Abdication of Tsar NicholasII-Mar15 1917

[Barbara]

Today is March 15 again.

It must have been pointed out over the many years since 1917 that this was the fateful day in 44BC that Julius Caesar was assassinated. Like a strange echo running through history, then Tsar Nicholas II was pressured by a plethora of people into abdicating the Romanov throne.
After much behind-the-scenes discussion by a wide variety of parties, the event suddenly occurred at 11:40 PM March 2/15 1917 - as though it was FATED to happen that way.



Now a book has appeared by a historian who spent much time over his professional career writing about the February Revolution. His 1st book "The February Revolution: Petrograd 1917" appeared in 1981, while a thorough revision of that was published in 2017, "The February Revolution: Petrograd 1917 : the End of the Tsarist Regime and the Birth of Dual Power".

Then finally this 3rd volume "The Last Tsar: the Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs" appeared in 2024. It incorporates much new information discovered since the last.

Thus the week between March 8 - the start of the riots in Petrograd - and the Tsar's abdication on March 15 - is able to be covered in vivid, sometimes hour to hour detail.

Lengthy conversations between key players in the Provisional Government and the Army are given almost in their entirety - as if they had happened yesterday, rather than 108 years ago.

It's probably more clear than before exactly the roles played by each party in this grand disaster.
Plus the guilt that each figure bears for "deception, cowardice, deceit" as the Tsar described all those around him as showing - in this matter.
Mikhail Rozdianko particularly emerges as a sneaky person who fed Army Chief of Staff Aleksiev outright false information.

In turn, Aleksiev sent numerous telegrams to the other Generals on each front passing along that angle : that Russia was already in the hands of the revolutionaries and in such uproar that it was futile for the Tsar to do anything other than to abdicate.
The generals were mostly solid Monarchists. Had they been told differently, events might have gone an entirely different direction.

As it was, they all obediently capitulated to the request - at the urging of Rozdianko - to each send a telegram to their Chief of Staff urging the Tsar to abdicate.

Some like Evert had reservations.

I'll be bac to finish this later, my library time is over.

On the theme of the last days of the Romanov Dynasty, this video traces the events with fascinating historical footage. Especially incredible is the interview of V Shulgin, one of the 2 emissaries from the Provisional Govt to petition the Tsar to abdicate.
The white-bearded man reconstructs the dramatic episode in detail 40 years later ! The sequence was not shown at the time by Soviet TV because it was deemed that worst thing imaginable : Monarchist.
However, somehow the footage was found and released. Along with other archival pictures, helps the abdication process and aftermath to come alive for the interested viewer.
[ One aside is that the interviewer looks strangely polished for a Soviet ]

If one doesn't want to see about the bones dug up at the end of the feature, just skip that part.

[Barbara]

Before THIS March 15 ends, i wanted to post the reminder that we all know, that the Derzhavnaya Icon appeared on the same day as the Tsar's abdication. The Icon was found in Kolomenskoye which is the village where Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich had built the Church of the Ascension.

Here is a medal showing a fair likeness of the Icon which probably some readers have seen at Kolomenskoye, as I did.

With the scepter and orb representing the globe, the Icon must have comforted many that the Heavenly Queen was watching over them despite all the outrageous events taking place in Russia.

[Barbara]

Birthday of Tsar Nicholas II, on the day of St Job the Long Suffering.

From this book, an interesting revelation, p. 337
Speaking of the 2 representatives from the Duma Committee who had talked the Tsar into abdicating that fateful nite of March 15-16, 1917, Aleksander Guchkov and Vasily Shulgin, the author writes :

"Most of the [Tsar's] entourage gathered in the dining car after Guchkov and Shulgin had left<[to return to Petrograd].
They talked only in whispers, and many wept.
No one blamed anyone for anything : they just wanted to be together, as if to mourn [someone] they loved...
Count Aleksander Grabbe, chief of the convoy, requested the Tsar's permission to be transferred under the new commander in chief, Nikolai Nikolaevich, at the Stavka [Army headquarters in Mogilev]..."

Many of his staff, such as Baron von Stackelberg, chief of the Field Chancellery, started to desert the Tsar from that very minute.
A Lieutenant Nikolai Pavlovich Sablin, "Alexandra's favorite officer at the Stavka, quickly disappeared." [So much for being an imperial favorite.]

[Barbara]

"On a cold, windy Sunday, March 5, the third day after Nicholas' abdication, there was a Mass at the Cathedral of the Three Saints in Mogilev, on the bank of the Dniepr.

All the generals, including General Alekseev, officers and soldiers packed the Cathedral.

Nicholas and Marie Fyodorovna [his mother] attended the service, occupying the imperial seat.
The prayer offered by the priest no longer referred to "the Autocrat Great Sovereign of Our Emperor Nikolai Aleksandrovich", as had been the case before.
By order of the Holy Synod, the prayer for the sovereign had been abolished.
This change caused consternation and audible murmurs among the attendees.
When the service was over, Nicholas and his mother entered their automobile.
The public, officers, and soldiers surrounded the car. Many saluted, and others took off their hats.
But once again, no one sang "God Save the Tsar"

As they returned to the governor's house, they saw two huge red flags flying at the city hall across from Nicholas' residence."

---

Note : the author is condescending in general toward Tsars, this Tsar in particular, and the Church. He wrote "mass" for Mass, so I changed it.
This style is so often used, past and present, as though no writers can trouble themselves to write "Divine Liturgy" or "Liturgy".

The translation of the prayer for the Emperor sounds wrong. I doubt it said '"OF" Our Emperor'. There were a few other places in the book that the author stumbled over Orthodox terms or practices.

The author, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, never would capitalize Tsar, so I have done that.

Why to read his book, then, if it's so negative toward the monarchy ?
Because of his access to documents for the 1st time ever. These do shed more light on the entire saga of the abdication.

Also for the vivid recreation of poignant scenes such as these ones.