The Crash of Russia

The Crash of Russia

The author of the novel: Nikolai Nikolaevich Schluck.

The annotation.

A historical novel, fiction about how and for what reasons Tsarist Russia collapsed in 1917. It is dedicated to the entire Romanov family and the arrival of the White Tsar in the 21-st century.

The Crash of Russia is an action—packed historical fiction novel that describes in detail the reign of the last Emperor Nicholas II and all the main reasons that led the prosperous empire to collapse in 1917. The novel reads easily and in one go. All the scenes described in the novel took place and somehow led to the collapse of the Romanov dynasty. In particular, it describes the true role of Grigory Rasputin and his relationship with the Royal Family, and reveals all the details of the elder's murder. It also describes the 1905 revolution, the February and October revolutions, the time of the Provisional Government, in detail the murder of members of the Royal Family, as well as those forces who sponsored and ordered the 3 revolutions and the murder of the Royal Family. It describes how Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin came to power. As well as the murder of Yesenin and others. The prophecies of monk Abel, Seraphim of Sarov, about the end of the dynasty in 1917, the assassination of the tsar in 1918, the war in 1941, and the arrival of White Tsar in the 21st century in Russia are cited

Chapter 1. Coronation and Celebrations.

On a warm May day, May 14, 1896, the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich and his wife Empress Alexandra Fedorovna took place in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. During the ceremony, the diamond chain supporting the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called suddenly broke and fell to the floor, which the king’s relatives understood as a bad omen, meaning that the dynasty would end. Nicholas Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna arrived by train from St. Petersburg the day before, May 6, the birthday of Nicholas II. The ceremony was led by Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and member of the Holy Synod Palladius. At the end of the liturgy, the emperor and empress were anointed as kings and received Holy Communion at the altar. The saint and member of the Holy Synod, John of Kronstadt, took part in the service of the liturgy, among others. French journalist Camille Cerf made a documentary film. Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, on May 14, a liturgy was held in all Orthodox churches and a prayer of thanks was served. In Moscow, the royal couple settled in the Petrovsky Palace, and celebrated their birthday there, and on May 7, the emperor received the Emir of Bukhara, Muhammad Alim Khan, and his heir, as well as the Khan of Khiva, Muhammad Rahim Khan II. On May 8, Nicholas Alexandrovich’s mother, Maria Fedorovna, arrived and that same evening, outside the palace, a choir of 1,200 people performed a serenade for the imperial couple. On May 9, the ceremonial entry into Moscow took place. First there was a police escort with a platoon of gendarmes, then an imperial convoy, then a string of crews of high-ranking officials, followed by horse guards, a personal imperial convoy, a hundred Life Cossacks, His Majesty's regiment, and so on. According to established tradition, a few days after the coronation, folk festivals and a fair on Khodynka Field were scheduled with the distribution of numerous gifts and attractions. The people's memory preserves the wonderful festivities in honor of the coronation of Alexander III and Alexander II.

People began to gather on the evening of May 17, although the festivities were scheduled for 10 am on May 18. The Emperor promised royal gifts for all who came in the form of a package with sausage, cod, large gingerbread, raisins, prunes, candies, nuts and a commemorative coronation mug with the coat of arms and initials N.A. Free distribution of vodka, mead and beer was promised. In Moscow, someone spread a rumor that merchants could distribute gifts among their own, and people who wanted to receive a personalized mug first (which was not present during the festivities in honor of Alexander III earlier), gathered in crowds in advance, since people wanted to be the first to receive it in the morning mug and gifts. Many lay directly on the ground and lit fires.

