Star Media Babich-Design in association with the Russian
Military Historical Society December 14, 1825. The
revolt was suppressed. However, the eldest son of the Emperor Prince Alexander
was still trembling in fear. The boy knew that his
father went to do his duty and that he could
be killed for that. The ruler ordered to bring
Alexander out into the yard. The Field Engineer’
Battalion that didn’t let the rebels seize the palace and his family just
an hour before lined up in the yard. The Emperor took his son in his
arms and addressed the guards: “I don’t need protection.
However, I entrust you with him”, and handed Alexander
over to them. The old soldiers shouted “Hurray!”
with tears in their eyes. The young heir
was sailing in arms of his loyal guards. Nobody ever thought that one day
he, the future Emperor Alexander II, would have to do his duty
for which he might be killed. THE HOUSE OF ROMANOV. Episode Seven He was born very big – 61 cm
long, like a three-month baby. His grandmother Empress Catherine
the Great wrote in admiration: “I see such a knight for the first time
in my life. If he goes on like he started, his brothers will dwarf in
comparison with this colossus”. Chapter One. Nicolay I Pavlovitch When Nicolay was five, his father Pavel I
died of the hands of conspirators. The boy remembered the eve
of the regicide well. His three-year old brother Mikhail was playing
separately from other children. He built a train of tiny carriages, took a soldier-grenadier to a pot
with a palm tree and buried it there. When nannies
asked him what he was doing, the child answered:
“I’m burying my father”. After Pavel’s death Nicolay’s
brother Alexander Pavlovitch who was 19 years older than
Nicolay became the Emperor, and the second brother Konstantin
Pavlovitch became the heir to the throne. Nicolay himself wasn’t
expected to ascend the throne. He grew up in the charge of
his mother Maria Fedorovna in strict Spartan conditions. Only at the age of 17, he
got a permission to go for a trip together with
his younger brother Mikhail. “We started to live and stepped from
the childhood right into the world, into larger life. In Berlin I saw the one who
evoked a wish to belong to her for all my life for the first time”. A 16-year old Princess Fredericka
Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina, a daughter of the Prussian King,
was a great bride for the Grand Duke. In two years, they married.
Charlotte converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Alexandra Fedorovna. Soon Grand Duke Nicolay Pavlovitch
was appointed the chief inspector of the Corps of Engineers and
the chef of the Leib-Guards of the Field Engineers Battalion. Having phenomenal memory, he knew all his field
engineers by face. Later he often repeated: “I’m just an old guard
field engineer”. Every day he got
up early, prayed and did his morning exercises. He did “exercises with a gun” – rather difficult
techniques with weapons. Working out of instructions,
inspections and drills followed. Nicolay relished in what
others considered boring. Meanwhile his elder brother Emperor
Alexander I hinted Nicolay a few times that he’d like to hand
the throne over to him. Their middle brother Prince Konstantin
didn’t want to become the Emperor. In 1823, Alexander I signed a Manifest
in which he announced Nicolay to be the heir to the throne. Only four people knew about it,
excluding Nicolay. On November 19, 1825 in Taganrog
Emperor Alexander I suddenly died. In eight days, the
news reached Petersburg. At the meeting of the State Council,
the Manifest on the Heir was proclaimed. However, Nicolay had already
swore his allegiance to Konstantin and administered
the oath to the troops. Konstantin didn’t accept
the throne and in two weeks sent an official abdication from Warsaw. It was a unique case
in the world history. Instead of quarreling for the
throne, the Romanov brothers were insistently offering
it to each other. Later Count Langeron paid them a subtle French compliment: “The
members of your dynasty are so noble that they go not up but
down to the throne”. However, the result of it was a dangerous
situation of interregnum. The conspirators who were later
called “the Decembrists” used it. The Decembrists were the
members of secret societies that were against
monarchy and serfdom. The majority of them were guards officers, all of them were nobles,
many of them – rich and with titles. The members of the
“Northern Society” led by Nikita Muravyov were for the constitutional monarchy;
the members of the “Southern Society” headed by Pavel Pestel
wanted to have a republic. A military coup
d’etat was planned. The plans of more
radical conspirators – Ryleyev and Pestel – also included
the murder of the entire Tsar’s family, together with the Grand Duchesses married
abroad and children they bore there, so that nobody could ever lay
