Saint Petersburg- this is a city that you can study throughout your life; too many significant and talented people have made efforts to build and develop it as the cultural capital of our vast homeland. It’s hard not to fall in love with St. Petersburg, and once you fall in love, it’s hard not to spend many days walking through its streets, museums, theaters, concert halls and iconic bars.

• This story is one of a series of materials on our two-week trip to St. Petersburg.

The main attraction of St. Petersburg isHermitage . One of the key museums in the world and one of the main museums in Russia. The central building of the Hermitage –Winter Palace . You can spend two or three days just studying this building, and only if you are lucky enough to not be at the very end of the huge queue for tickets.

The main exhibitions are on the second floor. One of the exhibitions that you must visit is a number of halls that are dedicated to palace interiors of different eras . Most of the rooms are quite small and consist of small collections of furniture, grouped by creator, era, or one of the trends that were fashionable in the past. But one of the halls requires a separate story.

Library of Nicholas II

Library and study of Nicholas II - the only room whose furnishings are completely consistent with the past.

First of all, it is a library. Almost all walls are closed solid wood bookcases trees, and are now filled with books from past eras. Even from the outside looking in, the collection of books is impressive. However, nothing is said about her. But most likely on the shelves are various geographical, economic and other scientific works.

Library of Nicholas II. Contemporary Exhibition in the Hermitage.

Nicholas II and his wife, having decided one day to return to the capital’s residence, that is, to the Winter Palace, entrusted the furnishing of the rooms to the architect Krasovsky, whose main task was to create a wing, separate in style and furnishings, inside the huge palace, which the emperor and his wife called the “apartment” and which should was to become a cozy family “nest” for main family empires.

The emperor's library exactly corresponds to this task - the hall is small, everything is laconic and strict. There is a place for quiet reflection and for walking from corner to corner, thinking about something as you go. The tables in the library are small, but they may well not be exactly the same as those used by Nicholas II, or the emperor could not have worked at these tables. Although it is possible that small tables are a tribute to fashion. There are no large massive tables in the palaces of St. Petersburg at all.

Architect A.F. Krasovsky carried out a combination of historical stylizations of the Middle Ages with elements of modern fashion, fashionable for those times, and thereby made the apartments of the last Russian emperor a real work of art. Unfortunately, in the case of most rooms, only a few photographs of the rooms, as well as drawings and archival documents of the architect, have survived to this day.

The office and library of Nicholas II - akin to the style of the English Middle Ages - are decorated with wood. The interior details and furniture of the office-library are decorated with carvings stylized as medieval Gothic.

Fireplaces decorated in the Gothic style with images of griffins and lions - heraldic figures of the family coats of arms of the House of Romanov and the House of Hesse-Darmstadt - became a very important aesthetic element of the interiors.

• July 23, 2017

We all walk around the Winter Palace, looking at paintings, lampshades, vases, tapestries, parquet flooring, gilding in general, all sorts of works of art, but there wasn’t always a museum here, people lived here, and not just any, but the rulers of a great state, so I want see in what chambers their lives passed. Therefore, we will visit the living quarters of the Winter Palace. Currently, only part of the magnificent series of residential apartments that once occupied a significant place in the huge building has been preserved in the Winter Palace.

On April 16, 1841, the marriage of the heir to Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, and the Princess General of State, who received the title of Grand Duchess Tsarevna, took place. Maria Alexandrovna, the future empress, settled in the rooms assigned to her on the second floor of the northwestern part of the palace. She lived in these chambers until her death in 1880. Maria Alexandrovna's apartment consisted of eight rooms, some of which have retained their decoration to this day.

Large office of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, watercolor by E. P. Gau

The boudoir, or Small Study, was one of Maria Alexandrovna’s favorite places. Its decoration was made in the mid-nineteenth century by the architect Harold Bosse in the style of the second Rococo, fashionable at that time.

It’s as if the atmosphere of a fairy tale has been created here, the patterns twist whimsically, the shine of gilding sets off the slender figures of the snow-white caryatids. A magnificent bronze chandelier is reflected in mirrors of various shapes. In her cozy boudoir, Maria Alexandrovna spent a lot of free time, reading, writing letters to her family, and drinking tea with her husband. From here there was an exit to the stairs, along which one could go down to the first floor, to the children's rooms.

