Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918) and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix) (1872-1918)

[Katrianna]

I enclose the following from Marlene's excellent blog. The last comment made by the Grand Duke tells it all. Nicholas wasn't about to change how he ruled and I'm sure Alexandra agreed with him. Her grandmother Queen Victoria is said to have disliked anyone Russian and her attitude may have been passed on to her granddaughter especially when Alexandra was exposed to the Russian Court life and it's lax morals. In addition the Russian population was poor and uneducated so they must have seemed crude to Alexandra in relation to the German and English people she was used to. I'm sure she fully supported the idea that for Nicholas to rule over his country, an iron rule was the only way to keep the peasants in check.

Link is courtesy of RoyalMusings Web Blog by Marlene Koenig.

Royal Musings: Grand Duke Alexander talks of escape

 

[MAfan]

Alix was the much in-love wife of Nicholas; in order to marry him she had to change her life under several points: she was a devote Lutheran, and had to convert to Russian Orthodox; she was German, but had to give up her "germanophilia" and tried to become as Russian as she could (at least politically; under several other points, she sensationally failed); last but not least, she marry the Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias, and therefore changed her political views (even supposing that before her marriage she was a liberal and supporter of the Constitutional Monarchy) becoming a strong supporter of the autocracy: as wife of the Autocrat it was simply her duty.

Btw, under this point Alix wasn't the only "failure" among Queen Victoria's descendants: i.e. Alix' cousin, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who despite being the son of two liberal parents and the grandson of Queen Victoria (and despite the strong admiration he felt for his grandmother) wasn't liberal at all and definitely preferred autocracy.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

It is true that both Alexandra and Wilhelm were very fond of Queen Victoria, but in their respective countries, their belief was "when in Rome, do as the Romans do"

 

[reginalix]

Alix was brought up to the end of the reign of her grandmother. She always ignored the problems of the beginning and the middle of reign. She was in the English Court as private individual and saw nothing of the English system or politicians. Victoria had the longest English reign also she was more than a queen it was the Queen, the symbol of England. Alix thus only saw the "Queen" - for her Victoria was her beloved grandmother (thus a queen necessarily good) and the Queen the English State.
His father reigned over a tiny principality where in pratice his absolute power meant nothing. It was up in fact to the German Empire, and quiet Hesse had perfectly agreed to share the power with councillors and municipalities
Alix lived in countries " without drama " and " without political blocking " where the Monarch was respected loved and installed comfortably in a democracy. She was never interested in why and how.
And when she arrived in Russia she found simply for her a monarchy. When she understood that it was still different from England she wrote to Victoria that everything was normal, that her grandmother did not have to ask her to be interested in the democratization of Russia, that the monarch was loved in Russia. He also held his power from God, and he the Russian sovereign had respected this responsibility and applied "rationally" all which ensued from the power of divine right: the absolute dictatorship. If the "servants" were good, then we could delegate them something.
All described her nature "autocratic". The Minister of Hesse as the English ambassador said she was a born autocrat, and her marriage allowed he to express it.
We have to understand that Alix was the last girl Hesse, and far from being the most attractive, the most graceful and the most opened. She had several cousins " descendants of Victoria " … It was not an interesting party, subjected to competition and it attracted no man except for the Czar who dreamt about own family and had an idealistic heart he felt in love with her when she was a child, when she considered him like a very serious crown prince. She was not like the others who thought that Nikolai was a good guy but not the Man of the situation.
I think that Alix was secretly a proud nature under her natural shyness. Many persons hide their pride behind the shyness.
When she became the wife of Nicolai, she not only became Czarina, she became somebody, not a ghost only known by her family.
Countess Kleinmichel described the mechanisms of the character of the Czarina and noticed that the Empress surrounded herself only with persons whom she could dominate, who were dependent on her: a Caucasian princess in wheelchair, a stupid lady's companion, modest aristocrats or servants. Who would have had without her no chance to enter in the Court and would not write against her.
Alix isolated herself because in spite of her rank, she dominated nobody. She hated the crowd and the ceremonies, but never created a new protocol, she relieved nothing. Better she required that the aristocrats stay in the Court, that the promotions depend on their place to the Court while she maintained nobody, and wanted the extraordinary pump of big ceremonies to show the imperial rank of her family.
Alix was shy, it was not her own fault, furthermore she suffered from her physical appearance: not only she blushed but all her person stiffened under the influence of her shyness and people did not perceive her shyness but rather her disdain and her coldness. Immoral or not, the good society was frightened by the condemnation of the Czarina ( no big personal expenses but Alix maintained legions of servants and won't simplify the organization on the model of the other royal houses, she fired Ninjinski, she proclaimed her moral superiority but had never opened the book of the orthodoxy the Philocalia, and frequented quacks), by her faith that she was more Russian than them while she understood nothing, she said loved the people but did not frequent them and her ideas nevertheless of divine inspiration brought no improvement, her help was in the charity but not in the construction of a better life and a system which would make the people escape the poverty.
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]She bore no contradiction. When a member her family pointed out t a fault or an opposite opinion, she answered that her husband was an autocrat. If Alix found the remark acerbic she fired the person. She fired her sister, took away the cousins of her husband.
When Kerensky denounced the political and moral failure of tsarism to the Duma, Alix wrote to her husband that it was necessary to make him execute (later the opposite Czar spoke with him and found him honest whereas his wife snubbed him and was hardly polished).
Her faith, for Madam Kleinmichel, Protestant or orthodox later, was the same. Alix knew that God did not make the difference between riches and poors. But she was never able to be resolved in it. With the drama of the haemophilia of her son, she convinced herself that God was going to make a gesture. It's normal and human, every religious parents wait for a miracle. But she exceeded widely the standard. She thought that by frequenting a mujik and by speaking to him , she would show humility, and that this poor man could be only the instrument of God, God lover and supporter of the dynasty and the absolutism.
I think that Alix was an autocrat much more by her real nature than by the idea which in front of not still educated people and enough developed economically only a strong power could hold. Unconsciously, she loved her peoples exactly because they could not question the tsarism (at least she believed it) the middle and high classes even from the farming community will want an evolution.