claims to the Russian throne. The government scheduled the oath ceremony
of the new Emperor for December 14. In the evening on the eve of
that awful day, Nicolay visited the Mikhaylovskiy Palace
where his father died. When he came back he asked his wife to die with
honor, should the need be. 11:20. Nicolay was reported that
that Moscow leib-guards regiment refused to swear its allegiance
and went out to the Senate Square. 11:30. The Emperor went to the Square
accompanied by the palace guards. 12:20. General Myloradovitch tried
to talk to the rebelling soldiers. Decembrist Kakhovskiy
shot at Myloradovitch. 13:00. 900 rebelling leib-grenadiers
approached the Winter Palace. 13:20. Nicolay sent Metropolitan
Seraphim to reason the soldiers. Nobody listened to the priest. 14:00. There were already
3,000 rebels on the Square. Nicolay was pulling his loyal troops in waiting for the fourfold
superiority in numbers. 16:10. The first case
shot volley sounded. The young Empress Alexandra
Fedorovna remembered that day for the rest of her life. “We saw that the entire Square up
to the Senate was alive with people. At the sound of the first volley,
I fell on my knees in a small study. I prayed like never before!” Because of the shock
experienced on December 14, the Empress suffered from nervous convulsions
and strong neurological pains all her life. She was always thin,
but lost even more weight and was almost constantly sick. According to the Emperor’s
order, the case shot was fired above the heads of the
soldiers on the Square. The case shots hit the walls of the buildings and the crowds of curious at
the perimeter of the square. On the day of the revolt on the
Senate Square, 1 General, 18 officers, 282 soldiers, 1,170 civilians, among
them 79 women and 150 children died. The total number of
casualties amounted to 1,271. 679 people were under
investigation. However, about two
thirds of them turned out to be slandered by
the secret societies’ members to make the conspiracy appear more
popular. After the court hearing 112 people were sentenced
to civil execution with deprivation of all property rights; 99 were sent to Siberia, at that 36 out of them to
hard labor establishments. 9 officers were
demoted to soldiers. 36 people were
sentenced to death: 31 by beheading and
5 – by quartering. Emperor Nicolay
mitigated punishments for everybody by his
personal order. Only five people were executed (Pavel Pestel, Kondratiy
Ryleyev, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin
and Peter Kakhovskiy). Quartering was replaced with hanging. The Emperor paid allowance
to the widows of the executed from his personal money
and set pensions for them. The families of the condemned had
been receiving money allowances from the Department of the
General Headquarters for 20 years. Their children studied in state
educational establishments for free. Nicolay ordered to hand the
Decembrists’ projects over to a specially
established Committee. The Emperor involved
Count Kiselyov, a decisive opponent of serfdom, whose
name was in the list of the conspirators, in work on the peasants’ reform. When receiving a delegation of nobles
from Smolensk the ruler told them openly: “I don’t understand how a
person became a thing. I can’t explain it otherwise than with slyness and cheating from
one side and ignorance from the other”. In Nicolay’s I time serfdom turned
into an institute of the natural rent. The landowners were prohibited
to send the serfs to hard labor and to sell them without land. The peasants were granted
relative freedom of movement and a right to
the entrepreneurial activities. The share of serfs in Russia’s
population decreased from 57% to 35%. The number of the peasants’
schools grew from 60 to 2,550. Nicolay Pavlovitch was a military engineer and was always interested
in technical novelties. In 1835, he fell for a project of an “iron thing”
that many considered to be crazy. At that time, there were only three railroads in the world – two in
England and one in America. Nicolay studied all the projects
offered to him carefully. In one year a construction
of an experimental railroad from Petersburg to
Tsarskoye Selo started. In three years, despite all objections of
the Cabinet of Ministers, he signed an order to construct a
railroad from Petersburg to Moscow. Nicolay’s railroad was the longest
in the world at that time – 649,7 km. Its construction cost 67 million rubles –
a third of the yearly budget of the Empire. All 34 stations and
2 railroad stations were designed by one architect – Konstantin Ton. It was the largest architectural
structure in the world. The rails were 1,524 mm wide, 89
mm wider than the European rails. The rails of the railroad were widened
at the Emperor’s personal order. He didn’t want the enemy
