The Emperor's Secret. The love story of Alexander II and Catherine Dolgoruky

Sofia Dolgorukaya (October 23, 1907–February 26, 1994) Princess who became a communist Tsarist Russia, England, concentration camp in France, USSR In 1940, Sofka Skipwith, née Princess Sofia Dolgorukaya, left relatively calm England and headed

Zoya Mikhailovna Zoya Mikhailovna came to the meeting on time and I noticed her from afar. Maybe she noticed me, but she didn’t recognize me right away. Not surprising. She remembered me as thin, slender and tall, with a shock of hair pinned up in a high hairstyle. And now I showed full

Russian Emperor Alexander II and Princess Catherine Dolgoruky-Yuryevskaya ended in marriage. They had a son and daughter. But their happiness was always interfered with from all sides - the royal relatives, the court mob and the Narodnaya Volya revolutionaries.

Well-informed contemporaries said about the Tsar-Liberator: “Alexander II was a woman lover, not a skirt lover.” The modern biographer of Alexander Nikolayevich, the writer-historian Leonid Lyashenko, put it this way: “I don’t know what the author of this aphorism had in mind, but I think it’s something like the fact that “incidents” and fleeting novels that could satisfy an ordinary skirt-maker, did not touch the emperor's heart at all and did not give any peace to his soul. He was not voluptuous, but amorous and was looking not for the satisfaction of his whims, but for a deep, real feeling. In this feeling, he was attracted not so much by high romanticism or thrills, but by the desire to find true peace , a quiet and durable family home."

The first youthful love overtook the heir to the Russian throne at the age of 15. The reaction of the parents was instantaneous - the mother's maid of honor Natalya Borozdina instantly married the diplomat and, together with her husband, drove off to England. Three years later, the young man began to look at a distant relative of the poet-hussar Denis Davydov.

This time, Alexander Romanov himself was sent on a long four-year trip to Europe, although not because of Sophia, but because of Olga. Sofia Davydova’s feeling for the Tsarevich remained platonic, but thanks to women’s fiction, it found a noticeable response in the souls of her contemporaries and remained in the history of literature.

For the first time as an adult, the heir fell in love when he turned 20 years old. And again, as the maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the beautiful Olga Kalinovskaya. This relationship seemed to the parents much more dangerous than the previous ones, both in terms of the strength of passion and for state reasons. Not only was the maid of honor not of royal blood, but she also professed the Catholic faith. This “explosive mixture” has already flown under the arches of the Winter Palace - Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of Nicholas I, married the Polish Countess Lovich.

Nikolai Pavlovich wrote to his wife about his son: “Sasha is not serious enough, he is prone to various pleasures, despite my advice and reproaches.” I wonder what the disobedient son thought as he listened to his father's instructions. It was no secret to anyone that next to the royal chambers lived the maid of honor Varenka Nelidova, the secret mistress and mother of the emperor’s illegitimate children. During the reign of Nikolai Pavlovich, fairly free morals reigned not only in secular St. Petersburg, but also in the much more patriarchal Moscow.

In "Notes of a Choreographer" A.P. Glushkovsky mentions the arrival in Russia “from the Persian Shah with an apology in the case of the death of Griboyedov” of Prince Khozrev-Mirza: “He (Prince - Editor's note) quite luxurious; not having thought to take with him a harem, the first most necessary need of a Muslim, he brought here a new one of fairly decent women.”

It was then that the European tour of the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I began, which lasted from 1836 to 1840. On this journey, the heir to the throne was accompanied by his mentors, the poet Zhukovsky and the infantry general Kavelin.

The young man, suffering from separation from his beloved, was introduced to the daughter of the Grand Duke Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, who was to become the wife of the future Russian Tsar. Alexander, remembering the duty of the monarch, himself wrote a letter to his father about the possibility of marriage with a pretty German princess. Rumors have long circulated in European courts about the illegal origins of Princess Maximiliana-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria, whose parents separated long before her birth. The princess's father was said to be the duke's master of horse, Baron de Grancy.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was horrified by such a marriage, but Nikolai Pavlovich, having studied the reports of the teachers, once and for all forbade discussing this sensitive topic. Nobody made a peep in Russia, especially in the dwarf German countries. There were few talkative people among the French and English - the “gendarme of Europe” was feared and respected.

The plans were almost disrupted by the young Queen Victoria of Great Britain, who turned Alexander’s head and herself fell under the spell of the Russian Grand Duke. However, the heir to the Russian throne could not become a British prince consort. The islanders were also not happy with the choice of their 20-year-old queen and hastily removed her to Windsor Castle.

State interests prevailed over the feelings of young people. Alexander Nikolaevich married the Darmstadt princess, who in Russia became Maria Alexandrovna. Even before marriage, her tuberculosis began to progress, which turned into a fatal disease in the dank St. Petersburg climate. They were finally brought to the grave by her husband’s infidelities, frequent attempts on his life, and especially the death of their eldest son Nikolai. Maria Alexandrovna's marriage to Alexander Nikolaevich was more of a cooperation agreement rather than a family union.

The last and true love of Alexander II was Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaya. The Tsar, who was 41 years old, first met 13-year-old Katenka in 1859. The Emperor arrived in the vicinity of Poltava for military maneuvers and accepted the invitation of Prince and Princess Dolgoruky to visit their Teplovka estate. The Dolgoruky family descended from the Rurikovichs.

