Alexander II_ The Last Great Tsar - Edvard Radzinsky [89]
Endless meetings in Duma members’ apartments. General Krymov arrived from the front and told of the tragic situation in the army—the rumors of treason and the numerous defeats. The conclusion: a coup was inevitable.
At this time, as once before in the nineteenth century, the opposition was allying itself increasingly in secret Masonic lodges, which flourished in Russia after the 1905 revolution. By 1917 they had united society’s liberal elite, which was fed up with the Rasputin business. The paradox of the situation was that on the eve of 1905, when the police had frightened Nicholas with Masons, Masonry scarcely existed in Russia. Now, on the eve of 1917, when Masonry had become a real force, the police knew little about it. Meanwhile, the Masonic lodges included among their members tsarist ministers, generals, members of the State Council, Duma figures, prominent diplomats, industrialists: P. Balk, minister of finance; N. Pokrovsky, minister of foreign affairs; N. Polivanov, minister of war; Generals V. Gurko, A. Krymov, and N. Ruzsky; K. Dzhunkovsky, the chief of police, and so on. No, they did not want revolution—but they did want changes. Even in the lodges, then, activity was limited to seditious conversations. “Quite enough was done to get someone hanged, but not enough actually to carry out any plans,” one of the chief opposition leaders, Duma member Guchkov, would later say. Guchkov was trying to take practical steps: he was beginning to prepare a coup for March, when military units loyal to the Duma would be moved up toward Petrograd. To avoid bloodshed, he was planning to seize the tsar’s train and force the tsar to abdicate then and there. But none of the prominent military men (other than Krymov) joined in his plot. “I will never enter into a plot, I have sworn an oath.” Many could have repeated this statement by Duma Chairman Rodzianko.
At that time the head of the Petrograd secret police was submitting endless reports to Internal Affairs Minister Protopopov.
January 9: “Alarming mood among the revolutionary underground and widespread propagandization of the proletariat.”
January 28: “Events of extraordinary importance, fraught with exceptional consequences for Russian statehood, are not beyond the hills.”
February 5: “Animosity is mounting.… Spontaneous demonstrations by the popular masses will be the first and last stage on the path to senseless and merciless excesses of the most horrible thing of all—anarchical revolution.”
Protopopov blithely shelved the reports. After all, the empress had said: “There is no revolution in Russia, nor could there be. God would not allow it.”
Nicholas’s diary:
“29 January. Sunday.… In the afternoon took a walk and worked in the snow a while.… At 6 received old Klopov.”
Yes, this was the same Klopov who had come to see Nicholas at the dawn of his reign. Then Klopov had wanted to tell Nicholas the people’s truth. He came now one more time, to save his beloved tsar.
After the revolution Klopov worked quietly as a bookkeeper, and he died in 1927. Klopov left a note among his papers about his 1917 audience with Nicholas. He talked to the tsar about the court’s egoism, about the government’s criminal actions. Nicholas listened with a strange smile on his face, as if he were absent. Klopov left frightened by the incomprehensible equanimity of the tired man who had sat before him.
At this time Nicholas’s childhood friend Sandro, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, wrote Nicholas a letter. He wrote it at several sittings, decided to send it, and then changed his mind.
Nicholas’s diary:
“10 February.… Sandro arrived at 2 and had a long talk with Alix in my presence in the bedroom.”
Alix lay in bed for Sandro’s visit, as she was unwell. Sandro kissed her hand, and her lips grazed his cheeks. Sandro wanted to talk with her alone, but Nicky remained. She feared a tête-à-tête.
Later Alexander Mikhailovich told all about his conversation with Alix in his memoirs. But we are all strong in hindsight. It would be more accurate to draw on his own letter,