*Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 105; KA, No. 2/21 (1927), 11–12. Michael alone signed the message, but it was the result of the joint efforts of himself, Prime Minister Golitsyn, Rodzianko, Beliaev, and Kryzhanovskii: Revoliutsiia, I, 40.
*Ruzskii was arrested by the Bolsheviks in September 1918 while living in retirement in the North Caucasian city of Piatigorsk, and murdered, along with 136 other victims of terror, the following month. He was very anxious to clear his name of charges that he had pressured Nicholas to abdicate. (Alexandra called him “Judas” in a letter to Nicholas of March 3, 1917: KA, No. 4,1923, 219.) His story, as recounted by S. N. Vilchkovskii, is in RL, No. 3 (1922), 161–86.
*After the Revolution, in emigration, he would proclaim himself successor to the Russian throne.
*“Riding school” apparently refers to the royal manège in Paris, the seat of the National Assembly during the Revolution, notorious for its unruly proceedings.
*A. Shliapnikov, Semnadtsatyi god, III (Moscow-Leningrad, 1927), 173. The secrecy may have been due to embarrassment that so many Ispolkom members were non-Russians (Georgians, Jews, Latvians, Poles, Lithuanians, etc.): V. B. Stankevich, Vospominaniia, 1914–1919 g. (Berlin, 1920), 86.
†B. Ia. Nalivaiskii, ed., Petrogradskii Sovet Rabochikh i Soldatskikh Deputatov: Protokoly Zasedanii Ispolnitel’nogo Komiteta i Biuro Ispolnitel’nogo Komiteta (Moscow-Leningrad, 1925), 59. According to Marc Ferro, Des Soviets au Communisme Bureaucratique (Paris, 1980), 36, the resolution was moved by Shliapnikov. It was by this procedure that in May, on his return from the United States, Leon Trotsky would receive a seat on the Ispolkom.
*N. Sukhanov, Zapiski o revoliutsii, I (Berlin-Petersburg-Moscow, 1922), 255–56. Revoliutsiia, I, 49; T. Hasegawa, The February Revolution: Petrograd 1917 (Seattle-London, 1981) 410–12. The minority consisted of members of the Jewish Bund augmented by some Mensheviks and Mezhraiontsy.
*When on March 18 General Ruzskii asked Rodzianko to explain the chain of authority in the new government, Rodzianko answered that the Provisional Government had been appointed by the Provisional Committee of the Duma, which retained control over its actions and ministerial appointments (RL, No. 3, 1922, 158–59). Since the Provisional Committee had ceased to function by then, this explanation was either delusion or deception.
*According to S. P. Melgunov, Martovskie dni (Paris, 1961), 107, the term “Provisional Government” was not officially used until March 10.
*Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 148, gives the total casualties as 1,315. Avdeev’s figures, which seem more accurate, are 1,443 victims, of which 168 or 169 were killed or died from wounds: 11 policemen, 70 military personnel, 22 workers, 5 students, and 60 others, 5 of them children (Revoliutsiia, I, in).
†In this picture (Plate 44) most of the military appear to wear officer’s uniforms.
*Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 145. The message to Ivanov was sent at Alekseev’s request: KA, No. 2/21 (1927), 31.
*Ivanov made his way to Tsarskoe Selo, where he met with the Empress (Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 148), but his men were stopped at the approaches to Petrograd at Luga by mutinous troops and dissuaded from proceeding with their mission: RL, No. 3 (1922), 126.
†In fact, the “people” were nowhere clamoring for the Tsarevich to assume the throne under a regency: this was wishful thinking on the part of Duma politicians.
*P. E. Shchegolev, ed., Otrechenie Nikolaia II (Leningrad, 1927), 203–5. Admiral A. I. Nepenin, commander of the Baltic Fleet, concurred as well. His telegram came late: he himself was murdered two days later by sailors: N. de Basily, Diplomat of Imperial Russia, 1903–1917: Memoirs (Stanford, Calif., 1973), 121, and RL, No. 3 (1922), 143–44. There was no response from Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who commanded the Black Sea Fleet.
*Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 159. Later, when he returned to Tsarskoe, Nicholas showed Count Benckendorff the cables from the front commanders to explain his decision to abdicate: P. K. Benckendorff, Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo (London, 1927), 44–45.
*Martynov, Tsarskaia armiia, 171. According to Voeikov (Padenie, III, 79), Nicholas chose to go to Mogilev rather than proceed directly to Tsarskoe because the road to there was still barred.
*At that time, the Soviet transferred to the Smolnyi Institute, which had housed a finishing school for aristocratic girls.
