Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [21]
In the emperor’s bedroom is the tsar’s confessor, the renowned priest Ioann of Kronstadt, Father Ioann Yanyshev. And the doctors. They have gathered around the dying man: powerless medicine and omnipotent prayer, which eases his final sufferings.
It is all over. The doors of the bedroom are opened. The dead emperor’s body is drowning in his huge Voltairian armchair. The empress has her arms around him. A short distance away stands a pale-faced Nicky. The emperor has passed away in his armchair.
Chapter 2
DIARY OF THE NEW TSAR
“20 October, 1894. My God! My God! What a day! The Lord has called our adored, precious, fiercely beloved Papa to Him. My head is spinning. Don’t want to believe it. It seems so unlikely, this terrible reality! We spent all morning around him. At about half past 2 he took Communion. Oh, Lord! I stood at the head of his bed for more than an hour holding his head. The death of a saint….
“21 October. In our deep sadness, the Lord gives us quiet, luminous joy. At 10 my Alix was consecrated. There was an office of the dead, and then the other.… The expression on precious Papa’s face was marvelous, as if he were about to laugh. It was cold and the sea howled.
“There was a fuss about where to celebrate my wedding. Mama and I feel it would be better to do it here, while dear Papa is under our roof, but all the uncles are against it, they say I have to do this in Peter[sburg].”
The uncles won out. No sooner had Alexander died than their voice was heard.
As always, the ascent to the throne was attended by rumors. According to one version, the dowager empress wanted to replace Nicholas with her favorite son, Michael, and tried to force Nicholas to abdicate.
But that was only a rumor. The renowned minister of her husband and, now, her son, Sergei Witte, recorded in his Memoirs his conversation with her about Nicholas before Alexander’s death:
“You mean to say that the sovereign does not have the character of an emperor?”
“That is correct,” replied Marie Feodorovna. “In the event that anything should happen, Misha must take his place, although actually he has less will and character.”
Very soon something did happen. Alexander was younger than fifty when he died. This giant had seemed immortal, and when Nicholas suddenly learned about his father’s illness, he was overcome with fright. His friend Sandro recorded Nicholas’s exclamations of panic in his memoirs. So that, evidently, another rumor that emerged from inside the walls of the Livadia Palace was true: Nicholas begged to be allowed to abdicate. But Alexander was unbending: the law of succession must be observed. Nicholas must take the throne. And to his great joy, to strengthen his resolve, Nicholas was allowed to take the Hessian princess for his wife.
Petersburg, a gloomy autumn day. The funeral train arrived at the platform of Nikolaevsky Station.
Witte was among those meeting Alexander’s coffin.
“The new emperor arrived in Petersburg with his fiancée, the future empress, whom they say he loves,” wrote Witte.
Alix’s general forebodings were beginning to take specific form: she rode into Petersburg behind a coffin.
The funeral lasted a long time. While the metropolitan was speaking, the dowager empress collapsed in a fit of hysterics, crying: “Enough! Enough! Enough!”
She buried the emperor in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. A year of mourning was proclaimed in the country, but the wedding had to take place within a week—on the dowager empress’s birthday. Before the wedding they lived apart: she with her sister Ella, at the palace of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich; he at his dear Anichkov with his mother.
“My wedding was the continuation of the funeral, only I was dressed in white,” Alix would say later.
——
“13 November, 1894. Anichkov. At 11 we went to mass in our dear church. It was both sad and painful to stand there … knowing that one place would always remain empty. Words cannot express how hard it was and how sorry I feel for dear Mama!… Saw my dear