Star Media Babich-Design in association with the Russian
Military Historical Society The Tsar’s train derailed. The chamber servants who stood
at the doors died at once. The children were crying,
and it was unclear who was alive. The Emperor drew himself up to his full height
and held a twisted beam on his shoulders. To save! To hold!
For as long as he had it in him. THE HOUSE OF ROMANOV. Episode Eight Twenty years remained to
the end of the 19th century. The Russian Empire occupied 1/6 of the land
and was the largest state in the world. Despite all
hopes and expectations, after the liberal reforms
of Alexander II the Liberator the country was in a state
of a grave economic crisis. In the course of the rule of Alexander
II, the melting of cast iron rose only for 67% while in Germany during
the same period of time – for 319%. The external debt of Russia grew
from 2 billion to 6 billion rubles. The corruption was
flourishing like never before. The bribes for influential
bureaucrats reached 200,000 rubles (160 million in present day money). The country was in fever. For the first time in the
history of Russia terrorism appeared. The members
of the “People’s Will” society opened a hunt for the Emperor and
killed him from the eighth attempt. The tsar’s power in Russia
had never been so unstable. The new Emperor had to
take an incredible burden. Chapter One. Alexander
III Alexandrovitch He didn’t plan to
become the Emperor. Being a middle son
of Alexander II, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovitch
was preparing for a military career. It was his elder brother Prince Nicolay
Alexandrovitch who was to ascend the throne. However, during his trip
to Europe Nicolay fell ill. The council of doctors concluded
that heir had tuberculous meningitis. The Grand Duke died soon. Alexander spent a lot of time by his brother’s bedside. Nicolay’s
fiance Princess of Denmark Maria Sophia Fredericka
Dagmar was always there too. The sorrow united them. Little by little, Alexander
fell in love with small and tender Minnie,
as her family called her. He didn’t dare propose
to her for ten days. Then Minnie expressed
initiative. She invited Alexander
to see some photo albums. When the prince whispered something
like “I ask for your hand”, Minnie decisively threw
herself in his arms. That marriage was happy. Maria Sophia Fredericka Dagmar
who converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Maria Fedorovna, gave
birth to four sons and two daughters. The Emperor loved his small
Empress and was a bit scared of her. They 28 years lived
in love and happiness. Only Alexander’s death
separated them. During the revolution,
Maria Fedorovna escaped to Denmark and lived to
the ripe old age. She didn’t believe in death of her sons
shot by the Bolsheviks. When Alexander III ascended the
throne in 1881, he was 36 and he knew what to do well. He was sure that the liberal reforms
of his father weakened the economy
and shook the society. It was necessary for life
to resume its former course. The magistrate’s courts and peasants’
self-governance were cancelled in villages. Petty sales clerks and
shop man in the cities were deprived of the voting rights. Strict
censorship was introduced; 15 printed editions were closed for
freethinking, 300 books were withdrawn from the libraries including works
of Nekrasov, Garshin, and Korolenko. A new statute liquidated the
autonomy of the universities, introduced compulsory
uniform for the students and rose payments for
education fivefold. The Circular on Cooks’ Children prohibited accepting “children
of coaches, servants, laundresses and petty salesmen to the gymnasiums”. However, the country was rushing forward: first oil derricks and rolling mills appeared, followed
by electric light and paved streets, centralized water supply system
and toilets, dresses with bustle, bowlers, steamships, telegraph,
Siemens’s tram and Erickson’s telephone. On the Emperor resided his personal
order fhe first telephone line in Russia was laid from Petersburg
to Gatchina where he lived. The Gatchina Palace became the first
residence in Russia to be electrified. That was the only luxury
Alexander III agreed for. In general he was very thrifty. He cut the number of his
retinue in half; balls and other entertainments
became rare at the court, expenses for food
and wine were cut. The only entertainment that remained unchanged
was hunting. Alexander was a passionate hunter
and a good shooter. He loved fishing even more than hunting. The Empress fried zanders he
caught with potatoes herself, and they were absolutely happy. However, rest with his family was
a rare occasion for the Emperor. He worked a lot making short breaks to smoke a cigar or to
have a walk in the garden. Once during a walk he tiptoed
