Biography of Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich. Emperor Alexander II and the Imperial Family - Role-playing game "Town" Portrait of Alexander's wife 2

Russian Emperor Alexander II and Princess Catherine Dolgoruky-Yuryevskaya ended in marriage. They had a son and daughter. But their happiness was always interfered with from all sides - the royal relatives, the court mob and the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries.

Well-informed contemporaries said about the Tsar-Liberator: “Alexander II was a woman lover, not a skirt lover.” The modern biographer of Alexander Nikolayevich, the writer-historian Leonid Lyashenko, put it this way: “I don’t know what the author of this aphorism had in mind, but I think it’s something like the fact that “incidents” and fleeting novels that could satisfy an ordinary skirt-maker, did not touch the emperor's heart at all and did not give any peace to his soul. He was not voluptuous, but amorous and was looking not for the satisfaction of his whims, but for a deep, real feeling. In this feeling, he was attracted not so much by high romanticism or thrills, but by the desire to find true peace , a quiet and durable family home."

The first youthful love overtook the heir to the Russian throne at the age of 15. The reaction of the parents was instantaneous - the mother's maid of honor Natalya Borozdina instantly married the diplomat and, together with her husband, drove off to England. Three years later, the young man began to look at a distant relative of the poet-hussar Denis Davydov.

This time, Alexander Romanov himself was sent on a long four-year trip to Europe, although not because of Sophia, but because of Olga. Sofia Davydova’s feeling for the Tsarevich remained platonic, but thanks to women’s fiction, it found a noticeable response in the souls of her contemporaries and remained in the history of literature.

For the first time as an adult, the heir fell in love when he turned 20 years old. And again, as the maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the beautiful Olga Kalinovskaya. This relationship seemed to the parents much more dangerous than the previous ones, both in terms of the strength of passion and for state reasons. Not only was the maid of honor not of royal blood, but she also professed the Catholic faith. This “explosive mixture” has already flown under the arches of the Winter Palace - Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of Nicholas I, married the Polish Countess Lovich.

Nikolai Pavlovich wrote to his wife about his son: “Sasha is not serious enough, he is prone to various pleasures, despite my advice and reproaches.” I wonder what the disobedient son thought as he listened to his father's instructions. It was no secret to anyone that next to the royal chambers lived the maid of honor Varenka Nelidova, the secret mistress and mother of the emperor’s illegitimate children. During the reign of Nikolai Pavlovich, fairly free morals reigned not only in secular St. Petersburg, but also in the much more patriarchal Moscow.

In "Notes of a Choreographer" A.P. Glushkovsky mentions the arrival in Russia “from the Persian Shah with an apology in the case of the death of Griboyedov” of Prince Khozrev-Mirza: “He (Prince - Editor's note) quite luxurious; not having thought to take with him a harem, the first most necessary need of a Muslim, he brought here a new one of fairly decent women.”

It was then that the European tour of the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I began, which lasted from 1836 to 1840. On this journey, the heir to the throne was accompanied by his mentors, the poet Zhukovsky and the infantry general Kavelin.

The young man, suffering from separation from his beloved, was introduced to the daughter of the Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was to become the wife of the future Russian Tsar. Alexander, remembering the duty of the monarch, himself wrote a letter to his father about the possibility of marriage with a pretty German princess. Rumors have long circulated in European courts about the illegal origins of Princess Maximiliana-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria, whose parents separated long before her birth. The princess's father was said to be the duke's master of horse, Baron de Grancy.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was horrified by such a marriage, but Nikolai Pavlovich, having studied the reports of the teachers, once and for all forbade discussing this sensitive topic. Nobody made a peep in Russia, especially in the dwarf German countries. There were few talkative people among the French and English - the “gendarme of Europe” was feared and respected.

The plans were almost disrupted by the young Queen Victoria of Great Britain, who turned Alexander’s head and herself fell under the spell of the Russian Grand Duke. However, the heir to the Russian throne could not become a British prince consort. The islanders were also not happy with the choice of their 20-year-old queen and hastily removed her to Windsor Castle.

