Birthday anniversary of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich

On February 18 (28), 1690 in the village of Preobrazhenskoye near Moscow was born the Tsarevich Alexei – the older son of Peter the First and his first wife Eudoxia Lopukhina.

Father did not attend to his son’s education. The Tsarevich later confessed that ‘from infancy lived with mother and peasant girls learning nothing except for have fun and play the hypocrite to which  was inclined by nature’. In 1698 his mother was made a num to the Suzdal Pokrovsky Convent. The boy was then brought up by Peter the First sister, Tsarina Natalya.

At first the tutor Vyazemsky was in charge of Alexei education, then it was the baron G. Gyssein who developed an extensive program for the Tsarevich education. However Gyssein also fulfilled different missions received from the Tsar and could be absent for a long time. As a result the heir to the throne did not receive a systematic education. Nevertheless he spoke fluently German and French and knew the rudiments of mathematics and fortification.

Peter tried to file his son to the state affairs, took him to his trips in the country (in 1702 – to Arkhangelsk) and to the military campaigns (in 1704 – to Nyenschantz and Narva), charged him with supervising the defensive works, the stocking of provisions for the army, forming of new military units. However the Tsar and the Tsarevich could not find a common language due to the differences in education, political views and temperaments. 

During 1709-1712 Alexei Petrovich voyaged around Europe, studied in Dresden, and in 1711 married a foreigner at his father’s insistence. By the princess Sofia-Charlotte of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, betrothed in orthodoxy Eudoxia, he had a daughter Natalya in 1714 and in 1715 a son Peter – the future Russian emperor Peter II.

The appearance in October of 1715 of two potential heirs to the throne, the emperor’s grandson and his son (Peter Petrovich), led to the strained relations between the Tsarevich Alexei and his father. In August of 1716 Peter I, under the threat of depriving him of the heritage, proposed the son two alternatives: either to enter the regular army or to go to monastery.

Alexei Petrovich did not want to refuse the throne but neither he wanted to take monastic vows. So he decided to seek the protection of his brother-in-law, the Austrian emperor Carl VI of Habsburg, married to the sister of the late Eudoxia. In Austria the Tsarevich found the political asylum and hid in the Tyrolean castle Erenberg. Later he went to Naples.

The Russian ambassador in Vienna A. P. Veselovsky had to find the runaway. By means of threats, persuasions and promises of the complete forgiveness he managed the return of Alexei Petrovich to Russia. In February of 1718 he was brought to Moscow where the abdication ceremony took place and the Tsarevich made peace with his father.

However on the very next day began the investigation of the case of antistate plot in order to reveal those who contributed to the Tsarevich flight abroad. During the investigation was revealed that Alexei was supported by people who were quite close to Peter and who, similar to the Tsarevich, wished to slow down the pace of reforms exhausting the country. These were A. V. Kikin, the Golitsyny, B. P. Sheremetev and others. Only some of the suspected to participate in the plot were executed. The rest of them, on June 24 (July 5), signed the Supreme Court judgement under which the Tsarevich was subject to execution.

On June 26 (July 7), after the tortures Alexei Petrovich died in Peter and Paul Fortress under the obscure conditions. In spite of the situation related to his death, the Tsarevich was buried in the burial vault of the Romanov’s family in the Peter and Paul cathedral.

Lit.: Вяземский Н. Письмо к царю Петру I с благодарностью за определение учителем к царевичу Алексею Петровичу. 1696 г. // Русская старина. 1991. Т. 70, № 6; Гордин Я. Дело царевича Алексея, или тяжба о цене реформ // Звезда. 1991. № 11; Гордин Я. А. Меж рабством и свободой. СПб., 1994;  К 90-летию Октябрьской революции. Ч. 1. Истоки и причины русской революции // Град Петров: радио. 07.11.2007. Программа «Уроки истории» с участием Я. Гордина, К. Александрова, прот. А. Степанова; Костомаров Н. И. Царевич Алексей Петрович. М., 1989; Непотребный сын. Дело царевича Алексея Петровича. СПб., 1996; Погодин М. П. Суд над царевичем Алексеем Петровичем // Русское богатство. 1860. № 1; Устрялов Н.Г. История царствования Петра Великого. Т. 6. СПб., 1859; Эйдельман Н. Розыскное дело // Наука и жизнь. 1971. № 9-10.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Alexey Petrovich (1690-1718) // The House Of Romanov. The Zemsky sobor of 1613: [digital collection].