Alexandra Feodorovna Channeled by Karl Mollison 04June2019
https://www.biography.com/political-figure/alexandra-feodorovna
Alexandra Feodorovna was born Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice on June 6, 1872, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, in the German Empire. The sixth child of Grand Duke Louis IV and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, she was called Alix by her family. Her mother died when she was six and she spent most of her holidays with her British cousins. She was educated by her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and later studied philosophy at Heidelberg University.
Alix met Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov, heir to the Russian throne, when she was twelve. Over the years, the acquaintance blossomed into a romance. At first, the prospect of marriage didn’t seem very promising.
Nicholas’s father, Alexander III, was anti-German and Alix’s family expressed open disdain for the Russian people. Further, it was suspected she carried the hereditary disease of hemophilia, considered fatal at the time. But they were deeply in love and on November 26, 1894, the couple wed. Alix took the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she was accepted into the Russian Orthodox Church.
By 1901, Alexandra’s and Nicholas’s first four children were all girls.
Finally, in 1904, she gave birth to a son they named Alexei. Alexandra met Grigori Rasputin, the notorious mystic and faith healer in 1908. He quickly gained her confidence by seemingly “curing” the boy of hemophilia through what was believed to be a form of hypnosis. To Alexandra, Rasputin was her son’s savior, but to the Russian public he was a debauched charlatan, bringing shame to the crown and royal family.
Harbingers of calamity at home and abroad were also emerging. Alexandra was not warmly received by the Russian people nor the royal court, though she continued to involve herself in affairs of state. She and Nicholas were incapable of dealing with the turmoil brewing in and out of Russia.
The poor performance by the Russian military on the battle field led to unfounded rumors that Alexandra was a German collaborator, further deepening her unpopularity with the Russian people. On December 16, 1916, Rasputin was assassinated by conspirators from the royal court. With her husband away at the front and her chief advisor murdered, Alexandra’s behavior became even more erratic.
By February 1917, poor management of the government led to food shortages and famine gripped the cities. Industrial workers went on strike and people began rioting in the streets of St. Petersburg. Nicholas feared all was lost and abdicated the throne. By the spring of 1917, Russia was engaged in a full civil war, with anti-tsar Bolshevik forces led by Vladimir Lenin.
Alexandra and her children were eventually reunited with her husband and all were placed under house arrest in the Bolshevik controlled city of Yekaterinburg, at the Ipatiev House in April 1918.
The family endured a nightmare of uncertainty and fear, never knowing if they would remain there, be separated or killed.
During the night of July 16-17, 1918, Alexandra and her family were escorted to the basement of Ipatiev House, where they were executed by Bolsheviks, bringing an end to more than three centuries of the Romanov rule.
