Nicholas II Romanov became the last Russian autocrat, having reigned for 22 years. It was the time of an ever-increasing revolutionary movement, which in 1917 swept away both Nicholas II himself and the Romanov dynasty. Almost boldly Russia itself. Prologue to these tragic years, which shifted the consciousness of millions, were the coronation celebrations, which ended with the Khodynka tragedy, after which the new autocrat was nicknamed "Bloody".
In January 1895 in winter palace, accepting a delegation from nobles, zemstvos and cities, Nicholas II delivered a short but meaningful speech. In it, responding to the wishes of people who wanted to carry out reforms, he stated: "... I know that in Lately voices of people were heard in some zemstvo assemblies, carried away by senseless dreams about the participation of representatives of zemstvos in the affairs internal management. Let everyone know that I, devoting all my strength to the good of the people, will guard the beginning of autocracy as firmly and uncompromisingly as my unforgettable parent guarded it.
10 years later, with the same hand that the “master of the Russian land” wrote in the questionnaire of the All-Russian census, he was forced to sign a manifesto on some restrictions on his power, and on 3 smarts in 1917, he abdicated. The performance, which ended in the tragedy of revolutions and civil war, began like this:
"Nicholas II drinks a cup on Khodynka before the military parade" 
"Schedule of celebrations and festivities of the upcoming Holy Coronation"
"Kremlin and Moskovretsky bridge decorated on the occasion of the holiday"
« big theater on the day of the coronation
"Resurrection Square (Revolution Square) near the Vitali Fountain"
"The cortege of participants in the celebrations passes through Strastnaya (Pushkinskaya) Square"
"through Tverskaya, opposite the Strastnoy Monastery - the wooden pavilion of the Moscow Zemstvo"
“A magnificent colonnade in Okhotny Ryad, in front of the not yet rebuilt building of the Noble Assembly”
"Decorative column in Okhotny Ryad, near the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa"
"Lubyanskaya Square"
"Red Square during the coronation celebrations"
"Flags at the Pokrovsky Cathedral"
"Manege and Kutafya tower with coat of arms"
"Alexander Garden from the Trinity Bridge, from the Kutafya Tower"
“Muscovites and guests are walking opposite the Petrovsky Travel Palace, where the Romanovs stopped on their arrival from St. Petersburg”
"Gathering of foreign delegations on the Khodynka field near the Petrovsky Palace"
"Triumphal gates on Tverskaya, through which the tsar entered Moscow, and obelisk columns with the text "God save the tsar" and "Glory forever and ever""
“Nikolai Romanov, on a white horse with silver horseshoes, according to tradition, is the first to enter the ancient capital along Tverskaya through Arc de Triomphe(away)"
"Nikolai Romanov drives up to the Iberian Gates"
"The Romanovs Dismounted to Visit the Iberian Chapel"
“Through the Iberian Gate Nikolay rides to Red Square”
“The royal procession solemnly passes by Minin / Pozharsky and the newly built GUM (Upper shopping arcade)”
“Ladies' imperial carriage on Red Square; on the site of the future Mausoleum - guest stands "
"The troops are waiting for Nicholas II on Red Square near the Execution Ground"
"The Solemn Entry into the Kremlin through the Holy Spassky Gates"
"Hussars and guests in the temporary stands-gallery opposite the Tsar Bell, at the foot of Ivan the Great"
"Sentry on guard of the imperial regalia in the Bolshoi Kremlin Palace»
"Master of Ceremonies announces to the people about the upcoming coronation"
"The audience in the Kremlin at the Chudov Monastery in anticipation of the action"
"Procession of Their Majesties with retinue along the Red Porch to the Assumption Cathedral"
"The royal procession leaves the cathedral"
"Nicholas II after the coronation under the canopy"
"Royal Dinner"
"Police on Khodynka field"
“At first, everything was calm on Khodynka”
"The Tsar's pavilion, stands and the sea of people on the Khodynka field a few hours before the tragedy"
"Khodynskaya tragedy"
"Khodynskaya tragedy"
According to the schedule, on May 6, 1896, the court arrived in Moscow and, according to tradition, stopped at the Petrovsky Travel Palace in Petrovsky Park, opposite Khodynka. On May 9, the emperor solemnly entered Belokamennaya through the Triumphal Gate at the Tverskaya Zastava, then again moved out of town - to Neskuchnoye, to the Tsar's Alexander Palace (now the building of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Neskuchny Garden). The very procedure of ascension to the throne took place on May 14 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin. Then there were numerous receptions of deputations, congratulations, dinner parties, dinners, balls, etc.
On May 18, 1896, large-scale festivities with amusements and free meals were planned at the Khodynka field. They ended tragically - according to official data, 1389 people died in a monstrous stampede (and according to unofficial data - more than 4000).
The Dowager Mother Empress demanded to stop the celebrations and punish the mayor of Moscow, Prince Sergei Alexandrovich, uncle of Nicholas II. But interrupting the events, apparently, was expensive - and Nicky did not do this, limiting himself to the allocation of funds to the victims. All the blame was laid on the chief police chief of the city of Vlasovsky, and the prince-governor even received the highest gratitude for "for the exemplary preparation and conduct of celebrations." While Moscow mourned the dead, the anointed one and the guests continued to drink, eat and have fun. Many saw in such a bloody beginning of the reign an unkind sign. And at night, when the bodies of the dead were being removed, the Kremlin was illuminated for the first time: 
"Festive illumination in honor of the coronation"
Here is how the famous Moscow journalist and writer Gilyarovsky described the Khodynka tragedy:
"... By midnight, a huge square, pitted in many places, starting from buffets, all along their length, to the water pump building and the surviving exhibition pavilion, was either a bivouac or a fair. On smoother places, away from the festivities , there were carts of people who had come from the villages and carts of merchants with snacks and kvass. In some places fires were made. With dawn, the bivouac began to come to life, to move. Crowds of people all arrived in droves. Everyone tried to take places closer to the buffets. A few managed to take a narrow smooth strip near the buffet tents themselves, and the rest were filled with a huge 30-yard ditch, which seemed to be a living, swaying sea, as well as the bank of the ditch closest to Moscow and a high rampart. By three o'clock everyone was standing in their places, more and more constrained by the incoming masses of people.
