A secret notice was given to the police that the anarchists were preparing to blow up the Winter Palace, which is looking now like a fortress encircled with a rope; even generals are not permitted to enter its enclosure.
It is an awful time altogether! Alarming rumours continue to circulate. There is said to be a great deal of agitation in the country, especially in the south, where there is a special hatred against the Jews; their houses are ransacked and plundered. The peasants begin to rebel and refuse to take oath to their new Tzar, stating that his father’s murderers had been bribed by the Russian nobility, which was now avenging itself for the emancipation of the peasants, effected by Alexander II. Troops were obliged to be sent there to settle order amongst the rebels.
Kobzeff, one of the most important anarchists, a very stylish young man who hadn’t at all the dynamite-look on his face, gained admittance under a false name into the most fashionable drawing-rooms of St. Petersburg. He went afterwards to Moscow and even forced his way into Prince Dolgorouki’s palace on pretext that he was an engineer who had found out a new system of gas-light for the town.
The police had been informed that a quantity of dynamite has just been transported to one of Moscow’s railway stations. But, when they wanted to confiscate it, the cunning anarchists disguised as policemen, took possession in full daylight of the murderous baggage under the very nose of the real police agents who arrived at the station a few minutes later and found all the dynamite gone.
The irritation against the anarchists is growing from day to day; there are often scuffles in the streets. A masculine-looking girl, with short hair and glasses, was taken for a socialist by the wild mob, which stamped upon her reducing her nearly to the condition of a pancake. She had to be sent to the hospital with a bloody nose and black eyes. About the same time a French manicurist bought a paper from a news boy, in which the Emperor’s funeral was described. Finding that the vendor had charged too high a price for his paper, the Frenchman asked him, in very bad Russian, why “he took so dear for such stuff,” meaning the sheet of paper, but unfortunately he was understood in quite a different manner, and knocked down and beaten so severely that he died the next day.
In the middle of June the Tzar came to Moscow to review the troops on the “Khodinka Field.” A warning had come from abroad telling the police to take great care of bomb-throwers during that review, and especially to mistrust the men wearing top-hats, which could hold engines of destruction in them. Though great precautions had been taken, I felt awfully nervous whilst the review was going on. Count Brevern opened the parade on horseback, surrounded by my husband and a brilliant staff of splendidly uniformed officers who took up their position behind the Emperor. My fear of the anarchists did not hinder me from admiring the beautiful appearance of our soldiers. The artillery and infantry in compact rows, and the cavalry galloping very fast, produced an imposing spectacle. The regiments were splendid, they all came up and passed: cavalry, infantry, artillery, ambulance, doctors and all, with much music.
After the review the Emperor invited the chief-commanders to a lunch at Petrovski Palace. Some of the officers of the Emperor’s suite came to pay us a visit in the afternoon, General Skobeleff, a brilliant celebrity, amongst them. Though he was supposed to be a woman-hater, he gallantly kissed my hand, at which an enthusiastic lady-visitor, who happened to be present, began to examine my hand to see if a star had not incrusted itself on it after the kiss of such a man, every inch a hero.
A week afterwards the Grand Duke Michael arrived to be present at the grand manœuvres. I was on the Kodinka Field driving my pair of ponies when the order was given to the cavalry to attack the Petrovski Palace. Fearing to be trampled down by the charge of the cavalry, I jumped out of the pony-chase, leaving the ponies to the care of the groom, and started running home by the shortest cut, jumping over pits and ditches. The next day I drove to the spot where the mock-battle was to take place. The sound of the trumpets resounded from everywhere and the cannons kept up such a continual firing that the ground actually shook under us. The cavalry was prancing round. I soon perceived the Grand Duke and would have turned tail and fled, but I was not permitted to make my escape. I alighted and tried to hide myself behind my ponies, but for the first time I was dissatisfied with the diminutive stature of these little fellows; there was no concealment even for a rabbit. My position was awfully critical; I have never felt such a longing to sink into the earth and disappear from human sight. The Grand Duke, who had discovered me, laughed a great deal—I didn’t!
We often spent our evenings at the Hermitage, a large music-hall, the entrance of which was strictly forbidden to collegians and cadets. One of them got in nevertheless, dressed in woman’s clothes, a fair, effeminate youth. With his smooth girlish face he easily passed for what he pretended to be and played his part to perfection. He was soon surrounded by a crowd of admirers. But the poor boy got severely punished for his trick, and had to endure three days of arrest.