Interesting facts from the life of kings. What on the River Thames belongs to Queen Elizabeth II? Alexander III and genealogy
120 years ago, on November 1, 1894, the 13th Russian Emperor died in the Livadia Palace in Crimea. Alexander III. The ruler, famous for his heroic strength, did not live a year before his 50th birthday.
The doctors' report stated that the cause of death was chronic nephritis with consistent damage to the heart and blood vessels, as well as a hemorrhagic infarction in the left lung. Experts agreed that the emperor developed kidney disease after a train accident in which a train carrying the royal family was involved in 1888. The roof of the carriage in which Alexander III was traveling collapsed and the tsar, according to eyewitnesses, held it on his shoulders until help arrived.
the site recalled interesting facts from the life of the emperor, who received the nickname “peacemaker.”
The story of the patch
Despite his more than noble position, which favored luxury, extravagance and a cheerful lifestyle, which, for example, Catherine II managed to combine with reforms and decrees, Emperor Alexander III was so modest that this trait of his character became a favorite topic of conversation among his subjects .
For example, there was an incident that one of the king’s associates wrote down in his diary. One day he happened to be next to the emperor, and then some object suddenly fell from the table. Alexander III bent down to the floor to pick it up, and the courtier, with horror and shame, from which even the top of his head turns a beetroot color, notices that in a place that is not customary to be named in society, the king has a rough patch!
It should be noted here that the tsar did not wear trousers made of expensive materials, preferring rough, military cut ones, not at all because he wanted to save money, as did the future wife of his son, Alexandra Fedorovna, who gave her daughters’ dresses to junk dealers for sale, after disputes were expensive. buttons. The emperor was simple and undemanding in his everyday life; he wore out his uniform, which should have been thrown away long ago, and gave torn clothes to his orderly to be repaired and mended where needed.
Alexander III was so modest that this trait of his character became a favorite topic of conversation. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Non-royal preferences
Alexander III was a categorical man and it was not for nothing that he was called a monarchist and an ardent defender of autocracy. He never allowed his subjects to contradict him. However, there were plenty of reasons for this: the emperor significantly reduced the staff of the court ministry, and reduced the balls that were given regularly in St. Petersburg to four per year.
Maria Feodorovna and Alexander III in Denmark. 1892 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The emperor not only demonstrated indifference to secular fun, but also showed a rare disregard for what brought pleasure to many and served as an object of cult. For example, food. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he preferred simple Russian food: cabbage soup, fish soup and fried fish, which he caught himself when he and his family went on vacation to the Finnish skerries.
One of Alexander’s favorite delicacies was “Guryevskaya” porridge, invented by the serf cook of the retired major Yurisovsky, Zakhar Kuzmin. The porridge was prepared simply: boil semolina in milk and add nuts - walnuts, almonds, hazel, then pour in creamy foam and generously sprinkle with dried fruits.
The tsar always preferred this simple dish to exquisite French desserts and Italian delicacies, which he ate over tea in his Annichkov Palace. The tsar did not like the Winter Palace with its pompous luxury. However, given the background of mended pants and porridge, this is not surprising.
The power that saved the family
The emperor had one destructive passion, which, although he struggled with it, sometimes prevailed. Alexander III loved to drink vodka or strong Georgian or Crimean wine - it was with them that he replaced expensive foreign varieties. In order not to injure the tender feelings of his beloved wife Maria Feodorovna, he secretly put a flask with a strong drink in the top of his wide tarpaulin boots and drank it when the empress could not see it.
Speaking about the relationship between spouses, it should be noted that they can serve as an example of reverent treatment and mutual understanding. For thirty years they lived in good spirits - the timid emperor, who did not like crowded gatherings, and the cheerful, cheerful Danish princess Maria Sophia Friederike Dagmar.
It was rumored that in her youth she loved to do gymnastics and performed masterly somersaults in front of the future emperor. However, the tsar also loved physical activity and was famous throughout the state as a hero man. 193 centimeters tall, with a large figure and broad shoulders, he bent coins and bent horseshoes with his fingers. His amazing strength even once saved the lives of him and his family.
