One thing they included that surprised me in the final episode was Nicholas & Alexandra's supposed March 12, 1901 visit to Gatchina Palace to reveal the contents of a letter in a sealed envelope written a hundred years earlier by Paul I. Does anyone know anything about this? It's new to me...
According to the episode one of the few people who were aware of the letter's existence was Maria Gehringer (?) a personal friend of Alexandra (and someone who I've heard little about). Paul's spiritual adviser, the Monk Abel (born Vasily Vasiliev), foretold of events in Russian history with startling accuracy. Nicholas & Alexandra were said to have arrived at the palace in a cheerful excited mood and left it disheartened and alarmed. The Monk had apparently predicted the death of Paul himself, Catherine the Great's reign (prior to taking power), the wars against Napoleon, the burning of Moscow, Decembrist revolt, Alexander II's liberation of the serfs and his own assassination, and an era of peace and prosperity under his son, Alexander III. For Nicholas II's reign he said the following;
"The holy Tsar that is like Job the long suffering will have the mind of Christ and the patience and purity of a dove. A crown of thorns will replace his Tsar's crown, and he shall be betrayed by his people as was the son of God. A Great War will be fought. People will fly in the air like birds and swim under water like fish. They shall destroy themselves withing stinking sulfur. Treason will grow and multiply, and on the eve of victory the Tsar's throne will fall. Blood and tears will water the earth. A peasant with an axe will take power and the plagues of Egypt will begin."
The Gatchina incident and the sealed casket left by Emperor Paul is just another of the many apocrypha associated with Tsar Nicholas II and his reign.
That account first appeared in the second volume of
Na Beregu Bozhei Reki (“On the Banks of the River of God”), by the religious writer Sergei Nilus — as supposedly recounted by M. F. Geringer. According to the story, it was a bright sunny day when Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra set off by carriage to Gatchina in a merry mood, but later they returned downcast and gloomy.
But the entries found in Tsar Nicholas II’s diary from that period say nothing of the kind.
The weather was overcast and quite cold. There was still much snow on the ground, and sleighs were still being used, not carriages.
On March 13 they did take a sleigh ride as far as Pavlovsk, but that it all.
Another apocryphal tale which still surfaces from time to time concerns Tsar Nicholas II’s supposed offer to abdicate soon after Tsarevich Alexis Nicholaevich’s birth. According to that account, Tsar Nicholas II summoned the bishops of the Holy Synod and proposed that he abdicate the throne, be tonsured a monk, and become Patriarch of Russia; Tsarevich Alexis Nicholaevich be declared Tsar, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna be appointed to act as regent! (This hearkens back to Patriarch Philaret Romanov and his son, the newly-elected Tsar Michael.)
As the story goes, the hierarchs were so dumbfounded by the proposal that no one could speak a word. Then the Tsar, seeing the lack of support for his project, withdrew the proposal. And it was only later, upon reflection, that the hierarchs realized what a marvelous opportunity had been lost.
With all due respect to Tsar Nicholas II’s genuine piety, it is very difficult to imagine that he could have ever entertained such an idea -- especially so early in his reign.
