Khodynska tragedy (1896). All the truth

In front of me is a painting by Vladimir Makovsky. Stampede on Khodynka Field. Now there is no field there, it’s an urban area, the beginning of Leningradsky Prospekt. And then it was a suburb, a space where folk festivals and trade were often held. There was also a parade ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison.

And now - the coronation of the young Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich. According to the new style - May 26, 1896. We've been waiting for this day. They hoped that it would be remembered as a celebration, as a day of national rejoicing. The coronation, the crowning of the kingdom, was perceived as most important event in the history of the country, as main holiday. This is the tradition of Russian autocracy, which is based on the unity of the dynasty and the people. Poems and hymns were composed for this day, and thousands of people from all over Russia flocked to Moscow. After all, Russian sovereigns have been crowned kings for centuries not just anywhere, but in the Kremlin Assumption Cathedral. In the Monomakh hat, in the traditions of Grozny... On holidays, everything bad was forgotten, new king He treated his subjects to wine and meat, bread and honey.

Thus, after the coronation, the new emperor wrote off arrears from the people totaling 100 million rubles. and donated hundreds of thousands of rubles from his personal savings to charitable needs. The celebrations continued for several days, their program was planned in advance. Everything was furnished more magnificently than in previous years: illuminations, festive pavilions. Four days after the coronation, on Khodynka Field, during public festivities, the royal gifts were to be distributed, which consisted of a bag of sausage, cod, a large gingerbread, candy and nuts. This gift also included a commemorative “coronation mug” with a coat of arms and initials.

In 1883, at the coronation of the Emperor Alexandra III The distribution of gifts on Khodynka went smoothly. But this time the valuable gift became a stumbling block. There were rumors that the bartenders were stealing free food. And the people gathered on the Khodynskoye field in advance... Without exaggeration, crowds of thousands.

The outstanding journalist A.S. Suvorin, a man of tenacious mind, writes in his diary: “There were a lot of people in the evening. Some sat near the fire, some slept on the ground, some treated themselves to vodka, while others sang and danced.” “The artel workers pampered us and began to give out a few bundles to their friends. When the people saw this, they began to protest and climb into the windows of the tents and threaten the artel workers. They got scared and started giving out (gifts).” Gifts turned out to be a dangerous temptation; passions flared up because of them, and blood was shed because of them.

Historian Sergei Oldenburg, hot on his heels, interpreted the situation as follows: “The crowd suddenly jumped up as one person and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if fire was chasing it... The back rows pressed on the front: whoever fell was trampled, having lost the ability to feel that they walk on still living bodies, as if on stones or logs. The disaster lasted only 10-15 minutes. When they came to their senses, it was already too late. There were 1,282 people killed on the spot and those who died in the coming days, and several hundred wounded.” Huge losses! Our commanders often lost much less in general battles, although they had to face enemy bayonets, under fire, under buckshot. The police were considered guilty - and rightly so. When a combination of circumstances coincides with the criminal negligence of law enforcement officers, trouble cannot be avoided.

Everything happened incredibly quickly. Then they managed to calm the crowd, many were horrified... And for a long time they took the wounded and dead out of Khodynka... The authorities were confused and ignorant. There were songs on Khodynka, including funny ones. And this was before they had time to wash the blood off the ground and send the wounded to hospitals. A prayer service would have been more appropriate, but everything continued according to a predetermined plan. This holiday will be called dancing on corpses. The people were supposed to greet the emperor...

On the road to Khodynka, he met carts with wounded and dead. Nikolai, to whom responsibility for the state had only recently fallen on his shoulders, stopped and uttered words of sympathy. He did not yet know the scale of what had happened - as, probably, did the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. It was he who insisted that the day's program remain unchanged, despite the unfortunate excesses. In those hours, they could not even imagine that the number of victims was in the thousands. Perhaps that is why the celebrations on Khodynka were not cancelled. The young emperor, as expected, was greeted with shouts of “Hurray!” and hymns. A short lunch took place.

A little later, the emperor would write in his diary: “The crowd, who had spent the night on the Khodynka field waiting for the start of the distribution of lunch and mugs, pressed against the buildings, and then there was a stampede, and, horribly to add, about one thousand three hundred people were trampled. I found out about this at ten and a half o’clock... This news left a disgusting impression.” The authorities did not remain indifferent to the victims of the tragedy. They gave out one thousand rubles per family of those killed or injured in the Khodynka tragedy. The amount is considerable.

In addition, the dead were buried at public expense, and their children, if necessary, were sent to an orphanage. But you can’t bring back the dead, and you can’t heal the maimed. On May 19, the imperial couple, together with the governor-general, visited the Staro-Catherine Hospital, where the wounded on the Khodynka Field were admitted. Many repented and complained about their own greed. After all, it all started because of gifts... Others scolded the Moscow authorities. Many considered it necessary to resign Sergei Alexandrovich. But the emperor limited himself to resignations in the police department.

Why were the police unprepared for such excesses? Russia's population grew amazingly quickly in the 19th century. Our capitals have also become more crowded. The state apparatus was not ready to manage such a populous country, such massive gatherings... They worked the old fashioned way, as if there were still 50 million citizens in Russia.

Meanwhile, at the fateful 5 o’clock in the morning on May 18, there were a total of at least 500 thousand people on the Khodynskoye field. Let me remind you that a little more than a million lived in Moscow at that time, including old people and children. The Moscow authorities simply failed to organize the delivery and distribution of gifts. They turned out to be unprepared for such massive celebrations with a complex program.

Big politics also failed. As you know, under Alexander III, Russia entered into an alliance with France. Rapprochement with this power required a lot. France needed military power Russia, in trade routes to the East, and in the future – in the vast Russian sales market. And Russia, first of all, saw France as a financial support and was interested in loans, without which it would be difficult to carry out industrialization. Both powers counted on support in their rivalry with a growing Germany. A ball was scheduled for the evening of that day at the French ambassador's. The Allies intended to congratulate the new Russian monarch. To disrupt such an event means to darken the relationship between the two powers.

