And the usual publisher's version of the binding:

On March 1, 1881, Tsar-reformer Alexander II was killed by terrorists. Therefore, due to mourning and fears of new terrorist attacks, the wedding ceremony for the kingdom of his son Alexander III was postponed and took place in Moscow only on May 15 (27), 1883 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The book describes the ceremony of the sacred coronation of Alexander III and his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna. The description is preceded by the royal manifesto and personalized Imperial decrees on the beginning of preparations for the ceremony. The ceremonials of the entry into Moscow of the Highest Persons and the coronation itself are given in detail, samples of the costumes of various officials during ceremonies (for example, a herald) are presented. The ceremonies list all the items needed for the coronation, including the state sword, banner and seal, purples, the Great and Small crowns, orb and scepter. Poems written on the occasion of the coronation are presented. Throughout the ceremony, Moscow was adorned for the first time with garlands of multicolored electric lamps, a recent invention ordered specifically for the celebration in America. It was a visible manifestation of technological progress. A detailed description of the city illumination in honor of the holiday is included in the publication. During the coronation, the people were given gold and silver tokens minted in honor of this event, various treats.

The ceremony of crowning the kingdom (Holy coronation) was first performed for the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III on February 4, 1498. This was due to the symbolic transfer of royal power from Byzantium to the Muscovite state. Constantinople fell under the blows of the Turks in 1453, and Moscow remained the only stronghold of Orthodoxy and the successor to the Byzantine state model. The transition of the high status of the Orthodox "empire" from Byzantium to Moscow was secured by the marriage of Ivan III and the heiress of the imperial family, Sophia Paleolog. At that time, the Sacred Crowning ceremony became the only way to legitimately confer supreme, divine power and give a higher status to the monarchy. But by the end of the XIX century. this ritual is already perceived as a tribute to tradition. Although forced, but still the ceremony of the coronation of Alexander III was postponed. At the same time, he was a full-fledged monarch.

For a better understanding of the significance of the sacrament of crowning the kingdom, the book contains a detailed outline of the history of the formation of the rite. The wedding ceremonies of all the tsars and emperors from the Romanov dynasty are described, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich, who ascended the Russian throne in 1613. The heirs to the throne from the Romanov dynasty went through this sacred ritual, which endowed them with the sacred status of God's anointed, autocratically governing a vast empire, since the monarch, who had not passed the sacrament of anointing, could not be considered a legitimate bearer of divine authority. Thus, the ritual of conferring power was of systemic importance; any detail of the ceremony was endowed with the deepest mystical meaning. The meaning of symbols of state power and regalia, the history and composition of the state emblem are considered. An extensive gallery of portraits of Russian emperors and empresses is presented, which depicts, among others, Peter the Great, Catherine II, Alexander I and Alexander II. Any development or modification of the details of the rite that took place during the history of the coronation of representatives of the Romanov family was carefully recorded and presented in the publication. The most important events in the political and cultural life of the country were reflected in the coronation ceremonies, new hopes were associated with the new monarchs, and this was often said in solemn speeches by the Orthodox hierarchs who conducted the ceremony. It was here that the relationship between the spiritual and secular authorities, the autocracy and the church was shown.

The edition is richly decorated: 217 illustrations in the text, made in the technique of engraving on wood, headpieces and initials are made in the same technique. They create an artistically and historically valuable pictorial range of portraits of sovereigns and ceremony scenes, as well as symbolic, cult and household items used by Russian tsars. Wood engravings for the publication were made by outstanding Russian engravers, many of which belong to the school of Academician L.A. Seryakov. On a number of engravings is the stamp "S. and Co." (Seryakov and Co.), denoting belonging to this workshop. Other engravings are signed by masters: K. Kzhezhanovsky, A.I. Daugel (the owner of his own workshop), A. Zubchaninov, A.O. Sverchkov, Shamot, P.F. Borel and others.

Seryakov, Lavrentiy Avksentievich (1824-1881) - an outstanding wood engraver, the son of a soldier, a serf in the Kostroma province. While serving as a soldier, L.A. Seryakov stood out for his artistic abilities; in the army, he made his first experiments in wood engraving. It was striking that he cut complex engravings with an ordinary penknife and did it at a fairly high level. The talent of L.A. Seryakov attracted attention, and the 23-year-old artist was admitted to the Academy of Arts. For five years he worked in the workshops of the best European engravers. He became the first academician of wood engraving in Russia, and in 1868 he founded a workshop in St. Petersburg, where reproduction tone wood engraving began to be cultivated for the first time in Russia. The Seryakov & Co. firm served the largest Russian illustrated publications of the second half of the 19th century, including World Illustration, published by Hermann Goppe. For his luxuriously illustrated books, the publisher attracted a huge staff of craftsmen: more than 50 artists and 12 engraving workshops worked for him. All this served as the printing base on which a real deluxe edition was created.

