EMPEROR NICHOLAS abdication

+ video - a story about events through the eyes of a man who accepted the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II

March 2, 1917 Emperor Nicholas II abdicated in favor of brother Michael

Thirty years ago, we, young parishioners of Moscow churches, had very long synodics. We submitted notes “On the Repose” with dozens of names, of which there were not even a dozen of our own relatives. For most of them, we now no longer order requiems - they themselves are now served prayers. Nikolai, Alexandra, Olga, Tatyana, Maria, Anastasia, the lad Alexy were the first in my then synodic ...

I learned about the dying ordeals and the fierce death of the royal family when I was 25 years old. I had just been baptized then and tried my best to get something spiritually uplifting - to read. And then, through third hands, I got a book for two days by some completely unknown general Dieterikhs about the murder of the royal family in the Urals. As it turned out later, this general served in 1919 with Kolchak, and it was he who was instructed to organize an investigation into this case when the Whites occupied Yekaterinburg.

I read his book for two days and two nights with almost no breaks for sleep and food. However, I could not eat after a long time - a piece did not climb into my throat. It happened to me about the same as with Bulgakov's Margarita, when she looked closely at Volond's magic globe: the square of the earth expanded, turned first into a relief map, then a village appeared, a house with a matchbox, then it was swept away by an explosion and, even closer, Margarita saw a dead woman lying on the ground, and next to her in a pool of blood, a child spreading her arms. That's how it is for me - the story came to life and became a part of my own, here and now going life. And it was a real pain shock.

What did I know from childhood about the last Russian Tsar? Khodynka, the failed Russo-Japanese War, Bloody Sunday, the revolution of 1905, "Stolypin ties", World War I, ministerial leapfrog, Rasputin, the collapse of the front, the February Revolution, the tsar is weak, weak-willed, everyone who is not lazy, he was manipulated, as a result the country was destroyed, and the former autocrat and his family were shot "in the interests of the revolution" ...

I look closer, the picture comes to life and ... changes beyond recognition.

February 1917 The Tsar at Headquarters, in Mogilev. From Petrograd, they report a riot: it all started with women in lines for bread, which was not delivered, picked up by workers, then soldiers of the reserve infantry regiment - and these are 160 thousand armed, propagandized peasants, who, on the eve of the coming spring offensive, were brought to the capital and squeezed into the barracks, designed for 20 thousand people. And now the emperor is informed: the situation in Petrograd has actually gotten out of control - the arsenal has been destroyed, the police have been dispersed, prisoners have been released from prisons, the Winter Palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress have been seized, the Council of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies has been elected ...

It was a real stab in the back - the situation at the front had just stabilized, it was possible to arrange the supply of food, medicines, warm clothes, an offensive was being prepared. There was just a little bit of patience left. What to do now? Suppress the unrest in the capital by force, risking provoking a civil war in a country at war with an external enemy? Moreover, nothing is really clear, contradictory information is received, and there, in Tsarskoye, in the very thick of these incomprehensible events - a wife, girls, a sick son. What's up with them?

And Nikolai, after ordering to send units from the front to Petrograd and transferring command to General Alekseev, rushed there, to his family - to protect. Where there! It turned out that all the junction stations were occupied by the rebels, and the tsar was forced to turn to Pskov, to the headquarters of the commander of the Northern Front, Adjutant General Ruzsky, where he was forced to play in a performance already prepared for him: General Ruzsky convinced him that "the situation is hopeless", ordered stop sending troops to the capital, and then the sovereign was informed that the newly created committee of the State Duma invites him to voluntarily abdicate the throne.

General Alekseev sent a telegram to the commanders of the fronts asking about the desirability of abdication.

Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich replied: “As a loyal subject, I consider it my duty to take the oath and the spirit of the oath to kneel and pray to the sovereign to renounce the crown in order to save Russia and the dynasty.” Generals Evert (Western Front), Brusilov (South-Western Front), Sakharov (Romanian Front), Commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral Nepenin spoke out for the abdication. And only the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Kolchak, did not send an answer.

All this was a complete surprise for the king. Of course, news of intrigues in the “higher spheres” reached him, but he relied on the decency of the generals who swore allegiance to him before God and owed him their promotion, and did not allow the thought that they, along with members of the Romanov dynasty and leaders of right-wing political parties for a year and a half were preparing a "palace coup".

