Alexei romanov cause of death
The Escape of Alexei. Son of Tsar Nicholas II
What Happened the Night the Romanov Family Was Executed
By VADIM PETROV, IGOR LYSENKO, and GEORGY EGOROV
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
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From the Russian Publisher
In , in a district center outside Astrakhan, a village geography teacher by the name of Vasily Ksenofontovich Filatov died.
Shortly before his death, he began telling his wife and children--a son and three daughters--the fantastic story of his life. From his stories they learned that Vasily Filatov was not his real name, that in reality he was Alexei Romanov, son of Nicholas Romanov, the last Russian tsar, and that he had been rescued by soldiers when the rest of his family was executed in At the time Vasily told his story, the remains of the tsar's family had not yet been discovered on the old Koptyaki Road on the outskirts of Ekaterinburg.
The fact of the tragedy had not become a hot topic among historians and had not yet attracted worldwide attention. When all that did happen, the astonished members of his family were convinced that many of the stories told by Vasily Filatov, down to trivial details, coincided with facts that had just become known.
The eightieth anniversary of the execution served as impetus for identifying the Ekaterinburg remains and for new research utilizing modern methods.
As Nikolai Alexeyevich Sokolov, Special Judicial Investigator for the Whites under Admiral Alexander Kolchak, put it from the very beginning, the case of the execution of the tsar's family had "the peculiarity of not having what one almost always does have in murder cases and what most often serves to prove the actual fact of murder: corpses.
As a result, in this case, the very fact that there was a murder had to be verified by alternate routes." The lack of objective proof has inevitably given rise to various versions of the story.
During the Soviet period, the commonly accepted official version of the execution was based on the myth that the decision to execute the tsar's family "was taken consciously, in recognition of the objective situation at the time, and carried out with purely proletarian, steely decisiveness." Hence the misleading idea that the execution had been thoroughly thought out and precisely organized.
The official version was that the victims' bodies were burned, so it was inconceivable that a member of the tsar's family could have survived and reached freedom.
Today we know that the decision was made and the execution readied and implemented in less than three days and that the "fiery revolutionaries" were the same uneducated young adventurers who executed Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II's brother), Archbishop Hermogen of Tobolsk, and many others on their own authority, without waiting for orders from Moscow.
For the rest of their lives, the revolutionaries who survived fought each other for the right to be considered the principal murderer and to enjoy the advantages awarded to such a figure. But that was later. At the time of the execution, in , when the Whites were approaching the city and no one knew which side would win, when the Bolsheviks were not yet the only ruling party and the revolution was still a coup, the matter of sorting out who had what power still lay ahead.
At the time, killing "God's Anointed" and his children might have seemed a terrifying task, and it is very likely that the executioners may not have been of one mind. Among them there could easily have been men who sympathized with the victims and attempted to rescue some of them.
As soon as one becomes acquainted with the depositions of the participants in the execution, the legend of the meticulous organization of the execution and burial crumbles.
They all talk about the chaotic shooting and about the bungling and disorganization during the burial, but they differ on the details. One gets the impression that they agreed on the outline of the story but that each man filled in the gaps with details of his own. This is what they would have had to do if a member of the Romanov family had survived the execution and was unaccounted for during the burial.
An attempt to reconstruct the execution--chaotic firing in a smoke-filled room--leads to the conclusion that such an outcome was entirely possible. And if this was the case, then it unquestionably had to be concealed and kept secret all their lives.
When one looks at the sources from this point of view, discrepancies in the depositions of the executioners become obvious.
For example, in their reminiscences of the execution and burial, they all talk about the "corsets" or "brassieres" with diamonds sewn into them that were discovered on the victims' bodies. Only in Yurovsky's depositions is it specifically stated that only three of the children--Tatiana, Olga, and Anastasia--were wearing "some kind of special corsets." Of course, these were not ordinary corsets but special corsets made by Alexandra herself, or on her orders.
The purpose is clear. She could hardly have supposed they would shoot her children, but she did think the precious jewels would provide for her children's support if the family were split up. So, Marie should have been wearing one of the corsets as well. Not only that, but it would seem perfectly natural for the mother to be concerned above all about her only son, her youngest child, who was ill and thus the most helpless of all.
Not one statement contains any testimony about precious jewels found on Alexei's body. Or about an amulet holding Rasputin's portrait and the text of a prayer, which was discovered "around the neck of each of the young ladies." The tsarevich wore one just like it. Nonetheless, there is not a word about it. Either for unexplained reasons they didn't undress the body of Alexei orhe wasn't there.
Note that in , a government commission established that the remains of Alexei and Marie were missing from the burial site.
What if they were saved after all? Could they have survived, and what would their fate have been if they had? The simplest way to deal with this question is the way it was dealt with by officials in the St.
Petersburg Central District Registrar's Office in they issued a certificate (to whom we don't know) stating that Alexei and Marie Romanov died in The authors of this book take a different view. They cite their own, absolutely independent investigation. The originality of the approach is explained by the professions of the authors, which are rather unusual for a case involving historical research.
One of them, Vadim Vadimovich Petrov, is a candidate of medical sciences whose dissertation was on optimizing the establishment of identity of unidentified bodies. A forensic medical expert, he participated in several of the forensic analyses included in this book; he also comments on the forensic analyses done by others.
