The Last Tsar - Chapter Twenty-three Tobolsk (Siberia)

Chapter Twenty-three
Tobolsk (Siberia)

The train carrying the Tsar and the Imperial family to Tobolsk was not of Imperial quality, but cosy and comfortable. The train was asked not to stop at any station, with the exception of some solitary, lonely, isolated countryside so the Emperor and the children could walk and have some fresh air. The Grand Duchess Tatiana, Anastasia and Alexis could walk their dogs.

On board, the Imperial family was served with breakfast at eight, morning tea at ten, lunch at one, tea at five and dinner at eight. Between six and seven every evening, the train stopped in open country for the Emperor and the children.

For four days the train rolled eastward. The passengers saw no-one. The blinds in the coaches were drawn all the time and no-one was permitted to show himself or herself at the window.

On August 17th the train arrived at Tyuman, on the Tura river, where a steamer called 'Rus' was waiting for the Imperial family to take them to Tobolsk. On the way they passed through 'Pokrovskoe', Rasputin's village. His white two-storied house was not to be missed. They were not surprised to see Rasputin's home, as a long time ago Rasputin predicted that, one day in the future, they would see his village.

On August 18th the steamer, carrying the Imperial family, arrived at Tobolsk. Colonel Kobylensky went ashore to see the governor's house, where the Imperial family would live. He found the house unprepared for living, so he asked the family to live aboard the 'Rus' until the house was ready for living.

He hired painters and decorators to paint and decorate the rooms, electricians were called to improve the wiring, bath tubs were installed in the bathrooms, rooms were furnished and carpeted. Kobylinsky was a man of understanding. He even bought a piano for the grand duchesses and placed it in the corner of the large drawing room.

Tobolsk, where the Tsar and his family were to live for the next eight months.

The governor's house was the largest residence in the town. Still it was not large enough for the Imperial entourage. The household lived across the street in a house called 'Kornilove House'.

Evening prayer services were held in a corner of the downstairs drawing room, which was decorated with Icons and candles. A local priest came in to conduct the service.

On Sunday the family was allowed to go to the church to attend the service. On one Sunday the priest prayed for the long life of the Emperor, the soldiers objected and, as a result, the family was deprived of the right of going to church.

When the atmosphere became quite normal, the children started taking their lessons. Subjects were divided among the two tutors and household. Gilliard was to take French, Sidney Gibbs - English, Madame Scheineder - arithmetic, Countess Hendrikova - Russian, the Tsar - history and the Empress - religion.

The dining hall was supplied with linen both for the table, and few silvers were supplies too. Breakfast was served at eight, coffee at eleven, lunch at two, tea at five and dinner at eight. The Tsar, four grand duchesses, the two tutors, Prince Dologoruky, Gen. Tatishev, Madame Scheineder, Countess Hendrikova, Dr. Drevenko, took their meals together. Dr. Botkin used to have his lunch with them, but took his dinner with his children in the 'Kornilove House', across the street where he was staying with his children. The Empress and Alexis used to have their meal together in their room.

'Food was good and plenty', - wrote Sidney Gibbs, English tutor of Alexis.

In the morning after lessons, the Tsar and the children went out into the yard for walking. One day the Tsar found out some dry woods into the yard. Being fond of physical exercise he applied for a saw. When he got it he started sawing them. In that work he was helped by the tutors, especially Gilliard. Soon, in co-operation with the Grand Duchess Tatiana, Nicholas started to clean the garden.

In the evening after dinner, the family gathered in the Tsarina's drawing room. Nicholas read aloud a book to them when the Tsarina and the daughter knitted and sewed something. Sometimes Alexis and the Empress used to play the balalaika (some sort of musical instrument).

'Tonight Tsarista asked me to join them for late night supper, if I am not too tired', - wrote Gilliard.

Life in Tobolsk was monotonous. To relieve the family of the boredom Gilliard staged Checkov's great play 'Bear'. In it everybody took part. Even Dr. Botkin played the part of village doctor.

In October, the long Siberian winter descended upon Tobolsk. 'The corner room of the grand duchesses was a freezing compartment', - wrote Gilliard. At that time from the local newspapers, Nicholas came to know the rapid crumbling of the Provisional Government. On November 6th, the Bolshevicks, under Lenin, struck. On November 7th, Kerensky, Prime Minster of the Provisional Government, escaped and left home forever. On the same day, at nine in the evening, Aurora, Warship, flying the red flag, fired a single blank shell and at ten the women's battalion, which was defending the 'Winter Palace' surrendered. At 2 a.m., on November 8th, all was over. The shaky Provisional Government was overthrown.

