The Matryoshka Doll

By Eugenia Miroshnikoff

THE MATRYOSHKA DOLL IS A MEMOIR DEPICTING ONE FAMILY'S STRUGGLES AND TRIUMPHS.

Tatiana is the daughter of a Russian Imperial Colonel, Ivan Georgievitch Savin; and finds her family is swept into the ravages of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War that follows. Tatiana's idyllic life is altered forever. The 1917 Revolution sweeps through

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawline Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781922701664

Eugenia Miroshnikoff

Eugenia was born in Harbin - China. Growing up in a Russian household with pre-revolutionary morals and philosophies, her upbringing was steeped in Russian Orthodoxy and imbued in Russian history and ancestry. Eugenia is the granddaughter of Colonel Ivan Savin, who fought in the White Army against the Bolsheviks, and is why Eugenia wrote this book. Eugenia's family was compelled to leave Harbin when she was five. They journeyed to Brasil, where Eugenia grew up and received her education, aspiring to become a doctor. With political instability, the family, afraid the country was declining into Communism, began to look for a stable government. At fourteen, Eugenia was whisked away to a faraway land - Australia. Her teenage years in an unfamiliar country proved daunting, and Eugenia realised that she had to turn her back on her dreams, her beloved Brasil and everything dear to her, to concentrate on adapting to her new surroundings.

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The Matryoshka Doll © 2022 Eugenia Miroshnikoff.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.

The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

This is a work of nonfiction. The events and conversations in this book have been set down to the best of the author’s ability, although some names and details may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals. Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

Printed in Australia

First Printing: April 2022

Shawline Publishing Group Pty Ltd

www.shawlinepublishing.com.au

Paperback ISBN- 9781922701602

Ebook ISBN- 9781922701664

I dedicate this book to my courageous and loving mother, Tatiana Ivanovna Savin.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my son-in-law, Robert Coulter, for giving me the initiative to put pen to paper and his continuous encouragement over many years. I thank my children, Andre, Tatiana, and Aleksandra, for making me believe that my memories are of value to the next generations. To James, my sister Irina and my daughter-in-law Kym, thank you for supporting me in this endeavour.

In the words of Marcus Aurelius, ‘Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking’.

FOREWORD

The 1917 Russian Revolution, followed by the Civil War and the murder of Nicholas II and his family, resulted in the crumbling of Russia and my family. My maternal grandparents, fearing for their lives, were compelled to leave their beloved Russia, making a desperate escape with five young children. The obvious escape route from Chita was to flee to Harbin in China through Inner Mongolia. Suffering tragic loss, they arrived in China with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

Having settled in Harbin, life was resuming a normal beat when Japan invaded China, eventually bringing the old foe, the Soviet Army, to Harbin. They witnessed the ravages of the Cultural Revolution that changed China in ways impossible to imagine. Once again, they were forced to leave everything behind and flee to a distant, unknown destination.

My sister Irina and I are the only custodians of their grief and memories. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, my ancestors destroyed every document and photograph that connected them to Imperial Russia to ensure the safety of their families. Because of this, it’s been a lengthy process to collate the recollections. The sequential order was the hardest thing to do.

My story is based on these recollections. Re-living these events brought pain each time, but they believed their experiences in Russia and China had to be conveyed to the next generations. It is a pity that more vital information was not recorded when our grandparents and parents were alive. With the destruction of documents and photographs, it is impossible to find any information on my grandfather, Savin. However, I was fortunate to find a page on Ancestry.com on Vanya Savin, my mother’s brother. It is a register listing the victims of the Soviet terror. Sadly, this page is the only document that validates his existence.

Fortunately, a few old papers belonging to my paternal grandparents, from the time of their arrival in Harbin, survived the upheavals. This treasure trove allowed me to form a reasonably accurate timeline of their lives in Harbin. To enable me to tell their story I had to do a lot of research on Russian history and what led a mighty country to its demise.

Certain childhood recollections may seem of little significance in relating my story, but I wish to portray a different world in which we lived. This world disappeared with brutality and tragedy, which some readers may find distressing. Above all, I hope my children and their children remember their ancestors and the adversities they encountered during those tumultuous times. To know history is to make sure the errors of the past are not repeated.

With uncertainties, heartbreaks, loss of family, loss of status and properties, they rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt their lives over and over again. The strength of their spirit and the unconditional love for the family conquered all obstacles. Their resilience, courage, struggles and hardships deserve to be remembered. and I cherish their memories.

