The last months of Alexander I’s life were marked by deteriorating health, which attempts to improve proved unsuccessful. The tsar died suddenly at the end of 1825. The official communiqué stated that Alexander died of typhus, but the truth was completely different. What did this representative of the Romanov dynasty actually die of?
An Ice-Cold Bath Doesn’t Pay Off
In January 1824, Alexander took part in a long church ceremony during which he entered ice-cold water, which quickly affected his already poor health. He began to suffer from high fever that returned with doubled force and was difficult to bring down.
The patient, visited by the social elite of the time, was constantly attended by his wife Elizabeth, who was treated at court as a second-class person. However, the tsarina was a strong enough woman to endure all the insults and unpleasant situations.
When the emperor had recovered, he was struck by a powerful blow in the form of the death of his sixteen-year-old daughter Sophia, whom he had fathered with his Polish-born mistress Maria Naryshkina, née Czetwertyńska. Although the tsar was no longer connected to his former lover, he had become very attached to Sophia.
The neglected Elizabeth, who still hoped to return to the arms of her husband who had previously cheated on her extensively, benefited from this tragedy. Her dream, hidden deep in her heart, came true, because the severely ill tsar no longer had the strength for amorous conquests, which directly paved her way to the imperial bedroom.
Like Husband and Wife
The spouses grew even closer when Elizabeth’s health seriously declined, which happened at the end of 1824. Doctors diagnosed her with tuberculosis. From then on, husband and wife spent long hours together, conducting conversations on various topics, concerning both more serious matters (state affairs) and decidedly less serious ones (purely private issues).
From available sources we learn that the tsar moved into the same room as Elizabeth, whom he served day and night. Their affection, neglected for long years due to the man’s love affairs, revived anew. As it would later turn out, it remained so until the end of Alexander’s life.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s health, instead of improving, decidedly worsened. The doctors caring for her recommended that she spend the coming autumn and winter in a warm climate, preferably in Naples or Malta.
However, the tsarina did not heed this advice and decided to go to Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. Presumably, she did not want to expose herself to gossip and sarcasm from the inhabitants of European cities, who had already formed an opinion about the imperial couple.
Beautiful Crimea Welcomes
Alexander decided to go to Taganrog before his wife to prepare a house for her where she could feel like she was in St. Petersburg. He left the capital early in the morning on September 1, 1824, accompanied by his closest associates. They formed a procession consisting of six kibitkas (wooden-axled wagons without springs).
During the journey, larger cities were deliberately avoided to prevent official meetings between the population and the tsar. In this way, they wanted to save time and cover a distance of about two thousand kilometers in twelve days.
Toward the end of the journey, a comet was spotted in the sky, which common folk, observing this phenomenon with unabated interest, interpreted as a bad omen for Alexander. The emperor himself had no such feelings, while his entourage openly believed that the comet heralded glory for the empire and the ruler.
They arrived in Taganrog somewhat later than originally planned, but this did not prevent Alexander from fulfilling the promise he had previously made to his wife, who appeared in Crimea three weeks later than her husband. By that time, the emperor had made them a nest in one of the single-story houses.
Disease Does Not Choose
After Elizabeth’s arrival in Taganrog, the spouses spent a great deal of time together, taking long walks and conversations. Alexander promised that he would build a magnificent palace and a large garden in Taganrog, where they would spend the rest of their days together. The beautiful views of Crimea literally seduced him, although he had been there many times before. At the request of local authorities, the tsar toured the peninsula, visiting among other places Bakhchisarai, Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Mariupol, and Balaklava.
At the end of the journey, however, the tsar’s health seriously declined. The doctors caring for him diagnosed symptoms of malaria. Additionally, a wound on his leg, resulting from some fall, would not heal.
Perhaps the emperor would have come out of all this unscathed if he had complied with the recommendations of the physicians advising him to drink appropriate fluids. However, the Romanov stubbornly refused to take any medications for fear of poisoning. He also tore off the leeches that had been applied behind his ears.
To make matters worse, the ruler’s mental state deteriorated as he was informed of further conspiracies in the army, preparing to carry out a palace coup. This information caused Alexander to suffer a nervous breakdown. He experienced uncontrolled fits of rage that he had never had before.
Death for Stubbornness
By the end of his illness, Alexander I did not leave his bed, at which the desperate Elizabeth constantly kept vigil. His wife, seeing that her husband would soon leave this earthly realm, persuaded him to receive the last sacraments. They were administered by a local priest, who managed to convince the dying man to take medications.
