Rasputin and the Russian Revolution

by Princess Catherine Radziwill

The first thing that was done by the Duma was to refuse to disperse and to resist the ukaze of the Czar that had prorogued its debates for an indefinite time. The socialist deputies went about trying to get the population of Petrograd to join in the vast movement of revolt they meant to bring about. The latter was but too willing to do so, and the want of provisions was the pretext which the people took to organise vast meetings, and a strike in all the factories. Great masses of men and women paraded the streets, and were dispersed by a formidable police force which had been assembled by Mr. Protopopoff and armed with machine guns that were used against the crowds, whenever these did not obey immediately the injunctions to disperse given to them by special constables and Cossacks gathered together in all the principal streets and squares of the capital. The regular troops had been consigned in their barracks and ordered to keep themselves ready to lend a hand to the police. But the unexpected happened. The soldiers had been worked upon by delegates from the workmen, and they declared that they would not obey orders, should any be given to them, to fire upon the populace assembled in the streets. The latter seemed quite sure of impunity, because notwithstanding the preparations made by the police to quell the revolutionary movement, the existence of which was already recognised everywhere, it refused to disperse, and on the contrary proceeded to commit the only acts of violence which were performed during the course of the mutiny. It threw itself on the prisons where political offenders were confined, plundered and burned them, and liberated their inmates. A few other excesses were performed, upon which the Duma constituted itself an executive committee, which assumed the task of restoring order in Petrograd.

In the meanwhile, the Czar who had been kept in total ignorance of what was going on in the capital, had left Tsarskoie Selo for headquarters, after having signed the prorogation of the Chambers. In his absence, it was the Empress who was left sole mistress of the situation, and it is to her and to Protopopoff that were due all the attempts at repression which happily for all parties concerned were not allowed to be executed, at least not in their entirety.

Mr. Rodzianko telegraphed to the Czar. He informed him that the position was getting extremely serious, that the population of Petrograd was absolutely without any food, that riots were taking place, and that the troops were firing at one another. He implored the Sovereign in the interests of the dynasty to send away Protopopoff and his crew, and he drew his notice to the fact that every hour was precious, and that every delay might bring about a catastrophe. At the same time he telegraphed to the principal commanders at the front, asking them to uphold his request for a responsible government capable of putting an end to the complete anarchy that was reigning in the capital, an anarchy which threatened to extend itself all over the country. The commanders replied that they would do what he asked them to perform. Nicholas II. alone made no sign. It was related afterwards that he had telegraphed to the Empress, asking her what she advised him to do. But it is more likely that the telegram of the President of the Duma was never handed to him. Mr. Rodzianko, however, sent another despatch to headquarters which contained the following warning: “The position is getting more and more alarming. It is indispensable to take measures to put an end to it, or to-morrow it may be too late. This is the last moment during which may be decided the fate of the nation and of the dynasty.” To this message also no reply was received. The Czar seemed unable to understand the gravity of the situation. Others did, however, in his place, and on that same day, the 12th of March, the troops composing the garrison of Petrograd went over to the cause of the Revolution. They marched to the Duma in a long procession, beginning with the Volynsky regiment, one of the crack ones in the army, to which joined themselves almost immediately the famous Preobragensky Guards, and they declared themselves ready to stand by the side of the new government. The President of the Duma received them, and declared to them that the executive committee which had been constituted was going to appoint a provisional government; of the Czar, there was no longer any question. It had become evident that his army would no longer support his authority or fight for him and for his dynasty. Soon the troops composing the garrisons of Tsarskoie Selo, Peterhof, and Gatschina left their quarters and joined the mutineers. The Revolution had become an accomplished fact.

Copyright, International Film Service, Inc.