Raspberry cabinet

Receptions of the empress's personal guests and meetings with relatives of the royal family took place in the Big or Raspberry Office. The office was also a kind of music salon. In the fabric patterns covering the walls you can see numerous images of musical instruments and notes. The frame of the huge fireplace mirror is crowned with cupids holding a shield in their hands, on which is depicted the monogram of Maria Alexandrovna.

Golden living room

With its shining abundance of gilding, the Golden Living Room is reminiscent of the chambers of the Moscow Kremlin with their vaulted ceilings and richly decorated walls. True, the owner of the apartment herself compared her living room with the throne room of the Bavarian kings.

It is necessary to restore the living rooms of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna and their children - led. Book Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and make them memorials in the Winter Palace of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

And we must ask the current director of the Hermitage, Mr. Piotrovsky, why, after more than 20 years of democracy in Russia, these memorial rooms of the last Romanovs in the Winter Palace have not yet been restored and the memory of Nicholas II and Alexander Feodorovna in the Hermitage is downplayed in this way, as if under communism, disappears from the general culture of our people and from the general knowledge about Russia of the hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists who visit the Hermitage every year, most of them during short-term tourist visits to St. Petersburg. The Winter Palace as part of the Hermitage Museum is, first of all, a residence museum Russian emperors and halls of state protocol events, like halls of greatness and glory of Russia. Only by restoring the Winter Palace in its entirety, including the memorial rooms of the Russian tsars and the Orthodox Great Church of the Winter Palace, which is actually functioning today, would it be possible to talk about honest, full-fledged service to the people of the Hermitage museum staff, starting with its director, Mr. Mikhail Piotrovsky. And in the form in which we see it now, the Winter Palace leaves the impression of an empty abandoned temple of another Russia - a Russia converted into a society of average supermarket consumers in a third, fourth or fifth world country, where the memory of the greatness of Russia, the intrinsic value of the culture of the Russian people of the era Russian Empire is belittled in every possible way and relegated to the background, including in museum exhibitions, and is excluded from the priorities of the daily work of employees of even the leading museums in Russia.

The last royal offices were decorated in the Winter Palace during the renovation of the “royal” northwestern projection in 1895-1896. Among other rooms, two royal offices were equipped on the second floor of the palace: Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

The study of Nicholas II on the second floor of the northwestern risalit of the Winter Palace

http://www.likebook.ru/books/view/177351/?page=6

Judging by the photographs, both of these offices are corner ones. Only the windows of Alexandra Fedorovna’s office overlooked the Palace Bridge and the Admiralty, and the windows of Nicholas II’s office overlooked the Admiralty and his own garden. These rooms were part of personal apartments, so it was, above all, cozy and convenient. Comfort took precedence over luxury. The “heart” of the office was an ordinary “L”-shaped desk, illuminated by a lamp under a fabric lampshade. Judging by the photographs, the tsar’s office was decorated with elements of the “Russian style”: the arched door was decorated with forged slotted hinges. Nicholas II worked in the office of the Winter Palace from December 1895 to the spring of 1904, i.e. seven and a half years.

After Nicholas II became emperor in October 1894, large-scale work began in the Winter Palace in November 1894 to equip the living quarters for the young emperor. At the same time, half of the Winter Palace was being built for the younger sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess

Ksenia Alexandrovna and her husband Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. These works were carried out according to the designs of the architect AF. Krasovsky 14. Then in 1899 he was replaced by architect N.I. Kramskoy. Since 1905, A.S. became the leading architect. Danini is the architect of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration.

During these works, the premises on the second floor of the northwestern risalit, which previously belonged to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I, completely lost their original decor.

It should be noted that the design of the interiors of the royal half of Nicholas II proceeded on a completely different basis than that of his predecessors. Previously, the interior and decorative part of the decoration was the result of individual design by architects of the appearance of each of the premises. At the end of the 19th century. The finishing of the premises was carried out on the basis of catalogs and samples, which were presented by leading construction and interior design companies. Bourgeois standards associated with the design of rooms and the creation of an appropriate level of comfort are replacing traditional ideas about the palace splendor of imperial residences.

The younger generation was completely dissatisfied with the previous standards of palace life and ideas about the level of comfort in the personal premises of the royal family. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich noted that even after the renovation, the rooms of the Winter Palace were overwhelming “in their size, with huge, uncomfortable bedrooms” 15.