The father of the future passion and morganatic wife of the Russian emperor was retired guard captain Mikhail Dolgoruky, and her mother was Vera Vishnevskaya, the richest Ukrainian landowner. But by the time the sovereign arrived, their economy was on the verge of collapse. The last refuge of the family - the Teplovka estate - was mortgaged and remortgaged. Alexander II facilitated the admission of four Dolgoruky sons to St. Petersburg military educational institutions, and two sisters to the Smolny Institute.

In the spring of 1865, the emperor, according to tradition, visited the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens and during lunch saw Catherine and Maria Dolgoruky. Contemporaries noted the emperor’s “extraordinary weakness for women.” It is not surprising that an 18-year-old college girl with amazingly soft skin and luxurious light brown hair won the emperor’s heart. With the help of former Smolensk resident Varvara Shebeko, whose services the sovereign resorted to more than once when resolving sensitive issues, he managed to incognito visit the sick Katya in the institute hospital.

Since Dolgorukaya’s continued stay in Smolny interfered with meetings with the tsar, Shebeko staged her departure “for family reasons.” As a palliative measure, the resourceful bawd suggested supposedly random meetings between Dolgorukaya and the sovereign in the Summer Garden. Later, so that St. Petersburg residents would whisper less about “the sovereign is skipping his demoiselle,” these rendezvous were moved to the alleys of the parks of Kamensky, Elaginsky, and Krestovsky islands of the capital. For some time, the lovers saw each other at the apartment of Katya’s brother Mikhail, but he greatly surprised the emperor when, fearing public condemnation, he refused them such a small thing. Dolgoruky himself, as we remember, ended up in the city of Petrov thanks to the efforts of the sovereign.

In June 1866, the next wedding anniversary of Nicholas I and Alexandra Fedorovna was celebrated in Peterhof. Three miles from the main Peterhof Palace, the guests settled in the Belvedere Castle, among whom was Katya Dolgorukaya. It was there that non-platonic love occurred between her and the emperor.

After this, the sovereign said: “Today, alas, I am not free, but at the first opportunity I will marry you, from now on I consider you my wife before God, and I will never leave you.” Subsequent events confirmed the emperor's words.

The St. Petersburg world learned about the “fall” of Ekaterina Dolgoruky almost the next morning. Socialites and especially lionesses in their fantasies surpassed any man's or woman's speculation. The beau monde gossiped that the demoiselle, depraved from a young age, danced naked in front of the sovereign and, in general, was “ready to give herself to anyone” for diamonds. Ekaterina Mikhailovna was forced to leave for Italy for a short time. Aunt Vava (as the younger Dolgorukys called Shebeko) in the meantime decided, so that the sovereign would not get bored, to put his younger sister Dolgoruky in his bed. Alexander II talked with Maria for an hour and gave her a wallet with chervonets as a farewell gift. From now on, no one existed for him except Katya.

In June 1867, Napoleon III invited Alexander II to visit the Paris World Exhibition. Ekaterina Mikhailovna immediately went to the French capital to meet her beloved. Their meetings were regularly recorded by local police. They did not peek through the keyhole, given that the couple did not particularly resort to secrecy. After the unsuccessful uprising of 1867, many insurgent Poles settled in Paris, and the French authorities feared for the safety of the Russian Tsar. But the sea was knee-deep for the lovers. Perhaps it was at this time that Alexander told his legal wife about his mistress.

If the emperor's wife and his children preferred not to wash dirty linen in public and did not make a sound or sigh in public, then the ladies of the court became sophisticated in gossip and gossip. To retell this nonsense and vileness is not to respect yourself. No matter how you look at the events of the autumn of 1917 - as the Great October Revolution or the October Revolution, she put an end to this court “rabble”. Among the relatives of Alexander II, real panic began only when the emperor granted Dolgoruky and their joint children (George and Olga) the title of His Serene Highness Princes of Yuryevsky.

This name reminded everyone of one of the Romanov ancestors, the early 16th century boyar Yuri Zakharyin, as well as the famous Rurikovich Yuri Dolgoruky. But there was a practical point - the tsar did not want that after his death, his and Katya’s children, if the Dolgoruky family abandoned them, would turn out to be bastards. Both children are officially recognized in the decree as his children. A narrow circle of relatives received vague hints that, on the personal order of the sovereign, an active search was being conducted in the archives for documents with details of the coronation of Peter the Great’s second wife, Ekaterina Alekseevna. People eager for historical analogies said that the first Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich, was also married to Dolgorukaya. But that Maria Dolgorukaya did not live long and left no offspring.

The panic reached its apogee when the relatives learned that on July 6, 1880, in a small room on the lower floor of the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, at the modest altar of the camp church, a wedding ceremony took place. And although the law is not written for kings, the emperor did not tease the geese from high society. Neither the guard soldiers and officers nor the palace servants knew about the wedding. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of the Court, Count Adlerberg, Adjutants General Ryleev and Baranov, the bride's sister Maria and Mademoiselle Shebeko. The ceremony was performed by Protopresbyter Xenophon Nikolsky. The groom was dressed in a blue hussar uniform, the bride in a simple light dress.