Unfortunately, it was already too late. Alexander died on November 19 at ten forty-seven, after an all-night agony. Elizabeth closed the deceased’s eyes and placed on his face a handkerchief she had previously used to wipe away her tears. Finally, together with her accompanying retinue, she fell to her knees to devote herself to fervent prayer for the deceased.
Alexander I’s death shocked many citizens of Russia and at the same time gave rise to many various, absurd rumors. One of them claimed that the tsar had been poisoned and his wife killed. To give the lie to these slanders, Elizabeth wrote in letters that nothing had happened to her and that she would soon return to St. Petersburg with her husband’s body.
„Crimean Fever” or Syphilis?
Meanwhile, after Alexander’s death, a group of nine physicians began an autopsy and the process of embalming the body. It was determined that the tsar died of „Crimean fever” – which was announced in a special document signed by all the doctors. Historians have established that the signature of one of them, a certain Dmitry Tarasov, was forged.
It is difficult to determine why the forgery was committed. In professional literature on the subject, the opinion was expressed that Tarasov, as chief court surgeon, knew the true cause of Alexander’s death and did not want to sign a false communiqué, because the tsar most likely died of syphilis or another sexually transmitted disease.
This text is a fragment of Dr. Mariusz Samp’s latest book „Checkmate. How the Rulers of Russia Died,” published by Hi:story publishing house (Krakow 2024). The book, which tells of the deaths of Putin’s predecessors, is available for sale in many online bookstores.
A Double in the Grave?
The above-mentioned protocol describing the tsar’s illness was drawn up in a professional manner, using complicated Latin terminology, but certain inaccuracies were committed. We do not know whether this was done out of distraction or – as suggested later – deliberately, with the intention of misleading public opinion. The document noted, for example, that Alexander had suffered acute inflammation of the right leg, when in reality it was the left leg.
The doctors also committed serious negligence in embalming the corpse. The entrails were filled with grass soaked in perfumes, the face was powdered and wrapped in white cloth. The mentioned activities were carried out without knowledge of basic embalming techniques and extremely carelessly, which, combined with the rapid decomposition of the corpse, resulted in Alexander I bearing no resemblance to the person immortalized in numerous portraits from the era.
This became fodder for numerous conspiracy theories. One of them claimed that Alexander had been killed in an assassination and the body of his double was placed in the grave. However, available source information seems to contradict such speculation, as no such events occurred in Taganrog; this did not prevent people of that time from spreading stories made up out of thin air.
Final Farewell
Alexander’s remains were transported to St. Petersburg in a closed coffin. The journey took a long time, because along the way crowds of people wanted to say goodbye to the deceased ruler – they pressed against the catafalque with incredible violence and wanted to get as close to it as possible.
To calm the situation, security officials responsible for transporting the body spread the word that the coffin being transported was empty. This fact was later used to spread information about Alexander faking his own death. This was yet another unverified rumor and, as it would later turn out, not the last in this matter.
The coffin with the emperor’s body arrived in St. Petersburg on March 23, 1826. That same day, shortly before midnight, the coffin was opened. The dowager empress, Maria Feodorovna, who had come for the funeral, after kissing her son on the forehead, announced to all the mourners gathered in Tsarskoye Selo that the brought remains belonged to her son.
A few days later, a solemn funeral took place, attended by countless crowds of people plunged in sadness. The emperor’s mortal remains were laid to rest in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Bibliography:
- Andruszkiewicz A., Carowie i cesarze Rosji, Warsaw 2001.
- Andruszkiewicz A., Aleksander I. Wielki gracz, car Rosji, król Polski, Krakow 2015.
- Samp M., Szach-mat. Jak umierali władcy Polski, Krakow 2024.
- Troyat H., Aleksander I. Pogromca Napoleona, Warsaw 2007.
Autor
Rory Thornfield
Rory's grandfather left behind a wartime diary filled with accounts of a minor Burma skirmish that history books never mentioned. Reading it, Rory realized: behind every famous battle are dozens of forgotten struggles, each with its own human drama.
His preferred topics: The overlooked corners of military history – secondary campaigns, shadow battalions, local conflicts that never made headlines. From medieval sieges to twentieth-century expeditions, he focuses on the soldiers, not the generals. The people who faced impossible choices and carried those experiences forever.
Rory strips away the romanticism without losing respect for those who served. He combines tactical analysis with personal stories, examining human endurance and moral complexity rather than celebrating warfare. His writing is balanced, thoughtful, and deeply researched.
Outside work, Rory visits forgotten battlefields (now quiet farmland), photographs war memorials nobody tends anymore, and interviews veterans' families.