Diary of a Wimpy Czarovitch
Page 33
themselves were devils?
I felt that Father Grigory's death was the beginning of the end for my family. The frost which rimed the coffin settled over my heart and I could not be comforted. There was no peace in my soul or in my mother's for we both knew that family members had been implicated in the death of this holy man and that now a curse had descended on Russia as well as the Romanov family. Father Grigory had written this in one of his letters and I knew he was a prophet.
10 January 1917, - 23 January 1917 - As my grief continued, jubilation filled the land. Newspapers headlined: The Nameless One is Dead! Clapping and cheering reverberated throughout Russia. Bonfires lit the skies and round these, Russians danced celebrating the death of a political enemy. Papa said that thugs had killed the staretz, but didn't arrest or prosecute Felix and the police commissioner who had helped him take my healer down. My cousin Dmitry had participated in the murder. Papa banned the assassins from Petrograd, but that was all. The perpetrators should have been banned from Russia at the very least. What type of a penalty was being sent to the Crimea? I longed to see the Crimea and our beautiful palace again; yet Grigory's assassins were exiled here, a fools paradise. Was Papa wise making this decision? His prime concern appeared to be mending the division in our family and restoring peace throughout Russia. Knowledge of this was not comforting. Would the assassins be dining with my Grandma in her mansion? How would Peter the Great have handled the situation?
20 January 1917 - 4 January 1917 - Strikes continue and demonstrators march commemorating Bloody Sunday, an event where soldiers had fired into crowd of demonstrators in an effort to restore peace. The masses blamed Papa for their deaths, but Papa hadn't even been in the capital, he'd been at Mogiliev and he hadn't given the order for the massacre. The patrols had overstepped their boundaries and should have fired over their heads. Papa had been horrified that so many had been killed in cold blood, but he'd been even more alarmed to know that he'd been blamed for their deaths.
M. Gilliard and M. Petrov had me write an essay on peaceful ways to end public demonstrations. I came up with several suggestions which I may use in the future if I'm ever confronted with demonstrations when I am czar. I proposed to use fog horns, water balloons, and tear gas as well as shooting above their heads. I also thought that throwing rotten eggs would break up a crowd. Who would want to linger after one was thrown? Anastasia thought it was a clever idea and offered her worm collection. Would demonstrators flee if people knew that having worms in one's gut was a life long affliction? But how would I get people to eat them? Anastasia said: "If people were hungry enough they'd eat anything." I had to laugh; she's still the imp.
It is rumored that the majority of people are living on thin soup and moldy crusts. If this is true, how do they have the energy to demonstrate? I suppose where there's a will, there's a way as the old cliché goes. I don't have much energy myself after living on Mama's rations. On meatless days, I'm positively weak, but then again, I do suffer from hemophilia and most Russians do not.
14 February 1917 - 27 February 1917 - I gave Mama a valentine that I made of shiny red paper with cutout windows which when opened mentioned why I loved her.
Love is a scarce commodity here in Russia amidst the classes. Riots are happening daily. There are women marchers as well as men marchers. Change is in the air; the crowds grow bolder still. Mama says that women's issues will have to wait; Russia can only one war at a time. My sisters longed to join in. I believe that women are the equals of men. My Great Grandmother ruled one of the greatest and largest dominions in the world, the British Empire with aplomb. Catherine the Great made her mark here in my country. Of all my sisters, Tatiana, who we siblings call "Governor", whod make a great leader. Olga, is a little too emotional as well as mulish. Anastasia, would be disastrous since she is so unorganized and flighty darting about one thing after another. She'd have all the ministers laughing. For now, Russia still has only male sovereigns. I'm second in line followed closely by my Uncle Michael if my health fails.
Several soldiers have fired on their officers and regiments are refusing to fire into crowds.
I read in the newspaper that crowds singing the Marseilles marched through Moscow and Petrograd. Something must be done. If Papa gives out bread while music plays his theme song will that save the Romanov Dynasty? Would it have saved the French aristocracy? Is Papa's throne hanging by a thread as Grandmama insists in the comfort of her mansion in the Crimea? I'm going to donate my allowance to pay for bread for hungry children this month.
