The Crash of Russia

First, the doctor did a pulse diagnosis of the Tsarina. Then he examined the pupils of the eyes, then asked to show the tongue, after which Peter Badmaev said:

- "Here are medicinal Tibetan herbs, they must be brewed in a water bath for 10 minutes so that they boil. And pour 3 tablespoons into a glass of water, and then drink in the morning, afternoon and evening before meals. The herbs are bitter, they can be washed down with water, but cannot be mixed with alcohol. Drink this for 5-6 days and you will feel perfect. Your nerves will calm down and you will sleep well."

- "Thank you," said Alexandra.

- "Come visit us in Tsarskoe Selo, goodbye," said the queen.

- "See you soon," said the king.

- "Farewell," answered Peter and bowed at the same time.

They got into the carriage and went back to Tsarskoe Selo.

All prescribed medicines and drops must be used, but let's go now to the Buddhist temple to Dr. Badmaev, he has such wonderful herbs and Tibetan tinctures. Montenegrin princesses recommend them."

- "Let's go," the empress answered briefly and told the footman to tell the coachman and the guards that we were leaving for the Datsan.

A carriage and a carriage of the accompanying guards with several Cossacks who were to ride on horseback in front of the carriage were immediately brought. And Nikolai and Alexandra immediately went to the Gunzochoinei Datsan. First they rode in a carriage to the Tsarskoye Selo station. Then they transferred to the royal train and went to the Vitebsk station. The accompanying Cossacks and the Preobrazhensky Life Guards also went with the royal couple, leaving the horses, carriage and orderly at the Station Square. The royal train was already being met at the Vitebsk Station. Since the orderly had called the security service in St. Petersburg from the Alexander Palace in advance, they drove the carriage to the station. About 50 minutes later, they arrived at the Datsan as follows: an escort carriage, a royal carriage, and 4 Cossacks on horseback. The royal couple entered the Buddhist temple. On the threshold, they took off their shoes (the king took off his boots, and the queen her shoes), and put on soft woolen slippers. Opposite the altar with a statue of Buddha, Pyotr Alexandrovich Badmaev sat in a half-lotus position, next to him sat his brother Emchi, the Lama, in a lotus position, and they read the mantra of Green Tara. Seeing Nikolai and Alexandra approaching them, the Buryats stood up and bowed.

- “Hello, Your Majesty and Your Highness,” said Peter.

- “Hello and welcome,” said his brother.

- “Hello, gentlemen,” answered the Tsar.

- “Hello,” said the Tsarina. And she continued: “We want you to receive us, I have had a headache for a long time, for a whole week.”

- “Let’s go to the offices on the third floor of the temple. We will receive you there,” answered Badmaev Peter.

First, both brothers did a pulse diagnosis.Peter Badmayev did of the queen, and his brother measured the pulse of the king at the same time, who they also decided to examine. Then they examined the pupils of the eyes, then asked to show the tongue, after which Peter Badmayev said:

- "Here are some medicinal Tibetan herbs, they need to be brewed in a water bath for 10 minutes so that they boil. And pour 3 tablespoons into a glass of water, and then drink in the morning, afternoon and evening before meals. The herbs are bitter, they can be washed down with water, but cannot be mixed with alcohol. Drink this for 5-6 days and you will feel perfect. Your nerves will calm down, and you will sleep well."

- "Thank you," said the king.

- "Come visit us in Tsarskoe Selo, goodbye," said the queen.

- "See you soon," said the king.

- "Farewell," answered Peter and bowed at the same time as his brother.

Nikolai and Alexandra left the office, then went to the altar and stood for a while, looking at the statue of Buddha, and left the datsan.

They got into the carriage and drove back to Tsarskoe Selo.

Chapter 11. Tsarskoe Selo.

A few days after taking everything prescribed by the doctors, Alexandra felt better, and she walked for hours with her maid of honor Anna Vyrubova in the parks of Tsarskoe Selo, accompanied by two Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment who guarded her.

One sunny August day during a walk, the Tsarina said to Anna:

- "Please call the holy fool Matryona Bosonozhka to the palace, we haven't seen her for a long time."

The next day, Matryona Bosonozhka arrived: a village woman came barefoot in a village dress. The Tsarina talked with her on the Cameron Gallery, first they walked through the Hanging Garden opposite the gallery.