Family happiness was short-lived. On March 1, 1881, Narodnaya Volya threw a bomb at the Tsar’s feet. Using money bequeathed by her husband, Princess Yuryevskaya and her children went to Nice, where she died in 1922.

He was old enough to be her father, and the role of a hero-lover with gray hair did not in any way suit his status. The subtleties of this adultery were discussed everywhere and, of course, reached his ears, but he pretended that nothing was happening: it was not a royal business to understand the speculation. Russian Emperor Alexander II and His Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya - their love could be called ideal...

The history of the relationship between Alexander II and Catherine Mikhailovna not long ago became the property of the State Archive of Russia - the Rothschild family transferred her archive to the princess’s homeland: more than 6,000 letters and notes from the emperor and princess, which they exchanged for 15 years. If we take into account that the lovers practically did not part (except briefly in 1866 and during the Balkan campaign of 1877-1878), then one can imagine the power of their attraction - they saw each other almost every day, communicated and always dedicated several lines to each other.

Yuryevskaya on behalf of Yuri

Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya, in the future Princess Yuryevskaya, was born in Moscow on November 14, 1847 and belonged to one of the most ancient and noble families: the Dolgoruky princes were descendants of Rurik, and the daughter of one of them, Maria Dolgorukaya, at one time became the wife of the founder of the dynasty Romanovs - Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. The princess was also directly related to the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky. That is why Alexander II ordered to call Ekaterina Mikhailovna Princess Yuryevskaya, granting her the title “most serene.”

The beginning of their romantic relationship is similar to love stories described in literature: he saw her as a girl, the image of the young creature was etched in his memory, and when she grew up, fate brought them together. Walks, conversations and friendship began, which later somehow imperceptibly grew into love. That's how it was. The emperor first saw eleven-year-old Catherine in her fortieth year in August 1857, when he attended military maneuvers and stayed at the estate of her father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Dolgoruky, in Teplovka. And two years later, the tsar had to remember Catherine in connection with sad events: her careless father lost his considerable fortune and soon died, leaving six children to be tested by fate. Alexander II took the prince's estate under his guardianship and ordered the upbringing of the orphaned children. This is how Princess Ekaterina and her younger sister Maria ended up at the Smolny Institute. A witness to further events, a collector of material about Princess Yuryevskaya, the French diplomat Maurice Paleologue writes that the girls were very beautiful, that Katya’s face, as if carved from ivory, was framed by luxurious brown hair, that she was amazingly built. And Alexander himself was a stately handsome man. This is what Théophile Gautier, who visited Russia and saw him at the ball, writes about the emperor’s appearance: “Alexander II was dressed in an elegant military suit, which favorably highlighted his tall, slender figure. It is something like a white jacket with gold braiding, going down to the hips and trimmed on the collar, sleeves and bottom with blue Siberian fox. Orders of the highest dignity sparkle on his chest. Tight blue trousers outline slender legs and go down to narrow boots. The sovereign's hair is cut short and reveals a large and well-formed forehead. The facial features are impeccably correct and seem created for a medal...” The Emperor adored horses and loved to give luxurious balls. True, in everyday life, according to Ekaterina Mikhailovna, he remained more than unpretentious. In his office in the Winter Palace, located next to the servants’ rooms, there was almost always no heat, there were drafts...

Give up everything

The trustee of the Smolny Institute was Empress Maria Alexandrovna, nee Princess of Hesse - the wife of Alexander II. According to legend, the tsar drew attention to young Ekaterina Mikhailovna on the very day when the empress was not feeling well and was unable to go with her husband to the traditional tea party in Smolny. (Since the founding of the institute by Catherine II, all the crowned heads provided this educational institution with great attention and all possible support.) Meanwhile, the tsar treated the sisters to sweets, the taste of which Ekaterina Mikhailovna would remember all her life, because it was from this meeting that her enthusiastic love began. Subsequently, she recalled how happy she was to see the emperor: “... his visits restored my vigor. When I was sick, he visited me in the infirmary. His emphasized attention to me and his face, so perfect, shed balm on my childish heart. The more I grew up, the more his cult in me intensified. Every time he came, he sent for me and allowed me to walk next to him. He was interested in me; I considered him a patron, a friend, I addressed him as an angel, knowing that he would not refuse me patronage... He sent me sweets, and I cannot describe how much I adored him...”

In 1864, at the age of seventeen, the princess completed her education, settled in St. Petersburg on Basseynaya in the house of her elder brother Mikhail and, in general, became distant from her high guardian. But a year later, while walking in the Summer Garden, she accidentally saw the emperor, and he also noticed her. He approached her and showered her with compliments, completely embarrassing Ekaterina Mikhailovna. Not embarrassed by passers-by, he walked with her along the alleys, showing signs of attention. But for a whole year after this meeting, the princess remained uncommunicative and withdrawn.

Soon their souls were brought closer by misfortune: after the tragic death of their son, Tsarevich Nicholas, in April 1865, the inconsolable father sent for Ekaterina Mikhailovna. She arrived to him, and during the conversation she felt uncontrollably sorry for the grief-stricken man. And leaving the palace, the princess caught herself thinking that for the first time she wanted to return to him.