The emperor could not miss the French envoy's ball, although many advised him to refrain from entertainment events. In the memoirs of S.Yu. Witte we read: “The Emperor and the Empress were supposed to be present at the ball. During the day we did not know whether this ball would be canceled due to the disaster or not; It turned out that the ball was not cancelled. Then they assumed that although there would be a ball, their majesties would probably not come.” Witte further reports that the emperor was sad at the ball and quickly left the meeting.

Disputes about this decision continue to this day. And they began already that May night: “Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Moscow Governor-General. As soon as we met, naturally, we started talking about this catastrophe, and the Grand Duke told us that many advised the sovereign to ask the ambassador to cancel this ball and, in any case, not to come to this ball, but that the sovereign completely disagreed with this opinion; in his opinion, this catastrophe is the greatest misfortune, but a misfortune that should not overshadow the coronation holiday; the Khodynka catastrophe should be ignored in this sense” (the same Witte).

The opposition got a reason to gossip that the emperor was indifferent to the people's tragedy and had fun at the ball that evening. In the twentieth century, every step of the ruler had to be correlated with the context of the information war. Konstantin Balmont, a rebellious poet, prophesied: “He is a coward, he feels with hesitation, But it will happen, the hour of reckoning awaits. He who began to reign as Khodynka will end by standing on the scaffold...” Cruel words, with overlap, with emotional overkill. The king was turned into the sole culprit of the deadly winepress. This is the destiny of an autocrat - to bear responsibility for everything. Of course, the execution of the former emperor did not bring happiness to the poet: Balmont emigrated from revolutionary Russia, cursing the Bolsheviks.

What happened on Khodynka? A clouding of minds, a terrorist attack? Rather, it was an accident, a set of circumstances, aggravated by the negligence of the authorities. And it is not at all by chance that the concept “Khodynka” has become iconic and has become a proverb.

The memory of the tragedy and its victims was not hushed up. In 1896, at the Vagankovskoye cemetery above the hill of the mass grave, a monument to the victims of the stampede on Khodynskoye Field was erected according to the design of the architect I. A. Ivanov-Shits - a beautiful stele with the date of the tragedy engraved on it.

Have similar tragedies happened in other countries? Yes, all sorts of things happened, especially where there were large crowds of people, where gifts were distributed... But the Khodynka tragedy is one of the largest in this sad series.

The last emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, was usually called “Bloody” in official Soviet historiography. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, in January 1905, when the religious procession to the Winter Palace, due to a misunderstanding or provocation, was met with gunfire. The second reason is the Khodynka disaster of 1896. remained in people's memory in the form of a common verbal cliché, although not everyone knows its circumstances. “Khodynka” - even today they sometimes talk about an unimaginable crowd and stampede.

Coronation

The Khodynka disaster occurred during celebrations dedicated to the crowning of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov. The ceremony itself took place on May 14 and was accompanied by some ominous sign. The scene of the action was the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The autocrat was young, but the service turned out to be very tiring for him too. The day turned out to be hot, the temple was stuffy, and the attire worn on such occasions differed from everyday ones in its special splendor. In general, according to the recollections of Abbot Seraphim, the 28-year-old monarch simply felt ill, he stumbled, almost fell, and even lost consciousness for a short time. This can happen to anyone, but in this context this fact, which was later compared with the circumstances of the reign, was perceived as hysterical.

After the exhausting coronation ritual, the crowned couple went to spend the night in Ilyinskoye, with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife Elizaveta Feodorovna, and when they woke up, the couple were glad that all the ceremonies were left behind, and now they could live in peace, doing government affairs. The celebrations were supposed to take place for a long time, until May 26, but the tsar did not need to participate in them directly. However, the joy turned out to be premature: just three days later, a disaster occurred on the Khodynskoye field.

Celebration plan

Nikolai Alexandrovich sincerely dreamed of becoming a people's king; from the very beginning of his reign, he wanted to make life easier ordinary people and improve their well-being. The beginning of his reign was traditionally preceded by a manifesto, which set out the principles of internal and foreign policy. The people were promised (and at that time this was tantamount to fulfillment) a reduction in the tax burden, forgiveness of arrears and other favorable economic measures. In particular, the debts of citizens worth one hundred billion rubles were paid from the budget. Considering the Russian currency of that time, you can see that it was a huge amount of money, comparable to the amount of the annual national product big developed country. And on his own behalf, Romanov added a lot for general needs - a five-digit figure in gold rubles.

Fatal knot

Large-scale developments that subsequently led to accelerated economic growth in the empire did not exclude simple joys. “For dessert” it was planned to distribute four hundred thousand beautiful gift bundles, in which gingerbread, candies, nuts, sausage, cod and a beautiful mug made according to last word technology of that time. It was iron (and therefore unbreakable, eternal) and covered with hardened enamel, decorated with a double-headed eagle and a royal monogram.

Who could have imagined that because of this gift set, pleasant in all respects, which no one would refuse even today, a real tragedy, the Khodynka disaster, would occur?

Preparing for the holiday and breaking the plan

Later, analyzing the causes of death, many historians argued that the celebrations were poorly prepared and organized. In a sense, this is fair, because the sad outcome speaks for itself. The Khodynka disaster led to the fact that in just a quarter of an hour, 1,389 people were crushed and trampled to death in the crowd, and another 2,690 received injuries of varying severity. But there was also the guilt of the organizers. They cannot be accused of complete inaction, and the transience of the tragedy excluded the possibility of intervention. Installed fences and pre-dug trenches were supposed to restrict the movement of people; the police were sufficient to monitor order in the city. There were no troops, however. The experience of holding similar events that took place thirteen years ago (at that time Alexander III was crowned) did not indicate any special dangers; then everything went quietly and peacefully, people stood in lines, received gifts and dispersed.

The Khodynka disaster of 1896 occurred due to an absurd coincidence of circumstances. One of the managers of one of the one hundred and fifty distribution tents began distributing sets to his friends without waiting for the indicated hour, and even several at a time. People (some of them were drunk) who had gathered on the Khodynskoye field since the evening noticed this and were indignant. Then the offenders tried to correct the mistake and began issuing kits ahead of time. Order was disrupted and a stampede began.