Igor Vladimirovich Lysenko is a nuclear physicist and a graduate from the Theological Academy. He worked with Vasily Filatov and the Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Georgy Borisovich Egorov is a professor with a Ph.D.
Alexei romanov biography books Alexei - Russia's Last Tsesarevich: Letters, diaries and writings Part One: – Book 1 of 2: Alexei - Russia's Last Tsesarevich | by George Hawkins | Jan 10, out of 5 stars.in engineering, a systems analyst in various technical and humanitarian spheres, and an expert on the chemistry of high temperatures (including the combustion of powders) and on measurement precision and content. A prize-winning skier, he has competed in international skiing competitions for the disabled in Ekaterinburg, where he runs a ski center for disabled children.
Knowledgeable with sports prostheses and nonconventional medicine, Egorov is well qualified to answer the question of how the tsarevich, an adolescent suffering from hemophilia, may have survived the execution to live another seventy years. The authors believe that he could have done so if someone had helped him--especially someone who had mastered the methods of nonconventional medicine and who knew the healing properties of local plants (one is instantly reminded that Rasputin, who treated Alexei with herbs and nonconventional medicine during his childhood, was from the area around Ekaterinburg).
One of the documents in this book is a statement from the Center for the Treatment of Hemophilia confirming that many hemophiliacs live long lives.
Biography books for 4th graders Here is a list of biographies of Romanov sovereigns and their children. I need say nothing more. Please do not add fictional diaries or books about people who were not born or married into the Romanov dynasty. I haven't read a lot of these books but I added every single Romanov biography on my shelves.According to the center, hemophiliacs can have children, but they usually do so at an older age. Vasily Filatov had his first child, Oleg Vasilievich Filatov, in , when he was forty-nine years old. Oleg Filatov and one of his sisters have blond hair, which can also be a consequence of hemophilia in one of the parents. According to his wife's testimony, Vasily Filatov never went to the doctor, but his draft card indicated that he was permanently discharged from military service under the article that includes diseases of the blood.
Scientific analysis of the medical information found in Vasily Filatov's archives is not yet complete. One of the diagnoses there has been erased and then removed with acid.
That the authors are scientists determines the unusual genre of this book: it takes a historical-forensic approach.
The authors are not professional historians; their approach to historical facts and archival sources is not bound by persistent official stereotypes. They examine even well-known historical facts from new angles. In this book they come to the conclusion that, after abdicating, Nicholas II and his family represented no threat to the new government.
The Romanov family could have been used more advantageously, like a trump card in the game of politics. It made no sense to execute them mindlessly and then fabricate legends about the threat of the "banner of monarchy" to the armed forces of a Siberian republic run by a right-wing Socialist Revolutionary government.
The authors reconstruct a detailed picture of the chaotic execution in the cellar of the Ipatiev house, and with detailed maps of Ekaterinburg and its surroundings, they establish the probable route of the truck that transported the bodies to the burial site. They analyze the poor condition of the rural Koptyaki Road, which the truck traveled on, and the places along the way where the truck stopped.
As a result, the authors argue the likelihood that some of the people loaded onto that improvised hearse were not dead and may have escaped from the truck on the way to the burial site. Then, after painstakingly reconstructing the execution and burial, the authors prove that it would have been impossible to burn the corpses.
After reaching this conclusion, the authors study the story of Vasily Filatov's life, revealing the discrepancies in his official biography.
Registered on his birth certificate as a shoemaker's son who received a far from brilliant education and worked as a geography teacher in a village school all his life, Filatov nonetheless knew several European languages, played several musical instruments, and taught his children music according to the numerical method--the same method by which the children of Tsar Nicholas II were taught music.
While walking through the halls of the tsar's summer home, Tsarskoe Selo, Vasily Filatov suddenly said: "All of this here has changed, even the handle on this door was different."
History has known quite a few pretenders, but it is highly unlikely that an entire family would lie about this and painstakingly fabricate a legend.
We have taken an interest in Oleg Filatov's story about his father's life and are stunned by the resemblance between Vasily Filatov's four children and many representatives of the Romanov dynasty. The book's authors, with the help of other criminologists, legal scholars, and medical experts, have studied the documents presented by the Filatovs and conducted comparative scientific analysis on the handwriting samples, photographic portraits, and medical depositions.
Alexei romanov biography books in order Andi wrote: "Can anyone help me find this book series. It is historical fiction set in Russia maybe 10 yrs before the revolution, spanning until at least as far as the Romanovs execution. The Romanovs were mino " The book series you are referring to is a 7-volume series by Judith Pella entitled “The Russians”. Can find it on Amazon. Thanks.The results of their initial analysis are so convincing that there is no doubt of the need to continue the research with the help of an even broader group of scientists.
By publishing this book, regardless of whether the reader shares the authors' conclusions or whether the version they are setting forth will be confirmed, the publisher is confident of the scientific, moral, and political relevance of the problem under examination.
We feel we must use every opportunity to clarify in as much detail as possible the circumstances and consequences surrounding the Ekaterinburg tragedy.
Chapter One
The Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II
This is a time of leaden bullets,
Kulak fists at the worker's breast.
