Original subtitles

January 1744

A carriage hurried through the Russian winter, carrying a 14 -year -old German

princess to St. Petersburg.

Christened Sophie Friederike Augusta.

In Russia, she would take a new name.

Catherine.

She was to marry the heir to the Russian throne, and must have imagined her

future in this frozen land, and dreamt of a loving husband.

But her hopes were in vain.

The marriage would be loveless.

This young princess would instead fall in love with Russia.

18 years later, year 1762.

At the Russian court, The age of elaborate wigs and lavish balls was

an end.

They held no interest for Empress Elizabeth's successor, the 34 -year -old

Fyodorovich.

Not even those close to the new emperor knew quite what to expect from him.

He fidgeted constantly through ceremonies, liked to play with toy

often said out loud that he'd rather rule a civilized country like Sweden

wild one like Russia.

Chapter 1.

Peter III Fyodorovich.

Peter was born Karl Peter Ulrich, son of the German Duke of Holstein, a nephew

of King Karl XII of Sweden.

His mother was Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, making him heir to

both the Russian and Swedish thrones.

Peter, orphaned at the age of 11, was brought to Russia by his aunt, Empress

Elizabeth.

He had him convert to Russian Orthodoxy and renounce his claim to the Swedish

throne.

At the age of 17, he married the 16 -year -old German princess of

who converted to Orthodoxy and took the name Catherine.

Peter quickly discovered he had nothing in common with his young wife.

Although she was beautiful, he found her dull.

He played his violin for her and tried to include her in his own hobbies.

But she was interested neither in his music nor his toy soldiers.

Catherine was intelligent and well -educated.

But in Russia, she felt isolated.

Catherine confided her innermost feelings to her diary.

I see very clearly that the Grand Duke doesn't love me at all, she wrote.

I will be very unhappy with this man.

Peter's antics, meanwhile, exasperated those around him.

His courtiers painted an unflattering portrait, suggesting he'd inherited

the Great's love of drinking.

as well as his wild, unpredictable behaviour, which baffled and infuriated

advisers.

They reported that he talked such nonsense in front of foreign ambassadors

it made our hearts bleed with shame.

Peter behaved erratically throughout his adult life.

Some thought he had a form of mental impairment.

Others thought his development had been affected by a serious bout of smallpox

as a teenager.

Nevertheless, Peter received a brilliant education and excelled in the natural

sciences, mathematics, geography and fortification.

He spoke German, French and even some Latin.

Although his Russian remained poor, the prospect of becoming Emperor of Russia

appealed to him not at all.

In contrast, his wife Catherine was determined to be accepted in her new

homeland.

She practiced her Russian lessons late into the night and read books about

Russian history and the lives of the saints.

She even studied the old Slavonic language of the church.

She got up early to help the servants stoke the palace fireplaces and practice

her Russian with them.

Soon, she spoke the language fluently, though she never completely lost her

German accent.

When Peter III became emperor in 1762, He began a period of frantic

In 186 days, he signed 192 decrees.

He abolished the hated secret chancellery and the use of torture and

,000 people to return from exile in Siberia. He ended the persecution of the

-called old believers and took land from the monasteries and gave it to the

state. He ordered that babies should be baptized in warm water.

He approved the formation of Russia's first state bank.

and the introduction of the first banknotes.

He declared forests to be a national resource, and granted new civil

to the nobility, exempting them from compulsory military service, and

them to travel abroad for the first time.

There were rumours that Peter intended further sweeping reforms of the church.

He certainly showed little respect, laughing, joking, and talking loudly

services.

In contrast, his wife Catherine remained standing through long services,

observed all the fasts, confessed her sins, and received communion regularly.

Her calm and pious demeanour made the Emperor look like an oaf.

Catherine never had any illusions about her husband, even in the early days of

their marriage.

She recalled one incident in her diary.

When I entered the chamber's office, Imperial Highness, she wrote, I was

to see that he had hanged a huge rat.

I asked him what it meant.

He explained that the rat had committed a criminal offence.

It had climbed over the wall of his cardboard fortress and eaten two guards

were on duty.

So he ordered the criminal to be tried according to military law.

The rat was hanged at once and was to remain there for three days.

as an example to others.

Catherine and Peter were completely unalike.

They shared no interests and had nothing to say to each other.

And there was another problem.

Everyone at court knew that Peter and Catherine did not sleep together.

After a few years, it was less an item of court gossip than a looming dynastic

crisis.

Russia and the Romanovs needed an heir.

After nine years of marriage, Catherine finally became pregnant.

According to one account, Peter had surgery to correct a condition that had

prevented him consummating the marriage.

According to another account, Catherine was seduced by her chamberlain, Sergei

Soltikov.

In any event, in 1754, at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Catherine gave

birth to a son, Paul Petrovich.

As far as Empress Elizabeth was concerned, Catherine had fulfilled her

duty. To provide the Romanov line with an heir, she now intended to raise the

precious child herself.

Catherine's infant son was taken away from her.

For several years, she lived virtually alone.

It gave her plenty of time for her favorite pastime, reading.

For a Russian Grand Duchess, Catherine had unusual taste.

Her favourite writers were all French philosophers, men such as Diderot,

Voltaire and Montesquieu.

Her other great passion was for handsome men.

Her first lover, Sergei Saltykov, was soon sent on a diplomatic mission to

Sweden, but Catherine soon found a new favourite, Stanislaw August Poniatowski.

a young Polish noble attached to the British embassy.

They had a daughter named Anna, and in time, Catherine would help Poniatowski

become the last Polish king in history.

When Catherine turned 30, she took a new lover, a handsome, boisterous guards

officer named Grigory Orlov.

He and his four brothers, all officers in the guards, wielded enormous

influence. and effectively controlled the loyalty of their regiments.

Catherine was cultivating powerful allies in St. Petersburg.

By the time Peter became emperor, husband and wife were barely speaking to

other. Peter didn't even know that Catherine was pregnant again, this time

Grigory Orlov's child.

The birth of an illegitimate child could be the excuse Peter was waiting for to

get rid of his unloved wife.

It had to be kept secret.

On the date the baby was due, Catherine's Chamberlain, knowing Peter

watching huge fires, went to an extraordinary length to lure him away

palace. He ran to the city and set fire to his own house.

Peter set off to see the Great Blaze, while Catherine gave birth to a son in a

far wing of the Winter Palace.

In time, the Emperor discovered the existence of both his wife's

children.

He remarked casually, God knows where my wife gets her pregnancies from.

I don't know.

Peter was not a faithful husband either.

His mistress was Elizabeth Valantsova, a lady -in -waiting, and he wanted to

marry her.

But first they would have to remove one major obstacle, Catherine.

Peter planned to imprison his wife and their son Paul in the Schlisselberg

Fortress near St. Petersburg.

Grooms had already been prepared for them.

Catherine knew she had to make her move first.

He also knew that the emperor had made himself many powerful enemies close to

home.

The king of Prussia, Frederick the Great, was Peter III's idol.

It didn't matter to Peter that Russia and Prussia had been at war for several

years.

When Peter became emperor, he immediately made peace with Prussia,

Russian conquests.

Then he made his own guard regiments adopt Prussian uniform and brought in

strict new codes of discipline, also based on the Prussian system.

The guard regiments, pampered for years, were outraged.

The guards were the elite troops of the Russian army, based on the toy regiments

created by Peter the Great for his war games.

The Preobrazhensky, Semenovsky and Izmailovsky regiments retained a close

relationship with the sovereign.

The Liebguards guarded the Imperial Palace and were a political force to be

reckoned with.

In a span of 37 years, the guards were involved in no fewer than six palace

revolutions.

June 28th, 1762.

The Montplaisir Palace, 6 a .m.

Catherine was woken by Alexei Orlov, Grigory's brother.

It's time to get up, he told her.

Everything is ready for your proclamation.

She dressed quickly and got into a carriage.

A few miles outside St. Petersburg, they met Grigory Orlov and went on to the

barracks of the guard regiments, where they were welcomed with cheers.

Catherine had been preparing the ground for this move for months.

10 a .m.

Peter was still asleep at Oranienbaum, 20 miles outside the city.

At noon, a huge crowd followed Catherine's carriage as it drew up

Winter Palace.

It was met by a welcoming committee of senior state officials.

At the Peterhof Palace, Peter was told that the Empress had vanished.

He searched her chambers in person.

looking inside her wardrobes and under her bed.

When it was discovered that Catherine was in the city gathering support, he

messengers to find out what was going on.

None of them returned.

Instead, they joined Catherine.

Peter took a boat to the naval base at Kronstadt, hoping that the fleet

loyal to him.

A galley carrying all the ladies of court followed him.

The emperor intended to use them as hostages, since their husbands had all

with Catherine.

But the fortress at Kronstadt opened fire on Peter's boat.

The commandant announced that he recognized no emperor.

Russia was ruled by Empress Catherine.

In St. Petersburg, the people gathered on the shore with sticks and stones to

prevent the emperor returning to the capital.

24 hours later, after learning that the Senate, Army and Fleet had all sworn

allegiance to Catherine, Peter agreed to sign an act of abdication.

Guards arrived to escort him to the Royal Hunting Lodge at Ropsha, a few

outside the city.

Peter went out to the carriage, handed his sword to an officer and fainted.

Catherine had no legitimate claim to the throne.

By precedent, she could claim no more than to be acting as regent on behalf of

her infant son, Paul.

Catherine, however, chose to present her palace revolution as a fulfillment of

the people's will.

Her ascension to the throne was, she declared, by the will of all our

The immediate question, was what to do with her husband, Peter.

He'd written to her in French, addressing her as Her Majesty, and

to conspire against her or her government.

He'd added a postscript, in bad Russian, I also beg you, honouring your will in

everything, to be allowed to go to faraway lands.

It was too risky to let Peter go abroad.

Perhaps she should send him to the Schlisselberg Fortress, where he could

another former emperor deposed more than 20 years before by the Empress

Elizabeth, Ivan VI.

But two legitimate ex -emperors posed too great a threat to an illegitimate

German -born emperor.

A week after the coup, Catherine received a letter from Alexei Orlov.

who was keeping Peter under house arrest at Robsha.

It contained the news that Peter was dead.

Circumstances of his death remain unclear.

The official cause was hemorrhoidal colic, but he was almost certainly

Two years later, the second problem also resolved itself.

During a rescue attempt at the Schlisselberg Fortress, Ivan VI was

guards.

In September 1762, two months after the coup, Empress Catherine was

crowned in Moscow.

Chapter 2 Catherine II Alexeyevna

At Catherine's coronation, 1 ,200 foods of silver, more than 19 tons, were given

out to the people.

Crowds were then treated to a masquerade involving thousands of musicians,

giants, dwarfs and jesters. They ate fried beef and drank from fountains of

Rhenish wine.

The festivities lasted three months.

The main attraction was the Great Imperial Crown.

containing 4 ,936 diamonds, weighing 2 ,858 carats in total.

On top, a red spinel, weighing 398 carats, and 72 Indian pearls.

Its value, 2 million rubles, about $200 million today.

Catherine was the first Russian empress to dedicate most of her time to work,

not her own pleasure.

Compared to her predecessors, she led an orderly life.

She preferred plain food.

Her favorite dish was boiled beef with salted cucumbers, and she hardly ever

drank.

Even during state banquets, she drank blackcurrant juice instead of wine.

She also kept to a strict daily routine.

Catherine rose at 6 a .m., read until 8 .30,

Then worked on papers with her secretaries from 9 to 11.

From 11 to 1, she met with courtiers.

And from 1 to 2, she had lunch.

Courtiers read aloud to her between 2 and 4.

Then she received visitors until 6 p .m.

Then she might play cards for a few hours before dining at 9 and going to

later than 10.

The philosophical treatises that Catherine had read in her youth now

bear fruit.

The Empress decided to establish a new style of government in Russia,

Enlightened Absolutism.

Its main principles were to be freedom of thought and speech, and equality for

all classes before the law.

Russia still used a legal code that dated back to 1649, known as the

Ulogenia.

Catherine ordered the summoning of a legislative commission to debate new

for Russia.

Its delegates were to be drawn from all the classes and regions of the Empire

and were to come to Moscow bearing written instructions from their

Before the commission met, the Empress wrote down her own ideas about the law

a document that became known as the Nakaz, or Instruction.

It took two years to write and contained more than 600 clauses.

It discussed the rule of law.

The abolition of the death penalty, the presumption of innocence, the concept of

liberty, the different classes, and serfdom.

The Nakaz provoked extreme responses in Russia and abroad.

In France, the birthplace of the Enlightenment, it was banned as

liberal.

Now, as her legislative commission was convened, the eyes of Europe were on

Catherine. and her daring experiment in legal reform.

The legislative commission that was to draft the new legal code was made up of

all classes except the serfs and clergy.

564 deputies were selected.

30 % were nobles, 39 % were townsmen, 14 % were peasants, 5

% bureaucrats, and 12 % were representatives of other estates.

such as Cossacks and frontier tribesmen.

They met in no fewer than 203 sessions.

The Commission met inside the Kremlin.

Catherine secretly watched proceedings from a hidden gallery, used a hundred

years before by the Tsaritsa and royal princesses, in an age when women weren't

allowed to join men at banquets.

The more the commission talked, the clearer it was there was little common

ground between the different estates.

Sometimes it seemed the soldiers were the only thing that stopped them from

attacking each other.

One issue bridged the gap between the estates.

Merchants, Cossacks and industrialists wanted the right to own serfs, like the

nobles did.

While Catherine was striving to nurture liberty, The delegates wanted the

opposite, and weren't afraid to say so.

The only thing on which the deputies were unanimous was their desire to

Catherine with the titles The Great, The Wise, and The Mother of the Nation.

Catherine wasn't impressed.

She wrote irritably, I told them to work on the laws.

and they do an anatomy of my qualities.

Only God is wise.

Great. History will judge.

But she welcomed one title, Mother of the Nation.

With the commission deadlocked, Catherine took matters into her own

She ruled by decree, prohibiting the export of grain, imposing price controls

salt, and creating new laws against corruption.

But trouble was brewing for Russia abroad.

The growing might of the Russian Empire was a source of growing unease for

France.

When Catherine put her former lover Stanislaw Poniatowski on the Polish

she antagonized France yet further.

She had also broken a promise to Turkey not to interfere in Polish affairs.

