Peter and Paul Cathedral - the tomb of the representatives of the Romanov dynasty

Imperial burials of the 18th century are located in the south nave of the cathedral in front of the iconostasis, where the icon of the Apostle Peter is placed in an icon case. They are located in two rows. In the front row, in addition to Peter I and his second wife, Empress Catherine I, their daughter, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, rested. Empress Anna Ioannovna, Emperor Peter III and Empress Catherine II are buried in the second row. Thus, Peter the Great and his grandson Peter III are buried in front of the icon of their patron saint, the Apostle Peter.

Imperial burials in the northern nave of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

In the north nave, in the iconostasis, there is an icon depicting the Apostle Paul, Emperor Paul I, his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna, their eldest son Emperor Alexander I and his wife Empress Elizaveta Feodorovna are buried in front of it. There are three graves in the first row: Emperor Nicholas I, his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and the eldest daughter of Peter I, Tsesarevna Anna Petrovna, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, mother of Peter III. In the northern nave, in the same row with Emperor Alexander II and his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, their son Emperor Alexander III rests. On September 28, 2006, the reburial of Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Maria Sophia-Frederiki-Dagmar of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, 11/14/1867–10/13/1928) was carried out in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her husband Emperor Alexander III. Maria Feodorovna died in Denmark and was buried in the Roskilsky Cathedral near Copenhagen.

All tombstones in the Peter and Paul Cathedral are made of white Carrara marble, except for two, created from semi-precious stones. The burial of Alexander II is decorated with a tombstone made of green Altai jasper, its weight is about 5.5 tons. A tombstone of rhodonite, weighing about 6.5 tons, is installed above the grave of his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna. These magnificent monolithic tombstones were designed by A. L. Gun at the Peterhof Lapidary Factory near St. Petersburg and installed in 1906, when the 25th anniversary of the death of the Tsar-Liberator, who abolished serfdom, and the Tsar-Martyr, who died from a bomb of the Narodnaya Volya after repeated assassination attempts, was celebrated.

In addition to emperors and empresses, family members were also buried in the cathedral: at the beginning of the 18th century. relatives of Peter I were buried here, since 1831 the graves of the grand dukes began to appear.

W. Reinhardt. Peter and Paul Cathedral. Northern nave. This is how the graves of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna looked like before they were replaced in 1906.

In 1939, at the request of the Greek government, in the presence of representatives of the museum, both governments and the clergy, the grave of the born Greek princess Alexandra Georgievna, the wife of the son of Alexander II, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, was opened. Her remains were sent for reburial to her homeland. In 1994, the body of Tsarevich Georgy Alexandrovich was exhumed to identify the remains of his brother Nicholas II. After the necessary research, Georgy Alexandrovich was buried in the same coffin and crypt in the presence of the clergy, a memorial service was served.

In the course of restoration work in the cathedral after a fire in 1756, a wall was built that separated from the main hall of the temple three rooms located under the bell tower: a narthex through which parishioners enter the temple, a sacristy and a chapel consecrated in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. After that, the main building of the cathedral was often called the "Main Temple", and the Catherine's chapel - the "Small Temple". Separate worship services were held here.

On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, a servant and a doctor, who were shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, were interred in the Catherine's chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The tombstone was made of three varieties of Italian marble, the tombstone was made of Carrara white marble. Below it is a two-tier crypt, on the lower tier of which are buried: Dr. E. S. Botkin, maid A. S. Demidova, footman A. E. Trupp, cook I. M. Kharitonov.

On the upper tier of the crypt there are coffins with the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and three daughters: Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia. Memorial plaques on the walls of the Small Church contain information about all family members, but for Grand Duchess Maria and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, whose remains were not found, there is no indication of the burial place. The funeral was attended by: President of the Russian Federation Boris N. Yeltsin, representatives of foreign countries, a large number of guests. The delegation of the Romanov family, which consisted of 52 people, was headed by the great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Nikolai Romanovich Romanov. More than 1,000 correspondents covered the event in the media. A memorial service was served by the clergy of the St. Petersburg diocese, headed by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Boris Glebov. During the burial, 19 shots were fired.

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church believes that “... The decision to identify the remains as belonging to the family of Emperor Nicholas II caused serious doubts and even opposition in the Church and society. In this regard, the Holy Synod speaks in favor of the immediate burial of these remains in a symbolic memorial grave.

In August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized members of the family of Nicholas II, but did not change their attitude towards burial in the Catherine's chapel.

Since the consecration of the stone Peter and Paul Cathedral, church service life has been largely determined by its use as an imperial tomb. Over time, funeral services for the persons of the royal house became the main activity of the clergy. The sacraments of baptism and weddings have never been performed here.

In May 1919, by order of the commandant of the fortress, the cathedral was closed. Since the early 1990s services have resumed here.

On the eve of the revolution, a large Romanov family numbered more than 60 people. 18 of them died during the years of revolutionary terror (four were shot in January 1919 in the Peter and Paul Fortress). The rest managed to leave their homeland. Their life in exile developed differently. Now the Romanovs live in many countries of the world, have different professions. During their visits to our country and St. Petersburg, the descendants of emperors visit the graves of their ancestors in the Peter and Paul Cathedral to bow to their memory.

Grand Duke's Tomb

By the end of the XIX century. in the cathedral there was practically no room for new burials, so next to it the building of the Grand Duke's burial vault was erected according to the project of the architect D. I. Grimm, with the participation of A. O. Tomishko and L. N. Benois.

Combining the features of different styles, the building fits well into the architectural ensemble of the Peter and Paul Fortress and forms a single ensemble with the Peter and Paul Cathedral, being its chapel, consecrated in 1908 in the name of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky, one of the patrons of St. Petersburg.

The tomb is connected to the building of the Peter and Paul Cathedral by a gallery, where rooms were provided - the Tsar's rooms, intended for the rest of members of the ruling family when visiting the graves of loved ones.

Grand Duke's tomb. Photo of the beginning 20th century

In contrast to the cathedral, sixty concrete crypts 2.2 m deep were immediately prepared in the Grand Duke's tomb, located in rows from east to west. The grave was closed flush with the floor with a white marble slab, on which the title, name, places of birth and death, the date of the burial of the deceased were engraved. When they were buried in this building, the funeral service took place in the cathedral. By 1916, there were thirteen burials here, eight of which were transferred from the Peter and Paul Cathedral. After the revolution, the tomb, like the cathedral, was closed and sealed. Bronze decorations and lattices of the altar part were sent for melting down. Subsequently, the building was used as a warehouse, while the tombstones were broken. In 1954, the tomb was transferred to the State Museum of the history of the city.

