Nicky and Alix. Great love of the last Russian emperor

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 farther from this event, the more reverent attitude towards the tsar among the heirs of the Yeltsin regime. But about the last ROMANOV and say something nothing in particular.The bad has already been erased from our memory, but the good he,in fact,did nothing, although he had every opportunity to do so.

Fatal men of the emperor

Alexander Orlov

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

Photo: wikipedia.org

Pyotr 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. In three years, 768 were killed and 820 were injured.

The government passed a law on courts-martial. Within a day after the murder, the offender was to be found and brought to justice. Gendarmes often grabbed innocent people. Earlier in Russia, an average of nine people were executed annually. And during the three years of Stolypin's premiership, almost 20,000 were hanged. 62 thousand were sent to hard labor. Instead of working, the peasants hid from the authorities. As a result, famine struck Russia, engulfing 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 spoke out strongly in favor of Russia withdrawing from the war, making peace with Germany, giving up rights to Poland and the Baltic states, and also against the Russo-British alliance. The “holy elder” Gregory convinced Nicholas II that the continuation of hostilities would end in the collapse of the empire.

Against Rasputin, the same persecution was organized in the press, he was called a German spy, a lover of the queen and a sex maniac. The police did not confirm these rumors, but under pressure from the public, 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.

Fatal Women of the Emperor

Matilda Kshesinskaya

Cheerful polka Matilda Kshesinskaya dad gave his phlegmatic son Nicky Alexander III. The family decided that it was time to become a real man, and the ballet was something like an official harem, and such a connection was not considered shameful in the circle of the aristocracy. In Guards jargon, trips to ballerinas for sexual gratification were called "potato trips."

Having married, Nicholas II decided to leave Matilda in the "family", transferring to the care and comfort of the Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. Together, they made Kshesinskaya one of the richest women in the empire, which greatly crippled the Russian military budget.

Having immigrated to France after the revolution, the dancer got married there with her grandson Alexander II, grand duke Andrey Vladimirovich and received the title of the Most Serene Princess Romanovskaya.

Anna Akhmatova

They met in Tsarskoye Selo, where Anna Akhmatova lived next to the park, in which the sovereign often walked alone. Passion swirled the emperor so much that he completely withdrew from public affairs, handing them over to Stolypin.

In the 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 novel of Nicholas II and Akhmatova!” Contemporary poetess, literary critic Emma Gerstein, wrote: "She hated her poem "The Gray-Eyed King" - because her child was from the king, and not from her husband."

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

Alexandra Fedorovna

Wife of Nicholas II, nee princess Victoria Alice Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt or just Alex, did not immediately come to court. Head of the Chancellery of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, 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 his shortcomings, but, on the contrary, greatly aggravated them.

Strokes for a portrait

• He dreamed of ridding the empire of crows and cats. If possible, he himself was engaged in shooting them and carefully entered successes in the diary.
• He considered himself an attractive man and loved to pose. I spent 12 thousand rubles a year on photos with my family.
• At 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.
• He smoked all the time. He started the day with a glass of vodka, but most of all he liked port wine, which was poured for him at dinner from a separate bottle.
• I exercised daily and followed a diet. He ate little, but often, preferring boiled eggs, beef and fish.
• Celebrity Net Worth financial portal named Nicholas II"the richest saint", estimating a personal fortune of $ 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 mistakesleading to the death of the emperor:

1. Nicholas II took the throne in the Crimea, where his father died in Livadia Alexander III. The heir wept and said that he was not ready to become king. Even his own mother, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, did not want to swear allegiance to this son of hers, begging to cede the throne to her younger brother Michael.
2. On the day of his coronation on 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 polar 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 pass the throne to his eldest daughter Olga, who was then five years old. Since then, the idea of ​​arranging a coup in favor of Olga, and then marrying her off to a man who would govern the country instead of the unpopular Nikolai, pushed the royal relatives into intrigues for a long time.
4. Due to the theft of the grand dukes and mediocre command, the Russian-Japanese war ended for Russia with a severe defeat and the loss of South Sakhalin. Under Tsushima, the Russian fleet was defeated. The price of 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. Peter Stolypin.
6. Faith in a good king was trampled on January 9, 1905. This day was called "Bloody Sunday". The peaceful procession of St. Petersburg workers to the Winter Palace to petition the autocrat about workers' needs was shot from rifles and chopped down by Cossack swords. About 4,600 people were killed and wounded.
7. In 1906, during the food riots, as a result of Stolypin's reforms, the peasants burned down two thousand landowners' estates. The answer was the emergence of courts-martial. The "troikas" consisted of the commander of the punitive detachment, the headman of the village and the priest. Two types of execution were practiced - execution 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. The average life expectancy has been reduced to 30.8 years. How did the king react? Introduced censorship on all references to the famine.
9. Being ill-prepared, in the summer of 1914 Russia got involved in the First World War. Only because of the lack of shells and other weapons, losses on the fronts reached 200 - 300 thousand people a month. At the same time, everything that was possible was stolen in the rear. Seeing the confusion and vacillation in the troops, the Bolsheviks launched a successful agitation about rotten tsarism.
10. If in the first three years of the reign of the last Romanov, foreign capital controlled 20 percent of the wealth of the empire, then by February 1917 - 90. The struggle between domestic and foreign capital became one of the main causes of the February bourgeois-democratic revolution.
11. Since the autumn of 1916, not only the liberal State Duma, but also the closest relatives have risen in opposition to Nicholas II. The Russian officers made a decisive contribution to the overthrow of the tsar. In March 1917, it was the commanders of the fronts who forced him to sign his abdication.
12. The provisional government tried to send the royal family to England to the king's cousin - GeorgeV but he refused to accept it. France also did not want to see her at home. And all because Nicholas II kept the capital in their banks and they hoped to pocket it. As a result, the emperor was sent inland, where he found his death.

They only dream of peace

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

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

Sex instead of revolution

Political scientist Maxim SHEVCHENKO believes that the whole scandal with the film by Alexei UCHITEL "Matilda" about the carnal love of the ballerina Kshesinsky and NICHOLAS II - it is a political technology that is used,so as not to remind people of the causes of the Great October Revolution.

Former prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya who walks with portraits Nicholas II, is, in my opinion, a representation of the level Peter Pavlensky nailing his eggs to Red Square - explains the secrets of domestic politics Maxim Shevchenko. - The elites are afraid to talk about the revolution, but somehow it is also impossible to miss its 100th anniversary. Therefore, cunning political technologists gave advice - to replace the story about the causes of the revolution and about the personality Lenin showdowns: the sovereign slept with the ballerina or did not sleep. It was for this that they came up with all this clowning with Poklonskaya. The Russian bureaucratic elite feels that it is fattening, getting fat and bathing in golden baths and living in golden palaces, while before the revolution the people lived in thatched huts and now live on a beggarly wage. 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 with the sacredness of any Russian government in general, which, of course, is absurd.

In the appearance and nature of this Woman, many things were combined: light and shadows, smile and tears, love and hate, farce and tragedy, Death and Life. She was strong. And the weakest woman the world has ever seen. She was proud. And shy. She knew how to smile like a true Empress. And cry like a child when no one could see her tears. She knew how to adore and give affection like no one else. But she could hate just as much. She was very beautiful, but for more than seventy years, after 1917, novelists and historians tried to discern diabolical, destructive reflections in her flawless, refined features and the profile of a Roman cameo.

A lot of books have been written about her: novels, plays, studies, historical monographs and even psychological treatises! Her surviving correspondence and pages of diaries that did not burn in the fire of the palace fireplaces were also published. It would seem that archivists and researchers of her life, both in Russia and abroad, have long ago studied and explained not only her every act, but also every turn of her head, and every letter of her letter. But .. But no one has comprehended the strange, almost mystical secret of this woman, the essence of her nature and her character. No one has fully understood the true role of her personality in the tragic history of Russia. No one ever imagined clearly and exactly what she really was: Alice - Victoria - Elena - Louise - Beatrice, Her Grand Ducal Highness, Princess of Hesse - Darmstadt and Rhine, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Prince Albert, daughter of the Great Duke Ludwig of Hesse, goddaughter of the Russian Emperor Alexander III and wife of his eldest son, Nikolai Alexandrovich, heir to the Russian throne? The last Russian empress.

She grew up in a region where the queens never depended on the will of the favorites, and, if the good of the state required it, they calmly sent their heads to the chopping block. “The personal should not be higher than the good of the country!” - she firmly grasped this unspoken "edict of monarchs", because it was not in vain that she was the granddaughter of the great Queen, who gave her name to an entire era in history - "Victorian"! German Alice of Hesse, only by her father, by the spirit, upbringing and blood of her mother, she was an Englishwoman. To your fingertips. Only now, having married and converted to Orthodoxy, she became, at the behest of her heart, out of the madness of love for her husband, and perhaps out of a hidden thirst to be understood, not only “more Russian than all the people around her, more even than himself her husband, heir to the throne and future Emperor Nicholas II. (Greg King.). But also, having fallen into the heavy captivity of her own grief, loneliness, suppressed ambitions and illusions dormant at the bottom of her soul, she also became an unwitting hostage, a tragic toy in the hands of a favorite - a sectarian, the greatest hypnotist and charlatan, a cunning and simpleton in one person - Grigory Rasputin. Was she aware of it? It is difficult to say, especially since everything, if desired, can be justified. Or, on the contrary, denial.

Forgetting and rejecting in the maelstrom of her inexpressible maternal despair the first ethical law of any monarch: “First - the country, then the family!”, Instilled in her from an early age by the great grandmother - the queen, she pushed herself, her crowned husband, children into the circle of death , power .. But was it only her fault? Or for a huge panel of History there are no separate destinies, there are no small “blame”, but everything immediately merges into something big, large-scale, and a consequence already follows from it? Who knows?...

Let's try all the same to separate from the mosaic layer of History and era a small piece of smalt, called Life. The life of one person. Princess Alix of Hesse. Let's trace the main milestones and turns of her Fate. Or - Fate? After all, she multiplied, as in a mirror. Had several looks. Several fates from birth to death. Happy or unhappy, that's another question. She was changing. Like any person, throughout life. But she could not change imperceptibly. This is not allowed in families where children are born for the crown. Big or small, it doesn't matter.

Fate one: "Sunny girl".

Alice - Victoria - Helen - Louise - Beatrice, the little Princess - Duchess of the Hesse - Darmstadt family, was born on June 6, 1872 (new style), in the New Palace of Darmstadt, the main city of the duchy, which is located in the green and fertile Rhine valley. The windows of the New Palace looked at the market square and the town hall, and going down the stairs into the courtyard one could immediately get into a huge shady park with linden and elm alleys, ponds and pools with goldfish and water lilies; flower beds and rose gardens filled with huge fragrant buds. Little Aliki (as she was called in the house), having barely learned to walk, walked for hours with her nanny, Mrs. Mary - Ann Orchard, in her favorite garden, sat for a long time by the pond and looked at the fish flashing in the jets of water.

She herself looked like a flower or a small, nimble fish: cheerful, affectionate, extremely mobile, with golden hair, dimples on plump, ruddy cheeks!

Aliki was known as the favorite of the whole family, her father, the always busy and gloomy Duke Ludwig, her mother, Duchess Alice, and her formidable grandmother, Queen Victoria, who could not manage to paint a portrait of a mischievous granddaughter when, in the summer, the ducal family visited her in England ! Egoza Aliki never sat quietly in one place: either she hid behind a high armchair with a golden rim, or behind a massive cabinet - a bureau.

Often in the strict, coldly luxurious rooms of the grandmother's palaces in Osborne, Windsor and Belmoral, the cheerful, contagious laughter of the crumbs - the granddaughter, and the clatter of her fast children's legs were heard. She loved to play with her brother Friederik and sister Maria, whom she affectionately called "May" because she could not yet pronounce the letter "R" to call her - Mary. Aliki said goodbye to any pranks, even long pony rides - this is at the age of four!

Best of the day

Under the guidance of her mother, she easily learned to draw and inherited from her a delicate artistic taste and a passion for transparent watercolor landscapes. With her strict nurse, Mrs. Mary - Ann Orchard, Aliki diligently studied the Law of God and was engaged in needlework.

The early years of her childhood flowed quite cloudlessly and happily. In the family, she was also called “Sanny”, which means: “sunny”, “sunny girl”. Grandmother - the queen called her "my sunshine" and in her letters she affectionately scolded her for funny tricks. She loved and singled out Aliki from her grandchildren - the Hessians more than anyone else.

Aliki, the favorite, knew perfectly well how to make a silent grandmother smile or a mother prone to frequent depression, Duchess Alice. She danced and played the piano for both of them, painted watercolors and funny animal faces. She was praised and smiled. First - through force, and then - on their own. Aliki knew how to infect everyone around with the cloudlessness of childhood. But suddenly thunder struck and she stopped smiling. As soon as she was in her fifth year, her brother Frederick died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by an accident. They tried to cure the mother, who had fallen into despair and longing, by traveling to all European countries: France, Italy, Spain. They stayed for a long time in the summer of 1878 with their grandmother, in Osborne. Aliki liked it there. She had plenty to play with her Prussian cousins ​​and her beloved cousin, Prince Louis of Batenberg. But everything ends sometime. This sad summer is over. Mother felt better, she came to her senses a little. We decided to return to Darmstadt, on which my father also insisted: things could not wait!

But as soon as they returned home, in the cold autumn, an epidemic of diphtheria struck the cozy duchy. And then Aliki's childhood ended. Suddenly, bitterly, terribly. She was not at all ready for this, despite the fact that her mother often spoke to her about Heaven, about the future life, about meeting with her little brother and grandfather Albert. Aliki felt vague anxiety and bitterness from these conversations, but she quickly forgot. In the autumn of 1878, this bitterness filled both the mind and heart of the little girl. The sunbeam in her soul gradually faded away. On November 16, 1878, her older sister May died of dephtheria. The others were dangerously ill: Ella, Ernst, and Aliki herself also began to fall ill. The heartbroken mother - the duchess, caring for sick children, hid the terrible news from them as much as she could. In the palace, on the occasion of the epidemic, there was a quarantine. Mei was quietly buried, and the children did not find out about it until a few days later. Aliki, her sister Ella, and brother Ernie were shocked by this news and, despite all the quiet persuasions of their mother, began to cry, lying in their beds. To console her son, the duchess went up to him and kissed him. It couldn't be done, but...

Ernie was on the mend, and the Duchess's body, weakened by sleepless nights, was struck down by a dangerous virus. Having been ill for more than two weeks, either losing consciousness from intense heat, or recovering, Duchess Alice of Hesse, the eldest, died on the night of December 13-14, 1878. She was only thirty-five years old.

Fate two: "The Thoughtful Princess or" Cameo - Bride ".

Aliki is orphaned. Her toys were burned: due to quarantine. The sunny girl that lived in her disappeared. The next day they brought her other books, balls and other dolls, but it was already impossible to return her childhood. In the mirrors of the ancient ancestral Rhine castles of Seenhow, Kranichstein, Wolfsgarten, another princess was now reflected: melancholy and thoughtful.

In order to somehow overcome the pain of losing her mother, unconscious childhood longing, Aliki went to the patio with an artificial lake - a pool, and there she fed her favorite fish for a long time. Tears dripped directly into the water, but no one saw them.

Her soul matured in an instant, but somehow broken: she became quiet and sad beyond her age, restrained mischief, passionately attached to Ella and Ernie, and cried, parting with them even for half an hour! She was afraid of losing them. Grandmother Victoria, with the permission of her widowed son-in-law, the duke, almost immediately transported the children to England, to Osborne Castle, and there specially hired, carefully selected teachers were engaged in their education.

Children studied geography, languages, music, history, took lessons in horse riding and gardening, mathematics and dance, drawing and literature. Aliki received an excellent education for those times, serious and unusual for a girl: she even attended a course of lectures on philosophy in Oxford and Heidelberg. She studied superbly, the subjects were easy for her, with her excellent memory, only with French there were sometimes slight embarrassments, but over time they also smoothed out.

