Above: The Romanovs, year 1913.
The Tsar was seen as God's representative on Earth, a father figure to the country, and his family was seen as something holy and sacred. Soldiers would salute him and drop to their knees in reverence upon his approach, women and children would curtsey and bow in perfect sync at the sight of him and his family, and some people even would kiss where his shadow was as he passed by.
The Romanovs began the jubilee celebrations by attending a solemn ceremony at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, and then stayed at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg for a week. There, a series of grand parties were held (during one of them, the two eldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana joined their parents in the limelight of the occasion), and at the Mariinsky Theater, the play A Life for the Tsar was performed. Etc. All the public appearances and events were a great strain on Alexandra physically and mentally, and she often left early, showing clear signs of distress.
"The Empress, for all her weariness, was regal in her richly flowing robes and long-veiled, high kokoshnik, the Russian national headdress, set with magnificent jewels. She also wore the wide-ribboned Order of St. Andrew, which was her sole privilege to wear, and at the most formal of the state dinners she wore the most splendid of all the crown jewels. ... The crowds were enormous in all the great state rooms, the Imperial Family standing for hours while the multitudes filed past with sweeping curtsies and low bows. So long and fatiguing were these ceremonies that at the end the Empress was literally too fatigued to force a smile."
"She told me that she could never feel happy in Petersburg. Everything in the Winter Palace reminded her of earlier years when she and her husband used to go happily to the theater together and returning would have supper in their dressing gowns before the fire talking over the events of the day and evening. 'I was so happy then,' she said plaintively, 'So well and strong. Now I am a wreck.'" - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
"In a dress of blue-and-silver brocade, crowned with a magnificent tiara of diamonds, the Empress opened the ball with her husband in the old traditional polonaise, to Chopin's beautiful music. She passed close to where I was standing; she was very pale, her eyes lowered, her mouth unsmiling. Then she vanished, leaving her husband and her daughter to continue the evening without her. She sat for a while in the Imperial box at the gala performance at the Marinsky Theatre, the diamonds, which covered the front of her bodice, shooting iridescent fire as her breast rose and fell with her quick, convulsive breathing, her hand trembling so violently that she seemed hardly able to hold her fan of white eagle's feathers. Some stress of emotion, some physical torment, seemed to possess her, and before the performance was over she retired to the back of the box, and had not reappeared." - from Queen Victoria's Relations (1954), written by Meriel Buchanan
"The Empress dragged herself with difficulty to all the functions. She had been completely worn out by her son's illness, but she roused herself to appear at the fetes. At the great ball in the Salle de la Noblesse she felt so ill that she could scarcely keep her feet. She underwent tortures from the feeling of faintness that overwhelmed her, before she was able to attract the attention of the Emperor who was talking at the other end of the room. When he came up it was only just in time to lead her away and prevent her from fainting in public." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
The tercentenary celebrations have been described as a propaganda exercise intended to reinforce the legend of the popular and benevolent Tsar, to inspire patriotism and support for the autocracy. As she looked out at the cheering crowds, Alexandra firmly believed that she and her husband had the people's faith and love.
Above: Alexandra with Alexei, year 1913.
Above: The Imperial Family in a formal procession.
Every spring, the Imperial Family took a vacation stay at their Livadia Palace at Yalta in the Crimea in what is now Ukraine. Although they still received official visitors, here they could relax. There were many charities, which, of course, appealed to the deeply empathetic Alexandra. She arranged and even participated in annual charity bazaars and events to raise money to help tuberculosis sufferers (in those days the disease was often also known as consumption), where she and her daughters would sell their own needlework. Helping people in need was one of her greatest joys in life.
"The Empress took an active part in all the charities of the place. She organized bazaars every year at Yalta, working for them for weeks beforehand, while she and her daughters sold at their own stall for several days. Needless to say, these were successful bazaars. There was a sad side to the Crimea, as there is to the sunny Riviera; for it was full of sanatoria for consumptives seeking sun and warmth, and these sufferers were always in the Empress's mind. It was her nature, in the sunniest moments and on the brightest days, to remember sad things, and here, too often, they were forcibly brought to her notice. She took part personally in a Flower Day in aid of the Anti-Tuberculosis League, both she and her daughters selling marguerites. She visited the hospitals and started two new sanatoria, a naval and a military one on the Imperial property of Massandra. She visited many individual cases, going unobtrusively to pay unexpected visits. When she could not go herself, she sent her daughters. It was often pointed out to her that it might be dangerous for the girls to sit at the bedsides of people who were full of tuberculosis germs, but she swept these objections aside, and the Grand Duchesses visited many of the worst cases. 'They should realise the sadness underneath all this beauty,' she once told me." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
Above: Livadia Palace. Photo courtesy of Alexander Noskin via Wikimedia Commons.
Above: Alexandra at one of her charity bazaars at Yalta.
Above: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei at the White Flower Day charity event.
Above: Alexandra with Maria and Anastasia at a charity bazaar.
And during summer, the Romanovs would go on their annual cruise around the Gulf of Finland on their yacht, the Standart. During these cruises, Alexandra often stayed indoors when she could or sat on deck chairs, sewing, talking with her husband or children or one of her closest ladies-in-waiting, Anna Vyrubova. The two women first met in 1907 and became best friends, but Anna was not made an official lady-in-waiting until 1913.
Above: Alexandra with Anna Vyrubova, year 1907.
Above: Alexandra and Anna.
Above: Alexandra with her daughters on the Standart.
And so 1913 was a very busy year for the family. They returned to Livadia in summer; and because Alexei was still convalescing from the terrible hemophilia attack he had suffered almost a year earlier, he was still having to take the mud baths he was prescribed to aid in his recovery. Alexandra continued to worry about his fragile health and any accidents, and in November, her worst fear became reality yet again.
"The Tsarevitch was in the schoolroom standing on a chair, when he slipped, and in falling hit his right knee against the corner of some piece of furniture. The next day he could not walk. On the day after the subcutaneous hemorrhage had progressed, and the swelling which had formed below the knee rapidly spread down the leg. The skin, which was greatly distended, had hardened under the force of the extravasated blood, which pressed on the nerves of the leg and thus caused shooting pains, which grew worse every hour. ... The Tsarina was at her son's side from the onset of the attack. She watched over him, surrounding him with her tender love and care and trying by a thousand attentions to alleviate his sufferings. The Tsar came the moment he was free. He tried to comfort and amuse the boy, but the pain was stronger than his mother's caresses or his father's stories, and the moans and tears began once more. ... One morning I found the mother at her son's bedside. He had had a very bad night. Dr. Derevenko was anxious, as the haemorrhage had not been stopped and his temperature was rising. The inflammation had spread further and the pain was even worse than the day before. The Tsarevitch lay in bed groaning piteously. His head rested on his mother's arm, and his small, deathly white face was unrecognizable. At times the groans ceased and he murmured the one word 'Mummy!' in which he expressed all his sufferings and distress. His mother kissed him on the hair, forehead, and eyes, as if the touch of her lips could have relieved his pain and restored some of the life which was leaving him. Think of the tortures of that mother, an impotent witness of her son's martyrdom in those hours of mortal anguish — a mother who knew that she herself was the cause of his sufferings, that she had transmitted to him the terrible disease against which human science was powerless! Now I understood the secret tragedy of her life! How easy it was to reconstruct the stages of that long Calvary." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
Of course, Rasputin's prayers seemed to save Alexei's life yet again. And yet again, Alexei would endure months of convalescence.
Above: Alexei, year 1913.
Above: Alexandra in a portrait painted by Aleksandr Makovsky, year 1914.
