How the Orenburg Cossacks Welcomed the Tsar's Son

After a long journey abroad, Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich returned through the lands of the Orenburg Cossacks. Not only the Cossacks but also the Cossack women prepared carefully for the day of his arrival. The residents wanted to welcome the sovereign according to old Cossack traditions, with bread and salt, so that His Majesty would see how glad they were of his arrival. The Cossacks' wives prepared many gifts for Prince Nikolai Alexandrovich. For the knitters of Orenburg, the long-awaited meeting with the heir was an opportunity to show all their skill.

In every town or settlement beyond Orsk, the prince was met with bread and salt and airy down shawls. In Orsk, a community of needlewomen presented the sovereign with goat down shawls.

In the settlement of Verkhneozernoye, the residents organised a unique exhibition of down shawls. The sovereign was lodged in the house of the merchant's wife Darya Kretova. The hostess decorated the entrance with bright flowers, lanterns of different colours and strips of swan's down. The hostess decorated every window and door with curtains of snow-white, weightless down shawls. From her house a path led to an arch that the Cossacks had erected in honour of the dear guest. The alley was decorated with carpets of extraordinary beauty, airy down and snow-white shawls of the finest Orenburg goat down. It looked like a cloud strewn with bright flowers. The vaulted passage was decorated with colourful lanterns, flags and beautiful bouquets of flowers.

Nikolai Alexandrovich was stunned by what he saw. And, as witnesses say, the prince deigned to walk along this snow-white alley of down shawls to the quarters prepared for him. For such a warm welcome, as well as for the amazing gifts in the form of down carpets, the hostess received a diamond ring from His Majesty's own hands.

Four young women from the settlement of Guberlinskoye presented him with the most beautiful airy down shawls. Near Orenburg, in the settlement of Vyazovka, Avdotya Nikitina prepared an offering for His Majesty. She was a well-known down knitter whose works were famous in the area. Avdotya's daughter Marfushenka presented the dear guest with a shawl. It was placed in a glass standing on a wooden tray. The Tsesarevich lifted the girl with the tray and kissed her. Then the finest shawl was pulled out of the glass and coins were poured in. This is how the prince thanked the knitter for such a skilful gift.