to use his railroads. In 100 years, in 1941 those 89 mm impeded supplies
of the German troops greatly. The group of Armies “Centre” received
only a third of the ammunition it needed to seize Moscow. In Nicolay’s epoch, about
1,000 versts of rails were laid. That stimulated the
national machine-building. The scale of industrial production grew
thirty times in the course of three decades. First highways with hard
surface were built in Russia: highways Moscow-Petersburg,
Moscow-Irkutsk and Moscow-Warsaw. City population doubled. The industrial revolution in Russia took place while Nicolay I, the
Emperor-Engineer was on the throne. The Emperor started his working
day at 7 a.m. It lasted for 18 hours with short breaks for meals
and obligatory promenades. About 11 a.m. the Emperor in his
plain uniform and without any guards walked the Palace Embankment
bowing to people he knew. In the evening about 8 p.m. he went
to the theatre or to a masquerade. He returned home after
midnight and worked until 3 p.m. Then he tiptoed past
his sleeping chamberlain, undressed on his own and went to bed. The Emperor didn’t eat much. He preferred healthy food. He loved veal cutlets
with mashed potatoes. He could eat just a slice of rye
bread or a salted cucumber for supper. In trips his meals were even
simpler – buckwheat porridge and some cabbage soup, which
he could eat from one plate. He drank mineral water from Saltsburg
and rarely – wines from Bordeaux. He almost never drank alcohol. He
loved order and was a real pedant. People said that nervous people
couldn’t stand the Emperor’s glance. Ladies fainted in his presence – not
out of fear but because of passion. Nicolay Pavlovitch was one of
the most handsome men of Europe. He was 189 cm tall, broad-shouldered
and athletically built. Rumors circulated that he put cotton pads
under his uniform to look more imposing. However, his personal doctors said that it wasn’t true – the Emperor
just had a really wide chest. According to that time’s fashion
he belted his waist tightly. He couldn’t let himself
relax even for a minute: the Emperor had to be
impeccable in everything. Not surprisingly, he became an example for
all the future Romanovs. Posture and stability of Nicolay
was an absolute virtue for his state. Those-days newspaper cartoonists depicted
France as a bottle of champagne with a cork flying out of it and Russia – as a bottle of vodka with not a single bubble. At the end of the 40-ies when revolutionary uprisings
were shaking Europe, only England, Netherlands and Russia
managed to avoid unrests. The 30-year long rule of Nicolay
I was the most stabile time in the history of the Imperial Russia. Nicolay Pavlovitch was ruling
the huge Empire on his own. He appended instructions
on each serious documents. The main authority in the country was
the Chancellery of His Imperial Highness. The First Department of the
Chancellery of His Imperial Highness was responsible for the
preparation of the highest decrees and control over
their fulfilment. The Second Department
was preparing the Code of Laws of
the Russian Empire. The Third Department was responsible for political
investigations, censorship, search for counterfeits and inquests of
peasants’ complains against landowners. The Fourth Department or the
“Agency of Empress Maria Fedorovna” worked on charity, including shelters,
hospitals and women’s education. The Fifth Department was
preparing the peasants’ reform. The famous Third Department of the
Chancellery of His Imperial Highness was the “higher police”. Its main goal was supervision
of the execution of legal acts, primarily
by state bodies. Its staff included
only 36 employees. The Third Department was headed
by the hero of the 1812 War and the Emperor’s personal
friend Count Alexander Benkendorf. He also headed the Gendarmes’ Corps
(from the French words “gent d’armes” – “armed people”) that played
a part of the internal troops amounting to 4,000 people. The prestige and authority
of the Corps was very high. It is not surprising that in the final
silent scene of Gogol’s “Inspector” a gendarme appears. The play was staged thanks
to the Emperor’s intercession. It didn’t occur to the Emperor that
went down in history as a reactionary to prohibit a satirical play. The first thing he did after
his coronation – let a famous poet Pushkin who fell
out of favors return from the exile. They were almost of the same age;
Nicolay was three years his senior. The Emperor exempted Pushkin
from the general censorship claiming that he’d censor
his works personally. Pushkin dedicated nine
poems to Nicolay. Nicolay saved Pushkin
from troubles with his personal interference a
few times and even paid his debts – 165,000 rubles (198 million
in present day money) in total. At that time, a cornet of the
Hussars’ Regiment of the Leib-Guards Mikhail Lermontov was