Her grandmother unobtrusively but strictly taught her refined court manners, etiquette, customs and style of court life, playing the piano, brilliant, complex - she could play Wagner and Schumann! Director of the Darmstadt Opera She was raised to be a Princess, she was meant to be, and it did not frighten her at all. She mastered the "court science" easily and gracefully, as if jokingly. The queen-grandmother was only concerned that the “dear clever Aliki” seemed to have lost her former charm and spontaneity in a whirlwind of losses: she could not smile in public, as openly as before, she became too shy and timid. Blushed easily. She was silent a lot. She spoke sincerely, sincerely, only in a narrow circle of relatives. She played and sang - too .. Now, alas, there was only a reflection in her, an echo of the former Alix - “a ray of sunshine”.

Restraint undoubtedly adorned her, a tall, slender brown-haired woman with huge, gray-blue eyes, which reflected all the shades of her emotional experiences - for those who knew how to observe, of course - but she did not know how and did not look for a way to please, right away, from the first word, glance, smile, gesture .. And this is so necessary for a royal person!

The queen contritely and tirelessly instructed her granddaughter in the art to please, and she was perplexed: why should she kindly talk and listen to the high-flown judgments of court flatterers when she has too little time for that: a book is not read, a panel for the altar of the church is undersized, orphans are waiting for her arrival at the orphanage to have breakfast with her? Why?! Why should she strive to please everyone when this is simply impossible, and even unnecessary in her position as a young duchess, mistress of Darmstadt?

Aliki willfully clutched the fan in her fragile hands, and it crackled and broke. Grandmother reproachfully looked at her, but her granddaughter quietly continued to bend her own. She was stubborn. She has no time to give away flattering smiles! She, who celebrated her sixteenth birthday in June 1888 and assumed the duties of her late mother - the duchess, has too many other worries: charity, libraries, orphanages, music and ... her father is a duke ..

Her father instilled in her the most serious fears. After his obsession with marrying Madame Alexandra de Colmin, the former wife of the Russian envoy at his court, suffered a crushing fiasco, running into the unbending will of the ex-mother-in-law, the queen, who immediately angrily rejected this misalliance, Duke Ludwig's health began to fail. . True, he also arranged a grandiose confirmation, pink ball for Alika, to which all relatives gathered: aunts, uncles and cousins, her beloved sister, Ella, who married in 1888 the brother of Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.

At that ball, Duke Ludwig led the princess-duchess under the arm to the guests, introduced him to the refined society. He said that from now on she was officially the first lady of the small duchy, and that he was proud of his daughter. The sovereign duke, however, quickly tired, and spent the rest of the festivity in an armchair, watching his daughter dance and talk with the guests. She was very good that evening, aroused general delight, but she could not erase a slight veil of sadness from her face. And she herself could not decide in any way - was that sadness “invented”, as her cousin Mary of Edinburgh used to say all the time, or was it real?

Aliki's light thoughtfulness, aloofness gradually became her second nature, her constant companion even during exciting travels: in 1889 - to Russia, in 1890 - to Malta, in the winter of 1892 - to Italy. On board the British mine cruiser Scout, off the Maltese coast, she found among the officers very subtle connoisseurs of her beauty. They tried to please her in everything, they called her “Maltese pages” with a laugh, taught her to play tennis on deck and throw a lifebuoy from the side. Aliki smiled bewitchingly, her eyes shone, but her manners were still reserved and a little cool.

In 1892, in Florence, which struck her imagination forever, Aliki-Alix seemed to have thawed a little in the company of her beloved grandmother, and her laughter sounded, as before, contagious, but .. But on March 1, 1892, from a heart attack in her hands father, Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse - Darmstadt died. Death again changed Alix's Fate.

Fate three. "The royal bride or the shadow behind the coffin .."

Brother Ernie became heir to the crown and ducal standards. And Alix .. She was orphaned a second time. She closed herself completely, shunned society, since mourning allowed. In general, she strongly began to remind Victoria of her late melancholic daughter Alice, the eldest. And then the grandmother became agitated, hurried. She planned to marry Aliki to the Prince of Wales Edward, her cousin, and already dreamed of her beloved granddaughter as the Queen of England, who came to replace her ..

But Aliki suddenly protested violently. She didn't like this lanky, foppish Eddie, whose neck was always taut in starched collars and his wrists in cuffs. That's what she called him: "Eddie - cuffs!"

He seemed to her somehow false, prosaic, he often smelled of wine, and most importantly: he was absolutely not interested in anything, except for his appearance. She refused Edward, resolutely and firmly, citing the fact that she already had a fiancé in Russia. This is the heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Nikolai, the son of the godfather - Emperor Ella's "nephew"! They met back in June 1884, when little Aliki traveled to Russia to attend her elder sister's wedding.

The modest, serious Tsesarevich, who then surrounded the then twelve-year-old Aliki with warm attention and care, immediately liked the shy princess. On walks, she held his arm, at dinner, at meetings, she tried to sit next to him. He showed her the palace in Peterhof, gardens and parks, they rode boats and played ball together. He gave her a brooch. True, Aliki returned her the very next day, but from the moment she considered that they were engaged to Nicky.

Then she once again visited Ella in Ilyinsky (* the Romanov family estate near Moscow, the estate of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Ella's wife - author.), five years later. I met Niki at balls and walks, in theaters and at receptions. And I realized that their feelings only strengthened. She somehow knew in her heart that Nicky loved only her and no one else. Ella was also convinced of this. And in every way she persuaded Aliki to change his faith. Grandmother - the queen was amazed. She already found Aliki too romantic and deep in strange dreams, and now she was completely alarmed!

The Russians never enjoyed her special sympathy, although once, in her youth, she was almost in love with the sovereign - the reformer Alexander II. Nearly. This does not mean - seriously!

Victoria several times tried to talk to her granddaughter in private, but it was impossible to break her stubbornness. She showed her grandmother her correspondence with Nicky and sister Ella..

In her letters to Ella, Aliki sadly said that there was only one obstacle insurmountable in her love for the Tsarevich - a change of religion, everything else did not frighten her, she loved the Tsarevich so strongly and deeply. The Tsarevich sincerely admitted to Aliki that one of the ways to overcome the despair that gripped him when he received the news of the matchmaking of the Prince of Wales for her was a trip to the Far East and Japan, which he, Nicky, undertook, and which almost ended in tragedy! * ( * In Japan, in the city of Otsu, on April 29, 1892, an unsuccessful attempt was made on Tsarevich Nicholas - the author.)

The wise queen immediately realized that the feelings of young people are quite serious. And retreated. For her, the main thing was the happiness of her granddaughter, and, in addition, as a very insightful person, she perfectly understood that it was in snowy, distant, vast and incomprehensible Russia that her smart, domineering, capable of strong feelings and passions, possessing a “purely masculine mind ”(A. Taneev.) Alix’s beloved “beauty is a ray of sunshine” will find application for her great ambitious ambitions, which she unconsciously hides under a veil of sadness and thoughtfulness.

In addition, Alix, like any girl, it was time to start her own family and have children. At twenty-one, she was a model of a captivating young lady who could make any, the most sophisticated heart tremble! But how could Victoria console her granddaughter? According to the information that reached her from the ambassadors, she knew that Nika's parents were also strongly against the choice of their son. Not because Aliki was a poor German princess, not at all. Nobody thought so. It’s just that the dynastic marriage of the heir to a huge empire assumed necessarily healthy children in his family, and Aliki, by the blood of her mother and grandmother, was the carrier of the insidious hemophilia gene - blood incoagulability, inherited by future sons, successors of the family. Both Queen Victoria, and Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria, his wife, mother Nika, and he himself, and the stubborn Aliki, perfectly understood that if this marriage was concluded, then at the birth of the future heir to the throne, his natural title "prince of blood "will acquire an ominous sound and create a number of problems for Russia, where it has historically happened - since the time of Paul the First - that the throne and crown belong only to male descendants. True, the law of succession to the throne can always be changed, but reforms are very fraught with stormy consequences. Especially in such an unpredictable - spontaneous country like Russia. Everyone understood everything. But young people were irresistibly attracted to each other. Nicky stubbornly refused, when talking with his parents about the future, from the parties offered to him, in particular, from the hands of the daughter of the Count of Paris, Helena of Orleans or Princess Margaret of Prussia. He informed "dear father and mother" that he would marry only Alix of Hesse and no one else!

