Easter Egg

Easter is the most joyful celebration of the Orthodox faith in Russia... After the devout church services, families gather to exchange gifts of decorated Eggs, symbols of renewed life and hope. The Easter of 1885 also marks the twentieth anniversary of Czar Alexander III and Czarina Maria Fedorovna, and the Czar needs an exceptional gift for his wife. So he places an order with a young jeweler, Peter Carl Faberge, whose beautiful creations have recently caught Maria's eye. On Easter morning, Faberge delivers to the palace what appears to be a simple enameled Egg. But to the delight of the Empress, inside is a golden yolk; within the yolk is a golden hen; and concealed within the hen is a diamond miniature of the royal crown and a tiny ruby Egg – both now lost to history. His wife's delight is all theCzar needs to reward Faberge with a commissionfor an Easter Egg every year. The requirements are straightforward: each Egg must be unique, and each must contain a suitable surprise for the Empress. With consummate craftsmanship and an inventive spirit, Fabergerepeatedly meets the challenge, borrowing inspiration from the gilded lives of the Czar and Czarina.

In October of 1894 the Czar's health fails. He dies suddenly in the prime of life, and his son, Nicholas II, unwillingly ascends the throne. "My God! The Lord has called our deeply beloved Papa to him. My head is spinning. What is going to happen to me? To Russia? I am not prepared to be a Czar. I never wanted to become one." (from the letters of Nicholas II, October 20, 1894.) "So to make sure that he didn't make any mistakes," explains author Lynette Proler, "he decided that the easiest course for him was to continue everything that his father had done." Untrained in the business of ruling one-eighth of the world's population and purposely cut off from progressive thinking by his parents, Nicholas embraces the limited ideals of order, service and tradition: "I shall maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as my unforgettable late father."