The interior details of the new half were personally approved by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. By the spring of 1895, all the interiors of the royal rooms were finally approved. Nicholas II noted in his diary on April 26, 1895: “We stopped at Zimny, where we finally decided everything in the last details.”

But the decisive role in the design of the interiors was played not by the imperial couple, but by the empress’s elder sister, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, or Ella, as her relatives called her. It was Ella who “oversaw” the decoration of the premises in the imperial half of the Winter Palace. Nicholas II noted Elizabeth Feodorovna’s design merits several times in his diary: “Ella moved to us from the Grand Palace; she went to the city to inspect our premises in the Winter Palace, the finishing of which is nearing completion” (October 5, 1895); “I went to the Winter Palace, where Ella and I examined our rooms, which are almost ready” (November 8, 1895). As a result, the king directly stated: “Ella is the author of our rooms. We showed them our entire structure” (January 11, 1896). It should be added that Elizaveta Fedorovna extended her design practice to the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, in the Svitskaya half of which, according to her instructions, several rooms were decorated in the so-called English style.

Library imp. Nicholas II

Reception imp. Nicholas II

Imp's bedroom Nicholas II and Emperor Alexandra Fedorovna

The style so beloved by the young imperial couple was Art Nouveau. The leading company that developed interior sketches and supplied interior items was the company of F. Meltzer. The urgency of the order for the decoration of living rooms in the Winter Palace turned out to be so strict that F. Meltzer’s company was obliged to pay 500 rubles for each day of delay. peny. This is a very large sum for those times.

The imperial half was traditionally divided into two parts - male and female. These parts were connected by a common room - Front hall. The only departure from tradition was that the young couple had a common bedroom with a large double bed. This “exception” was also observed in the Alexander Palace of Tsarskoye Selo.

Nicholas II's rooms included: Adjutant Room, Billiard Room, Library, First And Second passage room, Office And Bathroom with swimming pool. The emperor's favorite room was Library, decorated in Gothic style.

Alexandra Fedorovna’s rooms were located on the site of the former chambers of another Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I: Dining room, Malachite living room, First (Pink) and Second (Crimson) living rooms, Corner (Green) office, Bedroom and Bathroom. Some of these rooms have retained their design in the Rococo style 16.

Children's rooms the king's daughters were given jobs ground floor northwestern risalit, fifty years ago the daughters of Nicholas I, Olga and Alexandra, lived in the same rooms. The windows of their rooms overlooked the Neva, continuing from the Children's to the Jordan entrance.

On December 30, 1895, Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, together with their newborn Olga, moved to the Winter Palace. Their arrangement in the Winter Palace was accompanied by further renovation work. Nicholas II wrote in his diary: “At 2 3/4 o'clock we said goodbye to dear Tsarsky and boarded the train with the cat. Mom came from Gatchina. From the station in St. Petersburg we went straight to Zimny ​​to our new rooms. A prayer service was held in the library, all the rooms, ours and the children’s, were sprinkled. After two hours of work, I settled in and put all my things in their appropriate places.” The family of Nicholas II lived in a new apartment in the Winter Palace until April 1904. 17

Emperor Nicholas II in the children's room with a grand prince. Olga and Tatiana. Album of the Romanov family, photo 333
http://samoderzhavnaya.ru/pages/photo_family_333/ru
The photo was taken no earlier: 1899
The photo was taken no later than: 1900

Room on the half of Emperor Nicholas II in the Winter Palace

Nicholas II's office in the Winter Palace.
http://www.etoretro.ru/pic32657.htm

Apartment of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II in the Imperial Winter Palace

A small photo selection

On October 10, 1894, Her Highness Princess Alice of Hesse arrived by regular train in Livadia, accompanied by Their Imperial Highnesses Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (her elder sister). The imminent arrival of the Heir's bride was caused by the critical health condition of Emperor Alexander III, who was supposed to bless the Tsarevich's marriage. The engagement itself took place in Coburg on April 8 of the same year.

M. Zichy

On November 14, 1894, the Highest Wedding took place in the Cathedral of the Imperial Winter Palace.

