"Hessian fly". Why the wife of the last Russian Tsar was so disliked by the people. The last love of the last Romanovs, Alexandra Feodorovna became the emperor's wife in
June 6 marks the 147th anniversary of the birth of the last Russian Empress, the wife of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, nee Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. Despite the fact that there were sincere feelings between the spouses, the people disliked her from the moment she appeared in Russia and called her "hated German". And although she made every effort to win sympathy in society, the attitude towards her has not changed. Was it deserved?
She first visited Russia in 1884, when her elder sister was married to Nikolai's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The second time she came to St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1889. From the moment of this visit, sympathy arose between the 20-year-old Nikolai Romanov and the 16-year-old Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt (or Alix, as Nikolai called her). Parents did not approve of his choice - they did not consider the girl a suitable party for the future emperor, but Nicholas firmly stood his ground. In 1892 he wrote in his diary: “ I dream of marrying Alix G someday. I have loved her for a long time, but especially deeply and strongly since 1889, when she spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg. All this time I did not believe my feeling, did not believe that my cherished dream could come true».
Due to the fact that the health of Alexander III deteriorated greatly, the relatives had to come to terms with the choice of Nicholas. Alice began to study the Russian language and the basics of Orthodoxy, because she had to renounce Lutheranism and accept a new religion. In the autumn of 1894, Alice arrived in the Crimea, where she converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra Feodorovna and spent several weeks with the royal family until the day of the death of Emperor Alexander III. After that, mourning was declared, and the marriage ceremony should have been postponed for a year, but Nicholas was not ready to wait so long.
It was decided to schedule the wedding on the birthday of the dowager empress, which allowed the royal family to temporarily interrupt the mourning. On November 26, 1894, the wedding of Nikolai Romanov and Alexandra Feodorovna took place in the Great Church of the Winter Palace. Later, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled: “ The marriage of the young tsar took place less than a week after the funeral of Alexander III. Their honeymoon proceeded in the atmosphere of memorial services and funeral visits.».
From the moment the German princess appeared in Russia, many disliked her both in the inner circle of the royal family and among the people. She seemed too cold, arrogant, withdrawn and aloof, and only those close to her knew the real reason for this behavior - natural shyness. Russian statesman and publicist Vladimir Gurko wrote about her: “ The estrangement of the queen from St. Petersburg society was greatly facilitated by the outward coldness of her treatment 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. Embarrassment prevented her from establishing simple, unconstrained relations with persons who presented themselves to her, including the so-called city ladies, who spread jokes around the city about her coldness and impregnability.". According to a contemporary, she was reproached for the fact that " she held herself as if she had swallowed a yardstick, and did not bow to the deputations».
Few believed in sincere love, mutual respect and devotion to each other. Some representatives of the high society were sure that Alexandra Fedorovna completely subjugated her husband, suppressing his will. Vladimir Gurko wrote: If the sovereign, due to his lack of the necessary internal power, did not possess the authority due to the ruler, then the empress, on the contrary, was all woven from authority, which also relied on her inherent arrogance».
The reasons for the hostile attitude towards Alexandra Feodorovna among the people were different. At first, dissatisfaction in society was caused by the fact that the wedding with Nikolai took place almost immediately after the death of his father. And during the coronation of the royal family in May 1896, a terrible tragedy happened, which led to the death of hundreds of people. On the day of the festivities on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II, a terrible stampede occurred on the Khodynka field, during which more than 1,300 people were trampled, but the imperial couple did not cancel the planned celebrations.
There were rumors among the people that the German princess, even after her marriage, defended the interests of Germany, that she was preparing a coup to become regent with her young son, and that the “German Party” rallied around her. On this occasion, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich wrote: It's amazing how unpopular poor Alix is. It can certainly be asserted that she did absolutely nothing to give reason to suspect her of sympathy for the Germans, but everyone is trying to say that she sympathizes with them. The only thing you can blame her for is that she failed to be popular.". And one of her contemporaries said: The rumor ascribes all failures, all changes in appointments to the Empress. Her hair stands on end: whatever she is accused of, each layer of society from its own point of view, but the general, friendly impulse is dislike and distrust».