Several thousand people gathered on Khodynka Field, twice as many as there were during the festivities in honor of the coronation of Alexander III earlier. And already at night, the artel workers began to give out bundles of gifts to their friends. People noticed this and began to threaten the artel workers. The people did not want to wait for the morning and climbed into the windows of the tents, and the artel workers began to give gifts to everyone, then the crowd jumped up at six in the morning after shouting “give away,” all as one, and rushed forward with such swiftness, as if an earthquake had occurred. The back rows pressed on those in front who fell were trampled, they fell to the ground, they ran over the people lying on the field as if over stones. The disaster lasted 15 minutes. Benches, wooden tents, stalls, stages and booths were built along the perimeter of the field. On the left side of the St. Petersburg highway, at a right angle to it, the Khodynka Field was crossed by a deep ravine 60 meters wide. The tents where people rushed to get gifts stood on the edge of the ravine, 15 meters from the ravine. When everyone ran for food, the tents began to overturn, people crushed each other to death, following the wild feeling of the brutal crowd, people, being under the pressure of those running from behind, began to push each other into the ravine. A mountain of corpses formed at the bottom of the ravine. Crushed bodies lay in the first layer, a second layer on top, then dead bodies stood on top, crushed so that they did not have time to fall. But from above came a fourth row of half-dead and half-dead ones, and on the field someone was swearing with choice obscenities, a dying woman was reading the Lord’s Prayer aloud, being pressed into the top row, which rose above the ravine.

At the same time, in the center of the Khodynka Field, many people fell into an old, lightly filled-up well, which was covered with boards sprinkled with earth on top. There were 1,800 police nearby who were unable to control the crowd. The crowd knocked them off their feet and rushed forward, overturning the tents. The merchants in them began to throw bags of gifts at the people running in order to somehow fight off the impending avalanche. Among this entire crowd was a journalist from the newspaper "Russkie Vedomosti" Vladimir Gilyarovsky, who came to the field in the evening, and when everyone ran, the crowd of him she picked it up and carried it along with her. The journalist arrived at this field to report for the newspaper. As a result, miraculously surviving, he was crushed by the crowd when the crowd first pulled him forward to the artel workers’ booths, but after that the people ran back, as Cossacks galloped on horses and began to disperse the people. When the Sun rose, crows flew to the fresh corpses, of which there were more than a thousand, the wounded were moaning nearby, some women were scalped without hair, because during the stampede they had been pulled by their braids. Nearby, people broke barrels of beer and honey and greedily scooped from there and drank from their palms. Gilyarovsky fell on a stone near the ravine, many corpses lay on the ground nearby, and at that moment it was all over. It was stuffy and thirsty.

The journalist picked the herbs and began to chew them – it quenched his thirst. Gilyarovsky took a snuff box from his back pocket, took a sniff of tobacco, and his strength returned. He got up, left the crowd and found a cab near the field and drove to his home on Stoleshnikov Lane, buying three oranges on the way. He crushed one of them and wiped his face with it to freshen up. At home, the journalist took a bath, slept, put on a tailcoat and went to the newspaper office, but he saw many trucks and carts transporting corpses from Khodynka, realized the scale of the tragedy, went to inspect Khodynka again, and saw that the ditch was the epicenter of the tragedy, it was all clogged with pipes , which after so many hours were still being taken out.

The Emperor was not immediately informed about what had happened, but only at 10:30 in the morning before Vannovsky’s report, but he decided not to cancel the planned celebrations. At the same time, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was governor general of Moscow, learned about the tragedy. Sergei Alexandrovich told the emperor that, despite what had happened, he had to go to all the planned celebrations, including the ball at the French ambassador Montebello, to which the emperor at first wanted to object, being in a dejected state with a pale face, but the prince told the king: ¨That's it what happened pleased God, the people were sacrificed for the sake of the new emperor, and by a natural coincidence, it means it pleased the Lord¨. To this Nicholas Alexandrovich replied “that everything is God’s will, but it is necessary to compensate the families of the victims from personal funds, bury the dead, conduct an investigation, find out if there is any malicious intent or mistakes on the part of the police and organizers, and someone will be needed remove from their positions, but the main thing is not to offend foreign guests who came from abroad, to carry out everything according to the planned ritual and accepted ceremonies.” During this conversation (of the emperor and his uncle, Prince Sergei Alexandrovich), a messenger arrived from the French ambassador with a proposal to cancel the ball, scheduled for 2 o'clock in the afternoon, or postpone it to another day, due to the tragedy that had occurred. To this proposal, Nicholas II replied: “Tell the ambassador that we will attend the ball, let everything go according to plan.” Count Palen, marshal of the sacred coronation ceremony, also came to the reception to the tsar, who also wanted to dissuade the emperor from attending the ball and dinner with the French ambassador, to which the emperor replied, “that the French were carefully preparing for the ball, and it would be indecent for us not to come to the ball.” After which the emperor went, as if nothing had happened, to have breakfast with the empress.

After breakfast, at about one o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna went to Khodynka. Fun began on the field upon their arrival. The field was huge – on one side there was fun, and on the other side, at the same time, corpses were being removed.

A huge crowd surrounded the stage, on which the musicians played “Glory” all the time. The tsar did not pay attention to the fact that under many of the stages lay corpses covered with a tarpaulin, legs were sticking out from under the tarpaulin, and musicians stood on top of the stage (the corpses did not have time to be brought out before the arrival of the royal couple). Nicholas II, with a pale face, looked at the musicians with a glassy gaze, and, turning his gaze to the Empress, told her: “Everything is like in the Englishman’s horoscope – I live in the center of tragedies and disasters, without the ability to prevent them, I can’t look at it,” he turned around and ordered the carriage to arrive. The royal couple went to a ball with the French ambassador.

At the ball, the king danced with the wife of the French ambassador Montebello, and the ambassador danced with the empress. After the ball everyone went to dinner. The ambassador expressed deep condolences to the tsar in connection with the consequences of the stampede on the Khodynka field. To which the king replied to the ambassador: “Prince Edward of Wales sent me a letter from London with my horoscope, compiled by the English astrologer Louis Hamon, which says that we have the evil fate of often being in the center of bloody events without the ability to prevent them, and now I see that it's starting to come true. The blind Japanese seer Terakuto told us the same thing.” Gustave Louis Lannes de Montebello responded to Nicholas II: “I recommend that you, Your Highness, meet with Messrs. Nizier and Papus from the Martinist lodge, they can give you spiritual protection and help you avoid further disasters.” “Thank you, we need to invite them to Russia,” the tsar answered briefly.

The next day, the royal couple went with Maria Fedorovna (the emperor's mother) to visit the wounded in hospitals and clinics. We drove all day. All the wounded were consoled. In one hospital, the following incident occurred: a seriously wounded peasant was lying on a bed, with broken arms and right leg, who said to Maria Fedorovna: “I humbly ask you to forgive me that this happened to me, I didn’t want to upset the holiday of the imperial couple and you with my fractures, it’s my fault – With". In response, Maria Fedorovna only sighed heavily.

In the evening of the same day, after visiting hospitals, the imperial couple returned to the Kremlin Palace, where they had moved from the Petrovsky Palace, where they lived before the coronation in Moscow. The tsar retired to his office, sat down in a chair, took out a box with a cigarette case with Turkish cigarettes and nervously smoked cigarettes one after another, re-reading his horoscope and the cover letter from the Prince of Wales many times. The horoscope spoke about the evil fate that haunts the emperor, about the so-called mystical large square, inside of which there is a large cross – a symbol that the emperor will have a tragic fate and little can be changed; rather, one can accept such a fate, only trying to reduce the force of the blows of fate.

The Prince of Wales asked Louis Hamon, better known under the pseudonym Cairo, to make this horoscope without saying the name of the person for whom he ordered the horoscope, so in the natal chart of Nikolai Alexandrovich the astrologer wrote this: “Whoever this person is, his date of birth shows that during his life he would often have to deal with the horrors of war and bloodshed; that he would do everything in his power to prevent it, but that his destiny was so deeply connected with such things that his name would be linked with the bloodiest and most accursed wars that were ever known, and that, in the end, he will lose everything he loved most." And in the accompanying letter written by the prince, it was said in particular that his other court adviser and numerologist-kabbalist propose to make the coronation of the emperor on May 14, 1896 and mass holiday celebrations for the people in honor of the coronation on May 16, 1896, since these days are special divine kabbalistic dates. The tsar thought that the tragedy that had happened was pleasing to God and Providence, that he himself had given instructions, according to a letter from Prince Edward of Wales, to hold festive festivities on May 16… And he thought about how he now needed to compensate the wounded and the families of the dead with money. And the tsar did not have a single thought about punishing grand duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who was the governor-general of Moscow and was responsible for organizing the celebrations, since the authority of a relative was unshakable for Nicholas II. Meanwhile, people nicknamed the hated governor-general Prince Khodynsky. And that same evening, the tsar wrote a letter to Paris to the martinist, about whom the ambassador had spoken the day before, Mr. Nizier Anthelme Philippe, with an invitation to come to Russia with Mr. Papus (Gerard Anaclet Vincent Encausse).