Consequences

The Khodynka disaster plunged the newly crowned monarch into confusion. The situation was aggravated by the fact that an important foreign policy meeting with the French ambassador was scheduled for that very day; it was prepared in advance, and its cancellation could cause diplomatic complications. The king and his wife had to go to Montebello and attend the ball after the gala reception. Subsequently, the liberal press inflated this fact as a manifestation of some kind of “fun” of the royal couple in an hour of national grief. No, Nicholas II did not forget about people, but he put Russian interests above personal emotions. Of course, he perceived the Khodynka disaster as a personal tragedy, and immediately after the execution he went to understand its circumstances. The judgment was righteous and swift. Here are his results:

The police chief was relieved of his post, and those responsible were brought to justice. The circumstances were unforeseen, but everything had to be foreseen.

The families of the victims received one thousand rubles each.

Funerals in individual graves were carried out at state expense.

The orphaned children were placed in the royal orphanage.

All circumstances of the case have been made public.

The surviving victims themselves deserve special words. None of them blamed the authorities for what happened. They blamed only themselves and their greed.

On May 14, 1896 in Moscow, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II was crowned king. At the solemn ceremony, as if preparing the young king for severe trials, The Lord allowed a significant incident to happen. “During the coronation,” Abbot Seraphim (Kuznetsov) later recalled, “an incident that apparently did not deserve attention happened to the Sovereign, but it later turned out to be prophetic.

After a long and tiring coronation service, at the moment of the Emperor’s ascent onto the church platform, exhausted under the weight of the royal robe and crown, he stumbled and temporarily lost consciousness.”

Tragic events followed immediately after the crowning of Emperor Nicholas II, during the coronation celebrations, which took place from May 6 to May 26. Coronation has always been a special, highly solemn moment in the life of everyone Russian state. The celebrations were accompanied, according to tradition, by the publication of a manifesto with various benefits for the people: lower taxes, redemption payments, etc. In particular, Tsar Nicholas II, after his coronation, wrote off arrears from the people totaling 100 billion rubles. and donated hundreds of thousands of rubles from personal savings to public needs.

In addition, he wanted to please the poor people with holiday gifts, which it was decided to distribute on Khodynskoye Field, not far from Moscow, on the fourth day of the celebrations.

Moscow looked festive these days, decorated with flags and colored lanterns. A special power station was built in the Kremlin. In the evenings, thousands of light bulbs illuminated the Kremlin walls, towers and domes. The spectacle was extraordinarily beautiful. One thousand six hundred bell towers rang out the throne during the coronation. And when the young Tsar and Queen, shining with beauty, rode through the city in a gilded carriage, they were met everywhere by crowds of people with joyful cries: “Hurray! Hooray!" A sincere festive mood reigned everywhere then and, it seemed, nothing foreshadowed trouble. But she came...

As already mentioned, on the Khodynka field the royal gifts were to be distributed, which consisted of a bag of sausage, cod, a large gingerbread, candy and nuts. This gift was also accompanied by a commemorative “coronation mug” with the coat of arms and initials of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. For the distribution of gifts, tents were built, fenced to contain the crowds of people, with ditches and trenches that had been dug here long ago for the training of the Moscow garrison troops. When the issue of maintaining order and attracting army forces for this was considered, one of the organizers of the coronation celebrations, the uncle of the young Emperor, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, noted that he believed in the prudence of the people and therefore the forces of the police alone would be enough.

And he had reason to think so. The coronation celebrations took place according to the scenario of the celebrations in 1883. When the father of Nicholas II, Emperor Alexander III, was crowned king. Then, on the Khodynka field, the distribution of royal gifts took place without incident. But, just in case, more distribution tents have been built now than in 1883.

The distribution of gifts was scheduled for May 18 at 11 o'clock in the afternoon, but by the evening of May 17, a huge mass of people had gathered near Khodynskoe Field - over five hundred thousand people who decided to spend the whole night here. Among those gathered there were not only poor, underprivileged people. Craftsmen, workers, and townsfolk came here. Many were drunk. As the famous publicist and publisher A.S. Suvorin noted in his “Diaries”: “There were a lot of people in the evening. Some sat near the fire, some slept on the ground, some treated themselves to vodka, while others sang and danced.”

Meanwhile, gifts from the buffets began to be slowly stolen. “The artel workers indulged,” wrote A.S. Suvorin from the words of an eyewitness, “they began to give out several bundles to their friends. When the people saw this, they began to protest and climb into the windows of the tents and threaten the artel workers. They got scared and started giving out (gifts).”4 Thus, instead of 11 o’clock in the afternoon, bundles with gifts began to be distributed around 6 o’clock in the morning. When this began, instead of receiving gifts one by one, for which special passages were made, according to the same Suvorin, “people from the outside climbed over the tents and ran towards the passages of the tents from the inside. And on both sides they crushed each other... Those who fell were trampled on, walked on... Many climbed onto tents, broke roofs and took out bundles.”

The news that gifts were already being given out and there might not be enough for everyone quickly spread throughout the entire, more than 500,000 people gathered on the Khodynka field. And then, as follows from the recording of the historian S.S. Oldenburg, made from the words of an eyewitness, “the crowd suddenly jumped up as one person and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if fire was chasing it... The back rows pressed on the front: whoever fell, they trampled him, losing the ability to feel that they were walking on still living bodies, as if on stones or logs. The disaster lasted only 10-15 minutes. When they came to their senses, it was already too late. There were 1,282 people killed on the spot and those who died in the coming days, and several hundred wounded.”

When Tsar Nicholas II learned about what had happened, he was shocked. The death of more than a thousand people on a national holiday seemed incredible to him. At noon, he personally went to the Khodynka field to understand what had happened. On the way, he came across carts with the bodies of the dead. He stopped and talked to those who were carrying them, but didn’t really learn anything.

And on the Khodynskoye field itself, by this time everything was already cleared out: flags were waving, a joyful crowd, having sipped beer and wine in the buffets set up here, joyfully shouted “Hurray!”, the orchestra played “God Save the Tsar” and “Glory”. ..On that day, Emperor Nicholas II wrote bitter words in his diary: “The crowd, who had spent the night on the Khodynskoye field waiting for the start of the distribution of dinner and mugs, pressed against the buildings, and then there was a stampede, and, horribly to add, about one thousand three hundred people were trampled. I found out about this at ten and a half o’clock... This news left a disgusting impression.”

