Wedding of the wedding of Tsar
Nicholas II and the Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, which took place at the Chapel of the
Winter Palace, St Petersburg, on 14/26 November 1894. On 1 November 1894,
Alexander III died at the age of 49. Nicholas was confirmed as Tsar Nicholas II. The next day, Alix was received into the Russian Orthodox Church as "the truly believing Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna." However, she was not required to repudiate Lutheranism. Alix wanted to take the name
Yekaterina, but Nicholas wanted her to take the name Alexandra so that they could be a second Nicholas and Alexandra. He was inspired by his great-grandfather
Nicholas I and his great-grandmother
Alexandra Feodorovna. Alexandra, the
Prince and
Princess of Wales, and Nicholas's Greek relatives accompanied the coffin of Alexander III first through Moscow and St. Petersburg. The funeral of Alexander III occurred on 19 November. On 26 November 1894, Alexandra and Nicholas married in the
Grand Church of the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg. Court mourning could be relaxed because it was the birthday of Nicholas's mother, now Dowager Empress
Maria Feodorovna. Many Russians considered Alexandra a bad
omen because she arrived so soon after the death of Emperor Alexander: "She has come to us behind a coffin. She brings misfortune with her." Alexandra herself wrote to her sister: "Our wedding seemed to me, a mere continuation of the funeral liturgy for the dead Tsar, with one difference; I wore a white dress instead of a black one."
Coronation On 26 May 1896, Alexandra and Nicholas were crowned at the
Dormition Cathedral in the
Kremlin. Five hundred thousand Russians gathered in
Moscow to watch the entertainment, eat the court-sponsored food, and collect the gifts in honor of their new tsar. There were rumors that there was not enough food for everyone, so the crowd rushed towards the gift tables. The police failed to maintain order, and a thousand Russians were
trampled to death at the
Khodynka Field. Nicholas and Alexandra were horrified by the deaths, and they decided not to attend the ball that the French ambassador, the Marquis de Montebello, hosted in their honor. Nicholas's uncles urged him to attend so as not to offend the French and give credence to the rumors that the German Alexandra was prejudiced against the French.
Sergei Witte commented, "We expected the party would be called off. Instead it took place as if nothing had happened and the ball was opened by Their Majesties dancing a quadrille." The British ambassador informed Queen Victoria that "the Empress appeared in great distress, her eyes reddened by tears." The next day, Alexandra and Nicholas visited the wounded and paid for the coffins of the dead. However, many Russians took the disaster at Khodynka Field as an omen that Nicholas's reign would be unhappy. Others used the circumstances of the tragedy and the behaviour of the royal establishment to underscore the heartlessness of the autocracy and the contemptible shallowness of the young tsar and his "German woman".
Rejection by the Russian people Alexandra was extremely unpopular among her husband's Russian subjects. Her shy and introverted nature was interpreted as arrogance and coldness, and she struggled to win friends. The Russian court judged her as "devoid of charm, wooden, cold eyes, holds herself as if she'd swallowed a yardstick." Alexandra struggled to communicate. She spoke English and German fluently, but she is said to have struggled to speak French, the official language of the court. Her letters and notes show that she could read and write French very fluently however, and communication between herself and her children's French tutor Pierre Gilliard was always in French. Alexandra also spoke Italian, having learned that language as a teenager. It is often said that she struggled with Russian and did not learn it until she became Empress. This is however untrue. Her teenage diaries show that she had some Russian lessons prior to visiting her sister Ella in Russia. She began learning Russian in earnest after her engagement to Nicholas, and during the period of her engagement wrote long passages to him in Russian - with some minor errors, but improving over time. She learned to speak Russian very well. The letters between Alexandra and her son Alexei were almost without exception in Russian. Alexandra failed to understand her public role at court as the empress. Traditionally, the empress led the social scene and hosted numerous balls. However, Alexandra was shocked by the decadence, love affairs, and gossip that characterized parties. She declared that "the heads of the young ladies of St. Petersburg are filled with nothing but thoughts of young officers," and she crossed off