Maria Alexandrovna Empress wife of Alexander II. Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. How was the marriage arranged?

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

There was an attempt to avoid a scandal and cool down the feelings .... relatives took Katenka to Naples. But the forced separation only added fuel to the fire of inflamed passion. They could no longer live without each other. They established a stormy correspondence - they exchanged letters almost daily.

An 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 (benjerle).

And 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 the "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 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 a single woman.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna had her own, as she called it, "the key to happiness." With them, she opened the treasured door to a secluded room on the ground 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.

Dolgoruky, Ekaterina. Emperor's own drawing.

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 over her head. At the same time, the empress changed dramatically in her face, but with an effort of will she still suppressed the pain that pierced her. In 1878, Princess Dolgorukaya gave birth here, in Zimny, to her second daughter, Catherine.

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

The new love of the emperor aggravated the illness of his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who was hard to realize that her place was taken by the young and flourishing Dolgoruky.

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 Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya.
The secret wedding took place on July 6 in the chapel of the Grand Palace of Tsarskoye Selo.

Many courtiers dissuaded the emperor from this unequal marriage, including the minister, Count Alexander Adlerberg. 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, the perniciousness of the future, but quickly came to the conclusion that he could convince the “tree” with the same success.

The princess invariably answered all the arguments and arguments with the phrase: “The sovereign 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 it was possible to enter. In response, Ekaterina Mikhailovna nervously shouted: “No, not yet!” In such a tone, according to Adlerberg's observations, decent people do not talk "even with a lackey," and the emperor shuddered, changed his face and meekly closed the door. This shocked the courtier. The count was broken, confused, and when the sovereign once again asked him to become the best man, he agreed with complete rejection.

The happiness of Ekaterina Mikhailovna was short-lived and ended on March 1, 1881 after the explosion of a bomb thrown by Ignaty Grinevitsky.

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 left St. Petersburg and Russia with her children, taking with her Alexander's bloody shirt, which he had been 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 announced that as soon as her daughters grew up and began to go out into the world, she would return to St. Petersburg and begin to give balls. Alexander III uttered only one short phrase in response: “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...

"Russia will never know what she owed to her Empress,
due to the huge, beneficial, cordial and moral influence that she always had on the Sovereign!
E.N. Lvov. From memories

Birth of a princess

The Fourth Empress of All Russia from the House of Romanov with such a great Christian name Maria - Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria 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 marriage with Princess Wilhelmina Louise of Baden (1788 - 1836), the August sister of the Empress Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna - the sovereign wife of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander I the Blessed.

The princess was born almost 200 years after the Sacred Sacrament of marriage of the founder of the Romanov House, Tsar Mikhail 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 none of the Empresses of All Russia since the death of Tsaritsa Agafya Semyonovna on October 14 (27), 1681 , the first August wife of Tsar Theodore III Alekseevich, did not leave the crowned spouses, having died before his time. A little more than 200 years will pass before on the first Thursday of June 1880 (May 22, O.S.) the heartbeat of the Russian Empress, so beloved by the entire Royal Family, will be interrupted ...

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

The august mother of the princess at the time of her birth 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 the Baron de Grancy, a Swiss of French origin, who was the Grand Duke's equestrian. It seemed that nothing foretold the princess a glorious future. However, by the will of the All-Good Arbiter of Destinies, in March 1839, the only daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II met in Darmstadt Tsarevich Alexander II Nikolayevich, the future Autocrat of All Russia Alexander II the Liberator, traveling through Western Europe.

Chosen of the Tsarevich

From a letter from the heir of the Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, to his August father, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I the Feat-loving, on March 25 (April 7) on the Day of the Annunciation, 1839: “Here, in Darmstadt, I met the daughter of the Reigning Grand Duke, Princess Mary. I liked her terribly, from the very first moment I saw her ... And, if you will allow, dear father, after my visit to England, I will return to Darmstadt again.

However, the august parents of the Tsarevich and the Grand Duke, Emperor Nicholas I the Feat-loving and Empress Alexandra I Feodorovna, did not immediately give their consent to the marriage.

From the secret correspondence of Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich and Count A. N. Orlov, trustee of the heir:

“Doubts about the legitimacy of her origin are more valid than you think. It is known that because of this she is hardly tolerated at Court and in the family (Wilhelmina had three older August brothers - approx. A.R.), but she is officially recognized as a daughter 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.)

“Don’t think, Sovereign, that I hid from the Grand Duke these concerning the origin of Princess Mary. He found out about them on the very day of his arrival in Darmstadt, but he reacted exactly like you ... He thinks that, of course, it would have been better otherwise However, she bears the name of her father, therefore, from the point of view of the law, no one can reproach her."

Meanwhile, the heir to the All-Russian throne experienced the strongest feelings for the princess. From a letter from the heir of Tsarevich Alexander, the August Mother of the Empress 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!"

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 Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna got married.

The lady-in-waiting of the Court A.F. Tyutcheva, who knew the Empress closely, left us many detailed memories of Princess Mary:

“Raised in seclusion and even some neglect in the little castle of Jugedheim, where she rarely even saw her father, she was more frightened than blinded when she was suddenly transported to the Court, the most magnificent, most brilliant and most worldly of all European Dvolrs. She she told me that many times, after long efforts to overcome shyness and embarrassment, she indulged in tears and long suppressed sobs at night in the solitude of her bedroom ...

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

In no one have I ever observed to a greater extent than in Tsesarevna, this spiritualized grace of ideal abstraction. Her features were not correct. Beautiful were her wonderful hair, her delicate complexion, her large blue, slightly bulging eyes, which looked meekly and penetratingly. Her profile was not beautiful, as her nose was not distinguished by regularity, and her chin receded somewhat back. The mouth was thin, with compressed lips, which testified to restraint, without the slightest sign of the ability for inspiration or impulses, and a barely perceptible ironic smile was a strange contrast to the expression of her eyes ... I rarely saw a person whose face and appearance were better expressed by shades and contrasts of his inner extremely complex "I". Tsarevna's mind was like her soul: subtle, elegant, insightful, very ironic, but devoid of ardor, breadth and initiative...

She was cautious to the extreme, and this caution made her weak in life ...
She possessed to an exceptional degree the prestige of the Empress and the charm of a woman, and knew how to use these means with great intelligence and skill.

According to her contemporaries, and the same lady-in-waiting Tyutcheva: "Many tried and condemned her a lot, 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, following the tragic death of her August spouse, Sovereign Emperor Paul I Petrovich, founded many charitable societies, actively interfered in the politics of the sovereign son of Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich, had a brilliant Court, and so on.

