Romanov Tercentenary

It has been described as an 'extravaganza of pageantry' and a tremendous propaganda exercise; but among its principal goals were to 'inspire reverence and popular support for the principle of autocracy', and also a reinvention of the past, 'to recount the epic of the "popular tsar", so as to invest the monarchy with a historical legitimacy and an image of enduring permanence at this anxious time when its right to rule was being challenged by Russia's emerging democracy', a retreat 'to the past, hoping it would save them from the future'.

The event had been on everyone's lips for several weeks leading up the actual date, and dignitaries from the whole of the empire had gathered in the capital's grand hotels: princes from the Baltic and Poland, high-priests from Armenia and Georgia in the Caucasus, and mullahs and tribal chiefs from Central Asia alongside the Khan of Khiva and the Emir of Bukhara.

The city was bustling with these visitors, and Nevsky Prospect experienced the worst traffic jams in history, due to the converging of cars, carriages and trams.

The streets themselves were decorated in the imperial colors of blue, red and white, statues were dressed up with ribbons and garlands, and portraits of the line of tsars going all the way back to the Romanov dynasty's founder Michael were hung up on the facades of banks and stores.

[4] The rituals were started in the Kazan Cathedral, outside of which stood a white pavilion filled with bromeliads, incense and palms, and where a vast crowd carrying icons, crosses and banners had been gathering since the morning.

Patriarch Gregory IV of Antioch, who had arrived especially for the occasion from Greece, led a 'solemn thanksgiving', alongside the three Russian metropolitans and fifty St. Petersburg priests.

The imperial family had driven from the Winter Palace in open carriages, escorted by two squadrons of His Majesty's Own Horseguards and Cossack riders donning black caftans and red Caucasian hats.

The Admiralty's spire 'burned like a torch', and the Winter Palace was illuminated by three vast portraits of the ruling tsar, Peter the Great and dynasty founder Michael I.

Also, just before the anniversary her son's condition had taken a turn for the worse, and the view that the tercentenary celebrations was an ideal possibility to improve public opinion of the tsarina, she was only perceived as arrogant and cold.

Here Nicholas visited the Ipatiev Monastery, where Michael had sought refuge from the invading Poles and the Muscovite civil wars, and posed for a photo with the descendants of Boyars who had offered the crown to Mikhail.

The pilgrimage 'climaxed' when the imperial family triumphantly arrived in the historical capital Moscow, site of the crowning of the first Romanov ruler, at Alexandrovsky train station, greeted by a large number of dignitaries.

[10] The tsar mounted a white horse and rode alone, sixty feet ahead of the rest of the party and his Cossack guard escort, towards the Kremlin in front of large cheering crowds.

The decorations of Tverskaya Street, with velvet banners donning Romanov symbols spanning the boulevard, buildings covered in pennants, flags, and lights 'even more inventive' than those in the capital, garlanded statues of the tsar and a showering of confetti from the people, were 'even more magnificent than in St.

'[10] The tsar dismounted in the Red Square, the convergence point of the religious processions throughout the city who flocked to him, where he walked by rows of priests chanting and for prayers entered the Uspensky Cathedral.

The young Tsarevich was, along the rest of the family, also supposed to walk the last hundred yards, but he collapsed due to haemophilia, and had to be carried by a Cossack guard to the 'exclamations of sorrow' from the crowds.

The image of the seventeenth-century peasant therefore featured prominently in the tercentenary; one example is the Romanov Monument in Kostroma, where a female personification of Russia gave blessings to a kneeling Susanin.

Nicholas began looking to move closer to his dream of personal rule, and it also spawned talks of travelling the Russian interior, sailing down the Volga or visiting the Caucasus or Siberia.

[18] Fedor Linde, sergeant of the Finland Regiment, was allowed to return to Russia under amnesty to celebrate the tercentenary, after being exiled for his involvement in the organization of an 'academic legion' alongside the Social Democrats to spread propaganda to the working class.

[20][21] It also reported that stamps depicting the tsar made in commemoration of the anniversary had to be recalled when 'some royalist post-office clerks refused to impress the obliterating postmark on these hallowed visages'.