In the Siberian city of Tomsk, at the cemetery at the Theotokos-Alekseevsky monastery, there is a grave with a wooden eight-pointed cross, on which the inscription is made: “The body of the great blessed elder Theodor Kuzmich is buried here. Died in 1864 on January 20 . The name of the elder is associated with one of the most amazing legends of the royal family of the Romanovs.
According to reports, the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, also known as Theodor Tomsky, was born in 1776 or 1777. Nothing is known about his childhood, youth and maturity. The first information about this person dates back to 1836, when he was detained in the Klenovskaya volost of the Krasnoufimsky district of the Perm province as a vagrant. There were no documents with him.
During interrogation, the old man introduced himself as Fyodor Kozmich Kozmin and was sentenced to twenty blows with a whip and exile to Siberia, as was usually done with those accused of vagrancy.
In October 1836, the elder was sent by escort to the Mariinsky district of the Bogotol volost of the Tomsk province. When Fyodor was assigned to a free settlement, he began to wander around the surrounding villages, earning a living by teaching peasant children to read and write. However, he took payment only in food, not money.
Gradually, Kozmin (by the way, he called himself this name only once, at the trial) began to be honored as a righteous man, they turned to him for advice on various everyday issues, and not only: rumor spread that he had the gift of perspicacity, and people began to come to him people from everywhere. It was said that one day he exposed a fugitive convict-murderer, another time he healed a sick priest, predicted a happy marriage for someone …
Once, a friend of the owner Berezin, who had served in St. Petersburg for a long time, came to the house of the Cossack Semyon Sidorov in the village of Beloyarskaya, where the elder lived temporarily. Glancing at Fyodor Kuzmich, he noticed that he looked like two peas in a pod like Emperor Alexander I.
Berezin was not the only one who recognized the late emperor in the elder. The second was the exiled priest John of Alexandrovsky, who claimed that he had repeatedly seen the sovereign in the capital and remembered his appearance well.
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Because of these "recognitions" Kozmin was forced to change his place of residence several times. When he lived in the village of Krasnorechenskoye, then, according to testimonies, he carried on extensive correspondence with various important persons. When the news of the death of the emperor reached Siberia, Fyodor Kuzmich ordered a memorial service for the deceased and for a long time prayed with tears for the repose of his soul …
Fyodor Kuzmich died on January 20, 1864. The Tomsk merchant Semyon Khromov, in whose house Fyodor lived in recent years, testifies that a few days before his death he asked the elder a question: "There is a rumor that you, father, are none other than Alexander the Blessed … Is this true? …" Theodore made the sign of the sign of the cross and answered: "Wonderful are Your works, O Lord … There is no secret that would not be revealed." Then he pointed out to Khromov a sack hanging over his bed with the words: "It contains my secret."
Kozmin was buried in the fence of the Theotokos-Alekseevsky monastery. Having examined the things left after the deceased, Khromov found a document on the marriage of Emperor Alexander I with a seal, a chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and a paper with a royal monogram in the form of the letter "A". In the bag hanging above the bed, there were two narrow paper ribbons, covered with writing on both sides. But the contents of the "secret notes" were encrypted, and the key to the cipher has not yet been found.
In 1984, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Elder Fyodor Kuzmich as righteous Theodore of Tomsk. To this day, there are no direct proofs or refutations of the version of the identity of Theodore Tomsky and Alexander I.
The spread of this legend was facilitated by the sudden death of the tsar far from the capital, in Taganrog, on November 19, 1825.
It is known that Alexander suffered all his life that he had to take an indirect part in the murder of his own father, Emperor Paul. It was suggested that he decided to stage his death and begin an ascetic life under a false name.
At first glance, it seems that this is just a legend. After all, there are bulletins about the king's illness and numerous written evidence of his death. However, there are also pros. Thus, when comparing the imperial handwriting and encrypted notes of Elder Theodore, the lawyer AF Koni concluded that they were written with the same hand. In addition, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, on his deathbed, the emperor was completely different from himself alive. And the protocol of the autopsy of the body recovered from the imperial tomb does not allow unambiguously identifying him with Alexander I.
One way or another, the secret of the personality of Theodore Tomsky has remained unsolved.
TRINITY MARGARITA