At first, not many people knew that the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna, born by the will of God on the day of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, was terminally ill with heart and lungs, carrying her heavy Cross all her life. But even so, she did a lot of charitable deeds, continuing the glorious traditions of the Empresses of All Russia.

Also, let's not forget that not one of the Empresses was subjected to such terrifying terror in Russia. Surviving six attempts on the August spouse, living in anxiety for the Sovereign and crowned children for 14 long years, from the moment D.V. Karakozov fired his first shot on April 4 (17) until the explosion in the dining room of the Winter Palace in February 1880, which claimed 11 lives - such is to survive only a few are destined. According to the lady-in-waiting, Countess A.A. Tolstoy, “the Empress’s poor health was finally shaken after the assassination attempt on April 2, 1879, (arranged by A.K. like now, I see her that day - with feverishly shining eyes, broken, despairing. "There is nothing more to live," she told me, "I feel that this is killing me."

Acts of the Empress

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 Tsar Alexander II Nikolayevich, whom she adored, eight crowned children, two crowned daughters and six sons. The Lord granted her to survive two of them - the August daughter Alexandra and the heir Tsarevich Nicholas in 1849 and 1865.

Upon 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 branch of the Red Cross in Russia and a number of major 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 for Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich several notes on the reform of primary and women's education in Russia.

Patronizing enlightenment

Under her rule, women's gymnasiums in Russia were maintained almost exclusively on public and private funds. From now on, not only the Highest patronage, but social forces largely determined the fate of women's education in Russia. Teaching subjects were divided into compulsory and optional. Compulsory in three-year gymnasiums were: the Law of God, the Russian language, Russian history and geography, arithmetic, calligraphy, needlework. In the course of women's gymnasiums, in addition to the above subjects, the foundations of geometry, geography, history, as well as "the most important concepts in natural history and physics with the addition of information related to household and hygiene", calligraphy, needlework, gymnastics were obligatory.

The transformative activity of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna also touched her education in the institutes.

On the personal initiative of the Empress, measures were taken not only to protect the health and physical strength of children, by eliminating from the circle of their occupations all that had the character of only mechanical, unproductive labor (compiling and writing off notes that replaced printed manuals, etc.), but also to closer rapprochement of the pupils with the family and with the environment surrounding the parental home, for which they began to be allowed to leave at the homes of their parents and close relatives for holidays and holidays.

At the thought and initiative of the Empress, for the first time in Russia, diocesan women's schools began to appear.

In the field of charity, the most important merit of the Empress 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 expenses, refusing even to sew new dresses for herself, giving all her savings to the benefit of widows, orphans, wounded and sick.

The patronage of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna owes its development and prosperity to the "restoration of Christianity in the Caucasus", "distribution of spiritual and moral books", "Russian missionary", "brotherly in Moscow" and many other charitable institutions.

From the first hour of the sovereign service of Princess Mary of Hesse on Russian soil, her burden was so voluminous and all-encompassing that the Empress spent countless amounts of energy in order to be in time everywhere and everywhere, not to be late, to bestow, smile, console, cheer up, pray, instruct, answer, caress and: sing a lullaby. She burned like a candle in the wind!

To her maid of honor and tutor, confidant, Anna Tyutcheva, Tsesarevna, and later - the Empress of All Russia, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, with a weary smile admitted more than once that she lived most of her life as a "volunteer" - that is, a voluntary soldier!

Not a minute of rest and peace, moral and physical.

Only an ardent feeling of reverent, selfless love for her husband, the Emperor, and a no less strong sense of true faith, which at times delighted even people of the primordially Orthodox, including: the confessor of the Imperial Family V. Ya Bazhanov and the famous Hierarch of the Moscow Metropolitan Filaret Drozdov, supported the rapidly depleted fragile forces of the Empress.

The Saint of Moscow left several testimonies of his gratitude to the Empress, often addressing her with speeches and conversations given here.

It is known that the Empress was extremely God-loving and generous, humble and meek. In her sovereign position, for almost 20 years she was the only Empress in the Russian state.

She was kept on earth only by unchanging good spirits and that "unsolved secret of living charm" that the observant diplomat and poet Tyutchev so subtly noted in her. The powerful charm of her personality extended to everyone who loved and knew her, but there were fewer and fewer of them over the years!

Empress Maria Alexandrovna knew everything, for she was too smart and impressionable to deceive herself, but she could not do anything ... Or did she not want to? She suffered for all fourteen years of this infamous relationship - silently, patiently, without raising an eyebrow, without giving a look. It had its own pride and its own aching pain. Not everyone understands and accepts this. Especially grown-up August children, and sons who literally idolized their mother!

Blissful demise

I dare to urge 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 by stress, the climate of St. Petersburg is fatal, I can assure you! Your villa in Florence has long been ready and waiting for you.

And the new Palace in the vicinity of Livadia is all at the service of your Imperial ...:

Tell me, Sergei Petrovich, - the Empress suddenly interrupted the life doctor Botkin, - to keep me here, away from Russia, did the Sovereign ask you? He doesn't want me to come back? - Thin, emaciated fingers nervously drummed on the windowsill of the high Italian window of the villa, overlooking the sea coast. The sea behind the glass floated in the morning haze and was still sleepy and serene. It seemed that it was swaying right at the very feet:

No one would dare to keep Your Imperial Majesty here in Nice against Your Most August Will. But the Sovereign, only tirelessly worrying about the priceless health of Your Majesty, would urgently ask you:

Drop all these curtsies, Sergei Petrovich! From my invaluable health there were tiny drops, and from the August Will - only humility before God's permission! - the emaciated profile of the Empress was still incorrectly beautiful with some unusual, painful subtlety, it was not there before, but even on him, the profile, it seemed, had already fallen the imperious shadow of death.
- 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 rules!

I'll lie down in the next world, Sergey Petrovich, it won't be long to wait. Tell me to get ready, tomorrow morning I have 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.

I dare respectfully insist that Your August Majesty stay here without fail! Botkin answered Tsaritsa with the mild firmness of a doctor.

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

I know, dear doctor, I know, but that's not the reason! You are simply afraid of how my presence in the Palace will affect my health, over my poor head, a well-known person, Sacred for the Sovereign Emperor! The Empress smiled slightly. Fear not, I will no longer drop combs and break cups at the sound of children's footsteps. (A hint of Princess Ekaterina Dolgoruky and her children from Emperor Alexander. There were three of them. They all lived in the Winter Palace and occupied apartments directly above the head of the Empress! This was dictated, as historians write, by security considerations for the Princess and children. At that time, attempts became more frequent attempt on the Sovereign. But is it only this? .. - note by the author).

