Table of contents:
- The prosperous childhood of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov
- "Golden Boy" Peter II
- Difficult childhood in the imperial family
- The sparing regime of Tsarevich Alexei
Video: Tsar's childhood: How the royal offspring were brought up and punished in Russia
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Who in childhood has not dreamed of being in the place of a princess or a tsarevich? By all accounts, the royal children sleep on soft featherbeds, eat some cakes and generally do whatever they want. But if such a dreamer had exchanged places with someone of the scions of the royal dynasty of the Romanovs for at least one day, he would have been severely disappointed.
The prosperous childhood of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov
Who was lucky with childhood is Alexei Mikhailovich. In infancy, he was looked after with affection and love by his mother E. L. Streshneva, who perfectly remembered what it was like to be an orphan. At the age of five, his grandfather and Patriarch Filaret joined the upbringing of the boy in the spirit of Orthodoxy, and later - Boyar Boris Morozov, an ardent "Westernizer". The clerk assigned to the tsarevich taught him according to a personal Old Russian primer, with titles and commandments. By the age of ten, the inquisitive Alexei had mastered the Clockwork, the Acts of the Apostles, Okhta (musical notation for divine services), knew how to smartly read, write and sing stichera and canons on hook notes.
From B. I. Morozov, the tsarevich got "fun": children's armor made by the German craftsman P. Schalt, a toy horse and pictures of three altyns in the Vegetable row. Alexei's children's library contained 13 volumes, there were not only liturgical books, but also Cosmographies, Grammar and Lexicon published in Lithuania. Morozov was the first to dress the prince in German clothes. A versatile upbringing had a favorable effect in the mature years of the reasonable rule of Alexei Mikhailovich (Quiet).
"Golden Boy" Peter II
In contrast to Alexei Mikhailovich, the childhood of his great-grandson Peter II was spent in ignorance and amusement. Peter's mother, Sophia-Charlotte Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, died a few days after his birth. Father, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, did not take care of his son, for the most part he stayed abroad, and two years later he was forcibly brought to Russia and killed in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
In infancy, Tsarevich Peter was supervised by a nanny, a chamberlain Roo, previously chosen by his mother, and two illiterate protégés of his father from the German settlement - the widow of a tailor and the widow of an innkeeper. The "mothers" gave the baby wine to drink so that he would not whimper. After the death of his son, Peter I drove out the widows, and Menshikov, on his instructions, assigned the page of Catherine S. A. to the grandson of the emperor. Mavrin and dancemaster Norman, a former sailor. At the age of seven, I. A. Zeykin, Carpathian Ruthenian. They taught the tsarevich naval affairs, history, geography, mathematics and Latin.
However, the boy was not interested in science. With a mind "lively and discerning," according to H. G. Manstein, he was distinguished by a complete rejection of serious studies. Involved at the age of 9 in the circle of non-childish amusements by Ivan Dolgorukov, Tsarevich Peter was carried away by hunting and feasts with abundant libations. "Hours free from horse riding, hunting, and entertainment are spent listening to empty tales," a British intelligence resident wrote in a report. Peter II was not given to grow up and settle down. He died of smallpox at the age of 14.
Difficult childhood in the imperial family
But the tsar's children no longer had such freedom. So, under Paul I, the regime of education in the imperial family was very tough. In 1800, the Emperor appointed 55-year-old General M. I. Lamsdorf educated his children, Nicholas and Mikhail, warning: "Do not make my sons such rascals as German princes." And Lamsdorf did his best. The future Emperor Nicholas I and his brother were flogged with rods, pinched, thrashed with a ruler, and banged their heads against the wall. “Count Lamsdorf managed to instill in us one feeling - fear,” wrote Nicholas I years later. "His severity, with passion, took away our guilt, leaving us annoyed with harsh treatment, often undeserved."
Mindful of his unhappy childhood, Emperor Nicholas I prohibited physical punishment. The means of education were: restriction in food and a ban on meeting with parents. The little ones could be put in a corner. So, the future Alexander II, because of an unlearned poem, dined on one soup, and for his "extraordinary apathy" in a history lesson, the royal father forbade the boy to approach him before bedtime.
But the most severe childhood fell to the lot of the children of Alexander III. “I don’t need porcelain. I need normal, healthy, Russian children,”he announced, adopting English customs close to asceticism. Regal boys and girls slept on hair mattresses, ate oatmeal for breakfast and took cold baths. The upbringing of the future Nicholas II, his brothers and sisters was watched over by a typical English nanny Elizabeth Franklin.
Children were instilled in strict rules of etiquette, which caused hunger suffering, and Tsarevich Nicholas was forced to commit sacrilege. So, at family dinners, where there were many guests, food, according to the rules, was served first to Alexander III with the Empress, then to guests, last of all to children. When the imperial couple finished eating, the plates were immediately taken away. The Grand Duchess Olga recalled that she and her brothers barely had time to swallow one or two bites. “We couldn't sneak into the buffet and ask for a sandwich or a roll,” Olga recalled. "That kind of thing just wasn't done." And Nikolai, completely starving, once swallowed the filling of the baptismal cross - a piece of beeswax with a particle of the Life-giving cross.
The sparing regime of Tsarevich Alexei
According to the memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (Sandro), from the age of 7 to 15, the life of boys in the imperial family turned into a service. Each young man was assigned the rank of an officer of the regiment and was given the appropriate uniform. At 6 am - get up, recite prayers on your knees and take a cold bath. For breakfast, a cup of tea and bread and butter. From 8 in the morning lessons in fencing, gymnastics, artillery - in each palace there was a cannon for practice shooting. Then, until 6 pm with a lunch break, they studied the Law of God, history, geography, mathematics, foreign languages - in a word, a full gymnasium course at home. In addition, the boys were taught horse riding and bayonet attack.
Tsarevich Alexei, the only son of Nicholas II, escaped the fate of his uncles and cousins, but because of that he was not happy. Doctors diagnosed hemophilia on the second day of the baby's life, seeing that the navel was still bleeding. Any bruise for the boy turned into a problem, any push could lead to internal bleeding.
Alexey received a classical education, but instead of horse racing and fencing, he studied dancing and music. At the same time, he was ataman of all Cossack troops by birthright, and at the age of 11 he received the rank of corporal.
The Tsarevich was an active boy, dreamed of riding a bicycle, playing tennis with his sisters, which was strictly forbidden. French teacher Pierre Gilliard wrote in his memoirs how he did not follow Alexei, he fell and knocked his knee on the corner of the bench. The next day, the Tsarevich could no longer get up. The whole leg was swollen and in great pain.
The court doctor gave the boy 16 years of life, but at the age of 13 the Tsarevich was overtaken by death from a bullet from a Red Army soldier.
When it comes to the Romanov family, many people wonder why the British King George V did not save his brother and close friend Emperor Nicholas II from death.
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