The legend of Fyodor Kuzmich and the words about escaping to America attributed to Alexander I
The legend of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, under whose name Alexander I supposedly lived in hiding in Siberia, is not the only evidence that the Emperor was terribly weighed down by the burden of the crown and longed to be rid of the duties of power, to run away. A remark attributed to Alexander Pavlovich, which appears in one form or another in the memoirs of many of his contemporaries, speaks eloquently of this: “My wife and I shall escape to America, where we shall be free and happy, and nobody will hear of us any more.”
If only one could also just up and escape to America!