to his younger son Mikhail and poured him with water from the garden hose. In a few days, Mikhail waited for a moment when his father was smoking a cigar
leaning from a window of his study, as his wife prohibited
him from smoking inside, and poured a bucket
of water on him. He wasn’t punished. He was very physically strong
– he could tie a poker in a knot and a five-kopek
coin into a tube. He was very tall – 193
cm and rather fat. That’s why the Emperor didn’t like riding
for it was hard to find a horse to fit him. Alexander was
unpretentious in his everyday life. He got up at 7 a.m., brewed
coffee himself and drank it with neither sugar nor
cream with bread rolls. He walked with his
favorite dog Kamchatka, then listened to his ministers’
reports for a few hours. He had breakfast at 1 p.m. – tea,
hard-boiled eggs and rye bread with butter. He worked with papers in his study
and had a walk from 3 to 5 p.m. in the garden with the Empress
and the kids – rain or shine. At 8 p.m. the dinner was served. The Emperor loved good food – fish or crayfish soup with
rasstegay, lamb side with porridge, salted cucumbers, porridge
with cream and almonds. He went on with his work after
that, sometimes late into the night. The Emperor made inspection
trips rather often. A railway engineer Sergey
Vitte who often accompanied him witnessed situations that
were impossible to imagine about the Emperor’s daily routine. “I saw that when everybody went to
sleep the Emperor’s chamberlain Kotov was mending the Emperor’s pants. Once, when I passed him and saw him mending, I told him: “Why can’t you take a
few pairs with you so that when there is a hole in
one pair of pants you could give another pair to the Emperor”.
And he answered: “Try doing it! If he puts on some pants or a
jacket, he won’t take them off until they tear apart at the seams”. A-la Russ style was in fashion in
Alexander’s III time: dresses, decorations, menus in the restaurants, interiors….
A special style appeared in architecture that was later called “pseudo-Russian”
– towers, round columns, colorful ornamental tiles – new
towers built in the new-old manner like the Upper Trade Stalls
of the State Trade Mall and the building of the
Historical Museum in Moscow. Alexander supported oainting,
especially on historic topics. Vasnetsov and Surykov
were his favorite artists. At the time of flourishing of the
national traditions an issue of treatment of the foreigners, especially
of the Jews arose in Russia. Since the times of Catherina II,
the Russian Jews could only live in specially designated districts,
the so called pale of settlement. Reforms of Alexander II widened the
rights of adherents of different creeds and first of all of
Jews considerably. In the second half
of the 19th century, the Jewish capital started to
play a significant part in trade, banking business as well as in
publishing, journalism and printing. Alexander III curtailed his father’s
reforms and changed the national policy. 20,000 people were forced to move from
Moscow behind the pale of settlement. A quote of Jews was introduced
in the secondary and higher educational establishments: 10% in the
pale of settlement, 5% outside of it and 3% in the capital. Such a decision pushed many
representatives of the young Jewish population
to the revolutionary parties. Alexander III realized
the hugeness of his Empire. He knew that it needed
a mighty uniting line. That idea was realized with the
construction of the Trans-Siberian main – the longest railway in the world. The total length of the
Trans-Siberian main is 9298,2 km. In Alexander’s III time the hardest and
the longest part of it was constructed – from the Urals to Vladivostok
(7,000 km through mountains, taiga and Siberian rivers). The terms of
the building were record-breaking: from 2,500 to 5,000 km of rails
were laid every single year. The budget of the construction
amounted to 1 billion rubles (780 billion in present day money). A real railroad boom started
in Alexander’s III time. It became prestigious
to travel by railways. Special road dresses and hats appeared; the first class carriages
were as luxurious as the saloons. On October 17, 1888, the Emperor
and his family were returning to Petersburg from the Crimea. The train was a bit late. So, near Kharkov a decision
was taken to speed up. The train accelerated to
almost 70 versts per hour. "The train consisted of 15
carriages; luggage, a workshop, " a personal carriage of the railroads
minister, two kitchen carriages, a carriage of staff, a dining-room,
a carriage of Grand Dukes, a carriage of the Imperial
couple, a carriage of the heir and five carriages of courtiers and
guards. The train was over 300 m long and weighted 480 tons. According to the safety
rules it was to make no more than 37 versts per hour.