- "It's beautiful here," said Matryona.

- "Let's sit on the veranda in the gallery," answered the Tsarina. And they sat down inside in the gallery under glass on portable summer wicker chairs.

-"Tell me, Matryona, will I have an heir?" asked Alexandra.

-"Yes, it will not be soon, but it will be," answered the fortune teller.

At that moment, Nikolai Alexandrovich, who had heard Matryona's answer, approached.

-"And not soon - when?" he asked.

-"Well, maybe in a couple of years. "You need to pray a lot to the Mother of God. I will pray for you and ask for you," answered Bosonogka.

-"We thank you," answered the tsar.

-"Thank God," answered Matryona and stood up.

-"If there are no more questions for me, then may I go?" asked Matryona.

-"Go with God," answered the tsarina. The barefoot woman stood up and left.

The orderly came up and reported that Minister Witte was asking to come in. -Ask him in, - said the Tsar.

Minister Sergei Witte came up. He reported for twenty minutes on how the reforms were going. The Tsar and Tsarina listened. Nicholas smoked four cigarettes during the minister's report, and after listening to the minister, he said: "You are doing everything right, continue in the same spirit." The minister handed the Tsar the documents to sign. The Tsar signed them sitting at a table in the gallery, and Witte left, bowing.

The next morning, the aide-de-camp approached the Tsar and reported that John of Kronstadt had arrived. Nicholas received him at the palace. The following conversation took place. John reported to the Tsar:

- "Count Leo Tolstoy is stirring up the people with his ideas, writing in his works that the Apostle Paul is from Satan, not from God. He writes that a wife should not answer to her husband, as it is said in the Scriptures, but should, like a man, directly answer to God for her deeds. And he also writes that one should not pay taxes to the treasury. What was incorrectly said in the Scriptures, that to God what is God's, and to Caesar what is Caesar's, and what is true is only to God what is God's," said John.

- "And what else can we do with him, we have already excommunicated him from the Orthodox Church in 1901!" the Tsar exclaimed.

- "And it is not enough for him that he was excommunicated for rejecting the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, for not believing in the afterlife, and not honoring the sacraments of the Church, he has also encroached on the treasury," John replied.

- "So be it, but now tell me, why did you not recommend Mitka Kolyaba to us?", - the tsar asked Ivan.

- "He is not from the Holy Spirit, but it is your will with whom to communicate. If there are no more questions, then allow me to take my leave," said Ivan.

- "Go," - answered the tsar, and Ivan stood up.

- "Goodbye," - said the elder.

The tsar called his orderly and asked him to go for Mitka Kolyaba. Mitka was brought in 2 hours later, who arrived with Prince Obolensky, who was visiting him. Kolyaba was disabled from birth, limped, had poor hearing, spoke with difficulty, and was an epileptic.

Prince Obolensky told the tsar that Mitka had predicted the birth of a son for the prince. The son was born, and Mitka stayed with the prince together with his assistant Elpidifor, who interpreted Kolyaba's incomprehensible words.

The tsar received Prince Obolensky, Mitka and Elpidifor together with the tsarina in the Alexander Palace in his study. After the greetings, the tsarina asked Mitya:

- "Will I soon give birth to a son?"

Mitya mumbled something under his breath, and then he had an epileptic seizure. He began to roll on the floor, foam came out of his nose and mouth, to which Obolensky said that this happens to him and he does not need help, and

Elpidifor began to jump around Mitya, who was rolling on the floor, trying to understand what he wanted to say, and, having understood, said:

- "The child will be dead or sick, that is God's will!"

The tsarina turned pale. The tsar crossed himself and stood up, and left. The queen followed him. And they went, without saying goodbye, to pray in the Resurrection Church of the Catherine Palace. They prayed for half an hour, and left the church and the tsar saw: a soldier in an unbuttoned soldier's greatcoat wanted to approach the tsar, but at the entrance to the church the guards grabbed him by the arms and asked him how he dared to go to the tsar.

The tsar approached and asked the soldier who was being held by the arms:

- "Who are you and what did you want?"

- "I am a man of God, a former soldier, Vasily Tkachenko, I am coming to you, the tsar-father, by the will of God to tell you that the prayer has been heard, and the heir will be born in 2 years," the soldier said.