L. Tuxen

After the solemn ceremony, the August couple went to the Imperial Anichkov Palace, under the shelter of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

On November 18, the newlyweds Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who were married on July 25, visited the Personal rooms in the Winter Palace. Then the final decision was made to move to Zimny.

The arrangement of the future Apartment was entrusted to the new Palace Architect A.F. Krasovsky. The place for it was chosen on the second floor of the northwestern part of the palace. The former chambers of Empress Maria Feodorovna, which previously belonged to the wife of Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, were supposed to be remodeled. It should be noted that the magnificent Bryullov and Stackenschneider interiors under Sovereigns Alexander II and Alexandra III have not undergone significant changes. The abundance of gilding, French silk and museum value of the canvas did not suit the taste of the Tsarevich and Her Highness. N.I. Kramskoy and S.A. Danini were appointed to help Academician A.F. Krasovsky to reconstruct these chambers. Following the results of the announced competition for the best interior design for the new Imperial Apartments, the team included Academician M. E. Mesmacher, architect D. A. Kryzhanovsky and Academician N. V. Nabokov. Carpentry and artistic work was performed in the best workshops of F. Meltzer, N. Svirsky and Shteingoltz.

Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna took an active part in the arrangement of the Imperial personal chambers. She negotiated with both architects and artists. All direct executors of the order were obliged to take into account her instructions.

In the spring of 1895, the interiors of the new Imperial private chambers were finally approved in all details. The finishing was carried out at the fastest possible pace and already on December 16, 1895, after participating in the New Year's charity bazaar, held in the halls of the Imperial Hermitage, the August couple visited their fully decorated chambers in the palace.

Before you start exploring the Apartment, you should get some idea of ​​the Imperial Winter Palace. According to a note from 1888, the total area of ​​the palace with the Imperial Hermitage and the building of the Imperial Hermitage Theater occupied 20,719 square meters. soot or 8 2/3 tithes, the palace building itself is 4,902 sq. sazh., main yard - 1,912 sq. soot; The residential floors of the palace contained 1,050 chambers, the floor area of ​​which was 10,219 square meters. soot (4 1/4 des.), and the volume is up to 34,500 cubic meters. soot; in these chambers there are 6,333 sq. soot parquet floors: 548 - marble, 2,568 - slabs, 324 - planks, 512 - asphalt, mosaic, brick, etc.; doors - 1,786, windows - 1,945, 117 staircases with 3,800 steps, 470 different stoves (after the fire of 1837, heating was installed in the palace according to the method of General Amosov: the stoves were in the basement, and the rooms were heated with warm air through pipes) ; the surface of the palace roof is 5,942 sq. soot; the roof has 147 dormers, 33 glass skylights, 329 chimneys with 781 smokes; the length of the cornice surrounding the roof is 927 fathoms, and the stone parapet is 706 fathoms; lightning rods - 13. The cost of maintaining the palace extended to 350 thousand rubles. per year with 470 employees.

Plan:

Malachite living room. Prefaced the Personal Chambers of Their Majesties. It was part of the Front Neva Enfilade. Here ancient rituals of the Royal House were held, courtiers were received, relatives gathered, and numerous Councils of Committees headed by Her Majesty met. During court balls, Their Majesties rested here in privacy. From here began the ceremonial exits of Their Majesties.

Her Majesty's Salon or Her Majesty's First Drawing Room. This room, decorated in the Empire style, was intended for receiving the Maids of Honor of the Court. The restrained decor was made by masters G. Botta, A. Zabelin and painter D. Molinari. Furniture from the workshop of N. F. Svirsky.

Her Majesty's Silver Drawing Room, or Her Majesty's Second Drawing Room. Living room in Louis XVI style. Intended for receptions of Her Majesty's ladies-in-waiting and ladies of the Diplomatic Corps, as well as for Her Majesty's rest. The ladies on duty were also there. Her Majesty, who had a good soprano voice, often played music with her entourage in this living room. Being a keen collector of French Galle and Daum glass, Her Majesty placed the best examples here.

Her Majesty's Office. Noteworthy is the particularly respectful attitude towards the memory of the former owners of the chambers on the part of Her Majesty. Thus, above Her Majesty’s desk was installed a portrait by Vigée-Lebrun of the first August mistress, Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna. A small podium behind screens in the northwestern corner of the Cabinet served as an observation platform for admiring the views of Northern Palmyra.

Her Majesty's Bedroom. A modest room of the August spouses, with children's furniture that belonged to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. French chintz is widely used in decoration.

Her Majesty's dressing room. Made in the style of Louis XVI.

Her Majesty's boudoir. Adjoined directly to His Majesty's Cabinet. Decorated in a restrained Gothic style.

Concluding our acquaintance with Her Majesty’s chambers, I would like to say that during the stay of Their Majesties in the palace, these rooms were filled with a great variety of flowers and greenery. Countless vases, pots, flowerpots of various shapes and sizes with roses, orchids, lilies, cyclamen, azaleas, hydrangeas and violets filled the apartment with subtle scents.

His Majesty's office. Made in Gothic style. His Majesty, in memory of his journey through the countries of the Middle and Far East, placed here many art objects from China, Japan and India. All things were selected and arranged with my own hands. By the way, the Emperor understood the culture of Asia, sent an expedition to Tibet, collected a unique collection of Japanese Shunga prints for Russia (which perished in 1918), and even had a small tattoo.

Valet.

The White Dining Room of Their Majesties, or the Small Dining Room of Their Majesties. Made in the style of Louis XVI. The walls were decorated with Russian tapestries from the 18th century. It was illuminated by a musical chandelier made in England.

Moorish. It was intended for the relaxation of courtiers during the Great Imperial Balls. In normal times it was used as Their Majesties' State Dining Room.

His Majesty's Library. The only surviving room of Their Majesties' Apartment. Decorated in Gothic style. As in His Majesty's Cabinet, the carpentry work was carried out by the workshops of N. F. Svirsky. On the fireplace were the coats of arms of the Royal House and the House of the Dukes of Hesse. Their Majesties were passionate bibliophiles, subsidized a number of literary and artistic publications (including the famous Diaghilev magazine “World of Art”), and had their own book marks. The library served as the official Reception and State Office of His Majesty. At the same time, it was also the most favorite room of the August couple. Here Their Majesties had breakfast, played music, read aloud, sorted out new books, played Board games, had a snack in the evenings after the theater, or a bath, and played with the children.

Rotunda. The main hall of the Imperial Palace, in which buffets were served during balls, and in normal times the little Grand Duchesses roller-skated there.

Small church.

His Majesty's Billiard Room.

Adjutant of His Majesty. Intended to be on duty with His Majesty.

On the ground floor, exactly under the Personal Half of Their Majesties, the children's rooms of Their Imperial Highnesses were set up. The rooms were decorated in Art Nouveau style.

Visitors who arrived at the palace on official business entered the Emperor's apartments through the western, Saltykovsky, entrance.

Their Imperial Majesties' Own Entrance.

Their Majesties gave almost nine years of their lives to the Apartment in the Imperial Winter Palace. Since the summer of 1904, Their Majesties appeared here only on official receptions. The main residence was the Imperial Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1904, the last high society ball in the Empire was given. In 1915, in the Front Enfilades, the Empress established an infirmary for the lower ranks.

To summarize this acquaintance, you should know that all these interiors have not been preserved. Partially surviving exceptions: Rotunda, Moorish, Malachite, Small Dining Room, His Majesty's Library.

However, there is an "Inventory of things belonging to Their Imperial Majesties and stored in Own rooms in the Winter Palace", compiled by the Chief Supervisor of the room property in the Imperial Winter Palace and the Imperial Hermitage, Nikolai Nikolaevich Dementiev, who held this position from 1888 to 1917. This inventory is distinguished by the precise recording of the location of objects and their detailed description.

As an epilogue:
After the fall of the Monarchy, Their Imperial Majesties' Own Half was opened to the public. In 1918 the palace was plundered by the Bolsheviks.
End of 1918.
Office of the Tsar-Liberator.

Her Majesty's dressing room.

Her Majesty's Office.

Rooms of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna.

PS - thanks to Vladimir (GUVH) for submitting the idea to make this message.

When you search for this assassination attempt, a photograph will be found for you with the description that this is the palace dining room after the explosion. The source of the image comes from the site http://rusarchives.ru and is signed as “The dining room of the Winter Palace after the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II. 1879. Photographer unknown. 18.7 24.7 (GA RF. F.678. Op.1. D.1084. L.2).” The attribution is incorrect and, unfortunately, the photo has been widely circulated on the Internet.

The picture shows the ballroom in the Vonlyarlyarsky house in St. Petersburg (36 Angliyskaya embankment; architects Nikolay Efimovich EFIMOV, Mikhail Dorimedontovich BYKOVSKY; built 1840). The photo was taken at the beginning of the 20th century before the reconstruction of the house’s interiors (1910-1911) into the “Old Donon” restaurant.

CHARLEMAGNE Joseph Iosifovich (1824-1870) “The hall in the Vonlyarlyarsky mansion.” 1852
Paper, watercolor.

The hall of the Winter Palace, in which the assassination attempt on Alexander II took place, is depicted in a watercolor by Eduard Gau. In the 1870s, the room served as the Small Dining Room (modern hall 160, the decoration has not been preserved). The third spare half is several rooms located along the Dark Corridor with windows into the Great Courtyard. The spare half included: Reception Room, Living Room (“Yellow Living Room”), Study Room and Bedchamber. The floor below was the Main Guardhouse.

GAU Eduard Petrovich (1807-1887) “Types of halls of the Winter Palace. Third spare half. Living room". 1872
Paper, watercolor. 31.8 x 42.3 cm.
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Not on permanent display.

Now this is a hall of Russian culture of the first half of the 18th century, in which machines from the court turning workshop of PETER I are exhibited: three side lathes and copying machines, two medal lathes and a machine for cutting gears. They were created between 1712 and 1729. Franz SINGER, A.K. NARTOV and other masters of "Tokarni". The exhibition is complemented by the printing press of the Senate printing house, carved walnut cabinets, Dutch-made chairs, and a model of the house in Zaandam, where Peter I stayed in 1697.

About the assassination attempt.

On February 5/17, 1880, at 18-22, a bomb exploded in the Winter Palace. The unsuccessful attempt on the life of ALEXANDER II was organized by Stepan Nikolaevich KHALTURIN (1857-1882).

A rebel, not inclined to compromise, he was a man of strong-willed actions and unshakable decisions. A conscientious student of the common populist intelligentsia, he internalized the revolutionary outlook and enthusiastically accepted the idea of ​​regicide for the sake of the people's revolution, which had matured in the underground.

Khalturin got a job at the palace as a carpenter. Stepan (using Batyshkov’s forged passport) was given a salary, allowance and housing. He shared the room with two other workers and a special supervisor, a retired non-commissioned officer. Stepan seemed uncommunicative, silent, meek and almost a simpleton. The new employee, according to information collected by the investigation, was not at all distinguished by professional carpentry skills. True, he was a good varnisher.

The organs of political investigation of the terrorist “missed”, although Khalturin had long been known to the III department. The terrorist presented a six-month passport number 346, issued to him on August 8, 1879 as a resident of the village of Sutok, Troitsk volost, Kargopol district, Olonets province. But in the Kargopol district there is neither the Trinity volost, the board of which was supposed to issue him a passport, nor the village of Sutok. A tragicomic incident occurred: the People’s Volya underground sent a paper “to the village to grandfather,” and in the palace commandant’s office, subordinate to the Minister of the Imperial Court, it was accepted.

Khalturin smuggled explosives in small quantities, hand-made by his like-minded people. His room was on the ground floor, with the palace guard quarters above it. The target was higher, on the 2nd floor. According to Khalturin’s calculations, the force of the explosion (30 kg of dynamite) should have been enough to destroy the ceilings of two floors and kill Alexander II.

At the time of the explosion, the emperor was supposed to be in the dining room (“Yellow Living Room”). Alexander Nikolayevich was saved by the fact that the train of the expected guest, Prince Alexander of Hesse, was delayed by thirty minutes, and, accordingly, the monarch’s entire daily routine was delayed by half an hour. The explosion caught him and the prince on the threshold of the next room.

The floors of the palace guardhouse collapsed (modern hall 26). On the second floor, the floor rose, a crack ran down the wall, a chandelier fell off and window glass flew out. The main walls turned out to be stronger than one might have expected: Francesco RASTRELLI designed and built the palace conscientiously.

ALEXANDER OF GESSEN (brother of Empress MARIA Alexandrovna) recalled those terrible moments: “The floor rose as if under the influence of an earthquake, the gas in the gallery went out, complete darkness fell, and an unbearable smell of gunpowder or dynamite spread in the air. In the dining room - right on the set table - a chandelier collapsed.”