transferred to the acting army for serious disciplinary violations
and sent to the endless Caucasian War. The Caucasian War was the invasion of
territories of the Northern Caucasus by the Russian Imperial Army. It started in 1817 in Alexander’s I times, reached its peak in the
30-ies in Nicolay’s time when the highlanders of Chechnya
and Dagestan headed by Imam Shamil declared the “gazawat” or “the
sacred war” against the Russians. It ended with taking Shamil prisoner
and suppression of the Northern Caucasus in 1860-ies, in Alexander’s II time. At that time, a coalition
against Russia formed in Europe. The European states worried
about the foreign political and military activities
of Nicolay I. In the course of 25 years, the Russian troops won two
local wars with Persia and Turkey and suppressed two revolts in Poland
and Hungary after what Nicolay I was nicknamed “the
gendarme of Europe”. In autumn of 1853 the so called Crimean
War started. In November at the Caucasus, the Russian troops
defeated the Turkish army. In the Sinop Bay the squadron of Admiral
Nakhimov destroyed the Turkish Fleet. In four days after the Sinop Battle,
the English and the French squadrons appeared in the Black Sea. By spring of the next year, Russia was in a state of war with
England, France, Turkey and Sardinia. Austria and Prussia
kept hostile neutrality. Such a position of his former
allies that owed Russia a lot hurt the Emperor’s feelings. The war was now waged in three theatres: in the Crimea, at the
Caucasus and at the White Sea. The English squadron attempted to
siege the Solovetskiy Monastery. However, the monks took a few old
cannons out and fought the enemy off. At the Caucasus, the Russian
troops gained victory. However, in the Crimea the
events developed in a tragic way. Russia lacked both strength and technical
means for the defense of Sevastopol. Steamships made up 30% of the Russian
Fleet and 70% of the allies’ fleet. Admiral Nakhimov had to drown the
Russian squadron of sailing vessels across the fairway. It was the only way to protect the
Bay of Sevastopol from the English-French
steamship fleet. 127,587 people died when
defending Sevastopol. Total losses of the Russian
army amounted to 143,000 people. It was a catastrophe. The Russian soldiers demonstrated
miracles of heroism and inventiveness. Still, The Black Sea Fleet was destroyed. When severing diplomatic relations with England,
Nicolay I said to the Ambassador: “Maybe I’ll go into mourning for the Russian Fleet, but I’ll never mourn the Russian honor”. Nicolay was crushed. He couldn’t
sleep and exhausted himself with work. The doctors warned him that the
reserves of his organism were on the wane but the Emperor didn’t listen. In a private conversation,
the Emperor said: “If I could choose, I’d have never
chosen my present-day situation. However, I’m a ward who got an order and I’m trying to fulfil
it as diligently as I can”. At the end of January, the
Emperor caught a severe cold. His personal doctor prohibited
him from going into the cold. However, he had to watch a parade of
the troops going to the Crimean war. The Emperor told the doctor: “You
did your duty. Now let me do mine”, went out to the troops in a light
uniform and watched them parade in the freezing wind. Soon symptoms of pneumonia were evident. On February 17, the paralysis
of the lings started. The Emperor was fully conscious and realized
that he’d die from asphyxia in a few hours. He had time to pray
and bid farewell to his relatives. On getting to know that a
courier came from the Crimea with an urgent message Nicolay
I pointed to his son saying: “This is not for me,
this is for him”. He told Alexander: “I hand you the team over not in
the order I wanted to hand it over”. On February 18, at 12:30 a mourning
banner was risen above the Winter Palace. The chief warden of the
Empire went off duty. Nicolay I died at the age of 59. His 37-year old son Alexander
Nicolayevitch ascended the throne. He was to do what his
great-grandmother, his uncle Alexander I and his father Nicolay I failed to do. Alexander II went down in
history as the Liberator. Chapter Two. Alexander II the Liberator His father used to say: “I want
to bring my son up as a human before making a
ruler out of him”. Teachers with liberal views
were invited to the Prince. A famous romantic poet Vasiliy Zhukovskiy
headed the staff. When Alexander
was 13, his father came in in the middle of the lesson
about the Decembrists’ revolt. “What would you do if you
were me?” Nicolay asked. “I’d forgive them”. Alexander answered. After finishing his studies, the
heir went on a trip about Russia. He covered 30,000 km and
visited 30 provinces. He was the first Romanov to cross the border of Europe
and Asia and visit Siberia. In Tobolsk the Prince met the Decembrists
and did what he could to make their life easier. In Vyatka he got acquainted with
