The Russian Revolution полностью

To this letter Nicholas responded at some length on June 25. He informed the correspondents that two days earlier one of their windows had indeed been opened. It was imperative to save not only them but also Dr. Botkin and the servants: “It would be ignoble for us, even if they do not want to burden us, to leave them behind after their following us into exile voluntarily.” Nicholas then expressed concern over the fate of two boxes stored in the shed, a smaller one, labeled AF No. 9 (i.e., Alexandra Fedorovna No. 9), and a larger one, designated “No. 13 N.A.” (Nicholas Alexandrovich), which contained “old letters and diaries.”

The third letter from the stranger requested additional information. Regrettably, it might not be possible to rescue everyone, he wrote. He promised to provide a “detailed plan of operations” by June 30, and instructed the family to be on the alert for a signal (which he did not describe): as soon as they heard it, they were to barricade the door leading to the hall and descend from the open window by means of a rope which they were somehow to procure.

That night (June 26–27), in anticipation of the promised rescue attempt, Alexis was moved to his parents’ room. The family did not go to sleep. “We spent an anxious night and kept vigil, dressed,” Nicholas noted. But the signal never came. “The waiting and uncertainty were most excruciating.”

What happened to have caused the Cheka to cancel its plan cannot be determined.

On the following night, Nicholas or Alexandra overheard a conversation that made them give up the thought of escape. “We heard in the night,” Alexandra wrote on June 28, “sentry under our rooms, being told quite particularly to watch every movement at our window—they have become again most suspicious since our window is opened.” This seems to have persuaded Nicholas to communicate to his correspondent a tortured note to the effect that he was not prepared to escape although he was not averse to being abducted:

Nous ne voulons et ne pouvons pas FUIRE. Nous pouvons seulement être enlevés par force, comme c’est la force qui nous a emmenés de Tobolsk. Ainsi, ne comptez sur aucune aide active de notre part. Le commandant a beaucoup d’aides, les changent souvent et sont devenu soucieux. Ils gardent notre emprisonnement ainsi nos vies consciencensement et son bien avec nous. Nous ne voulons pas qu’ils souffrent à cause de nous, ni vous pour nous. Surtout au nom de Dieu évitez l’effusion de sang. Renseignez vous sur eux vous même. Une descente de la fenêtre sans escalier est completement impossible. Même descendu on est encore en grand danger à cause de la fenêtre ouverte de la chambre des commandants et la mitrailleuse de l’étage en bas, où l’on pénètre de la cour intérieure. [Crossed out: Renoncez donc à l’idée de nous enlever.] Si vous veillez sur nous, vous pouvez toujours venir nous sauver en cas de danger imminent et réel. Nous ignorons completement ce qui si passe a l’extérieur, ne recevant ni journaux, ni lettres. Depuis qu’on a permi d’ouvrir la fenêtre, la surveillance a augmenté et on défend même de sortir la tête, au risque de recevoir un balle dans la figure.*

At this stage the spurious rescue operation was aborted. The Imperial family received yet another, fourth and final, secret communication, which had to have been written after July 4 because it requested information about the new commandant of Ipatev’s, who replaced Avdeev on that day. It was a crude fabrication of the Cheka, which assured the Imperial family that its friends “D and T”—obviously, Dolgorukii and Tatishchev—had already been “saved,” whereas in fact both had been executed the previous month.

After these experiences, the appearance of Nicholas and the children changed: Sokolov’s witnesses told him they looked “exhausted.”⁶³

Although it has been the undeviating practice of Communist authorities then and since to lay responsibility for the decision to execute the Imperial family on the Ural Regional Soviet, this version, made up to exonerate Lenin, is certainly misleading. It can be established that the final decision to “liquidate” the Romanovs was taken personally by Lenin, most likely at the beginning of July. One could have inferred this fact much from the knowledge that no provincial soviet would have dared to act on a matter of such importance without explicit authorization from the center. Sokolov was convinced of Lenin’s responsibility in 1925, when he published the results of his investigation. But there exists incontrovertible positive evidence to this effect from no less an authority than Trotsky. In 1935, Trotsky read in an émigré newspaper an account of the death of the Imperial family. This prodded his memory and he wrote in his diary: