread and a mug - 1,389 people died in a stampede and 1,300 were seriously injured.
3. In 1900, Nicholas II fell ill with typhus and was about to hand over the throne eldest daughter Olga, who was five years old at the time. Since then, the idea of ​​staging a coup in Olga’s favor, and then marrying her off to a man who would rule the country instead of the unpopular Nicholas, long pushed the royal relatives into intrigue.
4. Because of the theft of the great princes and incompetent command Russo-Japanese War ended for Russia with a severe defeat and the loss of Southern Sakhalin. At Tsushima, the Russian fleet was destroyed. The price for the adventure unleashed by tsarism was over 400 thousand killed, wounded, sick and captured Russian soldiers and sailors.
5. Nicholas II inherited from his father a powerful state and an excellent assistant - an outstanding statesman Sergei Witte. He put the country's finances in order and opposed the war with Japan. However, the king did not listen to him and replaced him with a reformer Petra Stolypina.
6. Faith in the good Tsar was trampled on January 9, 1905. This day was nicknamed "Bloody Sunday". Peaceful march of St. Petersburg workers to Winter Palace To submit a petition to the autocrat about workers' needs, he was shot with rifles and chopped up with Cossack sabers. About 4,600 people were killed and wounded.
7. In 1906, during the hunger riots as a result of Stolypin's reforms, peasants burned two thousand landowners' estates. The answer was the emergence of military courts. The “troikas” consisted of the commander of the punitive detachment, the village elder and the priest. Two types of execution were practiced - shooting and hanging.
8. In 1911, there was a crop failure in Russia. The church, landowners, and tsarist officials refused to share the grain, and as a result, mass famine claimed the lives of three million people. Average life expectancy dropped to 30.8 years. How did the king react? Introduced censorship of all mentions of famine.
9. Being ill-prepared, in the summer of 1914 Russia became involved in the First World War. Only due to the lack of shells and other weapons, losses on the fronts reached 200 - 300 thousand people per month. At the same time, in the rear they stole everything they could. Seeing confusion and vacillation in the troops, the Bolsheviks launched a successful campaign against the rotten tsarism.
10. If in the first three years of his reign the last Romanov foreign capital controlled 20 percent of the empire's wealth, then by February 1917 - 90. The struggle between domestic and foreign capital became one of the main reasons for the February bourgeois-democratic revolution.
11. Since the fall of 1916, not only the liberal State Duma, but also his closest relatives have stood in opposition to Nicholas II. The Russian officers made a decisive contribution to the overthrow of the Tsar. In March 1917, it was the front commanders who forced him to sign his abdication.
12. The provisional government tried to expel royal family to England to the king's cousin - GeorgV, but he refused to accept it. France also did not want to see her. And all because Nicholas II kept capital in their banks and they hoped to pocket it. As a result, the emperor was sent deep into the country, where he met his death.

They only dream of peace

Professor at Tokyo Institute of Microbiology Tatsuo Nagai I am sure that the remains discovered near Yekaterinburg do not belong to Nikolai Romanov and members of his family. He made this conclusion in 2008 based on a comparative analysis of the DNA structure of the Ekaterinburg remains and DNA taken from particles of sweat from the imperial clothes, as well as the DNA of his closest surviving relatives.

The populist YELTSIN first destroyed the memory of the Tsar, and then solemnly buried an unknown person under the guise of God’s anointed. Photo: © ITAR-TASS

The discovery gave special weight to the arguments of a large group of historians and geneticists, who are confident that in 1998 in the Peter and Paul Fortress, under the guise of imperial family An unknown person was buried with great pomp.

Sex instead of revolution

Political scientist Maxim SHEVCHENKO believes that the whole scandal with Alexey UCHITEL’s film “Matilda” is about the carnal love of the ballerina KSHESINSKAYA and NICHOLAS II - this is a political technology that is usedso as not to remind people of the reasons for the Great October Revolution.