The queen, who approached, almost fainted. The tsar caught her in his arms. She staggered, but came to her senses.

- "This is wonderful! Let the soldier go, let him come to the palace to dine with us, God himself sent you to us!" - the empress said enthusiastically.

The guards let the soldier go, and he went to the Alexander Palace together with the royal couple, adding on the way:

- "I hear the voice of God in my head. The voice said, go to the tsar and tsarina and tell them that a son will be born in two years."

- "You will live at the palace, you will be assigned a room for servants, but first dine with us," the tsarina answered.

And the royal family, including daughters Olga, Tatyana, Maria and little Anastasia (who dined with the governess) dined at the same table with blessed Vasily Tkachenko.

At the end of September 1903, the royal family moved to live in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and Vasily Tkachenko was recalled from the palace by the security service.

Chapter 12. Love Triangle.

In St. Petersburg, in Palkin's restaurant, on one of the rainy days in early October 1903, Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich, dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant of the Guards Horse Artillery Brigade, and prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Matilda Kshesinskaya dined. The dinner was held in the Fireplace Room. On the table was exquisite Russian cuisine: jellied carp, soup with stuffed goose, breaded beef, fried hazel grouse and sturgeon caviar. The drinks on the table were Russian vodka in a decanter and French champagne "Veuve Clicquot".

Matilda said: "Our son is often ill. Two weeks ago, the flu passed, and today he is coughing again. The doctor examined him this morning, perhaps he has a cold again."

- "Does he have a fever?" - Andrei asked Matilda.

- "The temperature is 37 degrees, the doctor prescribed all the mixtures and medicines," Matilda answered.

- "Let's drink to Vova's health!" - said the prince and poured champagne into Matilda's glass, and then vodka into his own. They clinked glasses and drank. Andrei asked Matilda: "Is our son a good wet nurse?"

- "Yes, a village woman, she has a lot of milk!" Matilda answered. At that moment, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich entered the hall, dressed in the uniform of a major general of artillery. Prince Andrei got up from the table and shook hands.

- "Hello! - Hello!" - they said to each other. Matilda, without getting up from the table, said: "Greetings to the one who came in!" - "Will you have a drink with us?" - Andrey asked Sergey.

- "Certainly," Sergey answered.

And they sat in the restaurant for another hour, after which Prince Andrey said: "Allow me to take my leave" and said goodbye.

And Matilda and Prince Sergey dined for another half hour and went home to the prince, where Matilda's son from Andrey, adopted by Prince Sergey, was waiting for them.

Already at home, Prince Sergey said to Matilda at night, when they were in the bedroom:

"Don't have dinner with Andrey anymore and forget about Nikolay, please."

- "As you say," Matilda answered Sergey.

Chapter 13. Rasputin in Kazan.

In 1903, Rasputin, who was wandering on foot throughout Russia, stopping for the night in monasteries and praying there, came to Kazan to visit his acquaintance, the merchant widow Bashmakova. They met in the Sedmiozernaya Bogoroditskaya Hermitage. Bashmakova introduced Rasputin to the abbot of the hermitage, Archimandrite Gavriil Zyryanov. The archimandrite blessed the wanderer and settled him in the monastery hospice, where pilgrims stayed.

One January day in 1904, Grigory prayed for several hours in the church, standing at the Sedmiozernaya Icon. He stood exactly like a taut string, his face turned to ……The icon, then quickly crossed himself and bowed, then fell to his knees and kissed the icon. Having finished the prayer, Grigory crossed himself as he left the church and met with the elder Gabriel.

- "Hello, Grisha!" said the elder. - "Hello, Gabriel!" answered Rasputin.

- "Come in an hour for tea," continued the abbot.

- "I will definitely come," answered Rasputin and, bowing, left.

An hour later, at tea in Gabriel's house, they met at four o'clock in the afternoon at a table set with a samovar with a boot, with bagels, buns, and pies. In addition to them, there were students of the theological academy who had come to Gabriel for a blessing.

After taking a sip of tea from a saucer and eating some sugar cubes, Rasputin said to the elder: - "Bless me for St. Petersburg, I want to collect money there for the construction of a new church in my village of Pokrovskoye."

Elder Gabriel's face changed, he turned pale, his pupils narrowed as soon as he heard this.

