5. The substitution for the police of a national militia, with elective heads and subject to the self-governing bodies.
6. Communal elections to be carried out on the basis of universal suffrage.
7. The troops that have taken part in the revolutionary movement shall not be disarmed, but they are not to leave Petrograd.
8. While strict military discipline must be maintained on active service, all restrictions upon soldiers in the enjoyment of social rights granted to other citizens are to be abolished.
Meantime the Emperor, “the Little Father,” at first thoroughly incredulous of the gravity of the situation, had at last become alarmed. He appointed General Ivanov Commander-in-Chief of the army, and ordered him to proceed to Petrograd at the head of a division of loyal troops. General Ivanov set out, but his train was held up at Tsarskoe-Selo, and he returned to Pskov. The Czar himself then started for the city, but he, too, was held up at the little station of Bologoi, where workmen had pulled up the track, and he returned to Pskov.
He sent for Ruzsky and declared that he was ready to yield to the Duma and grant a responsible ministry. Ruzsky advised him to get in touch with Rodzianko, and as a result of a telephone communication with Rodzianko and with several of his trusted generals, it became clear that there was no other course than abdication. Guchkov and Shulgin, messengers from the Duma, arrived on the evening of March 15th, and found the Emperor alone, except for his aide-de-camp, Count Fredericks.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“You must abdicate,” Guchkov told him, “in favor of your son, with the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch as Regent.”
The Emperor sat for a long time silent. “I cannot be separated from my boy,” he said. “I will hand the throne to my brother.” Taking a sheet of paper he wrote as follows:
By the Grace of God, We, Nicholas II, Emperor of all the Russias, to all our faithful subjects: