Home performances, a cold and dangerous slip: II. How Nicholas’ family lived before his execution 105 years ago, on the night of July 17, II. Nicholas’ family shot 17.07.2023, 10:07

The city of Tobolsk, which was the administrative center of the Tobolsk province at that time, was chosen by the Minister-President of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, as a reference to the Royal family. “The special geographical location of Tobolsk, given its remoteness and remoteness from the center, did not allow us to think that any spontaneous excesses could be possible there. I also knew it was a suitable governor’s mansion. I stood on it. Initially, as I remember, I sent a commission to Tobolsk. <...> Find out about the situation in Tobolsk. They brought good information,” he wrote in his memoirs.

Kerensky noted that it was impossible to place the Romanovs in central Russia and the south, because there was a danger of popular anger at the royal family’s presence there. Tobolsk was far beyond the Urals.

After the Romanov family was arrested, they went into exile by train from Tsarskoye Selo, where they lived. From the guard riflemen of the 1st regiment, who voluntarily joined the exiles, servants and guardsmen, II. trains.

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Emperor II. One of Nicholas’ last photographs taken before his deportation to Tobolsk in August 1917

DEA News

Arriving in Tyumen, the Romanovs and their entourage were transferred to the “Russian” steamship, which delivered them to the provincial city of Tobolsk along the Irtysh on August 6, 1917. The Governor’s Mansion has been allocated to them here, but it is not yet ready to accept new guests.

In a letter dated August 14, 1917, Prince VA Dolgorukov said to his brother: “The picture was generally depressing … A dirty, boarded-up, smelly house with 13 living rooms, some furniture, terrible toilets and bathrooms … For the companions .. Across the street was allocated another Kornilov house, quite spacious, but dirty and unfurnished, in a word, with a shed, but with parquet.

A week later the Romanovs and everyone who accompanied them nevertheless moved into a two-story mansion, put in order and even furnished at this point.

The Romanovs brought some with them. According to the memoirs of GK Lukomsky, head of the Tsarskoye Selo Art and History Commission, created by the Provisional Government in March 1917 to receive and protect the property of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration, their luggage consisted of several chests. Despite the fact that Empress Alexandra Feodorovna collected all the valuables, II. Nicholas took only cigarette cases and miniatures into exile. Then in September, watches, carpets, curtains, rugs, tablecloths, dishes, lamps, a gramophone, two balalaikas, skates, skis, sledges, as well as photographs, watercolors, pastels and portraits were brought to the family of the latter. Russian emperor from the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. And also – four light curtains and bedspreads from the children’s section and a wicker sofa with two mattresses.

The Romanovs lived in Tobolsk at their own expense. Services for the purchase of furniture, firewood, Tobolsk city water supply and power station were paid from the treasury of the former Court Ministry. The products were supplied by the former Hofmarshal’s unit at his expense.

“During the Tobolsk prison of the imperial family, bakery products were purchased from the bakery of MA Gusev: black bread, cookies, “bakery bread”. This store provided the largest payment invoices (more than a thousand rubles per week). Dairy products, St. It was provided by the monastery of John the Vvedensky and NA Uzhentsov. The shops of the successors of the “AV Yanushkevich” Partnership supplied tea, coffee, “Galipol oil” and other products, and Christmas tree decorations were purchased for the 1918 Christmas, “says” some details of the stay of the Nicholas Family II in Tobolsk 1917-1918″ , published in the collection “Ninth Romanov Readings” in 2004.

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The governor’s house on Bolshaya Pyatnitskaya street, where the Romanov imperial family was located. Photograph from an album of photographs taken and published by Nikolai Romanov

TASS

But since February 1918, the content of the Romanovs was cut off – the government took over payments for housing, heating, lighting, and the needs of each family member had to be met with a monetary allowance of 600 rubles per month (this is a standard soldier’s ration).

In the Governor’s Mansion, the second floor of the building was occupied by Nikolai Romanov’s family, on the first floor a dining room and a room for servants were placed.

The last Russian emperor, his wife and children could only go out into the courtyard. And also – to the nearest Church of the Annunciation, they were forbidden to appear in the temple only after Christmas 1918 – during the liturgy, the priest proclaimed the longevity of the tsar and tsarina, who angered the soldiers, with the full title. As a result, the Romanovs lost the opportunity to participate in divine services, and the clergyman was exiled.

The iconostasis had to be installed in one of the halls on the second floor, which greatly upset Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, because she had to pray in the same place where musical evenings (Tsarevich Alexei loved to play the balalaika) and home performances were held. .

Historians know the life of the Romanovs in Tobolsk mainly from their letters – and the more casual side known, as the correspondence is reviewed. “Thank God, we are in good health, we still live quietly, and strangely enough, but no one has yet argued with us. There are two hours of classes between 9-11 in the morning, we walk for an hour and study for an hour. After breakfast we walk again – usually until 4 and if the weather is very nice then even longer. We work or do something for ourselves. After tea, before dinner, some plays are usually rehearsed. The three of them have already played and are still learning, after all, the fun is small and useful for conversation. ” Grand Duchess Tatyana described the family’s daily routine in a letter to PV. Petrov, January 1918.

He said that in the same place, there was a snow slide in the courtyard of the house, so family members were often injured. “When we get tired of walking back and forth, we slip, there are often very funny falls,” the princess wrote, admitting that she once “broke the back of her head horribly on the ice.” His sister, the Grand Duchess Olga, also described the hill – after II, who later lived in the Crimea. In a letter to Nicholas Xenia Alexandrovna’s sister. “We usually walk around helplessly, and the other day Maria’s eye had a huge blackout. She’s still swollen and purple above and below. She always manages to hurt herself somehow but never loses her heart. Sometimes, she’s raised by one of the platoons of the 1st regiment, the 4th regiment. “The boy Misha, brought by one of his detachments or the team dogs, comes to us for a stroll. As you can see, there are not many guests, but they are very cute,” wrote the princess.

The hill was later demolished, however, as its top reached the edge of the fence, and passersby often stopped to watch the royal children ride horses.

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Nicholas II with his daughters in Tobolsk

Beinecke Rare and Manuscript Library/Yale University

Since the Romanovs were allowed to wander in the courtyard, a pond with ducks was equipped on the territory of the estate, pets appeared, the deposed emperor could cut firewood on his own. But his wife, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, did not go down from the second floor, watching what was happening outside from the balcony and admiring the Church of the Annunciation. In winter, life was significantly marred by the cold that blocked the building. There was not enough wood for heating, so the temperature in the rooms sometimes dropped below 10 degrees.

“The last days have been very cold, a strong storm with 25-30 degrees frost. Winds penetrate and accelerate even inside the house. some rooms, for example, in the hall and in my office reached a temperature of 7-8 °, ”Nicholas II wrote to his sister Xenia.

The relative idyll of the Tobolsk exile ended for the Romanovs in March 1918, when Red Guard detachments from Tyumen and Omsk arrived in the city due to insufficiently vigilant guards of the royal people.

Already in April, Yakovlev, authorized by the Council of People’s Commissars, arrived in Tobolsk – he informed the tsar that he was leaving Tobolsk. At that moment, Tsarevich Alexei’s hemophilia worsened and he could not leave, so Nicholas II, Alexandra Feodorovna and their daughter Maria went to Yekaterinburg. The rest of the children – Princesses Tatyana, Olga and Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei – left Tobolsk in May 1918.

And for five years, a museum has been opened in the Governor’s Mansion in Tobolsk, where the last Russian emperor and his family spent nine months of their lives, carefully exhibiting evidence of that period, personal belongings and photographs of the Romanovs. collected.