In the fall of 1888, the royal train crashed at the Borki station, 50 kilometers from Kharkov. Seven carriages were destroyed, there were seriously wounded and dead among the servants, but the members royal family remained unharmed: at that time they were in the dining car. However, the roof of the carriage still collapsed, and, according to eyewitnesses, Alexander held it on his shoulders until help arrived. Investigators who found out the causes of the crash summed up that the family was miraculously saved, and if the royal train continues to travel at such speed, then a miracle may not happen a second time.
In the fall of 1888, the royal train crashed at Borki station. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
“I spit on him too”
It is curious, but although the emperor preferred the autocratic policies of his grandfather and did not support his father’s reforms, he could not be called a formidable king, despite his height and “basilisk look.”
Once, private soldier Oreshkin had too much alcohol in a tavern. He began to rage, shout and use foul language. When they tried to pacify and shame him, pointing to a portrait of the emperor hanging in the room, the soldier suddenly fell silent, and then, as if flying from a mountain, declared that he did not care about the king. The brawler was arrested and reported to Alexander. The tsar listened to those who spoke, thought about it, and ordered that his portrait no longer be hung in drinking establishments, and the soldier was released from prison and told that the emperor “didn’t give a damn about him either.”
Tsar-artist and art lover
Despite the fact that in everyday life he was simple and unpretentious, thrifty and even thrifty, huge amounts of money were spent on purchasing objects of art. Even in his youth, the future emperor was fond of painting and even studied drawing with the famous professor Tikhobrazov. However, the royal chores took a lot of time and effort, and the emperor was forced to leave his studies. But he retained his love for the elegant until last days and transferred it to collecting. It is not for nothing that his son Nicholas II, after the death of his parent, founded the Russian Museum in his honor.
The emperor provided patronage to artists, and even such a seditious painting as “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581” by Repin, although it caused discontent, did not become the reason for the persecution of the Wanderers. Also, the tsar, who was devoid of external gloss and aristocracy, unexpectedly had a good understanding of music, loved the works of Tchaikovsky and contributed to the fact that not Italian opera and ballets, but works of domestic composers, were performed on the theater stage. Until his death, he supported Russian opera and Russian ballet, which received worldwide recognition and veneration.
Son Nicholas II, after the death of his parent, founded the Russian Museum in his honor. Photo: www.russianlook.com
Emperor's Legacy
During the reign of Alexander III, Russia was not drawn into any serious political conflict, and the revolutionary movement became a dead end, which was nonsense, since the murder of the previous tsar was seen as a sure reason to start a new round of terrorist acts and a change in state order.
The emperor introduced a number of measures that made life easier for the common people. He gradually abolished the poll tax and paid special attention Orthodox Church and influenced the completion of the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Alexander III loved Russia and, wanting to fence it off from an unexpected invasion, strengthened the army. His expression “Russia has only two allies: the army and the navy” became popular.
The emperor also has another phrase: “Russia for Russians.” However, there is no reason to blame the tsar for nationalism: Minister Witte, whose wife was of Jewish origin, recalled that Alexander’s activities were never aimed at bullying national minorities, which, by the way, changed during the reign of Nicholas II, when the Black Hundred movement found support in the government level.
In honor of Emperor Alexander III Russian Empire About forty monuments were erected. Photo:
Any famous person Rumors surround him: the secret of his personal life, interesting to everyone, is reliably guarded by him, this gives rise to incredible legends. What can we say about the Russian tsars or Soviet leaders, in whose hands all power was concentrated. There was no shame in fighting for this power, killing, pretending to be killed. We do not know the whole truth - whether Alexander I faked his death, where the Grozny library is located, or whether Stalin really waited for his arrest in the first days of the war. Over time, answers to some of these questions may emerge. Others will remain unanswered forever. We present the top interesting legends about Russian rulers.