In the same year, in July, one of the most memorable meetings between the princess and the tsar took place. Catherine, at his request, came to Peterhof, to the Babigon pavilion, which was built for his wife by the father of Alexander II, Nicholas I. It was a wonderful July evening, everything around was buried in flowers... When parting, he told her that from now on and forever he considers her his wife, that he is not yet free, but at the first opportunity he will marry her. It is not known what Ekaterina Mikhailovna thought about the emperor’s oath then, but from then on the feeling in her heart grew every day.

The turning point in the development of their history was the day of April 4, 1866, when, after a walk with the princess, the emperor left the Summer Garden and fell under the bullets of the revolutionary terrorist Dmitry Karakozov. The princess recalled that, returning home after the assassination attempt on the sovereign, she cried a lot, because “she was moved to see him happy from meeting him,” and after much thought she decided that her heart belonged to him and that she was “not able to connect her existence with anyone.” no matter what." The next day, Ekaterina Mikhailovna announced to her family that she would prefer to die than to get married. Endless scenes followed, but the princess’s mood was unyielding. From that moment on, she decided to “give up everything, the secular pleasures so desired by young people... and devote her whole life to the happiness of the One she loved.” What was it: enthusiastic love-self-sacrifice of a romantic young lady, blinded by the brilliance of the emperor, or a really great feeling? After all, if you think about this story and remember all its participants, then it turns out to be not very beautiful, just like the oath about a joint future given to the princess by the emperor. It turned out that the tsar was measuring the life of his wife, Maria Alexandrovna, the mother of his eight children. Describing the personal vicissitudes of Alexander II, biographers often clarify that after the birth of so many children, the empress’s health deteriorated and that the tsar lost interest in her. The death of Tsarevich Nicholas, so absurd and early, caused particular damage to her well-being, after which her illnesses began to progress rapidly. And if we add to all this the details of the relationship between the tsar and the princess, especially the fact that after the Balkan campaign of 1878 he settled her in the palace above his chambers, then a not very pleasant portrait of Alexander II emerges - not a politician, of course, but a person. His progressive reforms, including the abolition of serfdom, are a topic for another conversation.

It is noteworthy that Princess Yuryevskaya herself later, in her memoirs, would in every possible way avoid the topic of the Tsar’s wife and reverently describe the latter as the most subtle, amazing, delicate person: “He found happiness in being pleasant to other people, and in many cases forgot about to yourself; his forbearance was equaled by the kindness of his heart; he knew how to relate to the weaknesses of human nature...” He probably really knew how to do all this, but for some reason he hurt his rightful chosen one, Maria Alexandrovna, whose blessing for an alliance with whom he begged from his parents many years ago. The Emperor and Empress were against the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, because they knew the secret of her birth: Mary’s father was not Ludwig II; at the time the girl was born, he did not have a marital relationship with her mother Wilhelmina of Baden, but recognized the child as his own, keeping the crown. All this did not stop the young Tsarevich Alexander, just as now nothing could stop him in his new love. And the proud and adamant empress could only pretend that nothing was happening, although everyone, including her children, knew who lived above the king’s chambers.

Always be there

Until the moment the princess entered the Winter Palace, she constantly traveled everywhere with her lover. At the beginning of their romance, close people, including the princess's brother Mikhail and his wife, Marquise de Cerce Maggio re, resisted such an unambiguous situation as best they could. And they even sent Ekaterina Mikhailovna to Italy with the hope that time would cool her heart. But it turned out the other way around: distances only strengthened the feeling. Neither time nor the age difference with the emperor, which was 28 years, stopped her.

Being separated in 1866, they met in 1867 at the World Exhibition in Paris, where Alexander II, wanting to be close to the princess, barely had time for meetings with Napoleon III. The international situation was difficult at that time: Germany was preparing for war with France. The sovereign's visit was coming to an end, and separation was again imminent, during which the emperor was in an anxious, bad mood, and the princess fell ill. The course of cough treatment only made it worse. Having suffered, she finally announced to her relatives that, despite their plans to stay abroad, she was returning to Russia tomorrow, because she no longer saw any meaning in her life. Upon arrival to the emperor, Catherine was still ill. He found her condition very bad and decided that he would never again part with his “good Angel” - that’s what Alexander II called the princess in correspondence. And she rushed to the sovereign with all her thoughts and soul. She idolized him and surrounded him with endless care and tenderness. She led a reclusive life, did not go to the theater or to receptions. Despite the fact that the emperor made her a court lady, she appeared at balls extremely rarely - only at the request of Alexander, who loved to watch her dance. Her rare appearances were explained, of course, by other considerations: the court nobility, like the royal family, blamed her for everything that happened around. How she withstood such onslaught remains a mystery.

Morganatic children

In 1871, the pages of the novel between the princess and the tsar were replenished with a great event: Ekaterina Mikhailovna gave birth to her first child, George. He was born in the apartments of Nicholas I, where the lovers met. (She will move to the Winter Palace in seven years.) Alexander was present at the birth, held the exhausted princess by the hands and was so worried about her health that he asked the doctor and midwife, worried about the long process, to do everything possible and impossible so as not to lose Ekaterina Mikhailovna.

