This page will be devoted to the Romanov's and their relatives between march 1917 and 1920. Their writing to one another and also some memories they later published.
'' I was a bitter night. I wore nothing but my nurse's uniform. To avoid all suspicion I had not put on a coat when I left the hospital. My husband covered me with his greatcoat. I had a very small dressing-case in my hands. I remember the moment when, looking upon the small case and my crumpled skirt, I realized that I owned nothing else in the world.''
'' When we left the train I saw a group of unkempt and untidy sailors staring at us.''
'' It was sheer anguish to be aware of their hatred.... Nicky's sailors had been my friends since my childhood. It was a shock to realize that they were now enemies.''
Olga (Nikki's younger sister)
'' A Russian is so uncivilized, so much a savage, that now he can lead only two kinds of life: either under the baton of a strong authority, fearing punishment, or in a complete anarchy under the motto 'Grab everything which does not belong to you.' This behavior is now being demonstrated on the railroads. How do people understand freedo?.... The trains are not running- kill the station manager; the train goes too slowly- unhook the car carrying food.''
Sergei Mikhailovitch
''What an awful, difficult time! We all live by gossip, suggestions, hopes- and memories. ... Actually, nobody knows what he wants and each is scared of what his neighbor wants. Petrograd is experiencing a lull, but the mood is nervous- it smells of blood. The city is unspeakably dirty. Chaotic crowds, disorder, anarchy. In one word- revolution.... The most humanistic soul must now agree that Russia cannot live without a bāton. It needs a policeman and not freedom.... If a new tsar comes, he will be extremely cruel.''
Vladimir Paley, June 21 1917
''Here we were the Romanovs, being saved from our own people by our arch-enemy, the Kaiser! It seemed the ultimate degradation.''
Olga, Nikki's sister in March 1918.
''continued to believe in the impeccability of the World of the Romanoffs, I knew that all our truths were lies and all our wisdom just one colossal conglomerate of vague illusions and stale platitudes.... And there I was, a man of fifty-three, without money, occupation, country, home or even address,''
Sandro, January 1919, about his wife and mother in law.
''I am more than sorry that I might have caused involontary trouble to you, but I hope & trust that my absence will help to calm everyone. Everyone has only been kind to me & I have never even heard an unkind insinuation of any kind. With God's help things will blow over and I will return. I promise faithfully not to go near Buckingham Palace as long as my presence there might be misconstrued.''
Empress Dowager to Queen Mary, 1919.
