Table of contents:
- The role of Russian tsars in the arrangement of Crimea
- How Crimea saved Nicholas II
- Crimean routes of Stalin
- Dacha for Stalin, which he never visited
Video: Why did the Russian elite choose Crimea, and what parts of the peninsula did Stalin like to visit?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
At the end of the 19th century, Crimea was preferred over the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus for safety reasons. Before the revolution, when the nobility felt the miraculous properties of the resort, the number of Crimean residences was counted in thousands. The Russian elite, following the example of the tsar, completely reoriented itself to a domestic resort. In the 1920s, with the advent of Soviet power, a couple of dozen sanatoriums and rest homes operated in Crimea. Once, in a letter to one of his comrades-in-arms, Stalin complained that in Moscow he was the only one in the leadership, the rest were in the Crimea.
The role of Russian tsars in the arrangement of Crimea
Since the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Catherine the Great was the first ruler to visit the peninsula. She went to the wild land to explore new lands, and ended up in a truly paradise. Alexander I also appreciated the uniqueness of the southern province, having acquired an estate here in 1825 - Lower Oreanda. Fascinated by the nature of the southern coast, he announced that he was going to move to Crimea for permanent residence. True, he did not have time.
The next owner of the estate was Nicholas I, whose wife was often ill. On the Crimean coast, she instantly felt better, and her caring husband built a real palace with a park for her in Oreanda. In 1860, Alexander II bought the Livadia estate from the Counts Potocki as a gift to his wife. The healing Crimean climate had a beneficial effect on the well-being of Maria Alexandrovna, suffering from tuberculosis, therefore the imperial couple came to Crimea often and for a long time. The Crimean air significantly extended the life of the empress.
During that period, tuberculosis affected everyone, regardless of class. The royal relatives, and after them many infected representatives of the nobility (including Chekhov), went in a line to the Crimea for treatment and often remained to live there.
The Crimea was also adored by Alexander III the Peacemaker, who always stayed at the Small Livadia Palace. The imperial families by personal example confirmed the glory of the healing land with its climate, mud and mineral springs. Thanks to high-ranking holidaymakers, a railway track was extended to such a remote province, highways were laid, palaces, dachas, sanatoriums, hospitals were erected, trade, horticulture, viticulture and winemaking were developed. In Crimea, following St. Petersburg, the first power plants, telegraph, elevators and cars appeared. Thanks to the funds invested by Russia, civilization set foot on the peninsula long before most other regions. The imperial family adorned the peninsula with architectural masterpieces that can be admired to this day.
How Crimea saved Nicholas II
If not for the Crimean resort, the reign of Nicholas II could well have ended in 1900. The emperor who overtook typhus suffered in the Livadia Palace, recovering surprisingly quickly, despite the worst fears of the doctors. She was saved by visits to the Crimea and Alexandra Fedorovna, exhausted by multiple births and worries about the incurable illness of the Tsarevich. Exacerbations of hemophilia in a child were successfully treated with mud from the Saki Lake, which were delivered in barrels to the palace. The last emperor repeated more than once that he would like to make the capital of the empire in the Crimea. And after his abdication, he asked to leave the Livadia estate to his family.
The Romanov dynasty did everything so that the peninsula could compete with European resorts, becoming not only a unique health resort, but also a bearer of historical and cultural values. It was the Russian tsars who initiated all kinds of tourism that are active in Crimea to this day.
Crimean routes of Stalin
For the first time, Joseph Stalin rested in the Crimea in August 1925, arriving from near Sochi by boat. His wife and daughter were waiting for him in Mukhalatka. Kliment Voroshilov also stayed in the Rest House there. In 1929, the leader combined rest with a working trip. From 24 to 26 July, Iosif Vissarionovich spent at the main naval base in Sevastopol, after which he sailed along the Crimean coast on the cruiser Chervona Ukraine, assessing the interaction of the forces of the fleet.
In August 1947, Stalin went to the Crimea by car, supervising the post-war progress of work on the restoration of the national economy. And the next summer, a high-ranking vacationer arrived on the peninsula by special train. This time, the head of state stopped at the Grand Livadia Palace, which attracted him not by the tsarist atmosphere, but by the spirit of diplomatic victories at the Yalta Conference of 1945.
Dacha for Stalin, which he never visited
An eyewitness to Comrade Stalin's last Crimean vacation at the Livadia Palace was then Lieutenant of the State Security Service Alexander Fedorenko. Prepared in advance for the arrival of the leader. Since the time of the Crimean Conference, along the Yalta-Livadia highway, there was a stone wall made of shell rock, erected so that the movement was not visible from the sea. The entire territory adjacent to the palace was surrounded by a continuous 3-meter fence with guard booths along the perimeter.
The officers of General Vlasik accompanied those who crossed the fence everywhere. Even the park workers who swept the paths were not left unattended. By the arrival of the generalissimo, all life support systems were ideally adjusted in the palace: a power plant, hot water supply, sewerage, a heated seawater bath, direct telephone communication with Moscow. The level of comfort created at that time corresponded to the best boarding houses. However, Joseph Vissarionovich did not sit still, taking long walks, reading for a long time alone and not abusing the available benefits.
Once Nikolai Vlasik invited the leader to the mountains for a barbecue. At an altitude of about 600-700 m above the palace, in a pine forest, Stalin unexpectedly asked to bring pegs and an ax. At the same time, he began to measure the distance in steps and indicate where to drive the pieces of wood. Satisfied with the result, Joseph Vissarionovich concluded: “There will be a house here. But don't touch the pines. By October, designers from Moscow had appeared in that place, and the first communications stretched into the mountains. But Stalin never came to Crimea.
Many secrets are associated with objects in the Soviet Crimea. Especially about Mount Tavros, in which Stalin was hiding something very secret.
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