Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [141]
The Uralite Avdeyev, appointed commandant of the house, was bringing about a change of the guard. Instead of the soldiers from Tsarskoe Selo, Red Guards took up the posts. On one side there was a platoon of handsome mounted soldiers in formation, dressed in uniform. On the other, the Red Guard—the comrades—some in greasy sheepskin coats, some in woolen coats, some in faded overcoats. Instead of riding boots they wore sewn and patched felt boots. Their weapons corresponded. One had an ammunition belt across his shoulder, another a rifle, still another a revolver. Their lineup was unusual, too: the Red Guard formed up according to friendship, not height.
Both detachments regarded each other with astonishment. A fragment of an empire and the army of the revolution—a great photograph of the era.
“WE IMAGINE THAT THIS IS MOSCOW”
The next day Yakovlev did not come to the house.
Nicholas’s diary:
“A fine day and rather warm. Sat a lot on my favorite greenhouse porch, the sun warms up marvelously there. Worked by the hill and clearing out a deep ditch.”
While the tsar was clearing out the ditch and reflecting on the porch of the hothouse, Yakovlev was faced with his hardest task—his encounter with the tsar’s guard. They had meekly allowed themselves to be replaced by Red Guards, but as of yesterday they were already starting to grumble.
Gathering the guard, Yakovlev spent a long time flattering the sharpshooters. Then came the important part: he triumphantly handed them their unpaid salaries for six months of Soviet power and informed them of wonderful news: their service was at an end, and they could go home to their families at last. In the evening he called a meeting of the guard’s soldiers’ committee, where he announced his purpose: he must take the tsar and his family out of Tobolsk. To the recurring question Where? Yakovlev answered with the same sentence: “This is not a subject for discussion.” They began to grumble and he immediately capitulated: he proposed including eight sharpshooters from the former guard in the guard that was going to accompany Nicholas and the family to the designated place, to convince themselves that the tsar and his family would be safe.
Yakovlev had been told back in Moscow that he could rely on the committee chairman, Matveyev.
From Matveyev’s Notes:
“Yakovlev calls me in and asks me a question: have I ever had to carry out secret military instructions. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Yakovlev announces he’s been given the task of transferring the former tsar to Moscow. He suggests I choose eight men from my detachment to escort Nicholas Romanov en route.”
One can only guess whether Matveyev shared this astonishing news with his friend, the “spy.”
That evening, at Yakovlev’s quarters, the main meeting was held, with Kobylinsky. In his conversation with the colonel, Yakovlev made his move. He informed Kobylinsky that he must take the tsar to Moscow for trial, although naturally there would not be a trial; the tsar and his family would be sent straight to Scandinavia. He extracted a promise from the colonel not to spread this secret, knowing full well he would. He needed it spread. To calm the family and the tsar and the suite so that all would go smoothly.
That same night Kobylinsky secretly informed Botkin, and Botkin his daughter.
His daughter wrote:
“Father has told us important news.… Yakovlev has come here on Lenin’s order to take Their Excellencies to Moscow for trial, and the issue is whether to let the guard go unimpeded. Despite the terrible word ‘trial,’ everyone has taken this cheerfully, since they are convinced it does not mean a trial at all but departure abroad. Yakovlev himself must have talked about this, since Kobylinsky was walking around very happy saying, ‘What trial? There’s not going to be any trial, they’re going to take them straight from Moscow to Petrograd—and on to Finland, Sweden, and Norway.’”
Kobylinsky did not manage to inform the tsar