POKLONSKAYA humbly carries her cross

Former prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya who walks around with portraits Nicholas II, is, in my opinion, a representation of the level Peter Pavlensky nailing his eggs to Red Square, explains the mysteries domestic policy Maxim Shevchenko. - The elites are scared to talk about the revolution, but somehow it’s impossible to miss its 100th anniversary. Therefore, cunning political strategists gave advice - to replace the story about the causes of the revolution and about the personality Lenin showdown: did the sovereign sleep with the ballerina or did not sleep. This is exactly why they came up with all this clownery with Poklonskaya. The Russian bureaucratic elite feels that it is fattening, growing fat and bathing in golden baths and living in golden palaces, while the people before the revolution lived in straw huts and now live on meager salaries. The elite knows that people perfectly see the injustice that is happening and feel their instability. As a result, he tries to justify his boorish behavior sacredness of all kinds Russian authorities, which, of course, is absurd.

On November 14, 1894, Nikolai Alexandrovich married the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse and Rhine Ludwig IV, the granddaughter of the English Queen Victoria Alike Victoria Elena Brigitte Louise Beatrice, who converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra Feodorovna. His father at one time opposed this marriage, since the Hessian princesses, which included the wives of the murdered emperors Paul I and Alexander II, enjoyed a bad reputation at the Russian court. They were believed to bring bad luck. In addition, the family of the Dukes of Hesse through the female line transmitted a hereditary disease - hemophilia. However, Nikolai, in love with Alika, insisted on his own.

Nikolai Alexandrovich was an exemplary family man, everything free time spent with family. He enjoyed playing with children, sawing and chopping wood, clearing snow, driving a car, going on a yacht, riding a train, walking a lot, and the emperor also loved to shoot crows with a rifle. The sovereign only disliked dealing with state affairs. But his wife constantly interfered in these matters, and her interference had disastrous consequences. The Russian Empress was raised by her grandmother in England. She graduated from the University of Heidelberg and received a Bachelor of Philosophy. At the same time, Alexandra Feodorovna was susceptible to religious mysticism, or rather, she was superstitious and had a penchant for charlatans. She repeatedly turned to dubious individuals for advice and help. At first it was Mitka the holy fool, who could only moo. However, with him was someone named Elpidifor, who explained the meaning of Mitka’s cries during the seizures that happened to Mitka. Mitka was replaced by the clique Daria Osipovna, and many others followed her. In addition to domestic “miracle workers,” their foreign “colleagues” were also invited to the royal palace - Papus from Paris, Schenck from Vienna, Philip from Lyon. What motives forced the queen to communicate with these people? The fact is that the dynasty certainly needed an heir to the throne, and daughters were born. The obsessive idea of ​​a male child so possessed Alexandra Fedorovna that, under the influence of one of the “miracle workers,” she imagined herself to be pregnant, despite the fact that she felt everything due to the occasion symptoms, and even gained weight. They were expecting the birth of a boy, but all the deadlines passed, and... the pregnancy turned out to be a figment of her imagination. Confused by this turn of events, the subjects irreverently quoted Pushkin: “The queen gave birth in the night / Either a son or a daughter; / Not a mouse, not a frog, / But an unknown animal.” But finally, the heir Alexey Nikolaevich was born. The joy about this did not last long, as it turned out that Alexey was suffering from hemophilia, which was considered incurable at that time.

The wedding of Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Fedorovna.

1894. Artist I.E. Repin

Speech by Nicholas II to volost elders and representatives of the rural population of the outskirts of Russia in the courtyard

Petrovsky Palace in 1896. Artist I.E. Repin

Alexandra Feodorovna in court costume.

Artist I.S. Galkin

Alexandra Feodorovna (nee Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt) was born in 1872 in Darmstadt, the capital of the small German Duchy of Hesse. Her mother died at thirty-five.

In 1884, twelve-year-old Alix was brought to Russia: her sister Ella was marrying Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The heir to the Russian throne, sixteen-year-old Nicholas, fell in love with her at first sight. The young people, who were also quite closely related (they were second cousins ​​through the princess’s father), immediately fell in love with each other. But only five years later, seventeen-year-old Alix reappeared at the Russian court.