“After 5 o’clock, many in the crowd already lost their senses, squeezed from all sides. And steam began to rise above the millionth crowd, similar to marsh fog ... At the first tents, they shouted “hand out”, and a huge crowd rushed to the left, to those buffets, Terrible, soul-rending groans and cries filled the air... The crowd behind them threw thousands of people into the ditch, and those standing in the pits were trampled..."
“The crowd quickly retreated back, and from 6 o’clock the majority were already walking towards the houses, and from the Khodynka field, damming up the streets of Moscow, people moved all day long. At the festivities itself, not even a hundredth of what was in the morning remained. Many, however, returned, to search for the dead relatives. The authorities came. Piles of bodies began to disassemble, separating the dead from the living. More than 500 wounded were taken to hospitals and emergency rooms; the corpses were taken out of the pits and laid out in a circle of tents in a vast area. "
Deputy Prosecutor of the Moscow Court of Justice A.A. Lopukhin, who was investigating the causes of the tragedies, said: "The Khodynka disaster was a natural consequence of the primordial conviction of the Russian administration that it was called upon to take care not of the welfare of the people, but of protecting power from the people."
About Khodynka field
Khodynka on the map of Moscow in 1895
The Khodynka field was quite large (about 1 km²), but a ravine passed next to the field, and on the field itself there were many gullies and pits after the extraction of sand and clay. Serving as a training ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison, the Khodynka field was repeatedly used for folk festivals. Temporary "theaters", stages, booths, shops were built along its perimeter, including 20 wooden barracks for the free distribution of beer and honey and 150 stalls for the distribution of free souvenirs - gift bags, which contained: a mug with the monograms of Their Majesties, a pound brisket, half a pound of sausage, a Vyazma gingerbread with a coat of arms, and a bag of sweets and nuts. In addition, the organizers of the festivities planned to scatter tokens with a commemorative inscription in the crowd. According to Gilyarovsky, the pits were left over from metal pavilions, which were dug out shortly before and transported to the commercial and industrial “All-Russian Fair” in Nizhny Novgorod.
Developments
The start of the festivities was scheduled for 10 am on May 18, but already from the evening of May 17 (29) people (often families) began to arrive on the field from all over Moscow and the surrounding area, attracted by rumors about gifts and distribution of valuable coins.
At 5 o'clock in the morning on May 18, there were at least 500 thousand people on the Khodynka field.
When a rumor swept through the crowd that the bartenders were handing out gifts among “their own”, and therefore there would not be enough gifts for everyone, the people rushed to the temporary wooden buildings. 1,800 policemen, specially assigned to keep order during the festivities, could not hold back the onslaught of the crowd. Reinforcements did not arrive until the next morning.
Distributors, realizing that people could demolish their shops and stalls, began to throw bags of food directly into the crowd, which only increased the commotion.
The incident was reported to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Emperor Nicholas II. The crash site was removed and cleared of all traces of the drama that had played out, the celebration program continued. On the Khodynka field, the orchestra under the baton of conductor Safronov played a concert, by 14 o’clock Emperor Nicholas II arrived, greeted with a thunderous “cheers” and the singing of the National Anthem.
The festivities on the occasion of the coronation continued in the evening at the Kremlin Palace, and then with a ball at the reception of the French ambassador. Many expected that if the ball was not canceled, then, according to at least, will take place without a sovereign. According to Sergei Alexandrovich, although Nicholas II was advised not to come to the ball, the tsar spoke out that although the Khodynka disaster was the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the coronation holiday. Nicholas II opened the ball with Countess Montebello (the wife of the envoy), and Alexandra Feodorovna danced with the count.
Consequences
Most of the corpses (except for those identified immediately on the spot and issued for burial in their parishes) were collected at the Vagankovsky cemetery, where they were identified and buried.
According to official figures, 1,360 people died on the Khodynka field (and shortly after the incident), and several hundred more were injured. The imperial family donated 90,000 rubles to the victims and sent a thousand bottles of Madeira to the hospitals for the victims. On May 19, the imperial couple, together with the Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, visited the Staro-Ekaterininsky hospital, where the wounded were placed on the Khodynka field; May 20 visited the Mariinsky hospital.
Maria Fedorovna, the mother of the tsar, sent a thousand bottles of port wine and Madeira to Moscow hospitals for the seriously wounded - from the remnants of the Kremlin's stocks, which still survived after three weeks of coronation balls and banquets.
The son, following his mother, feeling the call for mercy, ordered that each orphaned family be given an allowance of 1,000 rubles. When it turned out that there were not dozens, but thousands of dead, he secretly took back this favor and, through various reservations, reduced the issue to some to 50-100 rubles, and completely deprived others of benefits. In total, the tsar allocated 90,000 rubles for this purpose, of which the Moscow city government snatched 12,000 rubles to reimburse the expenses for the funeral of the victims.
And the coronation celebrations themselves cost 100 million rubles. - three times more spent in the same year on public education. And not from personal funds royal family, but from the treasury, that is, from the state budget.
Church "on the blood"
At the Vagankovsky cemetery, a monument was erected on a mass grave dedicated to the victims of the Khodynka disaster, with the date of the tragedy engraved on it: “May 18, 1896”.
The Moscow police chief Vlasovsky and his assistant were punished - both were removed from their posts. Vlasovsky was “removed with the provision of a lifelong pension of 3 thousand rubles. in year".
The townsfolk blamed Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich for everything as the organizer of the festivities, giving him the nickname "Prince Khodynsky."
On November 18, 1896, a student demonstration was held to express "a protest against the existing system, which admits the possibility of such sad facts." The demonstrators were not allowed to enter the Vagankovo cemetery, after which they marched through the streets of the city. For refusing to disperse, the demonstrators were rewritten and 36 people who were seen as inciting were arrested. After that, gatherings were held at the Imperial St. Petersburg University for three days; each time their members were arrested. A total of 711 people were detained. Of these, 49 instigators were singled out, the rest were expelled from the university for a year.
The plot of the Khodynka disaster, which was devoted to eyewitness accounts published before 1917, was used by Gorky when writing the novel The Life of Klim Samgin, is also mentioned in other literary and artistic and journalistic works, for example, in the novel by Boris Akunin "Coronation, or the Last of the Novels".
According to modern medical terminology, the cause of death for most of the victims was compression asphyxia.
Reflection in culture
- Leo Tolstoy's story, "", 1910
- The story of Fyodor Sologub "In the crowd"
- The description of the tragedy is given in V. Pikul's book "Unclean Power".