Alexander I and the Siberian elder Fyodor Kuzmich are one and the same person
The death of Russian Emperor Alexander I occurred in 1825 in Taganrog, he died of typhoid fever. This official history, there is also an unofficial one. This legend was reinforced by the fact that there were not many witnesses to the death (it did not happen in Moscow after all). Over the course of several weeks, dozens of different rumors appeared, talking about Alexander’s different fate, but not about death from typhoid fever. A variety of motives were mentioned, one of the most common: Alexander decided to fake his death in order to end his life as a simple wanderer, since he repented of being guilty of the death of his father, Emperor Paul. The Tsar, according to legend, went to Siberia and became the elder Fyodor Kuzmich. It seemed that the age matched exactly, the elder’s handwriting was similar to the tsar’s handwriting in personal letters, and the face of Alexander I at the funeral was very different from his face during his lifetime. Moreover, historians do not have a definite answer even today; there are scientists who consider it quite possible that Alexander faked his death.
There are rumors that Alexander II, while still in the status of crown prince, met with the elder. And Nicholas II, also not yet ascending the throne, visited the place where Fyodor Kuzmich was buried and ordered the construction of a stone chapel there. Fyodor Kuzmich himself left as a legacy to the supporters of the legend only four extremely strange notes, which the most undertook to decipher. different people. One of them, according to researcher V.V. Baryatinsky, says: “when the Alexanders are silent, the Pauls do not proclaim.” On the other, in his own opinion: “You see to what silence your happiness and your word have doomed you.” There are many rumors about the remains of Alexander in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. According to one version, the tomb there is empty, according to another, another person is buried there, according to a third, it was empty, but after the death of Fyodor Kuzmich, his body was allegedly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the tomb of Alexander. An examination of the remains of Alexander I, that is, opening the coffin, would help to understand the answer, but neither Soviet time, scientists did not receive permission for this in the post-Soviet period.
Joseph Stalin and the beginning of the war
One of the most famous legends concerns his behavior in the first days of the Great Patriotic War. The attack was a complete surprise for him, recalls Marshal Georgy Zhukov: “I saw him confused only once. It was June 22, 1941, when fascist Germany attacked our country. During the first day, he could not truly pull himself together and firmly direct events. The shock produced on J.V. Stalin by the enemy’s attack was so strong that the sound of his voice even lowered, and his orders for organizing armed struggle did not always correspond to the prevailing situation.” Zhukov also points out that at dawn that same day, Stalin thought that the German attack was a provocation of individual German units and demanded to contact the embassy with the words “Hitler probably doesn’t know about this.” However, when Molotov returned with a declaration of war, “Stalin silently sank into a chair and fell into deep thought.” Anastas Mikoyan also recalls the leader’s depressed state, explaining his refusal to address the people. At the same time, they write about Stalin’s “prostration” mainly with reference to the fall of Minsk on June 28, 1941. He did not appear in the Kremlin for three days, and when members of the Politburo went to see him in Kuntsevo without an invitation, Stalin decided that they were going to arrest him.
Anastasia Nikolaevna
Many people know the legend about the “miraculous rescue” of the daughter of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. The romantic story that a girl who escaped execution left Russia and appeared before her royal relatives formed the basis of many works of art and Hollywood films. And these stories were based on real attempts by various impostors to impersonate Anastasia. Some of them surrounded themselves with such attention and popularity that they made good money from it, others saw a good business model and tried to repeat this trick.
A rumor that one of the daughters managed to escape arose among emigrants in the early 20s of the last century. The fact is that the Bolsheviks initially announced only the execution of the Tsar, but then it became known that all family members had been killed. However, there was no confirmation of this - the bodies were hidden. A rumor appeared that Anastasia managed to escape from Ipatiev’s house. The most famous lady who took advantage of the secret death of the royal family was Anna Anderson. She claimed that a soldier named Tchaikovsky pulled her, wounded, out of the basement of Ipatiev’s house. And saved. And she bore him a child. She was never able to prove that she is the daughter of the Tsar, although even among academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences there are people who consider Anna Anderson (Tchaikovskaya) to be the daughter of the Tsar. The caravans of the false Anastasies stopped the remains of members of the royal family found by scientists. The investigator leading this case, Vladimir Solovyov, citing genetic research, indicates that Anastasia is among them.