Crowning the Kingdom The (Holy Coronation) of Russian Sovereigns according to a certain church rite was performed for the first time under the Grand Duke of Moscow John III over his grandson Demetrius, on February 4, 1498. It is known that the chronicle indicates that Vladimir Monomakh was sent gifts from the Byzantine Emperor, and on this basis a story about the Monomakh crown and barm was created, which says that Monomakh "was then crowned in Kyiv with that royal crown and from then on the Divinely Crowned Tsar was named in the Russian Kingdom." Tsar Ivan Vasilievich IV the Terrible in his spiritual life blessed his son Ivan Ivanovich with “the Kingdom of Russia, the cap of Monomakh and all the royal rank that Tsar Konstantin Monomakh from Constantinople sent to our progenitor, the Tsar and Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh.” Over the successor of John III, Vasily III, the wedding ceremony was not performed; in the same way, the three-year-old son John Vasilyevich IV, who remained after Vasily, was not crowned the Kingdom, but only blessed by the metropolitan. But when Ivan Vasilyevich IV the Terrible reached the age of 16, he announced to Metropolitan Macarius and the boyars of his decision to marry the "Royal Crown" on the State. The rite of the wedding of Ivan IV for the first time included Confirmation, obviously also taken from the rite of the wedding of the Byzantine Emperors. At the wedding, in addition to the Monomakh's cap, the Life-Giving Cross and the golden chain, the Tsar was also given "a scepter to rule the banners of the Great Russian Kingdom" (January 16, 1547). At the wedding of Boris Godunov on September 1, 1599, an apple, or orb, appears for the first time among the signs of royal dignity: enemies unshakable. Under Alexy Mikhailovich, barmaids began to play a large role at weddings, and Feodor Aleksievich put on purple during the wedding. He was the last Tsar to be crowned with Monomakh regalia: since he was followed by the coronation of two Tsars at once, new regalia were made for them. The wife of Peter I, Catherine I, is crowned for the first time with the imperial crown (May 7, 1724). Peter I himself composed the rite of coronation and gave this ceremony a predominantly state character. The coronation was announced in all squares "into the mass of the people" through heralds with trumpeters and timpani. Peter replaced the ancient barmas with a western epancha or a mantle made of golden damask, lined with white ermines and embroidered with eagles; the donning of the Monomakh Cross was cancelled. Instead of the Monomakh's hat, a new crown was made for the Empress, modeled on the Byzantine ones. All other regalia (scepter, orb) Peter left the former. Confirmation was also preserved. Of the Sovereigns, Peter II was the first to be crowned with the imperial crown on February 25, 1728 in Moscow. Emperor John VI and Peter III were not crowned. The coronation of Paul I took place simultaneously with his wife, and Paul, like Peter I, put only a crown and a cape on the Empress, and continued to hold the scepter in his hand. Taking the crown from the hands of the Emperor, the Empress knelt before him. The peculiarity of Paul's coronation (April 5, 1797) also consisted in the fact that, at the end of the ceremony, he read and then placed on the throne in the Assumption Cathedral the Law on the Succession to the Throne drawn up by him and promulgated on the same day, or "Institution of the Imperial Family". In the 19th century, Russian Sovereigns, in order to get married in the Kingdom, came from St. Petersburg to Moscow and stayed at the Petrovsky Palace. On the eve of the solemn day of the coronation, both in the main Assumption Cathedral and in other cathedrals and churches throughout Moscow, a prayer service with a ringing was sent in the afternoon at four o'clock, and in the evening - an all-night vigil. The tsars and members of the Imperial family listened to the all-night vigil in the Church of the Savior behind the Golden Grid, where the rule for Communion was also read. On the very day of the coronation, when the beginning of the celebration was heralded by twenty-one shots from cannons, from the Cathedral of the Assumption, the blasphemy began with a large bell, then with another brute force, as is usually the case for a religious procession. Synodal members and bishops with other clergy gathered in the cathedral and prayed for the long-term health of His Imperial Majesty. At the end of the prayer service and liturgical hours, they expected the coming of the Imperial couple in priestly attire. When the procession began, all the bells rang. When the royal regalia approached the southern doors of the cathedral church, all the bishops and other clergy in priestly attire left the church to the porch and honored the regalia by burning incense and sprinkling Holy water.

After the introduction of the regalia into the church, the bishops with other clergy waited at the former place outside the church for the arrival of Their Majesties, but when they approached the porch, the leading bishop delivered a speech and offered a blessing Cross, and the other sprinkled the Royal couple with Holy water. Then, in the forefront of the same bishops and clergy, and while singing the psalm “Mercy and Judgment I will sing to you, Lord”, Their Imperial Majesties entered the church and, after bowing three times in front of the Royal Doors, applied to the Holy local icons, and then followed to the prepared in the middle of the church under a canopy a throne and sat on the Imperial Thrones. Bishops and other spiritual ones stood from the steps of the throne to the Royal Doors on both sides. At that time, the ringing stopped. At the end of the singing of the psalm and at the end of the ringing, the leading bishop, ascending the pulpit of the throne, addressed His Majesty with the following speech:

“Most pious Great Sovereign, our Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia! By the grace of God, and by the action of the Holy and All-Sanctifying Spirit, and by your will, the coronation of Your Imperial Majesty and the anointing from the Holy World has now taken place in this capital church; For this reason, according to the custom of the ancient Christian Monarchs and Your God-crowned Ancestors, may Your Majesty deign to confess the Orthodox Catholic Faith in the hearing of Your faithful subjects, what kind of faith do you have?