 

[pamela18335]

reginalix, wow! That's a lot to wade through and digest, but I appreciate your response.

 

[Katrianna]

Thank you for a very thought provoking response, you have delved deeply into Alexandra's personality and come up with an interesting point of view.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

Moving on from the Tsar's butt cheeks . . . I am reading Lili Dehn's biography of Alexandra, The Real Tsaritsa and although I am only a couple of chapters into the book, two things strike me. First, Alexandra explained to Lili that she cried at her brother's wedding not because she was being displaced as chief hostess but because if was the first "festival" since her mother had died and the memory of her mother was everywhere! Second, Alexandra told of her father's "intermittent" kindnesses.

The first item does not really surprise me but I would think her sister's weddings had also been festivals and didn't Victoria get married in Hesse (Elizabeth was married in Russia) thereby evoking memories of Alice? Second, and more importantly, I had always believed or read that the Grand Duke was very kind to his children and adored by them. Why would Alexandra talk of his "intermittent" kindnesses? Can someone explain?

 

[Odette]

When done with this book try "Alexandra" by Carolly Erickson. Very interesting book. Alexandra does not come through as a quiet, religious, misunderstood, very sympathetic person.

 

[Duchessmary]

I'm thinking it's titled "The Last Empress" ??

 

[Odette]

Right you are. Alexandra The Last Tsarina is the full title.
Did you read the book? What did you think of it?

 

[Duchessmary]

Quite good. I snagged it at the library. Well worth the read.

 

[pamela18335]

When done with this book try "Alexandra" by Carolly Erickson. Very interesting book. Alexandra does not come through as a quiet, religious, misunderstood, very sympathetic person.

Odette, "does" or "does not"?

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

When done with this book try "Alexandra" by Carolly Erickson. Very interesting book. Alexandra does not come through as a quiet, religious, misunderstood, very sympathetic person.

I just re-read The Last Empress (finished it about a month ago) and Erickson does not paint a totally sympathetic portrait of Alexandra. Erickson points out that Alexandra could be aloof and hot tempered and pronce to impatience which she would take out on servants. But I don't recall any criticism by Alexandra about her father -- just the opposite if memory serves me well.

Go the Alexander Palace Time Machine web site and take a look at an article penned in 1904 about the Romanovs. In it, the author mentions the short reigns (typically less than 20 years for each sovereign), how Nicholas does not seem suited for the role of Emperor and even though it mentions the love match between Nicholas and Alexandra, it also mentions that Alexandra looks unhappy, was ill at ease in social functions, and how her predecessor, Empress Marie, loved the court processions and protocol. Very insightful for back then.

