The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II (33 page)

Anxious friends urged him to leave at once. There were many Romanovs who had sought sanctuary in the Crimea, where the reach of the Soviet was hardly noticeable, but Michael refused even to think of that. No, he would stay where he was until the future of Russia was settled. After all, he was the architect of those elections: he had made the calling of a constituent assembly a condition of his vesting his powers in the then seemingly promising Provisional Government. He would stick it out in Gatchina until the Assembly decided what was to be. It was his duty. Hope must triumph over experience.

Some of that hope reached the banished Dimitri in Persia. Taken under the wing of the British ambassador in Teheran, and made an honorary officer in the British army, Dimitri received an unexpected letter from Natasha in early October 1917. In his diary he wrote that he was ‘surprised that she suddenly decided to make contact and wrote favourably and touchingly — this might mean that things have taken a little turn for the better in Gatchina’.
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In fact, they were about to get much worse. On October 25, 1917, Petrograd fell to the Bolsheviks — the men dedicated to creating a Russia in which there could never be either an emperor or a democratic republic. The best Michael could hope for now was to be left in peace as Citizen Romanov.

KERENSKY had blundered badly in arming the Bolsheviks in the face of Kornilov’s advancing columns. He had sacked him as Supreme Commander and placed him under arrest, but in humbling Kornilov he had lost the trust of the other generals. He had made his bed in the extremist camp and he now had to lie on it. Declaring a republic on September 1 had done nothing to win over the workers. That month, there were strikes across Russia, and mass unemployment as industrial plants closed and manufacturing slumped. As Kerensky’s stock fell, that of the Bolsheviks rose. ‘Down with the war’, they cried, a call that was echoed throughout the Petrograd garrison and beyond.

The Bolshevik coup, rumoured for mid-September, came later but when it did come Kerensky had no Savage Division, no Krymov, and no Kornilov to crush it. Kerensky was on his own, as he discovered when the three Cossack divisions he had ordered to the defence of the capital refused ‘to saddle up’.
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The bulk of the Petrograd garrison also refused to rally to him, and for the defence of the Winter Palace—which he had made the centre and symbol of his power — he had to rely on officer cadets and a ‘women’s battalion’.
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At Gatchina, the Bolshevik threat dominated discussion from October 19, when Michael noted that ‘an action...is expected daily’. Five days later he wrote that ‘all bridges in Petrograd are swung apart because of the action expected every moment by the Bolsheviks’. The next day, Monday, October 25, Petrograd fell. ‘The Winter Palace is occupied by the Bolsheviks…The Council of the Republic is dismissed by the Bolsheviks and the military staff of the District is in their hands. There is shooting in some streets. The whole garrison went over to the Bolsheviks…Kerensky has gone to Dno to summon help.’
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The following day he recorded that ‘all power is in the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee. All the banks, ministries are seized. The Winter Palace, which was heavily bombarded was defended by cadets and the Women’s Battalion and many lives were lost. All Cabinet ministers were arrested and are in the Kresty prison. In short, the Bolsheviks have won a complete victory…but for how long?’
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Although Petrograd had fallen, Gatchina was still in the hands of loyal government troops, reinforced by artillery and tough-looking Cossacks. The local Bolsheviks fled at the first sight of them. Kerensky, having abandoned the capital, now turned up at Gatchina Palace, defiantly promising a counter-offensive.

Walking about the town, Michael and Natasha were briefly encouraged. There were reports of more troops on their way. Cavalry, guns, and armed soldiers seemed to be everywhere, though there were not yet enough for General Peter Krasnov, commander of the diminished Third Cavalry Corps; even so, he seemed confident.

In his own show of confidence, and as signal to the townspeople that all would be well, Michael and Natasha went to the local cinema, in the evening of Friday, October 27 — two days after Petrograd fell — to see the film
She Put Him To Sleep Forever
, starring the Italian actress Franchese Bertini.
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It was a curious place to find the last man proclaimed Emperor of All the Russias, but sitting in the packed cinema, surrounded by soldiers and townsfolk, it was a gesture intended to show Michael’s contempt for the Bolsheviks and his faith in Krasnov, now marching to Tsarskoe Selo to do battle with the enemy.

In the event, it would be a disaster. Heavily out-numbered, Krasnov was soundly beaten, retreating with the remnants of his Corps after what would be the only battle between loyal troops and the triumphant Bolsheviks. It was the end for Kerensky, no longer dictator but a hunted man. It was also the end of any hope that Michael had that the Bolshevik uprising would leave him untouched in Gatchina. He had to get out before they came for him.

He still had his Finnish permit for two cars, but how much time had he? On Monday, October 30, Johnson was sent to the palace to find the answer to that. He returned at 11.30 p.m., his face grim. ‘The position of Gatchina is critical,’ he reported.
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It was now or never.

With that, the household began packing valuables, working until 4 a.m. with the ever-practical Natasha ‘sitting down and prising out the precious stones from various Oriental orders’ which Michael had been awarded over the years.
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After a few hours’ sleep they resumed packing and continued doing so for the rest of that day. Michael went out and returned to report that a truce had been declared ‘until midday tomorrow’ — Wednesday, November 1.
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It was going to be touch-and-go.

The plan was that the children and Miss Neame, would leave early in the morning in the Packard, and go to Batova, an estate owned by Natasha’s close friend Nadine Vonlyarlarskaya, sister of the lawyer Vladimir Nabokov, 15 miles to the south of Gatchina. Nadine and her young daughter would go with them, and they would wait there until Michael and Natasha arrived in the second car.

