All language subtitles for The Russian Revolution. Episode 4. Docudrama. English Subtitles. Russian History EN (inglés)

present

Boris Valentinovitch Yakovenko, philosopher, writer,

the author of the book “The History of the Great Russian Revolution”

The news from Petrograd took long time to get to Italy.

Neither the newspapers nor telegrams could keep up

with the pace with which the events were developing.

Hundreds of kilometers and frontlines separated the Russian revolutionary

Boris Yakovenko from his motherland.

However, even being far away from Russia

Yakovenko could see the decisive events brewing there.

The History of the Russian Revolution. February. Episode Four

By the evening of February 27, 1917 the chaos in the city reached its peak.

The rebellious troops joined the crowds of demonstrators.

Almost all state bodies ceased their existence.

The crowd was ransacking shops, state establishments and prisons.

The soldiers were shooting their officers in the streets.

The Russian Emperor found out about those events

when the legitimate authorities were almost non-existent in the city.

The danger of the chaos encompassing the country and the army was evident.

Nicolay II waited all day of February 27,

realizing that sending troops to Petrograd would result in thousands of victims.

However, by the evening it was clear that the troops should move

towards the capital to restore order.

General Nicolay Ivanov was appointed to head them.

Ivanov Nicolay Iudovitch, Artillery General,

the hero of the Russian-Turkish and the Russian-Japanese wars.

At the beginning of the First World War,

he was the commander of the South-Western Front.

Under his head, the Russian troops achieved the first loud victories

and seized Lvov. During the Great Retreat of the Russian army

he was dismissed from his post and appointed to work with the Emperor

at the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.

Nicolay II trusted him completely.

The old general was entrusted with a mammoth task –

to extinguish the revolutionary fire in the capital in the shortest term

without spilling excess blood.

I’m happy to assist Your Highness, but how may we do it?

From the very beginning,

Ivanov had doubts about the success of his endeavour.

Here, gentlemen…

The General had wide competence.

He was appointed the commander of the Petrograd military district,

had a right to send any suspicious person to the court martial,

form the new government and appoint ministers.

Here you go. Study this.

The head of the Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief General Alexeyev

ordered to send units whose loyalty was beyond any doubts at Ivanov’s disposal.

Soon it became clear that a few days were needed to gather the troops.

However, they needed to act without any delay.

Ivanov left for the Tsarskoye Selo without waiting for the troops.

He had only one battalion with him – 800 soldiers instead of 40,000 people.

This is all.

Revolution was raging on in Petrograd.

The Tavria Palace where the State Duma used to have its sessions,

became its center and headquarters. In a matter of hours,

the bravest dreams of the Russian oppositional liberals came true.

The Volyn Regiment

Say Hello to Our Comrades in the Trenches

At the same time, an event happened, which few people noticed then,

but which had a fateful influence over the entire course of the national history.

On February 27, a group of three men arrive at the Tavria Palace

and asked to be allotted a room for a meeting.

They called themselves the Executive Committee

of the Council of the Working Deputies.

The committee was represented by the deputy of the Duma Tchkheidze

as well as Gvozdev and Bogdanov, two ex-prisoners and members

of the Working Group of the Central Military and Industrial Committee.

That Working Group was involved in organizing mass strikes

in Petrograd at the dawn of the revolution.

The representatives of the Committee got a room for a meeting,

and at night of February 28, their first session took place.

Tchkheidze was the chairman, and Skobelev and Kerenskiy became his deputies.

An appeal was written “To the Population of Petrograd and Russia”

and the creation of its own armed force – the working police - was approved.

The session was very emotional.

The audience listened to the agitators not understanding well

who they were and whom they were representing.

The people present at the session had no idea that they became witnesses

of a historical event – before their eyes, a new power was formed

which soon became well-known as the Petrograd Council

of the Deputies From Workers and Soldiers.

The Councils were the alternative authorities elected by the population.

They first appeared during the revolution of 1905.

After its failure, they ceased to exist.

