Скачать или смотреть She Tried to Save Her Son. She Doomed an Empire.

She was one of Queen Victoria's favorite granddaughters, Princess Alix of Hesse, known to her family as "Sunny" for her cheerful disposition. But when she married the heir to the Russian throne, Nicholas Romanov, and became Alexandra Feodorovna, her sun seemed to disappear behind the clouds forever. Her arrival in Russia was marked not by joy, but by mourning.

She came to Russia as the country grieved the death of its Tsar, Alexander III. Her wedding took place just a week after his funeral. The people whispered that she had "come to us behind a coffin." A black mourning veil, not a white bridal veil, became her first introduction to Russia.

During the coronation festivities in 1896, a horrific stampede occurred at Khodynka Field, where over a thousand people, who had come for coronation gifts, were crushed to death. Instead of canceling the celebratory ball that evening, Nicholas and Alexandra, at the insistence of their advisors, attended it. To the people, this was a sign of monstrous indifference. Their reign had begun with blood.

Desperate to give Russia an heir, Alexandra gave birth to four daughters before her long-awaited son, Alexei, was born. But her joy was poisoned by a terrible discovery: the boy had inherited "Queen Victoria's curse" from her—hemophilia. His life constantly hung by a thread.

This fear and guilt turned the empress into a recluse, desperately searching for salvation. And this led her to the most ominous "omen" of all—Rasputin. To her, he was a holy man, the only one who could stop her son's bleeding. But to Russia, he became a symbol of decay and corruption, a demon who had captured the imperial family. Her devotion to this "holy man" permanently alienated the people and the elite from her.

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