Nicholas 2nd (May 18, 1868 - July 17, 1918) - the last Russian emperor, son of Alexander 3rd. He received an excellent education (studied history, literature, economics, jurisprudence, military affairs, perfectly mastered three languages: French, German, English) and ascended the throne early (at 26) due to the death of his father.

Let's supplement the short biography of Nicholas II with the history of his family. On November 14, 1894, the German princess Alice of Hesse (Alexandra Fedorovna) became the wife of Nicholas 2nd. Soon their first daughter Olga was born (November 3, 1895). In total, the royal family had five children. Daughters were born one after another: Tatyana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). Everyone expected an heir who was to take the throne after his father. On August 12, 1904, the long-awaited son was born to Nikolai, they named him Alexei. At the age of three, doctors diagnosed him with a severe hereditary disease - hemophilia (blood incoagulability). Nevertheless, he was the only heir and was preparing to rule.

On May 26, 1896, the coronation of Nicholas II and his wife took place. During the holidays, a terrible event took place, called Khodynka, as a result of which 1282 people died in a stampede.

During the reign of Nicholas II in Russia there was a rapid economic recovery. The agricultural sector has strengthened - the country has become the main exporter of agricultural products in Europe, a stable gold currency has been introduced. The industry was actively developing: cities grew, enterprises and railways were built. Nicholas 2nd was a reformer, he introduced a standardized day for workers, provided them with insurance, and carried out reforms in the army and navy. The emperor supported the development of culture and science in Russia.

But, despite significant improvements, there were popular unrest in the country. In January 1905, an event took place, the stimulus for which was. As a result, October 17, 1905 was adopted. It talked about civil liberties. A parliament was created, which included the State Duma and the State Council. On June 3 (16), 1907, the Third-June coup took place, which changed the rules for elections to the Duma.

In 1914, it began, as a result of which the state inside the country worsened. Failures in battles undermined the authority of Tsar Nicholas II. In February 1917, an uprising broke out in Petrograd, reaching grandiose proportions. March 2, 1917, fearing mass bloodshed, Nicholas II signed the act of abdication.

On March 9, 1917, the Provisional Government arrested all of them and sent them to Tsarskoye Selo. In August they were transported to Tobolsk, and in April 1918 - to their last destination - Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 16-17, the Romanovs were taken to the basement, the death sentence was read out and the execution was carried out. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that none of the royal family managed to escape.

The future Emperor of All Russia Nicholas II was born on May 6, 1868, on the day of the holy righteous Job the Long-suffering. He was the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna. The upbringing he received under the guidance of his father was strict, almost harsh. “I need normal healthy Russian children” - such a requirement was put forward by the Emperor to the educators of his children. And such an upbringing could only be Orthodox in spirit. Even as a small child, the Heir to the Tsarevich showed a special love for God, for His Church. He received a very good education at home - he knew several languages, studied Russian and world history, was deeply versed in military affairs, and was a widely erudite person. Emperor Alexander III had a program of comprehensive preparation of the Heir to the performance of royal duties, but these plans were not destined to be fully realized ...

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (Princess Alice Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice) was born on May 25 (June 7), 1872 in Darmstadt, the capital of a small German duchy, by that time already forcibly included in the German Empire. Alice's father was Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her mother was Princess Alice of England, the third daughter of Queen Victoria. In infancy, Princess Alice - at home her name was Alix - was a cheerful, lively child, receiving the nickname "Sunny" (Sunny) for this. The children of the Hessian couple - and there were seven of them - were brought up in deeply patriarchal traditions. Their life passed according to the rules strictly established by their mother, not a single minute should have passed without work. The clothes and food of the children were very simple. The girls themselves lit the fireplaces, cleaned their rooms. Mother tried from childhood to instill in them qualities based on a deeply Christian approach to life.

Alix suffered her first grief at the age of six - her mother died of diphtheria at the age of thirty-five. After the tragedy, little Alix became withdrawn, aloof, and began to shun strangers; she calmed down only in the family circle. After the death of her daughter, Queen Victoria transferred her love to her children, especially to the youngest, Alix. Her upbringing, education was now under the control of her grandmother.

The first meeting of the sixteen-year-old Heir of the Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich and the very young Princess Alice took place in 1884, when her older sister, the future Reverend Martyr Elizabeth, married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the uncle of the Tsarevich. A strong friendship began between the young people, which then turned into a deep and ever-growing love. When in 1889, having reached the age of majority, the Heir turned to his parents with a request to bless him for marriage with Princess Alice, his father refused, citing the youth of the Heir to refuse. I had to come to terms with my father's will. In 1894, the unshakable determination of the son, usually gentle and even timid in communication with his father, Emperor Alexander III gives his blessing for marriage. The only obstacle was the transition to Orthodoxy - according to Russian laws, the bride of the Heir to the Russian throne must be Orthodox. A Protestant by upbringing, Alice was convinced of the truth of her confession and at first was embarrassed by the need to change her religion.

The joy of mutual love was overshadowed by a sharp deterioration in the health of his father, Emperor Alexander III. A trip to the Crimea in the autumn of 1894 did not bring him relief, a serious illness was inexorably taking away strength ...

On October 20, Emperor Alexander III died. The next day, in the palace church of the Livadia Palace, Princess Alice was joined to Orthodoxy through Chrismation, receiving the name Alexandra Feodorovna.

Despite the mourning for the father, it was decided not to postpone the marriage, but it took place in the most modest atmosphere on November 14, 1894. The days of family happiness that followed were soon replaced by the need for the new Emperor to take on the entire burden of governing the Russian Empire.

The early death of Alexander III did not allow to complete the preparation of the Heir to the duties of the monarch. He had not yet been fully introduced to the course of higher state affairs; after ascending the throne, he had to learn a lot from the reports of his ministers.

However, the character of Nikolai Alexandrovich, who was twenty-six years old at the accession to the throne, and his worldview by this time were completely determined.

The faces that stood close to the courtyard marked his lively mind - he always quickly grasped the essence of the issues reported to him, an excellent memory, especially for faces, the nobility of his way of thinking. But the Tsarevich was overshadowed by the powerful figure of Alexander III. Nikolai Alexandrovich, with his gentleness, tact in addressing, and modest manners, gave the impression to many of a man who did not inherit the strong will of his father.

The guide for Emperor Nicholas II was his father's political testament: “I bequeath you to love everything that serves the good, honor and dignity of Russia. Protect autocracy, remembering that you are responsible for the fate of your subjects before the Throne of the Most High. Faith in God and the holiness of your royal duty be the foundation of your life for you. Be firm and courageous, never show weakness. Listen to everyone, there is nothing shameful in this, but listen to yourself and your conscience.

From the very beginning of his reign as a power of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II treated the performance of the duties of the monarch as a sacred duty. The sovereign deeply believed that even for the one hundred million Russian people, royal power was and remains sacred. He always had the idea that the Tsar and Tsaritsa should be closer to the people, see them more often and trust them more.

The year 1896 was marked by coronation celebrations in Moscow. The crowning of the kingdom is the most important event in the life of the monarch, especially when he is imbued with deep faith in his vocation. The sacrament of chrismation was performed over the royal couple - as a sign that, just as there is no higher, there is no harder on earth royal power, there is no burden heavier than royal service, the Lord ... will give strength to our king (1 Sam. 2,10). From that moment on, the Sovereign felt like a true Anointed One of God. Betrothed to Russia since childhood, he seemed to have married her that day.

To the great sorrow of the Sovereign, the celebrations in Moscow were overshadowed by the disaster at the Khodynka field: a stampede occurred in the crowd waiting for the royal gifts, in which many people died. Having become the supreme ruler of a vast empire, in whose hands all the fullness of legislative, executive and judicial power was practically concentrated, Nikolai Alexandrovich took upon himself an enormous historical and moral responsibility for everything that happened in the state entrusted to him. And the Sovereign considered one of his most important duties the preservation of the Orthodox faith, according to the word of Holy Scripture: “the king ... made a covenant before the face of the Lord - to follow the Lord and keep His commandments and His revelations and His statutes with all my heart and with all my soul” (2 Kings 23, 3). A year after the wedding, on November 3, 1895, the first daughter, Grand Duchess Olga, was born; it was followed by the birth of three daughters full of health and life, who were the joy of their parents, Grand Duchesses Tatiana (May 29, 1897), Maria (June 14, 1899) and Anastasia (June 5, 1901). But this joy was not without an admixture of bitterness - the cherished desire of the Royal couple was the birth of an Heir, so that the Lord would add days to the days of the king, extend his years into generation and generation (Ps. 60, 7).

The long-awaited event took place on August 12, 1904, a year after the pilgrimage of the Royal Family to Sarov, to the celebration of the glorification of St. Seraphim. It seemed that a new bright streak began in their family life. But already a few weeks after the birth of Tsarevich Alexy, it turned out that he was sick with hemophilia. The child's life hung in the balance all the time: the slightest bleeding could cost him his life. The suffering of the mother was especially strong ...

Deep and sincere religiosity singled out the Imperial couple among the representatives of the then aristocracy. From the very beginning, the upbringing of the children of the Imperial family was imbued with the spirit of the Orthodox faith. All its members lived in accordance with the traditions of Orthodox piety. Compulsory attendance at divine services on Sundays and holidays, fasting during fasts were an integral part of the life of Russian tsars, for the tsar trusts in the Lord, and in the goodness of the Almighty he will not waver (Ps. 20, 8).

However, the personal religiosity of Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich, and especially his wife, was something indisputably more than simple adherence to traditions. The royal couple not only visit churches and monasteries during their many trips, venerate miraculous icons and relics of saints, but also make pilgrimages, as was the case in 1903 during the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Brief services in the court churches no longer satisfied the Emperor and the Empress. Especially for them, services were performed in the Tsarskoye Selo Feodorovsky Cathedral, built in the style of the 16th century. Here, Empress Alexandra prayed in front of the lectern with open liturgical books, carefully following the progress of the church service.

The Emperor paid great attention to the needs of the Orthodox Church throughout his reign. Like all Russian emperors, Nicholas II generously donated to the construction of new churches, including those outside Russia. During the years of his reign, the number of parish churches in Russia increased by more than 10 thousand, more than 250 new monasteries were opened. The emperor himself participated in the laying of new churches and other church celebrations. The personal piety of the Sovereign was also manifested in the fact that during the years of his reign more saints were canonized than in the previous two centuries, when only 5 saints were glorified. During the last reign, St. Theodosius of Chernigov (1896), St. Seraphim of Sarov (1903), Holy Princess Anna of Kashinskaya (restoration of veneration in 1909), St. Joasaph of Belgorod (1911), St. Hermogenes of Moscow (1913), St. Pitirim of Tambov (1914), St. John of Tobolsk (1916). At the same time, the Emperor was forced to show special perseverance, seeking the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, Sts. Joasaph of Belgorod and John of Tobolsk. Emperor Nicholas II highly honored the holy righteous father John of Kronstadt. After his blissful death, the tsar ordered a nationwide prayer commemoration of the deceased on the day of his repose.

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, the traditional synodal system of governing the Church was preserved, but it was under him that the church hierarchy got the opportunity not only to widely discuss, but also practically prepare the convocation of the Local Council.

The desire to introduce Christian religious and moral principles of one's worldview into public life has always distinguished the foreign policy of Emperor Nicholas II. Back in 1898, he addressed the governments of Europe with a proposal to convene a conference to discuss issues of maintaining peace and reducing armaments. This resulted in peace conferences in The Hague in 1889 and 1907. Their decisions have not lost their significance to this day.

But, despite the sincere aspiration of the Sovereign to the First World, during his reign Russia had to participate in two bloody wars, which led to internal unrest. In 1904, without declaring war, Japan began hostilities against Russia - the result of this difficult war for Russia was the revolutionary turmoil of 1905. The Sovereign perceived the unrest that took place in the country as a great personal grief ...

In an informal setting, few spoke with the Sovereign. And everyone who knew his family life firsthand noted the amazing simplicity, mutual love and consent of all members of this closely knit family. Aleksey Nikolayevich was its center; all attachments, all hopes were concentrated on him. In relation to the mother, the children were full of respect and courtesy. When the Empress was unwell, the daughters arranged alternate duty with their mother, and the one who was on duty that day remained hopelessly with her. The relationship of the children with the Sovereign was touching - for them he was at the same time king, father and comrade; their feelings changed depending on the circumstances, passing from almost religious worship to complete gullibility and the most cordial friendship.

A circumstance that constantly darkened the life of the Imperial family was the incurable illness of the Heir. Attacks of hemophilia, during which the child experienced severe suffering, were repeated many times. In September 1912, as a result of a careless movement, internal bleeding occurred, and the situation was so serious that they feared for the life of the Tsarevich. Prayers for his recovery were served in all Russian churches. The nature of the disease was a state secret, and parents often had to hide their feelings while participating in the normal routine of palace life. The Empress was well aware that medicine was powerless here. But nothing is impossible for God! Being a deep believer, she indulged in fervent prayer with all her heart in the expectation of a miraculous healing. Sometimes, when the child was healthy, it seemed to her that her prayer was answered, but the attacks were repeated again, and this filled the mother's soul with endless sorrow. She was ready to believe anyone who was able to help her grief, to somehow alleviate the suffering of her son, and the illness of the Tsarevich opened the doors to the palace to those people who were recommended to the Royal Family as healers and prayer books. Among them, the peasant Grigory Rasputin appears in the palace, who was destined to play a role in the life of the Tsar's family, and in the fate of the whole country - but he had no right to claim this role. Persons who sincerely loved the Royal Family tried to somehow limit the influence of Rasputin; Among them were the Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Vladimir... In 1913, all of Russia solemnly celebrated the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty. After the February celebrations in St. Petersburg and Moscow, in the spring, the Royal family completes their trip to the ancient Central Russian cities, the history of which is connected with the events of the beginning of the 17th century. The Sovereign was greatly impressed by the sincere manifestations of popular devotion - and the population of the country in those years was rapidly increasing: in the multitude of the people, the greatness of the king (Prov. 14, 28).

Russia was at that time at the pinnacle of glory and power: industry developed at an unprecedented pace, the army and navy became more and more powerful, agrarian reform was successfully implemented - this time can be said in the words of Scripture: the superiority of the country as a whole is the king who takes care of the country ( Ecclesiastes 5:8). It seemed that all internal problems would be safely resolved in the near future.

But this was not destined to come true: the First World War was brewing. Using as a pretext the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a terrorist, Austria attacked Serbia. Emperor Nicholas II considered it his Christian duty to stand up for the Orthodox Serbian brothers...

On July 19 (August 1), 1914, Germany declared war on Russia, which soon became a pan-European war. In August 1914, the need to help its ally France forced Russia to launch an overly hasty offensive in East Prussia, resulting in a heavy defeat. By autumn, it became clear that the near end of hostilities was not expected. However, since the beginning of the war, on the wave of patriotism, internal disagreements have subsided in the country. Even the most difficult issues became solvable - the sovereign's long-planned ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages for the entire duration of the war was implemented. His conviction in the usefulness of this measure was stronger than all economic considerations.

The sovereign regularly travels to Headquarters, visits various sectors of his huge army, dressing stations, military hospitals, rear factories - in a word, everything that played a role in waging this grandiose war. The Empress dedicated herself to the wounded from the very beginning. Having completed the courses of sisters of mercy, together with her eldest daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatyana, she nursed the wounded for several hours a day in her Tsarskoye Selo infirmary, remembering that the Lord requires to love works of mercy (Micah 6, 8).

On August 22, 1915, the Sovereign left for Mogilev to assume command of all the armed forces of Russia. From the beginning of the war, the emperor considered his tenure as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief as the fulfillment of a moral and state duty to God and the people: he appointed their paths and sat at the head and lived like a king in a circle of soldiers, like a comforter to those who weep (Job 29, 25). However, the Sovereign always gave the leading military experts a broad initiative in resolving all military-strategic and operational-tactical issues.

From that day on, the Emperor was constantly at Headquarters, and the Heir was often with him. Approximately once a month the Emperor came to Tsarskoye Selo for several days. All responsible decisions were made by him, but at the same time he instructed the Empress to maintain relations with the ministers and keep him informed of what was happening in the capital. The empress was the closest person to him, whom he could always rely on. Alexandra Feodorovna herself entered politics not out of personal ambition and a thirst for power, as they wrote about it then. Her only desire was to be useful to the Sovereign in difficult times and help him with her advice. Every day she sent detailed letters-reports to Headquarters, which was well known to the ministers.

The Emperor spent January and February 1917 in Tsarskoye Selo. He felt that the political situation was becoming more and more tense, but he continued to hope that the feeling of patriotism would still prevail, he maintained faith in the army, whose situation had improved significantly. This raised hopes for the success of the great spring offensive, which would deal a decisive blow to Germany. But this was well understood by the forces hostile to the sovereign.

On February 22, the Sovereign left for Headquarters - this moment served as a signal for the enemies of order. They managed to sow panic in the capital because of the impending famine, because during the famine they will be angry, blaspheme their king and their God (Is. 8, 21). The next day, unrest began in Petrograd, caused by interruptions in the supply of grain, they soon developed into a strike under political slogans - "Down with the war", "Down with the autocracy." Attempts to disperse the demonstrators were unsuccessful. In the meantime, debates were going on in the Duma with sharp criticism of the government - but first of all, these were attacks against the Sovereign. The deputies claiming to be representatives of the people seemed to have forgotten the instruction of the supreme apostle: Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king (1 Pet. 2:17).

On February 25, a message was received at Headquarters about unrest in the capital. Having learned about the state of affairs, the Sovereign sends troops to Petrograd to maintain order, and then he himself goes to Tsarskoye Selo. His decision was obviously caused by the desire to be at the center of events to make quick decisions if necessary, and anxiety for the family. This departure from Headquarters proved fatal. For 150 miles from Petrograd, the royal train was stopped - the next station, Lyuban, was in the hands of the rebels. I had to follow through the Dno station, but even here the path was closed. On the evening of March 1, the Sovereign arrived in Pskov, at the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front, General N. V. Ruzsky.

In the capital came complete anarchy. But the Sovereign and the command of the army believed that the Duma was in control of the situation; in telephone conversations with the Chairman of the State Duma, M. V. Rodzianko, the Sovereign agreed to all concessions if the Duma could restore order in the country. The answer was: it's too late. Was it really so? After all, only Petrograd and its environs were embraced by the revolution, and the authority of the Tsar among the people and in the army was still great. The answer of the Duma presented the Tsar with a choice: renunciation or an attempt to march on Petrograd with troops loyal to him - the latter meant civil war while the external enemy was within Russian borders.