Of course, it was a terrible incident, caused in part by the greed of the crowd. And Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, who had just been crowned king, could humanly have become confused and made the wrong orders. But the Autocrat, showing a strong will, ordered a fair investigation, as a result of which the chief police chief was removed from office for poor organization of law enforcement and the law enforcement officers subordinate to him were punished.

Although, it would seem, what could they do when such a huge crowd of more than half a million people, showing impatience, rushed for gifts and became uncontrollable and, in a wild herd impulse, crushed many people.

But since the investigation revealed the lack of foresight of the authorities, punitive measures were taken against the police, and truly Christian compassion was shown to the families of the victims. By order of Tsar Nicholas II, 1 thousand rubles were given to the family of those killed or injured in the Khodynka tragedy.

In addition, the dead were buried at public expense, and their children, if necessary, were sent to an orphanage.

It must be said that the wounded and injured in Khodynka stampede realized their guilt in what happened. After visiting them in the hospital, Tsar Nicholas II's mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna, wrote in her diary: “They were so touching, blaming no one but themselves. They said that they themselves were to blame and were very sorry that they had upset the Tsar! They were, as always, sublime and one can be more than proud of the knowledge that one belongs to such a great and beautiful people.”

It just so happened that on the very day of the disaster, the French ambassador to Russia, Count Gustav Montebello, was supposed to host a reception, which had been prepared long before the coronation and which was given great interstate significance, since it was supposed to help establish allied relations between Russia and France. After the reception there was a ball.

What was the Russian Sovereign to do in this difficult situation? “The King’s heart is in God’s hand,” Holy Scripture tells us. Emperor Nicholas II placed the duty of royal service to the Fatherland, to all the people entrusted to him by God, above his momentary personal reputation among the court nobility, which dissuaded him from attending the reception.

“At the appointed hour,” writes the foreign historian of the last century E. E. Alferyev, “the Emperor arrived at the French embassy, ​​remained there for the minimum time provided for by the protocol, and then departed, instructing the ambassador to convey his gratitude to the French people for their friendly feelings towards Russia.” .

And France sincerely showed friendly feelings towards Russia. The day of the coronation of the Russian Tsar was perceived there as a national holiday. Paris was decorated with Russian flags, and festive demonstrations took place. Classes in schools and lyceums were cancelled, soldiers received dismissals, and officials were given part-time work. French President Felix Faure himself and members of the government were present at the solemn service in the Russian Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Paris. Could Emperor Nicholas II not come to the reception with the French ambassador after this?

And the modern historian A. Stepanov rightly notes: “For a head of state, a reception with an ambassador of a foreign power is not entertainment, but work. Of course, it was possible to cancel the appointment. But it must be borne in mind that Russia and France were just establishing their Allied relations and any roughness could be used by hostile states to disrupt the emerging alliance. And the Emperor found a worthy way out of this difficult situation. He attended the reception, thereby emphasizing Russia’s loyalty to allied relations and interest in their development, but soon left, leaving everyone’s Christian conscience to make a choice - whether to have fun on the day of a mournful event?”

The next morning, the Emperor and Empress attended a memorial service for those killed in the Khodynka tragedy, and later visited the wounded in hospitals several times. When they walked around the wards and talked with the victims, many of them “with tears in their eyes asked the Tsar to forgive them, the “foolish ones” who ruined “such a holiday.”8

Thus, the behavior of Tsar Nicholas II, both as a politician and as an Orthodox Christian, should be considered impeccable. Official seal Russian Empire did not hide the disaster that happened on the Khodynka field from the people. And the appearance of the Russian Sovereign at the ambassador’s reception was appreciated in the foreign press, especially the French.

And only the Russian liberal public and left-Masonic newspapers used the events to denigrate Tsar Nicholas II. They wrote that he was almost to blame for the Khodynka tragedy, after which he went to have fun at a ball at the French embassy. Thus, the enemies of the autocracy sought to discredit the power of Emperor Nicholas II and alienate his subjects, that is, the Russian people, from him. But, as A. Stepanov correctly says, “if we impartially consider all the facts, then we must admit that the Khodynka disaster was an accident. Some police officers who were punished for their lack of foresight were only partly to blame for this misfortune. An objective researcher cannot discern any guilt of Emperor Nicholas II.”

Tsar Nicholas II took the death of people on the Khodynskoye Field to heart. And although criticism of his actions reigned among the liberal aristocracy and intelligentsia, the common people morally supported their Sovereign, which they gratefully acknowledged in the Manifesto of May 26. “People’s feelings,” Tsar Nicholas II said in it, “were expressed with particular force on the day of the national holiday and served Us as a touching consolation in the misfortune that saddened Us in the midst of bright days and befell many of the participants in the celebration.”

And yet, “Khodynka” became a sign of the tragic reign of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. The wise spiritual elders even then saw this catastrophe as an evil omen, realizing that nothing happens without the will of God. All the more terrible is the sudden death of many people. It is interesting to note that the famous philosopher V.V. Rozanov believed that in the tragedy during the coronation celebrations, a “great atonement” was accomplished for the murder of Tsar Alexander II on March 1, 1881.

Be that as it may, the catastrophe that happened was assessed as a terrible sign by ordinary lay people. This is what A.S. Suvorin prophetically wrote at that time in his “Diaries”: “The days of this coronation are bright, light, hot. And the reign will probably be hot. Who will be burned in it and what will be burned? Here's the question! And a lot will probably burn, but a lot will grow!”

On May 30, 1896, during the celebrations of the coronation of Nicholas II, a tragedy occurred, which in history was called the Khodynka disaster. Let us remember the main details of this terrible incident.

Khodynskoe field

It was decided to organize public festivities on the occasion of the coronation of the new emperor on a field with an area of ​​more than a thousand square meters. Before the festivities, the Moscow garrison marched along Khodynka; sand and clay were also taken here for the needs of the capital. The surface of the field was not level - there were holes and gullies everywhere, and nearby there was a ravine. However, the area for the celebrations was put in order - the pits were covered with boardwalks and sprinkled with sand, booths, benches, stages, as well as 20 wooden barracks were placed throughout the field here and there, from which royal gifts were distributed to the people. But either the place was chosen poorly, or the main organizer of the festivities, the Tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, “miscalculated” - what happened happened. However, maybe the cause of the tragedy lies in something else?

