Topography of authority: residences of the Moscow governor-general the grand duke Sergey Alexandrovich

This article describes the residences of Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich during his tenure as the Moscow Governor-General at the late 19th - the beginning of 20th century, at the last years of the reign of his brother, the Russian Emperor Alexander III, and at the first half of the reign of his nephew, Emperor Nicholas II. Unlike ordinary governors or governors-general who were not members of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich had at his disposal not one, but six residences. The article analyzes the features of residence and official activities of Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich in all his residences. Based on the diary of the Grand Duke, using the method of quantitative analysis, the author concluded that his main actual residence was the main official residence of the Moscow Governors-General on Tverskaya street, although he personally preferred to live in the Alexandrinsky Palace on the outskirts of Moscow and in two manor houses of his united estate near Moscow, Ilinskoe-Usovo. In addition, for a considerable time the Grand Duke lived and worked in Saint Petersburg, in his Sergey Palace on Nevsky Prospekt. Another residence, the Nicholas Palace of the Moscow Kremlin, was used only during the first months of Grand Duke Sergey Alexandrovich’s tenure as the governor-general in connection with the reconstruction of the official residence.