Everyone around the Sovereign also convinced him that renunciation was the only way out. This was especially insisted on by the commanders of the fronts, whose demands were supported by the Chief of the General Staff M.V. Alekseev - fear and trembling and murmuring against the kings occurred in the army (3 Ezra 15, 33). And after long and painful reflections, the Emperor made a hard-won decision: to abdicate both for himself and for the Heir, in view of his incurable illness, in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The sovereign left the supreme power and high command as a Tsar, as a warrior, as a soldier, not forgetting his high duty until the last minute. His Manifesto is an act of the highest nobility and dignity.

On March 8, the commissars of the Provisional Government, having arrived in Mogilev, announced through General Alekseev that the Sovereign had been arrested and the need to proceed to Tsarskoye Selo. For the last time, he turned to his troops, calling on them to be loyal to the Provisional Government, the very one that arrested him, to fulfill their duty to the Motherland until complete victory. The farewell order to the troops, which expressed the nobility of the Sovereign's soul, his love for the army, faith in it, was hidden from the people by the Provisional Government, which banned its publication. The new rulers, overcoming one another, neglected their king (3 Ezra 15, 16) - they, of course, were afraid that the army would hear the noble speech of their Emperor and Supreme Commander.

In the life of Emperor Nicholas II there were two periods of unequal duration and spiritual significance - the time of his reign and the time of his imprisonment, if the first of them gives the right to speak of him as an Orthodox ruler who fulfilled his royal duties as a sacred duty to God, about the Sovereign , remembering the words of Holy Scripture: Thou hast chosen me Tsar for Thy people (Wisdom 9, 7), then the second period is the path of the cross of ascent to the heights of holiness, the path to the Russian Golgotha ​​...

Born on the day of commemoration of the holy righteous Job the Long-suffering, the Sovereign accepted his cross in the same way as the biblical righteous man, endured all the trials sent down to him firmly, meekly and without a shadow of grumbling. It is this longsuffering that is revealed with particular clarity in the history of the last days of the Emperor. From the moment of renunciation, not so much external events as the internal spiritual state of the Sovereign attracts attention. The sovereign, having taken, as it seemed to him, the only correct decision, nevertheless experienced severe mental anguish. “If I am an obstacle to the happiness of Russia and all the social forces now at the head of it ask me to leave the throne and pass it on to my son and brother, then I am ready to do this, I am ready not only to give my kingdom, but also to give my life for the Motherland. I think that no one doubts this among those who know me, ”said the Sovereign to General D. N. Dubensky.

On the very day of his abdication, March 2, the same General Shubensky recorded the words of the Minister of the Imperial Court, Count V.B. He was worried about the thought of a family that remained alone in Tsarskoye Selo, the children were sick. The sovereign suffers terribly, but he is such a person who will never show his grief in public. Restrained Nikolai Alexandrovich and in his personal diary. Only at the very end of the recording for that day does his inner feeling break through: “My renunciation is needed. The bottom line is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front in peace, you need to decide on this step. I agreed. A draft Manifesto was sent from Headquarters. In the evening, Guchkov and Shulgin arrived from Petrograd, with whom I spoke and handed them the signed and revised Manifesto. At one o'clock in the morning I left Pskov with a heavy feeling of what I had experienced. Around treason and cowardice and deceit!

The Provisional Government announced the arrest of Emperor Nicholas II and his August wife and their detention in Tsarskoe Selo. The arrest of the Emperor and Empress did not have the slightest legal basis or reason.

When the unrest that began in Petrograd spread to Tsarskoye Selo, part of the troops rebelled, and a huge crowd of rebels - more than 10 thousand people - moved to the Alexander Palace. The Empress on that day, February 28, almost did not leave the room for sick children. She was informed that all measures would be taken for the security of the palace. But the crowd was already very close - just 500 steps from the palace fence, a sentry was killed. At this moment, Alexandra Feodorovna shows determination and extraordinary courage - together with Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, she bypasses the ranks of soldiers loyal to her, who have taken up defense around the palace and are already ready for battle. She convinces them to negotiate with the rebels and not shed blood. Fortunately, at this point, prudence prevailed. The following days the Empress spent in terrible anxiety for the fate of the Emperor - only rumors of renunciation reached her. Only on March 3 did she receive a brief note from him. The experiences of the Empress these days are vividly described by an eyewitness, Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev, who served a prayer service in the palace: “The Empress, dressed as a sister of mercy, stood near the bed of the Heir. Several thin wax candles were lit in front of the icon. A prayer service began ... Oh, what a terrible, unexpected grief befell the Royal Family! The news came that the Emperor, who was returning from Headquarters to his family, was arrested and, perhaps, even abdicated ... One can imagine the situation in which the helpless Queen, the mother with her five seriously ill children, found herself! Having suppressed in herself the infirmity of a woman and all her bodily ailments, heroically, selflessly, devoting herself to caring for the sick, [with] full hope in the help of the Queen of Heaven, she decided first of all to pray before the miraculous icon of the Sign of the Mother of God. Warmly, on her knees, with tears, the earthly Queen asked for help and intercession from the Queen of Heaven. Having venerated the icon and approached it, she asked that the icon be brought to the beds of the sick, so that all sick children could immediately venerate the Miraculous Image. When we took the icon out of the palace, the palace was already cordoned off by troops, and everyone in it was arrested.

On March 9, the Emperor, who had been arrested the day before, was transported to Tsarskoye Selo, where the whole family was impatiently waiting for him. An almost five-month period of indefinite stay in Tsarskoye Selo began. The days passed measuredly - in regular worship, joint meals, walks, reading and communication with loved ones. However, at the same time, the life of the prisoners was subjected to petty constraints - the Sovereign was announced by A.F. Kerensky that he should live separately and see the Empress only at the table, and speak only in Russian. Guard soldiers in a rude form made remarks to him, access to the palace of persons close to the Imperial family was forbidden. Once, the soldiers even took away a toy gun from the Heir under the pretext of a ban on carrying weapons.

Father Athanasius Belyaev, who regularly performed divine services in the Alexander Palace during this period, left his testimonies about the spiritual life of the Tsarskoye Selo prisoners. This is how the Good Friday Matins service on March 30, 1917, took place in the palace. “The service went on reverently and touchingly ... Their Majesties listened to the entire service while standing. Folding lecterns were placed in front of them, on which the Gospels lay, so that they could follow the reading. Everyone stood until the end of the service and left through the common hall to their rooms. One must see for oneself and be so close in order to understand and make sure how the former royal family zealously, in the Orthodox way, often on their knees, prays to God. With what humility, meekness, humility, wholly surrendering themselves to the will of God, they stand behind the divine services.

The next day the whole family went to confession. This is how the rooms of the royal children looked like, in which the Sacrament of confession was performed: “What amazingly Christian-style rooms. Each princess has a real iconostasis in the corner of the room, filled with many icons of various sizes depicting especially revered saints. In front of the iconostasis there is a folding lectern, covered with a veil in the form of a towel, prayer books and liturgical books, as well as the Holy Gospel and the cross, are placed on it. The decoration of the rooms and all their furnishings represent an innocent, ignorant of worldly dirt, pure, immaculate childhood. To listen to prayers before confession, all four children were in the same room ... "

“The impression [from the confession] turned out to be this: give, Lord, that all children are morally as high as the children of the former Tsar. Such kindness, humility, obedience to parental will, unconditional devotion to the will of God, purity in thoughts and complete ignorance of earthly dirt - passionate and sinful, - writes Father Athanasius, - they led me into amazement, and I was decidedly perplexed: should I, as a spiritual father, be reminded of sins, perhaps unknown to them, and how to dispose to repentance in sins known to me.

Kindness and peace of mind did not leave the Empress even in these most difficult days after the abdication of the Sovereign from the throne. Here are the words of consolation she addresses in a letter to the cornet S. V. Markov: “You are not alone, do not be afraid to live. The Lord will hear our prayers and help you, comfort and strengthen you. Do not lose your faith, pure, childish, remain as small as you are when you are big. It is hard and difficult to live, but ahead there is Light and joy, silence and reward for all suffering and torment. Go straight on your way, do not look to the right and to the left, and if you do not see a stone and fall, do not be afraid and do not lose heart. Climb up again and go forward. It hurts, it’s hard on the soul, but grief cleanses us. Remember the life and suffering of the Savior, and your life will seem to you not as black as you thought. We have one goal, we all aspire to go there, but we will help each other find the way. Christ is with you, don't be afraid."

In the palace Church or in the former royal chambers, Father Athanasius regularly celebrated the All-Night and Divine Liturgy, which were always attended by all members of the Imperial Family. After the day of the Holy Trinity, disturbing messages appear more and more often in the diary of Father Athanasius - he notes the growing irritation of the guards, sometimes reaching rudeness towards the Royal Family. The state of mind of the members of the Royal Family does not remain without his attention - yes, they all suffered, he notes, but along with suffering, their patience and prayer increased. In their sufferings, they acquired true humility - according to the word of the prophet: Say to the king and queen: humble yourself ... for the crown of your glory has fallen from your head (Jer. 13, 18).

“... Now the humble servant of God Nikolai, like a meek lamb, benevolent to all his enemies, not remembering insults, praying earnestly for the welfare of Russia, believing deeply in her glorious future, kneeling down, looking at the cross and the Gospel ... speaks to the Heavenly Father the innermost secrets of his long-suffering life and, falling to the dust before the majesty of the King of Heaven, tearfully asks for forgiveness for his voluntary and involuntary sins, ”we read in the diary of Father Afanasy Belyaev.

In the meantime, serious changes were brewing in the lives of the Royal Prisoners. The Provisional Government appointed a commission to investigate the activities of the Emperor, but despite all efforts to find at least something discrediting the Tsar, nothing was found - the Tsar was innocent. When his innocence was proved and it became obvious that there was no crime behind him, the Provisional Government, instead of releasing the Sovereign and his August wife, decided to remove the prisoners from Tsarskoye Selo. On the night of August 1, they were sent to Tobolsk - this was allegedly done in view of possible unrest, the first victim of which could be the Royal Family. In fact, by doing so, the family was doomed to the cross, for at that time the days of the Provisional Government itself were numbered.

On July 30, the day before the departure of the royal family for Tobolsk, the last Divine Liturgy was served in the royal chambers; For the last time, the former owners of their native home gathered to pray fervently, asking with tears, on their knees from the Lord, help and intercession from all troubles and misfortunes, and at the same time realizing that they were embarking on the path destined by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for all Christians: They will lay hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to prison, and will bring you before the rulers for my name's sake (Luke 21:12). During this liturgy, the entire royal family and their already very small servants prayed.

August 6 Royal prisoners arrived in Tobolsk. The first weeks of the royal family's stay in Tobolsk were perhaps the calmest for the entire period of their imprisonment. On September 8, the day of the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the prisoners were allowed to go to church for the first time. Subsequently, this consolation very rarely fell to their lot. One of the greatest hardships during my life in Tobolsk was the almost complete absence of any news. Letters arrived with a huge delay. As for the newspapers, one had to be content with a local sheet printed on brown paper and giving only old telegrams several days late, and even those most often appeared here in a distorted and truncated form. The emperor watched with alarm the events unfolding in Russia. He understood that the country was rapidly heading towards destruction.

Kornilov invited Kerensky to send troops to Petrograd in order to put an end to the Bolshevik agitation, which was becoming more and more threatening day by day. The Tsar's sadness was immeasurable when the Provisional Government also rejected this last attempt to save the Motherland. He was well aware that this was the only way to avoid imminent disaster. The sovereign repents of his abdication. “After all, he made this decision only in the hope that those who wanted him removed would still be able to continue the war with honor and not ruin the cause of saving Russia. He was then afraid that his refusal to sign the renunciation would lead to civil war in the sight of the enemy. The tsar did not want even a drop of Russian blood to be shed because of him ... It was painful for the emperor now to see the futility of his sacrifice and to realize that, having in mind then only the good of the motherland, he harmed her by his renunciation, ”recalls P Gilliard, tutor of Tsarevich Alexei.

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already come to power in Petrograd - a period had come, about which the Sovereign wrote in his diary: "much worse and more shameful than the events of the Time of Troubles." The news of the October coup reached Tobolsk on 15 November. The soldiers guarding the governor's house took a liking to the royal family, and several months passed after the Bolshevik coup before the change of power began to affect the situation of the prisoners. In Tobolsk, a “soldiers’ committee” was formed, which, striving in every possible way for self-affirmation, demonstrated its power over the Sovereign - either they force him to remove his shoulder straps, or they destroy the ice hill arranged for the Tsar’s children: he mocks the kings, according to the word of the prophet Habakkuk (Hab. 1 , ten). From March 1, 1918, "Nikolai Romanov and his family are being transferred to a soldier's ration."

The letters and diaries of members of the Imperial family testify to the deep experience of the tragedy that was unfolding before their eyes. But this tragedy does not deprive the Royal prisoners of strength of mind, faith and hope for God's help.

“It is incredibly hard, sad, insulting, ashamed, but do not lose faith in God's mercy. He will not leave his homeland to perish. We must endure all these humiliations, nasty things, horrors with humility (since we are unable to help). And He will save, long-suffering and many-merciful — He will not be angry to the end... Without faith it would be impossible to live...

How happy I am that we are not abroad, but we are experiencing everything with her [Motherland]. As you want to share everything with your beloved sick person, to survive everything and follow him with love and excitement, so it is with the Motherland. I felt like her mother for too long to lose this feeling - we are one and share sorrow and happiness. She hurt us, offended, slandered... but we still love her deeply and want to see her recover, as a sick child with bad, but also good qualities, and our native Motherland...

I firmly believe that the time of suffering is passing, that the sun will again shine over the long-suffering Motherland. After all, the Lord is merciful - he will save the Motherland ... ”the Empress wrote.

The suffering of the country and the people cannot be meaningless - the Royal Passion-Bearers firmly believe in this: “When will all this end? Whenever God wants. Be patient, dear country, and you will receive a crown of glory, a reward for all suffering ... Spring will come and please, and dry up the tears and blood shed in streams over the poor Motherland ...

There is still much more difficult ahead - it hurts, how much bloodshed, it hurts terribly! But the truth must finally win...

How to live if there is no hope? We must be cheerful, and then the Lord will give peace of mind. It hurts, annoyed, insulting, ashamed, you suffer, everything hurts, it is punctured, but there is silence in your soul, calm faith and love for God, who will not leave His own and hear the prayers of the zealous and have mercy and save ...

How long will our unfortunate motherland be tormented and torn apart by external and internal enemies? Sometimes it seems that there is no more strength to endure, you don’t even know what to hope for, what to wish for? And yet no one is like God! May His will be done!"

Consolation and meekness in enduring sorrows are given to Royal prisoners by prayer, reading spiritual books, worship, Communion: “... The Lord God gave unexpected joy and consolation, allowing us to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, for the cleansing of sins and eternal life. Light jubilation and love fill the soul.

In suffering and trials, spiritual knowledge, knowledge of oneself, of one's soul, is multiplied. Striving for eternal life helps endure suffering and gives great consolation: “... Everything that I love suffers, there is no account of all the dirt and suffering, and the Lord does not allow despondency: He protects from despair, gives strength, confidence in a brighter future in this world."

In March it became known that a separate peace with Germany was concluded in Brest. The sovereign did not hide his attitude towards him: “This is such a shame for Russia and it is“ tantamount to suicide. When a rumor spread that the Germans demanded that the Bolsheviks hand over the Imperial Family to them, the Empress declared: “I prefer to die in Russia than to be saved by the Germans.” The first Bolshevik detachment arrived in Tobolsk on Tuesday 22 April. Commissar Yakovlev inspects the house, gets acquainted with the prisoners. A few days later, he announces that he must take the Sovereign away, assuring him that nothing bad will happen to him. Assuming that they want to send him to Moscow to sign a separate peace with Germany, the Sovereign, who under no circumstances left the high spiritual nobility (remember the Epistle of the prophet Jeremiah: king, show your courage - Epistle. Jer. 1, 58), firmly said : "I'd rather have my hand cut off than sign this shameful treaty."

The heir at that time was sick, and it was impossible to take him. Despite her fear for her sick son, the Empress decides to follow her husband; Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna also went with them. Only on May 7, family members who remained in Tobolsk received news from Yekaterinburg: the Sovereign, Empress and Maria Nikolaevna were imprisoned in the Ipatiev house. When the health of the Heir recovered, the rest of the members of the Imperial family from Tobolsk were also taken to Yekaterinburg and imprisoned in the same house, but most of the people close to the family were not allowed to see them.

There is much less evidence left about the Yekaterinburg period of imprisonment of the Imperial family. Almost no letters. Basically, this period is known only from brief entries in the diary of the Emperor and the testimony of witnesses in the case of the murder of the Royal Family. Especially valuable is the testimony of Archpriest John Storozhev, who performed the last divine services in the Ipatiev House. Father John served there twice on Sundays at Mass; for the first time it was on May 20 (June 2), 1918: “... the deacon spoke the petitions of the litanies, and I sang. Two female voices sang along with me (I think it was Tatyana Nikolaevna and one of them), sometimes in a low bass, and Nikolai Alexandrovich ... They prayed very zealously ... "

“Nikolai Alexandrovich was dressed in a tunic of a khaki color, the same trousers, with high boots. He has an officer's St. George's Cross on his chest. There was no epaulette... [He] impressed me with his firm gait, his calmness, and especially his manner of looking intently and firmly into the eyes...,” Father John wrote.

Many portraits of members of the Royal Family have been preserved - from the beautiful portraits of A. N. Serov to late photographs taken already in captivity. From them one can get an idea of ​​the appearance of the Sovereign, Empress, Tsesarevich and Princesses - but in the descriptions of many people who saw them during their lifetime, special attention is usually paid to the eyes. “He looked at me with such lively eyes…” Father John Storozhev said about the Heir. Probably, this impression can be most accurately conveyed by the words of the Wise Solomon: “In the bright gaze of the king is life, and his favor is like a cloud with late rain ...” In the Church Slavonic text, this sounds even more expressive: “in the light of life, the son of the kings” (Proverbs 16, 15).

Living conditions in the "special purpose house" were much more difficult than in Tobolsk. The guard consisted of 12 soldiers who lived in close proximity to the prisoners, ate with them at the same table. Commissar Avdeev, an inveterate drunkard, daily contrived, together with his subordinates, to invent new humiliations for the prisoners. I had to put up with hardships, endure bullying and obey the demands of these rude people - among the guards were former criminals. As soon as the Sovereign and Empress arrived at Ipatiev's house, they were subjected to a humiliating and rude search. The royal couple and the princesses had to sleep on the floor, without beds. At dinner, a family of seven was given only five spoons; The guards sitting at the same table smoked, brazenly exhaling smoke in the faces of the prisoners, and rudely took away their food.

