1. Prince Andrei Alexandrovich

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna

Andrei Alexandrovich was born on January 12, 1897 in Winter Palace St. Petersburg. He was the second child in the grand ducal family. The prince was the grandson of Emperor Alexander III on his mother's side and did not have the right to the title of Grand Duke, since he was the great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I on the male line. However, at the birth of the prince, at the insistence of his grandmother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, 21 cannon shots were fired, which usually announce the birth of grand dukes (for princes of imperial blood, 15 cannon shots were fired).

Princess Irina and Prince Andrei

Princess Irina and Prince Andrei

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna with her daughter Irina and sons Andrei and Fedor

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich with his wife Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna and children

Prince Andrei in his youth

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna with her grandson Andrei

In his youth, Prince Andrey often traveled around Europe with his parents. Before the revolution, he served in the Horse Guards with the rank of lieutenant. During the revolution, Andrei Alexandrovich was under arrest in the Dulber estate (Crimea). The Romanovs managed to escape only thanks to the arrival of German troops who occupied Crimea under the Brest-Lithuanian Peace Treaty. On June 12, 1918, the prince married in the house church of Ai-Todor to Elizaveta Fabritsevna Sasso from the family of the Dukes of Ruffo and the Princes of Sant'Antimo (1886-1940), daughter of Princess Natalya Alekseevna Meshcherskaya.

Elizaveta Fabritsievna Andrey Alexandrovich and Elizaveta Fabritsievna with children Ksenia and Mikhail

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich and Elizaveta Fabritsievna

In emigration, the couple had three children: Princess Ksenia Andreevna (1919 - 2000), Prince Mikhail Andreevich (1920 - 2008) and Prince Andrei Andreevich (b. 1923). Initially, the couple settled in Paris, but then they moved to Great Britain, to the house of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, given to her by King George V. Andrei Alexandrovich drew well from childhood and therefore in Britain he became a good artist. All his paintings were sold to provide for his family.

Painting by Prince Andrei Alexandrovich

The Romanovs at Hamptom Court

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich (center) at the funeral of the father of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich

On October 29, 1940, in Hampton Court, as a result of a German air raid, Princess Elizaveta Fabritsievna tragically died after a bombing. She was buried in Church Road Cemetery in Old Windsor. Unfortunately, now her grave is in disrepair

After the death of his wife, Andrei Alexandrovich moved with his mother to safer Scotland. One day, while visiting friends, Andrei Alexandrovich met a young Englishwoman, Nadine Sylvia Ada McDougall. Nadine was born on June 5, 1908 in London, the daughter of Colonel Herbert MacDougll and Sylvia Borgeström. During World War II, Nadine and her mother organized a hospital for wounded soldiers in Scotland. On September 21, 1942, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich and Nadine Sylvia got married in Narton; later they were married in a temple in London. In 1950, the couple was born only daughter Princess Olga Andreevna (b. 1950).

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich

After the birth of his youngest daughter, Andrei Alexandrovich began to devote all his time to his family. He enjoyed the rural idyll, painted pictures, and went hunting with his wife and friends on weekends. In exile, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, together with his brother Vasily Alexandrovich, became the patron of the Maltese Order of Orthodox Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, Andrei Alexandrovich was also, along with Princes Vsevolod Ioannovich and Roman Petrovich, one of the founders of the Association of Members of the Romanov Family.

After Prince Andrei Alexandrovich’s mother, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, became seriously ill with pneumonia in March 1960, Andrei Alexandrovich and his sister Irina Alexandrovna were near the dying woman for the last few days. Prince Andrei Alexandrovich died at home on May 8, 1981, in peace and quiet, surrounded by his family. He was buried in St. Cemetery. Mary Churchyard, in Kent. Princess Nadine survived her husband by 19 years; she died in 2000 and was buried next to her husband.

Prince Andrei Alexandrovich and Princess Nadi, photo 1979

The Romanov House in Provendor, where Andrei Alexandrovich and Nadine lived

One of the rooms

Children of Andrei (Grandchildren of Ksenia Alexandrovna)

Prince Mikhail Andreevich Romanov

Prince Mikhail Andreevich Romanov was born on July 15, 1920 in Versailles, in the family of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich and his first wife Princess Elizaveta Fabritsievna (1997 - 1940). Mikhail Andreevich's father was the eldest nephew of Nicholas II, as well as the cousin of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. Through his grandmother, Princess Natalya Alexandrovna Meshcherskaya, Mikhail Andreevich was a descendant of Counts Stroganov and Barons von Fitting. The descendant of Russian emperors spent his childhood in the house of his grandmother Ksenia Alexandrovna in Windsor.

From left to right: Andrey, Mikhail, Ksenia, Irina Yusupova

The prince studied at Windsor Royal College and graduated from the London Institute of Aeronautical Engineers in 1942. During the Second World War, Mikhail Andreevich served as a lieutenant in the British Navy Volunteer Air Force Reserve. After the end of the war with Japan in 1945, the Prince was sent to Australia for demobilization. Due to the difficult financial situation, not wanting to remain in Britain as a poor relative of the Royal Family, Mikhail Andreevich decided to settle on the green continent and start new life. In Sydney, a descendant of the House of Romanov worked as an engineer in the aviation industry, and also did business, owning a company selling aircraft equipment

Prince Mikhail Andreevich married three times. On February 24, 1953, he married Jim Murphy (b. 1921). Seven months later, the couple separated. On July 23, 1954, Mikhail Andreevich married Shirley Cramond (1916 - 1983). The couple lived in marriage for 29 years and together raised Shirley's two nieces. After the death of Princess Shirley Romanova, Mikhail Andreevich married Julia Crespi (b. 1930) on July 14, 1993.

Princess Julia Romanoff-Chairs

Mikhail Andreevich had no children from any of the marriages. Since 1980, the Prince was a member of the Association of Members of the Romanov Family. In 1980, Mikhail Andreevich became a member of the Maltese Order of Orthodox Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and in October 2006 he was chosen as protector and grand prior of the Order. Since 1992, Mikhail Andreevich has been an active member of the Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy (ACM) movement.

Prince Mikhail Andreevich and Princess Julia

Prince Mikhail Andreevich Romanov on board the cruiser "Aurora". 1998

On September 6, 2008, Mikhail Andreevich fell down the stairs at his home in Double Bay in Sydney. Shortly after being admitted to Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, he suffered a heart attack and kidney damage. On September 22, Mikhail Andreevich died. The funeral service took place on September 30, 2008 at the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the ROCOR in Sydney. Mikhail Andreevich was buried in the Orthodox section of Botany Cemetery in Sydney. The place was chosen by his wife, Princess Julia - near the lawn, not far from a small picturesque artificial pond.

Funeral service for Prince Mikhail Andreevich Romanov

Prince Andrei Andreevich Romanov

Prince Andrei Andreevich Romanov was born on January 21, 1923 in London. He - younger son in the family of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich (1897 - 1981) and his first wife Princess Elizaveta Fabritsievna (1887 - 1940). Andrei Andreevich's godfather was Prince Edward of Wales, who became King Edward VIII in 1936.

The prince, along with his sister and brother, was brought up in the house of his grandmother Ksenia Alexandrovna in Windsor. The Grand Duchess was in close contact with King George V and his wife

Prince Andrei Andreevich in military uniform, 1940

The descendant of the Russian Emperors studied at an English school, and then continued his education at the Imperial Service College. During World War II, Andrei Andreevich served on board the English warship Sheffield, escorting cargo ships to Murmansk. This is how Andrei Andreevich found himself in his homeland for the first time. Then he took part in the Allied landings in Normandy, then fought in North Africa. The young representative of the Romanov family saw the end of the war while serving on a military destroyer in the Pacific Ocean.

Nikolai Romanovich and Andrey Andreevich in St. Petersburg, 2006

After the war, the young sailor worked for a year as an intern on an English farm and tree nursery. In 1949, Andrei Andreevich and his cousin Prince Nikita Nikitich (1923 - 2007), at the invitation of their uncle Prince Vasily Alexandrovich, moved to the USA. At first he was studying scientific work with his uncle at California Packing Company. Then Andrei Andreevich studied at Berkeley University, studying sociology. In 1954, he received American citizenship.

Andrey Andreevich in his workshop

While still studying at the university, in 1951 Andrei Andreevich married a Russian girl, Elena Konstantinovna Durneva (b. 1927). She was born in Japan, but before World War II her family moved to the United States. In 1953, the couple had a son, Alexei. In 1959, Andrei Andreevich received a position in a shipping company in Japan. Since Elena Konstantinovna did not want to return to the land of the rising sun, and her husband could not miss a good job, they had to divorce. For three years Andrei Andreevich worked in Japan and Korea.