In distant Tobolsk, Nicholas learnt that dreadful news with depression. The fall of the Provisional Government shocked him gravely. He blamed Kerensky for not accepting Gen. Korniloff's help in routing the Bolshevicks and Lenin. To him, Lenin was a traitor and a German agent.

'I then heard the Tsar regret his abdication for the first time. It now gave him pain that his abdication had done Russia nothing but great harm. That idea was to haunt him day and night', - Gilliard.

For the first time now Nicholas realised the grim truth of losing his throne. At the time of the Imperial family's departure for Tobolsk, the Provisional Government promised Col. Kobylensky to send enough money for the maintenance of the Imperial family and the household. Now the Provisional Government was overthrown, the money promised, stopped coming. Col. Kobylinsky was in a terrible position. He became anxious.

At the beginning of November he started using the surplus money, which he deposited in the local bank. When the reserve was finished, the servants started buying groceries on credit. Later the shopkeepers refused to sell domestic goods and groceries on credit.

When the nuns of the local monastery came to know the dire poverty of the Imperial family, they started sending milk, eggs, butter and sweetmeats to the Governor's house. Col. Kobilensky wrote a letter to Count Beckendorff, if he could do something. The Count sent some money but it hardly reached the Imperial family, but on the way the money was robbed by Boris Solvieve, Rasputin's son-in-law, who established a toll-gate in Tyumen. One wealthy monarchist sent large amounts of money, with which the family could live in luxury at least for six months. In one of her letters, the Tsarina mentioned the poverty from which they were suffering - 'I am knitting stockings for Alexis. He asks for a pair, as all his are in holes. I make everything now. Father's (the Tsar's) trousers are torn and darned, the girls' under-linen in rags'.

'Sometimes it seemed to us that we were living on a separate planet, forgotten by everybody, abandoned to our own resources, left to our own destinies', - wrote Gilliard.

As news of the Tsar's circumstances spread, offers of money began to flow in. Beckendorff, himself, sent two hundred thousand roubles to Tobolsk. It fell into the hands of a man like Boris Solvieve, who exploited the Imperial family to the end. The money never reached the Imperial family.

Finally, on March 1st, the Moscow Government settled that matter . . . .

Nicholas Romanov and his family would receive 4,200 roubles a month to support the entire household. Nicholas asked for help 'We held a sitting this afternoon and came to the conclusion that the personnel must be reduced', - wrote Gilliard.

The next morning, butter and coffee were excluded from the table. The exiles in Tobolsk were remote, forgotten beyond all help.

In January, amid the heavy snowfall, Nicholas and the children had begun to pile up a 'snow mountain' in the courtyard. For ten days they worked hard, shovelling snow and carrying water from the kitchen, often they had to run from the kitchen to pour the water before it froze solid in the bucket. When finished, Alexis devised new games involving 'Pell-mell', racing down the slide and tumbling and wrestling in the snow.

Then, early in March, the Tsar and the Empress used that snow hill to stand on in order to see the 4th Regiment off. The Soldier's Committee ordered that the hill must be demolished as the Tsar and the Tsarina exposed themselves to the people in the street. The following day the soldiers destroyed the mountain. 'The children are disconsolate', - wrote Gilliard in his diary.

The idea of escape grew slowly in the Governor's house. Soon after the Imperial family arrived in Tobolsk, mysterious visitors with fine combed beards and Petrograd accents mingled with the well-to-do people of Tobolsk. They made veiled remarks about the Imperial family, then disappeared, accomplishing nothing.

A lack of combined efforts, co-operation and co-ordination was the stumbling block in the rescue attempts. The Dowager Empress Marie, mother of the Tsar, sent her personal guard, Capt. Bulygin, to rescue the Tsar and family, but he failed and was detained in the prison where he was about to be shot by the Bolshevik guard.

Later Anna Vyrubova and Rasputin's group tried to rescue the Imperial family, but failed. Count Beckendorff and a group of the Tsar's officers raised money for that mission, but the operation failed. Lastly, Rasputin's son-in-law, Boris Solviev, gave the impression to the Empress that he had organised a regiment called the 'Brotherhood of St. John' for the rescue operation but, in reality, he was a fraud.