"During dinner I kept an eye on the Tsaritza Alexandra Feodorovna, opposite whom I was sitting. Although long ceremonies are a very great trial to her she was anxious to be present this evening to do honour to the President of the allied Republic. She was a beautiful sight with her low brocade gown and a diamond tiara on her head. Her forty-two years have left her face and figure still pleasant to look upon. After the first course she entered into conversation with Poincaré who was on her right. Before long however her smile became set and the veins stood out in her cheeks. She bit her lips every minute. Her laboured breathing made the network of diamonds sparkle on her bosom. Until the end of dinner, which was very long, the poor woman was obviously struggling with hysteria. Her features suddenly relaxed when the Tsar rose to propose his toast." - description of an episode of Alexandra's social anxiety which occurred during a formal dinner with the French president Poincaré at Peterhof on Monday, July 20, 1914, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
It was August of 1914 when Nicholas formally announced that Russia would join the First World War (in those days it was known as the Great War, because there had never before been a war with so many countries involved nor so many casualties, at least not since the Thirty Years War almost 300 years earlier). Upon hearing the news, Alexandra was so horrified that she immediately began to cry. Both she and Rasputin were strongly against the war, both seeing only ruin and disaster in it, but Nicholas did not share their feelings. He believed that the war was unavoidable.
"Mass began at once to the accompaniment of the noble and pathetic chants of the Orthodox liturgy. Nicholas II prayed with a holy fervour which gave his pale face a movingly mystical expression. The Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna, stood by him, gazing fixedly, her chest thrust forward, head high, lips crimson, eyes glassy. Every now and then she closed her eyes and then her livid face reminded one of a death mask." - Sunday, August 2, 1914 (Old Style date July 20: the day of Russia declaring war on Germany and thereby entering World War One), from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"... The Tsar, the Tsarina, and their daughters were attending evensong in the little Alexandria church. I had met the Tsar a few hours before. ... He was now praying with all the fervour of his nature that God would avert the war which he felt was imminent and all but inevitable. His whole being seemed to go out in an expression of simple and confident faith. At his side was the Tsarina, whose careworn face wore that look of suffering I had so often seen at her son's bedside. She too was praying fervently that night, as if she wished to banish an evil dream..." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
"The outbreak of the world war came as a terrible blow to the Empress. She seemed to have a presentiment of coming events; for she was most depressed when they left the Standart, on which she had gone with the Emperor to recover from the fatigues of the Presidential visit, and said to some of those with her that she knew it would be the last cruise they would all take together. She had a horror of war. The memories of the Russo-Japanese War, and of the troubles that had followed, were yet too fresh in her mind. The Emperor and she hoped to the last that some agreement might be reached. Though the Emperor did not distress her by giving her all the details of the Governmental discussions, she felt very anxious, but she still did not realise how tense the situation had become." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"... Her Majesty, becoming uneasy ..., had just asked Tatiana Nicolaievna to fetch her father, when the Tsar appeared, looking very pale, and told them that war was declared, in a voice which betrayed his agitation, notwithstanding all his efforts. On learning the news the Tsarina began to weep, and the Grand-Duchesses likewise dissolved into tears on seeing their mother's distress." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
"Up to the last moment she hoped against hope, and when the German formal declaration of war was announced she gave way to a perfect passion of weeping, repeating to me through her tears: 'This is the end of everything.'" - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
"I immediately rang up 'Alexandria', the Emperor's villa, and found the Empress already at the telephone. In a voice broken by suppressed sobs, she told me of the event. 'War is declared,' she said. 'Good heavens, so Austria has done it!,' I exclaimed. 'No, no,' she said, 'Germany. It is ghastly, terrible, but God will help and will save Russia.'" - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
Alexandra had always been staunchly anti-war, and her pessimistic nature helped to strengthen these feelings. The anti-German sentiment in the country grew even stronger, for they were the enemy, to the point where the name of the capital was calqued into Russian from German and changed from St. Petersburg to Petrograd. And, although she had been born in Germany and was half-German by birth, Alexandra disowned the Germans in her heart, and in her letters to Nicholas written during the war years, she repeatedly expressed her disgust toward the Germans and the war, as will be seen later. Their enemies referred to the Emperor as "Bloody Nicholas" and to the Empress as "the German bitch" or "the German woman". By 1917, Alexandra was even being accused of being a spy for the Germans and of secretly communicating war intelligence to her cousin Wilhelm, the Kaiser of Germany. On an earlier visit to Darmstadt in 1910, she is said to have asked, "What happened to the Germany of my childhood?" Alexandra was fervently patriotic for Russia.
Above: Alexandra in Darmstadt.
Above: Alexandra in 17th century Russian costume, year 1903. Photo courtesy of Tatiana Z on Flickr.
"The moment of the declaration of war made her set up a wall between Germany and Russia. She was the Empress of Russia — Russian always in heart and soul. 'Twenty years have I spent in Russia, half my life; and the happiest, fullest part of it. It is the country of my husband and son. I have lived the life of a happy wife and mother in Russia. All my heart is bound to this country I love,' she once said to me during the war. People in Germany do not understand how the Empress came to adopt the Russian standpoint so completely, and become so thoroughly Russian in her views. The reason for it was her intense, passionate love for the Emperor. She considered herself as wholly belonging to him. His country was her country, as also his religion had completely become hers. She always gave herself up entirely to those she loved, and identified herself with them." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"The most absurd stories are told about Alexandra Feodorovna; Rasputin is accused of being in German pay and the Tsaritsa is simply called the Niemka [the German woman]...
Several times before have I heard the Empress charged with having retained sympathies, preferences and a warm corner in her heart for Germany. The unfortunate woman in no way deserves these strictures; she knows all about them and they give her great pain.
Alexandra Feodorovna is German neither in mind nor spirit and has never been so. Of course, she is a German by birth, at any rate on the paternal side, as her father was Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. But she is English through her mother, Princess Alice, a daughter of Queen Victoria. ... Her bringing-up, education and mental and moral development were thus quite English. She is still English in her outward appearance, her deportment, a certain strain of inflexibility and Puritanism, the uncompromising and militant austerity of her conscience and, last but not least, in many of her personal habits. That is all that is left of her western origin.
In her inmost being she has become entirely Russian. In the first place I have no doubt of her patriotism, notwithstanding the legend I see growing up around her. Her love for Russia is deep — and true. And why should she not be devoted to her adopted country which stands for everything dear to her as woman, wife, sovereign and mother? When she ascended the throne in 1894 she knew already that she did not like Germany, and particularly Prussia. In recent years she has taken a personal dislike to the Emperor William and he it is whom she holds exclusively responsible for the war, this 'wicked war which makes Christ's heart bleed every day.' When she heard of the incendiarism at Louvain she cried out: 'I blush to have been a German!'
But her moral naturalization has gone even further. By a curious process of mental contagion she has gradually absorbed the most ancient and characteristic elements of the Russian soul, all those obscure, emotional and visionary elements which find their highest expression in religious mysticism." - Thursday, January 7, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
The Russian mobilisation soon took place, and weeping women and children lined the streets in deeply emotional scenes of parting as their fathers, husbands, brothers, uncles and cousins marched off with the army, most never to meet again.
"After watching hours of these dreadful scenes in the streets of Peterhof I went to my evening duties with the Empress only to find that she had remained in absolute ignorance of what had been taking place. Mobilization! It was not true, she exclaimed. Certainly armies were moving, but only on the Austrian frontiers. She hurried from the room and I heard her enter the Emperor's study. For half an hour the sound of their excited voices reached my ears. Returning, the Empress dropped on her couch as one overcome by desperate tidings. 'War!' she murmured breathlessly. 'And I knew nothing of it. This is the end of everything.'" - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
Nicholas decided to command the army himself, and he began making regular trips to Stavka (Headquarters) at Mogilev. Sometimes he would take Alexei along with him, because Alexei was very proud of the soldiers and wanted to be amongst them, and also because Nicholas believed it would boost the men's morale to be able to see the heir with his father, and he wanted the boy to understand the enormity and horror of the war and what it entailed. Alexandra especially feared for her son on these long trips far from home: he could have an accident and she wouldn't know.