And he offered the Majesty an open book, holding it in his arms. His Majesty, according to the book presented by the bishop, publicly read the holy Symbol of the Orthodox Faith. After reading the Symbol, the same bishop to His Majesty proclaimed: “The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you, amen,” other bishops secretly said the same. The litany began, at which, along with the usual prayer petitions, a prayer for the Crowned Monarch was offered up:

“O hedgehog be blessed by His Royal wedding with the blessing of the King of kings and the Lord of lords; O hedgehog be strengthened to be His scepter by the right hand of the Most High; about the hedgehog, by the anointing of the All-Holy Peace, to receive Him from heaven to rule and justice, strength and wisdom; about the hedgehog to receive him a prosperous in everything and a long-term reign; as if the Lord would hear Him in the day of sorrow, and protect His name of the God of Jacob; as if he would send him help from the Holy One, and from Zion he would intercede; as if the Lord would give him according to his own heart, and fulfill all his counsel; as if His subordinate judgments are unpretentious and impartial, He will preserve; as if the Lord of Forces always strengthens His weapons; about conquering under His nose every enemy and adversary; about the hedgehog be blessed with the Royal wedding and the Spouse of His Most Pious Sovereign Empress with the blessing of His own King of kings and Lord of lords.

At the end of the litany, the protodeacon proclaimed: "God is the Lord and appear to us," and the clergy sang: "God is the Lord and appear to us, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."

Verse: "Confess to the Lord, for it is good, for His mercy endures forever."

Verse: “They went around me, and in the name of the Lord I resisted them.”

Verse: “I will not die, but I will live, and let us do the works of the Lord.”

Verse: “The stone, His negligent building, This was at the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, and there is a marvel in our eyes.

After singing the troparion “Save, O Lord, Thy people and bless Thy heritage, granting victory to the Right-Believing King on the opposition, and keeping Thy residence by Thy Cross”, - the prophecy of Isaiah was read:

“Thus says the Lord: rejoice, heaven, and rejoice, earth, let the mountains belch joy and the hills of truth, as if God had mercy on His people and His humble people of comfort. And Zion said, Lord leave me, and God forget me. Food will forget the wife of her child, hedgehog not have mercy on the offspring of her womb; but if the wife forgets them, I will not forget you, says the Lord. Behold, thy walls are inscribed in My hands, and before Me thou wilt stand, and soon thou shalt stand up, from them thou hast been ruined, and those who have devastated thee shall come out of thee. Raise up your eyes around and see all, behold, having gathered and coming to you, I live Az, says the Lord: with all of them, clothe yourself in beauty and overlay them like a bride’s utensils. Your empty and scattered and fallen now will oppress from those who dwell, and those who swallow you will depart from you.

After reading the prophecy, the prokimen:

“Lord, in Your power the King will rejoice, and in Your salvation he will rejoice greatly.”

Verse: "You gave him the desire of his heart, and you did not deprive him of the desire of his mouth."

Verse: “Yako preceded him with a blessed blessing, put a crown on his head from an honest stone.”

Then followed the reading of the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Romans:

“Brethren, let every soul obey those in power. There is no power, if not from God: the essence of power is from God. Whereas those who resist the power of God resist the commandment: those who resist themselves receive sin. The princes are not the fear of a good deed, but of an evil one. Would you rather not be afraid of power; do good, and you will have praise from him. There is a servant of God, it's good for you. If you do evil, be afraid: you don’t carry a sword without a mind: God’s servant is, an avenger in the wrath of the evil one. It is also necessary to obey not only for anger, but also for conscience. For this sake and tribute you give: God's servants are in this true abiding. Give ubo to everyone that is due: he already has a lesson, a lesson; and tribute to him, tribute; and to him fear, fear; and to him honor, honor.

After reading the Apostle "Alleluia" three times and then reading the Holy Gospel of Matthew:

“During it, all the Pharisee received advice against Jesus, as if they would deceive Him with a word. And their disciples send to Him, from Herodiana, saying: teacher, we know that you are true, and truly teach the way of God, and do not care about anyone: do not see more on the face of a person. Rtsy ubo us that You thinks; whether it is worthy to eat dati kinson cesarean, or not. And when Jesus understood their wickedness, he said, Why are you tempting me, you hypocrites. Show Mi the golden kinson. They brought him a penalty. And he said to them: Whose image is this and writing; and saying to Him, Caesar. Then he said to them: Render therefore the Caesar's to the Caesar's, and the God of God. And when he heard, he marveled: and he left him, having departed.

At the end of the reading of the Gospel, His Imperial Majesty commanded from the table standing on the throne with imperial regalia to put on himself a porphyry, which the bishops offered to His Majesty on pillows. When it was laid, the leading bishop said: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen."

