The Diary of Olga Romanov (22 page)

—

From the memoirs of Anna Vyrubova:

I believed that soon there will be a reaction and the Russian people will realize their mistake and sins towards our dear captives in Tobolsk.

Of the same mind was even the revolutionary Burtzev, whom I met at a relative's house, and the writer [Maxim] Gorky who, most likely out of curiosity, wanted to see me.

Hoping to save Their Majesties, or at least improve their conditions, I threw myself at anyone. I myself went to see him so that my own location did not become known. For more than two hours I spoke with this strange man, who on the one hand seemed to stand behind the Bolsheviks, but at the same time expressed disgust and openly criticized their politics, terror and tyranny.

He expressed his deep disappointment in the revolution and in the way that the Russian workers behaved themselves after getting their long awaited liberty.

What he said about the Tsar and the Tsarina filled my heart with joyful hope. According to his words they were the victims of the revolution and fanaticism of the current times, and after thoroughly looking over the imperial quarters at the palace they seemed [to him] not even aristocrats but a simple bourgeois family, with an impeccable lifestyle.

He told me that on me lay the responsibility—to write the truth about Their Majesties “to make peace between the Tsar and his people.”…

I saw him twice more and showed him a few pages from my memoirs, but it was impossible to write in Russia.

The fact that I met with Gorky was screamed about by those who did not grow tired of ruining my reputation, but later all the unfortunates went to him for assistance [too]….

—

From the diary of Nicholas II:

9 April. Monday.

Found out about the arrival of the special authorized [person] Yakovlev from Moscow; he moved into the Kornilov house. The children imagined that he will show up today to do a search and burned all letters, and Maria and Anastasia also [burned] their diaries. The weather was disgusting, cold and with wet snow. Aleksei felt better and even slept during the day for about two–three hours.

10 April. Tuesday.

At 10 1/2 o'clock in the morning Kobilinsky showed up with Yakovlev and his entourage. I received him in the hall with the daughters. We expected him at 11 o'clock, which was why Alix was not yet ready.

He came in, clean shaven, smiling and embarrassed, asked if I was happy with the guards and the premises. Then, almost running, he went in to see Aleksei, without stopping looked over the rest of the rooms and, apologizing for troubling us, went downstairs. In a similar rush he stopped by all the rest [of the rooms] on other floors.

In a half hour he showed up again in order to introduce himself to Alix, again hurried to Aleksei's [room] and went downstairs. This was the extent of [his] review of the house for now.

[I] took a walk as usual; the weather was irregular, first sun then snow.

12 April. Thursday.

After breakfast Yakovlev came over with Kobilinsky and announced that he got an order to take me away, without telling us where?

Alix decided to go with me and take Maria; there was no point in protesting. It was more than difficult to leave the rest
of the children and Aleksei—sick and under current circumstances!

We started to pack all the most necessary things immediately. Then Yakovlev said that he will return for O., T., An. and A., and that most likely we will see them in about three weeks. Spent a sad evening; of course no one slept that night.

13 April. Friday.

At 4 o'clock said goodbye to our dear children and climbed into the
tarantasses
:
¹⁰
I—with Yakovlev, Alix—with Maria, Valya—with Botkin.

From our people, the following went with us: Nyuta [Anna] Demidova, Chermodurov and Sednev,
¹¹
9 marksmen and cavalry convoy (Red Army) of 10 men.

The weather was cold with an unpleasant wind, the road was very bad, and awfully bumpy from the frozen tracks. Crossed Irtysh in rather deep water. Changed horses four times, making 130
versts
the first day.

Came to Ievlevo village to spend the night. Got settled in a large clean house; slept deeply on our cots.

14 April. Saturday.

Got up at 4 o'clock since we had to depart at 5 o'clock, but there was a delay, because Yakovlev slept late, and besides he was waiting for a lost package.

Walked across Tobol on planks, but on the other bank had to ride about 10
sazhens
¹²
on a ferry. Met Yakovlev's assistant—Guzakov, who was in charge of the guards on the way to Tyumen.

