Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / The Romanovs' Tsarevich Alexei: A Hemophiliac Heir and Royal Suffering
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked about Rasputin, about the revolution, about the end of the Romanovs. But I think there's a thread that runs through all of it — something that really explains the isolation of the imperial family in those final years. I'm talking about Tsarevich Alexei, and his hemophilia. Luna: The son. The heir. I remember you mentioned his illness before, but we never really dug into it. Lucas: Right. And it's crucial. Alexei Nikolaevich was born on 12 August 1904, at Peterhof. He was a huge relief — after four daughters, Nicholas II finally had a male heir. The whole empire celebrated. But within weeks, they noticed something was wrong. When his umbilical cord stump fell off, it bled for days. Luna: That must have been terrifying for Alexandra. Lucas: It was. And she knew why. She carried the gene for hemophilia, passed down from her grandmother, Queen Victoria. Her brother Leopold had died from it. Her sisters Beatrice and Victoria passed it on to other royal houses. But in Russia, it was a state secret. The court doctors — led by Dr. Eugene Botkin and the surgeon Sergey Fedorov — diagnosed it quickly, but the family tried to keep it hidden. Luna: How do you hide a bleeding disease from an entire court? Lucas: You don't, really. The servants knew. The extended family knew. But officially, the tsarevich was just 'delicate' or had a 'weak constitution.' His official title was 'Tsesarevich' — spelled with an 's' — and he was adored. But his life was a cycle of crises. A bump on a table leg could cause internal bleeding that swelled his leg for weeks. A fall from a pony in 1912 nearly killed him. Lucas: That was the crisis at Spala, in Poland, in October 1912. Alexei developed a massive hematoma in his abdomen and thigh. He was in agony. The court bulletins were evasive — they said he had a 'bruise' — but actually the doctors were preparing for the worst. They even administered last rites. Luna: That's when Rasputin stepped in, isn't it? Lucas: Exactly. Alexandra sent a desperate telegram to Rasputin, who was back in Pokrovskoye. He replied: 'God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not despair. Your son will live.' And the bleeding stopped. Now, we don't know exactly why — maybe the prayer calmed Alexei, maybe it was a spontaneous remission — but for Alexandra, it was a miracle. From that point, she was convinced Rasputin was sent by God to save her son. Luna: So the fate of the dynasty really hinged on one boy's blood. Lucas: In a way, yes. Alexandra's obsession with Rasputin, her isolation from the court, her distrust of anyone who questioned him — all of it came from her desperation to keep Alexei alive. Nicholas, too. He loved his son deeply. He called him 'my sunshine.' But he was also weighed down by the burden of having a sickly heir. Lucas: And Alexei himself was no wilting flower. By all accounts, he was energetic, mischievous, and very aware of his condition. He had a sailor named Andrei Derevenko assigned to carry him everywhere to prevent falls. But he chafed at that. He wanted to be normal. There's a famous story from 1916: he was playing with the son of a courtier and they got into a snowball fight. Alexei slipped and hit his knee. Two days later, he was in bed with a fever. Luna: It must have been a constant state of alarm for his parents. Lucas: Absolutely. And it shaped their whole approach to rule. They withdrew from St. Petersburg society, preferring to stay at Tsarskoe Selo with Alexei. Nicholas spent more time with his family than with his ministers. The more Rasputin 'helped,' the more Alexandra trusted him, and the more she pushed Nicholas to back Rasputin's proteges. That fueled political chaos. Lucas: There's a medical angle too. At the time, there was no treatment. No factor VIII concentrates. The best they could do was apply cold compresses, give morphine for pain, and pray. Dr. Botkin, who was a kind and loyal physician, wrote in his diary about the helplessness he felt. He was with the family right to the end in Yekaterinburg. Luna: I want to hear more about his final days, but first — you know, this show doesn't run on ads. Lucas: It doesn't. We keep it that way on purpose. If you value hearing these stories without interruptions, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep this ad-free and focused on the history. Luna: Yeah, it makes a difference. And we appreciate every listener who chips in. Lucas: So, back to Alexei. When the family was arrested after the February Revolution in 1917, Alexei was already weak. He had suffered a bad hemorrhage in his groin area during the unrest. By the time they reached Tobolsk in August 1917, he was in constant pain. He couldn't walk properly. Luna: And then they were moved to Yekaterinburg. Lucas: To the Ipatiev House. By then, Alexei was bedridden much of the time. He was thirteen. The guards sometimes mocked him. He was too sick to even descend the stairs to the courtyard. So on the night of 17 July 1918, when Yakov Yurovsky and the executioners came, they had to carry Alexei in a chair. He was shot multiple times, but because of the hemophilia, he had lost so much blood that the bullets didn't cause immediate death. Yurovsky later said he had to finish him with a pistol shot to the head. Luna: That's horrifying. But it's also the end of a line that was already broken by disease. Lucas: It is. Alexei's hemophilia didn't just affect him — it warped the entire political landscape of late imperial Russia. Without his illness, Rasputin might never have gained such influence. Alexandra might not have been so isolated. The monarchy might have had a better chance of surviving the crisis of 1917. Instead, the heir's blood became the dynasty's curse. Luna: And there's a postscript, isn't there? The claims of survival. Lucas: Oh yes. For decades, people claimed to be Alexei — most famously a man named Alexei Poutziato, but also others. DNA testing in the 1990s on the remains from the pit at Ganina Yama proved conclusively that the entire family died together. But the mystique around the lost tsarevich lingers. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized him as a passion-bearer. Saint Alexei. Luna: A saint, and a boy who just wanted to run and play. Lucas: Exactly. That's the tragedy. He was never allowed to be a normal child. His illness defined his life, and his death, and in many ways, the fall of the house of Romanov.