Alexander Gertsen who was sent to exile there. The young people made friends quickly. Later Alexander did everything
possible to free Gertsen from under the police supervision. Later Gertsen wrote odes
dedicated to the Tsar the Reformer: “Alexander II did
much, very much. His name is much higher
than of his predecessors. He fought for the human rights. Neither the Russian people nor the
world history will forget that”. In some more years, Gertsen started
revolutionary agitation from London. He called Russia “to the
axe” and did a lot to create the anti-governmental
public opinion. In an indirect way, he was responsible for
the Emperor’s death. When Alexander was still a Prince,
he often acted listening to his heart and not to his mind. His father was very upset about it. Alexander possessed
many non-regal qualities – carelessness, mildness and sensitivity. The heir of the Russian
throne looked like Prince Charming from a fairy tale and was
constantly looking for his Cinderella falling in love with young
maids of the chambers. In 1838, his parents sent
Alexander to Europe to look for a bride among the European fiances. In Darmstadt, the heir liked the 16-year old Princess Maximiliana Wilhelmina
Augusta Sophia Maria of Hessen – a tender big-eyed angel. In London Alexander was presented to Her Highness the Queen. Victoria was 20 and was looking for a groom
among the European princes. On May 4, 1839, Queen
Victoria wrote in her diary: “The Grand Duke is very attractive.
He has beautiful blue eyes. He is only one year older than me. We
danced at the ball up to 3.45 at night. "He is so incredible strong;
he circled with me so fast… " We circled like in a whirlwind.
I’ve never been so happy”… Infatuated Alexander was going
to denounce the Russian throne to become the British
Prince Consort. However, the courtiers
couldn’t even think about it. They interfered into the relations of the crown-bearing Romeo and
Juliette and reminded the Prince of his duty before the Russia and
about the young Hessen Princess. That union was approved by
everybody, so they married. Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta
Sophia Maria converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Maria Alexandrovna. For the first few years, Alexander
was madly in love with his young wife and spoilt her with
unlimited fantasy. For example, a live apple tree with fruits was put in the
dining-room in a large pot so that Maria could pick
an apple she liked herself. However, in a few years
romantics disappeared. They barely spent any time together;
in the courtiers’ presence, they talked about health, children and
weather, took part in ceremonies and paid visits together but went to
different bedrooms in the evenings. The Empress was weakened by Petersburg’s
climate and regular childbirth and fell ill with tuberculosis. By 36 he gave birth
to six children and turned into a shadow
of her former self. The Tsar’s infatuations flashed
up and died out – court women, maids of the chambers, the older students
of the Smolniy Institute of Noble Young Ladies… At the beginning of his rule, people forgave him
everything for they loved him. They associated their brightest
hopes with Alexander II. “One who didn’t live in Russia in
1856 doesn’t know what life is”, Lev Tolstoy wrote. An adult 37-year old well-prepared
ruler ascended the throne who had been taking part in the
work of state bodies for many years. He managed to break the foreign
policy blockage of Russia, signed the Paris Peace Tractate
according to which the losses of Russia in the Crimean War weren’t so gross. However, Russia lost its
dominance in the European politics. The young Emperor decided to
solve that issue in the due time. In one of his first addresses
to the members of the nobility, the Emperor claimed: “The existing way of owning
souls can’t remain unchanged. It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until is abolished
itself from the bottom”. The Russian Emperors didn’t
dare abolish serfdom before fearing the nobles’ opposition. However, there was no way
back for Alexander. He knew: one wrong step and
Russia would be threatened with either a military coup
d’etat or some new Pugachev. After seven years of discussions
and quarrels on February 19, 1861, the Emperor signed the “Manifest
on the Merciful Granting of Rights of Free Village Residents to the Serfs”. The main principles of the
reform were the following: the serfs were freed with the land
they had to buy out from the landowners. The state helped the redemption
with subsidies and long-terms loans: the peasants were to pay
20% and the state – 80%. The lots to redeem were 30%
smaller than those in use. The amount of the redemption was
a lot higher than the real price. The peasants became indebted to