Revolutionary Crowd in Petrograd

The new executive committee displayed considerable patriotism at this juncture. It might have provoked enormous enthusiasm in its favour had it revealed what it knew concerning the peace negotiations entered into by the Empress, but this might have given a pretext for explosions of wrath on the part of the mob, which could easily have ended in excesses, compromising the dignity of the Revolution. It therefore decided to keep back from the public its knowledge on this subject, and contented itself with arresting the ministers, and all the persons whom it suspected of having lent themselves to this intrigue, and it simply empowered two members of the Duma, Mr. Goutschkoff and Mr. Schoulguine, to proceed to Pskov, where it was known that the Emperor had arrived the day before, to ask the latter to abdicate in favour of his son. Nicholas II. in the meanwhile had arrived at headquarters which were then in Mohilev, and where no one seemed to know anything about what was going on in Petrograd. None of the people about him even suspected that a storm was brewing which would overturn in a few hours a power which they considered far too formidable for anything to be able to shake. The only person who was kept informed of the course which events were taking was the head of the Staff, General Alexieieff, who had been won over from the very first to the cause of the Revolution, and who, if one is to believe all that one hears, played all the time a double game. It was he who received all the telegrams addressed to the Emperor, and who communicated them to him. The latter at last was shaken out of his equanimity, and gave orders to prepare his train to return to Tsarskoie Selo. He took this decision in consequence of a message from the commander of the Palace, addressed to General Voyeikoff the head of the Okhrana, where the latter was advised that the presence of the Sovereign was necessary, because the troops of the garrison in the Imperial residence had mutineed, and the safety of the Empress and of her children was endangered. But in spite of the orders given to press the departure of the Imperial train it somehow could not be got ready as quickly as was generally the case, so that it was only during the night from the 12th to the 13th of March, that it started at last. It went the usual route as far as the station of Lichoslav, where it was met with the news that a revolutionary government had been formed at Petrograd which had seized the railway lines and appointed a deputy to take them in charge. Another telegram from the military station master of the Nicholas station in Petrograd instructed the officials at Lichoslav to send the Imperial train to Petrograd, and not to Tsarskoie Selo. This was communicated to General Voyeikoff, who, however, gave directions not to heed this warning, but to proceed to Tsarskoie Selo, as had been arranged at first. At twelve o’clock at night the Imperial train reached Bologoie. There a railway official informed the persons in charge of it that Tosno and Lioubane were in possession of the troops which had mutineed against the government, and that it might be dangerous to proceed any further. General Voyeikoff would not listen to this advice, and the train went on to the station of Vichera, where it had perforce to stop. The General was told that the first train which always preceded the one in which the Sovereign was travelling had been seized by the insurgents, and the members of the Imperial suite who were travelling in it had been arrested and conveyed under escort to Petrograd.

The Czar was awakened. General Voyeikoff informed him that it was impossible to proceed to Tsarskoie Selo, because the railway line was in the hands of the revolutionaries. It was then decided to go to Pskov, where commanded General Roussky, on whose fidelity the Sovereign believed that he might rely.

But Roussky had been won over to the cause of the Duma, notwithstanding the fact that he had been loaded with favours by Nicholas II. When the latter reached Pskov, where the General met him at the railway station, the troops there had already been sworn over by their commander in favour of the Revolution, and were quite ready to enforce its decisions. The Czar knew nothing about this, and after a few moments’ conversation with Roussky, who acquainted him superficially with the spirit reigning in the army, he declared to him that he consented to call together a responsible Cabinet chosen out of the principal leaders of the different parties in the Duma. But the General replied that he feared this concession came too late, and that it would no longer satisfy the country or the army.

On the 15th of March, Roussky succeeded in talking over the telephone with Rodzianko, whom he informed of the details of his conversation with Nicholas II. The president of the Duma then told him that the former must decide to abdicate in favour of his son. They spoke for more than two hours, and before their talk had come to an end, Roussky had promised to do all that lay within his power, even to resort to violence if need be, to further the views of the new government that had taken up the supreme authority in Russia. He went then to make his report to the Emperor, after which the latter signified his intention to resign his throne to his little boy. The telegram announcing this resolution, however, was not sent to Petrograd, because in the meanwhile there had reached Pskov the news that the two delegates sent by the Executive Committee, Mr. Goutschkoff, and Mr. Schoulguine, had started on their way thither, in order to confer personally with the Czar.