On the Crisis of the Representation of Autocracy in the Early 20th Century: The Monarchical Cult in the Tsarevich Nicholas Vocational School
( Pp. 141-150)

The question of the nature of autocracy implies an exploration of how the image of supreme authority is presented to society. Without this, it is impossible to understand the reasons for the rapid collapse of the institution of monarchy in February 1917. This article is devoted to a specific historical perspective of this problem. The article examines the presentation of the cult of the Romanov Dynasty at the Tsarevich Nicholas Vocational School (RUCN), a private charitable institution under the highest patronage of the last two emperors. The composition of the students, the teaching staff and the corporation of benefactors of the school allow us to see in its collective a fairly typical mental group of Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century. The evolution of techniques, symbolic forms, and rituals of sacralization of supreme power in the space of the school church of St. Nicholas and beyond is analyzed. New sources from three archives are being introduced into scientific circulation: the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg and the VOENMEH Exhibition and Educational Complex. It is concluded that the system of self-presentation of the monarchy in the RUCN was destroyed during the reign of Nicholas II.

Alekseeva, S.I. (2026). On the Crisis of the Representation of Autocracy in the Early 20th Century: The Monarchical Cult in the Tsarevich Nicholas Vocational School. History and Modern Perspectives, 8(1), 141-150. 10.33693/2658-4654-2026-8-1-141-150. EDN: LUZVUP

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autocracy, monarchist cult, the Romanov Dynasty, the Vocational School of Tsarevich Nicholas, self-presentation and representation of power, sacralization and desacralization of the monarchy, counter-myth, Alexander III, Nicholas II..