A walk in the garden was allowed once a day, at first for 15-20 minutes, and then no more than five. The behavior of the sentries was completely obscene - they were on duty even near the door to the toilet, and they were not allowed to lock the doors. The guards wrote obscene words on the walls and made obscene images.

Only Dr. Evgeny Botkin, who surrounded the prisoners with care and acted as an intermediary between them and the commissars, trying to protect them from the rudeness of the guards, and several tried and true servants remained near the Royal Family: Anna Demidova, I. S. Kharitonov, A. E. Trupp and boy Lenya Sednev.

The faith of the prisoners supported their courage, gave them strength and patience in suffering. They all understood the possibility of an early end. Even the Tsarevich somehow escaped the phrase: “If they kill, if only they don’t torture ...” The Empress and the Grand Duchesses often sang church hymns, which their guard listened to against their will. In almost complete isolation from the outside world, surrounded by rude and cruel guards, the prisoners of the Ipatiev House show amazing nobility and clarity of spirit.

In one of Olga Nikolaevna's letters there are the following lines: “Father asks me to tell all those who remained devoted to him, and those on whom they can influence, so that they do not avenge him, since he has forgiven everyone and prays for everyone, and so that they do not avenge themselves, and so that they remember that the evil that is now in the world will be even stronger, but that it is not evil that will overcome evil, but only love.

Even the rude guards gradually softened in dealing with the prisoners. They were surprised by their simplicity, they were subdued by the full dignity of spiritual clarity, and they soon felt the superiority of those whom they thought to keep in their power. Even Commissar Avdeev relented. Such a change did not escape the eyes of the Bolshevik authorities. Avdeev was removed and replaced by Yurovsky, the guards were replaced by Austro-German prisoners and selected people from among the executioners of the "emergency" - the "special purpose house" became, as it were, its branch. The life of its inhabitants turned into a continuous martyrdom.

On July 1 (14), 1918, Father John Storozhev celebrated the last divine service in the Ipatiev House. The tragic hours were approaching... Preparations for the execution were made in the strictest secrecy from the prisoners of the Ipatiev House.

On the night of July 16-17, around the beginning of the third, Yurovsky woke up the Tsar's family. They were told that the city was unsettled and that it was necessary to move to a safe place. Forty minutes later, when everyone was dressed and gathered, Yurovsky, together with the prisoners, went down to the first floor and led them into the basement room through one barred window. All were outwardly calm. The sovereign carried Alexei Nikolaevich in his arms, the rest had pillows and other small things in their hands. At the request of the Empress, two chairs were brought into the room, pillows brought by the Grand Duchesses and Anna Demidova were placed on them. The Empress and Alexei Nikolaevich were seated on chairs. The Sovereign stood in the center next to the Heir. The rest of the family and servants were placed in different parts of the room and prepared to wait for a long time - they were already accustomed to nightly alarms and all sorts of movements. Meanwhile, armed men were already crowding in the next room, waiting for the killer's signal. At that moment, Yurovsky came very close to the Sovereign and said: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, by order of the Ural Regional Council, you and your family will be shot." This phrase was so unexpected for the Tsar that he turned towards the family, stretching out his hands to them, then, as if wanting to ask again, he turned to the commandant, saying: “What? What?" The empress and Olga Nikolaevna wanted to cross themselves. But at that moment, Yurovsky fired at the Sovereign from a revolver almost point-blank several times, and he immediately fell. Almost at the same time, everyone else began to shoot - everyone knew their victim in advance.

Those already lying on the floor were finished off with shots and bayonets. When it seemed that everything was over, Alexei Nikolaevich suddenly groaned weakly - they shot at him several more times. The picture was terrible: eleven bodies lay on the floor in streams of blood. After making sure that their victims were dead, the killers began to remove jewelry from them. Then the dead were carried out into the yard, where a truck was already standing ready - the noise of its engine was supposed to drown out the shots in the basement. Even before sunrise, the bodies were taken to the forest in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki. For three days, the killers tried to hide their atrocity...

Most of the testimonies speak of the prisoners of the Ipatiev House as suffering people, but deeply believing, undoubtedly submissive to the will of God. Despite bullying and insults, they led a decent family life in the Ipatiev house, trying to brighten up the oppressive atmosphere with mutual communication, prayer, reading and feasible activities. “The Sovereign and Empress believed that they were dying martyrs for their homeland,” writes one of the witnesses to their life in captivity, the educator of the Heir, Pierre Gilliard, “they died martyrs for humanity. Their true greatness did not stem from their royal dignity, but from that amazing moral height to which they gradually rose. They have become the perfect force. And in their very humiliation, they were a striking manifestation of that amazing clarity of the soul, against which all violence and all fury are powerless and which triumphs in death itself.

Together with the Imperial family, their servants, who followed their masters into exile, were also shot. To them, in addition to those shot together with the Imperial family by Dr. E. S. Botkin, the Empress A. S. Demidova’s room maid, the court cook I. M. Kharitonov and the lackey A. E. Trupp, belonged to those killed in various places and in different months of 1918 of the year, Adjutant General I. L. Tatishchev, Marshal Prince V. A. Dolgorukov, "uncle" of the Heir K. G. Nagorny, children's footman I. D. Sednev, maid of honor of the Empress A. V. Gendrikova and goflectress E. A. Schneider .

Shortly after the execution of the Sovereign was announced, His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon blessed the archpastors and pastors to perform requiems for him. His Holiness Himself on July 8 (21), 1918, during a divine service in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow, said: “The other day a terrible thing happened: the former Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich was shot ... We must, obeying the teaching of the word of God, condemn this case, otherwise the blood of the executed will fall and on us, and not only on those who committed it. We know that when he abdicated, he did this with the good of Russia in mind and out of love for her. After his renunciation, he could have found security and a relatively quiet life abroad, but he did not do this, wanting to suffer along with Russia. He did nothing to improve his position, meekly resigned himself to fate.

The veneration of the Royal Family, already begun by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon in a prayer for the dead and a word at a memorial service in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow for the murdered Emperor three days after the Yekaterinburg assassination, continued - despite the prevailing ideology - throughout several decades of the Soviet period of our history.

Many clergy and laity secretly lifted up prayers to God for the repose of the slain sufferers, members of the Royal Family. In recent years, photographs of the Royal Family could be seen in many houses in the red corner, and icons depicting the Royal Martyrs began to circulate in abundance. Prayers addressed to them, literary, cinematographic and musical works were compiled, reflecting the suffering and martyrdom of the Royal Family. The Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints received appeals from the ruling bishops, clergy and laity in support of the canonization of the Royal Family - some of these appeals had thousands of signatures. By the time of the glorification of the Royal Martyrs, a huge amount of evidence had accumulated about their grace-filled help - about the healing of the sick, the reunification of disunited families, the protection of church property from schismatics, the myrrh-streaming icons with images of Emperor Nicholas and the Royal Martyrs, about the fragrance and the appearance of bloody stains on the icons of the Royal Martyrs. colors.

One of the first attested miracles was the deliverance during the civil war of hundreds of Cossacks, surrounded in impenetrable swamps by red troops. At the call of the priest Father Elijah, in unanimity, the Cossacks turned with a prayerful appeal to the Tsar-Martyr, the Sovereign of Russia - and in an incredible way they left the encirclement.

In Serbia, in 1925, a case was described when an elderly woman, whose two sons died in the war, and the third went missing, had a vision in a dream of Emperor Nicholas, who said that the third son was alive and was in Russia - in a few months son returned home.

In October 1991, two women went for cranberries and got lost in an impenetrable swamp. Night came on, and the marsh bog could easily have dragged in careless travelers. But one of them remembered the description of the miraculous deliverance of the detachment of Cossacks - and following their example, she began to fervently pray for the help of the Royal Martyrs: “Killed Royal Martyrs, save us, the servant of God Eugene and Love!” Suddenly, in the darkness, the women saw a glowing bough from a tree; grabbing onto it, they got out to a dry place, and then went out to a wide clearing, along which they reached the village. It is noteworthy that the second woman, who also testified to this miracle, was at that time still a person far from the Church.

Marina, a secondary school student from the city of Podolsk, an Orthodox Christian who especially reveres the Royal Family, was saved from a hooligan attack by the miraculous intercession of the Royal Children. The three young men who attacked wanted to drag her into the car, take her away and dishonor her, but suddenly they fled in horror. Later, they admitted that they saw the Imperial children who stood up for the girl. This happened on the eve of the feast of the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1997. Subsequently, it became known that the young people repented and radically changed their lives.

Dane Jan-Michael was an alcoholic and drug addict for sixteen years, and became addicted to these vices from early youth. On the advice of good friends, in 1995 he went on a pilgrimage to the historical places of Russia; he ended up in Tsarskoye Selo. At the Divine Liturgy in the house church, where the Royal Martyrs once prayed, he turned to them with an ardent plea for help - and felt that the Lord was delivering him from sinful passion. On July 17, 1999, he accepted the Orthodox faith with the name Nikolai in honor of the holy Tsar-martyr.

On May 15, 1998, Moscow doctor Oleg Belchenko received an icon of the Tsar-Martyr as a gift, before which he prayed almost daily, and in September he began to notice small bloody spots on the icon. Oleg brought the icon to the Sretensky Monastery; during the prayer service, all the worshipers felt a strong fragrance from the icon. The icon was transferred to the altar, where it remained for three weeks, and the fragrance did not stop. Later, the icon visited several Moscow churches and monasteries; the myrrh-streaming from this image was repeatedly witnessed, which was witnessed by hundreds of parishioners. In 1999, 87-year-old Alexander Mikhailovich was miraculously healed of blindness at the myrrh-streaming icon of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II: a complex eye operation almost did not help, but when he kissed the myrrh-streaming icon with fervent prayer, and the priest serving the prayer service covered his face with a towel with traces peace, healing came - sight returned. The myrrh-streaming icon visited a number of dioceses - Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, Odessa ... Everywhere the icon visited, numerous cases of its myrrh-streaming were witnessed, and two parishioners of Odessa churches reported healing from leg disease after praying before the icon. From the Tulchinsk-Bratslav diocese, cases of grace-filled help were reported through prayers before this miraculous icon: the servant of God Nina was healed from severe hepatitis, the parishioner Olga received healing of a broken collarbone, the servant of God Lyudmila was healed from a severe pancreatic lesion.

During the Jubilee Council of Bishops, the parishioners of the church under construction in Moscow in honor of St. Andrei Rublev gathered for a joint prayer to the Royal Martyrs: one of the aisles of the future church is planned to be consecrated in honor of the new martyrs. When reading the akathist, the worshipers felt a strong fragrance emanating from the books. This fragrance continued for several days.

Many Christians now turn to the Royal Passion-Bearers with a prayer for strengthening the family and raising children in faith and piety, for preserving their purity and chastity - after all, during the persecution, the Imperial family was especially united, carried the indestructible Orthodox faith through all sorrows and sufferings.

The memory of the holy passion-bearers Emperor Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, their children - Alexy, Olga, Tatiana, Mary and Anastasia is celebrated on the day of their murder on July 4 (17), and on the day of the cathedral memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia on January 25 (February 7), if this the day coincides with Sunday, and if it does not coincide, then on the nearest Sunday after January 25 (February 7).

Life according to the magazine:

Moscow Diocesan Gazette. 2000. No. 10-11. pp. 20-33.

Biography of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II from birth and youth of the heir to the throne until the last days of his life.

Nicholas II (May 6 (19), 1868, Tsarskoye Selo - July 17, 1918, Yekaterinburg), Russian emperor (1894-1917), eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1876).

His reign coincided with the rapid industrial and economic development of the country. Under Nicholas II, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which was one of the reasons for the Revolution of 1905-1907, during which the Manifesto was adopted on October 17, 1905, allowing the creation of political parties and establishing the State Duma; Stolypin agrarian reform began to be carried out. In 1907, Russia became a member of the Entente, in which it entered the First World War. Since August (September 5), 1915, the Supreme Commander. During the February Revolution of 1917, on March 2 (15), he abdicated. Shot with his family. In 2000 he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nikolai's regular homework began when he was 8 years old. The curriculum included an eight-year general education course and a five-year course in higher sciences. It was based on a modified program of the classical gymnasium; instead of Latin and Greek, mineralogy, botany, zoology, anatomy and physiology were studied. The courses of history, Russian literature and foreign languages ​​were expanded. The cycle of higher education included political economy, law and military affairs (military jurisprudence, strategy, military geography, service of the General Staff). There were also classes in vaulting, fencing, drawing, and music. Alexander III and Maria Fedorovna themselves selected teachers and mentors. Among them were scientists, statesmen and military figures: K. P. Pobedonostsev, N. Kh. Bunge, M. I. Dragomirov, N. N. Obruchev, A. R. Drenteln, N. K. Girs.

From an early age, Nicholas 2 was drawn to military affairs.: he knew perfectly the traditions of the officer environment and military regulations, in relation to the soldiers he felt like a patron-mentor and did not shy away from communicating with them, meekly endured the inconvenience of army everyday life at camp gatherings or maneuvers.

Immediately after his birth, he was enrolled in the lists of several guards regiments and was appointed chief of the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment. At the age of five he was appointed chief of the Life Guards of the Reserve Infantry Regiment, and in 1875 he was enlisted in the Life Guards of the Erivan Regiment. In December 1875 he received his first military rank - an ensign, and in 1880 he was promoted to second lieutenant, after 4 years he became a lieutenant.

In 1884, Nikolai entered active military service, in July 1887 he began regular military service in the Preobrazhensky Regiment and was promoted to staff captain; in 1891, Nikolai 2 received the rank of captain, and a year later - colonel.

October 20, 1894, Nicholas at the age of 26, took the crown in Moscow under the name of Nicholas II. On May 18, 1896, during the coronation celebrations, tragic events took place on the Khodynka field. His reign fell on a period of sharp aggravation of the political struggle in the country, as well as the foreign policy situation (the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905; Bloody Sunday; the Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia; the First World War; the February Revolution of 1917).

During the reign of Nicholas 2, Russia turned into an agrarian-industrial country, cities grew, railways and industrial enterprises were built. Nikolai supported decisions aimed at the economic and social modernization of the country: the introduction of the gold circulation of the ruble, the Stolypin agrarian reform, laws on workers' insurance, universal primary education, religious tolerance.

Not being a reformer by nature, Nicholas II was forced to make important decisions that did not correspond to his inner convictions. He believed that in Russia the time had not yet come for a constitution, freedom of speech, and universal suffrage. However, when a strong social movement in favor of political change arose, he signed the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, proclaiming democratic freedoms.
In 1906, the State Duma, established by the tsar's manifesto, began to work. For the first time in Russian history, the emperor began to rule in the presence of a representative body elected by the population. Russia gradually began to transform into a constitutional monarchy. But despite this, the emperor still had enormous power functions: he had the right to issue laws (in the form of decrees); to appoint the prime minister and ministers accountable only to him; determine the course of foreign policy; was the head of the army, court and earthly patron of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The personality of Nicholas II, the main features of his character, advantages and disadvantages caused conflicting assessments of his contemporaries. Many noted “weakness of will” as the dominant feature of his personality, although there is a lot of evidence that the tsar was distinguished by a stubborn desire to fulfill his intentions, often reaching stubbornness (only once someone else’s will was imposed on him - Manifesto on October 17). Unlike his father Alexander III, Nicholas 2 did not give the impression of a strong personality. At the same time, according to the reviews of people who knew him closely, he had exceptional self-control, which was sometimes perceived as indifference to the fate of the country and people (for example, he met the news of the fall of Port Arthur or the defeat of the Russian army during the First World War with composure, hitting the royal environment). In public affairs, the tsar showed "extraordinary perseverance" and accuracy (for example, he never had a personal secretary and he himself put seals on letters), although in general the rule of a huge empire was a "heavy burden" for him. Contemporaries noted that Nicholas II had a tenacious memory, keen powers of observation, and was a modest, affable and sensitive person. At the same time, most of all, he valued his peace, habits, health, and especially the well-being of his family.

The support of Nicholas was the family. Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (nee Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt) was not only a wife for the tsar, but also a friend and adviser. The habits, ideas and cultural interests of the spouses largely coincided. They got married on November 14, 1894. They had five children: Olga (1895-1918), Tatiana (1897-1918), Maria (1899-1918), Anastasia (1901-1918) and Alexei (1904-1918).
The fatal drama of the royal family was connected with the incurable illness of the son, Tsarevich Alexei - hemophilia (blood incoagulability). The illness of the heir to the throne led to the appearance in the royal house of Grigory Rasputin, who, even before meeting with the crowned bearers, became famous for the gift of foresight and healing; he repeatedly helped Tsarevich Alexei overcome bouts of illness.
The turning point in the fate of Nicholas 2 was 1914 - the beginning of the First World War. The king did not want war and until the very last moment he tried to avoid a bloody clash. However, on July 19 (August 1), 1914, Germany declared war on Russia.

In August (September 5), 1915, during a period of military failures, Nicholas 2 assumed military command (previously Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich held this position). Now the tsar visited the capital only occasionally, but most of the time he spent at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander in Mogilev.

The war exacerbated the internal problems of the country. The king and his entourage began to be blamed for the military failures and the protracted military campaign. Claims spread that "treason is nesting" in the government. At the beginning of 1917, the high military command headed by the tsar (together with the allies - England and France) prepared a plan for a general offensive, according to which it was planned to end the war by the summer of 1917.

At the end of February 1917, unrest began in Petrograd, which, without meeting serious opposition from the authorities, in a few days grew into mass demonstrations against the government and the dynasty. Initially, the tsar intended to restore order in Petrograd by force, but when the scale of the unrest became clear, he abandoned this idea, fearing great bloodshed. Some high-ranking military officials, members of the imperial retinue and politicians convinced the king that a change of government was required to pacify the country, he needed to abdicate the throne. On March 2, 1917, in Pskov, in the salon car of the imperial train, after painful reflections, Nikolai signed the act of abdication, transferring power to his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

On March 9, Nicholas 2 and the royal family were arrested. For the first five months they were under guard in Tsarskoye Selo, in August 1917 they were transferred to Tobolsk. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks transferred the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg. On the night of July 17, 1918, in the center of Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the Ipatiev house, where the prisoners were imprisoned, Nikolai, the queen, five of their children and several close associates (11 people in total) were shot without trial or investigation.

