The Russian imperial house still adheres to the official point of view on the death of Emperor Alexander I and does not believe in the version of “the elder of Tomsk Fyodor Kuzmich,” Director of the Chancellery of the House of Romanovs Alexander Zakatov told RIA Novosti.
This December marks the 240th anniversary of the birth of Alexander the First (1777 - 1825). According to one version, the emperor imitated his death in Taganrog, "retired from the world" and later became the Siberian hermit-elder Fyodor Kuzmich. The elder died in 1864, in 1984 he was canonized as the righteous Theodore of Tomsk.
“The Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich, who was shot by the Bolsheviks in the Peter and Paul Fortress, was a professional historian, studied this issue and came to the conclusion that the legend of Theodore Kozmich as the mysteriously hidden Emperor Alexander I is just a beautiful legend that has no serious basis. The Imperial House and compatriots loyal to it adhere to the official point of view, unchanged since 1825,”Zakatov said.
He explained that this official position is that "Emperor Alexander I died on November 19, 1825 in Taganrog and was buried in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and Elder Theodore Kozmich is a different person."
“So far, no one has presented truly convincing evidence that this can be challenged,” added a representative of the House of Romanov.
The President of the Russian Graphological Society Svetlana Semyonova previously stated that a comparison of handwriting in the manuscripts of Emperor Alexander I and the elder of Tomsk Fyodor Kuzmich makes it highly likely that it could be the same person. The specialist noted that after the research she had a clear idea that this was one person: “before the age of 47 it was Alexander I, after that - Alexander I in the image of Fyodor Kuzmich”. Many of the signs of writing, Semyonova explained, are "dominant" in the emperor's manuscripts from the age of 24 to the manuscripts of the elder, who was about 80 years old.
Sergey Stefanov