Alexandra Fedorovna (wife of Nicholas II) - biography, information, personal life. Extreme king

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

parenting costs

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

A matter of power

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

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

Connections with "visionaries"

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

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

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

Why was she not loved?

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

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

• “All of Russia knows that the late Rasputin and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna are one and the same. The first one was killed, now the other one must also disappear” (Grand Prince Nikolai Mikhailovich).
• “The estrangement of the tsarina from St. Petersburg society was greatly facilitated by the outward coldness of her address and her lack of outward friendliness. This coldness came, apparently, mainly from the unusual shyness inherent in Alexandra Fedorovna and the embarrassment she experienced when communicating with strangers. This embarrassment prevented her from establishing simple, unconstrained relations with persons who presented herself to her, including the so-called city ladies, who spread jokes around the city about her coldness and impregnability” (Senator V.I. Gurko).
• “... Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (sister of Empress Alexandra), also almost never visiting Tsarskoye, came to talk with her sister. After that, we waited for her at home. They sat on pins and needles, wondering how it would end. She came to us trembling, in tears. “My sister kicked me out like a dog! - she exclaimed. “Poor Nicky, poor Russia!” (Prince F.F. Yusupov).
• “Opinions may differ about the role played by the Empress during her reign, but I must say that in her the Heir found himself a wife who fully accepted the Russian faith, the principles and foundations of royal power, a woman of great spiritual qualities and duty ”(ballerina M.F. Kshesinskaya ).

June 6 marks the 147th anniversary of the birth of the last Russian Empress, the wife of Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna, nee Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. Despite the fact that there were sincere feelings between the spouses, the people disliked her from the moment she appeared in Russia and called her "hated German". And although she made every effort to win sympathy in society, the attitude towards her has not changed. Was it deserved?

She first visited Russia in 1884, when her elder sister was married to Nikolai's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The second time she came to St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1889. From the moment of this visit, sympathy arose between the 20-year-old Nikolai Romanov and the 16-year-old Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt (or Alix, as Nikolai called her). Parents did not approve of his choice - they did not consider the girl a suitable party for the future emperor, but Nicholas firmly stood his ground. In 1892 he wrote in his diary: “ I dream of marrying Alix G someday. I have loved her for a long time, but especially deeply and strongly since 1889, when she spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg. All this time I did not believe my feeling, did not believe that my cherished dream could come true».

Because health Alexander III deteriorated greatly, the family had to come to terms with the choice of Nikolai. Alice began to study the Russian language and the basics of Orthodoxy, because she had to renounce Lutheranism and accept a new religion. In the autumn of 1894, Alice arrived in the Crimea, where she converted to Orthodoxy with the name Alexandra Feodorovna and spent several weeks with the royal family until the day of the death of Emperor Alexander III. After that, mourning was declared, and the marriage ceremony should have been postponed for a year, but Nicholas was not ready to wait so long.

It was decided to schedule the wedding on the birthday of the dowager empress, which allowed the royal family to temporarily interrupt the mourning. November 26, 1894 in big church The wedding of Nikolai Romanov and Alexandra Feodorovna took place at the Winter Palace. Later Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled: “ The marriage of the young tsar took place less than a week after the funeral of Alexander III. Their honeymoon proceeded in the atmosphere of memorial services and funeral visits.».

From the moment the German princess appeared in Russia, many disliked her both in the inner circle of the royal family and among the people. She seemed too cold, arrogant, withdrawn and aloof, and only those close to her knew the real reason for this behavior - natural shyness. Russian statesman and publicist Vladimir Gurko wrote about her: “ The estrangement of the queen from St. Petersburg society was greatly facilitated by the outward coldness of her treatment and her lack of outward friendliness. This coldness came, apparently, mainly from the unusual shyness inherent in Alexandra Fedorovna and the embarrassment she experienced when communicating with strangers. Embarrassment prevented her from establishing simple, unconstrained relations with persons who presented themselves to her, including the so-called city ladies, who spread jokes around the city about her coldness and impregnability.". According to a contemporary, she was reproached for the fact that " she held herself as if she had swallowed a yardstick, and did not bow to the deputations».

Few believed in sincere love, mutual respect and devotion to each other. Some representatives of the high society were sure that Alexandra Fedorovna completely subjugated her husband, suppressing his will. Vladimir Gurko wrote: If the sovereign, due to his lack of the necessary internal power, did not possess the authority due to the ruler, then the empress, on the contrary, was all woven from authority, which also relied on her inherent arrogance».

The reasons for the hostile attitude towards Alexandra Feodorovna among the people were different. At first, dissatisfaction in society was caused by the fact that the wedding with Nikolai took place almost immediately after the death of his father. And during the coronation of the royal family in May 1896, a terrible tragedy happened, which led to the death of hundreds of people. On the day of the festivities on the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II, a terrible stampede occurred on the Khodynka field, during which more than 1,300 people were trampled, but the imperial couple did not cancel the planned celebrations.

There were rumors among the people that the German princess, even after her marriage, defended the interests of Germany, that she was preparing a coup to become regent with her young son, and that the “German Party” rallied around her. On this occasion, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich wrote: It's amazing how unpopular poor Alix is. It can certainly be asserted that she did absolutely nothing to give reason to suspect her of sympathy for the Germans, but everyone is trying to say that she sympathizes with them. The only thing you can blame her for is that she failed to be popular.". And one of her contemporaries said: The rumor ascribes all failures, all changes in appointments to the Empress. Her hair stands on end: whatever she is accused of, each layer of society from its own point of view, but the general, friendly impulse is dislike and distrust».

Alexandra Fedorovna felt an unfriendly attitude towards herself among the people and made every effort to change the situation. She was engaged in charitable activities, was a trustee of 33 charitable societies, communities of sisters of mercy and shelters, organized schools for nurses, clinics for children, schools of folk art. During the First World War, she financed several hospital trains, established and took care of infirmaries, herself trained in nursing, did dressings and assisted in operations. And she did it at the call of her heart. However, despite all the efforts, the Empress did not deserve sympathy. And another reason for dislike for her was her attachment to the odious Grigory Rasputin, who had a huge influence on her.

When the Empress had a son with hemophilia, she became interested in religious and mystical teachings, often turning to Rasputin for help and advice, who helped Tsarevich Alexei fight the disease, against which official medicine was powerless. They said that Alexandra Fedorovna trusted him completely, while Rasputin's reputation was very ambiguous - later he was called a symbol of the moral degradation of power under the last Russian emperor. Many believed that Rasputin subjugated the very religious and exalted empress to his will, and she, in turn, influenced Nicholas II. According to another version, ill-wishers deliberately spread rumors among the people about Alexandra Feodorovna's close relationship with Rasputin in order to denigrate her image in society, and in fact he was her spiritual mentor.

In July 1918 members of the imperial family were shot. Who was the last Russian empress really - a fiend, an innocent victim or a hostage of circumstances? She talks about a lot own words, which she said shortly before her death in a letter to her close associate Anna Vyrubova: “ I thank God for everything that was, that I received - and I will live with memories that no one will take away from me ... How old I have become, but I feel like the mother of the country, and I suffer as if for my child and love my Motherland, despite all the horrors now … You know that you can’t tear love out of my heart, and Russia too… Despite the black ingratitude to the Sovereign, which breaks my heart… Lord, have mercy and save Russia».

Such a tender attitude of spouses to each other in the ruling families was a rarity:.

The last Empress of Russia Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II

Alexandra Fedorovna
—
(born Princess Victoria Alice Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt,
German (Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice von Hessen und bei Rhein)

Heinrich von Angeli (1840-1925)

Alix's first visit to Russia

In 1884, twelve-year-old Alix was brought to Russia: her sister Ella was marrying Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The heir to the Russian throne - sixteen-year-old Nikolai fell in love with her at first sight. But only five years later, seventeen-year-old Alix, who came to her sister Ella, reappeared at the Russian court.

Alix G. - this is how the future monarch of all Rus' called his beloved in his diaries. “I dream of marrying Alix G. someday. I have loved her for a long time, but especially deeply and strongly since 1889, when she spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg. All this time, I did not believe my feeling, did not believe that my cherished dream could come true ... This entry was made by the Heir Nicholas in 1892, and he really did not believe in the possibility of his happiness. His parents, under no pretext, allowed him to marry a princess from such an insignificant duchy.

It was said that the Russian Empress did not like the coldness and isolation of the alleged bride of her son. And since in family matters Maria Fedorovna always had an advantage over her husband's arguments, the matchmaking was upset, and Alice returned to her native Darmstadt. But political interests certainly played a role here: at that time, the union of Russia and France seemed especially important, and the princess from the House of Orleans seemed to be a more preferable party for the crown prince.

Grandmother Alix also opposed this marriage, British Queen Victoria. In 1887 she wrote to another of her granddaughters:

“I tend to save Alix for Eddie or for Georgie. You must prevent the emergence of new Russians or others who want to pick her up. Russia seemed to her, and not without reason, as an unpredictable country: “... the state of affairs in Russia is so bad that at any moment something terrible and unforeseen can happen; and if all this is unimportant for Ella, then the wife of the heir to the throne will be in the most difficult and dangerous position.

However, when the wise Victoria later met Tsarevich Nicholas, he made a very good impression on her, and the opinion of the English ruler changed.

In the meantime, Nikolai agreed not to insist on marrying Alix (by the way, she was his second cousin), but he flatly refused the Orleans princess. He chose his own path: to wait for God to connect him with Alix.

