У меня есть приятель-француз Фредерик. В хорошем смысле манерный парижанин и большой ценитель хорошей кухни и вина. Как и все французы он очень гордится Наполеоном. Да и есть за что. Гениальный полководец, легко и играючи разбивал европейские армии, триумфально входил в столицы и перекраивал карту Европы. И все это до тех пор, пока ему не взбрело в его гениальную голову проделать такой же фокус с Россией, что ему катастрофически не удалось.
А кто ему помешал? Как писал Пушкин: "Остервенение народа, Барклай, зима, иль русский Бог?" Может быть. Но еще русский царь Александр I.
У вас есть кто-либо из русских царей кому бы вы симпатизировали? Мой любимец в этом смысле - Александр I. Обаятельный, умный, с хитринкой, зачинатель либеральных реформ и политический реалист. Вся его жизнь, от начала царствования и до смерти (да и сама смерть) - сюжет авантюрного романа.
До сих пор не известно достоверно умер ли он, или действительно, как и хотел, отказался от трона в пользу брата и стал отшельником в Сибири.
Читайте ниже о конце жизни Александра и о загадочном старце в Сибире, который по свидетельствам современником, ну очень походил на усопшего императора.
The love of his youth, Empress Elizabeth came to his rescue. For many years they’d lived separately as strangers but now he recognized in her a loyal friend with whom he could talk about anything.
When Elizabeth was diagnosed with tuberculosis, Alexander decided they must leave St. Petersburg and its damp climate as soon as possible. He wrote to his old friend Prince Volkhonsky – “soon will move to Crimea and live as private subjects. I’ve served 25 years, after that soldiers are entitled to retire".
He did not go to Crimea, but to the southern city of Taganrog instead. The Emperor had visited it once and liked it. Hurried preparations were made for the arrival of the royal couple.
Alexander left first to prepare everything for his wife’s arrival. He moved into a single storey stone mansion on Grecheskaya street. He swept the garden pass himself. He helped to hang engravings on the wall and moved the furniture into place. And then Elizabeth arrived, they enjoyed a quiet peaceful life. They went for walks, greeting those they knew. They read their favorite books. They prayed together. Alexander seemed rejuvenated as if he had been given a second chance at life. But all the while he remained Emperor. Alexander’s strange carefree behavior would come at the price. It was soon to become the pretext for a tragic and bloody revolt. But Alexander did not live to see that. His sudden idyll lasted only 2 months.
On November the 19th after a short illness he died. The Empress Elizabeth died 6 months later.
The Emperors sudden death threw many into confusion. There were rumors that Alexander had faked his death and gone into hiding somewhere. Ten years later reports emerged of a mysterious old man named Feodor Kuzmich, who lived in a village near Tomsk in Siberia. He was well educated, spoke several foreign languages. He was extremely pious. He refused ever to discuss his earlier life. The old man was tall, broad shouldered and like Alexander deaf in one ear. Kuzmich died in 1864 and was buried in the grounds of the Tomsk Monastery. His headstone reads “This is the grave of the Great Blessed Elder Feodor Kuzmich”.
The rumors that Kuzmich was in fact Alexander remained to this day neither proved nor disproved.