- The tragedy on the Khodynka field is described in Boris Akunin's novel Coronation, or the Last of the Romanovs. In it, the stampede was provoked by Erast Fandorin's opponent, Dr. Lind.
- The tragedy on the Khodynka field is the basis of the novel Satisfy My Sorrows by Boris Vasiliev.
- In the first part of Y. Burnosov's novel "Revolution" from the "Ethnogenesis" cycle, the tragedy was provoked by one of the main characters - Tsuda Sanzo, japanese policeman who had previously committed an assassination attempt on the Emperor.
- Vera Kamshi's novel "Winter Break" describes a similar situation. Probably, the stampede on the Khodynka field served as a prototype for the events in the capital Taliga.
- In K. Balmont's poem "Our Tsar" (1906): "... Whoever began to reign - Khodynka, / He will finish - standing on the scaffold."
Notes
Literature
- Government Bulletin. May 21 (June 2), 1896, No. 109, p. 3 (description of the national holiday on May 18, 1896 and the incident before it).
- In memory of the Holy Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Feodorovna. With many illustrations by the best artists. - St. Petersburg: German Goppe publishing house, 1896, Part II, pp. 193-194.
- National holiday on the occasion of the Holy Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties of Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Description of entertainment for the holiday. M., 1896 (description of the program of the "folk holiday" on the Khodynka field - before the event).
- Krasnov V. Khodynka. The story is not to death trampled. - Kharkov, 1919; 2nd ed. - M.-L., 1926.
- Krasnov V. Khodynka // Moscow Album: Memories of Moscow and Muscovites of the 19th-20th centuries. - M .: Our heritage; Polygraphic resources, 1997. - S. 141-170. - 560, p. - (Russian memoirs). - ISBN 5-89295-001-8(in trans.)
- Gilyarovsky V. A. Disaster on the Khodynka field
Links
- Khodynka disaster of 1896 - Memoirs of Vladimir Gilyarovsky
| Nicholas II | |
|---|---|
| Developments | Eastern Journey of Nicholas II Incident at Otsu Coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna Crush on the Khodynka field Russo-Japanese War Revolution of 1905-1907 in Russia Abdication of Nicholas II Arrest of the abdicated Nicholas II in Tsarskoe Selo Exile of the abdicated Nicholas II in Tobolsk Transfer of the abdicated Nicholas II from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg Execution of the royal family |
| Politics | Russification of Finland Stolypin agrarian reform Manifesto of October 17, 1905 Third June coup Establishment of a de facto protectorate over Mongolia () Establishment of a protectorate over the Uryankhai region () |
| History of Moscow | |
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| Early history | |
| Center of the Moscow Principality | |
| Center of the Russian kingdom | |
| During the period Russian Empire | |
| During World War I and the Civil War | |
| Moscow in Soviet years And during the Great Patriotic War |
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| Modernity | |
| Thematic resources: Portal "Moscow" | Project "Moscow" | |
The tragic stampede on the Khodynka field occurred on May 18, 1896, according to the old style. A huge crowd gathered on the outskirts of Moscow on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. More than 1,300 people died in the stampede.
On the eve of the tragedy
By tradition, such an event as a coronation was accompanied by mass festivities. Moreover, these events were no longer part of the official ceremonial. The coronation of Nikolai Alexandrovich itself took place on May 14, after which the authorities organized holidays throughout the country with gifts for ordinary people. This is what caused the huge uproar. Rumors that edible gifts would be handed out on Khodynka quickly spread throughout Moscow. In 1896 this place was the city outskirts. The field was wide, so it was decided to hold the festivities here. In addition, it was planned that the sovereign himself would attend the event - listen to a concert that the orchestra was supposed to give.
Mass crush
The celebrations were supposed to start at 10 am. But by early morning there were a total of about half a million people on the spot. The stampede on Khodynka field began at the moment when a rumor spread among the crowd that gifts had already begun to be distributed in advance, but due to a large number there are not enough people for everyone.
Treats were given out in specially built wooden pavilions. It was here that the distraught people fled. Distributors began throwing food directly into the crowd so that they would not approach the stalls, which they could easily destroy. However, this only increased the chaos. A fight broke out among the people for gifts. The first crushed ones appeared. Panic quickly spread, which only exacerbated the situation.
The reaction of the authorities
The emperor and his uncle Sergei Alexandrovich were informed about the tragedy. In a few hours, the field was cleared of all signs of the recent drama. The stampede on the Khodynka field did not change the autocrat's plans. First, he attended the planned concert, and then went to the Kremlin, where a ball was held, which was attended by all the Moscow aristocracy, as well as ambassadors. Some close associates advised Nikolai to refuse to attend dances in order to somehow show his grief for the dead and wounded. However, he did not change his plans. Perhaps this was done because the monarch did not want to offend the French ambassador, whom he received at the ball. All this was recorded by the emperor in his diary.
Sergei Witte (Minister of Finance), who was present at Khodynka on that fateful day, left behind memoirs, where he shared with the reader his opinion about what happened. The official believed that the crush on the Khodynka field, the reasons for which were the poor organization of the event, had a terrible effect on the emperor, who looked "painfully". Witte wrote that perhaps the tsar was influenced by his uncle Sergei (Grand Duke), who advised him to continue everything as planned. The emperor himself, according to the minister, would certainly have spent church service at the site of the tragedy. But Nikolai was always distinguished by indecision and was extremely dependent on his relatives.
Nevertheless, on the 19th and 20th, he visited Moscow hospitals with his wife and uncle, where the wounded were kept. The tsar's mother, Maria Feodorovna, donated several thousand rubles from her savings, which went towards medicines. The imperial couple did the same. In total, 90 thousand rubles were allocated. The families of the victims were given personal pensions.
The funeral
A huge number of corpses could not be identified. All these bodies were buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in a mass grave. The architect Illarion Ivanov-Shitz designed a monument for her. It has survived to this day, it can still be seen on
The bodies that could be identified were given to relatives. The sovereign instructed to allocate money for their funeral.
Investigation
Responsibility for what happened was assigned to the local police, which could not adequately ensure security in such a vast territory as Khodynka field. The crush of people caused the resignation of Alexander Vlasovsky. He was in charge of law enforcement in the city. He, in his defense, first stated that the organization of the holiday, the result of which was a stampede on the Khodynka field on May 18, 1896, was the responsibility of the Ministry of the Court.
