Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia

Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
Tsarevich of Russia
Tsarevich Alexei as a lance corporal in the Russian Army, 1916
Born	(1904-08-12)12 August 1904 Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg, Russian SFSR
Burial	(yet to be buried)
Full name Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov
House	Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Nicholas II
Mother	Alexandra Feodorovna
Religion	Russian Orthodox
Signature

Alexei Nikolaevich (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич) (12 August 1904 [O.S. 30 July] – 17 July 1918) of the House of Romanov, was the Tsesarevich and heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire. He was the youngest child and only son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with hemophilia; his mother's reliance on the starets Grigori Rasputin to treat the disease helped bring about the end of the Romanov dynasty. After the February Revolution of 1917, he and his family were sent into internal exile in Tobolsk, Siberia. He was murdered alongside his parents, four sisters, and three retainers during the Russian Civil War by order of the Bolshevik government, though rumors that he had survived persisted until the 2007 discovery of his and one of his sisters' remains. The family was formally interred on 17 July 1998—the eightieth anniversary of the murder—and were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

Biography

Early life

Alexei was born on 12 August [O.S. 30 July] 1904 in Peterhof Palace, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. He was the youngest of five children and the only son born to Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. His older sisters were the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. He was doted on by his parents and sisters and known as "Baby" in the family. He was later also affectionately referred to as Alyosha (Алёша).

Alexei was christened on 3 September 1904 in the chapel in Peterhof Palace. His principal godparents were his paternal grandmother and his great-uncle, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. His other godparents included his oldest sister, Olga; his great-grandfather King Christian IX of Denmark; King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales and William II, German Emperor. As Russia was at war with Japan, all the soldiers and officers of the Russian Army and Navy were named honorary godfathers.

The christening marked the first time some of the younger members of the Imperial Family, including some of the younger sons of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, as well as the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana, and their cousin Princess Irina Alexandrovna, were present at an official ceremony. For the occasion, the boys wore miniature military uniforms, and the girls wore a smaller version of the court dress and little kokoshniks. The sermon was delivered by John of Kronstadt, and the baby was carried to the font by the elderly Mistress of the Robes, Princess Galitzine. As a precaution, she had rubber soles put to her shoes to avoid falling and dropping him. Countess Sophie Buxhoeveden recalled:

The baby lay on a pillow of cloth of gold, slung to the Princess's shoulders by a broad gold band. He was covered with the heavy cloth-of-gold mantle, lined with ermine, worn by the heir to the crown. The mantle was supported on one side by Prince Alexander Sergeiovich Dolgorouky, the Grand Marshal of the Court, and on the other by Count [Paul] Benckendorff, as decreed by custom and wise precaution. The baby wept loudly, as might any ordinary baby, when old Father Yanishev dipped him in the font. His four small sisters, in short Court dresses, gazed open-eyed at the ceremony, Olga Nicholaevna, then nine years old, being in the important position of one of the godmothers. According to Russian custom, the Emperor and Empress were not present at the baptism, but directly after the ceremony the Emperor went to the church. Both he and the Empress always confessed to feeling very nervous on these occasions, for fear that the Princess might slip, or that Father Yanishev, who was very old, might drop the baby in the font.

Hemophilia

The former palace of Russian emperors in the Polish Białowieża Forest, where Alexei had a particularly grave crisis, early October 1912.

The Imperial family in 1913, in Rostov

Alexei inherited hemophilia from his mother Alexandra, a condition that could be traced back to her maternal grandmother Queen Victoria. In 2009 genetic analysis determined specifically that he suffered from hemophilia B. He had to be careful not to injure himself because he lacked one of the proteins, necessary for blood-clotting. According to his French tutor, Pierre Gilliard, the nature of his illness was kept a state secret. His hemophilia was so severe that trivial injuries such as a bruise, a nosebleed or a cut were potentially life-threatening. Two navy sailors were assigned to him to monitor and supervise him to prevent injuries, which were still unavoidable. They also carried him around when he was unable to walk. As well as being a source of constant torment to his parents, the recurring episodes of illness and long recoveries interfered greatly with Alexei's education.

