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By Root 2153 0

all, it is already set up for sugar and everyone is calm and gets enough), we have idiots.… The whole trouble is this bawling public, those well-dressed people, wounded soldiers, & so on, girl students & the like, inciting the others. Lili [Lili Dehn, the wife of an aide-de-camp and naval officer, was the empress’s friend and, unlike Anya, the soul of good sense and order] talks to drivers to find out news & they have told that students have come and said if they go out in the morning they will be shot at—what rotten types! Naturally the drivers & carters are striking, but they say its not like 1905 because everyone adores you & only wants bread.… What warm weather—vexing that the children cannot even go for a ride in an open car. It seems though that all will be well. The sun is shining brightly—I feel such peace at His dear grave. He died to save us.… Baby is one great rash, covered like a leopard, Olga has large flat spots. Ania too is covered with rash. All their throats & eyes hurt—I have to go back to them in the dark. I bless & kiss you over & over.”

He: “Headquarters. 26 February.… Please do not overtire yourself, running about among the sick ones.… Yesterday I visited the ikon of the Holy Virgin and prayed fervently for you, my love, for the dear children, for our country, and also for Anya.… This morning, during the service, I felt an excruciating pain in the chest, which lasted for a quarter of an hour. I could hardly stand the service out, and my forehead was covered with drops of perspiration, I cannot understand what it could have been, because I had no palpitation of the heart; but later it disappeared, vanishing suddenly when I knelt before the image of the Holy Virgin.”

On February 26 Rodzianko sent the tsar a desperate telegram: “There is anarchy in the capital. The government is paralyzed, transportation, food, and fuel have reached a pathetic state. Military units are firing on each other. There is random shooting on the streets. You must immediately name someone who has the country’s trust to form a new government.… Any delay is akin to death. I pray God that in this hour accountability does not fall on the wearer of the crown.” The telegram arrived in the night, but Chief of Staff Alexeyev decided not to wake the tsar, not showing him the telegram until morning.

On the morning of February 27, Rodzianko addressed a second telegram to the tsar: “The situation is growing worse. You must take measures immediately, for tomorrow will be too late. The final hour has come when the fate of the Homeland and the dynasty shall be decided.”

In Petrograd the offices of the secret police were in flames, and the crowd would not let the fire be put out; regiments were on their way to the Tauride Palace, where the Provisional Committee of the Duma was in session. To furled flags and music they were swearing an oath to the new government. At that point General Khabalov decided, finally, to post notices declaring a state of siege in the city—but the authorities were unable to obtain paste or brushes.

The district court was burning, and they were already hunting down policemen.

What strange entries at this time in Nicholas’s diary. If Alix got her information “from the drivers Ania spoke with,” then he, who had all the information and read Rodzianko’s desperate telegrams—what was his excuse for his astounding inaction? Weary indifference? But then what was the meaning of “the excruciating pain in the chest”?

It does make sense, of course.

As he was leaving Tsarskoe Selo that last time on February 22, he assumed a storm was possible—a storm everyone was promising him. And he decided in advance not to fight the storm. He could not and would not make war on society anymore. He knew, though, that she would not let him concede peacefully. Just as they would not accept his concessions if she remained. Rasputin and the rumors of treason had compromised her too badly. He was left with only one choice: either her or the throne. He chose her. He chose his private life with his family, so that his unhappy, half-mad wife would