Do not open your thoughts to everyone": on philosophical education of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna

The author sets out to assess the quality of the education of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and thereby to reveal what hid behind the spiritual search for this woman: research interest formed by the academic education in the field of philosophy, or passion that became a manifestation of the inner needs of the individual and her traumatic experience. The study of this problem is also necessary in connection with the highest status of Alexandra Feodorovna, her influence on domestic and foreign policy in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century through her family and her spouse, Emperor Nicholas II. In societies - academic, secular or ecclesiastical, - the image of the last Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna still appears ambiguous and contradictory. Her passion for "mysticism" still remains a problematic field. Some contemporaries explained the reason for her interest in sacral knowledge by the fact that Alexandra Feodorovna had a philosophical education (Bachelor's degree). The article uses historical reconstruction and biographical methods. The material of the research was diaries and notebooks, written by the Empress, as genuine sources of her thoughts, feelings, intentions, experiences. In them she wrote out quotations from the Holy Scripture, the teachings of the Holy Fathers, mystical theology, philosophy, treatises on alchemy, tantra and others. The study of Alexandra Feodorovna's correspondence before her marriage allowed to reconstruct the schedule of her movements and stays in Hessen, in Great Britain, and the events described in them to reveal the lack of obtaining an academic education in her daily life, which denies the testimonies of contemporaries (F.F. Yusupov) about the Empress having a Bachelor's degree in philosophy. Another aspect to consider was the behavior of the Empress as a woman, mother, namely, her use of progressive methods in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, characteristic of medicine in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. At the same time, Alexandra Feodorovna turned to methods of traditional medicine in the treatment of her son, when doctors recognized his illness as fatal. Analysis of these events made it possible to conclude that the Empress's family life was the sphere of application of her religious and philosophical ideas and practices. Accordingly, her fascination with overconfessional syncretic religious philosophy (theosophy) had a key influence on the decision-making and actions of the Empress. The use of the services of such persons as F.A. Nizier, G.E. Rasputin and others caused an unambiguously negative assessment on the part of close relatives of Alexandra Feodorovna and her subordinates. In sources of personal origin, such as diaries and memoirs, there are accusations of the Empress that she has ruined herself and Russia with her "mysticism". It is noteworthy that these accusations do not concern Emperor Nicholas II, who shared the views of the spouse, and no attention is paid to superstitions, fortune-telling and visits to G.E. Rasputin of informants themselves. The revolutionary events in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, paradoxically, are still explained by the ambiguous worldview of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Her fascination with religious philosophy could be explained by her special education, but sources that belonged to the pen of the Empress herself do not confirm this. At the same time, her desire to follow the scientific progress in the field of medical knowledge explains her only real surgical nurse education.

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