By the way, legends circulated not only about the miraculous salvation of Anastasia, but also of other family members. One of the most original ones defines Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin as Tsarevich Alexei.
Library of Ivan the Terrible
Ivan IV is known primarily for his incredible cruelty, this is understandable. But at the same time he was well educated and one of the royal legends is connected with his library, which still cannot be found. This is a collection of books that once (according to legend) belonged to Byzantine emperors and was collected over many centuries. After the fall of Constantinople, this library (Liberea) went as a dowry with Princess Sophia Paleologus, who became the wife of Moscow Prince Ivan III. To prevent the books from burning in Moscow fires, it was decided to hide them in the basement under the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the Moscow Kremlin. There are suggestions that Tsar Ivan IV also added the library of Yaroslav the Wise to the Byzantine part of the collection. There is a list of books called “Dabelov’s List” that was published in 1834, its authenticity has not been confirmed. However, it lists many Latin and Greek works that have not reached us. The search for the library has been going on for several centuries. The first time Liberea was officially searched for was in 1724, then in late XIX century, and after and in the XX. The last time the Moscow City Hall allocated money for the search was in 1997. So far the meeting has not been found.
Peter III
The circumstances of the death of Peter III are vague; all that can be said with certainty is that he fell victim to palace coups. Immediately after the guard seized power on June 28, 1762, he, accompanied by a guard led by Alexei Orlov, was sent to the palace in Ropsha, which became his prison. Just a week later he died. The official cause of death was hemorrhoidal colic. An autopsy also showed heart problems and signs of a stroke. However, despite this, many believe that Peter III was killed by Alexei Orlov. There is supposedly a letter from Orlov to Catherine, which talks about this. There is no original, a copy was made by Count Fyodor Rostopchin, but it is now believed that it is a fake. Peter was buried without honors in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, since he was not crowned. This rite was performed posthumously by Paul and reburied his father along with his deceased mother, Catherine II, in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. As is usually the case, the dubious death of Peter led to the fact that many did not believe in his death. This led to the emergence of impostors. The most famous of them was the leader peasant war Emelyan Pugachev.
To understand how our ancestors lived in those days, we have prepared interesting facts about the Russian Empire. Before the revolution, Russian agriculture was in full bloom. In the two decades preceding the 1914-18 war, the grain harvest doubled. During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, Russia was the main breadwinner and supplier Western Europe. And the education was the best in the world.
20 Facts about the Russian Empire
1. On the eve of the 1st World War Russia produced 80 percent of the world's flax production.
2. Not a kilogram was a measure of weight in the Russian Empire, but a pood, weighing 16.38 kilograms.
3. Under Emperor Alexander III, large-scale work began on irrigating lands in Turkestan. Thanks to this, the cotton harvest in 1913 covered all the annual needs of the Russian textile industry. The latter doubled its production between 1894 and 1911.
4. Interesting fact: Emperor British Empire George the Fifth was a cousin of our Emperor Nicholas the Second.
5. Network railways in Russia covered 74 thousand kilometers, of which the Great Siberian Way (8 thousand kilometers) was the longest in the world.
6. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian Empire mined and processed within the country most oil in the world.
7. Over 37 years, from 1880 to 1917, 58 thousand kilometers of roads were built. For 38 years Soviet power, that is, by the end of 1956, only 36 thousand kilometers of roads were built.
8. By 1914, the Russian Empire had reached 1st place in terms of industrial production rates.
9. Children under 12 years of age were prohibited from working in production, and minors and women could not be hired for factory work between 9 pm and 5 am.
10. By the number of women studying in higher education educational institutions, Russian empire occupied first place in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century.
11. In 1913, Russia earned as much from the sale of butter abroad as from gold mining.
12. Confessions in the empire: Orthodox 69.5 percent Muslims 11.1 percent Catholics 9.1 percent Jews 4.2 percent
13. Russian Emperor Nicholas II in 1898 in The Hague was the first in the world to propose the idea of global disarmament.
14. Before the First World War, Russia produced as much bread as Canada and Argentina combined, and they themselves were leaders in this industry.
15. In the Russian Empire, as now in the United States, the free carrying of weapons was allowed. Before the revolution, weapons were bought in hunting stores.
16. Before the revolution, Russia was the most non-drinking country in Europe. Our country has traditionally been one of the most sober countries in Europe. In Europe, only Norway drank less than us. We were in second to last place in the world in per capita alcohol consumption for three centuries from the 17th to the beginning of the 20th century. And this is an indisputable fact.
17. Emperor Peter the Third (born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp) was German by birth: on his father’s side he was the great-nephew of the Swedish king Charles XII and was first raised as heir to the Swedish throne. When in 1751 he learned that his uncle had become the king of Sweden, he said: “They dragged me to this damned Russia, where I must consider myself a state prisoner, whereas if they had left me free, then now I would sit on the throne of a civilized people.
18. The largest class in the Russian Empire was the peasantry.
19. The famous fragrance “Chanel No. 5” was invented not by Coco Chanel, but by Russian emigrant perfumer Verigin, who worked in the Chanel perfume department together with native Muscovite Ernest Beaux.
20. In 1904, there were 21 million horses in Russia (around 75 million worldwide): 60% of Russian peasant farms had 3 or more horses.
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Alexander II (1818–1881) went after the bear with a spear and hated Moscow. Nicholas I (1825–1855) was the only non-smoking Russian Emperor. Alexander III
The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II (1868–1918) and Prince Nicholas of Greece (1872–1938)
Photo: State Archives Russian Federation, OK. 1899–1900
Alexander II (1818–1881) went after the bear with a spear and hated Moscow. Nicholas I (1825–1855) was the only non-smoking Russian Emperor. Alexander III (1881–1894) did not disdain “mater”, but he was the first of the tsars to address his subordinates as “you.” And Nicholas II (1868–1918) wrote down and carefully sketched absolutely all the jewelry that was ever given to him.
Of all the Emperors, only Nicholas I did not smoke. Accordingly, the people working with him also did not smoke. And those who worked with those who worked did not smoke either. Those who worked with those who worked with those who worked did not smoke either. And so on. Therefore, smokers were treated very poorly throughout his reign. Smoking was prohibited even on the streets and squares. The rest of the emperors smoked. It is curious that Empresses Catherine and Elizabeth loved snuff. They were both right-handed, but they always took tobacco from snuff boxes with their left hand - tobacco turned the skin on their hand yellow, and therefore the left hand is yellow and smells of tobacco, and the right hand is for kissing.
This is a snuff box from the erotic collection of Nicholas I:
By the way, he is very happily married and began collecting an erotic collection as a hobby. This is not surprising. Each of our subsequent emperors continued to collect this collection. And Alexander II, and Alexander III, and Nicholas II.
Passionate hunter Alexander II killed his first bear at the age of 19. And not with a gun, but with a spear. He threw his hat over the bear and forward. The collection of the Gatchina Arsenal contains the spears with which Alexander went to hunt the bear.
The diary entries about the hunting of Nicholas II are surprising. It felt like he had some kind of complex that he was breaking down during the hunt. Here are some entries.
January 11, 1904: “The duck hunt was very successful - a total of 879 were killed.”
Buchanan recalled that on one of the hunts, Nicholas II killed 1,400 pheasants.
In 1900, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Nikolai killed 41 bison. And in Belovezhskaya Pushcha he went hunting every year. It is interesting that the German Emperor Wilhelm II persistently asked Alexander III to go hunting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, but Alexander never took Wilhelm with him. Alexander had a strong dislike for William.
The photo shows Nicholas II after his next deer hunt. It's not that simple there either. It was forbidden to shoot deer and those with less than 10 branches in the antlers.
When at the beginning of the First World War in Russia they began to intern the Germans who were in the Russian service of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, they took all but two. One of these two lucky ones was Nikolai's hunter and royal huntsman Vladimir Romanovich Dits.
