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How A Free Mug Give Away Killed Almost 1,400 At The Coronation Of A Russian Emperor
An unruly crowd afraid they weren’t going to get promised free gifts led to a tragic day where thousands were killed and injured
Free giveaways have attracted strong interest for as long as there has been a way to get things without paying for them. It often doesn’t matter what the value of the freebie is; just the fact of receiving something for nothing gets the juices flowing for a lot of people. Sadly, this doesn’t always go as planned. In 1896, the last emperor of Russia, Nicholas II, was being crowned and threw a large public party for the masses to help him celebrate. Such a huge crowd showed up and anticipated receiving some food and a commemorative mug that things got unruly fast and resulted in thousands of injuries and possibly as many as almost 1,400 dead in the aftermath — which subsequently became known as the Khodynka Tragedy.
On May 26, 1896, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra were officially crowned as Russia’s Emperor and Empress; the last of their kind as it turned out. They and their family were slaughtered in 1918 in the wake of the Russian Revolution. However, when they first ascended their thrones, they elicited a great outpouring from the masses.
