One of the reasons for the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, I think, was the German origin of the Russian tsars. The “artfulness” of the Romanovs filled the entire 300-year period of their reign with conspiracies. And when the war with Germany began in 1914, the propaganda of the enemies of the empire hammered into us firmly and forever the idea that the Germans were our eternal enemies.
In fact, the Romanovs’ distrust of the high-born offspring of Rurik and the founder of Moscow, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, was eternal, or rather centuries-old.
Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, moreover, on her mother’s side came from the most glorious family of Russian princes, the Koribut Vishnevetskys, whose offspring were elected (!) kings of Poland and the Czech Republic, hetmans of Ukraine. If instead of Nicholas II a Slav had ruled on the Russian throne, public sentiment could have been different...
However, the main reason for this selection is Crimea as the place of secret love meetings between Emperor Alexander II and the young Princess Dolgorukova in Livadia. And a two-story mansion was built especially for her on the Biyuk-Saray estate next to the Livadia Imperial Palace.

... For Emperor Alexander, 1880 was difficult: the terminally ill Empress Maria Alexandrovna was fading away; hostility on the part of the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander, and his “Slavophile party” intensified; The final chapters of the emperor’s only real romance with Ekaterina Dolgorukova were unfolding.
Katya grew up on the wealthy noble estate of Teplovka, near Poltava. When she was 13 years old, Emperor Alexander, a stately, handsome man in a marching general’s guards uniform, came to Teplovka from maneuvers.

The Emperor promised to arrange for the Dolgorukov children to study in St. Petersburg. And here Katya is at the Smolny Institute. On Palm Sunday, a week before Easter 1865, Emperor Alexander visited the Smolny Institute and at a gala dinner with “overseas fruits” (pineapples, bananas, peaches), the Dolgorukov sisters were introduced to him. 18-year-old Katya was very beautiful. Alexander was already forty-seven, he had just experienced the death of his eldest son, and he felt tired and lonely. He felt that in the young girl with brown hair and kind, bright eyes he would find bright consolation and compassion. Courtship began and lasted for more than a year, secret meetings in the Summer Garden, on the picturesque islands in the vicinity of the capital. On July 13, 1866, in Russian Versailles, Peterhof, in the imperial guest castle called Belvedere, Alexander confessed to Katya: “ Today, alas, I am not free, but at the first opportunity I will marry you, from now on I consider you my wife before God, and I will never leave you«.

The secrecy surrounding the emperor's romance only intensified mutual love. Already in 1867, rumors spread around the Winter Palace about the emperor’s secret marriage with his living, albeit very sick, wife. Maria Alexandrovna learned about everything from her husband - he could not hide the fact that in 1872 Katya gave birth to his son, and a year later - a daughter. In 1878, Princess Dolgorukova and her children moved to the Winter Palace - she occupied small chambers directly above the rooms of Empress Maria. “Only with me,” said Katya, “the sovereign will be happy and calm.”

Maria Alexandrovna could no longer leave the palace, so Ekaterina Dolgorukova accompanied Alexander in the summer when the court moved to Tsarskoe Selo and during trips to Crimea. Alexander jealously guarded Katya's position at court. Attempts to intrigue against Dolgorukova cost the careers of, for example, the all-powerful Shuvalov, who was sent as an envoy to London. Empress Maria Alexandrovna died on May 10, 1880. A letter remained in her papers in which she thanked Alexander for the life she lived happily next to him. Custom required the emperor to spend a year in mourning and only after this period to decide his personal fate.

The promise given to Ekaterina Dolgorukova called for immediate marriage with her. Even in St. Petersburg taverns they whispered: “If only the old man didn’t get the idea of ​​getting married!” But love was stronger than appearances. On July 6, 1880, the palace priest Father Xenophon signed the marriage certificate: “ In the Summer of the Lord 1880, the month of July, on the 6th day at three o'clock in the afternoon in the Military Chapel of Tsarskoe Selo, His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich of All Rus' favorably deigned to enter into a second legal marriage with the court lady Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgoruky". This marriage was morganatic, that is, one in which neither the emperor’s wife nor her children had any rights to the throne. Princess Dolgorukova received only the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya. Nevertheless, new rumors filled St. Petersburg: the emperor was going to crown his " Catherine III «.

The press began to publish articles about the fate of Catherine I, the laundress who was elevated to the throne at the request of Peter the Great. The heir to the throne, Alexander (he was two years older than his “stepmother”) and his wife hated Princess Yuryevskaya. At court she was openly called a miser, an impudent person, and a swindler. Alexander did not notice anything. He explained the rush for her second marriage by a premonition of his imminent death and the desire to ensure the future of a woman who had sacrificed everything for him for 14 years and was the former mother of his children. The emperor’s grave forebodings were not in vain, although he did not know that on September 5, 1880, when, at his command, the Minister of the Court Adlerberg deposited more than 3 million gold rubles , on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, near the dirty Obvodny Canal, Narodnaya Volya began making bombs and mines to “execute the sentence” over Alexander II.

For the New Year's holiday 1881 The terrorists already had the required amount of dynamite. ...

Source: website about the imperial dynasty Romanovs sch714-romanov.narod.ru/index16_1.html

Alexander II and Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova
The first meeting of future lovers - the Russian emperor and the beautiful princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (1847-1922) - took place in the summer of 1857, when Alexander II (1818-1881), after military reviews, visited the Teplovka estate near Poltava, the possession of Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov. Relaxing on the terrace, Alexander noticed a well-dressed girl running past and, calling her over, asked who she was and who she was looking for. The embarrassed girl, lowering her huge black eyes, said: “My name is Ekaterina Dolgorukova, and I want to see the emperor.” Kindly, like a gallant gentleman, Alexander Nikolaevich asked the girl to show him the garden. After the walk, they went up to the house, and at dinner the emperor sincerely and enthusiastically praised his quick-witted and intelligent daughter to the father.

A year later, Catherine’s father suddenly died, and soon the peasant reform of 1861 broke out, and the Dolgorukov family went bankrupt. Mother of the family, born Vera Vishnevskaya (she came from a Polish-Ukrainian aristocratic family, very respected in Russia), turned to the emperor with a request for help. Alexander II ordered that a large sum be allocated for the guardianship of Prince Dolgorukov’s children, and that the young princesses (Catherine had a younger sister Maria) be sent to study at the Smolny Women’s Institute, where girls from the most noble families of Russia were educated. There the Dolgorukov girls received an excellent education: they learned to behave in secular society, mastered the science of housekeeping, and learned several foreign languages.

Catherine Mikhailovna had not seen Alexander II since he came to their Ukrainian estate. Meanwhile, important events took place in the emperor's family. In 1860, Empress Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to her eighth child, her son Pavel. After giving birth, doctors strictly forbade her to have sex. In order for the Tsar to satisfy his male needs, Maria Alexandrovna was forced to agree to his adultery. For a long time, Alexander Nikolaevich did not have a permanent mistress. According to rumors circulating at court, the palace bawd Varvara Shebeko, at the request of the emperor, occasionally supplied him with pretty girls - students of the Smolny Institute. This greatly embarrassed Alexander Nikolaevich. He was raised according to the canons of an Orthodox family and was ashamed of such relationships with young girls. Shebeko suggested that he find a permanent lady of his heart. The emperor agreed, but delayed, not wanting to create unnecessary tension in the family.

He made the decision soon after an unexpected tragedy that befell the imperial family. In 1864, the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, while in Denmark, fell from a horse while riding and injured his spine. Help was provided to him too late, and the young man developed fulminant bone tuberculosis. On April 13, 1865 he died.

The death of the eldest son turned out to be the hardest blow for the imperial family. Maria Alexandrovna fell ill due to nervousness and never recovered, although she lived for another fifteen years. The emperor was in a state of semi-shock for a long time.

It was during these days that Shebeko set out to offer Alexander Nikolaevich a girl for a permanent relationship.

Further events are hidden in the darkness of history. It is only known that Vera Vishnevskaya was a friend of Shebeko and had long been begging her friend to place her daughters closer to the emperor. Shebeko was not against it and agreed to offer Ekaterina Mikhailovna to the emperor as his mistress, but the girl desperately resisted family pressure. What caused the change in her mood is not known.

On Palm Sunday 1865, Alexander II visited the Smolny Institute, where, among others, he carefully examined the Dolgorukov sisters.

And a little later, walking along the alleys of the Summer Garden, the princess unexpectedly (as memoirists write) met the emperor. Not paying attention to the curious passers-by, Alexander Nikolaevich gave the girl his hand and led her deeper into the alley, showering her with compliments on her beauty and charm along the way. Everything happened quickly, and by evening the tsar almost confessed his love to Dolgorukova.

From that time on, events took a turn unexpected for all the organizers of this meeting - the emperor truly fell in love with Ekaterina Mikhailovna. The girl was cautious and at first did not respond to the feelings of the reigning admirer. A year passed before she agreed to reciprocate. And from mid-July 1866, when the princess first submitted to the tsar, the lovers began to meet secretly. Several times a week, covering her face with a dark veil, Dolgorukova entered through the secret passage of the Winter Palace and made her way into a small room where Alexander Nikolaevich was waiting for her. From there, lovers went up to the second floor and found themselves in the royal bedroom. One day, hugging the young princess, the emperor said: “From now on, I consider you a wife before God and will definitely marry you when the time comes.”