Alexandra Fedorovna felt an unfriendly attitude towards herself among the people and made every effort to change the situation. She was engaged in charitable activities, was a trustee of 33 charitable societies, communities of sisters of mercy and shelters, organized schools for nurses, clinics for children, schools of folk art. During the First World War, she financed several hospital trains, established and took care of infirmaries, herself trained in nursing, did dressings and assisted in operations. And she did it at the call of her heart. However, despite all the efforts, the Empress did not deserve sympathy. And another reason for dislike for her was her attachment to the odious Grigory Rasputin, who had a huge influence on her.
When the Empress had a son with hemophilia, she became interested in religious and mystical teachings, often turning to Rasputin for help and advice, who helped Tsarevich Alexei fight the disease, against which official medicine was powerless. They said that Alexandra Fedorovna trusted him completely, while Rasputin's reputation was very ambiguous - later he was called a symbol of the moral degradation of power under the last Russian emperor. Many believed that Rasputin subjugated the very religious and exalted empress to his will, and she, in turn, influenced Nicholas II. According to another version, ill-wishers deliberately spread rumors among the people about Alexandra Feodorovna's close relationship with Rasputin in order to denigrate her image in society, and in fact he was her spiritual mentor.
In July 1918 members of the imperial family were shot. Who was the last Russian empress really - a fiend, an innocent victim or a hostage of circumstances? Her own words, which she said shortly before her death in a letter to her close associate Anna Vyrubova, say a lot: “ I thank God for everything that was, that I received - and I will live with memories that no one will take away from me ... How old I have become, but I feel like the mother of the country, and I suffer as if for my child and love my Motherland, despite all the horrors now … You know that you can’t tear love out of my heart, and Russia too… Despite the black ingratitude to the Sovereign, which breaks my heart… Lord, have mercy and save Russia».
Such a tender attitude of spouses to each other in the ruling families was a rarity:.
145 years ago, on June 6, 1872, the fourth daughter was born in the family of the Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. They called her Victoria Alice Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt. Grandmother, the English queen, called her Sunny - Sunshine. Home - Alix. In Russia, where she was destined to become the last empress, when she was baptized into the Orthodox faith, she received the name Alexandra Feodorovna. Behind the eyes - the nickname "Hessian fly."
The perception of rulers among the people, or, as they say in the scientific community, the representation of power is an important point in understanding some historical periods. This is especially true of great upheavals like revolutions or the era of reform. Just now, the power was exclusively from God and did not cause doubts about its legitimacy among the people. But then something happens, and people immediately begin to produce stories and legends about their leaders. Peter the Great becomes not only the king-carpenter, but also the Antichrist, and Ivan the Terrible turns into "Ivashka, the bloody king." The last Russian emperor is awarded the same nickname Nicholas II. Something similar happened to his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna. With only one difference. If at first some hopes were still pinned on Nicholas, then we disliked the empress immediately and completely.
The voice of the people
After the family of the last Romanov was canonized, they try to obscure the memory of exactly how the people perceived Alexandra Feodorovna with tinsel memories. For example, such: “The Empress organized 4 large bazaars in favor of tuberculosis in 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914; they brought in a lot of money. She herself worked, painted and embroidered for the bazaar and, despite her poor health, stood at the kiosk all day, surrounded by a huge crowd of people. Small Alexey Nikolaevich stood beside her on the counter, holding out his pens with things to the enthusiastic crowd. The enthusiasm of the people knew no bounds." However, just a few lines later, the author of these memoirs, the maid of honor and closest friend of the Empress Anna Vyrubova, makes a revealing reservation: "The people, at that time untouched by revolutionary propaganda, adored Their Majesties, and this can never be forgotten."