The next day, the tsar ordered the police to begin an investigation into the causes of the stampede on Khodynka Field, which caused the death of 1,389 people and injured more than 1,500 people, and also ordered the dead to be buried after the funeral service, compensation to be given to their relatives, benefits to the wounded and disabled, and lifelong benefits for many. pensions. The newspapers published lists of those who were entitled to financial assistance. The full benefit was 1,000 rubles, and the partial benefits amounted to 750, 700, 500, 350 and 250 rubles. In addition, annual pensions of 24, 40 and 60 rubles were assigned, as well as annual benefits “issued in return for funeral expenses.” The tsar paid for all this from his own funds and spent a total of 80,000 rubles, and also sent 1,000 bottles of Madeira on his behalf to hospitals for the wounded.

On May 17, 1896, at the Imperial Bolshoi Theater there was the ballet Pearl by Ricardo Drigo, which was watched by the Emperor, Empress Maria Fedorovna, dignitaries, guests and residents of Moscow. The script initially did not have a role for Nicholas II's favorite ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya from the Mariinsky Theater, since she was considered persona non grata, and all roles were distributed among the ballerinas of Moscow theaters. The director of the imperial theaters was aware of the love relationship between Nikolai Alexandrovich and Matilda Kshesinskaya, so in order not to upset Alexandra Fedorovna, he first did not allow the prima ballerina Kshesinskaya to perform in the play. Having learned about this, Matilda complained to the Tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, and the Prince reported Matilda’s desire to perform in the Zhemchuzhina ballet to Nicholas II. When Nikolai Alexandrovich arrived in Moscow, he managed to meet with the director of the imperial theaters, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, and said that Matilda should be given a role. Therefore, at the last moment, a new role was added to Matilda – a role that did not exist before, the role of the yellow Pearl. As Matilda herself wrote in her diary: “I was happy because I knew that Nicky had done this for me personally. At the performance, the emperor sits in the royal box, with the emperor’s mother nearby. Alexandra Feodorovna enjoys watching the first 15 minutes of the ballet. And suddenly, unexpectedly for her, they see the hated ballerina Matilda appear on stage. Alexandra Feodorovna shuddered and turned her gaze to Nikolai. Nikolai Alexandrovich took his eyes off the ballerina, blushed and looked into his wife’s eyes, after which he lowered his gaze to the floor for a moment, and then began to watch the ballerina’s performance again. The Empress bit her lip and also began to watch the performance of the brilliant ballerina. During the intermission, Maria Fedorovna told her son, taking him aside, that she should not have been allowed here. Not only Alix is here, but also all the relatives, foreign princes, princesses, nobles, now there will be conversations. To which Nikolai did not answer anything and simply shrugged, turned around and went to the buffet to take Alix’s arm. In the evening, all of Moscow was talking about how brilliantly Kshesinskaya danced and how the tsar could approve it. She also spoke about the numerous victims of the Khodynka tragedy; they recalled that this did not happen under Alexander III; only 32 people died in the stampede. They talked about the poor organization of the festivities on Khodynka of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, that he did not take into account how many people could come for gifts and they dubbed him Prince Khodynsky. They remembered his passion for the hussars of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, and in connection with this they told him a vulgar joke. “Moscow has stood on seven hills until now, but now it must stand on one hillock” (in French, “hillock” is a gay man). This anecdote was told to Vladimir Gilyarovsky by Count Vladimir Lamsdorf (and wrote it down in his diary), and Vladimir Gilyarovsky retold the anecdote to the editor of the newspaper “Russkie Vedomosti” about the prince, also saying that “this “bugre” is unlikely to answer to the people for the poor organization of events, for example, because there were few exits from the field, and when people wanted to leave the field during a crush, there were not enough exits and people fell, being knocked down by the crowd.” On the morning of May 19, an issue of Petersburg Gazette was published with a detailed description of the tragedy. Around 12 noon, police began traveling around Moscow to confiscate newspapers from sale so as not to make public the details of the bloody events, but it was too late, half of the circulation had already been bought by Muscovites and all of Moscow was talking about it. Metropolitan Sergius (before taking the rank – Nikolai Lyapidevsky) called the events on Khodynka “a great sin” and he held funeral services for the victims, after which he decided to talk about it with the tsar.

