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Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)

Empress consort of Russia (1872–1918)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ152094 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alexandra Feodorovna (Russian: Александра Фёдоровна, romanized: Aleksandra Fyodorovna; born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine; 6 June 1872 – 17 July 1918) was the last empress of Russia as the consort of Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917.

Alexandra first met Nicholas in 1884, when she attended the wedding of her sister Elisabeth to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in Saint Petersburg. They continued their courtship over the following decade. In April 1894, Nicholas travelled to Coburg to attend the wedding of Alexandra’s brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, to Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During the visit, he proposed to Alix. She initially declined because marriage to the Russian heir required her to convert from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, but she later accepted. They married on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894.

Alexandra and Nicholas had five children: Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei. Alexei had hemophilia, and his illness influenced Alexandra’s relationships with religious advisers and healers.

Alexandra’s association with Grigori Rasputin developed through the wider imperial and aristocratic circle.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)” is empress consort of Russia (1872–1918). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alexandra, Feodorovna and Alix, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1872, 1918, 1894, 1917—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1872-06-06. For this dossier, Alexandra, Feodorovna and Alix is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “empress consort of Russia (1872–1918)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q152094. VIAF identifies the subject as 32018530. The Library of Congress control number is n79065458. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1918, 1894 and 1917.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) primary sources, Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) archive and Alexandra research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.