Wedding of Alexandra and Nikolai

What did it cost him to persuade his powerful and authoritarian parents to this marriage! He fought for his love and now, the long-awaited permission has been received! In April 1894, Nikolai went to the wedding of his brother Alix in Coburg Castle, where everything was already prepared for the fact that the Heir to the Russian Throne would propose to Alix of Hesse. And soon the newspapers reported on the engagement of the Tsarevich and Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Makovsky Alexander Vladimirovich (1869-1924)

November 14, 1894 - the day of the long-awaited wedding. On the wedding night, Alix wrote strange words in Nikolai's diary:

"When this life is over, we will meet again in another world and stay together forever..."

Anointing of Nicholas II, Valentin Serov

Wedding of Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna

Coronation of Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna

Nikolai Shurygin

Their diaries and letters still talk about this love. Thousands of spells in love. “I am yours and you are mine, rest assured. You are locked in my heart, the key is lost and you will have to stay there forever. Nikolai did not mind - living in her heart was real happiness.

They always celebrated the day of their engagement - April 8th. In 1915, the forty-two-year-old empress wrote a short letter to her beloved to the front: “For the first time in 21 years, we are not spending this day together, but how vividly I remember everything! My dear boy, what happiness and what love you have given me for all these years ... How time flies - 21 years have already passed! You know, I kept that “princess dress” that I was wearing that morning, and I will put on your favorite brooch ... ”With the outbreak of war, the spouses were forced to part. And then they wrote letters to each other ... “Oh, my love! It's so hard to say goodbye to you and see your lonely pale face with big sad eyes in the train window - my heart breaks, take me with you ... I kiss your pillow at night and longingly wish that you were next to me ... We have experienced so much for these 20 years we understand each other without words…” “I have to thank you for your arrival with the girls, for bringing me life and sun, despite the rainy weather. Of course, as always, I did not have time to tell you half of what I was going to, because when I meet with you after a long separation, I always become shy. I just sit and look at you - this in itself is a great joy for me ... "

Family life and parenting

Some excerpts from the diaries of the Empress: “The meaning of marriage is to bring joy.

Marriage is a Divine rite. It is the closest and holiest bond on earth. After marriage, the main duties of husband and wife are to live for each other, to give their lives for each other. Marriage is a union of two halves into a single whole. Each is responsible for the happiness and the highest good of the other until the end of his life.”

The four daughters of Nikolai and Alexandra were born beautiful, healthy, real princesses: daddy's favorite romantic Olga, serious beyond her years Tatiana, generous Maria and laughter little Anastasia.

But there was no son - heir, the future monarch of Russia. Both experienced, especially Alexander. And finally - the long-awaited Tsarevich!

Tsesarevich Alexei

Soon after his birth, doctors established what Alexandra Fedorovna feared more than anything else: the child inherited an incurable disease - hemophilia, which in her Hessian family was transmitted only to male offspring.
The shell of the arteries in this disease is so fragile that any bruise, fall, cut causes rupture of the vessels and can lead to a sad end. This is exactly what happened to Alexandra Feodorovna's brother when he was three years old ...

"Every woman also has in herself a maternal feeling for the person she loves, this is her nature."

These words of Alexandra Feodorovna can be repeated by many women. “My boy, my Sunshine,” she called her husband and after twenty years of marriage

“The remarkable feature of these letters was the freshness of Alexandra's feelings of love,” notes R. Massey. - After twenty years of marriage, she still wrote to her husband like an ardent girl. The empress, who so shyly and coldly showed her feelings in public, revealed all her romantic passion in letters ... "

“Husband and wife should constantly show each other signs of the most tender attention and love. The happiness of life is made up of individual minutes, of small, quickly forgotten pleasures: from a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment and countless small but kind thoughts and sincere feelings. Love also needs its daily bread.”

"One word covers everything - this is the word" love ". In the word "Love" there is a whole volume of thoughts about life and duty, and when we carefully and attentively study it, each of them appears clearly and distinctly."

"The great art is to live together, loving each other tenderly. This must begin with the parents themselves. Each house is like its creators. A refined nature makes the house refined, a rude person makes the house rough."

"There can be no deep and sincere love where selfishness rules. Perfect love is perfect self-denial."

"Parents should be what they want to see their children - not in words, but in deeds. They should teach their children by the example of their lives."

"The crown of love is silence"

"Each home has its own trials, but in a true home there is peace that cannot be disturbed by earthly storms. A home is a place of warmth and tenderness. One must speak in a home with love."