Alexander III always emphasized his Russianness. Addressing everyone as “you,” he did not disdain using Russian language to speed up his subordinates or express his feelings to them in Russian. When communicating with his subordinates, he had no posture - he was very simple, like a simple Russian person. Then this beard is his. And he himself liked to be Russian. Although he had no illusions on this score. His mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were German princesses. They say that when he read the “Notes” of Catherine II and learned from them that the father of his great-grandfather Paul I was not Peter III, but an ordinary Russian nobleman, he was very happy. Peter the Third was a Holstein-Gottorp prince, and a Russian nobleman was still Russian - this greatly increased his, Alexander’s, share of Russian blood. Hence the joy.
Alexander I addressed his subordinates as “you,” but this was due to the fact that at court they mostly communicated in French, when they switched to Russian, they invariably switched to “you”. Nicholas I said “you” to everyone. Alexander II and his brothers treated their subordinates in the same way. Subordinates were very afraid when Alexander II addressed them as “you” - this meant an official tone and the beginning of a scolding and thunderstorm. The first king who began to say “you” to his subordinates was Alexander III.
Wha-oh?? Me - in this? Single breasted? What are you talking about? Don’t you know that no one fights in single-breasted clothes anymore? Ugliness! War is at our doorstep, but we are not ready! No, we are not ready for war! ©
On the New Year, 1845, Nicholas I gave his 22-year-old daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, a royal gift - she became the chief of the 3rd Elisavetgrad Hussar Regiment. The bomb was there - in the uniform that Olga was now supposed to wear on such occasions. The fact is, like any woman, Olga wanted it to be beautiful, but her father wanted it to be according to the Charter. Olga didn’t want embroidered chakchirs, didn’t want a saber, didn’t want trousers, but wanted a skirt. The conflict was serious. Women are very flexible. They can forgive, forget, sacrifice and, in general, whatever they want, but they cannot wear clothes that they do not like. Olga did not like the saber - a completely understandable desire of a 22-year-old girl. A compromise was found in an exchange: Nikolai agreed to a skirt. Olga was so happy that she agreed to the saber.
Alexander II was rapidly losing his reputation because of this second marriage to Ekaterina Dolgoruka. They got married when forty days had not yet passed since the death of his first wife. And she was not a match for him, and stupid, and by calculation on her part, and much, much more. Relatives, society, those closest to him - everyone began to turn away from him because of this. The most radical options were considered by hotheads. Why did He marry her??? It turns out that he promised to marry her in front of the icon.
His two youngest sons, Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mikhail, were sent by their father, Nicholas I, to Crimean War to the front. Since they were sent to the front not for show, but to inspire the soldiers, things were very real there - bullets whistled and shells exploded. The guys really fought there. Shoulder to shoulder with grown men. Nikolai was 23 years old at that time, Mikhail was 21.
Alexander II hated Moscow. Despite the fact that he himself was born in it - in the Chudov Monastery - he did not love it and could not stand it. I tried to leave it as quickly as possible and return as often as possible. I'm trying to imagine myself in his place in this sense. It’s not about hating Moscow (:-)), but about hating my hometown, the city where I was born - St. Petersburg. It doesn’t turn out very well and it’s not clear how this could be.
Alexander III was just born in St. Petersburg. But he also said that he hated his hometown - St. Petersburg. The happiest time of the year for him was Easter, when they left for Moscow. He loved Moscow very much. I enjoyed going there and didn’t want to go back. He didn’t even live in St. Petersburg - he and his family lived in Gatchina. But this is rather due to the fact that in big St. Petersburg he could easily be killed by terrorists, like his father, and in small Gatchina this was impossible to do, but he left St. Petersburg as soon as he moved away from his dying father.
