Another grave in Petropavlovka, which is traditionally considered empty, is the burial of Emperor Alexander I.
The strange, quick death of the emperor, which occurred in 1825 in Taganrog, caused a lot of rumors and speculations. Many believed that Alexander, all his life feeling guilty for indirect participation in the death of his father Paul I, simply left the throne, simulating his death.
NK Schilder, in his biography of the emperor, cites more than fifty sayings and rumors that arose within a few weeks after Alexander's death. One of the rumors, in particular, states that "the sovereign fled under cover to Kiev and there he will live in Christ with his soul and will begin to give advice that the present sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich needs for better government." And later, in the 30-40s of the XIX century, a legend appeared that it was Emperor Alexander who was hiding in the city of Tomsk, far from the capital, under the name of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich. Elder Fyodor Kuzmich, having lived a long pious life, died in 1864 and was buried in Siberia, and the grave in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, according to legend, remained empty the same year, since the body of the emperor's double buried in it was secretly removed from there.
This legend was very popular among the common people, and the Bolsheviks, in order to prove that there are no good kings, in 1921 decided to open the grave, but the emperor's sarcophagus really turned out to be empty. There is no documentary evidence of this autopsy (at least in the public domain), but this is not surprising. It is unlikely that the Soviet government, having suffered such a propaganda collapse, would advertise it. To prove or disprove the legend of the empty tomb of Alexander I, historians several times, starting from the 30s of the XX century, repeatedly petitioned for the opening of the grave, but each time they were refused.
Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna died (or disappeared?) After her husband in 1826. According to one version, she later appeared under the name of Vera the Silent, hermit of the Syrkov monastery. An interesting coincidence is that both Vera the Molchalnitsa and Fyodor Kuzmich appeared almost simultaneously, with a difference of two years: she was in 1834, he was in 1836. And despite the clearly high aristocratic origin of both righteous men (as indicated by everyone who communicated with them), no facts about the previous life of these two were known.
In the notes of the last Empress Alexandra Feodorovna there is an indication that one day after the February Revolution she was engaged in burning papers about “F. TO. . The only person who could be related to the last Romanovs and had such initials was the elder Fyodor Kuzmich. For what reasons the last emperor did not want to officially recognize the identity of Fyodor Kuzmich and Alexander I is unknown.
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The greatest researcher of the mystery of the Siberian elder was the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich. A biographer of Alexander I, he, by his own admission, at first treated this legend with great distrust, but after a research conducted in Siberia he changed his point of view. Nikolai Mikhailovich sent a trusted official to Siberia, who interviewed local residents who knew the elder, and then conducted a comparative analysis of the remaining handwriting samples of the emperor and Fyodor Kuzmich. He systematized the collected information and published it in 1907 in the book "The Legend of the Death of Emperor Alexander I in Siberia in the Image of Elder Fyodor Kuzmich". Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich reported that in 1916 Nikolai Mikhailovich asked Emperor Nicholas II for permission to publish new results of his research, but received a refusal from the latter. At the same time, Nicholas II did not deny the reality of the existing legend, but he categorically did not want to make it public. Nicholas II himself (while still the heir) once came to bow to the elder's grave - during his trip to Siberia. It is also known that in the inscription on the grave cross "The body of the great elder Theodore Kuzmich is buried here," the heir ordered to add the word "blessed", which for many was unambiguously associated with Alexander I. (The fact is that back in 1814 for the victory over Napoleon and organization of the anti-French coalition, the Senate bestowed on Alexander I the title of "Blessed, Magnanimous Restorer of Powers".)that in the inscription on the grave cross "The body of the great elder Theodore Kuzmich is buried here," the heir ordered to add the word "blessed", which for many was unambiguously associated with Alexander I. (The fact is that back in 1814 for the victory over Napoleon and the organization of the anti-French coalition The Senate bestowed on Alexander I the title of "Blessed, Magnanimous Restorer of Powers.")that in the inscription on the grave cross "The body of the great elder Theodore Kuzmich is buried here," the heir ordered to add the word "blessed", which for many was unambiguously associated with Alexander I. (The fact is that back in 1814 for the victory over Napoleon and the organization of the anti-French coalition The Senate bestowed on Alexander I the title of "Blessed, Magnanimous Restorer of Powers.")
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This version is supported by the fact that Nicholas I, while sorting through the archives of the family, burned most of the papers of the late Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, including her detailed diaries for the period from 1792 to 1826.
If you deny the legend about the planned secret departure of the royal couple from power, then it is very difficult to find any rational grain in this.