The Last Tsar - Chapter Twenty-one As a Prisoner

Chapter Twenty-one
As a Prisoner

In the afternoon the Tsar, walking alone through the hushed corridors of the Palace, entered the red drawing room. There he met Lili Dehu. Lili was shocked to see the Emperor how much he had changed. 'The Emperor was deathly pale. His face was covered with wrinkles, his hair was quite grey. He looked like an old man', she observed.

At the beginning of captivity General Kornilove wanted the Tsar and family to be locked inside the Palace, but Count Beckendorff secured the permission from General Kormilove that the Tsar and family must be allowed to go out to the park for walking, and do their exercise for an hour.

Anna Vyrubha, the confidante of the Tsarina, wrote in her book how Nicholas was treated by the revolutionary soldiers on the first day of his excursion in the Palace part - 'Nicholas was surrounded by six soldiers, armed with rifles. With their fists and with the butts of their guns they pushed the Emperor this way and that, as though he were some wretched vagrant.'

At dusk some revolutionary soldiers invaded the Palace, demanding that Nicholas should be shown to them. After some hesitation Count Beckendorff agreed. 'The corridor was lit up brightly, the Emperor walked slowly from one door to the other, and the leader of the invading party declared himself satisfied.'

Sometime after midnight another band of revolutionary soldiers broke into the tiny chapel in the Imperial park, which had become Rasputin's tomb and burnt the body.

Like the survivors of a shipwreck, few of the numerous household remained with the Imperial family. Along with the Imperial family most of them were executed later in Ekaterinburg. Inside the Palace the captives were entirely isolated. Letters passing in and out were strictly censored. All telephone lines were cut, except one which was installed in the guard's room. Only Russian was to be spoken. Every parcel entering the Palace was thoroughly examined, tubes of toothpaste were minutely examined, jars of yoghurt were stirred by dirty fingers, and pieces of chocolate bitten apart.

The discipline among the soldiers was crumbling. Their hair was untidy and uncombed. They were unshaven. Their shirts were unbuttoned. Their boots filthy. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden remembered one day she and the Grand Duchess Anastesia were standing by the window, seeing one of the guards on duty was sitting on a guilt arm chair comfortably, leaning back, enjoying the view, with his rifle across his knees.

The Emperor noticed too that the discipline among the soldiers was crumbling fast. One morning he looked out of the window and saw the sentinel, who was usually stationed there, was now sitting on the step, his rifle was slipped out of his hands, he was dozing.

The soldiers wandered freely through the Palace. Baroness Buxhoeveden woke one night to find a soldier in her room. The next morning she discovered that a number of gold and silver trinkets had disappeared from the table. Gilliard once found some soldiers standing uncertainly in a passage, outside Tsarvitch's room.

Two sailor attendants had looked after Tsarvitch since he was a child, protecting him from falling. Now one of these, Drevenko (not connected with Dr. Drevenko) left. Only Nagorny remained faithful and loyal to him, until he was shot by Bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg.

Alexis found happy distraction in a movie projector with some films. One day he invited everybody to his room to see the film. He was delighted to be the host and showed them all the films he had.

'He (Tsarvitch) is very intelligent, has a great deal of character and an excellent heart', wrote Beckendorff, in his book.

During his imprisonment, Nicholas's serenity, his extreme calmness, his endurance, attracted both scorn and glowing praise. Some regarded his calm as evidence of courage and nobility of spirit.

'The Tsar accepted all these restraints with extraordinary serenity and moral grandeur. No word of reproach ever passed his lips. He was ready to forgive everybody who were inflicting such humiliation upon him, so long as they were capable of saving Russia. Because his whole being was dominated by one passion, that was his love for his country', - Gilliard.

On April 3rd, Alexander Kerensky, the Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government, came to the Palace to see the Tsar and family. At the beginning Kerensky was very nervous. 'I was everything but calm', wrote Kerensky. 'Kerensky was in a state of feverish agitation, he could not stand still, touched all the objects on the table and seemed like a madman', - recalled Count Beckendorff.