In 1917, the Councils were formed out of the so-called Working Group

of the Central Military and Industrial Committee

which with the help of the oppositional politicians became the organizer

of mass disturbances in Petrograd.

Tchkheidze, Gvozdev, Bogdamov and Kerenskiy weren’t elected there.

Using the revolutionary chaos to their benefit,

they in fact appointed themselves to head the Council

and announced the Council to be a body representing the will of the people.

The Temporary Executive Committee that they created

appealed to the workers to elect one deputy for each thousand of workers

and one soldier for each company.

There was not a single Bolshevik in the Council.

In future, the Councils sabotaged most of the decisions

of the Temporary Government trying to seize the power.

By autumn of 1917, thanks to the efforts of Lenin and his comrades,

the Bolsheviks seized the power in the Councils. From that time on,

the Councils became the name for the Bolshevik Soviet power.

At the first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council

it was evident that the victorious opposition wasn’t by any means

a unified political force. Anybody who was more active, pressing

and aggressive could seize the power in the state.

The decision to create Its own armed forces

demonstrated the Council’s clear intention to usurp power.

Many deputies, for instance Kerenskiy, worked both at the Council

and at the Temporary Committee of the State Duma.

The Temporary Committee headed by Rodzyanko knew that they should act fast.

That was why at night of February 28 the Committee declared

that it undertook the full authority

in the state and published the relevant appeal.

The members of the Temporary Committee were nervous.

They knew that the detachment of General Ivanov was on its way to the capital.

Rodzyanko had declared the seizure of the power and could be executed for that.

However, he kept repeating in fear: “I don’t want to rebel.

I don’t want to push any revolutions!”

Still, the first actions of the new authorities

spoke clearly of their intentions.

At Rodzyanko’s order, the Tsar’s portrait that was hanging at the Duma

was taken down and torn to pieces.

Rodzyanko was busy sending telegrams to Alexeyev and commanders of the fronts

with requests to keep calm. Many remembered the night

from February 27 to February 28 to drag on for eternity.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution:

“The people’s troops captured the Admiralty

where some members of the old government were still hiding,

the Winter and the Mariinskiy Palaces

together with the Fortress of Peter and Paul

fell into the revolutionaries’ hands early in the morning…”

Crowds of excited residents of Petrograd gathered

with the red banners by the State Duma.

Those red banners and bows as well as the address “comrade” or “citizen”

were introduced not by the Bolsheviks but during those February events.

Delegations were arriving at the Tavria Palace,

deputies were delivering speeches under the endless shouts of “Hurray!”.

The noise was never ending.

The crowd also brought arrested officers and officials there.

Ex-Prime-Ministers Boris Shturmer and 70-year old Ivan Goremykin

were among the arrested. The old man was thrown off his bed

and arrived at the building of the Duma looking weirdly:

he had the medal of Andrey the First-Called,

the highest award of the Emperor,

pinned on top of his night dress. Soon General Khabalov was detained too.

The Minister of the Internal Affairs Protopopov came to surrender.

Kerenskiy had barely managed to save him from lynching.

At that, the head of the Petrograd Gendarmes Department General Volkov,

as well as many lower-ranking police officers,

was violently murdered by the crowd.

During the disturbances in February in Petrograd 300 people died

and 1200 people were wounded from the rebels.

About 100 officers of the Baltic Fleet were killed,

together with many military men

and police officers from the side of the government.

Nicolay II stayed at the Headquarters getting alarming telegrams.

Empress Alexandra Fedorovna informed her husband:

“Yesterday the revolution’s scale increased.

The news are worse than they had even been before”.

She was talking Nicolay into conceding to the opposition:

“The concessions are necessary. The strikes are going on.

Many troops took the side of the revolution”.

However, the Tsar didn’t bulge.

He refused to dismiss the Prime-Minister Golitsin

though he asked him about that himself.

The Emperor decided not to strike deals with the liberals.

He worried for his wife and the health of his children

and took a decision to go to his family at the Tsarskoye Selo.

