Label Text:
This seemingly ordinary beaker is bound up with the death and tragedy surrounding the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II in Moscow in May 1896. The government had commissioned four hundred thousand gifts, each including an enameled beaker, baked goods, candy, nuts, and a piece of sausage, all wrapped in a headscarf, to be distributed to the crowds gathered on Khodynka Field for the festivities.
Hundreds of thousands arrived hours before the tsar’s appearance to secure the coveted presents. False rumors soon began to spread: attendees were speaking of beakers containing gold coins and of their unfair distribution. Fearing the gifts would run out, the crowd surged toward them, triggering a devastating crowd collapse. According to official estimates, roughly 1,400 people died on that day. Some suffocated while standing, and others were crushed underfoot or fatally injured in the struggle.
Although Nicholas II and his wife visited Moscow hospitals the following day and personally distributed aid to the injured, they did not stop the festivities, which caused heavy criticism in progressive circles. The tragedy cast a shadow over the rule of the new emperor. In the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1905, years before the October Revolution and the execution of the imperial family, the celebrated poet Konstantin Balmont captured this sentiment in his poem Our Czar: “He who began his reign with Khodynka / will finish at the scaffold stand.”
Maria Timina (2025)
Subjects:
Enamel and enameling Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1955.373 |