In March spring brought new hope to the family. All of them were optimistic about being rescued by somebody and sent abroad, perhaps to England. The Empress, sitting on her balcony in the sunshine, fell asleep and dreamt of Windsor. Just at this point Alexis fell and began to bleed into the groin.

During the winter of 1917 and 1918, Alexis was well and was filled with strength and high spirits. After the destruction of the snow mountain he had nothing to play with. He devised a new game which was more destructive and dangerous than any other game. It was to ride down the inside stairs on a board, which overturned and led to calamity.

He was carried to his bedroom, where he was completely bedridden. When the pain became intolerable, Alexis screamed - 'Mama, I am not afraid of death, but I am so afraid of what they will do to us here.'

Lenin's motto was 'Peace and bread'. With that slogan he overthrew the weak, fragile Provisional Government. Now he had no choice but to make peace with Germany. On 3rd March 1918, in the town of Brest-Litovsk, the Peace Treaty was signed between Germany and the Bolshevik Government of Russia, but at a high price. It cost Russia half of her territory, including Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, the Ukraine, the granary of Russia - the Crimea, and most of the Caucasus with the population of sixty million people.

In Tobolsk, Nicholas was overwhelmed with grief when he read that news in the local newspaper. 'It is nothing but a suicide for Russia', - he said.

Russia dealt death blows to Germany before withdrawing from war. Germany collapsed in November 1918.

Now the war had ended and the Peace Treaty was signed, the Bolshevik Government turned its attention to the ex-Tsar and family. Nicholas and his family became a symbol, an international human pawn with potential value.

The Bolshevik Government had no faith in the old guards under Col. Kobylenski, who was guarding the Tsar and family since their arrival in Tobolsk the last August. On April 13th a Bolshevik detachment, from Ekaterinburg, finally arrived in Tobolsk to remove the Tsar and family to Ekaterinburg, where they would be under strict control of the Communist guards. Ekaterinburg, a city which was notorious for its hatred and animosity towards the Tsar, but being pressed by the German government, the Bolshevik Government in Moscow, in spite of its unwillingness, sent a commissar, named Vasily Yokovlev to Tobolsk to bring the Tsar and family to Moscow. On April 22, Yokovlev arrived in Tobolsk.

To Gilliard, the arrival of the new commissar appeared sinister. Being alarmed thoroughly, he wrote in his diary at night - 'We feel we are forgotten by everyone, left at the mercy of this man. It is possible no-one will raise a finger to save the Imperial family? Where are those who remained faithful to the Tsar? Why do they delay?'

On the morning of April 25th, Yokovlev disclosed his plan.

Tsarvitch's tutor, Sidney Gibbs, recalled - 'In the afternoon I was reading a book to Tsarvitch, who was very ill then, the Emperor entered into the room with the new commissar. Pointing to Tsarvitch the Emperor said 'That is my son and that gentleman is his tutor'. Then they left. Before lunch the Empress promised Tsarvitch that she would visit him after lunch, but when she did not appear after lunch he got worried and started crying 'mama, mama'. I got up to see what happened to the Empress. When I came out of the room I found her very excited and gravely engaged in conversation with that new commissar.'

Gilliard wrote in his book - 'In the afternoon I was going upstairs to have a cup of tea, as I was passing through the corridor found two servants standing together crying bitterly. When I asked the reason, one of them told me that the new commissar had come to take the Tsar away. I came back to my room, dared not going upstairs, decided not to go until I was summoned. Few minutes later Grand Duchess Tatiana knocked on my door and asked me to go upstairs immediately to talk to her mother.'

'When I entered the drawing room I saw the Tsarina very disturbed but calm. She told me that she wanted to go with the Tsar because together they would be stronger, but she was worried about the Tsarvitch. Suppose some trouble sets in, in her absence. Then she paced up and down the room, speaking rather to herself than to us. I assured her that the rest of us would take excellent care of him, besides, he was over the crisis.'

The sisters decided the Grand Duchess Marie should go too, so she could help their parents in time of need. The entire family spent the rest of the afternoon and evening besides Alexis's bed. Near dawn, the clatter of horses and the creak of carriages signalled Yokovlev's arrival in the courtyard. The peasant's cart called 'Tarantasses' were to carry them across two hundred miles of mud and snow to Tyumen.

