“I firmly believe that the infinite love of our great native land has not died out of your hearts. May God bless you and Saint George the great Vanquisher and Martyr guide you.
“NICHOLAS.”
The Order was counter-signed by General Alexeiev, Chief of Staff.
[7] They are the wives of the Grand Dukes Nicholas and his brother Peter and sisters of the Queen of Italy. At one time they were very friendly with the Empress and through them Razputin came to the notice of the Court. Afterwards they became enemies of Razputin.
[8] It must be borne in mind that the virtual ruler in Moscow was Count Mirbach (see chapter 2), the Bolshevist leaders being appointees and vassals of Germany, though, perhaps even then, secretly conspiring against their masters. Further, it is known that many influential Russians were intriguing with Mirbach (May, 1918) to restore the Monarchy. This movement collapsed because the two “orientations”—German and Entente—could not agree. The “Germans” wanted Alexis; the “Ententes” favoured Michael.
“We could have deposed the Soviet Government, which was thoroughly hostile to us, and given help to other authorities in Russia, which were not working against us, but indeed anxious to cooperate with us. This would have been a success of great importance to the general conduct of the war. If some other Government were established in Russia, it would almost certainly have been possible to come to some compromise with it over the Peace of Brest.”
[9] Up to date (August, 1920), the only information that has reached the world respecting the Imperial family’s private papers, removed to Moscow after their death, is contained in three short telegrams published in The London Times of August 16, August 28, and September 28, 1918.
The first gives an extract of the Tsar’s diary for March 2/15, the day of his abdication at Pskov:—“General Ruzsky came this morning and read to me a long conversation which he had had on the telephone with Rodzianko, according to which the situation at Petrograd is such that a Cabinet of members of the Duma will be unable to do anything because against it are fighting the Socialist Parties in the shape of workmen’s committees. My abdication is necessary. Ruzsky has transmitted this conversation to General Headquarters, and Alexeiev passed it on to all the Commanders-in-Chiefs. At 12.30 came answers from all, the sense of which is that, to save Russia and keep the Army at the front quiet, I must make up my mind to this step. I have consented. From G.H.Q. they have sent a draft of a manifesto. In the evening arrived from Petrograd Guchkov and Shulgin, with whom I had a long talk, and handed them the signed manifesto as agreed (i.e., renouncing the Tsarevich’s rights as well—the Tsar’s own decision). At one o’clock in the morning left Pskov with a heavy feeling, due to all I have lived through. Am surrounded by treachery, cowardice, and deceit.”
The second reproduces a letter dated January 14, 1916, from the Empress Maria to “Niki,” complaining of Witte’s delay in summoning the Duma, bids the Tsar be strong, congratulating him on his “new spirit.” On April 5 (at Tsarskoe) the Tsar in his diary speaks of preparations to go to England, and says that news of this proposal was communicated to him by Prince Lvov and Kerensky.
The third merely enumerates the other documents seized by the Soviet:—“The diaries of the Empress and her daughters, notes by the Tsarevich, over 5,000 letters of the correspondence of the Tsar with his wife, with the Kaiser and other Sovereigns, with Razputin with divers official personages, also with his father Alexander III, between 1877 and 1894.”