Birth and youth of Nicholas II. Nikolai Alexandrovich - Grand Duke

Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov was born on May 6/19, 1868, in the family of Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich and His wife Maria Feodorovna, the first-born was born, to whom no one predicted an imminent reign. For the boy's grandfather - the fifty-year-old Russian Emperor Alexander II - was a strong, healthy man, whose reign could last decades, and his father - the future Russian Emperor Alexander III - was a young man, twenty-three years old. In the diary of Alexander the Third, an entry was preserved: “God sent us a son, whom We named Nicholas. What a joy it was, it cannot be imagined, I rushed to hug my darling wife, who at once cheered up and was terribly happy. I cried like a child, and it was so easy on my soul and pleasant ... and then Ya. G. Bazhanov came to read prayers, and I held My little Nikolai in my arms. (Oleg Platonov. Regicide plot. S. 85-86.)
Let us pay attention, Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich does not know the prophecies of the Monk Abel either about His fate, not about the fate of His son, for they are sealed and are in the Gatchina Palace. But He calls His first-born child Nicholas. The Lord, for this obedience to His heart, endows the Tsesarevich with joy that “cannot be imagined”, gives tears of joy, and He “felt light in his soul and pleasant”!

Birth on the day of Job the Long-suffering

The birth of the future Tsar Nicholas II took place at 2.30 pm in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo on the day when the Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of St. Job the Long-suffering. Both Nikolay Aleksandrovich Himself and many of His entourage attached great importance to this coincidence as a foreshadowing of terrible trials.
“Truly,” St. John Chrysostom wrote about Righteous Job, “there is no human misfortune that this man, the hardest of all adamant, would not endure, who suddenly experienced hunger, and poverty, and illness, and the loss of children, and the deprivation of such wealth; and then, having experienced deceit from his wife [from his neighbors], insults from friends, attacks from slaves. In everything he turned out to be harder than any stone, and, moreover, to law and grace. According to the teaching of the Church, Saint Job is a prototype of the suffering Redeemer of the world.” For all his sufferings were not because of his sins, the words have nothing to do with him: those who shouted wickedness and sowed evil reap it; by the breath of God they perish, and by the spirit of His wrath they disappear (Job 4:8-9).
To his friends, who said to him: how can a man be right before God, and how can a man born of a woman be pure? (Job 25:4) - and many other similar things, Saint Job answered: what do your accusations prove? Do you think up speeches for reproof? You let your words go to the wind (Job 6:25-26). God lives, who has deprived me of judgment, and the Almighty, who has grieved my soul, that as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my mouth will not tell lies, and my tongue will not speak lies! Far be it from me to recognize you as just; Until I die, I will not yield my integrity (Job 27:2-5).
And the Lord, summing up the denunciations of the "pious" friends, said to one of those who accused the righteous Job: My anger burns on you and on your two friends because you spoke about Me not so correctly as My servant Job (Job. 42.7 ). If not for his sake, he would have destroyed you (Iov. 42:8). That is, you were pardoned for the sake of his prayers, for you his prayers are saving. And the accusers of their wrong faith went and did as the Lord commanded them - and the Lord (Job 42:9) forgive their sins for the sake of them (Job 42:9). And the Lord returned the loss of Job when he prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10). Here we see that the plan of God included the most difficult temptations of the righteous Job and the holy Tsar Nicholas II, including from relatives and friends, and the prayer of those who were tempted for those who tempted them. And in the case of St. Nicholas II, the Lord God intended prayer for the entire Russian people, who, having violated the vow given to God in 1613, to faithfully serve the legitimate Tsars from the Reigning House of the Romanovs, committed the sin of perjury. Abel the Seer directly predicted: “The people between fire and flame ... But they will not be destroyed from the face of the earth, as if the prayer of the tortured Tsar prevails!”

The basis of the character of Emperor Alexander Alexandrovich III is truth, honesty and directness

“The father of Nicholas Tsesarevich Alexander, both in soul and in appearance, was a truly Russian man, a deeply religious, caring husband and father. With His life He gave an example to His environment: He was unpretentious in everyday life, wore clothes almost to the holes, did not like luxury. Alexander was distinguished by physical strength and firmness of character, he loved the truth most of all, he calmly considered every matter, he was remarkably easy to handle and generally preferred everything Russian. (Oleg Platonov. The plot of the regicides. S. 86).
“In addition to general and special military education, Tsesarevich Alexander was taught political and legal sciences by invited professors from St. Petersburg and Moscow Universities. After the untimely death of his dearly beloved elder brother, the Sovereign Heir Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (April 12, 1865), warmly mourned by the August family and all the Russian people, His Imperial Highness Alexander Alexandrovich, having become the Tsarevich's heir, began to continue both theoretical studies and the implementation of many duties in public affairs that were assigned to Him. As chieftain of the Cossack troops, chancellor of the University of Helsingfors, head of successively various military units (including up to the command of the district troops), a member of the State Council, His Imperial Highness was involved in all areas of state administration. The travels that were undertaken in Russia strengthened the seeds of a deep love for everything truly Russian, historical, that had already been planted since childhood.
During the last Eastern War with Turkey (1877-1878), His Highness was appointed commander of the Ruschun detachment, which played a tactically important and difficult role in this campaign, glorious for the Russian name. (Encyclopedia of the Russian Monarchy, edited by V. Butromeev. U-Factoria. Ekaterinburg. 2002).
“Alexander the Third became Emperor at the age of thirty-six. Of these, for 16 years he was Tsesarevich, preparing, according to his father, "to intercede for me every minute." By this age, even an ordinary, average person enters a period of maturity. The Emperor differed from any of His subjects by the fact that on His shoulders lay a huge responsibility to the country and people, for which He held an answer only to God and Himself. Such a heavy burden could not but affect the formation of the worldview of the Heir, His actions, attitude towards others.

A capacious psychological portrait of Alexander III of that period was recreated many years later by Prince V.P. Meshchersky: “The sovereign was then 36 years old. But in spiritual age, He was undoubtedly older in terms of life hardening. This hardening was greatly facilitated by His life as the leader of the Ruschuk detachment during the war, where, separated from the family in constant concentration, He experienced all the impressions alone in front of Himself, and then His also lonely political life after the war in those difficult years 79, 80 and 81st, when again in Himself He had to conceal so many painful impressions from the heard role of a spectator and participant in the course of internal politics, where far from always His voice of frankness and common sense had the power to carry out what He considered necessary, and interfere with what He recognized as harmful...
His character was firmly based on three main features: truth, honesty, and directness. I won’t be mistaken if I say that it was thanks to these three main features of His spiritual personality, which made her truly beautiful, that disappointment began to penetrate into His soul even when she was very young ...
But this disappointment ... did not affect His spiritual personality to such an extent as to arm Him against people with an armor of principled distrust or put the beginnings of apathy into His soul ... "".
“A kind and caring, but at the same time domineering and intolerant of any contradiction father in the family, the Emperor transferred this patriarchal and paternal attitude to His vast country. [Which many of His entourage, corrupted by Western free-thinking, did not like.] None of the Romanovs, according to contemporaries, corresponded to such an extent to the traditional popular idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe real Russian Tsar, as Alexander III. A mighty, brown-bearded giant, towering over any crowd, He seemed to be the embodiment of the strength and dignity of Russia. The commitment of Alexander the Third to domestic traditions and interests largely contributed to His popularity [among the Russian people and fierce hatred among the enemies of God, among the enemies of His Anointed One and among the enemies of the Russian people]." “As a politician and statesman, the father of Nicholas II showed a strong will in implementing the decisions made (a trait that, as we will see later, His son also inherited).
The essence of the policy of Alexander the Third (which was continued by the policy of Nicholas II) can be characterized as the preservation and development of Russian foundations, traditions and ideals. Giving an assessment of the reign of Emperor Alexander III, the Russian historian V. O. Klyuchevsky wrote: " Science will give the Emperor Alexander the Third a proper place not only in the history of Russia and the whole country, but also in Russian historiography, will say that He won a victory in the area where victories are most difficult, defeated the prejudice of peoples and thereby contributed to their rapprochement, conquered the public conscience in the name of peace and truth, increased the amount of goodness in the moral circulation of mankind, encouraged and uplifted Russian historical thought, Russian national self-consciousness.
Alexander the Third possessed great physical strength. Once, during a train wreck, He managed to hold the falling roof of the car for some time until His wife and children were safe.».
We will remember the prophecy of the Monk Abel told to Emperor Paul the First about Emperor Alexander the Third, which the Emperor Himself did not know: “Your great-grandson, Alexander the Third, is a true peacemaker. Glorious will be His reign. He will lay siege to the accursed sedition, He will bring peace and order. But he will only reign for a short time. “There is an opinion that the retinue plays the king. The personality of Alexander III completely contradicts this well-established measure of the merits of statesmen. [And it is clear why: the king may be played by the retinue, but the Lord God Himself "plays" the Anointed One!]
There were no favorites in the Emperor's entourage. He was the sole master and director, who determined ... [the rules for preparing His subjects for life in the Kingdom of Heaven] on one sixth of the world's land, in His, Alexander III, the Russian Empire. Even such outstanding state minds as S. Yu. Witte, K. P. Pobedonostsev, D. A. Tolstoy, could not claim exclusivity, a special place in the Court or the government - here everything was decided by one person - Autocrat of All Russia Alexander III Alexandrovich Romanov . Emperor Alexander the Third strove to set a personal example of a pattern of behavior that he considered true and correct for each of His subjects. The basis of His ethical standards of behavior, all of His understanding of the world proceeded from deep religiosity. It is unlikely that any of the twelve predecessors of Alexander III on the Russian Imperial throne was more pious and sincerely faithful. [At the same time, it should be remembered that all legitimate Kings - the Anointed of God, being the Incarnate Name of God - are always sincere believers and the most devout Christians, for the Lord God Himself chose them to feed His people, Jacob, and the earthly Church - His inheritance, Israel, and the Lord Himself helps them to do this in the purity of His heart and guide them with wise hands (Ps. 77:71-72).]
The faith of Emperor Alexander III - pure and free from dogmatism [more precisely: from inertia and fanaticism] - explained both the God-chosenness of the Russian Autocracy, and the special Russian path that His power should follow. To believe for Alexander III was as natural as breathing. He scrupulously observed Orthodox rites, whether it was fasting or divine services, regularly visited St. Isaac's and Peter and Paul Cathedrals, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and palace churches.
Not all clergy could boast of such knowledge of the intricacies of a complex Orthodox church rite, which the Russian Emperor sometimes showed. ... The faith of Alexander the Third was combined with a sober, rational mind that did not tolerate sectarianism or obscurantism. The emperor followed with undisguised skepticism the attempt of some hierarchs to increase their political influence.
[Any Orthodox hierarch (from bishop to metropolitan and patriarch) is a monk who has renounced this world; being a clergyman, any bishop has the power from God only to shepherd spiritually, not ruling over the heritage of God (1 Peter 5:3). And therefore, even the patriarch (as we remember, the ruling bishop of the city of Moscow) does not have any lordly power and cannot interfere in the decisions of worldly affairs, and, consequently, no bishop can exert any political influence on life in the Orthodox Kingdom.]
When Metropolitan Filofei of Kyiv, having decided to imitate John Chrysostom, submitted a note to the Emperor, in which he reproached Him [the Anointed One!] for estrangement from the people, Alexander the Third only shrugged his shoulders and offered to examine the mental abilities of the lord. [Or maybe it is necessary to check the mental abilities of those who invented the Orthodox ruling bishop of the city of Moscow to call "Great Lord and Our Father of all Russia" instead of the canonical "His Holiness Patriarch", and those who, instead of praying for the coming Victorious Tsar, at each divine service, he repeatedly offers up "prayers" (in self-condemnation!) for the "Great Master...". After all, a sick man, deprived of God's mind, will not be judged at the Last Judgment as a heretic-papist!] A deeply believing Orthodox man, Emperor Alexander III professed Christian norms not only in solving state problems, but also in private life. (Unknown Alexander III. S. 197-198).

“I need normal, healthy Russian children”

There were five children in the family - Nikolai (the eldest), Georgy, Ksenia, Mikhail and Olga. The father taught his children to sleep on simple soldier bunks with hard pillows, to douse themselves with cold water in the morning, and to eat simple porridge for breakfast. The first, of course unconscious, acquaintance of Nikolai with ordinary Russian people took place through the nurse-mother. Mothers were chosen from Russian peasant families and, at the end of their mission, went back to their native villages, but they had the right to come to the palace, firstly, on the day of the Angel of their pet, and secondly, on Easter and on the Christmas tree, on Christmas day.
During these meetings, teenagers talked with their mothers, absorbing the folk turns of Russian speech into their minds. As rightly noted, “with an incredible mixture of blood in the Royal family, these mothers were, so to speak, a precious reservoir of Russian blood, which poured into the veins of the Romanov House in the form of milk and without which it would be very difficult to sit on the Russian Throne. All the Romanovs, who had Russian mothers, spoke Russian with a touch of common people. So said (father of Nicholas) Alexander the Third. If He did not take care of himself, then in His intonations ... there was something of Varlamov's roaring.
From 1876 until the age of ten, Nikolai's tutor was Alexandra Petrovna Ollengran (nee Okoshnikova), daughter of an admiral, Knight of St. George, widow of a Russian officer of Swedish origin. Nicholas's first tutor was instructed to teach him basic Russian literacy, initial prayers, and arithmetic.
The dialogue that took place between Nikolai's father and his first teacher is very characteristic (I quote it in a summary):
- You are given two little boys who are still too early to think about the Throne, who must not be let out of their hands and not given the habit. Keep in mind that neither I nor the Grand Duchess want to make greenhouse flowers out of Them. They should be naughty in moderation, play, study, pray well to God and not think about any thrones, - said Tsarevich Alexander.
- Your Highness! Allengren exclaimed. - But I also have little Vladimir.
- How old is he? - asked the Heir.
- Eighth year.
- Just the same age as Nicky. Let him be brought up with My children, - said the Heir, - and you will not be separated, and Mine will have more fun. All the extra boy.
“But he has character, Your Highness.
- What character?
- Pugnacious, Your Highness ... [In the words of this Vladimir: “By the age of seven, I had developed that type of street boy, who in Paris is called“ gamen ”. ... My main concern was to achieve the title of "first strong man" on Pskovskaya Street [outskirts of St. Petersburg]. This title, as is known in boyish circles throughout the globe, is developed in tireless battles and feats close to military ones. And because bruises and lanterns were, to the horror of my mother, permanent signs of my differences. As you can see, behind the word "pugnacious" is really the character of the street "Daredevil" of the St. Petersburg outskirts.]
- Nonsense, honey. This is before the first pass. Mine are not heavenly angels either. There are two of them. With united forces, They will quickly lead your hero to the Christian faith. Not made from sugar. Teach the little boys well, do not give concessions, ask to the fullest extent of the laws, do not encourage laziness in particular. If anything, address directly to Me, and I know what needs to be done. I repeat that I do not need porcelain. I need normal, healthy Russian children. Fight - please. But the informer - the first whip. This is my very first requirement. Do you understand me?
“Understood, Your Imperial Highness. From childhood, the future Tsar Nicholas II cultivated in himself a deep religious feeling and genuine piety. The boy was not burdened by long church services, which were held strictly and solemnly in the palace. The child wholeheartedly empathized with the torments of the Savior and, with childlike spontaneity, pondered how to help Him. The son A.P. Allengren, who was brought up with Nicholas, for example, recalled how the rite of carrying out the Shroud on Good Friday, solemn and mournful, struck Nicholas's imagination. He became mournful and depressed for the whole day and asked to be told how the evil high priests tortured the good Savior. [In March 1917, the high priests of the Russian Orthodox Church were in the forefront of those who betrayed the Anointed Tsar Nicholas II.] “His eyes filled with tears, and He often said, clenching his fists: “Oh, I wasn’t there then, I would have shown them!” And at night, left alone in the bedchamber, the three of us (Nikolai, His brother Georgy and son Ollengran Volodya. - OP) developed plans for the salvation of Christ. Nicholas II especially hated Pilate, who could save him and did not save him. I remember that I had already dozed off when Nikolai came up to my bed and, crying, mournfully said: I feel sorry for God. Why are they hurting him so much? I still can't forget His big, excited eyes."
In childhood and youth, Nicholas 2 slept on a narrow iron bed with a simple mattress. He spent much of his time outdoors, playing sports. Even in the cold season, in order to temper his son, the Father insisted on walking. Outdoor children's games and physical work in the garden were encouraged. Nikolai and other children of Tsarevich Alexander often visited the poultry yard, the greenhouse, the farm, and worked in the menagerie. They were given birds, geese, rabbits, cubs, which They looked after themselves: fed them, cleaned them. Birds always lived in the children's rooms - bullfinches, parrots, canaries, which the children took with them when they left for Gatchina in the summer.
During the years 1876-1879, Nikolai passed all the subjects under the program for admission to a secondary educational institution. To test the knowledge of Nicholas, a special commission was assembled, which gave him an exam. The commission was very pleased with the success of the ten-year-old boy. To further continue the teachings of his son, Tsesarevich Alexander invited Adjutant General G. G. Danilovich, who, at his own discretion, chose for Nicholas teachers of the Law of God, the Russian language, mathematics, geography, history, French and German.

To be able to restrain himself... to fulfill your duty... to love ordinary people... - the main features of Tsarevich Nicholas

The child grew up quiet and thoughtful. From an early age, the main features of His character are already felt in him, and - above all - self-control. “It used to happen that during a major quarrel with brothers or fellow children’s games,” says His tutor K. I. Heath (Heath), “Nikolai Alexandrovich, in order to refrain from a harsh word or movement, would silently go into another room, take up a book and, only having calmed down, he returned to the offenders and again started playing, as if nothing had happened.
And another feature: a sense of duty. The boy learns his lessons with diligence; He reads a lot, especially when it comes to people's life. The love of His people... That's what He always dreams of. One day He reads with His tutor Heath one of the episodes of the history of England, which describes the entry of King John, who loved the common people, and whom the crowd greeted with enthusiastic cries: "Long live the king of the people!" The boy's eyes sparkled, He turned red with excitement and exclaimed: "Ah, I would like to be like that!"
To be able to restrain himself... silently move away... to fulfill His duty... to love ordinary people... The whole Emperor Nicholas II is reflected in these features of the boy.
But by His nature, a boy, and then a youth and a young man, is far from gloomy sadness; even a spark of naive and careless fun burns in Him, which, subsequently, under the pressure of a heavy burden of power, worries and grief, will fade and only occasionally manifest itself in quiet humor, in a smile, in a good-natured joke..