In October 1768, Under pressure from French agents, the Turkish sultan

war on Russia.

Catherine sent her best troops and generals against the enemy.

The empress had a flair for recognizing talent and promoting those with ability.

One beneficiary was Count Peter Rumyantsev, former favorite of Peter

He'd expected to be dismissed after Peter's overthrow, but instead...

Catherine gave him command of an army.

Count Alexei Orlov was considered by many to be debauched and dishonest, yet

Catherine gave him command of a naval squadron.

Alexander Suvorov was an unassuming 30 -year -old major when he first met the

Empress. She gave him her portrait as a gift, a moment he later described as

paving his way to glory.

According to some estimates, he went on to win 93 battles for Russia.

and was one of the few generals in history never to be defeated.

In July 1770, the two armies met at the river Laga in modern Moldova.

Rumyantsev smashed an Ottoman army that outnumbered him more than two to one, 38

,000 Russians defeating 80 ,000 Turks.

That same day at Chesma in the Aegean Sea, Alexei Orlov led his naval squadron

into action.

He too won a stunning victory against a much larger force, 32 ,000 Russians

defeating 73 ,000 Turks.

On August 1, 1770, near the river Kagul, Count Rumyantsev attacked and defeated

a Turkish army that outnumbered him 5 to 1.

His 32 ,000 men routing 150 ,000 Turks.

Four years later, at the village of Kozluja in modern Bulgaria,

Suvorov won the last great land battle of the war, once more attacking and

defeating a larger Ottoman force, his 25 ,000 men putting to flight 40 ,000

Turks.

The string of victories against the Ottoman Empire caught everyone's

Soon, ambitious young officers were traveling from across Europe to seek

with the Russian army.

Among them was a Spaniard, Jose de Ribas, future founder of the city of

He was nearly joined by a young Corsican officer named Napoleon Bonaparte, who

changed his mind because foreigners were hired with a demotion in rank.

Meanwhile, at home, Catherine was waging another war with her lover, Grigori

Orlov.

Her favorite had a furious temper, while she could be jealous and resentful.

They would often quarrel furiously, make up, and quarrel again.

They had had a son together and lived like husband and wife.

Grigori wanted their relationship to be recognized as such and made official

through marriage.

But Catherine was worried it would undermine her position as Empress.

She asked her closest advisor, Count Panin, for guidance.

He told her, The Russian Empress can do anything she wants, but Mrs. Oliver

can't be the Empress of Russia.

Where Panin leant against the wall, his powdered wig left a mark.

From that moment, it became a ritual for courtiers to press their foreheads

against the mark, hoping for Panin's courage when they had to give bad news

the Empress.

After twelve years, Catherine finally tired of Grigori Orlov.

That year, 1774, plague struck Moscow.

Every day, a thousand people perished.

Officials fled the city and riots broke out.

Orlov volunteered to go into the plague -ridden city.

With the guard regiments, he restored order, organized the burial of the dead,

and opened hospitals with his own money.

In one month, the epidemic subsided.

Orlov returned to St. Petersburg in triumph.

The Empress's love was briefly rekindled.

But two years later, while Orlov was away negotiating with the Turks, she

a new favorite, a young officer named Alexander Vasilichkov.

When Orlov found out, he was furious.

He broke off negotiations and rushed home to see Catherine.

But her courier met him en route and handed him strict instructions to go to

palace at Cacina and not to come to court.

Rigori eventually calmed down and a few months later was allowed to return to

court.

He and the Empress remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Catherine and Peter's son, Paul, was now nearly grown up.

Many expected Catherine to hand over power to him soon, or make him her co

-ruler. It was a time when Catherine needed people around her whose loyalty

beyond question.

So the Empress turned to a 35 -year -old Major General, a devoted and trusted

friend,

Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin.

Catherine and Potemkin soon became lovers.

She later wrote of her need to him.

My heart cannot be content even for an hour without love.

If you want me to be yours forever, show me friendship as well as affection, but

love me and always speak truthfully.

She called him my student, my friend.

my idol.

Soon she couldn't bear to be apart from him, and when he left the capital she

wrote tender letters addressing him as my dear husband.

Their affair began in the spring of 1774.

It's widely suspected, though it has never been proven.

that they were secretly married just a few months later in the Cathedral of St.

Samson in St. Petersburg.

It was also rumoured Catherine later bore him a daughter, Elizabeth, who took

the surname Temkina.

But even this affair brought Catherine only fleeting happiness.

Catherine and Potemkin were both headstrong.

and always tried to impose their will on the other.

Eventually, Catherine had had enough.

While Potemkin was away in the provinces, Catherine took a new lover,

Zavodovsky.

Potemkin wrote to Catherine threatening to kill the man who'd taken his place.

But she had made her decision, and told Potemkin, the first sign of loyalty is

obedience.

Zavadovsky was her favorite for just a year, before he was replaced by Semyon

Zorich, a cavalry officer 14 years Catherine's junior.

The next lover was even younger, 25 years her junior.

Catherine chose her own lovers, but for counsel and company, she always returned

to Potemkin.

Many years later, Catherine's last favourite, Platon Zubov, 38 years her

wrote, The Empress always gave in to Potemkin's wishes and feared him just

a demanding husband.

She often pointed to him as the example I should follow.

It was the tireless Potemkin who oversaw the colonisation of Russia's new lands

in the south, known as Novorossiya, New Russia.

For centuries, this territory had been ruled by the Muslim Tatars of the

Khanate. But in 1774, as part of the peace treaty of Kuchuk Kanaji, it became

part of the Russian Empire.

A few years later, taking advantage of Tatar weakness,

Catherine annexed Crimea itself.

In just four years, Potemkin brought 400 ,000 settlers to these new lands.

and founded the cities of Yekaterinoslav, Nikolayev, Mariupol,

Sevastopol, the new home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Its warships built in the shipyards in Taganrog and Kherson.

Potemkin invited Catherine to inspect her new lands in person.

He organized every aspect of the trip, down to the tiniest detail.

It was like nothing else in history.

The imperial party consisted of 3 ,000 people, travelling in 14 carriages and

164 sleighs, including 40 spares.

Catherine herself travelled in a specially constructed giant sleigh,

office, a parlour with room for eight, a card table and a library.

It was pulled by 40 horses.

The trip lasted six months and covered 6 ,034 kilometres.

At every one of the 375 relay stations, 550 fresh horses were waiting, as well

as fresh provisions.

Six cows and calves, 30 hens and geese, 500 eggs, 80 kilos

of flour, sugar and butter, six hams, eight kilos of coffee, a barrel of

herrings, 50 lemons and three buckets of wine.

The Empress visited 35 cities, each of which welcomed her with great fanfare

celebration. At Balaclava, she was greeted by an all -female regiment of

Amazons, while at Poltava, 50 ,000 extras re -enacted Russia's great

over the Swedes.

Catherine's great tour of the South became legendary and gave rise to myths

its own.

Amongst them was the story that Potemkin tried to trick Catherine about the

number of new settlements by lining their route with fake villages built

plywood, with actors playing the role of peasants.

The story gave birth to the phrase Potemkin Village, a fake construction or

façade that creates the illusion of prosperity.

But the towns and villages of New Russia were real.

A myth was created by foreign observers, reluctant to believe that Russia could

so quickly consolidate its hold on such a vast region.

Welcomed and acclaimed across New Russia, Catherine was made to truly feel

the mother of the nation.

The Austrian Emperor Joseph II and other foreigners traveling with her were full

of admiration.

This, of course, was Catherine's desire to make a powerful international

impression.

The Ottoman Empire, however, was incensed by this triumphal procession

declared war in a bid to win back its lost lands.

The result was a series of brilliant Russian victories on land and sea.

The bright stars of Rumyantsev and Suvorov were joined by a new Russian

hero, Fyodor Ushakov.

In the course of two years, he fought four battles against the Ottoman fleet,

all of them won or drawn, despite always facing superior numbers.

His bold tactics rewrote Russian textbooks on naval warfare and would be

by Russian naval officers for generations to come.

When peace was made, the Russian frontier advanced to the river Dniester.

taking in the fortresses of Achakov and Khadjibi, future city of Odessa.

Russia's status as a great European power was now assured.

No European state now dared to act without first considering the reaction

Empress Catherine.

The Empire's internal situation, however, was cause for serious concern.

The most influential woman of her age faced constant challenges to her rule.

During the first ten years of her reign, seven pretenders to the throne emerged,

all claiming to be Tsar Peter III, having miraculously escaped death.

In the eleventh year of her reign, an eighth pretender emerged and declared

on the Empress.

His name was Yemelyan Pugachev.

Until recently, he'd been a common Cossack from the Don region, a veteran

Seven Years' War.

Returning home, he helped some friends desert, and as a consequence, became a

fugitive himself.

He wrote to the Urals and told the Cossacks that he was the true Emperor

III, back from the dead.

Then he stirred up a peasants' revolt.

Ugachev's manifesto promised all things to all men.

Land for the peasants.

Freedom for the Cossacks.

Justice for the Tatars, Kazakhs, Bashkirs and Kalmyks.

He promised to protect the people from corrupt government officials.

Live free like the beasts of the steppe, he told them.

Ugachev's people lived free indeed.

taking whatever they wanted by force, robbing from the poor as well as the

A month after Pugachev's manifesto, the empress responded with one of her own.

She informed her subjects that a fugitive Cossack named Yemelyan Pugachev

gathered a band of thieves and vagabonds around him and dared to style himself

emperor. She called on his followers to give up their ways or face severe

penalties, including death.

But it was too late.

In just a month, Pugachev's 80 followers became 8 ,000.

In three months, he had an army of 24 ,000 men, made up of peasants, Cossacks,

Bashkirs and Kalmuks from the steppe.

The rebellion had plunged the whole region into anarchy.

Catherine would have to do more than write a manifesto to regain control.

Of the Euro region's 89 factories, 23 were completely destroyed and 33 more

were looted.

The violence cost the factory owners around 1 million rubles.

worth about 5 billion rubles today, or 140 million US dollars.

The losses to factory workers and peasants, whose houses were looted or

down, and whose cattle and property was stolen, amounted to about another 1

million rubles.

Many people were killed or went missing amid the violence.

The official death toll was 2 ,716.

Catherine sent government troops to crush the rebels.

but they stumbled into disaster after disaster.

Three provinces, Kazan, Nizhigurad, and Voronezh, were soon in flames.

Because of the war against the Turks to the south, Catherine had no more troops

to send.

But as soon as peace was made with the Turks, regular troops flooded the

and the revolt was suppressed.

the defeated Cossacks handed over their renegade leader to the government.

Bugachev was brought to Moscow in a cage, like a wild steppe beast.

His treatment and interrogation were authorized by the Empress herself.

Bugachev, along with six other ringleaders, was sentenced to death.

On January 10th, 1775,

In front of a huge crowd in Moscow's Balatnaya Square, one of the most

and charismatic rebels in Russian history was executed by quartering.

By law, Pugachev's legs should have been cut off first, then his arms, and only

then his head.

But by personal order of the Empress, Pugachev and his comrades were granted a

small mercy.

They were beheaded first.

The Empress later declared Pugachev's rebellion to be a national tragedy and

ordered its events to pass into eternal oblivion and deep silence.

Catherine believed that the rebellion had been caused by the state of Russia's

provincial government, archaic, incompetent, and corrupt.

The entire administration of the empire needed overhauling.

It was to this great task that Catherine turned next.

My quick quill will be the death of me, she wrote to the French philosopher

Voltaire. I've never written so much in my life.

The result was 216 pages on reform of the provincial administration of the

Russian Empire.

Catherine's reforms began with a complete reorganization of the empire,

the number of provinces from 23 to 50.

Each province was subdivided into between 10 and 20 districts, all of

equal size.

These new provinces and districts would be the new basis for local government.

216 towns received city status.

Each city, from the capital downwards, became a separate administrative unit,

divided into its own districts and quarters.

This system was in use with few changes until the Russian Revolution.

Some of its measures even remain in use today.

Then, shocking news arrived from France that would hold Catherine's reforms in

their tracks.

Louis XVI, King of France, had been guillotined.

Catherine had never been a friend of the King, but the news made her physically

ill.

French Revolution was the largest political and social upheaval of the

France's monarchy was overthrown in 1792, and a republic based on freedom

equality was proclaimed.

Ground had been laid by Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire,

Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Diderot.

Now revolutionaries like Robespierre, Marat, and Danton sought to fashion a

state from their ideas.

The empress was thrown into panic.

The French Revolution had been inspired by the same ideals that drove her.

Was she paving the way for a Russian Robespierre or Marat?

Would she be the next monarch to lose her head?

She offered to send Subarov and an army of 60 ,000 men to crush the revolution.

It did not happen.

But from henceforth Catherine looked on her old Enlightenment ideals with deep

mistrust.

Catherine kept the title Mother of the Nation close to her heart.

There was hardly any area of Russian life she didn't look at to see how it

be improved, from provincial administration to the duties of Russian

Her reign saw the birth of Russian journalism and satire. She even

to such magazines herself.

In 1795, she joined forces with Frederick William of Prussia and Emperor

of Austria to carve up Poland, annexing territory in Belarus, Western Ukraine,

Lithuania, and Latvia.

She wrote no fewer than three dozen literary works, including 11 comedies

seven operas.

Her reign saw the construction of great buildings and monuments in Moscow and

St. Petersburg, designed by men of genius such as Bazhanov and Kazakov.

She initiated smallpox vaccination in Russia, vaccinating herself and her son

Paul. She amassed an unrivaled collection of artwork that became the

the world -famous Hermitage Museum.

She was a patron of Russian artists who themselves became masters.

and Vladimir Baravakovsky.

The scale and breadth of her achievements were awe -inspiring.

No one could doubt her right to be called Catherine the Great.

For Russia, Catherine's 34 -year reign was a period of dramatic growth.

The population of the empire soared from 19 to 36 million.

The conquests of her reign surpassed even those of Peter the Great.

29 new provinces were created and 144 new towns founded.

The army doubled in size from 162 ,000 to 312 ,000. The navy grew from

6 frigates and 21 ships of the line to 40 frigates and 67 ships of the line.

The generals and admirals won an incredible 78 military victories.

Meanwhile, industrial output boomed. The output of cast iron tripled.

Russia became the greatest producer of cast iron in the world, overtaking the

former world leader, Great Britain.