At the Taranovka-Borki driving the speed was exceeded almost two times. At 2:14 the train derailed. 10 out of 15 carriages were
completely destroyed. In a dining carriage where the Imperial
family was side walls collapsed. A six-year old Grand Princess
Olga was thrown out of it. She ran along the embankment
crying: “They’ll kill us all! They’ll kill us all the same!” A 10-year old Grand Duke Mikhail was covered in debris and it
took some time to find him. Fragments of wreckage damaged the back
of the 13-year old Grand Princess Xenia and she remained an invalid
for the rest of her life. 20 people died and
37 were wounded. The Emperor was sorting
the debris out. The Empress was
helping the wounded. They left for Kharkov
only in the evening. On his way the Emperor
remembered that a month before the catastrophe he accidentally
witnessed a talk on the railway. A railroad engineer Sergey Vitte was proving
that it was wrong to accelerate a heavy train. Later Vitte himself remembered about that discussion that
became fateful for him: “The Minister of Railways started
arguing with me. He claimed: “We move with such speed on other
roads. Nobody has ever dared demand to carry the Ruler
with lesser speed”. I couldn’t bear it and said to the
Minister of Railroads: “You know, Your Excellency, let others do what they want. However, I don’t want to break
the Emperor’s head. The outcome will be that you’ll
break his head in such a way”. Alexander III summoned Sergey
Vitte to Petersburg and talked him into heading the Railroads Department
by the Ministry of Finances. The state service was
not profitable for Vitte. Instead of 40,000 rubles a year in a
private company, he only got 8,000 here. So the Emperor paid a redemption to him
– another 8,000 out of his personal money. In two years, Vitte
was appointed the Minister of Railroads and the Minister of Finances. Thanks to him, the state
made its first steps to go out of the economic crisis. In the next 10 years, the production
of coal in the country rose for 110%, oil – for 1468%, melting of steel
– for 159%, of cast iron – for 487%. The agriculture produced 15%
of the world volume of wheat and 55% of the world volume of rye. The budget of Russia
increased almost nine fold. In England it rose 2,5 times and in
France – 2,6 times during the same period. Russia’s gold stock
almost doubled. In 1893, the revenues
of the state exceeded the expenses for
almost 100 million rubles. The Russian ruble became
hard international currency. Russia turned into one of the
mightiest countries of the world. Alexander III modernized
the military forces. The army was now armed
with Mosin’s rifles. It is a famous three-port rifle that was used during the two World Wars
up to the middle of the 20th century. A new, more comfortable
uniform was introduced, including a soldier’s blouse
that is still in use today. Demands to the military
education were risen. The fleet got 114 new military
ships including 17 battleships and 10 armored cruisers. Russia that didn’t have an adequate military fleet
before was now at the third place in the world after England and France. No wars were waged in the
time of Alexander III. On the contrary – he managed to pacify a
military conflict in Europe between England and Germany
that was already brewing. He was nicknamed “the
Pacifier” for that. He changed the usual European
distribution of forces declining a union with Germany and
concluding an agreement with France. Those changes were dictated by
economy: to help its economy in the past Russia used loans obtained
in England and France. Now it was forced to conclude a
foreign policy union with its creditors. In future, they’ll involve it into the
military conflict – the First World War. Maybe Alexander III could
have prevented the catastrophe and there would have been neither the
war nor the collapse of the Empire. However, after the train
crush his health deteriorated. His heart was failing;
his back was hurting. He didn’t pay attention to that for six years until
he felt really bad. In September of 1894, a council of the Russian and
German doctors diagnosed him with nephritis, ac acute
inflammation of kidneys. They prescribed a strict diet
to the Emperor and begged him to move to the Crimea, to Lyvadia. On October 19, the government courier
brought papers signed by Alexander III in Lyvadia to the
capital for the last time. The Emperor received the communion and
bid farewell to his wife and children. He died at 14:15.