In 1961, he married Kathleen Norris (1935 - 1967), granddaughter of famous American writers Charles and Kathleen Norris. In their marriage, the couple had two sons - Peter and Andrey. At this time, Andrei Andreevich worked as a joiner and carpenter. In 1967, Princess Kathleen died of pneumonia, and Andrei Andreevich was left alone with two children

Andrey Andreevich and Ines on the steps of their house in Inverness

In 1969, the Prince married for the third time the artist Inez Storer (b. 1933) and settled in the city of Inverness, north-west of San Francisco. Princess Ines already had four children from her first marriage, and together they raised all six children. Andrei Andreevich, like his father, is an amateur artist. Although he has no formal art education, however, he writes from intuition, relying on fantasy. Another hobby of the descendant of the House of Romanov is photography. The artistic photographs he took are classically strict. More recently, Andrei Andreevich wrote an autobiographical book “The Boy Who Wanted to Become a Tsar” and illustrated it. Today he and his wife live in their home in Marin County, near San Francisco, and paint.

Andrey Andreevich with his wife Ines

At the presentation of the book "The Boy Who Wanted to Be Tsar"

At an exhibition of his paintings in San Francisco

*******************************************************************

Princess Ksenia Andreevna

Princess Ksenia Andreevna was born on March 10, 1919 in Paris. It so happened that she was the first among the Romanovs who was born in exile. The princess was the eldest daughter of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich and Princess Elizaveta Fabritsievna, née Countess Sasso-Ruffo. Ksenia Andreevna was named after her grandmother, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna.

Princess Elizaveta Fabritsievna with her daughter Ksenia

The granddaughter of the Grand Duchess received a private home education, and spent part of her childhood in her grandmother's house in Windsor. In the family, Ksenia Andreevna was called “Mouse”, for her quiet and calm character. In 1936, after the death of King George V, she and her family moved to Ksenia Alexandrovna's new house in Hampton Core, which was granted to the Grand Duchess by King Edward VIII.

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna with her granddaughter Ksenia

Ksenia Andreevna, together with her brothers, received a traditional home education typical of the House of Romanov. Everyone in Andrei Alexandrovich’s family spoke only Russian. In 1938, Ksenia Andreevna entered the London Ballet School, but due to the outbreak of World War II, she was unable to complete her studies. During World War II, she worked as a nurse in a hospital and then as a volunteer in the Russian charitable organization for refugee affairs.

On June 17, 1945, the Princess married Kohlhaum Enkram (1915 - 1990), an American pilot whose father was a colonel in the US Marine Corps. They divorced in 1954. In 1954 in Tehran, Ksenia Andreevna remarried Geoffrey Touf (1908 - 1998), head of the department of psychological health at the British Ministry of Health and member of the WHO expert advisory group. His first wife, Princess Olga Golitsyna, died in 1955. Princess Ksenia Andreevna had no children from both marriages. She died on October 22, 2000 in Rouffignac-Saint-Sernin, Aquitaine, France.

Princess Ksenia Andreevna in Russia. 1998

************************************************

Princess Olga Andreevna Romanova

Olga Andreevna Romanova (born April 8, 1950, London, UK) is the only daughter of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich from his second marriage to the Englishwoman Nadine Sylvia Ada McDougall. Granddaughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. In 1979 she married Thomas Matthew (b. 1945). The couple settled in London, where Thomas was engaged in business, and Olga Andreevna raised four children - Nikolai (b. 1976), Francis (b. 1979), Alexandra (b. 1981) and Thomas (1987 - 1989). In 1989, the couple divorced, and Olga Andreevna moved to Scotland, where she lived until 2000. In 2000, after the death of her mother, Olga Andreevna inherited the family estate Proveder Manor and is currently engaged in its restoration. Olga Andreevna is one of the patrons of the Russian Summer Ball, held annually in London. Since 2007, she has been a member of the general committee of the Association of Members of the Romanov Family.

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna with her granddaughter Olga

Olga Andreevna at a party in London. Photo from 1970.

Olga Andreevna during the opening of the bust of Empress Maria Feodorovna on September 26, 2006 in St. Petersburg.

Andrey Andreevich, Olga Andreevna, Mikhail Andreevich, Nikolai Romanovich, Dmitry Romanovich

**********************************************************************************************************************

2. Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich

Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich was born on December 23, 1898 in St. Petersburg. He spent his childhood in Russia and Biarrizi. During the First World War he became a member of the Corps of Pages. After the October Revolution, together with his parents, brothers and other Romanovs, he was under house arrest in Ai-Todor. On April 11, 1919, Marlborough left Russia on the British ship

The first years of emigration he lived in the apartment of his sister Princess Irina Alexandrovna and her husband Prince Felix Feliksovich Yusupov in Paris. He worked as a taxi driver and later as an architect. On March 31, 1923, in the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Paris, he married Princess Irina Pavlovna Paley (1903-1990), daughter of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich and Princess Olga Valerianovna Paley. The marriage produced one son, Mikhail (May 4, 1924-September 22, 2008). Since 1930, the couple lived separately. On July 22, 1936, the couple divorced. Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich did not enter into a new marriage. The second world war spent in Great Britain, in his mother's house. In 1946, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. To improve his health, he settled in the south of France, in the villa of his sister Princess Irina Alexandrovna, where he lived for the rest of his life. Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich died on November 30, 1968 in the city of Ascon, France.

Wedding of Fyodor Alexandrovich and Irina Paley

Fyodor Alexandrovich with his son Mikhail

Prince Mikhail Fedorovich

Son of Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich (son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna) and Princess Irina Pavlovna, née Paley (1903-1990), daughter of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (1860-1919) from his second marriage to Olga Valeryanovna, Countess of Hohenfelsen, Princess Paley, née Karnovic (1865-1929). Thus, on his mother’s side, Mikhail Fedorovich was the great-grandson of Emperor the Liberator Alexander II.

Prince Mikhail Fedorovich, photo 1950

His grandfather, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, and uncle, the talented poet Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (1896/97-1918), brutally murdered by the communists, were canonized in 1981 in the host of the New Martyrs of Russia Orthodox Church Abroad. He was brought up in Paris and Biarritz, and since childhood he spoke French, English and Russian. In 1936, the Prince's parents divorced

Prince Mikhail Fedorovich and Ani Girardot

Finished before the outbreak of World War II elite school in Neuilly-sur-Seine. During the period 1945 - 1946. served in the French infantry in Germany. For a short time he worked in the perfume company of Lucien Lelon, then in cinema. In 1985, he retired and devoted all subsequent time to studying the history of the House of Romanov and writing memoirs.

Prince Mikhail Fedorovich near the portrait of his grandmother Olga Paley

Mikhail Fedorovich actively assisted directors and artists in creating documentaries and feature films about Russian history and the Romanov dynasty. In 1990, he visited Russia for the first time; in the 1990s, the Prince made several more trips to Russia. Died on September 22, 2008 at the age of 84 in Biarritz. Prince Mikhail Fedorovich married twice. For the first time, on October 15, 1958, in Paris, Mikhail Fedorovich married Helga Maria Staufenberg (b. 1926), and one son was born in the marriage - Prince Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov (1959 - 2001). Divorced in 1992. On January 15, 1994, in Joss, he married Maria de Las Mercedes Ustrell-Cabani (b. 1960). Today, the granddaughter of Prince Mikhail Fedorovich lives in Spain - Princess Tatyana Mikhailovna (b. 1986)

Prince Mikhail Fedorovich with his wife and granddaughter Tatyana

Mikhail Fedorovich and Lennart Bernadotte

**************************************************************************

3. Prince Nikita Alexandrovich

Prince Nikita Alexandrovich was born on January 16, 1900 in St. Petersburg. He was the 4th child in the family of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. In childhood and youth, Nikita Alexandrovich traveled for a long time with his parents around Europe. Nikita Alexandrovich's favorite place in Russia was his father's estate Ai-Todor, located in Crimea on the shores of the Black Sea. After the revolution, Prince Nikita Alexandrovich was under house arrest with his parents and other representatives of the House of Romanov in the Dulber estate, in Crimea. On April 12, 1919, the Prince left Russia forever on board the English ship Marlborough, along with other representatives of the House of Romanov, led by the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna holds her newborn son Nikita in her arms

Nikita, Irina and Andrey

Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna with her daughter Ksenia and grandson Nikita

Prince Nikita Alexandrovich spent the first years of emigration in Paris, living in the house of his sister Princess Irina Alexandrovna Yusupova. In Great Britain he graduated from Oxford University. On February 19, 1922, in Paris, Nikita Aleksandrovich married his childhood friend, Countess Maria Illarionovna Vorontsova - Dashkova (1903-1997), daughter of Count Illarion Illarionovich Vorontsov - Dashkov and his first wife Irina Vasilievna, née Naryshkina.