Early in the morning of February 28 the Tsar’s train left Mogilev.

However, it failed to reach the Tsarskoye Selo.

That morning Rodzyanko sent deputy Bublikov to take control

over the Ministry of Communication Lines.

Accompanied by two officers and a detachment of soldiers,

he came to the railway department

where he arrested the Minister of Communication Lines Voynovskiy-Kriger.

At 13:50 Bublikov sent telegrams all over the Empire:

“Workers of the railway stations! The old power that created collapse

in all the spheres of state life proved helpless.

The Committee of the State Duma undertook the forming of the new power.

I address you on behalf of your Motherland.

You’re the ones responsible for the salvation of your Motherland now”.

That was how the news about the revolution reached the big cities of Russia.

However, the majority of the country’s population

only found out about it in April.

Bublikov ordered to delay all the military echelons

to stop the advance of Ivanov’s detachment

and to take control over the movement of the Emperor’s train.

In the evening of the same day the Tsar’s train was stopped

at the station of Malaya Vishera,

allegedly because the revolutionaries blocked the railroad.

The rumors weren’t confirmed but the Tsar agreed to change the route –

instead of Tsarskoye Selo the train turned towards Bologoye and Pskov.

From the Emperor’s diary:

“At night we turned from the station of Malaya Vishera back,

for Luban and Tosno are taken. We went towards Valday, Dno and Pskov

where we stopped for the night. Gatchina and Luga are taken too.

What a shame! We failed to reach Tsarskoye Selo.

However, all my thoughts and feelings are there.

It must be so difficult for poor Alix to suffer all these events alone!

God help us!”

On March 1, at 3 p.m. Nicolay arrived at the station of Dno

where he was informed that the chairman of the State Duma Rodzyanko

asked for a meeting. The time passed, Rodzyanko wasn’t coming,

and Nicolay decided to move further towards Pskov.

At that time, Rodzyanko was in the capital,

sending telegrams to General Alexeyev trying to convince him

that Petrograd was under his full control.

He claimed that the arrival of the troops would lead to a new wave of violence

and that only the abdication of Nicolay II might save the country.

It’s unknown whether General Alexeyev believed him or not.

But from that moment on, he became an intermediary

between the Emperor and the rebellious parliament.

Before that, Alexeyev was sending to the commanders of the fronts

the information about the chaos in the capital, which was true.

Now he informed them that the disturbances had ended

and that the Appeal published by the government

proved the stability of the monarchy.

Alexeyev didn’t mention the demands on abdication.

The Emperor’s train arrived into Pskov.

The commander of the Northern Front General Ruzskiy was to meet Nicolay II

at the railway station but came late. He did it on purpose,

to demonstrate his disrespect towards the Tsar.

Ruzskiy was well-known for his liberal views, was cooperating closely

with the opposition and harbored a personal dislike towards Nicolay II.

The Emperor saw it all but never stooped to react to such disrespect.

He received Ruzskiy in his wagon. In an hour, the Headquarters reported

that Moscow rebelled; unrest started in Kronstadt

and the commander of the Baltic Fleet Vice-Admiral Nepenin

had in fact recognized the authority of the Temporary Committee.

In an hour, another telegram arrived: anarchy was ruling in Kronstadt,

the officers were arrested, the military governor of Kronstadt Vice-Admiral Viren

was killed by bayonets at the Anchor Square of the city.

At that time, Ruzskiy was talking the Emperor into making concessions –

passing the power to the new government responsible before the Duma.

Nicolay II didn’t agree.

He was offered to stay a Tsar but not take part in governing.

When an Emperor was crowned, he was taking automatically,

as a duty before God, the responsibility for overseeing the affairs of the state.

If he agreed to pass his rights to other people,

he would lose the possibility to control the events

while the responsibility would still rest with him.

In other words, the handing over of the authority to the government

which would answer to the parliament wouldn’t relieve the Tsar

of his responsibility for the actions of that government.

Under those circumstances, the Emperor had only two choices:

either to abdicate or to drown the capital in blood but get the power back.