The children of the kings learned foreign languages in large numbers. They spoke to their relatives, monarchs and princely houses of Europe without translators. Plus the wife’s parents, mother-in-law and father-in-law, with whom it is also advisable to speak Danish, like Alexander III. Therefore, teaching children foreign languages was very intensive. At the request of Empress Maria Feodorovna, in 1856, Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gorchakov prepared a memorandum on the education of the Grand Dukes. Regarding foreign languages, Gorchakov believed that the Emperor’s children should be taught Russian, then French and German languages. Gorchakov especially noted that there is no need to teach children English - no one speaks it in Europe anyway. Now it would be so! We, Francophiles, would rejoice :-)
Nicholas I was the first to speak Russian at the Court. Under Alexander II, French returned, but even with him his son, the future Alexander III, but for now Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich, spoke Russian. Alexander III emphasized his Russianness in every possible way. He even couldn’t stand the Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna because she spoke Russian very poorly, with a monstrous accent - the wives of the Grand Dukes, mostly German princesses, were forced to learn this Russian at their wedding age, and therefore who he learned it well, and some, like Ekaterina Mikhailovna, poorly. The Tsar did not like her very much and called her children “poodles.”
This is Alexander III. He is in almost all photographs with a big beard. His father Alexander II long before Turkish war By his Decree he forbade the wearing of beards - he did not like them. And no one wore it. Look at the portraits of nobles and officials of that time - not a single one has a beard. Mustaches, sideburns - please, but the chin is bare. But it started Russian-Turkish war and during the war, the Tsar allows those who wish to grow a beard. And everyone was released. Including the future Alexander III. However, immediately after the war, Alexander II again forbade wearing beards - “to get yourself in order,” as Alexander writes in the Decree. And again everything was shaved off. Only one person did not shave - his son Alexander Alexandrovich. So I always wore a beard after that. And when he was the Grand Duke and after, when he became a king. To put it mildly, the relationship between father and son was rather cool. They didn't get along very well - father and son.
Nicholas II manically kept rather detailed notes. Diaries and albums are sometimes full of such completely unimportant details that it seems that the author is sick. This is how I see the famous “Jewelry Album” of Nicholas II. In it he wrote down absolutely all the jewelry that had ever been given to him. Not only did he write who gave it, but he also carefully sketched what was given to him. 305 entries. Wow. Here, for example, is one of the album pages. The jewelry that will interest you most was given to Nikolai by Alix:
Among the Russian emperors there is hardly a more ambiguous and mysterious figure than Peter the Great. This ruler took the throne in 1682 and reigned for 43 years, establishing himself as talented, energetic and at the same time ruthless. statesman. It is not surprising that almost every interesting fact about Peter 1 becomes the object of heated debate among historians. What is known about this extraordinary person?
Interesting fact about Peter 1: height and physique
If historical documents do not lie, the emperor had a height that many modern basketball players would envy. An interesting fact about Peter 1 says that the ruler was taller than two meters. This is all the more surprising considering his “modest” shoe size: 38.
Strange, but the legendary ruler of the Russian Empire could not boast of a strong physique. As historians found out, this man wore size 48 clothes. Descriptions of the autocrat's appearance left by his contemporaries indicate that he was narrow-shouldered and had a disproportionately small head.
Marriage to a peasant woman
Another interesting fact about him concerns his personal life. As you know, the king was married twice. His first wife was a girl of noble birth, while his second was a peasant daughter. Empress Catherine's actual name was Martha, the empress's mother and father were ordinary Livonian peasants, and she herself managed to work as a laundress.
This origin of his wife did not matter to the ruler; she was the only love of his life. It is curious that the autocrat even cared about Catherine-Martha’s opinion about the events taking place in the state. He not only asked her opinion on important issues, but also often followed the advice he received.
The fight against drunkenness
The next interesting fact about Peter 1: the king was one of the fierce opponents of alcoholism. The ruler began to fight the drunkenness of his subjects in 1714 with his characteristic humor. He came up with the idea of “awarding” incorrigible alcoholics with medals.
Perhaps, world history I did not know a heavier medal than the one invented by the joker emperor. Cast iron was used to create it; even without a chain, such a product weighed about 7 kg or even a little more. The award was presented at the police station where alcoholics were taken. She was placed around her neck using chains. Moreover, they were securely fastened, excluding independent removal. The awarded drunkard had to pass in this form for a week.
