Tsar Alexander III at Borki train disaster

[Barbara]

I always remember reading about the incredible fact that Tsar Alexander III, who was 6'6" tall and weighed lots, lifted the ROOF of the train carriage in which the Royal Family was traveling with his own strength. The Tsar kept it from collapsing while the rest of the family was able to escape out the door.

So what did happen at Borki ?

And why haven't we hear about the many signs of warm support shown by the Russian people for their Tsar's near-miraculous survival ?

"The Borki train disaster occurred on 29 October [O.S. 17 October] 1888 near Borki station in Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Birky, Ukraine), 295 kilometres (183 mi) south of Kursk, when the imperial train carrying Emperor Alexander III of Russia and his family from Crimea to Saint Petersburg derailed at high speed.

According to the official version of events, Alexander held the collapsed roof of the royal car on his shoulders while his family escaped the crash site uninjured.


Tsar Alexander III with Tsaritsa Maria Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei to her left, Grand Duke Paul to her right, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, end right
Front row : future Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duke George

The story of the miraculous escape became part of contemporary lore[<!] and government propaganda.

The investigation into the crash, led by Anatoly Koni, resulted in the appointment of railway manager and the future Russian prime minister, Sergei Witte, as the director of State Railways.

The Foros Church is one of many churches built to glorify God for the emperor's survival.

The imperial family was en route from Crimea to Saint Petersburg.

Contrary to railway rules of the period that limited commercial passenger trains to 42 axles, the imperial train of fifteen carriages had 64 axles. Its weight was within the limits set for freight trains, but the train actually traveled at express speeds. It was hauled by two steam engines, a combination that caused dangerous vibrations that, according to Witte, directly caused the derailment. Technical flaws of the royal train were known in advance, yet it had operated for nearly a decade without incidents.

According to official reports, corroborated by Witte's memoirs, at the moment of the crash the royal family was in the dining car. Its roof collapsed in the crash, and Alexander reportedly held the remains of the roof on his shoulders as the children fled outdoors.

None of the royal family initially appeared to be hurt, but the onset of Alexander's kidney failure was later linked to the blunt trauma suffered in Borki.

Publicity

The survival of the Romanovs was celebrated. When Alexander returned to Saint Petersburg and went to the Kazan Cathedral, university students wanted to unharness his carriage and pull it by hand.

In the view of the established religion, the salvation of the imperial family was hailed as divine intervention by the Sovereign. Pamphlets by clergymen linked the miraculous escape to the miracles of 17th-century icons at the end of the great plague of 1654–1655; the laity believed that prayers in front of these icons enabled the survival of the emperor. A special icon of the God's Grace on the 17th of October, made for the occasion, widely circulated in photographic copies. Moscow, the old shrine of Orthodoxy, was perceived as the source of the miracle; a contemporary pamphlet declared that the "power that Moscow had professed and that had exalted her revoked these laws [of Nature]".

Investigation



The Borki Cathedral was built to commemorate the event. Its less ornate replicas include Church of the Epiphany (Saint Petersburg).

Immediately after the crash, the Chief Inspector of Railways, Baron Sherval, who had been traveling on the royal train and had broken his leg in the crash, summoned railway manager Witte and director of the Kharkov Technical Institute, Victor Kirpichev, to lead the investigation on site. Anatoly Koni, an influential public lawyer, was dispatched from Saint Petersburg later.

In the preceding years, Witte had been regularly involved in managing imperial train journeys across his railroad and was well known to the emperor.

Two months before the crash, Alexander, upset about Witte's insistence on reducing train speed limits, had publicly chastised him and his railway, referring to its owners' ethnicity: "Nowhere else has my speed been reduced; your railroad is an impossible one because it is a Jewish road".

According to Witte, he [Witte] had warned the government earlier of the deficiencies in train setup, notably using paired steam engines and faulty saloon cars.

The three investigators disagreed on the direct cause of the crash.