The officials of this structure convinced the investigators that they were not responsible for the police order at the event, although they really supervised the distribution of gifts. who was the minister of the court, led him back in the days Alexander III and was an inviolable figure for the new emperor. He defended his subordinates from the attacks of the police chief Vlasovsky. At the same time, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (who was also the Moscow governor) was the patron of the entire city police.
This conflict affected the relations of the top bureaucracy, which split into two parties. One half supported the Ministry of the Court, the other half supported the police. Many froze in indecision, not knowing which side the emperor himself would be on. In the end, everyone wanted to please the king. Hardly anyone was interested in the victims on the Khodynka field in 1896.
Nicholas II entrusted the investigation to the Minister of Justice Nikolai Muravyov. He received this position under the patronage of Sergei Alexandrovich, so everyone at court decided that Count Vorontsov-Dashkov would be guilty. But then Maria Fedorovna (the mother of the emperor) intervened. Largely due to her influence, the investigation was entrusted to Konstantin Pahlen (also former minister justice).
He was famous for his saying that in places where the grand dukes rule, there is always a mess. This position turned many Romanovs against him. However, he was under the care of the Empress Mother. His investigation made Chief of Police Vlasovsky guilty.
Reflection in culture
The terrible crush on the Khodynka field shocked the entire Russian public. Numerous officials, such as Sergei Witte, left memories of this terrible event. Leo Tolstoy, struck by what had happened, wrote short story"Khodynka", where he captured a picture of people's panic during the stampede. Maxim Gorky used the plot in his novel The Life of Klim Samgin.
A terrible tragedy occurred, which many contemporaries regarded as an ominous omen: as a result of a mass crush on the Khodynka field located on the outskirts of Moscow, up to one and a half thousand people died.
The Khodynka field, which served as a parade ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison, was set aside for folk festivals. Here, on the occasion of the coronation of the new Emperor, booths and benches were erected, as well as temporary wooden buildings for the free distribution of beer, honey and gifts (a mug with the monograms of the reigning couple, a pound brisket, half a pound of sausage, a Vyazma gingerbread with a coat of arms and a bag of sweets and nuts). Organizers holiday events they also planned to scatter tokens with a commemorative inscription in the crowd. The field itself was quite large, but next to it there was a ditch with steep banks and a sheer wall, from where sand and clay were taken for the needs of the capital for a long time, and on the field itself there were many gullies and pits from previously dismantled structures. “Pits, pits and pits, in some places overgrown with grass, in some places with surviving bare mounds. And to the right of the camp, over the steep bank of the moat, almost near its edge, rows of booths with gifts sparkled enticingly in the sun., an eyewitness recalled.
The well-known Russian reporter and everyday writer of Moscow V.A. Gilyarovsky, who, in his own words, was “in the very thick of the disaster”, recalled: “In the afternoon I looked around Khodynka, where a national holiday was being prepared. The field is built up. Everywhere there are stages for songwriters and orchestras, poles with hung prizes, ranging from a pair of boots to a samovar, a row of barracks with barrels for beer and honey for free treats, carousels, a huge board theater hastily built under the direction of the famous M.V. Lentovsky and the actor Forkaty and, finally, the main temptation - hundreds of brand new wooden booths scattered in lines and corners, from where it was supposed to distribute bundles of sausage, gingerbread, nuts, meat and game pies and coronation mugs. Pretty enamel white with gold and coat of arms, colorfully painted mugs were on display in many stores. And everyone went to Khodynka not so much for a holiday, but in order to get such a mug.
But nothing foreshadowed trouble, because similar events were held here before. When in 1883 up to 200 thousand people gathered here for the coronation of Emperor Alexander III, everything went smoothly and without any incidents.
The festivities were supposed to start on May 18 at 10 o'clock in the morning, but already at night the Khodynskoye field turned out to be densely packed with people - having learned about the free distribution of gifts, strings of people from the working outskirts flocked here. By 5 o'clock in the morning, up to 500 thousand people had gathered on the Khodynka field, sitting on the grass in family groups, eating and drinking. “Everything was full of people, - noted Gilyarovsky . - The hubbub and smoke stood over the field. Bonfires were burning in the moat, surrounded by festive people. “We’ll sit until the morning, and there we’ll go straight to the booths, here they are, nearby!”.
And when a rumor swept through the crowd that the bartenders were distributing gifts among “their own”, and therefore there would not be enough for all the gifts, the people rushed to the shops and stalls, sweeping away the police cordons. According to S.S. Oldenburg, referring to the words of an eyewitness, “The crowd suddenly jumped up as one person and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if fire were chasing after it ... The back rows pressed against the front ones, who fell trampled on it, having lost the ability to feel that they were walking on still living bodies, like on stones or logs". Frightened distributors, fearing that this element will sweep them away along with the shops, began to throw gifts directly into the crowd, which further aggravated the situation.
“Suddenly it hummed, - wrote Gilyarovsky . - First away, then all around me. Immediately somehow ... Screeching, screaming, moaning. And everyone who was peacefully lying and sitting on the ground jumped to their feet in fright and rushed to the opposite edge of the ditch, where the booths were white over the cliff, the roofs of which I could only see behind the flickering heads. (...) Crush, stampede, howl. (...) And there ahead, near the booths, on the other side of the moat, a howl of horror: against the clay vertical wall of the cliff, taller than a man, they pressed those who first rushed to the booths. They pressed it, and the crowd from behind filled the ditch denser and denser, which formed a continuous, compressed mass of howling people. In some places children were pushed upstairs, and they crawled over the heads and shoulders of the people into the open. The rest were motionless: they swayed all together, there were no separate movements. He suddenly raises another in a crowd, his shoulders can be seen, which means that his legs are in weight, they do not smell the ground ... Here it is, inevitable death! And what! (...) Above us was a canopy of fetid fumes. There is nothing to breathe. You open your mouth, dry lips and tongue are looking for air and moisture. It's dead quiet around us. Everyone is silent, only either moaning or whispering something. Maybe a prayer, maybe a curse, and behind me, where I came from, continuous noise, screams, swearing. There, whatever it is, there is still life. Maybe a death struggle, but here - a quiet, nasty death in helplessness. (...) From below they climbed onto the embankment, dragged those standing on it, they fell on the heads of those soldered below, biting, biting. From above they fell again, climbed again to fall; third, fourth layer on the head of those standing. (...) Dawn. Blue, sweaty faces, dying eyes, open mouths catching air, a rumble in the distance, and not a sound around us. Standing next to me, through one, a tall, handsome old man had not breathed for a long time: he suffocated in silence, died without a sound, and his cold corpse swayed with us. Someone was vomiting next to me. He couldn't even lower his head. Ahead, something terribly began to rumble, something crackled. I saw only the roofs of the booths, and suddenly one disappeared somewhere, the white boards of the canopy jumped from the other. A terrible roar in the distance: "They give! .. come on! .. they give! .." - and again it is repeated: "Oh, they killed, oh, death has come! .." And swearing, frantic swearing ... (...) Cossacks they dragged the crowd by the scruff of the neck and, so to speak, dismantled this people's wall from the outside. When the crowd came to their senses, it was already too late... According to various sources, those who died on the spot and those who died in the coming days turned out to be from 1282 to 1389 people; wounded - from several hundred to one and a half thousand.
“The ditch, this terrible ditch, these terrible wolf pits are full of corpses, - Gilyarovsky testifies. - This is the main place of death. Many of the people suffocated, while still standing in the crowd, and fell already dead under the feet of those who fled behind, others died with signs of life under the feet of hundreds of people, died crushed; there were those who were strangled in a fight, near booths, because of bundles and mugs. Women lay in front of me with torn braids and scalped heads. Many hundreds! And how many more were those who were unable to walk and died on the way home. After all, after the corpses were found in the fields, in the forests, near the roads, twenty-five miles from Moscow, and how many died in hospitals and at home! (...) They found an officer with a shot in the head. A government-issued revolver was lying around right there. Medical personnel walked around the field and gave help to those who showed signs of life. They were taken to hospitals, and the corpses were taken to Vagankovo and other cemeteries.. Later, at the Vagankovsky cemetery, a monument was erected on a mass grave in memory of the victims of the Khodynka disaster, with the date of the tragedy engraved on it: "May 18, 1896."
The tragedy was reported to the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Emperor Nicholas II. “Until now, everything went, thank God, like clockwork, but today a great sin happened, - noted Emperor Nicholas II in the evening of May 18 in his diary. - The crowd, who spent the night on the Khodynka field, in anticipation of the start of the distribution of lunch and mugs, pressed against the buildings, and then there was a terrible crush, and, it’s terrible to add, about 1300 people were trampled down !! I learned about this at 10 ½ hours before Vannovsky's report; disgusting impression left from this news ". The crash site was removed and cleared of all traces of the drama that had played out, and the celebration program continued. By 2 p.m., Emperor Nicholas II arrived at the Khodynka field, greeted with a thunderous cheer and the singing of the National Anthem. Then the festivities on the occasion of the coronation continued in the evening in the Kremlin Palace and a ball at the reception of the French ambassador. According to S.S. Oldenburg, “The Sovereign (at the suggestion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky) did not cancel his visit so as not to cause political rumors. But the next morning, the Tsar and the Empress were at a memorial service for the dead, and later visited the wounded in hospital several more times. It was issued for 1000 rubles. on the family of the dead or injured, a special shelter was created for their children; the funeral was accepted at the expense of the state. No attempt was made to hide or downplay what had happened - the message about the catastrophe appeared in the newspapers the very next day, May 19, to the great surprise of the Chinese ambassador Li-Hung-Chang, who told Witte that such sad news was not something to publish, but and the Sovereign should not have reported.
The Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna also visited the wounded during the Khodyn crush. In a letter to her son, Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, she wrote: “I was very upset to see all these unfortunate wounded, half crushed, in the hospital, and almost every one of them lost someone close to them. It was heartbreaking. But at the same time, they were so significant and sublime in their simplicity that they simply made you want to kneel before them. They were so touching without blaming anyone but themselves. They said that they themselves were to blame and were very sorry that they had upset the Tsar! They were sublime as always, and one could be proud of the consciousness that you belong to such a great and beautiful people. Other classes should have taken an example from them, and not devoured each other, and mainly, with their cruelty, excite minds to a state that I have never seen in 30 years of my stay in Russia..
The appointed investigation, which was conducted by the Minister of Justice N.V. Muravyov, established the absence of any ill will in what happened, but by decree on July 15, for hindsight and inconsistency in actions that had such tragic consequences, the head of order that day was dismissed. about. the Moscow chief of police, and some of the ranks subordinate to him suffered various penalties. But, as Oldenburg points out, “sorrow for the dead could not, however, stop the flow public life and already on May 21, on the same Khodynsky parade ground, orderly ranks of troops were defiling".
Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical SciencesFor 120 years now, the Khodynka tragedy has been used to denigrate Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, who is accused of unworthy behavior and complete indifference to the fate of the victims. This accusation was actively used in the late 1990s by opponents of the canonization of the Sovereign and his family. Let's take a closer look at what happened, who is to blame, and how the Sovereign Emperor acted.
According to the plan for the coronation celebrations, on May 18, 1896, a folk festival was planned on the Khodynka field. Most of the events took place according to the scenario of 1883, when the father was married to the Kingdom last Sovereign- Alexander III. Then the national holiday was designed for 400 thousand people, and, despite the huge number of people who came to Khodynka, there were no serious incidents. If the crowd crowded too tightly, they were dispersed by police squads and bands marching through the crowd. In 1896, the authorities were sure that everything would pass as calmly and solemnly as 13 years ago.
What was the Khodynka field like? It was enough large territory(a little over 1 km²), which, on the one hand, served as a training ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison, and on the other hand, was used for folk festivals. There was a ravine near the field, and on the field itself there were a fair number of holes and ditches. By May 18, 1896, all preparations for the celebration were completed: the pits and ditches were covered with boards, the Imperial Pavilion, stands were built, and theaters, stages, carousels, swings, circuses, buffets, and more than a hundred tents for distributing royal gifts were located throughout the field. Each guest was supposed to receive a mug with the monograms of Their Majesties, bait, sausage, gingerbread and sweets. All this was wrapped in a festive bag.
General Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky later recalled: “About these gifts, there were legendary rumors among the people that these mugs would be filled with silver, while others said that with gold.”
The Ministry of Imperial court, and the Moscow authorities, represented by the Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, were to provide all possible assistance in organizing festive events and maintaining public order.
The beginning of the festivities was scheduled for 10 am, and the appearance of the Imperial couple was planned for 2 pm. Already by the evening of May 17, a huge mass of people had gathered near the field - over five hundred thousand people according to some sources and about a million according to others. Let us return to the memoirs of General Dzhunkovsky: “Not only from all over Moscow and the Moscow province, but also from neighboring, nearby provinces, people came in dense crowds, some rode with whole families in carts, and all this went and went to Khodynka to see the Tsar, to get from him a gift. A few days before the holiday one could already see on this field the bivouacs of peasants and factory workers, camped here and there; many came from afar. All day long, on the 16th and 17th, from all directions, to all outposts, people walked continuously, heading to the place of festivities.
All night long, tired people were impatiently waiting for the beginning of the holiday - some were sleeping, some were sitting by the fire, some were singing and dancing, and a large crowd of people gradually formed right next to the tents themselves.
In the meantime, as is always the case in Russia, gifts from buffets began to be distributed to “their own”. “Artel workers spoiled,” wrote journalist Aleksey Sergeevich Suvorin from the words of an eyewitness, “they began to give out to their friends and several bundles. When the people saw this, they began to protest and climb into the windows of the tents and threaten the artel workers. They were frightened and began to give out (gifts)." Thus, gift bags began to be distributed not at 10 o'clock, but at about 6 o'clock in the morning. The news that gifts are already being handed out and that they may not be enough for everyone immediately spread throughout the people. And then, as follows from the record of the historian Sergei Sergeevich Oldenburg: “the crowd suddenly jumped up like one person and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if fire was chasing it. The back rows pressed against the front ones: whoever fell was trampled on, having lost the ability to feel that they were walking on still living bodies, like on stones or logs. The crash lasted only 10-15 minutes.”
In the memoirs of General Dzhunkovsky, there is no mention of the distribution of gifts to “their own”. He describes the events as follows: “By 5 o'clock the gathering of the people reached its extreme limit, more than half a million people stood in front of the buffets alone. The heat was unbearable and stuffiness. Not the slightest breeze. Everyone suffered from thirst, but meanwhile the mass was shackled, it was impossible to move. Many were treated badly, they lost consciousness, but they could not get out, because. were squeezed as if in a vise. This went on for about an hour ... At about 6 o'clock in the morning, cries for help began to be heard. The crowd became agitated and began to demand the distribution of treats. In 2-3 buffets they began to distribute. Shouts were heard: "Distribute", and this was, as it were, a signal for the beginning of misfortune. The sea of heads rippled. Tearing groans and screams filled the air. The crowd from behind pressed on those who were standing in the ditch, some climbed on their shoulders and walked forward over their heads, something unimaginable happened, the artel workers became confused, began to throw mugs and bundles into the crowd. In less than 10 minutes, the cupboards were demolished, and all this mass, as if coming to their senses, rushed back, saw with horror a ditch filled with both the dead and the mutilated.
Thus it is possible to do following conclusions about the causes of the terrible tragedy: firstly, great amount people, which significantly exceeded the estimated figures based, in particular, on the experience of the coronation of Alexander III; secondly, a long wait for the start of the holiday and the distribution of gifts, which high temperature and a large gathering of people was certainly accompanied by a shortage fresh air, fainting, irritability, and as a result, the desire to receive a gift quickly; thirdly, the distribution of royal gifts to “their own”, which looks quite plausible, even in the absence of such evidence from General Dzhunkovsky; fourthly, people's fear that there will not be enough gifts for everyone; and fifthly, inconsistency in the work of the Ministry of the Court and the Moscow authorities, which led to poor organization of the festivities and an insufficient number of policemen.
1800 police officers could not hold back the crowd, and the result of a 10-minute stampede was a huge number of victims: 1389 dead and several hundred injured. The incident was immediately reported to the Governor-General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who subsequently wrote in his diary: “Saturday. In the morning, Vorontsov came to me with the news that people had broken through at the Khodynka field at the festival and many were downtrodden. I sent Gadon there to find out; he himself had to go to Nika (Nicholas II - approx. A.T.). Immediately Vlasovsky confirmed the same, but order was quickly established. Nicky asked him himself ... I am in despair from everything that happened - one thousand killed and 400 wounded! Alas! Everything will fall on one chief of police, although the coronation commission with Ber ordered exclusively.
The place of the tragedy was very quickly removed and cleared of all traces, the celebration program continued, and by 14 o’clock the Royal couple arrived, greeted with a thunderous “Hurrah” and singing “God save the Tsar” and “Glory”.
“The sovereign was pale, the Empress concentrated, it was clear that they were worried about how difficult it was for them to take over and pretend as if nothing had happened,” Dzhunkovsky wrote.
Some politicians and members Imperial Family were of the opinion that the festivities should be cancelled. The Sovereign was inclined to the same. Here is what the well-known at that time writes in his memoirs political figure Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky: “I was well aware of all the details of what was happening in the Kremlin Palace in connection with the disaster. In view of this, I can testify that Nicholas II was saddened by what had happened, and his first impulse was to order an end to the festivities and retire to one of the monasteries in the vicinity of Moscow in order to express his grief. This plan was the subject of heated discussion in the circles of the royal retinue, and Count Palen supported this plan and advised the Emperor to severely punish the perpetrators, regardless of the position occupied by those responsible for what happened, and above all, Grand Duke Sergei, the uncle of the Emperor and the Moscow Governor-General , while others, especially Pobedonostsev and his friends, pointed out that this could confuse the minds and make a bad impression on the princes and foreign representatives gathered in Moscow.
It is necessary to stop a little on the figure of Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, who taught jurisprudence and law to the father of Nicholas II, and moreover, was the mentor of Nicholas Alexandrovich himself when the latter was the Heir to the Russian Throne. In 1896, K. P. Pobedonostsev served as Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod and had great influence at the court of Nicholas II, just as before that he had great influence at the court of Emperor Alexander III.
One way or another, the Sovereign accepted the position of Pobedonostsev and his supporters, but the ceremonial events were reduced. In itself, the idea of canceling the holiday, of course, is absolutely correct, but in those hours it is difficult to implement. It was possible to announce to the people that the holiday in connection with the tragedy will not take place, they say, go home. But it is one thing when 500 people gathered for the holiday, and quite another when the number of people exceeded 800 thousand, and many of them went through a long and hard way from neighboring provinces to get to this holiday, to see their Tsar and receive a gift from him. General Dzhunkovsky recalled: “The catastrophe occurred only in a small area, the rest of the vast space of the Khodynka field was full of people, there were up to a million, many only learned about the disaster in the evening, this people came from afar, and it would hardly be right to deprive them of the holiday” .
But let us return to the description of the events of that terrible day: By 14 o'clock the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna arrived at the celebrations. Half an hour later they went to the Petrovsky Palace, where they received deputations from the peasants, after which a dinner was arranged for the volost elders in two tents. And in the evening there was a ball at the French embassy. This ill-fated ball is always the culmination of accusatory passages against the Sovereign, who allegedly opened the ball with Countess Montebello with great joy, and Alexandra Feodorovna danced with the Count with no less pleasure.
It is worth noting that this reception was prepared by the French side long before the coronation, and it was given great interstate significance, since it was supposed to contribute to the establishment of allied relations between Russia and France.
The repeatedly quoted General Dzhunkovsky considered the presence of the Royal couple at the ball a unique mistake: “In the evening there was a ball at the French embassy. Everyone was convinced that the ball would be cancelled. Alas! Was done again fatal error, the ball was not canceled, Their Majesties came to the ball.
A.P. Izvolsky wrote: “The envoy of the Marquis de Montebello and his wife, who used big love in Russian society, knowing what was happening in the Kremlin, they expected that the imperial couple would not be present at the festival and suggested postponing the ball. However, it took place, and I clearly recall the tense atmosphere at this festival.
The efforts that the Emperor and Empress made when they appeared in public were clearly visible on their faces.
Some blamed the French ambassador for not taking the initiative in canceling the ball, but I can attest that the Marquis and Marquis were compelled to bow to a higher will guided by the deplorable advice I have already mentioned.
Thus, neither the French ambassador, nor the Sovereign Emperor, nor Pobedonostsev, no one else, experienced any joy from holding this ball, but it nevertheless took place at the initiative of Russian diplomats, as a gesture of Russia's loyalty to allied relations. And attending the reception by the Imperial couple, under the circumstances, was a sign of special respect and gratitude to the French side for organizing the ball.
The modern publicist A. Stepanov rightly notes: “A reception at the ambassador of a foreign power for the head of state is not entertainment, but work. Of course, you could cancel the appointment. But it must be borne in mind that Russia and France were just establishing Allied relations, and any roughness could be used by hostile states to upset the emerging alliance. And the Sovereign in this difficult situation found a worthy way out. He attended a reception, which emphasized Russia's loyalty to allied relations and interest in their development, but soon left ... ".
On May 19, a memorial service was held in the Kremlin for those who died on Khodynka in the presence of the entire Imperial family, after which the Imperial couple, together with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, visited the Staro-Ekaterininsky hospital, where the wounded were placed, and on May 20 they visited the Mariinsky hospital.
The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna wrote in a letter to her son Georgy Alexandrovich: “I was very upset to see all these unfortunate wounded, half crushed, in the hospital, and almost every one of them lost someone from his loved ones. It was heartbreaking. But at the same time, they were so significant and sublime in their simplicity that they simply made you want to kneel before them. They were so touching without blaming anyone but themselves. They said that they themselves were to blame and were very sorry that they had upset the Tsar! They were sublime as always, and one could be proud of the consciousness that you belong to such a great and beautiful people. Other classes should have taken an example from them, and not devoured each other, and mainly, with their cruelty, excite the minds to a state that I have never seen in 30 years of my stay in Russia.
After the tragedy, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich ordered to pay 1000 rubles from his own funds for the family of the deceased, in addition, the Sovereign paid all the expenses associated with the funeral. Also, according to Dzhunkovsky: “a commission was established under the chairmanship of the governor, large sums money, except for that allocated from the Ministry of Finance, and all families received benefits until the revolution itself.
The newspapers published lists of the victims, who were paid benefits depending on the severity of the injuries. The full allowance was 1000 rubles. Incomplete benefits amounted to 750, 700, 500, 350 and 250 rubles each. In addition, annual pensions were assigned: 24, 40 and 60 rubles each, special allowances were paid, "issued in return for burial expenses."
However, they want to slander Emperor Nicholas II here too. Here is what Mark Konstantinovich Kasvinov wrote in his book: “Maria Feodorovna, the mother of the tsar, sent a thousand bottles of port wine and Madeira to Moscow hospitals for the seriously wounded - from the remnants of the Kremlin stocks, which still survived after three weeks coronation balls and banquets.
The son, following his mother, feeling the call for mercy, ordered that each orphaned family be given an allowance of 1,000 rubles. When it turned out that there were not dozens, but thousands of dead, he secretly took back this favor and, through various reservations, reduced the issue to some to 50-100 rubles, and completely deprived others of benefits. In total, the tsar allocated 90 thousand rubles for this purpose, of which the Moscow city government snatched 12 thousand - to reimburse the costs of the funeral of the victims.
And the coronation celebrations themselves cost 100 million rubles. - three times more spent in the same year on public education. And not from the personal funds of the royal family, but from the treasury, that is, from the state budget.
So, according to the data provided by Kasvinov, all assistance Imperial Family- this is 90 thousand rubles, and a thousand bottles of port wine and Madeira, which, against the backdrop of the astronomical amount spent on the coronation, should convince any person of the utter hypocrisy of the "felt the call for mercy" of the Tsar.
Let's analyze in detail what amounts were spent on organizing coronation celebrations, what sums the Sovereign Emperor possessed, and whether he could afford such large payments to orphaned families.
For comparison, I will cite the costs not only for the coronation of 1896, but also for the coronation of the father and grandfather of Nicholas II. In 1856, the total cost of coronation celebrations amounted to 5,322,252 rubles. 91 kop. For the coronation of Alexander III in 1883, they spent 972 thousand more - 6,294,636 rubles. It is worth recalling that the coronation celebrations of 1896 largely followed the scenario of 1883, in addition, parallels were constantly drawn between the costs of these coronations. Naturally, there was no question of any fabulous 100 million, and could not go, all the celebrations of 1896 cost 6,971,328 rubles. 24 kop.