What ultimately influenced Alexander III's decision to bless his son and see him betrothed to a shy and easily blushing German princess with a chiseled profile of a Roman cameo? Sharply and suddenly shaken health? The desire to see the son - the heir in the role of a determined, family man? The experience of the personal happiness of the emperor himself, who lived with the Danish princess Daggmar - Maria Feodorovna, happy 26 years? Or just respect for the inflexibility of someone else's will and someone else's decision? I think it's both, and the other, and the third. Everything turned out so that on April 20, 1894, in Coburg, where representatives of almost all European powers gathered for the wedding of Aliki's brother, the Duke of Hesse, Ernie and Princess Victoria - Melita of Edinburgh, her own engagement to the Russian Tsarevich Nikolai was announced .. On the glasses The windows of the “green study” of the Coburg castle, on the second floor, have preserved two letters carved with diamond facets from Alix’s family ring, intertwined into an intricate monogram: “Н&А”. And in the correspondence between Nikolai and Alexandra, this day is often mentioned by them as one of the happiest in life. He returned to her that day the brooch he had given her at their first meeting, at Ella's wedding. She considered it now the main wedding gift. The brooch was found in the summer of 1918 in the ashes of a large fire in the wilderness of the Koptyakov forest. Or rather, what was left of her. Two large rubies.

On the days of the engagement of her beloved granddaughter, the Queen of England wrote to her elder sister Alix, Victoria: “The more I think about the marriage of our dear Alix, the more unhappy I feel. I have nothing against the groom, because I like him very much. It's all about the country and its politics, so strange and different from ours. It's all about Alix. After her marriage, her private personal life will come to an end. From an almost unknown princess, she will turn into a revered and recognizable person. Hundreds of appointments a day, hundreds of faces, hundreds of trips. She will have everything that the most spoiled human soul desires, but at the same time, thousands of eyes will meticulously follow her, her every step, word, deed .. An unbearable burden for dear Alix .. After all, she never really liked a noisy life in light.

In order to get used to their brilliant position, some Russian empresses, I know, took years. Alix will hardly have a few months, alas!”

The old, wise "Queen Vicki", as always, was not mistaken. The wedding of Alix and Nikolai was scheduled for the summer of 1895, but Fate seemed to rush Alix. Already at the end of September 1894, she received an alarming telegram from the Tsarevich with a request to urgently arrive in Russia, in the Crimea, where Emperor Alexander the Third was fading in the Livadia Palace in the midst of the colors of lush southern autumn. In the last month of his life, which the doctors took him, he wanted to bless his son and his bride for marriage officially, already in Russia. Alix hastily left Darmstadt for Berlin. From there, by express, to the east. Ella met her in Warsaw. And already on October 10, 1894, they were in the Crimea, at the gates of the Livadia Palace. As soon as he heard about the arrival of his future daughter-in-law, the dying emperor, suffering from kidney edema and heart weakness, nevertheless wished to receive her standing and in full dress uniform. Life physician N. Grish was about to object, but the emperor abruptly cut him off: “None of your business! I do this by the Highest Command!” Meeting his eyes with the Sovereign, Grisha fell silent and silently began to help him get dressed.

The young, shy princess was so shocked by the affectionate reception and the boundless respect that the dying father of her beloved Nicky showed her that many years later she recalled this meeting with tears. She was warmly received by the whole family of the groom, although there was neither time nor energy for special courtesies. But Alix did not demand them. She understood that everything was ahead.

Exactly ten days later, on October 20, 1894, the powerful Russian Emperor Alexander III passed away. He died quietly, sitting in an armchair, as if asleep, before that he had communed the Holy Mysteries from the hands of the famous Father John of Kronstadt. Five hours after the death of the Sovereign, in the palace church of Livadia, Russia swore allegiance to the new Emperor - Nicholas II, and the next day, Princess Alix of Gesenskaya converted to Orthodoxy and became "Her Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna, Highly Named Bride of the Sovereign Emperor."

She uttered the words of the Symbol of Faith and other prayers according to the Orthodox rite clearly, distinctly and almost without errors. Together with all members of the Imperial family and the Court, the young bride departed for St. Petersburg, where the funeral of Alexander III was soon to take place. It is happened

November 7, 1894 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, after a countless series of requiems, liturgies and farewells.

And exactly one week later, on the birthday of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the young Emperor, (with the due relaxation of mourning), the wedding of the new Sovereign and the former Hessian princess took place in the front church of the Winter Palace.

For the very religious, obligatory, straightforward Alix, this was very painful and incomprehensible. She was full of some kind of bad foreboding, she was very worried and even cried. In dismay, she wrote to her sister Victoria, the Duchess of Baden, that she did not understand how mourning and a wedding could be mixed into one, but she could not object to the uncles of the adored Nicky, who after the death of her brother gained great influence at the Court. And who would listen to her! As her beloved grandmother once said to her: “Possessing persons cannot be slaves to their desires. They are slaves of circumstances, prestige, court laws, honor, Fate, but not themselves! The fate of Alix was pleased to dispose so that she came to Russia after the royal coffin. Bad omen. Tragic omen. But what can you do? Death accompanied her so often that Alix gradually became accustomed to her faithful shadow. Death again changed her Fate. For the umpteenth time already. Alix gathered her courage and, casting aside all her doubts, plunging into new dreams and hopes, did her best to fill the new page of her life with meaning. Outline the paths of your new Destiny. The fate of the Empress of Russia and the Mother of the heirs of the royal family. She did not yet know how painful and difficult all this would be.

Fate Four: Before the mother than the Empress, or a portrait of an ideal family..

It was the most beautiful and most desired role in her life! The mother of the children of the man she adores. In the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, the Empress created a happy island of Solitude and Peace for the emperor, burdened with a heavy burden of state cares, which was decorated with four lovely flowers: - daughters that appeared one after another with an interval of one and a half to two years: Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia . Four Tsesarevnas, so strikingly similar to each other and so different!

They loved white dresses and pearl beads, delicate ribbons in their hair, and playing the piano. They did not really like the lessons of writing and calligraphy and enthusiastically played the plays of Molière in French - for eminent guests of the next dinner party and the diplomatic corps. They enthusiastically played lawn tennis and furtively read books from their mother's table: Darwin's Voyage on the Beagle and Walter Scott's The Lamermoor Bride. They signed their letters with the initial letters of their names, which merged into a strange seal sign, mysteriously romantic, and at the same time - childishly ingenuous: OTMA. They adored their mother, she was an indisputable deity for them, and they hardly noticed her affectionate authority. A hand “in a velvet glove” painted their every step, every minute of the lesson, dress at breakfast, at lunch and dinner, entertainment, cycling, swimming. To the detriment of herself and her majestic image of the Empress, Alexandra Feodorovna devoted so much careful attention and time to her daughters that the brilliant secular society of St. Petersburg, in which the Empress, by the way, did not completely become her own, because she did not collect gossip and did not and masquerades, quietly constantly expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that maternal duties overshadowed everything else for a crowned person and looked at her with resentment. To feel inferior to the Empress in this respect, too, many, oh, how they did not want to!

As if in retaliation for the cold disregard of such a high man for his rules and laws, the beau monde of both capitals and behind him - and all of Russia, nervously, in secret whispers, attributed to Alexandra Feodorovna anything: lovers - Count A. N. Orlov, to for example, - fanatical religiosity, imperious pressure on the crowned husband, disagreement with the dowager empress - mother-in-law. She, knowing the rumors, pursed her lips, smiled stonyly at receptions at impossibly decolleted countesses and princesses, held out her hand to them for a kiss, but never favored them “as great friends”, and this offended titled dragonflies - gossips, such as the princess Zinaida Yusupova, for example, most of all!