Alice of Hesse in childhood. (wikimedia.org)

In 1889, when the heir to the crown prince turned twenty-one, he turned to his parents with a request to bless him for his marriage to Princess Alice. The answer of Emperor Alexander III was brief: “You are very young, there is still time for marriage, and, in addition, remember the following: you are the heir to the Russian throne, you are engaged to Russia, and we will still have time to find a wife.” A year and a half after this conversation, Nikolai wrote in his diary: “Everything is in the will of God. Trusting in His mercy, I look calmly and humbly to the future.” Alix’s grandmother, Queen Victoria of England, also opposed this marriage. However, when Victoria later met Tsarevich Nicholas, he impressed her very much. good impression, and the opinion of the English ruler changed. Alice herself had reason to believe that the beginning of an affair with the heir to the Russian throne could have favorable consequences for her. Returning to England, the princess begins to study the Russian language, gets acquainted with Russian literature, and even has long conversations with the priest of the Russian embassy church in London.

Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna. (wikimedia.org)

In 1893, Alexander III became seriously ill. Here a dangerous question for the succession to the throne arose - the future sovereign is not married. Nikolai Alexandrovich categorically stated that he would choose a bride only for love, and not for dynastic reasons. Through the mediation of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the emperor's consent to his son's marriage to Princess Alice was obtained.

However, Maria Feodorovna poorly concealed her dissatisfaction with the unsuccessful, in her opinion, choice of an heir. The fact that the Princess of Hesse joined the Russian imperial family during the mournful days of the suffering of the dying Alexander III probably set Maria Feodorovna even more against the new empress.

Nikolai Alexandrovich on the back of the Greek Prince Nicholas. (wikimedia.org)

In April 1894, Nikolai went to Coburg for the wedding of Alix's brother Ernie. And soon the newspapers reported the engagement of the crown prince and Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt. On the day of the engagement, Nikolai Alexandrovich wrote in his diary: “A wonderful, unforgettable day in my life - the day of my engagement to dear Alix. I walk around all day as if outside of myself, not quite fully aware of what is happening to me.” November 14, 1894 is the day of the long-awaited wedding. On the wedding night, Alix wrote in Nicholas’s diary: “When this life ends, we will meet again in another world and stay together forever...” After the wedding, the Tsarevich will write in his diary: “Incredibly happy with Alix. It’s a pity that classes take up so much time that I would so much like to spend exclusively with her.”

The wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna. (wikimedia.org)

Usually the wives of Russian heirs to the throne for a long time were on the sidelines. Thus, they had time to carefully study the mores of the society they would have to manage, had time to navigate their likes and dislikes, and most importantly, had time to acquire the necessary friends and helpers. Alexandra Fedorovna was unlucky in this sense. She ascended the throne, as they say, having fallen from a ship to a ball: not understanding the life that was alien to her, not being able to understand the complex intrigues of the imperial court. Painfully withdrawn, Alexandra Fedorovna seemed to be the opposite example of the affable Dowager Empress - she, on the contrary, gave the impression of an arrogant, cold German woman who treated her subjects with disdain.

The embarrassment that invariably engulfs the queen when communicating with strangers, prevented the establishment of simple, relaxed relationships with representatives of high society, which were vital for her. Alexandra Feodorovna did not know how to win the hearts of her subjects at all; even those who were ready to bow to members of the imperial family did not receive a reason to do so. So, for example, in women's institutes, Alexandra Fedorovna could not squeeze out a single friendly word. This was all the more striking, since the former Empress Maria Fedorovna knew how to evoke in college students a relaxed attitude toward herself, which turned into enthusiastic love for the bearers of royal power.