I, as always, will find a natural explanation for such a natural noise, so as not to embarrass 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 fit of coughing, pressing her handkerchief to her lips. He was instantly soaked in blood.

Your Imperial Majesty, I beg you, do not! - 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 blame him! He gave me so much happiness during all these years and so often proved to me his immense respect that this would be more than enough for ten ordinary women!

I have no right to it. Heaven has long known and known my resentment and bitterness. Alexander too.

And my real misfortune is that life acquires full meaning for me and multicolored colors only next to him, no matter whether his heart belongs to me or another, younger and more beautiful ... He is not to blame, which means more to me than everything else, it's just that I'm so strangely arranged.

And I'm happy that I can leave before him. Fear for his life greatly tormented me! Those six assassination attempts!

Mad Russia! She always needs something amazing foundations and foundations, disastrous shocks ... And, perhaps, the heartfelt personal weaknesses of the Autocrat only play into her hands, who knows? "He is just like us, a weak mortal, and even an adulterer! Poison him, atu, atu!" they shout, forgetting.

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

Maria Alexandrovna sighed wearily and bowed her head on her hands folded in prayer. Her strength had completely left her.

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

Sergei Petrovich, order to get ready! the Empress whispered wearily. - As long as I have the strength, I want to return and die beside 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.

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

Instead of answering, the life doctor only respectfully pressed a small, feverish hand with blue streaks of veins and a feverishly beating pulse to his lips. He, this pulse, was like a small bird eagerly rushing up under the warm and high, native clouds ... So greedily that there was no point in keeping it on Earth anymore!

Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Empress of All Russia, Maria Alexandrovna, died quietly in St. Petersburg, in the Winter Palace, in her own apartments, on the night of June 2 to 3, 1880. Death came to her in a dream. According to the will, like all the Empresses of the House of Romanov, she was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg six days later, on May 28 (June 10), 1880.

After her blissful death, a letter was found in the casket addressed to the August spouse, in which she thanked him for all the years spent together and for the gift she had given so long ago, on April 28, 1841 (The date of the marriage of the Royal couple - author.) - vita nuova - new life .

http://www.otechestvo.org.ua/main/20058/902.htm

Empress Maria Alexandrovna, first wife of Alexander II

"Russia will never know what she owed her

Empress, due to that huge, beneficial,

The cordial and moral influence that she always had on the Sovereign!

E.N. Lvov. From memories.

Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Birth of a princess

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

Ludwig II of Hesse. Lithography. Early 19th century

Ludwig II of Hesse.

Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna. 1807. Monier. Russian Museum.

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

The princess was born almost 200 years after the Sacred Sacrament of marriage of the founder of the Romanov House, Tsar Mikhail 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 none of the Empresses of All Russia since the death of Tsaritsa Agafya Semyonovna on October 14 (27), 1681 , the first August wife of Tsar Theodore III Alekseevich, did not leave the crowned spouses, having died before his time. A little more than 200 years will pass before on the first Thursday of June 1880 (May 22, O.S.), the heartbeat of the Russian Empress, so beloved by the entire Royal Family, will be interrupted ...

Darmstadt

Mary's mother, Wilhelmina of Baden.

Mary's brother Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt

Princess Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria

Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich

Tsesarevich Alexander Pavlovich

Chosen of the Tsarevich

From a letter from the heir of the Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, to his August father, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I the Feat-loving, on March 25 (April 7) on the Day of the Annunciation, 1839: “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. " However, consent to marriage Feodorovna was given not immediately.

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 about the legality of her origin are more valid than you think. It is known that because of this she is hardly tolerated at the Court and in the family (Wilhelmina had three elder 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 E. P. Tolmachev's book "Alexander the Second and His Time", vol. 1. p. 94.) them on the very day of his arrival in Darmstadt, but he reacted exactly like you ... He thinks that, of course, it would have been better otherwise, but she bears the name of her father, therefore, from the point of view of the law, no one can reproach her. " Meanwhile, the heir to the All-Russian throne experienced the strongest feelings for the princess. From a letter from the heir of Tsarevich Alexander, the August Mother of the Empress 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

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 Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna got married.

The lady-in-waiting of the Court A.F. Tyutcheva, who knew the Empress closely, left us many detailed memories of Princess Mary: was transferred to the Court, the most magnificent, most brilliant and most secular of all European Courts. She told me that many times, after long efforts to overcome shyness and embarrassment, she indulged in tears and long suppressed sobs in the solitude of her bedroom at night ...

Tyutcheva Anna Fedorovna

In no one have I ever observed to a greater extent than in Tsesarevna, this spiritualized grace of ideal abstraction. Her features were not correct. Beautiful were her wonderful hair, her delicate complexion, her large blue, slightly bulging eyes, which looked meekly and penetratingly. Her profile was not beautiful, as her nose was not distinguished by regularity, and her chin receded somewhat back. The mouth was thin, with compressed lips, which testified to restraint, without the slightest sign of the ability for inspiration or impulses, and a barely noticeable ironic smile was a strange contrast to the expression of her eyes ... I rarely saw a person whose face and appearance better expressed the shades and contrasts of his inner extremely complex "I". The mind of the Tsesarevna was like her soul: subtle, elegant, insightful, very ironic, but devoid of ardor, breadth and initiative ... She was cautious to the extreme, and this caution made her weak in life ... She possessed to an exceptional degree 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

Christina Robertson

According to her contemporaries, and the same maid of honor Tyutcheva: “Many tried and condemned her a lot, 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, following the tragic death of her August spouse, Sovereign Emperor Paul I Petrovich, founded many charitable societies, actively interfered in the politics of the sovereign son of Emperor Alexander I Pavlovich, had a brilliant Court, and so on. At first, not many people knew that the future Empress Maria Alexandrovna, born by the will of God on the day of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, was terminally ill with heart and lungs, carrying her heavy Cross all her life. But even so, she did a lot of charitable deeds, continuing the glorious traditions of the Empresses of All Russia.

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

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

coronation celebrations

Timm Vasily Fedorovich

coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

coronation celebrations

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

coronation celebrations

Folk holiday on the Khodynka field in Moscow on the occasion of the sacred coronation of Emperor Alexander II

Mikhail Alexandrovich Zichy

Also, let's not forget that not one of the Empresses was subjected to such terrifying terror in Russia. Surviving six attempts on the August spouse, living in anxiety for the Sovereign and crowned children for 14 long years, from the moment D.V. Karakozov fired his first shot on April 4 (17) until the explosion in the dining room of the Winter Palace in February 1880, which claimed 11 lives - such is to survive only a few are destined. According to the lady-in-waiting Countess A.A. Tolstoy, “the poor health of the Empress was finally shaken after the assassination attempt on April 2, 1879, (arranged by A.K. Solovyov, a Narodnaya Volya member - A.R.). She didn't get better after that. I, as now, see her that day - with feverishly shining eyes, broken, desperate. “There is nothing more to live for,” she told me, “I feel like this is killing me.”

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

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

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Acts of the Empress

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 Tsar Alexander II Nikolaevich, whom she adored, eight crowned children: two crowned daughters and six sons. Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich 01 The Lord granted her to survive two of them - the August daughter Alexandra and the heir Tsarevich Nikolai in 1849 and 1865. Upon 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 branch of the Red Cross in Russia and a number of major 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 for Emperor Alexander II Nikolaevich several notes on the reform of primary and women's education in Russia.

Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna with her son Nikolai

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

Sverchkov Nikolay Egorovich - Riding In A Carriage (Alexander II With Children)

Emperor Alexander II with children. Photo from 1860

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

Patronizing enlightenment

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

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

"Like an unsolved mystery..."

Like an unsolved mystery

Living charm breathes in it -

We watch with anxious trepidation

Into the quiet light of her eyes.

Is there an earthly charm in it

Or heavenly grace?

The soul would like to pray to her,

And the heart is torn to adore ...

F. I. Tyutchev. Empress Maria Alexandrovna

Timothy Neff Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Andrei 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 teaching, and, moreover, who had listened to 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" on the completion of a full general course at the gymnasium and attended a special course in an additional class, enjoyed the rights of home teachers. The transformative activity of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna also touched her education in the institutes. On the personal initiative of the Empress, measures were taken not only to protect the health and physical strength of children, by eliminating from the circle of their occupations all that had the character of only mechanical, unproductive labor (compiling and writing off notes that replaced printed manuals, etc.), but also to closer rapprochement of the pupils with the family and with the environment surrounding the parental home, for which they began to be allowed to leave at the homes of their parents and close relatives for holidays and holidays. At the thought and initiative of the Empress, for the first time in Russia, diocesan women's schools began to appear. In the field of charity, the most important merit of the Empress 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 expenses, refusing even to sew new dresses for herself, giving all her savings to the benefit of widows, orphans, wounded and sick. The patronage of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna owes its development and prosperity to the "restoration of Christianity in the Caucasus", "distribution of spiritual and moral books", "Russian missionary", "brotherly in Moscow" and many other charitable institutions.

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 spouse, 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 completely supported by the funds of the Imperial Family, personally by the Empress, and, at the insistence of her August husband, Emperor Alexander II, bore her name. The theater bears the sovereign name even now. A bust of Empress Maria Alexandrovna was recently installed in the foyer of the theatre. From the first hour of the sovereign service of Princess Mary of Hesse on Russian soil, her burden was so voluminous and all-encompassing that the Empress spent countless amounts of energy in order to be in time everywhere and everywhere, not to be late, to bestow, smile, console, cheer up, pray, instruct, answer, caress and: sing a lullaby. She burned like a candle in the wind! To her maid of honor and tutor, confidant, Anna Tyutcheva, Tsesarevna, and later - the Empress of All Russia, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, with a weary smile admitted 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

Not a minute of rest and peace, moral and physical. Only an ardent feeling of reverent, selfless love for her husband, the Emperor, and a no less strong sense of true faith, which at times delighted even people of the primordially Orthodox, including: the confessor of the Imperial Family V. Ya Bazhanov and the famous Hierarch of the Moscow Metropolitan Filaret Drozdov, supported the rapidly depleted fragile forces of the Empress. The Saint of Moscow left several testimonies 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, for almost 20 years she was the only Empress in the Russian state. She was kept on earth only by unchanging good spirits and that "unsolved secret of living charm" that the observant diplomat and poet Tyutchev so subtly noted in her. The powerful charm of her personality extended to everyone who loved and knew her, but there were fewer and fewer of them over the years!

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

And the tests, on the contrary, did not decrease in the life of the High Royal person, surrounded by the close attention of hundreds of captious eyes. One of such difficult trials for Her Majesty Empress Maria was the presence in the personal retinue of the Empress of a young, charming lady-in-waiting, Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgoruky, in whom desperately, dizzyingly - quickly fell in love with such an adored husband - the ruler of the Empire. The Empress Maria Alexandrovna knew everything, for she was too smart and impressionable for self-deception, but she could not do anything ... Or did she not want to? She suffered for all fourteen years of this infamous relationship - silently, patiently, without raising an eyebrow, without giving a look. It had its own pride and its own aching pain. Not everyone understands and accepts this. Especially 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

Blissful demise

I dare to urge 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 by stress, the climate of St. Petersburg is fatal, I can assure you! Your villa in Florence has long been ready and waiting for you. And the new Palace in the vicinity of Livadia is all at the service of your Imperial ...:

- Say, Sergei Petrovich,- the Empress suddenly interrupted the life doctor Botkin, - to keep me here, away from Russia, did the Sovereign ask you? He doesn't want me to come back?- Thin, emaciated fingers nervously drummed on the windowsill of the high Italian window of the villa, overlooking the sea coast. The sea behind the glass floated in the morning haze and was still sleepy - serene. It seemed that it was swaying right at the very feet:

August Behrendsen Kuste bei Nizza

Drop all these curtsies, Sergei Petrovich! From my invaluable health there were tiny drops, and from the August Will - one humility before God's permission!- the emaciated profile of the Empress was still incorrectly beautiful with some unusual, painful subtlety, it was not there before, but even on him, the profile, it seemed, had already fallen the imperious shadow of death.

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 rules!

Sergei Petrovich Botkin

Alexander II with his family

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

Köhler I. P. Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

- Your Imperial Majesty, I beg you, do not! - 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 blame him! He gave me so much happiness during all these years and so often proved to me his immense respect 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, you are certainly right, but let God judge him! I have no right to it. Heaven has long known and known my resentment and bitterness. Alexander too. And my real misfortune is that life acquires full meaning for me and multi-colored colors only next to him, no matter whether his heart belongs to me or another, younger and more beautiful ... He is not to blame, which means more to me than anything else , I'm just so strange arranged.