CHAPTER ONE

THE GOLDEN TIMES

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I GREW UP IN A RUSSIAN HOUSEHOLD that preserved pre-revolutionary Russia’s way of life and morals and remained loyal to Nicholas II, the last Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty. My childhood was centred on stories of Russia’s greatness. Through destiny, bad luck, inefficiencies, conspiracy and betrayal, a mighty country crumbled, and millions of Russians were forced to flee their homeland and millions more paid the ultimate price. We were raised to love Russia and believed we would one day return to our motherland and the golden times of Tsarist Russia would flourish again. No matter the country we lived in, we attended Russian schools where we received complete Russian education in preparation for our return to Russia. The belief in returning to our motherland and the unwavering Orthodox faith defined the entire tone of my family and my childhood.

My paternal grandparents played an essential part in my infancy, as we lived under the same roof. They always referred to the Tsarist days as ‘the good old days’ or ‘the golden times’. They were fortunate because life in those days was not easy for most Russian people.

Eighty five percent of the Russian people were peasants living in extreme poverty, earning their living from agriculture. The remaining fifteen per cent were nobility—such as Princes, Dukes, Counts and wealthy landowners Boyars. The middle class was made up of professionals, clergy and clerks, and the Cossacks. Every Cossack had to procure their uniform, equipment and horse; the government only supplied the arms. From the age of eighteen, the young men spent three years in the preliminary division, twelve years in active service, and the last five years in the reserve. In return, all Cossacks were given land. The Russian Cossacks were the most feared troops in the Army and protectors of the Tsar.

Russia was governed by an absolute monarchy. One ruler had supreme authority, and laws did not restrict the Tsars’ powers. There was no voting system in place, and the custom of passing the throne to the Tsar’s eldest son or his closest senior male relative if the Tsar had no sons was followed. In this autocratic form of government, people had no way of expressing their dissatisfaction other than through uprisings that were typically brutally suppressed. By the beginning of the 19th century, hundreds of violent outbreaks occurred across Russia due to repressions and serfdom. The relationship between the kreposnoi krestyanin (крепостной крестьянин) or serfdom and the aristocracy, had been deteriorating over the centuries.

The House of Rurik was the first dynasty to rule Russia. When the last Rurik ruler, Fyodor I, died in 1598, the Rurik dynasty ended. Russia endured fifteen tumultuous years of lawlessness and anarchy, ending when the assembly of the land, (zemsky sobor) elected Mikhael Romanov. Mikhael acquired his name from Roman Yurev, the progenitor of the Romanov Dynasty. Roman Yurev’s daughter Anastasya Romanova- Yurev was the first wife of Ivan the Terrible, Russia’s Tsar, from 1547 to 1584. Anastasya’s brother’s children took the Romanov surname in honour of their grandfather, and The Romanov Dynasty emerged in 1613.

The Romanovs adopted the double-headed eagle as the coat of arms. The origin of the double-headed emblem dates back to Ivan III, who reigned over Russia from 1462 to 1505 and was victorious over the Mongols and Tartars. His victory marked the restoration of Russian independence 240 years after the fall of Kiev to the Mongol’s invasion.

The double-headed eagle remained the official emblem of the Russian state and in the regalia of the Russian Imperial Court until the fall of the monarchy in 1917. To me, the coat of arms was a symbol of great pride, representing a country I would soon call my home.

To tell my story, I need to step back in time to depict the events that led Russia to its demise.

For the first few generations, the Romanovs did little to bring the country up to speed with the changes in economic and political life taking place in Europe. Upon ascending the throne in 1682, Peter Alexeyevich, known as Peter the Great or Peter I, decided to change this position by spending two years in Europe, meeting monarchs and conducting diplomacy. He accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge on western European industrial and administration techniques and was determined to modernise and westernise Russia.

To recreate Russia in Western Europe’s image, the first thing he did was to shave off his nobles’ beards. There was resistance to going clean-shaven, as many believed it was a religious obligation for a man to wear a beard. To enforce the ban on facial hair, Peter gave orders to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused. Those who opposed shaving their beards had to pay a new ‘beard’ tax. The sum depended on the status of the bearded man. Those associated with the Imperial Court, military, merchants and town citizens were charged 60 rubles per year; the wealthy merchants were charged 100 rubles per year, and peasants were charged two half-kopeks every time they entered a city. A copper or silver token, Бородовой знак (beard token), with a Russian Double-Headed Eagle on the reverse, with the words ‘money taken’, was issued to those who paid the tax. Under his direction, Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Navigations and Maths were founded.

