Case file · Folklore / legend
Did Alexander I fake his death at Taganrog?
Alexander I died at Taganrog on 1 December 1825, far from the capital; a persistent legend says he staged his death and lived on as the Siberian hermit Feodor Kuzmich, who died in Tomsk in 1864.
1825 CE · 47.21, 38.94 · status: disputed
The account
The tsar's depression and talk of abdication, rumours that the corpse was unrecognisable, and the hermit's education and bearing kept the story alive. Tolstoy began a story on it. Claims that his tomb was found empty when opened in 1921 are often repeated but not documented. A DNA comparison has been proposed but not carried out.
The sceptical view
Most historians accept that Alexander died of a fever at Taganrog.