Princess Dolgorukaya Ekaterina Mikhailovna. - Late 1860s - early 1870s. - A photo

And I'm happy that I can leave before him. Fear for his life greatly tormented me! Those six assassination attempts! Mad Russia! She always needs something amazing foundations and foundations, disastrous shocks ... And, perhaps, the heartfelt personal weaknesses of the Autocrat only play into her hands, who knows? "He is just like us, a weak mortal, and even an adulterer! Poison him, atu, atu!" they shout, forgetting. Perhaps, with my prayer, There, at the Throne of the Heavenly Father, I will beg for him a quiet death, in exchange for the martyr's crown of the sufferer, driven into a corner by a raging mob with foam at the mouth, eternally dissatisfied. Maria Alexandrovna sighed wearily and bowed her head on her hands folded in prayer. Her strength had completely left her.

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

Sergei Petrovich, order to get ready! the Empress whispered wearily. - As long as I have the strength, I want to return and die beside 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.

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

The future Russian Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of the emperor, was born on July 27 (old style) 1824 in Darmstadt. Her parents were Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and Grand Duchess Maria Wilhelmina of Baden. The girl was given the long name of Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse and Rhineland.

Rumors circulated at court that the daughter was born from an extramarital affair between her mother and Baron Augustus Senarklein de Grancy. But to prevent rumors, the Duke of Hesse recognized the illegitimate girl Mary and the boy Alexander as his heirs and gave them his last name. The children settled with their mother in the palace in Heiligenberg.

Mary was brought up by the priest of the Protestant church Zimmerman, since her parent died when the girl was only 12 years old. Of those close to Mary, only her own brother remained. The nominal father did not visit a small semi-desert castle and was not interested in children. Adolescence, spent in seclusion, explains the calm and unsociable nature of the princess. She did not like magnificent balls and crowded secular society, both in her youth and in adulthood.

Personal life

At the age of 14, the biography of Princess Mary changed forever. On one of her visits to the local opera house, she was met by the Russian Tsarevich Alexander, who was passing through Darmstadt. Despite the fact that the Princess of Hesse was not included in the list of European brides for the Russian heir, he was imbued with a sincere feeling for her. Maria answered him in kind. For a long time, his parents were against the candidacy of the princess because of her origin. But the son was adamant.

Alexander's mother even came to Germany for a personal meeting with Maria. The future mother-in-law unexpectedly liked the sweet, serious girl, and she agreed to the marriage. It was decided to postpone the wedding for two years due to the young age of the bride. At this time, she managed to get comfortable in Russia. The German princess converted to Orthodoxy, changing her real name to Russian - Maria Alexandrovna, after which she immediately became engaged to the Tsarevich. In the spring of 1841, Maria and Alexander got married in the Cathedral Church of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace.

Her Imperial Majesty

In 1856, at the age of 32, Maria Alexandrovna, together with her husband, ascended the throne. The coronation took place in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Moscow Kremlin. But even after accession to the throne, the new empress of the Romanov family eschewed noisy events. She preferred the company of close associates, and also talked a lot with the clergy.

Many representatives of high society reacted contradictory to her rule. Some condemned Maria Alexandrovna for her little participation in the imperial affairs of foreign and domestic policy. But many contemporaries rightly appreciated her role in the development of Russian society. According to the close maid of honor of the Empress Anna Tyutcheva, Maria Alexandrovna bore the heavy cross of serving the Russian people.

Achievements of the Empress

One cannot underestimate the results of the activities of Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna and, above all, her role in the development of the Red Cross charitable medical organization, which began its wide activities during the Russian-Turkish war.

The Empress, saving on trips to Europe and on the number of outfits, invested the funds of the royal family in favor of the construction of hospitals for the treatment of soldiers, as well as to support orphans and widows. On her behalf, a large number of doctors were sent to the Balkans to help the Slav brothers during the Turkish invasion. Under her leadership, new almshouses and shelters were opened throughout the country.

Maria Alexandrovna played an important role in the reform of education. When it earned 2 higher educational institutions, about 40 gymnasiums, more than 150 educational institutions of the lower level. The queen contributed to a new round in the organization of women's education, which was mainly funded by charity.

Under her patronage, the scientist K. D. Ushinsky developed a number of pedagogical methods, which were followed by all the gymnasiums of that period. The compulsory primary education program began to include the subjects of the Law of God, the Russian language, geography, history, calligraphy, arithmetic, and gymnastics. Girls were additionally taught needlework and housekeeping. At the highest level, the basics of physics, algebra and geometry were added.

The empress also patronized high art. During her time, the building of the now world-famous Mariinsky Theater was built, the troupe of which has always maintained a high professional level and adequately represented Russia in the international arena. A ballet school was founded at the theater, headed by the legendary ballerina Agrippina Vaganova a few years later. These institutions were supported by the personal money of Maria Alexandrovna.

The tsarina made a great contribution to the liberation of the peasants, strongly supporting her husband's reforms.

Family

The most important achievement of the Empress was that she gave Russia a large number of heirs. Married to Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to six sons and two daughters. At the very beginning of their marriage, the imperial family experienced a severe tragedy - at the age of 7, their eldest daughter Alexandra died of meningitis. The young couple mourned the loss for a long time.

Another blow for the mother was the death of her beloved son Nikolai, who was being prepared as the heir to the throne. In 1865, at the age of 22, the Tsarevich died of a tuberculous lesion of the spine. It happened suddenly, and after his funeral, Maria Alexandrovna had already lost interest in life forever. The second son Alexander was hastily prepared for the throne, and in the end he managed to become one of the wisest and most peaceful rulers on the Russian throne.

The penultimate son Sergei, who at one time married Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna, distinguished himself as the Governor-General of Moscow. Subsequently, they fell at the hands of the Bolsheviks: Sergei in 1905, and Elizabeth in 1918. The princess also belonged to the Darmstadt court, and her own sister became the wife of the last king of the Romanov dynasty. Three more sons of Maria Alexandrovna, Vladimir, Alexei and Pavel, held high military positions. Daughter Maria married the Prince of Edinburgh, the son of Queen Victoria, thereby somewhat strengthening Russian-British relations.

Religion

Maria Alexandrovna was a pious person. She combined the best features of the Protestant ministry to people and the depths of the Orthodox faith. The Empress studied the works of the holy fathers, the lives of the saints. She venerated Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Seraphim of Sorov. Maria Alexandrovna was introduced to the biography of the Russian ascetic of the faith by her maid of honor Anna Tyutcheva.

