ALEXANDER III: MORE ON HIS NEWLY RECOVERED DIARY
On December 1, 2015, three rare books: a personal diary of the Russian Emperor Alexander III and two of his books of days, were returned to the Director of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Sergei Mironenko. These books went missing 35 years ago and were considered irretrievably lost. A week ago, police seized them from a citizen who tried to get an appraisal of these historical antiquities at one of Moscow’s auction houses.
The auction organizer checked the books for “criminality”, found that they were being searched for on the site of Russian State Archives, and called police. When detectives visited the “owner” of the rarities in the community, he told them that these books were kept at his home, and were allegedly purchased by his parents from an unknown person. The investigative chain ended at this point. Police decided not to prosecute due to the lapse of time.
Sergei Mironenko is very pleased re-acquire these items of extreme historical value. “At the end of the 19th century there was no concept of a ‘diary’, back then such brochure was called ‘a book of remembrance’ “, said Mironenko. “Of the three books the most valuable one is the personal diary of the future Tsar. In it he wrote down when he got up in the morning, what kind of coffee he drank , with whom he met. For example, on the last page there is a note: ‘1864 – good year!’ “.
Experts confirmed that the books are authentic and their approximate value is 3 million rubles.
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