Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress (1872-1918)

Categories / Capital/Personalia
ALEXANDRA FEDOROVNA (1872-1918), Empress (from 1894). Nee Victoria Alix Helena Brigitte Louise Beatrice, Princess of Hessen-Darmstadt. Wife of Emperor Nicholas II (from 1894). A melancholic person, Alexandra Fedorovna avoided court balls and ceremonies, which led St. Petersburg society to dislike of her. After the birth of her children, she devoted herself to the family and for a long time did not interfere in state affairs. After the birth of son Alexey (1904, Peterhof - 1918), who suffered from haemophilia, a hereditary disease, Alexandra Fedorovna became involved in religious mysticism. She became unstable and hysterical, which led to the appearance of characters like G.E. Rasputin, who became close to the Imperial Family. Alexandra Fedorovna contributed to many public and charitable institutions, headed the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society (1896), and The Supreme Council for Charity for Families of Servicemen (1914). During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05, she organized a warehouse for donations for the wounded in the Winter Palace. In 1914, she received the title of Wartime Nurse, personally tending the wounded at the military hospital, situated in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoe Selo. During the years of the First World War of 1914-18, a false rumour spread about her spying for Germany and being a negative influence on her husband. After the February Revolution of 1917, she and her children shared the fate of her husband. She was buried in the Catherine aisle of the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral (1998). She was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (1981) and the Russian Orthodox Church (2000).

References: Фирсов С. Л. Императрица Александра Федоровна как религиозный тип // Новый часовой. 1996. № 4. С. 196-204; Кинг Г. Императрица Александра Федоровна: Биогр. М., 2000.

Y. A. Kuzmin. Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress
Alexey Nikolaevich, Tsesarevitch
Nicholas II, Emperor
Rasputin Grigory Efimovich
Кинг Г. Императрица Александра Федоровна: Биогр. М., 2000
Фирсов С. Л. Императрица Александра Федоровна как религиозный тип // Новый часовой., 1996 Winter Palace
Catherine Palace (Town of Pushkin)
February Revolution of 1917
SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral
1894