The Empress was shocked by such a betrayal; all the great princes and the entire court supported her in this. In 1867, on the advice of Shebeko, the Dolgorukovs hastened to send Ekaterina Mikhailovna to Italy - out of harm’s way. But it was too late, the princess had already fallen deeply in love with the emperor, and in the separation her feelings only flared up with even greater force. And the loving monarch almost every day sent her letters full of admiration and love. “My dear angel,” wrote Alexander I, “you know, I didn’t mind. We had each other the way you wanted. But I must confess to you: I will not rest until I see your charms again.” To make the emperor calm down, Shebeko slipped him the younger Dolgorukova, Maria, as his mistress. Alexander Nikolaevich rejected her. From now on, in the whole world he needed only Catherine.

In the same year, 1867, Alexander II paid an official visit to Paris. Dolgorukova secretly arrived there from Naples. The lovers met at the Elysee Palace... They returned to Russia together.

For Empress Maria Alexandrovna this turned out to be a disaster. Very quickly, the selfishness of the lovers, who did not even understand what they were doing, turned into an instrument of daily torture for the unfortunate unrequited woman. Looking from the outside and understanding the social status of the resulting triangle, one can only be shocked by the meanness of Alexander II, the vileness of Ekaterina Dolgorukova and the humility of the empress, but from the inside everything that happened was seen as completely natural and fair.

First of all, we should not forget that, at the insistence of her relatives, she sacrificed her maiden dignity (and in the 19th century this was worth a lot) and out of love for Alexander Nikolaevich, the princess wanted to give her position legal status and remain an honest woman. The emperor loved passionately and suffered from a complex of enormous guilt in front of an innocent woman, who, as he believed, had lost her maiden honor only for the sake of his selfish desires, and who had to be cleansed at all costs from the dirty slander of court gossips. And only Maria Alexandrovna had nothing to do with it in this case.

The misadventures of Maria Alexandrovna began with the fact that Ekaterina Mikhailovna, who became pregnant from the emperor, decided to give birth without fail in the Winter Palace. Feeling the approach of the long-awaited event, Princess Dolgorukova, together with her trusted maid, walked along the embankment and openly entered the royal residence. In the presence of Alexander II, on the blue rep sofa of Nicholas I (the emperor placed his mistress in his father’s apartments), Ekaterina Mikhailovna gave birth to her first child, George. Alexander immediately ordered that the boy be given his patronymic and a noble title.

From now on, the emperor had two families publicly revealed! Moreover, the eldest son of the heir to the throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich (the future Nicholas II), turned out to be four years older than his uncle George. In the Orthodox state, the head of which was Alexander II, it was impossible to even imagine such a thing. We can say with confidence that it was during these years that the final moral decline of the Romanov dynasty took place. Between 1872 and 1875, Dolgorukova gave birth to three more children to Alexander Nikolaevich: the second boy soon died, the girls Olga and Ekaterina subsequently emigrated from Russia.

Maria Alexandrovna was given complete resignation. Even her name could not be mentioned in the presence of the emperor. Alexander II immediately exclaimed: “Don’t talk to me about the empress! It pains me to hear about her!” The emperor began to appear at balls and ceremonial palace receptions in the company of Ekaterina Dolgorukova. Members of the imperial family were obliged to be especially attentive to this woman and her children.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna settled in Zimny, and her apartments were located above Maria Alexandrovna’s rooms. In order not to make the presence of his mistress obvious in the Winter Palace, Alexander Nikolaevich appointed her as the maid of honor of his legal wife, which shocked the inhabitants of the royal palace even more. Dolgorukova often visited the empress and loved to consult with her on issues of raising children... And Maria Alexandrovna understood that Dolgorukova intended to take the throne away from the rightful heirs and did not really hide it.

Years passed, but the tsar’s passion for “dear Katenka” did not pass. “My thoughts never left my delightful fairy for a minute,” the loving emperor once wrote, “and the first thing I did when I was free was to passionately pounce on your delicious postcard, which I received last night. I never tired of holding her to my chest and kissing her.”

Those close to the tsar increasingly said that he was waiting for the death of Maria Alexandrovna in order to marry the princess. Feeling the approach of death, the empress called the wife of the heir to the throne, Maria Feodorovna, and begged her to do everything possible so as not to give the throne to Dolgorukova’s children. Mimi - that was Maria Feodorovna's name at court - was already on her guard.

Maria Alexandrovna died in May 1880. And almost immediately the emperor raised the question of a wedding with Dolgorukova. Both the courtiers and the older children were shocked and outraged: after all, mourning for the empress was supposed to last six months. Alexander II explained his decision this way: “I would never get married before the end of mourning, but we live in a dangerous time when sudden assassination attempts, to which I expose myself every day, could end my life. Therefore, it is my duty to ensure the position of a woman who has been living for me for fourteen years, as well as to ensure the future of our three children...” Ekaterina Mikhailovna, in response to the persuasion of the courtiers not to disgrace the emperor in front of the people, answered: “The Emperor will be happy and calm only when he marries me.”

On July 18, 1880, a month and a half after the death of his legal wife, 64-year-old Alexander II was married to Princess Dolgorukova in the camp chapel of the Tsarskoye Selo palace. The heir to the throne and his wife were not present at the ceremony.

After the wedding, the emperor issued a decree giving Catherine Mikhailovna the name Princess Yuryevskaya (this indicated her descent from the Grand Duke himself Yuri Dolgoruky ) with the title Most Serene. Their children also became His Serene Highnesses.

All the Grand Duchesses from the House of Romanov subjected Ekaterina Mikhailovna to obstruction. It got to the point that, despite the anger of Alexander II, Mimi forbade her children to play with their half-brother and sisters. According to indirect data, trying to protect Ekaterina Mikhailovna and their children from embittered relatives, Alexander Nikolaevich decided to crown Dolgorukova! He intended to carry this out at the end of August 1881 during the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the coronation of Alexander II.

At this time, the popular mood in Russia was restless, and in the Winter Palace they already knew about the impending assassination attempts on the emperor. Several times he was advised to go abroad for a while, but the king rejected all offers, wanting to stay in his homeland.

On March 1, 1881, Alexander II woke up as usual, took a long walk with his wife and children in the palace park, and then began to get ready for the parade of troops, which was being prepared long before the March Sunday. Ekaterina Mikhailovna, mindful of numerous threats and possible assassination attempts, begged her husband to refuse to attend the parade. But Alexander Nikolaevich did not want to change his plans. The parade went on as usual. On the way back, the king stopped by his aunt to visit her and inquire about her health. There, as usual, he drank a cup of tea and, getting back into the carriage, headed home. At 15:00 a bomb was thrown at the feet of the horses of the royal armored carriage. Two guardsmen and a boy who happened to run past were killed. Having got out from under the overturned carriage, Alexander Nikolaevich did not get into the sleigh that was immediately delivered, but approached the servants who were injured in the explosion.

Thank God you are saved! - one of the security officers exclaimed.

“It’s too early to thank God,” a young man suddenly exclaimed who appeared nearby.

There was a deafening explosion. When the smoke cleared, the crowd saw the Russian emperor lying on the pavement: his right leg was torn off, the second was almost separated from his body, Alexander Nikolaevich, bleeding, but still conscious, asked: “To the palace. To die there..."

The wounded emperor was transported to Zimny. The half-dressed and confused princess ran out to meet the carriage, sat down next to her husband’s mutilated body and burst into tears. No one could help the monarch anymore. A few hours later he died. Dolgorukova's coronation did not take place.

When the body of the late Tsar was moved to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the princess cut her hair and placed it in the hands of her beloved. Alexander III had difficulty agreeing to Dolgorukova’s participation in the official funeral service.

A few months later, the Most Serene Princess left her homeland forever, settling at the emperor’s long-standing request in the south of France. Until the end of her life, Dolgorukova remained faithful to her love, never remarried, and lived for thirty years surrounded by photographs and letters of her only lover. At the age of 75, Ekaterina Mikhailovna died at her villa Georges near Nice.

Over the course of fourteen years, the ardent emperor and his beloved wrote about four and a half thousand letters to each other.. IN 1999 year, correspondence between famous lovers was sold at Christie's for 250 thousand dollars. It was owned by a wealthy family of bankers. Rothschilds . But why such rich and influential people needed letters from the Russian Tsar and his beloved remains unknown.