'When I was standing at the gate to say goodbye to the Emperor and Empress, Tsaritsa begged me to go upstairs to stay with Alexis, whom I found lying in bed with face to the wall, weeping bitterly', - wrote Gilliard.

When all was ready, the procession of Peasants' carts passed out of the gate and down the streets. Gilliard, sitting beside Tsarvitch heard Olga, Tatiana and Anastesia climb up the stairs and pass, sobbing, to their room.

'There was no brotherhood, no good Russians, no rescue. Only a very sick boy and his sisters, very frightened and utterly alone', - wrote Gilliard.

The journey to Tyumen was terrible. The weather was extremely cold. The rivers Tobol and Irtysh wee partly frozen and, in some parts, just beginning to melt. For safety's sake, the passengers had to cross the rivers on foot. They changed the horses frequently. Once, in the village of Pokorovskoe, just under the windows of Rasputin's house, there the Emperor and Empress, prisoners in the hands of the Bolsheviks, sitting on the peasant's cart, while in the window above them was standing the widow of the man who had done so much to destroy them, made a sign of the cross.

At Tyumen, a special train was waiting for the Emperor and Empress. Yokovlev transferred his prisoners into a first class coach. At 5 a.m., with all lights extinguished, the train left Tyumen for Moscow. On the way the train was hijacked and detained at Ekaterinburg. The Emperor, Empress, Grand Duchess Marie and Dr. Botkin were taken to a house called 'Ipatiev House', belonging to a wealthy local merchant, Ipatiev. Prince Dologornky was sent to prison where he was later shot by Bolshevik guards.

'Ipatiev House' was called 'the house of the special purpose'. This was the real prison surrounded by a double wooden fence, so nobody from the outside could see them at all. The windows were painted with black paint. The prisoners were not allowed to open the window and look out.

The Bolsheviks had no intention of leaving the family separated. By May 19th, Alexis was well enough to travel and at noon the following day, the rest of the family and the household left Tobolsk by the steamer 'Rus', which had brought them there a year before. On board the 'Rus' Rodianov, the new Bolshevik commissar and escort, locked Tsarvitch's cabin from out. Nagorny, the good sailor attendant of Alexis, protested and incurred the hostility of the Commissar. Nagorny's days were numbered.

At the Tyumen station Gilliard was separated from his pupil and was placed in a fourth class carriage at the rear of the train. The next day, in the middle of the night, the train arrived at Ekaterinburg.

At dawn, Gilliard raised the window up and stretched his head out. It was a misty, dull and foggy morning. Through the steady drizzle of rain Gilliard saw four soldiers walking towards the compartments of the grand duchesses. Minutes later Nagorny, carrying the Tsarvitch, came out, followed by three grand duchesses.

Tatiana came last of all, struggling with her heavy luggage. Gilliard wanted to get out to assist her, but was pushed in by a soldier. Nagorny stepped back to help her but was roughly pushed back. A few minutes later the carriages drove off with the children towards Ipatiev House.

'How little did I suspect then that I would never see them again', - wrote the grief stricken Gilliard.

Once the children and Nagorny disappeared the guards sorted out the rest of the prisoners. General Tatisheve, the Tsar's aide-de-camp, Countess Hendrikova, Madame Schenider, were sent to prison to join another aide-de-camp, Prince Dologorky. All of them were brutally murdered later by Bolshevik guards.

Gilliard and Sidney Gibbs, the two tutors, Dr. Drevenko, the specialist for Alexis and Baroness Sophie Buxhoveden, were set free.

Gilliard and Gibbs stayed in Russia until 1920, to help the White Army and its detective Sokolove to find out the truth about the Tsar and the Imperial family. When Sokolove found out sufficient evidence that the Tsar and family were shot on the night of 16th/17th July 1918, they left Russia for good.

Grief stricken Gilliard wrote in his book - 'With intense emotion I entered the basement room of Ipatiev House. The room had a sinister appearance, beyond expression. There were enormous numbers of bullet holes, both on the walls and on the floor. It is understood that some people were shot here in this room. How many? Who were those could not be told.'

C.M. Bykove, the notorious Bolshevik leader and one of the participants in the murder, admitted, in his book, that the Tsar and family were murdered in the basement room of the 'Ipatiev House'.

One of the executioners, named Mehdeve, who was a guard of the house, also admitted later that the Tsar and the Imperial family were shot in the basement room of the 'Ipatiev House'.