Alexander III was only 49. The coffin with the Emperor’s
body was moved from the Crimea to the capital through Sevastopol,
Kharkov, Orel and Moscow. Everywhere huge crowds gathered to
say their goodbyes to the Emperor. When the mourning train left
the platform, the people kneeled. There had never been such solemn
and lengthy funerals before. At that time, nobody knew that Tsars
would never be buried in Russia anymore. The largest state in the world,
the Russian Empire was at the peak of its economic and political might when
the 26-year old Nicolay Alexandrovitch took the reins of the government. Chapter Two. Nicolay II Alexandrovitch Nicolay or Nicky as he was
called at home was well-educated, had all skills needed for court
events, was clever, intelligent, sensitive and incredibly charismatic. In 1886, Princess of Hessen-Darmstadt
Alisa Victoria Elena Louise Beatrix or Alex as she was called at
home came to visit her sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna. The parents of the groom didn’t
accept her as a fiance at first. Alex was taller than Nicolay. The Puritan manners of the Danish
Princess seemed cold and arrogant to them. However, Nicolay fell in love
with her from the first glance. He wouldn’t leave her side. The lovers had a game – they carved
the names of each other with rings with precious stones on the glass. They kept that tradition
for their entire life. The windows of the Winter Palace
retain their love messages. Young Nicolay asked his mother
to give him a valuable brooch with a diamond weighing 12
carat and gave it to his beloved. That present became a
symbol of their love. In the morning of July 17, 1918, ashes from the fire in which the
clothes of the Tsar’s family were burnt were dug out. There was a diamond
weighing 12 carats in the ashes. Alex didn’t part with
it until her last day. When Nicolay’s father Alexander III realized that he was
dying, he agreed for his son’s marriage. In 1894 after eight years of waiting,
Nicolay engaged with his beloved. She converted to Orthodoxy under
the name of Alexandra Fedorovna. In a month after Alexander’s III
death a modest wedding tool place. The mourning didn’t allow
for fanciful festivities. The ceremony took place on May 14,
1896 in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moocow Kremlin. The festivities lasted for 20 days: solemn entrance into the capital,
receptions, balls, and parade dinners. On May 18, a traditional party for
common folk with entertainments, food and distribution of presents was
scheduled on the Khodinskoye Field. The Tsar’s present included:
smoked and cooked sausage – 200 g, a bun “from Filippov” – 400 g, a
treacle cake from Vyazma – 130 g, sweets and nuts – 300 g, an
enameled cup with the Tsar’s monogram and a two-headed eagle, all
packed in a cotton kerchief. 30,000 buckets of beer and 10,000
buckets of wine were prepared. The party cost 339,536
rubles to the treasury. The organizers counted on 400,000 guests. However,
around half a million gathered. People came to the field at
night to take the best places. Somebody said that the kerchiefs
had different prints of them. Those who got a kerchief with
a house would get a new house, those you got a kerchief
with a cow - a cow. About 5 a.m. rumors started to circulate that the presents
were already handed over and that there wouldn’t
be enough for everybody. The crown began to worry. Those who came later
started pushing. 1,800 police officers
were to provide safety at the party, a mere drop in a
sea of a million strong crowd of people. They couldn’t do anything. Terrible crush started. People who fell were trampled at
once. In the course of just a few hours 1,389 died and a few
hundred were wounded. At 10:30 the Emperor was
informed of the tragedy. Everybody expected him to go
to the place of the catastrophe immediately. However, he only arrived
at the field by 2 p.m. Only people from the palace knew that before that time Alexandra
Fedorovna and he prayed before the icons. In the evening of May 18, according to a pre-arranged
schedule a ball started at the French Embassy. The Imperial couple only came there for 10 minutes: they came in, bowed and left. However, the news that the
Tsar and Tsarina went to a ball on such a
day spread the city at once. Nobody took into account that
Nicolay allocated 90,000 rubles out of his personal money to
help the families of the deceased. People talked about the Emperor’s
indifference to people’s sorrow. People mentioned the bad omens
with which the new rule started. It was not accidental, they said,
that the Tsar was born on the day of Job the Long-Suffering,
on May 6. Nothing good would
come out of it. Soon the Emperor got another forecast. The time has come to read the letter
of Emperor Pavel I written in 1801 for the descendants with a
condition to read it in 100 years. Only a few trusted people in
the palace knew about the letter. Among them was a close friend
of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, a maid of the chamber Maria Geringer. “In the morning of March 12, 1901
the Tsar and Tsarina were happy. They were going to Gatchina to
uncover a century-old mystery. They prepared for that trip like for a merry
promenade that they expected to enjoy. They went there happy but came back thoughtful and sad. They didn’t tell anybody
about what they had found in the chest. After that trip the Tsar started
talking about 1918 like of a fateful year for him personally and for the dynasty”. According to the legend, in his
letter Pavel described the outcome of his secret talk with a monk named
Abel – “the Russian Nostradamus”. Abel foretold the date of death of
Catherine II, Pavel’s murder on March 11 of the hands of conspirators, a
war with France to Alexander I, the fire in Moscow, entrance
of the Russian troops to Paris, a revolt of the Decembrists to Nicolay I, abolishing of serfdom to Alexander II, a war with the Turks for
liberation of the Slavs and the murder of the
Tsar the Liberator, order and peace
to Alexander III. It said about Nicolay II: “The Holy Tsar will resemble Job
the Long-Suffering. He’ll have the Christ’s wit,
patience and dove’s purity. A crown of thorns will
replace his tsar’s crown. His people will betray him like the Son of God in his time. A war will start, a great
war, a world war. People will fly in the air like birds,
they’ll swim under water like fish, they’ll start killing each
other with stinking sulphur. The treasons will
grow and multiply. On the eve of the victory the Tsar’s throne will fall. Blood and tears will fill raw earth. A man with an axe will take
the power in his madness, and real plagues of Egypt will start”… Romanov Nicolay Alexandrovitch,
29, religion – Orthodox, marital status – married, children:
daughter Olga, 1 year 2 months, status in the army – colonel of the
leib-guards of the hussar regiment, occupation – the owner
of the Russian land. In 1897, the general census was
carried out in the Russian Empire. The results were published in 89 volumes and included data on 128,924,289 people. When the census was held, Alexandra
Fedorovna was pregnant again. Everybody hoped that she
bore a boy, a heir. A daughter Tatyana was born. In two years – Maria.
Later – Anastasia. Numerous relatives didn’t even try
to hide their disappointment. The Emperor didn’t
worry about it. However, the Empress was obsessed
with a thought of an heir. In summer of 1903 in Sarov monastery
Nicolay and Alexandra prayed by the relics of Holy Seraphim
asking for a son. In one year, on August 12, 1904
Prince Alexei was born. However, the happy parents
were extremely worried. One doctor after another
came to the palace. On the third day, they got to know that their
long-awaited child was ill with hemophilia and
could die any minute. Hemophilia is a hereditary
illness, a coagulability disorder. Internal hemorrhages are
especially dangerous. The illness is incurable. Males usually succumb to it and
females only carry the defective gene. Alexandra Fedorovna inherited
hemophilia from her grandmother, the English Queen Victoria.