Nicolay tried to explain to Ruzskiy that people who strove for power

and the trust of people had neither that trust nor competence

nor moral traits necessary for the governance of the state,

especially amidst the war and anarchy.

Life proved the Emperor right.

The Temporary Government formed out of the oppositional politicians

was completely helpless in governing the state and the army.

It would fail to keep the promises it gave to the people.

After the Bolshevik revolution, the Ministers and liberal politicians

would emigrate without ever resisting the Bolsheviks.

Trying to convince the Tsar, Ruzskiy was stomping his feet

and banging at the table with his hand.

However, the only thing that the Emperor agreed to

was to appoint Rodzyanko the head of the government

and pass him the right to appoint a few ministers.

At that time, a telegram arrived from General Alexeyev from Mogilev.

He wrote that the unrest would engulf other cities of Russia

and it would paralyze the railroads and army supplies.

The troops at the front would rebel. The only alternative to that chaos

was to form the government of the liberal opposition headed by Rodzyanko.

The draft of the relevant Tsar’s manifest was attached to the telegram.

Only after that Nicolay was forced to agree.

The manifest was signed. Ruzskiy managed to talk the Emperor

into not suppressing the revolution with the armed forces.

When at exile, the Emperor said to Dr.Derevenko who was treating his son:

“God doesn’t leave me. He gives me strength to forgive all my enemies

and torturers. But I can’t win over myself in one case:

I can’t forgive Adjutant General Ruzskiy”.

Ruzskiy immediately wrote to Rodzyanko and reported that the Emperor agreed

to form the government responsible to the Duma.

However, Rodzyanko called the decision on forming of the new government “belated”.

“It’s clear that His Highness has no idea what is going on here.

One of the most terrible revolutions is raging on,

and it won’t be easy to defeat it.

It’s my duty to inform you that your offer is now inadequate.

The issue of the dynasty has been put point-blank”.

The government which had just been formed and hadn’t even started its work

was already demanding the Emperor’s abdication.

That very same evening of March 1,

the detachment of General Ivanov arrived at Tsarskoye Selo.

The colonel of the General Headquarters Domanevskiy met him

and started to convince Ivanov that the use of force

would only exacerbate the situation.

Ivanov was received by Empress Alexandra Fedorovna

and got an unexpected order from her – to leave Tsarskoye Selo

together with his troops. The Empress didn’t want any fratricide blood-spilling.

“No shooting, please, no shooting”, she kept repeating.

Soon Ivanov received a telegram from the Emperor:

“I hope you arrived safely.

Please don’t exercise any actions until my arrival and your report”.

General Alexeyev was also against Ivanov’s decisive actions.

He wrote that in Petrograd the troops had submitted to the State Duma

and were waiting for the Emperor’s arrival to choose the date of the new elections,

Therefore, Ivanov had to avoid reverting to force.

In truth, Ivanov and his single battalion couldn’t exercise any measures.

His troops were on their way and could only arrive in a day.

The General didn’t even know where his troops were.

The troops weren’t moving at all. At the order of General Ruzskiy,

the echelons were stopped. Ivanov went to the station Alexandrovskaya

where the Tarutinskiy Regiment was stationed to be at his disposal

but only reached the station of Susanino.

The echelon was standing in a dead end.

Ivanov was handed over a telegram

from the commissar of the Temporary Committee Bublikov.

He threatened that should Ivanov move towards Petrograd,

his troops would be fired at from artillery guns.

Soon Ivanov got an order from the Emperor to return all the forces

that had been gathered to go to Petrograd back to the front.

That was the end of the last attempt to restore order

in the capital of the Russian Empire.

General Ivanov didn’t know either about the conversation of the Emperor

with Ruzskiy or about the joint session of the Temporary Committee

and the Petrograd Council on forming the new government

that took place in the evening of March 1.

The Temporary Committee that took over the power

was under the full control of the crowd that gathered around the palace.

The sympathies of the crowd were on the side of the Petrograd Council

despite the fact that the people didn’t elect the representatives of that Council

who were participating in the session.