the names of noblemen and noblewomen whom she deemed scandalous from the invitation lists until no one was left. Many people in St. Petersburg society dismissed Alexandra as a prude. In one of her first balls, Alexandra sent a lady-in-waiting to reprimand a young woman in a low-cut gown: "Her Majesty wants me to tell you that in Hesse-Darmstadt we don't wear our dresses this way." The unnamed woman replied, "Pray tell Her Majesty that in Russia we do wear our dresses this way." In 1896, she launched the "Help Through Handwork" project. She wanted to create a series of workshops in which noblewomen would teach poor peasants how to sew and raise funds for needy families. Alexandra had a difficult relationship with her mother-in-law, Maria Feodorovna. Unlike other European courts of the day, Russian protocol gave the dowager empress seniority in rank to the empress. At royal balls, Maria entered on her son's arm and Alexandra followed on the arm of one of the grand dukes. Maria was so accustomed to the tradition that she was surprised when Alexandra was bitter about her junior role at court. Maria also "carried her insistence on precedence so far that the
chiffres of the maids of honor of both Empresses bore the initials M. A. instead of A. M., which was the proper order." She dreaded social functions and enjoyed being alone with Nicholas, so she did not host the balls and parties that a tsarina normally would. Members of the imperial family resented that she closed off their access to the tsar and the inner court. She disliked Nicholas's uncle, Grand Duke
Vladimir Alexandrovich. She declared that Vladimir's sons
Kirill,
Boris and
Andrei were irredeemably immoral. In 1913 she refused Boris's proposal for the hand of Grand Duchess Olga. During the war Vladimir's wife, Grand Duchess
Marie Pavlovna, openly criticized Alexandra. Insecure about her modest origins as a minor German princess, Alexandra insisted on being treated with the full honors due to an empress. In 1896 Alexandra and Nicholas went on a European tour. When Wilhelm II lent her an antique silver toilette service that had once belonged to his great-grandmother, Queen
Louise of Prussia, she was insulted and declared that only a gold service was suitable for an empress. She dressed herself "with great magnificence". At the Russian court courtiers mocked for her "dress[ing] in the heavy brocade of which she was so fond, and with diamonds scattered all over her, in defiance of good taste and common sense." Alexandra refused to court the public because she believed that the Russian people automatically loved and revered their emperor and empress. When she and Nicholas were traveling to Crimea by train, hundreds of peasants wore their best clothes and waited overnight to see the imperial couple. Nicholas went to the window and waved, but Alexandra refused to open the curtains and acknowledge the crowd. Dowager Empress Maria was furious that "[Alexandra] thinks the Imperial family should be 'above that sort of thing.' What does she mean? Above winning the people's affection?...And yet, how often she complains of the public indifference toward her." Queen Victoria worried about Alexandra's unpopularity in her new country and she advised her granddaughter: "I've ruled more than 50 years ... and nevertheless every day I think about what I need to do to retain and strengthen the love of my subjects ... It is your first duty to win their love and respect." Alexandra replied, "You are mistaken, my dear grandmamma; Russia is not England. Here we do not need to earn the love of the people. The Russian people revere their Tsars as divine beings ... As far as Petersburg society is concerned, that is something which one may wholly disregard." This letter, while quoted in Montefiore's book, The Romanovs, was first published in English in Orlando Figes's book A People's Tragedy. The footnotes show that the source of this letter was to be found in the Russian language book "
Tsar i Tsaritsa" by Vladimir Iosifovich Gurko, who also noted "Of course, I do not vouch for the authenticity of the letters cited, but in any case they were passed around Petersburg and, of course, did not contribute to the establishment of good relations between the young Empress and the only outside world with which she came into direct contact." Following the death of Queen Victoria, all the correspondence of Empress Alexandra to Queen Victoria was returned to her. In 1917, following the Tsar's abdication, Alexandra burnt the entirety of her correspondence with Queen Victoria, and therefore the veracity of these letters cannot be confirmed as there are no extant letters between Queen Victoria and Alexandra Feodorovna in the Russian State Archives, nor is there any in the Royal Archives post 1894 other than a couple of telegrams.
