Someone has just called to see me on business." Also at 6, he walked into his father's study and saw the Foreign Minister Alexander Izvolsky waiting to see Nicholas. He began commanding them, but the Finnish officers did not understand Russian and stood in confusion until an aide informed them that Alexei wanted to hear them say, "We wish you health, your Imperial Highness." When he was told that a group of officers had arrived to call on him, the 6-year-old Alexei told his sisters, "Now girls, run away. On one occasion, he ordered all of the Finnish officers on various ships to stand before him on the deck of the Standart. Alexei was embarrassed "when the salute failed him", which "marked his first taste of discipline". Nicholas forbade the guards to salute Alexei unless another member of the family accompanied him. He enjoyed jumping in front of the guards at the front of the Alexander Palace, who would immediately salute him as he walked past. He liked being kissed on the hand by the officers and "didn't miss his chance to boast about it and give himself airs in front of his sisters". Buxhoeveden reflected that "he knew and felt that he was the Tsarevich, and from babyhood mechanically took his place in front of his elder sisters". Īlexei was proud of and enjoyed his position as tsarevich. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, his mother's lady-in-waiting, reflected that "he was a pretty child, tall for his age, with regular features, splendid dark blue eyes with a spark of mischief in them, brown hair, and an upright figure". A few years later, Gilliard described Alexei as tall for his age, with "a long, finely chiseled face, delicate features, auburn hair with a coppery glint, and large grey-blue eyes like his mother". His tutor Pierre Gilliard described the 18-month-old Alexei as "one of the handsomest babies one could imagine, with his lovely fair curls and his great blue-grey eyes under their fringe of long curling lashes". Appearance and personality Īlexei was a handsome boy, and he bore a striking resemblance to his mother. The Romanov family was canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.Īlexei is sometimes known to Russian legitimists as Alexei II, as they do not recognize the abdication of his father in favor of his uncle Grand Duke Michael as lawful. Peter and Paul, while Alexei's and Maria's (or Anastasia's) bones remain in Russian state archives. On 17 July 1998, the 80th anniversary of their execution, Alexei's parents, three of his sisters, and the four retainers, were formally interred in the Cathedral of St. Alexei's remains, along with those of his sister Maria (or Anastasia), were ultimately discovered in a secondary grave near the rest of the Romanov family in 2007. Rumors persisted for decades that Alexei had escaped his execution, with multiple impostors claiming his identity. With White Army soldiers rapidly approaching, the Ural Regional Soviet ordered the murder of Alexei, the rest of his family, and four remaining retainers on 17 July 1918. After the October Revolution, the family was initially to be tried in a court of law, before the intensification of the Russian Civil War made execution increasingly favorable in the eyes of the Soviet government. Īfter the February Revolution of 1917, the Romanovs were sent into internal exile in Tobolsk, Siberia. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of a peasant faith healer named Grigori Rasputin. He was the youngest child and only son of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg, Russian Soviet RepublicĪlexei Nikolaevich (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич) (12 August 1904 – 17 July 1918) was the last Tsesarevich ( heir apparent to the throne of the Russian Empire).
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