Up to this time, Iakovlev had been extremely polite, almost deferential, to the Imperial family, which aroused the suspicions of the soldiers of his entourage and of the Tobolsk garrison. They thought it highly suspect that a Bolshevik would so demean himself as to shake hands with “Nicholas the Bloody.”22 After receiving fresh instructions, Iakovlev retained his good manners but turned official. On the morning of April 25, he told E. S. Kobylinskii, the commandant of the Governor’s House, that he had to remove the ex-Tsar; where to he would not say, although he apparently let it slip that the destination was Moscow. He requested an “audience,” which was set for two o’clock that afternoon. On arriving in the Governor’s House, Iakovlev was annoyed to find Nicholas in the company of Alexandra and Kobylinskii. He requested them to leave, but Alexandra made such a scene that he agreed to them staying. He told Nicholas that he had instructions from the Central Executive Committee to depart with him early the next day. His original orders had called for him to take along the entire family, but in view of Alexis’s condition, he was now instructed to bring only Nicholas. The response of the ex-Tsar to Iakovlev’s news is recorded in two versions. According to an interview which Iakovlev gave to
Please, don’t do that. I must carry out my orders. If you refuse to go, I will either have to use force or resign my mission. In that case, they may replace me with someone who will be less humane. You may rest easy. I answer with my head for your life. If you do not wish to travel alone, you may take with you whomever you wish. We depart at four tomorrow morning.23
Iakovlev’s order threw the Imperial couple, especially Alexandra, into a state of extreme agitation. According to him, Alexandra cried out: “This is too cruel. I do not believe you will do that …!”24 He would not say where he was to take Nicholas, and later, writing for a White newspaper, claimed that he did not know. This, of course, is untrue, and was probably intended to give credence to rumors, favorable to him at the time, after he had gone over to the Whites, that he really had meant to bring Nicholas into areas controlled by them.*
After Iakovlev left, Nicholas, Alexandra, and Kobylinskii discussed the situation. Nicholas agreed with Kobylinskii that he was to be brought to Moscow to sign the Brest Treaty. If so, the mission was in vain: “I will rather have my hand cut off than do this.”25 That Nicholas could believe the Bolsheviks needed his signature to formalize the Brest Treaty shows how little he understood of what had happened in Russia since his abdication and how irrelevant he had become. Alexandra, who also believed that this was the purpose of Iakovlev’s mission, was far less confident of her husband’s steadfastness: she had never forgiven him for agreeing to abdicate and felt certain that had she been in Pskov on that fateful day, she would have stopped him. She suspected that unbearable pressure would be brought on Nicholas in Moscow, mainly by threats against his family, to sign the disgraceful treaty and that unless she stood by his side he would cave in. Kobylinskii overheard her saying to a close friend, Prince Ilia Tatishchev: “I fear that if he is alone he will do something stupid there.”26 She was beside herself, torn between love for her sick child and what she felt to be her duty to Russia. And in the end the woman who for years had been accused of betraying her adopted country chose Russia.
The Tsarevich’s Swiss tutor, P. Gilliard, who met with her at 4 p.m., describes the scene thus:
The Czarina … confirmed that I had heard that Iakovlev has been sent from Moscow to take the Czar away and that he is to leave tonight.
“The commissar says that no harm will come to the Czar, and that if anyone wishes to accompany him, there will be no objection. I cannot let the Czar go alone. They want to separate him from the family as they did before …
“They’re going to try to force his hand by making him anxious about his family … The Czar is necessary to them; they feel that he alone represents Russia … Together we shall be in a better position to resist them, and I ought to be at his side in the time of trial … But the boy is so ill … Suppose some complication sets in … Oh, God, what ghastly torture!… For the first time in my life I don’t know what I ought to do; I’ve always felt inspired whenever I’ve had to take a decision, and now I can’t think … But God won’t allow the Czar’s departure; it can’t, it must not be. I’m sure the thaw will begin tonight …”
Tatiana Nikolaevna here intervened:
“But, Mother, if Father has to go, whatever we say, something must be decided …”
