Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires (25 page)

Alexandra arrived at the Winter Palace separately from the guests. She had been staying with Ella at her palace but traveled to the palace that morning with the dowager empress. Their arrival was met with genuine exuberance from the people who had packed the streets. Inside the palace, she was dressed for her wedding by the women of the Russian imperial family, the Princess of Wales, and the dowager empress. The beautiful gold mirror Alexandra stood in front of was used by every Russian grand duchess on her wedding day. Her wedding gown properly befitted an empress. Made from cloth of silver, it included a double ermine-lined mantle. Over her shoulders rested a brocade of white silk trimmed with strawberry velvet and a gold inlay. Her jewelry was equally dazzling. Atop her head sat the sparkling nuptial crown surrounded by sweet-scented orange blossoms brought from Poland. Most special of all was the ring she wore on one of her fingers, which was a gift from Queen Victoria.

“I don’t think I can move,” Alexandra muttered at one point. “I’m pinned to the ground.”

“Yes, I know how heavy it all is,” the dowager empress told her. “But I’m afraid it’s only one of the lesser weights that need to be borne by a Russian empress.”
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During the dressing, a ceremonial catastrophe almost took place when the court hairdresser—the only person prescribed by imperial etiquette who could fasten the bride’s crown upon her head—was over an hour late, having been denied entry to the palace by police. Rumors quickly spread that something was amiss. They were only silenced when, finally, a resplendent Alexandra emerged from her dressing room.

Walking side by side with Minnie and followed by the Romanov women and the imperial courtesans, Alexandra made her way to the green Malachite Hall where the tsar was waiting. It was Nicholas II’s first major public appearance as tsar, and he showed signs of nervousness. He trembled with anticipation in his red Hussar uniform knowing that—in just a few short hours—his darling Alexandra would be his wife. Alexandra wrote to her sister Ella that day, “One day in deepest mourning lamenting a beloved one, the next in smartest clothes being married. There cannot be a greater contrast, but it drew us more together, if possible.”
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Once the bride and groom arrived, the entire imperial court assembled in the hall for the procession to the chapel. “The gentlemen of the court were all in gala uniform,” reported the
New York Times
, “and the ladies were dressed in court costume of strawberry color, trimmed with velvet of a similar shade, with long trains, and wearing long white veils.”
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The first member of the wedding procession to enter the chapel after the 150 Gentlemen of the Chamber was Empress Marie Feodorovna, on the arm of her father, King Christian IX of Denmark. It was a bittersweet day for Minnie, who was also celebrating her forty-seventh birthday. Alexandra was not unsympathetic toward her mother-in-law’s plight. She later described to Queen Victoria that “poor Aunt Minnie is alone. She is an angel of kindness and is more touching and brave than I can say.”
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After Minnie and Christian IX entered, Nicholas and Alexandra followed them, arm in arm, walking under an honor guard with sabers high in the air. When the entire procession filed into the chapel, the ceremony began. It was an exotic, almost mystic service conducted by the metropolitan of Saint Petersburg, the Holy Synod, and the clergy of the court. As the bride and groom held lighted candles at the altar, an estimated eight thousand guests watched them in silent awe.

The two-hour ceremony went off perfectly and was concluded with yet another gun salute, this time numbering 301 shots, shortly before 1:00 p.m. George sent Queen Victoria a glowing report.

Dear Alicky looked quite lovely at the Wedding … she went through it all with so much modesty but was so graceful and dignified at the same time, she certainly made a most excellent impression … I do think Nicky is a very lucky man to have got such a lovely and charming wife … I must say I never [saw] two people more in love with each other or happier than they are. When they drove from the Winter Palace after the wedding they got a tremendous reception and ovation from the large crowds in the streets, the cheering was more hearty and reminded me of England.
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George did not forget to send a report to May. “I think Nicky is a very lucky man,” he wrote. “I told them both that I could not wish them more than that they should be as happy as you and I are together. Was that right?”
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Queen Victoria’s thoughts were on Russia and Alexandra that day. In the evening, the queen gave a banquet at Windsor Castle in honor of the new tsarina. Alexandra’s new position instantly made her one of the most powerful women in the world, which filled her grandmother with a sense of awe: “How I thought of darling Alicky, and how impossible it seemed that gentle little simple Alicky should be the great Empress of Russia!”
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Charlotte Knollys, wife of the private secretary to the British royal family, felt the same as Queen Victoria, but hers was of a much more scathing opinion: “What a change! A little scrubby Hessian Princess—not even a Royal Highness & now the Empress of the largest Empire in Europe!”
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Knollys’s comment seems more an insult to Alexandra than actually attacking the House of Hesse, since Hessian and other low-ranking German royals had been supplying Russian empresses for over a century.