Peter had a clear idea about his foreign policies’ direction and needed a strong army to achieve it. He introduced military conscriptions and his military reforms modernised the Russian Army and Navy. He demonstrated Russia’s new military strength in the European arena in the historic victory of the Battle of Poltava in 1709, a victory over Swedish forces. The triumph led Russia to become a great European power, marking the weakening of the Swedish Empire. Peter took over a section of land from Sweden and built the city of St Petersburg, copying the Western architecture, with canals like Venice and Amsterdam and towering cathedrals in a distinctive Baroque Style. The royal family and the government were moved from Moscow to St Petersburg, and Russia became the leading nation of north-eastern Europe.

My family recounted the Battle of Poltava with great pride. Their account of Russia’s conquest captivated my imagination, largely when European Kings came to Russia to hold an audience with Peter the Great. When their arrival was announced, Peter replied, ‘Europe can wait for the Russian Tsar,’ demonstrating Russia’s supremacy.

When these historical events were related to me, they filled me with pride and Russkyi Dookh, a brand of nationalism, rousing a deep feeling in me for Russia. This feeling was compounded from early childhood, and reinforced in Russian schools and in Russian classics by famous Russian writers like Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, all describing Russian Dookh in their prose.

Peter continued his reforms by revising the Russian calendar and aligning it with Western Europe. He ordered the year to start on 1st January following the BC/AD format. Until then, the Russians were using a largely Julian calendar based on Byzantine influences. The start of the calendar was 1st September, and the years were numbered from the creation of the earth and not from the birth of Christ.

Land reforms were introduced during his reign, giving landowners more control over peasants. While these reforms supported the development of the Russian economy, in the long run, they entrenched the system of serfdom, which was the cause of so much trouble for future Tsars. The high taxes often accompanied his various reforms led to revolts among Russia’s citizens. These uprisings were quickly suppressed. Peter was an effective leader, but he was known to be cruel and oppressive. His cruelty was not only reserved for his subjects. In 1698, he ended his first marriage to Yevdokiya Lopuhina when he fell in love with a servant, Martha Skowronska. To enable him to divorce his first wife, he forced her into a nunnery.

From his marriage to Yevdokiya, they had a son, Alexei. Peter began to suspect his son of being involved in a plot to overthrow him. He imprisoned Alexei in the Saints Peter and Paul Fortress, convicting Alexei of treason. His son was tried and a confession was extorted from him, implicating most of his friends, who were subsequently tortured. Alexei was declared guilty and sentenced to death. But so desperate was Peter to uncover further collaboration, he continued to torture his son, until he died of his wounds.

People sent to Saints Peters and Paul fortress were political activists. The conditions they lived under were extreme. They were not permitted any communication with the guards, other prisoners, or the outside world. Reading of any material was prohibited. They lived in complete silence and isolation 24 hours a day for the duration of their incarceration. Desperate for some form of communication, the prisoners developed a tapping alphabet system to converse. The guards became aware of the tapping on the walls, and the prisoners were severely punished. The isolation drove most prisoners to madness. One such prisoner was Maria Vetrova, a teacher involved with the revolutionary group Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will). Narodnaya Volya was a revolutionary political organisation that regarded terrorist activities as the best means of political reform to overthrow the tsarist autocracy. She was arrested following the discovery of a printing plant near St Petersburg, distributing revolutionary material. She could no longer endure the isolation, and in desperation, and as a means of protest, she took her life by igniting her clothes on the flame of a Lampada (vigil lamp).

Peter’s desire to modernise the country was taken up by his successors, who continued to make changes long after his passing, but few changes were made to provide relief to the peasantry. From 1725 to 1762, Russia had several Tsars, but Catherine the Great became the longest ruling female leader. She came to power by overthrowing her husband, Peter III, in a coup. Under her reign, Russia continued to be recognised as one of the great powers of Europe. An admirer of Peter the Great, she continued to modernise Russia in line with Western Europe. However, military enlistment and the economy continued to rely on serfdom alone. The private landowners continued to exploit the serf labour, resulting in rebellions. Catherine died of a stroke in 1796, leaving the throne to her son Paul, who was assassinated in 1801.