7 February 2013, 21:35

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (November 2, 1847 - February 15, 1922) - princess, from 1880 His Serene Highness Princess Yurievskaya; second, morganatic, wife of Emperor Alexander II; before that, from 1866, his mistress. We just interrupted our conversation about Alexander II at the breakup with our previous mistress, . Her fate turned out well. What about the emperor? And he met his true love, no matter how overly romantic it may be for our cynical times. However, it cannot be said that he did not know the girl before. Alexander II first saw Katya Dolgorukova in the summer of 1859, a guest of Prince Dolgorukov on the Teplovka estate near Poltava during military exercises. Soon, Catherine’s father went bankrupt, and her mother with four sons and two daughters found herself without funds. The Emperor took the children into his care: he facilitated the entry of the Dolgoruky brothers into St. Petersburg military institutions, and the sisters into the Smolny Institute. I don’t think he imagined that he was raising his mistress. From Catherine's notes: “Despite all the concerns of the headmistress, I was never able to get used to this life without a family, among strangers. I was slowly losing my health. The Emperor, having learned about our arrival in Smolny, visited me in a fatherly manner; I was so happy to see him, his visits restored my vigor. When I was sick, he visited me in the infirmary. His emphasized attention to me and his face, so perfect, shed balm on my childish heart. The more I grew up, the more his cult in me intensified. Every time he came, he sent for me and allowed me to walk next to him. He was interested in me; I considered him a patron, a friend, I addressed him as an angel, knowing that he would not refuse me patronage... He sent me sweets, and I cannot describe how much I adored him.” On March 28, 1865, Palm Sunday, Alexander II, at the invitation of his boss Leontyeva, replacing the then ill Empress Maria Alexandrovna, visited the Smolny Institute, where he was introduced to 17-year-old Ekaterina Dolgorukova, whom he remembered. They said that after her eighth child the empress was forbidden to have sex. As if this is why the tsar decided to find a girl “for his body”, and therefore went to Smolny. Are there a lot of rumors floating around? From Catherine's notes: “Finally, my imprisonment ended, and I left the Institute... having only 16 and a half years. Still just a child, I completely lost the object of my affection, and only a year later, by a happy accident, I met the emperor on December 24, 1865 in the Summer Garden. At first he did not recognize me... This day became memorable for us, because without saying anything to each other and, perhaps, without even understanding it, our meetings determined our lives. I must add that at that time my parents did everything to entertain me, took me out into the world, their goal was to get me married. But every ball doubled my sadness; secular amusements were contrary to my character; I loved solitude and serious reading. One young man tried very hard to please me, but the thought of marriage, no matter with whom, without love, seemed disgusting to me, and he retreated before my coldness.” They began to meet secretly in the Summer Garden near the Winter Palace; The liaison was the famous court bawd Varvara Shebeko, a close friend of the former mistress of Alexander II, whom I mentioned earlier. From Catherine's notes: “When I returned home, I cried for a very long time, I was so moved to see him happy from meeting me, and after much thought I decided that my heart belonged to him and I was not able to connect my existence with anyone. The next day I announced to my parents that I would rather die than get married. Endless scenes and questions followed, but I felt an unprecedented determination to fight everyone who tried to marry me off, and I realized that this force supporting me was love. From that moment I decided to give up everything, the worldly pleasures so desired by young people of my age, and devote my entire life to the happiness of the One I loved. I had the good fortune to see him again on July 1st. He was on a horse and I will never forget his joy when I met him. That day we were alone for the first time and decided not to hide what was overwhelming us, happy at the opportunity to love each other. I told him that I was giving up everything to devote myself to loving him, and that I could no longer fight this feeling. God is witness to the innocence of our meeting, which became a true relaxation for us, who had forgotten the whole world for the sake of feelings inspired by God. How pure the conversation was in those hours that we spent together. And I, who had not yet known life, an innocent soul, did not understand that another man in similar circumstances could take advantage of my innocence, but He behaved with me with the honesty and nobility of a man who loves and respects a woman, he treated me as a sacred object , without any other feeling - it’s so noble and beautiful! From that day on, we met every day, crazy with happiness, to love and understand each other completely. He swore to me in front of the image that he was devoted to me forever and that his only dream was to marry me if he was ever free; he made me swear to what I did with joy... The continuation and end of my memories will prove that we kept our word, and our love lasted until the grave.” On July 13, 1866, they met for the first time at Belvedere near Peterhof, where they spent the night, after which they continued dating there. Thus, Catherine fooled the emperor for almost a year before surrendering.
Portrait of Catherine, painted by Alexander II At that time, Empress Maria Alexandrovna was already sick with consumption and did not get out of bed. The adulterous relationship caused acute displeasure among many Romanovs and, above all, the Tsarevich, the future Alexander III. By the end of the year, the emperor was forced to send his mistress, accompanied by her brother, to Naples. While still close, they wrote letters to each other every day, and, it must be said, the separation did not cool their relationship. Extensive correspondence between the lovers has been preserved. Many of the letters are extremely frank. To denote their intimacy, Catherine and Alexander invented a special French word, bingerle.
Letter from Alexander II Alexander II - Catherine Dolgorukaya, St. Petersburg, Monday March 6, 1867, 11 1/2 pm. Letter No. 48 “I’ve been so busy all day that only now can I finally start my favorite activity. My thoughts did not leave my adored minx for a moment, and when I got up, the first thing I did was rush with passion to the kind card I received last night. I can’t stop looking at her and I would like to throw myself at my Angel, press him tightly to my heart and kiss him all over. You see how much I love you, my dear, passionately and rapturously, and it seems to me that after our sad parting, my feeling is only growing day by day. It’s for sure that I only breathe with you and all my thoughts, wherever I am and whatever I do, are constantly with you and do not leave you for a minute. The whole morning was spent working and receiving appointments. Only at 3 o’clock was I able to go out to first do my boring walk, however, more pleasant thanks to the weather, sun and up to 7 degrees of heat. But you can’t imagine how bored I am with all these faces that I am forced to see every day. How tired of fear! Then I went to visit my eldest son [...] From him we went, with his wife, to the Catherine Institute, which I promised them a long time ago. ... I find them even more ostentatious than those in Smolny - but you know, my soul, why my heart lies more towards Smolny. Firstly, because I used to see you there, and secondly, now your dear sister is there, who loves us both so much. You will understand, my dear, how impatient I am to look there, especially now that I know that your sister must give me your letter. For me, it is a real torture to have to postpone this happy moment solely out of caution, so as not to arouse attention with too frequent visits. This is how everything happens in this world, most of the time you have to do the opposite of what you really want. And especially to misfortune, we can apply this to us. I hope that someday God will reward us for all the sacrifices that we must now make one after another. The girls at the Ekaterininsky Institute sang several songs very sweetly, then we were present at their dinner, and when they left, they ran to my daughter-in-law and me, and each wanted to kiss our hands, so we just had to fight. In Smolny, thank God, it has never come to this before. There were a few people there by dinner, and I spent the rest of the evening at work, breaking for half an hour for tea and a short sleigh ride in the magnificent moonlight, from which I had just returned. I will now read Gospel[elie] 21 Chapter [of] Acts of the Apostles, I will pray for you and go to bed, mentally holding you, my everything, to your heart. I love you, my soul, without memory and am happy that I belong to you forever.” “My dear angel, you know I didn’t mind. We had each other the way you wanted. But I must confess to you: I will not rest until I see your charms again.” In the same year, 1867, Alexander II paid an official visit to Paris. Dolgorukova secretly arrived there from Naples. The lovers met at the Elysee Palace... They returned to Russia together. Catherine gave birth to four children from Alexander II (one - Boris (1876) - died in infancy): Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky (1872-1913) Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1873-1925), married to Georg-Nicholas von Merenberg (1871-1948), son of Natalia Pushkina. Ekaterina Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1878-1959), married to S.P. Obolensky The Empress was still alive when Alexander settled Catherine and her children in the Winter Palace (the emperor placed his mistress in his father’s apartment), which further exacerbated the hostile attitude of many Romanovs towards her. The court was divided into two parties: supporters of Dolgorukova and supporters of the Heir Alexander Alexandrovich. Empress Maria Alexandrovna did not take public action. From the diary of Alexander II (Tuesday, January 27, 1870), 2 am. “More than ever, I feel the effect that balls usually have on me, and I think that D (Olgorukova) should have noticed this when I approached her at the end of the cotillion; she was even more charming than always, in her delightful toilet, in my opinion, the most beautiful of all. I was very pleased that I was able to do a waltz tour with her, and I admit, it took a lot of effort for me to force myself to stop there. Wednesday, January 28 (1870), 11 ... pm. The delightful evening spent with D(olgorukova) made an exceptional impression on me; she was lovely and read the novel with artistic flair. Sunday, February 1, 1870, midnight. I’m in a bad mood because when I came to Smolny with my daughter, all I had in my head was the memory of a famous person who is now so dear to me, and I’m glad to be her slave forever! Monday, February 2, 1870, 11 p.m. Upon returning from the German performance, I had to endure an extremely painful explanation with my wife about my disappearances in the evenings, after visiting the children. This only confirmed my fears. Thank God, D(olgorukova’s) name has not yet been spoken!” Sunday, 2/14 February 1869, noon “Your morning letter found me at the usual hour when the sun rises, but I couldn’t answer you right away, my darling... Now I have to go to the parade, then to the concert, where I hope to meet you... 4.30 in the afternoon Our meeting was very short, like a ray of sunshine, but for me it was happiness, and you should have felt it, dear darling, although I did not even dare to stop you to even shake your hand. I returned from the concert and had to take my daughter for a sleigh ride. 0.15. Half an hour ago I returned from the French performance, where I was bored to death, although I was happy to have a reason to be with you, my happiness, my treasure, my ideal. The end of our evening left me with a very tender impression, but I admit that I was extremely saddened by seeing your concern at the beginning, your tears hurt me, because involuntarily I told myself that my love is no longer enough for you, no, rather , that those short moments that I could devote to you every day were not sufficient compensation to you for the shocks, inconveniences and sacrifices of your current situation. I think there is no need to repeat to you, dear angel, that you are my life, and that everything for me is concentrated in you, and that is why I cannot look at you with composure in your moments of despair... Despite all my desire, I cannot devote my life only to you and live only for you... You know that you are my conscience, it has become my need not to hide anything from you, even the most personal thoughts... Do not forget, my dear angel, that life is dear to me because I don’t want to lose hope of devoting myself entirely only to you... I love you, my darling Katya.” Monday, February 3/15, 08.15 am “I would like to wake up in your arms. I hope in the evening, at about 8 o’clock, to meet in our nest... Yours forever.” N227. Sunday, September 8 1868, 9 am. “Having sent my letter, I performed my toilet, thinking at the same time that I would not be at all ashamed to do this in the presence of my dear, adored wife and that she, for her part, would be pleased by forcing me to be present at her toilet. But both of these activities would last a little longer, since we would not be able to help but interrupt them from time to time to admire each other and caress each other, as we love to do. What to do? We fell in love like cats and can’t help but caress each other. - The sun appeared again and the weather was beautiful again. We walked like yesterday, and while we were drinking coffee, my cousin from Weimar appeared, who always reminds me of the happy days of this spring, when we were still together and thought only about the happiness of meeting on a walk and ending up in our evening sweet little nest to enjoy our caresses there like crazy. O my God, give us such an opportunity and the same happiness after our return, three weeks from now. You can judge for yourself what is happening to your husband at the mere thought of it. Everything in him is trembling and asking to go home. Aw! Hurt! - I want both of us to feel crazy sweet! 