The value of Russia's external trade rose from more than 9 million rubles per

year to nearly 46 million rubles per year.

State revenue quadrupled from 16 million to 69 million rubles.

Catherine built on the foundations laid by Peter the Great 80 years before to

create a giant and powerful new Russian empire.

Many later generations would look back to her reign as the zenith of Russian

imperial glory.

But forever mindful of the limitations of power, She compared her own work to a

drop of water falling in the ocean.

In 1796, in her 67th year, Catherine prepared to draft a decree on her

succession.

She intended to pass over her unloved son, Paul, to make her 19 -year -old

favourite grandson, Alexander, her heir.

She did not live to see it completed.

On November 6th, 1796,

Catherine the Great died of a stroke.

Her 42 -year -old son Paul became emperor.

In just one month, it was plain to see why the empress had tried to remove him

from the succession.

Catherine the Great was never wrong.

November 1796.

Grand Duke Paul Petrovich strode through the corridors of the Winter Palace.

As his mother, Catherine the Great, lay dying.

He was looking for Catherine's secret will.

One piece of paper that stood between him and the throne.

Unless it was destroyed, the throne would pass directly to his son,

as Catherine had wished.

Unlike his father, Alexander seemed born to rule.

He had every natural gift, charm, intellect, and wit.

The only thing he lacked was the desire to rule.

Catherine's will never saw the light of day.

The moment Paul had been waiting for for 34 years had arrived.

At last, he was emperor.

But in little more than four years, Alexander would stand over his father's

bloody body, and Catherine would at last have her way.

Paul's birth had been a joyous event.

As the great -grandson of Peter the Great, His destiny had always been to

continue the Romanov line and one day rule Russia.

But all his early years had been lived in the shadow of his mother, Catherine

the Great.

The eternal prince became lonely and secretive, retreating into an imaginary

world of his own creation.

Many thought he was mad and christened him the Russian Hamlet.

Immediately after Paul's birth, he was taken from his mother by Empress

Elizabeth, who raised him at her own.

His mother, Catherine, was granted almost no access to her son.

His father, the future Peter III, also saw little of the boy.

There were rumours at court that Paul's real father was not Peter, but a

courtier, Sergei Sotikov.

Catherine herself encouraged these rumours, which undermined the husband

later deposed.

Stories about Paul's uncertain parentage delighted Cortes, but as the prince

grew up, the resemblance to Peter III was plain to see, both physically and in

his strange mannerisms.

Like his father, Paul liked to march around his palaces as though on military

parade. He frequently baffled Cortes and ambassadors with his inane remarks,

leaving his wife, the German princess Maria Fedorovna, to cover up his strange

behavior as best she could, just as Catherine had to do for Emperor Peter.

Nevertheless, Empress Elizabeth adored her great -nephew, Paul.

She began to consider making him her successor and bypassing his father,

who she and many others believed was insane.

To prepare Paul for rule, she found him the best tutors in Russia.

Paul studied five languages, history, literature, mathematics, science,

draftsmanship, and architecture, as well as writing, fencing, dance, carpentry,

and chess.

Paul himself insisted on studying the military sciences.

To help with navigation lessons, his entire table was painted blue and marked

to look like a huge naval chart.

The Empress Elizabeth died when Paul was seven, followed six months later by his

father, Peter III, most likely murdered by his mother's supporters.

His mother, Catherine, became Empress.

Some believed she'd hand over power to her son when he came of age in 14 years'

time.

Instead, he'd have to wait 34 years.

As a teenager, Paul was prone to depression.

He was deeply ashamed of his mother's licentious behavior and terrified of her

lovers.

But his tutors noted his intelligence and interest in science, art, and

philosophy.

From his reading, he developed a particular obsession with the Knights of

and dreamed of one day joining their ranks.

Becoming emperor was a daunting prospect for Paul.

His only happiness came from his friendship with a young count, Andrei

Razumovsky.

Paul wrote to him, Your friendship has worked a miracle.

I'm no longer plagued by all my old fears.

No more chimeras.

Away, black thoughts.

When Paul turned 19, His mother found him a bride, the eighteen -year -old

Vilhelmina Luisa, princess of Hesse -Darmstadt.

Paul fell in love almost immediately.

After converting to Russian orthodoxy, Vilhelmina took the name Natalia

Alexeyevna.

But after four years of marriage, Natalia died, giving birth to a

Paul went almost mad with grief.

His mother chose to console him by revealing letters between Natalia and

Razumovsky, proving his wife had been having an affair with his best friend.

Paul never recovered from this blow.

The lesson he drew was never to trust anyone again.

His mother quickly found Paul another German princess to marry.

Six months later, he was engaged to Sofia Dorotea of Württemberg, who took

Russian name Maria Fyodorovna.

Paul's second marriage was a happy one, and in the course of 25 years, she gave

birth to 10 royal children.

These children would carry on the Romanov dynasty for the next 150 years.

The sons included the emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I.

Her grandson was Alexander II, her great -grandson Alexander III, and her great

-great -grandson Nicholas II.

All surviving representatives of the House of Romanov are also her

The couple honeymooned in Europe, travelling incognito under the names

Countess Thevenik, Russian for Of the North.

Few of their hosts were fooled, and across Europe Paul was welcomed with a

degree of respect.

He'd never received at home.

In Vienna, the couple went to the Court Theatre to see a performance of Hamlet.

But when the lead found out who was in the audience, it was said he refused to

go on stage, declaring, I cannot play the part of a prince who seeks revenge

his murdered father with the real thing watching from the royal box.

Empress Catherine never let Paul interfere in affairs of state.

She didn't even trust him to raise his own sons, Alexander and Constantine.

To keep him out of the way, she bought him the Palace of Gacina, 25 miles

outside St. Petersburg.

For 20 years, Paul devoted himself to creating his own miniature kingdom at

Gacina.

He had the buildings renovated to imitate the latest European styles and

his guards wear Prussian -style uniforms and powdered wigs.

Catherine's courtiers ridiculed Paul.

One wrote, You can't observe the Grand Duke's behaviour without disgust. He

thinks himself the King of Prussia.

Every Wednesday he conducts manoeuvres.

The 2 ,000 guardsmen of the Gachina garrison never saw action, but instead

became the plaything of Grand Duke Paul.

Like his father, he was obsessed with soldiering and was determined to make

troops the best drilled in Russia.

They rehearsed volley fire, bayonet drill, amphibious landings and assaults,

trained with artillery.

By 1796, They were the most disciplined and polished troops in the Russian army.

The china drill went down in Russian military folklore.

Before appearing on duty, each soldier was screwed into a special contraption

straighten his head and his back and keep them perfectly still.

Their tight white breeches were pulled on wet and dried on the body, so there

wasn't a single crease.

Officers made the men practice marching with a glass of water on their head.

If they spilled any water, they weren't keeping their head still enough.

Even minor misdemeanors were punished with beatings.

Changing the guard became an elaborate drill that lasted hours, and all

marched with the famous high -stepping parade march still used by Russian guard

regiments.

Catherine ridiculed her son's military pretensions.

She didn't like to have her son around court, but she lavished the tension on

her grandson, Alexander.

In fact, she behaved exactly as her predecessor, Elizabeth, had done towards

own husband, Peter, which she'd so resented at the time.

As soon as Alexander turned 16, Catherine arranged for him to marry a

princess and began to talk openly of bypassing her son.

and leaving the throne to her grandson instead.

This was when Paul began to fear for his life.

On the night of November 6th, 1796, Paul and his wife had the same dream.

An unseen force raised them up and carried them through the darkness.

They woke up in terror just as a messenger arrived from St. Petersburg.

He announced that Catherine the Great was dying.

Within hours, Paul was Emperor of Russia, and he was soon passing laws at

dizzying rate, as though he didn't believe he had much time.

In the course of his four -and -a -half -year reign, Paul passed 7 ,865 acts of

legislation, twice as many as Peter the Great had passed in his 43 -year reign,

and one -and -a -half times as many as Catherine the Great in her 34 -year

reign.

He also found time to issue 14 ,207 orders concerning the army.

The emperor rose at 4 a .m. and worked in his office until 9, where he received

visitors and reports.

Then he rode out, usually accompanied by Grand Duke Alexander, to visit some

state establishment.

The changing of the guard was held at 11.

Then, after an hour's walking through St. Petersburg streets, The emperor

returned to the parade ground to inspect the guard.

He even measured the length of the soldiers' pigtails and checked the

powder in their hair.

Officers were punished severely for the smallest faults.

In just the first three days of Paul's reign, the emperor dismissed 16

lieutenant generals, 57 major generals, and three full generals.

But before years, 2 ,594 officers resigned, including 333 generals.

The emperor's behavior created an atmosphere of permanent anxiety.

The wife of his military adjutant remembered, his victims formed an

procession to the fortress.

Often their only fault was hair that was too long, or a jacket that was too

short.

The wearing of vests was strictly forbidden.

If the emperor spotted anyone wearing a vest, the unfortunate owner was sent

straight to the guardhouse.

Even ladies sometimes ended up there if they saw the emperor and didn't jump out

of their carriage quickly enough to make the proper curtsy.

This is why the streets he used to walk along in St. Petersburg quickly became

deserted.

Everyone trembled before the emperor.

Paul imagined himself as a perfect chivalric knight become emperor, and he

not forgotten his childhood dream of joining the Knights of Malta.

When Napoleon conquered their home island in 1798, Paul offered the knights

new home in Russia and became their Grand Master, even though he was

and it was a Catholic order.

Paul became the first Russian emperor to meet the Pope, Pius VI.

even inviting him to move to Russia when Rome was also occupied by Napoleon.

In Paul's eyes, Napoleon represented a world evil that had to be defeated.

He allied Russia with the coalition of powers fighting against him, and sent an

army under the brilliant Field Marshal Subarov to Europe.

In 1799, in northern Italy, Subarov won three battles in just four months.

It was then forced to execute a dramatic but brilliant strategic retreat across

the Swiss Alps in winter.

The Emperor resented Suvorov for opposing his military reforms, but even

confessed his admiration for this latest achievement, telling Suvorov, the only

victory you had yet to win was over nature itself.

Even there, you now have the upper hand.

Paul set out to undo all his mother's reforms, which meant his next target was

Russia's own nobility, who had thrived under Catherine's rule.

He ended their exemption from taxes and corporal punishment, turning them into

powerful enemies.

Paul tried to watch everything and everyone.

Stacks of unread reports began to pile up on his desk.

Because of a mass purging of the civil service, There weren't enough staff left

to run the offices of state.

The British ambassador, Sir Charles Whitworth, who was watching the emperor

carefully, wrote troubling reports to London.

The emperor has gone mad.

Since the moment he ascended the throne, his physical state has worsened.

The emperor's behavior became more and more strange.

He no longer went for walks along the embankment.

because he feared the strong wind might blow his head away like a soap bubble.

He suffered from insomnia, so his loyal wife Maria walked with him all night, so

he wouldn't pester the guards with nonsensical questions.

A conspiracy against him was now formed. It included Count Pallon, Governor of

St. Petersburg, Vice -Chancellor Nikita Panin, Catherine's favourite Platon

Zuboff, General Bennigsen.

General Uvarov and many others, perhaps as many as 300 people.

Grand Duke Alexander didn't join the conspirators, but nor did he stop them.

He only insisted they did not harm a hair on his father's head.

The conspirators swore to it.

They wanted Paul to abdicate and retire to Mikulovsky Castle, where as a last

resort, they would lock him up.

Mikhailovsky Castle was Paul's newest palace, his fantasy made real.

The designs had taken years, but their realization had had to wait until

Catherine the Great's death.

As soon as Paul was emperor, construction began, and was finished in

and a half years.

Paul ordered the court to move here while the interiors were still

Its dark stairways and eerie corridors created a strange, unsettling

but Paul felt at home.

The emperor's behavior was becoming even more unpredictable.

He sat for hours in deep thought.

He began to suspect his wife and sons of plotting against him.

He wrote a secret letter and hid it in a chest, with a note reading, to be

opened by our descendant 100 years after my death.

It was known that it concerned the fate of the dynasty, and that Paul had

written it after speaking with a prisoner from the Peter and Paul

named Abel.

Abel was a monk, born Vasily Vasilyev in 1757, who took his monastic vows at the

island monastery of Valam.

He was later said to have gained the gift of prophecy and wrote many of his

visions down in a book.

It's claimed he accurately predicted many events, some of which took place

during his lifetime, such as the death of Catherine the Great, the death of

Paul, Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the Decembrist Revolt, as well as more

distant events, including the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the

murder of the last Tsar, civil war, repression, and war with Hitler.

Abel had been locked up for prophesying the death of the last empress, but he

was summoned from his prison cell to speak with Paul.

When asked what future he saw for the emperor, Abel replied, Your reign will

short. You will be strangled in your bedchamber by scoundrels who even now

hold in your warm embrace.

He even named the day March 11th.

On the evening of the 11th, Paul dined with his family.

At one point, he looked into a mirror and joked, What a funny mirror.

I can see myself in it with a broken neck.

At that moment, the conspirators were holding their final meeting at Camp

Allen's house.

When someone asked what they should do if the emperor resisted, Alan answered,

Omelets are not made without breaking eggs.

After dinner, the emperor suddenly said, What will be, will be, and went to his

bedchamber.

He checked the doors and windows, and wondered why the crows in the summer

garden were making such a fuss.

His assassins were passing through the summer garden on their way to the

When they arrived, the guards let them in.

Paul heard heavy footsteps in the corridor and knew they'd come for him.

The conspirators included ex -army officers, many of whom were drunk.

They burst into the emperor's bedroom and found him hiding behind a screen.

They tried to make him sign his abdication, but he refused.

Then Platon Zuboff struck him on the temple with a golden snuffbox, like a

of brass knuckledufters.

The emperor fell to the ground.

All fought bravely, one against a dozen.

They beat him senseless, and then throttled

him with his own scarf.

The Russian people were told Emperor Paul I had died from an apoplectic

Indeed, insiders joked, a stroke of a snuffbox to the head.

French artist Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun witnessed the reaction to the emperor's

death.

The city went wild with delight.

People were singing, dancing and kissing in the streets.

The people I knew would run up to my carriage, shake my hand and exclaim, Now

are free.

Many households even hung out lights.

The death of this unhappy emperor caused universal joy.

Within hours of Paul's death, his son, the new emperor Alexander, issued a

declaration promising to rule in the spirit of his grandmother, Catherine the

Great. But he did not share in the general sense of jubilation.

He was sickened by the events of the previous night.

He had only wanted what was best for Russia.

But his good intentions had paved the way to hell, his own personal hell, that

would remain with him for the rest of his life.

Chapter 2 Alexander I Pavlovich It was

Catherine the Great who chose the name Alexander for Paul's first son.

Officially, he was named in honor of the Russian hero Alexander Nevsky.

In reality, after the great conqueror Alexander the Great.

The Empress showered all the motherly affection she had denied to her son Paul

on this boy, her first grandson.

Catherine wrote about the little prince with pride.

She described a boy who was courteous, cheerful and obedient, and who made an

effort to be liked.

Everyone expected great things from Alexander.

He was watched all the time. It was like being always on stage, and in time, he

developed a mask for every occasion.

Politician Baron Korf noted, the emperor could penetrate minds and feet of the

bottom of people's souls without ever revealing his own thoughts and feelings.

Alexander knew his grandmother wanted to leave the throne to him instead of his

father, but he did not relish the prospect.

The only person he trusted was his Swiss tutor, Frederick Le Harp.

A republican and an idealist, Le Harp was appointed by Catherine to instill

own enlightened, humanist values in the young prince.

Alexander was not yet fifteen when the Empress arranged for him to meet two

sisters. Princesses of Baden, 13 -year -old Louise and 11 -year -old Dorothea.

Alexander was to choose one of them to marry.

He chose the elder, Louise, who converted to Orthodoxy and took the name

Elizabeth. They were married the following year.

Courtiers nicknamed the newlyweds Cupid and Psyche.

Alexander's charming, beautiful bride inspired many artists and poets.

Fyodor Glinka wrote of her, Gentle Queen, glory of the Tsars!

Your divine face is worthy of altars.

Elizabeth would go on to become renowned as a Russian patriot.

During the Napoleonic Wars, she founded a society to support the sick and

wounded and pay for their hospital treatment.

She founded orphanages and schools for the children of officers killed in the

war, as well as other charitable institutions.

Elizabeth was considered the great beauty of her age.

Guards officers formed clubs inspired by their love for her.

For all of Russian society, she became an emblem of love, beauty and virtue.

But when Elizabeth first arrived at the Russian court, during the reign of

Alexander's father, Paul, she found it a place of anxiety and gloominess.

The emperor constantly found fault with everyone, even Elizabeth.

And as the young couple grew up, their different temperaments became more

obvious.

Alexander was passionate, Elizabeth cool.

They drifted apart.

and in time, took other lovers.

In the sixth year of marriage, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Maria.

But she died within the year.

With each passing year, Alexander realized he didn't want to become

He dreamt of leaving everything behind and going to live with Elizabeth by the

River Rhine.

in romantic seclusion.

In a letter to a trusted friend, he confessed, I realize that I wasn't born

the title I bear now, and even less for the one destined for me.

I've sworn to myself to refuse it in one way or another.

The certainties of the Gacina parade ground became almost a place of

psychological relief.

During training, a cannon went off next to Alexander, leaving him deaf in his

left ear.

His deafness led to a paranoid fear that people were always laughing at him

behind his back.

On one occasion, he passed three officers sharing a joke and laughing

themselves.

He ordered one of them to his office.

As the officer arrived, Alexander was examining himself in the mirror.

What's funny about me? he asked.

Why did you laugh at me?

It was impossible to persuade the Grand Duke that they'd been laughing at

something else.

When Alexander became emperor, his first acts were to revoke all the unpopular

decrees of his father, Paul.

He closed the secret chancelry, allowed nobles to travel abroad once more, and

restored their other rights and privileges.

Everyone had their own plan to reform the empire in the name of progress and

enlightenment.

So Alexander assembled a group of friends and advisors, all young liberals

himself, educated in the European style, to decide the way forward.

Within two years, Alexander's Privy Committee had created new government

ministries to replace the old collegia and put in place progressive education

reforms.

Universities were open to everyone, censorship laws were relaxed, and five

universities were founded.

A first step was taken towards reforming Russia's serf laws.

A new decree allowed serfs to buy their freedom if their owners agreed.

They were to form a new class of free ploughmen.

The reforms moved slowly and faced significant opposition.

Alexander was dismayed.

Everyone seemed to think only about their own interests.

No one seemed to share his concern for the common good.

Then he found a man who seemed to understand and share his dream for

perfectly.

Extraordinarily intelligent and hard -working, his name was Mikhail

He became first the secretary to the Privy Committee, and later the emperor's

right -hand man.

The emperor himself took on responsibility for foreign policy.

The great threat remained Napoleon Bonaparte.

who had now crowned himself Emperor of the French.

He threatened to overthrow the established order of Europe, and war

more.

In 1805, at Austerlitz, in today's Czech Republic, they met in the Battle of the

Three Emperors, Alexander of Russia and Francis II of Austria, against Napoleon.

The old veteran General Kutuzov commanded the Russian army.

But Alexander, jealous of Napoleon's martial glory, took charge himself.

Alexander saw his army crushed and routed and was forced to flee to save

life. Those close to him saw the emperor trembling and weeping.

A Cossack brought him some wine.

He eventually calmed down and fell asleep on a bed of straw inside a shed.

After the disaster at Austerlitz, Alexander never again interfered in

strategy. He kept to his own forte, diplomacy.

Even his great adversary Napoleon recognized his charm.

The Russian emperor is intelligent, pleasant, and well -educated, but he

be trusted.

He is insincere.

He is a subtle deceiver, a devious fellow.

Two more years of war followed.

Then, in 1807, the two emperors agreed to meet to negotiate peace.

Their armies were separated by the river Neman.

So they met on a specially constructed raft in the middle of the river, near

town of Tilted.

Alexander and Napoleon sat under a grand canopy, one -on -one, without generals

or attendants, and talked for two hours.

At Tilted they signed a peace treaty, which committed Russia to join

continental blockade against Britain.

It caused Russian exports to fall by 20%. With serious consequences for the

economy, French exports fell by a similar amount.

But soon Russia was preparing for another war against France.

Alexander was in no doubt that further conflict was unavoidable.

In anticipation, Alexander almost doubled spending on the army, from 63 .4

million rubles to 118 .5 million.

On June 12, 1812, Napoleon's grande armée of 450 ,000 men began to cross the

River Neman.

Alexander had no more than 200 ,000 men with which to face him.

On the first day of the war, Alexander went to Moscow to address his people

the ancient capital.

During an open -air service, he was profoundly moved when a peasant shouted

to him, Lead us, dear father.

We will die, all of us.

But we will win.

Next day, Alexander issued an imperial decree, stating, I will not lay down my

arms while a single enemy soldier remains in my realm.

Hot -headed generals like Bagration wanted to meet Napoleon in one great

decisive battle.

But Alexander instead approved a policy of strategic retreat, put forward by

Barclay de Tolly.

Napoleon was forced to advance further and further into Russia, hoping to trap

the Russian army and inflict a crushing defeat that would force Alexander to

give in.

As the people of St. Petersburg prepared to flee, fearing Napoleon would soon

reach the capital, Alexander was haunted by visions of his murdered father.

He was certain he was to blame for his father's death, and the invasion was

God's punishment for his unforgivable sin.

He shared his fears with his close friend, Prince Galitzin.

Galitzin turned to the Bible for guidance.

He let a page fall open at random.

It was a verse from Psalm 91.

My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

Alexander, who'd never shown much interest in religion before, was greatly

affected.

He wrote to a friend, describing his revelation.

I devoured the Bible, finding its words poured into me anew, bringing a peace to

my heart.

that I'd never known before.

The emperor stepped aside from military affairs and handed supreme command to

the 67 -year -old Kutuzov.

Kutuzov, a veteran of four wars, decided it was time to fight the great battle

everyone had been waiting for near a village called Borodino, 70 miles from

Moscow.

When news arrived of the outcome, it was clear that both sides had suffered

heavy losses, but that Napoleon had not been stopped.

Alexander then received news that Kutuzov intended to abandon Moscow.

The Emperor's nerves were close to breaking.

He paced around his office for an entire night.

When he emerged in the morning, he was berated by his brother Constantine,

his mother, the Dowager Empress, became hysterical.

Only his wife noticed the emperor had turned half grey overnight.

On September 2nd, Napoleon entered the Kremlin and settled in Alexander's State

Apartments. The very same day, Moscow began to burn from fires lit across the

city.

Four days later, Napoleon sent his first letter to Alexander, offering to

negotiate a peace.

There was no answer.

Napoleon sent two more letters, but Alexander remained silent.

The Emperor shared his thoughts in letters to his beloved sister Catherine.

I'd rather cease to exist than make peace with that monster who brings

all.

I trust in God for the incredible spirit of my people and for the resoluteness

with which I decided not to bow down beneath the yoke.

In October, Napoleon's army began its long retreat from Moscow.

Harassed by Cossacks and decimated by the cold, it became one of the great

catastrophes of military history.

In November, just a few thousand frozen, hungry, and demoralized soldiers

recrossed the Neman River,

pitiful remnants of Napoleon's army.

Russia's first patriotic war was over.

Russian dead totaled 200 ,000 soldiers.

The civilian death toll was even higher.

Alexander had no intention of ending the war.

The Russian army went on the offensive, determined to defeat Napoleon once and

for all.

Alexander I and his allies fought their way across Europe, dethroning the

upstart monarchs created by Napoleon and restoring the old order.

On March 19, 1814, Alexander entered Paris at the head of the Allied troops.

All Europe stood in awe of him.

In London, he was made godparent to a future Queen of Great Britain, named

him, Alexandrina Victoria.

In Berlin, the main square was named Alexanderplatz, in his honour.

In Paris, the Russian Emperor made a great impression with his talk of

constitutions and liberty.

He was adored by the public, who treated him like a modern celebrity, struggling

to get a glimpse of him.

This was his favorite role, the bel roi, the great sovereign.

From Paris, he went to Vienna, where a congress was held to decide the future

Europe.

The Russian emperor entered an arena populated by the shrewdest minds and

cunning diplomats of the age.

But he played his part masterfully, never revealing his true feelings or

intentions.

People came to call him the mysterious Russian Sphinx.

Congress of Vienna awarded Alexander yet more titles and more land.

He was now ruler of all the Russias, king of Poland, grand duke of Finland,

55 titles in total.

And for his victory over Napoleon, he was solemnly named the Blessed.

When Alexander returned to Russia, he was not the same hot -headed, handsome

that had dreamt of liberty and the common good.

Not yet 40, he had already been hailed as the saviour of Europe.

Appearances were always important to Alexander.

Everything had to be symmetrical, faultless, precise.

His uniforms were always immaculate and fitted him exactly.

No one had ever seen the emperor dressed casually, even at home.

But now he became a true pedant.

Documents had to be the exact same size and placed on his desk in neat piles.

The furniture was arranged according to a plan, and nobody was permitted to move

a chair or vase.

If only it were possible to impose the same order on Russia.

It was not the enlightened reformer Sparansky who was now Alexander's

companion, but the old soldier, Count Alexei Aracheyev.

an artillery expert who had served the Emperor's father, Acacina.

His closeness to the Emperor aroused considerable resentment amongst other

courtiers, who, behind his back, called him a brute and a guerrilla.

Incredible stories were told about the Count. It was said he got so furious

he tore soldiers' moustaches off, and once even bit a soldier's ear off.

But he was honest, able, and devoted to the Emperor.

He had Alexanders.

absolute trust.

Alexander put Arekcheyev in charge of his new project.

Inspired by the ideas of a Welsh utopian socialist, Robert Owen, Alexander

wanted to create military settlements where soldiers lived with their families

and combined their military service with farming.

Arekcheyev tried to talk Alexander out of the idea.

He even begged him on bended knee, but he had received an order and would carry

it out with all his ability.

The emperor believed everyone would benefit from the settlements.

Soldiers could live with their families. The army would feed itself.

There would be good order everywhere.

But conditions in the settlements instead quickly led to rioting.

Life in the settlements was strictly regulated, down to the tiniest detail.

Everything was identical, from houses to pots and pans.

Every day was ordered around a strict timetable.

Children were enlisted in the army at the age of seven, and from then on came

under the authority of their officers, not their parents.

Opposition and plots against him now caused Alexander to radically change his

views. He turned his back on his former ideals of tolerance and liberalism.

Instead, censorship was tightened.

So -called free thinkers were placed under surveillance or sent into exile.

In reports on secret societies, he kept seeing the same familiar names.

Trubetskoy, Muravyov brothers, Volkonsky, Pestel.

But he stayed his hand.

I cannot judge them too severely, he said. I once shared their ideals.

Alexander began to increasingly question his own purpose.

In a letter to the French diplomat Auguste de Choiseul -Gouffier, he wrote,

needs to stand in my shoes to know what I feel when I reflect that I will have

to answer to God for the life of each one of my soldiers.

No, the throne is not my calling.

If I could with honor change the circumstances of my life, I'd do it with

pleasure.

I confess that sometimes I feel like beating my head against the wall.

His father's murder, which had brought him to power, the deaths of thousands of

Russian soldiers, the pursuit of glory that now seemed worthless.

In his Bible, he underlined the words, I have seen everything that is done under

the sun, and behold.

All is vanity.

The love of his youth, Empress Elizabeth, came to his rescue.

For many years, they'd lived separately, as strangers.

But now... He recognised in her a loyal friend with whom he could talk about

anything.

When Elizabeth was diagnosed with tuberculosis, Alexander decided they

leave St Petersburg and its damp climate as soon as possible.

He wrote to his old friend, Prince Varkonsky, soon we'll move to Crimea and

as private subjects.

I've served 25 years.

After that, soldiers are entitled to retire.

They did not go to Crimea, but to the southern city of Taganrog instead.

The emperor had visited it once and liked it.

Hurried preparations were made for the arrival of the royal couple.

Alexander left first to prepare everything for his wife's arrival.

He moved into a single -storied stone mansion on Grachevkia Street.

He swept the garden paths himself.

He helped to hang engravings on the wall and moved the furniture into place.

And when Elizabeth arrived, they enjoyed a quiet, peaceful life.

They went for walks, greeting those they knew.

They read their favorite books to each other.

They prayed together.

Alexander seemed rejuvenated, as if he had been given a second chance at life.

But all the while, he remained emperor.

Alexander's strange, carefree behavior would come at a price.

It was soon to become the pretext for a tragic and bloody revolt.

But Alexander did not live to see it.

His southern idyll lasted only two months.

On November the 19th, after a short illness, he died.

The Empress Elizabeth died six months later.

The emperor's sudden death threw many into confusion.

There were rumors that Alexander had faked his death and gone into hiding

somewhere.

Ten years later, reports emerged of a mysterious old man named Fyodor Kuzmich,

who lived in a village near Tomsk in Siberia.

He was well -educated, spoke several foreign languages, and was extremely

He refused ever to discuss his earlier life.

The old man was tall, broad -shouldered, and like Alexander, deaf in one ear.

Kuzmich died in 1864 and was buried in the grounds of the Tomsk Monastery.

His headstone reads, This is the grave of the great blessed elder, Fyodor

Kuzmich.

The rumours that Kuzmich was in fact Alexander remain to this day.

neither proved nor disproved.

Two years before his death, Alexander had talked to his younger brother, Grand

Duke Nicholas, of his intention to abdicate in his favor.

Nicholas's wife wrote in her diary, speaking to us about his abdication, the

emperor said, how I will rejoice when I see you driving past me.

I'll mingle in the crowd, and with the rest of them, shout, Hurrah!

December 14th, 1825.

The revolt was over, but the emperor's eldest son, Grand Duke Alexander, was

still trembling with fear.

The boy knew his father had gone out to do his duty and might have been killed

for it.

Then he heard his father's voice calling him to come outside.

Loyal troops were formed up in the courtyard.

Just an hour earlier, They had refused the rebels' entry to the palace.

The emperor took his son in his arms and addressed the men.

I don't need protection, but I entrust him to you.

And handed Alexander over to them.

The soldiers cheered with tears in their eyes.

The young prince was carried aloft in their arms.

Nobody suspected that one day, this future emperor would face far greater

dangers of his own.

Nicholas was a huge baby.

The size of a three -month -old, it was said.

His grandmother, Catherine the Great, wrote in admiration, I've never seen

a cavalier.

If he continues to grow, this colossus will dwarf his brothers.

When Nicholas

was five, his father, the Emperor Paul, was brutally murdered by conspirators.

The children remembered it well.

The youngest brother, Michael, was playing on his own.

He built a train of tiny carriages and used it to carry a toy soldier to a

potted plant, then buried him in the earth.

When asked what he was doing, he answered, I'm burying my father.

After Paul's death in 1801, His eldest son, the 24 -year -old Alexander, became

emperor. The second brother, Constantine, became the new heir to the

As the third brother, Nicholas wasn't expected to inherit the throne.

He grew up under the strict care of his mother, Maria, the Dowager Empress.

At the age of 17, Nicholas and his younger brother, Michael, were allowed

travel abroad.

Years later, he recalled, that's when we started to live, stepping from

childhood into the light of life.

It was in Berlin that I saw, for the first time, the girl I wanted to spend

rest of my life with.

The 16 -year -old Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of the king, was an

ideal match for the Grand Duke.

They were married two years later, and Charlotte took the Russian name

Fedorovna.

Grand Duke Nicholas was later appointed Chief Inspector of the Corps of

Engineers and Commander of the Guards Engineer Battalion.

Every day he rose early for prayer and morning exercise, performing complex

bayonet drill with a musket.

The rest of the day was spent writing orders and reports, and carrying out

inspections.

Nicholas's elder brother, Emperor Alexander I, often hinted that he

leave the throne to Nicholas, since their middle brother, Constantine, had

interest in becoming emperor.

And so, in 1823, Alexander signed a secret will, making Nicholas his heir.

Only four people knew of its existence.

Nicholas was not one of them.

On November 19th, 1825, Alexander died suddenly in the southern city of

Taganrog.

Eight days later, the news reached St. Petersburg.

Nicholas swore allegiance to his older brother, Constantine, the presumed heir,

who was in Warsaw.

Then Alexander's secret will was proclaimed.

And two weeks later, Constantine's renunciation of the throne arrived from

Poland.

It was a unique case in world history.

Instead of quarreling for the throne, two Romanov brothers were insisting it

belonged to the other.

Cad Langeron later paid them a subtle French compliment.

The Romanovs are so noble, they do not ascend, but descend to the throne.

But the resulting confusion was dangerous and encouraged a secret

society, the Decembrists, to make their move.

The Decembrists were made up of liberal -minded guards officers and nobles who

wished to reform the monarchy and free Russia's serfs.

Its members included many high -ranking aristocrats.

Members of its northern society, led by Nikita Muravyev, favoured a

constitutional monarchy.

while members of the Southern Society, under Pavel Pestel, wanted to abolish

monarch and redistribute the land.

They planned to carry out a military coup d 'etat.

The more radical conspirators, Ryeliev and Pestel, talked of killing the entire

Romanov family, including the princesses living abroad and their children, so no

one could ever lay claim to the Russian throne again.

The troops were due to swear their oaths of loyalty to the new emperor on

December 14th. The evening before, Nicholas visited Mikulovsky Castle,

father had been murdered.

When he returned, he asked his wife to die with honor, if need be.

At 11 .20, Nicholas was told the Moscow Guards Regiment had refused to swear the

oath and had marched to Senate Square.

At 11 .30, the Emperor went to the square with the loyal palace guards.

At 12 .20, General Miloradovich tried to talk to the rebel troops, but was shot

dead by a Decembrist.

At 1 .00 p .m., 900 rebel guardsmen approached the Winter Palace.

1 .20 p .m., Nicholas sent a bishop to reason with the soldiers, but nobody

listened to him.

By 2 p .m., there were 3 ,000 rebel troops in the square.

Loyal troops were arriving all the time, but Nicholas continued to delay.

At ten past four, cannon opened fire on the rebels.

The young Empress Alexandra could see the Senate Square filled with people.

At the sound of the first volley, she wrote, I fell to my knees in a small

and prayed like never before.

The strain of that day affected Alexandra for the rest of her life.

Her health suffered.

Already thin, she lost more weight and became frequently ill.

The Emperor ordered the first blast of grapeshot to be fired over the heads of

the rebel soldiers, but the next volley was fired straight into the crowd.

When the smoke cleared, the death toll stood at one general, 18 officers,

282 soldiers, and 1 ,170 civilians, including 79 women and

150 children.

A total of 1 ,271 dead.

679 people were investigated following the Decembrist revolt.

but most turned out to have no connection to the secret societies that

organized the coup.

Of those finally put on trial, 112 lost their titles and all of their property

rights.

99 were exiled to Siberia, 36 of those to labor camps, 9 officers were demoted

to the ranks, 36 were sentenced to death, 31 by beheading, and 5 by

quartering.

Emperor Nicholas himself mitigated many of the sentences, and in the end only

five Decembrists were executed.

They included ringleaders such as Pestel and the poet Rielief, and the man who'd

shot General Mir Loradovich.

Quartering was commuted to hanging.

The emperor himself paid an allowance to the widows of the executed men.

Their families continued to receive payments from the office of the general

staff, for 20 years, while the children were put through school at public

expense.

Nicholas ordered the Decembrists' grievances to be looked at by a special

committee. He invited Count Kiselyov, a Decembrist sympathizer and opponent of

Serfdom, to look into its abolition.

While receiving a delegation of nobles from Smolensk, the Emperor told them

plainly, I cannot understand how a person became a thing.

I cannot explain it other than through guile and deceit on one side and

ignorance on the other.

During Nicholas's reign, new restrictions were imposed on the owners

Landowners could no longer sentence serfs to hard labor or sell them off

land.

Serfs were granted more freedom of movement.

and the right to conduct their own business.

The percentage of Russians living as privately owned serfs fell from 57 % to

35%. The number of schools for peasants rose from 60 to 2

,550.

Nicholas was trained as an engineer and fascinated by new inventions.

In 1835, he was seduced by a project many thought was crazy.

At that time, there were only three railroads in the world, two in England

one in America.

Nicholas studied the schemes on offer carefully and authorized construction of

an experimental railroad between St. Petersburg and his palace at Tsarskoye

Selo.

Four years later, ignoring the objections of ministers, he ordered

built, connecting St. Petersburg and Moscow.

At the time, it was the longest railroad in the world, at 649 .7 kilometers.

Its construction cost 67 million rubles, one -third of the empire's annual

budget. All 34 stations and both terminals were designed by one

Konstantin Ton, who was also responsible for the Grand Kremlin Palace.

The rails were 1 ,524 millimeters apart.

89 millimeters wider than in Europe.

It was believed the emperor insisted on this difference, so an invading army

couldn't use its own rolling stock on Russian railways.

100 years later, during World War II, those 89 millimeters would prove crucial

in slowing down the advance and resupply of German troops during the battle for

Moscow.

During Nicholas's reign, 700 miles of rail track were laid across Russia.

It was not much, but Russia's first railways did help to stimulate Russian

industrial output, which grew 30 -fold in just three decades.

Russia's first hardened roads were built, connecting Moscow and St.

Moscow and Irkutsk, and Moscow and Warsaw.

These developments, overseen by Russia's engineer emperor, began a much -needed

modernization of the country's transport network.

The emperor began his working day at 7 a .m.

Around 11, he'd take a walk along the palace embankment, without guards,

greeting those he knew.

He then returned to work until around 8 p .m., when he would go out to the

theater, or perhaps a ball.

He returned home at midnight and worked until 3 a .m.

By today's standards, his personal security was non -existent.

No one saw the need.

The emperor didn't eat much, and when he did, preferred simple food.

He loved veal cutlets with mashed potato.

but often had just a slice of black bread or a salted cucumber for dinner.

On the road his meals were even simpler, porridge and some cabbage soup, which

he'd eat from the same bowl.

He drank mineral water from Salzburg, and very rarely wines from Bordeaux.

He never smoked.

They said that those of a nervous disposition found it difficult to meet

emperor's gaze, while ladies were known to faint in his presence.

Not from fear, but from adoration.

Nicholas, six foot two, broad -shouldered and well -built, was

the most handsome men in Europe.

It was rumoured at court that Nicholas wore padding underneath his uniform to

look more imposing, but his private doctor said this was not true.

The Emperor simply had a very broad chest.

In public, he did not relax for an instant.

His appearance was immaculate at all times.

It's no surprise that Nicholas I became the role model for all future Romanovs.

The emperor brought a sense of calm and stability to Russia in an uncertain age.

Contemporary newspapers depicted France as an exploding bottle of champagne,

while Russia was a bottle of vodka without a bubble in sight.

It was a reference to the explosive revolutions sweeping across Europe in

1840s. Only Britain, the Netherlands and Russia escaped unrest.

Nicholas's 30 -year reign was the most stable period in the history of Tsarist

Russia.

Nicholas devoted himself to matters of state.

No important document crossed his desk without some comment from him.

His own office, The Imperial Chancellery became the hub of government.

The first section of the Chancellery was responsible for preparing imperial

decrees and monitoring their implementation.

The second section worked on the codification of Russia's laws into a

text. The third section was in charge of police surveillance, censorship,

tracing counterfeiters and investigating serf complaints against landowners.

The fourth section, or the Office of the Empress Maria, worked on charitable

projects, including shelters, hospitals and women's education.

The fifth section worked on reforms of the serf system.

The notorious third section of the Imperial Chancellery effectively served

the Tsar's secret police.

Its mission was to gauge the political mood for him and to expose any

conspiracies against the regime.

It had a permanent staff, however, of just 36.

It was led by a hero of the Napoleonic Wars and close friend of the Emperor,

Count Alexander von Benckendorf.

He also headed the Special Corps of Gendarme, who served as a uniformed

police with a strength of 4 ,000.

The prestige and authority of the Corps was very high.

It's no coincidence that a gendarme appears in the famous final scene of

play, The Government Inspector.

Gogol's satire only avoided being banned thanks to the Emperor's personal

intervention. Though remembered as a great reactionary, Nicholas saw no harm

such an amusing play.

One of Nicholas's first acts after his coronation was to end the exile of the

great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

The emperor even exempted Pushkin from the normal channels of censorship,

promising to vet his works personally.

Pushkin dedicated nine poems to Nicholas, while the emperor intervened

number of occasions to get Pushkin out of trouble, even paying off his debts.

worth the equivalent of several million dollars.

In 1837, another great Russian poet, Mikhail Lyomantov, was transferred from

Guard Hussars regiment to a unit fighting in the far south in Russia's

Caucasian War.

The conflict had begun 20 years earlier, in 1817.

when the Russian army invaded the northern Caucasus during the reign of

Alexander I.

The war ebbed and flowed until reaching a new crescendo in the 1830s, when Imam

Shamil led Chechen and Dagestani warriors in a jihad against the Russian

invader. The fighting dragged on for another 30 years until Russia was

able to impose its rule on the northern Caucasus.

By the 1850s, a European coalition was forming against Russia, alarmed by the

expansionist foreign policy of the Russian Empire.

Under Nicholas, Russia had won wars against both the Persian and Ottoman

Empires, and its growing influence in the Eastern Mediterranean and Central

was seen as a threat to British and French imperial interests.

In 1853, fighting broke out around the Black Sea.

leading to what became known as the Crimean War.

Russian troops clashed with Turkish troops in the Balkans and Caucasus,

the Black Sea Fleet annihilated a Turkish squadron at the Battle of

Days later, British and French warships appeared in the Black Sea.

By 1854, Russia was at war with Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia.

Austria and Prussia remained neutral.

Nicholas was profoundly depressed that Russia was not only isolated, but at war

with its former allies.

The fighting raged on many fronts, from Crimea and the Caucasus in the south to

the White Sea in the north.

Here, a British naval expedition was repulsed, but in the Baltic, the British

naval blockade crippled Russian trade.

In the Caucasus, Russian troops were victorious, but in Crimea, the main

of war, A disaster unfolded.

Russian forces besieged at Sevastopol faced a powerful enemy.

Steam -driven warships made up 30 % of the Russian fleet, but 70 % of the

fleet.

Admiral Nakimov was forced to sink his own ships in the entrance to Sevastopol

harbour. It was the only way to keep out the more powerful British and French

warships.

More than 127 ,000 Russians were killed in the siege of Sevastopol.

The total death toll of the Russian army was about 143 ,000.

The Crimean War was a catastrophe for Russia.

Russian soldiers and sailors fought with incredible bravery.