Lipgart Ernest Karlovich (1847-1932) and Bodarevsky Nikolai Kornilovich (1850-1921)

They stayed together forever

On the day when the ex-Sovereign, who had abdicated the Throne, returned to the palace, her friend, Anna Vyrubova, wrote in her diary: “Like a fifteen-year-old girl, she ran along the endless stairs and corridors of the palace to meet him. When they met, they embraced, and when left alone they burst into tears…” While in exile, anticipating an imminent execution, the Empress summed up her life in a letter to Anna Vyrubova: “My dear, my dear ... Yes, the past is over. I thank God for everything that was, that I received - and I will live with memories that no one will take away from me ... How old I have become, but I feel like the mother of the country, and I suffer as if for my child and love my Motherland, despite all the horrors now ... You know that LOVE CANNOT BE TAKEN FROM MY HEART, and Russia too ... Despite the black ingratitude to the Sovereign, which breaks my heart ... Lord, have mercy and save Russia.

The turning point came in 1917. After the abdication of Nicholas A. Kerensky at first intended to send royal family in England. But the Petrograd Soviet intervened. And soon London also changed its position, declaring through the mouth of its ambassador that the British government no longer insists on an invitation ...

In early August, Kerensky escorted the royal family to Tobolsk, his chosen place of exile. But soon it was decided to transfer the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg, where the building of the merchant Ipatiev, which received the temporary name "House of Special Purpose", was assigned to the royal family.

In mid-July 1918, in connection with the advance of the Whites in the Urals, the Center, recognizing that the fall of Yekaterinburg was inevitable, instructed the local Soviet bring the Romanovs to execution without trial.

Years later, historians, as if about some kind of discovery, began to write the following. It turns out that the royal family could still go abroad, save themselves, as many of the high-ranking subjects of Russia were saved. After all, even from the place of the initial exile, from Tobolsk, it was possible at first to flee. Why, after all? .. This question from the distant eighteenth year is answered by himself Nikolai: "In such a difficult time, not a single Russian should leave Russia."

And they stayed. They stayed together forever, as they prophesied to themselves once in their youth.

Ilya Galkin and Bodarevsky Nikolai Kornilovich

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Original entry and comments on

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

In 1884, twelve-year-old Alix was brought to Russia: her sister Ella was marrying Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. The heir to the Russian throne, sixteen-year-old Nikolai, fell in love with her at first sight. The young people, who are also in a fairly close relationship (by the father of the princess, they are second cousins ​​​​brother and sister), immediately imbued with mutual sympathy. But only five years later, seventeen-year-old Alix reappeared at the Russian court.

Alice of Hesse as a child. (wikimedia.org)

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

Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. (wikimedia.org)

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

However, Maria Fedorovna did not hide her dissatisfaction with the unsuccessful, in her opinion, choice of an heir. The fact that the princess of Hesse joined the Russian imperial family during the mournful days of the suffering of the dying Alexander III, probably even more set Maria Feodorovna against the new empress.

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

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

Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. (wikimedia.org)

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

The embarrassment that invariably gripped the queen when communicating with strangers prevented the establishment of simple, easy relations with representatives of high society, which were vital to her. Alexandra Feodorovna was completely unable to win the hearts of her subjects, even those who were ready to bow before members of the imperial family did not receive a reason for this. So, for example, in women's institutes, Alexandra Fedorovna could not squeeze out a single friendly word from herself. This was all the more striking, since the former Empress Maria Feodorovna knew how to evoke an unconstrained attitude towards herself in institute girls, turning into enthusiastic love for the bearers of royal power.

The Romanovs on the yacht Shtandart. (wikimedia.org)

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

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

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

The Romanovs and the English Queen Victoria. (wikimedia.org)

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

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

Alexandra Feodorovna with her daughters for needlework. (wikimedia.org)

According to contemporaries, the empress was deeply religious. The church was the main consolation for her, especially at a time when the heir's illness worsened. The empress stood full services in the court churches, where she introduced the monastic (longer) liturgical charter. The Queen's room in the palace was a combination of the Empress's bedroom with the nun's cell. The huge wall adjacent to the bed was completely hung with icons and crosses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fate one: "Sunny girl".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Restraint, no doubt, adorned her, a tall, slender brown-haired woman with huge, gray - blue eyes, which reflected all the shades of her emotional experiences - for those who knew how to observe, of course - but she did not know how and did not look for a way to please, right away, from the first word, look, smile, gesture .. And this is so necessary for a royal person !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In her letters to Ella, Aliki sadly said that there was only one obstacle insurmountable in her love for the Tsarevich - a change of religion, everything else did not frighten her, she loved the Tsarevich so strongly and deeply. The Tsarevich sincerely admitted to Aliki that one of the ways to overcome the despair that seized him, upon receiving the news of the matchmaking of the Prince of Wales to her, was to travel along Far East and Japan, which he, Nicky, undertook, and which almost ended in tragedy!*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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