Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [160]
Nicholas’s diary:
“10 [23] May [continued].… Great joy to see them again and embrace them after four weeks of separation and uncertainty. No end to the mutual questions and answers, the poor things endured much moral suffering in Tobolsk and during their three-day journey.”
While Nicholas was greeting his children, his people and suite were led out of the train cars—Tatishchev, Countess Gendrikova, Volkov, Sednev, Kharitonov, the lady-in-waiting, the nurses, and so on—and put into droshkies.
Volkov later recounted:
“Rodionov walked up to the car: ‘Get out. We’re going now.’
“I got out, grabbing a large tin of jam, but they told me to leave the tin behind. I never did get that tin.” He survived so much—and forgot it all! But he did not forget that tin of jam.
The droshkies set out. In the first sat the head of the Red Urals himself, Alexander Beloborodov.
The droshkies drove through Ekaterinburg.
But what about Volkov?
The old servant outlived his masters: shortly afterward he was moved from one prison to another. When the Whites took Ekaterinburg, he was already in a prison in Perm.
One day he was called into the prison office with his things. There he saw his old acquaintances from Tsarskoe Selo—the young Countess Gendrikova and the old lady Schneider. They made up a group of eleven people—all “formers”—and they were led away from that prison and told they were being taken to a transfer prison and then to Moscow.
Oh that “to Moscow.” We shall see more than once what that meant.
They walked for a long time, and old Schneider could barely move her feet. She was carrying a handbasket, which Volkov took from her. In it were two wooden spoons and some bits of bread—the entire worldly goods of the teacher of two empresses.
They passed through the town and came out onto a highway. Their escorts became very polite and offered to help carry suitcases. It was already nighttime, and obviously they had already been thinking ahead—they did not want to be splitting up the loot in the darkness. That was when Volkov understood. He made a leap into the darkness and ran. Lazy shots rang out in pursuit, but he ran and ran … and got away, the old soldier Volkov.
His acquaintances from Tsarskoe Selo—young Countess Gendrikova and the old court reader Ekaterina Schneider—were destroyed. The Whites later found their corpses. The enchanting Nastenka had a crushed skull—she had been struck with a rifle butt. They had not wanted to waste a bullet.
Nicholas’s diary:
“10 [23] May [continued].… Of all those who arrived they only let the cook Kharitonov and Sednev go. We waited until night for them to bring the beds and necessary things from the station.… The girls had to sleep on the floor. Alexei spent the night on Marie’s cot, in the evening he had bruised his knee, as if on purpose, and suffered terribly all night.”
Thus on his first day in the Ipatiev house the boy was taken to his bed. He would not get up until his very last.
Meanwhile, Gilliard, Gibbes, Baroness Buxhoeveden, and Liza Ersberg spent the night in the train car on a siding. Thousands of homeless gathered here in heated cargo vans. Why were they spared? Some were saved by their German surnames. After all, there was the Treaty of Brest with the Germans. Others—Gilliard and Gibbes—were also foreign born.
But why did they spare Tegleva?
She was on fond terms with the Swiss Gilliard, and evidently whoever spared her knew that. Yes, I think this is again our “spy.” Naturally, knowing French, he must have made friends in Tobolsk with the talkative Swiss. So he decided not to break up the couple. But enough of conjectures.
In a heated cargo van, amid thousands of sacks, in a mass of humanity, were these remnants of the court.
The strange Gilliard, loyal to the Russian tsar, kept trying to obtain permission to return to the family. But they repeated: “Your services are no longer needed.” Gilliard appealed to the English consul, who explained that for the good of all those arrested it was better not to attempt anything. The favorite explanation of