Funeral procession of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Photo 1911

Funeral of Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov. Photo 1992

Funeral of Leonida Georgievna. Farewell to the body in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photo 2010

There are currently seventeen graves here. The burial in 1992 of the great-grandson of Emperor Alexander II, Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov (August 30, 1917–April 21, 1992), whom supporters considered a contender for the Russian throne, served as a precedent for subsequent burials. In 1995, the remains of Vladimir Kirillovich's parents, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (30.09.1876–12.10.1938) and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna (13.11.1876–2.03.1936) were reburied in the Grand Duke's Burial Vault from Coburg (Germany). On June 3, 2010, next to Vladimir Kirillovich, his wife Leonida Georgievna (nee Princess Bagration-Mukhranskaya, 09/23/1914–05/23/2010, Madrid) was buried in the Grand Ducal Tomb.

Church and parish life of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The first wooden temple in the Peter and Paul Fortress was consecrated on April 1, 1704 in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul, little information has been preserved about the services in this temple, but it is known that solemn services were held there in honor of the victories of Russian weapons, trophies obtained in the Northern War were kept . In 1712, when St. Petersburg became the capital of the state, the construction of a new stone church began around the wooden church, which lasted 21 years. During the construction period, the clergy was preserved and divine services were held. Already in the first wooden church, the daughter of Peter I Catherine was buried, the burials of the tsar's relatives continued during the construction of the stone church. When in 1731 the remains of Peter I and Catherine I were interred in the cathedral, the temple became the imperial tomb. Indications that the cathedral was made by the cathedral decree of Anna Ioannovna in June 1731 are found in the annals of the Peter and Paul Fortress and Bogdanov-Ruban, but no such decree was found in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire.

On June 29, 1733, this unique for that time and huge, "notoriously built church" was consecrated in the presence of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The cathedral was re-consecrated on June 23, 1757, after a fire had destroyed the bell tower a year earlier.

On July 6, 1737, Anna Ioannovna imposed a resolution on the report of the Synod on the state of the clergy and clergy of the St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Synod drew the attention of the empress to the small number of priests and their inconsistency with the high status of the temple: they are “unlearned people”, while for such a “noble church” they rely on “worthy, learned, skillful and benevolent people” and “a meager number” as ministers. The staff was significantly expanded, and from that time regular hierarchical services began in the cathedral, which were managed in turn by the highest hierarchs of the Russian church.

Before the establishment in 1742 of the St. Petersburg diocese, the cathedral was considered synodal and subordinate to the Holy Synod. In the Peter and Paul Cathedral, as a cathedral, clergy were promoted to the rank of bishops and St. Petersburg metropolitans were ordained, and here the new metropolitan was to conduct his first service.

From the very first years of its existence, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was not the only place for hierarchal services. It was quite difficult to get to the Peter and Paul Fortress, especially in spring and autumn because of the "danger of the Neva", so more and more such services began to be held in other churches, and the Peter and Paul Cathedral began to lose its significance as the main one. In addition to the territorial inconvenience, the fact that members of the imperial family were buried in the cathedral was important; it became a memorial place in which funeral services began to play a leading role.

In 1858, St. Isaac's Cathedral became the cathedral church of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, which is confirmed by the "Highly Approved Ceremonial of the Consecration of the St. Petersburg Cathedral in the Name of St. Isaac of Dalmatia on May 30, 1858."

In 1859, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was transferred from the jurisdiction of the diocese to the court construction office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1883, together with the clergy, it was included in the Court Spiritual Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cathedral received the status of a court one, which was quite consistent with the historical situation, and retained it until 1917 In 2007, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir (Kotlyarov) named the Peter and Paul Cathedral the first cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Due to the fact that the cathedral is the tomb of the Romanov dynasty, a special ecclesiastical life of the temple has developed: the deceased members of the imperial family were buried and commemorated here, and such ordinary rites as baptism and weddings were not held. The cathedrals took part in all ceremonies of the funeral of monarchs and memorial services. Sometimes the commandants of the fortress were buried in the cathedral, who were buried at the Commandant's cemetery. By the end of the XIX century. the "List of church service activities of the Peter and Paul Cathedrals" was established with the designation of regular worship services. In connection with the location of the cathedral in the center of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the duties of the clergy included the administration of religious rites for those who made up the parish of the church: soldiers of the fortress garrison, prisoners held in the fortress, employees of the Mint. On the eve of holidays, Sundays and highly solemn days, all-night vigils were served, after each liturgy, all persons buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, starting with Peter I, were commemorated.

Another side of the activity of the clergy of the cathedral is the swearing in of employees of the Mint and young soldiers. The clergy of the cathedral taught the law of God to the young soldiers of the fortress bastion and observed the observance of the penance (punishment) imposed on the prisoners, soldiers and officers of the fortress garrison.

The temple holidays of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were: June 29 - the day of the patrons of the cathedral, the supreme apostles Peter and Paul; November 24 - the Holy Great Martyr Catherine in memory of the patron saint of the small church - Catherine's chapel; August 30 (transfer of relics to St. Petersburg) and November 23 (burial) are the days of the Right-Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, which began to be celebrated after the consecration of the Grand Duke’s tomb in honor of this saint in 1908. Holidays were also dedicated to temple shrines, religious processions were held.

After 1917, services continued for some time, but apparently stopped in 1919, when the temple was closed by order of the commandant of the fortress A.I.

In 1922, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Duke's Tomb were assigned as museum objects to the Glavnauka, created under the People's Commissariat of Education. In 1924, the Prison of the Trubetskoy Bastion, and in 1926 the cathedral and the tomb were transferred to the Museum of the Revolution. A new page in history was opened for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1954, when it came under the jurisdiction of the State. Museum of the History of Leningrad (since 1991 - St. Petersburg).