Hear the savage, rabid howling:
The people are awake.
--Velimir Khlebnikov
The process of researching historical events and refining the public's perspective on them is an entertaining occupation.
However, there is always the danger of becoming carried away and losing the proper objectivity. To prevent this from happening it is useful--often even essential--to reconstruct a step-by-step chronology of the events in question; as the author Lev Gumilyov writes, you create a "canvas on which you impose a given pattern, which you can then use to confirm or--more often--refute and question information whose absurdity is all too obvious."
We too will create a pattern on our canvas out of indisputable historical facts, embellishing it with alternate interpretations of sources and with assertions that are not indisputable and that contradict established beliefs.
We will then subject these alternate interpretations and assertions to careful analysis.
Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov (Nicholas II), the last Russian tsar, was born on May 6, , the son of Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov (Emperor Alexander III) and Marie Feodorovna Dagmar (a Danish princess).
Nicholas ascended the throne on October 7, , and was crowned on May 14, On November 14, , he married Alexandra Fyodorovna (nee Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt), a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Their first child, Olga, was born in , followed by Tatiana in , Marie in , Anastasia in , and a son, Alexei, in
We will not go into a detailed biography of Nicholas II here.
We will, however, look at his life beginning with the end of the year Russia was in the throes of World War I, fighting against, and losing to, Austria and Germany. On December 18, , the tsar received a letter at Headquarters in Mogilev from Alexandra, telling him that Rasputin had been murdered. He immediately set out for Petrograd (the name for St.
Petersburg during World War I, a reaction to prevailing anti-German sentiment), arriving in neighboring Tsarskoe Selo, where the imperial family was living in the Alexander Palace, on December He halted the investigation into the Rasputin murder case, took part in the funeral, greeted the new year of with his family, and on February 22 left to return to Headquarters.
During this time there was increasing unrest in the capital over the shortage of bread, and on February 23 nearly , workers went on strike. On February 24, students joined the workers, and the number of strikers ballooned to , The next day a general strike began, and unrest infiltrated the heart of the city.
Although the movement had developed spontaneously, it quickly became political. Demonstrations were held at the factories and on Znamenskaya Square in front of Nikolaevsky Station, with people shouting "Down with the war!" and "Down with autocracy!"
The tsar arrived at Headquarters on the evening of February 23 and did not receive news of the strikes and demonstrations in Petrograd until February Although his Council of Ministers did not attach too much significance to the demonstrations, Nicholas II immediately telegraphed the commander of the Petrograd Military District, General Sergei Semyonovich Khabalov: "I hereby enjoin you to stop the disorders in the capital tomorrow.
They cannot be allowed during this difficult time of war against Germany and Austria."
On February 26, General Khabalov and Alexander Dmitrievich Protopopov, the minister of internal affairs, carried out the imperial injunction. The police took up positions on bell towers, fire towers, attics, and the roofs of tall buildings and fired on the demonstrators.
Machine guns fired from the bridges and all along Nevsky Prospekt, and mounted cavalry attacked the demonstrators. That evening, an event occurred that seemed to justify an open attack by the police: more than fifteen hundred soldiers from the Fourth Company of the Reserve Battalion of the Pavlovsky Regiment emerged from their barracks and suddenly opened fire on a detachment of mounted policemen.
On February 27, a rebellious crowd took the main arsenal by storm. One after another, the garrison's military units crossed over to the side of the insurgents. The soldiers of the Volynsky Regiment brought the Litovsky, Preobrazhensky, and Moskovsky Regiments out on the street to join the rebellion. The next morning, the entire city was in the hands of the insurrection.
Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko, chairman of the State Duma, informed Nicholas at Headquarters: "Situation grave. Anarchy in the capital. Government paralyzed. Transportation, food, and fuel supplies completely disrupted. Scattered shooting in the streetsimmediate measures must be taken, for tomorrow will be too late.
Biography books free: Alexei Romanov, heir to the Russian throne, is in deadly danger. It¹s , the struggling Russian people are tired of war and are blaming their Romanov rulers for it, and some are secretly plotting to murder the young heir and his family.
The decisive hour has come for the fate of the Homeland and the dynasty."
At the news of the uprising of the Petrograd garrison, Nicholas II sent a new military district commander, General Ivanov, to Petrograd with the elite St. George Battalion, which numbered seven hundred men, as well as a machine-gun squad, with an order to "institute order in the capital and its environs." At the same time, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich telephoned the chief of staff, Supreme Commander Adjutant General Mikhail Vasilievich Alexeyev, asking him to inform the tsar that in order to reinstate peace he would have to dismiss the Council of Ministers and appoint a new premier, for which capacity he was recommending Prince Vladimir Nikolaevich Lvov.
Nicholas II replied only that he had sent troops to Petrograd and that he would make further decisions upon his arrival at Tsarskoe Selo. However, he did not make it that far.
On February 28, the revolutionary movement spilled over into the surrounding areas of the capital. In Tsarskoe Selo, the units guarding the Alexander Palace "declared their neutrality" and thus abandoned the imperial family.
In Kronstadt, a naval bastion in the Gulf of Finland, power passed into the hands of the revolutionaries, and the insurgent sailors killed Admiral Viren, their commanding officer, and numerous other officers.