As Pierre Gilliard later recalled, having lived for many years in the royal family as a French teacher and educator of Tsarevich Alexei, the outcome of events was determined by the tsar’s heightened sense of duty, inner nobility and “the effect of the inner circle” - he was able to be convinced that his renunciation “meets public expectations and would be the best possible step to stabilize the country.”

And in fact? Here is what General Denikin, who is by no means a monarchist by conviction, writes in his Essays on the Russian Troubles: political mistakes and crimes of the government, which obviously and steadily led to the destruction of the country and the defeat of the army. They forgave the sovereign, they tried to justify him.

In the thick of the soldiers ... a well-known conservatism, a habit "from time immemorial", the suggestion of the church - all this created a certain attitude towards the existing system, as something completely natural and inevitable.

In the mind and heart of a soldier, the idea of ​​a monarch, so to speak, was in a potential state, sometimes rising to high exaltation during direct communication with the tsar (reviews, detours, casual appeals), then falling to indifference.

Be that as it may, the mood of the army was quite favorable both for the idea of ​​a monarchy and for a dynasty. It was easy to support him."

But the closest people convinced Nicholas II that his abdication would be the fulfillment of the "will of the people", and therefore the will of God. And the tsar, the only person in Russia who all his life carried his power like a cross, like a service entrusted to him by God, before whom he is responsible for the fate of the people entrusted to him, decided to abdicate.

In 1983, the confession of the main ideologist of the February Revolution, the minister of the first composition of the Provisional Government Milyukov, was published, made in a narrow circle of like-minded people after his resignation in May 1917, and then, after the October Revolution, repeated in one of the letters: “History will curse the leaders, so called proletarians, but he will also curse us who caused the storm.”

Most of the participants in those events did not have to wait long for their fate. 20 of the 65 members of the Romanov dynasty were brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks. None of them fought on the side of the whites, did not organize conspiracies to overthrow the Soviet regime, did not try to take out untold wealth.

Of the conspiring generals, only Brusilov, who helped the new government create a regular army, lived until 1926 and died in Moscow from pneumonia. Vice-Admiral Nepenin was already killed on March 4, 1917 in the port of Helsingfors in a crowd of revolutionary sailors by "unknown persons." In October 1918, General Alekseev died of pneumonia in the Volunteer Army. General Ruzsky in November of the same year at the Pyatigorsk cemetery, along with other hostages, was hacked to death by the Reds, General Ervet was shot by the Bolsheviks in Mozhaisk, and General Sakharov was shot in the Crimea in 1920 by the Greens.

... Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, according to the testimony of people who were next to him in the last months of his life, accepted his way of the cross as atonement for the tragic mistake of renunciation. Before exile to Tobolsk, according to Count Benckendorff, he said: “I don’t feel sorry for myself, but I feel sorry for those people who have suffered and are suffering because of me. It's a pity for the Motherland and the People."

Vasily Shulgin, politician, deputy of the Duma, who accepted the abdication of Nicholas II, tells about this event in the reconstruction documentary film Before the Judgment of History (1965).

Reference:

Shulgin V.V. (1878-1976) - Member of the State Duma
In 1915, Shulgin became one of the leaders of the "Progressive Bloc"
After October 1917, Shulgin, being an implacable opponent of the Bolsheviks, became one of the organizers and ideologists of the Volunteer Army.
In 1920 he emigrated from the Crimea to Yugoslavia.
In 1945, he was arrested by SMERSH in Yugoslavia, taken to the USSR and sentenced to 25 years in prison for counter-revolutionary activities during the civil war.
In 1956, Shulgin was released ahead of schedule, and even allowed to engage in literary work.
Shulgin spent the last years of his life in Vladimir, where he died in 1976.

Chronicle of the fall of autocracy

February 21 (March 6) Nicholas II accepts the report of the Minister of the Interior Protopopov, in which he informs the Tsar in complete calm in Petrograd.

February 22 (March 7) Nicholas II leaves Petrograd for Mogilev to the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander.

February 23 (March 8) the imperial train arrives in Mogilev.

February 24 (March 9) Nikolai receives a telegram from the Empress, which speaks of the destruction of bakeries on Vasilyevsky Island and the dispersal of the rioters by the Cossacks.

February 25 (March 10) The headquarters receives two telegrams from the commander of the Petrograd Military District, Lieutenant-General Khabalov and the Minister of the Interior Protopopov about strikes and street riots in the capital. Nikolai orders General Khabalov to end the unrest by military force.