One of the first and basic legal documents that initiated the transfer of cult values ​​to believers in the post-Soviet era was the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 23, 1993, in which the Government of the Russian Federation was entrusted with the implementation of a phased transfer of religious property, which is in federal ownership, into ownership or use religious organizations. In 1997, Minister of Culture E. Yu. Sidorov determined the forms of contractual relations with the church regarding monuments: 1. Form of ownership (rarely used); 2. Free use (often used); 3. Sharing (rarely used). The third type of use includes such monuments as the Moscow Kremlin, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, etc.

In the early 1990s two parishes were registered: one - to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the other - to the Grand Duke's burial vault with the rector, Archpriest Boris Glebov. In 2001, the current parish was registered, the chairman of the parish council (headman) of which is B. A. Almazov, and the treasurer is N. N. Valuysky. The rector of the cathedral is hegumen Alexander (Fedorov). There was no new consecration of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the post-Soviet period, after the registration of the parish before the celebration of the temple feast on July 12, 2002, a new antimension was issued by Metropolitan Vladimir (Kotlyarov) of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.

1992 can be considered the beginning of the resumption of services, mainly of a commemorative nature, this became possible after the burial in the Grand Duke's tomb of Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov. In 1997, the first all-night liturgy after the revolution was held in the cathedral, a year later, on July 17, 1998, Father Boris Glebov held a service for the innocent, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the execution of the family of the last Russian emperor and the burial of Ekaterinburg remains in the Ekaterininsky chapel. On July 12, 1999, on the day of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the first all-night and metropolitan liturgy was held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was conducted by Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. Since then, services have become regular.

In 2007, the St. Petersburg Diocesan Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church turned to the Chairman of the Federation Council S. M. Mironov with a request to head the Board of Trustees of the Imperial Peter and Paul Cathedral, which resulted in the signing of an agreement between the diocese and the museum on the joint use of the cathedral and the organization of regular services from the beginning of 2008.

On the night of April 27, 2008, for the first time in the post-Soviet period, the rector of the cathedral, hegumen Alexander Fedorov, held an Easter service, and on July 12, 2009, Patriarch Kirill celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the cathedral, thus marking the name day of the city. It was the first patriarchal service in the entire history of the temple. Previously, if the patriarchs attended the cathedral, but did not conduct divine services, it is not necessary to talk about the Russian Empire in this context due to the absence of the institution of the patriarchate in it. The patriarch presented the cathedral with a copy of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which is now kept in the central nave on the sole to the left of the Royal Doors. On behalf of the diocese, Vicar Bishop Ambrose presented Vladyka with an icon of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Patriarchal services have become a new tradition. On July 12, 2010, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church also celebrated the day of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

On September 30, 2009, a historic agreement on services was reached between the Metropolia and the museum, in accordance with which there are no excursions during the services. Divine services are held on Saturdays - All-Night Vigil and on Sundays - Liturgy. All major feasts of the Twelve and Pascha are marked with services, memorial services are held for the deceased emperors, some empresses and members of the imperial family, temple holidays are traditionally celebrated: the days of the apostles Peter and Paul, the great martyr Catherine and the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky.

In the general list of churches of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, the cathedral is listed as the "Imperial Memorial Cathedral in the Name of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul" under No. 126.

In November 2010, President D. Medvedev signed the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on the transfer of state or municipal property for religious purposes to church organizations. How this law will affect the fate of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the future will show.

This text is an introductory piece.

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There is a suspicion that the graves of Russian tsars in St. Petersburg are empty today

A heated discussion of the issue of the reburial of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria, whose remains were recently found near Yekaterinburg, again drew public attention to the royal burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. They remembered that immediately after the revolution, these graves were looted.

Moreover, this fact was carefully hidden not only in Soviet times, but is somehow hushed up even today. So, in many guidebooks to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, they still write that “for many years no one disturbed the peace of these graves.”

Actually it is not. Graves began to be robbed immediately after the revolution.

By 1917, there were more than a thousand wreaths, including gold and silver ones, on the walls of the cathedral, columns and at the graves of emperors. Practically on every grave and near it there were ancient icons and precious lamps.

So, above the tomb of Anna Ioannovna were two icons - the Mother of God of Jerusalem and St. Anna the Prophetess - in gold salaries, with pearls and precious stones. The diamond crown of the Order of Malta was fixed on the tombstone of Paul I. On the tombstones of Peter I, Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II lay gold, silver and bronze medals, stamped on the occasion of various anniversaries. A silver bas-relief depicting a monument to the tsar in Taganrog was mounted on the wall near the tombstone of Peter, and an icon with the face of the Apostle Peter hung in a gold frame nearby, notable for the fact that its size corresponded to the growth of Peter I at birth.

At the command of Peter

Peter I decided to turn the Peter and Paul Cathedral into a tomb, following the example of the first Christian emperor Constantine, who built the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople in the 4th century with the intention of turning it into his mausoleum. For two centuries, almost all Russian emperors from Peter I to Alexander III were buried in the cathedral (with the exception of only Peter II, who died in Moscow and was buried in the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral, as well as John VI Antonovich, who was killed in the Shlisselburg fortress) and many members of the imperial surnames. Prior to that, all the great Moscow princes, starting with Yuri Daniilovich - the son of Grand Duke Daniel of Moscow and Russian tsars - from Ivan the Terrible to Alexei Mikhailovich - were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin (with the exception of Boris Godunov, who was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra).
During the XVIII - the first third of the XIX century. Peter and Paul Cathedral was the burial place, as a rule, only crowned persons. Since 1831, at the behest of Nicholas I, the grand dukes, princesses and princesses were also buried in the cathedral. In the XVIII - the first third of the XIX centuries, emperors and empresses were buried in a golden crown. Their bodies were embalmed, the heart (in a special silver vessel) and the rest of the insides (in a separate vessel) were buried at the bottom of the grave the day before the funeral ceremony.
In the first half of the 18th century, tombstones made of white alabaster stone were placed over the burial places. In the 1770s, during the restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral, they were replaced with new ones made of gray Karelian marble. Tombstones were covered with green or black cloth with coats of arms sewn on top, and on holidays - with golden brocade overlaid with ermine. In the middle of the 19th century, the first tombstones made of white Italian (Carrara) marble appeared. In 1865, by decree of Alexander II, all tombstones, "which have fallen into disrepair or are not made of marble, were to be made of white, following the model of the last ones." Fifteen tombstones were made from white Italian marble. In 1887, Alexander III ordered that the white marble tombstones on the graves of his parents Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna be replaced with richer and more elegant ones. For this, monoliths of green Altai jasper and pink Ural rhodonite were used.
By the end of the 19th century, there was practically no room for new burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Therefore, in 1896, next to the cathedral, with the permission of the emperor, the construction of the Grand Duke's tomb was started. From 1908 to 1915 13 members of the imperial family were buried in it.