 

[Odette]

To say that neither one of them was qualified for the job is to put is as mildly as possible. Of course Marie and the Court did not make her feel welcome but Alexandra lacked imho the maturity to deal with her responsibilities. I always thought Rasputin was brought into the mix to help with Alexei. Erickson's was the first book I read that makes mention of the butcher the French authorities were looking for, the fraud who insinuated himself into their circle and held seances with both the Tsar and Alix. Apparently both of them believed that holy man as well.

Odette, "does" or "does not"?

Does not. It portrays Alexandra as a woman with many insecurities who became aloof and haughty after her engagement to Nicholas. Even Queen Victoria mentioned that she had changed.
Marie was a beautiful vivacious social butterfly but inmho she raised two sons who ended up being henpecked by their wives. The disaster for Nicholas was that he was the Tsar, ill prepared for the job he never wanted or saw himself fit for, with a wife who had scores to settle from the Romanov family to anyone she saw as a threat to Nicholas's God given rights.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

Odette,

I believe Massie mentions the same quack in Nicholas and Alexandra. And I agree with your assessments about Alexandra. Sure, things might have been different with another mother-in-law, if Nicholas was not put on the throne at such a young age, etc. But others in similar situations rose to the challenge but Alexandra just did not have it in her to be both a loving wife and gracious Empress. It was beyond her abilities or beyond her insecurities.

 

[Russophile]

Dr. What's his face. His name escapes me. Seems he was rather responsible for a hysterical pregnancy Alix suffered. HOwever! Russo is reading Nabokov's book "Speak, Memory" and it seems his mother was all into the seances, table-knocking, etc. I had heard that it was all the rage at the turn of the century and that Melitsa and Anastasia (the Montenegran Princesses) were not totally responsible for it's popularity.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

I just remembered -- PHILIPPE VACHOT!

 

[Hereditary Thane]

A man, or indeed a second person, responsible for an hysterical pregnancy?

 

[Odette]

He had her convinced that she could conceive a boy with his help. Of course he did not give any "physical" assistance. Just immersing herself in some waters at a monastery and other ways...She was convinced she was pregnant and it lasted for 9 months before the realisation hit that there was no pregnancy.

...Massie mentions the same quack in Nicholas and Alexandra.

Thank you. I read the Massie book twice, years ago but somehow the first quack did not make an impression and I forgot about him...I need to reread that book.

 

[EmpressRouge]

He had her convinced that she could conceive a boy with his help. Of course he did not give any "physical" assistance. Just immersing herself in some waters at a monastery and other ways...She was convinced she was pregnant and it lasted for 9 months before the realisation hit that there was no pregnancy.

When was this?

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

The book on Alexandra by Carolly Erickson goes into great detail about the hysterical pregnancy. I cannot recall at the moment exactly when this occurred, i.e., whether it was after Anastasia's birth or before, but I think it was after, so between 1901 and 1904.

 

[Russophile]

The book on Alexandra by Carolly Erickson goes into great detail about the hysterical pregnancy. I cannot recall at the moment exactly when this occurred, i.e., whether it was after Anastasia's birth or before, but I think it was after, so between 1901 and 1904.

That is correct. Then James Blair Lovell took that info. (In his book: Anastasia: The Lost Princess) and claimed a real princess was born named Alexandra and lived in Denmark. However, he was proven to have lied.

Did not the Montenegrin Princesses introduce Phillipe to the Tsaritsa?

 

[COUNTESS]

I don't know, but they introduced her to Rasputin.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

Did not the Montenegrin Princesses introduce Phillipe to the Tsaritsa?

Yes, according to Erickson. She writes that Vachot had become the leader of the Montenegrins' circle, so it appears that they must have then introduced him to Alix and Nicky, who called him "our friend Philippe." While looking that up, I revisited the chapter about the hysterical pregnancy. It was in the summer of 1902 or approximately a year and two months after Anastasia's birth. The Empress expected to deliver in August of 1902. The court physician, in order to spare Alix further embarrassment, said "Thanks to a departure from the normal course, the interrupted pregnancy has resulted in a miscarriage."

 

[Odette]

When was this?

Empress please check below I think post 398 Vassilissos found the exact information you are asking about..