Royal favor

The people knew long before the festivities that the day promised to be memorable! In addition to spectacles, the people will also receive “bread”. From those same 20 barracks, it was promised to distribute gift bags with fish, sausage, Vyazma gingerbread with a coat of arms, sweets and nuts. But the main “trophy” could be a mug with the monogram of Their Majesties, which were advertised in store windows long before the holiday. Beer and honey will be served free of charge, and dodgers and strongmen will be able to compete for boots and samovars suspended on poles. The luckiest ones will receive coins with a commemorative inscription, which will be thrown into the crowd.

117 years ago

Many, having learned about the grandiose festivities, decided to be in the thick of things. To be one of the first, you had to arrive early. So many arrived the day before: some alone, some with a group, and some with the whole family. We spent the night here, on the field, lit fires, drank and ate. By ten in the morning the next day, a crowd of half a million froze in anticipation of “miracles.” According to a participant in the events, the famous Moscow reporter Gilyarovsky, the crowd “swayed,” hummed, and then began to groan. When people, driven by rumors that there were not enough gifts for everyone, rushed to the white roofs of the barracks, 1,800 police officers were physically unable to resist them.

Victims of Khodynka

With the words “They give!” people rushed to the barracks. The wooden flooring could not stand up in some places, people fell through and fell, and others walked on them. Someone died from suffocation, unable to withstand the onslaught of the crowd, and continued to move along with the distraught people. Someone was vomiting, but, unable to bend over, he doused himself and those around him with sewage. Small children were pushed up and, like little animals, they climbed over the heads and shoulders of the swaying mass. Some were strangled or killed in fights over gifts, others died on the way home. These descriptions are given in Gilyarovsky's correspondence. The reporter also mentions a woman with a scalped head. He also writes about a well that was boarded up for the duration of the holiday with a wooden shield. Unable to withstand the pressure, the shield broke and the well filled with people. Later, 27 corpses and one miraculously surviving person were removed from it. In total, on this day, according to official data, 1,360 people died, about one and a half thousand were injured.

The holiday continues

Prince Sergei Alexandrovich and the Emperor received notification of terrible tragedy, which occurred on the Khodynka field. However, they decided to “clean up” and continue the festive events. All the corpses had not yet been removed, and music started blaring in the booths. At two o'clock in the afternoon the emperor arrived and was greeted with shouts of "hurray" and the singing of the National Anthem. Regardless of tragic events, the festivities in the Kremlin Palace and the ball at the reception of the French ambassador were also not cancelled. Nicholas was advised not to come to the ball, but he considered that the greatest misfortune that occurred on Khodynskoye Field should not overshadow the coronation.

After the disaster

The bodies of those who were not identified at Khodynka were taken to the Vagankovskoye cemetery, where relatives gathered for identification. The Tsar's mother, Maria Feodorovna, sent bottles of port and Madeira wine (according to some researchers, what was left after three weeks of royal balls and banquets) to the seriously wounded in Moscow hospitals. An amount of 90 thousand rubles was received from the imperial family in favor of the victims. Mark Kasvinov in his book “Twenty-three steps down” writes that initially the emperor ordered that each family that had lost its breadwinner be given a thousand rubles. But having learned that the number of such families is not in tens, but in thousands, he reduced the benefit to 50 rubles, and completely deprived some of them of financial assistance. By the way, as Kasvinov notes, 100 million rubles of budget funds were spent on the coronation.

For the same rake

All unidentified people were buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in mass grave, over which a monument to the victims of the Khodynka tragedy was erected. 16 years before Khodynka, another tragedy occurred in Moscow, which claimed the lives of ten people. This happened during the distribution of alms to the poor. And, of course, we remember the tragic events during Stalin’s funeral on March 9, 1953, when at least two thousand people died in a stampede among those who wished to say goodbye to the leader. However, even today, unfortunately, tragic incidents occur from time to time.

For 120 years now, the Khodynka tragedy has been used to denigrate the Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich, who is accused of misbehavior and complete indifference to the fate of the victims. This accusation was actively used in the late 90s by opponents of the canonization of the Tsar and his family. Let's take a detailed look at what happened, who is to blame, and how the Sovereign Emperor acted.

According to the plan for holding coronation celebrations, a public festival was planned on May 18, 1896 on Khodynskoye Field. Most of the events took place according to the scenario of 1883, when the father of the last Sovereign, Alexander III, was crowned Tsar. Then the national holiday was designed for 400 thousand people, and, despite the huge number of people who came to Khodynka, no serious incidents arose. If people crowded too tightly, they were dispersed by police squads and bands marching through the crowd. In 1896, the authorities were confident that everything would go as calmly and solemnly as 13 years ago.

What was the Khodynskoe field like? It was a fairly large area (a little more than 1 km²), which on the one hand served as a training ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison, and on the other hand, was used for public festivities. There was a ravine next to the field, and on the field itself there were a fair number of holes and ditches. By May 18, 1896, all preparations for the celebration were completed: pits and ditches were covered with boards, an Imperial pavilion and stands were built, and theaters, stages, carousels, swings, circuses, buffets, and more than a hundred tents for distributing royal gifts were located throughout the field. Each guest was to receive a mug with the monograms of Their Majesties, cod, sausage, gingerbread and sweets. All this was wrapped in a festive bag.

General Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky later recalled: “About these gifts, legendary rumors circulated among the people that these mugs would be filled with silver, and others said that they would be filled with gold.”

The Ministry of the Imperial Court was responsible for organizing public festivities and security on the Khodynka Field, and the Moscow authorities, represented by Governor General Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, were supposed to provide all possible assistance in organizing festive events and maintaining public order.

The start of the festivities was scheduled for 10 a.m., and the appearance of the Imperial couple was planned for 2 p.m. By the evening of May 17, a huge mass of people had gathered near the field - over five hundred thousand people according to some sources and about a million according to others. Let's return to the memoirs of General Dzhunkovsky: “Not only from all over Moscow and the Moscow province, but also from neighboring, nearby provinces, people came in thick crowds, some rode with whole families on carts, and all this went and went to Khodynka to see the Tsar, to receive from him a gift. A few days before the holiday, one could already see bivouacs of peasants and factory workers in this field, located here and there; many came from far away. All day on the 16th and 17th, from all directions, to all outposts, people walked continuously, heading to the place of festivities.”