Arriving safely, the car started back to Gatchina to pick up possessions and provisions while the children, Nadine and Miss Neame sat down to breakfast. ‘Suddenly the manageress of the estate came hurriedly in to say that Bolshevik centres were being formed in all surrounding villages; that our car had been seen coming to the house; and that the Commissars intended to arrest the occupants, thinking that they were members of the Provisional Government trying to escape.’
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All telephone lines to the house had already been cut.

Knowing that Michael had to be warned if he was not to fall into the same trap, Nadine quickly saddled a horse and rode off to the local hospital and used their telephone to call him. There was only one line working but she got through to Nikolaevskaya Street. Speaking in English to confuse eavesdroppers she told Michael what had happened. He replied that he would send the Packard back with a message.

The little party waited anxiously all day but it was not until 8 p.m. that the Packard returned, with an armed Bolshevik sitting next to the chauffeur.
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The plan was in ruins. Even before the truce deadline passed, Gatchina had fallen into the hands of the Bolsheviks, and sailors had turned up at Michael’s house and confiscated both the Packard and his Rolls-Royce.
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Their only concession was that, Michael having persuaded the new local Bolshevik commandant Semen Roshal that the children had gone only on a day trip, to permit the Packard to return and bring them home.

At least they still had a home. Kerensky at that moment was a refugee, hiding in a peasant’s cottage. The Provisional Government, born on March 3, was no more.

THREE days later, on Saturday November 4, the Bolshevik commandant Roshal returned to Nikolaevskaya Street. Roshal was a prominent figure in the Petrograd party, and a leader of the Kronstadt sailors whose revolutionary fervour had made them the ‘shock troops’ of the Bolshevik coup. Roshal produced an order of the Military Revolutionary Committee that Michael was to be taken to the Bolshevik headquarters in Petrograd. Michael protested, and after a long argument Roshal compromised: Michael could select his own accommodation in the capital and he would be free to go out, provided he stayed in the city.
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Once more Michael was under arrest, but on rather more generous terms than had been the case under Kerensky ten weeks earlier. Yes, he would wait, said Roshal, until Michael could arrange something. He would come back tomorrow.

Michael telephoned 12 Millionnaya Street. Princess Putyatina had gone to Odessa, but her sister was staying there with her husband and brother. They would be delighted to have Michael and Natasha join them, but there was no room for the children. Michael called Matveev. The children and Miss Neame would stay with him.
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The following afternoon, Sunday, Roshal re-appeared with both of Michael’s car and a squad of sailors. At 5.30 p.m. the household set off in convoy, followed by Roshal and two truckloads of guards.

Having seen the children safely into Matveev’s apartment, Michael drove to Millionnaya Street, where Princess Putyatina’s brother-in-law came out to greet them. Michael put a finger to his lips, as warning to him to be careful what he said in front of the two armed sailors standing behind him, flanking Roshal, ‘a tall man, with dark, piercing eyes’, and dressed in a soldier’s tunic and fur cap. Roshal motioned them to go into the building, and once inside repeated his instructions on the terms of his ‘arrest’. He then left, leaving the two sailors as sentry on the door.
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Although officially ‘under surveillance’, the Bolsheviks left him alone over the next days. He walked around the city, going first to the square in front of the Winter Palace where he ‘admired its appearance’ as he caustically put it. ‘All the walls were spotted with bullets, and also the windows’.

Bolshevik propaganda would later portray ‘the storming of the Winter Palace’ in heroic terms as if a triumphant victory against a determined enemy, but it was nothing like that. There were only enough defenders to guard three doors, and the Red Guards, soldiers and sailors massed in the palace square simply broke in through the undefended doors and disarmed the tiny garrison once inside. The government ministers who had been working there, including Tereshchenko, were arrested. Three cadets were wounded, and six sailors were said to have been killed in the square earlier, but storm it was not.

On his return to Millionnaya Street, Michael and Natasha entertained friends. The conversation inevitably turning to politics, it became so heated with Natasha and the others so ‘worked up and shouting’, that ‘we had to employ drastic measures’, Michael suggesting that he should be given ‘a chairman’s bell to restore order’ and if that failed, ‘a revolver’.
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Eight days later, on Monday, November 13, Michael was told that he could go back to Gatchina under ‘house arrest’, though again the conditions were so lax that the order seemed not worth the paper it was written on.
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Although Michael was returning with everyone else, Natasha decided to stay on in Millionnaya Street for a few more days, though her motive was wholly practical: she was determined to go into the state Bank and rescue her valuables held there in a strong-box. The bank had been closed because of a strike, but it was due to re-open in two days’ time. She would be back on Saturday.

When he got home he dashed off a letter to her in Millionnaya Street, laconically addressing the envelope to ‘Comrade Nathalie Sergeyevna Brasova from Comrade MAR’. He reported that ‘two of our people kept watch in the house during the night because our guard had been removed, but, as of tomorrow, we are supposed to have a guard again. Everything is quiet and comfortable here, it was a great pleasure to return home and breathe the wonderful fresh air. Johnnie is going to town tomorrow and will call at Millionnaya for a minute, and will come back with you on Saturday. It is now 9.30 p.m. and he and I are going for a little sledge ride in the wonderful moonlight…’
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Natasha got what she wanted at the bank. Telling officials that she needed access to her strong-box in order to examine papers, she was escorted into the vault and the box given to her. When she left the bank her muff was ‘stuffed full of some of her more valuable and portable jewellery’.
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She would need it all in the days to come.

Although Michael was released from his notional ‘house arrest’ shortly after his return to Gatchina, he would not be free from minor harassment. On November 25, 1917, a party of soldiers arrived at the house with an order authorising them to confiscate wine and provisions. They took ‘80 bottles of our wine and a quantity of sugar…some bottles were drunk and smashed on the spot’.
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