Princess Vera Gedroits (right) and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in the dressing room of the Tsarskoye Selo hospital. 1915 Source: Public Domain
An interesting thing. In 1911, the people, according to the court, turned out to be full of delight in relation to their queen. Blindness is amazing. Because the people themselves, having gone through both the shame of the Russo-Japanese War and the Revolution of 1905-1907, have a completely different opinion. Here is a fragment of one Ural tale: “After the year 905, the queen could not see a stone with a red tint. Either she imagined red flags here, or something else stirred her memory, but only from the fifth year on, don’t approach the queen with a red stone - she will squeal at the top of her head, she will lose all Russian words and swear in German.
There is no smell of excitement here. More like sarcasm. And Alexandra Fedorovna should have observed such an attitude towards her person literally from the first day. Moreover, she herself, voluntarily or involuntarily, gave a reason for this. Here is what the same Anna Vyrubova says about this: “When Alexandra Fedorovna had just arrived in Russia, she wrote countess Rantzau, maid of honor of his sister, Princess Irene: “My husband is surrounded by hypocrisy and deceit from everywhere. I feel that there is no one here who could be his real support. Few love him and their Fatherland.”
For some reason, this is considered as an exceptionally highly spiritual message, full of grief and sadness. In fact, it is full of arrogance and conceit. As soon as she arrives in a foreign country for herself and has not yet learned the language, the wife of the sovereign immediately begins to offend her subjects. According to her authoritative opinion, Russians do not love their Motherland and, in general, everyone is potential traitors.
Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The underside of "adoration"
The word is not a sparrow, and you cannot hide an awl in a bag. What was the property of the higher spheres, after a couple of days, through servants, stokers and coachmen, becomes the property of the general public. And it is no wonder that after such a sparkling speech by the new queen, the police begin to register more and more cases that pass as "lese majesty."
Alexandra Fedorovna remembered everything. Even if it wasn't her fault. So, the marriage of Nikolai and Alexandra, and indeed their entire honeymoon, coincided with mourning for the just deceased father of Nikolai - the emperor Alexander III. The conclusion among the people was made instantly. And partly prophetic: "This German woman, read, entered us on the coffin, will bring misfortune."
Subsequently, everything that comes from Alexandra Feodorovna was subjected to ridicule. All her undertakings - sometimes really good and necessary - became the target of bullying. Sometimes in a very cynical way. It is curious that the king himself was not affected and even pitied. Here is a fragment of the protocol of one of the cases of “insulting majesty”: “Vasily L., a Kazan tradesman 31 years old, pointing to a portrait of the royal family, said:“ This is the first b ... And her daughters b ... And everyone goes to them ... And it’s a pity for our sovereign - they, b ... German, deceive him, because the son is not his, but a substitute!
To write off this "beauty" to the machinations of the Masons or the Bolsheviks will not work. If only for the reason that 80% of convictions in such cases were handed down to peasants, among whom the same Bolsheviks will begin agitation very soon - when the peasants fall under the draft and become soldiers.
However, even then there was no need to agitate specifically against the empress. From the very beginning of the war, she was already declared a German spy and traitor. This popular opinion was so widespread that it reached ears that were not intended for it at all. Here is what he writes British Vice Consul in Moscow Bruce Lockhart: “There are several good stories about the Germanophile tendencies of the Empress. Here is one of the best. The prince is crying. The nanny says: "Baby, why are you crying?" - "Well, when ours are beaten, dad cries, when the Germans - mom, and when should I cry?"
It was during the war years, among other nicknames of Alexandra Feodorovna, that the “Hessian fly” appeared. There really is such an insect - it is a serious pest attacking rye and wheat, capable of killing the crop almost entirely. Considering that the February Revolution began precisely with a shortage of bread, you will inevitably think that sometimes the voice of the people is really the voice of God.