His Imperial Majesty bowed his head, and the leading bishop, having overshadowed the top of the head with the sign of the cross, laid his hands on it crosswise and read the following prayer aloud:

“O Lord our God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who through Samuel the prophet chose Your servant David, and anointed him king over Your people Israel: Thyself and now hear the prayer of us unworthy, and look from Your holy dwelling, and Your faithful servant the Great Sovereign, you deigned to put the Emperor over Your tongue, attracted by the honest Blood of Your Only Begotten Son, anoint Him with the oil of joy, clothe Him with strength from on high, put on His head a crown from an honest stone, and grant Him the length of days, put a scepter in His right hand salvation, seat Him on the throne of righteousness, protect Him with the full armor of Your Holy Spirit, strengthen His muscle, humble before Him all barbarian tongues that want war, all in His heart is Your fear, and to the obedient compassion, keep Him in immaculate faith, show Him known guardian of your holy catholic Church of dogmas, may your people judge in truth, and your poor in judgment, the sons of the poor will save, and the heir will be of your heavenly Kingdom. For Your dominion, and Yours is the kingdom and power forever and ever."

"Amen!" - sang the face. “Peace to all,” the bishop said. “And your spirit,” answered the face. The protodeacon said: "Bow down your heads to the Lord."“To you, Lord,” the face sang. The bishop read the second prayer:

“To You, the only King of men, bow your neck with us, Most Pious Sovereign, to Him the earthly Kingdom is entrusted from You: and we pray to You, Lord of all, keep Him under Your shelter, strengthen His Kingdom, always honor Him with deeds pleasing to You, exalt in His days truth, and plenty of peace, and let us live in the quietness of His meek and silent life in all piety and honesty. You are the King of the world, and the Savior of our souls and bodies, and we send glory to You, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and forever and ever.

After reading the second prayer, His Imperial Majesty commanded from the same table set with the imperial regalia to present the Imperial crown, which was brought on a pillow to the leading bishop by the dignitary appointed to that, and the bishop presented it to His Imperial Majesty.

His Majesty, having accepted the crown from the bishop from the pillow, laid it on His head, and the bishop said a prayer: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen" and then the following speech:

“Most pious Autocratic Great Sovereign Emperor of All Russia! This visible and material adornment of Your Head is a clear image, as if the Head of the All-Russian people is crowned invisibly by the King of glory Christ, with His blessed blessing, affirming You domineering and supreme power over His people.

Then His Imperial Majesty commanded that the scepter and orb be given to Himself. The leading bishop, giving His Majesty the scepter in the right hand, and the orb in the left hand, with a prayer: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit", delivered the following speech on the book:

“O God-crowned, and God-given, and God-adorned, Most Pious, Most Autocratic, Great Sovereign Emperor of All Russia! Accept the scepter and the orb, which is a visible image of the autocracy given to you from the Most High over your people to rule them and to arrange all the well-being they desire.

After that, His Imperial Majesty, on His Imperial throne, deigned to sit down. Further, putting the regalia on the pillows, he called on Her Majesty the Empress and, taking off the crown, touched it to the head of Her Majesty and again placed it on Himself. Then a smaller crown was offered, which His Majesty placed on the head of the Sovereign Empress. Four ladies of state straightened her. Then they brought to His Majesty for laying on Her Majesty a porphyry and a chain of the Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Upon placing each of these regalia, the same ladies of state set them off. The Empress was returning to her throne. Sovereign Emperor again perceived the scepter and orb. Then the protodeacon proclaimed the full title of His Imperial Majesty with many years:

“To the Blessed, and Pious, and Christ-loving, Our Most Autocratic Great Sovereign, Crowned by God, Exalted and Autocrat of All Russia: Moscow, Kyiv, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonis, Tsar of Georgia, Sovereign Pskov and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volyn, Poland and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalsky, Samogitsky, Korelsky, Tver, Yugorsky, Permsky, Vyatsky, Bulgarian and others; Sovereign and Grand Duke of Novgorod Nizovsky lands, Chernigov, Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloezersky, Ugorsky, Obdorsky, Kondiysky, Vitebsk, Mstislavsky and all Northern countries Princes, and others to the Hereditary Sovereign and Possessor, Sovereign of Turkestan; To the heir of Norway, the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsen and Oldenburg, grant, Lord, a prosperous and peaceful life, health and salvation, and good haste in everything, victory and overcoming the enemies, and save Him for many years.

And the singers sang on both faces three times: "Many years." The same goes for Her Imperial Majesty. And at that time, all the bells began to ring, and 101 shots sounded from the cannons placed in the Moscow Kremlin. Between the singing of many years, both spiritual and worldly persons from their places with threefold bowing congratulated Their Imperial Majesties. After the singing of many years and the cessation of the ringing and firing, the Sovereign Emperor, rising from the throne and giving the scepter and orb to those present, knelt down and uttered the following prayer to God according to the book:

“O Lord, God of the fathers and King of kings, who created everything by Your word, and by Your wisdom arranged man, may the world govern in reverence and truth! You have chosen me as your King and Judge for your people. I confess Your unsearchable consideration of Me, and thanks to Your Majesty I bow down. But you, Lord and My Lord, instruct Me in the matter, where Thou hast sent Me, enlighten and guide Me in this great service. May the wisdom that sits on Your throne be with me. Send Thy Saints from heaven, that I may understand what is pleasing before Thy eye, and what is right in Thy commandments. Let My heart be in Your hand to arrange everything for the benefit of the people entrusted to Me and for Your glory, as if even on the day of Your judgment I will shamelessly give You a word: by the mercy and bounties of Your Only Begotten Son, with him Blessed be thou, with the Most Holy and Good and Life-Giving By Your Spirit forever and ever, amen."