Victoria passed the defective gene to many of her granddaughters, to
all the ruling houses of Europe. That’s why hemophilia was also called
the “Victorian” or “royal illness”. Even in the case of a small trauma,
Alexei was between life and death. News about the health of the heir
were published on the front pages of the newspapers, together with reports
from the fronts of the War with Japan. At the end of the 19th century, the Far East became a focus
of interest of all the great states. Weak and retrograde China
experienced aggression of many countries. Japan lay claims for
the leading part in the Pacific region. It was preparing an invasion into
Manchuria, the northeastern Chinese province under the pretext of
creation of the Great Asia. Strengthening of Japan by Russia’s borders
endangered the Eastern regions of the Empire. Like the other states, Russia wanted to have its own zones of
influence at the Far East. Besides, the war was to distract people
from anti-governmental ideas. On February 9, 1904, Japan
declared a war against Russia. The First Pacific Squadron
was defeated in Port Arthur. In a year of blockade, the Russians
had to surrender Port Arthur. In February of 1905, the Japanese bore great losses
but made the Russian army retreat by Mukden. In May, the Japanese Fleet defeated the Second Pacific
Squadron in Tsushima Bay. Nicolay ordered to start
negotiations about peace. His advisors argued that
Japan’s forces were on the wane and Russia had only started
to deploy its military forces. Only one year, a million rubles and
20,000 lives were needed. The Emperor said decisively: No. Conclude peace. The conditions of the Portsmouth Peach Treaty were rather mild – the Russians
managed to avoid contributions and to keep a half
of the Sakhalin. The military hardships resulted in mass
uprisings in the country. They would be called the First Russian Revolution. January of 1905 – strikes of workers
in Petrograd, Riga and Warsaw. May – a strike of textile
workers in Ivanovo. June – a revolt at the battleship
“Prince Potemkin of Tavria”. October – the all-Russian political strike in which 2 million workers participated. Large plants and
railroads stopped working. Nicolay II turned for help to his
father’s comrade-in-arms – Sergey Vitte. He persuaded the Tsar in the
necessity of the political reforms. Nicolay signed the
Manifest worked out by Vitte that proclaimed the principle of
inviolability of person, freedom of speech, conscience, meetings and unions
and set up the parliament – the State Council (Duma). However, the unrest in the
country was only starting. Only one out of all Russian
provinces maintained relative order – the Saratov region. Nicolay II
summoned the governor of Saratov, a 44-year old Peter
Stolypin to Petersburg. After a long
conversation with him, he realized: this time not Vitte but Stolypin
would be able to pull the country out of the crisis. Stolypin was appointed the Minister of Internal Affairs and in two months he
headed the new government. Thanks to his anti-terrorist
measures like military field courts, he managed to restrain the
revolution for some time. After that, he started a
large-scale agrarian reform. The peasants were offered
to leave the community, establish separate homesteads, buy
out lands for preferential prices, take loans for development. In the course of six years
1,040,000,000 rubles were given as loans. 6 million peasants filed claims to be allotted land lots (44%) and
1,5 million had time to receive them in their ownership (10%). The crop capacity grew for one third in the course of that time. In 1913, the Empire reached
its economic maximum. The agricultural production increased
for 2% (the 1st place in the world), industrial productivity – for
5% (the 1st place in the world), the population grew for 1,5%
(the 1st place in the world). The national revenues of the country
amounted to 16,400,000,000 rubles (the 4th place in the world). The total industrial
output amounted to 6,521,000,000 rubles (the
5th place in the world). Stolypin’s reform was
meant for 20 years. Maybe in the course of that time
the peasants would become farmers and wouldn’t succumb to
the Bolsheviks’ agitation. However, in 1911 in Kiev Theatre
in the audience’s presence a socialist revolutionary Dmitry
Bogrov killed Prime-Minister Stolypin. Soon the First World War started. It took the lives of 12 million people and crushed four Empires –
Austro-Hungarian, Osman, German and Russian. The war was waged between the Triple
Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy) and the Entente (“Agreement”)
Block (Russia, England, and France). In the course of the war, Turkey and
Bulgaria joined the Triple Alliance and Italy, Romania and
the USA joined the Entente. Each country had its own goal. Germany wanted to