All night long, tired people were looking forward to the start of the holiday - some slept, some sat by the fire, some sang and danced, and a large crowd of people gradually formed right next to the tents themselves.

In the meantime, as always happens in Russia, gifts from buffets began to be distributed to “our own people.” “The artel workers indulged,” wrote journalist Aleksey Sergeevich Suvorin from the words of an eyewitness, “they began to give out several bundles to their friends. When the people saw this, they began to protest and climb into the windows of the tents and threaten the artel workers. They got scared and started giving out (gifts).” Thus, gift bags began to be distributed not at 10 o’clock, but at about 6 o’clock in the morning. The news that gifts were already being distributed and there might not be enough for everyone instantly spread throughout the entire nation. And then, as follows from the record of the historian Sergei Sergeevich Oldenburg: “the crowd suddenly jumped up as one person and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if fire was chasing it. The back rows pressed against the front ones: whoever fell was trampled, having lost the ability to feel that they were walking on still living bodies, as if on stones or logs. The disaster lasted only 10-15 minutes.”

In the memoirs of General Dzhunkovsky there is no mention of distributing gifts to “his own people”. He describes the events as follows: “By 5 o’clock the gathering of people had reached its extreme limit; more than half a million people stood in front of the buffets alone. The heat and stuffiness were unbearable. Not the slightest breeze. Everyone was suffering from thirst, but meanwhile the mass was frozen and it was impossible to move. Many people became ill; they lost consciousness, but could not get out, because... were squeezed as if in a vice. This went on for about an hour... Around 6 o'clock in the morning, cries for help began to be heard. The crowd became agitated and began to demand the distribution of treats. In 2-3 buffets they began to distribute. There were shouts: “They are giving away,” and this seemed to be a signal for the beginning of misfortune. The sea of ​​heads began to sway. Rending groans and screams filled the air. The crowd from behind pressed on those standing in the ditch, some climbed onto their shoulders and walked forward on their heads, something unimaginable happened, the artel workers became confused, and began to throw mugs and bundles into the crowd. Not even 10 minutes had passed before the buffets were demolished, and this whole mass, as if having come to its senses, rushed back and saw with horror a ditch filled with both the dead and the mutilated.”

Thus, we can draw the following conclusions about the causes of the terrible tragedy: firstly, a huge number of people, which significantly exceeded the calculated figures, based, in particular, on the experience of the coronation of Alexander III; secondly, there is a long wait for the start of the holiday and the distribution of gifts, which high temperature and a large crowd of people was certainly accompanied by a shortage fresh air, fainting, irritation, and as a result, the desire to receive a gift quickly; thirdly, the distribution of royal gifts to “their own”, which looks quite plausible, even in the absence of such evidence from General Dzhunkovsky; fourthly, people are afraid that there will not be enough gifts for everyone; and fifthly, inconsistency in the work of the Ministry of the Court and the Moscow authorities, which led to poor organization of the festivities and an insufficient number of police officers.

1,800 police officers were unable to contain the crowd, and the 10-minute stampede resulted in a huge number of casualties: 1,389 dead and several hundred injured. The incident was immediately reported to the Governor General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who subsequently wrote in his diary: “Saturday. In the morning Vorontsov came to me with the news that on the Khodynskoye field people had broken out during the festival and many were depressed. I sent Gadon there to find out; he himself had to go to Niki (Nicholas II - approx. A.T.). Vlasovsky immediately confirmed the same, but order was quickly restored. Nicky asked him himself... I am in despair over everything that happened - one thousand killed and 400 wounded! Alas! Everything will fall on one police chief, although the decisions were made exclusively by the coronation commission with Ber.”

The scene of the tragedy was very quickly cleaned up and cleared of all traces, the celebration program continued, and by 2 p.m. the Royal couple arrived, greeted by a thunderous “Hurray” and the singing of “God Save the Tsar” and “Glory be.”

“The Emperor was pale, the Empress was concentrated, it was clear that they were worried, how difficult it was for them to take charge and pretend as if nothing had happened,” wrote Dzhunkovsky.

Some politicians and members of the Imperial family were of the opinion that public festivities should be cancelled. The Emperor was also inclined towards this. This is what the famous at that time writes in his memoirs political figure Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky: “I was well aware of all the details of what was happening in the Kremlin Palace in connection with the disaster. In view of this, I can testify that Nicholas II was saddened by what had happened, and his first impulse was to order an end to the festivities and retire to one of the monasteries in the vicinity of Moscow to express his grief. This plan was the subject of heated discussion in the circles of the royal retinue, and Count Palen supported this plan and advised the Emperor to strictly punish the culprits, regardless of the position occupied by those responsible for what happened, and above all Grand Duke Sergei, the Emperor’s uncle and the Moscow Governor-General , while others, especially Pobedonostsev and his friends, pointed out that this could confuse the minds and make a bad impression on the princes and foreign representatives gathered in Moscow."

It is necessary to dwell a little on the figure of Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev, who taught jurisprudence and law to the father of Nicholas II, and, moreover, was the mentor of Nikolai Alexandrovich himself when the latter was Heir to the Russian Throne. In 1896, K. P. Pobedonostsev held the post of Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod and had big influence at the court of Nicholas II, just as before that he had great influence at the court of Emperor Alexander III.

One way or another, the Emperor accepted the position of Pobedonostsev and his supporters, but the ceremonial events were reduced. The idea of ​​canceling the holiday itself, of course, is absolutely correct, but in those hours it is difficult to implement. It was possible to announce to the people that the holiday in connection with the tragedy would not take place and that they should go home. But it’s one thing when 500 people gathered for a holiday, and completely different when the number of people exceeded 800 thousand, and many of them traveled a long and hard way from neighboring provinces in order to get to this holiday, see their Tsar and receive a gift from him. General Dzhunkovsky recalled: “The disaster occurred only in a small area, the rest of the vast space of the Khodynka Field was full of people, there were up to a million of them, many only learned about the disaster in the evening, these people came from afar, and it would hardly be right to deprive them of the holiday.” .

