On 23 January 1874 Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, married Grand Duchess Maria, daughter of Tsar Alexander II, in Saint Petersburg

The wedding was preceded by agonising negotiations between Queen Victoria and the Romanovs.

It is this wedding that is mentioned in Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina.

"...Vronsky ...had been attached to a foreign prince who had come to Petersburg, and it was his duty to show him the sights of Petersburg. Vronsky ... had the knack of dealing with such persons; that was why he had been attached to the prince. But the duty seemed to him very burdensome. The prince was anxious to miss nothing of which he might be asked at home whether he had seen it in Russia; and he wished, too, to enjoy as far as possible all the Russian amusements. Vronsky was obliged to guide him in both. In the mornings they drove out to see the sights; in the evenings they took part in the national amusements. ... The prince had travelled a great deal and ... now in Russia wished to taste all the specially Russian pleasures.

Vronsky, who was with him as a sort of chief master of ceremonies, had great difficulty in arranging all the Russian amusements proposed to the prince by various persons. There were trotting horses, and pancakes, and bear hunts, and troikas, and gypsies, and carousals with the Russian smashing of crockery. And the prince, with extraordinary ease, took in the Russian spirit, smashed trays of crockery, sat a gypsy girl on his knee, and seemed to be asking: what more, or does the whole Russian spirit consist in this alone?

In fact, of all the Russian amusements, what the prince liked best were French actresses, a ballet dancer, and champagne with the white seal."