Train crash with Alexander 3 reasons. Tsar's train wreck

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"Gazeta.Ru" completes its story about the events of October 29 (new style) 1888, when the family of Emperor Alexander III of Russia almost died in a terrible train accident. Study history with us!

In total, in memory of the miraculous salvation of the imperial family during 1888-1890. 126 churches, 32 chapels, 320 chapels, 17 bell towers, 116 iconostases, 30 church fences, 2873 icon cases and 54 vestments for icons, 152 altarpieces and external crosses, 434 banners, 685 bells, 324 lamps were built, donated and established, 107 church -parochial schools, several almshouses and shelters.

In 1893, a chapel was erected at the site of the imperial train crash. On the entrance gate there was an inscription “In honor of October 17, 1888.” The last prayer service in the presence of Nicholas II took place on April 19, 1915. And in the 1930s, the chapel was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. In 2013, a monument to Alexander III was unveiled in the Zmievsky district of the Kharkov region of Ukraine.

The physical strain experienced by Alexander III while holding the roof of the carriage soon manifested itself in the form of lower back pain. The autocrat was diagnosed with the onset of kidney disease. The emperor was fading away before his eyes, lost his appetite, which is why he lost a lot of weight, and often fell into apathy. His face became sallow and indifferent. The eyes went dark. Maria Feodorovna understood that things were coming to a sad conclusion... In the last months of his life, Alexander III practically did not participate in state affairs, he almost did not get out of bed. On November 1 (new style) 1894 at 14:15 he passed away. The penultimate Russian autocrat, the Tsar-Peacemaker, passed away at the age of 49. And just 23 years later, the monarchy also died.

So, without establishing traces of the terrorist attack, Kony presented to the emperor his conclusions about the guilt of the officials involved in the tragedy. According to him, they all showed “criminal negligence towards a train of extreme importance.” Koni ended his report with a message about the “predatory actions” of the board in the operation of the railway, the desire for profit by any means, the irresponsibility of the service personnel and the connivance of all this on the part of the Ministry of Railways.

“So, your opinion is that there was extreme negligence here?” - asked the emperor. “If we characterize the whole incident in one word, regardless of its historical and moral significance,” Kony replied, “then we can say that it represents a complete failure of everyone to fulfill their duty.”

The Emperor thanked Koni for his work and interesting report and wished him success in completing the matter. Soon the Minister of Railways Posyet lost his position.

Interrogating Minister Posyet, Koni tried to find out why he did not intervene and did not draw the sovereign’s attention to the incorrect composition of the train. Posyet perked up and said that he had even converted, even Alexander II.

Due to the difficult internal political situation and the activity of various populist organizations, a terrorist attack could not be ruled out. An investigation began, which Alexander III entrusted to the popular lawyer Anatoly Koni to conduct. Experts carefully examined the wreckage of the train and the torn up railway track. The commission's conclusion was clear: there was no explosion, a combination of circumstances led to the disaster - poor-quality tracks and a malfunction of the train. However, there were rumors that they simply kept silent about the terrorist attack so as not to inspire other attackers. Allegedly, the bomb was secretly planted in the “canteen” carriage by an assistant cook close to the populists. All these assumptions remained unfounded speculation.

Then they drive in tragic silence. Everyone is depressed. Children are crying. By the evening of the next day, the imperial train will arrive from Belgorod to Kursk. His Eminence Justin will say a brief greeting to Alexander III and bless him with the icon. The Emperor will receive a report from the governor and military commanders. Then the couple will receive bread and salt from deputations of the nobility, zemstvo, city and suburban communities. After some time, the train will move to St. Petersburg.

Alexander III with his wife and children transfer to a replacement train that has finally arrived. The family goes to Lozovaya station: this is a little less than 200 kilometers in the opposite direction, to the southwest. Only in the morning of the next day will the train finally head for Kharkov.

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The exact number of killed and wounded is calculated - 21 and 37 (according to other sources, more than 68), respectively. These are Cossacks, military, and buffet servants. The royal family is still at the remains of the train, and it’s cold outside!

A rescue train was called from Kharkov a long time ago. But he still doesn't come...

Statement by Alexander III on the situation, issued a few days later.

And here is how Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna recalled the tragedy. Her memoirs are retold on her behalf in a recording by Canadian journalist Ian Worres, referred to by Vladimir Khrustalev in the book “Secrets in Blood. Triumph and tragedy of the House of Romanov." “On October 29, the long royal train was moving at full speed towards Kharkov. The Grand Duchess remembered: the day was cloudy, it was snowing. Around one o'clock in the afternoon the train approached the small Borki station. The Emperor, Empress and their four children dined in the dining car. The old butler, whose name was Lev, brought in the pudding. Suddenly the train rocked sharply, then again. Everyone fell to the floor. A second or two later, the dining car burst open like a tin can. The heavy iron roof fell down, just a few inches short of the passengers' heads. They all lay on a thick carpet that had fallen onto the canvas: the explosion cut off the wheels and floor of the carriage. The emperor was the first to crawl out from under the collapsed roof. After that, he lifted her, allowing his wife, children and other passengers to get out of the mutilated carriage.” .

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“A fatal day for everyone, we all could have been killed, but by the will of God this did not happen. During breakfast, our train derailed, the dining room and 6 carriages were destroyed and we emerged from everything unharmed. However, there were 20 people killed. and 16 wounded. We boarded the Kursk train and went back. At the station Lozova held a prayer service and a memorial service. We had dinner there. We all escaped with light scratches and cuts!!!” - this is how Nikolai Alexandrovich described the tragedy in his diary.

“God miraculously saved us all from inevitable death. A terrible, sad and joyful day. 21 killed and 36 wounded! My dear, kind and faithful Kamchatka was also killed! - Alexander III wrote this down in his diary.