Struggle to bear an heir On 15 November 1895, Alexandra gave birth to her eldest child and daughter,
Olga, at the
Alexander Palace. Many Russians and members of the imperial family were disappointed in the sex of the child, but Nicholas and Alexandra were delighted with their daughter and doted on her. The birth of Olga did not change Grand Duke George's position as Nicholas's heir presumptive. The
Pauline Laws implemented by Tsar
Paul I forbade women from taking the Romanov throne as long as any male Romanov was alive. If Alexandra did not bear a son, Nicholas's heirs would be his brothers and uncles. However few worried because Alexandra was only 23, so she was expected to be able to bear a son soon. A few months after giving birth to Olga, Alexandra was pregnant again. Owing to the stress of the coronation she had a
miscarriage. No announcement was made, because she had not publicly confirmed her pregnancy. However, there were unfounded and malicious rumors in St Petersburg that Alexandra had become pregnant by a lover and aborted the baby to hide her infidelity. On 10 June 1897 Alexandra gave birth to her second child and daughter,
Tatiana. Nicholas was overjoyed but the members of his family were unhappy and worried. When she woke up from the chloroform, Alexandra saw the "anxious and troubled faces" around her and "burst into loud hysterics." She cried, "My God, it is again a daughter. What will the nation say, what will the nation say?" Alexandra's failure to have a son made her even more unpopular among the Russians. Nicholas's brother George said that he was disappointed not to have a nephew to relieve him of his duties as heir: "I was already preparing to go into retirement, but it was not to be. On 26 June 1899 Alexandra gave birth to her third child and daughter,
Maria. Queen Victoria sent Alexandra a telegram when Maria was born: "I am so thankful that dear Alicky has recovered so well, but I regret the third girl for the country." Grand Duke Konstantin fretted: "And so there's no Heir. The whole of Russia will be disappointed by this news." Russians saw the birth of a third daughter as proof that Alexandra was bad luck. Two weeks after Maria's birth, Nicholas's brother George died and their younger brother
Michael became the heir presumptive to the throne. Courtiers flocked to Michael and treated him as the heir apparent, which distressed Alexandra. In October 1900 Nicholas became ill with abdominal typhus and was confined to bed for five weeks. The cabinet were forced to discuss what would happen if Nicholas died. Alexandra was pregnant with her fourth child, and she insisted that she be named regent in the hope that she would bear a son. However Nicholas's ministers refused: If Nicholas died, Michael would become tsar. If Alexandra's baby was a boy, Michael would renounce the throne in his nephew's favor. Alexandra was not satisfied and she grew to distrust Nicholas's ministers for trying to "steal" her future son's inheritance. On 18 June 1901 Alexandra gave birth to
Anastasia. Nicholas's sister, Grand Duchess Xenia, exclaimed, "My God! What a disappointment!... a fourth girl!" The French diplomat
Maurice Paléologue reported: "The German [Alexandra] has the evil eye. Thanks to her nefarious influence our Emperor is doomed to catastrophe." The Russian peasants decided that "the Empress was not beloved in heaven or she would have borne a son." Alexandra and Nicholas turned to the faith in hopes of having a son. Shortly after Anastasia's birth, Grand Duchess
Militza Nikolaevna introduced Alexandra to a mystic named
Philippe Nizier-Vachot. He was an unlicensed quack who claimed that he could use his magnetic powers to change the sex of a baby inside the womb. Nicholas contrived a medical diploma from the
Imperial Military Medical Academy for Philippe and made him
State Councilor and military doctor. Nicholas's mother (Maria), sister (Xenia) and sister-in-law (Ella) were alarmed and warned him and Alexandra to stay away from Philippe, but the imperial couple did not heed their advice. In the end of 1901 Alexandra seemed to have become pregnant again and Philippe swore that she was carrying a boy. By the summer of 1902 it was clear that the Empress was not pregnant.