Having given instructions to send the most reliable, loyal units from the fronts to Petrograd to quell the insurgency, the tsar himself decided to depart Headquarters for Tsarskoe Selo to be with his family.
The imperial train left Mogilev following a route through Orsha, Vyazma, and Likhoslavl. Nicholas expected to arrive at Tsarskoe Selo on March 1 at three-thirty in the afternoon, but en route, at Malaya Vishera Station, it was discovered that the next large station, Lyuban, had already been occupied by revolutionary troops and that further passage by the imperial train would be dangerous.
Subsequently, Nicholas ordered the train to proceed via Pskov to the headquarters of General Nikolai Vladimirovich Ruzsky, commander of the northern front.
Many memoirists and historians have criticized this decision, as well as Nicholas's decision to depart from Headquarters in the first place. John Hanbury-Williams, former head of the British mission in Mogilev, assessed the tsar's departure from Mogilev as his "first imprudent and almost insane step toward his own doom and his family's." The historian Viktor Alexandrov, a contemporary of these events, believed that as long as Nicholas II was in the middle of his army, which numbered many millions of men, he was personally invulnerable and possessed the essential means of governing, but that "by leaving his most secure refuge, he simply set off on a senseless adventure." Many other contemporaries also considered Nicholas's departure from Mogilev foolhardy.
We believe that the situation did not yet seem threatening to Nicholas and that he was leaving to join his family of his own free will.
However, let us return to the events of the last night of February War Minister Mikhail Alexeyevich Belyaev in Petrograd reported to Headquarters that General Khabalov had been put under arrest.
Mass demonstrations were beginning in Moscow as well. On March 1, the Moscow garrison went over to the side of the insurgents, and the commanding general, Mrozovsky, was arrested. The same scenario was taking place in the cities of Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Tver. Admiral Alexander Vasilievich Kolchak, the commander of the Black Sea fleet, after receiving information on the events in Petrograd, ordered the commandant of Sevastopol Fortress to cut postal and telegraph communications between the Crimean peninsula and Russia.
Worried that they would lose control of their troops, the commanders-in-chief on other fronts issued similar orders.
In Petrograd, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma issued an appeal:
A provisional committee of the State Duma, considering the difficult conditions of domestic collapse provoked by measures of the old government, finds itself forced to take the restoration of state and public order into its own hands.Conscious of the full responsibility of the decision it has taken, the committee expresses confidence that the population and the army will help it in its difficult task of creating a new government that corresponds to the desires of the population and that can enjoy its trust.
Chairman of the State Duma, Mikhail Rodzianko.
On March 1, General Ivanov arrived at Tsarskoe Selo from Mogilev to meet the troops that he was going to take to Petrograd to restore order--only to find that the 68th Infantry Regiment in Luga and the 67th Tarutinsky Regiment at Alexandrovskaya Station had gone over the side of the insurgents.
Colonels Domanevsky and Tille delivered the following report to him from the chief of the general staff, Mikhail Ilich Zankevich:
All reserve units quartered in the capital have gradually gone over to the side of the Provisional Government composed of members of the State Duma. Since twelve o'clock in the afternoon on February 28, the legitimate military authorities have not had a single unit at their disposal, and the insurgent population has ceased its fighting.The officers of the units that refused to obey orders set out for the Duma with the aim of retaking power. Lower ranks showed up there as well. The Provisional Government put the officers back in their places, and order began to be instituted in the units. However, the reserve battalions supported order only within the framework of the provisional government and not the permanent government.
They cannot be relied upon in the fight against the revolution. Some of the police have been removed, and some have hidden. A few ministers have been arrested. The ministries, including the war ministry, could continue their work only once they had obtained the consent of the Provisional Government, i.e., by essentially recognizing it.
The same situation is being played out in the outlying garrisons. It is difficult to count on instituting order by force or on an armed struggle with the insurgents and the Provisional Government. This would require many troops, and, moreover, the troops that are newly arrived have fallen on hard conditions with respect to their quarters and food.
All the surrounding areas of Petrograd and even the entire Petrograd District are crammed with reservists and refugees.
Alexei romanov biography books list
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia Part of: Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children (Awards) (12 books) | by Candace Fleming | Jul 8, out of 5 stars.We must obtain supplies from deep in Russia, but proper supplies cannot be provided without the knowledge of the Provisional Government. Given these conditions, a procedure for suppressing the uprising so that it reflects as well as possible on the course of the war is probably attainable only by agreement with the Provisional Government rather than by means of armed struggle At the present moment, an armed struggle would make a bad situation more complicated and worse.
Each hour is precious. Order and a normal course can be restored most easily by way of agreement with the Provisional Government.
General Ivanov had no choice but to turn back to Mogilev. The tsar's attempt to crush the revolution by force had ended in failure.
Meanwhile, under the command of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the tsar's cousin, the Marine of the Guard, the most loyal and elite troops of the Alexander Palace, had marched to the Taurides Palace to declare their allegiance to the Duma.