Soon, the half-mantle of the righteous man appeared in the royal family, which the relatives of Maria Alexandrovna carefully preserved among other shrines of the family. The Empress conducted theological conversations with Partheny of Kyiv, Filaret of Moscow, Vasily Pavlovo-Posadsky. After her death, in memory of their mother, the sons built the church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem, in which the relics of Elizabeth Feodorovna are now buried.

Death

The last years of Maria Alexandrovna's life were overshadowed by illness, the death of her beloved son, as well as numerous betrayals of her loving husband. The queen never outwardly showed her dissatisfaction with the behavior of her husband and did not reproach him for anything.

It is known that the main favorite of Alexander II, Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova, lived with illegitimate children on the floor above the chambers of the crowned empress. This was largely done for security reasons: 7 attempts were made on the reformer tsar, the last of which turned out to be fatal.

The tsarina was very upset by all the terrorist attacks, each time her condition worsened. The personal doctor of Maria Alexandrovna, Sergei Petrovich Botkin, taking care of her well-being, recommended that she periodically live in the Crimea. But the last six months of her life, Maria Alexandrovna, contrary to the doctor's instructions, spent in St. Petersburg, which negatively affected her health.

Sarcophagus of Empress Maria Alexandrovna

The Empress died in the early summer of 1880 due to complications from tuberculosis. The tomb of the queen is located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Memory

The memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna is immortalized by descendants with the names of cities, streets and educational institutions. A bust of the queen with a memorial plaque was recently installed at the Mariinsky Theater. The Mariinsky Church today is the main cathedral of the convent in Gethsemane.

In the newsreel, the name of Maria Alexandrovna is captured in documentaries and feature films. The roles of the wife of Alexander II were once played by such actresses as Tatyana Korsak and Anna Isaikina. She achieved a particularly great visual resemblance to the Empress, which can be seen in the photo frames of the tape with the participation of the Russian actress.

Irina Kupechchenko as Empress Maria Alexandrovna in the series "The Emperor's Love"

The films "The Emperor's Romance", "The Emperor's Love" and the series "Poor Nastya" enjoy audience love. In the film “Matilda”, which is dedicated to the era of the decline of the Romanov dynasty, Russian actors starred, and foreign feature film stars -,.

Emperor of All Russia Alexander II (1818 - 1881), The Tsar of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland (since 1855) from the Romanov dynasty, was married twice. His first wife was Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse. True, the mother of the Tsarevich was against marriage, suspecting that the princess was actually born from the chamberlain of the duke, but Nicholas I simply adored his daughter-in-law. In the august marriage of Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna eight children were born. However, soon the relationship in the family went wrong and the emperor began to make himself a favorite.
So in 1866 he hooked up with an 18 year old Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukova. She became the closest person to the king Alexander II and moved to the Winter Palace. From Alexander II she gave birth four illegitimate children. After the death of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna, EmperorAlexander II and Ekaterina Dolgorukova got married than legitimized common children. Who were the descendants of Emperor Alexander II - you will learn from our material.

Alexandra Alexandrovna
Alexandra was the first and long-awaited child of the grand ducal couple. She was born on August 30, 1842. The birth of a granddaughter was especially expected by Emperor Nicholas I. The next day, happy parents received congratulations. On the ninth day, the Grand Duchess was transferred to the chambers prepared for her and the child. Maria Alexandrovna expressed a desire to feed her daughter on her own, but the emperor forbade this.

On August 30, the girl was baptized in the Tsarskoye Selo Church, but unfortunately, the little Grand Duchess did not live long. She fell ill with meningitis and died suddenly on June 28, 1849, before she was 7 years old. Since then, girls in the imperial family were no longer called Alexandra. All the princesses with the name of Alexander mysteriously died before reaching the age of 20.

Nikolai Alexandrovich

Tsarevich Nicholas was born September 20, 1843 and was named after his grandfather Nicholas I. Emperor Nicholas I was so excited about the birth of the heir to the throne that he ordered his sons - the Grand Dukes Constantine and Michael , - kneel before the cradle and take an oath of allegiance to the future Russian emperor. But the Tsarevich was not destined to become a ruler.
Nicholas grew up as a universal favorite: his grandfather and grandmother doted on him, but his mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, was most attached to him. Nicholas was well brought up, polite, courteous. Friends with his second cousin Evgenia Maksimilianovna Romanovskaya, Princess of Oldenburg who was the third daughter in the family of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (1845 - 1925) from her first marriage to Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg from Bavaria. There were even negotiations about the wedding of the Tsarevich Nicholas and Evgenia , but in the end, the mother of the princess, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, refused.
In 1864, the Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich went abroad. There he is on his 21st birthday got engaged to the princess Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmar (1847-1928) , who later became the wife of Alexander III - Maria Feodorovna, mother of the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II. Everything was perfect until while traveling in Italy Nikolai Alexandrovich suddenly did not fall ill, he was treated in Nice, but in the spring of 1865, Nikolai's condition began to deteriorate.

On April 10, Emperor Alexander II arrived in Nice, and on the night of the 12th, the Grand Duke Nicholas died after a four-hour agony from tuberculous meningitis. The body of the heir was delivered to Russia on the Alexander Nevsky frigate. Mother Maria Alexandrovna was inconsolable and, it seems, never fully recovered from the tragedy. After years Emperor Alexander III named his eldest son in honor of his brother Nicholas whom he "loved more than anything in the world."

Alexander Alexandrovich

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich was two years younger than his older brother Nikolai, and by the will of fate it was he who was destined to ascend the Russian throne and become Emperor Alexander III . Since Nicholas was being prepared for the reign, Alexander did not receive an appropriate education, and after the sudden death of his brother, he had to take an additional course of science necessary for the ruler of Russia.

In 1866, Alexander became engaged to Princess Dagmar. The ascension of Emperor Alexander III to the throne was also overshadowed by the sudden his father's death in 1881 As a result of a terrorist act, Emperor Alexander II died. After such a brutal murder of Emperor Alexander, his son did not support his father's liberal ideas, his goal was to suppress protests. Emperor Alexander III followed a conservative policy. So, instead of the draft “Loris-Melikov constitution” supported by his father, the new emperor adopted the “Manifesto on the inviolability of autocracy”, compiled by Pobedonostsev, who had a great influence on the emperor.

During the reign of Alexander III, administrative pressure was intensified in Russia, the beginnings of peasant and city self-government were eliminated, censorship was strengthened, the military power of Russia was strengthened, namely, Emperor Alexander III said that "Russia has only two allies - the army and the navy." Indeed, during the reign of Alexander III there was a sharp decrease in protests, so characteristic of the second half of his father's reign. Terrorist activity in the country also began to decline, and from 1887 until the beginning of the 20th century there were no terrorist attacks in Russia.