Kerensky wrote in his book about his experience of his first visit to the Palace - 'Entering the room my feelings underwent a lightning change. The Imperial family was standing near the window around a small table. From this cluster of frightened humanity, there stepped out a man of medium height, who walked forward to meet me with a slightly peculiar smile. It was the Emperor. He stepped in confusion. He did not know what to do. Should he hold out his hand? With an answering smile I walked over to the Emperor, shook hands and sharply said, 'Kerensky,' as I always do by way of introduction. The Emperor asked me about the military situation and wished me success in our difficult task.'

On the same day Ana Vyrubova and Lili Dehu were both arrested by Kerensky and sent to prison in Petrograd. Lili was released the next day but Ana was sent to the Fortress of Peter and Paul. There she remained for six cold months.

On April 9th Kerensky began an investigation of the Empress's 'treasonable pro-German' activities and the part the Empress had played in politics, her influence on the Emperor in the choice of ministers whom she often had received in the absence of the Emperor. He asked Nicholas why he had changed ministers so frequently, why he had appointed Sturmer and Protopopove and dismissed Sazonov. Kerensky admitted that during those weeks he was influenced greatly by the Emperor's unassuming manner, his simplicity, complete absence of pose, his wonderful eyes, deep and sorrowful. The former Emperor never lost his equilibrium, never failed to act as a courteous man of the world.

Spring came and melted the snow away. In the afternoon, the family began to go out into the park. The news that the former Tsar and his family were walking under guard in the park attracted crowds, who stood outside the iron fence to watch, whistle and jeer. Grand Duke Paul's wife recalled, - 'One afternoon, after the abdication, I was passing by the Palace, I stopped behind the iron fence and saw the Tsar clearing some snow in the drains, which ran through the Imperial park, some revolutionary soldiers were standing by him, teasing him ruthlessly - 'Hey Nicholas, you are now clearing the snow, when the snow disappears what will you do? Perhaps you will throw sand in the pond.' I could not bear any more. It was too much for me. I burst into tears and left.'

On Good Friday, 1917, the atmosphere of the Palace was very different from previous years. It was the custom of the Tsar to present the Empress and the Dowager Empress with gold Easter eggs, studded with diamonds, creations of the fabulous jeweller, Faberge, every year before the Revolution. That custom ceased to exist in the Easter of 1917.

Elizabeth Kurakin, the lady-in-waiting of the Tsarina, recalled - 'On the night of Good Friday, 1917, the Emperor gave me a beautiful Easter egg and asked me to take care of it because it must be the last one.'

Despite harassment and humiliation, the family continued to go out every day. They were happy to spend a few hours in the fresh air.

In the middle of May they began digging up part of the park lawn to plant a vegetable garden. Together they carried away the grassy sod, turned the soil, planted the seeds, brought water in tubs from the kitchen.

In June, once the seeds were in, Nicholas turned to sawing up the dead trees in the park for firewood. Soon piles of wood, neatly stacked, appeared all over the park.

At night, they sat together, silently. The prisoners waited inside the Palace, living from day to day, uncertain as to wondering whether the following morning would find them released or flung into the fortress of 'Peter and Paul'.

From the beginning they expected to be sent to England. After the formation of the Provisional Government, Paul Milhukov, the Foreign Secretary, requested the British Government to offer refuge to the deposed Tsar and family. Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Britain, agreed to offer asylum to the ex-Tsar and family, and promised to send a cruiser to one of the Finish ports. But the plan was postponed, as the children then were suffering from measles.

In the meantime, the British Government changed its plans as there were violent protests from the Labour Party against the proposal of offering asylum to the deposed Tsar and family.

Inside Russia, Soviets were against the plan of the Tsar going abroad. They threatened to pull up the tracks on the way to the Finnish port, from where the Imperial family was supposed to board the cruiser. Besides, the Provisional Government was not the master of its own house. Tsarvitch's French tutor, Gilliard, wrote in his book - 'The days passed and our departure was always being postponed . . . . We were only a few hours by railway from the Finish frontier. If the authorities had acted resolutely and secretly, it would not have been difficult to get the Imperial family to one of the Finish ports, but the Government (Provisional) was afraid of responsibilities.'