But the overly proud Empress Alexandra did not at all consider herself guilty of the fact that her passionately imperious nature, desiring activity, real dedication, achieving great, ambitious inner capabilities, did not find any response, sympathy, understanding from superficial and shallow creatures, called "approximate to the Court of Her Majesty, ”and forever busy only with the brilliance of their own outfits and the whims of a lightweight heart, but not the mind! The crowned wife of the Autocrat did not pay attention to all sorts of bad rumors about herself, she didn’t care what and how they say about her, because she knew, long ago, from a young age, even from a strict grandmother, that it’s difficult, very difficult to hear the truth and separate her from the chaff in the chosen court environment and on the sidelines, where everyone is looking only for their own benefit, and all paths to it are paved with flattery!

She undoubtedly seemed to many cold, unsmiling, but, perhaps, because she simply - simply protected her soul from the superficial “sliding” over it, from not penetrating into her suffering and searching? So much has always hurt this soul, and especially ..

There were especially many wounds and scars on her after the birth of the “porphyritic”, long-awaited, implored heir, who was called by the people, baptized: “Alyoshenka is bleeding!”

Talking about the suffering of a mother who has a terminally ill child in her arms, for whom every scratch could end in death, is meaningless and useless. These circles of hell for the soul of Empress Alexandra also remained incomprehensible to absolutely no one, and were they comprehensible ?! Is the selfish human heart, which knows how to coldly remove other people's suffering from itself, capable of doing this at all? If yes, then this is very rare. Mercy in all ages is not honored, we confess frankly!

From the very moment of the birth of her son Alexei (August 12, 1905 - new style.), A ghostly, fragile hope for peace and happiness, at least in the Family, in an indestructible harbor where one can fully realize oneself as a Woman, left Alexandra's restless soul forever. Instead of hope, an endless anxiety now settled in her, squeezing her heart in a vise, completely destroying her nervous system, leading not only to hysteria, but to a strange heart disease - symptomatic,

(diagnosis of Dr. E. Botkin) which was called in the Empress, for example, half an hour ago, still healthy and vigorous, with any trifling nervous shock and experience. Perhaps, to this was added a guilt complex in front of her son, and torment from realizing herself as a failed mother who failed to bestow the desired child with the happiness of childhood, and protect her from unbearable pain! These endless “guilty” burdened her so much that she could suppress this burden only by “letting off steam” in a peculiar way: by giving strict advice in a matter in which she did not really understand (*politics, for example, or military operations of the First World War - the author.) leaving the box in the theater in the middle of the performance - for a desperate prayer, or even - raising a dubious sectarian - hypnotist to the rank of "Holy Elder". It was. And there is no getting away from it. But even this has its justification in history.

Alexandra, in fact, was terribly lonely and in order to survive "in the vast, unthinkable loneliness among the crowd," she gradually developed her own "philosophy of suffering": whether physical torments are sent by God only to the elect, and the harder they are, the more humble you bear your cross, she thought, the closer you are to the Lord and the closer the hour of deliverance! Having not met the support of practically no one in society, including relatives, with the exception of her husband, daughters, mother-in-law and Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, Alexandra Feodorovna voluntarily, schemingly, selfishly went into self-isolation. Having plunged into endless suffering, she made them a kind of obsessive cult, and they swallowed her up! This is, in general, a rather complex ethical issue - the cult of suffering, the service of suffering, the justification of suffering in the name of God. But will anyone raise their hand to throw a stone at a woman who has lost hope in everyone and everything except the Almighty? Hardly..Could she have done otherwise? Then? All this requires a certain growth of the soul. He, of course, took place, this inevitable growth, but - later .. After March 1917. Then she overcame all her suffering. But even then Death defeated her Fate.

The Empress seemed to someone to be religious fanaticism. Maybe it was so: the walls of her waiting room - the living room and the famous lilac boudoir are almost entirely hung with icons, one wall - from floor to ceiling, but, having changed her faith, she simply tried to correctly and earnestly fulfill all religious canons. The whole point is also that for strong and bright natures, which, undoubtedly, was the last Russian empress, God can become an extreme, and God can become too much. And then again there will be a suppressed rebellion of the soul and a hidden desire to express oneself, to find something unlike the rest, familiar, unlike that which has not given peace for a long time. Rasputin. Man of the people. God's wanderer who visited the holy places. In front of the Crowned Person, in despair kneeling at the bed of a bleeding child, he is alone, in the famous gypsy restaurant "Yar" - completely different. Cunning, unkempt, unpleasant, mysterious, possessing the magical power to speak blood, and in confused phrases - mutterings to predict the future. Holy fool, Saint and Devil rolled into one. Either - by itself, or - a servant in someone's very experienced hands? ..

Masons or revolutionaries? Versions, conjectures, facts, hypotheses, interpretations that have appeared now are a great many. How to understand them, how not to get confused? No matter how much you guess, don’t sort out, don’t imagine options, there will be many answers to the questions of history. Even too much. Everyone sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants. Naturally, the Siberian peasant Grigory Rasputin-Novykh was, of course, an excellent psychologist. And he knew this law of human "seeing and hearing" very well. He immediately, unmistakably, subtly caught the vibes of the Power tormented by passions and the suppressed Self-expression of the Soul of Alexandra Feodorovna. He caught what she craved.

And decided to play along with her. While he played along, convincing her that she could “divide and rule”, help the Spouse bear the burden and be the Guardian Angel, the chatty “opposition to His Majesty”, the Party of the Left Bloc, the Duma, ministers incapable of decisive steps, also ruled. Aby how. Pulling the "blanket" in different directions. Strengthening in the tormented soul of Alexandra Feodorovna the tragic feelings that everything is falling apart, collapsing, that everything that the ancestors of her beloved husband to the point of passion created with titanic efforts, collapse, end! With a last effort of will, she tried to save her ruined nest, her son's legacy: the throne. And who could blame her for that?

In the days of the February anarchy and indiscriminate shooting on the streets of Petrograd, risking being killed by stray bullets every second with her daughters, she behaved in such a way that she resembled the True heroes of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Schiller, Shakespeare. Heroes of the spirit in the days of the Greatest Troubles of Times. Tragic, mournful, misunderstood by almost no one, the Empress, she managed to rise above her suffering. There, later, in exile in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg, in the last months of his life in the Ipatiev House. But death was already standing guard over her, fanning her with an elastic, cool wing. Death once again conducted her Fate, played its last, victorious note, a loud, sonorous chord in the strange, brilliant, incomprehensible, broken line of her Life. The line, which abruptly broke off, went into the stars on the night of July 17 to July 18, 1918, in the basement of the Ipatiev House, on Svoboda Street. Death then breathed a sigh of relief. She finally overcame, covered with a black, dull veil the appearance, features, the one that was called at first: Aliki - Alix, Princess of Hesse - Darmstadt and Rhine, and Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Empress of All Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna. By the way, I’ll note in the end that, probably, least of all in the world, the Last Empress would like to be, oddly enough, the Holy Great Martyr, for her soul knew and comprehended at the end of the earthly path all the truth of bitterness and the irreparability of mistakes from suffering elevated to a cult, laid on the altar of the deity, illuminated by the halo of infallibility and chosenness!

After all, you must admit, in such a halo, it will undoubtedly be very difficult to distinguish, find, recognize, living, humanly attractive, vulnerable, warm, real features of an outstanding woman, what was Alix - Victoria - Elena - Liuza - Beatrice, Princess of Hesse, Empress of Russia . All bizarre, alluring, bewitching, mirror-replicating images of a Woman, involuntarily, by her mere presence, who changed the entire course of world history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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*The author deliberately does not quote extensive quotations from numerous historical documents known to almost everyone, leaving the reader the opportunity to choose the tone and colors in which he will see the image of the character in this essay. Books, hypotheses, facts, appear in our time with the speed of the speed of light, and the author simply does not consider it ethically permissible to exaggerate numerous gossip and anecdotal stories published in various publications in the 1990s.

