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By Root 2206 0

the jaw of one of them with the butt of a revolver. True, they did not get to do anything else: the madam would not let them drip blood on her rug. The sailors spent their time with the girls—and got bored again. So they sat the officers in the car, drove to some remote spot, and ordered them to get out. They did. ‘Take off your coats’—they surrounded the officers and seized their revolvers, all the while cursing obscenities. The officers took them off. They ordered one of them to take the coats to the automobile. He did. While he was at the automobile he heard shots. Then the sailors returned. ‘Ah, son of a bitch! How could we have forgotten about you? Ah, to hell with you. You’re still good for something. Tomorrow we’ll all drive around again’ (that is, from apartment to apartment). They shoved him under their feet between the seats and beat the prostrate man with their heels all the way—they were having a good time. This I am quoting almost word for word from the published memoirs of my friend Vladimir Dmitrievich. When you start getting horrified about the execution of the tsar’s family or the execution of Michael Romanov—don’t forget that remote spot where they killed those officers like dogs. Don’t forget the elder Zheleznyakov, who made the sign of the cross in the air and kept muttering, ‘Death … death … death.’ By the way, Zheleznyakov was a very famous name in the history of the October Revolution because the ‘bad’ elder Zheleznyakov, with his bad sailors from the Republic, was the brother of the ‘good’ younger Zheleznyakov, who dispersed the Constituent Assembly, the first and last free Russian parliament, with good sailors from the same Republic. Only History could dream up something like that! ‘De-e-eath … de-e-eath … de-e-eath.”

The revolutionary Kronstadt sailors wanted to seize the tsar’s family, especially with those innocent virgins and the jewels into the bargain. “De-e-eath, de-e-eath, de-e-eath.” But the Bolshevik Sovnarkom already had its misgivings about the “pride and glory of the Russian revolution.”

The Sovnarkom declared the transfer “untimely.”

Bolshevik pragmatists did, however, discuss how best to exploit the tsar’s family. The new government had its romantics. Romantics mad about the French Revolution. The romantics were in favor of bringing the family to Moscow immediately—for a great show trial to be arranged featuring the people against the deposed tyrant, and the principal orator of the revolution, Lev Trotsky, was eager to act as plaintiff. Oh, how popular Lev Davydovich was then.… A comb of black hair, blue eyes, fervent speeches. “The perpetually excited Lev Davydovich,” his enemies said with sarcasm—or rather envy, for that was the peak of Trotsky’s popularity. And the face of Lev—the “lion” of the revolution—hung like an icon in the houses of all true revolutionaries.

He would destroy the pathetic, fork-tongued tsar before all progressive humanity. It would be the triumph of the revolution! The idea of trying the tsar in Moscow won out, which was all well and good—but how were they to get the tsar to the capital? “Three hundred thirty armed guards picked from the tsar’s former soldiers” were guarding the Tobolsk house. They passed the matter on to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the highest organ of power in the Republic.

“HE BORE HIS SERVICE IN EXEMPLARY FASHION”

At that time someone we already know stood at the head of the Central Executive Committee: Sverdlov. In January 1918 Sverdlov received representatives from the detachment guarding the Romanovs. Chief among them was Peter Matveyev (the author of the Notes).

Matveyev was a typical figure from the early years of the revolution: a gray overcoat that sensed power. Chosen chairman of the soldiers’ committee, yesterday’s tsarist sergeant-major hung a thick tablet on his door: “Lodging of Peter Matveyevich, Comrade Matveyev.”

From Matveyev’s Notes:

“The first news about the fall of the Provisional Government came to us on about November 20.… But Commissar Pankratov … tried to prove that the Bolsheviks had