Grigory, seeing this, was dumbfounded and said: - "Do you think that I will perish in Petersburg, that I will become corrupt? And what about God?! And God?!"

- "Trust in God, but do not be lazy yourself," the elder said in response to Grigory. The students sitting nearby shook their heads in surprise and one of them said: - "Well, well - he reads minds?!" - they thought.

A few days later, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna came to the Semiozernaya Hermitage, and Gabriel introduced her to the elder, saying that there was a devout wanderer from the Tobolsk province, who had walked to Kazan on foot, who wanted to go to Petersburg and collect money there for the construction of a church in his village.

- "And how did he become a wanderer?" - the Grand Duchess asked Gabriel at another tea party, where they were alone.

- "He was a peasant, then a coachman in his province and gave a lift to Hieromonk Feofan, and Feofan said: "Go and save yourself!" But then Grigory also worked in the field, and he had a vision of the Mother of God, who told him to go to the Athos monastery. After which he left the village and went first to the Verkhnetursky monastery, then to other monasteries across Russia and reached Athos. He went by steamer to Jerusalem to the places of the Lord - that's what he told me."

- "Yes, he is a man of God, we will support him in Petersburg," said the Grand Duchess, after which Gabriel ordered the servant to call Rasputin into the house and he came in half an hour, and the Grand Duchess meanwhile drank tea with Gabriel. Rasputin entered the living room where they were drinking. He was 35 years old at the time. He was a thin, tall man with a long beard and a piercing gaze, dressed in a Russian shirt and boots.

-“Hello, Grigory, we have heard about you and your desire to come to St. Petersburg,” said Elizabeth Feodorovna.

-“Hello, madam,” answered Grigory.

-“This is Her Highness the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna,” said Gabriel.

-“I am glad to meet you, Princess,” answered Grigory.

-“Come to the table, please,” continued Gabriel. Rasputin sat down next to the elder opposite the Grand Duchess. He began to drink tea.

-“When you arrive in St. Petersburg. "Contact me or Feofan," said Elizabeth Feodorovna.

-"Are you talking about the monk who encouraged me to wander?" asked Rasputin.

-"Yes, he is in St. Petersburg with the Emperor."

-"The ways of the Lord are inscrutable," said Grigory. They drank some more tea and went home. The next day, Grigory went to St. Petersburg, having received a blessing from Bishop Chrysanthus Shchetkovsky, vicar of the Kazan diocese. The bishop gave a letter of recommendation for Rasputin to St. Petersburg to Bishop Sergius, rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

Chapter 14. St. Petersburg, Winter Palace.