** In preparing the article, materials from the author's personal book collection and archive were used.

*** The article was written by order of the weekly "Aif - Superstars", but for reasons unclear to the author, remained unclaimed.

Alexandra Feodorovna - the wife of Nicholas II and the last Russian empress - is one of the most mysterious figures of this era. Historians are still arguing about various aspects of her biography: about her connection with Rasputin, about her influence on her husband, about her “contribution” to the revolution, about her personality in general. Today we will try to unravel the most famous mysteries associated with Alexandra Feodorovna.

parenting costs

When Alix arrived in Russia, she was terribly embarrassed by the new society in which she did not yet have acquaintances, and the fact that she knew nothing about this distant country and was forced to quickly learn the language and religion of Russians. Her shyness and the costs of her English upbringing seemed to everyone arrogance and arrogance. Because of her shyness, she was never able to establish relations with either her mother-in-law or the ladies of the court. The only friends in her life were the Montenegrin princesses Milica and Stana - the wives of the Grand Dukes, and also the maid of honor Anna Vyrubova.

A matter of power

The domineering nature of Alix was legendary. Until now, there is a widespread opinion that she kept the Emperor of All Russia “under her heel”. However, this is not entirely true. The fact that she inherited from her grandmother, Queen Victoria, a firm and domineering character, is an indisputable fact. However, she could not use the gentle nature of Nikolai, because she simply did not want this and loved her husband, trying to support him in everything. Their correspondence often contains advice from the empress to her husband, but, as you know, not all of them were carried out by the tsar. It is this support that is often perceived as Alexandra's "power" over Nicholas.

However, the fact that she participated in the discussion of laws and decision-making is true. It began in the days of the First Russian Revolution, when Nicholas needed advice and support. Did the emperor discuss decrees and orders with his wife? Of course, this is undeniable. And in the days of the First World War, the king actually gave control of the country into the hands of his wife. Why? Because he loved Alexandra and trusted her infinitely. And to whom, if not the most trusted person in life, to give administrative affairs, which the emperor could not stand and from which he fled to Headquarters? Together they tried to make key decisions in the life of the country because it was difficult for the autocrat Nicholas to do this due to a lack of character, and Alexandra wanted to lighten the heavy burden of the emperor as much as possible.

Connections with "visionaries"

Alexandra Fedorovna is also blamed for her contacts with “God's people” and seers, primarily with Grigory Rasputin. It is interesting that before the Siberian elder, the Empress already had a whole collection of various healers and soothsayers. For example, she welcomed the holy fool Mitka and a certain Daria Osipovna, and the most famous “healer” before Grigory Rasputin is Dr. Philip from France. Moreover, all this continued from the beginning of the century until 1917. Why did these incidents happen?

Firstly, because it was a feature of her character. Alexandra Fedorovna was a believer and accepted Orthodoxy very deeply, but her faith had exalted features, which were expressed in her love for mysticism, which, by the way, was popular at that time. Secondly, this keen interest in her was fueled by her friends Milica and Stana. After all, it was they who brought the “wonderworkers” to the court, including Gregory. But perhaps the most important reason for such interest was her obsession with two problems: the first is the birth of an heir, which still could not take place. That is why she believed the charlatan Philip, who promised the empress to “conjure” the imminent birth of an heir. Because of his fortune-telling and predictions, she had a false pregnancy, which greatly affected the attitude towards Alexandra of the court. And the second is the tragic illness of Alexei's heir: hemophilia. She couldn't help but feel guilty that her beloved son had the disease. And the Empress, like any loving mother, tried by all means to alleviate the plight of her child. True, for this she did not use the help of doctors, who could not do anything about Alexei's condition, but the services of Rasputin, who managed to treat the heir.

All this subsequently influenced the fact that she began to immensely trust the “elder” Gregory and taught her children and husband to do this. She could not help but believe the one who treated not only her son, but also herself from the headaches that tormented her. And Rasputin, who was a smart Russian peasant, could not but take advantage of this. And they, in turn, were already used by cunning officials, ministers and generals, who asked to appoint them higher or closer to the court.

Why was she not loved?

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was disliked by many, including Nikolai's mother, Maria Feodorovna. Everyone had their own reasons for this, but by the end of the reign of the emperor, all the hatred of the court and society had only one reason: it leads Nike and the empire to death. Rumors circulated about her connections with Rasputin, which never existed, about her spying for Germany, which was also a lie, about her influence on the Tsar, which was not the way he was “inflated”. But all these rumors and gossip hit the prestige of the government very hard. And the empress and the emperor themselves contributed to this by isolating themselves from society and the Romanov family.

Here is what her relatives and close associates said and wrote about Alexandra Feodorovna:

• “All of Russia knows that the late Rasputin and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna are one and the same. The first one was killed, now the other one must also disappear” (Grand Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich).
• “The estrangement of the queen from Petersburg society was greatly facilitated by the outward coldness of her address and her lack of outward friendliness. This coldness came, apparently, mainly from the unusual shyness inherent in Alexandra Fedorovna and the embarrassment she experienced when communicating with strangers. This embarrassment prevented her from establishing simple, unconstrained relations with persons who presented herself to her, including the so-called city ladies, who spread jokes around the city about her coldness and inaccessibility. (Senator V.I. Gurko).
• “... Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (sister of Empress Alexandra), also almost not visiting Tsarskoye, came to talk with her sister. After that, we waited for her at home. They sat on pins and needles, wondering how it would end. She came to us trembling, in tears. “My sister kicked me out like a dog! - she exclaimed. “Poor Nicky, poor Russia!” (Prince F.F. Yusupov).
• “Opinions may differ about the role played by the Empress during her reign, but I must say that in her the Heir found himself a wife who fully accepted the Russian faith, the principles and foundations of royal power, a woman of great spiritual qualities and duty ”(ballerina M.F. Kshesinskaya ).

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 each historical monograph or new research, an unfamiliar woman appears before 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, her coldish isolation and alienation from everything earthly, taken by her retinue and Russian nobility for arrogance, is to blame for everything. The explanation of this inescapable sadness in her gaze, as if turned inward, is found when you find out the details of the childhood and youth of 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 Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt and the daughter of the Queen of Great Britain, Duchess Alice, turned out to be a real ray of sunshine. However, grandmother Victoria called her just that - Sunny - Sunshine. Blonde, with dimples on her cheeks, with blue eyes, the fidget and laughter Aliki instantly charged her stiff relatives with a good mood, making even the formidable grandmother smile.

The little girl adored her sisters and brothers. It seems that she had especially fun with her brother Friederik and her younger sister Mary, whom she called May because of the difficulty in pronouncing the letter “r”. Fryderyk died when Aliki was 5 years old. Beloved brother died of a hemorrhage resulting from an accident. Mother Alice, already melancholic and gloomy, plunged into a severe depression.

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

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

To distract two granddaughters, Alice-Aliki, Ella (in Orthodoxy - Elizabeth Feodorovna), and grandson Ernie from sorrowful thoughts, the domineering grandmother moved 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, horseback riding and gardening.

Items were given to the girl easily. 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 my grandmother was that her beloved Sunny was unsociable, withdrawn and could not stand noisy secular society.

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

In March 1892, a new blow struck Alice. Her father died of a heart attack in her arms. Now she felt even more alone. Nearby remained only the grandmother and brother Ernie, who inherited the crown. The only sister Ella recently lived in distant Russia. She married a Russian prince and was called Elizabeth Feodorovna.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

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

The second time she saw Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov in 1889. Alice went to Russia at the invitation of her sister's husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, uncle Nicholas. One and a half months, lived 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 communicator between lovers, facilitating their communication and secret correspondence.

Grandmother Victoria, unaware of her secretive granddaughter's personal life, planned her marriage to her cousin Edward, Prince of Wales. An elderly woman dreamed of seeing her beloved "Sun" 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 her dressing style and narcissism, put Queen Victoria before the fact: she would marry only Nikolai. The letters shown to the grandmother finally convinced the annoyed woman that her granddaughter could not be kept.

