The Russian emperor is often attributed to the phrase that in politics the country can rely only on its own armed forces. We checked whether Alexander III said such a thing.
In November 2017, in Crimea, solemnly opened Monument to Emperor Alexander III. His pedestal is decorated with the inscription "Russia has only two allies - its army and fleet." President Vladimir Putin present at the ceremony He mentioned This quote is two years earlier, during the traditional “direct line”. In connection with Alexander III, this phrase used, in particular, politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky in interview Latvian Sputnik, director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky in interview "Interlocutor" and authors material On the website of "Gazeta.ru".
The earliest mention that Alexander III said the verified phrase can be found in the memoirs of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, the son -in -law of the emperor. He published his memoirs in English in 1932, it was translated into Russian a year later. Note that Alexander III died in 1894, that is, almost forty years before the publication of the book. Grand Duke Remembering: “In the whole world we have only two faithful ally - our army and navy. All the rest at the first opportunity themselves will take up arms against us. ”
Bringing this quote for his father -in -law, Alexander Mikhailovich adds that the emperor "loved to speak to his ministers." Nevertheless, we could not find the corresponding memories of at least one minister of that time that would mention the emperor’s phrase about two allies. Some They saythat in fact, one of them, the military minister Peter Vannovsky, was the author of the expression, but it was not possible to find appropriate evidence either.
Historian and Culturologist Konstantin Dushenko He thinksthat "the source of the saying about" two allies "should be sought in Germany." In particular, in 1914 the words of the German Kaiser Wilhelm “The main support of the state is the army and the fleet” were widely circulated in the domestic press. Moreover, back in the middle of the 18th century, the Prussian king Frederick II the Great expressed a similar thought - after the victory in the battle of Gogenfridberg, he said: “Our best allies are our own troops.”
Thus, the source of the expression about two allies are the memoirs of a relative of Alexander III, published several decades after his death. We were not able to find other evidence in the memoirs of members of the imperial family, officials and court or newspaper publications of that time.
This is not for sure
- Alexander Mikhailovich. Book of memories
- K. Dushenko. Red and white: from the history of the political language
- Is it true that in Denmark they discovered the voice of Emperor Alexander III?
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