Grave looting

The treasures of the imperial tomb have been coveted for a long time. As early as 1824, the Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine reported that while traveling in Russia, Madame de Stael wanted to have a souvenir from the tomb of Peter I. She tried to cut off a piece of the brocade coverlet, but the church watchman noticed this, and Madame had to hastily leave the cathedral.

Disaster erupted after the revolution. In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all icons and lampadas, gold, silver and bronze medals from the graves, gold, silver and porcelain wreaths were removed, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow. The further fate of the exported cathedral valuables is unknown.

But all the looters were outdone, of course, by the Bolsheviks.

In 1921, under the pretext of the demands of "Pomgol", who came up with a project of confiscation in favor of starving jewelry, the imperial graves themselves were blasphemously opened and ruthlessly plundered. Documents about this monstrous action have not been preserved, but a number of memoirs have come down to us, testifying to this.

In the notes of the Russian emigrant Boris Nikolaevsky there is a dramatic story about the history of the looting of the royal graves, which was published: "Paris, "Latest News", July 20, 1933. Headline: "Tombs of Russian Emperors and how the Bolsheviks opened them."
"In Warsaw, one of the members of the Russian colony has a letter from one of the prominent members of the St. Petersburg GPU with a story about the opening by the Bolsheviks of the tombs of Russian emperors in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The opening was carried out in 1921 at the request of Pomgol, who came up with a confiscation project in favor of starving jewelry, imprisoned in imperial coffins". The Krakow newspaper "Illustrated Courier Zodzienne" cites this historical letter.
“... I am writing to you,” this is how the letter begins, “under an unforgettable impression. The heavy doors of the tomb open, and the coffins of the emperors, set in a semicircle, appear before our eyes. Before us is the whole history of Russia. The commissar of the GPU, who is the chairman of the commission, ordered to start with the youngest ... Mechanics open the tomb of Alexander III. The embalmed corpse of the king was well preserved. Alexander III lies in a general's uniform, richly decorated with orders. The ashes of the king are quickly removed from the silver coffin, the rings are removed from the fingers, the orders studded with diamonds are removed from the uniform, then the body of Alexander III is transferred to the oak coffin. The secretary of the commission draws up a protocol, which lists in detail the jewels confiscated from the deceased king. The coffin is closed, and seals are placed on it "...
The same procedure takes place with the coffins of Alexander II and Nicholas I. The members of the commission work quickly: the air in the tomb is heavy. The line behind the tomb of Alexander I. But here the Bolsheviks are in for a surprise.

The tomb of Alexander I is empty. This can obviously be seen as a confirmation of the legend, according to which the death of the emperor in Taganrog and the burial of his body was a fiction, invented and staged by him in order to end the rest of his life in Siberia as an old hermit.

The Bolshevik commission had to endure terrible moments during the opening of the tomb of Emperor Paul. The uniform, fitting the body of the late king, is perfectly preserved. But Pavel's head made a nightmarish impression. The wax mask that covered his face melted from time and temperature, and from under the remnants one could see the disfigured face of the murdered king. All those involved in the gloomy procedure of opening the tombs were in a hurry to finish their work as soon as possible. Silver coffins of Russian tsars, after transferring the bodies to oak, were installed one on top of the other. Longer than others, the commission was busy with the tomb of Empress Catherine I, in which there was a very large amount of jewelry.
“... Finally, we reached the last, or rather, the first tomb, where the remains of Peter the Great rested. The tomb was difficult to open. The mechanics stated that apparently there was another empty one between the outer coffin and the inner one, which made it difficult for them to work. They began to drill the tomb, and soon the lid of the coffin, placed vertically to facilitate work, opened and Peter the Great appeared in full growth before the eyes of the Bolsheviks. The members of the commission recoiled in surprise in fear. Peter the Great stood as if alive, his face was perfectly preserved. The great tsar, who during his lifetime aroused fear in people, once again tried the power of his formidable influence on the Chekists. But during the transfer, the corpse of the great king crumbled to dust. The terrible work of the security officers was completed, and the oak coffins with the remains of the kings were transported to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where they were placed in the basement ... ".

The terrible scale of the robbery

Where then did the jewels removed from the corpses disappear? They were probably sold abroad. The Bolsheviks put the robbery of national wealth on stream, ruined not only graves and churches, but also museums, former palaces of the nobility, and mansions of the bourgeoisie. The robbery has acquired absolutely incredible, downright terrible proportions. In 1917–1923, the following were sold: 3,000 carats of diamonds, 3 poods of gold and 300 poods of silver from the Winter Palace; from the Trinity Lavra - 500 diamonds, 150 pounds of silver; from the Solovetsky Monastery - 384 diamonds; from the Armory - 40 pounds of gold and silver scrap. This was done under the pretext of helping the starving, but the sale of Russian church valuables did not save anyone from hunger, the treasures were sold for next to nothing.

In 1925, the catalog of valuables of the imperial court (crowns, wedding crowns, scepter, orb, tiaras, necklaces and other valuables, including the famous Faberge eggs) was sent to all foreign representatives in the USSR.

Part of the Diamond Fund was sold to the English antiquary Norman Weiss. In 1928, seven "low-value" Faberge eggs and 45 other items were seized from the Diamond Fund. All of them were sold in 1932 in Berlin. Out of almost 300 items, only 71 remained in the Diamond Fund.

By 1934, the Hermitage had lost about 100 masterpieces of painting by old masters. In fact, the museum was on the verge of collapse. Four paintings by French Impressionists were sold from the Museum of New Western Painting, and several dozen paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts. The Tretyakov Gallery lost some of its icons. Of the 18 crowns and diadems that once belonged to the Romanov dynasty, only four are now kept in the Diamond Fund.

What is in the graves now?