State interests prevailed over the feelings of young people. Alexander Nikolaevich married the Darmstadt princess, who in Russia became Maria Alexandrovna. Even before marriage, her tuberculosis began to progress, which turned into a fatal disease in the dank St. Petersburg climate. They were finally brought to the grave by her husband’s infidelities, frequent attempts on his life, and especially the death of their eldest son Nikolai. Maria Alexandrovna's marriage to Alexander Nikolaevich was more of a cooperation agreement rather than a family union.

The last and true love of Alexander II was Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaya. The Tsar, who was 41 years old, first met 13-year-old Katenka in 1859. The Emperor arrived in the vicinity of Poltava for military maneuvers and accepted the invitation of Prince and Princess Dolgoruky to visit their Teplovka estate. The Dolgoruky family descended from the Rurikovichs.

The father of the future passion and morganatic wife of the Russian emperor was retired guard captain Mikhail Dolgoruky, and her mother was Vera Vishnevskaya, the richest Ukrainian landowner. But by the time the sovereign arrived, their economy was on the verge of collapse. The last refuge of the family - the Teplovka estate - was mortgaged and remortgaged. Alexander II facilitated the admission of four Dolgoruky sons to St. Petersburg military educational institutions, and two sisters to the Smolny Institute.

In the spring of 1865, the emperor, according to tradition, visited the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and during lunch saw Catherine and Maria Dolgoruky. Contemporaries noted the emperor’s “extraordinary weakness for women.” It is not surprising that an 18-year-old college girl with amazingly soft skin and luxurious light brown hair won the emperor’s heart. With the help of former Smolensk resident Varvara Shebeko, whose services the sovereign resorted to more than once when resolving sensitive issues, he managed to incognito visit the sick Katya in the institute hospital.

Since Dolgorukaya’s continued stay in Smolny interfered with meetings with the tsar, Shebeko staged her departure “for family reasons.” As a palliative measure, the resourceful bawd suggested supposedly random meetings between Dolgorukaya and the sovereign in the Summer Garden. Later, so that St. Petersburg residents would whisper less about “the sovereign is skipping his demoiselle,” these rendezvous were moved to the alleys of the parks of Kamensky, Elaginsky, and Krestovsky islands of the capital. For some time, the lovers saw each other at the apartment of Katya’s brother Mikhail, but he greatly surprised the emperor when, fearing public condemnation, he refused them such a small thing. Dolgoruky himself, as we remember, ended up in the city of Petrov thanks to the efforts of the sovereign.

In June 1866, the next wedding anniversary of Nicholas I and Alexandra Fedorovna was celebrated in Peterhof. Three miles from the main Peterhof Palace, the guests settled in the Belvedere Castle, among whom was Katya Dolgorukaya. It was there that non-platonic love occurred between her and the emperor.

After this, the sovereign said: “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.” Subsequent events confirmed the emperor's words.

The St. Petersburg world learned about the “fall” of Ekaterina Dolgoruky almost the next morning. Socialites and especially lionesses in their fantasies surpassed any man's or woman's speculation. The beau monde gossiped that the demoiselle, depraved from a young age, danced naked in front of the sovereign and, in general, was “ready to give herself to anyone” for diamonds. Ekaterina Mikhailovna was forced to leave for Italy for a short time. Aunt Vava (as the younger Dolgorukys called Shebeko) in the meantime decided, so that the sovereign would not get bored, to put his younger sister Dolgoruky in his bed. Alexander II talked with Maria for an hour and gave her a wallet with chervonets as a farewell gift. From now on, no one existed for him except Katya.

In June 1867, Napoleon III invited Alexander II to visit the Paris World Exhibition. Ekaterina Mikhailovna immediately went to the French capital to meet her beloved. Their meetings were regularly recorded by local police. They did not peek through the keyhole, given that the couple did not particularly resort to secrecy. After the unsuccessful uprising of 1867, many insurgent Poles settled in Paris, and the French authorities feared for the safety of the Russian Tsar. But the sea was knee-deep for the lovers. Perhaps it was at this time that Alexander told his legal wife about his mistress.