Used Books:

See the prophecy of St. Abel the Seer section 2.1.
Royal Collection. Compiled by S. and T. Fomina. Services. Akathists. Monthly. Commemoration. Prayers for the King. Coronation. From the Pilgrim. 2000. [below - Tsar's collection.] S. 414.
Let us pay attention to the fact that on the icon of the holy Tsar-Redeemer Nicholas II on the scroll, which the Tsar holds in His hands, these very words are placed.
The prophecy of St. Abel the Seer is given in section 2.1.
O. Barkovets, A. Krylov-Tolstikovich. Unknown Alexander III. RIPOL CLASSIC. M. 2002. [below - Unknown Alexander the Third.] S. 106-107.
Nikolay Romanov. pages of life. Compiled by N. Yu. Shelaev and others. "Faces of Russia". SPb.2001. [below - Pages of life.] S. 8.
Oleg Platonov. Crown of Thorns of Russia. Nicholas II in secret correspondence. Spring. M. 1996. [below - O. Platonov. Nicholas II in secret correspondence.] S. 10-11.
For this reason, not a single Orthodox clergyman (from a simple priest to the most holy patriarch) can bear the title of our Great Lord and Father. If someone calls some clergyman the Great Lord, then this someone loudly declares to the Lord and the coming Tsar-victor that he is in the heresy of papism, just like the Catholics, who revere the Pope as the Great Lord.
The compiler of R.S. cites a fragment of chapter 14 from Oleg Platonov's book "The Conspiracy of the Regicides".
Surguchev I. Childhood of Emperor Nicholas II. Paris, b / g. pp. 138-139.
Together with Nikolai, his brother George also studied.
Ilya Surguchev. Childhood of Emperor Nicholas II. Royal business. S-Pb. 1999. S. 11-13.
Babkin Mikhail Anatolyevich - Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Lecturer, South Ural State University. In the journals of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Questions of History" (No. 6 2003, No. 2-5 2004, No. 2 2005) and "Domestic History" (No. 3 2005). And also in the book “The Russian Clergy and the Overthrow of the Monarchy in 1917” (Materials and Archival Documents on the History of the Russian Orthodox Church. Indrik Publishing House. 2006) published interesting documents “dedicated to the history of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for the period from early March to mid-July 1917. From them one can get an idea of ​​the attitude of the clergy to the overthrow of the Monarchy in Russia, the establishment of the power of the Provisional Government and its activities. But most importantly, these documents very effectively heal the mild and moderate degree of spiritual damage to Orthodox Christians by the heresy of papism!
Surguchev I. Childhood of Emperor Nicholas II. Paris, b / g. S. 108.
The compiler of R. S. cites a fragment of the 1st chapter from the book of I. P. Yakobiy “Emperor Nicholas II and the Revolution”.

After the murder of his grandfather, Nikolai Alexandrovich became the Heir to the Throne of the Russian Empire.

After several unsuccessful assassination attempts, Emperor (God-anointed!!!) Alexander II, the native and beloved grandfather of Nicholas II, was villainously murdered Alexander II (1818-1881), who went down in Russian history under the name of the Tsar-Liberator, was one of the most prominent statesmen Russia of the 19th century.
The greatest deed of His reign was the signing of the Manifesto on February 19, 1861, on the abolition of the serfdom of some Orthodox Christians over others.

The question that arose during the reign of Boris Godunov, which burdened all the Tsars and Emperors of the Royal House of Romanov and before which all His predecessors stopped in indecision, was resolved by Him.

World evil, through the hands of spiritually corrupted Russian half-educated intellectuals, responded to the liberation of the God-chosen Russian people from serfdom with such a terrible atrocity - the murder of the Father of the great Russian people.

“The mysterious prediction of a fortune-teller came true, who once prophesied to Alexander II that He would survive seven attempts on His life. This tragedy became an important milestone in the formation of the personality and character of Nikolai.

The end of the serene childhood of Tsarevich Nicholas

But it was an important milestone for all mankind. And earlier they killed tsars and kings in public, but the Lord God allowed His Anointed Ones, according to the sins of His chosen Russian people, to be killed only secretly.
And although Emperor Paul the First was brutally murdered (on the night of March 11 - on Sophronius of Jerusalem in 1801) by drunken "guards" officers, but at night and drunk!

And then the artists spent the whole night making up what the world's evil of English origin had created with the hands of drunken Russian traitors and God, and the Tsar, and the Fatherland. The murder was declared death from apoplexy, that is, from a rapidly developing hemorrhage in the brain, supposedly - this is a natural death. So, “the serene childhood of Nikolai ended on March 1, 1881.

On this day, a thirteen-year-old boy faced a terrible villainy that struck him with monstrous cruelty - the murder of his grandfather, Emperor Alexander II, by political bandits. The criminals bombarded the Emperor [God Anointed One!!!], seriously wounding Him. Alexander II was brought to the Winter Palace bleeding, with broken legs. (Oleg Platonov. The plot of the regicides. S. 89).

We will remember the prophecy told to Emperor Paul the First, by the Monk Abel about Emperor Alexander II, which Alexander II himself did not know: “Your grandson, Alexander II, was destined by the Tsar-Liberator. Your plan will be fulfilled: He will give freedom to the serfs, and after that He will beat the Turks and the Slavs will also free them from the yoke of the infidel. The Jews will not forgive Him for great deeds, they will start hunting for Him, they will kill in the middle of a clear day in the capital of a loyal subject with renegade hands. Like You, the feat of His service He will seal with the blood of the Royal, and on the blood the Temple will be erected.

It was Emperor Alexander II who turned the bedroom into a brownie “Temple on the Blood”, where Emperor Paul the First was killed as a result of a conspiracy planned in the English embassy, ​​but by the hands of Russian officers who forgot their oaths to faithfully serve their Emperor. From the windows of this "Temple on Blood" behind the trees of the park of the Russian Museum, another "Temple on Blood" is clearly visible - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ - "Savior on Blood", built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded in 1881.
As Abel the Seer predicted, "the Jews did not forgive Him for great deeds, they arranged a hunt for Him" ​​and on the eighth attempt killed "in the midst of a clear day in the capital, a loyal subject with renegade hands."

Already on March 2, 1881, at an extraordinary meeting, the city duma asked Emperor Alexander III "to allow the city public administration to erect ... a chapel or a monument at the expense of the city." The emperor replied: "It would be desirable to have a church ... and not a chapel." However, it was temporarily decided to build a chapel. Already in April the chapel was erected. Panikhidas were served daily in the chapel in memory of the assassinated Emperor Alexander II. This chapel stood on the embankment until the spring of 1883, then, in connection with the start of construction of the cathedral, it was moved to Konyushennaya Square. Emperor Alexander the Third expressed the wish that the temple be in the style of Russian churches of the 16th-17th centuries. Naturally, the wish of the Emperor became a prerequisite. In October 1883, a solemn laying of the temple took place. Its construction took 24 years. According to the estimate, the state allocated 3 million 600 thousand silver rubles for the construction of the memorial temple. It was huge money for those times. However, the actual construction cost exceeded the estimate by 1 million rubles. This million rubles for the construction of the memorial temple was contributed by the Royal Family. On August 19/September 1, 1907, the Cathedral of the Resurrection was consecrated.

“Together with his younger brother George, Nikolai was present at the death of His Grandfather.” My Father brought Me to bed, the last [at the moment] Autocrat later recalled. - "Daddy," He said, raising his voice, "Your ray of sunshine" is here." I saw the trembling of eyelashes, the blue eyes of My Grandfather opened, He tried to smile. He moved his finger, He could not raise his hand, nor say what he wanted, but He undoubtedly recognized Me ... ”[“ On the night of the assassination of Alexander II, a continuous crowd of people loyal to the Sovereigns did not disperse through the streets of the capitals. Sovereign Nicholas II remembered that day and night ... ”(Pavlov. His Majesty Sovereign Nicholas II. P. 47).]

The shock experienced remained in the memory of Nikolai until the last days of His life, He remembered it even in distant Tobolsk. “... Anniversary of the death of Apap (Alexander II. - Auth.), - noted in the diary on March 1, 1918. - At 2 o'clock we had a memorial service. The weather was the same as then - frosty and sunny ... "

In 1881, “for a week, twice a day, Nikolai, along with his entire family, came to solemn requiems in the Winter Palace. On the morning of the eighth day, the body [of the dead Anointed of God] was solemnly transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. So that the Russian people could say goodbye to the Tsar-Liberator, the Tsar-Great Martyr, the longest path along all the main streets of the capital was chosen, which Nikolai did together with everyone.

The murder of Grandfather changed the political situation and [status] of Nicholas. From a simple Grand Duke He became Heir to the Throne of the Russian Empire, clothed with great responsibility before the country [and before the earthly Church of Christ, as the Heir to the Throne of David].

A few hours after the death of Alexander II, the Supreme Manifesto came out, which said: “We declare to all our faithful subjects: the Lord God was pleased in His inscrutable ways to strike Russia with a fatal blow and suddenly recall to Himself her benefactor, Lord. Imp. Alexander II. He fell at the sacrilegious hand of murderers who repeatedly attempted on His precious life. They encroached on this so precious life because they saw in it a stronghold and guarantee of the greatness of Russia and the prosperity of the Russian people. Humbled before the mysterious decrees of Divine Providence and offering prayers to the Almighty for the repose of the pure soul of Our deceased Parent, We enter Our Ancestral Throne of the Russian Empire...

Let us lift the heavy burden that God places upon Us, with firm hope in His Almighty help. May He bless Our labors for the good of Our beloved Fatherland, and may He direct Our forces to the happiness of all Our loyal subjects.

Repeating the vow given to Us by Our Parent before the Lord Almighty to dedicate, according to the testament of Our ancestors, Our whole life with care for the prosperity, power and glory of Russia, We call on Our loyal subjects to unite their prayers with Our prayers before the Altar of the Most High and command them to take an oath of allegiance to Us and the Heir Ours, His Imp. High Tsarevich Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich.

[The above text from the Manifesto makes it possible for Orthodox Christians, and for all those who believe in God, to see how the God-Anointed Tsar, chosen by God Himself for the Tsar's service, differs from a president elected by people. In addition, the Russian Tsar strives to direct all His forces to “the arrangement of the happiness of all His loyal subjects,” and not just the Russian people. The atheist in the above text will see some meaningless, from his point of view, spells and appeals to “some” God, he will see the attempt of Alexander the Third to shift all responsibility for governing the country to the entity “God” that is incomprehensible to the atheist. It is for such atheists, offended by God or punished by God, that "the institution of the monarchy in the modern world has only a historical and sentimental significance." The only thing that can be done for such enlightened worldly evil is to pray to God for them, so that He would grant them “if death, then instantaneous”, but better, if it’s possible, then He would give them at least a handful of the mind of Christ!]

For a teenager, Nikolai, such a terrible death of Grandfather became an unhealed spiritual wound. He could not understand why the murderers raised their hand against the Sovereign, who became famous among the Russian people for his justice, goodness and meekness, who freed the serfs, approved a public court and self-government of local authorities. Even then, Nikolai begins to realize that not all subjects of Russia want the good of their homeland [that is, not all subjects are loyal subjects, but it turns out that in Russia the Anointed of God has subjects who do not want to serve God, the Tsar and the Fatherland, but Satan , world evil and hell]. Against Holy Russia and the Russian state and social structure, dark atheistic forces rebelled, about the existence of which the boy had once been told by His mentor according to the Law of God.

Nikolai's consciousness also included the understanding that the most essential thing in the state life of Russia was violated - the traditional spiritual, patriarchal connection between the Tsar and the Russian people. It became clear after March 1, 1881, that the Russian Tsar would never again be able to treat His subjects with boundless trust. He will not be able, forgetting regicide, to devote himself entirely to public affairs.

The training course of the gymnasium and the university, from ensign to colonel

Tsesarevich “Nicholas was slightly above average height, physically well developed and hardy - the result of his father's training and the habit of physical labor, which He did at least a little, but did all his life, affected.
The king had an "open, pleasant, thoroughbred face." All those who knew the Tsar, both in their youth and in their mature years, noted His amazing eyes, so wonderfully conveyed in the famous portrait of V. Serov. They are expressive and radiant, although sadness and defenselessness lurk in their depths.

The upbringing and education of Nicholas II took place under the personal guidance of His Father, on a traditional religious basis in Spartan conditions.” Since Nicholas by His very birth was destined for the future supreme power, the closest attention was paid to His upbringing and education.
His systematic training began at the age of eight according to a special program developed by Adjutant General G. G. Danilovich, who was obliged to supervise Nikolai's training sessions. The program was divided into two parts.

The general education course, designed for eight years, in general terms corresponded to the gymnasium, although with significant changes. The ancient [classical] languages ​​- Greek and Latin - were excluded, and instead of them, the Tsesarevich was taught an expanded amount of political history, Russian literature, geography, the elementary foundations of mineralogy and biology. Particular attention in the first eight years of study was given to classes in modern European languages.

Nikolai perfectly mastered English and French, German and Danish knew worse.
From childhood, he fell in love with historical and fiction, read it both in Russian and in foreign languages, and even somehow admitted that "if I were a private person, I would devote myself to historical works." Over time, His literary predilections were also revealed: Tsarevich Nikolai with pleasure turned to Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, loved Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov ... "

The higher course of education, “the next five years were devoted to the study of military affairs, legal and economic sciences, necessary for a statesman. The teaching of these sciences was conducted by outstanding Russian scientists with a worldwide reputation: [presbyter] Yanyshev I. L. taught canon law in connection with the history of the church, the main departments of theology and the history of religion ”; "HER. Zamyslovsky conducted political history; Professor-Economist, Minister of Finance in 1881-1889 and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers in 1887-1895 N. H. Bunge taught - statistics and political economy [financial law]; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia in 1882-1895 N.K. Girs introduced Tsesarevich into the complex world of European international relations; Academician N. N. Beketov taught a course in general chemistry. Professor and Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences ... Infantry General G. A. Leer was entrusted with courses in strategy and military history. Military engineer General Ts. A. Cui ... conducted fortification classes. A. K. Puzyrevsky read the history of military art. This series was supplemented by the professors of the Academy of the General Staff, Generals M. I. Dragomirov, N. N. Obruchev, P. K. Gudima-Levkovich, P. L. Lobko and others. The role of the spiritual and ideological mentor of the Tsesarevich undoubtedly belonged to K.P.

Tsesarevich Nikolay studied a lot. By the age of fifteen, He had more than 30 lessons a week, not counting the daily hours of self-study. During the training, the mentors could not give Him marks for academic performance and did not ask questions to test knowledge, but on the whole their impression was favorable. Nicholas was distinguished by perseverance, pedantry and innate accuracy. He always listened attentively and was very efficient. ... The heir, like all the children of Alexander III, had an excellent memory. Easily remembered what he heard or read. A fleeting meeting with a person was enough for him (and there were thousands of such meetings in His life) to remember not only the name and patronymic of the interlocutor, but also his age, origin and seniority. The natural tact and delicacy inherent in Nikolai made communication with him pleasant. (Pages of life. 12-13).
“In order for the future Tsar to get acquainted in practice with military life and the order of military service, the Father sends Him to military training. First, Nikolai served in the ranks of the Preobrazhensky Regiment for two years, acting as a subaltern officer, and then as a company commander. For two summer seasons, Tsesarevich Nikolai served in the ranks of the cavalry hussar regiment as a platoon officer, and then as a squadron commander. And, finally, the future Emperor conducts one camp gathering in the ranks of the artillery. He received the next officer ranks, starting with the ensign, successively occupying the corresponding positions in the troops.

“According to contemporaries, he was loved in the guards regiments, noting the amazing evenness and goodwill in relations with fellow officers, regardless of rank and rank. The Tsarevich was not among those who were frightened by the hardships of camp life. He was hardy, strong, unpretentious in everyday life and truly loved the army. ...

Nicholas's military career reached its peak on August 6, 1892, when he was promoted to colonel. Due to the untimely death of Alexander III, His Son was not destined to become a general of the Russian army, which were all of His predecessors on the Throne and most of the Grand Dukes. Emperors did not assign military ranks to Themselves ... “But general ranks were awarded to Him in the armies of the allies.

The activities of the Tsesarevich were not limited to military service. In parallel, the Father introduces Him to the course of the country's administration, inviting Him to participate in the studies of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers.

“By the age of 21, Nikolai had become a highly educated person with a broad outlook, who knew Russian history and literature perfectly, was fluent in the main European languages ​​.... Nikolai’s brilliant education was combined with deep religiosity and knowledge of spiritual literature, which was not often found among young people from higher education. , the ruling class of the time. Alexander the Third managed to instill in His Son a selfless love for Russia, a sense of responsibility for its fate. [All this gave Him the opportunity to bear the cross of a redemptive feat, to Jesus Christ in likeness!] From childhood, Nikolai became close to the idea that His main mission was to follow the Russian Orthodox, spiritual foundations, traditions and ideals. (Oleg Platonov. The plot of the regicides. S. 94.)

The Miraculous Rescue of the Royal Family in Borki

On October 17, 1888, Tsarevich Nicholas experienced a terrible shock. On this day, near the Borki station, during a railway accident, the entire Royal Family could have died. When the Tsar's train passed through a deep gully, subsidence occurred and several wagons fell into the pit at full speed.
The Royal Family at the time of the crash was in the dining car. Breakfast was coming to an end when everyone felt a terrible concussion. The disaster had three moments. Two shocks, and then in less than a second, the wall of the car began to shatter.
Here is what the newspaper Grazhdanin, which was published at that time, wrote: The first push was followed by a stop.
The second push, by the force of inertia, knocked out the bottom of the car. Everyone fell on the embankment. Then came the third moment, the most terrible: the walls of the car separated from the roof and began to fall inward. By the will of the Lord, the falling walls met and formed a roof, on which the roof of the car fell down: the dining car turned into a flattened mass.

The entire course of the wheels is thrown far to the side and broken into tiny pieces. The roof, then rolled up and thrown aside, revealed the miserable remains of the carriage. Under the rubble, it seemed, the Royal Family was buried.
But the Lord performed a great miracle. The Tsar, the Tsarina and the Tsar's Children were preserved for the Fatherland by the miracle of the Almighty.

The roof fell on them obliquely, says Zichy, an eyewitness who was in the car.
“There was a hole between the wall of the car and the roof, through which I entered. Countess Kutuzova came in behind me. The Empress Empress was taken out of the carriage window. The Sovereign Emperor had a flattened silver cigarette case, on the right side in his pocket».

According to an eyewitness, the crash site presented a terrible picture. The kitchen car went downhill.
The roof of another, ministerial, carriage has been demolished to the lake. The first four cars were a pile of wood chips, sand and iron. The locomotive, undamaged, stood in the way, but the rear wheels dug into the ground, derailing.
The second locomotive dug into the sand of the embankment. At the sight of the picture of the crash, Alexander III had tears in his eyes.
Little by little, the retinue and all the survivors began to group around the Sovereign. The only witnesses to the crash were the soldiers of the Penza Infantry Regiment, numb with horror, standing in chains in this area. Seeing that there was no way to help the victims with the forces and means of the broken train, the Emperor ordered the soldiers to shoot. The anxiety started. All along the line ran the soldiers; with them was the doctor of the Penza regiment; dressings appeared, although in scarce quantities.

