Russian Emperor Alexander I, the conqueror of Napoleon Bonaparte, faked his death and went to Siberia to pray and – become a great elder and a Saint, a legend says.

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Russian Tzar Alexander I is one of the most mysterious figures in the Russian royal household. He was born in December 1777, to the future Tzar Paul I, the son of the famous Catherine the Great, and his wife Maria Feodorovna, née Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Catherine the Great held a rather low esteem of her own son and did not cherish the idea of his ascending the throne. Right from the start, she ordered the baby prince to be taken away from his parents. Alexander received an excellent education: Empress Catherine sought the advice of the French Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot when she selected teachers for her grandson. She hoped she would raise him as a true monarch, who would succeed her as the next Tzar of Russia to carry on with her programs and plans.

There were also rumors that Catherine the Great wrote a will, which said that the throne should go right to her grandson, not to her son who, she believed was unfit to rule. Yet, when she died in 1796, no such will was found, and Paul I succeeded her on the Russian throne. His reforms appeared to be too radical for the aristocracy to accept. Eventually they declared the Tzar insane and made up a plot to depose him from power. Their intention was to persuade him to abdicate in favour of his oldest son, Alexander. Yet, the night when the plotters rushed into his room, something must have gone wrong, and the Tzar was assassinated – he was hit on the head with a heavy metal box and strangled with his own scarf.

Now we come to the first great mystery of whether Alexander, 23, the heir to the throne, was aware of the conspiracy and its details. Historians still debate his role but have no solid evidence to support any of the versions. However, at the time of the assassination he was in his quarters, at the palace where the whole action took place. According to one of the accounts, when one of the conspirators entered his room to inform him that Paul I was dead, the crown prince started weeping. Others claim that he fainted. One way or another, it looks like throughout the rest of his life he was haunted by a deep sense of guilt. This is an important detail, which offers some explanation to some of the mysteries surrounding this Emperor.

During his reign Alexander I had his ups and downs, but was overall quite successful, and was even dubbed Alexander the Blessed. He was the one who defeated French Emperor Napoleon and chased his army all the way to Paris, liberating European states, which Napoleon had conquered before coming to Russia in 1812. Berlin's main square was named in his honour - Alexander Platz. When he arrived in Paris at the head of the victorious Russian Army, he was greeted with flowers and great enthusiasm.

After the victory over Napoleon, Alexander I became also known as the Liberator of Europe.  The Holy Union initiated by Alexander I and concluded between Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1815, was later joined by some 45 other states and ensured peace in Europe for several decades on.

As a true Christian, the Russian Emperor decided he would not demand reparations from the conquered enemy, and the Russian army left Paris intact, with all its treasures and palaces. Alexander I pardoned the French for all the destruction and damage they had incurred on the Russian cities, including the Moscow Kremlin, which the French blew up, and dozens of Russian churches and monasteries, plundered by the French troops as they were retreating.

Alexander I also implemented some domestic liberal reforms, following the ideas of the European Enlightenment. Moreover, it was he, who sought to establish a constitutional monarchy in Russia. Yet, his liberal beliefs got somewhat shaken as he witnessed revolutionary ideas engulfing France, Germany and other European countries.

Alexander I was very tall and quite good-looking – another important detail to remember. He enjoyed good health, so, it came as a nasty surprise that during his tour of the southern regions of Russia he would contract cholera, other sources say it was typhus, or – get a cold, and die in a couple of weeks in a southern town of Taganrog  on December 1, 1825, at the age of 48.

His body was embalmed, transported to St Petersburg and laid to rest in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg on 13 March, 1826.

That same year European newspapers published a mysterious account, quoting one of the guards. In the early hours of the day before the Tzar’s passing, he saw a very tall man, walking along the palace’ wall, trying to remain unnoticed. The guard recognized the Tzar and reported it to his officer. The latter replied: “You must be out of your mind! Right now, our Tzar is dying!”

Ten years later, in the autumn of 1836 in Siberia, a man who called himself Fyodor Kuzmich appeared. He was very tall, had broad shoulders, blue eyes, and refined features. He claimed he was illiterate and did not remember where he came from. Yet his statement contrasted with his appearance and manners, and the man bore stark resemblance to the late Emperor Alexander I but would not reveal even under threat of criminal punishment. 

He lived in a log cabin with a garden, and he earned his living teaching local children. He spoke French, showed very good knowledge of the Saint Petersburg high society and the Court, and seemed to be well acquainted with many statesmen of the turn of the century. He also received some remarkable visitors like the future Saint Innocent of Alaska, and Bishop Athanasius of Irkutsk.  When he died, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich and Nicholas II, the last Russian Tzar, canonized as the Passion bearer, visited his grave.

The widespread conviction is that Alexander I would have faked his death to abdicate his throne, due to his feelings of guilt and escaped to Siberia as a simple peasant to pray for forgiveness for allowing his father to be killed. Though there is no solid evidence to prove that Kuzmich is no one other than Tzar Alexander I, there is no evidence to deny it. 

When the tomb of Alexander I was opened, it turned out to be empty. 

In 1984, Russian Orthodox Church canonized Feodor Kuzmich as a saint.

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