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 involuntary 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 whirlpool 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 gold 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 there was a cheerful, contagious laughter of the crumbs - granddaughter, and the clatter of her fast children's legs. 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 at. 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. 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 was impossible to do this, 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 cared only that the “dear clever Aliki” seemed to have lost her former charm, 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 grandiloquent 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 looked at her reproachfully, 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, colliding with 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 thaw 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 required 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, understood perfectly well 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 On the windows of the “green office” of the Coburg castle, on the second floor, two letters carved with diamond facets from Alix’s family ring, intertwined into an intricate monogram: “Н&А”, have been preserved. 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 the 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 a 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 gained great influence at the Court after her brother's death. 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 she 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, since 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 superficial “sliding” over it, 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), the illusory, 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 the military actions 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, unimaginable loneliness among the crowd,” she gradually developed her own “philosophy of suffering”: are physical torments 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 reception 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 what 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 feeling that everything is falling apart, collapsing, that everything that the ancestors of her beloved husband had created with titanic efforts, is coming to an 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 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 her earthly path all the truth of bitterness and the irreparable 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 acceptable to exaggerate numerous gossip and anecdotal stories that were 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.
From archival sources, it was possible to compile a reliable portrait of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
In honor of its 25th anniversary, the State Archives of the Russian Federation decided to give us an "unknown" empress. A unique exhibition dedicated to the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Nicholas II, has opened in the Exhibition Hall of the State Archives.
She was a vegetarian, a loving wife, a tender mother, whom, however, the children did not obey, suffered because of her son's illness, and became more and more withdrawn into herself.
"The Last Empress. Documents and photographs” - the main content of the newly opened exhibition was photos. There are several hundred of them in the windows - camera lenses captured the very "hero of the occasion" - from infancy to the revolutionary tragedy, as well as her husband-monarch, their children, relatives, close associates. In a palace setting, on a horseback ride, on a yacht and on a hunt ...
Numerous written documents are presented at the exhibition in electronic form. Several panels with touch screens have been placed in the hall, with the help of which you can see the letters and notes of the tsar and tsarina, their telegrams, diary entries - a lot of what is included in the personal fund of Alexandra Feodorovna, stored in the GARF, and which was recently available only to a small number of specialists.
It will be possible to consider these unique testimonies of the past not only in the exhibition hall. Everyone has the opportunity to get acquainted with the exhibited archival relics via the Internet - by going to a special section of the GARF electronic reading room - "Archive of the XXI century". This is a new format for demonstrating archival documents to a wide user audience, developed by the largest Russian corporation for digitization and creation of information resources.
However, visiting the new exhibition "in real life" is still worth it. After all, some memorial things related to the family of Emperor Nicholas II are exhibited here. The showcase displays, for example, diaries not only of the emperor himself, but also of his heir, Tsarevich Alexei, notebooks of the empress, letters to her from her young son (it is interesting that in one of them Alexei used the not entirely euphonious appeal “my dear mother”) , drawings of the heir to the throne, a table croquet set played by a boy.
“She was persistent and very sensual”
Here, for example, are the earliest "written portraits" of Princess Alice of Hesse, the future Russian Empress:
“The baby looks like Ella (older sister - “MK”), only smaller features and even darker eyes with very black eyelashes and reddish brown hair. She is a lovely little creature, always laughing, and she has a dimple on one cheek...” (From a letter from Princess Alice to Queen Victoria on August 14, 1872)
“She was generous and even at an early age was incapable of childish lies. She had a soft and loving heart and was persistent and very sensual." (From the memoirs of Baroness S.K. Buxgevden.)
Written evidence relating to the "setting up" of relations between the future royal spouses is presented.
“My dear Alix! Let me thank you for the frankness and sincerity with which you wrote to me. There is nothing worse in this world than misunderstandings and omissions ... I rely on the mercy of God. Maybe after He takes us through all the hardships and trials, He will guide my beloved on the path that I pray for every day!” (From a letter from Tsarevich Nicholas to Princess Alice on December 17, 1893)
“Now I am quite happy and calm. Alix is charming and has completely turned around after her constant sad state. She is so sweet and touching with me that I am more than delighted.” (From a letter from Tsarevich Nicholas to his mother on April 18, 1894 - a few days after the engagement.)
“My beloved and beloved! I miss you in a way that cannot be described in words. I so want to spend two hours alone with you, if only to bless and kiss ... I am very lonely without you. God bless you, my only and beloved. ...I can not live without you. I can't be alone. I don’t have the strength, or prudence, or wisdom, or prudence for this.” (From a letter from Princess Alice to Tsarevich Nicholas on May 2, 1894)
"Decided not to eat anything animal anymore"
Much of the relationship that existed between the last Russian tsar and his wife is evidenced by his appeals to her in letters relating even to a very late period of their marriage.
“My beloved darling Sunshine! ... The closer the moment of our meeting becomes, the more peace reigns in my soul. (August 25, 1915)
And here is the confession of Alexandra Feodorovna:
“From the depths of my heart, I thank the Lord for giving me you. He gave me happiness and made my life easy and happy. Now work and overcoming disasters are nothing to me, since you are with me; I may not be able to express it, but I feel it deeply.” (From a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II on July 10, 1899)
Some of the letters and diaries of the last Russian empress and those who knew her speak of sometimes unexpected things.
“I'm not made to shine before meetings—I don't have the lightness or wit in conversation to do so. I like inner existence, and it is precisely this that attracts me with great force... I want to help others in life, help them win the fight and carry their cross...” (From a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to Princess M. Baryatinsky on November 23, 1905 )
“The Empress spoke to me kindly and affably. It turns out that she does not eat meat and fish out of conviction: “I was in Sarov about 10-11 years ago and decided not to eat anything else animal, and then the doctors found that it was necessary for my health ...” (From the diary of V (I. Chebotareva, 1915)
“Her appearance is very remarkable: being no longer her first youth, depending on the moment and mood, she is either very good-looking, or, on the contrary, antipathetic and old-fashioned. I saw her in both cases. Maybe it depended on the toilet.” (From the memoirs of N. N. Pokrovsky, 1916)
"Children spoiled excessively"
A separate issue is children. This is both a great joy for the august spouses and a subject of worries.
“July 30, 1904 Friday. An unforgettable, great day for us, on which the mercy of God so clearly visited us. At 1.15 a.m., Alix had a son, who, during prayer, was named Alexei. Everything happened remarkably soon - for me, at least. In the morning... went to Alix's for breakfast. She was already upstairs and half an hour later this happy event happened ... Dear Alix felt very good. Mom (Empress Maria Feodorovna - ed.) arrived at 2 o'clock and sat with me for a long time, until the first meeting with her new grandson. (From the diary of Emperor Nicholas.)
“I'm sure you miss your beloved Baby. He is so cute. Indeed, one can understand why God sent him to us this year, and he appeared like a real ray of sunshine. God never forgets us, that's true. Now you have a son, and you can raise him, inspire him with your ideas so that he can help you when he grows up. Believe it or not, it grows every day.” (From a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II on August 15, 1904)
“Many Russians formed the concept of the Empress as a stern woman with a firm stubborn character, with great willpower, unkind, dry, who strongly influenced her august spouse and guided his decisions at her own discretion. This view is completely wrong. Her Majesty not only treated everyone around her cordially, but rather spoiled everyone, constantly worried about others, took care of them, and spoiled her children excessively and she constantly had to turn to her husband for assistance, since the heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolayevich recognized only his father and sailor's uncle Derevenko. He didn't listen to his mother at all. The young Grand Duchesses also did not obey their mother very much. (From the memoirs of the aide-de-camp S. Fabritsky.)
“You can’t imagine how terribly I miss you! Complete loneliness - children, with all their love, look at things in a completely different way and rarely understand me, even in small things - they are always right, and when I tell them how I was raised and how to behave, they cannot understand. They find it boring. Only Tatyana understands. When you talk to her calmly. Olga is always very unsympathetic to every instruction, although she often ends up doing what I want. And when I'm strict, she pouts at me. I'm so tired and I miss you." (From a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II on March 11, 1916)
"More and more closed in"
According to some contemporaries, it was the problems with children, especially with the terminally ill son Alexei, that seriously affected the well-being and behavior of Alexandra Feodorovna herself.
“The health of the Empress was already shaken by anxiety in connection with the threat hanging over the life of the Tsarevich. This increasingly prevented her from following the teachings of her daughters ... ”(From the memoirs of Pierre Gilliard.)
“Fatigue from festivities and receptions affected the Empress, who was often unwell, she spent days in bed, getting up only to put on ceremonial dresses with long trains and heavy jewelry, to appear before the crowd for several hours with a face marked by sadness.
Long before the war, she fenced herself off from the outside world, and after the birth of the heir to the throne, she devoted herself to caring for him ... looking at her seriously ill son, the unfortunate mother became more and more withdrawn into herself, and - I think you can say so - her psyche went out of balance . Now only official ceremonies were held at court, which could not be avoided; and only ceremonies connected the imperial couple with the outside world. They lived in such seclusion that they had to communicate with them through people often ignorant. And sometimes - unworthy ... ”(From the memoirs of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Jr.)
“In her mature time, already on the Russian throne, she knew only this passion - her husband, as she knew boundless love only for her children, to whom she gave all her tenderness and all her worries. She was, in the best sense of the word, an impeccable wife and mother, who showed a rare example of the highest family virtue in our time. (From the memoirs of Prime Minister V.N. Kokovtsev.)
“I had to bandage the unfortunate with terrible wounds”
The life of this woman was not easy even after the start of the 1st World War.
“After the outbreak of hostilities, the empress immediately began to create her own infirmaries and, together with her daughters, enrolled in the courses of sisters of mercy. (From the memoirs of Lily Den.)
“This morning we were present (I, as usual, help to feed the instruments, Olga threaded the needles) at our first major amputation (the arm was taken away from the very shoulder). Then we all engaged in bandaging ... I had to bandage the unfortunate with terrible wounds ... I washed everything, cleaned it, anointed it with iodine, covered it with vaseline, tied it up - it all turned out quite well - it’s more pleasant for me to do such things myself under the guidance of a doctor. » (From a letter from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to Nicholas II on November 22, 1914)
“In front of me stood a tall, slender lady of about 50, in a simple gray suit of a sister of mercy and in a white scarf. The empress greeted me affectionately and asked me where I was wounded, in what business and on what front. A little worried, I answered all her questions without taking my eyes off her face. Almost classically correct, this face in his youth was undoubtedly beautiful, very beautiful. But this beauty, obviously, was cold and impassive. And now. Still aged from time and with small wrinkles around the eyes and corners of the lips, this face was very interesting, but too stern and too thoughtful. I thought so: what a correct, intelligent, strict and energetic face. (From the memoirs of S. P. Pavlov.)
“It is hardly possible to come up with some kind of crime in which she would not be accused ... The true queen, firm in her convictions, faithful, devoted wife, mother and friend, is not known to anyone. Selfish motives are attributed to her charitable work, her deep religiosity became the subject of ridicule ... She knew and read everything that was said and written about her. I saw how she turned pale, how her eyes filled with tears, when something especially vile attracted her attention. However, Her Majesty could see the shining of the stars above the dirt of the streets." (From the memoirs of Lily Den.)
Exhibition “The Last Empress. Documents and Photographs” will be open at the Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives (Bolshaya Pirogovskaya St., 17) from April 27 to May 28. The exposition is open from 12:00 to 18:00. daily except Monday and Tuesday. The entrance is free.
The last Russian empress - one of the most "promoted" female characters of the Romanov dynasty - invariably maintained a strict view of "external propriety".