9 March 1917 - 22 March 1917 - Two hundred thousand workers are on strike and it seems that everyone in Petrograd is demonstrating. Police are backing down and the soldiers and police have been ordered not to fire on them, at least until evening, as long as they are being orderly. Papa does not want a repeat of bloody Sunday. It seems to Mama and I that the demonstrators are getting bolder. I cringed when Annya said that an orator yelled that Russia's corrupt leaders must be swept away and it now was in their power to sweep them away. Mama reported this to Papa who advised General Khabalov to post signs warning demonstrators that they would be fired upon if the demonstrations persisted. Papa said that then he wouldn't be blamed when the crowds were dispersed by gun fire. I am glad to be safe in my cocoon in the Alexander Palace.
11 March 1917 - 24 March 1917 - The secret police have been out since dawn and have arrested the demonstrators, but they are replaced by more zealous protestors. Mama is much disturbed by the loud demonstrators and writes to her loved ones abroad not to believe everyone hears about what is happening in Russia. Could she be wrong? It appears to me and Grandmama that anarchy surrounds us, but Mama insists that our loyal guards and soldiers will protect us in our palace and that the humble peasants remain true and loyal to the Romanovs. Does Mama only believe what she wants to believe? I'm neither blind nor deaf and I'm much disturbed about what's going on around me. My tutors are both alarmed. Nagorny and Demerov are positively rude to me and no longer follow my commands. My tutors insist that history is repeating itself here in Russia. Conditions are exactly the same as before the French revolution when the French throne collapsed. Both tell me to keep my bags packed.
Nevertheless sober Mama maintains that as long as Papa is surrounded by his loyal troops and regiments in Mogiliev that his throne is safe. The Preobrezhenzky regiment fired down near Kazan Cathedral and left many dead in the square, but the crowd persisted.
12 March 1917 - 25 March 1917 - Workers and soldiers have captured the Military Armory and have ransacked it completely. M. Gilliard said guardedly: "Now ordinary citizens are armed. This happened during the French revolution; then the women marched on the Bastille as well as the palaces.
"What happened to the royal children Monsieur Gilliard?" I asked.
Without regard for my feelings he said: "The dauphin was corrupted. He was taught to say vile things about his mother and father by his crude captors in front of his sister Madame Royale." I flinched not expecting this answer. Would I be brain washed and required to perform like a monkey for the revolutionaries? I already knew that Marie Antoinette and King Louis had been beheaded by a guillotine. Many of the dead queen's jewels had been purchased by Russian diplomats at fire sale prices and were now part of our vast royal collection.
Will they be marching here to the Alexander Palace? The revolutionists marched into the Central Office of the secret police and confiscated files before burning the law courts and its records. Finally the mob breached the Fortress of Peter and Paul, our last secure prison. I know that a revolution is in process even if Mama and Papa call it by another name. As a child, I'd order my playmate soldiers to take the fortress knowing that whoever did, won the game. Clearly, Papa has lost the battle. Should I tell Mama and telephone Grandmama? Grandmama was not at home having already journeyed to meet with Papa.
Not knowing what to do, I retreat to my bedroom and surround myself with all of my stuffed animals putting my large bear in charge after dressing him in a Cossack uni
form; there is no use defending our palace with my toy cannons since war is not a game and I am only thirteen.
I wait for the evening newspapers and then anxiously read whether the guards are defending the Winter Palace in Petrograd. With alarm, I read that Papa's wine supplies are now being swallowed by the soldiers. What traitors! If I were Czar, I'd behead them all or hang them from the highest bridge in the land like Elizabeth I did or hang them and then draw and quarter them like Henry VIII, her father, but alas I am only a czarovitch and a cripple at that.
By morning a telegram arrives stating that the revolutionaries have taken his throne. Duma leader, Rodzianko, sent a telegram to Papa telling him that the situation was grave and Mama received a copy.
Papa didn't respond and thought at first that Rodzianko must be exaggerating and ordered the Duma dissolved as he'd done before. Once more, Papa was the only one in authority in far away in Mogiliev. But had he any power?
13 March 1917 - 26 March 1917 - Sophie Buxhoeveden received a telegram and awakens Mama who is still sleeping telling her that the troops have mutinied. I would have shot the bearer of bad news and aim