The Council was using it to its benefit and issued a condition –

Nicolay II was to abdicate. The power was passed

from the Temporary Committee to the Temporary Government.

Prince Georgiy Lvov became its chairman, Kerenskiy – the Minister of Justice.

Many members of the Temporary Committee of the Duma

became members of the government.

However, there was no place there for its former chairman.

The Emperor who was forced to discuss the government headed by Rodzyanko

in Pskov didn’t know that the state career of the latter was ignominiously over.

Diarchy was established in Petrograd.

On one hand, the former deputies of the Duma together with the Council

of the deputies from the workers were electing the Temporary Government,

on the other hand – the Council wanted to undertake power.

However, there was still a legitimate ruler of Russia,

Emperor Nicolay II who could gather hundreds of detachments

to suppress the revolution. The participants of the coup d’état

wanted to drive him to abdication by any means.

To that end, Alexander Guchkov who was appointed the Military Minister,

and deputy Shulgin left for Pskov.

To support their position,

General Alexeyev informed the commanders of the fronts

that the new power demanded the abdication of the Emperor.

The telegrams were sent to Grand Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch,

Generals Sakharov, Brusilov, and Evert

as well as the commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral Nepenin

and the commander of the Black Sea Fleet Admiral Kolchak.

Alexeyev asked all of them to send their opinions to the headquarters.

The Emperor didn’t know about those telegrams.

However, he knew well what sorrows would befall the country

after it fell into the hands of the power-loving politicians.

He knew that they didn’t have the people’s trust

and were relying on nothing but the roar of the crowd.

However, the politicians would make the Emperor responsible.

He would be the one to answer before the nation.

And so, the Emperor took a decision.

When walking along the train the following day,

Nicolay met General Ruzskiy. The Emperor informed the General

that he was considering the abdication.

By 2 p.m., replies from the headquarters started to arrive.

Everybody except for Admiral Kolchak

who didn’t reply to General Alexeyev’s telegram agreed

that the abdication was necessary.

The relative of the Emperor Grand Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch wrote:

“I believe according to the duty of my oath and in the spirit of the oath

to bend my knees to beg the Emperor to abdicate

to save Russia and the dynasty”.

The Grand Duke who was nicknamed “Sly” was being cunning there too.

Those replies were a direct violation of the oath.

The military staff of the Russian army gave oaths of loyalty

exclusively to the Emperor and swore at the Gospel to serve him

until the last drop of blood, to fight for his rights, first of all,

the right to power. Therefore, “bending the knees” to abdicate

was a violation both of the oath itself and of its spirit.

The commanders of the fronts were the first to break their oath

which led to the breaking of the oath by all the other military men.

The commander who breaks his oath gives an example to his subordinates.

A person who broke his oath once will break it again.

The further events confirmed this fact.

Soon the troops swore an oath of allegiance to the Temporary Government

but broke it too. Later, the majority of the officers and generals

swore allegiance to the new power and started serving the Bolsheviks.

By the end of 1918, the Bolsheviks would have

over 22,000 ex-officers and generals at their disposal.

The top commandment of the Red Army consisted

of the top ranks of the Imperial Army for over 95%.

However, the military career of the commanders

who appealed to the Emperor to abdicate was in fact over.

General Alexeyev became one of the founding fathers of the Volunteer Army

but died in 1918. Grand Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch emigrated in 1919.

General Brusilov served at the Red Army

where he held a modest position of the cavalry inspector.

General Evert was arrested by the Bolsheviks

and killed by his guards on the way to Moscow.

General Sakharov was shot by the bandits in the Crimea.

Admiral Nepenin was cruelly murdered in Kronstadt,

and his body was thrown out to be scoffed.

General Ruzskiy was arrested by the Bolsheviks and killed by the chairman

of the North-Caucasian Extraordinary Committee Atarbekov.

An immediate decision needs to be taken to avoid further unrest.