"Packs and packs, on bended knee, let's pray to the Lord", - the protodeacon proclaimed after reading His Majesty's prayer. And all those present, except for His Majesty, knelt, and the bishop, also kneeling, read the following prayer on behalf of the whole people:

“God the Great and Marvelous, ruling all kinds with inscrutable goodness and rich Providence. With his wise, but untested destinies, human life and cohabitation accepts various limits, we gratefully confess: as if you did not do it to us according to our iniquity, below according to our sins you repaid us. We have sinned, O Lord, and lawless, and we are worthy of Your extreme disgust. But you, O Innumerable goodness, Merciful, Long-suffering, and repent of the wickedness of human Master, having punished us with a brief former sorrow visit, behold, abundantly fulfilling the joy and joy of our heart, having justified the reign over us of Your Beloved Servant, the Most Pious Most Autocratic Great Sovereign of Our Emperor of All Russia: make wiser and instruct Him to go through this great service unto Thee, grant Him reason and wisdom, in order to judge by Your people in truth, and keep Your property in silence and without sorrow. Show Him victorious as an enemy, terrible as a villain, merciful and trustworthy to the good; warm His heart to the contempt of the poor, to the acceptance of the strange, to the intercession of the attacked. Governing the governments subordinate to Him on the path of truth and truth, and reflecting from partiality and bribery, and all the people entrusted to You by His power in unfeigned fidelity, create His Father about the children of the rejoicing, and may Your mercy surprise us. Multiply the days of His belly in unbreakable health and unchanging prosperity. Grant, in His days and to all of us, peace, silence and prosperity, the goodness of the air, the land of fruitfulness, and everything necessary for temporary and eternal life. O most merciful Lord, our God of bounty and Father of all joy, do not turn Your face away from us, and do not shame us from expecting him, trusting in You, we pray to You and praying for Your bounties we hope: You are the only one who we demand, and before You submit petitions, and affirm gifts, and every good gift, and every gift perfect from above, is descended from You, the Father of lights. Glory to you and power with your Only Begotten Son and the All-Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit of yours, now and forever and forever and ever.

After the prayer, the bishop delivered a welcoming speech to His Majesty. At the end he proclaimed: "Glory to Thee, our Benefactor, forever and ever." The singers sang: "We praise God to you." There was a bell ringing, and the Divine Liturgy began. At the beginning of the liturgy, His Imperial Majesty removed the crown from the head, and at the end of the liturgy he again placed it on himself. After reading at the liturgy of the Gospel, it was brought to Their Majesties for kissing. When they began to sing from the canon, then from the throne to the Royal Doors for the procession of His Imperial Majesty to the Holy Confirmation and Communion of the Holy Mysteries, velvet was spread, and near the Royal Doors to the Throne of the Church over the velvet - golden brocade. After the singing of the canon and after Communion inside the altar of the clergy, the Royal Doors were opened, and two bishops were sent from the altar, followed by protodeacons on both sides, to announce to His Imperial Majesty the time of the Royal Anointing as follows:

"The Most Pious Great Sovereign, Our Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia, Your Imperial Majesty Confirmation and the Holy Divine Mysteries, the time is drawing near: for this sake, may Your Imperial Majesty deign to march this Great Cathedral Church to the Royal Doors."

His Imperial Majesty, handing over his sword to the dignitary, and descending from the throne, walked in purple directly to the Royal Doors. The Empress followed him. The emperor, standing at those gates on a golden brocade, deigned to give the regalia to those who carried them. And the preeminent bishop, taking a precious vessel specially arranged for such a great deed, and having dipped the most precious branch prepared for this in the Holy myrrh, anointed His Majesty on the forehead, on the eyes, on the nostrils, on the lips, on the ears, on the chest and on both sides on the hands with the words: "The Seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit". Another bishop wiped the anointed places. After the Anointing was performed, the bell ringing and 101 shots from cannons were heard. Then the Empress stood on the same golden brocade, and the leading bishop, having dipped the same precious bit into the Holy Myrrh, anointed Her Majesty only on her forehead, pronouncing the same words: “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Another bishop wiped the place of anointing. Then His Majesty, with a bishop's hand, was introduced into the Altar and, standing before the Holy Meal on a golden brocade and making a bow, received from the first bishop the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, Communion according to the order of the Royal, that is, as the clergy take communion: especially the Body and especially the Blood Christ. Another bishop brought antidoron and warmth to His Majesty, and the third served in the washing of the mouth and hands. After Communion of the Holy Mysteries, His Imperial Majesty, having left the Altar, departed to the icon of the Savior. Then Her Majesty approached the Royal Doors and received Holy Communion in the usual manner, with the bishops serving Her Majesty in offering antidoron, warmth, and washing the lips and hands of Her Majesty. Then Their Majesties marched to the Throne and sat on Thrones. When the Liturgy was dismissed from the bishop with the Cross, the protodeacon proclaimed many years. The singers sang "Many Years". At the end of this, both spiritual and secular persons brought their most humble congratulations to Their Imperial Majesties on the successful completion of the coronation. Further, Their Majesties marched along the arranged platforms in the same order to the Archangel Cathedral. During the procession, 101 shots were fired from cannons and there was a great ringing of all the bells in the cathedrals and in all the monastery and parish churches. In the Archangel Cathedral, Their Majesties deigned to venerate the holy icons and relics, then they worshiped the coffins of their ancestors. At this time, the protodeacon proclaimed many years. The choristers sang "Many Years" three times.

Royal "hats" from the Kremlin treasury

Where did the signs of the sovereign’s power disappear?.. The “crowns” of the Russian tsars, made after 1613, when the Romanovs reigned, are well known - some of them have survived to this day in the collection of the Armory, others were remade for court needs back in the 17th century. The situation is much more complicated with those "caps" that were in the treasury before the accession in 1605 of False Dmitry I, a desperate adventurer who seized the Moscow throne for less than eleven months.

Mysterious wedding to the kingdom

Between 1605 and 1612, and especially during the last period of the Troubles, when the Polish garrison was in charge of the Kremlin, the royal treasury suffered colossal losses, among which were "crowns" - after the Troubles there were only two of them left, the "Monomakh's hat" and "Kazan hat". The first of them was the crowning of Mikhail Fedorovich in the summer of 1613. The ranks of the wedding to the kingdom of Russian sovereigns - documents containing a detailed list of the order of the "action" and the participants in the ceremony - have been preserved from the end of the 15th century until the wedding of the last bearers of the royal title in Russia, John and Peter Alekseevich (1682), with the exception of a single episode - the rank of "Tsar Dimitri Ioannovich". The rite itself and its features, however, can be judged with a high degree of certainty from the notes of the Orthodox Middle Eastern hierarch, Archbishop Arseny of Elasson, who was present in the Kremlin at the ceremony on July 31, 1605. The memoirist testifies that, contrary to custom, the Pretender was married with two "crowns" and in two cathedrals, and first, like his predecessors, in the Assumption, but not with the "cap of Monomakh", according to tradition, but with the "crown of his father Ivan Vasilyevich", sent as Archbishop Arseny reports to Ivan the Terrible "from Caesar, the great king of Alemannia," that is, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The “crown” of the “most pious” Prince Vladimir Monomakh was placed on the new monarch later, in the Archangel Cathedral, where the procession moved. Other contemporaries also report the use of a certain "crown" along with the "cap of Monomakh" in court ceremonies under the Pretender. If during the reception of the embassy of N. Olesnitsky and A. Gonsevsky in the Palace of the Facets in May 1606, False Dmitry "sat on the throne in a high crown", then at the end of the meeting, when the "king" went to church, "brought a small royal crown." The latter, of course, should be understood as the "Monomakh's Crown", the first one should have differed from it in size, which the diplomats drew attention to. "Imperial crown" G. Paerle calls the "hat" of the Pretender, which he saw during the meeting of False Dmitry in the Kremlin with his future father-in-law, voivode Yuri Mnishk. The preference and primacy given to the "imperial crown" is rightly associated with the claims of False Dmitry to the imperial title - in correspondence with the Krakow court in the autumn of 1605, the new Moscow ruler reports that he was crowned emperor. As for the "crown" itself, there is a tradition according to which Grozny had a "crown" of "tsarist" work, which disappeared in the Time of Troubles along with most of the treasures of the royal treasury. Sending a crown has nothing to do with embassy gifts. However, there is no evidence, either direct or indirect, that the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (under the Terrible they were Ferdinand I (1527-1564), Maximilian II (1564-1576) and Rudolf II (1576-1633) from the Habsburg dynasty ) could send an unusual and expensive gift to Moscow from Prague, where the capital of the Empire was then located. Such a serious gift, most likely, would be entrusted to hand over to the plenipotentiary ambassadors of the Empire. Diplomats of this rank visited Moscow under Grozny only once, in 1576. Both "great ambassadors", J. Cobenzel and D. Printz von Buchau, left diaries of their trip to Russia, including, among other things, a detailed list of the imperial "commemoration" of the Moscow tsar. If the crown were among them, it would certainly have been noted by memoirists. However, diplomats unanimously call the main gift not the crown, but the monogram of Maximilian II, the letter M on a gold chain adorned with diamonds. The probability of such a gift is also doubtful from a diplomatic point of view. Its acceptance in Moscow would cause irreparable damage to the "sovereign's honor", placing the tsar in a subordinate position to the "Roman Caesar". So the statement of Arseny Elasson about the wedding of the Pretender with a crown - a gift from the emperor to Ivan the Terrible cannot be accepted unconditionally. However, it should be taken seriously.