But in the end, the industrialized might of France and Britain proved too

strong.

In September 1855, Sevastopol fell and the Black Sea Fleet was no more.

Nicholas was crushed.

He couldn't sleep and wore himself out with work.

Doctors told him he needed rest, but he didn't listen.

In a private conversation, the emperor said, if it was up to me, I would never

have chosen this position for myself.

But it's my watch.

I have my orders and must fulfill them as best I can.

At the end of January, the emperor caught a chill.

His doctor forbade him from going out in the cold, but Nicholas insisted on

attending a parade for troops leaving for the front.

He told his doctor, You've done your duty. Now let me do mine.

It was soon evident the emperor had contracted pneumonia.

On February 17th, his lungs began to give up.

The emperor was fully conscious and knew he had hours to live.

He said his prayers and then bid farewell to his family.

When told a courier had arrived from Crimea with urgent news, he pointed to

son and said, This is not for me. This is for him.

Then he said to Prince Alexander, I hand over command, though I do not leave

things in the state I would have wished.

On February 18, 1855,

A banner of mourning rose above the Winter Palace.

Nicholas I was dead.

This successor was his 37 -year -old son, Alexander, a man destined to

what his great -grandmother, Catherine the Great, his uncle, Alexander I, and

his father, Nicholas, could not.

Alexander II would go down in history as the Liberator.

Chapter 2. Alexander II Nikolaevich.

His father used to say, I want to bring my son up as a man first, and then an

emperor.

The prince's tutors, such as the romantic poet Vasily Zhukovsky, were all

with liberal views.

When Alexander was 13, his father interrupted a lesson to speak to him

Decembrist revolt.

What would you do if you were me?

the emperor asked.

I'd forgive them, Alexander said.

After finishing his studies, the prince traveled across Russia, covering 30 ,000

kilometers and visiting 30 provinces.

He was the first Romanov to cross the border of Europe and Asia.

and to visit Siberia.

In Tobolsk, the prince met the exiled Decembrists and did what he could to

their life easier.

In Vyatka, he met another exile, Alexander Herzl.

The two young men became friends, and Alexander helped hasten the young

eventual return to Moscow.

Herzl later praised the reforming emperor.

Alexander II did many things.

A great many things.

His name stands above that of all his predecessors.

He fought for the rights of man.

Neither the Russian people nor history will forget that.

In 1852, Herzen moved to London, from where he agitated for sweeping social

change in his homeland.

First and foremost, he demanded the abolition of serfdom.

When he was still a young prince, Alexander's father had often accused him

listening more to his heart than to his mind.

He certainly had many unregal qualities.

He was carefree, gentle, and sensitive.

What's more, the gallant, handsome young prince, heir to the Russian throne, was

constantly falling in love with palace chambermaids.

the 20 -year -old Alexander was sent to Europe by his parents to find an

eligible young princess to marry.

In Darmstadt, he became devoted to a shy and pretty 14 -year -old, Princess

Maximiliena Wilhelmina Maria of Hesse.

Later, in London, Alexander was presented to the newly crowned Queen

ruler of the British Empire.

They met at Windsor Castle on her 20th birthday.

In her diary, Victoria described Alexander as a dear, delightful man,

sweet smile and a manly figure.

They danced together until the small hours of the morning.

He is so very strong, she wrote, that in running around you must follow quickly,

and after that you are whisked around, which is very pleasant.

I have never enjoyed myself more.

Alexander was infatuated and prepared to renounce the Russian throne to become

the British Prince Consort.

His courtiers were forced to intervene, talking sense into the young prince and

reminding him of his duty to Russia, not to mention the young Princess of Hesse.

That union was approved by all, so the couple were married in St. Petersburg in

1841. His new wife took the Russian name Maria Alexandrovna.

For the first few years, Alexander was wildly in love with his young wife, and

spoiled her continuously.

He even had an apple tree brought into the dining room, so Maria could pick its

fruit herself as she liked.

But it did not last long.

They spent less and less time together, and when they met, they discussed only

their health, their children, and the weather.

They appeared together in public for official functions and visits, then went

separate bedrooms in the evening.

The Empress's health suffered from St.

Petersburg's cold, wet climate, as well as from frequent childbirth.

By 36, she'd had six children, and was a shadow of her former self.

The Emperor had many short -lived affairs.

with ladies -in -waiting, chambermaids, even older students from the nearby

Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens.

But Alexander was forgiven everything, because everyone loved him.

The country was alive with expectation.

He was Russia's great hope.

When Alexander became emperor, he already had many years' experience of

workings of state and got to work immediately.

His first success was to end the Crimean War, signing a peace treaty in Paris

which kept Russian losses to a minimum.

Then he turned his attention to what was, for Russia, the great issue of the

age, the serfs.

In one of his first addresses to the Russian nobility, the emperor announced,

the existing system of owning souls cannot remain unchanged.

It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish

from below.

Until now, Russia's rulers hadn't dared to interfere with serfdom for fear of a

revolt by the nobles.

But for Alexander, there was no longer any alternative.

Case for reform, moral, economic and political, was irresistible.

After seven years of negotiation, on February 19, 1861, the Emperor issued a

manifesto freeing Russia's serfs.

The Act of Emancipation freed all serfs in private ownership.

and gave them the right to buy the land they worked on from the landowner.

The state helped peasants pay for the land with subsidies and long -term

Peasants were to pay 20 % of its value and the state 80%. However, in some

cases, only 30 % of the land they previously worked was eligible for

and it was sold at inflated prices.

State loans also trapped many peasants in debt for decades.

Following the emancipation of the serfs, the 100 million peasants in Russia, who

made up 71 % of the population, owned half as much land as the 1 .7 million

nobles, who made up just 1 .5 % of the population.

A wave of liberal reforms followed.

In 1864, each district and province was granted its own elected assembly, known

as Zemstvo.

with authority over local education, roads, medical services, and social

welfare.

Education reform increased the number of state secondary schools and

universities, with more schools for the poor, the first general education

courses for women, and the granting of special status and greater autonomy for

universities.

Reform of the courts introduced greater equality for all classes before the law,

as well as public trials, counsel for defense and prosecution, and juries.

In the army, universal conscription replaced the old quota system, and

weapons such as rifles were introduced.

They were the most progressive and liberal reforms in Russia's history.

When an old courtier warned that now the serfs were free, the people would

demand a constitution,

Alexander replied, Well, if Russia clearly desires it and is ready for it,

am ready.

Alexander set strict deadlines for his ministers and advisors, which he kept to

himself. despite the huge piles of documents that arrived on his desk every

His goal was to finish all the work begun by his father, which meant turning

next to the war in the Caucasus.

The long Caucasian War finally came to an end in 1864,

following the Russian conquest of Chechnya, Dagestan, Circassia, and

In the next decade, Russia also took control of the Emirate of Bukhara and

Khanate of Kiva, pushing south as far as the town of Kuzhka, which remained the

empire's most southerly point until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The only territory lost in this period was Alaska, 1 .5 million square

kilometers of barren, almost uninhabited land.

which in 1867 was sold to the United States for $7 .2 million, worth around

million today.

At the time, the deal was considered very profitable.

Typically, Alexander worked with short breaks from 9 a .m. until 6 in the

evening, when he had dinner.

He spent his evenings with his family or at official functions.

His favourite sport was hunting.

He loved long hunting expeditions for bear, elk and bison.

But soon it was Alexander who was being hunted through the very streets of the

Russian capital.

Alexander was the last ruler in Russian history who would be allowed to simply

walk the city streets without guards.

Almost every day in St. Petersburg's summer garden, the regulars pretended

to recognize the tall gentleman in military uniform, whose portrait hung in

every government office in the empire.

Alexander was now 48, and had lost count of the number of affairs he'd had.

At first, his relationship with 19 -year -old Catherine Dolgorukova, a student

from the Smolny Institute for Young Maidens, seemed like many of the others.

But after just a few meetings, the Emperor was in love.

Many years later, Catherine remembered how Alexander always behaved so tenderly

towards her, treating her as though she were a sacred object.

We saw each other every day, she wrote, crazy with the joy of loving and

understanding each other so completely.

He swore to me that he would always be faithful to me, and that his only

dream... was to marry me if he ever became free.

On April 4th, 1866, after meeting with Catherine, Alexander was leaving the

summer garden when an assassin stepped out.

The emperor, of course, knew his enemies might try to overthrow or even murder

him.

An old fortune teller had once told him that there would be seven attempts on

his life.

Alexander always remembered it.

The first attempt was made by a 26 -year -old lone assassin named Dmitry

Karakosov, an impoverished nobleman and former student.

He believed the emperor's death would inspire the people to rise up in

revolution.

He was thwarted by a farmer standing next to him named Komissarov, who

his hand at the last moment and forced him to fire high.

Karakozov was arrested.

He said he tried to kill the Tsar because his reforms had cheated the

giving them too little land.

The entire country was shocked.

In 1863, the great historian Sergei Solovyov described the situation Russia

faced.

Extremes are easy.

It was easy to tighten the screws in Nicholas's time.

It was easy to unscrew them in Alexander's time.

But it's exceptionally difficult to slow down the carriage on a steep hill.

A reformer like Peter the Great held the reins in an iron grip and the carriage

was safe.

A reformer like Alexander II lets the horses run full speed down the hill

without the strength to restrain them.

So the whole carriage is threatened with destruction.

Alexander's private life, meanwhile, was a growing distraction.

His affair with Catherine, nearly 30 years his junior, was alienating close

friends and family.

Catherine was forced to go abroad for a while.

But Alexander soon travelled to France under the pretext of visiting the World

Fair to be with her.

They walked the grand boulevards of Paris hand in hand.

Alexander wrote to Catherine, I am madly in love with you.

These wonderful days we spend together make me infinitely happy.

The lovers did not know they were being constantly watched by agents of the

French secret police.

But they couldn't keep him safe.

A Polish nationalist, Anton Berezovsky, made the second attempt on Alexander's

life. He shot at Alexander as he was riding in an open carriage with the

emperor Napoleon III.

But the bullet hit the horse.

Alexander became accustomed to constant danger.

When Russia went to war once more with Turkey, he went to visit troops at the

front and came under fire several times.

The war was triggered by the Muslim Turks' brutal treatment of Orthodox

Bulgarians. Russia now intended to liberate Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke.

The war ended in complete victory for Russia.

Bulgaria became an independent state.

And the name Alexander II, Tsar Liberator, is still commemorated during

service in every Bulgarian church.

On April 2nd, 1879, as the emperor was returning from his morning walk, he was

greeted by a passerby.

Alexander replied absentmindedly, then noticed the passerby was holding a gun.

60 -year -old Alexander, Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, Grand Duke of

Finland, made a zigzag run for his life.

This third attempt was made by a 33 -year -old ex -student, Alexander

member of the secret revolutionary society Land and Freedom.

He was also working alone.

After giving chase to the emperor, he fired several times from a range of ten

yards and missed.

A new left -wing terrorist group, the People's Will, soon emerged.

Its leaders, Sofia Perovskia and Andrei Zhelyabov, began planning a less

amateurish attempt on the Tsar's life.

The fourth attempt was made in November 1879.

Zhelyabov's group planted a mine with an electric detonator under the railway

track as the Emperor travelled to the town of Alexandrovsk. But the mine

to explode.

The fifth attempt was made by Perovskia's group.

They planted another mine under the railway tracks outside Moscow.

But the Tsar's train left early.

And the terrorists blew up the wrong train.

On May 22nd, 1880, Empress Maria died.

After just 40 days mourning, Alexander married Catherine Dalkorukova, who took

the title Princess Yurievskia.

The wedding took place in secret.

in a small room at the palace of Tsarsky Selo, because both the Tsar's family

and public opinion opposed the marriage.

The emperor was now guarded more closely than ever, but still was not safe.

The sixth attempt was made by Stepan Kalturin, a member of the People's Will.

who'd been hired as a carpenter at the Winter Palace.

Over six months, he smuggled 30 kilos of dynamite into a cellar under the Tsar's

dining room.

The resulting explosion killed 11 people and wounded 56, all of them staff.

The emperor had left the dining room to meet a late guest.

The emperor wrote to his son, asking that if the worst should happen, He must

care for his wife and young children.

On his windowsill, Alexander began to find dead pigeons torn to shreds.

It turned out a kite had made its home on the palace roof.

It was caught.

The bird was so incredibly large, it was sent to the cabinet of curiosities.

The hunted emperor, exhausted and sick, dreamt of only one thing.

To abdicate in favor of his eldest son and leave for Nice with his wife and

children.

But one important task remained.

He had ordered work to begin on the introduction of an elected assembly.

It was to be Russia's first step towards a parliament and constitution.

Alexander had already approved it.

On March 4, 1881, It was to be put before the ministerial cabinet and then

announced to the public.

On March 1st, the emperor travelled to the Mikulovsky Manege to see the

of the Colour.

On his way back, he visited his sister, Grand Duchess Catherine, at Mikulovsky

Castle. They drank tea and talked about his plans to leave for Nice.

At 2 .10pm, the emperor left in his carriage.

He had to be at the Winter Palace by three o 'clock, as he'd promised to take

walk with his wife.

The Emperor's carriage turned onto the embankment along the Catherine Canal.

Six Cossacks accompanied the carriage, three on either side.

Officers of the Guard, including the Chief of Police, followed in two

A boy carrying a breadbasket was running along the pavement.

Alexander saw a woman make a signal with a white handkerchief.

When a man with a packet in his hands appeared before the carriage, he

it would be an explosion.

The seventh attempt on Alexander's life was made by Nicholas Roussikoff, a 20

-year -old student and member of the People's Will.

It was Sofia Perovskia who had given the signal.

Ruzakov threw a handmade bomb at the carriage.

The blast killed two Cossacks and a passing boy, injured three horses, and

shattered the emperor's bulletproof coach.

But the emperor was unharmed.

Ruzakov was quickly apprehended.

Chief of police rushed up to Alexander.

The emperor remained calm.

I offered him my sledge to go back to the palace.

All right, he said, but show me the criminal first.

Everyone begged the emperor to leave, but he insisted on seeing Rusakov.

Alexander looked his would -be assassin in the eyes.

He had survived the seventh attempt.

Everything was behind him now.

But innocent people had been hurt because of him.

Alexander wanted to see the wounded.

The chief of police followed.

