I suppose it could be viewed as good news, in a grisly sense: When the exhumation of Alexander III occurred earlier this week, it was apparent that his sarcophagus had not been previous opened- which had been feared. Now it is open and the clergy and DNA specialists shall take what evidence they feel they need from this long dead Tsar who died at 49- of kidney disease some say complicated by his habit of sleeping with the bedroom windows open- even in Russian winter. Amazingly, his stolen diaries were recovered today, according to Royal Russia which does an excellent job covering the Romanov stories. The saddest irony is that his father Alexander III was The Tsar Liberator who freed the serfs and wished to institute more reforms which might have prevented the tragedies which followed. But he was killed by a group of terrorists who bombed his carriage in St.Petersburg - when the first bomb didn't hurt him, he climbed out to help a wounded footman, and that's when another bomb, - hit and disemboweled him and tore off a leg- Still alive, Alexander II asked to be taken to The Winter Palace to die...His small grandson, Nicholas (later Tsar) was brought in to say farewell to his dying grandfather. Nicholas must have been traumatized- and this was a grim prophecy of his own violent death by firing squad in the Ipatiev mansion. The result of the terrorists (who wanted the constitutional government they prevented) killed the Tsar who would have helped lift repression -In an ultimate irony, he had just signed a proclamation for a constitutional government the day before he died- it was not yet public and his son, Alexander III destroyed the papers intended to create a Constitutional government . Alexander III was determined to rule sternly- restore total autocracy- and he did- then died young to leave the 26-year old Tsarevitch Nicholas II frightened and helpless - "I don't want to be Tsar!" The three Tsars in succession shared many similarities- all died young (in order: ages 62 (Alexander II- assassination, Alexander III from kidney failure, age 49, and Nicholas II by firing squad in the massacre of his family, age 50) and all had extremely passionate marriages, wrote openly sexual love letters to their wives and sired many children. And they all suffered terrible deaths. I visited 2 Churches on the Blood- Alexander II'
s in the center of St.Petersburg and the Cathedral on the Blood for all the victims of the Bolshevik execution in l918. What strikes me now, is another pattern: The old 'what goes around, comes around' as the world is in chaos and terrorists again strike....Alexander II was killed by an attack of Narodnaya Volya, "The People's Will."
Clockwise: The skull of Nicholas II, His father Alexander III covered in ermine in his coffin, and a painting depicting the death bed scene of the assassinated Alexander II, grandfather of Nicholas II who is pictured (far left)
I suppose it could be viewed as good news, in a grisly sense: When the exhumation of Alexander III occurred earlier this week, it was apparent that his sarcophagus had not been previous opened- which had been feared. Now it is open and the clergy and DNA specialists shall take what evidence they feel they need from this long dead Tsar who died at 49- of kidney disease some say complicated by his habit of sleeping with the bedroom windows open- even in Russian winter. Amazingly, his stolen diaries were recovered today, according to Royal Russia which does an excellent job covering the Romanov stories. The saddest irony is that his father Alexander III was The Tsar Liberator who freed the serfs and wished to institute more reforms which might have prevented the tragedies which followed. But he was killed by a group of terrorists who bombed his carriage in St.Petersburg - when the first bomb didn't hurt him, he climbed out to help a wounded footman, and that's when another bomb, - hit and disemboweled him and tore off a leg- Still alive, Alexander II asked to be taken to The Winter Palace to die...His small grandson, Nicholas (later Tsar) was brought in to say farewell to his dying grandfather. Nicholas must have been traumatized- and this was a grim prophecy of his own violent death by firing squad in the Ipatiev mansion. The result of the terrorists (who wanted the constitutional government they prevented) killed the Tsar who would have helped lift repression -In an ultimate irony, he had just signed a proclamation for a constitutional government the day before he died- it was not yet public and his son, Alexander III destroyed the papers intended to create a Constitutional government . Alexander III was determined to rule sternly- restore total autocracy- and he did- then died young to leave the 26-year old Tsarevitch Nicholas II frightened and helpless - "I don't want to be Tsar!" The three Tsars in succession shared many similarities- all died young (in order: ages 62 (Alexander II- assassination, Alexander III from kidney failure, age 49, and Nicholas II by firing squad in the massacre of his family, age 50) and all had extremely passionate marriages, wrote openly sexual love letters to their wives and sired many children. And they all suffered terrible deaths. I visited 2 Churches on the Blood- Alexander II'
s in the center of St.Petersburg and the Cathedral on the Blood for all the victims of the Bolshevik execution in l918. What strikes me now, is another pattern: The old 'what goes around, comes around' as the world is in chaos and terrorists again strike....Alexander II was killed by an attack of Narodnaya Volya, "The People's Will."
Clockwise: The skull of Nicholas II, His father Alexander III covered in ermine in his coffin, and a painting depicting the death bed scene of the assassinated Alexander II, grandfather of Nicholas II who is pictured (far left)