The royal family spent the winter of 1903-1904, as usual, in the Winter Palace in the capital. One December day, when there was frost and a snowstorm, the tsar woke up at seven in the morning and decided to go out into the yard and chop wood instead of doing his exercises. Alix was still asleep when the tsar got up, put on his uniform and left the bedroom. - "What are your orders, Your Imperial Majesty?" - asked the valet standing at the bedroom door. - "Good morning! Set breakfast in the drawing room at 7:30, and in the meantime I will walk unaccompanied into the yard," said the emperor. - "Yes, Your Imperial Majesty," answered the valet, and the tsar walked along the corridors of the palace, went down the grand staircase. The sentries standing at the top of the stairs saluted, after which the Tsar said: - "Bring me an axe, I want to stretch my muscles in the cold, chop some wood." One of the sentries ran to the utility rooms of the palace and brought both the axe and some logs. And Nikolai stood all this time in front of the door on the first floor of the palace. - "Take all this out into the yard and put it there," the Tsar said to the sentry. The Tsar stood for a while longer, waiting for the sentry who had gone into the yard to return. The sentry returned and said: - "Everything is done. The weather is cold, minus 15 degrees. Would you like to dress warmer, Your Majesty?" The Tsar ordered a fur coat to be brought. The wardrobe master immediately brought it to him. Nikolai threw on a fox fur coat, did not button it up, and went out into the yard. The wardrobe master obligingly opened the doors of the Main Gate for him. The yard was lightly covered with snow, as it had already been cleared at 6 a.m. It was still dark. The logs with an axe lay in the inner yard, in the center of the yard. The Tsar slowly approached, took off his fur coat and threw it next to the logs. Then, despite the blizzard and the cold, he took off his overcoat, shirt and vest, and put it all on the fur coat. Stripped to the waist, he took an axe in his hands and began chopping wood no worse than a simple peasant. With one or two blows, the logs flew into pieces. Meanwhile, a woman from the lower class was walking along the Palace Square and, out of curiosity, looked through the Main Gate from the side of the square into the inner courtyard of the palace. The guards of the Life Guards, standing in front of the entrance to the courtyard, allowed her to approach, but immediately said to her: - “You are not allowed to stand here, if you were not invited, go away from the palace,” said the guard of the Life Guards, guarding the courtyard. - “And the Tsar, as a simple peasant, in the cold, why is he chopping wood?!” she exclaimed. - “Go away then, if you are not invited,” the guard barked and the woman immediately walked away. By this moment, only about 2-3 minutes had passed, all the logs were chopped and the Tsar threw down the axe, got dressed and returned to the palace frozen, hot and contented. He said to the valet: - "Make a fire in the living room fireplace with this wood." And he went to the toilet to wash himself. In the afternoon, already in the capital, at the Hay Market and in the Apraksin Dvor, all the merchants and merchant wives were telling how the tsar himself chopped wood for the fireplace in the cold. - "Well, tsar, what a surprise," - the merchant's wife said to her neighbor, a merchant in the Apraksin Dvor. In mid-December 1903, Vice-Admiral of the Fleet Makarov arrived at the Winter Palace with a report. The following conversation took place between the emperor and the Tsar. - "Stepan Osipovich, hello! What have you come for?" - the tsar began. - "Good day, Your Imperial Majesty! I ask that you allocate more ships to the Pacific Fleet than we currently have. Perhaps Japan will attack us. They have interests in Korea and Port Arthur is also interesting to them, and our squadron is not sufficiently staffed. I propose to recall the ships from the Baltic to Port Arthur,” the vice-admiral replied. “Where did you get this information? And we will throw our hats at Japan, Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve told us, if it tries to attack,” the emperor replied. “I command the ships of the Kronstadt port here on the Baltic, and recently spoke with a friend of mine who returned from Japan, who was there on his trade business and learned that the Japanese want to attack Russia, take Manchuria and land in Korea in the near future, a Japanese general blabbed about this to my merchant friend in a restaurant, so I came to Your Imperial Majesty with a report and ask you to significantly increase the size of the Pacific Fleet,” the vice-admiral reported.

- "Yes, the Japanese will not dare to attack us, I do not believe that they will attack, and if our intelligence does not report new information to us, everything will remain as is for now," the Tsar replied. - "Well, then that's all for me. Allow me to take my leave," Makarov said, took his leave and left. - "Goodbye," Nicholas II told him. On January 23, 1904, the Emperor received a letter from Vice-Admiral Makarov, in which Makarov once again informed the Tsar that a Japanese attack would inevitably occur in the coming days and hours. The Admiral wrote that Russia had weak anti-torpedo defense. The Tsar read this letter and remembered Hamon's prediction that there would be two difficult, bloody wars that would lead to the death of the empire at the end of the second war. Perhaps this first war will now be with the Japanese, but with whom will the second one be: with the English or with the Germans? - the Tsar thought frantically, smoking cigarette after cigarette. Alix came up and asked in English: - "What are you thinking about, Niki?" - "I think there will soon be a war with the Japanese? Makarov, it seems, is right," the Tsar answered. - "But we are a powerful empire, we will defeat them!" - Alix exclaimed." - "Undoubtedly, no matter what the cost," Nikolai answered. In January 1904, the Japanese could at any moment attack Russia in the Far East, enter Manchuria and land in Korea. At the end of January, the Emperor read the plans for conducting a campaign against Japan, drawn up by A. N. Kuropatkin, E. I. Alekseev and the Main Naval Staff. But none of the plans were approved by the Tsar. Kuropatkin, Minister of War, member of the State Council) accused the actual privy councilor Vyacheslav Konstantinovich von Plehve of assisting in unleashing the war, to which he replied: "In order to hold back the revolution, we need a small victorious war. We will not accept Japan's offer to leave Korea, and Manchuria is already ours." The Emperor did not respond to the Emperor of Japan's offer, transmitted through the Japanese ambassador, to renounce Korea, after which on January 24 Japan announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia.