Spouse. The first wife of Alexander II and the legal empress was Maria Alexandrovna, nee Hessian Princess Maximilian-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria (07/27/1824-05/22/1880). This marriage turned out to be not entirely ordinary for the Romanov family, although the bride, as expected, came from a German ducal family. The fact is that the heir to the throne first married an illegitimate. Alexander met his future wife during a trip abroad in 1838-1839. , still in the status of crown prince. On March 13, 1839, he arrived in Darmstadt, where he met with the Grand Duke of Hesse, Ludwig II. That same evening at the theater, the Tsarevich saw the Duke's fifteen-year-old daughter and fell in love with her. He immediately reported his feelings in a letter to his parents. Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna were far from delighted with the choice of their son, since the dubious origin of the princess was not a secret for European courts. Duke Ludwig II of Hesse was in a dynastic marriage with Princess Wilhelmina of Baden. But this one is typical for Europe in the 19th century. The mutually beneficial union of representatives of the two ruling clans did not develop into a strong marital relationship. The ducal couple gave birth to two children together - princes Ludwig and Karl, but after that the husband and wife completely lost interest in each other and began to lead an independent personal life. Duchess Wilhelmina was a loving lady, she was fond of many men, not particularly limiting herself in connections on the side. As a result, she “gave” two bastards to the ducal house - the boy Alexander and the girl Maria. Duke Ludwig, in order not to disgrace himself and his family, recognized the children as his own. It was this Princess Maria, who was only half a princess, that he saw Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich He immediately asked his parents for consent to marry her, but received a decisive refusal. Alexander was stubborn and did not give up, seeking the right to marry his chosen one. He announced to his retinue: “I would rather give up the throne than marry Princess Mary.” They tried to dissuade him by telling him the secret of the girl’s origin, 99 to which he replied: “So what! I love Princess Mary and will marry her." Threats to renounce the throne had an effect on the parents; they were forced to agree to a marriage, which in their hearts they considered a misalliance. In the spring of 1840, Alexander again traveled to Darmstadt, where his engagement to Maria took place. In December of the same year, the bride arrived in St. Petersburg and converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. On April 16, 1841, Alexander Nikolaevich and Maria Alexandrovna got married. The question of the legality of the origin of the wife of the heir-cresarevich, and then the emperor, was never discussed again in Russia. It is difficult to say whether this marriage was truly happy. Alexander was proud of his marriage and at first boasted of his happiness in letters to his friend - Alexander Adlerberg, the future minister of the imperial court. But in these same letters he casually discussed the merits of the famous court beauties, whom he was chasing while still single. And in his marriage to Maria Alexandrovna, Alexander Nikolaevich remained a subtle connoisseur of female beauty, he had many hobbies on the side. The impressive Grand Duke, and then the emperor enjoyed success with women. Maria Alexandrovna knew about this, but the free lifestyle of her parental family taught her not to notice such “ little things." She conscientiously fulfilled her family duty, producing great princes and princesses. From this marriage, Alexander II had eight children. The first child of the then grand ducal couple, Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna (1842-1849), died in early age. The eldest son, heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (1843-1865), did not live to see his accession to the throne. IOO After his death, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (02/26/1845 -10/20/1894) - the future emperor - was declared heir Alexandra III. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847-1909) was a great art lover, collector and philanthropist (at one time it was he who acquired the famous painting by I. E. Repin “Barge Haulers on the Volga”). His grandson, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, died at an old age in France in April 1992. Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (1850-1908) did not leave a noticeable mark on the history of the family. The only survivor of two daughters, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (1853-1900) ) in 1874 married her youngest son Queen of England Victoria - Duke Alfred Albert of Edinburgh, who later became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905) - Moscow Governor-General and commander of the Moscow Military District. He was married to the sister of Nicholas II's wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse. Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by the Socialist Revolutionary I Kalyaev. Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (1860-1919) was married to the Greek princess Alexandra Georgievna (1870-1891). After the revolution, the Bolsheviks shot him in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Empress Maria Alexandrovna was tall, but thin and fragile, with thin bones. She had never enjoyed good health, and frequent childbirth had a devastating effect on her. She began to get sick often, and after the birth of her eighth child, doctors recommended that she refrain from further pregnancies. She began to lead a secluded life, staying in her IOI rooms for a long time and rarely leaving the palace. Due to health reasons, often avoiding the empress's representative duties, she nevertheless found time and energy to engage in philanthropy and charity. Maria Alexandrovna laid the foundation for a new approach to female education in Russia by establishing and supporting all-class gymnasiums for girls; organized during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Russian Red Cross, investing all his personal funds in it. No wonder the lady-in-waiting Tyutcheva wrote that the empress could become a saint. Her lifestyle in the last ten to fifteen years was more consistent with the behavior of an ascetic nun, and not the wife of one of the most brilliant monarchs in Europe. Still very handsome, healthy and strong, Alexander II was now forced to seek solace on the side. After a series of new short hobbies and connections, the emperor met his last true love. His mistress, and then his second, morganatic wife, was Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya (Yuryevskaya) (1847-1922). Alexander II first met Catherine Dolgorukaya in August 1857. The Emperor was 39 years old. He was heading to military maneuvers in Volyn and on the way stopped at the estate of Prince Mikhail Dolgoruky in the vicinity of Poltava. The Dolgorukovs (Dolgorukies) belonged to an ancient princely family that had faithfully served the Romanovs for the third century, who had already tried more than once to intermarry with this family. One warm day at the end of summer, Alexander and his adjutant were doing business on the open veranda. Suddenly a charming girl, graceful, big-eyed, ran up to them. When the king asked who she was, she replied that her name was Ekaterina Mikhailovna and she wanted to see the emperor. Her spontaneity touched and made Alexander laugh. He 102 took the girl in his arms and talked to her for several minutes. The next day he walked with her a little in the garden, talking decorously and politely, as with an important lady. Little Ekaterina Dolgorukaya was delighted and remembered this magical meeting for the rest of her life. Two years later, a misfortune happened in the Dolgoruky family. Prince Mikhail became interested in financial speculation and lost all his fortune. Out of despair, he fell ill with a nervous fever and died. To save his family from creditors, the emperor took the Teplovka estate under the care of the imperial treasury, and provided the upbringing and education of Dolgoruky’s six children. Catherine and her younger sister Maria ended up in the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, founded by Catherine II. The girls here were taught everything that court ladies or spouses of aristocrats needed to know and be able to do. All schoolgirls had to carefully monitor their appearance, be able to dress and comb their hair with taste. But even among the refined students of Smolny, the Dolgoruky sisters stood out for their charm and grace. Both extraordinary beauties, with With their regular, chiseled facial features, beautiful skin color and large eyes, they personified two types of ideal female appearance: Catherine - dark-eyed, with lush brown hair, Maria - blue-eyed blonde. The Emperor, as a trustee, often visited the Smolny Institute, was interested in the successes of the pupils, took part in festive tea parties. He often met with the Dolgoruky sisters and talked with them for a long time, since he was considered their guardian. However, soon the teachers and students of Smolny began to notice that the sovereign gave clear preference to the eldest of the sisters In 1864, at the age of seventeen, Ekaterina Mikhailovna graduated from Smolny. As an orphan, she received a modest pension, which allowed her to make ends meet. Being an unmarried girl, Catherine settled with the family of her older brother Mikhail, who was married to the Italian marquise Cerce Maggiore. In winter, the young Dolgorukys lived in St. Petersburg, on Baseinaya Street, and in the summer they filmed small dacha in Peterhof. In the spring of 1865, Catherine walked with her maid in the Summer Garden. There she unexpectedly met the emperor, who was walking accompanied by an adjutant. Alexander approached her and then dragged her into one of the remote alleys, where they talked for a long time. This summer they often met in the Summer Garden, on Elagin Island, and in the parks of Peterhof. At first they communicated as people who had known each other for a long time, and then Alexander and Catherine truly fell in love with each other. They met when each was going through a difficult period in their lives, and ended up being tightly bound to each other until the end of one of their days. Ekaterina Dolgorukaya was young, inexperienced, lonely and almost poor. In the absence of a worthy dowry, she could hardly hope for a solid match. And then the attention of the emperor himself! Alexander was an impressive man who knew how to impress the ladies. The French writer Théophile Gautier, who knew European secular society well, wrote about him with admiration when he first saw him at a court ball in 1865 in St. Petersburg: “Alexander II was dressed in an elegant military suit, which favorably highlighted his tall, slender figure. It was a kind of white jacket with gold braiding, going down to the hips and trimmed on the collar, sleeves and bottom with blue Siberian fox. Orders of high dignity sparkled on his chest. Tight blue trousers outlined his legs and went down to his narrow boots. The sovereign's hair was cut short and revealed a large and well-formed forehead. The facial features are impeccably correct and seem made for a bronze medal. The blueness of his eyes especially benefits from a brownish complexion, darker than the forehead, from long travels and outdoor activities. The outline of his mouth is so defined that it seems carved from bone - there is something of a Greek sculpture about it. The expression on his face is full of majestic firmness and is illuminated at moments by a gentle smile.” Well, how could you not fall in love with such a gentleman, who is also affectionate, delicate and courteous! Alexander needed Catherine no less than she needed him. In 1865, the emperor, despite the outwardly prosperous impression he made on the uninitiated, felt lonely and unhappy. At the age of 23, his eldest son and heir to the throne, Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich (beloved by his father Nix), died of tuberculosis - gentle, kind, well-educated and brought up in the spirit of humanism, the hope of the family, court and society. The Empress was ill, and the doctors did not give any hope of improving her health. The 48-year-old sovereign at first tried to treat his 18-year-old protégé Dolgorukaya in a fatherly way, hesitated, struggled with himself, but then gave in to the strong feeling that covered him like a wave. What he felt for her was not like his previous short-lived infatuations. Later, he tried to break up with Catherine only once in order to avoid scandal and family drama, but he was able to withstand only six months, and did not do this again. In the fall of 1865, the court returned to St. Petersburg. It became impossible to meet in parks in cold rainy weather. Alexander gave Catherine a key that opened a secret door in the Winter Palace. From it a small corridor led to a small room on the first floor with windows overlooking Palace Square. This room was connected to the former personal apartments of Emperor Nicholas I. i°5 The connection between Alexander II and young Dolgoruky soon began to be talked about in all St. Petersburg salons. After some time, the wife of Catherine's elder brother Cerce Maggiore was surprised to learn that society gossips were accusing her of pandering, as if she had tried to get away with her sister-in-law in this way. She decided that she needed to save her good name and the honor of Catherine and, with the consent of Alexander II, took her to a few months in Naples, to visit his family. But this first and only separation only strengthened the feelings of the lovers, who exchanged letters every day, and the Dolgoruky family stopped resisting Catherine’s romance with the emperor. For six years this novel developed like a beautiful love story and did not require almost any special worries and obligations from Alexander II, until in the fall of 1872 Catherine informed her lover that she was expecting a child from him. Alexander was confused. He was afraid that the pregnancy would further compromise Dolgorukaya, and, mindful of the fate of his wife, he feared for the health of his mistress. But the new situation had little effect on Ekaterina Mikhailovna’s appearance, and even her relatives, with whom she continued to live, did not notice for a long time what was happening to her. In order to keep everything secret from the big world, the emperor decided that Dolgorukaya would give birth in the Winter Palace, in those secret Nikolaev apartments where they met for so many years. On May 11, 1873, feeling contractions, Catherine alone, without warning anyone at home, went to the palace, where she entered through a door familiar to her. The Emperor immediately went down to her. Reassured by his presence, Dolgorukaya fell asleep in the chair, since there was not even a bed in their room. Alexander, making sure that labor had not yet begun, left to go about his daily business and left her alone. At three o'clock in the morning he was awakened by an old grenadier soldier, who enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the king and guarded the door of his love nest. 10b Another trusted servant ran for the doctor and midwife, and Alexander rushed to his beloved. When the doctor appeared, the emperor ordered him to save Catherine at all costs, even if he had to sacrifice the child. But everything worked out, at half past nine in the morning Dolgorukaya gave birth to a beautiful and healthy boy, who was given the name George at baptism. The emperor’s illegitimate son was born on Sunday, and the father had to leave them with his mother and go to mass, where the royal family and court were waiting for him, so that no one would suspect anything. Alexander II could not leave his newborn son in the palace. He entrusted him to the head of his personal security, General Ryleev, who placed the child in his house in Moshkov Lane, where gendarmes were constantly guarding him and did not allow anyone not only to come close to the porch, but even to stop on the street. A nurse and an experienced governess were assigned to the baby. Frenchwoman. But Alexander and Catherine failed to keep their secret. On the same day, the German ambassador, Prince de Reus, who had developed agents in the emperor’s entourage, learned about what had happened. He informed Dolgorukaya’s daughter-in-law about everything, who had previously suspected nothing. The imperial family was shocked by this unexpected news. Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich and his immediate circle were especially excited. An illegitimate half-brother could bring confusion into the dynastic structure of the Romanov clan. Only Empress Maria Alexandrovna maintained external calm. She became even more withdrawn into herself and her own experiences. She had long known about the emperor’s connection with Dolgoruky, but she treated her as one of her husband’s hobbies, which have already become habitual. Now, after Catherine gave birth to a child, she felt superfluous and unnecessary. From that time on, her illness began to progress noticeably. 107 In high society, the appearance of the imperial bastard was perceived with deep disapproval. The emperor was free to have fleeting connections and affections, but now he actually had a second family. And it was no longer possible to ignore Dolgorukaya, since in the event of the death of the sickly empress, she could become the new legal wife of the sovereign, and then, perhaps, the empress. Many were outraged by the age difference between Alexander and his lover and the Tsar’s inability to restrain his passions, as well as the insult that the birth of little George caused the Romanovs. The situation worsened when, after a year and a half, the mistress gave the sovereign a second child - daughter Olga. The head of the secret chancellery, Count Pyotr Andreevich Shuvalov, dared to express general indignation at what had happened. Under the guise of denunciations from his secret agents, he told Alexander what they thought about him and Dolgoruky in high society and at court. The Emperor listened to his entourage outwardly coldly and calmly, but after a while he did not fail to take revenge on him for his insolence. The Tsar’s vengeful feeling towards Shuvalov was fueled by the head of the Emperor’s personal security, Ryleev. He reported to Alexander that the Count, among his friends, spoke sharply about Ekaterina Mikhailovna, who allegedly would have such an influence on the emperor that he looks at everything through her eyes and is completely dependent on her in his actions. Alexander II knew how to control himself. He did not show his hostility towards Shuvalov in any way; he remained invariably courteous and friendly with him. But in June 1874, he unexpectedly sent him as ambassador to London, which meant a demotion and honorable exile. Shuvalov’s unsuccessful denunciation had other consequences. At first, taking care of the reputation and feelings of the first family, Alexander baptized his illegitimate children secretly and in his own way. II personally destroyed the church documents where their real parents were named. However, gossip at court acquired an increasingly threatening character for the fate of Catherine Dolgoruky and the imperial bastards. Therefore, the king decided to take care of their future. The emperor, as an autocratic monarch, could award anyone he wished with an exclusive title and form a new noble family. So he did in this case. Remembering that the Dolgorukys, according to legend, descended from the famous Yuri Dolgoruky, the founder of Moscow and the Grand Duke of Kiev, he bestowed on his mistress and children the surname Yuryevsky and the title “Most Serene Princes,” which was only slightly inferior in dignity to the title “Grand Dukes,” which was worn by his offspring from a legal marriage. On July 11, 1874, he signed a Decree to the governing Senate: “We grant the minors Georgy Alexandrovich and Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevsky the rights inherent in the nobility and elevate them to princely dignity with the title “most serene.” The decree was secret, it was not made public, and a copy of it was kept by the emperor’s trusted man, Lieutenant General Ryleev. The decree, on the one hand, definitely demonstrated that these children of Alexander II are not full-fledged Romanovs and continue not the royal dynasty, but the dynasty of their mother, on the other hand, it emphasized that the tsar recognizes them as his own through the patronymic “Alexandrovichi”. At the end of the 1870s. Shocked by the trials of the Balkan War with Turkey, exhausted by state concerns, the emperor so needed constant friendly participation that he decided to settle his second family in the Winter Palace, under the same roof with the empress and children from a legal marriage. Princess Dolgorukaya was given a three-room apartment on the second floor. They were connected to the emperor’s personal chambers located below by a special staircase IO9. The situation was extremely awkward. The empress's chambers were located next to the sovereign's chambers. And Alexander’s meetings with his mistress now took place literally behind the wall of his wife’s bedroom. Maria Alexandrovna behaved arrogantly and tried to appear calm and cold, but internally she was deeply worried about her humiliating position. One day she couldn’t restrain herself and told her close friend, Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, teacher of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna: “I forgive the insults inflicted on me as a monarch, but I am unable to forgive the torment that is inflicted on me as a wife.” Ekaterina Mikhailovna, in turn, tried to behave as delicately as possible. She lived in solitude, rarely leaving her apartment, and did not attend social events and entertainment. But she was still forced to use the services of court footmen and maids, grooms and messengers, so her presence in the palace could not be completely unnoticeable. To the delight of idle secular gossips, who accused Dolgorukaya that relations with her exhausted the emperor morally and physically, in last years The appearance of the always sleek and self-confident Alexander II changed for the worse. The Emperor noticeably stooped, his face became haggard, his movements became awkward, and he began to experience shortness of breath. However, this was not surprising for a man of his age, who had recently participated in hostilities in the Balkans and endured the inconveniences and hardships of life in the field. The court and society were especially irritated by the fact that in September 1878, Ekaterina Mikhailovna gave birth to her third child - daughter Catherine. It was not easy for the Emperor to live in two families. He felt sorry for his wife, felt awkward in front of her, but his love for Catherine Dolgoruky turned out to be stronger than these emotions. His suffering and mental duality ended in 1880. BUT Empress Maria Alexandrovna died on June 3 at 8 am. She had been suffering from severe pneumonia for more than a month and could not breathe normally. A coughing fit interrupted her breathing forever. Death came so unexpectedly that the empress did not even have time to say goodbye to the children, and Alexander II at that time was in Tsarskoe Selo and there he learned that his wife was no more. Four days later, the body of the empress was transferred to the tomb of the imperial family in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The coffin of Maria Alexandrovna together with the first dignitaries of the court were carried by the Emperor and Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. Princess Dolgorukaya, despite her status as a court lady, did not attend the funeral; she and her children remained in Tsarskoe Selo. A month and a half after the death of the Empress, at the end of Peter's fast, on July 18, 1880, Alexander II married Catherine Dolgorukaya. Three days before the wedding, only the emperor's faithful friends were warned about him: Count Alexander Vladimirovich Adlerberg and General Alexander Mikhailovich Ryleev. The archpriest of the Great Church of the Winter Palace, Father Xenophon Yakovlevich Nikolsky, who was supposed to conduct the ceremony, was notified the day before. The Emperor did not consider it necessary to inform the heir-Tsarevich, who was away at that time, about this event in advance. To Adlerberg’s remark that his eldest son would be severely offended by this, Alexander II replied: “I remind you that I am the master over myself and the only judge of my actions.” The wedding took place at three o'clock in the afternoon in the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace. The Emperor was in the blue uniform of a Guards Hussar, and Dolgorukaya was in a modest dress made of beige cloth and had her head uncovered. The ceremony took place in small hall without furniture, in the middle of which there was an altar. General Ryleev and Adjutant General Eduard Trofimovich Baranov acted as best men holding crowns over the heads of the newlyweds. Adlerberg was also present at the wedding. The Emperor fulfilled his promise to marry, given to his beloved fourteen years ago. At the end of the ceremony, Alexander II and Ekaterina Mikhailovna did not exchange a word or a kiss. Silently they left the palace and, together with their son George, went for a walk in a stroller. During the walk, the emperor talked affectionately with his wife and son, but in his speech a strange phrase slipped through in that situation: “I’m afraid of my happiness, I’m afraid that God is too much of me.” will soon deprive him." And he asked his little son to promise that he would never forget his father. On the evening of the same day, Alexander II signed the act of concluding his second marriage with his maid of honor, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya. The act was witnessed by Adlerberg, Baranov, Ryleev and priest Nikolsky. At the same time, the emperor signed a secret decree with the following content: “Having entered into a legal marriage with Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya for the second time, we order that she be given the name of Princess Yuryevskaya, with the title “most serene.” We order that the same name with the same title be given to our children: son George, daughters Olga and Catherine, as well as those who may be born subsequently. We grant them all the rights belonging to legitimate children, according to paragraph 14 of the Basic Laws of the Empire and paragraph 147 establishment of the imperial family (according to it, children born from one of the members of the imperial family and a person who does not belong to any of the ruling families of Europe cannot inherit the Russian royal throne. - L.S.).” Alexander II and Ekaterina Yuryevskaya became legal husband and wife, but their children, enjoying all the rights of members of the royal family, under no circumstances could 112. inherit the throne. The marriage documents were classified; the Minister of Internal Affairs, Adjutant General Count M. T. Loris-Melikov, was responsible for keeping them secret. For his loyalty, he received the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called from the emperor. But soon the entire St. Petersburg society and the upper strata of the empire's population knew about the remarriage of Alexander II. The Emperor also took care to provide for his new family financially: on September 5, 1880, he laid National Bank securities in the amount of three million three hundred two thousand nine hundred seventy rubles, the right to dispose of which was given to Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yuryevskaya. This amount should have allowed her and her children to live comfortably even after the death of their crowned husband. In the autumn of that year, Alexander II vacationed in Livadia with his son, Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich. During long conversations with his father, the heir to the throne promised to be protection and support for Princess Yuryevskaya and her children, no matter what happened to the emperor. After this conversation, the king wrote a warm letter to his eldest son: “Dear Sasha. In the event of my death, I entrust you with my wife and children. Your friendly disposition towards them, which manifested itself from the very first day of your acquaintance with them and was a true joy for us, convinces me that you will not leave them and will be their protector and good adviser. During the life of my wife, our children should remain only under her guardianship, if God calls her to himself before they come of age, I wish that General Ryleev and one more person of his choice and with your consent become their guardian. My wife has not inherited anything from her family. All the property that currently belongs to her, movable and immovable, was acquired by her personally, and her relatives do not have any rights to this property. My wife can dispose of it at her own discretion. Out of caution, she transferred it to me all my fortune, and we agreed that if I survived her, it would be equally distributed among our children and transferred to them by me after they came of age or the marriage of our daughters. Until our marriage is officially recognized, the capital that I deposited in the State Bank belongs to my wife according to the certificate that I issued to her. These are my last wishes, which I am sure you will fulfill in good faith. God bless you for this. Don’t forget me and pray for the soul of the one who loved you so dearly! Pa." Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yuryevskaya (Dolgorukaya) remained the morganatic wife of the sovereign; she did not have to become an empress. For her coronation, it was necessary to develop and legitimize a special ritual, since it existed only for the first wives of emperors, who were married to the kingdom together with their husband. The solution to this difficult issue was entrusted to Prince Ivan Golitsyn, but he preferred to take his time, realizing the sensitivity of the situation, the possible negative attitude of the Romanov family and the imperial court towards it. Some contemporaries later hinted in their memoirs that Alexander II wanted to achieve the coronation of Catherine Mikhailovna exclusively for reasons of principle. Immediately after this, he allegedly planned to renounce the throne in favor of the heir-Tsarevich, leave with his second family somewhere in France and spend the rest of his life there as a private person, in peace and quiet. However, subsequent events did not allow either contemporaries or descendants to know how serious these assumptions were and whether such an end to fate was possible for the emperor. The relatively liberal, especially in comparison with the previous reign, policy of Alexander II did not meet with unanimous approval in the society of his era. - this is a time of rampant political terrorism, which has become the main means of struggle of populist revolutionary circles against the autocracy and the existing state system . The populists, who professed the idea of “peasant socialism,” were dissatisfied with the results of the peasant reform carried out in the 1860s. , and switched to terror tactics. Its main object was the Tsar-Liberator. The first attempt on the life of Alexander II was made on April 4, 1866. When the tsar was returning from his usual walk in the Summer Garden, he was shot by the 25-year-old lone revolutionary D.V. Karakozov. The attempt ended in failure. Karakozov was captured and executed. The Tsar was saved by the hatmaker Osip Ivanovich Komissarov, who was passing by, and managed to push Karakozov away at the moment of the shot. Later, Komissarov was awarded the nobility. Alexander II was not so much frightened as shocked by the very fact of the attempt on his life at the moment when he was at the very peak of the glory of the sovereign reformer. the attempt on his life was not some republican Pole, but a Russian man who, as Alexander was taught from childhood, was supposed to sacredly believe in the inviolability of autocratic power and its bearer - “God’s anointed.” This is probably why, ten days later, the emperor agreed to the proposal of the Holy Synod to celebrate this day annually with a religious procession through the central squares of St. Petersburg with bells ringing. And in vain did the Moscow Metropolitan Filaret (Drozdov), a prominent theologian and a highly respected person, wonder why the people should be reminded every year that now any person can make an attempt on the life of the sovereign - something that until recently was considered unthinkable. Survived attempt, problems in personal life and constant thoughts and hesitations associated with the need to continue reforms in new socio-political conditions affected the health and mental state of the emperor. He was often thoughtful and apathetic; the court doctors suspected him of nervous exhaustion and persistently advised rest and treatment. A state of doubt and anxiety, concern for the safety of his family gradually led Alexander to the conclusions about the need to return to protective principles in domestic policy. His surroundings also changed. Liberal dignitaries and ministers were ousted by conservatives. But the reforms still continued. Alexander II did not give up his long-standing habit of walking alone without security in the Summer Garden and walking around the center of St. Petersburg without an escort. He still believed that Karakozov’s assassination attempt was an unfortunate misunderstanding, and none of the inhabitants of Russia could encroach on the divinely sanctified personality of the autocratic tsar. Only another extraordinary event forced Alexander II to take the problem of terrorism more seriously. In 1867, the emperor visited the Paris World Exhibition, in which Russia also took a large part for the first time. When, after the opening of the Russian pavilion, he was returning to the hotel, insulting shouts were heard from the crowd standing on the sidewalk. A young man, a Pole named Berezovsky, suddenly ran up to the carriage. , and, jumping on the steps of the royal carriage, shot at Alexander. Berezovsky was not dexterous enough and missed, but after this incident the emperor became more careful and took some measures to ensure his own safety. Despite the obvious liberalization of life in the country, among the opponents and critics of the tsar and his associates were not only revolutionaries, but also part of the liberal-minded intelligentsia Its cooling towards the personality and actions of the emperor was facilitated by the diplomatically unsuccessful conclusion of the Balkan war with Turkey for Russia. The Berlin Congress, which approved its results, left no hope for the Russian government for territorial acquisitions and material benefits. From the point of view of society and the political elite of Russia, the results of the victory over the Turks, which cost hundreds of thousands of human lives and the monstrous strain of the financial and economic system, looked depressing. The head of Russian diplomacy, Chancellor Gorchakov, stated in his note to the Tsar: “The Berlin Congress is the darkest page in my career.” The Emperor wrote next to it: “And in mine too.” But society did not care about the tsar’s emotional experiences. The patriotic upsurge caused by the Russian-Turkish war dried up, and the wave of the revolutionary movement rose again. The targets for the revolutionaries again became the largest state dignitaries and the failed tsar, who caused so much suffering to the people during the war. In March 1879, Alexander Konstantinovich Solovyov, a member of the revolutionary organization “Land and Freedom”, a participant in the “walk among the people,” arrived in St. Petersburg from the Saratov province. He was considered a supporter of peaceful actions and patient long-term propaganda of the ideas of revolution among the masses, and here he suddenly announced to the leaders of the organization that he had come to commit an assassination attempt on Alexander II. Solovyov’s decision was not supported, and he was prohibited from acting on behalf of “Land and Freedom,” but some of its members provided him with financial and technical support in preparing the terrorist attack. On April 2, 1879, he made an independent attempt on the life of the Tsar on Palace Square, which ended unsuccessfully. Solovyov was captured, interrogated, and on May 28 he was executed. In August 1879, “Land and Freedom” split into two independent organizations: “People’s Will” and “Black Redistribution”. “People's Will” declared its goal to be the overthrow of the autocracy, and declared terrorism to be the main tactical means of achieving it. From the point of view of the leaders of the organization, the main culprit for all the troubles of modern Russia was Emperor Alexander II. On August 26, 1879, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya sentenced the Tsar to death. All the human and material resources of the organization were thrown into its implementation. However, killing the king was not easy. The Emperor and members of his family were carefully guarded day and night. The Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya created several terrorist groups, each of which developed its own assassination scenario. As a result of a detailed study of the options for the assassination attempt, the terrorists came to the conclusion that the most appropriate thing was to try to blow up the train on which the royal family annually went on vacation to the Crimea, since the sovereign’s security could not check and secure every meter railway. Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich, a young scientist, talented engineer and inventor, took upon himself all the technical preparation of the assassination attempts. Several explosion points were planned: in Odessa, where Alexander traveled from Crimea by sea; near the city of Aleksandrovsk on the route Simferopol - Moscow and in Moscow itself. V.N. Figner and N.I. Kibalchich came to Odessa under the name of the Ivanitsky couple, holidaymakers. They rented an apartment, and were soon joined by three more young revolutionaries. One of them, MF Frolenko, managed to get a job as a watchman on the local railway line and live in a booth near the Gnilyakovo station. The rest began to transport dynamite there. Soon it became known that the emperor would not travel from Livadia to Odessa this summer, and work stopped. They began to wait for the royal family to return home in order to make an attempt on the train on the way back 118 In the city of Alexandrovsk, located between Kursk and Belgorod, The explosion was prepared by a group of experienced underground fighter A.I. Zhelyabov. He obtained documents in the name of the merchant Cheremisinov and received permission to build a leather workshop near the railway track. Such a quantity of dynamite was placed in this building under construction that it would have been enough to blow the entire royal train into pieces (the revolutionaries were not worried about the thought that in addition to the king, members of his family and innocent servants and security soldiers would die). But something happened that no one expected: during the passage of the train on November 18, 1879, the charge did not explode, something happened to the wires. Probably, the revolutionaries were let down by insufficient technical awareness. Moscow remained. Back in September, a young couple, who gave their last name as the Sukhorukovs, bought a small house . These were Sofya Lvovna Perovskaya - an aristocrat, the daughter of the former St. Petersburg governor and member of the Council of the Minister of Internal Affairs, and student-commoner Lev Nikolaevich Hartman, both active members of Narodnaya Volya. Several more Narodnaya Volya members secretly settled with them, among them the future major scientist, who became an honorary academician in Soviet times, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov. All of them were intensively digging a tunnel to the railway track, into which they were supposed to lay dynamite, designed, in their opinion, to change the future of Russia . Sofya Perovskaya closely followed the newspapers. When the morning editions of November 19 did not contain any news from Aleksandrovsk, she realized that the assassination attempt had failed there, and began to prepare her group for decisive action. Everyone gathered in the house; The explosives were planted, they were waiting for the appearance of the royal train. The revolutionaries learned that the emperor was traveling to Crimea with a large number of accompanying persons on two trains. For safety reasons, the train with servants and minor court officials always followed first, and the king and his family rode in the second. Therefore, when the expected letter trains approached, Perovskaya and her comrades missed the first one, and blew up the second one. However, this time, due to some technical malfunction, the second, contrary to usual, was the service train. And all the victims of this terrible terrorist attack were in vain. Many people died, and the king and his family remained alive and unharmed. The Emperor was shocked by the death of many innocent people in front of him and was outraged by the impudence of the terrorists. He demanded that the police increase their activity in the fight against the revolutionaries. Mass arrests began. But this did not stop the Narodnaya Volya members, who continued to carry out their sinister plans. The next assassination attempt was to take place in the Winter Palace, where the royal family lived permanently. People's Will member Stepan Nikolaevich Khalturin got a job in the palace carpentry workshop. Like other palace servants, he was given a room in the Winter Palace. There he brought dynamite in small quantities and put it in a chest with personal belongings that stood under the bed. Khalturin was busy renovating the premises near the royal dining room. There he was to blow up the entire royal family on February 5, 1880, the day Prince Alexander of Hesse and his son Alexander arrived to visit the Romanovs, in whose honor they gave a ceremonial dinner. This time everything was organized perfectly. At exactly the right time (the start of dinner was scheduled for 6:20 pm) Khalturin set fire to the fuse and quickly left the palace. He and Zhelyabov, who was waiting for him on the street, heard the sound of a terrible explosion and decided that the job was finally done. But this time too, fate was on Alexander’s side. II and his family. The Emperor at home - 120 Emperor Alexander II was ten minutes late. And the princes paid a courtesy visit to the chambers of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who was not feeling well and could not go out for dinner. As a result, the guard soldiers who were in the room on the floor below died. There were 19 killed and 48 wounded, but the tsar and his relatives remained unharmed. However, the Narodnaya Volya members were stubborn. Killing the emperor became the goal of their lives. The palace and the approaches to it were carefully guarded, they had to look for other places and other methods. One of the leaders of the People's Will, A D Mikhailov, proposed an assassination attempt on the Stone Bridge, along which the emperor traveled from Tsarskoe Selo to the Winter Palace. The group of terrorists was again led by Andrei Zhelyabov, under whose leadership experienced demolitionists worked. Under the guise of repair workers, they sailed to the bridge in boats and laid dynamite. Everything was ready by August 17, 1880. During the passage of the emperor, Zhelyabov and the worker Makar Teterka were supposed to sail up on a raft and blow up the bridge. At the appointed hour, Zhelyabov arrived at the place and began to wait for his partner, but he did not appear. It was impossible for one to act, and the royal carriage proceeded unhindered to the palace. Only after that Teterka came running. The terrorists did not take into account that the revolutionary worker did not have his own watch and could not correctly calculate the time. They did not have a second opportunity, since due to the autumn cold the emperor stopped working. travel to Tsarskoe Selo Repeated terrorist attacks forced the authorities to hesitate in choosing further political steps. The society insisted on carrying out political reforms that would bring Russia closer to the introduction of a constitution. And the government took tough measures in order to stabilize the situation. After AK Solovyov’s assassination attempt on the emperor, the posts of governor-general with broad police and military powers were introduced in St. Petersburg, Kharkov and Odessa. The explosion in the dining room of the Winter Palace led to the establishment of a special government body - the Supreme Administrative Commission. General Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov (1825-1888) was appointed its head, who from August 1880 also became the Minister of Internal Affairs with dictatorial powers. M. T. Loris-Melikov - former Kharkov governor general, hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877 -1878 , who conquered the Turkish fortress of Kars for Russia, was known as an intelligent, energetic person. He possessed the political flexibility necessary in those conditions and a penchant for liberal reforms. His method of governing the country was called by his contemporaries the “dictatorship of the heart” and the policy of “the wolf’s mouth and the fox’s tail.” Loris-Melikov resolutely and harshly suppressed the revolutionary movement and at the same time advocated the continuation of the reforms of Alexander II and the possible introduction of a constitution. Being a subtle politician and an experienced dignitary, the minister understood that the emperor, brought up in the consciousness of the value of autocratic power, would in every possible way resist any steps towards limiting it. Therefore, he tried to gain the confidence of Princess Yuryevskaya and promised to help realize her desire to become an empress. In Livadia, Loris-Melikov started conversations with the emperor about reforms, mainly in the presence of his wife, and repeatedly hinted, as if inadvertently, that the Russian people would be very pleased if the next queen were a woman of Russian blood, and not just another German princess. Alexander listened to these hints with visible benevolence, because the dictator said what the tsar himself was constantly thinking about. Under pressure from two people whom he respected and trusted almost infinitely, Alexander II came close to the political decision that his father adjured him to avoid - a slight limitation of his own power from - 122 by the power of an act of a constitutional type. Some time later, the third son of the emperor, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, told Minister of War D. A. Milyutin that on March 1, 1881, the tsar signed the report of the Secret Committee and, after Loris-Melikov left, announced to the grand dukes present in the office: “I have given my consent to this idea, although I do not hide from myself that we are moving along the path to a constitution.” The final consideration of the project by the Minister of Internal Affairs was scheduled for March 4, as Alexander II wanted to enlist the support of the Council of Ministers. The Emperor did not know that he would no longer be able to live through these three days. March 1, 1881 was a Sunday. Alexander II, after meeting with Loris-Melikov, the Grand Dukes and the traditional church service, wanted to devote him to pleasant activities. He went into his wife’s chambers and told her that he intended to attend the changing of the guards in the Mikhailovsky Manege, then pay a visit to his cousin, the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna, and before lunch, take a walk with the family in the Summer Garden. The writer Mark Aldanov, who studied the history of terrorism in Russia, wrote that Princess Yuryevskaya was oppressed by some strange premonition. She knew how important the document was signed by her husband in the morning, and asked Alexander not to go anywhere until it was approved by the Council of Ministers, to beware of a possible assassination attempt. But the emperor laughed it off, saying that the fortune teller predicted his death from the seventh terrorist attack, and today, if it happens, then only the sixth The spouses agreed that at exactly three quarters of three Ekaterina Mikhailovna would be waiting for her husband, fully dressed for a walk, and they would go to the Summer Garden. Princess Yuryevskaya's premonitions were not the fruit of the suspiciousness of an exalted lady. She knew: a day before this, Loris-Melikov informed the sovereign in writing, that the police arrested Andrei Zhelyabov and in response we should expect new terrorist attacks in the near future. On the evening of February 28, 123, meeting with the tsar, the minister asked him to limit travel around the capital, but he brushed aside the warnings. At a quarter to one on March 1, Alexander II left the Winter Palace in a carriage guarded by six Terek Cossacks. Another Cossack was sitting on the box next to the coachman. The royal carriage was followed by a sleigh with three policemen, among whom the eldest was Colonel Dvorzhitsky. The Emperor arrived at the Mikhailovsky Manege in a great mood Sunday changing of the guards in the presence of the sovereign was a tradition started by Paul I. In the arena there were also grand dukes, court adjutants general, and foreign ambassadors. During the ceremony, Alexander II had a friendly conversation with them and smiled warmly at the officers. After the divorce, he went to his cousin Ekaterina Mikhailovna, with whom he drank tea and talked about family matters. At a quarter past two, the tsar left her palace and went to the Winter Palace, accompanied by his guards. Along Inzhenernaya Street, Alexander II's carriage and police sleigh drove out onto the Catherine Canal. The embankment was almost empty. Several police agents were walking along it, a boy was walking with a basket, an officer was walking with two or three soldiers, and on the sidewalk stood a long-haired young man with a small bundle in his hand. This young man was Nikolai Ivanovich Rysakov - a member of the People's Will organization. . When the royal carriage caught up with him, he threw his bundle under the horses' hooves. An explosion was heard, which killed two Cossacks and a peddler boy and damaged the carriage. This was the same sixth assassination attempt that the emperor had jokingly talked about in the morning. Alexander II remained unharmed. The coachman persuaded him to stay in the carriage, but the dignity of a military man demanded a different action from the emperor. He got out of carriage 124 and hurried to the wounded Cossacks to tell them words of encouragement. The police arrived in time to grab Rysakov, who tried to escape, but stumbled and fell. Colonel Dvorzhitsky asked the Tsar to get into the sleigh and quickly leave the scene of the tragedy, but Alexander wanted to see his would-be killer and the victims. When he approached Rysakov, one of the passers-by who had run to the scene of the explosion asked: “Are you not wounded, Your Majesty?” The king replied: “No, nothing happened to me, thank God.” To which the terrorist shouted to him with an evil grin: “Aren’t you thanking God too early?” At the same moment, another killer standing at the railing of the canal, Ignatius Ioakimovich Grinevitsky, to whom no one paid attention in the confusion, rushed to Alexander II and threw another bomb at his feet, exactly the seventh in total. When the cloud of smoke cleared, several bodies lay on the sidewalk. Grinevitsky died on the spot. The emperor was mortally wounded. Both his legs were crushed, he was bleeding, but still tried to get up on his own, leaning on his hands. In a state of shock, he muttered: “Help me... Is the heir alive? . . Take me to the palace. There to die." He was put in Colonel Dvorzhitsky's sleigh and taken to Zimny. On the March snow of the Catherine Canal embankment, 17 people lay dead and wounded. Alexander II was carried into his personal room and laid on a soldier's bed, covered with an old overcoat, which served him instead of a blanket. The emperor was dying from loss of blood; medicine was then powerless against such wounds. All this time, Princess Yuryevskaya was in her chambers and waited for her husband to call her for a walk. However, instead of Alexander, a servant quickly entered the room to report that His Majesty was not feeling well. Ekaterina Mikhailovna took several bottles of medicine that the emperor usually used and went down to his room. The sight of the dying sovereign shocked her, but did not deprive her of her will and ability to act. She helped physician Botkin alleviate Alexander's suffering: she rubbed his temples with ether, brought him an oxygen pillow, and prepared bandages with which the doctor tried to stop the continuous bleeding. Other members of the imperial family who arrived at the palace, having learned about the assassination attempt on the emperor, did not interfere with Princess Yuryevskaya show your last concern for your husband. For a few minutes the king came to his senses and took communion, after which he lost consciousness. At half past three in the afternoon, Alexander II died from loss of blood in the arms of his wife. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, at that very moment the heir-Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, Alexander III, became emperor. His entourage immediately began to advise him to remove Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya from the court as soon as possible. But it was impossible to do this before the funeral. Ekaterina Mikhailovna insisted on fulfilling the will of the emperor to organize the burial ritual. The deceased was dressed in the uniform of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, but there was neither a crown nor orders on him, since he once told his wife: “When I will have to appear before the Lord, I don’t want to look like a circus monkey, and then it won’t be the time to pretend to be majestic.” While the coffin was in the Winter Palace, Princess Yuryevskaya came every day to say goodbye to her husband again and again. She was the only one allowed to lift the thick veil that covered the disfigured face of the sovereign. On the eve of transferring the body to the Peter and Paul Cathedral for burial, she cut off her magnificent Brown hair and placed them in the hands of her husband, who loved to stroke and caress them so much during his lifetime. Alexander III could not prevent Yuryevskaya from attending the funeral. French Ambassador Maurice Paleologue, a witness to the funeral ritual, wrote that after the heir and other members of the royal family said goodbye to the emperor, when foreign diplomats were already preparing to approach the coffin, the chief master of ceremonies asked them to wait. And then the following happened: “In the depths of the church, from the door adjacent to the sacristy, the Minister of the Court, Count Adlerberg, appears, supporting a fragile young woman under a long crepe veil. This is the morganatic wife of the late emperor, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yuryevskaya, née Princess Dolgorukaya. With unsteady steps she climbs the steps of the hearse. Kneeling down, she plunges into prayer, leaning her head against the body of the deceased. A few minutes later, she rises with difficulty and, leaning on the hand of Count Adlerberg, slowly disappears into the depths of the church...” Soon after the funeral, Princess Yuryevskaya and her children, at the insistence of Alexander III, left Russia and lived in Paris and Nice, where beautiful houses were purchased in her name during the emperor’s lifetime. Ekaterina Mikhailovna was allowed to take with her from her husband’s personal belongings everything that had to do with his tragic death, including the pectoral cross that was on him March 1, and personal icons. In her luggage was a death mask, removed from the face of Alexander II on March 3, 1881. The items were kept by Yuryevskaya until her death, which happened in Nice on February 15, 1922. In 1931, they were sold at auctions in Paris and London. The Romanov family, of course, could not even imagine that by expelling the Yuryevskys from Russia, it was saving their lives. While members of the imperial house were killed by terrorists and executed by revolutionaries, the Yuryevskys lived in grand style in hospitable France. In the banks of this country, they had substantial sums in their accounts, which Alexander II and his entourage took care of in their time 12-7 Through the Yuryevskys and the Dukes of Nassau with royal family th the Pushkin family became related. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin had a difficult relationship with Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. Nikolai Pavlovich granted him the humiliating rank of chamber cadet for the great poet, with which very young aristocrats usually began serving under the sovereign. Evil tongues said that this was done so that the emperor, a connoisseur of female beauty, could see the beautiful Natalya Nikolaevna Pushkina at court holidays and balls. At that time, Alexander Sergeevich, who was jealous of his wife for the tsar, could not even imagine that his own granddaughter would marry the grandson of Nicholas I, and his grandson would marry the granddaughter of the same emperor But family destinies often intersect in the most bizarre way. Pushkin’s youngest daughter Natalya Alexandrovna, at sixteen years old, despite the dissatisfaction of her mother and stepfather, General P. P. Lansky, married Lieutenant Colonel of the Absheron Infantry Regiment Mikhail Leontyevich Dubelt, the son of General L. V. Dubelt, chief of staff of the corps gendarmes under Nicholas I, who carried out a “posthumous search” at Pushkin’s apartment. Dubelt Jr. was a gambler and a reveler, and the Lansky family foresaw trouble from this marriage. After the wedding, the young people left St. Petersburg and went to Lieutenant Colonel M.L. Dubelt’s place of service in Ukraine: first in Nemirov, then in Elizavetgrad. There, Natalya Pushkina belatedly became convinced that her older relatives were right. Her husband soon squandered not only his own fortune, but also Natalya’s dowry - 28 thousand silver rubles, which she inherited from her father. In addition, Dubelt turned out to be a mentally unstable person with a difficult character. He was constantly jealous of his wife, made terrible scandals and even beat her. 128 In 1862, Natalya Alexandrovna decided to start divorce proceedings, which was rare in those days, and therefore it was lengthy and very difficult for her family. Her half-sister A.P. Lanskaya-Arapova considered this scandalous divorce to be the reason for the premature death of their mother N.N. Pushkina-Lanskaya, who “began to melt like a candle” from shame and worries. In anticipation of a divorce, Natalya Alexandrovna and her three children (two daughters and a son) went abroad for four years. There, in 1867, she got married in London to the crown prince of one of the German duchies, Nicholas Wilhelm of Nassau. She met him 11 years ago in St. Petersburg at one of the palace receptions. Then the prince, an officer in the Prussian army, was a guest at the coronation of Alexander II. He was related to the Romanovs: his elder brother, Grand Duke Wilhelm Adolf, was the husband of the emperor's cousin, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna. Natalya Alexandrovna Pushkina did not belong to a titled ruling family, therefore she could not bear the surname and title of her husband - a person of royal blood. Her new son-in-law, Prince George of Walden-Pyrmont, bestowed upon her the title of Countess of Merenberg, with which she became the morganatic wife of the Duke of Nassau. Countess Merenberg remained abroad until the end of her life. She lived mainly in Germany, in Wiesbaden, only occasionally visiting Russia. From her second marriage, she had two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter of the Prince of Nassau and Countess Merenberg, Sofya Nikolaevna Merenberg, was born in 1891. married the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I, Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov. The marriage of a member of the Russian imperial family and the semi-legitimate daughter of a German prince was concluded without the consent of the head of the Romanov house - Alexander III. Outraged by this, the emperor informed the Prince of Nassau and his brother Duke Adolph of Luxembourg in a telegram that such a marriage would be considered in Russia as invalid and did not take place. Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov refused to annul his marriage to Sophia Merenberg and was banned from living in Russia. The couple settled in England. They had a wonderful family, three children, and they did not want to give up their happiness for the sake of titles and the illusory honor of belonging to the imperial clan. Even when the next Tsar Nicholas II allowed them to return to Russia, Mikhail and Sofia Romanov did not want to do this. Sofia's brother Georg Nikolaevich Merenberg married his Serene Highness Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya, the daughter of Alexander II from a morganatic marriage with Dolgoruka. This union once again united the Pushkins with the Romanovs. This married couple also never returned to Russia. The third of the younger Merenbergs, Alexandra Nikolaevna, married the Argentine nobleman Maximo de Elia. The descendants of the Nassau-Merenbergs now live in different countries of the Old and New Worlds. The fate of the descendants of Alexander II from his first marriage who remained in Russia, turned out to be much more dramatic. The same fate befell the reforms of this sovereign. Let us recall that with the support of Princess Yuryevskaya, Alexander decided to make changes in the political structure of Russia. On April 2, a manifesto was to appear in print, notifying society about upcoming innovations. But the unexpected death of the Tsar disrupted the course of these events. When the servants were already washing the body of the deceased Alexander II, his heir Alexander III, Count Loris-Melikov approached and asked whether he should publish the manifesto handed to him early in the morning. At that moment, Alexander III answered him without any hesitation: “I will always respect my father’s will. Order it to be printed tomorrow.” However, at night he sent Loris-I3O Melikov a written order to suspend the publication of the document. This act was the result of pressure on the new sovereign from his inner circle, and first of all, the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, K. P. Pobedonostsev. Those close to him insisted that the decisions of Alexander II be frozen by his son, and then they should be renounced altogether. Unfortunately, this is what happened. Already the next day after the death of Alexander II, the mood in the Winter Palace changed dramatically. The Romanov family almost openly blamed the Minister of Internal Affairs Loris-Melikov for the fact that the last attempt on the sovereign’s life was successful. The meeting scheduled by Alexander II for March 4 was postponed by Alexander III to the 8th. It saw a dramatic clash between supporters of reforms led by Loris-Melikov, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and D. A. Milyutin and conservatives led by K. P. Pobedonostsev, who delivered an accusatory speech denying the need for constitutional changes in Russia. The meeting did not make any decision, but on April 29 they published the Emperor’s Manifesto, which proclaimed his will to preserve the inviolability of the foundations of the autocracy in the form they had taken shape at the end of the 18th century. Loris-Melikov, Milyutin and many of their supporters from among the ministers and dignitaries were dismissed. Alexander III dismissed his liberal uncle, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, from the posts of fleet commander, naval minister and chairman of the State Council. Konstantin Nikolayevich left St. Petersburg and settled in Crimea, leading the life of a private person. How can one not recall the words of another outstanding exile and exile, the poet Joseph Brodsky, written a hundred years later: “Since you happen to be born in an empire, it is better to live in a remote province by the sea.” The resignation and voluntary exile of Konstantin put an end to the possibilities of Russia's development in the direction of a constitutional state of law. Former Minister of War D. A. Milyutin wrote in his diary: “Reaction under the guise of nationality and Orthodoxy is a sure path to death for the state.” But neither Milyutin nor anyone else knew that by rejecting the transition project government system Russia towards a constitutional monarchy, Alexander III unwittingly signed the death warrant for his son and grandson, and for many other members of the Romanov family who fell under the “red wheel” after the 1917 revolution. Neither society nor his family expected anything outstanding from Alexander III. He devoted his life to the preservation of autocracy, the archaic nature of which his father already understood. His first actions after ascending the throne were acts of revenge and memory. On April 3, 1881, a public execution of the participants and organizers of the assassination attempt on Alexander II took place in St. Petersburg. All of them were betrayed by Rysakov, whose bombing ended in failure. By the verdict of the Special Presence of the Government Senate, Narodnaya Volya members A.I. Zhelyabov, S.L. Perovskaya, N.I. Kibalchich, T.M. Mikhailov and N.I. Rysakov were hanged. Grinevitsky died at the scene of the explosion without identifying himself. His head was cut off and put on public display for identification. In vain LN Tolstoy cried out for mercy in his letter to Alexander III: “Forgive me, repay good for evil, and out of hundreds of villains they will go over not to you, not to us (it doesn’t matter), but will pass from the Devil to God, and thousands, millions of hearts will tremble with joy and tenderness at the sight of good from the throne at such a terrible moment for the son of a murdered father...” However, the new emperor was a different person and chose revenge over forgiveness In memory of the death of Alexander II on the Catherine Canal (now the Griboedov Canal) a church was founded. This temple, I32 called the Savior on Spilled Blood, is built in the Russian style and resembles St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. It took almost twenty years to build and was consecrated only on August 19, 1908. The church has survived to this day and is clearly visible from Nevsky Prospekt. Alexander II died at the age of 63. For 26 years he ruled a huge empire, for which he probably did everything he could, given the characteristics of his character and upbringing. The fatal explosion on the Catherine Canal prevented him from doing more. Alexander was respected by both his comrades and political opponents. The famous revolutionary anarchist Prince P. A. Kropotkin wrote about the impression that the emperor made on him, then still a young man: “Being an active person in court life for a daredevil of my age was more than curious. Moreover, it must be said that I then looked at Alexander II as a hero of the family; he did not attach importance to court ceremonies, then began work at five o’clock in the morning and stubbornly fought against the reactionary party in order to carry out a series of reforms, of which the liberation of the peasants was only the first step.” The new Emperor Alexander III ascended the throne as an adult, fully formed man. In 1881 he was 36 years old. Before that, for a decade and a half, he had participated in the political life of the country as the heir-crown prince. For him, in Russian politics and family life There were no secrets or insoluble contradictions in the house of the Romanovs. He was conservative and old-fashioned; perhaps too conservative and too old-fashioned for his time. With his accession in the history of the country and in the history of the imperial Romanov dynasty, a new era began - an era of stagnation that turned into crisis.
The future ruler of Russia was born on April 17, 1818 in Moscow. He became the first and only heir to the throne born in the mother see since 1725. There, on May 5, the baby was baptized in the Cathedral of the Chudov Monastery.
The boy received a good education at home. One of his mentors was the poet V. A. Zhukovsky. He told the crowned parents that he would prepare his pupil not to be a rude martinet, but a wise and enlightened monarch, so that he would see in Russia not a parade ground and a barracks, but a great nation.
The poet’s words turned out to be not empty bravado. Both he and other educators did a lot to ensure that the heir to the throne became a truly educated, cultured and progressively thinking person. From the age of 16, the young man began to take part in the administration of the empire. His father introduced him to the Senate, then to the Holy Governing Synod and other highest government bodies. The young man also completed military service, and very successfully. During the Crimean War (1853-1856) he commanded the troops stationed in the capital and held the rank of general.
The reign of Alexander II (1855-1881)
Domestic policy
Emperor Alexander II, who ascended the throne, inherited a difficult inheritance. A lot of foreign policy and domestic policy issues have accumulated. The financial situation of the country was extremely difficult due to the Crimean War. The state, in fact, found itself isolated, pitting itself against the strongest countries in Europe. Therefore, the first step of the new emperor was the conclusion of the Paris Peace, signed on March 18, 1856.
The signing was attended by Russia on the one hand and the allied states of the Crimean War on the other. These are France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia and Ottoman Empire. The peace conditions for the Russian Empire turned out to be quite mild. She returned the previously occupied territories to Turkey, and in return received Kerch, Balaklava, Kamysh and Sevastopol. Thus, the foreign policy blockade was broken.
On August 26, 1856, the coronation took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. In this regard, the highest manifesto was issued. He granted benefits to certain categories of subjects, suspended recruitment for 3 years and abolished military settlements since 1857, which were widely practiced during the reign of Nicholas I.
But the most important thing in the activities of the new emperor was abolition of serfdom. A manifesto about this was announced on February 19, 1861. At that time, there were 23 million serfs out of 62 million people inhabiting the Russian Empire. This reform was not perfect, but it destroyed the existing social order and became a catalyst for other reforms that affected the court, finance, army, and education.
The merit of Emperor Alexander II is that he found the strength to suppress the resistance of opponents of the changes, which were many nobles and officials. In general, public opinion in the empire sided with the sovereign. And the court flatterers called him Tsar-Liberator. This nickname has taken root among the people.
A discussion of the constitutional structure began in the country. But the question was not about a constitutional monarchy, but only about some limitation of absolute royal power. It was planned to expand the State Council and create a General Commission, which would include representatives of zemstvos. As for the Parliament, they did not intend to create it.
The emperor planned to sign the papers, which were the first step towards a constitution. He announced this on March 1, 1881 during breakfast with Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich. And literally a couple of hours later the sovereign was killed by terrorists. The Russian Empire was once again unlucky.
At the end of January 1863, an uprising began in Poland. At the end of April 1864 it was suppressed. 128 instigators were executed, 800 were sent to hard labor. But these speeches accelerated peasant reform in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus.
Foreign policy
Emperor Alexander II pursued a foreign policy taking into account the further expansion of the borders of the Russian Empire. The defeat in the Crimean War showed the backwardness and weakness of weapons in the land army and navy. Therefore, a new foreign policy concept was created, which was inextricably linked with technological reforms in the field of weapons. All these issues were supervised by Chancellor A. M. Gorchakov. He was considered an experienced and efficient diplomat and significantly increased the prestige of Russia.
In 1877-1878, the Russian Empire fought with Turkey. As a result of this military campaign, Bulgaria was liberated. It became an independent state. Vast territories were annexed in Central Asia. The empire also included the North Caucasus, Bessarabia, and the Far East. As a result of all this, the country has become one of the largest in the world.
In 1867, Russia sold Alaska to America (for more details, see the article Who Sold Alaska to America). Subsequently, this caused a lot of controversy, especially since the price was relatively low. In 1875, the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan in exchange for Sakhalin Island. In these matters, Alexander II was guided by the fact that Alaska and the Kuril Islands are remote, unprofitable lands that are difficult to manage. At the same time, some politicians criticized the emperor for annexing Central Asia and the Caucasus. The conquest of these lands cost Russia great human sacrifices and material costs.
The personal life of Emperor Alexander II was complex and confusing. In 1841 he married Princess Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse (1824-1880) of the Hessian dynasty. The bride converted to Orthodoxy in December 1840 and became Maria Alexandrovna, and on April 16, 1841 the wedding took place. The couple have been married for almost 40 years. The wife gave birth to 8 children, but the crowned husband was not distinguished by fidelity. He regularly took on mistresses (favorites).
Alexander II with his wife Maria Alexandrovna
Her husband's infidelities and childbirth undermined the empress's health. She was often sick, and died in the summer of 1880 from tuberculosis. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.
Less than a year had passed after the death of his wife, and the sovereign entered into an organic marriage with his longtime favorite Ekaterina Dolgoruka (1847-1922). The relationship with her began in 1866, when the girl was 19 years old. In 1972, she gave birth to a son from the emperor, named George. Then three more children were born.
It should be noted that Emperor Alexander II loved Dolgorukaya very much and was very attached to her. By a special decree, he bestowed the surname Yuryevsky and the titles of His Serene Highness on the children born from her. As for the environment, it disapproved of the organic marriage with Dolgoruka. The hostility was so strong that after the death of the sovereign, the newly-made wife and their children emigrated from the country and settled in Nice. There Catherine died in 1922.
The years of Alexander II's reign were marked by several attempts on his life (read more in the article Attempts on Alexander II). In 1879, the Narodnaya Volya members sentenced the emperor to death. However, fate protected the sovereign for a long time, and the assassination attempts were thwarted. It should be noted here that the Russian Tsar was not known for cowardice and, despite the danger, appeared in in public places either alone or with a small retinue.
But on March 1, 1881, the autocrat’s luck changed. The terrorists carried out their murder plan. The assassination attempt was carried out on the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg. The body of the sovereign was mutilated by the bomb thrown. On the same day, Emperor Alexander II died, having taken communion. He was buried on March 7 in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to his first wife Maria Alexandrovna. Alexander III ascended the Russian throne.
Leonid Druzhnikov
Alexander II Nikolaevich (Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov; April 17, 1818 Moscow - March 1 (13), 1881 St. Petersburg)
Alexander II
The eldest son of first the grand ducal, and since 1825, the imperial couple Nicholas I and Alexandra Feodorovna, daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William III.
Born on April 17, 1818, on Bright Wednesday, at 11 o’clock in the morning in the Bishop’s House of the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin, where the entire Imperial family, with the exception of the uncle of the newborn Alexander I, who was on an inspection trip to the south of Russia, arrived in early April for fasting and celebrating Easter; A 201-gun salvo was fired in Moscow. On May 5, the sacraments of baptism and confirmation were performed over the baby in the church of the Chudov Monastery by Moscow Archbishop Augustine, in honor of which Maria Feodorovna gave a gala dinner.
The future emperor was educated at home. His mentor (with the responsibility of supervising the entire process of upbringing and education) was the poet V.A. Zhukovsky, teacher of the Law of God and Sacred History - Archpriest Gerasim Pavsky (until 1835), military instructor - Karl Karlovich Merder, as well as: M.M. Speransky (legislation), K. I. Arsenyev (statistics and history), E. F. Kankrin (finance), F. I. Brunov (foreign policy), Academician Collins (arithmetic), K. B. Trinius (natural history) .
According to numerous testimonies, in his youth he was very impressionable and amorous. So, during a trip to London in 1839, he had a fleeting, but strong, love for the young Queen Victoria, who would later become for him the most hated ruler in Europe.
Upon reaching adulthood on April 22, 1834 (the day he took the oath), the Heir-Tsarevich was introduced by his father into the main state institutions of the Empire: in 1834 into the Senate, in 1835 he was introduced into the Holy Governing Synod, from 1841 a member of the State Council, in 1842 - the Committee ministers.
In 1837, Alexander made a long trip around Russia and visited 29 provinces of the European part, Transcaucasia and Western Siberia, and in 1838-39 he visited Europe.
The future emperor's military service was quite successful. In 1836 he already became a major general, and from 1844 a full general, commanding the guards infantry. Since 1849, Alexander was the head of the military educational institutions, Chairman of the Secret Committees on Peasant Affairs in 1846 and 1848. During the Crimean War of 1853-56, with the declaration of martial law in the St. Petersburg province, he commanded all the troops of the capital.
In his life, Alexander did not adhere to any particular concept in his views on the history of Russia and the tasks of public administration. Having ascended the throne in 1855, he received a difficult legacy. None of the issues of his father’s 30-year reign (peasant, eastern, Polish, etc.) were resolved; Russia was defeated in the Crimean War.
The first of his important decisions was the conclusion of the Paris Peace in March 1856. A “thaw” has set in in the socio-political life of the country. On the occasion of his coronation in August 1856, he declared an amnesty for the Decembrists, Petrashevites, and participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-31, suspended recruitment for 3 years, and in 1857 liquidated military settlements.
Not being a reformer by vocation or temperament, Alexander became one in response to the needs of the time as a man of sober mind and good will.
Alexander II
It is inappropriate to evaluate the results of the complex and contradictory reform activities of Alexander II in a reference article. At the moment we are interested in, only one reform has become a fact (but what a reform!) - the peasant reform. But its practical implementation has only just begun. For details of the peasant reform, see the articles already posted earlier.
Next, I refer those interested to a rather good popular journalistic book: L. Lyashenko. Alexander II, or the story of three solitudes
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Maria Alexandrovna (August 8, 1824, Darmstadt - June 8, 1880, St. Petersburg) - wife of the Russian Emperor Alexander II and mother of the future Emperor Alexander III.
Born Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Maria of Hesse (1824-1841), after her marriage she received the title of Grand Duchess (1841-1855), after her husband's accession to the Russian throne she became empress (March 2, 1855 - June 8, 1880).
Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine of Baden, Grand Duchess of Hesse and her chamberlain Baron von Sénarclin de Grancy. Wilhelmina's husband, Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse, to avoid scandal and thanks to the intervention of Wilhelmina's siblings, recognized Maria and her brother Alexander as his children (the other two illegitimate children died in infancy). Despite the recognition, they continued to live separately in Heiligenberg, while Ludwig II lived in Darmstadt.
Empress Maria Alexandrovna
In 1838, the future Emperor Alexander II, traveling around Europe to find a wife, fell in love with 14-year-old Maria of Hesse and married her in 1841, although he was well aware of the secret of her origin.
Wedding silver ruble of Nicholas I for the wedding of the heir to the throne Alexander Nikolaevich and Princess Maria of Hesse
On the initiative of Maria Alexandrovna, all-class women's gymnasiums and diocesan schools were opened in Russia, and the Red Cross was established.
Cities in Russia were named in honor of Maria Alexandrovna:
Mariinsky Posad (Chuvashia). Until 1856 - the village of Sundyr. On June 18, 1856, Emperor Alexander II renamed the village to the city of Mariinsky Posad in honor of his wife.
Mariinsk (Kemerovo region). Renamed in 1857 (former name - Kiyskoe).
Here it is website(school local history museum), dedicated to Maria Alexandrovna.
* * *
At the point in time that interests us, the heir to the throne is considered... no, not the future Emperor Alexander III. And the eldest son of Alexander II is Nikolai Alexandrovich.
Nikolai Alexandrovich (8 (20) September 1843 - 12 (24) April 1865, Nice) - Tsarevich and Grand Duke, eldest son of Emperor Alexander II, ataman of all Cossack troops, major general of His Imperial Majesty's retinue, chancellor of the University of Helsingfors.
Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich
In the early 1860s, accompanied by his tutor Count S.G. Stroganov, he made study tours around the country. In 1864 he went abroad. While abroad, on September 20, 1864, he was engaged to the daughter of Christian IX, King of Denmark, Princess Dagmar (1847-1928), who later became the wife of his brother, Emperor Alexander III. While traveling in Italy, he fell ill and died of tuberculous meningitis.
Heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich with his bride, Princess Dagmara
* * *
In total, at the time we are interested in, the imperial couple had seven children (and a total of 8 children were born in the family)
The first child of the future Emperor Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna, was born in 1842 and died suddenly at the age of seven. After her death, no one in the imperial family named their daughters after Alexander, since all the princesses with that name died early, before reaching the age of 20.
Second child - Nikolai Alexandrovich, Tsarevich (see above)
The third is Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III (born in 1845)
Further:
Vladimir (born in 1847)
Alexey (born in 1850)
Maria (born in 1853)
Sergei (born in 1857) (the same one who would later be killed by the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist Ivan Kalyaev in 1905)
Pavel (born in 1860)
At least two other members of the imperial family played a major role in carrying out the Great Reforms: Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (September 9, 1827 St. Petersburg - January 13, 1892 Pavlovsk) - the second son of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I.
His father decided that Konstantin should become almiral of the fleet and, from the age of five, entrusted his upbringing to the famous navigator Fyodor Litka. In 1835 he accompanied his parents on a trip to Germany. In 1844 he was appointed commander of the brig Ulysses, in 1847 - the frigate Pallada. On August 30, 1848 he was appointed to the retinue of His Imperial Majesty and chief of the Naval Cadet Corps.
In 1848 in St. Petersburg he married Alexandra Friederike Henrietta Paulina Marianna Elisabeth, the fifth daughter of Duke Joseph of Saxe-Altenburg (in Orthodoxy Alexandra Iosifovna).
In 1849 he was appointed to sit on the State and Admiralty Councils. In 1850 he headed the Committee to revise and supplement the General Code of Naval Charter and became a member of the State Council and the Council of Military Educational Institutions. Promoted to vice admiral in 1853. During the Crimean War, Konstantin Nikolaevich took part in the defense of Kronstadt from the attack of the Anglo-French fleet.
Since 1855 - admiral of the fleet; from that time on he managed the fleet and the maritime department as a minister. The first period of his management was marked by a number of important reforms: the previous sailing fleet was replaced by a steam one, the available composition of coastal teams was reduced, office work was simplified, and emerital cash desks were established; Corporal punishment has been abolished.
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich
He adhered to liberal values, and in 1857 he was elected chairman of the peasant committee that developed reform projects.
Viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland from June 1862 to October 1863. His viceroy fell on the period before and during the January Uprising. Together with the civil governor of the CPU, Marquis Alexander Wielopolsky, he tried to pursue a conciliatory policy and carry out liberal reforms, but without success. Soon after Konstantin Nikolaevich arrived in Warsaw, an attempt was made on his life. Journeyman tailor Ludovic Yaroshinsky shot him point-blank with a pistol on the evening of June 21 (July 4), 1862, when he was leaving the theater, but Konstantin Nikolaevich was only slightly wounded. (more details about the events in the Central Election Commission on the eve of the January Uprising will be discussed in a separate article)
* * *
Really an outstanding person there was Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, widow of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (younger brother of Alexander I and Nicholas I).
Before accepting Orthodoxy - Princess Frederike Charlotte Marie of Württemberg (German: Friederike Charlotte Marie Prinzessin von Württemberg, December 24 (January 6) 1806 - January 9 (22), 1873)
Princess of the House of Württemberg, daughter of Duke Paul Karl Friedrich August and Princess of the Ducal House of Saxe-Altenburg Charlotte Dahlia Friederike Louise Sophia Theresa.
She was brought up in Paris at the private boarding house Campan.
At the age of 15, she was chosen by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, also a representative of the House of Württemberg, as the wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the fourth son of Emperor Paul I.
Converted to Orthodoxy and was awarded the title Grand Duchess as Elena Pavlovna (1823). On February 8 (21), 1824, she was married according to the Greek-Eastern Orthodox rite with Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich.
In 1828, after the death of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, according to Her Highest will, control of the Mariinsky and Midwifery Institutes passed to the Grand Duchess. She was the chief of the 10th Dragoon Novgorod Regiment.
She showed herself as a philanthropist: she gave funds to the artist Ivanov to transport the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” to Russia, and patronized K. P. Bryullov, I. K. Aivazovsky, and Anton Rubinstein. Having supported the idea of establishing the Russian Musical Society and Conservatory, she financed this project by making large donations, including proceeds from the sale of diamonds that personally belonged to her. The conservatory's primary classes opened in her palace in 1858.
She supported the actor I. F. Gorbunov, the tenor Nilsky, and the surgeon Pirogov. She contributed to the posthumous publication of the collected works of N. V. Gogol. She was interested in the activities of the university, the Academy of Sciences, and the Free Economic Society.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna
In 1853-1856 she was one of the founders of the Holy Cross community of sisters of mercy with dressing stations and mobile hospitals - the community charter was approved on October 25, 1854. She issued an appeal to all Russian women not bound by family responsibilities, calling for help for the sick and wounded. The premises of the Mikhailovsky Castle were provided at the disposal of the community for storing things and medicines; the Grand Duchess financed its activities. In the fight against the views of society, which did not approve of this kind of activity by women, the Grand Duchess went to hospitals every day and bandaged the wounded with her own hands.
For the cross that the sisters were to wear, Elena Pavlovna chose St. Andrew's ribbon. On the cross there were inscriptions: “Take My yoke upon you” and “You, O God, are my strength.” Elena Pavlovna explained her choice like this: “Only in humble patience do we receive strength and strength from God.”
On November 5, 1854, after mass, the Grand Duchess herself put a cross on each of the thirty-five sisters, and the next day they left for Sevastopol, where Pirogov was waiting for them.
On N.I. Pirogov, the great Russian scientist and surgeon, was entrusted with training and then supervising their work in the Crimea. From December 1854 to January 1856, more than 200 nurses worked in Crimea.
After the end of the war, an outpatient clinic and a free school for 30 girls were additionally opened in the community.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna among the sisters of mercy, mid-1850s
The Grand Duchess provided guardianship to the school of St. Helena; founded in memory of her daughters the Elisabeth Children's Hospital (St. Petersburg), and the Elisabeth and Mary orphanages (Moscow, Pavlovsk); reorganized the Maximilian Hospital, where, on her initiative, a permanent hospital was created.
Since the late 1840s, evenings were held in the Mikhailovsky Palace - “Thursdays” at which issues of politics and culture, literary novelties were discussed. The circle of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, which met on “Thursdays,” became the center of communication for leading statesmen - the developers and conductors of the Great Reforms.
According to A.F. Koni, meetings with Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna were the main discussion platform where plans for reforms of the second half of the 19th century century. Supporters of reforms called her among themselves “the benefactor mother.”
In an effort to cause a positive shift in the sentiments of the nobility regarding peasant reform, in 1856 she took the initiative to liberate the peasants on her estate Karlovka, Poltava province, which included 12 villages and villages, 9090 acres of land, with a population of 7392 men and 7625 women. A plan was developed with the manager, Baron Engelhart, which provided for the personal liberation of the peasants and the provision of land to them for a ransom.
In March 1856, Elena Pavlovna, together with N. A. Milyutin (brother of D. A. Milyutin, also a liberal statesman and one of the main developers of peasant reform), developed an action plan for the liberation of peasants in Poltava and adjacent provinces, which received preliminary approval from the Sovereign .
By patronizing liberal figures - the Milyutin brothers, Lansky, Cherkassky, Samarin and others - Elena Pavlovna acted as one of the leading forces of the upcoming peasant reform.
For her activities to liberate the peasants, she received the honorary title in the society “Princesse La Liberte”. She was awarded a gold medal by the Emperor.
Elena Pavlovna was a widely educated person, in her youth she was friends with A.S. Pushkin, then with I.S. Turgenev, communicated with the entire intellectual elite of Russia at that time; attended lectures on a variety of subjects, including technical subjects - agronomy, military statistics, etc.
The death of her 4 daughters and her husband (in 1849), for whom she mourned until her death in 1873, made a grave impression on the Grand Duchess.
Growing up in a Protestant family, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna was a deeply religious Orthodox Christian. Having been baptized in honor of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Queen Helen of Constantinople, she became close to the Feast of the Exaltation, especially caring for the Exaltation Church of the Moscow Yamskaya Settlement in St. Petersburg; as a gift to the temple she brought icons of Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen with particles of the Cross of the Lord, the honorable relics of John the Baptist, Apostle Andrew the First-Called, Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and St. John Chrysostom; I ordered a large altarpiece of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross for the church. The image was created by the icon painter Fadeev in a specially designated hall of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
On the instructions of Elena Pavlovna, the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, a short prayer book and the penitential canon of Andrew of Crete were translated and published in French, “in order to acquaint foreigners with the beauty and depth of our worship and make it easier for those who have accepted Orthodoxy to understand our prayers.” In 1862, in Carlsbad, A.I. Koshelev, with the approval of the Grand Duchess, initiated a subscription for construction there Orthodox church, completed within two years.
According to Count P. A. Valuev, with the death of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna in 1873, “the brilliant mental lamp went out. She patronized many things and created many things...”; “It’s unlikely that anyone will replace her,” I. S. Turgenev wrote sadly.
N. Lavrov "Russian Emperor Alexander II"
“He did not want to seem better than he was, and was often better than he seemed” (V.O. Klyuchevsky).
All-Russian Emperor, Tsar of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov - the first son of Nicholas I from his marriage to Alexandra Feodorovna, daughter of the Prussian king Frederick William III, was born in the Kremlin, baptized in the Miracle Monastery and at baptism awarded the highest Russian Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
Upbringing
His birth is a long-awaited event in the royal family, because... Nikolai's older brothers had no sons. In this regard, he was raised as the future heir to the throne.
According to tradition, he was immediately appointed chief of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. At the age of 7 he was promoted to cornet, and at the age of 11 he already commanded a company. Alexander liked both military service and war games, but as the heir to the throne, the idea of his special purpose was constantly instilled in him - “to live for others.”
His systematic home education began at the age of 6. His father chose his mentors himself. The poet V.A. was appointed teacher. Zhukovsky, who compiled the “Teaching Plan” for 12 years. The basis of this plan was comprehensive education combined with morality. Zhukovsky was also a teacher of the Russian language. The teacher of the Law of God and Sacred History was Archpriest G. Pavsky, the military instructor was Captain K. Merder, a simple officer awarded for bravery at Austerlitz. He was an intelligent and noble man who worked in a cadet school and had experience working with children. Legislation was taught by M.M. Speransky, statistics and history - K.I. Arsenyev, economics – E.F. Kankrin, foreign policy - F.I. Brunnov, arithmetic - Academician Collins, natural history - K.B. Trinius, famous German and Russian botanist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
F. Kruger "Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich"
As a result, the prince received a good education, was fluent in French, German and English languages, from childhood he was distinguished by his responsiveness and impressionability, mental alertness, good manners and sociability.
But at the same time, the teachers noted that he was hot-tempered and unrestrained; gives in to difficulties, not having a strong will, unlike his father. K. Merder noted that sometimes he acted not out of inner need, but out of vanity or the desire to please his father and receive praise.
Nicholas I personally supervised his son’s education, organized exams twice a year and attended them himself. From the age of 16 he began to attract Alexander to state affairs: the prince was supposed to participate in meetings of the Senate, then he was introduced to the Synod, and in 1836 he was promoted to major general and was included in the tsar’s retinue.
The process of education of the crown prince ended with travels around Russia (May-December 1837) and abroad (May 1838 - June 1839). Before his trip to Russia, Nicholas I prepared a special “instruction” for his son, which said: “Your first duty will be to see everything with the indispensable goal of becoming thoroughly familiar with the state over which sooner or later you are destined to reign. Therefore, your attention should be equally directed to everything... in order to gain an understanding of the present state of affairs.”
Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich
During this trip, Alexander visited 28 provinces, seeing with his own eyes the ugliness of Russian reality. He was the first of the Romanov family to visit Siberia, where he met with the Decembrists, as a result of which he addressed his father in several letters “for the forgiveness of some unfortunates” and achieved a mitigation of their fate. On the journey, the Tsarevich was accompanied by Adjutant General Kavelin, the poet Zhukovsky, teacher of history and geography of Russia Arsenyev, physician Enokhin and young officers.
Later he even visited the Caucasus, where he distinguished himself in battle during an attack by highlanders, for which he was awarded the order St. George 4th degree.
Before leaving abroad, Nicholas I admonished his son: “Many things will tempt you, but upon closer examination you will be convinced that not everything deserves imitation; ... we must always preserve our nationality, our imprint, and woe to us if we fall behind it; in it is our strength, our salvation, our uniqueness.”
During his trip abroad, Alexander visited the countries of Central Europe, Scandinavia, Italy and England. In Germany, he met his future wife, Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, with whom they married two years later.
I. Makarov "Empress Maria Alexandrovna"
Maria Alexandrovna loved music and was well versed in it, and knew the latest European literature well. The breadth of her interests and spiritual qualities amazed many with whom she happened to meet. “With her intelligence, she surpasses not only other women, but also most men. This is an unprecedented combination of intelligence with purely feminine charm and... a charming character,” wrote the poet A.K. Tolstoy. In Russia, Maria Alexandrovna soon became known for her widespread charity - Mariinsky hospitals, gymnasiums and orphanages were in her field of vision and spread, earning high praise from her contemporaries.
In 1841, Nicholas I appointed the heir to the State Council, which was actually the beginning of his state activities.
And since 1842, Alexander already performed the duties of the emperor during his absence in the capital. At this stage of his activity, he shared the conservative views of his father: in 1848 he supported preventive measures to tighten censorship in connection with revolutionary events in Europe, concerning the protection of educational institutions from the “revolutionary infection.”
Beginning of the reign
Monogram of Alexander II
The sudden death of Nicholas I, accelerated by the tragic events of the Crimean War, naturally led Alexander to the throne. Russia was faced with a number of acute problems that Nicholas I could not solve: the peasant problem, the eastern, Polish and other problems, state financial problems upset by the Crimean War, the international isolation of Russia, etc. Nicholas in the last hours of his life said to his son: “I surrender my command to you, but, unfortunately, not in the order you wanted, leaving you with a lot of work and worries.”
Alexander's first decisive step was the conclusion of the Paris Peace in 1856 with conditions that were not the worst for Russia. He then visited Finland and Poland, where he called on the local nobility to “give up their dreams,” which strengthened his position as a decisive emperor. In Germany, he secured a “dual alliance” with the Prussian king (his mother’s brother) Frederick William IV, thereby weakening the foreign policy blockade of Russia.
But, having begun his reign with effective support for the conservative views of his father, under the pressure of circumstances he was forced to switch to a policy of reform.
N. Lavrov "Portrait of Emperor Alexander II"
Alexander's reformsII
In December 1855, the Supreme Censorship Committee was closed and the free issuance of foreign passports was allowed. By Coronation Day (August 1856), an amnesty was declared for political prisoners, and police supervision was weakened.
But Alexander understood that serfdom hampered the development of the state, and this was the basis for returning again to the peasant issue, which was the main one at that moment. Speaking to the nobles in March 1856, he said: “There are rumors that I want to declare the liberation of serfdom. This is not fair... But I won’t tell you that I am completely against it. We live in such an age that in time this must happen... It is much better for it to happen from above than from below.”
In 1857, to consider this issue, a Secret Committee was formed of the emperor's proxies, which began developing regulations in individual regions, in order to then unite them for all of Russia into the “Regulations” on the abolition of serfdom. Commission members N. Milyutin, Y. Rostovtsev and others tried to prepare compromise solutions, but the constant pressure of the nobility on the authorities led to the fact that the project protected primarily the interests of the landowners. On February 19, 1861, the Manifesto for the Liberation of the Peasants was signed, and thus the conditions for capitalist production were created (23 million landowner peasants received personal freedom, civil rights), but many points of the “Regulations” limited peasants to economic and legal dependence on the rural community controlled by the authorities. In relation to the landowner, the peasants remained “temporarily obligated” until the debt was paid (within 49 years) for the allocated land plots and had to carry out the previous duties - corvée, quitrent. The landowners received the best plots and huge redemption sums.
But, despite the limitations of the peasant reform, Alexander II went down in history as the Tsar-Liberator.
January 1, 1864 was held Zemstvo reform. Issues of local economy, collection of taxes, approval of the budget, primary education, medical and veterinary services were entrusted to elected institutions - district and provincial zemstvo councils. The election of representatives was of two degrees, but with a predominance of the nobility. They were elected for a term of 4 years.
V. Timm "Coronation"
Zemstvos dealt with issues of local government. At the same time, in everything that concerned the interests of the peasants, the zemstvos were guided by the interests of the landowners who controlled their activities. That is, self-government was simply a fiction, and elected positions were filled at the direction of the landowner. Local zemstvo institutions were subordinate to the tsarist administration (primarily governors). The zemstvo consisted of: zemstvo provincial assemblies (legislative power), zemstvo councils (executive power).
City government reform. It ensured the participation of various segments of the population in local government, but at the same time, the autocracy still remained both the highest legislative and executive body, which nullified these reforms, since the lack of sufficient material resources increased the dependence of local government on the government.
