Nicholas and Alexandra

35 “Send Witte my order”: ibid., 158.

36 “Ice water instead of wine”: ibid., 144. “No culinary taste”: ibid., 151. “The most naive judgments”: ibid., 162. “I cannot say that I liked him”: quoted by Florinsky, 1261 n.

37 “The Emperor Nicholas was morally compelled”: Witte, 161.

38 “No diplomat by profession could have done it”: Izvolsky, 24. “I am creating him a count”: N to MF, 175.

39 The Kaiser’s attitude: Kokovtsov, 391.

40 “I agree fully”: Willy-Nicky, 74–5.

41 Bjorko: Cowles, 215; Balfour, 258.

42 “No longer find your emperor alive”: Cowles, 219.

43 “Your ally notoriously left you”: Willy-Nicky, 130–2.

CHAPTER 9 1905

 1 Plehve: Pares, History, 408, 425.

 2 Kishenev pogrom: Harcave, 35. “To the devoutly Orthodox Russians”: Sacher, 80–1.

 3 “Police socialism”: Harcave, 39.

 4 Father Gapon: Harcave, 66; Mazour, 352–3.

 5 The Putilov strike: Harcave, 70–2. Gapon’s vision: ibid., 81, 88.

 6 William Howard Taft: Tuchman, Proud Tower, 409. Theodore Roosevelt: ibid., 424.

 7 “Capitalistic exploiters, crooks”: Mazour, 354–5.

 8 The Blessing of the Waters: Harcave, 77–8.

 9 The day before: ibid., 83–5.

10 “Troops have been brought”: N’s Diary, 207.

11 The march: Harcave, 88–9.

12 Casualty figures for Bloody Sunday: Pares, 79.

13 “And so we have no Tsar”: Mazour, 355. “Bloodstained creature” and “common murderer”: Virginia Cowles, The Gay Monarch (New York, Harper, 1956), 346.

14 “Nicholas Romanov … soul murderer”: Mazour, 356. Gapon’s death: Harcave, 95; Mazour, 357; Florinsky, 1172.

15 “A painful day”: N’s Diary, 207.

16 Witte’s suggestion: Harcave, 121. The workers at the palace: Kokovtsov, 39–40.

17 Alexandra’s letter: Buxhoeveden, 108–10.

18 Grand Duke Serge: Vyrubova, 13; Paleologue, I, 156–60. The Convent of Mary and Martha: Paleologue, I, 161.

19 “It makes me sick to read the news”: N to MF, 183.

20 The Potemkin: Harcave, 156. The October general strike: ibid., 179, 183; Charques, 124.

21 The Soviet: Pares, 85; Harcave, 188; Mazour, 358.

22 “So the ominous quiet days began”: N to MF, 184–5.

23 “I have a constitution in my head”: von Laue, 25.

24 “At the University, I worked day and night”: Witte, 13.

25 “I acquitted myself with success”: ibid., 19.

26 “It will not be an exaggeration”: ibid., 52.

27 “Fools!”: ibid., 76.

28 “She obtained her divorce”: ibid., 35.

29 “A kindly, well-bred youth”: ibid., 179.

30 “Alexandra does not lack physical charms”: ibid., 198

31 “The only man who can help you now is Witte”: MF to N, 180.

32 “I shall kill myself”: Witte, 247; Mosolov, 90; Vyrubova 26; Pares, 86.

33 The text of the October Manifesto: Harcave, 196.

34 “Three cocks were crowing at the same time”: ibid., 211.

35 “The proletariat knows”: Florinsky, 1178–9.

36 Black Hundreds: Harcave, 204.

37 Lenin in Russia: Fischer, 51. “Go ahead and shoot”: ibid., 54.

38 Nicholas’s letters on Witte: N to MF, 188, 192, 195, 211.

39 “To the Emperor of all the Russias”: Harcave, 249.

40 “You see before you the happiest of mortals”: Kokovtsov, 124.

41 “As long as I live”: N to MF, 120.

42 200,000 roubles: Kokovtsov, 332.

43 “A great never-to-be-forgotten day”: N’s Diary, 174.

44 Alexis’s birth: Vyrubova, 10. Russia celebrates: Buxhoeveden, 103.

45 His Imperial Highness: Almedingen, 80.

46 The christening: N’s Diary, quoted by Catherine Radziwill, The Taint of the Romanovs (London, Cassell, 1931), 179–80; Buxhoeveden, 104.

47 “Alix and I have been very much worried”: N’s Diary, quoted by Radziwill, op. cit., 181.

48 “There again was some blood”: ibid., 181.

49 “I have a secret conviction”: Paleologue, I, 98.

CHAPTER 10 THE TSAR’S VILLAGE

 1 “Tsarskoe Selo was a world apart”: Botkin, 18.

 2 The park at Tsarskoe Selo: ibid., 15–17; Alexander, 158, 163; Meriel Buchanan, 66. The Cossacks: Paleologue, I, 244.

 3 Building of the palaces: Botkin, 16. A masterpiece under glass: ibid., 17.

 4 Inside the palace: Almedingen, 187–8. The Imperial Guard: Paleologue, I, 243–5.

 5 Palace police: Vyrubova, 158; Botkin, 62.

 6 “Resplendent in snow-white garters”: Bykov, 34.

 7 Court protocol: Botkin, 32.

 8 “Has anything happened?”: ibid., 58.

 9 “You are called”: ibid., 83.

10 Count Fredericks: Mosolov, 101, 111, 127; Vyrubova, 93. “The very personification of court life”: Paleologue, I, 20–1.

11 “Fredericks went to announce the Prince”: Botkin, 41. “Oh, I thought you were somebody else”: ibid., 41.

12 Orlov: Mosolov, 122, 163; ibid., 43–4.

13 “The enchanted little fairyland”: Botkin, 61.

14 “They were not soldiers”: Vyrubova, 9. Jim Hercules: Vorres, 26.

15 Alexandra’s routine: Vyrubova, 56, 84. Shared the same bed: Vorres, 128. The bedroom: Dehn, 66. Chapel and bathroom: ibid., 67.

16 The mauve boudoir: Vyrubova, 54, 70; Dehn, 70; Buxhoeveden, 51–2.

17 Talked in English: Vyrubova, 73.

18 “Sunny”: ibid., 59. The bird call: ibid., 3–4.

19 Alexandra’s gowns: ibid., 55. Her bath: Dehn, 66. Her hair: Vyrubova, 74. “Only rubies today”: ibid., 74.

20 “Do you really like this skirt?”: Dehn, 68.

21 Brissac: Vorres, 93. Lingerie and shoes: Dehn, 68.

22 “Advancing through the masses of greenery”: ibid., 39.