Strange hobbies
Many interesting facts about Peter 1 are related to his hobbies, among which there were some very unusual ones. For example, one of the passions of the autocrat who ruled Russia was medicine. In particular, he was very fascinated by the mysteries of dentistry, the process of pulling out teeth. It’s funny, but people who had exceptionally healthy teeth were often forced to become “patients” of this royal dentist.
However, not all the crafts that Peter tried to master during his long life obeyed him. At one time the emperor tried to learn, but nothing worked out for him. Since then, he respected the “sages” who managed to master the science that seemed so difficult to him.
Anecdotal decrees
Behavior, appearance, habits of subjects - there is hardly a sphere left human life, which Peter 1 did not affect with his decrees. Interesting Facts from the life of the tsar they report that the greatest indignation of the boyars was caused by his order regarding beards. The ruler, who wanted to establish European orders in Russia, categorically ordered that facial hair be shaved off. The protesters were forced to submit over time, since otherwise they would face a huge tax.
The most famous king also issued many other humorous decrees. For example, one of his orders was a ban on appointing people with red hair to government positions.
Peter 1 also managed to become famous as a fighter against national costumes. Interesting facts from the life of the sovereign confirm that among his decrees there was an order to wear European clothing. It was he who forced the fair sex to wear low-cut dresses instead of sundresses, and men to wear camisoles and short pants.
Rumors of illegitimacy
In the distant past, there were also people who doubted whether Tsar Peter 1 had the right to the Russian throne. Interesting facts from the biography of the ruler claim that there were rumors in the state about his illegal origin. Detractors insisted that the empress, who had the honor of becoming the mother of one of the most famous sovereigns of Russia, was cheating on her husband.
The evidence given by proponents of this theory can hardly be called compelling. It turns out that almost all the children who were born to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, his official father, were distinguished by fragile health. Peter the Great was the only exception, which gave rise to rumors.
What to tell children
Some details from the life of the sovereign may seem interesting to the younger generation. Many wonderful things would never have appeared in Russia if it were not for Peter 1. Interesting facts for children are related to potatoes. The inhabitants of our country were not familiar with this vegetable until the king brought it from Holland. The first attempts to introduce potatoes as everyday food were unsuccessful. The peasants tried to eat it raw, without thinking of baking or boiling it, and as a result they abandoned this tasty and nutritious vegetable.
Tulips are beautiful flowers, the cultivation of which also began in the state at the request of Peter the Great. The autocrat brought the bulbs of these plants to the country from Holland, where he spent quite a lot of time. The emperor even organized a “garden office”, the main goal of which was the introduction of overseas flowers.
Rumors of substitution
The most interesting facts about Peter 1 are not connected with potatoes and tulips. They relate to a trip he took at the age of 26 with the Grand Embassy. Eyewitnesses claim that a young man of heavy build, with a mole located on his left cheek, left his native lands. He showed respect for everything related to Russian culture, knew the Bible practically by heart, and demonstrated education and erudition.
Why did the people decide that it was not the real tsar who returned to Russia after this trip? Some of the sovereign's contemporaries insist that after a two-year absence, he began to poorly understand the Russian language and have a negative attitude towards everything connected with primordially Russian customs. In addition, he acquired many new skills that he physically could not have acquired during the trip. Finally, the mole on his cheek disappeared, and he looked like a 40-year-old man.
The Tsar's childhood
Fascinating details are known not only about the years of the reign of the famous emperor. Interesting facts from the childhood of Peter 1 are no less interesting for historians studying his personality. It turns out that during this period the sovereign could not live without noisy games, to which he devoted most of his day. He could get so carried away that he refused to stop for food and drink.
It was in childhood that the king became friends with someone who would be his devoted associate and confidant throughout his life. We are talking about Alexander Menshikov, who participated in all the childish amusements of the future emperor. Interestingly, the ruler was not at all embarrassed by the absence good education from a statesman.
This is what the most look like fascinating facts from the life of a great ruler.