After he'd taken no more than three steps,

I was deafened by a second explosion.

Amid the smoke and fog, I heard His Highness's weak voice cry, Help!

I tried to lift him and saw that His Highness's legs were completely

The second bomber was 25 -year -old Ignaty Grinovitsky, who blew himself up

along with the Emperor.

Alexander's last words...

We'll hurry home.

I want to die in the palace.

Alexander died an hour later in his study at the Winter Palace.

Grand Duke Alexander, the Emperor's nephew, wrote, A huge crowd gathered

the Winter Palace.

Nobody spoke.

Wide, dark bloodstains left a trail up the marble steps and along the corridor

to the Emperor's study.

We realized our idealized vision of Russia, with its Tsar, father, and loyal

people, no longer existed.

The future of not only the Russian Empire, but the entire world now

the outcome of the imminent battle between the new Russian Tsar and the

of negation and destruction.

Alexander II had given his country freedoms it had been demanding for

But it turned out he had also unleashed a dangerous new force.

Revolution.

October 28th, 1888.

20 miles south of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.

The Imperial train was en route from Crimea to St. Petersburg.

Emperor Alexander III and his family were gathered in the train's elegant

carriage.

Those in the forward carriages were killed instantly.

Children could be heard crying.

It was unclear who was alive and who was dead.

The Emperor struggled to his feet, taking the full weight of the carriage

on his shoulders.

He had one thought.

Save his family.

But how long would his strength hold?

By 1881, the Russian Empire was one of the largest states in the world and

occupied one -sixth of the world's land surface.

But despite the liberal reforms of Alexander II, Russia's economy was in

During Alexander II's reign, production of cast iron rose 67%, while in Germany

it rose 319%. Russia's foreign debt grew from 2

billion to 6 billion rubles.

Corruption flourished like never before.

Senior officials were being offered bribes of up to 200 ,000 rubles, about 5

million dollars today.

Russia was in a fever.

Decades of discontent and repression had created the empire's first terrorists.

The radical group The People's Will had declared open season on the emperor and

killed him at the eighth attempt.

His successor inherited an empire in crisis.

He was not expected to become emperor.

As the second son of Alexander II, it was assumed Grand Duke Alexander would

follow a military career.

It was his elder brother, Nicholas, who was Tsarevich and heir to the imperial

throne.

But during a tour of Europe, Nicholas fell seriously ill.

He was diagnosed with meningitis and died a few months later, aged just 21.

Alexander spent a lot of time at his brother's bedside, alongside Nicholas's

fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark.

They were united by grief.

Little by little, Alexander fell in love with gentle Minnie, as her family

called her.

When they were alone, looking at some photo albums one day, Alexander finally

found the courage to speak to her of marriage.

The marriage was a happy one.

After converting to orthodoxy, Minnie took the name Maria Fyodorovna.

They had four sons and two daughters and lived together happily for 28 years.

Only Alexander's death would separate them.

During the Russian Revolution, Maria left for Denmark, where she lived to an

age, always refusing to believe the Bolsheviks had shot her sons.

When Alexander III was crowned emperor in 1881, he was 36 years old and clear

his purpose.

It was obvious to him that his father's liberal reforms had weakened the

economy. and fractured society.

He intended to reassert Russian autocracy.

Magistrates' courts and village assemblies were abolished.

Merchants and shopkeepers were deprived of the vote.

Strict censorship was reintroduced.

Fifteen publications were closed down for their liberal views, while 300 book

titles were withdrawn from libraries.

including anything considered critical of the Tsar or his government.

A new university charter abolished the independence of universities, introduced

compulsory student uniforms, and increased tuition fees fivefold.

The children of servants were henceforth to be excluded from the top secondary

schools.

Despite such reactionary policies, This was an age of dramatic progress.

Russia got its first oil wells and steel rolling mills.

There were electric lights and paved streets, clean running water and

toilets, bustle dresses, bowler hats, steamships, the telegraph, electric

trams, and Ericsson telephones.

On Alexander's personal initiative, Russia's first telephone line was laid

between St. Petersburg and the Imperial Palace at Kachina.

Cacina also became the first palace to get electricity, one of comparatively

extravagances allowed by Alexander III.

In

most respects,

the emperor was very frugal.

He halved the number of courtiers, reduced the number of balls, and cut

on food and wine.

Hunting, however, remained a favourite royal pastime.

Alexander was a keen sportsman and excellent shot.

But most of all, he loved fishing.

He would return from his fishing trips with perch for the Empress to fry with

potatoes. And then, they were perfectly content.

His other great passion was Picard.

Alexander was a loving and playful father.

One day in the garden, he crept up behind his youngest son Michael and

with a hose.

A few days later, while his father was smoking a cigar out of his study window,

Michael hauled a bucket of water up the stairs and poured it on him from the

floor above.

The emperor was six foot four, barrel -chested and massively strong.

He could bend an iron poker into a knot and roll a five -kopeck coin into a

tube.

His personal habits were plain and unpretentious.

He got up at seven, made himself coffee and drank it without sugar or cream.

Then he took his favorite dog Kamchatka for a walk, before listening to

ministers' reports for a few hours.

He saved breakfast till 1 p .m. Tea, hard -boiled eggs and rye bread.

Between 3 and 5, he went for a walk with the empress and their children,

whatever the weather.

At 8 p .m., dinner was served.

The emperor loved good food,

crayfish soup or fish pie, a side of mutton with kasha and pickled cucumbers.

He then returned to work, often until late at night.

The emperor made frequent tours of Russia.

Sergei Vita, a railway manager who often accompanied him, witnessed scenes that

were impossible to imagine about the emperor's daily life.

After everyone else had gone to bed, I often saw the emperor's valet, Kortov.

mending the emperor's trousers.

One night, when passing by and seeing him at work, I asked, can't you take a

pairs with you so that if there's a hole in one pair, you can give another pair

to the emperor?

He replied, just try.

If he started wearing a pair of trousers or a jacket, he'll wear them until they

fall apart at the seams.

Alexander's reign saw the Alarousse style come into fashion.

dresses, decorations, interiors, and the emergence of a distinct style of

architecture known as Russian revival, a reinvention of traditional Russian

styles, culminating in the upper trading rows that face onto Moscow's Red Square

and the city's State Historical Museum.

Alexander supported artists who dealt with themes from Russian history and

like the painters Vaznetsov and Surikov.

But the other side to this flourishing of Russian national culture was the

oppression of minorities seen as non -Russian, especially Russia's Jews.

After 1791, Jews were forced to live in the empire's western provinces, an area

known as the Pale of Settlement.

Alexander II had relaxed controls on Jewish settlement for those engaged in

certain useful professions.

Jews had begun to play a greater role in Russian business, cultural and

intellectual life.

But now, Alexander III imposed stricter controls.

In 1891, 20 ,000 Jews were evicted from Moscow and sent to live in the Pale of

Settlement.

While a cap was imposed on the proportion of Jewish students at any

university. 10 % within the Pale, 5 % outside it, and 3 % in St. Petersburg.

This persecution encouraged many young Jews to join illegal revolutionary

groups.

Alexander III intended to unify his vast empire through strong autocratic

government, and his reign saw the construction of one great physical

of his vision,

Trans -Siberian Railway.

The Trans -Siberian is more than 9 ,000 kilometres long, the longest railway

line in the world.

Its longest and most complex sections were built during Alexander's reign,

the Urals to Vladivostok, 7 ,000 kilometres across mountains, taiga and

rivers. It was a spectacular achievement.

Between 2 ,500 and 5 ,000 kilometres of rails were laid each year.

The cost was approximately 1 million roubles.

worth around 20 billion U .S. dollars today.

Alexander's reign witnessed Russia's great railroad boom.

Travel by rail was certainly prestigious, fashionable, and for some,

On October 17, 1888, the emperor and his family were returning from Crimea to

St. Petersburg.

The train was running slightly late, so the driver picked up speed as they

approached Kharkiv, reaching 70 km per hour.

The train, pulled by twin locomotives, included a luggage van, workshop, a

carriage for the Minister of Railways, two kitchen carriages, a dining

and several carriages for the Imperial family, the servants and guards.

The 15 -carriage train was 300 meters long and weighed 480 tons.

Safety regulations stipulated a top speed of just 37 kilometers per hour.

It was doing almost twice that speed.

At 2 .14 p .m., the train derailed.

Ten out of fifteen carriages were completely destroyed.

The dining carriage, containing the imperial family, was flung down the

embankment and had its roof torn off.

Ten -year -old Grand Duke Michael was buried beneath the wreckage and only

with difficulty.

20 people were killed and 37 injured.

The emperor helped to search the wreckage while the empress tended the

They left for Kharkiv only when darkness fell.

On the way, the emperor remembered a discussion he'd overheard on the train a

month before.

Sergei Vita, manager of the local railway.

had been arguing that such a heavy train shouldn't travel at such speeds.

Witte himself later recalled the discussion.

The Minister of Railways started arguing with me.

He said, we travel at the same speed on the other railways.

No one has ever dared demand the Emperor's train reduce speed.

I broke down and said to the Minister, let others do what they want.

As for me, I don't want to break the emperor's neck.

Because if you go on like this, that's what you'll do.

Alexander III summoned Witter to St. Petersburg and persuaded him to become

director of state railways.

It was not a profitable move for Witter.

His previous salary of 40 ,000 rubles at a privately owned rail firm fell to

just 8 ,000.

So the emperor personally paid him an extra 8 ,000 rubles a year as

compensation.

Within two years, Vita was made Minister of Railways and Minister of Finance.

Thanks in large part to his efforts, Russia began to emerge from its economic

crisis.

Over the next decade, coal output rose by 110%, oil by 1

,468%, steel by 159%,

and cart iron by 487%. Russian agriculture

accounted for 15 % of the world's wheat production and 55 % of its rye.

The growth rate of Russian industry doubled to around 9%.

thanks largely to an influx of foreign investment, particularly from France.

Russia's gold reserves more than doubled, and by 1893 the Russian state

running an annual surplus of almost 100 million rubles.

The Russian ruble became a safe haven currency, while Russia's economic boom

gave the empire new authority on the world stage.

Alexander began to modernize Russia's armed forces.

The army was equipped with the new .30 caliber Mosin -Nagant bolt -action

which remained in service until the mid -20th century.

A new, more comfortable uniform was introduced, including a soldier's tunic

remains in use today.

Standards in military education were raised.

The navy received 114 new warships.

including 17 battleships and 10 armoured cruisers.

Russia's navy was now the third largest in the world, lagging only behind Great

Britain and France.

Russia, however, fought no major wars during Alexander's 13 -year reign.

On the contrary, Alexander's efforts to diffuse tension between the great powers

earned him the nickname.

the peacemaker.

But the changing alliances of his reign would have far -reaching repercussions.

Russia's traditional alliance with Germany came to an end.

Alexander made a new alliance with France instead, the country that had

the bulk of the loans that enabled Russia's economic miracle.

The new Franco -Russian alliance led Germany to fear encirclement.

a major factor in the outbreak of World War I.

That war was a catastrophe Alexander III may have been able to prevent.

But after the train crash, his health began to fail.

The emperor had been ignoring chronic back pain for many years.

In September 1894,

He was diagnosed with nephritis, an acute inflammation of the kidneys.

His doctors prescribed a strict diet and sent him to recuperate at the Imperial

Palace of Lavadia, in the warmer climes of Crimea.

On October 19th, the government courier left Lavadia with papers signed by

Alexander for the last time.

The emperor received the last rites.

and bid farewell to his wife and children.

He died at 2 .15 p .m.

Alexander III was only 49.

The emperor's coffin was taken by train from Crimea to Kharkiv, Orel,

Moscow, and finally St. Petersburg.

It was met along the route by huge crowds.

who came to say goodbye to the emperor.

There had never been such a lengthy and solemn funeral.

No one could have imagined it would be the last funeral of a Tsar that Russia

would ever see.

The Russian Empire was at the peak of its economic and political power when

Alexander's eldest son, 26 -year -old Nicholas, ascended the throne.

Chapter 2 Nicholas II Alexandrovich

Nicholas, or Nicky as his family called him,

received an excellent education, and had all the skills required to thrive at

court. He was clever, refined, and extremely charming.

In 1886, Princess Victoria Alex Helena Louise Beatrice of Hesse -Darmstadt,

or Alex as she was known, came to Russia to visit her sister, Grand Duchess

Elizabeth, who had married Nicholas's uncle.

Nicholas and Alex soon fell in love.

Nicky's parents did not approve of the match. They found her cold and aloof and

too tall.

But their son's devotion to her was soon apparent.

The young couple used to play a game.

using the precious stones in their rings to cut each other's names into the

glass of the palace windows.

It became a tradition, and their messages of love remained etched into

windows of the Winter Palace for years to come.

Young Nicholas gave a brooch with a twelve -carat diamond to his beloved.

The gift became a symbol of their love.

It was later found amongst her burnt clothes.

Alex did not part with it until the last minute of her life.

When Nicholas's father, Alexander III, realized he was dying, he agreed to his

son's marriage.

In 1894, after eight years of waiting, Nicholas and Alex became engaged.

She converted to orthodoxy.

and took the name Alexander Fyodorovna.

A month after Alexander III's death, they were married.

On May 14th, 1896, the new emperor and empress were crowned in Moscow's

Cathedral of the Assumption.

Festivities were to last 20 days.

For the nobility, there were receptions, balls, and full -dress dinners.

On May 18th, a traditional festival was to be held for commoners at Kodinka

Field, where there would be entertainment, meals and gifts for all.

Each gift included smoked sausage, 200 grams, a bread roll with raisins, 400

grams, a Vyazma treacle cake, 130 grams, sweets and nuts, 300 grams, and a

commemorative mug bearing the new Zaz monogram.

All wrapped up in a handkerchief.

30 ,000 buckets of beer and 10 ,000 buckets of mead were laid on.

The cost to the state was 339 ,536 roubles.

The organisers expected an attendance of 400 ,000, but more than a million

turned up.

There were wild rumours about the gifts.

Some said that if you got one wrapped in a handkerchief with houses printed on

it, you would get a new house.

Others claimed every mug contained a gold ruble.

When word went round that there wouldn't be enough gifts for everyone, there was

a stampede.

There were barely 2 ,000 police to hand.

Powerless in the face of such numbers.

The crowd became a huge, struggling mass.