But if the jewels of the kings disappeared, what was left in their graves? Deacon Vladimir Vasilik, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg University, made his research. In an article published the other day on the Pravoslavie.ru website, he cites the testimony of a number of people who had information about the opening of graves. Here, for example, are the words of Professor V.K. Krasusky: “While still a student, in 1925 I came to Leningrad to my aunt Anna Adamovna Krasuskaya, an honored worker of science, professor of anatomy at the Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. In one of my conversations with A.A. Krasuskaya told me the following: “Not so long ago, the opening of the royal tombs was carried out. The opening of the tomb of Peter I made a particularly strong impression. Peter’s body is well preserved. He really looks very much like the Peter depicted in the drawings. , weighing a lot. Values ​​were seized from the royal tombs. "

And here is what Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor V.I. Angeleyko (Kharkov) L.D. Lyubimov: “I had a comrade Valentin Shmit in my gymnasium. His father F.I. Schmit headed the department of art history at Kharkov University, then moved to work at Leningrad University. In 1927, I visited my friend and learned from him that his father in 1921 participated in the commission for the seizure of church valuables, and in his presence the graves of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were opened. The commission did not find the body in the grave of Alexander I. He also told me that the body of Peter I was very well preserved.

And here are the memoirs of D. Adamovich (Moscow): “According to the now deceased professor of history N.M. Korobov... I know the following.

A member of the Grabbe Academy of Arts, who was present at the opening of the royal graves in Petrograd in 1921, told him that Peter I was very well preserved and lay in the coffin as if alive. The Red Army soldier who had helped during the autopsy recoiled in horror.

The tomb of Alexander I turned out to be empty.”

It is strange, but then conversations on this topic were conducted only about the supposedly empty tomb of Alexander I. But even this fact is now refuted. So, when an Interfax correspondent asked this question to Alexander Kolyakin, the current director of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (located in the Peter and Paul Fortress), he categorically stated: “Nonsense. There has been talk about it, but it's just a rumor." However, he did not cite any facts, adding only that the best reason to convince the doubters is the opening of the emperor's grave, but, in his opinion, there are no grounds for such a procedure.

Writer Mikhail Zadornov said in LiveJournal that at one time the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, told him about this secret. According to Zadornov, while walking along the sea coast of Jurmala, he asked Sobchak, who was the mayor during the reburial of the family of Nicholas II in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998: “I heard that other sarcophagi were being opened at that time. Tell me, I promise you that for ten years I won’t tell anyone about our conversation, are his remains in the sarcophagus of Alexander I? After all, a comparative analysis was carried out by several Russian tsars. According to Zadornov, Sobchak paused and replied: "It's empty there ..."

Unanswered questions

In the 1990s, when the issue of identifying the royal remains of the family of Nicholas II, found near Yekaterinburg, was being decided, it was decided to open the tomb of the tsar's brother, Georgy Alexandrovich, in order to take a particle of the remains for examination. The exhumation was carried out with the participation of the clergy. When the marble sarcophagus was removed from above, they found a thick monolithic slab. Under it was a crypt, in which stood a copper ark, in it was a zinc coffin, and in it already - a wooden one. Despite the fact that the crypt was flooded with water, they still managed to find bones suitable for examination. Samples were seized in the presence of attesting witnesses. Two weeks later, the remains of the Grand Duke were buried in the same place. However, no one opened the tombs of the emperors themselves after 1921.

Meanwhile, archival searches by historians for an official act on the opening of the tombs in 1921 have not yet yielded anything. For many years, the historian N. Eidelman, who has been dealing with this issue, came to the conclusion that a separate document is very difficult, almost impossible to find.

The opening of the tombs in 1921 could have been the result of an energetic initiative of some Petrograd institutions, whose archives over the past decades, especially during the war, were subjected to various, sometimes disastrous, movements.

Deacon Vladimir Vasilik ends his study of the issue of royal burials and their looting by the Bolsheviks as follows: “It is not completely clear whether all the graves were opened, and most importantly, the problem arises: in what condition, after the looting of the 1920s, are the remains of Russian emperors in their graves ? For all its complexity and delicacy, this issue requires a calm and professional answer and solution.”

crematorium flame

And besides, we add, there is every reason to ask another, even more dramatic question: are not all these graves of Russian emperors, whose remains the Bolsheviks pulled out of the tombs and robbed, empty today? Why were they then taken out of the Peter and Paul Cathedral? It is known that a certain Boris Kaplun, the nephew of the powerful head of the Petrograd Cheka, M. Uritsky, also participated in the opening of the royal tombs. At that time, Kaplun was engaged in the creation of the first crematorium in Petrograd and in Russia in general, which was launched in 1920. According to the memoirs of Korney Chukovsky, Kaplun often invited familiar ladies to the crematorium to admire the rite of the “red fiery burial”.

So maybe this nephew of Uritsky came to the cathedral to open the tombs with a secret task to take out the remains of the emperors and destroy them later in the crematorium? Otherwise, what was he doing there? The confiscation of the jewels was clearly not the responsibility of the Kaplun in charge of the crematorium.

And the very fact of burning would look symbolic. After all, the Bolsheviks near Yekaterinburg tried to burn the corpses of the members of the royal family they killed ...

The first crematorium was built on the 14th line of Vasilyevsky Island in the premises of the former baths. The idea of ​​its creation was generally attractive to representatives of the new government. Leon Trotsky appeared in the Bolshevik press with a series of articles in which he called on all the leaders of the Soviet government to bequeath their bodies to be burned. But this crematorium did not last long in Petrograd. All his archives were later destroyed. So there is no way to check this incredible version today.

Another argument in favor of the version about the likelihood of the destruction of the remains of the emperors by the Bolsheviks is the decree of the Council of People's Commissars adopted on April 12, 1918 "On the removal of monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants, and the development of projects for monuments to the Russian socialist revolution." It was a deliberate destruction of historical memory, the initial stage of the desacralization of the past and the cult of the dead, in particular. Monuments began to be demolished primarily in the former capital of the Russian Empire. It was at this time that the epic begins with the construction of the crematorium, which can be considered as part of the monumental propaganda plan. As part of this plan, not only monuments were destroyed, but also graves, and then entire cemeteries began to be demolished.