Paul’s successor was his eldest son Alexander I, ruling Russia through the Napoleonic Wars. During the second half of his reign, he became fearful of plots against him, resulting in him ending many serfdom reforms he had made earlier. Alexander died of typhus in December 1825. He did not leave male heirs, and neither of his eldest brothers, Alexander and Konstantin, wanted the throne. After a significant period of confusion, Alexander was succeeded by his younger brother Nicholas. The young reformists and some military officers attempted to prevent Nicholas’ accession by staging a revolution. They didn’t believe Nicholas was a deserving ruler; they believed only Alexander or Konstantin were worthy heirs to the throne. Nicholas acted decisively by surrounding the rebels with his loyal forces and ordered his troops to open fire. Up to seventy insurgents were killed, and the ones that remained were either hung or exiled to Siberia or Chita. This event became known as The Decembrist Revolution. Nicholas survived seven hundred serf uprisings following the Decembrist Revolution, all suppressed by the imperial defence forces.

Despite the repressions of this period, Russians produced a blossoming of literature and the arts. Russian literature gained international stature and recognition through Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, and others. Ballet and classical music were established during his reign.

His reign also endorsed antisemitism and military conscription of all Jewish boys. The boys had to serve in the Russian military from the age of eighteen. Before the conscription, the Jewish boys were forcibly drafted into Cantonist school from the age of twelve. The Canton Schools prepared the boys for future military service. The boys were deliberately sent far away from their families to circumvent practising Judaism and be Russified. This resulted in ire with the Jewish communities.

While his reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth, the expensive Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, the Russo-Turkish War 1828-1829 and the Crimean War 1853- 1856 left Russia with disastrous finances, a poorly equipped army and an inadequate transport system. Nicholas became aware Narodnaya Volya had begun planning his assassination. He imposed censorship and tight controls on all aspects of public life, forcing the people to be loyal to the Tsar and the Russian Orthodox Church. He died of pneumonia in 1855, passing the throne to his son Alexander II.

The most critical reform under the new Tsar’s rule was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, but the liberation of the serfs did not bring any significant change to their conditions. The serfs still had to work for their landlord for the usual two years, and the nobles kept all the meadows and forests and had their debts paid by the state, while the serfs paid an exorbitant price for shrunken plots they held, and many remained landless. The young socialists of Narodnaya Volya continued to espouse acts of violence to spur mass revolt against the Tsarism. In March 1881, the Narodnaya Volya successfully assassinated Alexander II on St Petersburg’s streets by throwing a bomb under his carriage. His son, Alexander, ascended the throne and became known as Alexander III.

The relationship between father and son had been disagreeable, as Alexander III had opposed his father’s reforms. Upon ascending the throne, he reversed the liberalisation of serfs of his father’s reign. His political ideal was also of a nation composed of a single nationality, language and religion through the mandatory teachings of the Russian language throughout the Empire and reinforcement of the Eastern Orthodoxy by weakening Judaism and continued persecuting the Jews. He appointed land-owning proprietors to take over the administration of peasant communes. These proprietors were feared and resented by the peasants, and peasants’ conditions worsened. The food shortages and new taxes had roused the peasants, and more uprisings occurred.

Encouraged by their success in killing Alexander II, Narodnaya Volya began planning the murder of Alexander III. The assassination plot was uncovered, and the conspirators were hanged, including Aleksandr Ylyich Ylyanov, the older brother of Vladimir Lenin. In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease. He died at the young age of forty nine years old, and his son Nicholas II, who was unprepared to become the Tsar of Russia, inherited the throne under these tumultuous circumstances.

W

The landless peasants in Russia were still forced to serve the nobility, which, by contrast, the serfdom practice had disappeared in most of Western Europe. The emancipation of serfs in 1861 gave rise to events leading up to the Russian Revolution, as peasants experienced more freedom and were able to organise uprisings. Russia went from being the most powerful force in Europe to one of the most impoverished, underdeveloped and backward countries in Europe.

Soon after becoming Tsar in 1894, Nicholas II married Princess Victoria Alix Helen Louise Beatrice of Hesse-Darmstadt, an introverted young daughter of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and granddaughter to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Alix converted to Orthodoxy under the name of Alexandra Feodorovna. Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna opposed the union, as did Queen Victoria, but when Alexander’s health failed to ensure the succession, he blessed the marriage on his deathbed.

Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned Emperor and Empress of Russia on 26th May 1896. Four days later, to celebrate the coronation, a banquet was held for the people at the Khodynka Fields* outside Moscow, as this was the only place large enough to hold all of Moscow’s citizens. The square was a field that had a ravine and many gullies. On 29th May, people had heard rumours of coronation gifts and began to gather in anticipation. Everyone was to receive food and a commemorative cup. An estimated 500,000 people gathered on the field, but before the food and drinks were handed out, rumours spread there would not be enough for everyone. People rushed to get their share, and many were tripped and trampled, suffocating in the dirt of the field. Over one thousand individuals died, and over a thousand more were injured.