Crown of Eger

Before the Time of Troubles, the royal treasury did indeed contain a crown, a scepter and an orb made in the court workshops of Emperor Rudolf II. Brought to Moscow in 1604, during the reign of Boris Godunov by the ambassador G. von Logau, a set of state regalia in the Time of Troubles lost its crown; the scepter and orb survived and are today kept in the collections of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. There is no other information about the appearance in Moscow of regalia made by imperial masters. So, the “crown” with which the Pretender was crowned to the kingdom could only be the one that Boris Godunov specially ordered from the Empire. In the summer of 1599, A. Vlasiev, the clerk of the Ambassadorial Office, was sent from Moscow to Prague on a diplomatic mission, returning to his homeland a year later. The envoy followed to the imperial court, as the British diplomat D. Horsey wrote, "with a large retinue and gifts ... The imperial crown was offered friendship, and the imperial house ... - a strong and faithful alliance, the readiness to raise weapons at the same time against the common enemy - the Turks ... This ambassador achieved a lot, his proposals were accepted with great pleasure, he himself was honored and released with great honor. Rudolf II dreamed of a new crusade against the "infidels", considering himself the "natural leader" of the future anti-Turkish coalition. Vlasiev informed the imperial court about the efforts of Boris Godunov to intensify military operations of the Zaporozhye Cossacks against the Crimean Tatars - allies of the Turks - in order to pull the military forces of the Porte away from the Hungarian possessions of the Empire. It was also about the possible prospects of Russia's direct involvement in the anti-Turkish campaign: "the Grand Duke will not fail to personally go on a campaign against the Tatar Khan ... and he thinks to subjugate them (Tatars) to his power, just as John Vasilyevich ... conquered the kingdom of Kazan and Astrakhan. Regardless of the sincerity of such promises (in parallel, Russian diplomacy took care of establishing peaceful relations with Bakhchisaray), there was a political unity of the two Christian sovereigns. Information about the work on the crown is in the correspondence of one of the imperial officials. At the beginning of 1600, the court of Rudolf II left Prague on the occasion of an epidemic and moved to Pilsen in Western Bohemia; ten miles away, in the city of Eger (modern Cheb), the Russian embassy stopped. Here, as the city official R. L. von Dorndorf reported in his report to Margrave Georg Friedrich of Ansbach, "the envoy (Vlasyev) has with him an imperial goldsmith, who makes for him a magnificent golden crown adorned with rubies and diamonds," moreover, a jeweler " works. .. in the envoy's apartment", and "the precious stone that is attached to it ... the envoy brought with him from Moscow". he had to swear to the emperor that he would not reveal anything about this to a single person. I know that this is the reason ... " (further break in the text). Presumably, the scepter and orb of the collection of the Armory, together with the crown, constituted a single order, completed by 1604. At the same time, the choice of masters was dictated not so much by the pan-European glory of the court workshops of Rudolf II He was entrusted to the court jewelers of the only emperor of Europe at that time, who in Russia was recognized as the foremost among Western Christian sovereigns.For similar reasons, in 1628, the Greek craftsmen of Constantinople, whose successor Moscow considered itself, ordered a "crown of gold" for Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. .. in the former Greek kings of the sample", and in 1662, obviously, in addition to this order, they also made "a diadem and orb of Constantinople work ... against the model of the pious Greek king Constantine".

Pedigree "hats"

The unexpected order of the crown in the Empire, the first and last in the history of Russia, requires an explanation, which can only be obtained by familiarizing yourself in detail with the history of the "royal crowns". The oldest of them, the "cap of Monomakh", which is similar to the diadem of the Supreme High Hierarch, which I saw in Rome. The third "kingdom", which became part of Russia and was reflected in the royal title - Siberian. of all Siberian lands ... sovereign. "According to the Titulyarnik, the Siberian Khan Kuchum was titled" king of Siberia ", and Grozny -" all Siberian lands ... ruler ". Yermak's campaign did not affect the royal "title" - "king of Siberia" Ivan IV was never named. After the accession of Fyodor Ivanovich to the throne in Siberia in 1584, the first governor was "released", which gave reason to emphasize the merits of the last Rurikovich in annexing Siberia. However, even under him, the "Siberian Land" retained its final place in the "title ". The situation remained the same in the first year of the reign of Boris Godunov. But in 1599, diplomatic documents record the "raising of the status" of Siberia - now it is called the "kingdom" and moves from to the final part of the title to the initial, after the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan. For the first time, the changed "title" was noted in the article list of the embassy of the clerk Vlasyev to Rudolf II. In the future, the name of the "Tsar of Siberia" was firmly entrenched in the titles of all who ruled after Godunov - False Dmitry I, Vasily Shuisky, Prince Vladislav, and after 1613 was inherited by the Romanovs. Thus, the "royal" status of Siberia in the titles of Russian sovereigns was fixed not in the middle of the 17th century, as A. L. Khoroshkevich believes, but half a century earlier, during the reign of Boris Godunov. In 1598, military operations against Kuchum ended. The possessions of the "Siberian tsar" were reduced every year, his former vassals swore allegiance to Moscow, which unsuccessfully tried to attract Kuchum to the tsarist service. In order to take the khan prisoner, a detachment was sent from Tara under the leadership of the "comrade" of the local governor A. Voeikov. This modest in scale and by no means the first military action of this kind on the pages of the official New Chronicler unexpectedly acquired a nationwide scope: “By his (Boris Godunov’s) command in Siberia ... the governors went and heads for Tsar Kuchum and Evo came down ... and taking Evo eight queens and three princes. It was after this battle that Kuchum, as a political rival of the Moscow Tsar, was finished. The "Siberian king", who had fled from the battlefield, fled to the Bukhara Khanate, where he was killed. In 1600, the Khan's family was transferred to Moscow, the baptized children of Kuchum received the title of "Tsareviches of Siberia". All this should be regarded as an act of joining a new state, and not just "land" to the possessions of the Muscovite tsars. At the same time, Boris Godunov's grandiose plans for the construction of the "Holy of Holies" in the Kremlin, a copy of the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a symbol of "imperial" greatness, came about. Among these enterprises, the order of the third, "Siberian hat" seems to be a completely logical step. Let us pay attention to the testimony of a very informed memoirist Jacques Margeret, who for many years served at the royal court as the captain of a detachment of mercenaries and briefly communicated with False Dmitry. With the permission of the Pretender, Margeret in 1606 personally examined the royal treasury, in which he saw "four crowns, namely three imperial ones and the fourth - the one with which the once great princes were crowned." Under them, the "Monomakh's hat", the Kazan and Astrakhan "caps", as well as the "Caesar" crown, aka the "Siberian hat" are easily identified.