At the Taurides Palace, two revolutionary organs had formed under one roof in a single day: the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers Deputies. Vladimir Nikolaevich Voeikov, the Commandant of the Court of Nicholas II, writes in his memoirs:
The sailors in the Marine of the Guard, which at that time formed part of the security troops [for the imperial residence], began to evaporate.In the end, only officers remained, and the deserting sailors headed off to Petrograd to their barracks, where on the morning of March 2 they held a meeting to which they invited their commander, who at that time was Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich.
The grand duke explained to the sailors the import of the events taking place.The result of his explanation was not the return of the deserting sailors to fulfill their duty but a decision to replace their highly esteemed banner with a red rag, under which the Marine of the Guard followed their commander into the State Duma.
Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, with his tsarist monogram on his epaulettes and a red ribbon on his shoulders, appeared on March 1, at four-fifteen in the afternoon, at the State Duma, where he reported to Duma Chairman M.V. Rodzianko: "I have the honor of appearing before Your Excellency. I am at your disposal, as is the entire nation. I wish Russia only good." Then he stated that the Marine of the Guard was at the complete disposal of the State DumaIn reply, M. V. Rodzianko expressed confidence that the Marine of the Guard would help them deal with their enemy (but he didn't explain which one).
Inside the State Duma, the grand duke was received quite graciously, since even before his arrival at the commandant's office in the Taurides Palace it was generally known that he had sent notes to the heads of the units of the Tsarskoe Selo garrison announcing:
"I and the Marine of the Guard entrusted to me have fully allied ourselves with the new government.I am certain that you, too, and the unit entrusted to you will also ally yourselves with us.
"Commander of the Marine of the Guard, His Highness, Rear Admiral Kirill." Of course, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich describes this event somewhat differently:
One of my battalions was responsible for the security of the imperial family at Tsarskoe Selo, but the situation in the capital had become extremely dangerous, and I ordered them to return to the capital.These were nearly the only loyal troops whom one could trust to restore order if the situation continued to deteriorate
One time a very agitated officer from the Marine of the Guard approached me and reported that my sailors had locked up the officers and that serious disruptions were about to break out in the barracks.I rushed over there immediately to speak with the sailors. They were in a truculent mood, and although I was able to restore calm, it was all most unpleasant. I was convinced, however, that despite the revolution and anarchy, my men remained loyal to me. They themselves volunteered to take turns guarding me and my family, and despite the general chaos, no one ever inflicted any unpleasantness on us
In the last days of February, anarchy had reached such heights in the capital that the government [Provisional] appealed to the soldiers and commanders, suggesting that they come to the Duma and thus demonstrate their loyaltyThe government's instruction put me in a decidedly awkward position.Since I commanded the Marine of the Guard, the government's orderapplied to my subordinates andaffected me personally as commander. I had to decide whether to obey the government order and bring my sailors to the Duma or withdraw, casting them on the tyranny of fate in the whirlpool of revolutionThe only thing that concerned me was how, by what means, even at the price of my own honor, to restore order in the capital and do everything in my power to allow the Sovereign to return to the capital
With these thoughts in mind, I set out for the barracks of the Marine of the Guard, still hoping that I would not be forced to drink that bitter cup.When I arrived, though, it turned out that I did not need to make any choice at all; the men themselves wanted to go to the Duma.
And so I set out for the Duma at the head of a battalion from the Marine of the Guard. En route we were fired upon by foot soldiers so I transferred to an automobile.
It was Babel in the Duma.Soldiers in unbuttoned tunics and caps pushed back on their heads were trying to outshout one another. Deputies were hoarse from screaming. Something unimaginable had come to passSoldiers were driving the officers out onto the stairs with the butts of their rifles and a rain of curses. I knew many of the officers wellIn this grievous atmosphere I spent the remainder of the day guarded by my own sailors.
Late that night a student from the Institute of Mines stopped by my room to tell me a car was waiting and I could go.
On the evening of March 1, the imperial train arrived at Pskov Station. The commander-in-chief of the northern front, Adjutant General Ruzsky, handed Nicholas II a telegram from the chief of staff, Supreme Commander Adjutant General Alexeyev, requesting in the name of Rodzianko that he consent to the formation of a government responsible not to the emperor but to the State Duma.
A few hours later, Nicholas II agreed to the formation of a new government, while retaining for the emperor responsibility for the ministers of war, the navy, and foreign affairs.
One circumstance played a fateful role in further events. It seems that Headquarters received telegrams containing disinformation to the effect that total calm had ensued in the capital and that the troops had joined the Provisional Government as a body.
There was no mention that a revolution was in progress calling for the overthrow of Nicholas II, not merely limiting his power.
That same night, Ruzsky contacted Duma Chairman Rodzianko by telephone to convey the imperial injunction for the new government, which at this point sounded like bitter irony. This was already not going to be enough.
"Hatred for the dynasty has reached such extremes," Rodzianko replied, "that ominous demands are being heard for abdication in favor of his son under a regency of Michael Alexandrovich." Although by now even that was not going to be enough.
General Ruzsky informed Alexeyev at Headquarters about this conversation, and Alexeyev in turn circulated a telegram to all the commanders at the fronts, conveying what Rodzianko had said about the need for the sovereign to abdicate.
Alexeyev personally added that "the situation evidently allows for no other solution." Alexeyev then conveyed the replies from the front commanders to Ruzsky.
