THE CUP OF SORROWS -
THE KHODYNKA CORONATION CUP [NICHOLAS II (1868-1918, Tsar of Russia from 1894, assassinated after the revolution)]

One of the enamelled mugs given out at the Coronation Celebrations on Khodynka field, enamelled in blue and red with gilt decoration, May

As part of the coronation celebrations a huge festival was arranged to take place on Khodynka Field, just outside Moscow. There were to be musical and theatrical performances, a 'Royal appearance' and a magnificent gift to each visitor. The packages contained half a pound of hard sausage, bread rolls, sweets, nuts, gingerbread and an enamel mug gilded and decorated with the tsar's monogram, all wrapped up in a coloured handkerchief. The theatrical performances included "spectacles never seen before" and a circus programme featuring Durov's performing animals. The combination of all these attractions brought the crowds in droves. The feeling of the visitors is summed up by a workman Vasily Krasnov, "To wait until morning so as to come for ten o'clock, the time appointed for the distribution of gifts and commemorative mugs, seemed plain stupid to me. With so many people there'd be nothing left ... Am I going to live to see another coronation ... They said the mugs were very pretty and would last forever ... a real marvel ...". The authorities had chosen the most unsuitable venue in Khodynka field, surrounded with deep ditches, gullies and trenches, a training ground for troops. The weather was good and the people of Moscow decided to spend the night in the field, but, as ill luck would have it there was no moon and the field was completely dark. The people continued to arrive and stumbled and fell into the gullies, the immense crowd became more tightly packed until by the morning half a million people were jammed into the field with no exit and more were arriving all the time. The police and cossacks sent to 'maintain order' were wholly inadequate to avert the disaster and thousands were trampled to death and many more dreadfully injured. The official statistics stated that nearly 3000 people suffered and half of those died. The true numbers of casualties - people crippled, killed or psychologically traumatised - is incalculable. As the people continued to arrive in the morning they met the strings of carts carrying away the dead and injured. Nicholas was then faced with the question of whether to continue with the happy celebrations or to cancel them and have a day of mourning instead. With lamentable bad judgement he decided that as such a great mass of people had travelled to Moscow from all over the world for the celebration that he could not disappoint them, and so he ordered the programme to continue as planned. This tragedy cast a cloud on the new Tsar's reign which was never lifted and was certainly one of the first major causes of their ultimate overthrow.

Item Date:  1896

Stock No:  23169      £775

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