February 27 (March 12) Khabalov telegraphs: “I ask you to report to His Imperial Majesty that I could not fulfill the order to restore order in the capital. Most of the units, one after the other, betrayed their duty, refusing to fight against the rebels. Other units fraternized with the rebels and turned their weapons against those loyal to His Majesty troops. Those who remained true to duty fought all day against the rebels, suffering heavy losses. By evening, the rebels had captured most of the capital. Loyal to the oath remain small parts of the different regiments gathered at the Winter Palace under the command of General Zankevich, with whom I will continue the fight. . Khabalov".

February 28 (March 13) at 5 am the tsar's train left for Tsarskoye Selo, but could not get through.

March 1 (March 14) at 19-05 after 38 hours of wandering along the railways, the royal train arrives in Pskov at the location of the headquarters of the armies of the Northern Front, General N. V. Ruzsky. Further events unfold here.

March 1 (March 14) news comes from Moscow from the commander of the Moscow military district, General Mrazovsky: "There is a complete revolution in Moscow. The military units go over to the side of the revolutionaries."

At 20-29 general Klembovsky V.N. sends telegrams to the commanders of the armies: “There is a complete uprising in Moscow ... There is an uprising in Kronstadt, and the Baltic Fleet, with the consent of the commander of the fleet, went over to the side of the Provisional Committee. The decision of Admiral Nepenin was caused by the desire to save the fleet. issue an act capable of calming the population and stopping the revolution."

March 2 (March 15) General Alekseev sends out a dispatch to the commanders of the armies on the question of the desirability of renunciation. Generals Evert A.E. (Western Front), Brusilov A.A. (South-Western Front), Sakharov V.V. (Romanian Front), Commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral Nepenin A.I., Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich (Caucasian Front). Only Kolchak, Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, did not receive a reply.

March 2 (March 15) at 15:00 Nicholas II abdicated in favor of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

The well-known "Manifesto on the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II from the Throne" was published in the "Izvestia of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies" and other newspapers on March 4, 1917. However, the "original" or "original" renunciation was discovered only in 1929.

At the same time, it is not enough to mention only its discovery. It is necessary to say under what circumstances and by whom the "original" was discovered. It was discovered during the communist purge of the USSR Academy of Sciences and used to fabricate the so-called academic case.

Based on this suddenly discovered document, the OGPU accused the remarkable historian S.F. Platonov and other academicians in nothing less than preparations for the overthrow of Soviet power!

The authenticity of the renunciation document was instructed to verify the commission headed by P.E. Shchegolev. And the commission stated that the document is genuine and is the original of the renunciation.

But who is Shchegolev? He and A.N. Tolstoy were caught preparing and publishing a fabricated Diary of Vyrubova, a friend of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Shchegolev was also caught making a false Rasputin's Diary.

Moreover, the discovered document is a typewritten text on a plain sheet of paper. Could the most important document not be on the imperial letterhead? Could not. Could the most important document be without a personal imperial seal? Could not. Could such a document be signed not with a pen, but with a pencil? Could not.

In this regard, there were and observed strict rules established by law. It was not difficult to observe them on the royal train on March 2, 1917. Everything was at hand. In addition, according to existing laws, the original of the royal manifesto had to be written by hand.

It should also be added that there is some kind of wear under the sovereign's pencil signature. And to the left and below this signature is the signature of the Minister of the Imperial Court, Count V.B. Frederiks, who certified the signature of the emperor. So this signature was also made in pencil, which is unacceptable and has never happened on important government documents. Moreover, the minister's signature is also circled with a pen, as if this is not a document, but a children's coloring book.

When historians compare the signatures of Emperor Nicholas II under the "abdication" with his signatures on other documents and compare the signature of Minister Frederiks on the "abdication" with his other signatures, it turns out that the signatures of the emperor and minister on the "abdication" coincide several times with their other signatures.

However, forensic science has established that the same person does not have two identical signatures, they are at least a little, but different. If two documents have the same signature, then one of them is fake.

The famous monarchist V.V. Shulgin, who participated in the overthrow of the tsar and was present at his abdication, in his memoirs "Days" testifies that the abdication was on two or three telegraph forms. However, what we have is on one sheet of plain paper.

Finally, in all collections of documents, in student and school anthologies, the discovered document is published under the title "Manifesto on the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II from the throne." However, the document itself has a different heading: "To the Chief of Staff." What it is? Did the emperor abdicate before the chief of staff? It can not be.

