A MONARCH BY DECREE OF PROVIDENCE

Grand Duke Alexander Romanov was born in 1845. He was the second of Alexander II’s six sons and as such was no heir apparent. It was the eldest son Nikolai who was to succeed Alexander II. Unfortunately, Nikolai died when still a young man, with Alexander automatically becoming the successor to the throne. Judging by what he wrote down in his diaries and what his tutors said about him, the future Russian Emperor showed interest in just a few things. When a young boy, he was quite bashful, which was the reason for his gruff and awkward manners. The other family members called him “little bulldog”. But even later, when he was a mature person, he never became handsome. He was tall, obese and slow-moving. 

But unlike his predecessors, the Emperor was an exemplary family man. On the death of his elder brother, Crown Prince Nikolai, in 1865 Alexander inherited both the throne and Nikolai’s fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Demark. Alexander loved his wife and was faithful to her. They had five children. A person of high moral principles, the Emperor had the right to insist that his family members should behave accordingly. Very often Grand Dukes and Duchesses fell into disgrace with the monarch and were sent away from the Court precisely because of committing adultery. The Emperor was indeed the head of the Royal Family. Everybody both respected and dreaded him. As a family man Alexander III was absolutely unpretentious. 

When already heir apparent, Alexander took to drinking. He actually got addicted to the bottle and was cured of it afterwards by court physician Sergei Botkin. But he still liked to knock back an occasional glass of cognac. When Alexander got a renal disease in the late 1880s, he was told any drinking was ruled out, and the Empress personally saw to it that her husband did not defy the ban. But Alexander drew up an ingenious scheme to mislead her. He ordered a pair of high-boots with specially designed tops so a flask of cognac could fit into them. His contemporaries point out that he was unrestrained, and foul language was nothing out of the ordinary for him. Those who knew Alexander III well insist that he was a man of limited intelligence. The Sovereign read little and was skeptical about the importance of newspapers. A mediocre person lacking the knowledge of many important things, Alexander was unable to take his bearings amid the versatility of the problems he was faced with. This prompted the Ministries, on the heels of his accession to the throne, to attach brief notes to their written reports, setting forth the crux of the matter and thus making it easier for the Emperor to grasp the problem in question. 

The assassination of his father, Emperor Alexander II, shocked the son. From then on his life was poisoned with fear of an attempt on his own life. But then he did have grounds for this kind of apprehension, given that the terrorist organization “Popular Will” had already plotted several times to murder the Emperor, but all plots had fortunately been foiled. Precautions were also taken to prevent the conspirators from poisoning the Sovereign. Foodstuffs were purchased each time from different suppliers in different places. The suppliers were unaware of the fact that their products would be consumed by the Royal Family. The Emperor ordered that the cooks should be changed on a daily basis and at a time when they could least expect this. The cooks and kitchen-boys were frisked thoroughly by orderly officers. 

Whenever the Royal Family planned a long-distance travel, soldiers would form a human chain along the railway line that the Tsar’s train would move along, a week or two in advance. Their orders were to shoot at anyone who might come close to the railway. The Royal Guard Service also resorted to other clever tricks, like changing routes or having several railway lines cordoned off. They could also use three trains that looked perfectly alike moving at brief intervals, so nobody would know which one was carrying the Tsar. 

But these precautions failed to prevent a Royal train derailment on October 17th, 1888. The whole of the train overturned and fell on the embankment, killing several people. The Tsar and the family were in their carriage when the accident occurred. Alexander was in his usual command of emotions when he walked out of the carriage to calm down everyone and gave the injured what help he could. The worst injured of the Imperial Family was Alexander’s eldest daughter Ksenia, who remained hunchbacked until the end of her days. The derailment, however, was caused by a breach of traffic regulations, rather than by an act of terror. 

It follows from his biography that Alexander III was not one of those who worry about their health. He did manage to conceal his renal disease for a long time. But when Alexander, normally an obese person, started to lose weight, his next of kin consulted a prominent Moscow-based professor Nikolai Zakharyin about the matter and learnt that the situation was hopeless. Alexander III passed away on October 20th, 1894, fully conscious and sitting in an armchair. Such was the man who ruled Russia for 13 years and who ascended the throne by decree of Providence. 

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Illustrations: 

V.Kozlov, “Historical Portraits. History of the Romanov Dynasty”, T-Oko, Moscow, 1991