8 p.m. I am happy that I can give you a moment of pleasure by sending you my card, which is, in essence, very bad. But what about us, everything is sweet and dear to us. Yes, we understand everything that happens to us and in us, and we don’t need explanations. This mutual understanding is our treasure, which we, of course, should be proud of. The little whims that my evil and adored minx sometimes allows herself to express in a letter do not make me angry at all, but only make me laugh, for I know my nasty minx to the very bottom and love my darling to the point of madness with all her shortcomings, just as God created her, and for me she is still the sweetest in the world. Aw! Hurt! I want to go home and forget everything, and just enjoy our caresses, as we alone know how to appreciate it. Yes, I hope that God will not abandon us and will reward us one day for all our current hardships and torments. I will now pray to Him about this after reading chapter 3. Epistle to the Romans, and I’ll go to bed, mentally with my darling, Bobinka. I hug and kiss her all over.” Letter from E. M. Dolgorukova to Emperor Alexander II Peterhof. June 18/30, 1870 “Oh, what boredom, there’s just no urine. Alas! Today there are no letters or telegrams, which makes me doubly sad, because from your own experience you understand what torment it is to be without news from the being in whom your whole life is... Everything trembles in me from the passion with which I want to see you. I love and kiss you all, my darling, my life is my everything.” Friday, June 19, 1870, 11 a.m. “Hello, dear angel, I love you, and it fills me terribly. My thoughts follow you on your journey and I feel you sigh because you are not with me. We would spend time together so pleasantly and have so much fun that it would be scary. I slept very poorly and the rainy weather irritates me even more. Kiss you. Love you".
Catherine's letter Saturday, June 29, 1870, 10 am. “Hello, dear angel, I love you and am happy to love you. I had an exciting dream, I dreamed that we were kissing. ABOUT! If only it were real! I can only think about the happiness of seeing you again and it fills me completely. Love you. 11 p.m. My thoughts follow you to Warsaw. I hope that you did not arrive too tired and that you will telegraph me. Oh! How I am drawn to you and how I want you, my darling, my life, my everything. I feel attached to you and in love with you more than ever, and I can only think about the minute when, in 5 days, I see you. ABOUT! God, unite us in good health and do not deny us Your blessing. I kiss, love, hug you all passionately, my darling, my everything. The Lord is with you! Alexander to Ekaterina Dolgorukaya during the Russian-Turkish War, October 7, 1877 “At 10 a.m. Hello, dear Angel of my soul. I slept well, despite a very cold night, only 2 degrees... At 3 1/2 o'clock in the afternoon. [...] I took a walk in a carriage and on foot... and visited the hospital, where many soldiers with frostbitten legs were brought from Shipka, but fortunately, there was no need for amputation. The sun is almost warm and the wind has died down. ...At 7 3/4 p.m. The courier arrived after lunch, and your letter... is like the sun to me. Yes, I feel loved as I never dared to dream, and I answer you the same from the depths of my soul, feeling happy and proud that an Angel like you owns me and that I belong to you forever. What was dictated by my dear baby bump made me happy as usual; the affection he has shown us since birth is truly touching. God bless him and Olya for us, so that both will continue to be our joy. What you sent for the Bryansk and Arkhangelogorod regiments will be handed over to them as soon as it arrives, and I thank you for this with all your heart. This doesn’t surprise me at all, I know and can appreciate your heart of gold, but you understand what pleasure this gives to your Munch, for whom you are an idol, treasure, life. At 10 1/2 p.m. ... Good news has just arrived that the second redoubt, which the Romanians were besieging, has been taken. We don't know the details yet. A good start. Your morning telegram has just arrived and I am glad that your stomach is better... Everything is calm with my son on Shipka, but the poor troops are suffering terribly from the night cold. I love you, kind Angel, and hug you tenderly. Saturday, October 8, 10 a.m. Good morning, dear Angel of my soul, I slept well and am filled with love and tenderness for you, my adorable little wife. The morning was magnificent, the night was very cold. Yesterday before going to bed I received the bad news that the Turks had taken back the redoubt occupied by the Romanians. We are now waiting for details. ...At 7 1/2 p.m. ... Oh! how I remember our glorious afternoons when the children loved to come down to me and tell you about things before drinking their milk. I'm so drawn to you. God grant us to return soon!” Alexander II Following the death of his wife on May 22, 1880, before the expiration of the protocol mourning period, on July 6, 1880, a marriage ceremony took place in the military chapel of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, performed by Protopresbyter Xenophon Nikolsky. Alexander II explained his decision this way: “I would never get married before the end of mourning, but we live in a dangerous time when sudden assassination attempts, which I subject myself to every day, could end my life. Therefore, it is my duty to ensure the position of a woman who has been living for me for fourteen years, as well as to ensure the future of our three children...” Ekaterina Mikhailovna, in response to the persuasion of the courtiers not to disgrace the emperor in front of the people, answered: “The Emperor will be happy and calm only when he marries me.” The marriage was morganatic, but rumors began to spread throughout the empire that Catherine might ascend to the throne after the death of the emperor. By decree of December 5, 1880, she was granted the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, which correlated with one of the family names of the Romanov boyars; their children (all born out of wedlock, but legitimized retroactively) received the surname Yuryevsky. Many of the emperor's relatives and the aristocracy viewed the marriage with extreme disapproval. Minister of Internal Affairs Mikhail Loris-Melikov had to seek a compromise with two rival parties: Princess Yuryevskaya and the heir Alexander Alexandrovich. On September 5, 1880, Alexander II signed a certificate that the Minister of the Court, Count Adlerberg, deposited 3,302,910 gold rubles in the state bank in the name of Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Yuryevskaya and her children. Yuryevskaya's notebook, entitled "Souvenirs received from my beloved Munch" (as she called Alexander), has been preserved. This list, which includes the dates of each gift, creates a kind of chronicle of the novel. Can be compared with the dates of key events from her memories. 1866 April 18. Bracelet with a small ruby ​​surrounded by small diamonds. July 11. Ring with ruby. July 29. Bracelet with ruby ​​and four diamonds. Opens. With an image in a medallion. Watch with gold chain. August 27. Bracelet with the inscription "May God protect you", in diamonds. Plain gold cufflinks. Ring of St. Barbara. September 30th. Gospel. October 9. Whip with precious stones. November 24. Bracelet with round pearls. Medallion with pearls and small diamonds. Cufflinks and brooch with rubies. Album with pansies. 1867 .... Round bronze clock. Bracelet and brooch with pansies and diamonds, with the inscription May 30. Bracelet with 3 pansies, different stones. Medallion with ruby ​​surrounded by diamonds. July 29. A gold bracelet. Oriental style pendant with different stones. Cufflinks with "E.A." made of diamonds on rock crystal. 2 October. Lots of things for the toilet. October 6. Bracelet with "Semper" in turquoise. Hairpin with a pommel in the form of an ivy leaf. November 24. The caps are purple and black. Fan in gold frame. Pearl and diamond watch pendant. Bracelet with a large diamond. December 24. Bracelet with chain, rubies and diamonds. Earrings with rubies surrounded by diamonds. Opal seal in gold frame. Figurine made of Saxon porcelain. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by members of Narodnaya Volya. The hostility towards the princess was so strong that after the funeral of Alexander II, she and her children emigrated to Nice. Until the end of her life, Dolgorukova remained faithful to her love, never remarried, and lived for thirty years surrounded by photographs and letters of her only lover. At the age of 75, Ekaterina Mikhailovna died at her villa Georges near Nice. Over the course of fourteen years, the ardent emperor and his beloved wrote about four and a half thousand letters to each other. In 1999, correspondence between famous lovers was sold at Christie's for $250,000. She left behind a book of memoirs, published by her in Europe immediately after the death of her husband, under the pseudonym Victor Laferte. In cinema, her image was embodied by actresses Daniel Darrieu, Romy Schneider, Vera Sotnikova, Natalya Antonova.
From the memoirs of E.M. Yuryevskaya, published under the pseudonym Victor Laferte: “The emperor valued the joys of family life so much that he gladly took advantage of every opportunity that brought him its sweetness, and therefore in the last week of his life, preparing to receive Easter communion, he dined with his beloved wife and beloved children. Having given his hand to his wife, so that, alas! to go with her to the dining room for the last time, he said, shaking her hand: “I feel so happy today that my happiness scares me!” Perhaps someone will be surprised that the heart of a young woman was filled with such a tender and devoted affection for the sovereign, but it is also indisputable that Emperor Alexander II possessed exceptional virtues, and therefore it is quite natural that this sovereign, despite his age, inspired the strongest and the boundless affection for himself that his wife had for him from her early youth. Her love only grew over the years and the inexorable scythe of death could not break it. The sovereign could not enjoy happiness without the joys of the home: loneliness was painful for him, for his sensitive soul felt the need to pour itself out. His beloved wife, whom his great heart chose as his life partner, was raised under his direct influence; he was pleased, so to speak, to pour out his chosen soul into her own, and he had the highest consolation in the fact that his thoughts and feelings were related to the thoughts and feelings of his girlfriend to such an extent that each of the spouses could say: “My thoughts are his thoughts, and my heart is his heart." “If the all-good God had preserved him for me, even without both legs, he could still live... it would still be him!... In this state he would belong to me even more, for he would have to renounce from the imperial power! Did I really value his imperial crown, which was only a burden to me and disrupted my happiness? I loved him in him, I loved his personality, and for fifteen years I loved him equally tenderly, both on the first and on the last day! Now that he is no more, my love will survive his loss, I will cherish it to the very grave, where God, out of pity for my misfortune and in his great mercy, will soon call me, according to my deepest desire! Sources.

