Russian regicides: How they decided to commit a crime against the "anointed of God" and what was their future fate

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In 1613, the Zemsko-Local Council took place, at which the Cathedral vow was adopted - to serve the Anointed of God, the kings from the Romanov family until the Second Coming of Christ. This oath has been broken more than once. The king is God's anointed, his murder becomes a curse for those who did it. Everyone knew about this, but not everyone was stopped. Very often, selfish aspirations or ideological convictions incompatible with the monarchy were the secret spring of regicide.

How did the murderer of Peter III, Alexei Orlov, manage to escape punishment?

In 1762, the reign of 34-year-old Peter III (née Karl Peter Ulrich), the son of Peter I's daughter Anna Petrovna and Duke of Holstein-Gottorp Karl Friedrich, began. Brilliantly educated, versed in the exact sciences, Pyotr Fedorovich perfectly knew French and German, and even Latin, but he was not given Russian. Apparently, this was predetermined on a mental and psychological level. After all, he grew up in Holstein - the southern province of Prussia.

The Russian mentality, alien to him, was a constant irritant for him; Frederick of Prussia was his idol and role model. Peter III considered him a great ruler, while in Europe he was treated as a presumptuous upstart who must be put in his place. In addition, Russia had been at war with him for several years, according to the union treaty of 1746 (concluded with other members of the coalition against Frederick II, since Russia feared the strengthening of Prussia, worried about its western borders and interests in the Baltic and northern Europe), fulfilled its obligations … And Pyotr Fedorovich concludes peace with this state.

A complete mockery of the feelings of the subjects was the introduction of the Prussian drill and the Prussian uniform into the army (the military regarded the duty to wear it as an insult to their honor). The elite troops of the Life Guards, created on the basis of the Amusing Troops of Peter the Great, were a powerful political force for many years (with their assistance, six palace coups were carried out in Russia over 37 years). But Pyotr Fedorovich was not distinguished by foresight, therefore he was not able to realize the full depth of his mistake.

The emperor aroused strong irritation not only among the military. His often strange behavior led many to think that he suffered from some kind of mental disorders, underdevelopment. Pyotr Fyodorovich confused the entire courtyard: he could grimace during ceremonies, he played with soldiers for hours; in the presence of foreign ambassadors he could say absurd things for which the courtiers present were ashamed of him. He never loved his wife, the future Empress Catherine II, he was going to marry his mistress, the maid of honor Elizaveta Vorontsova, and to imprison his wife and son Pal in the fortress of Shlisselburg.

But these intentions were canceled out by the coup carried out with the help of the Life Guards. Catherine, who had no rights to the throne (she could only count on a regency with a young son), was proclaimed empress. This news was received with great enthusiasm not only by the nobility, but also by the common people. But what about the deposed spouse? He was in Ropsha under the supervision of the Orlov brothers. It was impossible to let him go to Holstein, as he asked, - he could find allies and fight for the throne. Imprisoned in a fortress - there was already one heir (John VI Antonovich).

The solution was found without notifying the empress - he was killed (presumably, he was drunk with poisoned vodka and strangled). According to one version, this happens with the direct participation of Alexei Orlov, the brother of Catherine's favorite, Grigory Orlov, and Prince Fyodor Baryatinsky. But Orlov is an officer. The premeditated murder of the emperor, to whom he swore allegiance at one time, cannot correspond to his convictions, for the same reason there would not be a volunteer for regicide among the Life Guards. Therefore, there is another rather viable version - this act was committed by the hands of civilians - Grigory Teplov and Fyodor Volkov, who had personal claims to the sovereign. Be that as it may, but Alexei Orlov did not suffer any serious punishment, and the official version of the death of Pyotr Fedorovich - died of hemorrhoidal colic and exhaustion of the heart.

How Nikolai Zubov managed to get a new rank for a smashing blow with a snuffbox to the temple of Paul I

Paul I ascended the throne at the age of 42 after the death of his mother Catherine II. By the way, during her lifetime she prepared for the reign of her grandson and son Paul I - Alexander, was seriously engaged in his upbringing and education. Catherine left a will, in which, as historians believe, Alexander was the heir to the throne. But the handsome, intelligent and well-mannered crown prince himself did not want this. Paul, on the other hand, wished with all his heart to end these Catherine's times. For 34 years he lived in the shadow of his mother, he was irritated by the palace frivolous atmosphere in her presence. Like a genie escaping from imprisonment in a cramped vessel, he takes over the government and promotes feverish activity.

