The Last Tsar (45 page)

Thus, accompanied by dashing horsemen (his whole life was “accompanied by,” at first to protect him, now to guard him—what did it matter!) on their hot Siberian horses, his final journey began.

He had missed this freedom, this air of freedom. How little one needs: to breathe and be free. The road was difficult, and he suffered for her.

What about her? She was darkly silent. She was thinking about Alexei, still hearing his cry. A fracture had rent her soul. The luxurious yachts, the carriages on soft springs with rustling tires—all was coming to an end in these pathetic, filthy carts.

Carts, carts. Soon, in this same kind of cart, very soon, their bodies would be taken away.

Nicky talked to Yakovlev without letup the entire way. They found they had something to talk about—the former terrorist and the former emperor. The coachman driving them later told how all the way they argued about politics. Yakovlev would attack—“skewer the tsar”—but the tsar would not give in.

While responding to the former autocrat and joking with him, however, Yakovlev was thinking about something completely different.

Patrols left by Yakovlev stood all along the route from Tobolsk to Tyumen, and fresh horses awaited them. But his patrols were so few. How would Busyatsky, who was in the van, behave? Would he stay scared for long? The people he had left along the way were scarcely going to be able to restrain Zaslavsky’s numerous detachment.
Yakovlev realized that he was traveling between two detachments of Uralites, one in back and one in front, squeezing him like pincers. That was the reality! He kept wondering whether they would dare attack.

Nicholas’s diary:

“13 [25] April. Friday.… At 4 in the morning said goodbye to our dear children and got in the tarantasses. Yakovlev, Alix and Marie, Valya [Dolgorukov] and Botkin, and I. The people who went with us: Nyuta Demidova, Chemodurov, and Sednev. Eight sharpshooters and a 10-man mounted Red Guard convoy. It was cold, the road very difficult and terribly bumpy from the slightly frozen ruts. Crossed the Irtysh through quite deep water, had four changes of horses, arrived at the village of Ievlevo to spend the night. We were quartered in a large, clean house and slept soundly on our cots.”

The tsaritsa wrote in her diary as well: “Journey by carriage.… dead tired & aches all over.”

At dawn the journey continued. At Ievlevo cold water was already running over the ice. The wind lashed at their faces. They went into the water in their carts. Alix refused to ride on water. Planks were brought from the village, they fashioned a bridge, and the empress and Marie, leaning on the arms of gallant Valya (as once at balls in the Winter Palace) and the good doctor, crossed the water over the boards. That day they reached Pokrovskoe.

She saw Rasputin’s house and was happy: a sign, a promise of future luck.

She wrote in her diary: “14 (27) April. Saturday. Journey by carriage.… About 12, got to
Pokrovskoe …
stood long before our friend’s house, saw his family & friends looking out of the window at us.”

Thus the Holy Devil blessed them for death.

Now the last stage remained to Tyumen. Should the Uralites decide to attack, it would happen here. Yakovlev’s detachment had become more numerous as the patrols attached themselves. The plenipotentiary had prepared for a battle. To his amazement, though, it was again avoided.

Nicholas’s diary:

“14 [27] April.… The last stage was made slowly taking all military precautions. Arrived in Tyumen at 9.15 under a beautiful moon with the entire squadron surrounding our carts as we entered
the town. It was nice to get on a train, tho’ not a very clean one. We ourselves and our things had a desperately filthy look. Went to bed at 10 without undressing. I on a cot and Alix, Marie, and Nyuta [Demidova] in a section nearby.”

In Tyumen Yakovlev waited for his detachment of 250 men. For the first time in the whole journey he breathed a sigh of relief. He did not know that both Ural detachments had a very different mission. They were supposed to follow only as far as the train: the worst awaited him ahead—on the railway.

The train stood ready for departure.

The family occupied a separate train car.

In the central compartment were Yakovlev and Avdeyev. The compartment to the right of them had Nicholas and Alix, the one to the left Marie and Anna Demidova.

As soon as the family were settled in their compartments, Yakovlev and his telegraphist went to the telegraph post and his direct line.

Avdeyev tried to leave the car right after him, but Yakovlev’s sharpshooters would not let him out. Yakovlev made contact with Moscow.

His message to Sverdlov: “The route remains the old one or have you changed it? Inform Tyumen immediately.”

A short while later the ribbon spewed out an answer from Moscow: “The old route. Report whether taking Cargo or not? Sverdlov.”

Yakovlev reported: “Taking Cargo.”

Yakovlev returned to the train, which got under way. Having ridden as far as the nearest fork, Yakovlev gave an order to couple on a new engine and change direction. Very quickly Avdeyev realized the train was not going to Ekaterinburg. Its lights extinguished, the train moved off to the east—toward Omsk.

“Where is the train going?” the Uralite demanded.

Yakovlev explained that he had learned that a Ural detachment was preparing to attack them en route for the purpose of destroying the family. He was afraid to take the family to Ekaterinburg via the old route and had decided to take a roundabout route to Ekaterinburg—through Omsk.

Avdeyev did not believe him, of course. He realized they were not taking the family to Ekaterinburg. But where then?

The morning of April 28. The family was waking up.

Nicholas’s diary:

“Everyone got a sound sleep. We have guessed by the names of the stations that we are going in the direction of Omsk. We have begun trying to guess where they will take us after Omsk. Moscow or Vladivostok? The commissars, of course, have not been saying anything. Marie often went to see the riflemen—their compartment is at the end of the car.… At the stations we covered the windows, since due to the holiday there were a lot of people. After a cold bite to eat and tea we went to bed early.”

But Marie did not find anything out from the sharpshooters, and Yakovlev was not explaining anything.

That night, while they lay sleeping, the main events flared up.

Yakovlev was rushing to Omsk but without knowing the most important thing: informed by Sverdlov as to the true purpose of the secret mission, Goloshchekin had made peace with the Omsk Bolsheviks. As always, a province was reconciled by its dislike for the capital. While Yakovlev, triumphant, was on his way to Omsk, telegrams were already flying from Ekaterinburg.

To Moscow: “28 April. Ekaterinburg. Your Commissar Yakovlev has taken Romanov to Tyumen stop Put him on a train comma Set out toward Ekat[erinburg] stop Went one stage comma changed direction comma went back stop Now the train with Nicholas is near Omsk stop Why this was done we do not know stop We consider this action treasonous stop
According to your letter of 9 April
Nicholas should be in Ekaterinburg stop What does this mean? In keeping with the decision passed by the Party’s Regional Soviet and Regional Committee instructions have been given to detain Yakovlev and the train no matter what, to arrest him and take him and Nicholas to Ekaterinburg.”

Simultaneously, telegrams were going to Omsk and other points declaring Yakovlev outside the law.

“Moscow. Sverdlov.… Having discussed the conduct of Commissar Yakovlev, by unanimous decision we deem it a direct betrayal of the revolution. The desire to take the former tsar beyond the limits of the revolutionary Urals for some unknown purpose in contradiction to the precise instruction of the Chairman of the Central
Executive Committee is an act placing Commissar Yakovlev outside the ranks of revolutionaries. The Ural Regional Soviet proposes that all Soviet revolutionary organizations, especially the Omsk Soviet of Deputies, take the most extreme measures, including the use of force, to stop the train.”

Soon after, Yakovlev was brought one of these Ural telegrams. He found out that his train was supposed to be stopped in Omsk and he himself arrested.

Yakovlev lost his self-possession. He burst into Avdeyev’s compartment and screamed at the smiling Uralite: “What, have all of you there gone out of your minds?” But it was too late.

The train was approaching Omsk, where a detachment of Red Guards was waiting.

Yakovlev went “for the bank.” Not far from Omsk, he stopped the train, uncoupled the engine, and set out in the night with his telegraphist into the inferno—to Omsk.

From Yakovlev’s memoirs:

“As soon as the train stopped [in Omsk] and we got out on the platform, we were surrounded by a dense mass of people.”

He stood alone amid the furious armed crowd, which was electrified by rumors of the traitor to the revolution. He was on the brink of death, but that had already happened many times in his life.

From Yakovlev’s memoirs:

“I announced, shouting over the crowd: ‘I am Special Commissar Yakovlev of the Central Executive Committee! I need to see the Chairman of the Omsk Soviet!’”

And now, for the first time on this trip, he was lucky.

From Yakovlev’s memoirs:

“The chairman of the Omsk Soviet turned out to be my friend Kosarev.… I recognized my old comrade, whom I had once been together with in the party school in Italy. I sketched out the events to him in general terms and asked him to go with me to the telegraph post: there we would contact Sverdlov. From whom I would first of all receive further instructions and secondly, Kosarev would understand that I was acting on instruction from the center.… As we raced to the telegraph post, we saw armed detachments everywhere.”

So he managed to convince his old friend, but.… At the telegraph office Yakovlev learned he had risked his life for nothing. By that time the long telegraph conversation between Ekaterinburg and Moscow had ended.

Goloshchekin had to be energetic.

And he was. Till the end. A threatening telegram followed from the Uralites: “In his letter of 9 April, Comrade Sverdlov said that Romanov would be transferred to Ekaterinburg and put under the responsibility of the Regional Soviet. Seeing that today the train is slipping away from the Urals for reasons unknown to us … we have informed Sverdlov. His reply greatly amazed us. It turns out Yakovlev is driving the train to the East in accordance with his instruction, and he asks that no obstacles be put in Yakovlev’s way….

“Our only solution to the current predicament is to send instructions to Yakovlev in Omsk to turn the train back to Ekaterinburg, otherwise the conflict could take on acute forms, for we feel that Nicholas does not need to wander the roads of Siberia but should be in Ekaterinburg under strict watch.”

Yes, they had stuck it out. Now Sverdlov could give in.

Moscow agreed, of course, “on condition that everything is done for the safety of the Romanovs,” that the “appropriate guarantees” are given. The guarantees were given immediately.

So when Yakovlev sat his telegraphist down, Sverdlov’s instructions arrived from Moscow: “Return to Tyumen immediately. Have come to an agreement with the Uralites. They have taken measures and given guarantees.”

Yakovlev was dumbfounded: so it had all been in vain. He began a long telegraph conversation with Moscow. He reported information that gave Sverdlov sufficient grounds for refusing Ekaterinburg: “Without question I shall obey all orders from the Center. I will take the Baggage wherever you say. But I consider it my duty to warn the Sovnarkom once more that the danger is quite justified.… There is one more consideration: if you send the baggage to Simsky District [in Ufa Province, Yakovlev’s home], then you are always free to take him to Moscow or wherever you like. If the Baggage is taken according to the first route [Ekaterinburg], then I doubt you will ever be able to drag it out of there.… Just as I doubt the Baggage will always be completely safe. So, we warn you for the last time and unburden ourselves of any moral responsibility for future consequences.”

To Yakovlev’s astonishment Sverdlov was deaf: Moscow’s decision stood. Yakovlev must take the family to Ekaterinburg.

——

Yakovlev returned to the train on the same engine. The train started back.

Nicholas’s diary:

“16 [29] April. This morning we noticed we were going back. It turned out they wouldn’t let us enter Omsk, so we were a little freer, we even took two walks: first alongside the train, and then rather far into a field, with Yakovlev himself. Everyone was in a cheerful mood.”

Nicholas was in a cheerful mood because he still did not know the true reason for the train’s turning around.

From Matveyev’s Notes:

“We said the turning around was due to damage to one of the bridges.”

Nicholas continued to believe they were going to Moscow. Their wild journey continued, but this meant he would have his beloved walk. “With Yakovlev himself,” he recorded in his diary, not without a grin.

They walked alongside the train. And they talked. About what? Power? The mob? Revolution? Or Nicholas’s favorite theme—people quarrel, they irritate one another, when all around is the marvelous, wise life of the trees, green spaces, the sky and its timeless clouds?

Thus ended the last tsar’s last walk in freedom.

When Nicholas awoke in the morning he understood everything. He could tell by the names of the stations that they were approaching Ekaterinburg.

Yakovlev ordered the curtains lowered: he had no doubt how they would be met by the capital of the Red Urals. Nor did the tsar. An amazing scene took place in the train on their approach to the town. Matveyev saw Nicholas go into Matveyev’s compartment and walk out soon after, chewing on some black bread. When he saw Matveyev, Nicholas was flustered.

From Matveyev’s Notes:

“ ‘Pardon me, Peter Matveyevich, I broke off a piece of your black bread without your permission.’ I offered Romanov a white roll the men had bought at one of the stations since I knew that the crust of bread lying on the table was incredibly dry, I had been planning to throw it to the dogs at the station.”