widen its territory and establish its dominance
in the world politics. France wanted to get back the territories
that it lost and to seize the Saar coal basin. Austro-Hungary
had territorial pretentions to Serbia, Montenegro, Romania
and Russia and also strived to suppress the national
liberation movement. England wanted to crush Germany as its main competitor in trade and
also take away Turkey’s oil-rich lands. Italy wanted to widen its
influence on the Balkan peninsula. Russia fought on the
side of England and France as a member of the Entente Block. A murder of the Austrian Archduke
Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist
Gavryla Principe on June 28, 1914 was the pretext for
the start of the war. The Russian society was
enthusiastic about the Manifest on the beginning of war with Germany. The Russian army moved into
the enemy’s territory. However, the next year situation at the fronts
changed. The commander-in-chief, the Emperor’s uncle Grand
Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch was a mediocre war leader. The Germans entered the territory
of the Russian Empire. It was when
the Emperor headed the army himself. After 2 weeks, Russian troops broke
through the German front. The government was hurriedly
changing the economics of the state in accordance with
the war needs. During the First World War Russia was the only warring
party that fully provided itself with raw materials and could
wage war longer than anybody else. After the four years of a very
hard war Russia was still able to maintain hostilities
up to the victory. A mass advance at all the fronts
that was to tip the scales of the war in Russia’s favor was
scheduled for spring of 1917. However, rapid increase of social
tensions led to a revolutionary outburst. While Nicolay was in
headquarters in Mogilev, the influence of Alexandra Fedorovna
on state affairs grew considerably. It evoked dissatisfaction
in society, at the court and in the governmental circlers. The Empress had never been popular. She made people indignant
with her constant communication with Grigoriy Rasputin, an old man
from Siberia well-known in Petersburg. Some considered him a foreteller and
a curer, and others – a charlatan. Many rumors circulated about the
relations of Her Highness and Rasputin. The Empress trusted him absolutely
because she often saw the old man reading prayers by her
dying son’s side. The boy would come
to his senses. Alexandra Fedorovna was convinced:
while Rasputin is nearby, Alexei would live. “I believe in Our Friend’s wisdom. God sent him to be your
assistant and leader”. Alexandra Fedorovna
wrote to the Emperor. Using the Empress’s endless trust
in him, Rasputin tried influencing the state affairs and military decisions of the Tsar. In her letters, Alex often related “Our Friend’s”
requests and advice to the Tsar. That led to a conspiracy
and Rasputin was murdered. One of the conspirators
was a 25-year old Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovitch, the Emperor’s cousin. On February 22, 1917, Nicolay
II left from Tsarskoye Selo to the headquarters in Mogilev
to prepare the spring advance. That day Prince Alexei fell ill with measles; his sisters caught infection from him. All children’s heads were shaved. Alexandra Fedorovna was rushing
about between the sick children when she was reported
on a strike in Petrograd. The February Revolution
was in full swing. Early in the morning of February
28, the Emperor hurriedly left the headquarters for
Tsarskoye Selo and his family. At night of March 1, the Tsar’s train
was stopped at the Malaya Vishera station in the Novgorod province. The
revolutionary units blocked the railroad. “What a shame! – Nicolay noted in his diary.
– I didn’t manage to reach the Tsarskoye Selo. All my thoughts and feelings are there, though. God help us!” The Emperor ordered to bring him to Pskov,
to the headquarters of the Northern Front. He planned to transfer the troops f
rom the front to the mutinous Petrograd. At that time, the acting commander-in-chief General Alexeyev was already
sending telegrams with a question: “Is it desirable to make
the Emperor abdicate”? All the commanders of
the fronts answered “yes”. On March 2 at 23:40 Nicolay II
signed the Manifest on his abdication in a carriage of a train
standing on a platform in Pskov. From that moment on, he
became Colonel Nicolay Romanov. The Emperor’s calmness
shocked people. One of the court generals wrote: “He abdicated as if
surrendered a division”. Nicolay wrote in his diary: “In
the name of Russia’s salvation and keeping the army at the front
I shall make this step. I agreed”. The decision of Nicolay II
was dictated by a tough demand of politicians and
military men to abdicate. That demand appeared because of a difficult situation
that arose in the state. The people were morally exhausted by a long
war and many problems inside the state. A belief spread in the
society about the necessity of strict limitations
of the monarch’s power. The State Council believed that the abdication was necessary
to prevent internal political chaos. The idea of abdication
enjoyed unanimous support of the higher Russian war leaders. Inside the House of Romanov, there were
no agreement as to the future of the monarchy. Some didn’t like the
figure of the Emperor and his wife. The others believed that autocrat
in its former form had had its day. However, no one of the Grand
Dukes wanted to bear responsibility for the reforms. Being sure that he
was the stumbling stone Nicolay abdicated in favor of
his younger brother Mikhail. The younger and favorite
son of Alexander III – the one who poured water on his
father with a cigar – Mikhail signed the abdication on March
3, one day after Nicolay. In a year and a half he was shot in a town of
Malaya Yazovay near Perm. On March 3, 1917, Mikhail Alexandrovitch
Romanov signed the Manifest he issued on a refusal
to accept the higher power until the Constituent
Assembly convention. The new Tsar wanted his powers to be confirmed by the lawfully
elected representatives of the people, i.e. only in case if the people expressed
their will through general elections. The refusal of Mikhail to ascend
the throne favored the deepening of revolutionary processes and in
effect put an end to the monarchial rule in Russia and interrupted Romanovs’
line of succession to the throne. The power in Russia went
to the Temporary government. Nicolay, his wife and their five
children were put under the home arrest in Alexandrovskiy Palace
in Tsarskoye Selo. In six months, in August of 1917 the Temporary
Government sent the former Tsar and his family further away from Petrograd –
to Tobolsk for the sake of their safety. Those palace employees who wanted
to join them were allowed to do so. 45 people voluntary went to exile with the Tsar. By then Nicolay must have realized
that they wouldn’t let him leave and that the country was
descending into chaos. The scariest of all Abel’s forecasts
was coming true before his very eyes. In October of 1917, the Bolsheviks
came to power in Petrograd. The Romanovs were moved
from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg and settled in a “house of special
destination”, a requisitioned estate of engineer Ypatyev. Only five people were allowed to join
the Tsar’s family: doctor Yevgeniy Botkin, chamberlain
Alexei Trupp, maid Anna Demydova, cook’s assistant Lenya Sydnyov
and a cook Ivan Kharitonov. Nicolay and Alexandra tried to
ignore the rudeness of the guards. Thefts – that was what
was bothered them the most. The couple was afraid that two
chests with papers, Nicolay’s diary of many years and their
personal letters might disappear. “I could never imagined that such an
absolute happiness existed in this world, such a feeling of unity
between two mortals. I love you. These three words are the
essence of my life. Alex”. At night of June 17 the Emperor’s
family and their staff were ordered to gather in one of the rooms. The arrested were informed that rumors about their death were circulating. To refute them a decision was taken to make
their photo that very night to show to the world
in tomorrow’s newspapers that the Tsar’s family
was safe and sound. Alexei was sick. His father
brought him in his arms. After gathering all members of
the Tsar’s family in the cellar, they were asked to stand so that
nobody covered each other on the photo. Then the commandant of the house Yakov
Yurovskiy read a sentence to them. “We’re together, connected for
the life. If this life ends, we’ll meet in another world and
stay together to the end of times…” At night of June 16-17 of 1918
the following persons were shot in the cellar of Ypatyev’s house:
Romanov Nicolay Alexandrovitch, aged 50, Romanova Alexandra Fedorovna, aged 46, Romanova Olga, aged 23, Romanova Tatyana, aged 21, Romanova Maria, aged 19, Romanova Anastasia, aged 17, Romanov Alexei, aged 14, and their four servants. In 2000, the Russia Orthodox church
canonized the members of the Tsar’s family as the tsar martyrs among the new
martyrs and confessors of Russia. In spring of 1918, shortly before
her death Grand Princess Olga wrote: “Father asked to tell everybody
who remained loyal to him that they shouldn’t revenge
for him for he forgave everybody and is praying for everyone. He wants them to remember that evil that exists in the world now
will become even stronger. However, evil will not
defeat evil. Only love will”. Hosted by Denis Bespaliy
and Lyubov Germanova Created by Marina Bandilenko
together with Maksim Kalsin Directed by Maksim Bespaliy Director of Photography
- Ivan Barkhvart Music by Boris Kukoba Art Director
- Vladimir Markovitch The End