A ball was scheduled that evening at the French Embassy in Russia. France and Russia were negotiating a significant Franco-Russian Alliance, a political and military pact. In the war, France wanted Russian support against Germany, and Russia wanted help against Austria- Hungary. Aware of the tragic event, Nicholas thought it best not to attend the ball. However, reliant on his ministers and his uncles for advice, who considered it a worse act for him to offend the French by failing to participate in the ball than to provide comfort to the Russian people. Nicholas, believing he was doing the best for his country in the event of war, attended the ball, much to the Russian people’s distress. In people’s eyes, he was selfish and uncaring.

The following day, Nicholas and Alexandra visited the stampede victims and distributed large amounts of aid to the families of the dead, and many minor officials were dismissed. However, the public anger continued, and he was given the nickname of ‘Nicholas the Bloody’. It was a bad beginning for the new Tsar and seen by some as an omen of the misfortune that would befall his reign.

The vast majority of peasants continued to live in extreme poverty. Aware of the Russian economy’s backward state, Nicholas pushed for industrialisation, which created a new working class when peasants left their farms and opted to work in factories. The conditions in these factories were miserable. Between 1890 and 1910, the population doubled in St Petersburg and Moscow, resulting in overcrowding, and the living condition for the industrial workers was appalling with severe food shortages. As a result, the workers became angry and strikes became commonplace as the former peasants turned against factory management and the government.

On Sunday, 9th January 1905, the people organised a peaceful protest to bring social welfare and economic concerns to the Tsar’s attention. The crowds chanted, ‘God save the Tsar’, as the crowds still bore a deep love for the ruler. The Tsar was absent, and with no leadership to guide the military, the panicking troops viewed the chant as threatening and shot and killed several hundred protesters. The day was named ‘Bloody Sunday’ and ultimately marked the beginning of the Russian Revolution.

Adding to the internal troubles, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War in the same year. The brutal conflict changed the balance of power in Asia and set the stage for World War One. The Japanese took twenty thousand Russians as prisoners of war. Ilya Shatrov, a military musician who had served in Russo-Japanese War, immortalised the soldiers’ sufferings in his composition ‘On the Hills of Manchuria’, a poignant account of the soldiers lying in their graves in Manchuria.

After having four daughters—Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia—in 1904, Alexandra gave birth to a son, the heir to the throne. Russia, at last, had a ‘Naslednik’ (heir). Alexandra, like her grandmother, Queen Victoria, was a carrier of the haemophilia gene. Soon after Alexei’s birth, Nicholas and his wife discovered their son had inherited the gene. The sole son and heir had an incurable and life-threatening illness, and the family decided to keep Alexei’s condition a secret from the Russian people.

Knowing any fall or cut could kill her son, Alexandra became obsessed with protecting him. She turned to religion for comfort and spent hours in prayer. She also began to dabble in mysticism and became an easy target for charlatans.

In the royal circles, Alexandra was blamed for Alexei’s frail health. She was already very unpopular among her Russian subjects, as her shyness was seen as arrogance. Alexandra had no political experience, and as an Empress, she didn’t understand her role at court. Traditionally, the Empress led the social scene by hosting numerous balls, promoting and cultivating friendships, but Alexandra was terrified of social gatherings and enjoyed being alone with Nicholas. She didn’t host the balls and parties that a Tsarina usually did and alienated herself and Nicholas from society. While she demonstrated her love for the Russian people by working incessantly to improve the conditions of the poor, founding schools and hospitals, the members of the Imperial family resented her for closing off their access to the Tsar and the inner court, and the St Petersburg society dismissed Alexandra as a prude German.

Russia entered World War One in August 1914 in support of the Serbs and their French and British Allies. The involvement in this war proved disastrous for the Russian Empire. The outbreak of World War One was a crucial moment for Russia and the Tsar. Unprepared militarily or industrially, Russia suffered demoralising defeats, with colossal food shortages and economic collapse. Over three million Russians died in the war, and thousands of injured soldiers were returning home. Food and fuel shortages continued to plague Russia, and winter was approaching. The internal conflicts continued over the next two years when Germany declared war on Russia. Germany’s war made the German-born Empress even more unpopular with the Russian people, and they accused her of collaboration with the Germans. In an attempt to change the sentiment, the Imperial Government changed St Petersburg’s name to Petrograd, to separate themselves from any German-sounding name as’ Peter’ and ‘Burg’ were very Germanic words, but the new designation did nothing to improve the sentiment toward Alexandra.