On this day, as stated in the “Governmental Report,” “at seven o’clock in the evening, when in the Winter Palace on the occasion of the expected arrival in St. Petersburg of His Highness Prince Alexander of Hesse, in the chambers located above the main guard room, a table was prepared for family dinner of members of the Imperial House, and His Imperial Majesty<...>deigned to go out to meet the distinguished guest in the small field marshal’s hall, an explosion occurred from the basement floor, destroying the main guard room and adjacent parts of the building, as well as somewhat damaging the floor of those rooms in which the dining table was supposed to be” (Government message // Government Bulletin. 1882. February 21, No. 40. P. 2.).

The results of the assassination attempt were tragic: 11 ranks of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment were killed in the lower floor of the palace, and 56 people were wounded. All the dead were heroes of the recently ended Russian-Turkish war, enlisted for service in the imperial palace for their distinction. The victims of the terrorist attack were recent peasants in soldier's uniforms - people for whose happiness the “People's Will” fought. The three dead soldiers were Vyatichi, fellow countrymen of their killer.

The august persons experienced a short-term fright and some inconvenience; the ceremonial meal was moved to other apartments of the palace.

The executive committee of Narodnaya Volya in its proclamation escaped with a maxim: such sacrifices are inevitable in the struggle for the good of the people, and soldiers should go over to the side of the revolutionaries as soon as possible.

When you get acquainted with how the residence of the monarch was guarded in the 1870s - early 1880s, you are only surprised that the assassination attempt on the emperor in the palace did not happen much earlier. The access system in Zimny ​​practically did not exist; the sentries relied on their visual memory much more than on passes. The servants, taking advantage of their acquaintance with the soldiers, often brought relatives and friends with them to the royal residence, often organizing their family holidays in the kitchen, fortunately both food and wine were at hand.

The reason for the failure of the assassination attempt lay not in the postponed family dinner due to the lateness of the Prince of Hesse, but in the imperfect organization of the entire terrorist act, which was constantly on the verge of failure, as well as in the insufficient amount of dynamite. The explosion would still not have reached its target, even if lunch had started on time. Although the Narodnaya Volya proclamation assured that “the charge was calculated correctly, the tsar was half an hour late for dinner this time, and the explosion caught him on his way to the dining room. Thus, to the misfortune of his homeland, the king survived.”

Khalturin managed to escape, but he was in a depressed state. At the safe house, he was constantly waiting for arrest, but the police and political investigation failed to get on his trail. Two years later he was hanged in an Odessa prison for an attempt on the life of military prosecutor STRELNIKOV.

Stills from the film “Stepan Khalturin” (1925, directed by Alexander IVANOVSKY):

Sources:

The memorial office of Emperor Nicholas II is located on the main street of the city of Tobolsk - Mira Street. The history of the Governor's House is directly related to the life and work of the last Russian emperor.

During the February Revolution of 1917, Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne. In August of the same year, the emperor and his family were sent from St. Petersburg to Tobolsk to ensure their own safety and in order to somehow defuse the situation in the capital. However, it was still not possible to avoid the revolution.

The imperial family was housed in a white stone two-story house from the late 18th century. On the first floor there was a dining room and rooms for servants, and the second floor was entirely at the disposal of the emperor. During their exile, the family lived under arrest, so they were strictly forbidden to go outside. Nicholas II constantly sat in his office, reading magazines and books, maintaining outward calm. To somehow have some fun, the family sometimes staged amateur performances in their house.

In April 1918, Nikolai Alexandrovich and his wife were taken to the more “reliable” city of Yekaterinburg. A month later, their children were sent there too. In July 1918, the imperial family was shot.

Ironically, in the post-revolutionary period, the former governor's house was renamed the Freedom House. Today there is an exhibition in the house dedicated to the period of exile of the Romanov family in Tobolsk. Thanks to the emperor's diaries, which he kept during his stay in Tobolsk, as well as surviving photographs, it was possible to recreate the interior of the house of those times, which is why a memorial office was opened - the Museum of Emperor Nicholas II.

The governor's house cannot be missed, although appearance it is not much different from the nearby buildings and does not look too luxurious.