"This was a terrible wrench for the Empress. She had never been parted from her boy for more than a few hours, except for one week on one of her inspection journeys. Every moment she was away from him she was filled with anxiety that something would happen, for the sword of Damocles was always hanging over his head. She made up her mind that she must make this, the greatest of all sacrifices. She would part with her peace of mind and let her treasure go; she was always anxious when her vigilant eye could not guard him. It was for her son's future and also for the Emperor's sake; he was often lonely at Mohileff, and the boy would cheer him up — but the look of anxiety never left her face from that day." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"The Tsarina bowed to this necessity. She realised how greatly the Tsar suffered from loneliness, for at one of the most tragic hours of his life he was deprived of the presence of his family, his greatest consolation. She knew what a comfort it would be to have his son with him. Yet her heart bled at the thought of Aleksey leaving her. It was the first time she had been separated from him, and one can imagine what a sacrifice it meant to the mother, who never left her child, even for a few minutes, without wondering anxiously whether she would ever see him alive again. ... As I was saying good-bye to her, Her Majesty asked me to write every day to give her news of her son. I promised to carry out her wishes faithfully the whole time we were away." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
Above: Alexei with his tutors.
Above: Alexei with his parents.
Above: Alexandra with Alexei.
Alexandra was deeply paranoid of, distrustful and hostile toward anyone who did not agree with her view of how the empire should be run, and she especially did not trust Grand Duke Nicholas. She hated the idea of her husband being so easily influenced by people whom she believed were conspiring to do ill to him and herself and begged him to be stricter and more sensible. In her anxiety and frustration, she turned, as always, to Rasputin for guidance and came to depend heavily on him for advice — not just religious and spiritual advice, but also political advice. Her husband's frequent absences eventually left Alexandra in charge of governing, and every choice she made and every person she had sacked and replaced was based on something Rasputin had said or recommended to her.
"She is behaving exactly like one of the old Tsaritsas of Moscow when she sees in Rasputin a Bojy tchelloviek, 'a man of God,' 'a saint persecuted (as Christ was) by the Pharisees,' or when she endows him with the gifts of prophecy, miracle-working and exorcism, or allows the success of a political step or a military operation to depend upon his blessing. She carries us back to the times of Ivan the Terrible or Michael Feodorovitch and takes her place, so to speak, in the Byzantine setting of archaic Russia." - Thursday, January 7, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"The Empress's farewell to Rasputin was heartrending. She has promised him to recall him immediately after the session of the Duma, adding through her tears 'That won't be long!'
He replied with his usual threat: 'Remember that I need neither the Emperor nor yourself. If you abandon me to my enemies it will not worry me. I'm quite able to cope with them. The demons themselves are helpless against me. ... But neither the Emperor nor you can do without me. If I am not there to protect you, your son will come to harm!'" - Saturday, July 24, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"Rasputin has not stayed long in his Siberian village. He has been back three days and has already had several long talks with the Empress." - Sunday, August 22, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"At five o'clock Countess N—, who does not belong to the Empress's clique, but is on terms of closest friendship with Madame Vyrubova, told me how Rasputin explained to the Tsaritsa the other day that 'a man of God' should be unquestionably obeyed; he then confided to her that since his last Easter communion he felt he could fight his enemies with renewed vigour, and that he considered himself more than ever the heaven-sent champion of the imperial family and Holy Russia; Alexandra Feodorovna then fell at his feet, imploring his blessing with tears of ecstasy in her eyes." - Friday, May 26, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"From a private and very reliable source:
'The Empress is passing through a bad phase. Too much prayer, fasting and asceticism. Nervous excitement; insomnia. She works herself up and concentrates more and more on the notion that it is her mission to save Holy Orthodox Russia, and that the guidance, intercession and protection of Rasputin are indispensable to success. On every possible occasion she asks the staretz for advice, encouragement or a blessing.'
But for all that, the relations between the Tsarina and Grishka are still kept a profound secret. No newspaper ever refers to them. People in society only mention them to their closest friends, and under their breath, as if they were talking about a humiliating mystery it is better not to probe more deeply; in any case, no one hesitates to invent innumerable fantastic details.
In principle, Rasputin seldom goes within the railings of the imperial residence. His meetings with the Empress almost always take place at Madame Vyrubova's little villa on the Sredniaïa; he sometimes stays there for hours with the two ladies, while General Spiridovitch's police mount guard and keep people away from the house." - Wednesday, June 28, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"Sazonov is back from Finland and yesterday called at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take leave of the staff. He has just been to see me. ...
He confirmed all I had heard about the circumstances of his dismissal:
'It's a year since the Empress began to be hostile towards me,' he said. 'She's never forgiven me for begging the Emperor not to assume command of his armies. She brought such pressure to bear to secure my dismissal that the Emperor ultimately gave way. But why this scandal? Why this 'scene'? It would have been so easy to pave the way for my departure with the excuse of my health! I should have given loyal assistance! And why did the Emperor give me so confident and affectionate a reception the last time I saw him?'
And then, in a tone of deepest melancholy, he more or less summed up his unpleasant experience in these words:
"The Emperor reigns: but it is the Empress who governs — under Rasputin's guidance. Alas! May God protect us!'" - Thursday, August 3, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"A former president of the Council, Kokovtsov, is passing through Petrograd and I called on him this afternoon.
I found him more pessimistic than ever. The dismissal of Sazonov and General Bielaiev has made him extremely uneasy.
'The Empress is now all-powerful,' he said. 'Sturmer is incapable and vain but astute and shrewd enough when his personal interests are at stake, and had known only too well how to make her serve his purposes. He reports regularly to her, tells her everything, consults her on all points, treats her as the regent and trains her in the notion that as the Emperor has received his power from God he has to account for it to God alone, so that it is sacrilege for anyone to take the liberty of opposing the imperial will. You can imagine how much an argument of that kind appeals to the brain of a mystic! Thus it has come about that Klivostov, Krivoshein, General Polivanov, Samarin, Sazonov, General Bielaïev and myself are now regarded as revolutionaries, traitors and infidels!'
'Do you think there is no remedy for this state of affairs?'
'None! It's a tragical situation.'
''Tragical' is rather a strong word, isn't it?'
'Not at all! take my word for it! It's a tragical situation. Speaking personally, I'm thankful I'm not a minister now, and have no share of responsibility for the catastrophe which is coming. But as a citizen I weep for my country.'
Tears stood in his eyes. To recover himself he paced the full length of his room two or three times. Then he talked about the Emperor, without a trace of bitterness or recrimination, but in a tone of the deepest melancholy. ...
We returned to the subject of the Empress.
'I protest with all my might,' he said, 'against the infamous rumours that are spread abroad about her relations with Rasputin. She's the noblest and purest of women. But she's an invalid, neurotic and a prey to hallucinations: she'll end up in the frenzy of mysticism and melancholy. I shall never forget the extraordinary things she said to me in September, 1911, when I took the place of the unfortunate Stolypin as President of the Council. I was telling her of the difficulties of my task and quoting the example of my predecessor when she cut me short: 'Don't mention that man's name again, Vladimir Nicolaievitch. He died because Providence had decreed that he should disappear that day. So he's finished with: never mention his name again.' She also refused to pray at his coffin and the Emperor did not condescend to appear at the funeral, all because Stolypin, devoted, wholly and utterly devoted, to his sovereigns though he was, had dared to tell them that some slight reforms were necessary in the social edifice.'" - Tuesday, August 29, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"By a natural connection of ideas I remembered what Rasputin said to the Empress one day when she was weeping on hearing of the enormous losses in a great battle: 'Take heart! When a moujik dies for his Tsar and country, another lamp is immediately lit before the throne of God.'" - Tuesday, September 19, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"She desired the removal of the Grand-Duke Nicholas, whom she accused of secretly working for the ruin of the Tsar's reputation and prestige and for a place revolution which would further his own ends. On the strength of certain information she had received from Madame Vyrubova, she was also persuaded that G.H.Q. was the centre of a plot, the object of which was to seize her during the absence of her husband and confine her in a convent."
