Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [33]
“By the way, it was she who predicted that under the last three Russian tsars Russian history would take a sharp turn every twelve years. Judge for yourself, my friend: 1894, Nicholas ascended to the throne; in the twelfth year of his reign the constitution of October 17, 1905, put an end to Russian autocracy; and another twelve years later, in 1917, the empire came to an end. Another twelve years later, in 1929, a new tsar came to power at last: Stalin. In 1941, the war began. In 1953, Stalin died and Khrushchev came to power. How interesting it would be for me to live long enough to find out what happens to us twelve years after that.”
Vera Leonidovna did not live that long. Twelve years later Khrushchev was overthrown and Brezhnev came to power, but he was not a tsar. He was a parody, a puppet. And with him, evidently, the twelve-year rule of the last Russian tsars ceased to apply.
Revelations stretching back into pagan Russia. The weighty mutterings of a znakhar would teach Alix to find meaning later on in the mutterings of Rasputin, and the vague stories about fools’ indecent conduct would become the justification for Rasputin’s debauch. All these magicians were preparing her for the coming of the “Holy Devil.”
The whole pernicious game alarmed Ioann of Kronstadt.
Father Ioann of Kronstadt told them about a true saint and his miracle working, about Serafim of Sarov, whose posthumous glory was already thundering across Russia.
Serafim was a holy man who died in 1833 in the Sarov wilderness. “Fortifying himself in devout thought, in ceaseless incantations of God, and in readings of holy books, Serafim was granted many spiritual visions,” Ioann wrote. “He healed and prophesied.”
At age eighteen, Serafim (at that time he was still Prokhor Moshnin; he became Serafim after he entered the cloister) left his home and went to worship in the great city of Kiev, at the Holy Monastery of the Caves. Afterward he lived for a long time in the Sarov wilderness under a vow of silence. He taught: “The soul must be given the Word of God—the bread of angels. It is this that nourishes the soul.”
The holy man was meek and filled with light and joy.
“The soul replete with despair goes mad; he who conquers passion conquers despair as well.” Sadness and despair are sinful.
Serafim went about surrounded by nuns, those happy brides of Christ.
But there were rumors about Serafim and the nuns. The secular authorities grew concerned and instructed the spiritual authorities to question Serafim—and the mystery of holiness became the object of a police investigation. Soon after, the case was put on hold for lack of evidence, but Serafim apparently said at that point: “This event signifies that the end of my life is near.” He quietly passed away.
This is how, in connection with the investigation, Father Serafim’s prophecies found their way to the Department of Police.
Alix believed immediately: Serafim the holy man, standing by God’s throne, would intercede for them, and Holy Russia would get its heir. Meek Serafim had entered their life.
Alix did everything in her power to get him canonized. She succeeded, and it was decided that the entire family would travel to Sarov for the canonization ceremony. How Alix believed in that trip! She would bow to the powers of the saint and pray for a son, for the continuation of the line.
On July 16, 1903, the imperial train pulled into the Arzamas station, and from there the family set out for the Sarov wilderness and the monastery.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, under Minister Plehve, had been preparing for this trip for a long time. As usual in Russia, the secret police turned everything into a gigantic farce. Orders were issued to the inhabitants of the settlements along the tsarist family’s route: “Decorate the entrances to the settlement with arches,