Social Deviations in the Marriage Unions of the Romanov Dynasty: Аnalysis the Causes and Consequences of Unequal Marriages

The article examines the phenomenon of unequal (morganatic) marriages in the Romanov dynasty, considered as a form of social deviation, which, despite its legal recognition, contradicted the established dynastic traditions of the Russian Empire. The relevance of the work is due to the insufficient study of the influence of morganatic marriages on intra–dynastic relations, the political stability of the monarchy and the perception of the imperial family in society, especially in the context of the crisis phenomena of the late 19th — early 20th  century. In the scientific literature, this problem was mainly considered either in a biographical way or from the point of view of legal aspects, while a comprehensive analysis of the social consequences of such unions remained outside the field of view of researchers. The purpose of the article is to identify the historical causes of the institution of unequal marriage in Russia, to determine its significance in the dynastic politics of the House of Romanov and to analyze the social consequences of such unions for intra-dynastic relations and public perception of the imperial family. The methodological basis of the research includes a historical and genealogical analysis of marriage unions of members of the imperial house, a comparative legal method that allows assessing the evolution of legislation on unequal marriages, as well as a socio-cultural approach that allows identifying changes in the perception of such unions by Russian society. The source base includes legislative acts of the Russian Empire, diary entries, correspondence of representatives of the dynasty, as well as memoirs of contemporaries. The results of the study show that in the Russian Empire, the institution of dynastic marriage was established in the era of Peter the Great and was an important tool of foreign policy strategy, while unequal (morganatic) unions that appeared in the 19th century were initially perceived as an exception, but by the end of the century they had become widespread. Analyzing the dynamics of these processes, the author comes to the conclusion that the increase in the number of unequal marriages in the late 19th and early 20th centuries indicates the disintegration of the traditional model of dynastic marriage, which, in turn, reflected a deep ideological and social crisis within the imperial family. The conclusions of the study make it possible to clarify the nature of crisis phenomena in the Russian Empire on the eve of revolutionary upheavals, complementing the existing concepts of domestic political and ideological decline. The data obtained during the analysis confirm the hypothesis that unequal marriages became a marker of changes in the social identity of the Romanovs, which reduced their legitimacy in the eyes of society.

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