Day after Marie had arrived at the Palace on Neva where she had an apartment, she watched from a window a procession honoring the revolution victims. There was no unrest and no clergy participating in the “Russian affair of state.” (Page 301) This event was a “display of power on the part of the new government.” (Page 301) Marie’s view a modified perspective on past tradition and with hopes of a “better future.” (Page 301) The experience was theatrical as times of the past, yet with a “mood change” which was evident throughout Petrograd. (Page 301) The military in Pskov had more of concern mixed with lack of clarity and uneasiness.
In Petrograd, those of the former regime were locked in either state buildings or prisons. The newspapers printed revolutionary song lyrics with anger and disdain toward the pervious state representatives which included the Imperial family. Pamphlets were distributed which caricatured the Tsars. The rhetoric was colorful, yet life in the practical showed more slovenliness and carelessness, versus respectfulness of people, places, things or selves. Those with cars and carriages had kept them hidden and the owners stayed in their homes. In the streets were the soldiers and sailors. Many servants who had been loyal to families for generations were affected by this new attitude of change and release of the past. This lack of continuity existed even after servants had been given pensions, cared for during illness, and supporting the servants’ children in attending schools. Marie began to fear being in Petrograd and went to stay with her father at Tsarskoie-Selo. Her father felt emotionally devastated inside yet he also understood that there had been “blindness” by the past regime. (Page 302) Her father had tried to rectify by trying to meet with the Empress. She had cutoff communications with family. Marie’s father was able to meet with the Empress who had sent for him. She was direct in her accusations toward him. The Empress had truly believed the people were supporting her and the Tsar. The aristocracy and the Duma members also seemed blind to their lack of public support.
The train stop at Tsarskoie-Selo had been discontinued with no known start date in sight. Marie’ father had written a manifesto asking for a constitution, directed for Rodzianko, the Duma president, and requesting for the Emperor’s protection. On March 16, Marie’s father received a visit from the “new revolutionary commander of Tsarskoie-Selo” and her father was informed that the Emperor and the Tsarevich would abdicate, and Grand Duke Michael would take on the leadership role. (Page 303) The Empress at the time had children with measles and said she may need to leave with the children for Crimea to restore the children’s health. Her voice sounded steady when she spoke. As it turned-out, Grand Duke Michael had abdicated also.
The reserve unit commanders met and decided to proceed with Emperor Nicholas II wanting to recognize the provisional government. The view was that Russia needed to continue supporting they allies despite the internal changes in Russia. The Emperor was in Mogilev and transferred the army command to General Alexeiev who was Chief of Headquarters. The Emperor’s mother was to meet him in Mogilev.
On April 4, the new Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd district had decided to arrest the Empress and her children in Alexander Palace. General Kornilov was the one to inform the Empress, while initially asking to meet with her as he was coming over to Tsarskoie-Selo garrison. The Empress asked for Marie’s father to be in attendance. The Empress had acted with a sense of calm. She had 2 requests - which were for others and not herself or family. They were as follows. “Freedom for her arrested attendants, guilty only of devotion to her; second, that the new government continue to supply with all necessary equipment the hospitals she had organized in Tsarskoie-Selo. For herself, she added, she asked for nothing.” (Page 305) Marie’s father, en route out of meeting, asked Guchkov and Kornilov to assure better treatment of the Empress by her guards.
Marie’s father had later shared of the plush carpeting in Alexander Palace being trodden upon by soldiers in muddy shoes and often drunken, loud sailors, unlike in the previous times of servants quietly traversing the hallways.
Marie’s father’s home still felt warm and safe despite what was going on around them. Her father now 57 in age seemed to be accepting of the loss of those around him and the comforts her had known for most of his life. He seemed to maintain a discipline with habits which seemed to help him during this great time of change. Soon her father had less and less associations to connect publicly for concern of retribution towards his associations by this new government.
Marie missed her work at the hospital with her associates, such as with Dr. Tishin. He missed Marie’s running the hospital so efficiently and with a sense of purpose. Apparently Pskov was falling into disorder which affected the running of the hospital.
Even at Tsarskoie-Selo, there would be decisions that were retracted, changed, never implemented. Marie wrote that she and her family still lived with hope despite the ever-changing days. She and her family believed in the “Russian soul” versus the heartless comments, scowls, and abusive outreaches by others.