Princess Maria Illarionovna Vorontsova-Dashkova

Prince Nikita Alexandrovich and Princess Maria Illarionovna

Wedding of Prince Nikita Alexandrovich and Princess Maria Illarionovna. Paris, 1922

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich with his son Prince Nikita Alexandrovich

The couple had two sons - Prince Nikita Nikitich (1923-2007) and Prince Alexander Nikitich (1929-2002). After the birth of their youngest son, the family moved from Paris to Britain, where at that time Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna lived in Hampton-Kore. In exile, Nikita Alexandrovich was an active participant in the monarchist movement. The prince was one of the leaders of the "Society for the Memory of Emperor Nicholas II", the head of the "Monarchical Union of Russian Noble Youth", was a member of the Supreme Monarchical Council, and was also the chief of the "Union of Musketeers of His Highness Prince Nikita Alexandrovich" created in Harbin in 1924. In 1930, he became the chief of the corps named after the Heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. This is a paramilitary secondary school for emigrant boys, which existed in Versailles with funds from the Navy.

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, Nikita, Irina, Rostislav, Maria Illarionovna, Vasily

During the outbreak of World War 2, the Prince's family was in Paris. Unable to return to London, the Romanovs went to Rome and then to Czechoslovakia. After the start of the Red Army's offensive on the Eastern Front, out of fear that they might end up in territory occupied by Soviet troops, Nikita Alexandrovich's family moved to Paris.

Prince Nikita Alexandrovich with his wife Maria Illarionovna

In 1946, the Prince and his family moved to the United States, where at one time he taught Russian at an army school in Monterey, then lived in New York, working in banks and offices. Throughout his life, Nikita Aleksandrovich never received a residence permit in any country in the world and remained forever a citizen of Russia. In the late 1970s, Nikita Alexandrovich and his wife returned to France. On September 12, 1974, His Highness Prince Nikita Alexandrovich died in Cannes, a thousand kilometers from his homeland. He was buried in Roquebrune Cemetery next to his parents.

Prince Roman Petrovich and Prince Nikita Alexandrovich in Rome

Prince Nikita Nikitich

Nikita Nikitich was born on May 13, 1923 in London in the family of Prince Nikita Alexandrovich (1900 - 1974) and Princess Maria Illarionovna, née Countess Vorontsov - Dashkova (1903 - 1997). He was the great-great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I in the younger male line, and also the great-grandson of Emperor Alexander III in female line, grandson of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1866 - 1933) and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna (1875 - 1960). On his mother's side, Nikita Nikitich was the great-grandson of Count Illarion Ivanovich Vorontsov - Dashkov (1837 - 1916), a long-time minister of the Imperial Court and appanages, a prominent statesman second half of the 19th century - beginning of XX century

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna with her grandchildren Nikita and Mikhail

After the war, Prince Nikita Nikitich served in the British army in 1946 - 1947. In 1949, together with his cousin Prince Andrei Andreevich Romanov (b. 1923), he moved to the USA, at the invitation of Prince Vasily Alexandrovich (1907 - 1989). In California, Nikita Nikitich went to study at the University of Berkeley and received diplomas: a master's degree in 1956 and a PhD in 1960. He taught history at the University of San Francisco and, together with Robert Payne, wrote a book about Ivan the Terrible (published in New York in 1975) .

Mikhail, Irina, Nikita

Irina Feliksovna, Nikita Nikitich, Mikhail Fedorovich

On July 14, 1961, in London, Nikita Nikitich married Janet Ann Schonwalt (b. April 4, 1933), who converted to Orthodoxy with the name Anna Mikhailovna. In their marriage, the couple had their only son, Prince Fedor (Theodor) Nikitich Romanov (1974 - 2007) . Princess Janet is a specialist in the study of Russian literature; she is fluent in Russian, as well as Mongolian and Japanese. After marriage, the couple lived in New York for 40 years, in a modest 3-room apartment in Manhattan. In recent years, Prince Nikita Nikitich was seriously ill. He died at home on May 3, 2007 in New York City. Buried in New York

Prince Nikita Nikitich with his wife Princess Janet

Prince Alexander Nikitich

Prince Alexander Nikitich Romanov was born on November 4, 1929 in Paris. He was the youngest son of Prince Nikita Alexandrovich and Princess Maria Illarionovna, née Countess Vorontsova-Dashkova. The prince was named after his grandfather, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. Alexander Nikitich spent his childhood in Great Britain, where the family lived with his grandmother, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna. In 1938 he took British citizenship. During World War II, the family had to move from place to place, experiencing a lot of hardships and difficulties. By the age of 14, Alexander Nikitich already spoke five languages ​​and was deeply interested in geography, history, and philosophy. In 1945, the Prince returned to Great Britain, but soon emigrated with his parents to the USA, where he graduated Columbia University. In 1953, Alexander Nikitich returned to Great Britain in order to care for the sick Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna.

Prince Alexander Nikitich and Princess Maria

On July 18, 1971, in Cannes, Prince Alexander Nikitich married the Italian Princess Maria - Immanculata Valguarnere di Niucelli (b. November 29, 1931). Before the wedding, the bride converted to Orthodoxy. Civil registration of marriage took place in New York. The couple lived in New York and London and had no children. Since 1979, Alexander Nikitich has been a member of the Association of Members of the Romanov Family. In 1992, he participated in the meeting of the seven Princes of the Romanov family in Paris.

Prince Alexander Nikitich Romanov died after a short illness on September 21, 2002 in London. The Prince's body was cremated at Richmond Crematorium and buried in his wife's family crypt in Palermo.

Grand Duchess Ksenia Romanova. Life in exile

Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was born on April 6, 1875 in the Anichkov Palace. Her childhood and youth were spent outside the capital, in Gatchina, where the imperial family lived for security reasons. The Grand Duchess was the favorite of her mother, the Empress, and in appearance she was very similar to her “dear Mother.”

“She inherited her greatest advantage - her personal charm from her mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna. The look of her wondrous eyes penetrated the soul, her grace, kindness and modesty conquered everyone,” recalled her son-in-law Prince F.F. Yusupov.

In 1894, Ksenia Romanova married her first and only love Prince Alexander Mikhailovich (1866 - 1933), who was best friend childhood of Emperor Nicholas II. Since Ksenia Alexandrovna was her fiancé’s cousin, she had to ask the Holy Synod for special consent to the marriage. The couple had seven children in their marriage. Eldest daughter Irina Alexandrovna (July 3, 1895 - 1970) became the wife of Prince Felix Feliksovich Yusupov. Six sons: Prince Andrei Alexandrovich Romanov (January 12, 1897 - 1981), Fyodor Alexandrovich Romanov (1898 - 1968), Nikita Alexandrovich Romanov (1900-1974), Dmitry Alexandrovich Romanov (1901-1980), Rostislav Alexandrovich Romanov (1902-1978), Vasily Alexandrovich Romanov (1907-1989) had numerous offspring, which make up a significant part of the offspring of the Romanov family abroad.

The princess with her husband and children.

The revolution found the Grand Duchess in Petrograd. She tried unsuccessfully to meet with her brother Emperor Nicholas II, who, after his abdication, was arrested and until August 1917, along with his family, was kept under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo. In February 1917, the princess and her children moved to Gatchina and then to Kyiv. When it became impossible to stay in Kyiv, with the permission of the Provisional Government, Ksenia Alexandrovna and her family moved to Crimea.

The Romanovs after the liberation of Dulber. 1918

On board the Marlboro.

In April 1919, Ksenia Romanova with her mother, the Dowager Empress, family, relatives and associates left Russia forever. It begins for her new page in life - emigration, which will last for forty years.

The Empress Dowager with her daughters in Wieder.

At first, Ksenia Alexandrovna lived with her son Vasily in Denmark, next to her mother. But by 1925, her financial situation had become so dire that she had to move to Britain, where King George V gave her and her family Fragmore Cottage in Windsor Park to live in. Although the Grand Duchess managed to withdraw some of her jewelry, including the famous black pearls, however, judging by the memoirs of her younger sister, Princess Olga Alexandrovna, Ksenia lost almost everything, entrusting the sale of her jewelry to strangers who failed the deal.

Fragmore cottage, where Ksenia Alexandrovna lived.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna in Denmark.