“It was the most terrible moment in my life, when I realized that I was alive, but that none of my loved ones were near me,” the empress continued. - Ah! It was very scary! Then suddenly I saw my sweet little Ksenia appearing from under the roof a little distance away from my side. Then Georgy appeared, who was already shouting to me from the roof: “Misha is here too!” and finally Sasha appeared, whom I embraced in my arms...

Nicky appeared behind Sasha, and someone shouted to me that Baby (Olga) was safe and sound, so that with all my soul and with all my heart I could thank Our Lord for His generous mercy and mercy, for the fact that He saved everyone for me alive, without losing a single hair from their heads! Just think, only poor little Olga was thrown out of her carriage, and she fell down from a high embankment... But what grief and horror we experienced when we saw so many killed and wounded, our dear and devoted people. It was heartbreaking to hear the screams and moans and not be able to help them or simply shelter them from the cold, since we ourselves had nothing left!

My dear elderly Cossack, who had been with me for 22 years, was crushed and completely unrecognizable, since half of his head was missing. Sasha’s young huntsmen, whom you probably remember, also died, as did all those poor fellows who were in the carriage that was traveling in front of the dining car. This carriage was completely smashed into pieces, and only a small piece of the wall remained!

It was a terrible sight! Just think, seeing broken cars in front of you and in the middle of them - the most terrible one - ours, and realizing that we survived! This is completely incomprehensible! This is a miracle that our Lord created!”

Having carefully examined his wife and children, Alexander III joked: “I can imagine how disappointed Vladimir will be when he finds out that we were all saved!” - here is an obvious allusion to the emperor’s younger brother, who would inherit the throne in the event of the death of Alexander III and his descendants.

The Emperor thanks Mrs. Franklin. The salvation of Princess Olga came at a high price: the woman had broken ribs and was diagnosed with bruises to her internal organs.

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Princess Olga, a tiny six-year-old girl, was, of course, the worst of all. The “children’s” carriage was attached immediately behind the “dining room” and was damaged no less severely. Things fell on the floor, glass vases broke, and the space was filled with dangerous fragments. A moment before the carriage was torn apart, the nanny Mrs. Franklin managed to hug Olga to herself. This saved the princess. It was too early for her to die: the emperor’s youngest child would live until 1960 and would see a lot more in her lifetime...

The blow was so strong that the wall of the carriage broke through and Olga was thrown through the gap and thrown onto the slope of an earthen embankment. She screamed: “Dad, dad, I’m alive!” The young Grand Duke Mikhail was taken out from under the wreckage of the carriage by a soldier with the help of the emperor.

The section of the Taranovka-Borki route, on which the royal train crashed, was recognized as an emergency in the summer of 1888, and drivers were advised to drive quietly. This section was put into operation just two years before the crash, but it was initially laid with an excess of the permissible angle of inclination, less ballast was poured, and the embankment constantly settled and was washed away by rains. They built it hastily, the sleepers they laid were defective, weak, they could not hold the rails properly, and in two years in some places they completely rotted and crumbled. True, before the passage of the “emergency” train, ballast was added and the sleepers were replaced, but not with new ones, but with those removed from another section due to their unsuitability.

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Alexander III came to his senses the fastest and was able to assess the situation. Legendary fact: the emperor lifted the roof of the carriage and held it on his shoulders and back for several minutes until his wife, children, courtiers and servants got out. One can only guess what inhuman efforts literally fell on the shoulders of the autocrat. The gold cigarette case in the back pocket of his trousers was flattened into a cake. But Alexander Alexandrovich himself at first showed no signs of illness. Just think, bruises and cuts, and a leg crushed by debris - what is this in comparison with the dead? Unpleasant symptoms appeared much later... “This was truly a feat of Hercules, for which he later had to pay a dear price, although at that time no one knew this,” Princess Olga later recalled.

Of the breakfast participants, the most severely injured was the aide-de-camp Vladimir Sheremetev. His finger was crushed. Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna seriously hurt her back, which is why she subsequently hunched over a little.

The train was an hour and a half behind schedule. Trying to catch up, the drivers drove with all their might, bringing the speed to almost 70 versts per hour. During a stop in Taranovka, the head of the royal guard, General Cherevin, walking along the platform with Minister Posyet, complained about being late. Cherevin had his own reasons for concern: in Kharkov, all gendarmerie measures to ensure the safety of the imperial family were calculated and adjusted exactly to the schedule of the royal train.

The "dining" car was a terrible sight. On the left side of the embankment it was reclining, completely torn apart, with flattened walls and no wheels, the roof lying nearby.

The exact coordinates of the emergency site: the 295th kilometer of the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov line south of Kharkov, 27 km from Zmiev near the Dzhguny river. Today here is the Ukrainian village of Pershotravneve (Pervomaiskoe), founded in 1959, during the lifetime of two witnesses of the disaster from the royal family - princesses Olga and Ksenia.

The butler approaches His Majesty again to add more cream. Alexander III reaches for the plate, and suddenly... FUCK-TA-RA-RAH!!! The car rocked, metal clanged, everyone suddenly fell to the floor. Nobody understood what was happening. Chaos, panic, disaster reigned!!! The rails parted and one of the locomotives fell between them. This provoked the derailment of ten carriages. They fell from a high embankment.

In a matter of seconds, the “dining” car was torn into pieces like a cardboard box. Its passengers were fantastically lucky. The heavy metal roof fell massively down and got stuck, missing the heads of the people lying in horror by a few centimeters. The sovereign and heir almost died in this horror. But it happened, providence saved us: the wheels and the floor flew off, as if cut off with a knife, and people rolled straight onto the rails, while remaining on the carpet laid on the flooring of the car. And if the floor had stayed in place, everyone would have been crushed by the soft-boiled roof. The ordinary carriages with servants and guards traveling at the head of the train were even less fortunate. The heavy royal carriages actually crushed them and crushed them under their own weight.

