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On 12th August 2024, a new exhibition dedicated to Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich opened at the Museum of Military Uniforms in Moscow. The exhibition is timed to the 120th anniversary of his birth on 12th August (O.S. 30th July) 1904.

The exhibition “If one day I became Tsar…” was organized by the Russian Military Historical Society, the The Museum of Education (Moscow) and the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), as well as from private collections..

Visitors to the exhibition will have an opportunity to see authentic items which belonged to Alexei Nikolaevich, including toys, drawings, and his personal belongings. In addition are photographs and documents. Of particular note are a series of watercolours depicting Alexei’s rooms in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

The opening ceremony was attended by Andrei Kokhan, Deputy Executive Director of the History of the Fatherland Foundation:

“120 years ago, an heir was born in the Imperial Family. His birth marked a new era, which was to be happy for the Russian people. However, his death, which coincided with one of the darkest and most terrible events of our Fatherland, unfortunately extinguished these hopes and dreams,” said Kokhan.

“For many decades, the history of the Imperial Family was not considered in Russian historiography. It was, by and large, forgotten. Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, Russians took a keen interest in their past, the life and reign of Russia’s last Tsar and his family in particular. The Romanov archives, which were sealed during the Soviet years, revealed documents and photographs which helped reshape Russia’s history. The canonization of the Tsar and his family by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, helped present the lives of the Imperial Family in a whole new light. Today, Nicholas II and his family are the subjects of countless books, in addition to exhibitions, documentaries, films and conferences, among other events. I am sure that the exhibition opening today will make a great contribution to the study and rethinking of the events of late 19th to early 20th century Russian history,” he added.

The exhibition explores the short but important life about the boy whom everyone adored. Alexei combined unique qualities, none of which any of the Romanov grand dukes could boast of. “When I am Tsar, there will be no more poor and unfortunate! I want everyone to be happy,” he often repeated. Those who knew him personally were sure that with the Tsesarevich Alexei’s ascension to the throne, that the golden age of the Russian Empire would begin. Sadly, it was not to be.

The exhibition “If one day I became Tsar…” opens to the public on 13th August 2024 and runs until 16th February 2025, at the Museum of Military Uniforms in Moscow.

© Paul Gilbert. 14 August 2024