The day was beautiful and very warm, the road became more smooth; but it was still very bumpy, and I was concerned for Alix. It was very dusty in the open spaces, and dirty in the woods.

Changed horses in Pokrovskoye village, we stood for a long time right across from Grigori's house and saw his whole family who looked out the windows.
¹³

The last change of horses was in Borky village. Here, E. S. Botkin developed very bad kidney pains, he was put to bed in the house for an hour and a half, and then he moved forward slowly.

We had tea and snacks with our people and the marksmen in the village's school building. The last stage [of the trip] was slow and with all sorts of military precautionary measures.

Arrived in Tyumen at 91/4 in the beautiful moonlight with the entire squadron which surrounded our carts at the entrance into town. It was pleasant to end up on the train, even though it was not very clean; we ourselves and our things had made an awfully dirty sight.

Went to bed at 10 o'clock without undressing, I—above Alix's bunk, Maria and Nyuta in the adjoining compartment.

15 April. Sunday.

Everyone slept well. Figured out by the name of the stations that we are heading towards Omsk. Started to guess: where will they take us after Omsk? Toward Moscow or toward Vladivostok? The commissars said nothing of course.

Maria went to see the marksmen often—their compartment was at the end of the train car, there were four [men] there, the rest were in the adjacent car.

Had dinner at the stop, the station Vagai at 11 o'clock, very delicious. Closed curtains at the stations, because due to
a holiday there were a lot of people. After a cold snack with tea went to bed early.

16 April. Monday.

In the morning noticed that we were heading back. Turned out that they did not want to let us through in Omsk! At least it became freer for us, even took a walk twice, the first time along the train, and the second—rather far away in a field with Yakovlev himself. Everyone was in a good mood.

17 April. Tuesday.

Such a wonderful warm day. At 8.40 arrived in Ekaterinburg. Stood at one station for about three hours. There was some serious quarrelling between the locals and our commissars. In the end the former won out, and the train went to another—commercial train station.

After an hour and a half of standing, we came out of the train. Yakovlev transferred us to the local regional commissar with whom the three of us climbed into a motor [car] and rode through deserted streets to the house prepared for us—Ipatiev's. One by one our people and also the luggage arrived, but they did not allow Valya through.

The house is nice, clean. We were allotted four large rooms: a corner bedroom, bathroom, dining room nearby with windows looking out on a garden and the view of the lower part of town, and finally, a spacious hall with an arch without a door.

We could not unpack for a long time as the commissar and the officer of the guard were not able to start the search of the chests.
¹⁴
And the search was similar to customs, very thorough, right down to the last jar in Alix's travel first aid kit.

This [made me] explode [in] anger, and I bluntly gave the commissar a piece of my mind. At 9 o'clock we finally settled in. Had dinner from the hotel at 4 1/2 and after a clean-up had a snack with tea.

Settled in this way: Alix, Maria and I, all three in the bedroom, the bathroom is common, N. Demidova—in the dining room, Botkin, Chermodurov, and Sednev—in the hall.

In order to go to the bathroom and the W.C. we had to pass by the sentry at the door of the guard room. Around the house they built a very high plank fence two
sazhen
away from the windows; a chain of sentries stood there, and in the garden also.

18th April. Wednesday.

Slept wonderfully. Had tea at 9 o'clock. Alix stayed in bed in order to rest from all she went through.

In honor of 1 May listened to the music of some parade. We were not allowed to go out to the garden today!

I wanted to take a good bath, but the plumbing was not working, and they could not bring water in a barrel. This is so tiresome as my feeling of cleanliness definitely suffered.

The weather was wonderful, bright and sunny, it was 15° in the shade, [we] breathed in fresh air through an open window vent.

19 April. Holy Thursday.

The day was excellent, windy, the dust was flying around the whole town, the sun burned through the windows.

In the morning I read a book to Alix, “La Sagesse et la Destinee” [by] Maeterlinck. Later continued the reading of the Bible. Breakfast was brought late—at 2 o'clock. Then we all, except Alix, took advantage of permission to go outside into the garden for an hour.

The weather got cooler, there were even a few rain drops. It was nice to breathe some fresh air. It was sad hearing the [church] bells, thinking that this is the Passion [week] and we do not have the opportunity to go to these wonderful services, and besides we cannot even fast. Before tea I had the pleasure of taking a substantial bath.

20th April. Holy Friday.

It got a lot colder overnight: instead of rain it was snowing occasionally, but it immediately melted. The sun came out sporadically.

Our guard did not change for two days for some reason. Now their premises are located on the lower floor, which is undoubtedly more comfortable for us—we don't have to walk past all of them to the W.C. or washroom and it no longer smells of smoke in the dining room.

Dinner was very late due to the pre-holiday rush of food supplies in town; sat down to dinner at 3 1/2 o'cl. Then walked with Maria and Botkin for a half hour. Had tea at 6 o'cl.

In the mornings and evenings, as usual these days here, read appropriate passages from the Holy Bible aloud in the bedroom.

By the ambiguous hints of those around us we understood that poor Valya is not free and that he will be investigated, after which he will be set free!
¹⁵
There was no opportunity to get into any kind of contact with him, no matter how hard Botkin tried.

21 April. Holy Saturday.

Woke up rather late; the day was gray, cold, with snowstorms. Read aloud all morning, added a few lines to the
daughters in Alix's and Maria's letters and drew the plan of this house.
¹⁶

Had dinner at one 1/2. Took a walk for 20 minutes. By Botkin's request they allowed a priest and a deacon to come to us at 8 o'cl. They did a morning service fast and well; it was a huge consolation to pray in this environment and hear “Christ has risen.” Ukraintsev, the commandant's assistant, and the guards were present. After the service we had supper and went to bed early.

22 April. Holy Christ has Risen.

Heard the popping of fireworks all evening and part of the night, which they fired off in different parts of town.

During the day it was freezing, around 3°, and the weather was gray. In the morning we exchanged triple kisses amongst ourselves and ate
kulich
¹⁷
and red eggs with tea,—could not get a
paskha
.
¹⁸

Had dinner and supper at the usual time. Walked for a half hour. In the evening chatted with Ukraintsev for a long time in Botkin's [room].

30 April. Monday.

The day was excellent, clear. Took a walk in the morning for an hour. Dinner was unconscionably late, they brought it at 3 1/2! Therefore we went for our second walk only at about 4 o'cl.

Some old woman, and then a boy, got close to the fence—to stare at us through a hole; they tried to shoo them away but everyone laughed while doing it.

The idiot Avdeyev came to the garden but kept his distance. Had supper at 8 1/2 o'cl. Read aloud a lot during the
day, nice stories by Leykin, “The Optimistic Russians.” In the evening—bezique with Alix.

1 May. Tuesday.

We were overjoyed by the letters received from Tobolsk; I got one from Tatiana [Konstantinovna]. We read each other's letters all morning. The weather was great, warm.

The guard was changed at noon, from the ranks of the same special frontier team—Russians and Latvians. The head—[is] a presentable young man.

Today they told us through Botkin that we are only allowed to walk one hour per day; and to the question why? the acting commandant replied “So that it is similar to a prison schedule.”

Food came on time. They bought us a samovar—at least we won't be dependent on the guards now [for tea]. In the evening had four beziques [wins] during the game.

2 May. Wednesday.

The application of the “prison mode” continued and expressed itself in that an old painter had painted over all our windows in all the rooms with lime. It started to feel like fog behind the windows.

Went to walk at 3 1/2 and at 4.10 they chased us inside. There was not one extra soldier in the garden. The head guard did not speak to us since all this time one of the commissars was in the garden watching us, him and the guard!

The weather was very nice, but the rooms got gloomy. Only the dining room won out because they took down the rug outside the window!

Sednev
¹⁹
has a cold with fever.