In this way, you’ll save the army…

The government responsible to the Duma is the only way to save Russia

from the anarchy… In circumstances of a fight with the external enemy

it’s necessary to agree to the mentioned conditions…

After receiving the agreement of the Generals for the abdication

Ruzskiy came to the Emperor. Nicolay II listened him out calmly

and then replied: “I’ve made a decision. I’ll abdicate.”

On saying that, the Tsar crossed himself.

He sent a telegram to General Alexeyev:

“For the sake of calm and salvation of my dear Russia

I’m ready to abdicate in favour of my son. I ask you all to serve him

loyally and sincerely. Nicolay”.

Younger brother of the Tsar, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovitch

was appointed the regent of the underage Alexei.

The members of the Tsar’s court were the first to find out about his abdication.

Everybody was shocked but Nicolay showed a pile of telegrams

from the commanders of the fronts and said: “What else could I do?

Everybody betrayed me, even Nicolasha” (Grand Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch”).

When the court members asked the Emperor what he was going to do

he answered that he planned to bring him son up.

However, the Tsar’s personal doctor Fyodorov said

that the Emperor’s son Alexei would likely to have to live

with the family of the regent, Grand Duke Mikhail.

On realizing that he might lose his son as well,

Nicolay amended his abdication act.

The Russian throne was passed directly to Mikhail Alexandrovitch.

In the evening of the same day Guchkov and Shulgin arrived in Pskov.

Nicolay signed the act of abdication and appointed Lvov

the chairman of the Council of Ministers and Grand Duke Nicolay Nicolayevitch –

the Commander-in-Chief.

The times that are coming promise to be very difficult.

Especially when the war is still on, Your Highness.

At night, he left for the Headquarters and wrote in his diary:

“At 1 a.m. I left Pskov with hard feelings from what had happened.

Betrayal, cowardice and cheating rule everywhere!”

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“The news of the final abdication of Nicolay II reached the capital

only in the second half of the night.

Early in the morning the negotiations and arguments started

at the Temporary Committee of the State Duma regarding the fact

that Nicolay II passed the state power to his brother.

"The general mood of the workers and soldiers was unfavourable; "

they were not pleased with that…”

In the morning of March 3,

some military units started to swear the oath to the new Tsar Mikhail II.

However, he wasn’t enthroned. Guchkov and Shulgin came to Petrograd.

At the Warsaw railway station a crowd met them.

When Guchkov tried to salute the health of the “Emperor Mikhail”,

the workers instigated by the Council flew into a feat of rage.

They demanded to destroy the abdication manifest,

arrest the Tsar and declare a republic.

On March 3, at 6 a.m. the members of the Temporary Committee

called Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovitch

and arranged a meeting in his apartment.

The majority of the visitors advised Grand Duke against accepting the power.

“The government without a monarch is a fragile boat

that might drown in the ocean of people’s upheavals.

The Temporary Government won’t survive without him, on its own”.

-Why? -I am sure.

Stop it!

Mikhail demanded a one-to-one talk with Rodzyanko and Prince Lvov.

He asked whether the Duma could guarantee his personal safety.

After Rodzyanko confessed that it was impossible Grand Duke agreed

to sign an act of non-acceptance of the throne

until the decision on that matter was taken by the Constituent Assembly.

According to that act, the Temporary Government had to convene

the Constituent Assembly in the nearest future.

It had to include the representatives of all the regions of the state,

elected by the people. The Constituent Assembly was the only body

that had a right to decide on the form of the future government

and whether the country would be a monarchy or a republic.

In the course of the next few months, huge work

on electing the representatives of people would be carried.

However, the Temporary Government and the Councils

would spare no efforts to delay the convention of the Constituent Assembly.

Its deputies would gather for the only meeting in autumn of 1917,

after the Bolshevik coup. At the order of Lenin and his government,

the Constituent Assembly would be dismissed with arms

which would become one of the pushes to the Civil War.

Despite the Emperor’s abdication, the Councils still feared the Tsar.

The majority of the population of the country

was certainly on the Emperor’s side.