the state treasury for many decades. The land was divided
in the following way: 99,800,000 peasants (71% of the
population) had 33,700,000 desyatinas, and 1,700,000 nobles (1,5% of the
population) had 71,500,000 desyatinas. After the abolition of serfdom a chain
reaction of other reforms started. A new system of governance
was needed for the new country. The district and city reform created
the elective bodies of local governance – zemstvo and city councils that
solved economic and budget issues. The education reform made secondary
and higher education available for the masses. The network of
national schools was increased, institutes for common people were opened,
the first general educational courses for women were opened. Universities gained
a special status and relative autonomy. The court reform provided for the equality of all estates before the
law, adversary proceedings with participation of lawyers,
the institute of jurymen, openness and publicity
of court hearings. The military reform abolished
physical punishments in the army and carried out full re-armament with
rifled barrel guns and cannons; compulsory military service was
introduced instead of recruitment. These were the first democratic
changes in the history of Russia. When one of the old
courtiers told the Emperor: “The emancipation of the
peasants may lead the people to an idea of a Constitution”. Alexander II answered him: “Well, if Russia does wish it and if
it is ready for it, I’m fine with it”. Alexander set strict terms for
preparation of projects for his ministers and advisors and always fit into
the schedule himself despite the fact that thick piles of documents
appeared on his table every single day. He wanted to finish all the
changes started by his father, first of all – to finish
the war at the Caucasus. The long Caucasian War ended in 1864
by conquest of Chechnya, Dagestan, Circassia and Abkhazia. After the conquest of the Bukhara Emirate and the Khanate of Khiva Russia
added the entire Turkestan up to Kushka to its territory.
Kushka remained the most southern part of the Empire for more than a hundred
years, up to the collapse of the USSR. The only territorial loss of that
period was Alaska: 1,5 million sq.km. of inarable and almost unpopulated land
was sold to the United Stated of America for 7,200,000 rubles in
gold (108 million in present day money). The deal was considered very profitable. Alexander Nicolayevitch used to
work with short breaks from 9 a.m. to dinner which
started at 6 p.m. After dinner, his
private time started which he dedicated to his
family and receptions. His main hobby was hunting. He loved large-scale hunting
trips for bears, elks and aurochs. However, soon ordinary promenades in
the city became more dangerous for him. The hunt for him was announced. Alexander II was the last ruler in the history of Russia who could
allow himself to simply walk in the city without the armed guards or any company. Almost every day in the Summer Garden,
the residents of Petersburg pretended not to recognize an imposing man whose
portraits hang in all the state establishments. “The ruler is having a walk with his miss”, they whispered. Alexander was 48
and he lost count of his affairs. At first, he simply liked a 19-year
old Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, a student of the
Smolniy Institute. However, after a few first innocent dates the Emperor
fell in love with her. Many years later
Ekaterina remembered: “He treated me like
a sacred item. It was so noble and great! We
used to see each other every day, crazy from the happiness of
love and full understanding. He swore in front of an icon that
he would always be faithful to me and that his only dream was to
marry me if he ever became free”. On April 4, 1866 after a date,
the ruler was going from the gates of the Summer Garden to his
carriage in high spirits. He didn’t realize at once that the
crack that echoed above the linden trees was a sound of a shot. The Emperor knew that those who
opposed the reforms might try to overthrow him and even murder him. An old fortuneteller once told him that
he would endure seven attempts at his life. Alexander always remembered about it. A 26-years old lone terrorist
Dmitri Karakozov, a poor noblemen and a former student
made the first attempt. He supported the
individual terror tactics. He believed that the regicide would provoke the people
to start a revolution. A peasant Komissarov who stood next to him hit
him on the hand with a gun, and the bullet flew
above the Tsar’s head. When Karakozov was arrested, he said that he shot at the
Tsar because he cheated on people with the reform – gave too little land. The entire country was shocked
and most of all Alexander himself. In 1863 a famous historian Sergey
Solovyov explained the state of the country and the Emperor: ”Extremes are easy.