But let’s return to the description of the events of that terrible day: At 2 p.m., Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna arrived for the celebrations. Half an hour later they headed to the Petrovsky Palace, where they received deputations from the peasants, after which lunch was arranged for the volost elders in two tents. And in the evening there was a ball at the French embassy. This ill-fated ball is always the culmination of accusatory passages addressed to the Emperor, who supposedly opened the ball with great joy with Countess Montebello, and Alexandra Feodorovna danced with no less pleasure with the Count.

It is worth noting that this reception was prepared by the French side long before the coronation, and it was given important interstate significance, since it was supposed to contribute to the establishment of allied relations between Russia and France.

The repeatedly quoted General Dzhunkovsky considered the presence of the Royal couple at the ball to be a unique mistake: “In the evening there was a ball at the French embassy. Everyone was convinced that the ball would be cancelled. Alas! Again an irreparable mistake was made, the ball was not cancelled, Their Majesties came to the ball.”

A.P. Izvolsky wrote: “The envoy Marquis de Montebello and his wife, who enjoyed great love in Russian society, knowing what was happening in the Kremlin, they expected that the imperial couple would not be present at the celebration and intended to postpone the ball. However, it took place, and I clearly remember the tense atmosphere at this celebration.

The efforts that the Emperor and Empress made when appearing in public were clearly visible on their faces.

Some have blamed the French Ambassador for not taking the initiative in canceling the ball, but I can certify that the Marquis and Marchioness were forced to bow to the higher will, guided by the deplorable advice I have already mentioned.”

Thus, neither the French ambassador, nor the Emperor, nor Pobedonostsev, nor anyone else, experienced any joy from holding this ball, but it still took place on the initiative of Russian diplomats, as a gesture of Russia’s loyalty to allied relations. And the attendance of the reception by the Imperial couple, under the current conditions, was a sign of special respect and gratitude to the French side for organizing the ball.

Modern publicist A. Stepanov rightly notes: “A reception with an ambassador of a foreign power for a head of state is not entertainment, but work. Of course, it was possible to cancel the appointment. But it must be borne in mind that Russia and France were just establishing their Allied relations and any roughness could be used by hostile states to disrupt the emerging alliance. And the Emperor in this difficult situation I found a decent solution. He attended the reception, which emphasized Russia’s loyalty to allied relations and interest in their development, but soon left...”

On May 19, a memorial service for those killed on Khodynka took place in the Kremlin in the presence of the entire Imperial family, after which the Imperial couple, together with Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, visited the Staro-Catherine Hospital, where the wounded were admitted, and on May 20 they visited the Mariinsky Hospital.

The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna wrote in a letter to her son Georgy Alexandrovich: “I was very upset to see all these unfortunate wounded, half crushed, in the hospital, and almost every one of them had lost someone close to them. It was heartbreaking. But at the same time, they were so significant and sublime in their simplicity that they simply made you want to kneel before them. They were so touching, blaming no one but themselves. They said that they themselves were to blame and were very sorry that they had upset the Tsar! As always, they were sublime, and one could be proud of the knowledge that you belong to such a great and beautiful people. Other classes should take an example from them, and not devour each other, and mainly, with their cruelty, excite minds to a state that I have never seen in the 30 years of my stay in Russia.”

After the tragedy, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich ordered to pay 1000 rubles from his own funds to the family of the deceased, in addition, the Emperor paid all expenses associated with the funeral. Also, according to Dzhunkovsky: “a commission was established under the chairmanship of the governor, large sums of money were collected, in addition to those allocated from the Ministry of Finance, and all families received benefits until the revolution.”

Newspapers published lists of victims who were paid benefits depending on the severity of their injuries. The full benefit was 1000 rubles. Partial benefits were amounts of 750, 700, 500, 350 and 250 rubles. In addition, annual pensions were assigned: 24, 40 and 60 rubles, and special benefits were paid, “issued as a refund of funeral expenses.”

However, they want to slander Emperor Nicholas II here too. This is what Mark Konstantinovich Kasvinov wrote in his book: “Maria Feodorovna, the Tsar’s mother, sent a thousand bottles of port and Madeira to Moscow hospitals for the seriously wounded - from the remnants of the Kremlin reserves that still survived after three weeks coronation balls and banquets.

The son, following his mother, felt a call to mercy, ordered that each orphaned family be given an allowance of 1000 rubles. When it became clear that there were not dozens, but thousands of dead, he secretly took back this favor and, through various reservations, reduced the payment to some to 50-100 rubles, and completely deprived others of benefits. In total, the tsar allocated 90 thousand rubles for this purpose, of which the Moscow city government snatched 12 thousand to reimburse expenses for the funerals of the victims.

And the coronation celebrations themselves cost 100 million rubles. - three times more than spent in the same year on public education. And not from personal funds royal family, but from the treasury, that is, from the state budget.”

So, according to the data cited by Kasvinov, all the help from the Imperial Family is 90 thousand rubles, and a thousand bottles of port and Madeira, which, against the background of the astronomical amount spent on the coronation, should convince any person of the complete hypocrisy of the Tsar who “felt the urge to mercy” .

Let's look in detail at what sums were spent on organizing the coronation celebrations, what sums the Sovereign Emperor had, and whether he could afford such large payments to orphaned families.

