Alexander Palace | Nicholas II

Alexander Palace filled with the scent of lilacs

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Paul Gilbert

Lilacs in the Maple Drawing Room of the Alexander Palace
Photo © Tsarskoye Selo State Museum

In the middle of winter, the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo is again decorated with blooming lilacs. Their fragrant aroma fill the former interiors of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, a beautiful reminder of the Imperial Family and their favourite Imperial Residence.

On 23rd January 2025, of the 16 lilac bushes in the greenhouses near the Alexander Palace, six were moved to the palace halls, the rest will be moved from the greenhouses in stages, as they bloom. The tradition of placing lilacs in the former rooms of the last Russian Empress began in 2022, the first time the aroma of her favourite flowers filled the interiors of the palace in more than 100 years.

Lilacs of the historical varieties, such as “Memories of Ludwig Späth” and “Sensation” are exhibited in the Mauve Boudoir and Corner Drawing Rooms. Five bushes form a luxurious “lilac cloud” with delicate pink and purple flowers. Lilacs were exposed at the peak of flowering, this year so their distinctive aroma is especially noticeable. Visitors can admire lilacs in the interiors of the Alexander Palace until April.

Lilacs in the Maple Drawing Room of the Alexander Palace
Photo © Tsarskoye Selo State Museum

“Documents have been preserved indicating that the Tsarskoye Selo greenhouses diligently carried out the task of creating a spring atmosphere during the gloomy winter months. In 1898, by order of the gardener Zort, lilacs, double-cherries, hydrangeas and lilies of the valley arrived in Tsarskoye Selo for the winter decoration of the palace. So flowers in the Alexander Palace are an integral part of the interior, and we are talking not only about the rich floral decoration of the walls – roses, orchids, dandelions, but also about the blooming flowers as well,” said Olga Filippova, the chief curator of the parks of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve.

Lilacs in the Mauve Boudoir of the Alexander Palace
Photo © Tsarskoye Selo State Museum

The process of preparing lilacs for “premature” flowering begins in the fall. In accordance with the methods from gardening books of the 19th century, the employees of the greenhouse complex plant bushes in special boxes, and in December they set the plants up for awakening. The care process is extremely painstaking: every forty minutes during the working day, staff need to perform the necessary manipulation. One of the main conditions is strict compliance with the temperature and humidity.

Lilacs in the Maple Drawing Room of the Alexander Palace
Photo © Tsarskoye Selo State Museum

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna loved flowers – the rooms in her private half were decorated with fresh flowers all year round. Floral themes were also present in the upholstery of the walls, furniture, as well as the stucco reliefs on the walls and ceilings. The Empress was especially fond of lilacs. It is no coincidence that in her Mauve Boudoir [aka Lilac Study] the furniture and walls were decorated with silk of lilac shades, Alexandra Feodorovna also preferred lilac tones in her clothes, and perfume with the aroma of lilac.

Recall that the first 13 interiors of the Alexander Palace – the private rooms of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna – opened to the public after restoration in August 2021, in February 2023 the restoration of the Marble Hall with a slide was completed. The interiors of the palace-museum are complemented all year round with decorative indoor plants and cut flowers.

Two new pieces of furniture recreated for the Alexander Palace

Posted on December 24, 2024 by Paul Gilbert

Photo © Tsarskoye Selo Restoration Workshop

The Tsarskoye Selo State Museum continue to recreate items lost from the Alexander Palace during the Second World War . . . the latest additions are a table and chair, recreated for the Working Study of Emperor Nicholas II.

The two pieces of furniture were recreated from a vintage 1917 photograph by the Tsarskoye Selo Restoration Workshop. The items can be seen at the end of the Ottoman sofa in the Tsar’s Working Study – see photo at the bottom of this post.

Photo © Tsarskoye Selo Restoration Workshop

Recall that the Alexander Palace closed in the Autumn of 2015 for an extensive restoration, which saw the reconstruction of the Private Apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, situated in the Eastern Wing of the palace. Work on the project took 6 years to complete. The Alexander Palace reopened it’s doors to visitors in August 2021.

Since that time, a number of pieces of furniture have been recreated for the interiors of the Imperial Apartments. For instance, in May 2023 a large stand for palm trees and other large plants were recreated for the Maple Drawing Room; as well as an L-shaped desk and ottoman (stool) for the Working Study of Emperor Nicholas II.

In June 2023, a beautiful large Persian Farahan carpet was recreated to upholster the Large Ottoman sofa, which stretched the length of one wall in the Working Study of Emperor Nicholas II.

PHOTO: The Working Study of Emperor Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace

The Working Study of Emperor Nicholas II was decorated in 1896-1897 in the English Style by Roman Meltzer (1860-1943) and furniture master Karl Grinberg. It was in this room that the Emperor read papers, including numerous correspondence, received foreign ministers and dignitaries and listened to reports from his ministers, who travelled from St. Petersburg.

Wardrobe of Emperor Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Paul Gilbert

One of the smallest, yet most interesting interiors of the private apartments of Emperor Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace, is the Valet’s Room. During the reign of the last Tsar, the interior was separated by a large white partition. In the first half was the Emperor’s dressing room, while the second half was used by the valet on duty.

