Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia
Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich , of the House of
Romanov, was Tsesarevich of
Russia and was the youngest child of Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia and
Alexandra Fyodorovna. He was also affectionately referred to as Alyosha and Lyoshka .
Encyclopedia
Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich , of the House of
Romanov, was Tsesarevich of
Russia and was the youngest child of Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia and
Alexandra Fyodorovna. He was also affectionately referred to as
Alyosha and
Lyoshka .
Life account
Alexei was born on 30 July 1904 in
Peterhof. He was a great-grandson of
Queen Victoria of England. He was the youngest of five children, and the only boy. His older sisters were the Grand Duchesses
Olga,
Tatiana,
Maria and
Anastasia. Of all his sisters, Alexei was reportedly closest to Anastasia.
Alexei was christened at Peterhof on 24 August 1904. His godparents were
The King of Great Britain,
The King of Denmark,
The Grand Duke of Hesse,
The Prince of Wales,
Wilhelm II of Germany,
Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia,
The Dowager Empress of Russia,
Princess Victoria of Great Britain,
Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, and
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia.
He inherited
haemophilia from his mother Alexandra, a condition which could be traced back to her maternal grandmother
Queen Victoria. His haemophilia led to controversy, on the grounds that it was believed that his mother was having an affair with Russian
starets,
Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin claimed to be able to 'heal' Alexei when he was on the brink of death after spells of haemophilia-related complications.
He was 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 murder was carried out by forces of the
Bolshevik secret police under
Yakov Yurovsky. Alexei witnessed the deaths of his father, mother, and two servants before the assassins turned on him. 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 his sisters . As a result of this, there have been people who have pretended to be the Tsarveich; these people are Alexei Poutziato, Joseph Veres, Heino Temmet and Vassili Felatov. However, it is extremely unlikely that he escaped, due to his lifelong haemophilia, including a recent attack which had left him unable to walk prior to the murders. The missing bodies are thought to have been
cremated.
In 2000, Alexei and his family were canonized by the
Russian Orthodox Church. They are considered "passion bearers", a reference to their exemplary behavior in the face of hardship and death.
Historical significance
Alexei was the heir to the Romanov Empire.
Paul I had passed laws forbidding women to succeed to the throne, possibly in revenge for what he considered the immoral behavior of his mother,
Catherine II . Alexei was named after
Alexis I of Russia, who ruled from 1645 to 1676, known as 'the Quiet' and father of
Peter the Great.
In the first draft of Tsar Nicholas II's 1917 abdication, the intention was that the twelve-year-old Alexei would ascend to the throne under a regency. However, due to Nicholas' wish that Alexei should not be separated from the family, and in view of his crippling illness, the final draft included the abdication both of father and son in favour of Nicholas' younger brother
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, which Michael was unwilling to accept.
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 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 Grigori 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 is a 1971 [i] biographical film which tells the story of the last of Russia's...
. It is possible that if Alexei had not suffered so terribly, Rasputin could never have gained such influence over Russian politics during the
World War I, which at the very 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, which may have further compromised their control of the state and contributed to the
Russian Revolution.
External links
- , Nicolay Sokolov. Investigation of murder of the Romanov Imperial Family in 1918.
- A media presentation of the last Imperial Family.