The Councils believed that his arrest was the only way

to isolate the monarch from the troops and people

that were still loyal to him.

In two days, on March 5, the executive committee of the Petrograd Council

ordered to arrest the Tsar’s family, confiscate its estate

and deprive its members of the civil rights.

The Temporary Government took the same decision.

A special commission headed by Bublikov went to Mogilev

to deliver Nicolay II to Tsarskoye Selo.

In the morning of March 8 in Mogilev,

in the hall of the governor’s house last meeting with the Emperor took place.

All the officers of the Headquarters

and one soldier from each unit were present there.

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch recalled:

“By 11 a.m., the hall was full. Nicki came in.

He was calm and reserved, with a slight smile on his lips.

He thanked the Headquarters, asked everybody to forget their animosity,

serve Russia loyally and lead our army to the victory.

We all shouted “Hurray” in the way he had been shouted

during the last 23 years. The old generals were crying.

One moment – and some of them would step out to beg Nicki

to change his decision. But it’s all in vain –

the Emperors of all Russia don’t go back on their words”.

Nicolay issued his farewell order to the troops in which he urged them

to “fight till the victory” and “submit to the Temporary Government”.

However, the fear of the Tsar and possible consequences

made the Petrograd Council and the Temporary Government

rule against publishing it.

At the same day in Tsarskoye Selo the new commander of the troops

of the Petrograd military district General Lavr Kornilov

personally arrested the Empress –

partly to save her from lynching by the soldiers.

On March 9, Nicolay II arrived at Tsarskoye Selo as “Colonel Romanov”.

The Emperor had executed his duty before the country and nation

as he saw, felt and understood it.

He asked the new powers about only one thing:

“Let me live like a mere peasant and earn my own bread,

send us to the farthest corner of our Motherland, but let us stay in Russia”.

At the time, the revolution was spreading about the country.

People remembered the first days after its victory as a constant holiday –

strangers hugged each other, meetings sprung out everywhere.

The social life was tumultuous; dozens of old and new parties

were fighting for the popularity.

It was unduly and even suspicious to be indifferent to the politics those days.

One more novelty was the disappearance of the police from the streets.

The revolutionary crowds welcomed it.

The criminal world was more than happy too.

The cities immediately plunged into a wave of thefts, murders and burglaries.

In a result of the amnesty declared by the Temporary Government,

80% of the prisoners were released. The majority of them were criminals.

They got the nickname of “Kerenskiy’s fledglings”

in honour of the new Minister of Justice.

In April of 1917, 190 thefts took place in Petrograd,

while in May – 699,

in June – 778,

in July – 857,

and in August – 1277.

The Germans and Austrians welcomed the Russian revolution too.

In the collapse of the Russian Empire, they saw the only possibility

of a successful ending of the war.

The British and the French were glad as well.

They perceived the new republic as the way to the faster victory in the world war.

Besides, they didn’t have to keep to the promises

which they had given to the government of Nicolay II,

including Russia’s control over the Black Sea Straits

and Constantinople (Istanbul) after the war.

The White House was happy too.

They saw the downfall of the Tsar as a way towards democracy and freedom.

Plus, the USA were only preparing to engage in the war

and the Americans were not enthusiastic about that.

The Russian revolution facilitated the task of President Woodrow Wilson.

He could now talk loudly about the union of the democratic states

fighting against the monarchies led by Germany.

However, the collapse of the Tsar’s power didn’t solving any problems

and, most importantly, it didn’t stop the war.

The lack of bread that scared the workers of Petrograd

threatened to escalate into a real hunger.

The Russian army was still sitting in the trenches.

The Temporary Government lost the fight

for the influence on the army almost at once.

The Petrograd Council issued a document called “Order no. 1”

which decreed to immediately form the elected committees

made up of soldiers and seamen.

The military now had to report not to the officers but to those Councils.

Even more so, the weapons were taken away from the officers.

That order delivered a terrible blow at the discipline in the army.