"In her sorrow the Tsarina was bound to feel impelled to seek moral support from him whom she already regarded not only as the saviour of her son, but as the representative of the people, sent by God to save Russia and her husband also. It is not true that personal ambition or a thirst for power induced the Tsarina to intervene in political affairs. Her motive was purely sentimental. She worshipped her husband as she worshipped her children, and there was no limit to her devotion for those she loved. Her only desire was to be useful to the Tsar in his heavy task and to help him with her counsel. Convinced that autocracy was the only form of government suited to the needs of Russia, the Tsarina believed that any great concessions to liberal demands were premature. In her view the uneducated masses of the Russian people could be galvanised into action only by a Tsar in whose person all power was centralised. She was certain that to the moujik the Tsar was the symbol of the unity, greatness, and glory of Russia, the head of the state and the Lord's Anointed. To encroach on his prerogatives was to undermine the faith of the Russian Peasant and to risk precipitating the worst disasters for the country. The Tsar must not merely rule: he must govern the state with a firm and mighty hand. To the new task the Tsarina brought the same devotion, courage, and, alas! blindness she had shown in her fight for the life of her son. She was at any rate logical in her errors. Persuaded, as she was, that the only support for the dynasty was the nation, and that Rasputin was God's elect."
"Before the war the influence of the Tsarina in political affairs had been but intermittent. It was usually confined to procuring the dismissal of anyone who declared his hostility to the staretz. In the first months of the war there had been no change in that respect, but after the great reverses in the spring of 1915, and more particularly after the Tsar had assumed command of the army, the Tsarina played an ever-increasing part in affairs of state because she wished to help her husband, who was overwhelmed with the burden of his growing responsibilities. She was worn out, and desired nothing more than peace and rest, but she willingly sacrificed her personal comfort to what she believed was a sacred duty."
"... Her sorrows had broken her. She was but the shadow of her former self, and she often had periods of mystic ecstasy in which she lost all sense of reality. Her faith in Rasputin proves that beyond a doubt." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
Above: Alexandra.
Although Alexandra and the girls made visits to Nicholas and Alexei at Stavka and she had always hated it whenever he went away or she had to go home again, these absences inevitably increased because of the war. They were just as deeply in love as they had been when they were young, and until the day they died, their intense love, passion and complete devotion to each other never wavered. Alexandra's complaints about her separations from her beloved Nicky, plus her constantly urging him to "be firm" and "be strong" for the sake of the future of both their son and the empire, as well as her expressions of love for religion and of horror at the Germans and the war and her complaints of physical and "moral" pains, as well as her urging Nicholas to follow Rasputin's advice on spiritual matters and who to trust and who not to trust politically (as has been seen shortly before here), make up near-constant refrains in her part of the couple's wartime correspondence. Because of this, Alexandra gained a posthumous reputation of having been intensely domineering over her infamously weak-willed husband and, due to her obsession with Rasputin and passing on advice from him and her stubborn, unquestioning belief in his powers and his relations of religious experiences, she has been described as being "out of touch with reality", as some have said. Without any further ado, here are the letter excerpts from September and October 1914 (some from the same letter):
"This journey will be a tiny comfort to you, & I trust you will manage to see many troops. I can picture to myself their joy seeing you & all your feelings — alas that I cannot be with you to see it all. It is more than ever hard to bid goodbye to you my Angel — the blank after yr. departure is so intense! ... May the news only be good whilst you are away, as to know you have hard news to bear alone, makes the heart bleed. ... Except all I go through with you & our beloved country & men I suffer for my 'small old home' & her troops & Ernie & Irène & many a friend in sorrow there — but how many go through the same? And then the shame, the humiliation to think that Germans should behave as they do! One longs to sink to the ground. ... Egoistically I suffer horribly to be separated — we are not accustomed to it & I do so endlessly love my very own precious Boysy dear. Soon 20 years that I belong to you & what bliss it has been to be your very own little Wify! ... Lovy dear, my telegrams can't be very warm, as they go through so many military hands — but you will read all my love and longing between the lines. ... I bless you & love YOU, as man was rarely been loved before — & kiss every dearly beloved place & press you tenderly to my own heart." - from Alexandra, written September 19, 1914
"Oh my! It was hard bidding you goodbye and seeing that lonely, pale face love with big sad eyes at the waggon window — my heart cried out, take me with you. ... I came home and then broke down, prayed, — then lay down and smoked to get myself into order. ... My face is tied up, as the teeth, jaw ache a bit; the eyes are sore and swollen still, and the heart yearns after the dearest being on earth who belongs to old Sunny." - from Alexandra, written September 20, 1914
"Miss my Angel quite horribly, and at night whenever woke up tried to be silent not to wake you up. So sad in Church without you near me." - from Alexandra, written September 21, 1914
"How terrible it was parting from you and the dear children, though I knew that it was not for long. ... Beloved mine, I kiss you again and again, because just at present I am quite free and have time to think of my Wify and my family. It is strange, but it is so. I hope that you are not suffering from that abominable pain in your jaw and are not over-tiring yourself. God grant that my Little One may be quite well on my return!" - from Nicholas, written September 22, 1914
"Oh my sweetheart, what an intense joy it was when your precious letter was brought to me, & I thank you for it from all my heart. It was good of you writing." - from Alexandra, written September 23, 1914
"My warmest thanks for your sweet letter. ... The words you write are always so true, and when I read them their meaning goes right to my heart, and my eyes are often moist. It is hard to part, even for a few days, but letters like yours are such joy that it is worth while parting for the sake of them." - from Nicholas, written September 23, 1914
"My beloved Darling, from all my heart I thank you for your sweet letter. Your tender words touched me deeply and warmed my lonely heart. ... How utterly shameful that the Germans have shut the little Grand Duchess of Luxemburg in a castle near Nuremberg, — such an insult! ... Sweetheart, I hope you sleep better now, I cannot say that of myself, the brain seems to be working all the time and never wanting to rest. Hundreds of ideas and combinations come bothering one and then we are never alone together." - from Alexandra, written September 24, 1914
"... I still cannot take medicins wh. is a great nuisance, as my head daily aches tho' not very strongly and I feel my heart, tho it is not enlarged, but I must keep still rather quiet today. ... This miserable war, when will it ever end? ... It makes my heart bleed when I think how hard Papa and Ernie struggled to bring our little country to its present state of prosperity in every sense. ... All my prayers and tenderest thoughts follow you; may God give you courage, strength, and patience, faith you have more than ever and it is this wh. keeps you up — yes prayers and implicid trust in God's mercy alone give one strength to bear all. And our Friend [Rasputin] helps you carry yr. heavy cross and great responsibilities — and all will come right, as the right is on our side. ... I bless you, kiss your precious face, sweet neck and dear loving handies with all the fervour of a great loving heart. How lovely to have you soon back again." - from Alexandra, written September 25, 1914