At the end of his studies, the Tsarevich went on a trip to Russia, where he became acquainted with the life of the population and Russia itself. After the trip, Sasha sets off on a new journey, where he will visit countries and cities in Europe. Nicholas I, Sasha's father, gave instructions to find the future empress there and handed over a sheet with the countries where to look. And he finds her. After visiting Italy, Alexander II headed to Holland. The journey was long and on March 13, 1839. they stopped in a state called Hesse - Darmstadt. There he met the future empress, Maria Alexandrovna Romanova (July 27, 1824, Darmstadt - May 22, 1880, St. Petersburg). Sasha immediately fell in love with her and, while watching Walter Scott’s romantic opera “The Bride of Lamermoor,” he sent the senior usher to her with a small basket filled with delicate red roses and a tiny card with a gold edge.

His Imperial Highness, Grand Duke and Crown Prince -: a present for Your Serene Highness, My Duchess! - the attendant loudly exclaimed, and the polished buttons on the cuff of his uniform frock coat shone less than his eyes from barely restrained delight and a conspiratorial smile!

Why? - Wilhelmina-Maria babbled incomprehensibly, quite childishly, looking around helplessly in search of the boring governess who slept nearby, at her side, throughout the first act of the opera, but she, as luck would have it, disappeared somewhere without a trace during the intermission!

I can't know, My Duchess! It is only ordered to hand over this bouquet to Your Lordship and say that if Your Lordship deigns in the evening, after the performance, to receive in your box the Heir to the Russian throne, in the presence of the retinue and mentor of the Grand Duke, Mr. Vasily Zhukovsky, then you will thereby constitute the true happiness of His Imperial Highnesses!

Unable to answer anything, and remembering the ceremonial court etiquette in time, the princess-duchess only nodded lostly in agreement. The steward respectfully backed away and disappeared behind the velvet curtain of the box; on the stage violins and harps moaned pitifully, timpani rang... trumpets and horns began to hum.

The intermission ended, the second act of the opera began, and the little, confused Princess Wilhelmina Maria still sat with her head bowed to the flowers in an elegant basket, unable to even believe what had happened to her! It seems that she too was becoming Lucia de Lamermoor, and she was drinking her “love potion”...

The first few drops already had a stunning effect: my head was spinning and my heart was pounding! And what will happen next?!

Why didn’t Sir Walter Scott mention in his novel that this drink rushes so violently into the head, warms the blood and has the scent of roses?: Really, he didn’t know?!

The Hessian state was not on the pope's list. In order to win the heart of the young princess, he wrote a letter to dad:

“Here in Darmstadt I met the daughter of the reigning Grand Duke, Princess Mary. I liked her terribly, from the very first moment when I saw her... And, if you allow, dear dad, after my visit to England, I will return to Darmstadt again. “

... and ordered the coachman to bring him there in 9 days, on the feast of the Annunciation. Since Nicholas I was a believer, he perceived this as a good thing, but still asked Sasha’s trustee, A.N. Orlov, about the future empress:

“Doubts about the legitimacy of its origin are more valid than you think. It is known that because of this she is barely tolerated at court and in the family, but she is officially recognized as the daughter of her father and bears his surname, therefore no one can say anything against her in this sense.”

Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Wilhelmine of Baden, Grand Duchess of Hesse and her chamberlain Baron von Sénarclin de Grancy. Wilhelmina's husband, Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse, in order to avoid scandal and thanks to the intervention of Wilhelmina's brother and sisters (Grand Duke of Baden, Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna of Russia, Queens of Bavaria, Sweden and Duchess of Brunswick), officially recognized Maria and her brother Alexander as his children (the other two illegitimate children died in infancy). Despite the recognition, they continued to live separately in Heiligenberg, while Ludwig II lived in Darmstadt.

Despite these facts, the sovereign gave permission for the marriage and on April 16, 1841, the wedding of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna took place.

Maria Alexandrovna was well versed in music and knew the latest European literature very well. In general, the breadth of her interests and spiritual qualities delighted many of those with whom she happened to meet. “With her intelligence,” wrote the famous poet and playwright A.K. Tolstoy, “she surpasses not only other women, but also most men. This is an unprecedented combination of intelligence with purely feminine charm and... a charming character.” Another poet, F.I. Tyutchev, dedicated sublime and sincere lines to the Grand Duchess, albeit not the best, but sublime and sincere:

Whoever you are, if you meet her,

With a pure or sinful soul,

You suddenly feel more alive

That there is a better world, a spiritual world...

In Russia, Maria Alexandrovna soon became known for her widespread charity - Mariinsky hospitals, gymnasiums and orphanages were very common and earned high praise from her contemporaries. In total, she patronized 5 hospitals, 12 almshouses, 36 shelters, 2 institutes, 38 gymnasiums, 156 lower schools, 5 private charitable societies, and with Elena Pavlovna (the widow of Alexander II’s uncle, Mikhail Pavlovich), the Red Coest was established - all of them demanded vigilant attention from the Grand Duchess . Maria Alexandrovna spent both state money and part of her own money on them, because she was allocated 50 thousand silver rubles a year for personal expenses. She turned out to be a deeply religious person and, according to contemporaries, she could easily be imagined in monastic clothes, silent, exhausted by fasting and prayer. However, for the future empress such religiosity could hardly be considered a virtue. After all, she had to fulfill numerous secular duties, and excessive religiosity came into conflict with them.

Maria Alexandrovna's maid of honor was Anna Tyutcheva, the daughter of the great writer Fyodor Tyutchev, she gives her characterization of the empress:

“First of all, this was an extremely sincere and deeply religious soul, but this soul, like its bodily shell, seemed to go beyond the framework of the medieval picture. Religion has different effects on the human soul: for some it is struggle, activity, mercy, responsiveness, for others it is silence, contemplation, concentration, self-torture. The first is a place in the field of life, the second is in a monastery. The soul of the Grand Duchess was one of those that belong to the monastery.”

Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to 6 children to Alexander II:

Alexandra (1842-1849)

Nicholas (1843-1865), raised as heir to the throne, died of pneumonia in Nice

Alexander III (1845-1894) - Emperor of Russia in 1881-1894

Vladimir (1847-1909)

Alexey (1850-1908)

Mary (1853-1920), Grand Duchess, Duchess of Great Britain and Germany, wife of Alfred of Edinburgh

Sergei (1857-1905) Pavel (1860-1919)

Their couple was considered harmonious and it seemed that nothing could disturb this harmony, but everything changed after the death of their eldest son Nicholas in 1865.

The Empress fell ill with tuberculosis, began to withdraw into herself, and had fewer and fewer friends. Then the bet fell apart.

Three cities were named in honor of Maria Alexandrovna: Mariinsky Posad, Mariinsk (Kemerovo region), Mariehamn (the main city of the Åland Islands, an autonomous territory within Finland), as well as the Mariinsky (St. Petersburg) Theater and the Mariinsky Palace (Kyiv).

Monument in the city of Mariinsk:

From a conversation between Dr. Botkin and the Empress in Nice, before his death:

“I understand, I shouldn’t! I understand everything, I just want you to know: I never blamed him for anything and never do! He has given me so much happiness over all these years and so often proved his immense respect for me that this would be more than enough for ten ordinary women!

It’s not his fault that he is Caesar, and I am Caesar’s wife! You will object now that he insulted the Empress in me, and you will be right, dear doctor, of course you are right, but let God judge him! I don't have the right to do this. Heaven has long known and known my resentment and bitterness. Alexander too.

And my true misfortune is that Life acquires full meaning and multicolored colors for me only next to him, it doesn’t matter whether his heart belongs to me or to another, younger and more beautiful.. It’s not his fault, which means more to me than anything the rest, I’m just wired so strangely. And I'm happy that I can leave before him. Fear for his life greatly tormented me! These six attempts!

Crazy Russia! She always needs something stunning foundations and foundations, disastrous shocks... And maybe the heartfelt personal weaknesses of the Autocrat will only benefit her, who knows? “He is the same as we are, a weak mortal, and even an adulterer! ”

Perhaps, with my prayer, There, at the throne of the Heavenly Father, I will ask for a quiet death for him, in return for the martyr's crown of the sufferer, driven into a corner by a raging mob with foam at the mouth, forever dissatisfied.

While I have the strength, I want to return and die next to him and the children, on my native land, under my native clouds.

You know, nowhere is there such a high sky as in Russia, and such warm and soft clouds! – the shadow of a dreamy smile touched the Empress’s bloodless lips.

Haven't you noticed? Tell His Majesty that I will be buried in a simple white dress, without a crown on my head or other royal regalia. There, under the warm and soft clouds, we are all equal before the King of Heaven; in Eternity there are no differences of rank. Tell me, dear doctor?

Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress of All Russia, Maria Alexandrovna, died quietly in St. Petersburg, in the Winter Palace, in her own apartment, on the night of May 22-23, 1880. Death came to her in a dream. According to the will, she was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of St. Petersburg four days later. After her death, a letter addressed to her husband was found in the box, in which she thanked him for all the years spent together and for the “vita nuova” (new life) given to her so long ago, on April 28, 1841.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova

Alexander II first saw Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (November 2, 1847-February 15, 1922) in the summer of 1859, a guest of Prince Dolgorukov on the Teplovka estate near Poltava during the celebration of the anniversary of the victory of his great-grandfather, Peter the Great, over the Swedes. Then still a young, twelve-year-old girl showed the sights of the park and Poltava itself to His Majesty himself.

Four years later, Katya's father dies, leaving the entire family in debt. The Emperor took the children into his care: he facilitated the entry of the Dolgoruky brothers into St. Petersburg military institutions, and the sisters into the Smolny Institute.

On March 28, 1865, Palm Sunday, Alexander II, replacing the then ill Empress Maria Alexandrovna, visited the Smolny Institute, where he was introduced to 18-year-old Ekaterina Dolgorukova, whom he remembered.

They began meeting in the Summer Garden near the Winter Palace. The Emperor courted Katya for about a year, and she, in turn, despite the fact that everyone around her was persuading her, was in no hurry to enter into an intimate relationship with him. It was only on July 13, 1866 that they met for the first time at Belvedere Castle near Peterhof, where they spent the night, after which they continued dating there.

“Alexander Nikolaevich,” testifies M. Paleolog, “managed to create a delightful lover out of an inexperienced girl. She belonged to him entirely. She gave him her soul, mind, imagination, will, feelings. They talked to each other tirelessly about their love.” “Lovers are never bored,” La Rochefoucauld wrote, “because they always talk about themselves.” The tsar initiated her into both complex state issues and international problems. And often Ekaterina Mikhailovna helped find the right solution or suggested the right way out. This suggests that the king completely trusted her, moreover, he initiated her into state secrets.

Their life together has been a little over fifteen years, happy years. He told Katya: “...At the first opportunity I will marry you, for from now on and forever I consider you my wife before God...”, and she, in turn, was always there when he left. Even during the Russian-Turkish war, Katya was nearby. Alexander II could not live even a day without Katya, and if they were absent, the lovers wrote letters to each other every day of their separation.

Catherine Dolgorukaya gave birth to four children from Alexander II (one - Boris (1876) - died in infancy):

Georgy Alexandrovich Yuryevsky (1872-1913)

Olga Alexandrovna Yuryevskaya (1873-1925), married to Georg-Nikolai von Merenberg (1871-1948), son of Natalia Pushkina.

Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Yuryevskaya (1878-1959), married to S. P. Obolensky

Following the death of his wife on May 22, 1880, before the expiration of the protocol mourning period, on July 6, 1880, a marriage ceremony took place in the military chapel of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, performed by Protopresbyter Xenophon Nikolsky; The Tsarevich was absent from the ceremony. By decree of December 5, 1880, she was granted the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, which correlated with one of the family names of the Romanov boyars; their children (all born out of wedlock, but legitimized retroactively) received the surname Yuryevsky. The marriage was morganatic, but rumors began to spread throughout the empire that Catherine might ascend the throne after the death of the emperor, and they were right: Catherine’s coronation was scheduled for August 9, 1881. The Tsar was not destined - on March 1, after a terrorist attack on the Catherine Canal, Alexander II was killed.

All the years that Ekaterina Mikhailovna lived abroad, she prayed for the repose of the soul of God's servant Alexander. And there was not a day that she did not remember him, and she only waited for the hour when she would unite with him in heaven. She received the news with particular joy that a majestic Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood would be erected in St. Petersburg at the site of the assassination of Alexander II.

For her personally, he became not only a tribute to the memory of the late sovereign, but, as she wanted to think, a symbol of their tragic love.

She emigrated with her children to Nice, where she died in 1922.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna first wife of Alexander II

"Russia will never know what it owed to its

The Empress, as a result of that enormous, beneficial,

The heartfelt and moral influence that she always had on the Emperor!”

E.N. Lvov. From memories.

Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Birth of a Princess

The Fourth Empress of All Russia from the House of Romanov with the name Maria, so great in Christianity, was born on July 27 (August 9), 1824 in the German sovereign House of Hesse in the August family of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse (1777 - 1848) from his marriage to Princess Wilhelmina Louise of Baden (1788 - 1836), the august sister of the Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna - the sovereign wife of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander I the Blessed.

Ludwig II of Hesse. Lithography. Beginning of the 19th century

Ludwig II of Hesse.

Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna. 1807. Monier. Russian Museum.

Emperor Alexander I and Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna. After 1807. P. Crossy (sort of).

The princess was born almost 200 years after the Sacred Sacrament of marriage of the founder of the House of Romanov, Tsar Michael I Feodorovich, with his first August wife, Princess Maria Vladimirovna Dolgorukova, took place on September 19 (October 2), 1624. It is also providential that, like Tsarina Maria Vladimirovna, the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna died before her husband, which remained the only example in the history of the Imperial House, for no other Empress of All Russia since the death of Tsarina Agafya Semyonovna on October 14 (27), 1681 , the first August wife of Tsar Theodore III Alekseevich, did not leave the crowned spouses, having died prematurely. A little more than 200 years will pass before the heartbeat of the Russian Empress, so beloved by the entire Royal Family, is interrupted on the first Thursday of June 1880 (May 22, 2010).

The princess's august mother left the world when she was 13 years old and she, together with her sovereign brother Prince Alexander (1823 - 1880), was raised as a governess for several years, living in the country castle of Jugenheim near Darmstadt.

Darmstadt

Mary's mother, Wilhelmina of Baden.

Maria's brother Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt

Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria

At the time of her birth, the princess’s august mother had not lived with her sovereign husband for a long time. Everyone had their own love, and according to conversations, the princess was born from Baron de Grancy, a Swiss of French origin, who was the Grand Duke's master of horse. It seemed that nothing any longer foreshadowed a glorious future for the princess. However, by the will of the All-Blessed Arbiter of Fate, in March 1839, the only daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II met in Darmstadt Tsarevich Alexander II Nikolaevich, the future Autocrat of All-Russia Alexander II the Liberator, traveling in Western Europe.

Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich

Tsarevich Alexander Pavlovich

The Tsarevich's chosen one

From a letter from the heir to Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, to his August father, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I the Heroic, March 25 (April 7) on the Day of the Annunciation, 1839: “Here, in Darmstadt, I met the daughter of the Reigning Grand Duke, Princess Maria. I liked her terribly, from the very first moment when I saw her... And, if you allow, dear dad, after my visit to England, I will return to Darmstadt again." However, consent to the marriage was granted by the August parents of the Tsarevich and the Grand Duke, Emperor Nicholas I the Heroic-loving and Empress Alexandra I Feodorovna did not give it right away.

Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

From the secret correspondence of Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich and Count A.N. Orlov, the heir's trustee: “Doubts regarding the legality of her origin are more valid than you think. It is known that because of this she is barely tolerated at the Court and in the family (Wilhelmina had three older August brothers - approx. A.R.), but she is officially recognized as the daughter of her crowned father and bears his surname, therefore no one can say anything against her in this sense." (Letters and documents are quoted from the book by E.P. Tolmachev “Alexander the Second and His Time,” vol. 1. p. 94.) “Do not think, Sovereign, that I hid these facts regarding the origin of Princess Mary from the Grand Duke. He found out about them on the very day of his arrival in Darmstadt, but reacted exactly like you... He thinks that, of course, it would be better otherwise, but she bears the name of her father, therefore, from the point of view of the law, no one can blame her." Meanwhile, the heir to the All-Russian throne had the strongest feelings for the princess. From a letter from the heir of Tsarevich Alexander, the August Mother to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, May 1839. Darmstadt: “Dear Mother, what do I care about the secrets of Princess Mary! I love her, and I would rather give up the throne than her. I will marry only her, that’s my decision!”

Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria

Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria

Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria

Arrival in Russia

In September 1840, the princess entered the Russian land, and in December of the same year she accepted Orthodoxy with the name Maria Alexandrovna, becoming the fourth chosen one of the Russian Sovereigns from the House of Romanov with the name of the Most Holy Theotokos. At the end of Bright Week, on April 19 (29), 1841, the heir Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna got married.

The lady-in-waiting of the Court, A.F. Tyutchev, who knew the Empress closely, left us many detailed memories of Princess Mary: “Having grown up in solitude and even some neglect in the small castle of Yugedheim, where she rarely even had to see her father, she was more frightened than blinded when suddenly was transported to the Court, the most magnificent, the most brilliant and the most secular of all European Courts. She told me that many times, after long efforts to overcome shyness and embarrassment, she at night in the privacy of her bedroom indulged in tears and long-held sobs...

Tyutcheva Anna Fedorovna

When I first saw the Grand Duchess, she was 28 years old. However, she looked very young. She maintained this youthful appearance all her life, so that at the age of 40 she could be mistaken for a woman of about thirty. Despite her tall stature and slenderness, she was so thin and fragile that at first glance she did not give the impression of beauty; but she was unusually graceful, with that very special grace that can be found in old German paintings, in the Madonnas of Albrecht Durer...

