The Moscow Kremlin Museums preserve state relics and relics of the ruling dynasties collected over the centuries. A special place in the imperial collections belongs to the personal belongings of the Russian emperors. These include items of the imperial clothes, jewellery worn by the august couple, and articles of daily use in the emperor's private office. They are all made by the best masters of the time and testify not only to the aesthetic ideas of the past centuries, but also to the personal tastes of the Russian autocrats. Among such items are those related to Emperor Nicholas II. There has also survived the Emperor's diary, which he kept from 1889 to 1913. It contains numerous watercolour drawings of numerous accessories in his personal possession. A special place belongs to the obligatory element of a dress – high-value cufflinks.
Those items linked the Emperor to the members of his family, close and distant relatives – as many of them were presented to Nicholas II for various holidays, memorable dates and events. Among the presenters are his grandmother Empress Maria Alexandrovna, his sister Grand Princess Ksenia Alexandrovna and her husband – Grand Prince Alexander Mikhailovich, English Queen Victoria, English King George V, King George I of Greece, and many other crowned and august relatives of the Russian royal house. These cufflinks are evidence of the historical personal and international ties of the imperial family previous to the First World War, which completely changed both the political map of the world, and the whole of civilization.
The souvenir shop of the Moscow Kremlin Museums present replicas of the Emperor’s cufflinks made by modern jewellers in full accordance with Nicholas’ drawings. They are not only a decoration, but also a reminder of the great past of our Fatherland.