From all this it follows that the document discovered in 1929 and now stored in the State Archives of the Russian Federation is NOT THE ORIGINAL RETRACT. There is no doubt about this.

Does it follow from what has been said that there was no renunciation? The point of view, popular in the Orthodox environment, that there was no renunciation, is just derived from the fact that there is no original document.

At the same time, I will point out at least such a relatively recent precedent. The Americans found a copy of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in an archive in Berlin. And the USSR for decades denied the existence of a secret protocol on the basis that there is no original. Only during Gorbachev's glasnost was the original stored in Moscow declassified and presented.

I really wish there were no renunciations. And I wish success to those who are trying to prove it. In any case, the existence, development and clash of several points of view is useful for historical science.

Indeed, there is no original renunciation, but there is enough reliable evidence that he was!

From March 4 to March 8, 1917, Nicholas II met with his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, who arrived in Mogilev. In the surviving diary of the Empress there is an entry dated March 4, which tells with dramatic empathy about the abdication for herself and her son, about the transfer of the throne to her younger brother from the words of Nicholas II himself. On the anniversary of the abdication, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna also testifies to him in her diary.

There are also testimonies of renunciation, transmitted from the words of Alexandra Feodorovna. For example, the testimony of Pierre Gilliard, the faithful tutor of her children. Archpriest Athanasius (Belyaev) should also be mentioned, who spoke with the tsar, confessed him and later recalled that the tsar himself had told him about renunciation. There is other reliable evidence that the renunciation did take place.

So why is there no original? After all, the Provisional Government was absolutely interested in preserving the original, since, from a legal point of view, there was no other justification for the legitimacy, legality of the creation and activities of the Provisional Government itself. The original renunciation was also not superfluous for the Bolsheviks.

Could lose such an important state document? Anything can happen, but it's highly unlikely. Therefore, I will make an assumption: the Provisional Government destroyed the original because it contained something that did not suit the government. That is, the Provisional Government went to the forgery, changing the text of the renunciation. There was a document, but not like that.

What could not suit the government? I suppose that there was some phrase or phrases in which the sovereign sought to direct what was happening in a legal direction. The basic laws of the Russian Empire of 1906 did not provide for the very possibility of renunciation. Renunciation was not even mentioned; in its spirit and direction, the Basic Laws did not allow renunciation, which legal practice allows to consider as a prohibition of renunciation.

According to the same laws, the emperor had great power, allowing him to first issue a Manifesto (Decree) to the Senate, which would prescribe the possibility of abdication for himself and his heir, and then issue the Manifesto of renunciation itself.

If there was such a phrase or phrases, then Nicholas II signed such a renunciation, which might not mean an immediate abdication. It would take at least some time for the Senate to draw up the Manifesto, and then again it is necessary to sign the already final renunciation, announce and approve it in the Senate. That is, the king could sign such a renunciation, which from a strictly legal point of view was more like a declaration of intent.

Obviously, the leaders of the February coup d'etat (as well as the leaders of the State Duma, its chairman, the Octobrist M.V. Rodzianko, the leader of the Octobrists, A.I. Guchkov, the leader of the constitutional democrats, P.N. Milyukov, the Trudovik socialist A.F. Kerensky), the Provisional Government didn't want to waste time.

Suffice it to say that the chairman of the State Duma misinformed the Headquarters, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General M.V. Alekseev, informing him that the events in the capital are under control, that for her to calm down and successfully continue the war, only the abdication of the king is necessary.

In reality, events got out of control or were only partially controlled: the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (it was dominated by Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries) had no less or more influence than the Duma and the Provisional Government; propagandized revolutionary masses seized the streets and released all criminals from prisons, including murderers, rapists, thieves and terrorists, and it became unsafe for decent people to leave their homes, massacres of officers and policemen took place. A few more days - and this would have become known at Headquarters in Mogilev. And how would events unfold then? After all, the fate of the revolution depended on the position of the army.

However, the top generals headed by Alekseev, not understanding the situation, hastened to believe the reports coming from the Duma and support the revolution. And the leaders of the latter were aware that the matter should be done quickly. In a word, even if the renunciation manifesto is not legal, but everything can be attributed to the revolution, because “after a fight they don’t wave their fists”, but time you can't lose during a revolution.

