In October 1888, Emperor Alexander III returned with his family from the Crimea to St. Petersburg. The train disaster took place on October 17 near the Borki station, not far from Kharkov. The rails shifted, some of the carriages fell off a high embankment, and there were casualties.
At this moment, the royal family was just having dinner. And suddenly the roof of the dining car began to fall. Alexander III reacted instantly. He jumped up and took the roof onto his back. And he held her like that until everyone got out. True, he received a strong blow to the lower back, but those who were with him in the carriage did not hurt, there were even no scratches.
At that time, thanksgiving services were served throughout Russia. A beautiful wooden church was built nearby. However, the incident with the tsarist train had consequences that largely determined both the future of Russia and the fate of the tsarist monarchy.
… Not long before the crash, one seemingly insignificant event took place in Borki - a clash of two officials in front of the emperor. Sergei Yulievich Witte was at that time the manager of the South-Western Railways and, according to his position, accompanied the imperial trains on his site. In the summer of 1888, he drove from Rovno to Fastov, made sure that the train was traveling at an excessive speed, two heavy freight locomotives were swinging and could damage the track.
And two months later there was a crash in Borki. Fortunately, Witte was not responsible for this section.
Soon, the new Minister of Finance, Vyshnegradsky, offered Witte to head the department of railway affairs of the ministry and stressed that he was doing this at the behest of the emperor. Four years later, he became Minister of Railways, then Minister of Finance. From October 1905 to April 1906, at the height of the revolution, he was the head of government. We can say that S. Yu. Witte was the most prominent statesman in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He has strengthened Russian finances. He headed for the industrialization of the country. On his initiative, the Polytechnic Institute was opened in St. Petersburg. Witte brilliantly conducted the hardest peace negotiations with the Japanese in Portsmouth; in fact, he saved the monarchy in 1905. And his state career began after the "miracle in Borki".
Alexander III was called the king-peacemaker. Indeed, Russia during his reign did not fight with anyone. And if he had lived another ten years, there would probably not have been a Russian-Japanese war. The Japanese were ready to remove the contradictions between the countries peacefully, but the government of Nicholas II and those who stood behind him were convinced of an easy victory over Tokyo. And events rolled towards war, to Port Arthur, to Mukden, to Tsushima.
… The future Alexander III became the heir-tsarevich at the age of twenty, before that he was not trained as a tsar, his older brother was alive. According to S. Yu. Witte, Alexander III was a man of "ordinary mind". But he possessed common sense, the will of the autocrat and knew how, like his father, to select employees for himself. As for the son of Nicholas, who succeeded him on the throne, he was prepared for the throne from birth, given a good general education. However, as the leader of the country, he was weak, constantly exposed to all kinds of influences.
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Both Nicholas II and his wife, already in the 20th century, dreamed only of how to preserve the inviolable tsarist power, how to transfer it intact to their "baby", Tsarevich Alexei. They did not understand the meaning of the political and social processes taking place in the country, or they misunderstood. In a little over ten years, this will ruin both the dynasty and imperial Russia in general.
How did Alice of Hesse appear on the Russian throne? Tsarevich Nicholas first met Alice, his future wife, back in 1884 in the Winter Palace. Seeing a twelve-year-old girl, Nicky immediately fell in love with her, and, as it turned out, for life.
For some reason, Alice's parents, Alexander III and Maria Fedorovna, did not like Alice. They didn't really want their eldest son to marry a princess from a small German duchy. Moreover, a rapprochement was looming ahead not with Germany, but with France. Therefore, the heir was looking for a bride from the House of Orleans. However, Nikolai was stubborn. He said that he was ready to marry, but only to Alice, if it was impossible at all to Matilda Kshesinskaya.
In the winter of 1889, Alice came to St. Petersburg to visit her older sister, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, and in fact to the bride. But she again did not like the king and queen and was forced to leave. Alice will never forgive her future mother-in-law for this unfortunate trip.
… Alexander III began to develop chronic kidney nephritis, a disease that even nowadays does not respond well to treatment. The doctors overlooked her, or rather, diagnosed her too late. And at the beginning of 1894, Alexander III was already seriously ill. It soon became clear that his days were numbered. Nicholas is about to become emperor, and he is still not married. And next to him is the strong and purposeful Matilda Kshesinskaya.
In early October 1894, when the royal family was in Crimea, the emperor's health became critical. Alice is sent a telegram. She hastily arrives in Livadia, manages to catch Alexander III alive, he blesses their marriage. Already in Livadia, the twenty-two-year-old bride takes Nikolai into her own hands and constantly directs his actions. On October 20, Alexander III dies, he was not even fifty. Nicholas becomes emperor. Note that both father and mother believed that their Niki was not at all ready to become a king, although he was already twenty-seven years old.
Under the funeral ringing of bells, the nominated come to St. Petersburg. Three weeks later, their wedding took place. It turned out that Alice became the Russian empress as a result of the tragic event that happened six years ago in Borki, and, of course, the early death of Alexander III.