If the emperor's wife and his children preferred not to wash dirty linen in public and did not make a sound or sigh in public, then the ladies of the court became sophisticated in gossip and gossip. To retell this nonsense and vileness is not to respect yourself. No matter how you look at the events of the autumn of 1917 - as the Great October Revolution or the October Revolution, she put an end to this court “rabble”. Among the relatives of Alexander II, real panic began only when the emperor granted Dolgoruky and their joint children (George and Olga) the title of His Serene Highness Princes of Yuryevsky.

This name reminded everyone of one of the Romanov ancestors, the boyar of the early 16th century Yuri Zakharyin, as well as the famous Rurikovich Yuri Dolgoruky. But there was a practical point - the tsar did not want that after his death, his and Katya’s children, if the Dolgoruky family abandoned them, would turn out to be bastards. Both children are officially recognized in the decree as his children. A narrow circle of relatives received vague hints that, on the personal order of the sovereign, an active search was being conducted in the archives for documents with details of the coronation of Peter the Great’s second wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna. People eager for historical analogies said that the first Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich, was also married to Dolgorukaya. But that Maria Dolgorukaya did not live long and left no offspring.

The panic reached its apogee when the relatives learned that on July 6, 1880, in a small room on the lower floor of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, at the modest altar of the camp church, a wedding ceremony took place. And although the law is not written for kings, the emperor did not tease the geese from high society. Neither the guard soldiers and officers nor the palace servants knew about the wedding. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of the Court, Count Adlerberg, Adjutants General Ryleev and Baranov, the bride's sister Maria and Mademoiselle Shebeko. The ceremony was performed by Protopresbyter Xenophon Nikolsky. The groom was dressed in a blue hussar uniform, the bride in a simple light dress.

Family happiness was short-lived. On March 1, 1881, Narodnaya Volya threw a bomb at the Tsar’s feet. Using money bequeathed by her husband, Princess Yuryevskaya and her children left for Nice, where she died in 1922.

ABOUT There was a lot of gossip about the personal life of Emperor Alexander II.
The most difficult thing was to hide the emperor’s relationship with Princess Alexandra Dolgoruka, a twenty-year-old beauty, a distant relative of Catherine Mikhailovna. But none of his novels lasted as long as with his new passion.

There was an attempt to avoid a scandal and cool down feelings.... Katenka’s relatives took her to Naples. But the forced separation only added fuel to the fire of flaring passion. They could no longer live without each other. We established a hectic correspondence - we exchanged letters almost every day.

Extensive correspondence between the sovereign and the princess has been preserved, showing their sincere passionate affection for each other. Many of the letters are extremely frank. To denote their intimacy, Catherine and Alexander invented a special French word bingerle (benzherl).

And now, six months later, the long-awaited meeting took place in Paris! Alexander II arrived here at the invitation of Napoleon III to visit the World Exhibition. He spent all his free time with his “soul Katya.” In the shady garden of the Elysee Palace, he made another flattering confession for her: “Since I fell in love with you, other women have ceased to exist for me... During the whole year when you pushed me away, and also during the time that you spent in Naples, I did not approach any woman.”

Ekaterina Mikhailovna had her own, as she called it, “the key of happiness.” With them she opened the treasured door to a secluded room on the first floor of the Winter Palace. From here, along a secret staircase leading to the inner apartments, Dolgorukaya climbed to the second floor and found herself in the arms of her royal lover.

Dolgorukaya, Ekaterina. The Emperor's own sketch.

After ten years of love affair, the princess moved to the Winter Palace, occupying small rooms directly above the empress’s chambers. Maria Alexandrovna often heard the screams and running of children overhead. At the same time, the empress’s face changed dramatically, but with an effort of will she still suppressed the pain that pierced her. In 1878, Princess Dolgorukaya gave birth to her second daughter, Ekaterina, here in Zimny.