In favor of the conclusion about the falsification of the abdication document is also evidenced by the fact that the last order of the emperor, dated March 8, 1917, was falsified. This appeal of the emperor and Supreme Commander Nicholas II to the troops is known and published according to the text of the order of General Alekseev, who inserted the royal order into his order. Moreover, the original order of the tsar has been preserved in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, and it differs from that in the order of Alekseev. Alekseev arbitrarily inserted an appeal to "obey the Provisional Government" into the tsar's order.

In this case, the forger is General Alekseev, who sought to give some kind of legitimacy and continuity to the Provisional Government. Perhaps the general thought that he would replace the tsar as Supreme Commander and himself victoriously end the war in Berlin.

Why then did the emperor not clarify? Obviously, because the deed was done. The headquarters, the highest generals and commanders of the fronts, the State Duma, all parties from the Octobrists to the Bolsheviks and the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church went over to the side of the revolution, and the noble and monarchist public organizations seemed to have died out, and not a single elder, even from Optina Pustyn, did not enlighten those who were carried away by the revolutionary reorganization of Russia. The February Revolution has won.

To whom and what will you prove in revolutionary insanity, lies and pogrom? Talk about the nuances of a really signed document? Who would understand this? They would laugh.

The emperor could convey his appeal to the people through the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. But to risk a woman, to involve her in what will turn out to be unknown to her? In addition, there was still hope that the worst would not come.

On March 8, the tsar and his family were arrested by decision of the Provisional Government under pressure from the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. However, since March 1, the status of the tsar was de facto limited in Pskov, where he came to the headquarters of the Northern Front to General N.V. Ruzsky. They already met him not quite as a king, as having power.

What do we want from an arrested person who is being slandered and poisoned at all intersections of the capital? Could he call a press conference? And surely someone, perhaps even the unfortunate monarchists Guchkov and Shulgin who came to accept the renunciation, warned the tsar that they could not vouch for the life of his family in Tsarskoye Selo, near revolutionary Petrograd, if something happened.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna corresponded, including illegally, with true friends, primarily with her girlfriends. The addressees of these letters were not political figures, and the queen was constantly worried about the safety of those who dared not only maintain worthy friendships, but also enter into illegal correspondence.

Only renunciation according to the law and voluntarily can be considered unconditionally legal. There was no waiver of the law. There is nothing to say about voluntariness, the king was forced to sign a renunciation. The latter is a sufficient legal basis for considering the renunciation illegal.

In addition, according to the then existing laws, the tsar's manifesto came into force only after it was approved by the Senate and published by the tsar himself - the ruling head of state - in the government newspaper. However, there was nothing of the kind. That is, even the manifesto published then did not enter into force.

At the same time, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that in history, including in the history of the Romanov dynasty, laws and traditions were not always respected. For example, Catherine II illegally seized power as a result of a palace coup. Moreover, she is involved in the regicide, at least covered this crime, thereby complicity in it. And this did not prevent her from going down in history under the name of Catherine the Great. God is her judge.

However, what happened at the turn of February-March 1917 is not comparable with all the precedents in the thousand-year history of Russia. The overthrow of the legitimate Tsar Nicholas II became the starting point, the initial impulse and impetus for subsequent events, including the Civil War and the Red Terror, collectivization and the famine, the Gulag and the Great Terror; including the fact that even now we have a broken trough, surrounded by idols Voikov, Dzerzhinsky, Lenin and similar revolutionary geeks.

What happened on March 2, 1917 is a drama on a universal scale. It goes beyond the narrow-minded judgments that anything in history happens; goes beyond the framework of the proper legal or formal-legal, objectivist approach.

Ultimately, everything rests on the conscience, the conscience of a historian or the conscience of a person of any other profession who is interested in history and thinks about the fate of Russia. And conscience quietly prompts - AN UNPLEASANT DEAL WAS HAPPENED ON MARCH 2, 1917; it is more than illegal, it is AGAINST RUSSIA, THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE AND ITS FUTURE.

The emperor himself, signing some kind of abdication document, sought to avoid the worst, an internal civil war during an external war with the Kaiser's aggressors. The emperor was not a prophet: he would not have signed, knowing how the matter would turn out; he would have climbed the chopping block back in 1917, but would not have signed; he would ascend with his beloved family ...

And let's pay attention: in the events that fell upon the king, it turned out that the document he signed contained a renunciation for himself and for his son, but not for the empress! And she didn't give up. The communists killed the rightful unabdicated empress.