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Brunch is coming to an end. The old butler carries Guryev porridge - a favorite delicacy of Alexander III, prepared from semolina in milk with the addition of nuts and dried fruits. The Emperor examines the plate with appetite and adjusts the napkin on his chest.

No one yet realizes that locomotives working in different rhythms have already weakened the weak upper structure of the track. On the rails laid on an artificial embankment, you should walk more slowly, but the train rushes on without feeling the approaching disaster.

The imperial train rushes merrily along the Kursk - Kharkov - Azov railway line. Passing through the Kharkov province. Very soon - Belgorod region, and there it’s already a stone’s throw to the ancient capital. An exciting journey is coming to an end. With the understanding of this, everyone’s soul becomes sad. The warm season is over. Months of cold, snow and wind lie ahead. Well, heated fireplaces in royal palaces will save you.

Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Fedorovna in their youth. With them is their eldest son Nikolai. (S. Levitsky. RGAKFD. Al. 963. Sn. 203)

There was no hurry to eat. Time is a wagon, in every sense. There is no hurry, but we need to keep ourselves occupied somehow. And what will brighten up a trip better than conversations with a good friend and nearby ministers? Breakfast flowed smoothly into a discussion of current issues. Alexander III spoke mainly - thoroughly, with dignity. The entourage listened carefully to their emperor. Sometimes Posyet or Vannovsky allowed themselves individual remarks. Their leitmotif was this: everything is fine with us. Everything is fine with both the railway and the army. “Well, yes, she is one of our two allies,” Alexander III probably thought at that moment.

As you know, the emperor was strict but fair. He never hit one of the children in his life, but he also did not allow them to play pranks or laugh in his presence. Therefore, the youths learned early to maintain discipline - both at the table and in life. The eldest son Nicholas, who was so unlike his father neither in character nor in appearance, knew the demands of Alexander III best of all. Many secretly wondered: how did such a giant, a king-bear with incredible strength and peasant manners, produce such a sophisticated wimp?

RIA Novosti

1887 Grand Duke Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich in an army infantry uniform

On October 17, 1888, on the day of remembrance of the Venerable Martyr Andrei of Crete, at 2:14 p.m., not far from the Borki station near Kharkov, the imperial train, which contained the entire august family and the retinue and servants accompanying it, crashed. An event occurred that can be called equally tragic and miraculous: Alexander III and his entire family remained alive, although the train and the carriage in which they were located were terribly mutilated.

In the entire train, which consisted of 15 cars, only five survived - the first two cars immediately behind the engine, and the three rear ones, which were stopped by Westinghouse automatic brakes. Two locomotives also remained unharmed. The carriage of the Minister of Railways was the first to derail, leaving only splinters. Minister Konstantin Nikolaevich Posyet himself was in the dining car at that time, invited by Emperor Alexander III. The carriage in which the court servants and pantry servants were located was completely destroyed, and everyone in it was killed outright: 13 mutilated corpses were found on the left side of the embankment among the wood chips and small remains of this carriage.

At the time of the train crash, Alexander III was in the dining car with his wife and children. Large, heavy and long, this carriage was mounted on wheeled bogies. Upon impact, the carts fell off. The same blow broke the transverse walls of the car, the side walls cracked, and the roof began to fall on the passengers. The footmen standing at the door of the cells died; the rest of the passengers were saved only by the fact that when the roof fell, one end rested against a pyramid of carts. A triangular space was formed, in which the royal family found themselves. The cars following him, which could have completely flattened the lounge car, turned across the track, which saved the dining car from complete destruction.

This is how Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna later described the disaster itself, apparently from the stories of her loved ones: “The old butler, whose name was Lev, was bringing in the pudding. Suddenly the train rocked sharply, then again. Everyone fell to the floor. A second or two later, the dining car burst open like a tin can. The heavy iron roof fell down, just a few inches short of the passengers' heads. They all lay on a thick carpet that was on the canvas: the explosion cut off the wheels and floor of the car. The emperor was the first to crawl out from under the collapsed roof. After that, he lifted her, allowing his wife, children and other passengers to get out of the mutilated carriage.” Covered with earth and debris, the Empress, the heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich - the future last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, and with them the retinue invited to breakfast, emerged from under the roof. Most of the people in this carriage escaped with minor bruises, abrasions and scratches, with the exception of adjutant Sheremetev, whose finger was crushed.

The news of the crash of the imperial train quickly spread along the line, and help was rushed from all sides. Alexander III, despite the terrible weather (rain and frost) and terrible slush, himself ordered the extraction of the wounded from the wreckage of the broken carriages. The Empress walked around with the medical staff to the victims, gave them help, trying in every possible way to alleviate the suffering of the patients, despite the fact that she herself had an arm above the elbow that was injured. Maria Feodorovna used everything suitable from her personal luggage for bandages, and even underwear, remaining in one dress. An officer's coat was thrown over the queen's shoulders, in which she helped the wounded. Soon, auxiliary personnel arrived from Kharkov. But neither the emperor nor the empress, although they were very tired, wanted to sit in it.

Already at dusk, when all the dead were identified and decently removed, and all the wounded received first aid and were sent on a sanitary train to Kharkov, the royal family boarded the second royal train that arrived here (Svitsky) and departed back to the Lozovaya station. Immediately at night, at the station itself, in the third-class hall, the first prayer of thanks was served for the miraculous deliverance of the Tsar and his family from mortal danger. Later, Emperor Alexander III wrote about this: “What did the Lord please to lead us through, through what trials, moral torment, fear, melancholy, terrible sadness and finally joy and gratitude to the Creator for the salvation of everyone dear to my heart, for the salvation of my entire family from childhood big! This day will never be erased from our memory. He was too terrible and too wonderful, because Christ wanted to prove to all of Russia that He still works miracles to this day and saves those who believe in Him and in His great mercy from obvious death.”