Now let's determine how much money the Sovereign Emperor had to allocate from his personal funds to help orphaned families. Officially, 1389 people died. Multiplying by the promised 1000 rubles, we get 1 million 389 thousand rubles. Was such money at the disposal of the Emperor? Certainly yes. In fact, the Tsar had three possible sources of funding. The first source is "own sums", which were annually replenished from the State Treasury by 200,000 rubles (the so-called "salary" of the Emperor). Until the moment Nikolai Alexandrovich became Emperor, he also received a salary, first as Grand Duke, and after the assassination of Alexander II, as the heir Tsesarevich. Due to the fact that the Tsarevich was in the full care of his parents, by the time of accession to the Throne, a decent amount for those times had accumulated on the account - 2,010,940 rubles. 98 kop. and 355,000 francs (as of January 1, 1896). 355,000 francs is the money inherited from his father. By the end of 1896, the account had 2,006,515 rubles. 62 kop. and 355,000 francs. Thus, it becomes obvious that payments to orphaned families were not made from these amounts. The second source is the budget of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, which was formed by about 60% from the funds of the State Treasury, and the rest is the income of the Specific Department (profit from property, land, gold mining, factories, orchards belonging to the Imperial family). As a prominent official of the Ministry of the Court wrote: “When evaluating the palace financial policy it should be borne in mind that with the unlimited power of the Tsar, he could also demand from the state treasury an unlimited amount for the maintenance of the Court; but this was not done, it was considered unacceptable, indecent. Holidays to the budget of the Ministry of the Court were determined by various historical stratifications, and their increase was avoided to the last possible. In 1896, the budget of the Ministry of the Imperial Court was approximately 23 million rubles. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out the itemized budget expenditures for this year, however, it is quite likely that payments to families were made from these funds. The third source is a kind of airbag of the Romanovs: the so-called "Reserve capital", stored in interest-bearing papers and reaching a colossal amount of 44,712,239 rubles; and other special "nominal capitals", for example, "Capital of the Tsarskoye Selo farm", which was initiated by Alexander I on February 16, 1824.
So the real (full) financial position The Ministry of the Imperial Court by January 1, 1886 was determined by the amount of 65,912,735 rubles.
As can be seen from the above figures, the Emperor had the necessary amount to provide assistance to orphaned families. In addition to the Sovereign, other members of the Imperial family also provided assistance, so on May 27, 1896, “to strengthen the funds received from Her Majesty Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to arrange a shelter for children whose parents suffered during the national holiday on Khodynka field on May 18” was “ 10,000 rubles were accepted into the cash desk of the Moscow City Council.
It should also be pointed out that this was not the first large donation from Nicholas II, as in 1891-1892 there was a crop failure in Russia, and Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich not only headed the Committee to Combat Famine, but also donated several million rubles received by him inherited from my grandmother.
Kasvinov in his work is trying to convince us that Nicholas II first ordered to allocate 1000 rubles to each orphaned family, and when “it turned out that not dozens, but thousands of dead, he silently took back this favor.” Let's think, could this actually happen?
In his diary for May 18, the Sovereign wrote the following: “Until now, everything went, thank God, like clockwork, but today a great sin happened. The crowd that spent the night on the Khodynka field, waiting for the start of the distribution of lunch and mugs, pressed against the buildings and then there was a terrible crush, and, it’s terrible to add, about 1300 people were trampled! I learned about this at 10 1/2 hours before Vannovsky's report; a disgusting impression left from this news. At 12 1/2 we had breakfast and then Alix and I went to Khodynka to be present at this sad “ folk holiday". Actually there was nothing there; looked from the pavilion at the huge crowd surrounding the stage, on which the music played the anthem and “Glory” all the time ... ”.
According to this diary entry, Nicholas II already at 10:30 learned not only about the tragedy, but also about the number of dead. Therefore, giving the order to help the victims, Nikolai Aleksandrovich was well aware that it would be necessary to allocate a decent amount, and not 90 thousand rubles, as they are trying to convince us.
In 1896, at the Vagankovsky cemetery, a monument was erected to the victims of the stampede on the Khodynka field, designed by the architect Illarion Alexandrovich Ivanov-Shitz.
To clarify the circumstances and the true causes of the tragedy, an investigation was initiated, headed by Count Paleny. As a result, the Moscow Chief of Police Vlasovsky and his assistant were removed from their positions, and the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (who received the nickname “Prince Khodynsky” among the people) asked for his resignation, but the Sovereign did not accept it.
During the investigation, the Moscow authorities, represented by Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich, and the Ministry of the Imperial Court, represented by Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, blamed each other for what had happened.
“Since the organization of the festivities was removed from the jurisdiction of the governor-general and transferred entirely to the Ministry of the Court,” Dzhunkovsky wrote, “I did not take any part in it, and the adoption of security measures also did not concern our commission - the guards on the Khodynka field also took the Ministry of the Court in the person of the palace commandant ... The Grand Duke, as the owner of the capital, of course, could not be pleasant, he reacted to this by completely abstaining from any interference, not only in relation to the arrangement of the festivities itself, but even in relation to maintaining order ".
To the greatest regret, neither Dzhunkovsky, nor the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, nor many other Moscow officials did not take due part, believing that one should not interfere in the work of the "coronation commission headed by Ber", forgetting that the leading role of the Ministry of the Court freed them all from accepting necessary measures to ensure order.
A detailed examination of everything that happened allows us to draw an unambiguous conclusion: all accusations against Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich of unworthy behavior, hypocrisy and indifference to the fate of the victims do not stand up to criticism, and are nothing more than an attempt to slander the Sovereign, using everything possible means, up to the direct falsification of figures and facts.
P.S. According to the norms of the modern Russian language, words such as “tsar”, “emperor”, “empire” and the like are written with a lowercase (small) letter, unless a sentence begins with them. I am very sensitive to mother tongue, and always oppose errors in oral and writing, as well as excessive and inappropriate "clogging" of the language foreign words and phrases. However, within the framework of this work, I will deliberately make the same type of spelling errors, because my deep respect for Patriotic history literally makes me ignore certain language rules and capitalize some words.
Footnotes
Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky - adjutant of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1891-1905), Moscow vice-governor (1905-1908), Moscow governor (1908-1913), commander of the Separate gendarme corps and deputy minister of internal affairs (1913-1915).
Notes of General Dzhunkovsky.