Alexeyev's telegram to the commanders at the front:
His Highness is in Pskov, where he has given his consent to publishing a proclamation, granting the desire to institute a ministry responsible to the chambers and instructing the State Duma chairman to form a cabinet.When the commander-in-chief of the Northern Front informed the State Duma chairman of this decision, the latter in a conversation at the state apparatus at three-thirty on March 2 replied that the appearance of such a proclamation might have been timely on February At present, though, this act is belated because one of the most terrible of all revolutions has begun.
The masses are nearly impossible to restrain, and the troops are demoralized. For the time being they still believe the State Duma chairman, but he fears that it is going to be impossible to contain popular passions, that now the dynastic issue has been put point-blank, and the war can be prosecuted only by meeting the demands that he abdicate the throne in favor of his son under a regency of Michael Alexandrovich.
The situation evidently allows for no other resolution, and every minute of further hesitation only raises the claims since the army's existence and the operation of the railroads are for all intents and purposes in the hands of the Petrograd Provisional Government.The active army has to be saved from collapse, the war with the external foe prosecuted to the end, and Russia's independence and the dynasty's fate saved. This has to be moved to the forefront, even if it means costly concessions. If you share this opinion, then would you be so good as to telegraph with all haste our most loyal request to His Highness through the Northern Front's commander-in-chief [Ruzsky] and inform me that you have done so.
I repeat.Every minute lost could be fateful for the existence of Russia. We must have unified thinking and goals among the top chiefs of the active army and save the army from hesitation and any possible instances of betrayal of duty. The army must do everything in its power to fight the external foe, and the decision regarding domestic affairs shall free it from the temptation of taking part in the overthrow, which will come about more painlessly on a decision from above.
March 2,
Alexeyev
After receiving responses to his telegram, Alexeyev dispatched the following telegram to the tsar:
To our Sovereign Emperor I humbly present to Your Imperial Highness the following telegrams received in the name of Your Imperial Highness:
1.From Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich.
"Adjutant General Alexeyev informs me of the unprecedented and fateful situation that has come about and asks me to support his opinion that a victorious conclusion to the war, so necessary for the good and future of Russia and the salvation of the dynasty, calls for taking extraordinary measures.
"As a loyal subject, I feel that the duty and spirit of my oath require me to pray in all humility to Your Imperial Highness to save Russia and your heir, knowing full well your sacred love for Russia and for him.
"Make the sign of the cross and transmit to him your legacy.There is no other solution.
"As never before in my life, with especially bitter prayer, I pray to God to strengthen and guide you.
"Adjutant General Nicholas."
2. From Adjutant General Brusilov:
"I beg you to inform the Sovereign Emperor of my most loyal request, based on my devotion and love for my homeland and the tsar's throne, that at the given moment the sole outcome that can save the situation and give us an opportunity to continue fighting our external foe, without which Russia will be lost, is to renounce the throne in favor of the sovereign heir tsarevich under a regency of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.There is no other possible solution. Speed is of the utmost importance if the popular conflagration that has broken out and spread is to be put out quickly. Otherwise it will bring with it incalculable and catastrophic consequences. This act will save the very dynasty itself in the person of the lawful heir.
"Adjutant General Brusilov."
3.
From Adjutant General Evert:
"Your Imperial Highness, Your Highness's chief of staff has explained to me the situation that has come about in Petrograd, Tsarskoe Selo, the Baltic Sea, and Moscow, and the result of the negotiations between Adjutant General Ruzsky and the State Duma chairman.
"Your Highness, as long as they are quelling domestic disorders, the army cannot be relied upon in its present composition.It can be restrained only in the name of Russia's salvation from inevitable enslavement by the country's most evil enemy should it prove impossible to prosecute the struggle further. I am taking all measures to see that news of the actual state of affairs in the capital does not penetrate to the army, in order to protect it from inevitable agitation.
There are no means whatsoever for stopping the revolution in the capital.
"An immediate decision is necessary that can bring the disorders to a halt and preserve the army for the struggle against our enemy.
"Given the situation as it now stands, and finding no other possible solution, this boundlessly devoted and loyal subject of Your Highness begs Your Highness in the name of the salvation of our homeland and dynasty to take a decision that is in accord with the statement of the State Duma chairman, as he expressed it to Adjutant General Ruzsky, as the sole solution evidently capable of halting the revolution and saving Russia from the horrors of anarchy.
"Adjutant General Evert."
I most loyally submit these telegrams to Your Imperial Highness and implore you to take a decision without delay as the Lord God inspires you.Delay threatens Russia with ruin. For the time being the army has managed to fend off the disease that has gripped Petrograd, Moscow, Kronstadt, and other cities, but one cannot vouch for further preservation of military discipline. If the army gets involved in domestic politics, that will mean the inevitable end of the war, Russia's disgrace, and its collapse.
Your Imperial Highness, love your homeland fervently and for the sake of its integrity and independence, for the sake of achieving victory, be pleased to take a decision that can provide a peaceful and auspicious outcome from the exceedingly grave situation that has come to pass.I await your injunctions.
March 2,
Adjutant General Alexeyev
There was one more telegram from General Sakharov, addressed to Ruzsky:
Adjutant General Alexeyev has conveyed to me the criminal and outrageous reply from the State Duma chairman to you regarding the Sovereign Emperor's most gracious decision to grant the country a responsible ministry, and has invited the commanders-in-chief to report to His Highness through you regarding the resolution of this issue, depending on the situation.
My ardent love for His Highness will not permit my soul to reconcile itself to the possible implementation of the vile suggestion conveyed to you by the State Duma chairman.I am certain that it was not the Russian people, who have never laid a hand on their tsar, that contemplated this evil deed but a handful of insurgents known as the State Duma, who treacherously exploited an opportune moment to carry out their criminal intentions. I am certain that the army at the front would be standing unwaveringly behind their supreme leader if they were not called upon to defend the homeland from the external foe and if they were not in the hands of those same state criminals who have seized the very fount of the army's life.
Such are the stirrings of my heart and soul.Moving on to the logic of reason, and taking into consideration the hopelessness of the situation that has come about, I, unwaveringly devoted to His Highness, sobbing, am forced to admit that, yes, the most painless solution for the country and for maintaining the possibility of fighting our external foe is the decision to meet the conditions already stated so that procrastination does not provide food for further, even more vile claims.
Jassy, March 2, , General Sakharov
Late that evening the commander of the Baltic fleet sent a telegram addressed to the emperor:
With immense difficulty, I am keeping the fleet and the troops in my charge in obedience.In Revel, the situation is critical, but I have not lost hope of restraining it. I am most loyally joining the petitions of the commanders-in-chief of the fronts for the immediate passage of the decision formulated by the chairman of the State Duma. If the decision is not taken in the next few hours, there will be a catastrophe entailing innumerable calamities for our homeland.
March 2, , No.
Vice Admiral Nepenin
The commander of the Black Sea fleet, Admiral Kolchak, refrained from sending a personal telegram to the emperor, but he "unequivocally endorsed Rodzianko's notification about the seizure of power."
On the afternoon of March 2, , Ruzsky reported to Nicholas II on telegrams from the commanders of the fronts and fleets, as well as on the arrest of some of the ministers.
He also notified the tsar that State Duma deputies Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov and Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin were on their way to Pskov to meet with him. After the report, Nicholas II handed Ruzsky telegrams he had signed addressed to State Duma Chairman Rodzianko, the chief of staff, Supreme Commander Alexeyev, and the Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, as well as the texts of two edicts for the Senate.
But they were never sent. On the advice of Voeikov, Nicholas II decided first to hear out Guchkov and Shulgin.
Voeikov cites the texts of these unsent documents:
To the Chairman of the State Duma:
There is no sacrifice I would not make in the name of the genuine good and for the salvation of my dear Mother Russia.For this reason I am prepared to abdicate the throne in favor of my son so that he remains with me until he reaches his majority under the regency of my brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.
Nicholas.
General Staff Headquarters
In the name of the good, the tranquility, and the salvation of my ardently loved Russia, I am prepared to abdicate the throne in favor of my son.I beg everyone to serve him faithfully and without dissimulation.
Nicholas.
To our Governor-General in the Caucasus, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, I enjoin you to be Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
Nicholas.
When he took back the unsent telegrams, Nicholas II sent for Dr.
Fyodorov, with whom he had long consulted on the health of the heir. Georgy Shavelsky, archpresbyter of the Russian army and navy, describes their conversation:
"Tell me, Sergei Petrovich, candidly. Can Alexei Nikolaevich ever recover completely?" the sovereign asked Dr. Fyodorov.
"If Your Highness believes in miracles, then there are no limits to a miracle.If you want to know what science says, then I have to say that as yet science knows no instance of full recovery from this illness. It may be merely a matter of the length of the illness. Some of these patients have died in infancy, others at age seven, some at twenty, and Duke Abrutsky lived to the age of forty-two. No one has lived longer than that," replied Dr.
Fyodorov.
"So you consider the illness incurable?"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
"What can we do then! Alexei Nikolaevich and I will settle in Livadia. The Crimean climate has a very propitious effect on him, and there, God willing, he will grow stronger."
"Your Highness is mistaken if you think that after your abdication you
will be allowed to live with Alexei Nikolaevick when he becomes Sovereign."
"What do you mean they wasn't let me?That is impossible!"
"That's right, they won't let you, Your Highness!"
"I cannot live without him. Then I will abdicate for him as well. This matter must be clarified!"
After this he invited in Count Fredericks, and Colonel Naryshkin, the head of the Imperial Chancellery, and Voeikov as well, who together had apparently come to the same conclusion as Dr.Fyodorov.
That evening, when Guchkov and Shulgin arrived in Pskov, Nicholas decided against entering into a discussion with them but listened impassively to Guchkov's speech and then reservedly declared his decision to abdicate the throne. Voeikov recalls:
A short while later the manifesto was typed. The sovereign signed it in his office and said to me, "Why don't you come in?" I replied: "There is nothing there for me to do." "No, come in," said the sovereign.