And more about the "original". You should pay attention to how the signatures of Nicholas II and Fredericks are crowded at the bottom of the sheet. This is how schoolchildren who do not fit into the given volume crowd the text. Can this happen in a document of national importance? It is possible that the emperor and the minister prepared, just in case, blank sheets with their signatures. Such sheets could be discovered, and the text of "renunciation" could be inserted into such a sheet. That is, it is possible that the signatures are real, but the document is fake!

In the 1990s, a government commission was created to study issues related to the study and reburial of the remains of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family. The commission was headed by First Deputy Prime Minister B.E. Nemtsov. V.N. Solovyov, who prepared the most important examinations.

Meeting with Solovyov, I asked him a question: why did the commission not carry out a state, official examination of the authenticity of the emperor's signature under the "abdication"? After all, this is one of the most important necessary examinations, and such examinations are being carried out, and for millions of believers, this particular examination is of particular importance.

The forensic prosecutor answered my question: we understood that such an examination was necessary, but the archivists did not want to give the document to the experts, and the experts did not want to go to the State Archives of the Russian Federation, where the document is now stored.

This is such a kindergarten, not an answer. After all, the commission was headed by the vice-premier, he could decide who should go where. And I would have to go. However, this has not been done. Why? Maybe they were afraid of exactly what the examination would testify: the tsar's signature was forged?

In addition, the government commission headed by Nemtsov did not conduct an examination of the “renunciation” typeface. Did the typewriters of 1917 have such a font? Was there such a typewriter, a typewriter of such a brand, on the tsarist train, at the headquarters of General Ruzsky, at Headquarters, in the Duma, at the Provisional Government? Is the “renunciation” printed on the same typewriter? The last question leads to a careful examination of the letters in the document. And if on several machines, what does this mean? That is, it was necessary to work more, to search. Didn't the aforementioned forensic prosecutor of the General Prosecutor's Office understand this?

Comparison of the text of the "abdication" with undoubtedly authentic documents, memoirs shows that the "original" is obviously based on the draft of the renunciation, prepared on March 2, 1917 in the diplomatic office of the Stavka under the leadership of its director I.A. Basili by order and under the general editorship of General Alekseev.

The so-called "renunciation" published on March 4, 1917, by no means announced the liquidation of the monarchy in Russia. Moreover, from what was said above about the then existing legislation, it follows that neither the transfer of the throne by the "abdication" of Emperor Nicholas II, nor the manifesto of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich of March 3, 1917 with the refusal to accept the throne (with the transfer of the final decision to the future Constituent Assembly) are legal. The manifesto of the Grand Duke is not legal, it was signed under pressure, but this is not a fake, its author is cadet V.D. Nabokov, father of the famous writer.

Now the time has come to say that it is impossible to renounce the royal chrismation. It cannot be undone. De facto, Nicholas II ceased to be tsar after the February coup, however, in a mystical and purely legal sense, he remained the Russian tsar and died tsar. He and his family ascended their Golgotha ​​so worthily that they are canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The abdication of the throne of Nicholas 2 happened on March 2, 1917, this was preceded by the following events. The beginning of 1917 was marked by growing discontent among the masses. The Russians are tired of the war, of constant casualties, high inflation, exorbitant prices. Russia did not experience all the economic horrors of the war. Against this background, on October 18, 1917, the workers of the Putilov factory went on strike. The authorities decided to severely punish the strikers. A decree was issued to close the Putilov factory. Thousands of people were left without work and means of subsistence. But this only made the situation worse. The dismissed workers of the Putilov factory were joined by other dissatisfied people. On February 25, a mass demonstration was organized in St. Petersburg, in which about 300 thousand people took part. People chanted anti-government slogans and demanded the abdication of Nicholas 2.

The emperor himself at that time was at Headquarters, leading the troops. A telegram was hastily sent to him, in which the events in St. Petersburg were described in detail. In his response, Nicholas 2 demanded that the protesters be punished. On February 26, fire was opened on the crowd, more than 100 people were arrested, and the State Duma was dissolved. These measures did not bring success to the tsarist government. The fourth company of the Peter and Paul Regiment rebelled, opening fire on the mounted police. The situation escalated. Every day more and more people supported the rebels. By March 1, 1917, the entire Petrograd garrison had risen and joined the protesters. The rebels seized weapons, warehouses, railway stations, prisons. The situation in the country was critical. On February 27, the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Winter Palace were captured.