 

[pamela18335]

To say that neither one of them was qualified for the job is to put is as mildly as possible. Of course Marie and the Court did not make her feel welcome but Alexandra lacked imho the maturity to deal with her responsibilities. I always thought Rasputin was brought into the mix to help with Alexei. Erickson's was the first book I read that makes mention of the butcher the French authorities were looking for, the fraud who insinuated himself into their circle and held seances with both the Tsar and Alix. Apparently both of them believed that holy man as well. Does not. It portrays Alexandra as a woman with many insecurities who became aloof and haughty after her engagement to Nicholas. Even Queen Victoria mentioned that she had changed.
Marie was a beautiful vivacious social butterfly but inmho she raised two sons who ended up being henpecked by their wives. The disaster for Nicholas was that he was the Tsar, ill prepared for the job he never wanted or saw himself fit for, with a wife who had scores to settle from the Romanov family to anyone she saw as a threat to Nicholas's God given rights.

OK, I know I'm letting myself in for it, but here goes anyway:

While I might agree that Nicholas and Alexandra were not the right people for the Russian Imperial Throne at the time Nicholas succeeded, my sympathies are still in their favor.

Nicholas was denied the proper education for a Tsesarevich by his father, Alexander III, and between his father and Pobedonostsev, his only schooling was in a highly conservative political thought process. He was never offered the opportunity to learn more liberal ideas of ruling. During his first years as Tsar, he was bullied unmercifully by his uncles into making some terrible decisions, such as the one to attend the French Coronation Ball, which he and Alexandra did NOT want to do in light of the Khodynka catastrophe. Better to have "offended" the French, and earned the respect of their subjects by withdrawing from that ball, praying and visiting the wounded, and seeing to the burial of the dead.

Alexandra came from a small German court, and stepped onto the throne immediately she was married, following on the heels of the death of her father-in-law. She was paralysingly shy, which was interpreted as aloofness, rather than recognized for what it was. She had a decidedly Victorian upbringing, both at her mother's skirts, and then at her grandmother's, and was ignorant of the profligate ways of the Russian court. Of course she frowned at the extreme decolletage, the flirtatiousness, and the not-too-discrete affairs of the Russian aristocracy! The pressure to bear an heir was laid squarely at her feet (never mind that it was Nicholas' genetic contribution that mandated the sex of the child, not hers) and she bore four daughters in a row. When the heir finally appeared, he unfortunately had inherited Victoria's flawed gene, leaving her guilt-ridden and fearful for the remainder of her life.

For those of you whose hindsight is 20/20, what might you have done differently in her place, and why?

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

But Alexandra was allowed to withdraw into herself and I wonder if she had made the effort whether she might have overcome her shyness and been a better consort. Many people are shy and it has been shown that many performers become just that, peformers, because of their shyness as children.

Also, don't forget, that Alexandra interfered with the government's operations during World War I which proved to be disastrous and Nicholas, in my opinion, did nothing to stop her meddling. Even when the world was crashing down around them, Alexandra seemed to be in another world where reality was suspended and I don't think she realized the enormity of the situation until placed under arrest.

 

[COUNTESS]

You are right. Everyone is nervous on a new "job". This was a new "job". So, instead of growing into it, she hid. Instead of getting her involved with entertaining and interacting, she was allowed to become a stiff caricature of an empress.

Her interference in government was, inordinately, inapporpriate. She had no talent nor knowledge of what to do. She was not politcally astute. All she had was this single minded idea about autocracy and how they got their orders from God. Poor God, poor them.

 

[Odette]

The Knodynka massacre would have qualified as a faux pas on their part and would have easily been forgotten if their reign was better managed.
Besides, although they did attend the reception, they spent their afternoon visiting the wounded in hospitals and from their own funds, they gave money to the families of those who perished.
I agree that Nicholas was ill prepared for what the accident of his birth became his "right". However he never allowed his mother, his loud uncles or his more wise brother to give him any advice about just about anything. He relied entirely on Alexandra for support and advice. She was ill prepared, neurotic and posessive.
The war with Japan could have been avoided if he had kept his word and did not assume the mighty Russian navy would crash Japan. I believe that was the beginning of his reign's demise and what followed was one bad choice after another. There was a point he could still have saved his throne and his head if he had followed advice and removed Alexandra from the center and off to a monastery.
He may have been a loving husband to her but he was a disastrous ruler and she helped him along the way, all the way to the basement of Ipatiev's house.
I feel sorry for the children and those loyal servants and their end was a crime but the one I cannot feel too much sympathy towards is Alexandra.

 

[persian85033]

I've always felt especially sorry for the girls. Didn't Marie Feodorovna say that they were prisoners of their mother's paranoia? And maybe she had a point.