alexei
Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov was born on August 12, 1904. He was the only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.
Before Alexei was born, Alexandra tried for a son four times from the births of Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. Not only envious of her sister's Ella's success to conceive several sons, Alexandra wanted to give her husband a tsarvitch, or son of the tsar. She was also pressured from her grandmother Queen Victoria who birthed four boys, (Kurth 68). Alex begged God for a son.
When Alexei was born he was a beautiful, blue-eyed, seemingly healthy baby. When he was still in his first year, Alexei's navel began to bleed. The bleeding worsened into a blue swelling. To the tsarina's despair the infant had inherited hemophilia, a genetic sickness carried from his mother. Alex's brother and several nephews died from the disease. The sickness of her son caused Alex's own health to falter. Desperate once again, she searched for a healer. She found a haggard monk named Rasputin who healed Alexei's bleeding mysteriously just by placing his hands on the child, (24, Brewster). Rasputin was a strange looking man with a solid build, a ragged beard, and his large blue eyes, "while compelling, could fix on one in a most unpleasant way, particularly for children," (170, Beeche). He "spoke in parables" and wore "colored satin shirts...with shining tall boots and an ostentatious crucifix." In spite of the tsarina's faith in Rasputin, the Russian people resented Nicholas and Alexandra for promoting a peasant, Rasputin, to the palace. Eighty percent of Russians were in poverty and still living in serfdom on the landowners farms, (Brewster, 13). People living in the city worked in the factory and received low wages and lived in unsanitary slums. It is not wonder that they envied the life of luxury. Still Nicholas and Alexandra felt privileged to be the tsar and tsarina. They believed God had given them the authority to rule and naively thought that somehow the people would come around and bow down to them. They were proven wrong.
Alexei was only 13 years old when was murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918.
Before Alexei was born, Alexandra tried for a son four times from the births of Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. Not only envious of her sister's Ella's success to conceive several sons, Alexandra wanted to give her husband a tsarvitch, or son of the tsar. She was also pressured from her grandmother Queen Victoria who birthed four boys, (Kurth 68). Alex begged God for a son.
When Alexei was born he was a beautiful, blue-eyed, seemingly healthy baby. When he was still in his first year, Alexei's navel began to bleed. The bleeding worsened into a blue swelling. To the tsarina's despair the infant had inherited hemophilia, a genetic sickness carried from his mother. Alex's brother and several nephews died from the disease. The sickness of her son caused Alex's own health to falter. Desperate once again, she searched for a healer. She found a haggard monk named Rasputin who healed Alexei's bleeding mysteriously just by placing his hands on the child, (24, Brewster). Rasputin was a strange looking man with a solid build, a ragged beard, and his large blue eyes, "while compelling, could fix on one in a most unpleasant way, particularly for children," (170, Beeche). He "spoke in parables" and wore "colored satin shirts...with shining tall boots and an ostentatious crucifix." In spite of the tsarina's faith in Rasputin, the Russian people resented Nicholas and Alexandra for promoting a peasant, Rasputin, to the palace. Eighty percent of Russians were in poverty and still living in serfdom on the landowners farms, (Brewster, 13). People living in the city worked in the factory and received low wages and lived in unsanitary slums. It is not wonder that they envied the life of luxury. Still Nicholas and Alexandra felt privileged to be the tsar and tsarina. They believed God had given them the authority to rule and naively thought that somehow the people would come around and bow down to them. They were proven wrong.
Alexei was only 13 years old when was murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918.