Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [167]
At the last moment, Goloshchekin evidently rescinded his decision to proceed with the murders. He decided first to obtain Moscow’s consent.
Meanwhile he let go a trial balloon: to see how Moscow would react to Michael’s destruction.
The organizer of Michael’s murder, Myasnikov, did not want to be a guinea pig. That was why he disappeared the moment they brought Michael out of the hotel. According to Markov’s statements, Myasnikov was not involved in the actual murder at all. A shrewd man, Myasnikov. During the first postrevolutionary years he took part in the workers’ opposition and did battle with Lenin himself. When the persecutions of the workers’ opposition began in 1921–22, he managed to flee abroad and lived happily in Paris, where he forgot all about our bitter revolution. In vain. Just as he had once taken Michael away by force, so he too would be abducted by Stalin’s bold Chekists, who brought the poor forgetful man back to his homeland. And just as Michael had once been shot without trial, like a dog, so too would Myasnikov.
Or else it had all been conceived in Moscow—how to destroy both pretenders to the Russian throne—and now, when the days of Bolshevik power seemed numbered, the Central Committee panicked and decided to limit themselves to Michael and see how the world would react. They could leave the family for now, a trump card in possible negotiations with the Allied powers.
One way or another, the plan to kill the family was postponed. For now the Ural leaders decided to take the tried and true path.
Once again the days dragged on.
Nicholas’s diary:
“3 [16] June.… All week have been reading and today finished The History of Emperor Paul the First by Schiller [Schilder]—very interesting.”
What was he thinking about as he read the history of his unlucky ancestor? About his mother’s prophecy back in 1916, when he became commander-in-chief, that he would repeat Paul Is story? Or was he simply reading a book about a past life that had vanished so very quickly? As if there had always been this pitiful house and these long, boring, maddeningly hot days.
“5 [18] June. Dear Anastasia has turned 17. The heat outside and inside was terrific.… The girls are learning how to cook from Kharitonov and in the evenings they knead flour and in the morning bake the bread. Not bad!”
Chapter 13
FLIGHT
THE LETTER
It happened—in June.
That morning.… They had just gotten up. Getting up early was torture for her. She had to, though: every morning Commandant Avdeyev came “to verify the presence of the prisoners.”
Nicholas was standing by the window, examining a tiny piece of paper.
With the commandant’s permission they were now being brought food from the Novotikhvinsky monastery: out of the generosity of the father superior they were brought cream, eggs, and bottles of milk. In one of the monastery bottles he had found this letter.
Dull light through the lime-smeared window. It was still morning and not yet hot. Later would come the furnace—and in the rooms it would become unbearable. They were not allowed to open the windows, though. Once he had done battle with emperors—of Japan, Germany, Austria-Hungary. Now he was doing battle for permission to open the windows in a room.
“9 [22] June. Saturday.… Today at tea 6 men walked in, probably from the Regional Soviet—to see which windows to open. The resolution of this issue has gone on for nearly 2 weeks! Often various men have come and silently in our presence examined the windows.
“The fragrance from all the town’s gardens is amazing.”
But he has forgotten all about the windows and the gardens’ fragrance. He is torturously trying to read the letter—this scrap of paper cleverly slipped into the milk stopper.
He is pacing around the room with a marching step