Coronation of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna
The High Marshal was Count K. I. Palen; the supreme master of ceremonies was Prince A. S. Dolgorukov.
[7] On Sparrow Hills—where the Vorobyov Palace used to be, and where, starting in 1817, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour designed by Karl Whitberg was constructed—a special "royal pavilion" was erected for the newly crowned couple.
[10] On 8 May, Maria Feodorovna, the Empress Dowager, arrived at Smolensky Railway Station, and was met by a large crowd of people.
[citation needed] On 14 May, the day of the Coronation, in all the churches in St. Petersburg, the liturgy was read and prayers of thanksgiving recited.
[13] The coronation ceremony began at 10 am[clarification needed], with the emperor, his mother, and his wife seated on thrones on a special raised platform installed in the middle of the cathedral.
At the end of the liturgy the emperor and empress were anointed and then took communion of the Holy Mysteries at the altar.
[15] The French journalist Camille Cerf shot the only documentary movie footage of the coronation.
From 11:30 am to 3 pm, the emperor and empress accepted greetings from deputations, from all over Russia, in the Andreevsky throne room.
At 9 o'clock went to the upper balcony, where did Alix ignite the electric illumination on Ivan the Great and then the towers and walls of the Kremlin were lit up consistently, as well as the opposite embankment and Zamoskvorechye.
[56]On 26 May, a commemorative silver medal was struck "In memory of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II".
[citation needed] Early in the morning of 18 May 1896, the day of the "national holiday"[57] public feast on the Khodynka Field in honor of the coronation, a stampede led to 1,389 people being killed and 1,300 left with severe injuries, according to official figures—4,000 according to unofficial figures.
Today, 18 May, long before the start of the national holiday, a crowd of a few hundred thousand moved so swiftly to the place of distribution of treats on the Khodynka field, that the elemental force crushed a multitude of people ...".
[59] Coronation events continued according to schedule: in particular, on the evening of the same day a ball was held at the French embassy.
[60] The sovereign was present at all the planned events, including the ball, and that presence was perceived ambivalently in the wake of the tragedy.
[61] The Khodynka tragedy was considered a grim omen for the reign of Nicholas II,[62][63][64][65] and at the end of the twentieth century it was cited by some as one of the arguments against his canonization (2000).