The Tsar’s dressing room was furnished with a large special built-in oak wardrobe with sliding doors and drawers, in which the Emperor’s clothes: uniforms, shoes, hats, underwear and various accessories were kept.

The clothes worn by Nicholas II were sewn by St. Petersburg’s finest craftsmen. One uniform benefited the experience of several generations of craftsmen. The Tsar’s uniforms, coats and hats embodied all the achievements of sewing technologies of the early 20th century. The Emperor’s uniforms were made of a wide variety of materials: leather, fur, feathers or horsehair, metals, wood, and so on.

The collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum maintains a significant number of items that made up the military wardrobe of Emperor Nicholas II – almost 800 items that were made in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Among these are the uniforms sewn for Nicholas II, when he was still the heir to the throne, have been preserved. The last Emperor of the Russian Empire wore the uniform (ceremonial and everyday) of military units of both the Russian Imperial Army and those of foreign states, of which he was an Honorary Colonel or Commander-in-Chief.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the cost of a standard uniform of the Guards infantry with lapel was 150 rubles. Traditionally, cloths of different colours were used for uniforms: green for infantry; red, blue, white, even brown for cavalry. The ceremonial uniforms were embroidered with gold or silver, which the last Emperor proudly wore.

Today, the Valet’s Room in the Alexander Palace presents several samples of authentic uniforms of various regiments of the Russian Imperial Army, worn by Nicholas II, in the original oak Imperial Wardrobe. In addition, other uniforms of Nicholas II from the wardrobe are on display in the nearby Sovereign’s Martial Chamber at Tsarskoye Selo.

By 1917, up to 1500 uniforms of the Emperor were stored in oak wardrobes in the dressing room of Nicholas II in the Alexander Palace. It is interesting to note, that during the 1930s, part of the collection of Nicholas II’s uniforms were transferred from the Alexander Palace to the Artillery Historical Museum in St. Petersburg, where they remain to this day.

In recent years, the uniforms of Nicholas II from the funds of the Alexander Palace, have been loaned out for exhibitions in such cities as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tula [includes 21 colour photos], Novosibirsk and Minsk.

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Telephones in the Alexander Palace during the reign of Nicholas II

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Paul Gilbert

PHOTO: St. Petersburg City Telephone Exchange, 1914

During his 22+ year reign (1894-1917), Emperor Nicholas II attached great importance to the development of all forms of communication within Russia. This included the rapid development of postal, telegraph and telephone communications, all of which he believed contributed to economic development of the Russian State.

In 1892 – two years before Nicholas II ascended the throne – there were only 1,250 telephone subscribers in the Russian Empire, and by 1913, there were more than 244,000 subscribers! Some 71.3% of subscribers lived in cities, primarily St. Petersburg and Moscow, the remaining 28.7% lived in suburban and rural areas.

Telephone communications were being developed in cities and towns, which was a great boon for local businesses. In addition, internal telephone networks were being developed, long-distance and international lines were laid.

In 1906, the length of telephone wires in the Russian Empire was 236,000 km, and by 1913, the length had increased to over 1 million km. Thus, between the period from 1906 to 1913, more than 800,000 km of telephone wires had been laid throughout the Russian Empire.

In 1897, the first telephone factory opened in Russia, which produced thousands of telephones and several hundred switchboards annually. During the same year, telephone communication appeared in Vladikavkaz, in 1904 – in Omsk, in 1906 – in Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk). The development continued after 1910. In 1911, telephone communication came to Yakutsk and Asian Bishkek.

By 1910, a total of 314 cities located in various regions of the Russian Empire, from the Asian deserts and the Caucasus Mountains to the central regions and the Far North, were receiving telephone service.

Telephones in the Imperial Residences

PHOTO: Mix & Genest, model No 5672. Germany. 1900s.
Belonged to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II.

The Alexander Palace, Tsarskoye Selo

In the 1890s, a telephone cable was laid into the Alexander Palace. Two rooms located in the basement of the palace were allocated for the palace telephone exchange.

Officers of the Palace Police were on duty at the telephone exchange, they listened to all telephone conversations. In addition, there were two telephone booths for personnel in the basement.

In total, there were about two dozen telephones in the Alexander Palace during the reign of Nicholas II. It is interesting to note that there were no telephones in either the Working Study and New Study of Nicholas II. The only telephone set in the Tsar’s chambers was in the valet’s room, which was located on the mezzanine, above the Emperor’s private rooms.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna had several telephones – two in the Rosewood (aka Pallisandar) Drawing Room and one each in the Lilac (aka Mauve) Drawing Room and the Imperial Bedroom. The telephones in the Rosewood Drawing Room, were installed on a cabinet near the back wall.

The Empress could use the local St. Petersburg Telephone Exchange (see photo at top of page) to communicate directly with the Headquarters in Mogilev, where Nicholas II spent a long time during the First World War. It was in this room that on 8th March 1917, General Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov placed Alexandra Feodorovna and her children under house arrest at the Alexander Palace.

On the second floor of the Alexander Palace, there was only one telephone, located in the passage hall leading to the children’s rooms. This telephone featured a bas-relief of a small child holding a phone on the receiver device. In 1917, the telephone was taken abroad by one of the courtiers of the Imperial Family.

In addition, telephones were installed in the Adjutant’s Wing, and the Commander of the Combined Guards Regiment. This indicates that great attention was paid to the issues of operational communication in the palace.

In 1904, the Pavilion on the Children’s Island, situated in a small lake near the Alexander Palace, was wired for electricity, a telephone was installed with a direct line to the palace.

With the outbreak of World War I, the Imperial Train became both a travelling residence for the Emperor, as well as a military field office, equipped with telephone and telegraph communications. A telephone network was installed for communication between all cars, each carriage having it’s own telephone.

From the summer of 1905 on, Anna Vyrubova centered her life on the Empress Alexandra and became a part of the Tsar’s family. In order to be closer to the family, Anna moved into a summer home at Tsarskoye Selo, just two hundred yards from the Alexander Palace, which included a telephone, which was connected directly to the palace switchboard.

The Grand Kremlin Palace, Moscow

Nicholas II, like his father preferred the old Russian capital to the new capital. According to French historian Marc Ferro (1924-2021): “Nicholas II preferred Moscow to St. Petersburg because the old city embodied the past, whereas St. Petersburg represented modernity, the Enlightenment and atheism.”

In 1903, a pleasant surprise was prepared for Nicholas II’s arrival: the Swedish company of Mars Magnus Eriksson brought a telephone to Moscow. A switchboard for several dozen numbers was installed in the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Tsar’s official residence when he was visiting the old capital. It was here, that the Emperor was presented with a telephone set decorated with gold and ivory.

Subsequently, Ericsson reigned supreme in Russia almost unchallenged by other European or American firms, although after the revolution, Ericsson’s factory in Petrograd was nationalized and named “Red Dawn”.

Nicholas II’s mobile phone sold at auction for $2 million

In March 2023, the Russian news agency Interfax reported that Sotheby’s had completed the “Romanov Week” auction, during which more than 100 items belonging to members of the Russian Imperial Family were auctioned.

The most expensive lot was a telephone belonging to Emperor Nicholas II, which sold for a staggering 2 million US dollars, almost five times over the estimate.

“This unique device was manufactured at the Russo-Baltic Carriage plant in Petrograd, in 1915. It was presented to the Tsar, who used it for communicating with his wife and children during his trips to the front,” said Sotheby’s representative Robert Jefferson.

After the February 1917 Revolution, the was seized by order of the Provisional Government from and handed over to the head of the Petrograd garrison “for safekeeping”.

In the course of riots that swept the capital of the Russian Empire in July 1917, the device was stolen, and after the Civil War, it was secretly taken to Europe.

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Private Garden of the Alexander Palace to be restored

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Paul Gilbert

PHOTO: detail of the Alexander Palace and the Private Garden, from a lithograph (1845) by Johann Jacob Meyer. From the Collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum

The restoration of the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo continues. Aside from the planned opening of the western wing of the palace next year, new projects include the restoration of the 18th century style Private Garden.

Experts who are now working on the recreation of the Private Garden fence, are reaching out to the public for help. The museum is appealing for photographs, preserved in home archives or im private collections of the fence and gates of the palace’s Private Garden, taken during the 1900s-1930s. The museum is especially interested in photos which show the lattice work of the fence.

The former Private Garden was situated on the corner of the eastern wing of the Alexander Palace. The Private Garden began with the creation of a small flower garden, which was fenced with a cast-iron fence with gates and wickets created according to a drawing by Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817), the famous Italian architect, who designed the Alexander Palace. In 1845-1846, the fence was replaced with a new one by Sebastian Cerfolio, whose original drawing of this lattice, among other documents on the manufacture of the fence, have been preserved in the archives of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum.

In addition, several cast-iron elements of the lattice in the form of pine-cones have also been preserved in the archives. They are identical to those depicted in the drawing by Cerfolio. Photographs taken before the Great Patriotic War (1941-45) provide the most complete picture of what the fence looked like, and will allow experts to determine whether the fence underwent any changes since the middle of the 19th century.

If you have any photographs of the iron grille fence and gate of the Private Garden, taken during the 1900s-1930s, please send them by e-mail to the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum at the following email address: referent@tzar.ru

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PHOTO: late 19th century postcard of the Alexander Palace
and the Empress’s balcony

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, the eastern wing of the Alexander Palace housed the Private Apartments of the Imperial Family. In 1895, the Emperor had the famous L-shaped iron grille balcony installed here for his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, which was accessed via the Maple Drawing Room.

When completed, it wrapped around the corner of the palace, the same corner which is depicted in the colour lithograph above. Sadly, the balcony did not survive to the present day, it was was dismantled between 1947-49, by order of the palace’s new Soviet “caretakers”.

Despite the extensive restoration work on recreating the private apartments of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, as they looked in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the museum have no plans to recreate the Empress’s balcony, the reason being is that they want to preserve the palace’s original 18th century Neoclassical look – which many hail as “Quarenghi’s masterpiece”.