Witte insisted that it was caused by speeding, exonerating railroad management; Kirpichev blamed rotten wooden ties, whilst Koni shifted the blame onto the railroad, exonerating state officials.

Witte, in particular, maneuvered between blaming state officials and exonerating Minister of Communications Konstantin Posyet.

In the end, Alexander preferred to close the case quietly, allowed Sherval and Posyet to retire, and appointed Witte as the director of Imperial Railways. Despite Witte's efforts, railroad management did not escape public attention.

The contractor who built the Kursk-Kharkov line, Samuel Polyakov, who died two months before the crash, was posthumously linked to inferior construction quality of the railroad.

[This contractor was blamed for] substandard gravel ballast pads that failed to cushion track vibrations as they were supposed to."

• wikipedia

[Barbara]

What is the Foros Church of the Resurrection, which was a primary one built after the tragic crash ?



The Church of Christ's Resurrection (Russian: Воскресенская церковь, romanized: Voskryesyenskaya tserkov') is a popular tourist attraction close to the southernmost tip of the Crimea, known primarily for its scenic location, overlooking the Black Sea littoral from a 400-metre cliff near Baidarsky Pass.

History

The church overlooking the village of Foros was commissioned by a local landowner, Alexander Kuznetsov, to commemorate Alexander III's survival in the Borki train disaster (1888).

Foros at this time belonged to the Moscow tea magnate Kuznetsov, and he financed the construction of a church which only took 2 years to build. Through this magnanimous gesture, Kuznetsov was then granted the monopoly for trading tea in this region.


Nikolai Chagin, a celebrated architect from Vilnius, designed the church in a bizarre blend of Rastrelliesque Baroque, Russian Revival, and Byzantine Revival.


Twilight view of the front of the Foros Church

The church was consecrated on 4 October 1892 in the name of the Resurrection of Christ in a ceremony attended by Konstantin Pobedonostsev [the Ober-Procurator of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1880 to 1905]

Foros at this time belonged to the Moscow tea magnate Kuznetsov, and he financed the construction of a church which only took 2 years to build. Through this magnanimous gesture, Kuznetsov was then granted the monopoly for trading tea in this region.

The Foros church was designed by the Russian architect Nikolai Chagin in a bizarre mix of Rastrelliesque Baroque, Russian Revival, and Byzantine Revival styles, and was consecrated on the 4th October 1892. The walls and iconostases were designed by the famous painter Korzukhin, and the Italian artist Antonio Salviatti from Vincenza designed the mosaic work which was laid upon a golden background. Later, the destroyed paintings and icons were restored by the masters of St. Petersburg art schools.


Magnificent interior of the Church of Christ’s Resurrection in Foros with the view from the middle of the church on the carved oak iconostasis

The last Tsar, Nicholas II of Russia, and his wife prayed at the church on the day of the 10th anniversary of the Borki incident.

The original church stood until almost 1919, however, after this, the building had an unfortunate history:

In 1924 following the Russian Revolution, the Church was closed, the religious relics were destroyed, and the murals painted over; the priest was exiled to Siberia.

In 1937 it became the property of the Foros sanatorium, when a restaurant-snack bar was opened there.

The building was used as a restaurant until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War/Second World War (1941-1945) during which time a partisan detachment was hiding there, and for a few years during the German occupation it was used by Nazi troops as a stable.

In the 1950s a restaurant was again opened, and it operated until an incident occurred whereby Khrushchev invited an Iranian Shah to a gala dinner, which was refused on the grounds that having a feast in a church was blasphemous.

Following this incident, the church was ordered to be destroyed, but fortunately, this order was never executed.

In the 1980s, when construction on Gorbachev’s summer house on the coast below commenced, the church was ordered to be destroyed again, however on this occasion Raisa Gorbacheva (wife of Mikhail Gorbachev) came to Crimea and ordered the restoration of the Foros Church.

The building was returned to the Orthodox Church in the 1990s following the crash of the USSR. During this time it has been through four restoration campaigns under the auspices of Leonid Kuchma, former President of the Ukraine. Later, new gilded domes and crosses were installed. The pride of the church is the huge bell donated by the Black Sea Fleet that was previously installed in the lighthouse on Cape Sarych. The artist V.I. Potravnov led a group of experts who restored the paintings inside the church.

By 1997 (the 105th anniversary), the Church of the Resurrection of Christ was completely restored and transformed, however in August of that year, a tragic event occurred within the walls of the temple when intruders broke into the church and murdered its father-superior, Peter. Their goal was to steal the money that had been collected to buy the iconostasis. The iconostasis, carved in stained oak was still purchased, and now adorns the church.

The temple itself is one of the most famous sights on the Crimean peninsula, and the Church is also a popular wedding location.
Foros Church Over the Clouds


View from Baidarsky Pass on the Church of Christ’s Resurrection raising on the Red Cliff

Why is it worth coming here today?

Standing majestically on the high Red Cliff the church is visible to everyone passing along the picturesque serpentine mountain road in Yalta, and it is difficult to imagine that 150 years ago that there were no more than 5 small houses in the village of Foros. Today it is a meeting place for Orthodox pilgrims and people interested in history. After all, every stone here has a story to tell!

Despite its numerous reconstructions, the Foros Church in Crimea has retained its original appearance. It is a Byzantine-style cross-domed temple with nine domes, and the walls are decorated with restored paintings, wooden iconostases and beautiful mosaics.

The most famous temple on the southern Crimean coast, is not turned east, as is customary for Christian churches, but faces towards the sea. There are magnificent views of the Church from the observation platform at Byadarsky Pass and from several other picturesque stops along the way from where one can take stunning photo

The Foros Church is a popular wedding location. In July 2003 Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabodan wed politician Viktor Medvedchuk and TV host Oksana Marchenko in the Foros church. Anastasia Zavorotnyuk and Peter Tchernyshev also chose to be married here.[Whoever these are !]

Sources : https://guidetocrimea.ru/church-of-the- ... -in-foros/
and wikipedia

[Barbara]

I searched for historical information about that meeting of not "an Iranian shah" but the Iranian Shah of the time, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with Nikita Khrushchev
There was almost nothing available on the internet.

Then I found this picture of the monarch and the Communist Party Chairman shaking hands



Information came up once but i could not get it to return to get the exact years. It stated that the Shah and Khrushchev met 3 times.

1 was in the 50s, which would fit this scenario at the Foros Church of the Resurrection. The other two were early 60s, I think 1962, so they don't qualify anyway as having been the occasion for that meeting in Crimea.

I think the information provided was that it was in 1956 that the Shah went to the Soviet Union.

While he was a vehement anti-Communist, still the Soviets were the northern neighbor [ read : enemy ] and talking is usually better than cold-shouldering behavior.

Don't forget that the Soviets had invaded Iranian Azerbaijan TWICE - in 1920 soon after the Bolsheviks took power, and again in 1941-46, when they co-occupied NEUTRAL Iran along with the British during World War II.

The Soviets delayed their withdrawal after the British had left in early 1946. The Kremlin used the tired excuse of protecting "national security" as its reason to stay on.

Perhaps the Soviet presence could have become permanent had Iran not submitted a request to the UN for intervention. It was the very 1st petition submitted by any country to the new United Nations.
Though the UN did little to help - as has been the case ever since - get the Soviets out.

I think American pressure was key in obtaining the withdrawal of Soviet forces in May 1946.

It was not a friendly situation : the Soviets arrived across the border to occupy both the Azerbaijan and Khorasan provinces of Iran.

The Soviet Air Force proceeded to bomb the airport at the provincial capital of Mashhad, destroying many Iranian fighter planes and military barracks.

Thus this episode would have been recent memory for the young Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Talking with the Russian Bear would have been a wise option rather than risking a reoccupation.

I wanted to recap this history, as it is significant that despite his intimidating host, the Shah flatly refused the invitation to lunch in an Orthodox Church, even one not used for services.

That's an example of good moral character that all can appreciate.