It was easy to tighten the screws in Nicolay’s time, it was easy to
unscrew them in Alexander’s II time. However, it is exceptionally difficult
to brake the carriage at the steep hill. A reformer like Peter the Great would
hold the horses with an iron hand, and the carriage would be safe. A reformer like Alexander II would let the horses run at full
speed and wouldn’t have the strength to restrain them. Therefore, the carriage might break down”. Meanwhile Alexander had his
hands full at his personal front. The secret affair made his relatives
and close friends indignant. Dolgorukova was forced
to go abroad for a while. However, the French King soon
invited him to the World Fair. Alexander left for
Paris at once. They walked the Grand Boulevard with nobody to recognize them, made
promenades in famous Paris parks… Alexander wrote to Ekaterina:
“I am madly in love with you. These nice days spent together
with you make me endlessly happy”. The lovers didn’t know that
they were watched by the agents of the French Secret Police everywhere. However, no precautionary
measures helped. A Polish nationalist Anton Berezovskiy
made the second attempt at his life. He shot at Alexander when he was
returning from a military parade together with Emperor Napoleon
III in an open carriage. The bullet hit the horse. Alexander got used
to constant danger. When a new war with
Turkey started, the ruler went to the front.
Despite all efforts of his guards, he ended up under
fire all the time. The goal of that
war was liberation of Orthodox Bulgarians and
Serbs from the Turkish yoke. The entire Russia
sympathized with the cause, and the Emperor couldn’t
avoid going to the front. The war culminated in
absolute victory of Russia. Bulgaria became an
independent state. The name of Alexander II – Tsar-Liberator – is still commemorated during each service in
every Bulgarian church. On April 2, 1879 when
the Emperor was returning from his regular morning promenade
a passer-by said hello to him. Alexander answered his
greeting absent-mindedly. He then noticed a gun
in the passer’s-by hand. The 60-year old Alexander II,
the Emperor of the Entire Russia, the King of Poland, the Grand Duke
of Finland and so on and so forth ran in zigzags and leaped to make
it harder for the assassin to aim. The murderer was running at his heels. The third attempt was made by a
33-year old commoner Alexander Solovyov, a member of the secret revolutionary
society “Land and Freedom”. He plotted the regicide on his
own, counting on a coup d’etat. During the race after the
Emperor, he made four shots from a distance of
ten steps, but missed. Soon a new radical terrorist organization
“The People’s Will” was founded. Its leaders Sophia Perovskaya and
Andrei Zhelyabov started to prepare the Emperor’s assassination
professionally. The fourth attempt. In November of
1879, Zhelyabov’s group planted a mine with an electric detonator under
the rails on the ruler’s way to the town of Alexandriysk. The mine didn’t work. The fifth attempt. Perovskaya’s group
planted a mine under the rails by Moscow. The terrorists knew that the train
with courtiers was the first to go. However, the Tsar’s train went the first
by accident, and the attempt failed. On May 22, 1880 Empress
Maria Fedorovna died. On June 6, after just 40 days of
mourning, Alexander Nicolayevitch married Ekaterina Dolgorukova who was granted
the title of Princess Yuryevskaya. The wedding took place in a small
room of the palace in Tsarskoye Selo, by the modest altar of the
mobile church in strict secrecy for nobody at the court was willing
to accept Alexander’s II marriage. Alexander II was in a hurry. He wanted to provide for
his wife’s and children’s future. Enhancing the protection did not help. The death was close by all the time. The sixth attempt. A member of the
“People’s Will” Stepan Khalturin was hired as a carpenter
to the Winter Palace. In the course of six months, he brought 30 kg of dynamite to a
cellar under the Tsar’s dining room. In an explosion on February 5, 1880 11 peopledied and 56 were
rounded – all the guards. The Emperor was absent in the dining room for he went out to meet a late guest. The Emperor wrote to
his son: “Dear Sasha. In case of my death I entrust
you with my wife and children”. Alexander Nicolayevitch started to