The healthy baby that appeared was immediately transferred to the house where the head of the Tsar’s personal guard, General Ryleev, lived, and was entrusted to the nurse and nanny. No matter how the parents hid this event, the imperial family quickly learned about the birth of a boy. Everyone was shocked by this news - they were afraid that the emperor would introduce an illegitimate child into the family. The nobility close to the court condemned the behavior of the sovereign, and only Maria Alexandrovna seemed unperturbed. But trouble has begun. The cup of universal patience was filled with the birth of the next child in 1873 - daughter Olga.

The tragicomic situation that occurred with the head of the secret royal chancellery, Count Pyotr Shuvalov, who dared to tell the emperor what they were saying about his hobby, dates back to the same time. The Emperor arrogantly and calmly listened to Shuvalov and made it clear that he was indifferent to such conversations. But the count did not calm down and somewhere among his friends, he got excited, spoke out against the “girl” who had seduced the emperor, closed his eyes to important events and distracted him from state affairs. A year later, the emperor, talking with Shuvalov, among other things, informed him that he had recently been transferred from his post as ambassador to London. The all-powerful head of the secret chancellery was dumbfounded...

Ekaterina Mikhailovna gave birth to five children to the emperor, but two of them died in infancy. How dear the princess and their children were to the sovereign is evidenced by the fact that back in 1874, when George and Olga were very small, and Catherine had not yet been born (she was born in 1878), Alexander II made a very important decision for their future. document - Decree to the Governing Senate. In it, the emperor ordered to call the children Alexandrovich, grant them the rights inherent in the nobility, and elevate each one to princely dignity with the title “most serene.”

Secret wedding

The apartments in the Winter Palace, allocated to Ekaterina Mikhailovna and the children, were located on the second floor and consisted of three large rooms, from which a staircase led down to the Tsar’s chambers. Despite the fact that the empress immediately learned about this proximity, she never reproached her husband for this, although Dolgorukaya’s installation in the palace was clearly perceived by everyone as open adultery. Why the Tsar decided to take such a step is unclear; after the princess moved, he changed a lot in appearance, lost weight and looked exhausted. Well, Maria Alexandrovna could not endure it for long. On June 3, 1880, she died, thereby freeing the emperor’s hands. Ekaterina Mikhailovna did not attend her funeral. A month after his wife’s burial, on July 6, Alexander II led his beloved down the aisle. We can say that the wedding, which took place in the Great Tsarskoye Selo Palace, took place in secret: even the palace commandant was left in the dark. The emperor was in a blue uniform of a guards hussar, and the princess was in a beige evening dress. The role of best men was played by Adjutant General Baranov and General Ryleev - they held crowns over the heads of the Tsar and Princess. At the end of the procedure, the priest was unable to say to the newlyweds: “kiss,” and they went for a walk, inviting the princess’s friend Mrs. Shebeko and the children into the carriage.

The walk was wonderful, the weather was favorable, and the king was in excellent spirits. According to the memoirs of Ekaterina Mikhailovna, he turned to his son Georgy with a request that he be sure to remember his father when he was gone. The boy was dumbfounded, but his mother came to his aid with a word.

At the end of July 1880, the emperor summoned the chairman of the newly established Supreme Commission for the Protection of Public Order, Adjutant General, Count Loris-Melikov to Tsarskoye Selo and, reminding him of the difficult situation in society associated with popular unrest and a series of attempts on the life of the emperor, no matter what happened, he asked to take care of Princess Yuryevskaya and his children. He told the count that now Ekaterina Mikhailovna is his legal wife and that a decree has already been drawn up granting his children from the princess all the rights belonging to legitimate children, in accordance with paragraph 14 of the Basic State Laws of the Russian Empire. The only thing that George, Olga and Catherine could not do was inherit the throne, because they were born only from one of the members of the imperial family.

Last trip

On August 29, 1880, a month after the wedding, the emperor, not yet knowing it, set off with the princess and two older children on his last family trip - to his beloved Livadia. The retinue who was on the royal train was very surprised by the feelings that the always reserved sovereign now showed towards the princess. Upon arrival in Livadia, Alexander and Ekaterina Mikhailovna settled in the palace. They spent hours together, walked with the children, admired the sea and could not stop talking to each other. Here, in Livadia, the tsar wrote another document - a letter to Tsarevich Alexander, the future Emperor Alexander III, with the greatest request that in the event of his death he should not ignore the princess and children. Alexander also thought about one more question - the elevation of Princess Yuryevskaya to the rank of empress and, most likely, would have realized his plan if the hand of a terrorist had not cut short his life.

A terrible event for the princess, and for Russia as well, occurred on March 13, 1881. The Tsar returned to the Winter Palace along the usual route; his cortege reached the embankment between the Catherine Canal and the gardens of the Mikhailovsky Palace. There were two explosions. The first did not affect the emperor, the second turned his body into a bloody mess. The barely breathing king was carried into the palace, covering his path with blood. The princess was informed that His Majesty was not feeling well. She immediately went down to the emperor's office and began to provide assistance along with the surgeons. But it was all in vain. Life was leaving her precious person. At half past four, the emperor died, and Princess Yuryevskaya closed his eyes. They brought her to the funeral service by the arms; her weakened body did not obey Catherine. On the eve of the funeral, she approached the coffin with her hair cut and, as a last gift, placed her luxurious hair in her husband’s hands.

