Abstract

Alexander III was not the frst Russian Emperor whose death was accompanied by a special “regime of secrecy”. An overview and analysis of the information background of those events can contribute much to understanding how the supreme power and mechanisms of its “transit” functioned in that period. In the beginning of the fall of 1894, Emperor Alexander III’s health began to deteriorate sharply. In the end of September, the imperial family moved to their Crimean residence at Livadia, where Alexander died a month later. Troughout all this time, air was flled with rumors of the tsar’s disease, its possible course and outcome. Meanwhile, ofcial information about his illness was poorly disseminated. Bulletins on this matter started to be published only two weeks before his death; moreover, they were elusive and it was rather difcult to understand what was really going on with Alexander. Some readers looked in them for hidden hints, mostly farfetched, and reconstructed their own “clinical picture” on this basis. In addition, the bulletins appeared in the ofcial Pravitel’stvennyy Vestnik with a one-day delay. They were more quickly posted up in public places, and everybody had to come there to fnd out the latest news about the tsar’s health. But even there, the bulletins were not updated at a certain time interval, but as they arrived from Livadia. This irregularity, even in the imperial capital, exacerbated the uncertainty and anxiety of the society. Te clash of opposing opinions in the immediate environment of the tsar regarding how and how much information about his illness should be broadcast outside the Crimean residence provided fertile ground for all sorts of speculations and assumptions. Not only the general public, but also representatives of the highest bureaucracy, as well as those who, due to their position, usually possessed exclusive information, felt uncomfortable in the information vacuum. Tis “unhealthy” atmosphere contributed to the appearance of implausible rumors about the relations within the imperial family and scenarios of succession. All these versions were subsequently used to discredit the autocracy.