Despite the buildup of military power, during the reign of Alexander III Russia has not waged a single war, for maintaining peace, the emperor received the name Peacekeeper. Alexander III bequeathed his ideals to his heir and the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

Vladimir Alexandrovich

Grand Duke Vladimir was born in 1847 and devoted his life to a military career. He participated in the Russian-Turkish war, since 1884 he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Guards and the St. Petersburg Military District. In 1881, his brother Emperor Alexander III appointed him regent in case of his death before the age of Tsarevich Nicholas, or in the event of the latter's death.
Grand Duke Vladimir ordered Prince Vasilchikov to use force against the procession of workers and residents of the city, which was heading towards the Winter Palace on Sunday, January 9, 1905, known as "Bloody Sunday".

After a high-profile scandal with the marriage of his son Cyril, Grand Duke Vladimir was forced to leave his post as Commander of the Guards and the St. Petersburg Military District. His senior son Cyril married the former wife of the brother of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess Victoria-Melita of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was second daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. Even despite the blessing of Cyril's mother Maria Pavlovna, the Highest permission was not given for this marriage, since, having married a divorced woman, Cyril and all his subsequent descendants (“Kirillovichi”) lost their right to the throne. Vladimir was a well-known philanthropist and was even the president of the Academy of Arts. In protest against his role in the execution of workers and townspeople, the artists Serov and Polenov left the Academy.

Aleksey Aleksandrovich

Fifth child Emperor Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna Since childhood, he was enrolled in military service - in the Guards crew and the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky and Jaegersky regiments. His fate was sealed, he was being prepared for military service.
In 1866, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was promoted to lieutenant of the fleet and lieutenant of the guard. Participated in the voyage of the frigate "Alexander Nevsky", which on the night of September 12-13, 1868 was wrecked in the Jutland Strait. The commander of the frigate "Alexander Nevsky" noted the courage and nobility of the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, who refused to leave the ship, and four days later he was promoted to staff captain and adjutant wing.
In 1871 became a senior officer of the frigate "Svetlana", on which he reached North America, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and, having visited China and Japan, arrived in Vladivostok, from where he reached St. Petersburg by land through all of Siberia.

In 1881 Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was appointed a member of the State Council, and in the summer of the same year - Chief of the Navy and the Naval Department with the rights of Admiral General and Chairman of the Admiralty Council. During the management of the Russian fleet, he carried out a number of reforms, introduced a naval qualification, increased the number of crew, arranged the ports of Sevastopol, Port Arthur and others, expanded the docks in Kronstadt and Vladivostok.
At the end of the Russo-Japanese War, after the Tsushima defeat, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich resigned and was dismissed from all naval posts. He was considered one of the responsible for the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan. Died Prince Alexei in Paris in 1908.

Maria Alexandrovna

Grand Duchess Maria was born in 1853, and grew up as a "weak" girl, but despite the prescriptions of doctors, the father did not look for his soul in his daughter. In 1874 Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna married Prince Alfred (1844-1900), Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster and Kentsecond son of the British Queen Victoria and Albert (1819-1861). Emperor Alexander II gave his daughter as a dowry the unimaginable sum of 100,000 pounds and an annual allowance of 20,000 pounds.

Emperor Alexander II insisted that in London his daughter should be addressed only as " Her Imperial Highness" and that she took precedence over the Princess of Wales. This did not please Queen Victoria, however after marriage, the requirements of the Russian emperor were met.

On August 22, 1893, the husband of Grand Duchess Maria was an admiral of the Royal Navy Prince Alfred became Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as his older brother Edward abdicated. " Her Imperial Highness" Maria became a duchess Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , retaining the title of Duchess of Edinburgh. However, tragedy befell their family.

Children Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and Prince Alfred (1844-1900):

Their eldest son, Crown Prince Alfred (1874-1899), was engaged to Duchess Else of Württemberg. However, Alfred was convicted of extramarital affairs and in 1898 he began to show severe symptoms of syphilis. It is believed that the disease shook his mind. In 1899, he shot himself with a revolver during a solemn family gathering on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his parents' marriage. On February 6, he died at the age of 24. A year later, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha died of cancer. The Dowager Duchess Maria remained to reside in Coburg.

Their eldest daughter Princess Mary (1875-1936) married, January 10, 1893, to King Ferdinand I of Romania(1865-1927); left offspring.

Their daughter - Princess Victoria Melita (1876-1936) married, April 19, 1894, to Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse; left offspring; divorced 21 December 1901
Second marriage Victoria Melita- October 8, 1905, with the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich; left offspring.

Their daughter - Princess Alexandra(1878-1942) married, April 20, 1896, for Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg; left offspring.

Them daughter Princess Beatrice(1884-1966) married, July 15, 1909, to Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Gallieria; left offspring

Sergey Aleksandrovich

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905) became Governor-General of Moscow (1891-1904) in 1884 married Elizaveta Feodorovna (at birth - Elizabeth Alexandra Louise Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt), the second daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig IV and Princess Alice, granddaughter of the British Queen Victoria.

With him the Moscow Art and Public Theater was opened, in order to take care of the students, he ordered the construction of a hostel at Moscow University. The dark episode of his reign in Moscow was tragedy on the Khodynka field on May 30, 1896. In t On the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas II, there was a stampede, where, according to official figures, 1,389 people died and another 1,300 people were seriously injured. The public found Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich guilty and nicknamed him "Prince Khodynsky", Emperor Nicholas II - "Bloody".

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich supported monarchist organizations and was a fighter against the revolutionary movement. He died on the spot in a terrorist attack in 1905. At the entrance to the Nikolaevskaya Tower, a bomb was thrown into his carriage, which tore apart the carriage of Grand Duke Sergei. The attack was carried out by Ivan Kalyaev from the "Combat Organization of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries." He planned to carry out a terrorist attack two days earlier, but was unable to throw a bomb into the carriage, which was the wife and nephews of the Governor-General - Maria and Dmitry. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, founder of the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent in Moscow. It is known that the widow of Prince Elizabeth visited her husband's killer in prison and forgave him on behalf of her husband.

At Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Elizaveta Feodorovna did not have their own children, but they raised the children of their brother Sergei Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, Maria and Dmitry , whose mother, Alexandra Grigoryevna, died in childbirth.

