A tragic crush on the Khodynsky field occurred on May 18, 1896 according to the old style. A huge crowd gathered on the outskirts of Moscow on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. In a stampede more than 1300 people died.
On the eve of the tragedy
According to tradition, such an event as coronation was accompanied by mass festivities. Moreover, these events were no longer part of the official ceremonial. The coronation of Nikolai Alexandrovich itself took place on May 14, after which the authorities arranged holidays with gifts for ordinary people throughout the country. This is what caused a huge crowd. Rumors that edible gifts would be handed out at Khodynka quickly spread throughout Moscow. In 1896, this place was an urban outskirts. The field was wide, so it was decided to have a walk here. In addition, it was planned that the sovereign himself would attend the event - listen to the concert, which was supposed to give the orchestra.
Mass crush
The celebrations were to begin at 10 a.m. But by the early morning there were a total of about half a million people. The crush on the Khodynsky field began at a time when there was a rumor among the crowd that the gifts had already begun to be distributed in advance, but because of the large number of people they were not enough for everyone.
Treats were given out in specially built wooden pavilions. It was here that the distraught people ran. Distributors began to throw food directly into the crowd so that it would not come close to the stalls that it could easily defeat. However, this only intensified the chaos. Among the people, a fight began for gifts. The first crushed appeared. The panic quickly spread, which only exacerbated the situation.
Power reaction
The tragedy was reported to the emperor and his uncle Sergei Alexandrovich. In a few hours the field was cleared of all the signs of a recent drama. The crush on the Khodynka field did not change the autocrat’s plans. First, he attended the planned concert, and then went to the Kremlin, where a ball was held, which was attended by the entire Moscow aristocracy, as well as ambassadors. Some close associates advised Nikolai to refuse to attend dances in order to somehow show his grief for the dead and wounded. However, he did not change his plans. Perhaps this was done because the monarch did not want to offend the French ambassador, whom he received at the ball. All this was recorded by the emperor in a diary.
Sergei Witte (Minister of Finance), who was present at Khodynka that fateful day, left behind his memoirs, where he shared with the reader his opinion about what had happened. The official believed that the crush on the Khodynka field, the reasons for which was the poor organization of the event, had a terrible effect on the emperor, who looked "painful." Witte wrote that perhaps the uncle Sergey (the Grand Duke) influenced the tsar, advising him to continue everything as intended. The emperor himself, according to the minister, would certainly have held a church service at the site of the tragedy. But Nikolai was always indecisive and extremely dependent on his relatives.
Nevertheless, on the 19th and 20th of the day he and his wife and uncle visited Moscow hospitals, where the wounded were kept. The tsar’s mother, Maria Fedorovna, donated several thousand rubles from her savings, which went to medicine. The imperial couple did the same. A total of 90 thousand rubles were allocated. The families of the victims were assigned personal pensions.
The funeral
A huge number of corpses could not be identified. All these bodies were buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in a mass grave. Architect Illarion Ivanov-Shits designed a monument for her. It has survived to the present day; it can still be seen at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
The bodies that were recognized were given to relatives. The sovereign instructed to allocate money for their funeral.
Investigation
Responsibility for the incident was vested in the local police, which could not adequately ensure security in such a vast territory as the Khodynka field. The crush of people caused the resignation of Alexander Vlasovsky. He led law enforcement in the city. He in his defense at first declared that the organization of the holiday, the result of which was a crush on the Khodynka field on May 18, 1896, was the responsibility of the ministry of the yard.
The officials of this structure convinced investigators that they were not responsible for the police order at the event, although they did manage the distribution of gifts. Count Vorontsov-Dashkov, who was the minister of the court, led him back in the time of Alexander III and was an untouchable figure for the new emperor. He defended his subordinates from the attacks of the Chief Police Officer Vlasovsky. At the same time, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (formerly also the Moscow Governor) was the patron of the entire city police.
This conflict influenced the relationship of the top officials, split into two parties. One half supported the ministry of the court, the other the police. Many froze in indecision, not knowing which side the emperor himself would be on. In the end, everyone sought to please the king. Hardly anyone was interested in the victims in the Khodynskoye field of 1896.
Nicholas II entrusted the investigation to the Minister of Justice Nikolai Muravyov. He received this position under the patronage of Sergei Alexandrovich, so at court everyone decided that Count Vorontsov-Dashkov would be guilty. But then Maria Fedorovna (mother of the emperor) intervened. Largely due to its influence, the investigation was delegated to Konstantin Palen (also the former Minister of Justice).
He was known for saying that in places where great princes rule, there is always a mess. This position set many Romanovs against him. However, he was under the tutelage of the empress mother. His investigation convicted the chief police officer Vlasovsky.
Cultural reflection
A terrible crush on the Khodynsky field shocked the entire Russian public. Numerous officials, for example Sergey Witte, left memories of this terrible event. Leo Tolstoy, amazed by what happened, wrote a short story “Khodynka”, where he captured a picture of a people's panic during a crush. Maxim Gorky used the plot in his novel “The Life of Klim Samghin”.