Ksenia Alexandrovna visited the Dowager Empress as often as she could. After Maria Feodorovna's death in 1928, she inherited some of the jewelry, which temporarily helped her cope with financial difficulties.

Charity auction.

Ksenia Alexandrovna in England.

In emigration, the Grand Duchess also had to deal with impostors who posed as the “miracle escaped” children of Emperor Nicholas II. Anna Anderson, or rather her entourage, showed particular activity in this. One of the main supporters of the impostor was Gleb Botkin, son of E.S. Botkin, personal physician of the Imperial Family, who died with them in Yekaterinburg. After the death of the Dowager Empress, not yet recovering from grief, Ksenia Alexandrovna received a letter from Botkin, in which he accused her of “stealing” jewelry that was intended for “the miraculously saved Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna” - i.e. Anna Anderson. Princess Alexander Mikhailovich's husband reply letter accused Botkin of cowardice and meanness. After these events, the surviving family members signed the “Romanov Declaration”, in which they denied any relationship with Anna Anderson.

The Grand Duchess with her grandchildren Nikita and Mikhail.

In February 1933, Ksenia Alexandrovna’s husband dies in France. Having arrived from England, she was with her dying husband until the last minute. Until the end of her days, Ksenia will keep telegrams of condolences sent by monarchs from all over Europe.

Shortly before the war, she moved to London, to Hampton Court, to a mansion given to her by King Edward VIII. Sometimes Ksenia Alexandrovna managed to gather all her children, who had long since flown out of their mother’s nest. Such family gatherings were her greatest holiday.

Hampton Court Mansion, where the Grand Duchess lived.

Ksenia Romanova with children in 1925.

During World War II, due to constant German air raids on London, the Grand Duchess had to temporarily move to Scotland. After the victory and the end of hostilities, she returns to London again. Now nun Marfa (Maslennikova) was constantly next to Ksenia, and since 1953 her grandson Alexander lived.

©Fotodom.ru/REX

“Science will give the Sovereign Emperor his rightful place not only in the history of Russia and all of Europe, but also in Russian historiography, it will say that he won a victory in the area where it was most difficult to achieve victory, defeated the prejudice of peoples and thereby contributed to their rapprochement, conquered the public conscience in the name of peace and truth, increased the amount of good in the moral circulation of humanity, sharpened and raised Russian historical thought, Russian national consciousness, and did all this so quietly and silently that only now, when he was no longer there, Europe understood what he was for her.” .

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky

During the sacrament of confirmation, held on October 12, 1866 in the Great Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands (Great Church) of the Winter Palace, the Danish princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar received a new name - Maria Feodorovna and a new title - Grand Duchess. “There is intelligence and character in facial expression,” wrote a contemporary of the future Russian empress. - Wonderful poems from the book. Vyazemsky is a match for that dear Dagmar, whose name he rightly calls a sweet word.” He is echoed by Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov: “The image of Dagmara, a 16-year-old girl combining tenderness and energy, appeared especially graceful and attractive. She absolutely captivated everyone with her childlike simplicity of heart and the naturalness of all her emotional movements.” Alas, the clever and beautiful woman outlived all four of her sons.

The thirteen and a half years of the reign of Alexander III were unusually calm. Russia has not waged wars. For this, the sovereign received the official nickname Tsar-Peacemaker. Although under his reign, 114 new military vessels were launched, including 17 battleships and 10 armored cruisers. After the terrorist rampage under his father Alexander II and before the revolutionary turmoil that swept away his son Nicholas II, the reign of Alexander Alexandrovich seemed to be lost in the annals of history. Although it was he who became one of the initiators of the creation of the Imperial Russian Historical Society in May 1866 and its honorary chairman. The last public execution of the “People's Will” and terrorists who carried out the assassination attempt on Alexander II took place under Alexander III. His family consisted of 4 sons and 2 daughters.

Alexander Alexandrovich - Russian Grand Duke, the second child and son, did not live even a year. He died in April 1870, 10 days after the birth of Volodya Ulyanov in Simbirsk. It is unlikely that the fate of “angel Alexander” would have turned out happier than that of his elder brother Nikolai Alexandrovich. Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich, the third child and son, died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 in the summer of 1899. In the Memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov, when it comes to the three sons (Nicholas, George and Mikhail) of Alexander III, it is written: “George was the most gifted of all three, but died too young to have time to develop his brilliant abilities.”

The most tragic is the fate of the eldest Emperor Alexander in the family, the last Russian Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich. The fate of his entire family is tragic and the fate of all of Russia is tragic.

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich Romanov recalled that the youngest son of Alexander III, Mikhail Alexandrovich, “charmed everyone with the captivating simplicity of his manners. A favorite of his relatives, fellow officers and countless friends, he had a methodical mind and would have advanced to any position if he had not entered into his morganatic marriage. This happened when Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich had already reached maturity, and put the Sovereign in a very difficult position. The Emperor wished his brother complete happiness, but, as the Head of the Imperial Family, he had to follow the dictates of the Basic Laws. Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich married Mrs. Wulfert (the divorced wife of Captain Wulfert) in Vienna and settled in London. Thus, for many years preceding the war, Mikhail Alexandrovich was separated from his brother and, because of this, had nothing to do with government affairs.” Shot in 1918

Protopresbyter Georgy Shavelsky left the following note about the last Grand Duchess and the youngest in the Tsar’s family: “Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, among all the persons of the imperial family, was distinguished by her extraordinary simplicity, accessibility, and democracy. On his estate in Voronezh province. she completely grew up: she walked around the village huts, nursed peasant children, etc. In St. Petersburg, she often walked on foot, rode in simple cabs, and really loved to talk with the latter.” She died the same year as her older sister Ksenia.

Ksenia Alexandrovna was her mother’s favorite, and in appearance she resembled her “dear Mom.” Prince Felix Feliksovich Yusupov later wrote about Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna: “She inherited her greatest advantage - personal charm - from her mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna. The look of her wondrous eyes penetrated the soul, her grace, kindness and modesty conquered everyone.”

"Golden" century of the Romanov dynasty. Between the empire and the family Sukina Lyudmila Borisovna

Family of Emperor Alexander III

Spouse. Alexander Alexandrovich received his wife, as well as the title of Tsarevich, “as an inheritance” from his elder brother, Tsarevich Nicholas. It was a Danish princess Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmara (1847-1928), in Orthodoxy Maria Feodorovna.

Nikolai Alexandrovich met his bride in 1864, when, having completed his home education, he went on a trip abroad. In Copenhagen, in the palace of the Danish king Christian XI, he was introduced to the royal daughter Princess Dagmara. The young people liked each other, but even without this their marriage was a foregone conclusion, as it corresponded to the dynastic interests of the Danish royal house and the Romanov family. The Danish kings had family connections with many of the royal houses of Europe. Their relatives ruled England, Germany, Greece and Norway. The marriage of the heir to the Russian throne with Dagmara strengthened the dynastic ties of the Romanovs with European royal houses.

On September 20, the engagement of Nikolai and Dagmara took place in Denmark. After this, the groom still had to visit Italy and France. In Italy, the Tsarevich caught a cold and began to have severe back pain. He reached Nice and there he finally went to bed. Doctors declared his condition threatening, and Dagmara went to the south of France with her queen mother, accompanied by Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich. When they arrived in Nice, Nikolai was already dying. The Tsarevich understood that he was dying, and he himself joined the hands of his bride and brother, asking them to get married. On the night of April 13, Nikolai Alexandrovich died from tuberculous inflammation of the spinal cord.

Alexander, unlike his father and grandfather, was not a great lover of women and a connoisseur female beauty. But Dagmara, an eighteen-year-old beautiful graceful brown-haired woman, made a great impression on him. The new heir's falling in love with the bride of his deceased brother suited both the Russian imperial and the Danish royal family. This means that he will not have to be persuaded into this dynastic union. But still, we decided to take our time and wait a little for the sake of decency with the new matchmaking. Nevertheless, in the Romanov family they often remembered the sweet and unhappy Minnie (as Dagmara was called Maria Feodorovna at home), and Alexander did not stop thinking about her.

In the summer of 1866, the Tsarevich began his trip to Europe with a visit to Copenhagen, where he hoped to see his dear princess. On the way to Denmark, he wrote to his parents: “I feel that I can and even really love dear Minnie, especially since she is so dear to us. God willing, everything will work out as I wish. I really don’t know what dear Minnie will say to all this; I don’t know her feelings towards me, and it really torments me. I'm sure we can be so happy together. I earnestly pray to God to bless me and ensure my happiness.”