Rasputin, a self-proclaimed holy man with a reputation of a drunkard, a womaniser and a sexual predator, befriended the royal family by convincing Alexandra he had the power to heal Alexei. Somehow, he could ease the heir’s suffering during the haemophilia attacks, and in Alexandra’s eyes, Rasputin was Alexei’s saviour. Many didn’t know the reason for Rasputin’s regular visitations to the palace, and rumours abounded that Alexandra was having an affair with him.

As World War One progressed, it brought terrible suffering for soldiers and civilians alike. Nicholas took personal command of the Army, leaving Alexandra in charge as Regent. She had no government experience, and in the Tsar’s absence, Alexandra relied on Rasputin’s advice, and he exerted his influence on the ruling. With Rasputin’s advice, Alexandra consistently appointed and replaced ministers, which meant the government was never stable or efficient.

In the royal circles, he was viewed as an unsuitable friend for the Imperial family. Nobles were incensed Rasputin was in a position of interfering in the running of the government and becoming increasingly powerful. His unsavoury lifestyle diminished respect for the Imperial family.

His movements and acquaintances had raised suspicions with people close to the Tsar’s family, speculating that he inadvertently or purposefully passed vital war information to German agents.

Rasputin’s interference in political matters eventually led Prince Felix Yusupov, a close friend of the Tsar, and married to the Tsar’s niece, to murder Rasputin. He invited a handful of close friends to assist him with the deed. Rasputin arrived at Yusupov’s home on 29th December 1916, where the conspirators gathered to kill him. Rasputin’s wine was laced with cyanide, sufficient to kill several men, but the poison did not affect him. Determined to end Rasputin’s life, Yusupov shot him and left him for dead, but they later found him alive and shot him two more times. The men wrapped his body in a blanket and dumped him into the Neva River. His battered body was discovered a few days later, and it is believed he was still alive when thrown into the river. Despite the belief Rasputin was the cause of the dynasty’s problems, nothing changed with his removal.

Nicholas was still highly regarded by the people, and the country needed him to return from the front to appease the crowds. By remaining at the front, fighting a losing war, the people became angrier, and the hungry mobs began storming the food supplies. Aware of uprisings, Nicholas sought to return from the front to St Petersburg, but again he listened to his generals’ advice, who informed him the situation was under control.

Without leadership from the Tsar, the guards began to shoot at the peasants, inciting further riots everywhere. As the crowds grew in numbers, the military became involved, firing at the crowds indiscriminately, killing hundreds.

While the suppression of the rebels by Nicholas I military during the Decembrist Revolution was successful, the killing of the crowds by Nicholas II’s military only provoked further discontent. Enter Vladimir Lenin, who put an end to three centuries of Romanov rule.

* (https://tsarnicholas.org/category/khodynka-tragedy) visited on 23/03/2022

CHAPTER TWO

THE END OF THE DYNASTY

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VLADIMIR ILYICH ULYANOV came from a well-educated family and excelled at school. He chose to pursue law studies, and while at university, he became radical in his thinking. He was drawn to the revolutionary cause after Alexander III’s regime publicly executed his older brother, Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov, who took part in an attempt on Alexander III’s life.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in student protests against the Tsar and was forced to continue his law studies at St Petersburg University, where he discovered Karl Marx’s works. He joined the Marxist group at the age of twenty-one and became involved with Marxist societies. These groups were banned and restricted by the ruling regime. He was arrested for his provocative actions, jailed for one year and then exiled to Siberia for three years. After his exile ended in 1900, he travelled to Western Europe, where he continued his revolutionary activities.

It was during this time Vladimir adopted ‘Lenin’ as his pseudonym. While in London, he met with other Russian Marxists and established the Russian Social-Democratic Worker’s Party. From the start, there was a divide in the party between a group of people calling themselves the Bolsheviks, who advocated militarism, and the Mensheviks, who supported a democratic movement toward socialism. These two groups opposed each other. Aware of the dissimilarities, Lenin and his followers split from the Mensheviks at a 1912 conference of the Bolshevik Party.

The deteriorating rail transport network and severe weather triggered further food and fuel shortage in Russia, causing people to revolt. Lenin was returned to Russia with Germany’s help, funding him to undermine the Russian war efforts by inciting anti-national sentiment in the Russian Army. The radical groups warmly welcomed him back home. He had made several trips to Germany three months before World War One, forming a connection with German Headquarters, and closely associating with German generals to infiltrate the Russian Army.