“Meanwhile one heard less and less about the government. The Soviet of the Soldier and Peasant Deputies every day clamored louder and more often. The intelligentsia, who had so warmly welcomed the resolution, sought desperately now to conceal with catchwords, speeches, and sounding manifestoes, its complete incapacity to govern.” (Page 307)
“Like ourselves, they also had their ideals, cherished their illusions, beloved in them. They thought that they could expect from the masses, so suddenly freed, a conscious response, a rational co-operation. The inspired speeches of Kerensky, then a Radical minister in the new Cabinet, were an expression this belief, and so was the struggle of the government and of the generals to continue the war and carry out our obligations to the Allies. All was futile. The country was in the power of soldiers under arms. There were several millions of them, and they did not want to fight.” (Page 307)
Once the Emperor returned to Alexander Palace, he too would be under guard, as was already his wife and children. The Emperor was continually subjected to taunting and often the orders were a contradiction from one prior - which was showing the disorder of the new government. There were times that the Emperor would need to cut the ice and clean the snow which was often deep, near the fence so as to be seen by the public where he would be mocked by those on the other side of the fence. Marie and her father did not go to see themselves out of respect for the Emperor. Marie’s stepmother did go and saw and was struck with a deeply emotional internal reaction. “At the main gate, and at all the small ones, sentries lounged on benches or boxes, trying apparently to indicate by their untidy, dissolute appearance that they belonged to the revolutionary army.” (Page 308)
Despite Marie’s bitterness toward the Empress, Marie felt the price had become too great they all had to pay for “their age-long narrow-mindedness and stubbornness.” (Page 308) Marie did not express her opinion to others in her family as she noted “that we were all in a way guilty and responsible parties.” (Page 309)
“It seemed to me now, as it had in the past, that in our inadequate training and education lay the principal explanation of our downfall and I saw now that this applied to all ranks in Russia, high and low. That same lack of a conscious attitude towards life, that same light-mindedness and superficiality with which we had faced the disintegration of the old, we now displayed even more markedly in trying to adjust ourselves to the new. We gave, as do children, a tremendous attention to trifles. For instance, an infantile lack of all sense of proportion was responsible for the hysterical decision of officious clergy to delete from the Psalms of David all lines containing the word, “king.” (page 309)
“Liberty was a new toy that fell into the hands of clumsy and dangerous grown-up children, only to be broken immediately by their rough hands. The revolution permitted, justified, and excused everything. The new rulers strove to attach to the word a special, sacred meaning, the meaning that made it a Sign from Heaven and a shield against all rational criticism.” (Page 309) Marie’s father had commented, “There is no Russia any longer, there is a country called Revolution and this Revolution must be protected and saved at any price.” (Page 309)
Holy Week and Marie appreciated the calm at Tsarskoie-Selo despite all the changes daily and the rambunctious, loud reserve soldiers. There were no long the host of gardeners for the surrounding land. The soldiers broke statutes, trod on the once manicured grass, tore-up trees in some fashion, and “bathed naked in the ponds in plain sight of everybody.” (Page 310) The Town Hall was just past the garden and there would be lots of voices of dissent, shouts, lots of laughter - which caused some anxiety in Marie’s household. Marie remarked that what remained was the strong love for one another in her family. While listening to her father read in the evenings, she was noticing his temple hair beginning to gray. She was taking in every detail, as she did as a child when he used to read in the evenings to her and Dmitri. “His conversation was a serene and as witty as ever. His mind overrode disaster. I value every minute I spent with him and was grateful to fate for each new day.” (Page 310)
Marie had come to know her stepmother’s son, Volodia, when Marie would come back on breaks from her hospital work in Pskov. She spoke of his high sensitivity, his ability to raise the energy of others through melody, a sense of purity, harmony, and bright images. Marie spoke of him as a genius. Volodia’s mother fostered his gifts through reading early in life, his writing poetic verse and plays. He had a superb memory. His education was in France (during Marie’s father’s banishment from Russia) and then, later entered the military school, Russian Corps des Pages. The school enriched Volodia with spending time with boys of his age and with the application of discipline. His speaking Russian improved from mediocre to excelling those whose was their native born language. When at school, he would on the side write in Russian as for his first publication, despite his adeptness with 3 languages. “His work … was permeated by a profound sense of peace and of spiritual equilibrium.” (Page 312) He would also learn to draw and other art mediums.
Volodia did graduate and become an officer for the Hussar regiment of the Guards. His health suffered and he really was not as gifted in the military way of life. Northern Russia was too harsh for Volodia’s health. He also felt compelled to produce much particularly through his writing - as if he had seen or felt a deadline pressing on his life. His writing would improve and he wrote without changing what he wrote. He began to write “in a finished form, changes would only spoil the freshness of the inspiration.” (Page 313) He spoke that he needed to write while the freshness of inspiration he was receiving.
At the beginning of the summer, in Moscow, there was talk as to ways to best hide jewels and property. Already money and bonds in the Department of Appanages had been taken by the new government. At least there was still some left in the private banks. Someone Marie knew recommended to keep her jewelry cases with Moscow Loan Bank, which Marie did place her things there. En route to that bank, Marie stopped to visit with her Aunt Ella and offered to bring a communication to the Empress, but her Aunt Ella responded with a coldness as that was no longer an option. Aunt Ella’s relationship with her sister, the Empress, after their last meeting, was no longer. “That had been the climax of my aunt’s long effort to show her sister where false advisers and headstrong ignorance would lead her - and lead all Russia.” (Page 315)
“The Soldier and Peasant Deputies was acquiring greater and greater power and, since the beginning of the summer, especially since the arrival of Lenin, the overthrow of the weak Provisional Government was to be expected at any moment.” (Page 316) There always rumors and Marie spoke of never knowing which of the movements and intentions of the Bolsheviks, were actually true. One night, a knock on the door by Marie’s stepmother’s daughter from her first marriage and her name was Marianne Zarnikau. She had driven from Petrograd to bring them out of danger due to what seemed a serious rumor.
“The plan of the Bolsheviks to overthrow the Government had failed. Lenin and Trotsky went to Kronstadt where, since the beginning of the revolution, the most lawless elements had gathered. Several brutal murders had already been committed in that locality, but we still had a few more weeks of comparative peace.” (Page 316)