The royal family and Dagmara received Alexander Alexandrovich cordially. Later, already in St. Petersburg, the courtiers said that the Danish princess did not want to miss the Russian imperial crown, so she quickly came to terms with replacing the handsome Nicholas, with whom she was in love, with the clumsy but kind Alexander, who looked at her with adoration. But what could she do when her parents decided everything for her long ago!

The explanation between Alexander and Dagmara took place on June 11, about which the newly minted groom wrote home on the same day: “I was already planning to talk to her several times, but I still didn’t dare, although we were together several times. When we looked at the photographic album together, my thoughts were not at all on the pictures; I was just thinking about how to proceed with my request. Finally I made up my mind and didn’t even have time to say everything I wanted. Minnie threw herself on my neck and began to cry. Of course, I also couldn’t help but cry. I told her that our dear Nyx prays a lot for us and, of course, is rejoicing with us at this moment. Tears kept flowing from me. I asked her if she could love anyone else besides dear Nyx. She answered me that there was no one except his brother, and again we hugged tightly. There was a lot of talk and reminiscing about Nix and his death. Then the queen, king and brothers came, everyone hugged us and congratulated us. Everyone had tears in their eyes."

On July 17, 1866, the young couple were engaged in Copenhagen. Three months later, the heir's bride arrived in St. Petersburg. On October 13, she converted to Orthodoxy with the new name Maria Feodorovna, and the grand ducal couple became engaged, and two weeks later, on October 28, they got married.

Maria Fedorovna quickly learned Russian, but until the end of her life she retained a slight, peculiar accent. Together with her husband, she made a slightly strange couple: he was tall, overweight, “masculine”; She is short, light, graceful, with medium-sized features of a pretty face. Alexander called her “beautiful Minnie”, was very attached to her and only allowed her to command him. It is difficult to judge whether she truly loved her husband, but she was also very attached to him and became his most devoted friend.

The Grand Duchess had a cheerful, cheerful character, and at first many courtiers considered her frivolous. But it soon became clear that Maria Fedorovna was extremely intelligent, had a good understanding of people and was able to judge politics sensibly. She turned out to be a faithful wife and a wonderful mother to her children.

Six children were born into the friendly family of Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Feodorovna: Nikolai, Alexander, Georgy, Mikhail, Ksenia, Olga. The childhood of the Grand Dukes and Princesses was happy. They grew up surrounded parental love and the care of specially trained nannies and governesses imported from Europe. At their service were the best toys and books, summer holidays in the Crimea and the Baltic Sea, as well as in the St. Petersburg suburbs.

But it did not at all follow from this that the children turned out to be spoiled sissies. Education in the Romanov family was traditionally strict and rationally organized. Emperor Alexander III considered it his duty to personally instruct the governesses of his offspring: “They should pray well to God, study, play, and be naughty in moderation. Teach well, don’t push, ask according to the full strictness of the laws, don’t encourage laziness in particular. If there is anything, then address it directly to me, I know what needs to be done, I repeat, I don’t need porcelain, I need normal, healthy, Russian children.”

All children, especially boys, were brought up in Spartan conditions: they slept on hard beds, washed with cold water in the morning, and received simple porridge for breakfast. Older children could be present with their parents and their guests at the dinner table, but they were served food last, after everyone else, so they did not get the best pieces.

The education of imperial children was designed for 12 years, 8 of which were spent on a course similar to the gymnasium. But Alexander III ordered not to torment the great princes and princesses with ancient languages ​​that were unnecessary to them. Instead, natural science courses were taught, including anatomy and physiology. Russian literature, three major European languages ​​(English, French and German) and world and Russian history were required. For physical development children were offered gymnastics and dancing.

The emperor himself taught children traditional Russian games in the fresh air and the usual activities of a simple Russian person in organizing his life. His heir Nikolai Alexandrovich, being an emperor, enjoyed sawing wood and could light the stove himself.

Taking care of his wife and children, Alexander Alexandrovich did not know what dramatic future awaited them. The fate of all the boys was tragic.

Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich (05/06/1868-16(07/17/1918)- heir to the throne, future emperor Nicholas II the Bloody (1894-1917), became the last Russian Tsar. He was overthrown from the throne during the February bourgeois revolution of 1917 and in 1918, along with his entire family, was shot in Yekaterinburg.

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (1869-1870)- died in infancy.

Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich (1871-1899)- Heir-Tsarevich under his elder brother Nicholas II in the absence of male children. Died of consumption (tuberculosis).

Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich (1878-1918)- Heir-Tsarevich under his elder brother Nicholas II after the death of his brother Georgy Alexandrovich and before the birth of Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich. In his favor, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne in 1917. He was shot in Perm in 1918.

To the wife of Alexander III Maria Feodorovna and daughters Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960) who was married to her cousin Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, And Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) managed to escape abroad.

But in those days when Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Feodorovna were happy with each other, nothing foreshadowed such a tragic outcome. Parental care brought joy, and family life was so harmonious that it formed a striking contrast with the life of Alexander II.

The heir-Tsarevich managed to look convincing when he demonstrated an even, respectful attitude towards his father, although in his soul he could not forgive him for betraying his sick mother for the sake of Princess Yuryevskaya. In addition, the presence of a second family for Alexander II could not but unnerve his eldest son, as it threatened to disrupt the order of succession to the throne in the Romanov dynasty. And although Alexander Alexandrovich could not condemn his father openly and even promised him after his death to take care of Princess Yuryevskaya and her children, after the death of his parent he tried to quickly get rid of the morganatic family by sending him abroad.

According to the status of the heir, Alexander Alexandrovich was supposed to be engaged in a variety of government activities. He himself most liked things related to charity. His mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, a famous philanthropist, managed to instill in her son a positive attitude towards helping the suffering.

By coincidence, the heir's first position was the post of chairman of the Special Committee for the collection and distribution of benefits to the hungry during the terrible harvest failure of 1868, which befell a number of provinces central Russia. Alexander's activity and management in this position immediately brought him popularity among the people. Even near his residence, the Anichkov Palace, a special mug for donations was displayed, into which St. Petersburg residents daily put from three to four thousand rubles, and on Alexander’s birthday there were about six thousand in it. All these funds went to the starving people.

Later, mercy for the lower strata of society and sympathy for the hardships of their lives would find expression in the labor legislation of Emperor Alexander III, which stood out for its liberal spirit against the background of other political and social initiatives of his time.

The Grand Duke's mercy impressed many. F. M. Dostoevsky wrote about him in 1868: “How glad I am that the heir appeared before Russia in such a good and majestic form, and that Russia thus testifies to her hopes for him and her love for him. Yes, even half the love I have for my father would be enough.”

Mercy may have also dictated the Tsarevich's peacefulness, which was unusual for a member of the Romanov family. He took part in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Alexander did not show any special talents at the theater of war, but he acquired a strong conviction that war brings incredible hardships and death to the ordinary soldier. Having become emperor, Alexander carried out peacekeeping foreign policy and in every possible way avoided armed conflicts with other countries, so as not to shed blood in vain.

At the same time, some of Alexander’s actions are an excellent illustration of the fact that loving and pitying all of humanity often turns out to be simpler and easier than respecting an individual person. Even before the start of the Russian-Turkish war, the heir had an unpleasant quarrel with a Russian officer of Swedish origin, K. I. Gunius, who was sent by the government to America to purchase guns. Alexander Alexandrovich did not like the samples brought. He harshly and rudely criticized the choice. The officer tried to object, then the Grand Duke shouted at him, using vulgar expressions. After his departure from the palace, Gunius sent the Tsarevich a note demanding an apology, and otherwise threatened to commit suicide in 24 hours. Alexander considered all this stupidity and did not think to apologize. A day later the officer was dead.

Alexander II, wanting to punish his son for his callousness, ordered him to follow Gunius’ coffin to the grave. But the Grand Duke did not understand why he should have felt guilty for the suicide of an overly scrupulous officer, since rudeness and insults towards subordinates were practiced by the male part of the Romanov family.

Among Alexander Alexandrovich’s personal interests, one can highlight his love for Russian history. He contributed in every possible way to the founding of the Imperial Historical Society, which he himself headed before ascending the throne. Alexander had a beautiful historical library, which he replenished throughout his life. He gladly accepted historical works brought to him by the authors themselves, but, carefully arranging them on the shelves, he rarely read. He preferred the historical novels of M. N. Zagoskin and I. I. Lazhechnikov to scientific and popular books on history and judged Russia’s past from them. Alexander Alexandrovich had a special curiosity about the past of his family and wanted to know how much Russian blood flowed in his veins, since it turned out that on the female side he was more likely German. Information extracted from the memoirs of Catherine II that her son Paul I could not have been born from her legal husband Peter III, and from the Russian nobleman Saltykov, oddly enough, made Alexander happy. This meant that he, Alexander Alexandrovich, was more Russian in origin than he had previously thought.