For 4 years, he issues 7865 decrees, regulates all spheres of life (even private). The whole country must eat at one time, go to bed, get up early (whereas in Catherine's times, the courtiers and the higher nobility were accustomed to nightlife), walk at certain hours and in the appropriate dress of the emperor. Moreover, massive repressions began. During his reign, 12,000 nobles and officers were sent into exile. Paul I severely curtailed the rights of the nobility, even returned corporal punishment for them. An atmosphere of tough drill reigned in the army. If at the beginning of his reign he had supporters, they soon disappeared.

Society is tired of such a sovereign. The further, the more the bad traits he inherited from his father appeared in him: the same "crazy", oddities, the same sympathy for Prussia. Not surprisingly, a conspiracy quickly matured against him. The Governor of St. Petersburg, Count P. Palen, Vice-Chancellor N. Panin, Generals L. Bennigsen and F. Uvarov, British Ambassador Whitworth and former Catherine's favorite Platon Zubov - and these are just the main conspirators, and there were about 300 of them. Alexander Pavlovich knew about everything, but did not interfere, having secured only a promise from them that his father would stay alive.

The brother of the favorite of Empress Catherine II Platon Zubov, Nikolai, is considered to be the direct executor of the murder of Paul I.

At one time, all kinds of favors were poured on the Empress's favorite and his relatives. Under Catherine, the elder brother of Platon Zubov rose to the rank of lieutenant general and had a fairly high court rank. In 1797, Paul I ordered the Zubovs to leave the courtyard. In 1800, the emperor, with his characteristic impetuosity, changed his anger to mercy and brought them back. However, the "worm" in the soul of Nikolai Zubov remained, he immediately joined the conspiracy against Paul I. The blow at the decisive moment on the temple of the emperor with a gold snuffbox is attributed to him.

Under Alexander I, Nikolai Zubov became the head of the stable office, and the court rank was returned to him. But his presence weighed on the young emperor - oppressed by the thought that the regicide was in sufficient proximity to him. Most likely, this is why Nikolai Zubov was dismissed in 1803. In 1805 he died on his Moscow estate.

The hunter for the Tsar Grinevitsky and his "technology of murder"

Alexander II went down in history as a tsar-reformer and liberator. It is to him that the merit of the abolition of serfdom in Russia and the liberation of Bulgaria, its independence, belongs. However, it was against him in the late 70s that the People's Will launched such a large-scale hunt that one could only wonder how he managed to avoid death. He was killed in a terrorist attack by members of the secret revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya. One of them, Ignatius Grinevitsky, came from a Polish noble family.

A young man of disposable appearance - short, curly brown-haired with a high forehead of a thinker. He was restrained, not at all a conflict person with a good sense of humor. While studying at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology, he took part in the student revolutionary movement and a supporter of peaceful protests. In 1879 he joined Narodnaya Volya.

In 1881, on March 1, Grinevitsky was among the terrorists who were waiting for the tsar on the embankment of the Catherine Canal. The first bomb was thrown by Nikolai Rysakov, but she only destroyed the carriage. But all attention was focused on this incident, and no one noticed Grinevitsky, who came almost close to the emperor. He threw a bomb at the sovereign's feet. Both were fatally wounded in the explosion.

Grinevitsky died in the court hospital. The main organizers of the murder were convicted and sentenced to death. The minor participants in this assassination attempt, who managed to survive, were assigned a personal pension by the Soviet government in 1926 (in honor of the 45th anniversary of the assassination of the tsar).

Who shot Nicholas II and how was the fate of the regicide after that?

The last Russian tsar and his relatives were killed in 1918 in Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the Ipatiev house. The execution was led by Yakov Yurovsky, who was appointed commandant of the "special purpose house". He was considered a man capable of any decisive actions for the sake of the revolution. By that tragic moment, this man was an influential figure among the Ural Bolsheviks - a member of the Collegium of the Oblast Cheka and the chairman of the investigative commission of the revolutionary tribunal. A supporter of the toughest measures against class enemies, he was ideally suited to the role of the executioner of the royal family.

In the future, his career growth was rapid: head of the regional Cheka, chairman of the Ural GubChK, work in Gokhran, chairman of the trade department of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. The last post shows that the time has come for a recession in his career - director of the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. He died at the age of 60 from ulcer perforation.

But some researchers seriously declare that Grigory Rasputin was also a regicide.