“To His Imperial Highness the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich…” (a gift from the prisoners of the First Nizhny Novgorod Provincial prison in 1913)

The article is devoted to little-known facts from the life of the family of Emperor Nicholas II. The main historical source was “The case of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Prison Inspection. About the products of the workshops of the First Nizhny Novgorod prison in 1913”, preserved in the fund 386 of the Central Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod region. It testifies that the prisoners of the First Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Prison prepared a unique gift for the son of Emperor Nicholas II — Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich. The gift was timed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The article also used other types of historical sources: “Diaries of Emperor Nicholas II”, memoirs of P. Gilyar, a teacher of French, mentor of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, materials of the pre—revolutionary periodical press — the magazine “Prison Bulletin”, as well as unique photographic documents of M. P. Dmitriev, who recorded the ceremonial reception of the imperial family in Nizhny Novgorod on May 17, 1913. The historiographical basis was the works of modern historians: N. F. Filatov, A. V. Morokhin, R. V. Golubin, S. Yu. Varentsov, L. Abrosimova. The author came to the conclusion that at the beginning of the XX century in Nizhny Novgorod penitentiary institutions, convict labor was fairly well organized, prison workshops developed. In the First Nizhny Novgorod provincial prison, an exclusive gift was prepared for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich — a printing machine with the name “American”. It was made of expensive materials, taking into account the age and interests of the heir to the imperial throne.