Leaving on August 14th at 6 a.m., we reached Tioumen—the nearest railway station to Tobolsk—on the evening of the 17th, and a few hours later boarded the Rouss.
On the following day we passed the native village of Rasputin, and the family, gathered on the deck, were able to observe the house of the staretz, which stood out clearly from among the isbas. There was nothing to surprise them in this event, for Rasputin had foretold that it would be so, and chance once more seemed to confirm his prophetic words.
On the 19th, towards the end of the afternoon, we suddenly saw at a bend in the river the crenellated silhouette of the Kremlin, which dominates Tobolsk, and an hour later we reached our destination.
The house which was to receive us not being ready, we were forced to remain for some days on the boat which had brought us, and it was not until August 26th that we moved into our new quarters.
The family occupied the whole of the first floor of the Governor’s house, a spacious and comfortable building. The suite lived in Korniloff’s house, belonging to a rich merchant of Tobolsk, and situated on the other side of the road almost facing ours. The guard was formed by soldiers of the former rifle regiments of the Imperial family who had come with us from Tsarskoïe-Selo. They were under the orders of Colonel Kobylinsky, a generous man who had become sincerely attached to those in his charge; he did all he could to ameliorate their lot.
At first the conditions of our captivity were very similar to those at Tsarkoïe-Selo. We had all that was necessary. The Czar and children nevertheless suffered from lack of space. Their exercise was confined to a very small kitchen garden and a yard which had been formed by enclosing with a fence a broad and little-frequented street running along the south-east side of the house in which they lived. It was very little, and they were exposed to the observation of the soldiers, whose barracks overlooked the whole of the space reserved for us. On the other hand, the members of the suite and servants were freer than at Tsarskoïe-Selo, at any rate to begin with, and
GRAND-DUCHESS TATIANA SITTING AT THE FURTHEST POINT THE PRISONERS WERE ALLOWED TO GO IN THE PARK OF TSARSKOÏE-SELO.