Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [102]
Once he was back at Tsarskoe Selo Nicholas would observe with a certain malicious pleasure the once terrible orators of the Duma becoming increasingly helpless to do anything about the natural disaster they had provoked.
Alexeyev was negotiating the departure of the tsar’s family. Through Murmansk, it was assumed, to England. Nicholas wanted it all arranged before his return to Alix.
But something else happened. The new world did not want his departure. On March 3, immediately after his abdication, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies passed a decree “On the arrest of Nicholas II and the other members of the Romanov dynasty.”
The Provisional Government was forced to yield, so much did they fear this new world, despite the fact that he had met all their conditions without a murmur and had signed the manifesto.
“The journal of the Provisional Government’s sessions of March 7.
“Considered: The incarceration of the abdicated emperor and his spouse.
“Resolved: To approve the incarceration of the abdicated Emperor Nicholas II and his wife and to remove the abdicated emperor to Tsarskoe Selo.”
Kerensky later explained the reasons for the arrest:
“The extremely agitated state of the soldiers at the rear and the workers. The Petrograd and Moscow garrisons were hostile to Nicholas.… Recall my speech of March 20 at the plenum of the Moscow Soviet—demands for execution were heard then, addressed directly to me. I said I would never take on the role of Marat, that an impartial court would examine Nicholas’s guilt before Russia.”
The Provisional Government had more or less defended him from the Soviets’ arbitrariness. But this arrest “tied the knot later broken in Ekaterinburg” (V. Nabokov, administrator of affairs for the Provisional Government).
True, Alexeyev informed him of what the government had implied: all this was temporary, for purposes of placating the crowd’s fury. A special commission of inquiry was being created—it would prove the tsar’s innocence and the nonsense of the rumors about Alix’s treason. And then—bon voyage—to England!
Nicholas’s diary:
“8 March, Wednesday. Last day in Mogilev. At 10.15 signed a parting decree to the army.”
He wanted good and reconciliation for Russia. That was why he ceded power and asked his people to serve the new government loyally: “I address you for the last time, my ardently loved troops. Do your duty—defend our valorous homeland, obey the Provisional Government, heed your leaders: may God bless you and the great martyr St. George the Conqueror lead you to holy victory.” At that moment Nicholas fell for good in monarchists’ eyes as well.
Meanwhile, no one dared publish the decree—its author was too unpopular.
Nicholas’s diary:
“8 March [continuation].… At 10.30 went to the Guards building, where said goodbye to all the officials of the staff and administration. At home said goodbye to the officers and Cossacks of the Convoy and Mixed Regiment—my heart nearly burst. At 12 went to see Mama in her train car, had lunch with her and her suite, and sat with her ’til 4.30. Said goodbye to her, Sandro, Sergei, Boris, and Alec.”
He was seeing them all for the last time.
“At 4.45 left Mogilev. A touching crowd of people saw me off. Four members of the Duma are accompanying me in my train.… It is hard, painful, and miserable.”
“Accompanying”—his delicate way of noting his arrest.
DIARY OF THE PRISONER
According to the government’s resolution:
1. The family and everyone who remained with them were to be isolated from the outside world.
2. An inside and outside guard was formed.
3. The family was permitted to move about only within the confines of the Alexander Palace.
4. Papers were confiscated from the tsar and tsaritsa, to be handed over to the conduct of the Special Commission of Inquiry.
On March 8, General Kornilov’s automobile drove up to the Alexander Palace. Lavr Kornilov, a distinguished military general—with his peaked martial mustache—left his automobile at