On October 19 at 10:20 a.m. the emperor arrived in Kharkov. The streets were decorated with flags and literally filled with jubilant Kharkov residents who greeted the emperor and his august family. “The population positively rejoiced, seeing the monarch unharmed,” newspapers wrote about the meeting of the imperial family in Kharkov. From the station, Alexander III followed to the hospitals where the wounded were accommodated. Shouts of “Hurray!” and “Save, Lord, thy people” did not cease throughout the sovereign’s entire journey. At 11:34 a.m. the imperial train departed from Kharkov.

The emperor's route was changed, and he went further not to Vitebsk, as previously assumed, but to Moscow - to venerate the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God and pray in the Kremlin cathedrals.

It is difficult to describe this meeting: the streets were decorated with flags and carpets, troops and students of educational institutions, cadets and students were lined up along the way. Enthusiastic people and clergy greeted the survivors with banners, crosses and icons. Everywhere speeches were raised to the emperor, addresses and icons were presented; orchestras played the national anthem. Everyone had tears of genuine joy in their eyes. The monarch's carriage slowly moved through the crowd of enthusiastic citizens from the Warsaw Station, along Izmailovsky and Voznesensky Avenues, along Bolshaya Morskaya Street, along Nevsky. At the Kazan Church, the emperor was met by Metropolitan Isidore (Nikolsky; † 1892) with Archbishops Leonty (Lebedinsky; † 1893) and Nikanor (Brovkovich; † 1890), who was in the capital at that time. All Russian hearts merged in one common prayer: “God save the Tsar.”

The news of the terrible crash and miraculous rescue spread to all corners of our country and throughout the world. On October 18, the Metropolitan of Moscow served a thanksgiving prayer service in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. Prayer services were served throughout the empire - from Poland to Kamchatka. Later, the Holy Synod recognized it as good to establish on October 17, in memory of the miraculous salvation of the life of the emperor and his august family, a church celebration with the solemn service of the Divine Liturgy, and after it a kneeling prayer service.

The newspapers were full of headlines “God is with us”, “We praise You, God!”, but church publications especially responded to the amazing event. “The danger that threatened the august family struck all of Russia with horror, and the miraculous deliverance from danger filled her with boundless gratitude to the Heavenly Father. The entire press, with remarkable unanimity, recognized the fact of deliverance from danger during the crash of the imperial train as a miracle of God's mercy, all secular newspapers completely agreed in this regard with spiritual ones... What signs for faith in our age of unbelief! Only the right hand of the Lord could do this!” - said the published speech of the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, His Eminence Anthony (Vadkovsky; † 1912). The newspapers wrote: “The whole Russian land was filled with animation and jubilation from one end to the other when the news swept across it that its tsar was alive, that he had risen safe and sound, as if from the grave, from under a terrible pile of ruins.” The French newspaper “Echo” wrote about this event: “The Lord saved him! This cry burst from the chests of one hundred million Slavs at the news of the miraculous deliverance of Tsar Alexander from death... The Lord saved him because he is His chosen one... All of France shares the delight of the great Russian people. In our last shack, the Emperor of Russia is loved and respected... there is not a single French patriot who does not pronounce the name of Alexander II and Alexander III with gratitude and respect.” Almost all newspapers published the highest manifesto of October 23, 1888, in which the emperor expressed gratitude to God for His mercy towards him and all the people of the Russian state.

Today it is difficult for us to imagine the feelings that the people had for their king. And that reverent delight that gripped millions of people after an event that people could not regard as anything other than a miracle of the Lord. Everywhere people sought to perpetuate the wonderful event by building memorial churches, chapels, painting icons, and casting bells.

In Kharkov, in memory of the miraculous salvation of the royal family, the Kharkov Commercial School of Emperor Alexander III was created. The clergy of the Kharkov diocese decided to perpetuate this event by casting an unprecedented bell from pure silver weighing 10 pounds for the Annunciation Church (now the city's cathedral). The silver bell was cast on June 5, 1890 at the Kharkov plant of P.P. Ryzhov, and on October 14, 1890, he was solemnly raised and strengthened on the first floor of the cathedral bell tower in a chapel specially made for him. The royal bell was rung every day at 1 pm. The silver memorial bell has become a landmark of Kharkov.

On the tenth anniversary of its existence, the St. Petersburg Society for the Propagation of Religious and Moral Education built its own temple, also dedicating it to the memory of the salvation of the royal family in Borki. The site for the church was purchased by merchant Evgraf Fedorovich Balyasov, who also donated 150 thousand rubles for construction. The temple in the name of the Holy Trinity was built in the Moscow style of the 17th century according to the design of N.N. Nikonov and had three limits: the main chapel, the chapel in honor of the icon “Quench My Sorrows” and the chapel of All Saints. The last chapel was consecrated on June 12, 1894.

In memory of the rescue of the royal family, the Church of the Old Athos Metochion in St. Petersburg was built under the Borki station. The temple in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was also built according to the design of the architect N.N. Nikonova. On September 8, 1889, Metropolitan Isidore (Nikolsky; † 1892) performed the ceremony of laying the foundation of the temple, and on December 22, 1892, Metropolitan Palladius (Raev; † 1898) consecrated the three-altar church.

Workers of the St. Petersburg factory for “making paper banknotes” in memory of the event of 1888 built a temple in the name of the Venerable Martyr Andrei of Crete, whose memory fell on the day of salvation of the royal family. Academician K.Ya. Mayevsky designed the temple on the third floor of the administrative building, crowning it with a dome and a belfry above the entrance. The church was consecrated on October 18, 1892 by Bishop Anthony (Vadkovsky) of Vyborg with the participation of the holy righteous father John of Kronstadt, and its first rector until 1913 was the future new martyr Father Philosopher Ornatsky († 1918). Outside, above the entrance, they placed a copy of the painting by Academician I.K. Makarov, depicting the crash in Borki.

In honor of the happy salvation of the royal family in Yekaterinodar, a decision was made to build a majestic seven-altar cathedral. In the hall of the City Duma, a large plaster model of the temple (designed by city architect I.K. Malgerb) was put on public display, designed to give an idea of ​​the beauty and grandeur of the future cathedral. The main altar was dedicated to the holy Great Martyr Catherine, and the rest were named in the name of the holy members of the august family: Mary, Nicholas, George, Michael, Xenia and Olga. On Sunday, April 23, 1900, at the end of the liturgy in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a religious procession was held to the foundation site of the new church, the construction of which received the archpastoral blessing of the Archbishop of Stavropol and Ekaterinodar Agathodorus (Preobrazhensky; † 1919). Construction of the largest cathedral in the province, capable of accommodating 4,000 people, was completed only in 1914. The artist I.E. took part in the painting of the cathedral. Izhakevich, who belonged to the Kyiv Society of Artists of Religious Painting. Catherine's Cathedral today is one of the most significant architectural and historical buildings in Kuban.

In 1895, in Crimea, opposite the underground church in the name of St. Martin the Confessor in the Inkerman St. Clement Monastery, a small above-ground church was built in the name of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, also dedicated to the salvation of the family of Alexander III in the train accident on October 17, 1888 at the Borki station, as indicated by the inscription on the pediment of the temple. The temple was built in the style of late Byzantine church architecture, and the beautiful iconostasis was made by the famous icon painter V.D. Fartusov. The altar part of the temple is carved into the rock.

In memory of this miraculous salvation, the peasants of the village of Corsica, Rovelsky district, Smolensk province, erected a stone three-altar church, the third chapel of which was dedicated to the heavenly patron of Alexander III, Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky. An address addressed to the emperor was submitted regarding his desire to build this temple. On it the king wrote: “Thank you.” Such attention from the sovereign prompted the parishioners to begin work as soon as possible. The money was donated by the landowner V.V. Rimsky-Korsakov (the composer's uncle), Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich and Smolensk governor Sosnovsky. In 1894, the inside of the temple was plastered, mosaic floors were laid, and in 1895-1896 an iconostasis was installed, porches were made and a heating stove was installed in the basement, which at that time was a rarity not only for the village, but even for the city.

In memory of the railway accident on October 17, 1888 in Novocherkassk, a temple was built on Kolodeznaya Square (now the intersection of Mayakovsky and Oktyabrskaya streets) in honor of St. George the Victorious, the heavenly patron of the third son of Emperor Alexander III. The initiators of the construction were the residents of this part of the city, who established a special committee and, with the blessing of the Don Archbishop, collected donations for several years. Architect V.N. Kulikov drew up a project, taking the church in the village of Nizhne-Chirskaya as a model. The church was built in the Russian style; instead of a bell tower, it had an original belfry. The consecration of the temple took place on October 18, 1898. This temple has survived to this day; it is small and very cozy, accommodating 400 people.

What caused the train crash? Experts were immediately called to the scene of the disaster, the main ones being the head of operation of the South-Western Railway, Sergei Yulievich Witte, and the director of the Kharkov Institute of Technology, professor of mechanics and railway construction, Viktor Lvovich Kirpichev. Their conclusions differed: Witte insisted on the point of view he had already expressed: the cause of the crash was the unacceptable speeding of the locomotive; Kirpichev believed that the main reason was the unsatisfactory condition of the railway track. Why was Sergei Yulievich, who should seemingly be responsible for the crash of the imperial train, since this section was under his jurisdiction, involved in the examination?

Head of Operation of the South-Western Railway S.Yu. It was in 1888 that Witte, first in writing, with calculations, warned about the inadmissibility of such a high speed of movement of a heavy steam locomotive. Later, orally in the presence of the emperor, he repeated his demand that the speed of the imperial train be reduced, abdicating responsibility if this demand was not met.

It remains a mystery why the arguments of Sergei Yulievich Witte turned out to be stronger than those of the professor, author of the textbook “Strength of Materials” Viktor Lvovich Kirpichev, who argued that the cause of the train crash was the unsatisfactory condition of the track. In his memoirs, Sergiy Yulievich dwells on this issue and talks about his arguments against Professor Kirpichev’s version: the sleepers are rotten only in the surface layer, and the places where the rails are attached to the sleepers, as the most vulnerable place, were not destroyed. The calculation formulas that were used at that time did not include the physical and chemical parameters of the sleeper material at all; the assessment of their suitability was visual. Strict standards for permissible defects (defects) of wooden sleepers, etc., were not developed. There is no doubt that the imperial train, which quite successfully traveled thousands of miles in a technically incorrect mode, crashed precisely on this section due to the overlap of two factors: excessive speed and defectiveness the railway itself in this section. From the very beginning, the investigation followed the path that the future minister and Count Sergei Yulievich Witte had prudently pointed out.

As a result, the expert commission working at the scene of the tragedy concluded that the cause of the train crash was the track alignment caused by the lateral swings of the first locomotive. The latter was a consequence of the significant speed, inappropriate for the type of locomotive, which increased during the descent. In addition, the locomotive crew did not take the special measures necessary for the smooth and quiet descent of a train of considerable weight, made up of cars of different weights and technically placed incorrectly (heavy cars were placed in the middle of the train between the light ones).

A section of this route was built and belonged to the railway magnate Samuil Solomonovich Polyakov, who died six months before these events, and his son, Daniil Samuilovich, who took over the inheritance, remained as if on the sidelines. Complaints against Polyakov were constantly written: even by resolution of the Provincial Zemstvo Assembly of the city of Kharkov, held on February 20, 1874, a commission headed by Prince Shcherbatov was sent to petition the government to investigate the riots on the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov section of the railway. Commissions were repeatedly organized to confirm all the described abuses. Unfortunately, the measures that were already taken against the nobleman, privy councilor and famous philanthropist S.S. Polyakov, were not strict, and rotten sleepers continued to be replaced with less rotten ones, railway workers received meager wages, and employees who tried to talk about the emergency condition of the track were fired.

The investigation into the train crash was led by the famous lawyer Chief Prosecutor Anatoly Fedorovich Koni. A few days later, the Minister of Railways, Konstantin Nikolaevich Posyet, resigned, other employees of the Ministry of Railways were removed from their posts, and Sergius Yulievich Witte, who had bargained a little about his salary with the emperor, firmly entered his inner circle.

The rescue of the emperor and his august family in a terrible railway accident shook all of Russia in a single patriotic and religious impulse, but these same events also led to the rise to the heights of state power of Witte, and with him many others, who were no longer shaking the railway tracks, but the Russian statehood .

Witte generally did not like statesmen who tried to strengthen the traditional Russian system of government; for him they were conservatives and reactionaries. Later, regarding the murder of Count Alexei Pavlovich Ignatiev, he will say: “From the list of those persons who have been subjected to the murder of the anarchist-revolutionary party since 1905, the full meaning of these murders is clearly visible in the sense that they eliminated those persons who, indeed, were the most harmful reactionaries." Describing his famous cousin, the famous theosophist and spiritualist Elena Petrovna Blavatsky, Sergius Yulievich notes with humor: “If we take the point of view of the idea of ​​​​the afterlife, that it is divided into hell, purgatory and heaven, then the only question is which one.” Part of the spirit that settled in Blavatsky during her earthly life came out.” Witte himself considered himself an adherent of the Orthodox Church, but what spirit guided him, so far from the Orthodox spirituality of the Russian people and Russian statehood?

In 1913, Russia celebrated a glorious date - the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. This was probably one of the last manifestations of popular love for the emperor and the Romanov dynasty. In almost a year, they began to improve the cradle of the House of Romanov - the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, from where in 1613 the young Tsar Mikhail Romanov was invited to the Russian throne. Throughout the year, newspapers and magazines reported on the state of the buildings of the Ipatiev Monastery, on the estimates and expenses for the restoration of its churches and chambers. No details about the progress of work in the monastery went unnoticed by the press. And the celebrations themselves began in Kostroma at the Ipatiev Monastery.

In subsequent years, Russia and the Russian people lost much of their reverence for God’s anointed, and their saving faith and trust in God. And in a soul without God, like in an empty house, although marked and decorated, it is known who will move in.

Five years after the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, on July 17, 1918, on the day of memory of St. Andrew of Crete, another catastrophe occurred: in Yekaterinburg, in the basement of the Ipatiev House, the last Russian Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich was shot, and with him the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, heir Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and other royal children. But just 30 years ago, Russia received the news with horror only about possibilities the death of the emperor and his august family in a train accident!

Saint John of Shanghai, in a sermon dedicated to the Tsar-Martyr Emperor Nicholas II, said: “On the day of the venerable martyr Andrew of Crete, tortured by the enemies of Christ and His Church, the heir, and subsequently sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich, was saved, and also on the day of Saint Andrew of Crete, peacefully Having ended his days on earth, the sovereign was killed by atheists and traitors. On the day of the Venerable Martyr Andrew, Russia also glorified the prophet Hosea, celebrated on the same day, who predicted the Resurrection of Christ; Temples were built in their honor, where the Russian people thanked God for the salvation of the sovereign. And 30 years later, on the day of St. Andrew, who taught about repentance, the sovereign was killed in front of the entire people, who did not even make an attempt to save him. This is all the more scary and incomprehensible because Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich embodied the best traits of the tsars whom the Russian people knew, loved and revered.”

There are a lot of interesting things in the memoirs of Mr. Minister Sergei Witte. Remember my post, which mentioned the train accident in October 1888, which involved Alexander III and his family. Sergei Witte described the causes of the accident in his memoirs.

Tsar's carriage

Witte then served as manager of the Southwestern Railway Society. Having learned that the railway workers, with the help of two steam locomotives, wanted to accelerate the royal train to the maximum possible speed, Witte made his calculations and came to the conclusion that the railways were not designed for such experiments. “Fast movement, with two freight locomotives, with such a heavy train, shakes the track so much that the train can knock out the rails, as a result of which it can crash.”- Witte wrote in the report. The Minister of Railways then implemented the recommendations.

The next day, before the train departed, Witte met Alexander III on the platform, who expressed his displeasure in his usual direct manner. “I drive on other roads, and no one reduces my speed, but I can’t drive on your road, simply because your road is Jewish.”- the tsar was indignant, hinting that the contractors for the construction of the South-Western roads were Polish Jews.

Witte did not argue with Tsar. The Minister of Railways joined the conversation and said “But on other roads we drive at the same speed, and no one ever dared to demand that the Emperor be driven at a slower speed.”

Witte answered him sharply “You know, Your Excellency, let others do as they want, but I don’t want to break the Emperor’s head, because it will end with you breaking the Emperor’s head in this way.”

Young Sergei Witte

“Emperor Alexander III heard this remark of mine, of course, he was very dissatisfied with my insolence, but did not say anything, because He was a complacent, calm and noble man.”- Witte wrote. Then they managed to convince the king not to increase the speed of the train.

Emperor with family

The journey was tense. The concern was that the baggage car was tilting to the left.
“I again fit into the carriage of the Minister of Railways, and noticed that since the last time I saw this carriage; it had tilted significantly to the left side. I looked at why this was happening. It turned out that this happened because the minister Admiral Posyet’s railways had a passion for various, one might say, railway toys. For example, various heating stoves and various instruments for measuring speeds; all this was placed and attached to the left side of the carriage. Thus, the weight of the left side of the carriage increased significantly. and therefore the carriage tilted to the left.

At the first station I stopped the train; The carriage was examined by carriage building specialists, who found that it was necessary to monitor the carriage, but that there was no danger and that the movement should continue. Everyone was asleep. I moved on. Since with each car there is, so to speak, a formal list of the given car, in which all its malfunctions are recorded, I wrote in this car that I was warning: the car tilted to the left side; and this happened because all the tools and so on. attached to the left side; that I did not stop the trains, since the train was examined by specialists who came to the conclusion that it could travel the 600-700 miles that it had left to travel along my road.

Then I wrote that if the carriage is in the tail, at the end of the train, then I think that it can pass safely to its destination, but that it needs to be carefully reconsidered, all the equipment must be removed, it is best to throw them away completely or move them to the other side. In any case, this carriage should not be placed at the head of the train, but placed at the rear."

Then everything ended well. The emperor decided to return to St. Petersburg by another route, and Witte was only glad to “get rid of the royal trips,” which caused a lot of anxiety.
Sadly, on the way back, the royal train suffered a catastrophe, which Witte warned about.

A train crash occurred in the Kharkov region

“It turned out that the imperial train was traveling from Yalta to Moscow, and they were given such a high speed, which was also required on the South-Western Railways. None of the railway managers had the confidence to say that this was impossible. They also traveled by two steam locomotives, and the carriage the Minister of Railways, although he was somewhat relieved by the removal of some devices on the left side, no serious repairs were made while the train was parked in Sevastopol; in addition, he was placed at the head of the train;

Thus, the train was traveling at an inappropriate speed, with two freight locomotives, and even with a carriage of the Minister of Railways at its head, which was not in perfect working order. What I predicted happened: the train, due to the rocking of the freight locomotive at high speed, unusual for a freight locomotive, knocked out the rail. Commodity locomotives are not designed for high speed, and therefore, when a commodity locomotive runs at an inappropriate speed, it sways; Because of this swing, the rail was knocked out and the train crashed.

The entire train fell down an embankment and several people were injured."

Alexander III saved his family from misfortune. Witte also notes that the king managed to stop panic among his fellow travelers and took care of providing first aid to the wounded.
“At the time of the crash, the Emperor and his family were in a dining car; the entire roof of the dining car fell on the Emperor, and he, only thanks to his gigantic strength, kept this roof on his back and it did not crush anyone. Then, with his characteristic calm and gentleness “The Emperor got out of the carriage, calmed everyone down, provided assistance to the wounded, and only thanks to his calmness, firmness and gentleness, this whole catastrophe was not accompanied by any dramatic adventures.”

News about the crash in a Hungarian newspaper. Thanks for the picture

Emperor Alexander III with his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna. State Archives of the Russian Federation/Photo TASS

On October 17, 1888, Emperor Alexander III and his family were returning from Livadia to St. Petersburg. When the train was passing the Borki station in the Kharkov province, the train derailed

After the accident with the royal train, Sergei Yulievich Witte claimed that long before the accident in Borki he warned Alexander III that the imperial trains were developing too high a speed on the Southwestern Railways.

This is how the Government Gazette described this incident: “During the crash of Their Majesties, the Sovereign Emperor and Empress with the entire August Family and members of the Retinue were having breakfast in the dining car. When the first carriage derailed, the following carriages flew off on both sides; the carriage - the dining room, although it remained on the canvas, was in an unrecognizable form.<…>It was impossible to imagine that anyone could survive such destruction. But the Lord God preserved the Tsar and His Family: Their Majesties and Their Most August Children emerged unharmed from the wreckage of the carriage.”

At the time of the train crash, Alexander III was in the dining car with his wife and children. This carriage, large, heavy and long, was supported on wheeled bogies, which fell off upon impact. The same blow broke the transverse walls of the car, the side walls cracked, and the roof began to fall on the passengers. The lackeys standing at the door of the cells died; the Royal Family was saved only by the fact that when the roof fell, one end rested against a pyramid of carts and a triangular space was formed, in which they found themselves.

The Tsarevich left the following entry in his diary about this terrible moment in his life: “A fatal day for everyone, we could all have been killed, but by the Will of God this did not happen. During breakfast, our train derailed, the dining room and six carriages were destroyed, and we came out of it unscathed." After the crash, Empress Maria Feodorovna said: “In all this, the hand of Providence, which saved us, was palpably visible.”

Sergei Witte, who was not a witness to the incident, wrote that “the entire roof of the dining car fell on the Emperor, and he, only thanks to his gigantic strength, kept this roof on his back, and it did not crush anyone.” The head of the investigation into the causes of the railway accident, Anatoly Fedorovich Koni, considered this statement implausible, since the roof itself weighed several tons and no person could hold it up. Nevertheless, Professor of Surgery at Kharkov University Wilhelm Fedorovich Grube was convinced of the direct connection between the Tsar’s fatal illness and the injuries he received in the crash.

Alexander III, despite the extremely bad weather (it was raining with frost), himself ordered the extraction of the wounded from under the rubble of broken carriages. Professor Grube recalled: “Their Majesties deigned to go around all the wounded and with words of consolation they encouraged those who were weak and discouraged.” Empress Maria Feodorovna visited the victims with medical personnel, provided assistance to them, trying in every possible way to alleviate the suffering of the patients. Alexander III wrote to his brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich: “This day will never be erased from our memory. It was too terrible and too wonderful, because Christ wanted to prove to all of Russia that He still works miracles and saves believers from obvious death in Him and His great mercy."

