The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion and the Fall of Imperial Russia

On March 21, the empress tearfully tells her daughters that the tsar has stepped down, while tutor Gilliard breaks the news to Alexei. The royal family has been placed under house arrest, supposedly to protect them from violent protestors, and once the children are healthy they’ll be sent to England. Soldiers from the new Provisional Government take up stations around the palace and most remaining employees leave. Nearly 100 stay, however, including tutor Pierre Gilliard, Dr. Botkin, and Alexandra’s friend, Anna Vyrubova, who describes those who linger as “‘survivors of a shipwreck’” (182).

On March 22, Nicholas finally arrives home and, according to Anna Vyrubova, the tsar “‘sob[s] like a child on the breast of his wife’” (183). However, in the days that follow, Nicholas acts “‘like a schoolboy on vacation’” (183), spending his days with family and reading. Alexandra, on the other hand, returns to her old “sickly” ways (184), confining herself to the sofa. Every afternoon, the family is allowed to walk outside, but mobs gather outside the palace, shouting and throwing things at the royals, while the soldiers do nothing to stop the protestors and even make fun of the royal children.

On April 16, 1917, Lenin returns to Petrograd after twelve years of exile. He believes now is the moment for the soviet “to finally seize power” (185). However, when he insists the Provisional Government, which he says is made up of “‘capitalist pirates,’” should be overthrown, he’s considered a “‘raving […] lunatic’” (186). Lenin continues to make speeches, swaying public opinion to his side, and in April, the soviet demands an accounting of how the Provisional Government is handling the war effort.

The government claims to send a communication to Russia’s allies, stating Russia’s role in the war is “purely defensive” (187), but on May 3, newspapers publish the note. In actuality, the letter states that Russia will fight Germany “to the bitter end” (188). Amid public outcry, the Petrograd Soviet sends five members to join the Provisional Government, but the people’s “trust” in this new government has been irrevocably broken.

As the turmoil grows, the formal royals “happily” (188) plant a vegetable garden, and the now-less-hostile soldiers even join in. At the same time, the new government must decide how to deal with the Romanovs, as King George of England has rescinded his offer to receive the family due to public pressure. The angry mobs in Petrograd pose an ever-increasing threat to the imperial family, especially when the government launches the first World War I offensive in years, and hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are killed.

After a violent protest of the war in July, Kerensky knows the Romanovs must be moved, and chooses a small town in Siberia. Kerensky chooses guards he believes will remain loyal to Nicholas, and, hoping the family “‘could live with some measure of comfort’” (191), he sends them off in a train disguised as being part of the Red Cross. On August 13, 1917, the Romanovs wait with a “mountain of luggage” (194)—the last vestiges of their former wealth (194)—for a train delayed hours by a worker’s strike. At dawn, the family finally departs Tsarkoe Selo for the last time.

The chapter also includes an excerpt from American journalist Albert Rhys Williams’ Through the Russian Revolution. Williams describes traveling by train through Russia in 1917. His train is stopped by armed men who believe the former tsar is on board. With “‘missiles enough to blow a thousand Tsars into eternity’” (193), the men search every inch of the train for Nicholas, illustrating the grave danger the former royals face throughout this period.  

The Romanovs spend a week traveling to Siberia, where they move into a two-story mansion in Tobolsk that was once owned by the governor, while most of their servants live in a house across the street. Their new home is clearly a “prison” (197), with armed guards and a wooden wall surrounding it, but the family finds the townspeople still show them respect and even send gifts. Still, as Alexei laments in his diary, daily life is “‘boring!!!’” (198).

In late 1917, tutor Sydney Gibbes, who was away when the Romanovs were first placed under house arrest and wasn’t allowed to rejoin them, is finally granted permission to stay with the family in Tobolsk. Gibbes writes in his diary that Nicholas is “‘cheerful’” (199) but Alexandra is in ill health. Her two eldest girls are now thin and emotionally removed, while the younger two are warmer and more lively. Alexei, as always, “‘rarely did what he was told’” (199).

Back in Petrograd, the people blame the Provisional Government for increasing poverty, and the Bolshevik-leaning soviet decides to take power. On November 6, 1917, soldiers working for the soviet take control of the electric power station, post office, bridges and railroad, and at 9 p.m., the Bolshevik-controlled ship Aurora fires a blank shell into the Winter Palace. A few more shots are enough to “terrify” (201) the ministers into surrendering at 2 a.m. on November 8, 1917, in what is called the October Revolution (based on an older calendar). The Provisional Government vanishes “with barely a whimper” (202).

In an excerpt from his book Ten Days That Shook the World, American journalist John Reed describes accompanying the Bolsheviks as they swarm the Winter Palace: “‘Like a black river, filling all the street’” (202), he writes, the revolutionaries swarm into the palace, proclaiming, “‘Property of the People!’” (203). When news of the October Revolution reaches Tobolsk, Nicholas questions his decision to abdicate for the first time. As Nicholas tells Gilliard, he fears he’s done Russia “‘an ill turn’” (204) by allowing the Bolsheviks to take power.

As the new leader of the soviet and, by extension, Russia, Lenin declares “‘war to the death’” (204) against the wealthy and the nobility. He passes countless decrees, including one that makes it illegal to own land, and estates and homes are taken from the wealthy and divided up among peasants. Factories and banks are likewise seized by the government, and a decree on the separation of church and state allows the government to take all property of the Russian Orthodox Church. Anyone who was once wealthy—or “‘former people’” (206), according to Lenin—is forced to work menial jobs, and many upper-class Russians flee the country.

In February 1918, Lenin’s decrees finally reach the Romanovs, as the new government proclaims the family should be given only “‘soldiers’ rations’” (207) and will no longer receive an allowance. In March, the family’s guards are replaced with a new group of Red Guards from Petrograd. These are “tough” revolutionary sympathizers (208) whom Gilliard describes as “‘blackguardly-looking’” and “‘indecent’” (208). These guards restrict the Romanov’s time outdoors and search their belongings, as well as forcing all the Romanov servants to stay in the cramped mansion.

Meanwhile, a White Movement of former officers and nobles plans to oust Lenin. Their White Army marches from Siberia to Moscow, now the Russian capital; along the way, they’re joined by former landowners and Orthodox Church members, along with 25,000 Czech prisoners of war. The Bolsheviks counter by establishing a Red Army, and Lenin, knowing he can’t risk civil war in the midst of World War I, chooses to withdraw Russia from the Great War. On March 3, 1918, Russia surrenders to Germany, ceding 32% of its land to the Germans. When the news reaches a despondent Nicholas and Alexandra, Alexei is sick again. Nicholas wonders, “‘How much longer will our unfortunate motherland be torn and ripped apart?’” (211).

Worrying the White Army will rescue Nicholas, Lenin sends Commissar Vasily Yakovlev to move the Romanovs to a new, secret location. However, Yakovlev determines that the “‘yellow-complexioned, haggard’” Alexei can’t be moved (212). Lenin telegrams that in this case, Nicholas must be moved by himself. Alexandra, knowing that without her firm guidance, “‘they can force [Nicholas] to do whatever they want’” (212), makes the difficult decision to leave her son and accompany her husband. Marie, “‘an angel and the best of us’” (213), is to go with her parents. On the morning of April 23, 1918, the three Romanovs leave in a caravan of carriages and soldiers, while the children left behind in Tobolsk weep in despair.