The day after the new tsar and tsarina were married, people were still talking about the wedding. In Saint Petersburg, some forty thousand soldiers took off their hats simultaneously as a sign of respect. When they appeared in public, both Nicholas and Alexandra strained under the weight of so many onlookers. It was a painful experience for the painfully shy Alexandra, who recorded that she felt like a bird in a cage. Some of the people, many of whom were superstitious because of the nature of the Russian Orthodox faith, began to distrust their new empress. “She comes to us behind a coffin,” they murmured.
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In the days and weeks that followed, the newlyweds were busy answering messages of congratulations. It took nearly a week for them to escape for anything close to a honeymoon. They managed to spend four days at Tsarskoe Selo (“the tsar’s village”) fifteen miles outside Saint Petersburg. One of the most magical places in Europe, Tsarskoe Selo was its own imperial town filled with gardens, palaces, and parks. It was eighteen miles in circumference and dotted by lakes, forests, and other creations. It contained “a collection of boats of all nations, varying from a Chinese sampan to an English light four-oar; from a Venetian gondola to a Brazilian catamaran.”
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It was also one of the most state-of-the-art locations in all of Russia. Guarded by a garrison of five thousand soldiers, it possessed “the only town-wide electrical system in the country, the first railway, a telegraph and radio station, and the most advanced water and sewage system in the whole of Russia.” By contrast, “Most Russian villages had no running water or drains.”
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When in residence at Tsarskoe Selo, Nicholas and Alexandra stayed in one of two enormous buildings: the Catherine Palace, built in 1752 by the Empress Elizabeth; and the Alexander Palace, constructed by Catherine the Great in 1792. The tsarina took a liking to the heavily colonnaded Alexander Palace and truly made it her own, decorating it with English chintz. Most of the furniture itself was ordered from Maples in London. Outside of Windsor and Balmoral, the Alexander Palace was the happiest home Alexandra would ever know.

7
“Only Give Me a Chance”
 

(1895–1901)