"My love of loves, my very own One, again the hour of separation is approaching & the heart aches with pain. ... Oh, how I shall miss you — I feel so low these days already & the heart so heavy — it's a shame as hundreds are rejoicing to see you soon — but when one loves as I do — one cannot but yearn for one's treasure. Twenty years to-morrow that you reign & that I became Orthodox! How the years have flown, how much we have lived through together. ... Once more forgive your Sunny if in any way she has grieved or displeased you, & believe it never was willingly done. ... Oh my love, if you want me to meet you, send for me & O. & T. Somehow we see so little of each other & there is so much one longs to talk over & ask about, & at night we are tired out & in the morning are hurrying." - from Alexandra, written October 20, 1914
"... It seems so unnatural your going off all alone — everything is queer without you, our centre, our sunshine. I gulped down my tears and hurried off to the hospital and worked hard for two hours. ... Oh, my love, how lonely it is without you! What a blessing we took Holy Communion before you left — it gave strength and peace. What a great thing it is to be able to take holy Sacrament at such moments and one longs to help others to remember that God gave this blessing for all — not as a thing that must be done obligatorily once a year in Lent — but whenever the soul thirsts for it and needs strength. When I get hold of people alone who I know suffer much — I always touch this subject and with God's help have many a time succeeded in making them understand that it is a possible and good thing to do and it brings relief and peace to many a weary heart. ... It seems to me this is one of the chief duties of us women to try and bring people more to God, to make them realise that He is more attainable and near to us and waiting for our love and trust to turn to Him. Shyness keeps many away and false pride — therefore one must help them break this wall." - from Alexandra, written October 21, 1914
"Good morning my treasure. I prayed so much for you in the little Church this morning. ... It was so sad kneeling there all alone without my treasure, that I could not help crying. ... Slept badly, kissed your cushion and thought much of you." - from Alexandra, written October 22, 1914
"I gave my good night kiss to your cushion and longed to have you near me — in thoughts I see you lying in your compartment, bend over you, bless you and gently kiss your sweet face all over. — oh my Darling, how intensely dear you are to me; — could I but help you carrying your heavy burdens, there are so many that weigh upon you." - from Alexandra, written the same day
"Good night my sunshine, my huzy sweet, sleep peacefully and feel wify's presence ever near you full of love." - from Alexandra, written October 23, 1914
"I slept much better this night, only need to begin more heartdrops I feel, as chest and head ache." - from Alexandra, written October 25, 1914
"Please don't be angry with me, and give me some sort of an answer by wire — that you 'approve' or 'regret' my mixing in — and whether you think Kniazhevitch a good candidate, it will quieten me." - from Alexandra, written the same day
"Tomorrow it's a week we parted, and the longing that fills my heart is great. I miss my angel terribly, but get strength by remembering the joy of all who see you and your contentment at being out there." - from Alexandra, written October 26, 1914
"Oh, this miserable war! At moments one cannot bear it any more, the misery & bloodshed break one's heart; faith, hope & trust in God's infinite justice & mercy keep one up. — In France things go very slowly — but when I hear of success & that the Germans have great losses, I get such pang in the heart, thinking of Ernie & his troops & the many known names. All over the world losses! ... Life is difficult to understand — 'It must be so — have patience', that's all one can say. — One does so long for quiet, happy times again! But we shall have long to wait before regaining peace in every way. It is not right to be depressed, but there are moments the load is so heavy & weighs on the whole country & you have to carry the brunt of it all. I long to lessen your weight, to help you carry it — to stroke your brow, press you to myself. But we show nothing of what we feel when together, which happens so rarely each keeps up for the other's sake & suffers in silence — but I long often to hold you tight in my arms & let you rest your weary head upon my old breast. We have lived through so much together in these 20 years — & without words have understood each other. My brave Boy, God help you, give strength & wisdom, comfort & success." - from Alexandra, written October 27, 1914
"At last I am able to write a few lines to thank you for your sweet letters, the sight of which on my table makes my old heart jump for joy!" - from Nicholas, written October 27, 1914
It was also during the war years that Alexandra's obsession with Rasputin reached an all-time high. She began passing on to Nicholas not just advice and stories from him, but also things that he had touched or blessed in the hope that it would give her husband good luck.
"This is the wire I just received from our Friend: 'When you comfort the wounded, God makes his name famous through your gentleness and glorious work.' So touching and must give me strength to get over my shyness." - from Alexandra, written November 21, 1914
"Our Friend's blessing and prayers will help. Such a comfort for me that you saw and were blessed by him this evening." - from Alexandra, written February 27, 1915
"I send you your Image from our Friend of St John the Warrior, which I forgot to give yesterday morning. ... I have been rereading what our Friend wrote when he was at Constantinople, it is doubly interesting now — quite short impressions. Oh, what a day when mass will again be served at St Sophie." - from Alexandra, written April 5, 1915
"I send you a stick (fish holding a bird), which was sent to Him [Rasputin] from New Athos to give to you — he used it first and now sends it to you as a blessing — if you can sometimes use it, would be nice and to have it in your compartment near the one Mr Ph* touched." - from Alexandra, written June 14, 1915
"Remember to keep the Image in your hand again and several times to comb your hair with His [Rasputin's] comb before the sitting of the ministers." - from Alexandra, written September 15, 1915
"I send you an apple and flower from our Friend — we all had fruit as a goodbye gift. He left this evening — quietly, saying better times are coming and that he leaves spring-time with us. He told her [Anna] He finds Ivanov would be good as Minister of War on account of his great popularity not only in the army, but all over the country. In that He is certainly right — but you will do what you think best. I only asked He should pray for success in your choice, and He gave this answer." - from Alexandra, written March 14, 1916
"During the evening Bible I thought so much of our Friend, how the bookworms and pharisees persecute Christ, pretending to be such perfections (and how far they are from it now). Yes, indeed, a prophet is never acknowledged in his own country. And how much we have to be grateful for, how many prayers of His were heard. And when there is such a Servant of God, the evil crops up around Him to try and do harm and drag him away. If they but knew the harm they do, why He lives for His Sovereign and Russia and bears all slanders for our sakes." - from Alexandra, written April 5, 1916
"How I wish you could have come for 2 days only, just to have got our Friend's blessing, it would have given you new strength. I know you are brave and patient — but human — and a touch of His on your chest would have soothed much pain and given you new wisdom and energy from Above — these are no idle words — but my firmest conviction." - from Alexandra, written October 12, 1916
"I feel cruel worrying you, my sweet, patient Angel — but all my trust lies in our Friend, who only thinks of you, Baby and Russia. And guided by Him we shall get through this heavy time." - from Alexandra, written October 31, 1916
"... God who is all love and mercy has let the things take a change for the better, just a little more patience and deepest faith in the prayers and help of our Friend — then all will go well." - from Alexandra, written December 4, 1916
In September 1914, Alexandra set out to put her deep and heartfelt desire to help suffering people to its greatest use yet: she began training to work as a Red Cross nurse, taking Olga, Tatiana as well as Anna Vyrubova with her, and eventually the four women received official nurses' uniforms and diplomas declaring them certified war nurses, and they went to work. The Catherine Palace was now being used as a military hospital, and there was also the Feodorovsky Infirmary.
Above: Alexandra in her nurse's uniform.
Above: The Catherine Palace. It was used as a military hospital during the First World War. Photo courtesy of W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons.
Above: The Feodorovsky Infirmary. Photo by Helen Azar.
Above: Alexandra with Olga and Tatiana as nurses.
Above: Alexandra with Olga, Tatiana, and Anna Vyrubova as nurses.
Above: Alexandra with Vera Gedroitz.