find tormented doves on his windowsill. It turned out that a kite
settled on the roof of the palace. It was caught: the bird
was so incredibly large that it was sent to the
Cabinet of Curiosities. The exhausted, sick and hunted
Emperor dreamt of only one thing – to abdicate in favor of his adult son and
leave for Nice with his wife and children. However, one important
task remained. On his order, a project on establishment
of an elective council was worked out. It was the first step towards
the parliament and constitution. Alexander Nicolayevitch
had already approved it. The discussion of the project
by the Cabinet of Ministers after which it was to enter into
force was scheduled for March 4, 1881. On March 1, the ruler was to
come to the Mikhaylovskiy manege to see the trooping of the colors. On his way back, he
visited his sister, Grand Princess Ekaterina Mikhaylovna
in the Mikhaylovskiy Palace. They drank tea and he shared his
plans on leaving for Nice with her. Art 14:10 the Emperor went
out and got into his carriage. He had to be in the Winter
Palace by three o’clock. He promised his wife to take her to a walk. On passing the Engineers’ St. the Tsar’s carriage turned to the embankment
of the Ekaterininskiy canal. Six Cossacks of the convoy accompanied
the carriage – three from each side. Officers from the guards led by chief of the police
Dvorzhitskiy followed it in a sledge. A boy with a bread basket
was walking along the embankment. An artillery officer
followed him. Alexander Nicolayevitch
noticed a woman waving to somebody with a
white kerchief on the corner. When a man with a packet in his
hands appeared before the carriage, the Emperor realized:
there would be an explosion. The seventh attempt was carried
out by a 20-year old member of the “People’s Will” Nicolay
Rysakov, one of the two bombers who were waiting by the
Ekaterininskaya embankment. It was Sophia Perovskaya
who signaled for action. Rysakov threw a hand-made bomb into
the carriage and tried to escape. However, he slipped
and was caught. Two Cossacks of the convoy and a boy who passed the carriage by
were killed, three horses were wounded, the front wheels and the coach
box of the carriage were damaged. The Emperor wasn’t hurt. The chief of the police Colonel
Adrian Dvorzhitskiy who was close to the Emperor remembered: “The ruler was calm. I offered His Highness to ride my
sledge to the Palace. The ruler said: “All right, but show me
the criminal first”. His coachmen Frol also begged the Emperor to move on.
But His Highness went to Rysakov. The Emperor looked his
unlucky assassin in the eyes. He lived through the seventh attempt.
Everything was behind him now. However, innocent people
were hurt because of him. Alexander Nicolayevitch went to the
place of the explosion, to the wounded. The chief of the police
Dvorzhitskiy followed him. “No sooner had we made
three steps than I went deaf because of the second explosion. Through smoke and snow fog, I heard His Highness’s
weak voice: “Help”! I raised him from the ground and was terrified to see that the
legs of His Highness were shattered”. It was a 25-year old Ignatiy
Grinevitskiy who threw the bomb and blew himself up
together with the Emperor. The last words of the ruler
were the following: “Hurry home. I want to die in the Palace”.
He died in one hour in his study in the Winter Palace. Alexander II was 62. Grand Duke Alexander Mikyalovitch,
the nephew of the Emperor, wrote: “Thousands crowded by the Winter
Palace. Nobody asked any questions. Wide stains of dark blood led the way
along the marble steps of the stairs and along the corridor
to the Emperor’s study. We realized that
the idyllic Russia with its Tsar-Father and his
loyal people stopped existing. The future not only of the Russian
Empire but of the entire world now depended on the outcome
of the imminent fight between the new Russian Tsar and the
elements of negations and destruction”. Alexander II gave its country what it
had been waiting for a few centuries. However, it turned out that
he freed not only peasants. A new, unknown before force
broke loose – the revolution. Hosted by Denis Bespaliy
and Lyubov Germanova Created by Marina Bandilenko
together with Maksim Kalsin Directed by Maksim Bespaliy Director of Photography
- Ivan Barkhvart Music by Boris Kukoba Art Director
- Vladimir Markovitch The End