On March 1, 1917, the rebels announced the creation of a Provisional Government, which was supposed to take over the government of the country. Nicholas 2 was at the front. The telegrams from Russia were getting worse and worse. It was impossible to postpone, and the emperor returned to Russia. February 28 Nicholas 2 went to Tsarskoye Selo. But since the railroad was blocked by the rebels, the emperor went to Pskov.

The people demanded only one thing: the abdication of the throne of Nicholas 2. On March 1, the Chairman of the Provisional Government sent a telegram to the front commander to convince Nicholas to abdicate in favor of his son Alexander. As a result, the abdication became a matter of time, since the entire top military leadership of the country expressed the opinion to the emperor that he should leave power.

On March 2, 1917, Nicholas 2 abdicated the throne. Contrary to the demand of the people, Nicholas appointed his successor not his thirteen-year-old son Alexander, but his brother Mikhail. Michael, under pressure from the political forces of the country, refused the imperial title. He declared that the fate of the country should be decided at the Constituent Assembly.

On March 2, 1917, after the abdication of the throne by Nicholas 2, the rule of the Romanov dynasty ended in Russia. The Russian Empire ceased to exist, as well as the Russian monarchy.

Abdication of Nicholas 2 from the throne

The abdication of Nicholas 2 from the throne is perhaps one of the most intricate mysteries of the 20th century.
Its main reason was the weakening of the power of the sovereign, inevitable and unavoidable in the conditions in which the empire was located.
The brewing revolutionary situation, which was gaining momentum and the growing discontent of the population of the country, became the soil on which the collapse of the monarchical system occurred.
After three years, in February 1917, the country was two steps away from victory. Thanks to her, Russia could expect world power and prosperity, but events developed in a different way.
On February 22, the emperor unexpectedly left for Mogilev. His presence at Headquarters was necessary to coordinate the plan for the spring offensive. This act was a turning point in history, as there were only a few days left until the end of royal power.
The next day, Petrograd was engulfed in revolutionary unrest. In addition, 200,000 soldiers were concentrated in the city, waiting to be sent to the front. An interesting fact is that the composition was staffed from different segments of the population, a significant part were factory workers. Dissatisfied with their fate and carefully prepared by propagandists, this mass served as a kind of detonator.
Rumors of bread shortages were spread to organize the riots. A strike of workers was organized, growing with inexorable force. Slogans were shouted everywhere: "Down with the autocracy" and "Down with the war."
For several days, unrest spread throughout the city and its environs. And finally, on February 27, a military riot broke out. The sovereign instructed Adjutant General Ivanov to deal with his suppression
Under the pressure of these events, Nicholas 2 decided to return to Tsarskoye Selo. Leaving the military headquarters, in fact, the control center of the situation, was a fatal mistake. Nicholas still hoped for the loyalty and honesty of his subjects. The headquarters remained under the control of General Alekseev and the connection between the emperor and the army was actually interrupted.

But the emperor's train was stopped on the night of March 1, only 150 miles from Petrograd. Because of this, Nikolai had to go to Pskov, where the headquarters of Ruzsky was located, under whose command the northern front was located.

Nikolay 2 talked about the current situation with Ruzsky. The emperor now began to feel with all clarity that a well-organized situation of rebellion, combined with a loss of confidence in the army in the royal power, could end in failure not only for the monarchical system, but also for the royal family itself. The king realized that, in fact, cut off from any of his allies, he must make concessions. He agrees with the idea of ​​a Responsible Ministry, which would include party representatives capable of calming the population and taking measures to prevent an acute situation. On the morning of March 2, Ruzsky, by his order, stops the suppression of the rebellion and informs Rodzianko, chairman of the provisional government, of the emperor's consent to a responsible ministry, to which Rodzianko responds with disagreement with such a decision. He made it clear that it was impossible to correct the situation with little bloodshed, and the abdication of Nicholas 2 from the throne should take place, one way or another. The demands of the revolutionaries have gone far beyond the transfer of part of the power to the Responsible Ministry, and conservative, restraining measures will be absolutely useless. It was necessary to show that the country could and would develop along a different political path, and for this the autocrat had to leave the throne. Having learned about this state of affairs, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General Alekseev, organizes, in fact, a conspiracy. He sends telegrams to all military commanders, in which he asks each of them to convince the emperor of his failure and surrender to the mercy of the revolutionary forces.