Alexandra was fearless, witnessing and even participating in surgeries, changing bandages, etc. Her daughters did so as well, although after a year, the deeply sensitive Olga became too overwhelmed with stress to continue working in the operating theater. Maria and Anastasia, who, at ages 15 and 13, were still too young to become nurses, visited the hospitals to entertain, talk with and cheer up the wounded soldiers, who treasured their company and their mother's presence and care. Whenever Alexandra was feeling too ill to come to the hospital, she missed her work and the patients. Although she loved taking care of them in and of itself, it probably gave her some comfort and distraction from her agony at her husband's near-constant absences, and, as we will see later, comfort and distraction from something else.
"Arriving at the hospital shortly after nine in the morning we went directly to the receiving wards where the men were brought in after having first-aid treatment in the trenches and field hospitals. ... Our hands scrubbed in antiseptic solutions, we began the work of washing, cleaning, and bandaging maimed bodies, mangled faces, blinded eyes, all the indescribable mutilations of what is called civilized warfare. ... I have seen the Empress of Russia in the operating room of a hospital holding ether cones, handling sterilized instruments, assisting in the most difficult operations, taking from the hands of the busy surgeons amputated legs and arms, removing bloody and even vermin-infected dressings, enduring all the sights and smells and agonies of that most dreadful of all places, a military hospital in the midst of war. She did her work with the humility and the gentle tirelessness of one dedicated by God to a life of ministration." - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
"To some it may seem unnecessary my doing this, but I can much better then look after my hospital here, and help is much needed, and every hand is useful, and it does one good, and draws one's thought away from much sorrow." - a writing of Alexandra
"Looking after wounded is my consolation & that is why the last morning I even wanted to go there, whilst you were receiving, so as to keep my spirits up & not break down before you. To lessen their suffering even in a small way helps the aching heart." - Alexandra in a letter to Nicholas, dated September 19, 1914
"It does one no end of good being with those brave fellows — how resignedly they bear all pain and loss of limbs! 'Christ suffered, so we must suffer too' — many such a word do you hear from the lips of a suffering soldier." - Alexandra in a letter to William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, dated January 20/February 2, 1915
"One forgets everything in looking after those heroes & their appalling wounds & then my health invariably breaks down." - Alexandra in a letter to her brother Ernst, dated April 17/30, 1915
In addition to taking care of the soldiers' injuries, the deeply religious Alexandra also tended to their emotional and spiritual needs, often lovingly taking the weeping men by their bandaged hands and kneeling at their bedsides to pray with them. She felt morally obligated to help not just them, but other people affected by the war.
"The Empress literally shirked nothing. Sometimes when an unfortunate soldier was told by the surgeons that he must suffer an amputation or undergo an operation which might be fatal, he turned in his bed calling out her name in anguished appeal. 'Tsaritsa! Stand near me. Hold my hand that I may have courage.' Were the man an officer or a simple peasant boy she always answered the appeal. With her arm under his head she would speak words of comfort and encouragement, praying with him while preparations for the operation were in progress, her own hands assisting in the merciful work of anesthesia. The men idolized her, waited for her coming, reached out bandaged hands to touch her as she passed, smiling happily as she bent over their pillows. Even the dying smiled as she knelt beside their beds murmuring last words of prayer and consolation."
"In the last days of November 1914, the Empress left Tsarskoe Selo for an informal inspection of hospitals within the radius of her especially chosen district. ... She went to towns surrounding Tsarskoe Selo and southward as far as Pskov. ... From there she proceeded to Vilna, Kovno, and Grodno, in which city she met the Emperor and with him went on to Dvinsk. The enthusiasm and affection with which the Empress was met in all these places and in stations along the route beggars description. A hundred incidents of the journey crowd my memory, each one worth the telling had I the space to include them in this narrative. I remember, for example, the remarkable scene in the big fortress of Kovno, where acres of hospital beds were assembled and where the tall figure of the Empress, moving through those interminable aisles, was greeted like the visit of an angel. I never recall that journey without remembering the hospital at Grodno, where a gallant young officer lay dying of his wounds. Hearing that the Empress was on her way to the hospital, he rallied unexpectedly and declared to his nurses that he was determined to live until she came. Sheer willpower kept life in the man's body until the Empress arrived, and when, at the door of the hospital, she was told of his dying wish to see her, she hurried first to his bedside, kneeling beside it and receiving his last smile, his last gasping words of greeting and farewell." - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
"She lost her shyness in her nurses,' dress. She felt she was one of many, and to all in the hospital she showed herself in her true light and as her home circle knew her." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"In accordance with old Russian tradition there is no dining-room in the Alexander Palace. Meals are served sometimes in one room, sometimes in another, according to circumstances. To-day the table — a round, old-fashioned family table — was laid in the library, where the sun, sparkling reflections of the snow and bright views down the garden created a light-hearted atmosphere.
I was on the Empress's right and General Pau on her left. ...
The conversation was quite free and natural, but nevertheless dragged a little.
The Empress looked very well: she was obviously making a special effort to be gracious and smiling. She returned several times to the same subject Rasputin discussed so warmly with me — the endless chain of suffering the war means to the poor, and the political and moral duty of helping them." - Wednesday, March 3, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
Above: Alexandra as a nurse with some of her patients.
But this was not Alexandra's only experience with taking care of an ill and/or injured person other than Alexei. Alexandra's long-time friend, a Georgian princess, Sonia Orbeliani, who arrived at court in 1898 at age 23, was ill with a chronic, degenerative spinal disease that she died from in December 1915. Throughout that time, Alexandra took great care of Sonia, tending to her every need and want. At the end, as Sonia lay unconscious, the Empress stayed with her, and Sonia died in her arms.
"Princess Orbeliani was very small, fair, with distinctive features, a good sportswoman, clever, amusing, and a very fine musician. She attracted the Empress by her frank, unaffected manners and high spirits, and in her turn formed an intense attachment to Alexandra Feodorovna, which was, of course, increased by all the Empress did for her during her long illness — a form of spinal disease, which made her practically a cripple towards the end. The Empress had a great moral influence over her, and it was she who led the doomed woman, who knew what was awaiting her, to the attainment of that wonderful Christian submission with which she not only patiently bore her malady but managed to keep a cheerful spirit and keen interest in life. For nine long years, whatever her own health was, the Empress never paid her daily visit to her children without going to Sonya's rooms ... When Sonya had an acute attack of illness, which happened from time to time, the Empress went to her not only several times a day but often at night when she was very ill: indeed no mother could have been more loving. Special carriages and special appliances were made for Sonya, so that she could share the general life as if she were well, and she followed the Empress everywhere. Alexandra Feodorovna made her feel that she was a privileged person, so afraid was she that she might realise that she had become, instead of the help she had been, only one person more needing the Empress's care." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"The death of the Empress's devoted lady-in-waiting, Princess Sonia Orbeliani, in December 1915, was, as well as being a great personal grief, a loss to her in other ways. Though she had been an invalid for years ... she did not give in, though she knew that her days were numbered, and kept to the last an intense interest in life. When she could no longer serve her beloved Empress actively, Princess Orbeliani did all she could to help her socially, putting her in touch with people who would interest her, and talking to her frankly, never fearing to give her an honest and even unfavorable opinion. ... Sonia Orbeliani died after a short illness. The Empress never left her during the last day. She had promised her friend to close her eyes when she died, and she kept her promise. Sonia died in her arms, thanking her Empress and friend with her last smile for all she had been to her. The Empress saw to all details of the funeral, fulfilled her dear friend's last wishes, and wrote to all the relations herself. She came to the first memorial service (panihida) in her nurses' dress. 'Don't be astonished to see us dressed as sisters,' she wrote me, 'but I hate the idea of going into black for her this evening and feel somehow nearer to her like this, like an aunt, more human, less Empress.' Late that same evening the Empress joined me in the room where the coffin lay. She sat down beside it, looking into the quiet, dead face, and stroking Sonia's hair, as if she were asleep. 'I wanted to be a little more with Sonia,' she said. When she left the room, her face was bathed in tears. She felt the loss of the 'true heart,' as she called Sonia in a letter to her sister, adding 'All miss her sorely.'" - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"I must have a person to myself, if I want to be my real self. I am not made to shine before an assembly — I have not got the easy nor the witty talk one needs for that. I like the internal being, and that attracts me with great force. As you know, I am of the preacher type. I want to help others in life, to help them to fight their battles and bear their crosses." - Alexandra in a letter to Princess Maria Bariatinsky, dated November 23, 1905
Above: Sonia Orbeliani. Photo courtesy of Wolfgang Wiggers on Flickr.
