Baby in the Palace - PART I

Throughout the entire service, the baby was outstandingly serene and quiet. For his sisters, the eldest aged nine, this was the first official function, and they, too, stood the service excellently. To honor the Imperial Army fighting in the Pacific, all men in combat were named his godfathers, along with the German Kaiser, the King of England, the Grand Duke of Hesse. His godmother was Russia‘s Empress Dowager. On the way back, the baby was carried with equal ceremony, as crowds of people lined the streets and the square outside the church, throwing hats in the air and crying, “Hurray!” Banquets were arranged at the palace, where royal families from all over the world admired the Tsar’s newest treasure; and all over Russia, there were festivities with delicious foods and fireworks provided by the proud parents.

Meanwhile, at home, there was a quieter joy. Tsar Nicholas wrote in his diary of “an unforgettable day, a great day on which so clearly the mercy of God visited us. I have no words worthy to be able to thank God for the consolation granted by Him in this year of trials. Darling Alix felt quite well. Mama came at 2:00 and sat long by my side... Wrote a mass of telegrams.” The little Grand Duchesses crept into their baby brother’s room only a few hours after his birth, having suffered terrible times of waiting and spying at his door, excited beyond belief but trying very hard to stay quiet for his sake. Anastasia, aged three, was too short to see him, and the Tsar held her up as her sisters stood on their toes, all four peering over the edge of the crib and taking in the rosy cheeks, the thick blond curls, the delicate curve of his little mouth. Within a few days, the baby learned to recognize his sisters, and responded with a delighted smile to the attention they showered on him.

It was the custom to name one’s eldest son after one’s father, but Alexanders and Nicholases had ruled Russia for over a century. Instead, Nicholas II chose to name the baby after the second Romanov Tsar, his own personal role-model -- Tsar Aleksei the Mild. The name met with some opposition, because Peter the Great, too, had named his son Aleksei, and had later faced betrayal from him. But soon, the bad forecast was forgotten in the festivities,

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