Romanov Tercentenary

The Romanov Tercentenary was a country-wide celebration, marked in the Russian Empire from February 1913, in celebration of the ruling Romanov Dynasty. After a grand display of wealth and power in St. Petersburg, and a week of receptions at the Winter Palace, the Imperial family embarked on a tour following Mikhail I Romanov's route after he was elected king in 1613, a sort of pilgrimage to the towns of ancient Muscovy associated with the Romanov dynasty, in May.

It has been described as an 'extravaganza of pageantry' and a tremendous propaganda exercise; but among its principal goals were to 'inspire reverence and popular support for the principle of autocracy', and also a reinvention of the past, 'to recount the epic of the "popular Tsar", so as to invest the monarchy with a mythical historical legitimacy and an image of enduring permanence at this anxious time when its right to rule was being challenged by Russia's emerging democracy', a retreat 'to the past, hoping it would save them from the future'. Throughout the jubilee, the leitmotiv as it were was the cult of seventeenth century Muscovy, with its patrimonialism (with the Tsar owning Russia as a private fiefdom), personal rule with the Tsar an embodiment of God on earth, and the concept of a mystical union between the 'Father Tsar' and his Orthodox subjects, who revered and adored him as both father and God. In the celebrations, the symbols of the Tsar was in the centre, with all symbols of the state pushed far into the background. Foreign press also noted how the celebrations showed the 'true devotion' of the Russian peasant masses; this was however just an illusion, as the political unrest in Russia continued to grow. As Prime Minister Kokovtsov tried to warn the Tsar, he could not save his throne by adopting the 'halo of the Muscovite Tsar' in an effort to attempt to rule Russia as his own patrimony.

The tercentenary was kicked off in Imperial Capital St. Petersburg on a rainy February morning. The event had been on everyones' lips for several weeks leading up the actual date, and dignitaries from the whole of the Empire had gathered in the capital's grand hotels: princes from the Baltic and Poland, high-priests from Armenia and Georgia in the Caucasus, and mullahs and tribal chiefs from Central Asia alongside the Khan of Khiva and the Bukharan Emir. Additionally there was a large group of visitors from the provinces and workers, which left the usual well-dressed promenaders of the Winter Palace outnumbered. The city was bustling with these visitors, and Nevsky Prospect experienced the worst traffic jams in history, due to the converging of cars, carriages and trams. The streets themselves were decorated in the Imperial colors of blue, red and white, statues were dressed up with ribbons and garlands, and portraits of the line of Tsars going all the way back to the Romanov dynasty's founder Michael were hung up on the facades of banks and stores. Over tram lines were chains of light hung up, which spelled out 'God Save the Tsar' or portrayed the Romanov double-headed eagle with '1613–1913' spelled out underneath it. For many of the provincial visitors this was their first sight of electric light, and they stood in wonder of the 'columns, arcs and obelisks of light'.

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Wikipedia