She gave birth to four children from Alexander II:
George (1872-1913);
Olga (1873-1925) - married to Georg-Nikolai von Merenberg (1871-1948), son of Natalia Pushkina;
Boris (1876) - died in infancy;
Ekaterina (1878-1959) - married to S. P. Obolensky.

The emperor's new love was aggravated by the illness of his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who found it hard to realize that her place had been taken by the young and blooming Dolgorukaya.

By the way, this connection was especially sharply condemned by the emperor’s son, Tsarevich Alexander III.

Maria Alexandrovna died in 1880, and after barely waiting 40 days, the emperor entered into a morganatic marriage with his beloved, giving her the title of His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya.
The secret wedding took place on July 6 in the chapel of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace.

Many courtiers, including the minister, Count Alexander Adlerberg, dissuaded the emperor from this unequal marriage. Alexander Nikolaevich remained adamant. “Then Adlerberg had a tete-a-tete meeting with Ekaterina Mikhailovna, with whom he spoke for the first time in his life,” writes historian A. N. Bokhanov. “The minister tried to prove to the bride the danger and perniciousness of what was coming, but quickly came to the conclusion that he could just as successfully convince the “tree.”

The princess invariably responded to all arguments and arguments with the phrase: “The Emperor will be happy and calm only when he marries me.” At the moment of the “dispute,” the door to the room opened slightly, and the autocrat timidly asked if he could enter. In response, Ekaterina Mikhailovna nervously shouted: “No, not yet!” In this tone, according to Adlerberg’s observations, decent people do not speak “even to a footman,” but the emperor shuddered, changed his face and obediently closed the door. This shocked the courtier. The count was broken, confused, and when the sovereign once again asked him to become best man, he agreed with complete resignation.”

On the day of the funeral, Ekaterina Mikhailovna cut off her luxurious braids, which Alexander loved so much, and placed them in the coffin, in the hands of her deceased husband. Princess Yuryevskaya and her children left St. Petersburg and Russia, taking with them Alexander’s bloody shirt, which he was wearing on the day of his death. The beautiful Yuryevskaya did not marry again, remaining faithful to her husband until her last days.

She sometimes came to St. Petersburg. On one of her visits, she stated that as soon as her daughters grew up and began to go out into society, she would return to St. Petersburg and begin giving balls. Alexander III said in response only one short phrase: “If I were you,” he said, “instead of giving balls, I would lock myself in a monastery”...

Ekaterina Mikhailovna died at the age of seventy-five in Nice in February 1922...

Russian Emperor Alexander II was born on April 29 (17 old style), 1818 in Moscow. The eldest son of the Emperor and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. After his father's accession to the throne in 1825, he was proclaimed heir to the throne.

Received an excellent education at home. His mentors were lawyer Mikhail Speransky, poet Vasily Zhukovsky, financier Yegor Kankrin and other outstanding minds of that time.

He inherited the throne on March 3 (February 18, old style) 1855 at the end of an unsuccessful campaign for Russia, which he managed to complete with minimal losses for the empire. He was crowned king in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin on September 8 (August 26, old style) 1856.

On the occasion of the coronation, Alexander II declared an amnesty for the Decembrists, Petrashevites, and participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831.

The transformations of Alexander II affected all spheres of Russian society, shaping the economic and political contours of post-reform Russia.

On December 3, 1855, by imperial decree, the Supreme Censorship Committee was closed and discussion of government affairs became open.

In 1856, a secret committee was organized “to discuss measures to organize the life of the landowner peasants.”

On March 3 (February 19, old style), 1861, the emperor signed the Manifesto on the abolition of serfdom and the Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom, for which they began to call him the “tsar-liberator.” The transformation of peasants into free labor contributed to the capitalization of agriculture and the growth of factory production.