The fate of the secret order

The regalia made for "Tsar Boris" arrived from Prague with von Logau's embassy not among official gifts, but privately. Another imperial diplomat, G. Taktander, the ambassador to Persia, who accidentally ended up in Moscow in the summer of 1604 on his way home, carefully listed all the "commemoration" of the von Logau mission, presented to Godunov in the Faceted Chamber, among which the crown and other regalia do not appear. It is characteristic that the very execution of the order in Cheb in 1600, as we remember, was shrouded in an aura of mystery. Despite the transfer of the crown to Godunov, the imperial ambassadors continued to call the tsar by his former title, adding only "the most illustrious" to it, as was also practiced earlier in diplomatic relations between Moscow and Prague. Apparently, Godunov was counting on the "Caesar" title, which he failed to agree on, which caused the tsar's sharp displeasure. Note that the imperial diplomats were initially received in Moscow with unprecedented pomp, which may have been due to these expectations. One way or another, the new crown was not officially shown to anyone. A month after von Logau's arrival, in August 1604, the Pretender's campaign against Moscow began, in the spring of the following year Godunov died, and False Dmitry was the first to take advantage of the acquisition of the "Tsar Boris" hated by him. So, the total number of "crowns" by the beginning of the Troubles was four. During the reign of False Dmitry, work was underway on the fifth, for the first time in Moscow court practice, destined for the future tsarina, Marina Mnishek, but this “crown” was never completed due to the death of “Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich”. The further fate of the royal "crowns" can be traced quite clearly. In the letter sent by the Zemsky Sobor to Krakow in 1613 with the messenger D. Aladyin, among other claims to King Sigismund III, the loss of "caps" is also listed: "And the royal treasury, a lot of collection from ancient years, royal utensils, royal caps and crowns .. . sent to you". Indeed, two "crowns", "belonging to Boris Godunov" (the alleged "Siberian hat") and "not quite finished" (intended for Marina Mniszek) were issued in 1611 in the Kremlin by "seven-numbered bolyars" as "forfeits" to the Poles in payment for military service; the gentry, who did not receive money, took the pledge to the Commonwealth, where, after an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer for the "crowns" as a whole, they were "broken" and sold in parts. The appearance of the "imperial" crown, with which False Dmitry was crowned king, can be quite accurately represented by one of his two well-known medals, which is supposed to be made in Moscow on the occasion of the celebrations of May 1606 - "on it Dmitry is for the first time Caesar with all the attributes of his power , that is, in a crown, with a scepter and an orb. The shape of the crown has nothing to do with the "cap of Monomakh", but it is very similar to the crown of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. By the way, for Rudolf II, almost simultaneously with the order of Godunov, the Prague court craftsmen made a new crown in 1602, now stored in Vienna. It is understandable why the Moscow supporters of Vladislav preferred to part with the new, not consecrated by tradition, "hats": the crowning of the prince to the kingdom was expected, and he was supposed to inherit the royal treasury, not to mention the fact that without the "cap of Monomakh" could not have taken place the "action" itself. At the same time, by 1611 the Astrakhan cap was no longer in the treasury - it is unlikely that the boyars would have risked parting with it on the eve of the transfer of power to the new sovereign. “As soon as he (False Dmitry) was killed ... when Mikhail Molchanov, who was his secret accomplice ... fled to Poland, and the scepter and crown disappeared, and there was no doubt that he took them with him,” Isaac Massa claimed. Molchanov found shelter in Sambir, with the mother-in-law of the Pretender (Yuri Mnishek and his daughter Marina were in exile in Yaroslavl at that time). The comrade-in-arms of the murdered man actively spread the rumor that "Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich" was alive. At the same time, at the disposal of him and another supporter of False Dmitry - Prince G.P. Shakhovsky - was the royal seal of the Pretender, also stolen from Moscow. Apparently, the confusion that reigned in the Kremlin on the day of the overthrow of the Pretender was great - Molchanov managed to escape on the horses of the royal stables, which in normal times were guarded no less carefully than the jewels of the Kremlin treasury. Apparently, the adventurer took the regalia to Krakow: in the royal treasury at Wawel in the 17th century there was a certain “Russian crown”, which was kept here until the end of the century and disappeared under King August II. Most likely, it was the "Astrakhan hat" of Ivan the Terrible. Thus, the total number of royal "hats" of the Kremlin treasury by the beginning of the Time of Troubles was four, two of which, including the "imperial crown" (aka "Siberian cap"), added to the list of losses of the royal treasury.