After the ballet, the imperial couple left for the Kremlin Palace, where they lived in their own half in the personal apartments of the royal family. They dined in silence, as Alix was still angry with Nicky over Matilda's participation in the ballet. They ate dinner in the family refectory. Pies, pasties with lamb, Finnish trout, veal, cold beef aspic, roast chicken, artichokes, a hot dish of rabbit legs in Madeira sauce, sweets, ice cream, strawberries, and a creamy strawberry dessert were served on the table. Alix didn’t touch the pasties, which Nicky ate with pleasure, or the veal, or the roast chicken, but she happily ate everything else. Then they served Madeira Sercial and Madeira Terrantesh, as well as red port Livadia. Their Highnesses drank a glass of each wine, but the Empress refused Livadia and asked to bring her the Massandra wine “Lacrima Christi” (translated from German as “Tears of Christ”) and drank two glasses of wine. After dinner, Alix went to take a bath, and Nikolai continued to smoke cigarettes with turkish tobacco for a long time. At about eleven at night he also took a bath, and at half past twelve at night he entered the queen’s bedroom, where they passionately made peace.

On May 26, in Moscow, the tsar made a quick visit to the Armory Chamber. In the lower halls of the Armory, the Japanese Prince Fushimi presented Nicholas 2 on behalf of the Satsuma Emperor

Chapter 2. Saint Petersburg.

The next day after breakfast, the king was sitting in his office with Alix. Nikolai smoked a cigarette with Egyptian tobacco through his mouthpiece and talked with his wife. He said in English:

– “My beloved Alix, I often have bad dreams about our future, and I often wake up from this and remember the words of the Japanese seer who told us in Japan that we will all die a violent death and our fate is sealed. And the same thing in the horoscope "The astrologer Hamon, predicted for us. We will go to London and talk with him incognito, let him explain how to avoid all this."

“But he didn’t know for whom he wrote this horoscope,” answered the queen. Our relative only told him the date and time of birth, without telling him your name,” Alix continued. Nicky took another drag, and, blowing out smoke, continued: Montebello recommends that we contact the members of the secret society of the Cohens of Martinez de Pasqually – Messrs. Philippe Nizier and Papus He knows them personally and they are magicians and occultists. We will invite them to Russia.

“Yes, perhaps we’ll do that,” answered Niki Alix. And the queen handed Nicholas a sheet of paper and moved the inkwell and pen towards him.

They were sitting at the table. The tsar pulled out the rest of the cigarette from his cigarette holder,

I shook the ashes into the ashtray and put out the cigarette butt. Then he took a piece of paper and began to fluently write a letter in French. The letter began with the following words: “We, the Tsar and Autocrat of Russia, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov – Holstein – Gottorp, having heard a lot about your order from Ambassador Montebello, we invite you, Mr. Nizier Anthelme-Philippe and your friend Mr. Papus, to advise you to come to us in St. Petersburg and advise us about our destiny." A month later, the king received an answer to his letter from Mr. Nizier. The letter said that this year, unfortunately, it is not possible to come to Russia, but in the future both Nizier Anthelme Philippe and Mr. Papus definitely want to come. At this time, the imperial couple lived in the Alexander Palace in the suburbs of St. Petersburg in Tsarskoe Selo.

On one summer day in 1896, Count Minister of Finance Sergei Yulievich Witte came to receive the emperor. The tsar received him in the Alexander Palace after breakfast. At this time, Alexandra Fedorovna went out for a walk, accompanied by her maid of honor, to the park, to walk along the Lama Ponds, and the tsar was sitting in his office and, as usual, smoking cigarettes. Sergey Yulievich came into office to the tsar after the chamberlain’s report that the Minister of Finance, Mr. Witte, had come to the reception.