From fiction The Tsarevich preferred the prose of Russian writers of the past and his contemporaries. The list of books he read, compiled in 1879, includes works by Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov and Dostoevsky. The future emperor read “What to do?” Chernyshevsky, became acquainted with illegal journalism published in foreign emigrant magazines. But in general, Alexander was not an avid bookworm, reading only what he could not do without in a very average way. educated person his time. In his leisure hours, he was occupied not by books, but by theater and music.

Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Fedorovna visited the theater almost weekly. Alexander preferred musical performances(opera, ballet), and did not disdain operetta, which he attended alone, since Maria Feodorovna did not like her. Amateur performances were often staged in the Anichkov Palace of the Grand Duke, in which family members, guests, and children’s governesses played. The directors were professional actors who considered it an honor to work with the heir’s troupe. Alexander Alexandrovich himself often played music at home concerts, performing simple works on the horn and bass.

The Tsarevich was also famous as a passionate collector of works of art. He himself was not very well versed in art and preferred portraits and battle paintings. But in his collections, which filled the Anichkov Palace and chambers in the imperial residences that belonged to him, there were works by the Itinerants, whom he disliked, and works by old European masters and modern Western artists. As a collector, the future emperor relied on the taste and knowledge of connoisseurs. On the advice of Pobedonostsev, Alexander also collected ancient Russian icons, which formed a separate, very valuable collection. In the 1880s. The Grand Duke purchased for 70 thousand rubles a collection of Russian paintings by gold miner V. A. Kokorev. Subsequently, the collections of Alexander III formed the basis of the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

The serene life of the Tsarevich's family, slightly overshadowed only by the presence of his father's morganatic family, ended on March 1, 1881. Alexander III, from the age of twenty, was preparing to reign for sixteen years, but did not imagine that the throne would go to him so unexpectedly and in such tragic circumstances.

Already on March 1, 1881, Alexander received a letter from his teacher and friend, Chief Prosecutor of the Synod K. P. Pobedonostsev, which said: “You are getting a Russia that is confused, shattered, confused, yearning to be led with a firm hand, so that the ruling the authorities saw clearly and knew firmly what they wanted and what they did not want and would not allow in any way.” But the new emperor was not yet ready for firm, decisive actions and, according to the same Pobedonostsev, in the first days and weeks of his reign he looked more like a “poor sick, stunned child” than a formidable autocrat. He wavered between his desire to fulfill his earlier promises to his father to continue reforms and his own conservative ideas about what the power of the emperor should look like in autocratic Russia. He was haunted by the anonymous message he received immediately after the terrorist attack that ended the life of Alexander II, which stood out among the sympathetic condolences, which, in particular, stated: “Your father is not a martyr or a saint, because he suffered not for the church, not for the cross, not for the Christian faith, not for Orthodoxy, but for the sole reason that he dissolved the people, and this dissolved people killed him.”

The hesitation ended by April 30, 1881, when a manifesto was born that defined the conservative-protective policy of the new reign. Conservative journalist M.N. Katkov wrote about this document: “Like manna from heaven, the people's feelings were waiting for this royal word. It is our salvation: it returns the Russian autocratic Tsar to the Russian people.” One of the main compilers of the manifesto was Pobedonostsev, who took as a model the Manifesto of Nicholas I of December 19, 1815. People knowledgeable in politics again saw the shadow of Nicholas’s reign, only the place of a temporary worker, as Arakcheev and Benckendorff had been in their time, was now taken by another person . As A. Blok wrote, “Pobedonostsev spread his owl’s wings over Russia.” Modern researcher V.A. Tvardovskaya even saw special symbolism in the fact that the beginning of the reign of Alexander III was marked by the execution of five Narodnaya Volya members, while the reign of Nicholas I began with the execution of five Decembrists.

The manifesto was followed by a series of measures repealing or limiting the reform decrees of the previous reign. In 1882, new “Temporary Rules on the Press” were approved, which lasted until 1905, putting all press and book publishing in the country under government control. In 1884, a new university charter was introduced, which virtually destroyed the autonomy of these educational institutions and made the fate of teachers and students dependent on their loyalty to the authorities. At the same time, the fee for obtaining higher education has doubled, from 50 to 100 rubles per year. In 1887, the infamous circular about “cook’s children” was adopted, which recommended limiting the admission of children to the gymnasium domestic servants, small shopkeepers, artisans and other representatives of the lower classes. In order to maintain public peace, even the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom was prohibited.

All these measures did not give the imperial family confidence in their own safety. The public regicide, organized by the People's Will, instilled fear in the Winter Palace, from which its inhabitants and their immediate circle could not get rid of.

On the first night after his father's death, Alexander III was able to fall asleep only because he was very drunk. In the following days, the entire royal family was in great anxiety about their fate. Pobedonostsev advised the emperor to personally lock the door at night not only to the bedroom, but also to the rooms adjacent to it, and before going to bed to check whether anyone was hiding in closets, behind screens, or under furniture. The sight of the emperor crawling in the evening with a candle under his own bed in search of hidden terrorists did not inspire optimism for the Romanovs, their courtiers and servants who lived in the Winter Palace.

Alexander III was not a coward by nature, but the actions and words of the people he trusted instilled uncertainty and suspicion in his soul. So, in order to strengthen the importance of his figure in the eyes of the tsar, the St. Petersburg mayor N.M. Baranov constantly invented non-existent conspiracies, caught some mythical conspirators and terrorists digging tunnels under the tsar’s palaces. After some time, Baranov was exposed as a lie, but a shadow of fear of the assassination attempts he invented remained in the emperor’s soul.

Fear made Alexander III an involuntary criminal. One day he unexpectedly entered the room of the palace guard on duty. The officer who was there, Baron Reitern, smoked, which the tsar did not like. In order not to irritate the sovereign, Reitern quickly removed his hand with the lit cigarette behind his back. Alexander decided that with this movement the officer was hiding the weapon with which he intended to kill him, and he struck the baron on the spot with a shot from his own pistol.

Pobedonostsev wanted to take advantage of Alexander III’s dislike for St. Petersburg and his fear of St. Petersburg residents in order to realize his dream of re-establishing an Orthodox autocratic kingdom with its capital in ancient Moscow. In the very first days of the new reign, when the body of Emperor Alexander II still lay in the Winter Palace, he repeated to his son: “Flee from St. Petersburg, this damned city. Move to Moscow and move the government to the Kremlin." But Alexander III was also wary of Moscow with its provincial free-thinking, which grew in it without constant supervision from the capital’s authorities. He believed that he could hide from danger in his St. Petersburg and country palaces.

For two years, an atmosphere of general fear forced the postponement of the official coronation ceremony of the emperor. It took place only in May 1883, when police measures managed to stabilize the situation in the country: stop the wave of terrorist attacks against government officials, calm the peasants, and shut the mouth of the liberal press.

Pobedonostsev called the coronation celebrations in Moscow a “coronation poem.” During these May days, the people were able to see their new emperor for the first time. Only selected representatives of aristocratic families and foreign diplomats invited by the Ministry of the Court were allowed into the Kremlin for the ceremony itself. M. N. Katkov, who received the pass with difficulty, wrote that nature itself welcomed the coronation: “When the king appeared, the sun appeared before the people in all the appearance of its rays, the king disappeared from the eyes of the people, the sky became covered with clouds and it rained. When gun shots announced the completion of the sacrament, the clouds instantly dispersed.” The artist V.I. Surikov, who was present at the ceremony in the Assumption Cathedral, described with admiration his impression of the tall, powerful figure of the fair-haired and blue-eyed sovereign, who, in his opinion, seemed at that moment “a true representative of the people.” It should be noted that the king threw a brocade coronation robe over his usual clothes. Even at the moment of his greatest triumph, he did not change his habit of dressing simply and comfortably.

On the days of the coronation common people They had a party on Khodynka Field. About 300 thousand residents of surrounding villages and towns gathered there, but this time everything went calmly. Khodynka’s bloody “glory” was yet to come.

In honor of the coronation, the peasants, as was customary, were forgiven arrears and fines. Officials received awards, orders, and some nobles received new titles. Many gifts were distributed to the courtiers: about 120 thousand rubles were spent on diamonds for maids of honor and court officials alone. But, contrary to custom, no amnesties were given to political criminals. Only N.G. Chernyshevsky was transferred from Vilyuysk to settle in Astrakhan.