Russia was already exhausted by the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, the Russo-Turkish War 1828-1829 and the Crimean War in 1853- 1856, and now World War One was on Russia’s doorsteps. The protests against the conditions increased with a quarter of a million workers going on strike. The demonstrators marched through the streets, demanding food and the right to vote, setting buildings and police stations on fire, taking over gaols and freeing prisoners. Petrograd was in chaos, and the soldiers began to switch their support to the demonstrators, giving way to lawlessness and violence.

The people were so desperate for relief from the chaos that they cared little who could bring such comfort.

In the chaos, members of the Duma assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government, and Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne, ending centuries of Romanov rule. While the population was unhappy with the Tsar, his abdication was unexpected and created phenomenal turmoil throughout Russia, as most people still supported the Tsar.

Alexander Kerensky led the provisional government. As a minister of war, Kerensky continued with the war effort, even though World War One involvement was enormously unpopular as millions of Russians had died or were wounded or captured. For the next nine months, Alexander Kerensky unsuccessfully attempted to establish its authority.The war further exacerbated the food supply, and unrest continued to grow as peasants looted farms for food, and riots erupted in the cities. On 25th October 1917, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Winter Palace was stormed, and the Kerensky government was overthrown.

The Bolsheviks occupied the government buildings, strategic locations, took control of transport and communications and formed a government with Lenin as its head. The country descended into violence, looting and killing became a common occurrence. Within months, civil war broke out throughout Russia, with two warring factions, the Red Army and the White Army. The Red Army fought for and with the Bolsheviks, and the White Army represented a large group of allied forces, monarchists, and capitalists.

The Romanov Family were imprisoned in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. However, aware monarchism was still a powerful force, the Bolsheviks moved the Imperial Family to Tobolsk in Siberia, where they were kept in considerable comfort in the former governor’s mansion. But this comfort would not last.

From Tobolsk, the family was moved to Ekaterinburg into Ipatiev’s House, which was crudely and secretly named as ‘The House of Special Purpose’ (Дом Особого Назначения).

The conditions of their imprisonment became harsh, and the intimidation by the Soviet soldiers began. Sentries scribbled obscenities and lewd drawings on the fence and on the children’s swings to offend the daughters. The family was placed on the soldier’s rations. The windows were covered with newspapers and painted over so the Romanovs could not see the outside world .

By the beginning of July 1918, Ekaterinburg was about to fall to the White Army. Fearing the Imperial Family might be freed, Lenin ordered the Ural Regional Soviet Committee to execute the Imperial family. The deed was to be a state secret to avoid any political repercussions from abroad. Only seven of the twenty-three members of the Central Executive Committee were in attendance, and Lenin was one of them.

The killing orders were relayed to Yakov Yurovsky, the new commandant of the House of Special Purpose. Realising some guards had developed a friendship with the Romanov family and believing they might try to stop the execution, he recruited a special squad to murder the royals in one hit and then burn the bodies and bury the remains.

On 17th July 1918, the Romanovs were taken into the cellar under the pretence of keeping them safe from the crowds when, in truth, they feared the White Army was close by to liberate the Imperial family. In the basement of the Ipatiev House, the heavily armed squad came into the room. Each guard was meant to fire at a different family member, but they all aimed at Nicholas and Alexandra, killing them instantly. When the first round of bullets ended, two girls were still alive, wounded and terrified, and their suffering made worse because the daughters were in effect wearing bulletproof vests. The Romanovs had a large cache of diamonds hidden in specially made underwear to fund an escape. On the night of the execution, the children wore underwear reinforced with diamonds, which meant the bullets bounced off them. The girls were stabbed and bashed with rifle butts; their bodies were thrown into a truck to journey to the woods with the rest of the bodies.

The slaughter of the Romanov family was one of the most horrific events of the 20th century. A 300-year-old dynasty, one marked by periods of splendid achievements as well as ineptitude, was swiftly brought to an end in a massacre that shocked the world and still inspires a terrible fascination today.

Despite the efforts to keep their deaths a secret, the Soviets were forced to acknowledge the murders but denied any involvement. In 1938, the Ipatiev’s house became an Anti-Religious Museum. It was customary for the Soviet party to arrive in large groups, drunken and posing before the cellar’s damaged bullet wall in which the Romanovs were murdered.