The Romanovs on the yacht "Standart". (wikimedia.org)

The queen's intervention in the affairs of government did not appear immediately after her wedding. Alexandra Feodorovna was quite happy with the traditional role of guardian hearth and home, the role of a woman next to a man engaged in difficult, serious business. Nicholas II, a domestic man by nature, for whom power seemed more like a burden than a way of self-realization, rejoiced at any opportunity to forget about his state concerns in a family setting and gladly indulged in those petty domestic interests for which he had a natural inclination. Anxiety and confusion gripped the reigning couple even when the empress, with some fatal sequence, began to give birth to girls. Nothing could be done against this obsession, but Alexandra Feodorovna, who had internalized her destiny as a queen, perceived the absence of an heir as a kind of heavenly punishment. On this basis, she, an extremely impressionable and nervous person, developed pathological mysticism. Now every step of Nikolai Alexandrovich himself was checked against one or another heavenly sign, and state policy was imperceptibly intertwined with childbirth.

The Romanovs after the birth of their heir. (wikimedia.org)

The queen's influence on her husband intensified, and the more significant it became, the further the date for the appearance of the heir moved forward. The French charlatan Philip was invited to the court, who managed to convince Alexandra Feodorovna that he was able to provide her, through suggestion, with male offspring, and she imagined herself to be pregnant and felt all the physical symptoms of this condition. Only after several months of the so-called false pregnancy, which was very rarely observed, the empress agreed to be examined by a doctor, who established the truth. But the most important misfortune was that the charlatan received, through the queen, the opportunity to influence state affairs. One of Nicholas II’s closest assistants wrote in his diary in 1902: “Philip inspires the sovereign that he does not need any other advisers except representatives of the highest spiritual, heavenly powers, with whom he, Philip, puts him in contact. Hence the intolerance of any contradiction and complete absolutism, sometimes expressed as absurdity.”

The Romanovs and Queen Victoria of England. (wikimedia.org)

Philip was still able to be expelled from the country, because the Police Department, through its agent in Paris, found indisputable evidence of the French subject’s fraud. And soon the long-awaited miracle followed - the heir Alexey was born. However, the birth of a son did not bring peace to the royal family.

The child suffered horribly hereditary disease- hemophilia, although his illness was kept a state secret. The children of the royal Romanov family - Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and the heir Tsarevich Alexei - were extraordinary in their ordinariness. Despite the fact that they were born into one of the highest positions in the world and had access to all earthly goods, they grew up like ordinary children. Even Alexei, who every fall threatened with a painful illness and even death, was changed from bed rest to normal in order for him to gain courage and other qualities necessary for the heir to the throne.

Alexandra Fedorovna with her daughters doing needlework. (wikimedia.org)

According to contemporaries, the empress was deeply religious. The church was her main consolation, especially at a time when the heir’s illness worsened. The Empress held full services in the court churches, where she introduced the monastic (longer) liturgical regulations. The Queen's room in the palace was a connection between the empress's bedroom and the nun's cell. The huge wall adjacent to the bed was completely covered with images and crosses.

Reading telegrams with wishes of recovery to the Tsarevich. (wikimedia.org)

During the First World War, rumors spread that Alexandra Feodorovna defended the interests of Germany. By personal order of the sovereign, a secret investigation was carried out into “slanderous rumors about the empress’s relations with the Germans and even about her betrayal of the Motherland.” It was established that rumors about the desire for a separate peace with the Germans, the transfer of Russian military plans by the Empress to the Germans were spread by the German general staff. After the abdication of the sovereign, the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry under the Provisional Government tried and failed to establish the guilt of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna of any crimes.

Historians, archivists and numerous researchers of the life of the last empress of the Russian state seem to have studied and explained not only her actions, but every word and even every turn of her head. But here’s what’s interesting: after reading every historical monograph or new study, an unfamiliar woman appears in front of us.

Such is the magic of the beloved British granddaughter, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, goddaughter of the Russian sovereign and wife, the last heir to the Russian throne. Alix, as her husband called her, or Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova remained a mystery to everyone.

Probably, everything is to blame for her coldish isolation and alienation from everything earthly, taken by her retinue and the Russian nobility for arrogance. The explanation for this inescapable sadness in her gaze, as if turned inward, is found when you find out the details of childhood and teenage years Princess Alice Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Childhood and youth

She was born in the summer of 1872 in Darmstadt, Germany. The fourth daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig and the daughter of the Queen of Great Britain, Duchess Alice, turned out to be a real ray of sunshine. However, Grandma Victoria called her that – Sunny – Sunshine. Blonde, with dimples on her cheeks, with blue eyes, fidgety and laughing, Aliki instantly charged good mood their prim relatives, making even the formidable grandmother smile.