His disease led to controversy, as it led to gossip that his mother was having an affair with the Russian strannik, a religious wanderer, and faith healer, Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin claimed to be able to "heal" Alexei when he was on the brink of death after spells of hemophilia-related complications. On 8 October 1912, Alexei received the last sacrament during another and particularly grave crisis (a swelling in the groin). The Romanovs were visiting their hunting retreat in the Białowieża Forest, but moved to Spała (then in Russian Poland). The desperate Tsarina turned to her lady-in-waiting and best friend Anna Vyrubova to secure the help of the peasant healer, who at that time was out of favor. The next day, on 9 October, Rasputin responded and sent a short telegram, including the prophecy: "The little one will not die. Do not allow the doctors [c.q. Eugene Botkin and Vladimir Derevenko] to bother him too much." His temperature dropped and the hematoma disappeared, but it took a year before he recovered. According to Gilliard,

The Tsar had resisted the influence of Rasputin for a long time. At the beginning he had tolerated him because he dare not weaken the Tsarina's faith in him – a faith which kept her alive. He did not like to send him away for, if Alexei Nicolaievich had died, in the eyes of the mother he would have been the murderer of his own son.

There are various explanations for Rasputin's ability, such as that Rasputin hypnotized Alexei, administered herbs to him, or that his advice to the Tsarina not to let the doctors bother Alexei too much aided the boy's healing. Others speculated that, with the information he got from his confidante at the court, lady-in-waiting Anna Vyrubova, Rasputin timed his interventions for when Alexei was on the road to recovery anyway, and claimed all the credit. Others believe he truly possessed a supernatural healing ability or that his prayers to God saved the boy.

Gilliard, the French historian Hélène Carrère d'Encausse and Diarmuid Jeffreys, a journalist, speculated Rasputin's healing practice included halting the administration of aspirin, a pain-relieving analgesic available since 1899. Aspirin is an antiaggregant and has blood-thinning properties; it prevents clotting, and promotes bleeding which could have caused the hemarthrosis. The "wonder drug" would have worsened Alexei's joints' swelling and pain.

Alexei and his sisters were taught to view Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to exchange confidences with him. Alexei was well aware that he might not live to adulthood. When he was ten, his older sister Olga found him lying on his back looking at the clouds and asked him what he was doing. "I like to think and wonder," Alexei replied. Olga asked him what he liked to think about. "Oh, so many things," the boy responded. "I enjoy the sun and the beauty of summer as long as I can. Who knows whether one of these days I shall not be prevented from doing it?"

Childhood

According to his French tutor, Pierre Gilliard, Alexei was a simple, affectionate child, but his environment was spoiling him by the "servile flattery" of the servants and "silly adulations" of the people around him. Once, a deputation of peasants came to bring presents to Alexei. His personal attendant the sailor Derevenko, required they kneel before Alexei. Gilliard remarked that the Tsarevich was "embarrassed and blushed violently", and when asked if he liked seeing people on their knees before him, he said, "Oh no, but Derevenko says it must be so!" When Gilliard encouraged Alexei to "stop Derevenko insisting on it", he replied that he "dare not". When Gilliard took the matter up with Derevenko, he said that Alexei was "delighted to be freed from this irksome formality".

Alexei as a young child

"Alexei was the center of this united family, the focus of all its hopes and affections," wrote Gilliard. "His sisters worshipped him. He was his parents' pride and joy. When he was well, the palace was transformed. Everyone and everything in it seemed bathed in sunshine." He bore a striking resemblance to his mother, and was tall for his age, with "a long, finely chiseled face, delicate features, auburn hair with a coppery glint, and large grey-blue eyes like his mother," Though intelligent and affectionate, his education was frequently interrupted by bouts of haemophilia and he was spoiled because his parents couldn't bear to discipline him. His parents appointed two sailors from the Imperial Navy: Petty Officer Andrei Derevenko and his assistant Seaman Clementy Nagorny, to serve as nannies and to follow him about so he would not hurt himself. He was prohibited from riding a bicycle or playing too roughly, but was naturally active.