There was slush, it was a fine, cold rain with hoarfrost. The empress was in one dress, badly damaged at the time of the disaster. Under the arms there was nothing to cover Her from the cold, and an officer's coat was thrown over Her shoulders. At the first moment, many of the generals who were on the spot, wishing to provide all possible assistance, each made his own orders, but this only slowed down the overall progress of the work to provide assistance. Seeing this, the Sovereign took upon Himself the order to provide assistance.

Since 1889, the Sovereign began to involve Nikolai in work in the highest state bodies, inviting him to participate in the classes of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. Alexander III developed a practical educational program for the Son to get acquainted with various regions of Russia.

For this, the Heir accompanied His Father on numerous trips around the country. [“As a completion of His education, Nicholas II traveled around the world. In nine months He traveled through Austria, Trieste, Greece, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and then by land through all of Siberia.]

In Vladivostok, he participated in the opening of the construction of the Siberian railway, at the laying of a dock and a monument to Admiral Nevelsky.

In Khabarovsk, the Heir was present at the consecration of the monument to Muravyov-Amursky. Through Irkutsk, Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Nikolai returned to Tsarskoye Selo matured and strengthened. He spent 9 months away from his parents (from October 23, 1890 to August 4, 1891), making a journey of 35 thousand miles.

After such a school of life, which the Heir passed during his round-the-world trip, Alexander III began to entrust him with more serious matters. Nikolai was appointed chairman of the committee of the Siberian Railway. He attended all its meetings, treating this appointment with great responsibility. Father also instructed Nikolai to chair a special committee for the delivery of assistance to the population of the provinces affected by crop failure (valid until March 5, 1893). The Committee collected donations for more than 13 million rubles and distributed them among the starving peasants.

In addition to working in these committees, Nikolai is constantly invited to meetings of the highest state institutions, where he practically gets acquainted with the science of governing a great country.

“Oh, You, Heavenly Chosen One, oh, great redeemer, You are above all!”

Very interesting and explains a lot both in the actions of Tsar Nicholas II during His reign, and in Russian events after 1917, the sermon delivered after the war by Bishop (then Archpriest) Mitrofan (Znosko-Borovsky) on the Name Day of the Tsar Redeemer.

[The sermon tells a prophecy about the amazingly grandiose role of the holy Tsar, then Tsesarevich, Nicholas in the destinies of the whole world, in the salvation of the Russian people, in the victory of good over evil.]

BUT). All Buddhism, represented by Buddhist clergy, bowed before the Tsesarevich

“Our tortured and murdered Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, while still being the Heir, [in April 1891] visited Japan. This interesting voyage of His is described by Prince Ukhtomsky in his 2-volume work. May the Lord bless me to tell you, my dear ones, about this interesting and extremely important, but little known, page from the life of the Redeemer King before we start praying for Him. [It would have been more correct to turn to Him with a prayer!] During this trip, the historian, a participant in the trip, said that the general attention was attracted by those special signs of reverence and honor that were given to the Heir to the Tsarevich by Buddhist clergy when He visited Buddhist temples. These were not just honors rendered to the Heir to the Throne of the Great Power - in their face, as it were, all Buddhism bowed before the Tsarevich. [Is this not the preaching of Orthodoxy by Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, and Buddhism is the recognition of the omnipotence of Jesus Christ!]

One day, one of the thoughtful companions of the Tsarevich rightly noted that each such meeting had the character of some incomprehensible mysterious cult performed before the highest incarnation, who, by the will of Heaven, descended to earth with a special mission. When the Tsarevich entered the temple, the Buddhist clergy prostrated themselves before Him, and when He raised them, they looked at Him with reverence and trepidation, solemnly, barely touching Him, led Him into the sanctuary of their temple.

If any of the retinue wanted to enter after the Tsarevich, they would not let him in. Once such an attempt was made by Prince George of Greece, but the lamas blocked his path.

[Here we recall the words of the Apostle Paul: it is not the hearers of the law that are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified; it is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and their thoughts (Rom. 2:13-15).

Buddhists are pagans who do not have the law of Christ, but by their nature, having cleansed their hearts from earthly passions by observing moral laws, they can find the Truth, which will be written in their hearts! Jesus Christ Himself said about such pagans: Blessed are the pure heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8).

And the Buddhists saw the earthly God - the King-redeemer, who redeemed, to Christ in the likeness and glory of Christ, the conciliar sin of treason committed by His subjects; they saw an earthly man who has a holy feat in likening the Most important Feat of Jesus Christ - in likening His Redemptive Feat.

To a possible question why the Lord revealed to the Buddhists, and hid from the "Orthodox" "ascetics", we will answer together with the Apostle Paul: "The Lord gives Orthodox Christians a reason to boast with a pure heart, and even pagans, so that they have something to say to those who boast in their faces, and not with the heart” (2 Corinthians 5:12).

And about the "Orthodox" Christians, who blasphemed and blasphemed the holy Tsar Nicholas II, Jesus Christ says: These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their tongue, but their heart is far from Me; but in vain they worship me, teaching doctrines, commandments, and wisdom of men (Matt. 15:8-9). Here is one of such human wisdom: “The Priesthood is higher than the Kingdom!” Why would it be like this???

And the Lord explains why they think so, He convicts them: your heart is hardened (Mk. 8:17), and therefore the Holy Spirit does not penetrate into such a heart and does not cleanse it of human philosophies. If anyone among you thinks that he is pious, and does not bridle his tongue about the God-anointed, but deceives his heart with his high-mindedness, his piety is empty (James 1:26).

To those who reject the rite of holiness “King-Redeemer,” Jesus Christ said: Oh, foolish and slow-hearted to believe everything that the prophets foretold! (Luke 24:25) For the heart of these people is hardened, and they can hardly hear with their ears; 15; Acts 28:27) from the heresy of tsarism, from the non-Orthodox understanding of the dogmas of Icon-worship and Atonement. Cruel! People with uncircumcised hearts and ears! you always oppose the Holy Spirit, as your fathers do, so do you (Acts 7:51).

To all priests and other thieves of the royal power, the brother of the Lord, the apostle James urgently advises: if in your heart you have bitter envy towards the holders of the power of the Anointed of God and have quarrelsomeness, because you do not understand Their actions, then do not boast of your piety and do not lie against the truth (James. 3.14).

It is said about them: a veil lies over their heart (2 Corinthians 3:15), and their eyes are filled with lust and continual sin; they deceive unasserted souls; their heart is accustomed to covetousness: these are the sons of a curse (2 Pet. 2:14).

Therefore I was indignant with that generation, and said, They go astray in heart, they do not know my ways; therefore I swore in my anger that they would not enter into my rest (Heb. 3:10-11).]

B). “There is no more blessed Thy sacrifice for all Thy people!”

In Japan, the Heir to the Tsesarevich was pleased to visit on one island the cemetery of our sailors from the Askold frigate, which in the 1860s circumnavigated the world under the command of the outstanding Unkovsky and was under repair near this island for a long time.

In the retinue of the Tsarevich were the sons of two officers from the "Askold" - Ukhtomsky and Eristov. The heir charmed with His caress and attention the old Japanese, the keeper of the graves of our sailors. During a treat in a purely Japanese spirit and taste, he asked the Heir for mercy to give Him advice, for which he received the Highest permission. “The Distinguished Guest is going to visit our sacred ancient capital of Kyoto,” began the Japanese, the guardian of the graves of Russian sailors, “not far from the latter, our famous hermit monk Terakuto labors, whose gaze reveals the secrets of the world and the fate of people. There is no time for him and he only gives signs of deadlines. He does not like to interrupt his contemplative solitude and rarely goes out to anyone. If the Royal traveler wishes to see him, he will come out to Him, if there is a blessing from Heaven.

In civilian clothes, accompanied by Prince George of Greece and an interpreter - Marquis Ito, a prominent figure in Japan, the Heir Tsarevich went on foot to Terakuto, who lived in one of the groves near Kyoto. The heir leaned over and carefully lifted him off the ground. No one said a word, waiting for what the recluse would say. Looking with unseeing eyes, as if cut off from everything earthly, Terakuto spoke:

Oh, You, Heavenly Chosen One, oh, great redeemer, should I prophesy the secret of Your earthly existence? You are above all. There is no guile, no flattery in my mouth before the Almighty. And this is a sign: danger hovers over Your head, but death will recede and the reed will be stronger than the sword ... and the reed will shine with brilliance. Two crowns are destined for You, Prince: earthly and heavenly. Precious stones play on Your crown, Lord of a mighty State, but the glory of the world passes and the stones on the earthly crown will fade, while the radiance of the heavenly crown will abide forever. The legacy of Your ancestors calls You to a sacred duty. Their voice is in your blood. They are alive in You, many of them are great and beloved, but of all of them You will be the greatest and most beloved.

Great sorrows and upheavals await You and Your country. You will fight for EVERYONE, and EVERYONE will be against You. Beautiful flowers bloom on the edge of the abyss, but their poison is pernicious; children yearn for flowers and fall into the abyss if they do not listen to the Father. Blessed is he who lays down his life for his friends. Thrice blessed is he who lays it down for his enemies. But there is no more blessed Thy sacrifice for all Thy people. [That is, none of the earthly people has and will not have a feat higher than the holy Tsar Nicholas!] It will come that You are alive, and the people are dead, but it will come true: the people are saved, and (You) are holy and immortal. Your weapon against malice is meekness, against resentment is forgiveness. Both friends and enemies will bow before You, and the enemies of Your people will be cut off. [While there is still a little time, the enemies of the God-bearing Russian people can still try to save their souls and bodies to become friends and allies of the Russians against the world behind the scenes! All who come in peace are accepted by the Russians.

But whoever comes to Russia with a sword will die by the sword! This happens for one single reason: with us, with the Russians, God, and therefore tremble tongues and submit! And remember that Abel the Seer spoke about the Jewish yoke to Emperor Paul the First: "Do not be sad, Father-King, the Christ-killers will bear their own." “Then Russia will be great, throwing off the yoke of the Jews.

He will return to the origins of his ancient life, to the times of the Equal-to-the-Apostles, he will learn the mind-reason by the bloody misfortune [the bloody scourge of the Jewish yoke!]. ... A great fate is destined for Russia. [That's why the enemies of God hate everything Russian; everything related to Russia; everything that reminds of her great past and future greatness! That is why Russians should not forget their destiny, their service to God!] That is why she will suffer, in order to purify herself and kindle the light into the revelation of tongues ... “] I see fiery tongues over Your head and Your Family. This is initiation. I see countless sacred fires in the altars before you. This is performance. Let there be a pure sacrifice and redemption be made. You will become a shining barrier to evil in the world. Terakuto told You what was revealed to him from the Book of Fates. Here is the wisdom and part of the mystery of the Creator. Beginning and the end. Death and immortality, moment and eternity. Blessed be the day and hour in which You came to old Terakuto.

AT). The cane turned out to be stronger than the sword and the cane shone

Touching the ground, Terakuto, without turning around, began to move away until he disappeared into the thicket of trees. What a powerful denunciation for their lack of the Spirit of Christ to all "Orthodox" Christians who lived at the same time as Saint Nicholas Alexandrovich and who still blaspheme and vilify Him.

Holy Tsar Nicholas said that the Old Believers and Cossacks would not understand Him. And it is clear why: these two communities of people, and now fighters against TIN, against globalization, with new passports, etc., have a firmly established practice of pleasing God to serve Satan with their zeal!

These communities of Orthodox Christians, zealously occupied with the virtues of a fallen nature, are zealous to serve God in the way and where they themselves decide, and not in the way and where the Lord blesses. Proverbs 21:1), and not in their hands. They cannot understand that the Lord God Himself guides His Anointed One, and not servile wisdom! But they wear a cross and go to church regularly, and now they also offer fervent prayers for the Great Lord and Father of all heretic papists!]

The Tsarevich stood with his head bowed. His companions are too. Excited, the Tsesarevich returned and asked not to talk about Terakuto's prediction. A few days later, an attempt was made on the life of the Heir to the Tsarevich in Kyoto.

A Japanese fanatic [also zealous to serve God!] hit Him on the head with a saber, but the blow only slipped, causing a harmless injury. Prince George of Greece hit the criminal with all his might with a bamboo cane, thereby saving the life of the Tsarevich. Upon the return of the heir to St. Petersburg, talking with Prince George, Emperor Alexander III expressed a desire to get a cane for a while. The emperor returned it to Prince George already in the frame of the finest jewelry work, all showered with diamonds. The sign came true, the first prediction of old Terakuto: the cane turned out to be stronger than the sword and the cane shone.

On June 23, 1901, the Sovereign Emperor was pleased to receive in the great hall of the Peterhof Palace a special mission of the Dalai Lama, who arrived from Tibet. The embassy bowed low when His Majesty entered the hall, accompanied by a retinue. The Tibetan embassy carried with them a heavily bound chest, from which they never parted for a moment.

Presenting to His Majesty the robes taken from the chest, the head of the embassy, ​​the old honored lama, said: “These are the authentic robes of the Buddha, which no one has touched after him. To you alone they belong by right, and now accept them from all Tibet.” The words of the embassy from Tibet, like those predicted by the recluse Terakuto, are the key to understanding the mystery of our Sovereign and Russia sealed from Above. (Bishop Mitrofan (Znosko). Chronicle of one life. On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of pastoral ministry IX.1935-IX.1995. M. 1995. S. 294-297).

The Tsarevich showed Himself to be deeply religious, selflessly loving and possessing an exceptionally strong character.

BUT). “Everything is in the will of God. Trusting in His mercy, I calmly and humbly look to the future.”

The first serious test of willpower, the Heir Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich had to endure in connection with His marriage, when, thanks to His stubborn perseverance, endurance and patience, He successfully overcame three seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Back in 1884, when He was only sixteen years old, He first met the twelve-year-old strikingly beautiful Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had come to the wedding of His elder sister Vel. Book. Elizabeth Feodorovna and Vel. Book. Sergei Alexandrovich - uncle of the Heir Tsarevich.

From that moment, a close friendship was born between Them, and then a holy, selfless, self-sacrificing and ever-increasing love that united Their lives until the joint acceptance ... [martyrdom].

Such marriages are a rare gift of God even among mere mortals, and among the Crowned Persons, where marriages are made mainly for political reasons, and not for love, this is an exceptional phenomenon.

In 1889, when the Heir to the Tsesarevich was twenty-one years old and, according to Russian laws, reached the age of majority, He turned to His Parents with a request to bless Him for marriage with Princess Alice. The answer of Emperor Alexander III was short: “You are very young, for marriage there is still time, and, in addition, remember the following: You are the Heir to the Russian Throne, You are betrothed to Russia, and we will still have time to find a wife.

Before the will of the Father - heavy, unswerving - what is said, that is, the law, Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich resigned himself for a while without a murmur and began to wait.

A year and a half after this conversation, He wrote in His diary: “Everything is in the will of God. Trusting in His mercy, I calmly and humbly look to the future.”

On the part of Princess Alice's family, Their marriage plans were also not met with sympathy. Since She lost Her mother when She was only 6 years old and her father at eighteen, Her upbringing was mainly carried out by Her maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria of England.

This Queen, so celebrated in the Anglo-Saxon world, during many decades of her 64-year reign (1837-1901) pursued an extremely ignoble foreign policy, built on intricate insidious intrigues, directed mainly against Russia.

Queen Victoria especially did not like the Russian Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III, who, in turn, responded to Her with contemptuous hostility. It is no wonder that with such unfriendly relations between the Russian and English Courts, the Heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich could not meet with support from the grandmother of Princess Alice. [“For Alexander III, falling in love with his son did not seem like something serious. The marriage of the Heir to the Russian Throne has always been too serious a political event for only tender feelings to be taken into account. Although the parents did not intend to forcefully marry Nikolai, at various times he was offered several options for a possible marriage.

One of the brides was the daughter of the Count of Paris, the head of the Bourbon dynasty, the possible president of France. This marriage could significantly strengthen the Russian-French alliance, Alexander III's favorite foreign policy brainchild. Princess Margaret of Prussia was considered as another contender for the role of the future Empress.

Nikolai wrote at the end of 1891: “December 21. In the evening at Mama's ... we talked about family life ...; involuntarily, this conversation touched the most vital string of my soul, touched the dream and the hope that I live by day by day. A year and a half has already passed since I spoke about this with Papa in Peterhof ... My dream is to ever marry Alix G. I have loved her for a long time, but even deeper and stronger since 1889, when she spent six weeks in Petersburg! For a long time I resisted my feelings, trying to deceive myself with the impossibility of realizing my cherished dream. ... The only obstacle or gulf between her and me is the question of religion! Apart from this barrier, there is no other; I'm almost sure that our feelings are mutual! [Everything is in the will of God. Trusting in His mercy, I calmly and humbly look to the future]"...

Maria Feodorovna decided to distract Him a little from thoughts about Alex. At this time, a new star was shining on the stage of the Imperial Mariinsky Theater - the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. [The Tsarevich's parents contributed to the rapprochement of young people ... "There was gossip about this novel, but in the Family of Nicholas they did not attach serious importance to it - the Heir seemed to be too responsible and devoted to duty as a person to connect His life with a dancer. Alexander III condescendingly reacted to his son's passion and, perhaps, even hoped that Kshesinskaya would help him forget the German princess that his parents did not like. ”]

Of course, Kshesinskaya understood all the hopelessness of their romance, and Nikolai’s love for the Princess of Darmstadt was not a secret to her: “We spoke more than once about the inevitability of His marriage and the inevitability of our separation Of all those whom He prophesied as a bride, He considered her the most suitable and that He was drawn to her more and more [for They were created for each other by the plan of God!], that she would be His chosen one, if parental permission followed. ”]

Five years have passed since the day when Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich turned to His August Father with a request to allow Him to marry Princess Alice.

[During these ten years, They only saw each other when Princess Alice came to Russia twice (in 1884 and 1889). The Lord God unites them. And those around Them see only that “there are only fantasies and memories between Them, correspondence that warms up passions through sister Ella” (through Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna).]

In the early spring of 1894, seeing the unshakable decision of His Son, His patience and meek obedience to the Parental will, Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna finally gave their blessing to the marriage.

At the same time in England, Princess Alice, who by this time had lost her father, who died in 1890, received a blessing from Queen Victoria. The last obstacle remained - the change of religion and the adoption of holy Orthodoxy by the August Bride.

B). Tsarevich Nicholas was able to reveal to Princess Alice the truth of His Orthodox faith

Princess Alice was extremely religious. She was brought up in Protestantism and was sincerely and deeply convinced of the truth of Her religion. Along with this, She knew that She could not become the Russian Empress without accepting holy Orthodoxy, but a change of religion.

She considered it a betrayal of Her most sacred feelings and convictions. Being exceptionally honest with herself, distinguished by nobility and devotion to Her ideals, and, moreover, being well educated - She received a Ph.D.