In no one have I ever observed to a greater extent than in the Tsesarevna this spiritual grace of ideal abstraction. Her features were not correct. Her wonderful hair was beautiful, her delicate complexion, her large blue, slightly protruding eyes, looking meek and soulful. Her profile was not beautiful, since her nose was not regular, and her chin receded somewhat back. The mouth was thin, with compressed lips, which indicated restraint, without the slightest signs of the ability to inspire or impulse, and a barely noticeable ironic smile made a strange contrast to the expression of her eyes... I have rarely seen a person whose face and appearance better expressed the shades and contrasts of his inner extremely complex self. The Tsesarevna's mind was similar to her soul: subtle, elegant, insightful, very ironic, but devoid of fervor, breadth and initiative... She was cautious to the extreme, and this caution made her weak in life... She possessed to an exceptional extent the prestige of the Empress and the charm of a woman and knew how to wield these means with great intelligence and skill.”

Unknown artist

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna

Christina Robertson

According to her contemporaries, and the same maid of honor Tyutcheva: “She was judged and condemned by many, often not without reason, for the lack of initiative, interest and activity in all areas where she could bring life and movement.” Everyone expected from the Empress the activity characteristic of her August namesake, Empress Maria I Feodorovna, who, after the tragic death of her August husband, Emperor Paul I Petrovich, founded many charitable societies, actively intervened in the politics of the sovereign son of Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich, had a brilliant Court, and so on. At first, not many knew that the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna, by the will of God born on the day of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, was incurably ill with her heart and lungs, bearing her heavy Cross all her life. But even so, she performed many charitable deeds, continuing the glorious traditions of the All-Russian Empresses.

Coronation portraits of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna

Coronation portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

Coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

Coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

Coronation celebrations

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

Coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Coronation celebrations

People's holiday on Khodynka Field in Moscow on the occasion of the sacred coronation of Emperor Alexander II

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Let’s also not forget that not a single Empress was subjected to such horrific terror in Russia. To survive six attempts on the life of the August Husband, to live in anxiety for the Tsar and the crowned children for 14 long years, from the moment of the first shot by D.V. Karakozov on April 4 (17) until the explosion in the dining room of the Winter Palace in February 1880, which claimed 11 lives - such an experience destined for only a few. According to the maid of honor Countess A.A. Tolstoy, “the poor health of the Empress finally deteriorated after the assassination attempt on April 2, 1879 (Arranged by the populist A.K. Solovyov - approx. A.R.). She never recovered after that. Just like now, I see her on that day - with feverishly shining eyes, broken, desperate. “There’s no point in living anymore,” she told me, “I feel like this is killing me.”

M.A. Zichy. "The highest reception in the Winter Palace on April 5, 1866 after the first attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II.", executed in 1866

Zichy Mikhail Alexandrovich. “Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, Dowager Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna”

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Acts of the Empress

Empress Maria Alexandrovna accomplished the most important feat of her life - she strengthened the throne of the dynasty with numerous heirs. She gave birth to the Tsar Alexander II Nikolaevich, whom she adored, eight crowned children: two crowned daughters and six sons. Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich 01 The Lord destined her to outlive two of them - the August daughter Alexandra and the heir Tsarevich Nicholas in 1849 and 1865. After the death in 1860 of the August mother-in-law of the Empress Alexandra I Feodorovna, she headed the huge charitable Department of the Mariinsky gymnasiums and educational institutions. She was destined to open the first Red Cross department in Russia and a number of the largest military hospitals during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877 - 1878. With the support of the progressive public and the active personal assistance of K. D. Ushinsky, she prepared several notes on the reform of primary and female education in Russia for Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich.

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna with her son Nicholas

Types of halls of the Winter Palace. Cabinet of Emperor Alexander II

Sverchkov Nikolay Egorovich - Riding in a Wheelchair (Alexander II With Children)

Emperor Alexander II with children. Photo from 1860

M.A. Zichy. "The highest reception in the Winter Palace on April 5, 1866 after the first attempt on the life of Emperor Alexander II.

Patronizing enlightenment

The Empress founded countless shelters, almshouses and boarding houses. She marked the beginning of a new period of women's education in Russia, with the establishment of open all-class women's educational institutions (gymnasiums), which, according to the regulations of 1860, it was decided to open in all cities where it would be possible to ensure their existence. Under her, women's gymnasiums in Russia were supported almost exclusively by public and private funds. From now on, it was not only the Highest patronage, but social forces that largely determined the fate of women's education in Russia. Teaching subjects were divided into compulsory and optional. Compulsory classes in three-year gymnasiums included: the Law of God, the Russian language, Russian history and geography, arithmetic, penmanship, and handicrafts. In the course of women's gymnasiums, in addition to the above subjects, the basics of geometry, geography, history, as well as “the most important concepts in natural history and physics with the addition of information related to household management and hygiene,” penmanship, needlework, and gymnastics were required.

Ivan Makarov Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II.

"Like an unsolved mystery..."

Like an unsolved mystery

Living beauty breathes in her -

We look with anxious trepidation

To the quiet light of her eyes.

Is there an earthly charm in her?

Or unearthly grace?

My soul would like to pray to her,

And my heart is eager to adore...

F. I. Tyutchev. Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Timofey Neff Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Andrey Drozdov Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II.

Girls who were awarded gold or silver medals at the end of the gymnasium course of general studies, and who, in addition, attended a special special course of an additional class, acquired the title of home tutors. Those who did not receive medals received a “certificate of approval” for completing a full general course in a gymnasium and attended a special course in an additional class, and enjoyed the rights of home teachers. The transformative activities of Empress Maria Alexandrovna also affected her education in institutions. On the personal initiative of the Empress, measures were taken not only to protect the health and physical strength of children, by eliminating from their range of activities everything that has a purely mechanical, unproductive nature (drawing and copying notes that replaced printed manuals, etc.), but also to bringing pupils closer to their family and to the environment surrounding the parental home, for which they were allowed to go to the homes of their parents and immediate relatives during vacations and holidays. At the thought and initiative of the Empress, women's diocesan schools began to emerge for the first time in Russia. In the field of charity, the Empress’s most important merit is the organization of the Red Cross, to expand the activities of which during the Russian-Turkish War she put a lot of work and expense, refusing even to sew new dresses for herself, giving all her savings to the benefit of widows, orphans, the wounded and the sick. The “restoration of Christianity in the Caucasus”, “distribution of spiritual and moral books”, “Russian missionary”, “brotherly loving in Moscow” and many other charitable institutions owe their development and success to the patronage of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Peter Ernst Rockstuhl

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Ivan Makarov

And finally, the Empress, with the full support of her August husband, founded the largest theater and ballet school in St. Petersburg and all of Russia, which was later headed by Agrippina Vaganova. At the same time, both the school and the famous theater were entirely supported by the funds of the Imperial Family, the Empress personally, and, at the insistence of her August husband, Emperor Alexander II, bore her name. The theater still bears the sovereign name. A bust of Empress Maria Alexandrovna was recently installed in the foyer of the theater. From the first hour of the sovereign service of the Hessian Princess Mary on Russian soil, her burden was so voluminous and all-encompassing that the Empress spent countless amounts of energy to keep up everywhere, not to be late, to give gifts, to smile, to console, to encourage, to pray, to instruct, to answer, caress and: sing a lullaby. She burned like a candle in the wind! To her maid of honor and teacher, confidant, Anna Tyutcheva, the Tsesarevna, and later the Empress of All Russia, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, admitted with a tired smile more than once that she lived most of her life as a “volunteer” - that is, a voluntary soldier!

Karl Schulz Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Not a moment of rest or peace, moral or physical. Only an ardent feeling of reverent, selfless love for her husband, the Emperor, and an equally strong feeling of true faith, which at times delighted even people of primordially Orthodox faith, including: the confessor of the Imperial Family V. Ya Bazhanov and the famous Holy Hierarch of Moscow, Metropolitan Philaret Drozdov, supported the rapidly depleted fragile forces of the Empress. The Moscow saint left several evidence of his gratitude to the Empress, often addressing her with speeches and conversations given here.

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna in mourning

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna,

I.K. Makarov

It is known that the Empress was extremely God-loving and generous, humble and meek. In her sovereign position, she was the only Empress in the Russian state for almost 20 years. She was kept on earth only by constant good spirits and that “unsolved mystery of living charm”, which the observant diplomat and poet Tyutchev so subtly noted in her. The powerful charm of her personality spread to everyone who loved and knew her, but over the years there were fewer and fewer of them!

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

But the trials, on the contrary, did not diminish in the life of the High Royal Person, surrounded by the close attention of hundreds of picky eyes. One of these difficult trials for Her Majesty Empress Maria was the presence in the Empress’s personal retinue of a young, charming lady-in-waiting, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya, with whom her much-adored husband, the ruler of the Empire, desperately, dizzyingly and quickly fell in love. Empress Maria Alexandrovna knew everything, because she was too smart and impressionable to deceive herself, but she could not do anything... Or did she not want to? She suffered all fourteen years of this scandalous relationship - silently, patiently, without lifting an eyebrow, without making a sign. This had its own pride and its own aching pain. Not everyone understood or accepted this. Especially the grown-up August children and sons, who literally idolized their mother!

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Firs Sergeevich Zhuravlev (1836-1901) Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Blessed death

I dare to urgently ask Your Imperial Majesty not to return for the winter to St. Petersburg and, in general, to central Russia. As a last resort - Crimea. For your exhausted lungs and heart, weakened from stress, the climate of St. Petersburg is destructive, I dare to assure you! Your villa in Florence has long been ready and is waiting for you. And the new Palace in the vicinity of Livadia is all at the service of your Imperial...:

- Tell me, Sergey Petrovich,- the Empress Botkin, the life-medic, suddenly interrupted, - Did the Emperor ask you to keep me here, away from Russia? He doesn't want me to come back?- thin, emaciated fingers nervously drummed on the sill of the high Italian window of the villa, which looked directly onto the sea coast. The sea behind the glass floated in the morning haze and was still sleepy and serene. It seemed to be swaying right at my feet:

August Behrendsen Küste bei Nizza

Stop all these curtsies, Sergei Petrovich! There are only tiny drops left of my priceless health, and only one drop of the August Will humility before God's permission!- the emaciated profile of the Empress was still abnormally beautiful with some unusual, painful subtlety, it was not there before, but even on his profile, it seemed, the imperious shadow of death had already fallen.