As a small child, he occasionally played pranks on guests. One example occurred at a formal dinner party, where Alexei removed the shoe of a female guest from under the table, and showed it to his father. Nicholas sternly told the boy to return the "trophy", which Alexei did after placing a large ripe strawberry into the toe of the shoe.

Tsarevich in a sailor uniform.

Gilliard eventually convinced Alexei's parents that granting the boy greater autonomy would help him develop better self-control. A growing Alexei took advantage of his unaccustomed freedom, and began to outgrow some of his earlier foibles. Courtiers reported that his illness made him sensitive to the hurts of others. During World War I, he lived with his father at army headquarters in Mogilev for long stretches of time and observed military life. In December 1916, Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams, head of the British military at Stavka, received word of the death of his son in action with the British Expeditionary Force in France. Tsar Nicholas sent twelve-year-old Alexei to sit with the grieving father. "Papa told me to come sit with you as he thought you might feel lonely tonight," Alexei told the general. Alexei, like all the Romanov men, grew up wearing sailor uniforms and playing at war from the time he was a toddler. His father began to prepare him for his future role as Tsar by inviting Alexei to sit in on long meetings with government ministers.

Alexei was one of the first Boy Scouts in Russia.

The Tsar's Colonel Mordinov remembered Alexei:

He had what we Russians usually call "a golden heart." He easily felt an attachment to people, he liked them and tried to do his best to help them, especially when it seemed to him that someone was unjustly hurt. His love, like that of his parents, was based mainly on pity. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was an awfully lazy, but very capable boy (I think, he was lazy precisely because he was capable), he easily grasped everything, he was thoughtful and keen beyond his years ... Despite his good nature and compassion, he undoubtedly promised to possess a firm and independent character in the future.

Stavka

Tsarevich Alexei in his army uniform with sister Tatiana in 1917.

During World War I, Alexei joined his father at Stavka, when his father became the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army. Alexei seemed to like military life very much and became very playful and energetic. In one of his father's notes to his mother, he said "…Have come in from the garden with wet sleeves and boots as Alexei sprayed us at the fountain. It is his favorite game…peals of laughter ring out. I keep an eye, in order to see that things do not go too far." Alexei even ate the soldiers' black bread and even refused when he was offered a meal that he would eat in his palace, saying "It's not what soldiers eat". In 1916, he was given the title of Lance Corporal, which he was very proud of. Alexei's favorites were the foreigners of Belgium, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, and Serbia, and in favor, adopted him as their mascot. Hanbury-Williams, whom Alexei liked, wrote " As time went on and his shyness wore off he treated us like old friends and… had always some bit fun with us. With me it was to make sure that each button on my coat was properly fastened, a habit which naturally made me take great care to have one or two unbuttoned, in which case he used to at once to stop and tell me that I was 'untidy again,' give a sigh at my lack of attention to these details and stop and carefully button me up again.”

Imprisonment of the Imperial family

Nicholas and Alexei cut wood in captivity at Tobolsk during the winter of 1917

The imperial family was arrested following the February Revolution of 1917, which resulted in the abdication of Nicholas II. When he was in captivity at Tobolsk, Alexei complained in his diary about how bored he was and begged God to have mercy upon him. He was permitted to play occasionally with Kolya, the son of one of his doctors, and with a kitchen boy named Leonid Sednev. As he became older, Alexei seemed to tempt fate and injure himself on purpose. While in Siberia, he rode a sled down the stairs of the prison house and injured himself in the groin. The hemorrhage was very bad, and he was so ill that he could not be moved immediately when the Bolsheviks moved his parents and older sister Maria to Yekaterinburg in April 1918. Alexei and his three other sisters joined the rest of the family weeks later. He was confined to a wheelchair for the remaining weeks of his life.

Death

Main article: Shooting of the Romanov family

The last known photo of Alexei and sister Olga aboard the steamship Rus that took them to Yekaterinburg in May 1918.