The right of the Petrograd Council to issue such an order was dubious,

but during the passional first days of the revolution

nobody paid attention to such trifles.

“Order no. 2” issued after the first one that explained

that the order didn’t apply to the units at the front didn’t help.

The discipline collapsed, and the degradation of the army began.

The soldiers refused to execute their officers’ order.

They would themselves decide whether to go into the battle or not.

Less than in a month after the abdication of Nicolay II

his personal enemy and a new military minister Guchkov wrote:

“The Temporary Government doesn’t exercise any real power,

and its orders are only executed if the Council of the deputies

from the workers and soldiers permits it;

the troops, post and telegram are in their hands.

The Temporary Government only exists while the Council allows it”.

One more problem was the increase of the separatist moods.

Right after the revolution,

the Great Princedom of Finland demanded independence.

An issue of the restoration of the Polish state was raised.

The national movements got more active in other regions as well:

dashnaks in Armenia, musavatists in Azerbaijan;

the Georgians remembered about their lost independence too.

The Union of the Highlanders of the Caucasus was formed.

The Tatars and Bashkirs talked about the autonomy too.

The Central Council was established in Kiev.

Even in Siberia, a separatist party was formed

that wanted to have its own government and the parliament.

While Russia was in turmoil, getting used to the life without the Tsar,

an unusual wagon was riding along Germany to the Baltic shores.

Three of its four doors were sealed.

The passengers of the wagon communicated with the outside world

solely through intermediaries –

two officers of the German General Headquarters

and a Swiss social-democrat Friedrich Platten.

In that unusual way, the revolutionary Bolsheviks headed by Lenin

were returning from Switzerland to Russia.

The German General Max Gofmann recalled:

“We strove to increase the degradation that started in the Russian army

after the revolution with the help of propaganda.

Someone who communicated with the Russians living in Switzerland

came up with an idea to use some of those Russians

to accelerate the destruction of the fighting spirit

of the Russian army and poison it”.

Lenin couldn’t go to Russia though the countries of Entente – France and Italy.

He would be simply imprisoned. Germany was the only other option.

Berlin issued the permission to move from Switzerland

to the enemy country without any further doubts.

A special agreement on extra-territorial regime was even concluded –

the power of Germany didn’t apply to the Swiss wagon,

therefore, nobody checked the documents of the passengers.

Russia got wind of the sealed wagon fast, almost immediately.

Lenin was accused of cooperation with the German secret services.

Italy, 1917

From the book of Boris Yakovenko “History of the Great Russian Revolution”:

“On April 3, Lenin and his comrades arrived in Petrograd

after moving through Germany in a sealed wagon.

Everybody was indignant about that Lenin’s action.

Not only the liberal newspapers but even the people and soldiers were protesting”.

A new revolution awaited Russia.

The participants of the February drama were destined for a tragic fate.

General Ivanov participated in the Civil War and died of typhus.

Almost immediately after the Bolshevik coup

former chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Rodzyanko,

Alexander Kerenskiy, personal enemy of Nicolay II Guchkov

together with Milyukov, Prince Lvov and General Khabalov emigrated.

Deputy Bublikov who arrested the Tsar escaped to France,

not even waiting for the October coup.

The ex-Minister of the Internal Affairs Alexander Protopopov

whom the ex-liberals loathed so much, was shot by the Bolsheviks.

On June 13, 1918 Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovitch was executed,

and at night from July 16 to 17 Emperor Nicolay II

together with his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, son Alexei,

daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria and Anastasia were executed too.

With them, their death met their doctor Botkin, servant Trupp,

maid Demidova and cook Kharitonov.

Italy, 1917

All these events would take place after the February coup

and happy shouts about the victory of so-called democracy.

For now, though, neither Boris Yakovenko,

nor the members of the Temporary Government,

nor the crowds of demonstrators in the stress had any idea

that the downfall of the Emperor and the victories of the liberals

would result in the October coup.

The country was destined for the Red and White terror,

the cruelest dictatorship

and the Civil War with the number of victims unseen before…