Simple logic generally says: why was it necessary to start this fuss, to take out the coffins from the Peter and Paul Fortress, for some reason to store them in another place, etc.? After all, if the Bolsheviks wanted to preserve the remains of the emperors, it would be much easier to immediately return the remains to their original place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. However, they took it out! But why? Did they return them back or not?.. Who will answer these questions today?

Special for the Centenary

In the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, as you know, the remains of the Russian tsars of the Romanov dynasty are buried. According to the official version, no one has ever disturbed the burial place. However, a number of sources claim that the graves of the monarchs were looted after the revolution ...

Values ​​for the Provisional Government

The tomb in the Peter and Paul Cathedral appeared during the time of Peter I. He was also the first to be buried here. Subsequently, other deceased Russian rulers and members of the imperial family were also buried within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The looting of the royal tombs began after the February Revolution. In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all the valuables in the tomb - icons in precious salaries, lampadas, medals and wreaths made of gold, silver, bronze and porcelain - were removed from the graves. They were loaded into boxes and sent to Moscow. The further fate of these objects remained unknown.

In "Helping the Hungry"

They say that the Bolsheviks who came to power in October 17 remembered the tomb only in 1921. Allegedly, under the pretext of confiscating valuables in favor of Pomgol (committee to help the starving), they blasphemously opened the graves. True, this was not documented anywhere, but there are testimonies of eyewitnesses.

For example, the Russian emigrant Boris Nikolaevsky in his notes cites the text of a letter from one of the prominent members of the St.

“Mechanics open the tomb of Alexander III. The embalmed corpse of the king was well preserved. Alexander III lies in a general's uniform, richly decorated with orders. The ashes of the king are quickly removed from the silver coffin, the rings are removed from the fingers, the orders studded with diamonds are removed from the uniform, then the body of Alexander III is transferred to the oak coffin. The secretary of the commission draws up a protocol, which lists in detail the jewels confiscated from the deceased king. The coffin is closed, and seals are placed on it ... "

The same procedure was done with the coffins of Alexander II and Nicholas I. But the tomb of Alexander I, according to the narrator, turned out to be empty. This can be seen as an indirect confirmation of the legend that the real emperor did not die in Taganrog, but ended his days in Siberia under the name of the hermit elder Fyodor Kuzmich. It is possible that they simply did not dare to bury the “usurper” who played his role along with members of the royal family.

When the tomb of Emperor Paul I was opened, the members of the commission felt uneasy. Although the uniform in which the murdered tsar was buried was perfectly preserved, the wax mask put on him before the funeral melted, and from under its remnants one could see the disfigured face of the unfortunate ... But the tomb of Catherine II, which turned out to be a large amount of jewelry, pleased.

The tomb with the remains of Peter the Great was opened with great difficulty: the construction of the coffin turned out to be somehow cunning. “They started drilling the tomb,” says the author of the letter, “and soon the lid of the coffin, placed vertically to facilitate work, opened before the eyes

Bolsheviks appeared in full growth Peter the Great. The members of the commission recoiled in surprise in fear. Peter the Great stood as if alive, his face was perfectly preserved. The great tsar, who during his lifetime aroused fear in people, once again tried the power of his formidable influence on the Chekists. But during the transfer, the corpse of the great king crumbled to dust. The terrible work of the Chekists was completed, and the oak coffins with the remains of the kings were transported to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where they were placed in the basement ... "

Where did the valuables extracted from the tomb go? Most likely, they were sold abroad, like other national treasures - from the Kremlin, the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery.

There is also other evidence of the looting of the imperial tombs, collected by the candidate of philological sciences, associate professor of the history department of St. Petersburg University, deacon Vladimir Vasilik. For example, Professor V.K. Krasusky writes: “While still a student, I arrived in Leningrad in 1925 to my aunt Anna Adamovna Krasuskaya, an honored worker of science, professor of anatomy at the Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. In one of my conversations with A.A. She is Krasuskaya

I was told the following: “Not so long ago, the opening of the royal tombs was carried out. The opening of the tomb of Peter I made a particularly strong impression. Peter’s body was well preserved. He really looks very much like the Peter depicted in the drawings. very many. Values ​​were confiscated from the royal tombs."

What lies in the graves?

No official evidence that someone touched the tombs, however, has survived. The most suspicious fact in this story is the reburial of the remains in St. Isaac's Cathedral. Wouldn't it have been easier to leave them where they were? Maybe there are no remains at all, only tombstones? Moreover, on April 12, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the removal of monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants, and the development of projects for monuments of the Russian Socialist Revolution" was adopted. Representatives of the new government tried in every possible way to destroy the historical past of Russia...

Employees of the Peter and Paul Fortress claim that no one has ever opened the graves of Russian emperors, these are just empty rumors... chip marks. However, the coffin with the remains was in place. So the information about the opening of the imperial tomb by the Bolsheviks is still just a historical legend.

Russian Emperor Peter the Great died in the Winter Palace in January 1725 at the age of 52. The cause of death was called inflammation of the bladder, which turned into gangrene. The emperor's body was exhibited in the funeral hall of the Winter Palace so that everyone could say goodbye to him. The period of farewell continued for more than a month. Peter lay in a coffin in a brocade jacket with lace, in boots with spurs, with a sword and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest. As a result, the corpse began to decompose, an unpleasant smell began to spread throughout the palace. The emperor's body was embalmed and transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. However, only 6 years later the body of the emperor was buried in the Royal tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, before that the coffin with the embalmed body simply stood in the temporary chapel of the cathedral still under construction.

The wife of Peter I Catherine survived her husband by only 2 years. Balls, entertainment and revelry, which the Dowager Empress indulged in day and night, greatly undermined her health. Catherine died in May 1725 at the age of 43. If Peter I, by birthright, was supposed to rest in the Tsar's tomb, then his wife could not boast of a noble origin. Catherine I, born Marta Skavronskaya, was born into a Baltic peasant family. She was captured by the Russian army during the Great Northern War. Peter was so fascinated by the captured peasant woman that he even married her and crowned her empress. The body of the empress, like that of her husband, was interred only in 1731 by order of Anna Ioannovna.

Royal tombs

In the pre-Petrine era, all members of the ruling dynasty in Russia were buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. All Moscow princes and tsars are buried there, starting with Ivan Kalita. During the reign of Peter I, there was no specific burial place for royalty. Members of the imperial family were buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In 1715, the youngest daughter of Peter and Catherine, Natalya, died. The emperor ordered her to be buried in the Cathedral of Peter and Paul, which at that time had not yet been completed. Since that year, the Peter and Paul Cathedral has become the new royal tomb.

All Russian tsars rest within the walls of the Peter and Paul Cathedral: from Peter I to Alexander III. The graves of Peter and his wife Catherine are located near the southern entrance to the cathedral. Their graves are small crypts, which are located under the stone floor. In these crypts there are metal arks with coffins. Above the graves are marble slabs, decorated with inscriptions and golden crosses.

History of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral began in 1712, Emperor Peter personally laid the first stone in its foundation. The work was led by the Italian architect Domenico Trezzini. The interior of the temple was striking in its luxury and splendor. The vaults were decorated with 18 paintings depicting scenes from the New Testament. The cathedral had a special royal place under a canopy, which was occupied by the monarch during divine services. With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the cathedral and the tomb were closed and sealed. All church valuables were confiscated to help the starving. In 1998, the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their daughters Tatyana, Olga and Anastasia were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Peter and Paul Cathedral

The Peter and Paul Cathedral, whose gilded spire has become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg, is widely known as an outstanding architectural monument of the first half of the 18th century. Its history as the tomb of the Russian Imperial House is much less covered.

Meanwhile, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was perceived by contemporaries primarily as a necropolis of the Romanov dynasty, and its church services were also devoted to the same, to a large extent. Many leading architects and artists of the city - D. Treziii, A. Wist, J. Quarenghi, O. Montferrand and others - took part in the sad design of the cathedral for mourning ceremonies. Unfortunately, only contemporaries of the events could see all this, because after the funeral, the mourning decoration was dismantled, and the cathedral took on its usual appearance.

The Cathedral in the name of the Holy First Apostles Peter and Paul in the St. Petersburg Fortress, called "Peter and Paul" since 1858, was built in 1712-1733 according to the project of the architect Domenico Trezzini.

Consecrated on June 29, 1733, the cathedral is one of the most interesting architectural monuments of the Baroque era. The temple is a rectangular building elongated from west to east, above the eastern part of which rises a drum topped with a dome, and above the western part is a bell tower with a gilded spire. The latter still remains the tallest (122.5 meters) architectural structure of the city.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral occupied a special place among the churches of St. Petersburg. Being a cathedral, it was also the tomb of the Imperial House of Romanovs.

The custom of burying members of the ruling dynasty in temples, based on the ancient idea of ​​the divine origin of their power, was widespread throughout the Christian world. In pre-Petrine Russia such a temple was the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. With the transfer of the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1712, its functions were transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The creation of the tomb in St. Petersburg was to serve as one of the many proofs of the new era of Russian history begun by Peter I.

<...>The Peter and Paul Cathedral absorbed the features characteristic of that culture - active Europeanization while maintaining the foundations of Orthodoxy. These features also explain the numerous connections of the cathedral with other monuments of national and world history.

The painting "The appearance of an angel to the myrrh-bearing women at the tomb of the Savior"
Painting "Christ's Prayer for the Chalice"

In the events of national history, he took the place of the Archangel Cathedral. On this occasion, one of the first historians of the cathedral wrote: “... The Archangel Cathedral in Moscow is quite rightly called the “Sanctuary of Russian History”, as it contains the remains of our Grand Dukes from Kalita ... to Tsar John Alekseevich. This name, just as fairly, belongs to the Peter and Paul Cathedral - as serving as the burial place of the August Persons of our Imperial House since the founding of St.
Christian emperor Constantine, who built the Church of the Holy Apostles in the 4th century in the new capital of his empire, Constantinople, with the intention of turning it into his mausoleum and the tomb of the entire dynasty. In the VI century, the Frankish king Clovis built the Basilica of the Apostles Peter and Paul on the left bank of the Seine, which also became his tomb.

For two centuries, almost all Russian emperors from Peter I to Nicholas II were buried under the vaults of the cathedral (the only exceptions were the emperors Peter II and John VI Antonovich) and many members of the imperial family.

The first to be buried in the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul was the one and a half year old daughter of Peter I Catherine, who died in 1708. (Subsequently, the wooden church, built in 1703-1704, was dismantled in connection with the construction of a stone church that began in 1712 on this site.)

Stucco on the sail of the cathedral
Fragments of the frescoes of the cathedral vaults

By the time of the death of Peter I, the cathedral had not yet been completed. Therefore, inside it, according to the project of Domenico Trezzini, a temporary wooden church was made. There, on March 10, 1725, with a proper magnificent ceremony, the bodies of Peter I and his daughter Natalya, who died on March 4, were transferred. Both coffins were placed on a hearse under a canopy upholstered in gold cloth.

In 1727, the coffin with the body of his wife, Empress Catherine I, was also placed there. In May 1731, Empress Anna Ioannovna ordered the ashes of Peter I and his wife to be buried. The burial, according to Vedomosti of that time, “took place with a specially established ceremony on May 29 on Saturday, at eleven o’clock in the morning. At the same time, gentlemen from the generals and the admiralty and many collegiate ranks were present. During the placement of the coffins in the Imperial cemetery prepared on purpose for this , fifty-one shots were fired from the fortress." The exact date of burial of the ashes of his daughter is unknown.

After the fire of 1756, as a result of which the wooden dome and spire of the cathedral burned down and its interior decoration was damaged, the idea arose of turning the cathedral into a kind of mausoleum of Peter the Great. The announced competition was won by the project submitted by Academician M. V. Lomonosov. However, this project failed to materialize for a number of reasons.

During the 18th - the first third of the 19th centuries, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was the burial place, as a rule, of crowned persons. The rest of the members of the imperial
families were buried in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and other places. Since 1831, at the behest of Nicholas I, the grand dukes, princesses and princesses were also buried in the cathedral.

In the first half of the 18th century, tombstones made of white alabaster stone were placed over the burial places, and in the 70s, when the cathedral was being restored and rebuilt, they were replaced with new ones made of gray Karelian marble. The tombstones were covered with golden brocade overlaid with ermine and had coats of arms sewn on top. On ordinary days, covers made of dark green or black cloth were placed on them, overlaid with a gold braid on top and bottom and having a monogram image of the name of the deceased. In the 40-50s of the 19th century, the first tombstones made of white Italian (Carrara) marble appeared.