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia wrote, "From 8 August we have been waiting every day for confirmation of the Empress's pregnancy. Now we have suddenly learned that she is not pregnant, indeed that there never was any pregnancy, and that the symptoms that led to suppose it were in fact only anaemia!". In reality, Alexandra had had a
molar pregnancy. On 19 August 1902 she had suffered a discharge of "a spherical, fleshy mass the size of a walnut", Humiliated, Alexandra sent Philippe to France. In 1903 Alexandra and Nicholas decided to support the canonisation of
Seraphim of Sarov. Before he left Russia Philippe told them that Seraphim would grant Alexandra a son. Seraphim had been a monk in the
Tambov region who had supposedly performed local miracles and had been dead for seventy years. The Metropolitan of Moscow reluctantly agreed to canonize the saint. On 19 August Alexandra and Nicholas bathed in the Sarov Spring in which Seraphim had once bathed and prayed that the
sacred waters would bless them with a son. In 1904 Alexandra became pregnant. There was high anticipation for a son. As her due date drew near, a newspaper noted that "a few days will decide whether the Czarina is to be the most popular woman in Russia, or regarded by the great bulk of the people as a castaway – under the special wrath of God." On 12 August 1904 Alexandra gave birth to
Alexei Nikolaevich in
Peterhof. Alexei's birth affirmed Nicholas and Alexandra's faith in Philippe. In her diary Nicholas's sister Olga wrote, "I am sure it was Seraphim who brought it about." Nicholas wrote to Militza to "pass on our gratitude and joy ... to Philippe."
Relationship with her children Alexandra had a distant relationship with Olga. She relied on Olga to keep her younger siblings in order. Her letters to Olga include frequent reminders to mind her siblings: "Remember above all to always be a good example to the little ones" and "Try to have a serious word with Tatiana and Maria about how they should conduct themselves towards God." Olga was frustrated by trying to keep her boisterous siblings in order, and she complained that her mother had no time for her. Olga preferred her father. Alexandra was closest to her second daughter, Tatiana. Tatiana resembled Alexandra the most in terms of appearance and personality. She was described by her paternal aunt Xenia: "[Tatiana] and her mother are like as two peas in a pod!.... so pretty." She was cautious and reserved, and she was unquestioningly devoted to Alexandra. During the family's final months, she helped her mother by pushing her about the house in a wheelchair. Maria felt insecure about her role in the family, and Alexandra frequently assured Maria that she was as loved as her siblings: "Sweet child you must promise me never again to think that nobody loves you. How did such an extraordinary idea get into your little head? Get it quickly out again." Maria worried that Alexandra favored Anastasia over her, and Alexandra reassured her that "I have no secrets with Anastasia." Anastasia physically resembled Alexandra, but her boisterous, mischievous personality was very different from her mother's. She was dubbed the
shvibzik, Russian for "imp." During the family's last months, Anastasia was the only one who could make the melancholic Alexandra laugh. Alexandra doted on Alexei because he was her only son and the heir to the Russian Empire. The children's tutor
Pierre Gilliard wrote, "Alexei was the centre of a united family, the focus of all its hopes and affections. His sisters worshipped him. He was his parents' pride and joy. When he was well, the palace was transformed. Everyone and everything in it seemed bathed in sunshine." Alexandra was obsessed with trying to protect him from his disease of
hemophilia. According to Gilliard, she "press[ed] the little boy to her with the convulsive movement of a mother who always seems in fear of her child's life." She sat at Alexei's bedside for days as he suffered through his attacks. She feared that he would injure himself in tantrums, so she spoiled him and never punished him. Despite her fears of never bearing a son, Alexandra loved her daughters and called them her "little four-leaved clover". She wrote that "our girlies are our joy and happiness" and "the apostles of God".
Health Alexandra's health was never robust and her frequent pregnancies, with four daughters in six years and her son three years after, drew from her energy. Her biographers, including
Robert K. Massie,
Carolly Erickson,
Greg King, and Peter Kurth, attribute the semi-invalidism of her later years to nervous exhaustion from obsessive worry over the fragile tsarevich, who suffered from hemophilia. She spent most of her time in bed or reclining on a chaise in her boudoir or on a veranda. This immobility enabled her to avoid the social occasions that she found distasteful. Alexandra regularly took a
herbal medicine known as
adonis vernalis in order to regulate her pulse. She was constantly tired, slept badly, and complained of swollen feet. She ate little, but never lost weight (except for the last year of her life). She may have suffered from
Graves disease (
hyperthyroidism), a condition resulting in high levels of the thyroid hormone, which can also result in
atrial fibrillation, poor heartbeat and lack of energy.