Some were crushed, others trampled underfoot.

1 ,389 people were killed.

At 10 .30, the emperor was told about the unfolding disaster at Kodinka Field.

Everyone expected him to go there immediately, but he did not arrive until

.m.

Only the royal household knew that he and his wife had spent the intervening

hours praying in private.

Four days later, the imperial couple attended a long -standing engagement, a

ball at the French embassy.

They were there for barely ten minutes, but even so, news quickly spread that

the emperor was going to parties while the rest of the city mourned.

Far fewer people were aware that Nicholas had given 90 ,000 rubles of his

money to help the victims' families.

Instead, people got the impression the Emperor cared very little about ordinary

Russians. Some said the Kudinka Field disaster was a bad omen for the reign,

noted the Tsar was born on May 6th, the day of Job the Long -Suffering.

And soon there were more dire predictions.

In 1801, shortly before his murder, Emperor Paul I had written a letter to

descendants to be opened a hundred years after his death.

Now it was time to open the letter.

Only a few trusted servants knew of its existence.

One of them was Maria Geringer, the Empress's close friend and senior lady

-waiting.

She later recalled how, on the morning of March 12th, 1901, both the Emperor

Empress began the day excited and cheerful.

They were going to Gatchina Palace to uncover a century -old mystery.

They prepared for the trip as if for a merry excursion that promised great

entertainment.

They departed in high spirits, Maria remembered, but returned thoughtful and

gloomy.

They told no one what they had read in the letter.

But after the trip, the emperor began to refer to 1918 as a fateful year for

himself and for the dynasty.

According to legend, the letter contained Paul's account of his

with a monk named Abel, the Russian Nostradamus.

Abel was said to have foretold the death of Catherine the Great.

Paul's own murder.

The war against Napoleon.

The burning of Moscow.

The revolt of the Decembrists in the reign of Nicholas I.

Alexander II's abolition of serfdom.

The assassination of Alexander II.

And the order and peace of the reign of Alexander III.

Of Nicholas II he said, The holy Tsar who is like Job the long -suffering.

He will have the mind of Christ, the patience and purity of a dove.

A crown of thorns will replace his Tsar's crown.

He shall be betrayed by his people, as was the Son of God.

A great war will be fought.

People will fly in the air like birds and swim underwater like fish.

They shall destroy each other with stinking sulfur.

Treason shall grow and multiply.

On the eve of victory, the Tsar's throne, will fall.

Blood and tears will water the earth.

A peasant with an axe will take power.

And the plagues of Egypt will begin.

Romanov. Nicholas Alexandrovich.

Age 29.

Religion, Russian Orthodox.

Married, children.

One daughter, Olga, one year old.

Military rank, Colonel of the Liebgard Hussar Regiment.

Occupation, ruler of Russia.

In 1897, a census was carried out of the Russian Empire.

Its results were published in 89 volumes and included information on nearly 129

million people.

In the year of the census, the Empress was pregnant for a second time.

Everybody hoped it would be a boy, an heir.

Instead, they had another daughter, Tatiana.

Then a third, Maria.

And a fourth, Anastasia.

Many relatives didn't even try to hide their disappointment.

The emperor never worried about it.

But the need for a son obsessed the empress.

In 1903, the couple prayed for a son over the relics of St. Seraphim at Sarov

Monastery. And on August 12, 1904, Zarovich Alexei was born.

But the proud parents were soon filled with dread.

One doctor after another visited the palace.

By the third day, it was confirmed.

Their son had haemophilia and could die at any moment.

Haemophilia is a hereditary genetic disease that prevents blood clots

meaning even a small cut can lead to death from blood loss.

The disease, which is incurable, normally only appears in males, though

is also carried by females.

Alexei's mother, Empress Alexandra, received the gene from her grandmother,

Queen Victoria.

Victoria passed the gene on to many of her children and grandchildren.

who married into ruling families across Europe.

Hence, haemophilia also became known as the royal disease.

A minor cut or bruise could be life -threatening for Alexei.

At such moments, reports on his recovery became front -page news, alongside

latest reports from the Russo -Japanese War.

By 1900, the Far East had become the latest focus of great power rivalry.

China, weak and undeveloped, was considered ripe for exploitation.

Japan, the emerging power in the region, had its sights set on expansion into

Korea and Manchuria, the northeastern province of China.

Russia had its own designs on Manchuria and stood in Japan's way.

Many months of negotiations proved fruitless.

The two nations seemed locked on a collision course.

There were also those in Russia who thought war might be a good thing to

the people and calm unrest at home.

In February 1904, Japan launched a pre -emptive strike on the Russian Pacific

Fleet at its base in Port Arthur.

A year -long siege followed, leading to the port's surrender.

The next year, in February 1905, the Russian army was decisively beaten at

Battle of Mukden.

Then in May, Russia suffered a devastating naval defeat at the Battle

Tsushima.

Nicholas had had enough.

His advisors argued that Japan's military strength was ebbing, while

would only increase with time.

They only needed one more year, a million rubles.

and 20 ,000 more lives.

But the emperor was adamant.

They must make peace.

The Treaty of Portsmouth was not a harsh settlement, but the damage to Russian

prestige had already been done, and the consequences at home were disastrous.

It would lead to revolution.

In January 1905, Workers went on strike in St. Petersburg, Riga, and Warsaw.

In May, Ivanova textile workers followed suit, and in June, the crew of the

battleship Potemkin mutinied.

In October, a general strike was supported by two million workers.

All major factories and railways were shut down.

Nicholas turned to his father's old advisor, Sergei Vita.

who persuaded him that political concessions could no longer be avoided.

The October Manifesto, drafted by Witter and signed by Nicholas, promised new

civil liberties, including freedom of speech, assembly and association, and

creation of a new national assembly, the Duma.

But the unrest only grew.

There was only one province where order was maintained.

Saratov. So Nicholas summoned its governor, 44 -year -old Pyotr Stolypin,

Petersburg.

After a long conversation with him, the emperor realized it was Stolypin, not

Vita, who was the man to pull Russia out of its current crisis.

Stolypin was appointed Minister of the Interior, and two months later became

Prime Minister.

He clamped down on protests by introducing martial law.

Then he began a major reform of Russian agriculture.

Peasants were to be helped to buy land and set up new farms with the help of

cheap government loans.

Over six years, the government issued more than one billion rubles in loans.

Six million farmers, 44%.

applied to buy land with government help.

Of those, 10 % succeeded in becoming new landowners.

Crop yields rose by a third.

The Russian Empire reached its economic peak in 1913.

Annual growth in Russian agricultural output was 2%, ranked first in the

Growth in industrial output was 5%.

ranked first in the world.

Population growth was 1 .5%, ranked first in Europe.

The Russian Empire's national income was 16 .4 billion rubles, ranked fourth in

the world.

Russia's total industrial output was worth more than 6 .5 billion rubles,

fifth in the world.

Stolypin's reforms were expected to take 20 years to bear fruit.

But it was time that Russia, and Stolypin, did not have.

In 1911, at the Kiev Opera House, Prime Minister Stolypin was assassinated by

a socialist revolutionary.

Three years later, World War I broke out.

It would claim the lives of 37 million people and destroy four empires.

The Austro -Hungarian, Ottoman, German, and Russian.

Two alliances dominated Europe.

Germany, Austro -Hungary, and Italy formed the Triple Alliance.

Russia, Britain, and France formed the Triple Entente.

When war broke out, Turkey and Bulgaria joined the Triple Alliance.

Italy, Romania and America sided with the Entente.

Each country had its own war aims.

Germany sought to dominate its European neighbours and claim new overseas

colonies.

France wanted to recover Alsace and Lorraine, lost to Germany in 1871.

Austro -Hungary looked to defeat Slav nationalism within the Empire.

and on its borders.

Britain wanted to eliminate Germany as a colonial rival, and also had ambitions

in the Middle East.

Italy wanted to expand its influence in the Balkans, while Russia, fighting

alongside Britain and France, was determined to assert its role as

the Slavs.

The pretext for war came in June 1914.

when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was shot dead in Sarajevo by a Slav

nationalist, Gavrilo Princip.

Many Russians welcomed the declaration of war against Germany and Austro

-Hungary that summer.

But when the Russian army advanced through Poland, it suffered a string of

catastrophic defeats.

The following year, the Russian commander -in -chief, the Emperor's

Grand Duke Nicholas, was dismissed from his post.

The emperor himself became the army's commander, though it was only a symbolic

role, and he did not interfere with strategy.

The German army, meanwhile, proved a formidable enemy.

In the summer of 1915, the Russian army conducted a giant strategic withdrawal

in the face of the German onslaught.

It was hoped that by sacrificing territory, Russia could buy enough time

mobilize its vast resources.

Following year, 1916, the Russian army launched the Brusilov Offensive,

a hammer blow against Austro -Hungarian forces.

Another major offensive was prepared for 1917, but at home, events were

spiraling out of control.

While Nicholas was away at army headquarters, his wife's influence on

grew considerably.

It was a cause of growing resentment, not least because the Empress was German

by birth.

Now, her close relationship with a wandering holy man from Siberia, Grigori

Rasputin, caused further unease.

To some, he was a visionary and healer.

To others, fraud.

There were many rumors about the relationship between the Empress and

She had complete faith in him because he seemed the only person able to relieve

the suffering of her sickly son, Alexei.

Empress Alexandra was certain.

With Rasputin by his side, Alexei would live.

I believe in our friend's wisdom, she wrote to the Emperor.

God sent him to be your help and your guide.

Alexandra's regular letters to the emperor contained advice from Rasputin

many matters, even the conduct of the war.

To many, Rasputin's hold over the imperial family was shameful and

It came to an end in December 1916, when Rasputin was murdered by a group of

nobles determined to protect the Tsar's reputation.

On February 22nd, 1917, Nicholas II left the capital for army headquarters.

The same day, Tsarevich Alexei fell ill with measles.

His sisters soon caught it too.

All their heads were shaved.

The Empress was supervising the care of her sick children when news arrived of

strikes in the capital.

The Russian Revolution had begun.

On February 28th, the Emperor rushed back from the front to be with his

at Zaskia Selo.

The next night, the Emperor's train was halted near Novgorod.

The line ahead was blocked by revolutionary troops.

A great shame.

I failed to reach Zaskia Selo.

All my thoughts and feelings are there.

God help us.

The Emperor traveled instead to Pskov, headquarters of the Northern Front.

He planned to redeploy troops from the front to crush the revolt in the

But behind his back, General Alexeyev, acting Commander -in -Chief.

were sending telegrams to the front commanders, asking if it was desirable

the Emperor to abdicate.

All of them answered, Yes.

On the night of March 2nd, Nicholas signed his abdication in the saloon

of the Imperial train, as it stood at the platform in Pskov station.

From that moment on, He was Colonel Nicholas Romanov.

Witnesses were struck by his calmness.

One general remembered, he abdicated the throne as if relinquishing command of a

division.

Nicholas wrote in his diary, the bottom line is that to save Russia and keep the

army at the front, I need to take this step.

The Emperor's abdication had been demanded by a wide range of political

military figures.

They were responding to the crisis unfolding within Russia.

The war had led to huge casualties at the front, as well as bread queues,

shortages and inflation at home.

Soldiers and civilians wanted political change.

Nicholas' abdication was demanded by the state Duma as the only way to achieve

political progress.

It was also demanded by the army, whose generals reported that many of their men

sympathized with the revolutionaries and could no longer be relied upon to fight

for the Tsar.

Amongst the Romanovs, there was no agreement on the monarchy's future.

Some disliked or blamed the emperor and his wife.

Others believed the monarchy did need to make changes, though none of the Grand

Dukes were prepared to take responsibility for making them.

Once it was clear that he himself was the obstacle, Nicholas abdicated in

of his younger brother, Michael.

Michael, the favorite youngest son of Alexander III,

who had tipped the bucket of water on his father's head, refused to take the

throne, and issued his renunciation the next day, March 3rd.

He would later be shot by the Bolsheviks near Perm in Siberia.

His manifesto of March 3rd, 1917, stated that he, Michael Romanov, would not

accept the throne until a constituent assembly made up of the people's

representatives had voted on a new form of government for Russia.

Only then, with the people's consent, would he accept the throne.

His grand gesture, however, was quickly overtaken by events.

The throne would never be offered to him.

The monarchy was finished.

300 years of Romanov rule in Russia were at an end.

Power now lay with Russia's provisional government.

Nicholas, his wife and five children were put under house arrest in the

Alexander Palace on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Six months later, the provisional government sent the former Tsar and his

to the remote Siberian town of Tobolsk, more than a thousand miles from Moscow,

for their own safety.

Palace staff who wished to join them were allowed to do so.

Family were joined in exile by 45 of their former servants.

By now, Nicholas must have realized he would not be allowed to leave the

country, and that Russia was sliding into chaos.

The most frightening of Abel's predictions was coming true before his

In October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in the capital.

The Romanovs were moved from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg and settled in a so

-called House of Special Purpose.

Only five people were allowed to stay with the family, their doctor, a valet,

maid, a cook and kitchen boy.

Nicholas and Alexandra tried to ignore the rudeness of the guards.

Theft was what bothered them most.

The couple feared that two boxes of papers containing Nicholas's diaries and

their personal correspondence would disappear.

I could never have imagined that there was such perfect happiness in the world,

Alex had once written to Nicholas.

I love you.

These three words are my whole life.

In the middle of the night, the Emperor's family and their servants were

to get up and gather in one of the rooms.

They were told that because of the threat of local unrest, they were to be

to a new location.

for their own safety.

Alexei was sick, so his father carried him in his arms.

Family were ordered down into the cellar and told to arrange themselves for a

photo, which would be used to quash rumors of their death.

Then Yakov Yurovsky, the house commandant, entered the room.

He announced that they had been sentenced to death by the Presidium of

Soviet.

In the early hours of July 17th, 1918, the following people were executed in

cellar of the house.

Maria Romanova, aged 19.

Anastasia Romanova, aged 17.

Alexei Romanov, aged 14.

And four servants.

In 2000, the Tsar's murdered family were canonised as saints by the Russian

Orthodox Church.

In spring 1918, a few months before her death,

Grand Duchess Olga wrote...

My father asked me to tell those who remained loyal to him that they should

avenge him, as he has forgiven all and prayed for all.

He asks them to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become

even stronger.

But evil will not triumph over evil.

Only love.