Alexandra Fedorovna. Photo: hu.wikipedia.org.
Victoria Alisa Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II
This, of course, is one of the most "promoted" female characters of the Romanov dynasty now. “Tall and slender, always serious, with a constant shade of deep sadness, with reddish spots protruding on her face, which testified to her nervously elevated state, with her beautiful and stern features. Those who saw her for the first time admired her greatness; those who watched her daily could not deny her rare regal beauty. (From the Memoirs of G. I. Shavelsky)
Their wedding with the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, took place on April 7 (19), 1894 “in Coburg at a large family congress: there was Queen Victoria with her two granddaughters, Princesses Victoria and Maud, German Emperor Wilhelm II ... Upon arrival in Coburg, the Heir made an offer again, but for three days Princess Alice refused to give her consent and gave it only on the third day under pressure from all family members, ”wrote Matilda Kshesinskaya in her Memoirs.
Even before the wedding, according to the Orthodox custom, the bride connected the August Bridegroom to the problem of her toilets: yellow (or apple) ... Front length from neck to waist - 37 cm, from waist to floor - 111 cm. Here, Mr. tailor, is everything clear to you?
All memoirists agreed that the last Russian Empress was a loving wife and an ideal mother. But only close friends remembered her as a woman who had her own style, tastes, affections, hobbies. Alexandra Fedorovna firmly remained faithful to the system of education laid down by her grandmother, the English Queen Victoria. This was her individual scale of ethical and aesthetic values, which often did not coincide with the views and tastes of the St. Petersburg society. There is a case when, during one of the first balls, where Alexandra Fedorovna, who had recently arrived in Russia, was present, she saw a young lady dancing in an outfit with an unusually low neckline. The maid of honor sent to her said: "Her Imperial Majesty asked me to inform you that in Hesse-Darmstadt they do not wear such dresses." The answer was rather sharp: “Tell Her Imperial Majesty that in Russia we love and wear just such dresses!”
No, of course, she was not a "blue stocking", but she always maintained her strict views on "external propriety". Alexandra Fedorovna wore clothes in muted pastel colors, preferring blue, white, lilac, gray, light pink. However, the favorite color of the Empress was lilac. He dominated not only in her wardrobe, but in the interior of private rooms. The empress preferred to order dresses in the workshop of her favorite couturier August Brizak, the owner of the St. Petersburg ladies' fashion workshop. The empress was dressed in a lilac-colored suit from the "House of Brizak" on the night of July 17, 1918, when she and all her relatives were taken to be shot in the basement of the merchant Ipatiev's mansion.
Among the suppliers preferred by Her Majesty was also the famous St. Petersburg jeweler Carl Faberge. In particular, he was ordered in the summer of 1895 a set of crochet hooks for Alexandra Feodorovna, about which he was interested in the camera-frau of the Empress M. Geringer: “Dear Empress! I ask you to notify me as soon as Her Majesty wishes to have these crochet hooks: a pair or one, with stones only a gold decoration, which string, etc. Your obedient servant C. Faberge. (the spelling and punctuation of the author of the note are preserved - ed.)
“As far as I know, Alix was rather indifferent to precious jewelry, with the exception of pearls, which she had in abundance, but court gossips claimed that she resented the fact that she was not able to wear all the rubies, pink diamonds, emeralds and sapphires that were kept in the casket of my mother (Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna - ed.)." (Memories by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna)
The whole family of Alexandra Fedorovna was passionately fond of photography. They photographed their relatives and friends during travels, holidays in Livadia and the Finnish skerries, in the beloved Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo ... Even an amateur photo has been preserved, in which you can see the Empress at home, pasting photos into a personal album. Another "hobby" of Her Majesty was tennis. “... Then I rested on the balcony upstairs, after that I played tennis from 3 to 5. The heat was just deadly, the brain is just in an idiotic state. I played really well today." (From a letter to Nicholas II, June 1900)