The baby adored her sisters and brothers. It seems that she had especially fun with her brother Frederick and her younger sister Mary, whom she called May due to difficulty pronouncing the letter “r”. Fryderyk died when Alika was 5 years old. A beloved brother died of a hemorrhage resulting from an accident. Mom Alice, already melancholic and cheerless, plunged into severe depression.

But just as the sharpness of the painful loss began to fade, a new grief occurred. And not just one. The diphtheria epidemic that occurred in Hesse in 1878 took away first her sister May from sunny Alika, and three weeks later her mother.

Thus, at the age of 6, Alika-Sunny’s childhood ended. She “went out” like a ray of sunshine. Almost everything she loved so much disappeared: her mother, her sister and brother, her usual toys and books, which were burned and replaced with new ones. It seems that then the open and funny Aliki herself disappeared.

To distract two granddaughters, Alice-Aliki, Ella (in Orthodoxy - Elizaveta Fedorovna), and grandson Ernie from sad thoughts, the imperious grandmother transported them, with the permission of her son-in-law, to England, to Osborne House Castle on the Isle of Wight. Here Alice, under the supervision of her grandmother, received an excellent education. Carefully selected teachers taught her, her sister and brother geography, mathematics, history and languages. And also drawing, music, horse riding and gardening.

The subjects were easy for the girl. Alice played the piano brilliantly. Music lessons were given to her not by anyone, but by the director of the Darmstadt Opera. Therefore, the girl easily performed the most complex works and... And without much difficulty she mastered the wisdom of court etiquette. The only thing that upset the grandmother was that her beloved Sunny was unsociable, withdrawn and could not stand noisy social society.

The Princess of Hesse graduated from the University of Heidelberg and received a bachelor's degree in philosophy.

In March 1892, Alice suffered a new blow. Her father died of a heart attack in her arms. Now the girl felt even more alone. Only the grandmother and brother Ernie, who inherited the crown, remained nearby. The only sister Ella has recently lived in distant Russia. She married a Russian prince and was called Elizaveta Fedorovna.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

Alice first saw Nicky at her sister's wedding. She was only 12 years old then. The young princess really liked this well-mannered and subtle young man, the mysterious Russian prince, so different from her British and German cousins.

She met Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov for the second time in 1889. Alice went to Russia at the invitation of her sister’s husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Nikolai’s uncle. A month and a half spent in the St. Petersburg Sergius Palace and meetings with Nikolai turned out to be enough time to understand: she had met her soul mate.

Only their sister Ella-Elizaveta Fedorovna and her husband were happy with their desire to unite their destinies. They became a kind of communicators between lovers, facilitating their communication and secret correspondence.

Grandmother Victoria, who did not know about her secretive granddaughter’s personal life, planned her marriage to her cousin Edward, Prince of Wales. Elderly woman I dreamed of seeing my beloved “Sunny” as the Queen of Britain, to whom she would transfer her powers.

But Aliki, in love with a distant Russian prince, calling the Prince of Wales “Eddie-cuffs” for excessive attention to his manner of dressing and narcissism, confronted Queen Victoria with a fact: she would only marry Nicholas. The letters shown to the grandmother finally convinced the disgruntled woman that she could not keep her granddaughter.

The parents of Tsarevich Nicholas were not delighted with their son’s desire to marry a German princess. They hoped for their son's marriage to Princess Helena Louise Henrietta, daughter of Louis Philippe. But the son, like his bride in distant England, showed persistence.

Alexander III and his wife surrendered. The reason was not only Nicholas’s persistence, but also the rapid deterioration of the sovereign’s health. He was dying and wanted to hand over the reins to his son, who would have his personal life organized. Alisa was urgently called to Russia, to Crimea.