On May 18, 1883, another remarkable event took place - the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, built according to the design of the architect Konstantin Andreevich Ton. This building was conceived as a monument to the victory in the war of 1812 and was built over several decades (the temple was designed under Nicholas I). The manifesto for the consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, signed by Alexander III, noted that it should serve as “a monument of peace after a cruel war undertaken not to conquer, but to protect the Fatherland from a threatening conqueror.” The emperor hoped that this temple would stand for “many centuries.” He could not know that the church, founded by his ancestor for the edification of subsequent generations, would briefly outlive the autocratic monarchy of the Romanovs and would be one of the many silent victims of the revolutionary reorganization of the world.

But the pacification of society and the unity of the monarchy and the people that seemed to be achieved during the coronation in Moscow was illusory, and the victory over terrorism was temporary. Already in 1886, a new underground organization was created at St. Petersburg University to fight the autocracy, which included student revolutionary circles from higher educational institutions of the capital. On the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, young revolutionaries planned a terrorist attack against Alexander III. On the morning of March 1, 1887, the emperor was supposed to attend the annual funeral service in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The terrorists were preparing to throw a bomb under the sleigh when the emperor drove along Nevsky Prospekt. The attempt failed only because there was a traitor in the group who reported everything to the authorities. The perpetrators of the terrorist attack, St. Petersburg University students Vasily Generalov, Pakhom Andreyushkin and Vasily Osipanov, were arrested on the day appointed for the assassination of the Tsar, at 11 a.m. on Nevsky. Explosive shells were found on them. The organizers of the terrorist attack, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin), and Pyotr Shevyrev, as well as other members of the organization, were also detained. A total of 15 people were arrested.

The case of the assassination attempt on Alexander III was considered at a closed meeting of the Special Presence of the Senate. Five terrorists (Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Osipanov, Generalov and Andreyushkin) were sentenced to death, the rest faced life imprisonment in the Shlisselburg fortress or twenty years of hard labor in Siberia.

The failed assassination attempt made a grave impression on the emperor himself. In the margins of the “First March” case, he made a pessimistic note: “This time God saved, but for how long?”

A strange incident happened to the royal family in October of the following year, 1888. The royal train on which the Romanovs were returning from the south derailed 50 kilometers from Kharkov. Seven carriages were smashed to pieces, 20 servants and guards were killed, and 17 were seriously injured. No one from the imperial family died, but some of the children of Alexander III suffered, especially the Grand Duchess Xenia, who remained a hunchback for the rest of her life.

The wounding of the children was hidden by order of the emperor. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, the royal family organized a “celebration of the crash,” during which prayers of gratitude were offered to God for the miraculous salvation. The king, his wife and children drove through the streets of the capital to show the people that everyone was safe and sound.

The cause of the crash also remained not entirely clear. The Minister of Railways, K.N. Posyet, was fired allegedly because the sleepers on that section of the road were rotten and could not withstand the weight of the train moving at high speed. But in society they said that this was another attempt on the life of the emperor and his family, which ended in failure only by luck.

Or rather, the family was saved on that ill-fated day not only by chance, but also by the courage of the emperor, who was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of his wife and children (a rare case for an autocrat of the Romanov dynasty). At the time of the crash, the tsar and his relatives were in the dining car. They had just been served pudding for dessert. From the terrible blow, the roof of the car began to fall inward. Alexander, distinguished heroic strength, took her on his shoulders and held her until his wife and children got out. At first, the king did not feel anything except severe muscle fatigue from inhuman tension. But after a while he began to complain of back pain. Doctors determined that the king’s kidneys were damaged from the stress and impact of the accident, which later became one of the reasons for his fatal illness.

The alarming feeling of constant danger was fueled by police reports about real and imaginary conspiracies, anonymous letters from well-wishers and adventurers. Also in 1888, during a performance at the Mariinsky Theater, the artist Alexander Benois accidentally met the gaze of Alexander III. Benoit saw the eyes of a man driven into a corner: irritated and at the same time forced to constantly fear for himself and his loved ones.

Unlike his father, Alexander III took the possibility of extermination of himself and his family members seriously by terrorists. He took all the security measures that were available at the time.

The Emperor did not move to Moscow, however, even in St. Petersburg he felt more like a guest than a permanent resident. “Prisoner of Gatchina” – that’s what his contemporaries called him. Gatchina was located far from the capital. This suburban imperial residence was fortified under Paul I and resembled a castle.

The Gatchina Palace was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi in 1766 for the favorite of Catherine II, Grigory Orlov. It had all the attributes of a palace building with dance halls and luxurious apartments. But the royal family occupied small rooms in it, intended for courtiers and servants. Paul I once lived in them with his wife and children.

The location of the palace would be an honor to any fortification. It stands on a wooded hill surrounded by three lakes (White, Black and Silver). Around it, ditches were dug and walls were built with watchtowers, with underground passages connecting the palace and fortifications with the lakes. In this castle with an underground prison, Alexander III imprisoned himself voluntarily, hoping to thus ensure quiet life family.

Military guards were stationed for several kilometers around Gatchina, allowing only those who had written permission from the palace administration to enter the residence. True, in the summer and autumn the royal family often vacationed in the more cheerful and elegant Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo, traveled to the Crimea, to Livadia, which the Empress especially loved, and to Danish Fredensborg. In St. Petersburg, the emperor lived mainly in the Anichkov Palace. Winter reminded him too much of the last minutes of the life of his beloved father and inspired fears due to the inability to effectively control this huge structure with many doors, windows, nooks and stairs.

In the 1880s. The royal family left the palaces almost secretly, unnoticed by prying eyes. Later, the Romanovs’ move generally began to resemble a special police operation. The family always gathered quickly and left the house suddenly; the day and hour were never set in advance or discussed. The exit from the palace was covered by a thick chain of security; policemen dispersed passers-by and onlookers from the sidewalk.

It no longer occurred to Alexander III to take a walk alone or with two or three officers in the Summer Garden or on the embankment. Subjects during this reign rarely had the pleasure of seeing their sovereign and members of his family. Usually this happened only during large state celebrations, when the royal family was at a considerable distance from the public, separated from it by several rows of guards.

Being an involuntary recluse of Gatchina, Alexander III became increasingly interested in the personality and history of the reign of Paul I, his great-grandfather. In the palace, for almost a century, the office of this overthrown and murdered emperor with the things that belonged to him had been preserved intact. There hung a large, life-size portrait of Paul in the costume of a grand master of the Order of Malta, and there was his personal Gospel. Alexander often came to this room, prayed and reflected on his fate.

The emperor collected historical evidence about the life and death of his great-grandfather. One day he came across papers relating to a conspiracy against Paul I. They were brought by Princess M.A. Panina-Meshcherskaya to refute the opinion that her great-grandfather I.P. Panin had participated in a conspiracy against the Tsar. Alexander III carefully read the documents, but Meshcherskaya did not return them, but included them in his own archive.

Alexander III's interest in Paul I was no secret to his contemporaries. Some saw this as a secret sign of fate. Writers I. S. Leskov and P. A. Kropotkin (who was also a revolutionary anarchist), with their vivid imagination, predicted the same death for the tsar at the hands of his entourage.

Under the influence of such prophecies and his own thoughts about the impossibility of hiding behind the walls of his residences from all people, the emperor became increasingly suspicious. He couldn't even trust the palace servants. The Emperor always remembered that the terrorist Zhelyabov at one time lived quietly in the palace under the guise of a court carpenter. There was always a guard of Life Cossacks at the door of the Tsar's office. The premises where the royal family gathered were always checked and guarded.

Alexander was haunted by the fear of being poisoned. Each time, provisions for the royal table were bought in a new place, and for whom the purchases were made were carefully hidden from the merchant. The cooks also changed daily and were appointed at the last minute. Before entering the kitchen, the cook and his assistants were thoroughly searched, and during the preparation of food one of them was always with them. royal family and a court official.

At the same time, Alexander III can hardly be called an unhappy sovereign. In many ways, his constant concern for himself and his family was explained by the fact that he was happy in his personal life and did not want to lose this happiness. Unlike his ancestors, Alexander was an almost ideal husband and father. His conservatism extended to family values. He was faithful to his wife, and in his relationships with children he skillfully combined parental strictness and kindness.

Falling in love with “dear Minnie” (as he continued to call Empress Maria Feodorovna) over the years turned into deep respect and strong affection. The couple were almost never separated. Alexander III loved his wife to accompany him everywhere: to the theater, to the ball, on trips to holy places and to military parades, reviews and divorces. Over time, Maria Feodorovna became well versed in politics, but never sought independent government activity, preferring traditional women's occupations - raising children and managing the household. Nevertheless, Alexander himself often turned to her for advice on various issues, and gradually it became clear to everyone around him that in complex matters it was better to rely on the help of the empress, who had such great influence on the emperor.