Judicial reform of 1864 was a major step in the history of Russia towards the development of civilized norms of legality; they were based on the principles of modern law:
- independence of the court from the administration;
- irremovability of judges;
- publicity;
- competitiveness (in criminal courts, the institution of jurors elected from the population was introduced; for legal assistance to the population, the institution of sworn attorneys was introduced).
But as soon as the new courts demonstrated their work in a new capacity, the authorities immediately began to subordinate them to the regime. For example, legal proceedings in political cases were carried out not by juries, but by military courts; special courts were retained for peasants, clergy, etc.
Military reform. Taking into account the lessons of the Crimean War, serious changes were carried out in the army in 1861-1874. The conditions for soldier's service were eased, combat training was improved, and the military command system was streamlined: Russia was divided into 15 military districts. In 1874, the Charter on universal military service was approved, replacing conscription.
In addition to these reforms, transformations affected the sphere of finance, education, the media, and the church. They received the name “great” and contributed to the strengthening of the country’s economy and the formation of the rule of law.
Historians note, however, that all the reforms of Alexander II were carried out not because of his convictions, but because of the necessity he recognized, so his contemporaries felt their instability and incompleteness. In connection with this, a conflict began to grow between him and the thinking part of society, who feared that everything that had been done “risks being lost if Alexander II remains on the throne, that Russia is in danger of returning to all the horrors of the Nikolaev region,” as P. Kropotkin wrote.
Since the mid-60s, contemporaries have noted fatigue and some apathy in the emperor’s behavior, which led to a weakening of his transformative activities. This is due both to misfortunes and troubles in the family, and to multiple (7 in total) attempts by “grateful” subjects on the life of the emperor. In 1865, his eldest son Nicholas, heir to the throne, died of a serious illness in Nice. His death undermined the empress's health, which was already weak. Doctors’ recommendations to abstain “from marital relations” strengthened the long-standing alienation in the family: in a short time, Alexander changed several mistresses until he met 18-year-old E. Dolgorukaya. This connection also led to disapproval from society.
Attempts on Alexander's lifeII
On April 4, 1886, the first attempt on the life of the emperor occurred. D. Karakozov, a member of the secret society “Hell”, adjacent to “Earth and Freedom”, shot when Alexander II was heading to his carriage, leaving the gate Summer Garden. The bullet flew past the emperor - the shooter was pushed by the peasant O. Komissarov.
On May 25, 1879, during a visit to the World Exhibition in Paris, Pole A. Berezovsky shot at him. The bullet hit the horse.
On April 2, 1879, a member of the “Narodnaya Volya” A. Solovyov fired 5 shots at the gates of the Winter Palace, but the emperor remained unharmed - the shooter missed.
On November 18 and 19, 1879, members of the “People's Will” A. Zhelyabov, A. Yakimova, S. Perovskaya and L. Hartmann unsuccessfully tried to blow up the royal train traveling from Crimea to St. Petersburg.
On February 5, 1880, Narodnaya Volya member S. Khalturin prepared an explosion in the Winter Palace, the guard soldiers on the first floor were killed, but none of the royal family, who were on the third floor, were injured.
The assassination attempt occurred when the emperor was returning from a military divorce at the Mikhailovsky Manege. During the explosion of the first bomb, he was not injured and could have left the embankment of the Catherine Canal, where the assassination attempt took place, but he got out of the carriage to the wounded - and at that time Grinevitsky threw the second bomb, from which he himself died and the emperor was mortally wounded.
Alexander II with his wife. Photo by Levitsky
Result of the reign
Alexander II went down in history as a reformer and liberator. During his reign
- Serfdom was abolished;
- universal conscription was introduced;
- zemstvos were established;
- judicial reform was carried out;
- censorship is limited;
- a number of other reforms were carried out;
- the empire expanded significantly by conquering and incorporating the Central Asian possessions, the North Caucasus, the Far East and other territories.
But M. Paleolog writes: “At times he was overcome by severe melancholy, reaching the point of deep despair. Power no longer interested him; everything he tried to accomplish ended in failure. None of the other monarchs wished more happiness for their people: he abolished slavery, abolished corporal punishment, and carried out wise and liberal reforms in all areas of government. Unlike other kings, he never sought bloody laurels of glory. How much effort did he spend to avoid the Turkish war... And after its end, he prevented a new military clash... What did he receive as a reward for all this? From all over Russia, he received reports from governors that the people, deceived in their aspirations, blamed the tsar for everything. And police reports reported an alarming increase in revolutionary ferment.”
Alexander II found the only consolation and meaning of life in his love for E. Dolgoruky - “a person who thought about his happiness and surrounded him with signs of passionate adoration.” On July 6, 1880, a month and a half after the death of the Emperor's wife Maria Alexandrovna, they entered into a morganatic marriage. E. Dolgorukaya received the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya. This marriage also increased discord in the royal family and at court. There is even a version that Alexander II intended to carry out the planned transformations and abdicate the throne in favor of his son Alexander and go with a new family to live in Nice.
Thus, “the first of March tragically stopped both state reforms and the emperor’s romantic dreams of personal happiness... He had the courage and wisdom to abolish serfdom and begin to build a rule of law state, but at the same time he remained virtually a prisoner of the system, the foundation of which he began to abolish with his reforms,” - writes L. Zakharova.
Emperor Alexander II with children. Photo from 1860
Children of Alexander II from his first marriage:
- Alexandra (1842-1849);
- Nicholas (1843-1865);
- Alexander III (1845-1894);
- Vladimir (1847-1909);
- Alexey (1850-1908);
- Maria (1853-1920);
- Sergei (1857-1905);
- Pavel (1860-1919).
From marriage with Princess Dolgoruka (legalized after the wedding):
- His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky (1872-1913);
- Your Serene Highness Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1873-1925);
- Boris (1876-1876), posthumously legitimized with the surname “Yuryevsky”;
- Your Serene Highness Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1878-1959).
- In addition to the children from Ekaterina Dolgoruky, he had several other illegitimate children.
At the insistence of Alexander III, Dolgorukaya-Yuryevskaya soon left St. Petersburg with her children, born before marriage. She died in Nice in 1922.
In memory of martyrdom Emperor Alexander II built a temple on the site of his murder.
The temple was erected by order of Emperor Alexander III in 1883-1907 according to the joint project of the architect Alfred Parland and Archimandrite Ignatius (Malyshev). The temple is made in the “Russian style” and is somewhat reminiscent of Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral. It took 24 years to build. On August 6, 1907, on the day of Transfiguration, the cathedral was consecrated as the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
On March 4, 1855, Alexander II ascended the throne. He went down in history as a great reformer and “liberator.” His reign is interesting not only for its political initiatives, but also for personal factors that played an important role in his reign.
Mother's prediction
Emperor Alexander II was perhaps the last ruler born in Moscow. His family moved here in 1817 to support and help rebuild the city, which suffered as a result of Napoleon's invasion. The birth of Alexander on April 17 (29) became a real holiday in the Romanov family, because over the past 20 years only girls were born in the family. It was 1818 - Alexander I had not yet shown symptoms of the illness that ended his life, the terrible uprising had not yet occurred Senate Square, Alexander’s successor was not announced, to whom fate did not give him a son. But already during the birth, the mother of the future emperor Alexandra Fedorovna predicted the future of the newborn: “When mother (Maria Feodorovna), approaching us, said, “This is a son,” our happiness doubled, however, I remember that I felt something impressive and sad at the thought that this little creature would one day become an emperor.”
A year later, the will of Alexander I became known to make his brother Nikolai Pavlovich his successor. The presence of a male heir in his family played a certain role in this decision.
Talisman stone
On April 17, 1834, the Grand Duke turned 16 years old, the young Tsarevich was declared an adult. On the same day, in the Urals, the Finnish geologist Nordenschild discovered a previously unknown gem and named it “Alexandrite” in honor of the heir. With all the abundance of omens and predictions that accompanied the reign of Alexander II, conversations about this stone were especially remembered by contemporaries. Alexandrite has the unique property of changing its color - from green to blood red. Because of this, they began to attribute mystical properties to the stone and more than once compared it with the fate of the emperor: “...here is that prophetic Russian stone...The insidious Siberian! He was all green, like hope, and by the evening he was covered in blood... there is a green morning and a bloody evening in him... This is fate, this is the fate of the noble Tsar Alexander! ”, Nikolai Leskov wrote in one of his stories.
Alexandrite became the emperor’s talisman, who more than once warded off trouble from him, but on the ill-fated day of the last assassination attempt - March 1 (13), 1881, Alexander forgot to take the stone with him.
Father's last parting words
Alexander II, as often happens in imperial family, had a difficult relationship with my father. Nicholas I understood perfectly well what fate awaited his son and did not slack in his upbringing. In addition, his contemporaries remember him as “a despot in everything,” including in the family. He himself said more than once: “I look at human life only as a service, since everyone serves.” Nikolai did not forget about his role even on his deathbed. He handed over the reins to his son with great regret: “I’m handing over the command to you, but, unfortunately, not in the order I wanted, leaving you with a lot of work and worries. I had two thoughts, two desires: to free Eastern Christians from under the Turkish yoke; second: free the Russian peasants from the power of the landowners. Now the war is hard, there is no need to think about the liberation of Eastern Christians, promise me to liberate the Russian serfs.”
It should be noted that before his accession to the throne, Alexander II was a staunch conservative. After these memories, it may seem that Alexander II changed his position in order to fulfill the will of his father, but this is not so. The Crimean War and the defeat of Nicholas taught him an important lesson - you can’t live like that anymore.
Selling Alaska
What Alexander has always been blamed for is selling Alaska to the United States. The main claims are that the rich region, which brought furs to Russia, and with more careful exploration could become a gold mine, was sold to America for some 11 million royal rubles. The truth is that after the Crimean War, the Russian Empire simply did not have the resources to develop such a distant region, and besides, the Far East was a priority. In addition, even during the reign of Nicholas, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, presented to the sovereign a report on the need to strengthen ties with America, which sooner or later would raise the question of expanding its influence in this region, which was strategically important for the latter.
Alexander II returned to this issue only when the country needed money for reforms. The emperor had a choice - either to solve the pressing problems of the people and the state, or to cherish the distant prospect of the possible development of Alaska. The choice was made in favor of topical issues. At 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, Alaska became US property.
Step forward
Alexander II can safely be called an experimenter. This quality was manifested not only in his numerous reforms, which brought him the historical name “Liberator”. Alexander II tried to get as close as possible to the people and understand their needs. Already in the 20th century, Solzhenitsyn wrote in his accusatory work “The Gulag Archipelago”: “There is a known case that Alexander II, the same one surrounded by revolutionaries who sought his death seven times, once visited a pre-trial detention house on Shpalernaya and in solitary confinement 227 (solitary confinement ) ordered himself to be locked up, sat more than an hour“I wanted to delve into the state of those he kept there.”
Undesirable marriage
Alexander II respected and dearly loved his wife Maria, but was not an exemplary husband. It’s impossible to list all his mistresses, but he had the most sincere feelings for Ekaterina Dolgorukaya, who became his second wife. When they met, he was already forty-one years old, and she was only thirteen. The romance began six years later, in 1865, when Catherine took her place at court among the empress’s ladies-in-waiting. In 1866, the emperor proposed his hand in marriage to her: “Today, alas, I am not free, but at the first opportunity I will marry you, from now on I consider you my wife before God, and I will never leave you.”
On June 3, 1880, Empress Maria Alexandrovna died in splendid isolation. The marriage with Catherine became possible, despite all the discontent and censure of the court, which did not stop calling her “an impudent adventurer.” Many historians, in particular Leonid Lyashchenko, subsequently linked the strengthening of the split in society with the split in the royal family.
Being the second legal wife of Alexander II, Catherine did not become empress. A morganatic marriage was concluded between them, in which the wife of lower origin does not become equal in status to her husband.