After the death of the emperor, Princess Yuryevskaya went abroad with her children and devoted her life to them. Son George became Prince Yuryevsky and captain of the guard, was married to Countess Zarenkau and had a son, Alexander, from her. The eldest daughter Olga married Count Georg of Merenberg and gave birth to three children. The youngest daughter Ekaterina was married to Prince Baryatinsky and gave birth to two sons, while she long tolerated her husband’s relationship with singer Lina Cavalieri, but that’s another story, albeit so similar to the one described above.

While abroad, Ekaterina Mikhailovna, under the pseudonym Victor Laferte, wrote a book of memoirs about the princess and the tsar - “Alexander II”, in which she spoke about their relationship and listed his many deeds for the benefit of the Fatherland. About herself on the last pages she wrote the following: “Princess Yuryevskaya was loved by the greatest sovereign of our time, and thanks to her union with him she knew every conceivable earthly happiness.”

Towards the end of her life, she devoted herself to caring for homeless animals. In Nice, a special reservoir for cats and dogs, created according to the princess’s plan, remained untouched for a long time, so that the unfortunate would have a place to drink in the heat.

The Most Serene Princess died in Nice in 1922, outliving the Emperor by 41 years. Left a widow at the age of 33, being a beautiful, blooming woman, Ekaterina Mikhailovna sacredly preserved the memory of her dearest husband.

Who would have been interested in some princess Dolgorukova (who knew how many princesses there were in Rus'?), if not for the great love that intertwined her fate with the life of Emperor Alexander II? Not a favorite who would twist the Tsar as she wanted, Ekaterina Mikhailovna became his only love, created a family for him, which he dearly loved and protected.

First meeting

Princess E. M. Dolgorukova was born in 1847 in the Poltava region. There, on her parents' estate, when she was not yet twelve years old, she saw the emperor for the first time. Moreover, he honored the girl with a walk and a long conversation.

And the forty-year-old adult did not get bored in the company of the child, but was entertained by the simplicity of communication. Later, two years later, having learned about the disastrous financial situation of Prince Dolgorukov, he helped ensure that both sons of the prince received a military education, and assigned both princesses to

Second meeting

Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Princess Dolgorukova, while studying at Smolny, received a good education. At the institute, noble maidens were taught languages, social manners, home economics, music, dancing, drawing, and very little time was devoted to history, geography, and literature. On the eve of Easter 1865, the emperor visited Smolny, and when the seventeen-year-old princess was introduced to him, he remembered her, strange as it may seem, but even more strange is that he did not forget her later.

And the girl was in the prime of youthful and innocent beauty.

Third meeting

After graduating from the Institute of Noble Maidens, Ekaterina Mikhailovna lived in the house of her brother Mikhail. She loved to walk around the Summer Garden and dream that she would meet Alexander II there. And her dream came true. They met by chance, and the emperor gave her a lot of compliments. She, of course, was embarrassed, but from that time on they began to take walks together. And there it was not far from words of love. While the romance developed platonically, Ekaterina Mikhailovna comprehended her situation more and more deeply and flatly refused to get married: every single young man seemed uninteresting to her.

And the girl decided her fate herself. She wanted to make a lonely person, like the Emperor, happy.

Family of Alexander II

And at home she was a cold and dry person. Alexander Nikolaevich did not have a warm family hearth. Everything was strictly regulated. He had not a wife, but an Empress, not children, but Grand Dukes. Etiquette was strictly observed in the family, and liberties were not allowed. The case of the eldest son, Tsarevich Nicholas, dying of tuberculosis in Nice is terrible. The patient's daytime sleep time changed, and Maria Fedorovna stopped visiting him, since she had scheduled walks while he was awake. Did a middle-aged person who wanted warmth need such a family? The death of the heir, with whom he was close, was a huge blow for the emperor.

Secret family

Open and challenging public opinion, which later turned out not to be in her favor, Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova surrounded the aging, but still full of strength and ideas, Tsar with warmth and affection. When their relationship began, she was eighteen, and her lover was thirty years older.

But nothing, except the need to hide from others, darkened their relationship. Maria Fedorovna, sick with tuberculosis, no longer got up, and the entire Romanov family expressed an extremely negative attitude towards the young woman, especially the heir, Tsarevich Alexander. He himself had a very strong and friendly family, and he refused to accept and understand his father’s behavior. He expressed his dislike so clearly that Alexander II sent his wife, whom he considered Catherine Dolgorukaya, first to Naples and then to Paris. It was in Paris in 1867 that their meetings continued. But not a single step of the emperor went unnoticed. He was watched by Their extensive correspondence, full of genuine passion, has survived to this day. Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova was an ardent lover and did not skimp on tender words. All this, apparently, was not enough for Alexander Nikolaevich in his frozen and constrained official family.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova and Alexander 2nd

The one whom the Tsar immediately promised to make his crowned wife at the first opportunity had to show feminine patience and wisdom. She humbly waited for this happy day for her for fourteen years. During this time, she and Alexander had four children, but one of the sons, Boris, died as an infant. The rest grew up, and their daughters got married, and their son George became a military man, but died at forty-one, having outlived his crowned father by many years.

