“He is very tired and has had a lot of trouble lately.”
“Oh yes! Mother told me they stopped his train when he wanted to come here. But won’t papa be Czar again afterwards?”
I then told him that the Czar had abdicated in favour of the Grand Duke Michael, who had also renounced the throne.
“But who’s going to be Czar, then?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps nobody now....”
Not a word about himself. Not a single allusion to his rights as the Heir. He was very red and agitated.
There was a silence, and then he said:
“But if there isn’t a Czar, who’s going to govern Russia?”
I explained that a Provisional Government had been formed and that it would govern the state until the Constituent Assembly met, when his uncle Michael would perhaps mount the throne.
Once again I was struck by the modesty of the boy.