PHOTO: Vsevolod Alexandrovich Yakovlev (1884-1950)

105 years ago, Tsar Nicholas II and his family were living under deplorable conditions in the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. It was during the final days of the their house arrest in the Ural city, that their favourite residence, the Alexander Palace was opened to the public as a museum.

The palace was opened in two stages: the first on 23rd June 1918, when the State Halls were opened to visitors; the second, five years later, in 1923, when the private apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna became part of the museum.

The first curator of the Alexander Palace was Vsevolod Alexandrovich Yakovlev (1884-1950), a noted Russian and Soviet architect, artist, art critic, and museum worker.

Yakovlev was born in St. Petersburg on 21st January (O.S.) 1884. In 1901 he graduated from the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Artists. In 1904 he entered the architectural department of the Higher Art School at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In 1912 he was awarded the title of artist-architect.

From 1914 he worked as an architect in St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo. In 1918 he was appointed director of the Museum of Palaces and Parks of the Detskoye (Children’s) Selo (formerly Tsarskoye Selo), a position he held until 1931.

Yakovlev, a man of great enthusiasm and energy, carried out his duties during the most difficult of the post-revolutionary years. It was thanks to his his efforts that the contents of the Alexander Palace were not destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

“We will fulfill our duty only when we make superhuman efforts to save these exceptional monuments in the name of progress, in the name of a beautiful and happy future not only for the citizens of great Russia, but also for the peoples of the world,” Vsevolod Alexandrovich wrote.

During his tenure as director, Yakovlov catalogued every item in the Alexander Palace. Not only did he save thousands of pieces of objects d’art, furniture, personal items belonging to the Imperial Family, books and documents from destruction, he also helped to lay the foundations for the future of the Tsarskoye Selo palace-museums.

Yakovlev was the author of a number of Russian-language books, including Охрана царской резиденции (Protection of the Tsar’s Residences (1926) – 169 pg.

His most popular work, however, is лександровский дворец-музей в Детском селе (Alexander Palace-Museum in the Children’s Village (1927) – 211 pg. [above left]. The following year, he published a companion volume, dedicated to the palace interiors – 560 pg., which featured a comprehensive catalogue of the interiors and the thousands of items of each room of the Alexander Palace. In the 1990s, both titles were reissued in a handsome one-volume hard cover edition – 794 pg., with the original photographs and illustrations [above right].

In addition he wrote numerous articles for Soviet magazines and newspapers, on the history of architecture, providing detailed descriptions of the interiors, art collections and valuables stored in the palaces of Tsarskoye Selo, Pavlovsk and Peterhof. 

In 1931, he was arrested,  but thanks to the intercession of George Kreskentievich Lukomsky (1884-1952), chairman of the Commission for the Acceptance and Registration of Property of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration, he was released a month later. He was not permitted to return to his old job, so from 1931 to 1933, he worked as an architect of GIPROGor in Leningrad. He then switched to pedagogical work in Leningrad. In 1947 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Architecture.

In the autumn of 1949, Vsevolod Alexandrovich Yakovlev was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He died on 10th June 1950, aged 66, and was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).

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Upon the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, the Alexander Palace Museum was closed. Sadly, a number of the palace’s interiors were lost during the Nazi occupation of Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo).

In the spring of 1946, the Leningrad Executive Committee issued an order for the transfer of the Alexander Palace to the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This provided the palace with some degree of protection from being abandoned or demolished.

In 1947–1949 the Alexander Palace became a literary museum and a repository of the priceless manuscript collection of the Pushkin House. It was during this time that a number of changes were made to the interiors, including the removal of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna’s famous balcony. In addition the Maple Drawing Room was divided into two rooms.

In 1951, by a government decree, the Alexander Palace was transferred to the Ministry of Defense. The Naval Department used the building as a top-secret, submarine tracking research institute of the Baltic Fleet. As a result, the former palace would be strictly off-limits to visitors for the next 45 years.

It was not until October 2009, according to the order of the Federal Property Management Agency, that the Alexander Palace was placed under the administration of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve.

In 1997, the first museum exposition “Memories in the Alexander Palace” was opened in the east wing of the Alexander Palace. Since almost all the historic interiors of Nicholas II and his family were lost, large floor to ceiling photos depicting the original look of each room, served as backdrops, against which items of furniture were displayed.

In 2009, the Alexander Palace was transferred to the administration of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve. In June 2010, the year marking the 300th anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo, the Portrait, Semi-Circular and Billiard Halls were opened to the public after an extensive restoration.

The Alexander Palace reopened to visitors on 14th (O.S. 1st) August 2021, marking the 104th anniversary since the Imperial Family left the palace for the last time. Visitors can now see thirteen reconstructed and restored interiors of the private apartments of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna located in the eastern wing of the palace.

© Paul Gilbert. 27 June 2023