Thus, this question became a matter of conscience for Princess Alice, since the Russian Throne, although the most brilliant in that era, in itself, did not tempt Her, especially since, thanks to Her striking beauty and internal attractiveness, She enjoyed great success among European Crowned Suitors and Heirs to the Thrones.

So, the last obstacle to the marriage of the Heir to the Tsarevich and Princess Alice seemed insurmountable. There was only one possible way out - the complete persuasion of Her religious views, i.e. sincere understanding of the falsity of the Protestant religion and sincere acceptance of holy Orthodoxy. This difficult and complex task fell to the lot of the Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich himself.

At the beginning of April He visited Coburg and spent twelve days at the palace of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, where Princess Alice was visiting at the same time. Here Their fate was to be decided, which depended on the conviction of the Heir to the Tsesarevich in the correctness of His arguments. On the third day there was a decisive conversation between Them. There was no one in the living room, They were left alone to decide the question of Their life. The princess was lovely. There was no need to speak, it was clear without words. He knew now that Their love is mutual, that in this love is the happiness of the life to come. One obstacle remained - a change of religion; He foresaw this before, but did not imagine that this obstacle could turn out to be so decisive and difficult.

He saw the spiritual struggle of Princess Alice, the real real struggle of a Christian. He understood that it now depends on Him to convince Her that She does not commit apostasy, that by accepting Orthodoxy, She approaches God in the brightest forms of communion with Him. And He found wonderful words in His heart. “Alix, I understand your religious feelings and revere them. But we believe in one Christ; there is no other Christ. God, who created the world, gave us soul and heart. And He filled my heart and yours with love, so that we merge soul with soul, so that we become one and follow the same path in life.

There is nothing without His will. Let not your conscience trouble you that my faith will become your faith. When you find out later how beautiful, fertile and humble our Orthodox religion is, how majestic and magnificent our churches and monasteries are, and how solemn and majestic our services are, you will love them, Alix, and nothing will separate us "...

At that moment, a great, immense one appeared before Him - from the Solovetsky monasteries to the New Athos monasteries, from the northern grayish-blue waters of the Baltic Sea to the bright blue Pacific Ocean - His sovereign Mother Russia, Holy God-bearing Orthodox Russia. Tears of tenderness and delight appeared in my eyes. The princess listened attentively, looking into His blue eyes, His excited face, and a transformation took place in Her soul. Seeing the tears, She could not resist herself. Then she whispered only two words: "I agree." Their tears mingled together.

He outlined the sequence of His conversations, told how he urged Her to change religion and how She felt.

... “She cried all the time and only from time to time said in a whisper:“ no, I can’t. ”I, however, continued to insist and repeat my arguments, and although this conversation lasted two hours, it did not lead to anything because neither she nor I yielded. I gave her your letter and after that she could no longer argue. She decided to talk to Aunt Mikhen (Grand Duke Maria Pavlovna (senior)). As for me, during these three days I was in the most anxious state all the time ... This morning we were left alone, and here, from the very first words, she agreed. God only knows what happened to me. I cried like a baby and so did she. But her face expressed complete satisfaction.

No, dear Mom, I cannot express to you how happy I am, and at the same time, how sorry I am that I cannot press you and my dear Dad to my heart. The whole world changed for me at once: nature, people, everything; and everyone seems kind, sweet and happy to me. I couldn't even write, my hands were shaking so much. She has completely changed: she has become cheerful, funny, talkative and gentle ... The Savior told us: "Everything that you ask from God, God will give you." These words are infinitely dear to me, because for five years I prayed them, repeating them every night, begging Him to facilitate the transition to the Orthodox faith for Alix and give her to me as a wife...

It's time to finish the letter. Farewell, my dear Mother. I hug you tightly. Christ is with you. Warmly and wholeheartedly loving you Nicky. He took an elegant dark crimson shagreen leather notebook - His diary and made the following entry into it: “A wonderful, unforgettable day in my life - the day of my engagement to dear, beloved Alix ... God, what a mountain fell off my shoulders; with what joy it was possible to please dear Papa and Mama. I walked all day, as if in a dope, not quite realizing what actually happened to me "... [After breakfast, we went to Comrade Marie's church and served a thanksgiving service.] ... (S. Pozdnyshev. Op. Cit., pp. 11-16).

On the same day, April 8/21, 1894, Their engagement was officially announced. [Alexandra Feodorovna, until her death, wore around her neck, along with a cross, Nikolai's groom's gift - a ring with a ruby. (Oleg Platonov. The plot of the regicides. S. 102.) “The news delivered to Russia on the same day caused a response telegram from the parents, and a few days later ... a personal message from Alexander III arrived. “Dear, dear Nicky,” wrote the father, “you can imagine with what a feeling of joy and with what gratitude to the Lord we learned about your engagement! I confess that I did not believe the possibility of such an outcome and was sure of the complete failure of your attempt, but the Lord instructed you, strengthened and blessed you, and great gratitude to Him for His mercies... Now I am sure that you are doubly enjoying and everything you have gone through, although forgotten, but I am sure it has benefited you, proving that not everything gets so easily and for free, and especially such a great step that decides your whole future and your whole subsequent family life!

Ten years have passed since the August Bride and Groom met for the first time, and five years have passed since the Parents refused to bless Their marriage. The heir Tsesarevich meekly humbled himself, but patiently waited and steadily strived towards His goal. Over the years, He managed to gradually overpower His August Father - a mighty hero, distinguished by unshakable willpower, to overcome the dissympathy for His plans on the part of Empress Maria Feodorovna and the grandmother of Princess Alice - Queen Victoria of England, and, finally, without being a theologian, to reveal to Princess Alice the truth of His faith, change Her firm religious convictions and incline Her to a sincere, sincere acceptance of holy Orthodoxy. Only a deeply believing and selflessly loving person, possessing an exceptionally strong character, could overcome all these obstacles.

[“After almost a quarter of a century, She [Alexandra Feodorovna] will remind Him [Nikolai Alexandrovich] of the events of that day with words in which sincere love is felt:“ On this day, the day of our engagement, all my tender thoughts are with you, filling my heart with endless gratitude for that deep love and happiness that you have always given me since that memorable day - 22 years ago. May God help me to reward you a hundredfold for all your kindness!

Yes, I, - I say quite sincerely, - I doubt that there are many wives as happy as I, so much love, trust and devotion you have shown me in these long years in happiness and sorrow. For all my torment, suffering and indecision, you gave me so much in return, my precious fiance and husband ... Thank you, my treasure, do you feel how I want to be in your strong arms and relive those wonderful days that brought us all new evidence of love and tenderness? Today I will wear that expensive brooch. I can still smell your gray clothes and smell them - there by the window in Coburg Castle.

How vividly I remember all this! Those sweet kisses that I dreamed and yearned for so many years and never hoped to get again. You see how already at that time faith and religion played a big role in my life. I cannot take this lightly and if I decide on something, then forever, the same is in my love and affection.

Too big heart - it devours me. Also, love for Christ - it has always been so closely connected with our lives during these 22 years!

Before leaving for Russia, Nikolai decided to tell his bride about his affair with Kshesinskaya """What happened, it happened," Alice writes with tears in her eyes, "the past can never be returned. We are all subject to temptation in this world, and when we are young, it is especially difficult for us to resist temptation. But if we can repent, God will forgive us. I'm sorry I talk about this so much, but I want you to be sure of my love for you. I love you even more after you told me this story. Your trust touched me deeply. I will try to be worthy of him. God bless you, my beloved Nicky..."

The words that Alice writes in her fiancé's diary are imbued with the most exalted feeling of love, the light of which they managed to carry through their whole lives. Just before she leaves England, She will write in His diary: “I am yours and you are mine, be sure. You are locked in my heart, the key is lost, and you will have to stay there forever.”]

Used Books:
pages of life. S. 7.
As predicted to the holy Emperor Paul the First, Abel the Seer.
G. P. Butnikov. Savior on Spilled Blood. SPb. B / g.
So Emperor Alexander II called the beloved grandson of Tsarevich Nicholas.
pages of life. S. 7.
On the oath, see the explanation of St. Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow, given in the notes "Christian Doctrine of Royal Power and the Duties of Loyal Subjects."
A folk proverb teaches us: "Whoever God wants to punish, He takes away his mind."
TVNZ. March 23, 2006.
Oleg Platonov. The conspiracy of the regicides. 89-91.
"The perfection with which the Heir spoke English was such that the Oxford professor mistook Him for an Englishman." (Oleg Platonov. The plot of the regicides. S. 94.)
pages of life. S. 12.
O. Platonov. Nicholas II in secret correspondence. S. 11.
Oleg Platonov. The conspiracy of the regicides. S. 94.
pages of life. S. 14.
The compiler of R. S. cites a fragment of chapter 16 from Oleg Platonov's book "The Conspiracy of the Regicides".
O. Platonov. Nicholas II in secret correspondence. pp. 11-12.
Compiler R. S. cites the text from the book compiled by S. Fomin "Orthodox Tsar-Martyr". (Hegumen Seraphim (Kuznetsov). Pilgrim. 1997. [below - Hegumen Seraphim. Orthodox Tsar.] S. 499-501.)
In Russia, the book of Bishop Mitrofan (Znosko-Borovsky) "Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Sectarianism" (Lectures on Comparative Theology, read at the Holy Trinity Theological Seminary) is known. (Edition of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra (reprint). 1991.) We draw attention to this fact in order to prevent in advance possible accusations by “zealots” not according to the mind of Christ of this bishop of ignorance of the teachings of the Orthodox Church and of an unorthodox, biased attitude towards Buddhism and towards predictions of the Buddhist hermit monk Terakuto.
S. Fomin has here and everywhere below: Tsar-Martyr.
Who boast of their theological or other education, their ordination to the priesthood, their “Orthodoxy”, their belonging to the Russian God-chosen people, their social position, etc. It should be understood that all these are talents given by God, which impose an obligation on their owners to use them pleasingly and thereby acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The double-headed eagle in the State Emblem of the Russian Empire clearly indicates that both the Priesthood and the Kingdom are in obedience to the Anointed Tsar!
The root of this word is "fornication", and therefore deceived in heart means spiritual fornication.
That is, he was chosen as the King of Heaven!
No one else can have this love, but whoever lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13) - There is no greater love than if someone lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
The compiler cites the 2nd chapter from the book by E. E. Alferyev "Emperor Nicholas II as a man of strong will." (Edition of the Holy Trinity Monastery. Jordanville, 1983. S. 15-21.)
S. Pozdnyshev. Crucify Him. Paris. 1952, p. 9.
Ibidem, p. ten.
From Queen Victoria, the Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna inherited, as a transmitter, the fatal disease hemophilia. which She handed over to Her son, the Heir Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. See The Last Courts of Europe - A Royal Family Album 1860-1914. Introductory text by Robert K. Massie. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., London, 1981, p. 25.
pages of life. S. 20.
pages of life. S. 18.
Unknown Alexander III. pp. 215-216.
pages of life. S. 18.
Wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, daughter of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna is the third lady in the Russian Empire after both Empresses. She was considered the head of the grand ducal opposition to Emperor Nicholas II. (Encyclopedia of the Russian Empire. Edited by V. Butromeev. U-Factoria. Yekaterinburg. 2002.) (Remark by the compiler R.S.).
pages of life. S. 22.
E. E. Alferiev. Letters from the Royal Family from imprisonment. Edition of the Holy Trinity Monastery. Jordanville, 1974, pp. 340-341.
Unknown Alexander III. S. 218.
Oleg Platonov. The conspiracy of the regicides. pp. 101-102.

Emperor Nicholas II was born in 1868, on May 6 (18) in Tsarskoe Selo, Empress Maria Feodorovna. Nikolai Alexandrovich's father is Alexander III. At the age of 8 (1876) he became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1894 he became emperor.

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas 2, Russia experienced rapid development in the economy and industrial sectors. Under him, Russia lost the war of 1904-1905 to Japan, which accelerated the Revolution of 1905-1907. In the first year of the Revolution, on October 17, the Manifesto appeared, which legalized the emergence of political parties and established the State Duma. At the same time, Stolypin's agrarian reform began.

In the First World War, Russia had allies in the person of the members of the Entente, into which it was admitted in 1907. Since August 1915, Emperor Nicholas 2 has been the supreme commander in chief.

Abdicated the throne in 1917, March 2 (15), during the February Revolution. Soon after that, he was arrested and then killed by the Bolsheviks (along with his wife and children) in Yekaterinburg in 1918, on July 17. Canonized in 2000.

Childhood and adolescence of the emperor

With Nikolai, teachers began to study when he entered the age of eight. First, there was a training program for an eight-year general education course, then five years of higher education. The changed course of the classical gymnasium was taken as the basis for the emperor's education. Nikolay studied natural sciences instead of classical "dead" languages. The course of history was expanded, and the study of native literature was also more complete. Foreign languages ​​were taught to the future emperor also according to a more detailed program. Among the subjects of higher education were political economy and law. The study of military law, strategy, geography and the service of the General Staff were included in higher military affairs.

Nikolai studied the art of owning a rapier, vaulting, drawing and music. Teachers and mentors were strictly selected by the crowned parents themselves. The composition of the teachers included pundits, statesmen and military figures, such as N. Kh. Bunge, N. K. Girs, K. P. Pobedonostsev, N. N. Obruchev, M. I. Dragomirov and A. R. Drenteln.

First steps in a career

Knowing to perfection military regulations and internal officer traditions, Nikolai was drawn to military affairs from an early age. It was not difficult for him to endure difficulties during camp gatherings and maneuvers, he easily and humanly communicated with ordinary soldiers, at the same time feeling his responsibility to them, as a mentor and patron.

His army career began immediately after birth: his name was included in the lists of regiments of the Imperial Guard, and in the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment he was appointed chief. When Nikolai was five years old, the Life Guards Reserve Infantry Regiment received him as chief. In 1875 he was enrolled in the Life Guards Erivan Regiment. He received his first military rank in 1875 (in December), became a second lieutenant in 1880, and a lieutenant after another 4 years.

Since 1884, Nicholas II was an active military man, since July 1887 he was admitted to the Preobrazhensky Regiment, where he received the rank of staff captain. After 4 years, the future Emperor became a captain, and in 1892 a colonel.

Serving as Emperor of Russia

Nicholas was crowned at the age of 26, on October 20, 1894 in Moscow. He took the oath and received the name Nicholas II. In 1896, on May 18, the coronation celebrations at the Khodynka field were overshadowed by tragic events. The political situation during the reign of the last emperor was very tense. The foreign policy situation also sharply aggravated: this is the time of the war between Russia and Japan, the bloody January 9, the revolution of 1905-1907, the First World War and the "bourgeois" revolution of February 1917.

During his reign, the process of industrialization of Russia took place. New cities were built and grew, settlements everywhere were connected by railroads, plants and factories were erected. Nikolai was set up progressively in relation to the economic and social development of the country, the growth of modernization. He supported the agrarian reform, signed laws on the introduction of the gold circulation of the ruble and insurance of workers, sided with universal primary education and religious tolerance.

By his nature, Nicholas was not inclined to reformism. He took many changes against his will, forcedly, as they ran counter to his beliefs. He did not believe that Russia was ready to adopt a constitution, to receive rights and freedoms, as well as the right to vote. He did not want to go against a strong social movement for political transformation, and as a result he signed the Manifesto. Thus, on October 17, 1905, democratic freedoms were proclaimed.

The State Duma began its activity in 1906; its establishment was also spelled out in the Manifesto. This was the first time in Russian history that the population elected a representative body of power. The gradual transformation of Russia into a constitutional monarchy began.

Despite these changes, the power of the emperor was still enormous: no one repealed laws in the form of decrees, the appointment of ministers accountable only to the emperor and the prime minister was his prerogative. He was still subject to the army, the court and the ministers of the Church, it was he who determined the course of foreign policy.

Emperor Nicholas II as a person

Contemporaries assessed the positive and negative personality traits of Nicholas II very contradictory. Some considered him almost “spineless” and weak-willed, others noted his perseverance in achieving the intended goals, often reaching stubbornness. In fact, someone else's will was imposed on him only once, when he signed the Manifesto and thereby allowed it to be.

At first glance, there was nothing strong, stern and powerful in his appearance, character and behavior, like his father Alexander III. Nevertheless, people who knew him closely noted exceptional self-control, which could be mistakenly interpreted as indifference to people and the fate of the country. An example of this is his composure at the news that Port Arthur had fallen and that the Russian army had again lost another battle (during the First World War). This impassivity to the depths of the soul struck his entourage. Emperor Nicholas II dealt with state affairs very diligently and carefully, he did almost everything himself - he never had a personal secretary, and all the seals on letters were put by his hand. On the whole, the management of vast Russia was hard for him. According to contemporaries, the emperor was very observant, had a tenacious memory, was modest, sensitive and affable. He cherished peace of mind, health and well-being of himself and his family.

Family of Nicholas II

In difficult times, his family was his support. The emperor's wife was Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, in marriage - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

She was a true friend to Nikolai, supported him and helped with advice. They had many coincidences - in habits, ideas about life and cultural interests. They got married in 1894, on November 14. The Empress gave birth to four daughters and an only son: in 1895 - Olga, in 1897 - Tatiana, in 1899 - Maria, in 1901 - Anastasia and in 1904 - Alexei.

Alexei had an incurable disease that caused constant suffering to loving parents: blood incoagulability, or hemophilia.

The acquaintance of the royal couple with Grigory Rasputin happened precisely because of the illness of the prince. Rasputin had long had the glory of a healer and seer, and he often helped Alexei cope with bouts of illness.

World War I

The fate of Emperor Nicholas 2 changed dramatically in the year the First World War began. For a very long time he tried to prevent a bloody clash, to avoid hostilities. Alas, the hopes were not justified: the war began in 1914, Russia received the "glove" from Germany on August 1.

When the streak of military setbacks began, and it was in August 1915, the emperor assumed the functions of commander in chief. Previously, this duty was performed by the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (the younger). From that time on, the emperor almost never visited St. Petersburg; Mogilev and the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief became his “home”.

Problems within the country "thanks" to the war have become much more acute. There were rumors that the government "warmed up" the traitors. The main burden of responsibility for too long hostilities and failures on the battlefield fell on the shoulders of the king and government. Together with the allies, England and France, the General Staff, headed by Nicholas II, prepared a plan for the final offensive. The war was planned to end before the summer of 1917.

Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. Execution

The unrest in the capital in February 1917 did not meet with a serious rebuff from the government. Seeing no resistance, the masses intensified and launched large-scale actions against the dynasty and the authorities. Emperor Nicholas 2 did not begin to restore order by force, fearing unlimited bloodshed.