Hemophilia and Rasputin Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia was heir apparent to the throne of Russia and the only son of Nicholas and Alexandra. Shortly after his birth, the court doctors realized that he had
hemophilia. After his umbilical cord was cut, his stomach bled for days, and his blood did not clot. Nicholas wrote that Alexei lost "1/8 to 1/9 of the total quantity" of his blood in 48 hours. Hemophilia had entered the royal houses of Europe via the daughters of Queen Victoria, including Alexandra's mother, Princess Alice. In the early 20th century, hemophilia was often fatal, and the average life expectancy of hemophiliacs was 13. Alexandra's brother,
Friedrich, and maternal uncle
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, had died young of hemophilia. Alexandra's sister
Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine and first cousin
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg were also carriers of the hemophilia gene and had hemophiliac sons. Alexandra felt immense guilt that she had passed down the disease to her son. Shortly after Alexei's diagnosis, she wept and told the nurse, "If only you knew how fervently I've prayed for God to protect my son from our inherited curse." Nicholas's sister Xenia called hemophilia "the terrible disease of the English family", and members of the imperial family blamed Alexandra for "contaminating the
Romanovs with the diseases of her own race." As the incurable illness threatened the sole son and heir of the emperor, the imperial family decided to keep his condition secret from the Russian people. They wanted to limit social instability because of uncertainty. At first, Alexandra turned to Russian doctors to treat Alexei. Their treatments generally failed. Burdened with the threats to her son from any fall or cut, Alexandra turned toward faith for comfort. She studied the Orthodox faith and saints and spent hours daily praying in her private chapel for deliverance.
Grigori Rasputin, a peasant from Siberia, appeared to have a cure for her son by praying for him and became powerful in court as a result. Over time, Alexandra grew to believe that Rasputin was the only man who could save her son's life. Rasputin was straightforward with Alexandra and told her, "Neither the Emperor nor you can do without me. If I am not there to protect you, you will lose your son... within six months." Alexandra blinded herself to evidence of Rasputin's debauchery and the harm his presence did to imperial prestige. The director of the national police told Alexandra that a drunk Rasputin had exposed himself at a popular Moscow restaurant and bragged that Nicholas gave him sexual access to her, but she blamed the account on malicious gossip. "Saints are always calumniated," she once wrote. "He is hated because we love him." Nicholas recognized Rasputin's faults, but he felt powerless to do anything about the man who seemingly saved his only son's life.
Pierre Gilliard wrote, "He did not like to send Rasputin away, for if Alexei died, in the eyes of the mother, he would have been the murderer of his own son." From the start, members of the court exchanged gossip about Rasputin. Although some of St Petersburg's top clergy accepted him as a living prophet, others angrily denounced him as a fraud and a heretic. Made-up stories from his life in Siberia were heard in St. Petersburg. For instance, he was said to conduct weddings for villagers in exchange for sleeping on the first night with the bride. He lived in St Petersburg with his two daughters and two housekeepers and was often visited by persons seeking his blessing, a healing, or a favour from the tsarina. Women, enchanted by the healer, also came to Rasputin for advice and individual blessings and received a private audience in his apartment, jokingly called the "Holy of Holies". Rasputin liked to preach a unique theology that one must become familiar with sin before having a chance to overcome it. No one believed that Rasputin could heal Alexei, so court officials were confused as to why Alexandra was so dependent on him. In 1912, Alexei suffered a life-threatening
haemorrhage in the thigh while the family was at
Spała in
Poland. Alexandra sat for days at his bedside, and she rarely ate or slept. She cried helplessly when Alexei begged for death and asked her to bury him in a forest instead of the mausoleum with his Romanov ancestors. The doctors expected Alexei to die, and a priest performed his last rites. The court officials prepared an official telegram to announce the death of the tsarevich. In desperation, Alexandra sent a telegram to Rasputin, who replied: "God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not grieve. The Little One will not die. Do not allow the doctors to bother him too much." When Alexandra learned of the Russian mobilization, she stormed into her husband's study and said: "War! And I knew nothing of it! This is the end of everything." During the first World War, Alexandra and Nicholas exchanged around 1,700 letters. Alexandra's ties to Germany made her more unpopular among some societies in Russia. Her brother
Ernest Louis ruled the
Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, so he fought with the Germans. The German Emperor,
Wilhelm II, was Alexandra's first cousin. Alexandra's sister,
Irene, was married to Wilhelm's brother,
Henry. Ironically, Alexandra was an ardent Russian patriot and disliked the German Emperor. She privately wrote that Wilhelm II "is really nothing but a clown. He has no real worth. His only virtues are his strict morals and his conjugal fidelity." High society in St Petersburg, renamed the Russified Petrograd, accused her of collaboration with the Germans. In Petrograd there was a rumor that Alexandra was hiding her brother Ernest in Russia. In 1916 Alexandra's lady-in-waiting wrote that she was asked "in all seriousness whether the Grand Duke of Hesse was not hidden in the cellars of the palace." Alexandra worked as a nurse to wounded soldiers but her efforts went unappreciated. There were also rumors that Alexandra and Rasputin were carrying on nightly conversations with Wilhelm II in Berlin to negotiate a dishonorable peace. When Nicholas travelled to the front line in 1915 to take personal command of the army he left Alexandra in charge as regent in the capital. Her brother-in-law,
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, recorded, "When the Emperor went to war of course his wife governed instead of him." It looked as if Alexandra appointed and dismissed ministers based on Rasputin's self-serving advice but those close to the imperial family circle denied it. In only sixteen months she appointed three prime ministers, five ministers of the interior and three ministers of war. "After the middle of 1915," wrote Florinsky, "the fairly honorable and efficient group who formed the top of the bureaucratic pyramid degenerated into a rapidly changing succession of the appointees of Rasputin." The general Grand Duke
Nicholas Nikolaevich disliked Rasputin because Rasputin saw and told Alexandra that the grand duke was deliberately currying favor in the army and overshadowing Nicholas so that he could claim the throne. On 16 June Alexandra wrote to the tsar, "I have absolutely no faith in N.... [he has] gone against a Man of God [Rasputin], his work can't be blessed or his advice good... Russia will not be blessed if her sovereign lets a Man of God sent to help him be persecuted, I am sure." She insisted to Nicholas that "[Rasputin] has your interest and Russia's at heart. It is not for nothing God sent him to us, only we must pay more attention to what He says. His words are not lightly spoken and the importance of having not only his prayers but his advice is great." Ever a believer in autocracy, Alexandra persuaded Nicholas that he must never relinquish his absolute power as Emperor. She wrote to him: "You are master and sovereign of Russia. Almighty God set you in place, and they should all bow down before your wisdom and steadfastness." She advised him to "Be Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Emperor Paul-- crush them all." During the war there was great concern within the imperial house about the influence Empress Alexandra had upon state affairs through the Tsar and the influence Rasputin was believed to have upon her, since it was considered to provoke the public and endanger the safety of the imperial throne and the survival of the monarchy. On behalf of the imperial relatives of the Tsar, Grand Duchesses
Elizabeth Feodorovna and
Victoria Feodorovna had been selected to mediate and ask Empress Alexandra to banish Rasputin from court to protect her and the throne's reputation, the former twice, but without success. In parallel, several of the grand dukes had tried to intervene with the Tsar but with no more success. , Crimea, May 1916 During this conflict of 1916–1917 Grand Duchess
Maria Pavlovna reportedly planned a
coup d'état to depose the Tsar with the help of four regiments of the
Russian Imperial Guard, which were to invade the
Alexander Palace, force the tsar to abdicate and replace him with his underage son under the regency of her son Grand Duke
Kirill Vladimirovich. There are documents that support the fact that, in this critical situation, the Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna was involved in a planned coup d'état to depose her son from the throne in order to save the monarchy. The plan was reportedly for Maria to make a final ultimatum to the Tsar to banish Rasputin unless he wished her to leave the capital, which would be the signal to unleash the coup. Exactly how she planned to replace her son is unconfirmed but two versions are available: first, that Grand Duke
Paul Alexandrovich would take power in her name and that she herself would thereafter become ruling empress; the other version claims that she and Grand Duke Paul would replace the Tsar with his son, the heir to the throne, Maria's grandson Alexei, whereupon Maria and Paul would share power as regents during his minority. Reportedly, Empress Alexandra was informed about the planned coup and when Maria Feodorovna made the ultimatum to the Tsar the empress persuaded him to order his mother to leave the capital. Consequently, the dowager empress left Petrograd to live in the
Mariinskyi Palace in
Kiev the same year. She never again returned to the capital of Russia. ==Revolution (1917)==