T
sarina Alexandra’s private life in Russia was filled with contentment. She and Nicholas enjoyed a love-filled marriage overflowing with passion. They constantly wrote love notes to one another. In Alexandra’s diary, Nicky poured out his feelings: “Ever more and more, stronger and deeper, grow my love and devotion, and my longing for you. Never can I thank God enough for the treasure he has given me for my VERY OWN—and to be called yours, darling, what happiness can be greater? … No more separations. At last united, bound for life, and when this life is ended we meet again in the other world to remain together for all eternity. Yours, yours!”
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Alexandra was just as head over heels. “I can assure you that I never thought one could be as happy as I am now,” she wrote to her brother-in-law Prince Louis of Battenberg. For the first time since her mother died, Alexandra felt loved and secure, as if all the sorrows of the past were washed away at her wedding. She admitted this to Louis: “life is so different to what it was in the past—though there may be many difficulties, and all is not easy when one comes first into a new country and has to speak another language yet in time I hope I shall be of some help and use.”
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The love Nicholas and Alexandra shared soon expanded to include their first child. In November 1895, the tsarina went into labor at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. So anticipated had this birth been that a bevy of doctors and nurses waited on the empress, including the court accoucheur, Professor Ott, and the imperial chief surgeon, Dr. Girsh. The delivery was an agonizing one, largely due to the fact that the baby was a number of weeks late, and Alexandra was a slim woman with tiny hips. At one point, the doctors gave Nicholas the horrifying news that they may lose both mother and child without direct intervention. After sixteen hours of labor, a cesarean section was successfully performed. A healthy ten-pound baby girl was delivered, who was named Olga Nicholaievna. A sense of disappointment swept through Saint Petersburg when the 101-cannon salute signaled the birth of a daughter. Sons were more highly prized than daughters, since women had been ineligible to rule Russia since Catherine the Great. She was so loathed by her son, Paul I, that he changed the law so that no woman could ever rule unless all other male members of the dynasty, from great uncles to third cousins, were dead. This did not dampen Nicky and Alexandra’s spirits. Princess Maud of Wales, the couple’s mutual cousin, wrote, “Nicky is now a happy father, but it is a pity it was not a boy!”
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There was a general excitement in Britain over the birth, since Olga was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. It was hoped Olga’s birth would lead to better relations between Great Britain and Russia. The
Daily Telegraph
wrote that Olga’s arrival was “received with much friendly interest in this country, where all that concerns the present and future of Russia is the subject of intelligent and sympathetic appreciation.”
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Few were surprised when Queen Victoria was asked to be the godmother. Alexandra’s recovery was incredibly slow, and many in Russia did not expect her to survive. To the surprise of many, she rallied and was soon able to enjoy her new daughter. “You can imagine our intense happiness now that we have such a precious little being of our own to care for and look after,” Alexandra wrote to one of her sisters.
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In autocratic Russia, the accession of a new tsar was a deeply significant event that impacted all facets of society, including politics, religion, and foreign affairs. There was nothing greater to cement the unitary nature of the tsar with all aspects of Russian life than the coronation. It was the sort of event that Alexandra had always dreaded. The thought that she was to play such a public role in the spectacle undoubtedly preyed upon her fears. When the time came, she and Nicholas set off on the four-hundred-mile journey to the city of Moscow. If Saint Petersburg—founded in 1703 by Peter the Great—was Russia’s link to its future with Europe, Moscow was its tie to the past. The city’s iconic onion-domed buildings framed a cityscape of churches, palaces, and other ornately designed buildings decorated in mosaics of red, blue, and gold. In the backdrop, the mighty Kremlin complex was a silent reminder of the power of the Orthodox Church and the state. The coronation would bind the new sovereigns to the people in a most religious way, cementing the idea of Nicholas as the
Batiushka Tsar
, but signs of the already emerging gulf between Alexandra and the Russian people were evident when the imperial family made its ceremonial entrance into Moscow. The tsarina rode alone in her own carriage behind her husband and mother-in-law. Nicholas was greeted with cheers; Minnie received shouts of hurrah; but when Alexandra came through, a hush fell over the crowds, reducing her to tears. “Silence—an ominous silence,” wrote one of her biographers. “Not open jeering, or insults, but the quiet of rejection.”
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One witness to the early days of Nicholas II’s reign wrote that his wife “was not born to be Empress of one of the largest countries on the face of the earth.”
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The scale of the coronation was extraordinary. “A gang of princes” came from all over Europe, but in keeping with court tradition no reigning monarchs were invited so that no one with equal rank to the tsar would be in attendance.
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Seven thousand invited guests flocked into Moscow. Almost a million more stood in the streets to watch the procession. To run smoothly, the event required no less than “1300 full time servants and 1200 part time. The livery division required 600 horses and 800 coachmen with horses and carriages. Guards came from 83 battalions, 47 squadrons and hundreds of batteries.”
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Nicholas was the first to be crowned on May 26, 1896, in what would turn out to be a five-hour ceremony at the Cathedral of the Assumption. After receiving the diamond-and-ruby crown that had first been worn by Catherine the Great, Nicholas II’s grand titles were announced by the deacon: “Nicholas Alexandrovich, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, Tsar of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod.” The list went on to include all the provinces, territories, and fiefs over which the tsars claimed lordship: “Poland, Finland, Bulgaria, Tver…Semigalia, Samogotia, Armenia and the Mountain Princes.”
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After Nicholas’s crowning and proclamation, it was his wife’s turn. When the moment came, Alexandra acquitted herself well, though her nerves were certainly tested. For most of the long ceremony, the tsar and tsarina sat on their thrones, staring out into the crowds, their faces motionless and without expression. One witness drew a sharp contrast between the tsar and his wife. While Nicholas looked overwhelmed by his imperial mantle, Alexandra, “stood steadily upright, her crown did not appear to crush her.… [but] even at this supreme hour no joy seemed to uplift her, not even pride; aloof enigmatic, she was all dignity but she shed about her no warmth. It was almost a relief to tear one’s gaze from her.”
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The dowager empress also wrote about the coronation, telling her mother “how
gripping
and solemn it all
was
! My heart truly bled to see my Nicky at this,
so young
, in his beloved father’s place.”
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That night, as the tsar and his wife stepped out onto the balcony of the mighty Kremlin before an excited crowd of thousands, the palace’s facade was illuminated by thousands of tiny bulbs.