For comparison, I will give the costs not only for the coronation of 1896, but also for the coronation of the father and grandfather of Nicholas II. In 1856, the total expenses for coronation celebrations amounted to 5,322,252 rubles. 91 kopecks For the coronation of Alexander III in 1883, they spent 972 thousand more - 6,294,636 rubles. It is worth recalling that the coronation celebrations of 1896 largely followed the scenario of 1883; in addition, parallels were constantly drawn between the costs of these coronations. Naturally, there was no talk of any fabulous 100 million, and there could be no talk; all the celebrations of 1896 cost 6,971,328 rubles. 24 kopecks

Now let's determine how much money the Sovereign Emperor should have allocated from his personal funds to help orphaned families. Officially, 1,389 people died. Multiplying by the promised 1000 rubles, we get 1 million 389 thousand rubles. Was such money at the disposal of the Emperor? Absolutely yes. In fact, the Tsar had three possible source financing. The first source is the “own sums”, which were annually replenished from the State Treasury by 200,000 rubles (the so-called “salary” of the Emperor). Until the moment Nikolai Alexandrovich became Emperor, he also received a salary, first as Grand Duke, and after the assassination of Alexander II, as Heir Tsesarevich. Due to the fact that the Tsarevich was in the full care of his parents, by the time he ascended the Throne, a decent amount for those times had accumulated in the account - 2,010,940 rubles. 98 kop. and 355,000 francs (as of January 1, 1896). 355,000 francs is money inherited from his father. By the end of 1896, there were 2,006,515 rubles in the account. 62 kop. and 355,000 francs. Thus, it becomes obvious that payments to orphaned families were not made from these amounts. The second source is the budget of the Ministry of the Imperial Household, which was approximately 60% formed from funds of the State Treasury, and the remaining part is the income of the Appanage Department (profits from property, land, gold mining, factories, orchards that belonged to the Imperial family). As a prominent official of the Ministry of the Court wrote: “When assessing the palace financial policy It should be borne in mind that with the unlimited power of the Tsar, he could also demand from the state treasury an unlimited amount for the maintenance of the Court; but this was not done, it was considered unacceptable, indecent. Vacations for the budget of the Ministry of the Household were determined by various historical layers; increasing them was avoided until the last possible opportunity.” In 1896, the budget of the Ministry of the Imperial Household was approximately 23 million rubles. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out the itemized budget expenditures for this year, however, it is likely that payments to families were made from these funds. The third source is a kind of safety net for the Romanovs: the so-called “Reserve Capital”, stored in interest-bearing securities and reaching a colossal amount of 44,712,239 rubles; and other special “registered capitals”, for example, “Capital of the Tsarskoye Selo Farm”, which was started by Alexander I on February 16, 1824.

Thus, the actual (full) financial position of the Ministry of the Imperial Household by January 1, 1886 was determined by the amount of 65,912,735 rubles.

As can be seen from the above figures, the Emperor had the necessary amount to provide assistance to orphaned families. In addition to the Sovereign, other members of the Imperial family also provided assistance, so on May 27, 1896, “to strengthen the funds received from Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for the construction of a shelter for children whose parents suffered during the national holiday on Khodynskoe Field on May 18” was “ 10,000 rubles were accepted into the cash desk of the Moscow City Council.”

It is also necessary to point out that this was not the first large donation from Nicholas II, since in 1891-1892 there was a crop failure in Russia, and Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich not only headed the Committee to Combat Hunger, but also donated several million rubles that he received inherited from my grandmother.

Kasvinov, in his work, tries to convince us that Nicholas II first ordered the allocation of 1,000 rubles to each orphaned family, and when “it turned out that there were not dozens, but thousands of dead, he secretly took back this favor.” Let's think, could this really happen?

In his diary for May 18, the Emperor wrote the following: “Until now, everything was going, thank God, like clockwork, but today a great sin happened. The crowd, who had spent the night on the Khodynka field, in anticipation of the start of the distribution of lunch and mugs, pressed against the buildings and then there was a terrible stampede, and, terribly to add, about 1,300 people were trampled! I found out about this at 10 1/2 o'clock before Vannovsky's report; This news left a disgusting impression. At 12 1/2 we had breakfast and then Alix and I went to Khodynka to be present at this sad “ national holiday" Actually there was nothing there; looked from the pavilion at the huge crowd surrounding the stage, on which the music was constantly playing the anthem and “Glory” ... ".

According to this diary entry, Nicholas II already at 10:30 learned not only about the tragedy, but also about the number of dead. Therefore, when giving the order to help the victims, Nikolai Alexandrovich was well aware that it would be necessary to allocate a decent amount, and not 90 thousand rubles, as they are trying to convince us.

In 1896, a monument to the victims of the stampede on Khodynskoye Field was erected at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, designed by the architect Illarion Aleksandrovich Ivanov-Shits.

To clarify the circumstances and true reasons After the tragedy, an investigation was opened headed by Count Paleny. As a result, the Moscow Chief of Police Vlasovsky and his assistant were removed from their positions, and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (popularly nicknamed “Prince Khodynsky”) asked for his resignation, but the Sovereign did not accept it.

During the investigation, the Moscow authorities, represented by Governor General Sergei Alexandrovich, and the Ministry of the Imperial Household, represented by Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, placed all the blame for what happened on each other.

“Since the organization of the public festivities was removed from the jurisdiction of the Governor-General and transferred entirely to the Ministry of the Court,” wrote Dzhunkovsky, “I did not take any part in it, and the adoption of security measures also did not concern our commission - security on Khodynskoye Field was also taken over upon himself the Ministry of the Court in the person of the palace commandant... The Grand Duke, as the owner of the capital, of course, could not be pleasant; he reacted to this by completely withdrawing from any interference, not only in relation to the organization of the festivities themselves, but even in relation to the preservation of order "

To our greatest regret, neither Dzhunkovsky, nor Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, nor many other Moscow officials took proper part, believing that they should not interfere in the work of the “coronation commission led by Ber”, forgetting that the leading role of the Ministry of the Court was not freed them all from accepting necessary measures to ensure order.

A detailed examination of everything that happened allows us to draw an unambiguous conclusion: all accusations against Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich of unworthy behavior, hypocrisy and indifference to the fate of the victims do not stand up to criticism, and are nothing more than an attempt to slander the Sovereign, using all possible means for this, even to outright falsification of figures and facts.

P. S. According to the norms of the modern Russian language, words such as “tsar”, “emperor”, “empire” and the like are written with a lowercase (small) letter, unless the sentence begins with them. I am very sensitive to my native language, and I always oppose errors in oral and writing, as well as excessive and inappropriate tongue clogging in foreign words and phrases. However, within the framework of this work, I will deliberately make the same type of spelling errors, because my deep respect for National history literally makes me ignore certain language rules and capitalize certain words.

Vladimir Fedorovich Dzhunkovsky - adjutant of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1891-1905), Moscow vice-governor (1905-1908), Moscow governor (1908-1913), commander of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes and comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs (1913-1915).

Notes of General Dzhunkovsky.