Under the influence of the general will, on the afternoon of March 2, the emperor decides to abdicate in favor of his son Alexei with the guardianship of Prince Michael. But the unexpected news of the court physician about the incurability of hemophilia in the heir forced Nikolai to abandon this idea. He understood that immediately after the renunciation, he would be expelled and deprived of the opportunity to be near his son. Thus, paternal feelings overpowering the sense of duty to the country became a decisive factor.

On March 3, the emperor decided for himself and his son to abdicate in favor of brother Michael. Such a decision was absolutely unlawful, but they did not challenge it, since no one doubted Michael's subsequent abdication, which happened a little later. Driven into a corner by circumstances, the Grand Duke, without realizing it, with his signature destroyed even the slightest possibility of restoring the monarchy.

The abdication of Nicholas 2 from the throne did not bring relief to the Russian people. Revolutions rarely bring happiness to ordinary people. World War I ended humiliating for Russia, and soon bloody inside the country began.

Instruction

A number of events and upheavals that occurred during the period of his reign led to the abdication of the throne of Nicholas II. His abdication in 1917 is one of the key events that led the country to the February Revolution in 1917 and to the transformation of Russia as a whole. We should consider the mistakes of Nicholas II, which in their totality led him to his own abdication.

The first mistake. Currently, the abdication of Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov from the throne is perceived by everyone in different ways. There is an opinion that the beginning of the so-called "royal persecution" was laid during the festive festivities on the occasion of the coronation of the new emperor. Then one of the most terrible and cruel crushes in the history of Russia occurred on the Khodynka field, in which more than 1.5 thousand civilians were killed and injured. The decision of the newly-made emperor to continue the festivities and give an evening ball on the same day, despite what had happened, was recognized as cynical. It was this event that made many people speak of Nicholas II as a cynical and heartless person.

Second error. Nicholas II understood that something had to be changed in the management of the “sick” state, but he chose the wrong methods for this. The fact is that the emperor went the wrong way, declaring a hasty war on Japan. It happened in 1904. Historians recall that Nicholas II seriously hoped to quickly and with minimal losses deal with the enemy, thereby awakening patriotism in the Russians. But this was his fatal mistake: Russia then suffered a shameful defeat, lost South and Far Sakhalin and the fortress of Port Arthur.

Error three. The major defeat in the Russo-Japanese War did not go unnoticed by Russian society. Protests, unrest and rallies swept across the country. This was enough to hate the ruling elite. People all over Russia demanded not only the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, but also the complete overthrow of the entire monarchy. The dissatisfaction grew every day. On the famous "Bloody Sunday" of January 9, 1905, people came to the walls of the Winter Palace complaining about the unbearable life. The emperor was not in the palace at that time - he and his family were resting in the homeland of the poet Pushkin - in Tsarskoye Selo. This was his next mistake.

It was a “convenient” combination of circumstances (the tsar was not in the palace) that allowed the provocation, which had been prepared in advance by this popular procession - the priest Georgy Gapon, to prevail. Without the emperor and, moreover, without his order, fire was opened on civilians. On that Sunday, women, and old people, and even children died. This forever killed the faith of the people in the king and in the fatherland. Then more than 130 people were shot, and several hundred were wounded. The emperor, having learned about this, was seriously shocked and depressed by the tragedy. He understood that the anti-Romanov mechanism had already been launched, and there was no turning back. But the king's mistakes did not end there.

Mistake four. In such a difficult time for the country, Nicholas II decided to get involved in the First World War. Then, in 1914, a military conflict began between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and Russia decided to defend the small Slavic state. This led her to a "duel" with Germany, which declared war on Russia. Since then, the Nikolaev country was fading before his eyes. The emperor did not yet know that he would pay for all this not only with his abdication, but also with the death of his entire family. The war dragged on for many years, the army and the entire state were extremely dissatisfied with such a foul tsarist regime. Imperial power has actually lost its power.

Then a Provisional Government was created in Petrograd, consisting of the enemies of the tsar - Milyukov, Kerensky and Guchkov. They put pressure on Nicholas II, opening his eyes to the true state of affairs both in the country itself and on the world stage. Nikolai Aleksandrovich could no longer bear such a burden of responsibility. He made the decision to abdicate. When the king did this, his entire family was arrested, and after a while they were shot along with the former emperor. That was the night of June 16-17, 1918. Of course, no one can say with certainty that if the emperor had revised his views on foreign policy, he would not have brought the country to the edge. What happened, happened. Historians can only speculate.