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

- I dare to argue with Your Majesty about the last statement!

So - sir, rapid pulse, wet palms... You should lie down, Your Imperial Majesty, I’ll call the nurse now. We must follow the regime!

I’ll rest in the next world, Sergei Petrovich, I don’t have long to wait. Tell me to get ready, tomorrow morning I need to be in Cannes, from there to St. Petersburg, that's enough, I stayed too long by the sea. I want to die at home, in my bed.

Sergei Petrovich Botkin

The entire course of procedures has not yet been completed, and I don’t want to resort to oxygen pillows, like on my last visit to the capital! Your Majesty, I beg you! I received a letter from Their Highnesses, Tsarevich Alexander and Tsarevna Maria Feodorovna, they also find that it is extremely undesirable for you to be in the capital and sour in the stuffy Winter Palace. Autumn this year in St. Petersburg, as always, is not a smooth one! - the life doctor smiled slightly, the Empress immediately picked up this weak smile:

Alexander II with his family

I know, dear doctor, I know, but that’s not the reason! You are simply afraid of how the presence in the Palace, over my poor head, of a famous person, Sacred to the Sovereign Emperor, will affect my health! - The Empress chuckled slightly. Don't be afraid, I will no longer drop combs and break cups from the sound of children's steps. (An allusion to Princess Catherine Dolgorukaya and her children from Emperor Alexander. There were three of them. They all lived in the Winter Palace and occupied apartments directly above the Empress’s head! This was dictated, as historians write, by considerations of the safety of the Princess and children. At that time, attempts became more frequent attempts on the life of the Sovereign. But is it only this?.. - author's note).

Köhler I. P. Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

As always, I will find a natural explanation for such natural noise, so as not to confuse the young maids! - The Empress tried to smile, but her face was distorted by a painful grimace. She lowered her head, trying to suppress a coughing fit, and pressed a handkerchief to her lips. He was instantly soaked in blood.

- Your Imperial Majesty, I beg you, there is no need! - the excited Botkin sharply squeezed Maria Alexandrovna’s hand in his palms. I understand, I shouldn't! I understand everything, I just want you to know: I never blamed him for anything and never do! He has given me so much happiness over all these years and so often proved his immense respect for me that this would be more than enough for ten ordinary women!

Ivan Kramskoy Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

It’s not his fault that he is Caesar, and I am Caesar’s wife! You will object now that he insulted the Empress in me, and you will be right, dear doctor, of course you are right, but let God judge him! I don't have the right to do this. Heaven has long known and known my resentment and bitterness. Alexander too. And my true misfortune is that life takes on full meaning and multicolored colors for me only next to him, it doesn’t matter whether his heart belongs to me or to someone else, younger and more beautiful... It’s not his fault, which means more to me than anything else , I'm just built so strangely.

Princess Dolgorukaya Ekaterina Mikhailovna. - Late 1860s - early 1870s. - Photo

And I'm happy that I can leave before him. Fear for his life greatly tormented me! These six attempts! Crazy Russia! She always needs something stunning foundations and foundations, disastrous shocks... And maybe the heartfelt personal weaknesses of the Autocrat will only benefit her, who knows? “He’s just like us, a weak mortal, and an adulterer at that! Trample him, kill him, kill him!” - they shout, forgetting themselves. Perhaps, with my prayer, There, at the Throne of the Heavenly Father, I will ask for a quiet death for him, in return for the martyr's crown of the sufferer, driven into a corner by the raging mob, foaming at the mouth, forever dissatisfied. Maria Alexandrovna sighed wearily and bowed her head on her folded palms. Her strength had completely left her.

-Your Imperial Majesty, you are tired, take a rest, why tear your soul apart with gloomy thoughts?! - the life doctor muttered helplessly, trying to hide the confusion and excitement that gripped him.

Sergei Petrovich, tell us to get ready! - The Empress whispered tiredly. - While I have the strength, I want to return and die next to him and the children, on my native land, under my native clouds. You know, nowhere there is such a high sky as in Russia, and such warm and soft clouds! - the shadow of a dreamy smile touched the Empress’s bloodless lips.

Haven't you noticed? Tell His Majesty that I bequeath to be buried in a simple white dress, without a crown on my head or other Royal regalia. There, under the warm and soft clouds, we are all equal before the King of Heaven; in Eternity there are no differences of rank. You say, dear doctor?

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Who would have been interested in some princess Dolgorukova (who knew how many princesses there were in Rus'?), if not for the great love that intertwined her fate with the life of Emperor Alexander II? Not a favorite who would twist the Tsar as she wanted, Ekaterina Mikhailovna became his only love, created a family for him, which he dearly loved and protected.

First meeting

Princess E. M. Dolgorukova was born in 1847 in the Poltava region. There, on her parents' estate, when she was not yet twelve years old, she saw the emperor for the first time. Moreover, he honored the girl with a walk and a long conversation.

And the forty-year-old adult did not get bored in the company of the child, but was entertained by the simplicity of communication. Later, two years later, having learned about the disastrous financial situation of Prince Dolgorukov, he helped ensure that both sons of the prince received a military education, and assigned both princesses to

Second meeting

Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Princess Dolgorukova, while studying at Smolny, received a good education. At the institute, noble maidens were taught languages, social manners, home economics, music, dancing, drawing, and very little time was devoted to history, geography, and literature. On the eve of Easter 1865, the emperor visited Smolny, and when the seventeen-year-old princess was introduced to him, he remembered her, strange as it may seem, but even more strange is that he did not forget her later.

And the girl was in the prime of youthful and innocent beauty.

Third meeting

After graduating from the Institute of Noble Maidens, Ekaterina Mikhailovna lived in the house of her brother Mikhail. She loved to walk around the Summer Garden and dream that she would meet Alexander II there. And her dream came true. They met by chance, and the emperor gave her a lot of compliments. She, of course, was embarrassed, but from that time on they began to take walks together. And there it was not far from words of love. While the romance developed platonically, Ekaterina Mikhailovna comprehended her situation more and more deeply and flatly refused to get married: every single young man seemed uninteresting to her.

And the girl decided her fate herself. She wanted to make a lonely person, like the Emperor, happy.

Family of Alexander II

And at home she was a cold and dry person. Alexander Nikolaevich did not have a warm family hearth. Everything was strictly regulated. He had not a wife, but an Empress, not children, but Grand Dukes. Etiquette was strictly observed in the family, and liberties were not allowed. The case of the eldest son, Tsarevich Nicholas, dying of tuberculosis in Nice is terrible. The patient's daytime sleep time changed, and Maria Fedorovna stopped visiting him, since she had scheduled walks while he was awake. Did a middle-aged person who wanted warmth need such a family? The death of the heir, with whom he was close, was a huge blow for the emperor.

Secret family

Open and challenging public opinion, which later turned out not to be in her favor, Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova surrounded the aging, but still full of strength and ideas, Tsar with warmth and affection. When their relationship began, she was eighteen, and her lover was thirty years older.

But nothing, except the need to hide from others, darkened their relationship. Maria Fedorovna, sick with tuberculosis, no longer got up, and the entire Romanov family expressed an extremely negative attitude towards the young woman, especially the heir, Tsarevich Alexander. He himself had a very strong and friendly family, and he refused to accept and understand his father’s behavior. He expressed his dislike so clearly that Alexander II sent his wife, whom he considered Catherine Dolgorukaya, first to Naples and then to Paris. It was in Paris in 1867 that their meetings continued. But not a single step of the emperor went unnoticed. He was watched by Their extensive correspondence, full of genuine passion, has survived to this day. Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova was an ardent lover and did not skimp on tender words. All this, apparently, was not enough for Alexander Nikolaevich in his frozen and constrained official family.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova and Alexander 2nd

The one whom the Tsar immediately promised to make his crowned wife at the first opportunity had to show feminine patience and wisdom. She humbly waited for this happy day for her for fourteen years. During this time, she and Alexander had four children, but one of the sons, Boris, died as an infant. The rest grew up, and their daughters got married, and their son George became a military man, but died at forty-one, having outlived his crowned father by many years.

Morganatic wedding

The Empress had not yet died when Alexander Nikolaevich moved his family to Zimny ​​and settled it directly above Maria Feodorovna’s chambers. There was whispering in the palace. When Maria Feodorovna died in 1880, even before the end of official mourning, less than three months later, a modest, almost secret wedding took place. And five months later, Ekaterina Mikhailovna was granted the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, and their children also began to bear this surname. Alexander Nikolaevich was distinguished by his fearlessness, but he was afraid of attempts on his life, because he did not know how this would affect the Yuryevsky family. Over 3 million rubles were deposited in the name of the princess and her children, and five months later he was killed by Narodnaya Volya. His last breath was taken by a completely grief-stricken Ekaterina Mikhailovna.

Existence in Nice

At the villa, the Most Serene Princess lived with memories. She kept all the clothes of her loved one, down to the dressing gown, wrote a book of memoirs and died in 1922, forty-one years after the death of her beloved husband and lover. At the age of 33 she lost her husband, and for the rest of her life she was faithful to his memory.

This concludes the description of the life that Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova led. Her biography is both happy and bitter at the same time.