Pavel Alexandrovich

made a military career, possessed not only Russian, but also foreign orders and badges of honor. He was married twice. He made his first marriage in 1889 with his cousin, Greek princess Alexandra Georgievna, who gave birth to him two children - Maria and Dmitry, but died during childbirth at the age of 20. The children were raised by their brother Pavel Aleksandrovich by the Moscow Governor-General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna.

10 years after the death of his wife Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich married a second time, to a divorced Olga Valerievna Pistolkors. Since the marriage was unequal, they could not return to Russia. In 1915, Olga Valerievna received for herself and the children of Prince Pavel Alexandrovich a Russian title of princes Paley . They had three children: Vladimir, Irina and Natalia.

Soon after the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, the Provisional Government took measures against the Romanovs. Vladimir Paley was exiled to the Urals in 1918 and then executed. Pavel Alexandrovich himself was arrested in August 1918 and sent to prison.

In January of the following year, Pavel Alexandrovich, along with his cousins, Grand Dukes Dmitry Konstantinovich, Nikolai Mikhailovich and Georgy Mikhailovich, were shot in the Peter and Paul Fortress in response to the murder of Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht in Germany.

Georgy Alexandrovich

Georgy Alexandrovich (1872 - 1913) was born out of wedlock, but after marriage Alexander II with Princess Dolgoruky, on June 6, 1880, the emperor wanted to equalize the rights of his morganatic children from Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgoruky with his legitimate heirs to the throne from an alliance with Empress Maria Alexandrovna, and his decree was sent to the Senate: marriage with Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgoruky, we order her to be given the name of Princess Yuryevskaya with the title of Lordship. We order that the same name with the same title be given to our children: to our son George, daughters Olga and Ekaterina, as well as those who may subsequently be born, we grant them all the rights belonging to legitimate children in accordance with Article 14 of the Fundamental Laws of the Empire and Article 147 of the Establishment of the Imperial Family. Alexander".

Prince George received the title Most Serene Prince Yuryevsky.

After the assassination of the father-emperor Alexander II, His Serene Highness Prince Georgy Alexandrovich together with sisters - Ekaterina and Olga, and mother, Princess Ekaterina Dolgoruky , left for France.

In 1891 Prince George Alexandrovich graduated from the Sorbonne with a bachelor's degree, then returned to Russia, where he continued his studies. He served in the Baltic Fleet, studied at the dragoon department of the Officer Cavalry School.

February 4 1900 His Serene Highness Prince George married with Countess Alexandra Konstantinovna Zarnekau (1883-1957), daughter of Prince Konstantin Petrovich of Oldenburg from a morganatic marriage with Countess Alexandra Zarnekau, nee Dzhaparidze. The marriage is dissolved. On October 17, 1908, Alexandra Zarnekau married Lev Vasilyevich Naryshkin.

Most Serene Prince George b He was seconded to the 2nd squadron of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment, in 1908 he retired. After 4 years, he died of jade in Magburg, German Empire. He was buried in Wiesbaden at the Russian cemetery.

Children His Serene Highness Prince George and Countess Alexandra Zarnekau:

Son Alexander (December 7 (20), 1900, Nice, France - February 29, 1988).
Grandson George (Hans-Georg) (born December 8, 1961, St. Gallen, Switzerland)

Olga Alexandrovna

Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, a year after her elder brother George. It is interesting that Emperor Alexander II chose the title for children not by chance. It was believed that the princely family of his second wife Ekaterina Dolgoruky originates from Prince Yuri Dolgoruky of the Rurik family. It is known that the ancestor of the Dolgoruky was Prince Ivan Obolensky, who received this nickname for his vindictiveness. Prince Ivan Obolensky was a second cousin of Yuri Dolgoruky - Vsevolod Olgovich.

Most Serene Princess Olga Yurievskaya published in 1895 married the grandson of Alexander Pushkin -count Georg-Nicholas von Merenberg and became known Countess von Merenberg . In marriage, she gave birth to a spouse 12 children.

Ekaterina Aleksandrovna

The youngest daughter of Emperor Alexander II, the Most Serene Princess Ekaterina Yurievskaya (1878 - 1959) twice unsuccessfully married and became a singer. After the accession of Emperor Nicholas II, the Most Serene Princess Catherine, together with her mother, Princess Catherine Dolgoruky, her brother Georgy and sister Olga, returned to Russia.

In 1901, the Most Serene Princess Ekaterina Yuryevskaya married the staff captain Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky (1870-1910), one of the heirs of an ancient family Rurikovich who gave the world several saints, including the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and the holy noble Prince Michael of Chernigov. Alexander Vladimirovich on his father's side is the grandson of Lieutenant General Prince Anatoly Baryatinsky (1821-1881) and the cousin of Field Marshal Prince.

Prince Aleksandr VladimirovichBaryatinsky was one of the richest people in Russia, which allowed him to lead a luxurious and sometimes thoughtless life. Since 1897, he was in an open relationship with the famous beauty Lina Cavalieri and spent a lot of money on her. His passion for Cavalieri was so serious that he asked Emperor Nicholas II to give him permission to marry her. Baryatinsky's parents did everything to prevent this from happening, and in October 1901, Prince Alexander Boryatinsky married the princess Ekaterina Yurievskaya.

The Most Serene Princess Catherine, loving her husband, tried to win his attention from Lina Cavalieri, but it was all in vain. The three of them went everywhere - performances, operas, dinners, some even lived together in a hotel. Their love triangle fell apart with the death of Prince Boryatinsky, the inheritance passed to the children of Catherine - the princes Andrei (1902-1944) and Alexander (1905-1992). Since the children were minors in 1910, their mother, Ekaterina Yuryevskaya, became their guardian.

After World War I, they moved from Bavaria to the Baryatinsky estate in Ivanovsky. Soon Ekaterina Yurievskaya met a young guards officer Prince Sergei Obolensky and married him. After the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia princes Boryatinsky lost everything and left on false documents to Kyiv, and then to Vienna and further to England. For the sake of earning money, the Serene Princess Ekaterina Yuryevskaya began to sing in living rooms and at concerts. The death of Ekaterina Dolgoruky's mother did not improve the financial situation of the princess.

AT In 1922, Prince Sergei Obolensky left his wife Ekaterina Yuryevskaya for another rich lady, miss Alice Astor, daughter of millionaire John Astor. Abandoned by her husband, Ekaterina Yuryevskaya became a professional singer. For many years she lived in allowance from Queen Mary, widow of George V, but after her death in 1953 she was left without a livelihood. She sold her property and died in 1959 in a nursing home on Hayling Island.

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