What should have been an otherwise joyous event was marred by disaster. A few days after the coronation, a mob of four hundred thousand people assembled at the Khodynka field to celebrate the tsar and his wife. By the evening, an estimated one million people had converged on the field for the revelry. What started out as a festive atmosphere, with hundreds of thousands drinking from mugs adorned with the imperial crest, soon erupted into bedlam when a rumor circulated that the officials ran out of food and drink. Almost immediately, the masses panicked. Drunk and unruly, they threw off their restraints and went into a frenzy. Men, women, and children were literally trampled to death by the alcohol-induced panic on a field lined with artillery trenches. Vladimir Giliarovsky, a reporter for the
Russian Gazette
, was at Khodynka that day. His account from several days later is a haunting description of the tragedy. “Steam began to rise,” he recalled, “looking like the mist over a swamp.… Many felt faint, some lost consciousness.” All around him people were “fighting for breath, vomiting, succumbing to the irresistible pushing and jostling. There was no wind, no moon. Only the suffocating congestion, which worsened as dawn approached.” One of the survivors of the massacre recalled what happened next. “A mass of people half a million strong staggered with all its unimaginable weight in the direction of the buffets,” he wrote. “People by the thousands fell in a ditch and ended up literally on their heads at the bottom. Others fell straight after them, and more, and more.…”
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When the dust on the field finally settled, witnesses became ill at the sight of hundreds of lifeless, bloodied corpses. The official death toll was estimated at 1,389, with another 1,300 injured.

The imperial family was horrified beyond words. “The
dreadful
accident … was appalling beyond all description, and has … draped a
black veil
over all the splendor and glory!” Minnie wrote to her mother. “Just imagine
how many
poor unfortunate people were
crushed
and fatally injured.”
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In the aftermath, Nicholas and Alexandra rushed to the hospitals to be with the injured. Nicholas paid out of his own pocket for the burial of every person who died at Khodynka. The finger of blame was pointed squarely at the tsar’s uncle Grand Duke Serge, who had been responsible for the preparations that day. It was widely known that Serge neglected to properly prepare the field because he quarreled with another court official over protocol for the event. When the tsar announced he was launching an investigation into the tragedy, Serge browbeat him into calling it off by threatening to boycott the imperial court if he was implicated. “How outrageous can you get!” wrote the tsar’s incredulous cousin Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich. “If only the Emperor were sterner and stronger!”
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Neither the tsar nor his wife felt it was appropriate to hold any further coronation festivities, but once again, Nicholas II’s formidable uncles pressured him into submission. They practically forced him and Alexandra to attend a ball held by the French ambassador. It was imperative that the tsar attend, the grand dukes insisted, since the ambassador had spent more than half a million rubles on the ball and Nicholas’s absence could be taken as a snub. France was Russia’s only European ally—the two powers had signed a treaty in 1892. Nicky’s uncles warned him that snubbing the French ambassador would earn bitter recriminations from Paris. Browbeaten, Nicholas agreed to make an appearance at the ball. Many criticized Alexandra for agreeing to attend with her husband, but her heart was broken for the victims and their families. Crown Princess Marie of Romania, one of her cousins who was no fan of the tsarina, wrote years later, “No doubt many that night considered the Empress heartless because she went to a ball on the evening of the great disaster, yet God alone knows how much rather she would have stayed at home to pray for the dead!”
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The months that followed the coronation were particularly miserable ones for Alexandra. A few weeks before leaving for Moscow, she excitedly told Nicholas she was pregnant again. Early reports from her doctors indicated she was carrying a boy. In an effort to avoid the close scrutiny brought about by her first pregnancy, Alexandra chose to tell only her husband, their immediate family, and a few of her ladies-in-waiting. Sadly for Alexandra, the emotional strain of the coronation and her overwhelming grief from the Khodynka tragedy taxed her body. According to one historian, her “body rebelled,” and she miscarried the baby. “What had begun in joy,” the same historian wrote, “and celebration was ending in a season of disaster, with the crown of the Romanovs tarnished by tragedy and the heir to the throne, the boy whose existence Alix had kept as her secret, lost in a swirl of blood.”
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Her critics used this tragedy as an excuse to heap insults upon the empress. They claimed she had become pregnant by a lover and aborted the fetus to cover up her infidelity—“a malevolent distortion of the reality of her miscarriage.”
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