Morganatic wedding

The Empress had not yet died when Alexander Nikolaevich moved his family to Zimny ​​and settled it directly above Maria Feodorovna’s chambers. There was whispering in the palace. When Maria Feodorovna died in 1880, even before the end of official mourning, less than three months later, a modest, almost secret wedding took place. And five months later, Ekaterina Mikhailovna was granted the title of Most Serene Princess Yuryevskaya, and their children also began to bear this surname. Alexander Nikolaevich was distinguished by his fearlessness, but he was afraid of attempts on his life, because he did not know how this would affect the Yuryevsky family. Over 3 million rubles were deposited in the name of the princess and her children, and five months later he was killed by Narodnaya Volya. His last breath was taken by a completely grief-stricken Ekaterina Mikhailovna.

Existence in Nice

At the villa, the Most Serene Princess lived with memories. She kept all the clothes of her loved one, down to the dressing gown, wrote a book of memoirs and died in 1922, forty-one years after the death of her beloved husband and lover. At the age of 33 she lost her husband, and for the rest of her life she was faithful to his memory.

This concludes the description of the life that Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova led. Her biography is both happy and bitter at the same time.

In March 1855, a new emperor ascended to the Russian throne. Alexander II. The era of his reign, which began with the defeat in the Crimean War and ended with the death of the emperor himself, was one of the most striking periods in Russian history.

Alexander II decided to do what his predecessors were not ready for - he began large-scale reforms, which Russia urgently needed.

These reforms affected almost all spheres of life, although the emperor is primarily credited with the abolition of serfdom.

But behind the busy life of Emperor Alexander II, there also remained the life of Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov, an ordinary person, not devoid of feelings and weaknesses inherent in all people. And there was a love story in his life that he had to fight for...

The unloved is waiting for me in the palace...

In 1841, the 23-year-old heir to the throne, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, married a 17-year-old Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of the Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Portrait of Franz Winterhalter, 1857 (Hermitage)

The parents of the Grand Duke had serious doubts about this union, but the future emperor, distinguished by his amorousness from a young age, insisted on his own. In Orthodoxy, the prince’s young wife took the name Maria Alexandrovna.

Maria Alexandrovna was a worthy wife of the Grand Duke and then the Emperor. She bore him eight children, despite poor health; She devoted a lot of time to charity, did not interfere in her husband’s political affairs - in a word, an exemplary wife of a monarch.

The problem was only one thing - Alexander very quickly lost interest in his wife. Men from the Romanov family were not generally distinguished by marital fidelity, but Alexander II stood out even among them, changing favorites like gloves.

Maria Alexandrovna knew about this, and worries about this did not add to her health. To the credit of Alexander II, he did everything that depended on him for the recovery of his wife. The imperial couple spent a lot of time at foreign resorts, and the empress felt better for some time.

Maria Alexandrovna's health deteriorated greatly after the death of her eldest son, the Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich. The 21-year-old heir to the throne died in 1865 in Nice from meningitis.

The emperor, who was also experiencing the loss of his son, surrounded his wife with care, but not love. His true, sincere love belonged to another...

"I want to see the emperor"

Ekaterina Dolgorukova. Photo: Public Domain

In 1859, Alexander II went on a trip to Poltava, where exercises dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava were to take place. The Emperor stayed at the Teplovka estate, owned by the guards captain, Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov, belonging to an ancient but impoverished branch of the Dolgorukov family.

One day, while walking through the garden, the emperor came across a girl about ten years old. Alexander II asked who she was. “I am Ekaterina Mikhailovna,” the girl answered importantly. “What are you doing here?” - asked the king. “I want to see the emperor,” the girl admitted.

This girl was the daughter of Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov Catherine. The Emperor found Katenka funny and intelligent and spent several hours talking and walking in the garden with her, which delighted her completely.

Two years after this meeting, the emperor was informed that Prince Mikhail Dolgorukov, with whom he was staying, was completely ruined, and his family was left without a livelihood.

Remembering Dolgorukov’s hospitality and his sweet and funny daughter, Alexander II ordered the prince’s four sons and two daughters to be taken under “imperial guardianship.”

Boys were sent to the capital's military schools, and girls to the Smolny Institute.

Meeting in the Summer Garden

The Smolny Institute was patronized by Empress Maria Alexandrovna, but because of her illness, the educational institution was often visited by the emperor himself. One day he was introduced to a 17-year-old student, Ekaterina Dolgorukova. Alexander II remembered his little interlocutor from Teplovka, but now instead of her a young girl of amazing beauty stood in front of him.

This meeting turned the life of Alexander II upside down. He suddenly discovered that his thoughts were constantly returning to Katya Dolgorukova.

Egor Botman. Portrait of Alexander II. 1856. (Fragment). Photo: Public Domain

After graduating from the institute, Ekaterina Dolgorukova settled in St. Petersburg in the house of her older brother Mikhail and often walked along the alleys of the Summer Garden. Alexander II also loved to walk there alone. Once this habit almost made him the victim of an assassination attempt... But let’s not talk about politics.

During one of his walks in the Summer Garden, the emperor literally ran into Katenka Dolgorukova, a girl about whom he now constantly thought. Alexander II took a long walk with Katya that day and gave her a bunch of compliments, which embarrassed her a lot.

From that moment on, their walks together occurred more and more often. From simple compliments the emperor moved on to words of love - he lost his head like a boy.