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

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

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

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

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

“The honeymoon of the spouses proceeded in the atmosphere of requiems 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 sank again in anguish, happened in May 1896, during the coronation of the royal family. A well-known bloody tragedy occurred on the Khodynka field. But the celebrations were not cancelled.

The young couple spent most of their time in Tsarskoye Selo. Alexandra Fedorovna felt good only in the company of her husband and sister's family. Society accepted the new empress coldly and with hostility. The unsmiling and withdrawn empress seemed to them arrogant and stiff.

To escape from unpleasant thoughts, Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova eagerly took up public affairs and took up charity work. She soon made several close friends. In fact, there were very few of them. These are Princess Maria Baryatinsky, Countess Anastasia Gendrikova and Baroness Sophia Buxgevden. But the closest friend was the maid of honor.

A happy smile returned to the Empress, when one by one the daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia appeared. But the long-awaited birth of an heir, the son of Alexei, returned Alexandra Feodorovna to her usual state of anxiety and melancholy. My son was diagnosed with a terrible hereditary disease - hemophilia. It was inherited through the line of the Empress 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 peasant really helped the Tsarevich: he alone could stop the blood, 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 defend herself. The rumor spread. Behind the empress's back, they whispered about her supposedly undivided influence on the emperor and state policy. About the sorcery of Rasputin and his connection with Romanova.

The outbreak of the First World War briefly plunged society into other worries. Alexandra Fedorovna threw all her means and strength to help the wounded, the widows of dead soldiers and orphaned children. The Tsarskoye Selo hospital was rebuilt as an infirmary for the wounded. The Empress herself, along with her eldest daughters Olga and Tatyana, were trained in nursing. They assisted in operations and cared for the wounded.

And in December 1916, Grigory Rasputin was killed. How “loved” Alexandra Feodorovna was at court can be judged from the surviving letter from Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich to the mother-in-law of the Empress, 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 has been killed, now the other must also disappear.”

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 the branch on which they sat. Nikolai Mikhailovich, who believed that Alexandra Feodorovna "should disappear" after the elder, was shot in 1919 along with three other Grand Dukes.

Personal life

There are still many rumors about the royal family and the joint life of Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II, which are rooted in the distant past. Gossip was born in the immediate environment of the monarchs. The ladies-in-waiting, princes and their gossip-loving wives were happy to come up with various “defamatory connections” in which the king and queen were allegedly convicted. It seems that Princess Zinaida Yusupova "tried" the most in spreading rumors.

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

A similar plot was in the play "The Conspiracy of the Empress", 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 resent.

But the personal life of Alexandra Feodorovna and her lover Nicky, nevertheless, turned out perfectly. The couple managed to maintain quivering feelings until his death. They adored their children and treated each other with tenderness. This was preserved in the memories of their closest friends, who knew firsthand about the relationship in the royal family.

Death

In the spring of 1917, after the abdication of the king from the throne, the whole family was arrested. Alexandra Fedorovna with her husband and children was sent to Tobolsk. Soon they were transferred to Yekaterinburg.

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

The queen with 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 family tomb of the Romanovs.

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

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova... Her personality in Russian history is very ambiguous. On the one hand, a loving wife, mother, and on the other, a princess, categorically not accepted by Russian society. A lot of mysteries and mysteries are connected with Alexandra Fedorovna: her passion for mysticism, on the one hand, and deep faith, on the other. Researchers attribute to her the responsibility for the tragic fate of the imperial house. What mysteries does the biography of Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova keep? What is its role in the fate of the country? We will answer in the article.

Childhood

Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova was born on June 7, 1872. The parents of the future Russian Empress were the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig and the English Princess Alice. The girl was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and this relationship will play an important role in the formation of the character of Alexandra.

Alexandra (later Romanova) received a classical English education, she was brought up in strict traditions. Modesty was in everything: in everyday life, food, clothing. Even the children slept in soldiers' beds. Already at this time, shyness can be traced in the girl, all her life she will struggle with natural shading in an unfamiliar society. At home, Alix was unrecognizable: nimble, smiling, she earned herself a middle name - “sun”.

But childhood was not so cloudless: first, a brother dies as a result of an accident, then her younger sister Mei and Princess Alice, Alix's mother, die of diphtheria. This was the impetus for the fact that the six-year-old girl withdrew into herself, became aloof.

Youth

After the death of her mother, according to Alexandra herself, a dark cloud hung over her and obscured all her sunny childhood. She is sent to England to live with her grandmother, the reigning Queen Victoria. Naturally, state affairs took away all the time from the latter, so the upbringing of children was entrusted to the governess. Later, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna would not forget the lessons she received in her youth.

Margaret Jackson - that was the name of her tutor and teacher - moved away from stiff Victorian mores, she taught the girl to think, reflect, form and voice her opinion. Classical education did not provide for versatile development, but by the age of fifteen, the future Empress Alexandra Romanova understood politics, history, played music well and knew several foreign languages.

It was in his youth, at the age of twelve, that Alix first met his future husband Nikolai. This happened at the wedding of her sister and Grand Duke Sergei. Three years later, at the invitation of the latter, she again comes to Russia. Nikolai was subdued by the girl.

Wedding with Nicholas II

Nikolai's parents were not happy with the union of young people - in their opinion, the wedding with the daughter of the French Count Louis-Philippe was more profitable for him. For lovers, five long years of separation begin, but this circumstance brought them together even more and taught them to appreciate the feeling.

Nikolai does not want to accept the will of his father in any way, he continues to insist on marriage with his beloved. The current emperor has to give in: he feels the approaching illness, and the heir must have a party. But here, too, Alix, who received the name Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova after the coronation, faced a serious test: she had to accept Orthodoxy and leave Lutheranism. She studied the basics for two years, after which she is converted to the Russian faith. It should be said that Alexandra entered Orthodoxy with an open heart and pure thoughts.

The marriage of the young took place on November 27, 1894, again, it was conducted by John of Kronstadt. The sacrament took place in the church of the Winter Palace. Everything happens against the backdrop of mourning, because 3 days after Alix's arrival in Russia, Alexander III dies (many then said that she "came for the coffin"). Alexandra notes in a letter to her sister a striking contrast between grief and great triumph - this rallied the spouses even more. Everyone, even haters of the imperial family, subsequently noticed the strength of the union and the fortitude of the spirit of Alexandra Feodorovna and Nicholas II.

The blessing of the young couple on the board (coronation) took place on May 27, 1896 in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. From that time on, Alix the “sun” acquired the title of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova. She later noted in her diary that this was the second wedding - with Russia.

Place at court and in political life

From the very first day of her reign, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna has been a support and support for her husband in his difficult state affairs.

In public life, a young woman tried to encourage people to charity, because she absorbed this from her parents as a child. Unfortunately, her ideas were not accepted at court; moreover, the empress was hated. In all her sentences and even facial expressions, the courtiers saw deceit and unnaturalness. But in fact, they were just used to idleness and did not want to change anything.

Of course, like any woman and wife, Alexandra Romanova had an effect on her husband's state activities.

Many prominent politicians of that time noted that she negatively influenced Nicholas. Such was the opinion, for example, of S. Witte. And General A. Mosolov and Senator V. Gurko state with regret the non-acceptance of it by Russian society. Moreover, the latter blames not the capricious character and some nervousness of the current empress, but the widow of Alexander III, Maria Feodorovna, who did not fully accept her daughter-in-law.

Nevertheless, her subjects obeyed her, not out of fear, but out of respect. Yes, she was strict, but she was the same in relation to herself. Alix never forgot her requests and instructions, each of them was clearly considered and balanced. She was sincerely loved by those who were close to the empress, knew her not by hearsay, but deeply personally. For the rest, the empress remained a "dark horse" and the subject of gossip.

There were also very warm reviews about Alexander. So, the ballerina (by the way, she was Nikolai's mistress before the latter's wedding with Alix) mentions her as a woman of high morals and a broad soul.

