It is known that from time to time - and, especially often, shortly before his death - the emperor repeatedly told his closest circle that he wanted to leave the throne: “I will soon move to Crimea and will live as a private person. I served 25 years, and a soldier is retired during this period."
On September 1, 1825, the emperor left Petersburg for Taganrog. He set off alone, without an entourage, at night, which was more than unusual. At five o'clock in the morning, Alexander drove up to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where he was met by Metropolitan Seraphim, Archimandrite and brethren. The church service that began was held behind closed doors, and some researchers believe that they served a panikhida. Why on the occasion of the emperor's departure there was such a strange "parting word" is a mystery.
The emperor arrived in Crimea on October 27. He fell ill on November 8, and died on November 19. One of the most prominent researchers of this mysterious history, the historian V. Baryatinsky, points out that information relating to the last days of the emperor is extremely contradictory. For example, the number of those present at the death, the behavior of the empress, etc. is still unclear.
It is also curious that the diaries of those closest to Alexander (Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, Adjutant General P. M. Volkonsky and Life-doctor J. V. Willie), telling about the emperor's stay in Taganrog, begin on the same day (November 5, 1825) and end almost simultaneously. November 11 (at Volkonsky and Willie) and November 19 (at the Empress).
On November 5, no danger to the health of the emperor was yet threatened, and the historian A. N. Sakharov declares that “… such unanimity must be considered inexplicable, or it can only be explained by the desire to create a unified version of the course of the disease that is necessary for both Alexander and these three of his close people.
It is also very strange that a true believer (according to the testimony of contemporaries) Alexander did not invite a priest to his place! And no one from the entourage did this, although if everything were as the official version says, it would be clear to all those close to him that the sovereign was dying. But if the neglect of the sacrament of confession and communion can hardly be attributed to the bustle that reigned around the sick sovereign, then the absence of a priest in the house even at the very death, which was not sudden, is at least strange.
Over time, it was proved that Dr. Tarasov's signature on the autopsy report was forged. So until now it is not even quite clear what kind of illness so suddenly brought the emperor to the grave. Prominent physicians, who had already studied the autopsy protocols in the 20th century, denied the possibility of the king's death from malaria or typhoid fever, which (in various sources) were called the causes of death.
In the autopsy report, it was recorded that the back and buttocks of the emperor were crimson, gray-red (how could traces of beatings appear on the autocrat's back?). According to one of the versions, instead of the emperor, the body of a non-commissioned officer of the 3rd company of the Semyonovsky regiment of Strumensky was buried, which was marked to death with gauntlets. In fact, as contemporaries recalled, he was very similar to the emperor, and his friends even jokingly called the non-commissioned officer "Alexander." According to another version, instead of the emperor, they buried courier Maskov, who was also very similar to the emperor, but died earlier, on November 3. (This version is also supported by the fact that the body of the deceased was embalmed so zealously that even the white gloves he was wearing turned yellow. And in the Muskov family, there was a legend thatthat it was their grandfather who was buried in the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress instead of Emperor Alexander I.)
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The body traveled to Petersburg for two months, and the lid of the coffin was opened only a few times, always at night and in the presence of a very narrow circle of confidants. On December 7, 1825, Prince P. M. Volkonsky wrote from Taganrog to St. Petersburg: “Although the body is embalmed, but from the local damp air the face has turned black, and even the facial features of the deceased have completely changed … why I think that in St. Petersburg to open you don't need a coffin."
The coffin was opened only in the presence of members of the imperial family, and then stood closed for a week in the Kazan Cathedral - for farewell. After that, the body was buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Neither Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, nor the closest associate of Emperor P. M. Volkonsky was present at the funeral service and funeral ceremonies in Moscow and St. Petersburg …