In our rather cynical times, air and train accidents no longer surprise many people and are considered almost as commonplace and everyday as regular car accidents. However, earlier, especially in the pre-revolutionary period, the situation was radically different. 125 years ago, on October 17, 1888, a catastrophe occurred in Russia that literally affected the entire society: near the Borki railway station, located several kilometers south of Kharkov, the imperial train crashed, in which Tsar Alexander III with his wife and children were returning from a vacation in Crimea.

The Imperial Train accident happened at 14:14 on the 295th kilometer of the Kursk - Kharkov - Azov line south of Kharkov. The royal family was traveling from Crimea to St. Petersburg. The technical condition of the cars was excellent; they operated for 10 years without accidents. In violation of the railway regulations of the period, which limited the number of axles on a passenger train to 42, the imperial train, which consisted of 15 cars, had 64 axles. The weight of the train was within the limits established for a freight train, but the speed of movement corresponded to that of an express train. The train was driven by two steam locomotives and the speed was about 68 km/h. Under such conditions, 10 cars derailed. Moreover, the path to the crash site passed along a high embankment (about 5 fathoms). According to eyewitnesses, a strong shock threw everyone on the train from their seats. After the first shock there was a terrible crash, then a second shock occurred, even stronger than the first, and after the third, quiet shock, the train stopped.

The carriage with the imperial dining room, in which Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna were with their children and retinue, was completely destroyed: without wheels, with flattened and destroyed walls, it reclined on the left side of the embankment; part of its roof lay on the lower frame. The first shock knocked everyone to the floor, and when after the destruction the floor collapsed and only the frame remained, everyone ended up on an embankment under the cover of the roof. Eyewitnesses of the tragedy claimed that Alexander III, who possessed remarkable strength, held the roof of the carriage on his shoulders while the family and other victims climbed out from under the rubble. Covered with earth and debris, the Emperor, Empress, Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich - the future Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duke Georgy Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna, and members of the retinue who were invited to breakfast got out from under the carriage. Most of the passengers in this carriage escaped with minor bruises, abrasions and scratches, with the exception of Sheremetev’s aide-de-camp,

Who had his finger crushed. A total of 68 people were injured in the crash, of which 21 people died.

Happy Deliverance of the Imperial Family from death was perceived by the people as some kind of miracle. The train crash occurred on the day of remembrance of the Venerable Martyr Andrew of Crete and the Old Testament prophet Hosea (the Deliverer). Dozens of churches were built in their name throughout Russia. In Vyatka there were exactly the same sentiments as in the rest of the empire. Vyatka Zemstvo residents released the following statement on October 22, in which they expressed full sympathy and compassion to the royal family: “...we, the members of the Vyatka district zemstvo assembly who have gathered for the next session, having raised a fervent prayer of gratitude along with representatives of other institutions, dare to loyally cast at the feet of Your Imperial Majesty an expression of our boundless joy on the occasion of the miraculous deliverance of Your Majesty and the Royal Family from great danger...” .

The next day, the following statement was issued on behalf of Alexander III, in which he expressed gratitude to everyone who supported him in difficult life moments:

On the initiative of Alexander III, an investigation into the causes of the disaster in Borki was entrusted to the prosecutor of the criminal cassation department of the Senate A.F. Koni. The main version was a train crash as a result of a number of technical factors: poor track conditions and increased train speed. The minister of railways, Admiral K. N. Posyet, the chief inspector of railways, Baron Shernval, the inspector of imperial trains, Baron A. F. Taube, the manager of the Kursk-Kharkov-Azov railway, engineer V. A. Kovanko, and a number of other officials. A few months later, the unfinished investigation was terminated by imperial command. Another version of events was outlined in the memoirs of V. A. Sukhomlinov and M. A. Taube (the son of an inspector of imperial trains). According to it, the crash was caused by the explosion of a bomb planted by an assistant cook of the imperial train, associated with revolutionary organizations. Having planted a time bomb in the dining car, timing the explosion to coincide with the royal family's breakfast, he got off the train at the stop before the explosion and fled abroad.

The train accident entailed two very important events. From the bruises received on October 17, Alexander III developed kidney disease, from which he died six years later at the fairly young age of 49. Appointment of retired titular adviser S.Yu. Witte's position as director of the department marked the beginning of one of the most brilliant careers during the reign of the Romanovs. It is obvious that Witte played one of the key roles in the history of Russia at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. It is curious that during the investigation, Witte stated: “The system of movement of imperial trains should strive not to violate all those orders and rules that usually operate on the roads.” That is, one should not consider violation of basic safety rules a special sovereign privilege and believe that the autocrat and Newton’s laws are not written. Alexander III himself, being a completely reasonable person, did not try to challenge the laws of nature. But he relied too much on his surroundings. And Witte was right: indiscriminateness in the choice of the closest circle of dignitaries played a fatal role not only in the fate of Alexander III, but also his heir Nicholas II.

It is curious that the victims of the train accident were not just people. Alexander III had a favorite dog named “Kamchatka”. The dog was given to the emperor in 1883 by the sailors of the cruiser "Africa" ​​and since then Alexander has not left Kamchatka. However, the dog died in that same train accident near Borki. “Poor Sasha is so depressed without Kamchatka... He misses his devoted dog...”- the sovereign’s wife Maria Feodorovna wrote in her diary. The emperor really took the loss of his pet hard: “Do I have at least one unselfish friend among people; no and cannot be, but a dog can, and Kamchatka is like that,”- the emperor sadly reported after the death of the dog. Three days after the crash, having arrived in Gatchina, Alexander III ordered to bury his faithful friend in his own garden, opposite his rooms.

Alexander III with his family and his beloved dog "Kamchatka".

P.S.. The crash of the imperial train later became overgrown with legends and traditions. Thus, there was a story that when the king personally rescued those who were trapped under the rubble, shouts were heard all around: “What a horror! Assassination! Explosion!" And then Alexander III uttered the phrase: “We need to steal less.”

Photo from here
GAKO. F.582. Op.139. D.166.,