“I consider you my wife before God”

From the notes of Ekaterina Dolgorukova: “...after much thought, I decided that my heart belongs to him and I am not able to connect my existence with anyone. The next day I announced to my parents that I would rather die than get married. Endless scenes and questions followed, but I felt an unprecedented determination to fight everyone who tried to marry me off, and I realized that this force supporting me was love. From that moment I decided to give up everything, the secular pleasures so desired by young people of my age, and devote my whole life to the happiness of the One I loved.”

Their relationship for several months was purely platonic in nature, which is completely uncharacteristic of Alexander II, who was accustomed to receiving everything from women at once. But this time everything was different - for the first time in his life he was overcome by a high feeling that did not allow him to treat his young beloved rudely.

They spent their first night together in July 1866 in Belvedere, near Peterhof. Katya Dolgorukova was not yet 19 years old, Alexander Nikolaevich Romanov was 48...

The Emperor told Catherine: “I am not free now. But at the first opportunity I will marry you, for from now on and forever I consider you my wife before God...”

Ekaterina Dolgorukova. Own sketch of Emperor Alexander II. Photo: Public Domain

“I won’t rest until I see your charms”

The relationship between the emperor and Ekaterina Dolgorukova was quickly learned at court. At first, this was taken for another intrigue, but it soon became clear that this time Alexander II fell in love for real.

And his legal wife Maria Alexandrovna continued to fade away, getting sick more and more often.

The Emperor faced strong rejection of his new novel from his family, including his son. Alexander Alexandrovich, heir to the throne.

The conflict was so serious that he decided to send Catherine abroad for a while. However, Alexander II did not intend to leave her - he even came to visit his beloved in Paris, where their romance was secretly monitored by French police agents.

Those who expected that the “emperor’s infatuation would pass” were mistaken - the “infatuation” lasted for years. Alexander and Catherine carried on a correspondence full of passion, and the contents of many letters can embarrass even Russians of the 21st century who are not inclined to puritanism. Emperor - Ekaterina Dolgorukova: “We had each other the way you wanted. But I must confess to you: I will not rest until I see your charms again.”.

Ekaterina Dolgorukova to Alexander: “Everything in me trembles with the passion with which I want to see you. I love and kiss you all, my darling, my life, my everything.”

Catherine gave birth to four children from the emperor - two girls and two boys (one of whom died in infancy).

“Son, do you want to be a Grand Duke?”

By the end of the 1870s, an amazing picture emerged: the All-Russian Emperor lived in two families, not really hiding this fact. This, of course, was not reported to the subjects, but members of the royal family, high-ranking dignitaries, and courtiers knew very well about it.

On this basis, the relations of Alexander II with his son and heir Alexander Alexandrovich teetered on the brink of the Cold War.

And Alexander II also added fuel to this family conflict by settling Catherine and her children in the Winter Palace, in separate chambers, but next to her legal wife and children.

Georgy, Olga and Ekaterina Yuryevsky. Photo: Public Domain

On May 22, 1880, Maria Alexandrovna died. Alexander II was determined to fulfill the promise made to Catherine 14 years ago.

On July 6, 1880, Alexander II married Ekaterina Dolgorukova. This happened before the end of mourning for the deceased empress. Alexander understood everything, but to those who asked him to wait, he answered: “I would never get married before the end of mourning, but we live in a dangerous time, when sudden assassination attempts, which I subject myself to every day, could end my life. Therefore, my duty is to ensure the position of the woman who has been living for me for fourteen years, as well as to ensure the future of our three children.”

The marriage was morganatic, that is, it did not make Ekaterina Dolgorukova an empress, but it seems that Alexander II was ready to go further.

In any case, members of the imperial family were instructed to behave with Ekaterina Dolgorukova as with an empress.

Alexander II himself, playing with his little son Georgiy, whom his family called Goga, once asked the child in the presence of the heir to the throne:

- Goga, do you want to be a Grand Duke?

Catherine, sitting next to her husband, breaking etiquette, exclaimed:

- Sasha, stop it!

What the future Emperor Alexander III thought about all this could be guessed from his changed face.

Love that conquered death

By decree of December 5, 1880, Ekaterina Dolgorukova was granted the title Your Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya, which correlated with one of the family names of the Romanov boyars; the children of Catherine and the emperor also received the princely title and surname Yuryevsky.

If the men from the imperial family, with the exception of the heir, reacted to everything that happened with restraint and understanding, then the ladies behaved like market women or inhabitants of a communal kitchen. Streams of dirty gossip and outright hatred accompanied the short period during which Catherine was destined to be the legal wife of Alexander II.

On March 1, 1881, the emperor was mortally wounded by a Narodnaya Volya bomb Ignatius Grinevitsky.

Ekaterina Dolgorukova was only 33 years old, but along with the death of the man to whom she once decided to devote her life, the world around her faded away. She never married again, remaining faithful to Alexander.

And so it happened. The new Emperor Alexander III did not show nobility, and Ekaterina Dolgorukova and her children were strongly advised to leave Russia.

Your Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya emigrated to Nice, where she spent the rest of her life in her own villa, leaving memories of her happiest years, of her love for the great emperor and an ordinary person.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova died in Nice in 1922, outliving Alexander by 41 years...

Ekaterina Dolgorukova (Yuryevskaya) in Nice.