In 1864, by issuing the Judicial Statutes, Alexander II separated the judicial power from the executive, legislative and administrative powers, ensuring its complete independence. The process became transparent and competitive. The police, financial, university and entire secular and spiritual educational systems as a whole were reformed. The year 1864 also marked the beginning of the creation of all-class zemstvo institutions, which were entrusted with the management of economic and other social issues locally. In 1870, on the basis of the City Regulations, city councils and councils appeared.

As a result of reforms in the field of education, self-government became the basis of the activities of universities, and secondary education for women was developed. Three Universities were founded - in Novorossiysk, Warsaw and Tomsk. Innovations in the press significantly limited the role of censorship and contributed to the development of the media.

By 1874, Russia had rearmed its army, created a system of military districts, reorganized the Ministry of War, reformed the officer training system, introduced universal military service, reduced the length of military service (from 25 to 15 years, including reserve service), and abolished corporal punishment. .

The emperor also established the State Bank.

The internal and external wars of Emperor Alexander II were victorious - the uprising that broke out in Poland in 1863 was suppressed, and the Caucasian War (1864) ended. According to the Aigun and Beijing treaties with the Chinese Empire, Russia annexed the Amur and Ussuri territories in 1858-1860. In 1867-1873, the territory of Russia increased due to the conquest of the Turkestan region and the Fergana Valley and the voluntary entry into vassal rights of the Bukhara Emirate and the Khanate of Khiva. At the same time, in 1867, the overseas possessions of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands were ceded to the United States, with which good relations were established. In 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Türkiye suffered a defeat, which predetermined the state independence of Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro.

The reforms of 1861-1874 created the preconditions for a more dynamic development of Russia and strengthened the participation of the most active part of society in the life of the country. The flip side of the transformations was the aggravation of social contradictions and the growth of the revolutionary movement.

Six attempts were made on the life of Alexander II, the seventh was the cause of his death. The first shot was shot by nobleman Dmitry Karakozov in the Summer Garden on April 17 (4 old style), April 1866. By luck, the emperor was saved by the peasant Osip Komissarov. In 1867, during a visit to Paris, Anton Berezovsky, a leader of the Polish liberation movement, attempted to assassinate the emperor. In 1879, the populist revolutionary Alexander Solovyov tried to shoot the emperor with several revolver shots, but missed. The underground terrorist organization "People's Will" purposefully and systematically prepared regicide. Terrorists carried out explosions on the royal train near Alexandrovsk and Moscow, and then in the Winter Palace itself.

The explosion in the Winter Palace forced the authorities to take extraordinary measures. To fight the revolutionaries, a Supreme Administrative Commission was formed, headed by the popular and authoritative General Mikhail Loris-Melikov at that time, who actually received dictatorial powers. He took harsh measures to combat the revolutionary terrorist movement, while at the same time pursuing a policy of bringing the government closer to the “well-intentioned” circles of Russian society. Thus, under him, in 1880, the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery was abolished. Police functions were concentrated in the police department, formed within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On March 14 (old style 1), 1881, as a result of a new attack by Narodnaya Volya, Alexander II received mortal wounds on the Catherine Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal) in St. Petersburg. The explosion of the first bomb thrown by Nikolai Rysakov damaged the royal carriage, wounded several guards and passers-by, but Alexander II survived. Then another thrower, Ignatius Grinevitsky, came close to the Tsar and threw a bomb at his feet. Alexander II died a few hours later in the Winter Palace and was buried in the family tomb of the Romanov dynasty in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. At the site of the death of Alexander II in 1907, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected.

In his first marriage, Emperor Alexander II was with Empress Maria Alexandrovna (nee Princess Maximiliana-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt). The emperor entered into a second (morganatic) marriage with Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, bestowed with the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, shortly before his death.

The eldest son of Alexander II and heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, died in Nice from tuberculosis in 1865, and the throne was inherited by the emperor's second son, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich (Alexander III).

The material was prepared based on information from open 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.