The dying emperor, in order to meet his future daughter-in-law as best as possible, with the last of his strength got out of bed and put on his uniform. The princess, who knew about the state of health of her future father-in-law, was moved to tears. They began to urgently prepare Alix for marriage. She studied Russian and the basics of Orthodoxy. Soon she accepted Christianity, and with it the name Alexandra Feodorovna (Feodorovna).

Emperor Alexander III died on October 20, 1894. And on October 26, the wedding of Alexandra Fedorovna and Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov took place. The bride's heart sank from such haste and a bad feeling. But the Grand Dukes insisted on the urgency of the wedding.

To preserve decency, the wedding ceremony was scheduled for the empress's birthday. According to existing canons, deviation from mourning on such a day was allowed. Of course, there were no receptions or big celebrations. The wedding turned out to have a mournful tint. As Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich later wrote in his memoirs:

“The couple’s honeymoon proceeded in an atmosphere of funeral services and mourning visits. The most deliberate dramatization could not have invented a more suitable prologue for the historical tragedy of the last Russian Tsar.”

The second gloomy omen, from which the heart of the young empress again sank in anguish, happened in May 1896, during the coronation of the royal family. A famous bloody tragedy occurred on the Khodynka field. But the celebrations were not cancelled.

The young couple spent most of their time in Tsarskoe Selo. Alexandra Fedorovna felt good only in the company of her husband and her sister’s family. Society received the new empress coldly and with hostility. The unsmiling and reserved empress seemed arrogant and prim to them.

To escape from unpleasant thoughts, Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova eagerly took up public affairs and became involved in charity work. Soon she had several close friends. In fact, there were very few of them. These are Princess Maria Baryatinskaya, Countess Anastasia Gendrikova and Baroness Sofia Buxhoeveden. But my closest friend was the maid of honor.

The happy smile returned to the empress when her daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia appeared one after another. But the long-awaited birth of an heir, the son of Alexei, returned Alexandra Feodorovna to usual state anxiety and melancholy. My son was diagnosed with a terrible hereditary disease - hemophilia. It was inherited through the empress's line from her grandmother Victoria.

The bleeding son, who could die from any scratch, became a constant pain for Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II. At this time, an elder appeared in the life of the royal family. This mysterious Siberian man really helped the Tsarevich: he alone could stop the bleeding, which the doctors were not able to do.

The approach of the elder gave rise to a lot of rumors and gossip. Alexandra Fedorovna did not know how to get rid of them and protect herself. Word spread. Behind the empress's back they whispered about her supposedly undivided influence on the emperor and public policy. About Rasputin's witchcraft and his connection with Romanova.

Started First World War briefly plunged society into other concerns. Alexandra Fedorovna threw all her resources and strength into helping the wounded, widows of dead soldiers and orphaned children. The Tsarskoye Selo hospital was rebuilt as an infirmary for the wounded. The Empress herself, together with her eldest daughters Olga and Tatiana, were trained in nursing. They assisted in operations and cared for the wounded.

And in December 1916, Grigory Rasputin was killed. How Alexandra Feodorovna was “loved” at court can be judged from a surviving letter from Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich to the empress’s mother-in-law, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. He wrote:

“All of Russia knows that the late Rasputin and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna are one and the same. The first one is killed, now the other one must disappear too.”

As Anna Vyrubova, a close friend of the Empress, later wrote in her memoirs, the Grand Dukes and nobles, in their hatred of Rasputin and the Empress, themselves sawed off the branch on which they sat. Nikolai Mikhailovich, who believed that Alexandra Feodorovna “must disappear” after the elder, was shot in 1919 along with three other Grand Dukes.

Personal life

ABOUT royal family and the life together of Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II, there are still many rumors that go back to the distant past. Gossip arose in the immediate circle of the monarchs. Ladies-in-waiting, princes and their gossip-loving wives happily came up with various “defamatory connections” in which the Tsar and Tsarina were allegedly caught. It seems that Princess Zinaida Yusupova “tried” the most to spread rumors.

After the revolution, a fake came out, passed off as the memoirs of a close friend of the empress, Anna Vyrubova. The authors of this dirty libel were very respected people: Soviet writer and history professor P.E. Shchegolev. These “memoirs” talked about the empress’s vicious connections with Count A.N. Orlov, with Grigory Rasputin and Vyrubova herself.