There were people in the government actively persuading the king to abdicate. High military officials, some members of the royal retinue and individual political actors explained this by the fact that a change of power was required to calm the unrest in the country. The fatal step was taken on March 2, 1917. After long, painful reflections in the imperial carriage, in Pskov, the tsar signed the abdication of the throne. The throne was transferred to the Grand Duke Michael, brother of Nicholas, but he did not accept the crown.

The emperor and his family were arrested on March 9. For five months they lived in Tsarskoye Selo, under vigilant guard. At the end of the summer they were transferred to Tobolsk, where they stayed until April 1918. The next and last refuge of the royal family was Yekaterinburg, Ipatiev's house, where they were in the basement until July 17. That night they were shot: all of them, the family and four close associates, without a trial and without investigation.

On the same night in the Urals, in the Alapaevsk mine, six more close relatives of the royal dynasty were shot.

The last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The upbringing he received under the guidance of his father was strict, almost harsh. “I need normal healthy Russian children” - such a requirement was put forward by the emperor to the educators of his children. Such an upbringing could only be Orthodox in spirit. Even as a small child, the Tsarevich showed a special love for God, for His Church. The heir received a very good education at home - he knew several languages, studied Russian and world history, was deeply versed in military affairs, and was a widely erudite person. But the plans of the father to prepare his son for bearing the royal duty were not destined to be fully realized.

The first meeting of the sixteen-year-old heir Nicholas Alexandrovich and the young princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt took place in the year when her older sister, the future Reverend Martyr Elizabeth, married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the uncle of the Tsarevich. A strong friendship began between them, which later turned into a deep and ever-growing love. When in a year, having reached the age of majority, the heir turned to his parents with a request to bless him for marriage with Princess Alice, his father refused, citing his youth as the reason for the refusal. Then he resigned himself to his father's will, but in the year, seeing the unshakable determination of his son, usually gentle and even timid in communication with his father, Emperor Alexander III gave his blessing to the marriage.

The joy of mutual love was overshadowed by a sharp deterioration in the health of Emperor Alexander III, who died on October 20 of the year. Despite the mourning, it was decided not to postpone the marriage, but it took place in the most modest atmosphere on November 14 of the year. The days of family happiness that followed were soon replaced by the need for the new emperor to take on the entire burden of governing the Russian Empire, despite the fact that he had not yet been fully introduced to the course of higher state affairs.

Reign

The character of Nikolai Alexandrovich, who was twenty-six years old at the accession to the throne, and his worldview by this time were completely determined. The faces that stood close to the court marked his lively mind - he always quickly grasped the essence of the issues reported to him, an excellent memory, especially for faces, the nobility of his way of thinking. At the same time, Nikolai Alexandrovich, with his gentleness, tact in handling, and modest manners, gave the impression to many of a man who did not inherit the strong will of his father.

The guide for Emperor Nicholas II was the political testament of his father:

“I bequeath to you to love everything that serves the good, honor and dignity of Russia. Protect the autocracy, remembering, moreover, that you are responsible for the fate of your subjects before the Throne of the Most High. Faith in God and the holiness of your royal duty be the foundation of your life for you. Be firm and courageous, never show weakness. Listen to everyone, there is nothing shameful in this, but listen to yourself and your conscience ".

From the very beginning of his reign as a Russian power, Emperor Nicholas II treated the performance of the duties of the monarch as a sacred duty. The sovereign deeply believed that for the Russian people the royal power was and remains sacred. He always had the idea that the king and queen should be closer to the people, see them more often and trust them more. Having become the supreme ruler of a vast empire, Nikolai Alexandrovich took upon himself an enormous historical and moral responsibility for everything that happened in the state entrusted to him. One of his most important duties he considered the preservation of the Orthodox faith.

Emperor Nicholas II paid great attention to the needs of the Orthodox Church throughout his reign. Like all Russian emperors, he generously donated to the construction of new churches, including those outside Russia. During the years of his reign, the number of parish churches in the empire increased by more than 10 thousand, more than 250 new monasteries were opened. He himself participated in the laying of new churches and other church celebrations. The personal piety of the Sovereign was also manifested in the fact that during the years of his reign more saints were canonized than in the two previous centuries, when only 5 saints were glorified - during his reign, St. Theodosius of Chernigov (g.), Rev. Seraphim of Sarov (city), Holy Princess Anna of Kashinskaya (restoration of veneration in the city), Saint Joasaph of Belgorod (city), Saint Hermogenes of Moscow (city), Saint Pitirim of Tambov (city), Saint John of Tobolsk (city) . At the same time, the emperor was forced to show special perseverance, seeking the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, Sts. Joasaph of Belgorod and John of Tobolsk. Emperor Nicholas II highly revered the holy righteous father John of Kronstadt and after his blessed death ordered that his nationwide prayer commemoration be performed on the day of repose.

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, the synodal system of governing the Church was preserved, but it was under him that the church hierarchy got the opportunity not only to widely discuss, but also to practically prepare the convocation of the Local Council.

The desire to introduce Christian religious and moral principles of one's worldview into public life has always distinguished the foreign policy of Emperor Nicholas II. Back in the year, he turned to the governments of Europe with a proposal to convene a conference to discuss issues of maintaining peace and reducing armaments. The consequence of this was the peace conferences in The Hague in 1997, whose decisions have not lost their significance to this day.

But, despite the sovereign's sincere desire for peace, during his reign Russia had to participate in two bloody wars that led to internal unrest. In the year without a declaration of war, Japan began hostilities against Russia, and the result of this difficult war for Russia was the revolutionary turmoil of the year. The sovereign perceived the unrest that took place in the country as a great personal grief.

In an informal setting, few spoke with the Sovereign. And everyone who knew his family life firsthand noted the amazing simplicity, mutual love and consent of all members of this closely knit family. The relationship of the children with the sovereign was touching - for them he was at the same time king, father and comrade; their feelings changed depending on the circumstances, passing from almost religious worship to complete gullibility and the most cordial friendship.

But the center of the family was Alexei Nikolaevich, on whom all affections and hopes were concentrated. His incurable illness darkened the life of the family, but the nature of the illness remained a state secret, and parents often had to hide their feelings. At the same time, the illness of the Tsarevich opened the doors to the palace for those people who were recommended to the royal family as healers and prayer books. Among them, the peasant Grigory Rasputin appears in the palace, whose healing abilities gave him great influence at court, which, together with the bad fame that spread about him, undermined the faith and loyalty of many to the imperial house.

At the beginning of the war, on the wave of patriotism in Russia, internal disagreements largely subsided, even the most difficult issues became solvable. It was possible to carry out the sovereign's long-conceived ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages for the entire duration of the war - his conviction in the usefulness of this measure was stronger than all economic considerations.

The sovereign regularly traveled to Headquarters, visiting various sectors of his huge army, dressing stations, military hospitals, rear factories - everything that played a role in waging a grandiose war.

From the beginning of the war, the emperor considered his tenure as supreme commander in chief as the fulfillment of a moral and state duty to God and the people. However, the Sovereign always gave the leading military experts a broad initiative in resolving all military-strategic and operational-tactical issues. On August 22, the sovereign left for Mogilev in order to take command of all the armed forces of Russia, and from that day on he was constantly at Headquarters. Only about once a month did the Emperor come to Tsarskoye Selo for a few days. All responsible decisions were made by him, but at the same time he instructed the empress to maintain relations with the ministers and keep him informed of what was happening in the capital.

Imprisonment and execution

Already on March 8, the commissars of the Provisional Government, having arrived in Mogilev, announced through General Alekseev that the sovereign had been arrested and the need to proceed to Tsarskoye Selo. The arrest of the royal family did not have the slightest legal basis or reason, but born on the day of memory of the righteous Job the Long-suffering, in which he always saw a deep meaning, the sovereign accepted his cross in the same way as the biblical righteous man. In the words of the sovereign:

“If I am an obstacle to the happiness of Russia and all the social forces now at the head of it ask me to leave the throne and pass it on to my son and brother, then I am ready to do this, I am ready not only to give my kingdom, but also to give my life for the Motherland. I think no one doubts this from those who know me..

“You need my renunciation. The bottom line is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front in peace, you need to decide on this step. I agreed ... At one in the morning I left Pskov with a heavy feeling of what I had experienced. Around treason and cowardice and deceit!

For the last time, he turned to his troops, calling on them to be loyal to the Provisional Government, the very one that arrested him, to fulfill their duty to the Motherland until complete victory. The farewell order to the troops, which expressed the nobility of the Sovereign's soul, his love for the army, faith in it, was hidden from the people by the Provisional Government, which banned its publication.

The sovereign accepted and endured all the trials sent down to him firmly, meekly and without a shadow of grumbling. On March 9, the emperor, who had been arrested the day before, was transported to Tsarskoe Selo, where the whole family was impatiently waiting for him. An almost five-month period of indefinite stay in Tsarskoye Selo began. The days passed measuredly - in regular worship, joint meals, walks, reading and communication with loved ones. However, at the same time, the life of the prisoners was subjected to petty embarrassments - the sovereign was announced by A.F. Kerensky that he should live separately and see the empress only at the table, and speak only in Russian, guard soldiers made rude remarks to him, access to the palace persons close to the royal family were forbidden. Once, the soldiers even took away a toy gun from the heir under the pretext of a ban on carrying weapons. Father Afanasy Belyaev, who regularly performed divine services in the Alexander Palace during this period, left his testimonies about the spiritual life of the Tsarskoye Selo prisoners. Here is how the service of Good Friday Matins on March 30 took place in the palace:

“The service went on reverently and touchingly ... Their Majesties listened to the entire service while standing. Folding lecterns were placed in front of them, on which the Gospels lay, so that they could follow the reading. Everyone stood until the end of the service and left through the common hall to their rooms. One must see for oneself and be so close in order to understand and make sure how the former royal family zealously, in the Orthodox way, often on their knees, prays to God. With what humility, meekness, humility, completely surrendering themselves to the will of God, they stand behind the divine service!.

In the palace Church or in the former royal chambers, Father Athanasius regularly served the All-Night and Divine Liturgy, which were always attended by all members of the imperial family. After the day of the Holy Trinity, disturbing messages appear more and more often in the diary of Father Athanasius - he notes the growing irritation of the guards, sometimes reaching rudeness towards the royal family. The state of mind of the members of the royal family does not remain without his attention - yes, they all suffered, he notes, but along with suffering, their patience and prayer increased.

Meanwhile, the Provisional Government appointed a commission to investigate the activities of the emperor, but, despite all efforts, they could not find at least something discrediting the king. However, instead of releasing the royal family, it was decided to remove them from Tsarskoe Selo - on the night of August 1, they were sent to Tobolsk, allegedly due to possible unrest, and arrived there on August 6. The first weeks of his stay in Tobolsk were perhaps the calmest for the entire period of imprisonment. On September 8, the feast day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the prisoners were allowed to go to church for the first time. Subsequently, this consolation very rarely fell to their lot.

One of the greatest hardships during my life in Tobolsk was the almost complete absence of any news. The emperor followed with anxiety the events unfolding in Russia, realizing that the country was rapidly heading towards death. The tsar's sadness was immeasurable when the Provisional Government rejected Kornilov's proposal to send troops to Petrograd in order to stop the Bolshevik agitation. The emperor was well aware that this was the only way to avoid imminent disaster. During these days, the sovereign repented of his abdication. As P. Gilliard, tutor of Tsarevich Alexei, recalled:

“He made this decision [on renunciation] only in the hope that those who wanted his removal would still be able to continue the war with honor and not ruin the cause of saving Russia. He was then afraid that his refusal to sign the renunciation would lead to civil war in the sight of the enemy. The tsar did not want even a drop of Russian blood to be shed because of him ... It was painful for the emperor to now see the futility of his sacrifice and realize that, having in mind then only the good of the motherland, he harmed her by his renunciation ".

Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already come to power in Petrograd - a period had come, about which the Sovereign wrote in his diary: "much worse and more shameful than the events of the Time of Troubles." The soldiers guarding the governor's house were imbued with affection for the royal family, and several months passed after the Bolshevik coup before the change of power began to affect the situation of the prisoners. In Tobolsk, a “soldier’s committee” was formed, which, in every possible way striving for self-affirmation, demonstrated its power over the Sovereign - either they forced him to remove his shoulder straps, or they destroyed the ice hill arranged for the royal children, and from March 1, “Nikolai Romanov and his family are transferred to soldier's pack." The letters and diaries of members of the imperial family testify to the deep experience of the tragedy that unfolded before their eyes. But this tragedy did not deprive the royal prisoners of strength of mind, firm faith and hope for God's help. Consolation and meekness in enduring sorrows were provided by prayer, the reading of spiritual books, divine services and Communion. In sufferings and trials, spiritual knowledge, knowledge of oneself, of one's soul, multiplied. Striving for eternal life helped endure suffering and gave great consolation:

“... Everything that I love suffers, there is no count of all the dirt and suffering, and the Lord does not allow despondency: He protects from despair, gives strength, confidence in a bright future while still in this world”.

In March, it became known that a separate peace was concluded with Germany in Brest, about which the sovereign wrote that this was "tantamount to suicide." The first Bolshevik detachment arrived in Tobolsk on Tuesday 22 April. Commissar Yakovlev examined the house, got acquainted with the prisoners, and a few days later announced that he had to take the Sovereign away, assuring him that nothing bad would happen to him. Assuming that they want to send him to Moscow to sign a separate peace with Germany, the sovereign said firmly: "I'd rather let my hand be cut off than sign this shameful treaty." The heir was sick at that time, and it was impossible to take him, but the Empress and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna followed the emperor and were transported to Yekaterinburg, to be imprisoned in the Ipatiev house. When the health of the Heir recovered, the rest of the family from Tobolsk were imprisoned in the same house, but most of those close to them were not allowed.

Much less evidence remains about the Yekaterinburg period of imprisonment of the Imperial Family - there are almost no letters, basically this period is known only from brief entries in the diary of the emperor and the testimony of witnesses. Especially valuable is the testimony of Archpriest John Storozhev, who performed the last divine services in the Ipatiev House. Father John served there twice on Sundays at Mass; for the first time it was on May 20 (June 2), when, according to his testimony, members of the royal family "Prayed very earnestly ...". Living conditions in the "special purpose house" were much more difficult than in Tobolsk. The guard consisted of 12 soldiers who lived in close proximity to the prisoners, ate with them at the same table. Commissar Avdeev, an inveterate drunkard, daily contrived, together with his subordinates, to invent new humiliations for the prisoners. I had to put up with hardships, endure bullying and obey the demands of rude people, including former criminals. The royal couple and princesses had to sleep on the floor, without beds. At dinner, a family of seven was given only five spoons; The guards sitting at the same table smoked, brazenly exhaling smoke in the faces of the prisoners, and rudely took away their food. A walk in the garden was allowed once a day, at first for 15-20 minutes, and then no more than five. The behavior of the guards was completely obscene.

Only doctor Yevgeny Botkin remained next to the royal family, who surrounded the prisoners with care and acted as an intermediary between them and the commissars, trying to protect them from the rudeness of the guards, and several tried and true servants.

The faith of the prisoners supported their courage, gave them strength and patience in suffering. All of them understood the possibility of a speedy end and expected it with nobility and clarity of spirit. In one of Olga Nikolaevna's letters there are the following lines:

“The father asks to convey to all those who remained devoted to him, and to those on whom they can have influence, so that they do not avenge him, since he has forgiven everyone and prays for everyone, and that they do not avenge themselves, and that they remember that the evil that is now in the world will be even stronger, but that it is not evil that will overcome evil, but only love..

Most of the testimonies speak of the prisoners of the Ipatiev House as suffering people, but deeply believing, undoubtedly submissive to the will of God. Despite bullying and insults, they led a decent family life in the Ipatiev house, trying to brighten up the oppressive atmosphere with mutual communication, prayer, reading and feasible activities. One of the witnesses of their life in captivity, the educator of the heir, Pierre Gilliard, wrote:

“The Sovereign and Empress believed that they were dying martyrs for their homeland ... Their true greatness did not stem from their royal dignity, but from that amazing moral height to which they gradually rose ... And in their very humiliation they were an amazing manifestation of that amazing clarity of the soul, against which all violence and all rage are powerless, and which triumphs in death itself..

Even the rude guards gradually softened in dealing with the prisoners. They were surprised by their simplicity, they were subdued by the full dignity of spiritual clarity, and they soon felt the superiority of those whom they thought to keep in their power. Even Commissar Avdeev relented. Such a change did not escape the eyes of the Bolshevik authorities. Avdeev was replaced by Yurovsky, the guards were replaced by Austro-German prisoners and selected people from among the executioners of the "emergency". The life of its inhabitants turned into a continuous martyrdom. On July 1 (14), Father John Storozhev performed the last divine service in the Ipatiev House. Meanwhile, in the strictest confidence from the prisoners, preparations were made for their execution.

On the night of July 16-17, at about the beginning of the third, Yurovsky woke up the royal family. They were told that the city was unsettled and that it was necessary to move to a safe place. Forty minutes later, when everyone was dressed and gathered, Yurovsky, together with the prisoners, went down to the first floor and led them to a basement room with one barred window. All were outwardly calm. The sovereign carried Alexei Nikolaevich in his arms, the rest had pillows and other small things in their hands. At the request of the Empress, two chairs were brought into the room, pillows brought by the Grand Duchesses and Anna Demidova were placed on them. The empress and Alexei Nikolaevich were seated on chairs. The sovereign stood in the center next to the heir. The rest of the family and servants were placed in different parts of the room and prepared to wait for a long time, already accustomed to nightly alarms and all sorts of movements. Meanwhile, armed men were already crowding in the next room, waiting for a signal. At that moment, Yurovsky came very close to the sovereign and said: "Nikolai Alexandrovich, by order of the Ural Regional Council, you will be shot with your family." This phrase was so unexpected for the king that he turned towards the family, stretching out his hands to them, then, as if wanting to ask again, he turned to the commandant, saying: “What? What?" Empress Alexandra and Olga Nikolaevna wanted to cross themselves. But at that moment, Yurovsky fired at the Sovereign from a revolver almost point-blank several times, and he immediately fell. Almost simultaneously, everyone else began to shoot - everyone knew their victim in advance. Those already lying on the floor were finished off with shots and bayonets. When it seemed that everything was over, Alexei Nikolaevich suddenly groaned weakly - they shot at him several more times. After making sure that their victims were dead, the killers began to remove jewelry from them. Then the dead were carried out into the yard, where a truck was already standing ready - the noise of its engine was supposed to drown out the shots in the basement. Even before sunrise, the bodies were taken to the forest in the vicinity of the village of Koptyaki.

Together with the imperial family, their servants, who followed their masters into exile, were also shot: Dr.