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Faberge Eggs Treasures of the World
© Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
◦ Mementos of a Doomed Dynasty
◦ Nicholas and Romanov Russia
◦ Nicholas and Alexandra
◦ The tragic events that followed the coronation of Nicholas II
◦ Bloody Sunday
◦ Signs of revolution
◦ The inventive young Faberge
◦ Faberge's growing fame
◦ The Faberge Imperial Easter eggs featured in the Series
◦ The House of Faberge
◦ The workshops and workmasters
◦ Faberge the man
◦ Outrageous opulence
◦ Fragile remembrances
◦ The fate of the eggs ◦
The tragic events that followed the coronation of Nicholas II
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It was the custom at the coronation of
a Russian Czar for the monarch to provide a feast for his subjects,
offering them free food and drink along with the granting of amnesties
and distribution of gifts with the Imperial monogram. The day after
Nicholas took the throne in 1904, half-a-million people gathered at
Khodynka Meadow for the traditional event. When a rumor spread that
provisions were limited, the crowds surged toward the banquet tables.
Thousands were killed and maimed in the crush of panic. The bodies were
hastily covered with tarps and piled onto trucks to be taken to the
cemeteries and morgues, traveling through the streets of Moscow on the
same roads as the gilded carriages carrying the Czar's guests to the
coronation ball.
Lacking political instinct, Nicholas was unsure how to handle the crisis.
That night, on the advise of his uncles to maintain protocol, the Czar
ordered the continuation of coronation festivities, offering no expression
of grief to his people as they buried their dead. Though in court circles
the disaster was rarely mentioned, it was regarded as a bad omen for
the new reign. Nine years later, another crowd would gather at the Czar's
palace, not to celebrate but to voice its discontent.
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