Above: Alexandra with Sonia, year 1906.
At the same time, someone else was now in need of help. Nicholas had returned early from Stavka with Alexei, who had a terrible nosebleed that lasted for two days. Alexandra's desperate, anxious fear that Alexei might suffer a bleed while away from her had come true.
"Thursday, December 16th, Aleksey Nicolaievich, who had caught cold the previous day and was suffering from a heavy catarrh in the head, began to bleed at the nose as a result of sneezing violently. I summoned Professor Feodorov but he could not entirely stop the bleeding. ... During the night the boy got worse. His temperature had gone up and he was getting weaker. ... The next morning we were on our way back to G.H.Q., but the boy's state was so alarming that it was decided to take him back to Tsarskoe-Selo. ... Our journey was particularly harrowing, as the patient's strength was failing rapidly. We had to have the train stopped several times to be able to change the plugs. Aleksey Nicolaievich was supported in bed by his sailor Nagorny (he could not be allowed to lie full length), and twice in the night he swooned away and I thought the end had come. Towards morning there was a slight improvement, however, and the haemorrhage lessened. At last we reached Tsarskoe-Selo. It was eleven o'clock. The Tsarina, who had been torn with anguish and anxiety, was on the platform with the Grand-Duchesses. With infinite care the invalid was taken to the palace. The doctors ultimately succeeded in cauterizing the scar which had formed at the spot where a little blood-vessel had burst. Once more the Tsarina attributed the improvement in her son's condition that morning to the prayers of Rasputin, and she remained convinced that the boy had been saved thanks to his intervention." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
"The poor child had to be supported day and night in a half-sitting posture, and could scarcely speak. The Empress was in an agony. Always calm on the surface, she lived over again in remembrance the hours at Spala in 1912. Again the last remedy — the prayers of the Healer — was called for. The Staretz came, prayed for the child, touched his face, and, almost immediately after, the bleeding ceased. The doctors tried to explain the medical reasons for this, but the mother had seen that all their efforts had failed, and that Rasputin had succeeded. The Tsarevich recovered, and the reputation of the Staretz as a man with heaven-sent powers stood higher than ever." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"When the Empress received the dreadful news, her first concern was to send for Rasputin. She poured out her whole soul to him on her child's behalf. The staretz immediately bowed his head in prayer. After a short supplication he said, with a proud ring in his voice:
'Thanks be to God! He has given me your son's life once more....'
The following day, December 18, the train reached Tsarskoe Selo, during the morning. Early that morning the Tsarevitch's condition had suddenly improved, the fever abated, his heart beat more strongly and the hæmorrhage became less rapid. By the evening of that day the nasal wound had healed over.
How could the Empress fail to believe in Rasputin?" - Saturday, December 25, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
Above: Rasputin.
Above: Alexei with Pierre Gilliard.
As was mentioned earlier, Alexandra's work as a war nurse probably was giving her comfort and distraction for another, bigger reason than just missing her husband. Biographer Robert K. Massie is of the opinion that, because Alexandra was powerless to ease her son's suffering, she might as well do what she could for others:
"The compulsion to fight other people's battles and to help bear their crosses stemmed in part from Alexandra's own frustration. Nothing is more discouraging and debilitating than to be permanently confronted with a situation which never changes and which cannot be changed, no matter how hard one tries. Frequently, mothers of hemophiliacs experience an overwhelming urge to throw themselves into helping others who can be helped. Many of the problems of this world, unlike hemophilia, hold out some promise of hope. By helping others, Alexandra was actually trying to keep a grip on her own faith and sanity." - from Nicholas and Alexandra (1967), written by Robert K. Massie
Alexei was not the only person whom Rasputin would seemingly carry back from death's door. Earlier, in January 1915, Anna Vyrubova was severely injured in a train accident and hospitalised. Her legs were broken, and she also had head injuries. Rasputin would come to heal her too:
"At the end of the journey to Tsarskoe Selo I dimly recognized the Empress and the four Grand Duchesses who had come to the station to meet the train. Their faces were full of sympathy and grief, and as they bent over me I found strength to whisper to them 'I am dying.' I believed it because the doctors had said so, and because my pain was so great. Then came the ordeal of being lifted into the ambulance and the half-consciousness that the Empress was there too, holding my head on her knees and begging me to have courage. After that came an interval of darkness out of which I awoke in bed and almost free from pain. The Empress, who, with my parents, remained near me, asked me if I would like to see the Emperor. Of course I replied that I would, and when he came I pressed the hand he gave me. Dr. Gedroiz, who was in charge of the ward, told everyone coldly to take leave of me as I could not possibly live till morning. ...
Later on, I do not know exactly when, I opened my eyes quite clearly, and saw standing beside my bed the tall, gaunt form of Rasputin. He looked at me fixedly and said in a calm voice: 'She will live, but will always be a cripple.'" - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
Not long after, Rasputin was hit by a car, but walked away unscathed other than a minor head injury. A year earlier in 1914, a deformed prostitute had stabbed him below the stomach, but he needless to say survived, and his long stay in hospital prevented him from intervening in affairs and trying unsuccessfully to talking Nicholas out of going to war with Germany.
Above: Rasputin.
"The Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovitch ... died yesterday at Pavlovsk, where he was living a very retired life.
At six o'clock to-day the body was transferred with great pomp to the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, in the fortress, which is both the Bastille and Saint-Denis of the Romanovs. ...
The ceremony is only the prelude to the solemn obsequies and, for the orthodox liturgy, was comparatively short, though it took not less than an hour.
The Emperor, the Dowager Empress, the Empress, the Grand Dukes, Grand Duchesses and all the princes and princesses of the imperial family were there on the right of the catafalque; the diplomatic corps was grouped beside them.
... the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna stood rigid, nervously working her hands. Her face was veined like marble and every now and then she turned deathly pale, and her uneven and jerky breathing made her bosom heave. ...
Then came the Emperor's four daughters. Olga, the eldest, continually cast an anxious glance towards her mother.
By a departure from the usages of the Orthodox Church, three chairs had been placed behind the two Empresses and the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. To the Empress Alexandra standing is torture, and four times was she compelled to sit down. On each occasion she covered her eyes with her hand, as if in apology for her weakness. Instead of giving way, the two ladies next to her held themselves better than ever — this mute protest contrasting the grand manner of the previous reign with the degeneration of the present Court." - Saturday, June 19, 1915, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"Taking advantage of the Emperor's visit to Tsarskoe Selo I have asked him for an audience to discuss Rumania and the general situation; he will receive me to-morrow, with the customary ceremonial.
But yesterday evening he very kindly informed me that a series of cinematograph films of scenes from the French front would be shown to his children to-day, and he asked me to be present, quite privately and informally, my official audience remaining fixed for to-morrow.
I reached Tsarskoe Selo at five o'clock. The apparatus was placed in the large rotunda drawing-room. In front of the screen were three armchairs and a dozen or so small chairs. The Emperor and Empress entered almost immediately, accompanied by the young Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevitch ... The Emperor was in field uniform, the Empress and her daughters in woollen dresses, as plain as possible; the other ladies were in walking dress. It was the Imperial Court in the ungarnished simplicity of its daily life.