Alexander III had very modest needs, so it was difficult to “buy” his favor with some rare trifle, but he always favored people who knew how to please the empress, who had an exalted nature and adored everything beautiful. Historians like to tell the story of the military engineer-inventor S.K. Dzhevetsky, who proposed to the Russian military department new model submarine. At that time, submarines were a novelty, and the military hesitated whether to adopt Drzewiecki’s invention. The decision had to be made by the king himself, who, as always, relied on the intelligence and taste of his wife. A sample of the boat was brought to Gatchina, to Silver Lake, which was famous for the exceptional clarity of its water. A whole performance was staged for the royal couple. The boat floated underwater, and the emperor and empress watched it from the boat. When the Tsar and Tsarina went out onto the pier, a boat suddenly floated up, and Drzewiecki came out with a bouquet of beautiful orchids, which he presented to Maria Feodorovna “as a gift from Neptune.” The Tsarina was delighted, Alexander III became emotional and immediately signed an order to begin the construction of 50 submarines with a generous reward paid to the inventor. Drzewiecki's model objectively represented good development, but it was precisely thanks to the gallant trick of the engineer that the decision to use it in the Russian navy was made easily and quickly.

Alexander III loved all his children very much. He sincerely rejoiced at his sons' success in school, sports, horse riding and shooting exercises.

Especially in the imperial family, the eldest of the daughters, Grand Duchess Ksenia, was pitied and spoiled. She suffered more than other children during the Tsar's train disaster and grew up disabled. Her father spent a lot of time with her, and she was very attached to him. Unable to play and frolic with her brothers and sister for health reasons, Ksenia took on the duties of family secretary and chronicler and, during her father’s absence at home, wrote him detailed letters about how everyone was living without him and what they were doing.

Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna gave some preference to the heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich - Niki and Mikhail Alexandrovich, who bore the not very euphonious family nickname Mimishkin-Pipishkin-Kakashkin. Their upbringing was carried out by K.P. Pobedonostsev, who by this time had turned from a moderate conservative into a gloomy retrograde. But the emperor, who was under his influence, believed that he could not find a better mentor for his sons.

While still a Grand Duke, Alexander III paid great attention to the education of his boys. But over time, also under the influence of fear for the life and safety of his family, it began to seem to him that education was not so important - the main thing was that the children were healthy and happy. He himself did not have deep knowledge, and yet, as he believed, he coped well with the management of a huge empire. Level educational training in the royal family under Alexander III decreased and was no longer much different from the level of home education that children received in wealthy Russian families with not very high cultural needs. The artist A. N. Benois, who often visited the palace, noted that the upbringing and education of the heir to the crown prince, the future Nicholas II, did not correspond to the “superhuman role of the autocrat.”

Love for wife and children is probably the most attractive feature personality of Alexander III. On family life and alignment good relations left with family most of his energy, he spent his time on his family and best qualities souls. Obviously, he would be a good landowner - the father of a large family, zealous and hospitable. But the country expected a lot more from the sovereign - political achievements and deeds, which Alexander Alexandrovich turned out to be incapable of.

He was kind and fair to his own children. But his attention and mercy to strangers was limited by the framework of Christian virtue, which he understood too narrowly and primitively. Thus, the tsar was sincerely moved by the story of the little daughter of one of the cool ladies of the Smolny Institute, told to him by Pobedonostsev. The emperor gave a girl named Olya Ushakova and her poor mother 500 rubles from his own funds for a summer vacation. True, then he chose to forget about her. Alexander III was generally irritated by conversations and publications in the press that there were many street children and young beggars in Russia. In his empire, as in his family, order had to be maintained, and what could not be corrected (like a mutilation Grand Duchess Ksenia), should not have been made public.

Where order was violated, it was restored with all due severity. Almost never using physical punishment on his own children, the emperor approved of the reasoning of Prince V.P. Meshchersky, his courtier, about the need for rods in the education of the common people, since without them the offspring of peasants and townspeople would face debauchery and drunkenness in the future. Education in the families of ordinary citizens of the empire had to be strictly religious; Non-marital forms of family existence were not recognized. Alexander III ordered to take the children by force from the Tolstoyan nobleman D. A. Khilkov and his common-law wife Ts. V. Wiener and hand them over for adoption to Khilkov’s mother. The reason was that the Khilkovs were unmarried and did not baptize their children. The emperor was not interested in what the true relationships were within this family; the petition of Pobedonostsev, who acted on the denunciation of Khilkova Sr., was enough for him.

Under Alexander III the highest government activity in Russia was acquiring an increasingly obvious clan character. Since the time of Nicholas I, many important posts in the empire were occupied by representatives of the House of Romanov. Large marriages of the Romanovs by the end of the 19th century. led to the fact that the number of grand dukes: uncles, nephews, relatives, cousins ​​and second cousins ​​of the emperor - increased significantly. They all crowded at the foot of the throne and craved money, fame and honorary positions. Among them were well-educated, well-mannered and capable people, but there were also many whose main talent was belonging to the Romanov family. But, as often happens in other family clans, they were the ones who wanted to rule and rule more than others.

Unfortunately, during the time of Alexander III, among the Romanovs there was no longer such an effective statesman as Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich was under his father Alexander II. Quite the contrary, the emperor’s uncles and brothers did more harm to the cause they served than benefited the empire. Under the chairmanship of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the State Council from an effective advisory body under the tsar turned into a discussion club, where each of its members expressed to others everything that came to mind, without paying any attention to the demands of the present political moment. Younger brother sovereign, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich actually ruined the work of the naval department he headed. Admiral General A. A. Romanov replaced in this post his uncle, the liberal and clever Konstantin Nikolaevich, who was disliked by Alexander III, and in a few years of his “work” managed to level out everything that had been achieved under his predecessor in the matter of development Russian fleet. Russia saw the fruits of the activities of Grand Duke Alexei Romanov with all sad clarity in the years Russo-Japanese War, during which the heroism of the sailors was powerless against the combat power of the enemy ships and its coastal artillery. The tsar’s other brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who became Moscow governor-general in 1891, also irritated his contemporaries. He was a tough, harsh and proud person, tormented his subordinates with petty regulations, and frightened the subordinate population with the quick and thoughtless use of punitive measures. It is no coincidence that he became one of the targets of the hunt of revolutionary terrorists.

As modest and respectable as Alexander III was in everyday life, his closest relatives were just as dissolute. It was as if they were trying to take advantage of those benefits and privileges “allowed” by Romanov that the emperor did not want or was unable to use. The Grand Dukes enjoyed traveling to foreign resorts and, without limiting their means, spent a lot on gambling, entertainment, women, outfits and decorations, furnishings for their palaces. Alexey Alexandrovich was famous for his revelry, on which the funds of the naval department were mainly spent. Sergei Alexandrovich had a reputation as one of the dirtiest libertines of his time, known for his relationships with people of the same sex. At any European country At that time, this would have excluded him from big politics for a long time, but in Russia everything that had to do with the Romanov family could not be openly discussed and condemned in society. Even the best of the grand dukes - the president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, philanthropist and famous art collector Vladimir Alexandrovich - was a lazy person, a glutton and a drunkard, who staged outrageous antics in the capital's restaurants.

The Romanovs did not consider embezzlement, embezzlement of government money, and bribery to be serious offenses. Alexander III became angry with his brothers only when their behavior and vices became public knowledge. Even when the St. Petersburg police chief had to intervene in a fight started by one of the grand dukes in a restaurant or other entertainment establishment in the capital, the scandal was hushed up, and the matter was limited to an intra-family reprimand. By the standards of the family clan, only Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, who became entangled in debt and stole diamonds from the Empress’s casket, was seriously punished. He was first exiled to Turkestan, and in 1882 he was sent to settle on the state estate of Smolenskoye in the Vladimir province, where he spent several years under house arrest, not having the right to appear in the capitals.

As emperor, Alexander III controlled the destinies of not only his own children, but also all members of the Romanov dynasty, grossly interfering in their personal lives. The Romanovs lived according to the laws of the 18th century, which excluded the possibility of persons who did not belong to the ruling clans of Europe infiltrating the family. This norm was strictly observed, despite its absurdity for late XIX c., especially in relation to those members of the dynasty who would never have to inherit the throne (the emperor's first and second cousins). Alexander III categorically forbade his nephew Nikolai Nikolaevich to marry the divorced noblewoman Burenina. Such a marriage, in his opinion, caused much more damage to the royal family than the homosexuality of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Such trifles as a broken heart and the unfortunate fate of a nephew were not taken into account.