Our Notes & References

Very rare official pocket description of Tsar Alexander II’s coronation, with the exact plan of all festivities and much information -even gossips- about the invited ambassadors.

Alexander II ascended the Russian throne in March 1855, yet the coronation with its festivities was postponed until the end of the Crimean War (1853-56) between Russia and the alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Britain and Sardinia. In late March 1856, the peace treaty was concluded, and on April 26, 1856, the tsar issued a manifesto (included in our booklet) announcing the preparations for the coronation planned for August 26: “Now, when the gracious peace is returning Russia to its former tranquillity, We have resolved […] to lay on ourselves the crown and to receive the anointing, engaging to this sacred action also our most gracious wife” (our translation here and below).

This comprehensive description was issued a few weeks before the coronation (the censor’s note is dated August 4, 1856). It discusses in great detail the solemn entry of the tsar into Moscow, the decorations of the Kremlin, the coronation itself, and sets out the plan of the feast and the order of accepting congratulations. Among other events, we’ll note that Moscow shall see “an enormous illumination which will turn the whole city into a sea of fire”.

A substantial, informative part of the work is devoted to ambassadors and envoys of foreign powers, focusing in particular on the representatives of the British, French, Prussian, Austrian, Belgian, Turkish and Brazilian sovereigns, as well as of Pope Pius IX, and the American, Sardinian, and Persian missions. Such diplomatic statements were particularly important to the Russian officials after the loss in the Crimean War and the significant weakening of Russia’s position in the international arena.

Some of the officials’ descriptions are curiously revealing; for example the French ambassador Count de Morny “in his youth, unsparing to the point of wastefulness, always generous and magnanimous, he soon spent the fortune which his mother’s tenderness had secured for him […] But [his] happy character and innate nobility triumphed over this delusion of youth, and already by 1830 he was among the most excellent people in the highest Parisian society”.

Another ‘fun fact’ is the contrast between the rather modest format of this ceremonial and the huge format of the coronation album itself, the illustrated description of Alexander’s coronation, which was the largest of all such albums published in Russia, and one of the largest Russian books.

Rare. Although later coronation ceremonials can be found, in particular for Nicholas II, this one is the earliest we have came across, and the only copy of it. WorldCat shows only two locations (Stanford, British Library), to which we can add three in Russia (GPIB (State Public Historical Library), RGB and RNB). We couldn’t trace any copy at auction in recent decades.