The Emperor made me sit between the Empress and himself. The lights were put out, and the performance began.
I was greatly moved by this long series of pictures and episodes, such truthful, vivid, pathetic and eloquent expressions of the French effort! ...
The Empress said little, as usual, though she was as pleasant as possible. But how forced was her slightest compliment! What a wry twist there was in her smile!
I was alone with her during the interval of twenty minutes or so when tea was served, and the Emperor went off to smoke a cigarette in the next room. An interminable tête-à-tête! We talked about the war, its horrors, our inevitable victory, etc.; the Empress replied in short, jerky phrases, invariably agreeing with me, as if she were an automaton. The fixed and distant gaze made me wonder whether she was listening to me, or indeed heard me at all. I was horrified to think of the omnipotent influence this poor neurotic woman exercised on the conduct of affairs of State!" - Sunday, March 12, 1916, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
Meanwhile, the Russian defeats and losses and the war grew worse and worse; and by 1916, Alexandra's unwavering devotion to Rasputin was causing an already deep rift between herself and her older sister, the Grand Duchess Elisaveta. Although she was deeply religious herself and had become a nun and head of her own abbey after her husband Sergei's assassination in 1905 had left her a widow, she refused to believe in Rasputin's supernatural abilities and was mortified at what his influence had done to her sister. The damaging rumours, accusations and general hatred for him and Alexandra, as well as for Anna Vyrubova and, of course, Nicholas himself, ran rampant and were now worse than ever.
Above: Ella as a nun.
"There is a lack of warmth in the relations between the Grand Duchess Elizabeth and the Empress Alexandra. The original cause, or at any rate the principal reason, for their estrangement is Rasputin. In Elizabeth Feodorovna's eyes Grigory is nothing but a lascivious and sacrilegious impostor, an emissary of Satan. The two sisters have often had disputes about him which have several times led to an open quarrel. They never mention him now. Another reason for the coolness between them is their rivalry in piety and good works. Each of them claims superiority in knowledge of theology, observance of scriptural injunctions, meditations on the eternal life and adoration of the crucifix. The result is that the Grand Duchess Elizabeth's appearances at Tsarskoe Selo are rare and short." - Friday, October 2, 1914, from An Ambassador's Memoirs (1923), by Maurice Paléologue
"In the coldness of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, in my childhood such a friend to me and my family, her chilly refusal to listen to her sister's denial of preposterous tales of the political influence exerted by Rasputin, by the general animosity towards myself, I began dimly to realize that there was a plot to strike at her Majesty through Rasputin and myself. There was absolutely nothing I could do, and I had to watch with tearless grief the breach between the sisters grow wider and deeper until their association was robbed of most of its old intimacy." - from Memories of the Russian Court (1923), by Anna Vyrubova
"At last the Grand Duchess Serge [Elisaveta] came from Moscow. Even this saintly woman was now reviled and slandered by the seditious elements. She was frightened at the hostility displayed towards her sister, and implored her to send Rasputin to his home in Siberia, pointing out that his presence in Petrograd gave credibility to the report that he was influencing the Cabinet, the Empress, and even the politics of the country. But the Empress was obdurate. She would not believe in coming disaster. She kept her blind faith in the millions of Russia's peasant population. They would understand her faith in the Staretz, whose bodily presence seemed to her necessary to save the Tsarevich, to send him away when the child was continually liable to accidents or illness was impossible. Her son's life was at stake, as she thought, and her sister spoke to her in vain." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
This rift grew so wide that Alexandra eventually shut her sister out of her life:
"... In this tragic hour the Grand-Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna ... wished to make one last effort to save her sister. ... She had often tried to open her sister's eyes before, but in vain. Yet this time she hoped that God would give her the powers of persuasion which had hitherto failed her, and enable her to avert the terrible catastrophe she felt was imminent. As soon as she arrived at Tsarskoe-Selo she spoke to the Tsarina, trying with all the love she bore her to convince her of her blindness, and pleading with her to listen to her warnings for the sake of her family and her country. The Tsarina's confidence was not to be shaken. She realised the feelings which had impelled her sister to take this step, but she was terribly grieved to find her accepting the lying stories of those who desired to ruin the staretz, and she asked her never to mention the subject again. As the Grand-Duchess persisted, the Tsarina broke off the conversation. The interview was then objectless." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
It was the last time they ever saw each other.
Some people began to feel that, in order to restore dignity and glory to Russia, Rasputin would have to die, and that there was no other way to "save" the empire. In December 1916, Prince Felix Yusupov, who was the husband of Nicholas's niece Irina and had a reputation for being effeminate, bisexual and a drug user, decided to take matters into his own hands, along with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, conservative politician Vladimir Purishkevich and others. Their plot came to fruition on December 29, 1916, when Rasputin was called to the Moika Palace on the pretense of him being needed to do a blessing and healing for Irina. For almost 103 years the most popular and most widely believed version of the story has been that the men fed Rasputin wine and cakes that had been laced with a fatal dose of cyanide, and they were shocked that he kept eating without the poison making him ill and killing him, they shot him when he was distracted. Even this did not kill him, for he opened his eyes and rose to his feet and, upon realising that he had been tricked, tried to attack Felix, who alerted the others to the fact that Rasputin had survived the gunshot. Then, after he threatened to tell Alexandra what had been done to him, they chased him through the palace courtyard, where they shot him down. Then they wrapped him in a rug and threw him into the icy Neva River, where he was later found, and the cause of his death was identified as drowning.
But in reality, the gunshots did kill Rasputin, and he was already dead when thrown in the river. It has been theorised that agents of the British Secret Intelligence Service were involved in the murder, but this theory is not generally accepted by most historians.
Above: Prince Felix Yusupov with his wife Irina.
Above: Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich.
Above: Vladimir Purishkevich.
Above: The Moika Palace, where Rasputin was murdered. Photo courtesy of A. Savin via Wikimedia Commons.
On December 30 (Old Style date December 17), the Romanovs were informed that Rasputin had gone missing, and there was a search for him. They were all very alarmed at his sudden disappearance, and shortly after this, they were told that he had been killed, how he was killed, and who had killed him. Nicholas felt especially horrified and embarrassed that the killers were his own relatives, and so did Olga.
Alexandra was devastated by Rasputin's death. As far as she knew, now there was no one who could save her son. She was further despaired by his death because she knew that he had written that if he were to be killed by anyone in the Romanov family or their relatives, the immediate Imperial Family would not live for more than two years afterward, or that they would lose their power and Alexei within two years.
Above: Alexandra.
Above: Rasputin's grave. Photo courtesy of Monoklon via Wikimedia Commons.
"Cannot and won't believe He has been killed. God have mercy. Such utter anguish (am calm and can't believe it.)" - excerpt of a letter from Alexandra to Nicholas, written December 17 (O.S.), 1916
"Rasputin's death had been a shattering blow to the Empress. She had pinned all her faith on him as the saviour of her child. With Rasputin at hand she had been at rest about her boy, whose days she now felt were numbered." - from The Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna (1928), written by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
"I shall never forget what I felt when I saw the Tsarina again. Her agonised features betrayed, in spite of all her efforts, how terribly she was suffering. Her grief was inconsolable. Her idol had been shattered. He who alone could save her son had been slain. Now that he had gone, any misfortune, any catastrophe, was possible. The period of waiting began — that dreadful waiting for the disaster which there was no escaping..." - from Thirteen Years at the Russian Court (1921), written by Pierre Gilliard
Note: Mr Ph refers to a Monsieur Philippe, a mystic who was once an acquaintance of Nicholas and Alexandra and who was later exposed as a charlatan and banished.
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