Children: Grand Duchesses

The first Grand Duchess Olga was born in 1895. The people's dislike for the Empress increased even more, because everyone was waiting for the boy, the heir. Alexandra, not finding a response and support for her undertakings from her subjects, completely delves into family life, she even feeds her daughter on her own, without using the services of anyone else, which was atypical even for noble families, not to mention for the empress.

Later, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia are born. Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna raised their children in simplicity and purity of spirit. It was an ordinary family, devoid of any arrogance.

Tsarina Alexandra Romanova herself was engaged in education. The only exceptions were subjects of a narrow focus. Great attention was paid to sports games in the fresh air, sincerity. The mother was the person to whom the girls could turn at any moment and with any request. They lived in an atmosphere of love and absolute trust. It was an absolutely happy, sincere family.

Girls grew up in an atmosphere of modesty and goodwill. Mother independently ordered dresses for them in order to protect them from excessive wastefulness and to cultivate meekness and chastity. They very rarely attended social events. Their access to society was limited only by the requirements of palace etiquette. Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas 2, was afraid that the spoiled daughters of the nobility would adversely affect the girls.

Alexandra Fedorovna coped brilliantly with the function of the mother. The Grand Duchesses grew up as unusually pure, sincere young ladies. In general, an extraordinary spirit of Christian splendor reigned in the family. This was noted in their diaries by both Nicholas II and Alexander Romanov. The quotes below only confirm the above information:

“Our love and our life are one whole ... Nothing can separate us or reduce our love” (Alexandra Fedorovna).

“The Lord blessed us with a rare family happiness” (Emperor Nicholas II).

Birth of an heir

The only thing that marred the life of the spouses was the absence of an heir. Alexandra Romanova was very worried about this. On such days she became especially nervous. Trying to understand the cause and solve the problem, the empress begins to get involved in mysticism and even more hits on religion. This is reflected in her husband, Nicholas II, because he feels the mental anguish of his beloved woman.

It was decided to attract the best doctors. Unfortunately, among them was a real charlatan, Philip. Arriving from France, he inspired the empress with thoughts of pregnancy so much that she really believed that she was carrying an heir. Alexandra Feodorovna developed a very rare disease - "false pregnancy". When it turned out that the belly of the Russian tsarina was growing under the influence of a psycho-emotional state, an official announcement had to be made that there would be no heir. Philip is expelled from the country in disgrace.

A little later, Alix nevertheless conceives and gives birth on August 12, 1904 to a boy - Tsarevich Alexei.

But she did not receive the long-awaited happiness of Alexander Romanov. Her biography says that the life of the Empress from that moment becomes tragic. The fact is that the boy is diagnosed with a rare disease - hemophilia. This is a hereditary disease, the carrier of which is a woman. Its essence is that the blood does not clot. A person is overcome by constant pain and seizures. The most famous carrier of the hemophilia gene was Queen Victoria, nicknamed the grandmother of Europe. For this reason, this disease has received such names: "Victorian disease" and "royal disease". With the best care, the heir could live up to a maximum of 30 years, on average, patients rarely crossed the age barrier of 16 years.

Rasputin in the life of the Empress

In some sources, you can find information that only one person, Grigory Rasputin, could help Tsarevich Alexei. Although this disease is considered chronic and incurable, there is a lot of evidence that the "man of God" could allegedly stop the suffering of an unfortunate child with his prayers. What explains this is hard to say. It should be noted that the illness of the Tsarevich was a state secret. From this we can conclude how much the imperial family trusted this uncouth Tobolsk peasant.

A lot has been written about the relationship between Rasputin and the Empress: some attribute to him exclusively the role of the savior of the heir, others - a love affair with Alexandra Feodorovna. The latest conjectures are not unfounded - the then society was sure of the adultery of the Empress, rumors circulated around the betrayal of the Empress to Nicholas II and Gregory. After all, the elder himself spoke about this, but then he was pretty drunk, so he could easily pass off wishful thinking. And for the birth of gossip, much is not needed. According to his inner circle, who did not harbor hatred for the august couple, the main reason for the close relationship between Rasputin and the imperial family was exclusively Alexei's bouts of hemophilia.

And how did Nikolai Alexandrovich feel about rumors discrediting the pure name of his wife? He considered all this nothing more than fiction and an inappropriate interference in the private life of the family. The emperor himself considered Rasputin "a simple Russian man, very religious and faithful."

One thing is known for certain: the royal family had deep sympathy for Gregory. They were among the few who sincerely grieved after the murder of the elder.

Romanov during the war years

The First World War forced Nicholas II to leave St. Petersburg for Headquarters. State concerns were taken over by Alexandra Fedorovna Romanova. The empress pays special attention to charity. She perceived the war as her personal tragedy: she sincerely grieved, seeing off the soldiers to the front, and mourned the dead. She read prayers over each new grave of a fallen warrior, as if he were her relative. We can safely say that Alexandra Romanova received the title of "Saint" during her lifetime. This is the time when Alix is ​​more and more attached to Orthodoxy.

It would seem that the rumors should subside: the country is suffering from war. No, they have become even more cruel. For example, she was accused of being addicted to spiritualism. This could not be true, because even then the empress was a deeply religious person, rejecting everything otherworldly.

Help to the country during the war was not limited to prayers. Together with her daughters, Alexandra mastered the skills of nurses: they began to work at the hospital, helping surgeons (assisted in operations), carried out all kinds of care for the wounded.

Every day at half past ten in the morning their service began: along with other sisters of mercy, the empress cleaned up amputated limbs, dirty clothes, bandaged severe wounds, including gangrenous ones. This was alien to the representatives of the upper nobility: they collected donations for the front, visited hospitals, opened medical institutions. But none of them worked in operating rooms, as the empress did. And all this despite the fact that she was tormented by problems with her own health, undermined by nervous experiences and frequent childbirth.

The royal palaces were converted into hospitals, Alexandra Fedorovna personally formed sanitary trains and warehouses for medicines. She vowed that while the war was going on, neither she nor the Grand Duchesses would sew a single dress for themselves. And she remained true to her word to the end.

Spiritual image of Alexandra Romanova

Was Alexander Romanov really a deeply religious person? Photos and portraits of the Empress, which have survived to this day, always show the sad eyes of this woman, some kind of grief lurked in them. Even in her youth, she accepted the Orthodox faith with full devotion, refusing Lutheranism, on the truths of which she was brought up from childhood.

Life shocks make her closer to God, she often retires for prayers when she tries to conceive a boy, then - when she finds out about her son's fatal illness. And during the war, she passionately prays for the soldiers, the wounded and those who died for the Motherland. Every day, before her service in the hospital, Alexandra Fedorovna sets aside a certain time for prayers. For these purposes, a special prayer room is even allocated in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace.

However, her service to God consisted not only in zealous pleas: the empress launched a truly large-scale charitable work. She organized an orphanage, a nursing home, and numerous hospitals. She found time for her maid of honor, who had lost the ability to walk: she talked with her about God, spiritually instructed and supported her every day.

Alexandra Fedorovna never flaunted her faith; most often, on trips around the country, she visited churches and hospitals incognito. She could easily merge with the crowd of believers, because her actions were natural, came from the heart. Religion was for Alexandra Feodorovna a purely personal matter. Many at court tried to find notes of hypocrisy in the queen, but they did not succeed.

So was her husband, Nicholas II. They loved God and Russia with all their hearts, they could not imagine another life outside of Russia. They did not distinguish between people, did not draw a line between titled persons and ordinary people. Most likely, this is why an ordinary Tobolsk peasant, Grigory Rasputin, at one time “got accustomed” in the imperial family.

Arrest, exile and martyrdom

Alexandra Fedorovna ends her life by martyrdom in the Ipatiev House, where the emperor's family was exiled after the 1917 revolution. Even in the face of approaching death, being under the muzzles of the firing squad, she made the sign of the cross over herself.

"Russian Golgotha" was predicted to the imperial family more than once, they lived with it all their lives, knowing that everything would end very sadly for them. They submitted to the will of God and thus defeated the forces of evil. The royal couple was buried only in 1998.