Tomb of Peter I. Modern view

In March 1865, Alexander II, visiting the cathedral, drew attention to the unattractive appearance of the covers on the tombstones. The safety of the gravestones themselves was also poor. He ordered that all tombstones, "which have fallen into disrepair or are not made of marble, be made of white, following the model of the last executed." According to the project of the architect A. A. Poirot, fifteen tombstones were made of white Italian marble.
they danced on the graves of Peter I, Catherine I, Anna Petrovna, Anna Ioannovna, Elizabeth Petrovna, Peter III, Catherine II, Paul I, Maria Feodorovna, Alexander I, Elizabeth Alekseevna, Konstantin Pavlovich, Alexandra Maximilianovna, Alexandra Mikhailovna and Anna Mikhailovna. The tombstones of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna and Maria Mikhailovna were cleaned and polished again.

The tombstones are in the form of a quadrangular prism, on the top cover of which lies a large bronze cross gilded with pure gold. In the heads, on the side wall, bronze plaques are attached with the name of the buried, title, date and place of birth and death, date of burial. On the tombstones of emperors and empresses, in addition to the cross, four more bronze coats of arms of the Russian Empire are placed in the corners.

The date of accession to the throne was also written on the board. The texts of the inscriptions on the bronze plaques were compiled by the Russian historian N. G. Ustryalov. After the installation of tombstones in 1867, a decree was followed to abolish all covers on them.
<...>
In 1887, Alexander III ordered to replace the white marble tombstones on the graves of his parents - Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna - with richer and
smart. For this, monoliths of green Altai jasper (for Alexander II) and pink Ural rhodonite - orlets (for Maria Alexandrovna) were used.

Graves of Alexander II and the Empress
Maria Alexandrovna. Modern look

The manufacture of tombstones (according to the sketches of the architect A. L. Gun) went to Peterhof-
a lapidary factory for eighteen years. They were installed in the cathedral in February 1906.

By the end of the 19th century, there were forty-six burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and there was practically no room left for new burials. Therefore, in 1896, next to the cathedral, construction began on the Grand Duke's Tomb, officially called the Tomb of the members of the imperial family, or the New Tomb, at the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It was built from 1896 to 1908 according to the project of the architect D. I. Grimm with the participation of A. O. Tomishko and L. N. Benois. On November 5, 1908, the newly built building of the Tomb was consecrated. First, they consecrated the throne in the altar in honor of the holy prince Alexander Nevsky, who was considered
Petersburg, and then the building itself. Three days after this
ceremony, the first burial took place - the son of Alexander III, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, was buried near the southern altar.

A delegation of St. Petersburg foremen is sent to the Peter and Paul Cathedral to lay a medal on the grave of Peter I. 1903

In 1909-1912, the ashes of several family members were transferred to the Shrine from the cathedral. At the same time, the reburial took several days, since the crypts in the Tomb were smaller than the arks transferred from the cathedral.

In 1916, there were thirteen burials here, eight of which were transferred from the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Unlike the cathedral, there were no tombstones in the Shrine. The grave was closed flush with the floor with a white marble slab, on which the title, name, places and dates of birth and death, and the date of burial were engraved. In 1859, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was transferred from the jurisdiction of the diocese to the court construction office of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, and in 1883, together with the clergy, it was included in the Court spiritual department.

Delegation from the city of Gatchina with a wreath at the grave of Alexander III. 1912

The special position of the Peter and Paul Cathedral made significant adjustments to its church activities. Christian sacraments such as baptism and weddings have never been performed here. The funeral ceremony was performed only for the deceased members of the imperial family, and only in some cases were exceptions made for the commandants of the fortress, who were buried at the Commandant's cemetery near the cathedral wall.

By 1917, there were more than a thousand wreaths on the walls, columns and at the graves in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. For example, there were 674 of them at the grave of Alexander III. There were icons and lamps on almost every grave and near it. On the tombstones of Peter I, Nicholas I and Alexander II lay gold, silver and bronze medals, stamped on the occasion of various anniversaries.

German Emperor Wilhelm II at the southern entrance to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photographer K. Bulla. 1906

In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all icons and lamps, gold, silver and bronze medals from the graves, gold, silver and porcelain wreaths were removed, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow. The further fate of the exported cathedral valuables is still unknown.

On May 14, 1919, by order of the commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the cathedral and the tomb were closed and sealed. On April 21, 1922, the remnants of church valuables were seized to help the starving. It took place in the presence of the commandant of the fortress, the curator of the cathedral, the head of its property and the representative of the Glavmuseum.

In 1926, the cathedral was taken over by the Museum of the Revolution.

The Duke of Connaught at the entrance to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photographer K. Bulla. Early 20th century

In 1939, the grave of Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna, the wife of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (he was shot in 1919), was opened. She was a Greek princess by birth, and her ashes, at the request of the Greek government, were transported to her homeland.

The fate of the Grand Duke's tomb turned out differently. In December 1926, the commission that examined the building came to the conclusion that “all the bronze decorations, as well as the lattices of the altar part, as not representing historical and artistic value, are subject to melting down.” The decorations were removed, and their further fate is unknown.

Italian King Victor Emmanuel III at the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photographer K. Bulla. 1902

In the early 1930s, the Shrine was transferred to the Leningrad branch of the Central Book Chamber and was used to store books confiscated during searches. After the Great Patriotic War, the building was located for some time
the warehouse of the paper mill lay.

In 1954, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Dukes' Tomb were transferred to the State Museum of the History of Leningrad. In the 1960s, after repair and restoration work, the exposition "History of the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress" was opened in the building of the Tomb. It was dismantled in May 1992 in connection with the burial of the great-grandson of Alexander II, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, and the beginning of restoration work. upon completion, the building will be restored to its original appearance.

Arrival of the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand at the Grand Duke's Tomb. 1909

According to one historian, “every Russian considers it his sacred duty to visit the Tomb of our Royal House; foreigners who have arrived in St. Petersburg are also in a hurry to bow to the tombs of the High Departed."

PETER AND PAUL CATHEDRAL
Peter and Paul Cathedral. Tomb of the Imperial House of the Romanovs