There was a similar plot in the play “The Empress’s Conspiracy,” written by these two authors. The goal was clear: to discredit the royal family as much as possible, remembering which the people should not regret, but be indignant.

But the personal life of Alexandra Feodorovna and her lover Nika, nevertheless, turned out great. The couple managed to maintain tremulous feelings until their death. They adored their children and treated each other with tenderness. The memories of this were preserved by their closest friends, who knew firsthand about the relations in the royal family.

Death

In the spring of 1917, after the Tsar abdicated the throne, the entire family was arrested. Alexandra Fedorovna with her husband and children was sent to Tobolsk. Soon they were transported to Yekaterinburg.

The Ipatiev House turned out to be the last place of the family’s earthly existence. Alexandra Fedorovna guessed about the terrible fate in store for new government to her and her family. Grigory Rasputin, whom she believed, said this shortly before his death.

The queen, her husband and children were shot on the night of July 17, 1918. Their remains were transported to St. Petersburg and reburied in the summer of 1998 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, in the Romanov family tomb.

In 1981, Alexandra Feodorovna, like her entire family, was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, and in 2000 – by the Russian Orthodox Church. Romanova was recognized as a victim political repression and rehabilitated in 2008.

Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas I)- This term has other meanings, see Alexandra Fedorovna. Alexandra Fedorovna Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmine von Preußen ... Wikipedia

Alexandra Fedorovna- Alexandra Feodorovna is the name given in Orthodoxy to two wives of Russian emperors: Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas I) (Princess Charlotte of Prussia; 1798 1860) Russian empress, wife of Nicholas I. Alexandra Feodorovna (wife... ... Wikipedia

ALEXANDRA FYODOROVNA- (real name Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse of Darmstadt) (1872 1918), Russian empress, wife of Nicholas II (since 1894). Played a significant role in government affairs. She was strongly influenced by G. E. Rasputin. In period 1... ...Russian history

Alexandra Fedorovna- (1872 1918) empress (1894 1917), wife of Nicholas II (from 1894), born. Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice, daughter of Vel. Duke of Hesse of Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Alice of England. Since 1878, she was brought up in English. Queen Victoria; graduated... ...

Alexandra Fedorovna- (1798 1860) empress (1825 60), wife of Nicholas I (from 1818), born. Frederica Louise Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of the Prussian King Frederick William III and Queen Louise. Mother of the Imp. Al ra II and led. book Konstantin, Nikolai, Mikh. Nikolaevich and led. book... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

ALEXANDRA FYODOROVNA- (25.V.1872 16.VII. 1918) Russian. Empress, wife of Nicholas II (from November 14, 1894). Daughter led. Duke of Hesse of Darmstadt Ludwig IV. Before her marriage she was named Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice. Powerful and hysterical, had a great influence on... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

Alexandra Fedorovna- ALEXANDRA FYODOROVNA (real name Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse of Darmstadt) (1872-1918), born. empress, wife of Nicholas II (since 1894). That means she was playing. role in government affairs. She was strongly influenced by G. E. Rasputin. In period 1... ... Biographical Dictionary

Alexandra Fedorovna- , Russian empress, wife of Nicholas II (from November 14, 1894). Daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, Louis IV of Darmstadt. Before her marriage she was named Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice. Imperious and hysterical,... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Alexandra Feodorovna (empress, wife of Nicholas II)- ... Wikipedia

Alexandra Feodorovna (empress, wife of Nicholas I)- ... Wikipedia

Books

• The Fate of the Empress, Alexander Bokhanov. This book is about an amazing woman whose life was like both a fairy tale and an adventure novel. Empress Maria Feodorovna... Daughter-in-law of Emperor Alexander II, wife of the emperor... Buy for 543 UAH (Ukraine only)
• The Fate of the Empress, Bokhanov A.N.. This book is about an amazing woman whose life was similar to both a fairy tale and an adventure novel. Empress Maria Feodorovna... Daughter-in-law of Emperor Alexander II, wife of the emperor...