Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [145]
Nicholas’s diary:
“14 [27] April.… The last stage was made slowly taking all military precautions. Arrived in Tyumen at 9.15 under a beautiful moon with the entire squadron surrounding our carts as we entered the town. It was nice to get on a train, tho’ not a very clean one. We ourselves and our things had a desperately filthy look. Went to bed at 10 without undressing. I on a cot and Alix, Marie, and Nyuta [Demidova] in a section nearby.”
In Tyumen Yakovlev waited for his detachment of 250 men. For the first time in the whole journey he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not know that both Ural detachments had a very different mission. They were supposed to follow only as far as the train: the worst awaited him ahead—on the railway.
The train stood ready for departure.
TRAIN CHASE
The family occupied a separate train car.
In the central compartment were Yakovlev and Avdeyev. The compartment to the right of them had Nicholas and Alix, the one to the left Marie and Anna Demidova.
As soon as the family were settled in their compartments, Yakovlev and his telegraphist went to the telegraph post and his direct line.
Avdeyev tried to leave the car right after him, but Yakovlev’s sharpshooters would not let him out. Yakovlev made contact with Moscow.
His message to Sverdlov: “The route remains the old one or have you changed it? Inform Tyumen immediately.”
A short while later the ribbon spewed out an answer from Moscow: “The old route. Report whether taking Cargo or not? Sverdlov.”
Yakovlev reported: “Taking Cargo.”
Yakovlev returned to the train, which got under way. Having ridden as far as the nearest fork, Yakovlev gave an order to couple on a new engine and change direction. Very quickly Avdeyev realized the train was not going to Ekaterinburg. Its lights extinguished, the train moved off to the east—toward Omsk.
“Where is the train going?” the Uralite demanded.
Yakovlev explained that he had learned that a Ural detachment was preparing to attack them en route for the purpose of destroying the family. He was afraid to take the family to Ekaterinburg via the old route and had decided to take a roundabout route to Ekaterinburg—through Omsk.
Avdeyev did not believe him, of course. He realized they were not taking the family to Ekaterinburg. But where then?
The morning of April 28. The family was waking up.
Nicholas’s diary:
“Everyone got a sound sleep. We have guessed by the names of the stations that we are going in the direction of Omsk. We have begun trying to guess where they will take us after Omsk. Moscow or Vladivostok? The commissars, of course, have not been saying anything. Marie often went to see the riflemen—their compartment is at the end of the car.… At the stations we covered the windows, since due to the holiday there were a lot of people. After a cold bite to eat and tea we went to bed early.”
But Marie did not find anything out from the sharpshooters, and Yakovlev was not explaining anything.
That night, while they lay sleeping, the main events flared up.
Yakovlev was rushing to Omsk but without knowing the most important thing: informed by Sverdlov as to the true purpose of the secret mission, Goloshchekin had made peace with the Omsk Bolsheviks. As always, a province was reconciled by its dislike for the capital. While Yakovlev, triumphant, was on his way to Omsk, telegrams were already flying from Ekaterinburg.
To Moscow: “28 April. Ekaterinburg. Your Commissar Yakovlev has taken Romanov to Tyumen stop Put him on a train comma Set out toward Ekat[erinburg] stop Went one stage comma changed direction comma went back stop Now the train with Nicholas is near Omsk stop Why this was done we do not know stop We consider this action treasonous stop According to your letter of 9 April Nicholas should be in Ekaterinburg stop What does this mean? In keeping with the decision passed by the Party’s Regional Soviet and Regional