The Tsarevich was less than a month shy of his fourteenth birthday when he was murdered on 17 July 1918 in the cellar room of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. The assassination was carried out by forces of the Bolshevik secret police under Yakov Yurovsky. According to one account of the murder, the family was told to get up and get dressed in the middle of the night because they were going to be moved. Nicholas II carried Alexei to the cellar room. His mother asked for chairs to be brought so that she and Alexei could sit down. When the family and their servants were settled, Yurovsky announced that they were to be executed. The firing squad first killed Nicholas, the Tsarina, and the two male servants. Alexei remained sitting in the chair, "terrified," before the assassins turned on him and shot at him repeatedly. The boy remained alive and the killers tried to stab him multiple times with bayonets. "Nothing seemed to work," wrote Yurovsky later. "Though injured, he continued to live." Unbeknownst to the killing squad, the Tsarevich's torso was protected by a shirt wrapped in precious gems that he wore beneath his tunic. Finally Yurovsky fired two shots into the boy's head, and he fell silent. Rumors of Alexei's survival began to circulate when the bodies of his family and the royal servants were located. Alexei's was missing, along with that of one of his sisters (generally thought to be Maria or Anastasia). As a result of this, there have been people who have pretended to be the Tsarevich; these people are Alexei Poutziato, Joseph Veres, Heino Tammet, Michael Goleniewski and Vassili Filatov. However, scientists considered it extremely unlikely that he escaped death, due to his lifelong hemophilia. The missing bodies were said to have been cremated, though scientists believe it would have been impossible to completely cremate the bodies given the short amount of time and the materials the killing squad had to work with. Numerous searches of the forest surrounding Yekaterinburg up until 2007 failed to turn up the cremation site or the remains of Alexei and his sister.

2007 remains found and 2008 identification of remains

On 23 August 2007, a Russian archaeologist announced the discovery of two burned, partial skeletons at a bonfire site near Yekaterinburg that appeared to match the site described in Yurovsky's memoirs. The archaeologists said the bones are from a boy who was roughly between the ages of ten and thirteen years at the time of his death and of a young woman who was roughly between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three years old. Anastasia was seventeen years, one month old at the time of the assassination, while Maria was nineteen years, one month old. Alexei was two weeks shy of his fourteenth birthday. Alexei's elder sisters Olga and Tatiana were twenty-two and twenty-one years old at the time of the assassination. Along with the remains of the two bodies, archaeologists found "shards of a container of sulfuric acid, nails, metal strips from a wooden box, and bullets of various caliber." The bones were found using metal detectors and metal rods as probes. Also, striped material was found that appeared to have been from a blue-and-white striped cloth; Alexei commonly wore a blue-and-white striped undershirt.

On 30 April 2008 Russian forensic scientists announced that DNA testing proves that the remains belong to the Tsarevich Alexei and to one of his sisters.

DNA information, made public in July 2008, that has been obtained from Ekaterinburg and repeatedly tested independently by laboratories such as the University of Massachusetts Medical School reveals that the final two missing Romanov remains are indeed authentic and that the entire Romanov family housed in the Ipatiev House, Ekaterinburg were executed in the early hours of 17 July 1918. In March 2009, results of the DNA testing were published, confirming that the two bodies discovered in 2007 were those of Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters.

Funeral details will have to be formalised between a Russian State commission and the Moscow Patriarchate.

Sainthood

Main article: Romanov sainthood

In 2000, Alexei and his family were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church. The family had previously been canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as holy martyrs. The bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and three of their daughters were finally interred at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 17 July 1998—eighty years after they were murdered. The bodies of Alexei and one of his sisters, generally thought to be Anastasia or Maria, haven't yet been buried.

Historical significance

The Romanovs visiting a regiment during World War I. From left to right, Grand Duchess Anastasia, Grand Duchess Olga, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Grand Duchess Maria, and Kuban Cossacks

Alexei was the heir to the Romanov Throne. Paul I had passed laws forbidding women to succeed to the throne (unless there were no legitimate male dynasts left, in which case, the throne would pass to the closest female relative of the last Tsar). This was done in revenge for what he perceived to be the illegal behavior of his mother, Catherine II ("the Great") in deposing his father Peter III. Alexei was named after the second Romanov Tsar, Alexis I of Russia, who ruled from 1645 to 1676, known as "the Quiet" and father of Peter the Great.

Nicholas II was forced to abdicate on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917. He did this in favour of his twelve-year-old son Alexei who ascended the throne under a regency. Nicholas later decided to alter his original abdication. Whether that act had any legal validity is open to speculation. Nicholas consulted with doctors and others present and realised that he would have to be separated from Alexei. Not wanting Alexei to be parted from the family, Nicholas altered the abdication document in favour of his younger brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia. After receiving advice about whether his personal security could be guaranteed, Michael declined to accept the throne without the people's approval through an election held by the proposed Constituent Assembly; no such referendum was ever held.

Alexei's haemophilia was integral to the rise of Grigori Rasputin. One of the many things Rasputin did that unintentionally facilitated the fall of the Romanovs was to tell the Tsar that the war would be won once he (Tsar Nicholas II) took command of the Russian Army. Following this advice was a serious mistake as the Tsar had no military experience. The Tsaritsa, Empress Alexandra, a deeply religious woman, came to rely upon Rasputin and believe in his ability to help Alexei where conventional doctors had failed. This theme is explored in Robert K. Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra. It is possible that if Alexei had not suffered so terribly, Rasputin could never have gained such influence over Russian politics during World War I, which is generally seen to have at least hastened the collapse of Romanov rule.

Caring for Alexei seriously diverted the attention of his father, Nicholas II, and the rest of the Romanovs from the business of war and government.

Honours and awards

Russian

• Order of St. Andrew (12 August 1904)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (12 August 1904)
• Order of the White Eagle (12 August 1904)
• Order of St. Anne, 1st class (12 August 1904)
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st class (12 August 1904)
• Commemorative Medal for the 100th anniversary of the Victory over France (1912)
• Commemorative Medal of the 300 years of the Romanov Dynasty (1913)
• Commemorative Medal of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Gangut (1914)
• St. George Medal for Bravery, 4th class (1915)

Foreign

• Kingdom of Italy Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
• Kingdom of Italy Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
• Kingdom of Italy Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy
• Sweden Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
• France Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

Ancestry

Family of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia

16. Nicholas I of Russia               8. Alexander II of Russia                       17. Princess Charlotte of Prussia               4. Alexander III of Russia                             18. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine               9. Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine                       19. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden               2. Nicholas II of Russia                                   20. Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg               10. Christian IX of Denmark                       21. Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Cassel               5. Princess Dagmar of Denmark                             22. Landgrave William of Hesse-Kassel               11. Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel                       23. Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark               1. Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia                                         24. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (= 18)               12. Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine                       25. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden (= 19)               6. Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine                             26. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia               13. Princess Elizabeth of Prussia                       27. Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg               3. Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine                                   28. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha               14. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha                       29. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg               7. Princess Alice of the United Kingdom                             30. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn               15. Victoria of the United Kingdom                       31. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

The Royal haemophilia line

Haemophilia in European royalty
Legend: X – unaffected X chromosome; x – affected X chromosome; Y – Y chromosome

See also

• Romanov impostors

Further reading

• Greg King and Penny Wilson, The Fate of the Romanovs, John Wiley and Sons, 2003, ISBN 0-471-20768-3
• Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, 1967.
• Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0-394-58048-6
• Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko, A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, Doubleday, 1997, ISBN 0-385-48673-1
• Edvard Radzinsky, The Rasputin File, Doubleday, 2000, ISBN 0-385-48909-9
• Demetrios Serfes, A Miracle Through the Prayers of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexis
• Maxim Shevchenko, The Glorification of the Royal Family, a 2000 article in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta
• Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7

External links

• Alexei Romanov Fan Club
• The Romanov Memorial
• Posthumous account of Alexei's life, told in first person
• FrozenTears.org A media library of the last Imperial Family.
• The Search Foundation, an organization dedicated to searching for the remains of the two "missing" Romanov children.
• Tsarevich Alexei A Spanish site about the life of the Tsarevich Alexei.
• RoyalRussia.org: Tsarevich Alexis Heir to the Throne.

Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg Born: 12 August 1904 Died: 17 July 1918
Russian royalty
Preceded by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich	Heir to the Russian Throne 12 August 1904 – 15 March 1917	End of title Empire abolished in 1917