Thus, entering the salon car behind the sovereign, I was present in that trying moment when Emperor Nicholas II handed his manifesto of abdication from the throne to the commissars of the State Duma, whom he mistakenly believed to be representatives of the Russian people.Then and there the sovereign asked the minister of his court to affix his seal. The manifesto proclaimed the following:
"In these times of great struggle against a foreign enemy who for nearly three years has been trying to enslave our Homeland, the Lord God has seen fit to send down upon Russia yet another difficult trial.
"Popular domestic upheavals threaten to reflect calamitously on the further conduct of a sustained war.
"The fate of Russia, the honor of her heroic army, the good of her people, the entire future of our dear Fatherland demand that this war be waged to a victorious conclusion no matter what.
"Our cruel enemy is harnessing his last forces and the moment is nigh when our valorous army, together with our glorious allies, will break our enemy decisively.During these decisive days in the life of Russia, we have deemed it a matter of conscience to facilitate for our people the close unity and serried ranks of all our popular forces for the speedy attainment of victory and, in agreement with the State Duma, have recognized it as a good to abdicate the Throne of the Russian State and disencumber ourselves of supreme power.
"Not wishing to part with our beloved son, we transfer our legacy to our brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, and bless him on his ascension to the Throne of the Russian State.
"We command our brother to rule state affairs in full and inviolable unity with the representatives of the people in the institutions of legislation on the basis of those principles which they shall establish, and in doing so swearing an inviolable oath to our ardently beloved Homeland.
"We call on all loyal sons of the fatherland to carry out their sacred duty to it in obedience to the tsar in this trying moment of national tribulations and to help him and the representatives of the people lead the Russian state onto the path of victory, well-being, and glory.May the Lord God help Russia.
"Nicholas.
"March 2, hours, , Pskov.
"Sealed: Minister of the Imperial Court Adjutant General Count Fredericks."
That night, Nicholas II set out for Headquarters in Mogilev. From Sirotino Station he sent his brother Michael Alexandrovich the following telegram:
To his Imperial Highness Michael.
Petrograd.
Events of recent days have forced me to decide irrevocably on this extreme step. Forgive me if I have grieved you and because I was unable to forewarn you. I shall remain your faithful and devoted brother forever. I am returning to headquarters and from there in a few days I must go to Tsarskoe Selo.I fervently pray to God to help you and your Homeland. Nicky.
When Guchkov and Shulgin delivered Nicholas II's act of abdication to the Provisional Government, they joined Rodzianko, Alexander Kerensky, Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov, Georgy Evgenievich Lvov, Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov, and others for a meeting--at ten o'clock in the morning at 12 Millionnaya Street, in the apartment of Prince Mikhail Sergeyevich Putyatin, where Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich was staying.
Opinions about how to proceed diverged: Milyukov and Guchkov tried to convince Michael Alexandrovich to accept the throne; Kerensky, Lvov, Rodzianko, and Nekrasov tried to talk him out of it--and they insisted on having their way.
After consulting with Rodzianko and Lvov, Michael Alexandrovich declared that he did not feel he could accept the throne without the people's approval, signed an act of abdication, and handed it to Rodzianko.
The text of the manifesto, accepted at six o'clock in the evening, proclaimed:
A heavy burden has been placed on me by the will of my brother, who has transferred to me the imperial throne of all Russia in a year of unexampled warfare and upheavals among the people.
Inspired by a thought shared with the entire people, that the good of the Homeland comes before all else, I have firmly resolved to accept supreme power only if such is the will of our great people, on whom falls a universal election through our representatives in the Constituent Assembly to establish a form of governance and new laws for the Russian state.
For this reason I call upon the Divine blessing and beg all citizens of the Russian power to submit to the Provisional Government, which at the initiative of the State Duma arose and has been invested with all the fullness of power up until such time as a universal, direct, equal, and secret election can be held, in the briefest possible time.By its decision on the form of governance, the Constituent Assembly shall express the will of the people.
March 3,
Michael
We will continue to trace the fate of the two brothers, who signed abdications one after the other, in the following chapters. Here, however, let us note that Nicholas II's abdication in favor of Michael Alexandrovich and Michael II's in favor of the Constituent Assembly were both immediately taken by Russian society as a fait accompli.
On September 1, by decree of the head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky--himself a participant in the March 2 gathering at 12 Millionnaya Street, where he was the most active supporter of abdication--declared Russia a republic, and the monarchy was dissolved without the will of the Russian people ever being expressed at the Constituent Assembly.
The Romanovs, now merely citizens of the new Russia, represented no political threat to the new power. No one, least of all Nicholas II, was demanding the restoration of the monarchy, and the new government had no interest in its immediate destruction.
This new government itself, however, was anything but stable or monolithic.
The public's sympathies were growing increasingly radical, and by fall the liberal democratic Provisional Government had become right-wing socialist, with the local organs of power, the Soviets, held firmly by a bloc of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. In the absence of any sort of democratic tradition, the establishment of a dictatorship in the new Russia moved from the sphere of the probable to the inevitable.
In this ever-changing and volatile struggle for political power, a given party's attitude toward the fate of the former tsar's family became one of the measures of its commitment to the revolution, which meant that the newly overthrown Romanovs were now gravely endangered.
(C) G.
B. Egorov, I. V. Lysenko, V. V. Petrov All rights reserved. ISBN: