Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [85]
He: “10 December, 1916.… Things do not look too bright in Roumania.… In the Dobrudja our troops had to retire to the very Danube.… By the 15th of Dec. the concentration of our forces will, I hope, [be] more or less accomplished and perhaps toward Christmas we shall begin our offensive. As you see, the position there is not a happy one.”
What was the extent of his participation in the war? An ignorant, weak-willed executor of the wishes of his hysterical wife and Rasputin—that was the answer given by the coming revolution.
But here is another widely known opinion. Winston Churchill wrote about it in World Crisis: “Surely to no nation has Fate been more malignant than to Russia. Her ship went down in sight of port.… Every sacrifice had been made; the toil was achieved.… The long retreats were ended; the munition famine was broken; arms were pouring in; stronger, larger, better equipped armies guarded the immense front.… Alexeiff directed the Army and Kolchak the Fleet. Moreover, no difficult action was now required: to remain in presence: to lean with heavy weight upon the far stretched Teutonic line: to hold without exceptional activity the weakened hostile forces on her front: in a word to endure—that was all that stood between Russia and the fruits of general victory….
“The brunt of supreme decisions centred upon him. At the summit where all problems are reduced to Yea and Nay, where events transcend the faculties of men and where all is inscrutable, he had to give the answers. His was the function of the compass needle. War or no war? Advance or retreat? Right or left? Democratise or hold firm? Quit or persevere? These were the battlefields of Nicholas II. Why should he reap no honor for them?… In spite of errors vast and terrible, the regime he personified, over which he presided, to which his personal character gave the final spark, had at this moment won the war for Russia.”
He: “I am so glad that you were pleased with Novgorod.… You saw more there than I did in 1904.”
In Novgorod Alix had been to see the famous prophetess, the holy woman Maria Mikhailovna, who lived in the Desyatinna Convent. He hoped her trip would divert her indomitable energy into a new channel, so he could pause for breath.
Subsequently Alix would repeat the legend: Maria Mikhailovna was lying in the darkness when Alix appeared. Then the holy woman suddenly rose up on her bed, climbed down to the floor, and bowed to the ground before the empress. And she said: “You, beautiful lady, shall know suffering.” But what was the point of legends if Alix herself described the meeting?
She: “She lay in bed in a small dark room, so they brought a candle for us to see each other. She is 107, weares irons … generally always works, goes about, sews for the convicts & soldiers, without spectacles—never washes. And of course, no smell, or feeling of dirt, scraggy grey hair standing out, a sweet fine, oval face with lovely young, shining eyes & sweet smile. She blessed us & kissed us.… To me she said: And you the beautiful one—dont fear the heavy cross’ (several times)—has grey hair and a sweet, delicate, oval face—‘for your coming to visit us, two churches will be built in Russia.’ … Said not to worry about the children, will marry, & could not hear the rest.”
Or maybe poor Alix didn’t understand what marriage she was talking about. Old-style Russian was hard for the Hessian princess. Her friend Anya preferred “not to hear” it either. The holy woman was speaking of Alix’s daughters’ being wed to death.
He: “3 December, 1916.… Endless thanks for your long interesting letter with the many details of your trip to Novgorod.… Well now, about Trepov [in 1916 Alexander Feodorovich Trepov was appointed prime minister]. He was quiet and submissive and did not touch upon the name of Protopopov.… He unfolded his plan concerning the Duma—to prorogue it on the 17th of December and reassemble it on the 19th of January so as to show