Unwittingly, the previous Russian monarchs contributed to the brutal end of the Romanov line. Over centuries, Tsars had been responsible for the deaths of peasants in uprisings, famine and wars. However, what Russia and Russians were about to experience during the 20th century would pale the deaths under Tsarist Russia into insignificance.

Lenin proved to be a ruthless leader, destroying one mighty Empire to create another based on extreme violence. The Red Terror and The Great Purge were about to begin, and millions of lives would be put to an end in a brutal fashion during this era.

By 1918, the Soviet government had nationalised all church property. In the first five years of the Soviet Union, twenty-eight Russian Orthodox Bishops and thousands of priests were executed. Anti-religious campaigns were established in 1925, directed against all faiths, intent on destroying all forms of religion. With a thousand-year history of intense political and spiritual influence over Russian people, the Russian Orthodox Church ended.

Communism extended its authority into the countryside, and the social order was reformed.

They divided the peasants into three categories: Bednyaks (poor peasants), Serendyaks (mid-income peasants), and Kulaks (productive farmers with larger farms than most Russian peasants). There was another category called Batraks, who were landless, seasonal agriculture workers for hire. After the revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks considered only the Batraks and Bednyaks to be loyal allies of the Soviets. The Serendyaks and the Kulaks became class enemies because they owned land.

The raging civil war cut off Moscow and Petrograd from the grain-producing regions. Lenin used the opportunity to blame the Kulaks on the collapse of grain supply to the cities, accusing them of hoarding the grain to increase its financial value. In May 1918, he issued an order to confiscate all grain and gave orders to hang at least one hundred kulaks and publicise their names. This policy resulted in a violent peasant rebellion, which Lenin suppressed and declared any peasant who resisted the new order, was a class enemy, sentencing them to be executed or sent to the Gulag, the labour camps in Siberia created under his rule. Nearly two million peasants were deported as Lenin started building socialism in the countryside.

Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, the year my mother was born. At Lenin’s death, the city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad to commemorate the head of Soviet Russia.

Lenin’s death caused a divisive struggle for power in the Communist Party, and Joseph Stalin emerged as the victor. He immediately set the country on a very different course than that of his predecessor. Agricultural lands were collectivised, creating large state-run farms (kolkhoz). The peasantry was required to relinquish their farms and animals to government authorities, and many chose to slaughter the animals rather than give them to the collective farms. Others lost interest in farming land that no longer belonged to them and allowed their animals to perish in the bitterly cold Russian winter and starvation. Any peasant who hoarded and sold their surplus goods on the market was automatically classified as a Kulak and executed or sent to Gulag.

This policy brought all agriculture and all peasants under state control. The collectivisation, and Kulak dissipation led to mass starvation and millions of peasants died from famine in 1929-30 in Russia. In 1932, to tighten his grip on Ukraine, Stalin took away the grain producing land and all the grain from the peasants creating a famine, ‘Holodomor’, Death by Hunger and Cold. By 1933, 25,000 Ukrainians were dying each day from starvation. In urban areas, a new system was introduced to control the movement of the population by introducing an internal passport. The peasants were not issued these passports in the rural areas, preventing them from moving into the city, and those who tried to flee Ukraine were forcibly returned to their villages to die from starvation.

In Russia, to intimidate people into submission, Stalin ordered the burning of towns and publicly executed former Tsarist officers, soldiers, Kulaks, peasants, and anyone he labelled a traitor. The Gulag reached its peak during 1930, and this continued through to 1950.

Initially, only the military leaders of the White Army were persecuted under Stalin’s rule but as his paranoia grew, the Red Army military leaders were also convicted of treason, and the purge of the Red Army followed, this period between 1936 to 1938 is known as the Great Terror. All members of Lenin’s cabinet were executed, as well as Stalin’s relatives. The purge saw mass executions of Polish, German, Russian citizens and anyone engaged in private enterprise. Clergymen, teachers, soldiers and musicians also became ‘enemies’ and were charged with treason and espionage. The Soviet intelligence agencies began to set up networks in the most prominent nations globally, including China.

Joseph Stalin continued to enforce domination and placed art and literature under tight control. Religion was violently suppressed; whatever churches survived Lenin’s rule were closed, destroyed, and converted to other uses. The secret police power increased, and people were rewarded for denouncing their family members and friends.

Chastushka is a short, fast Russian folk song that comprises one four-lined couplet, full of humour, satire or irony, and it has been entrenched in Russian culture. These songs are typically sung one after another by different people. It’s a simple,