But would Michael agree to be Regent? The plotters took that for granted, though they made no approach to him in advance. Certainly Guchkov seemed entirely confident. After all, he argued, faced with the reality of Nicholas compelled to abdicate, he would have no choice but to accept, willingly or otherwise. ‘The only illegality would be the moral pressure exerted. After that, the law would come into effect.’23
A second and unrelated plot went to the heart of the Stavka itself where General Alekseev, the chief of staff, supported it. One of the principals was Prince Lvov, the popular leader of the civic and volunteer organisations across Russia. Their intention was to arrest Alexandra on one of her regular visits to Stavka, and compel the Tsar to remove her to Livadia; if he refused, as they knew he would, then he would be compelled to abdicate — with the same result as in the Guchkov plot: Michael as Regent.24 This plan had not been developed because Alekseev had been ill for several weeks, but it remained in being.
However, the arrival in the capital in early January of General Aleksandr Krymov, a 46-year-old cavalryman from Brusilov’s army in the south, gave the Guchkov plot the better chance of success. In Krymov they had the military leader they needed. In the wider picture, it also helped that Krymov knew Michael and they respected each other.
At a meeting in Rodzyanko’s apartment, attended by a number of senior Duma representatives, Krymov made clear his intent. ‘The feeling in the army is such that news of a coup d’etat would be welcomed with joy. A revolution is imminent and we at the front feel it is to be so. If you decide on such an extreme step, we will support you. Clearly, there is no other way…the Emperor attaches more weight to his wife’s nefarious influence than to all honest words of warning. There is no time to lose.’25
The meeting lasted far into the night. Although Rodzyanko declined to have any part in it — ‘I have taken the oath of allegiance’ — the others were less squeamish, one quoting Brusilov’s remark that ‘if it comes to a choice between the Tsar and Russia, I will take Russia’.26
The plot, though lacking detail and with more questions than answers, was now a commitment. With the general in their ranks they were confident of recruiting enough officers for the task in prospect.
Michael was not made privy to any of this, for it was well understood that he could never allow himself to have any hand in bringing down his brother. He would become Regent, but that would be the direct result of the Tsar’s abdication, not because of any act on his part. He would take over with clean hands.
That said, they had first to capture and arrest the Tsar, and they were still weeks away from being ready to do that. But ready they would be, they were confident of that, as they were confident that the Tsar, once in their hands, would have no choice but to do as they commanded. Failure was not an option. They would strike in the middle of March.
In the event, that would be too late. What would be known as the February Revolution would render all that planning of no account. The end for Nicholas would be very different to the one which they had designed. Yes, he would sign his abdication as a result, and in a train as it turned out, but Michael would not be Regent, he would be Tsar.
10. ‘MAKE YOURSELF REGENT’
BACK home in Gatchina on Saturday, February 4, Michael telephoned his brother-in-law Sandro in Petrograd. Had there been any sign that Nicholas was ready to make concessions— anything hopeful at all — while he had been away at the front? The answer was depressingly No. Michael arranged to meet Sandro in the capital, and then proposed that the two of them should go together to Tsarskoe Selo in yet another desperate attempt to persuade him to see sense, appoint a responsible government, and take his wife out of politics altogether.1 Sandro agreed, but suggested that he first went there and confronted Alexandra privately. What had to be said to her in front of Nicholas would come better from him alone than with Michael. At least his wife Xenia, as the Tsar’s sister, could not be accused of being in ‘a bad set’.
Arriving in Tsarskoe Selo, Alexandra reluctantly agreed to meet Sandro. Nicholas led him into her mauve bedroom. ‘Alix lay in bed, dressed in a white negligée embroidered with lace…I kissed her hand and her lips just skimmed my cheek, the coldest greeting given me by her since the first day we met in 1893. I took a chair and moved it close to her bed, facing a wall covered with innumerable icons lit by two blue-and-pink church lamps.’
With Nicholas standing silently, puffing away on his cigarettes, Sandro told her bluntly that she had to remove herself from politics. Their exchange became heated, until all pretence at politeness vanished. ‘Remember Alix, I remained silent for thirty months!’ he shouted at her in a wild rage. ‘For thirty months I never said as much as a word to you about the disgraceful goings-on in our government — better to say in your government! I realise that you are willing to perish and that your husband feels the same way, but what about us? Must we all suffer for your blind stubbornness? No, Alix, you have no right to drag your relatives with you into a precipice. You are incredibly selfish!’
Alexandra stared at him coldly. ‘I refuse to continue this dispute’, she replied tersely. ‘You are exaggerating the danger. Some day, when you are less excited, you will admit that I knew better.’
He got up, kissed her, received no kiss in reply, and strode out in anger. He would never see Alexandra again.
Passing through the mauve salon he went straight to the library, ordered a pen and paper and sat down to write a report on his meeting for Michael. As he did so, he looked up and saw the Tsar’s ADC watching him, as if on guard. The aide refused to leave, and ‘in a fury’ Sandro stood up and stormed out of the palace.2
The next day he returned with Michael. Meeting them in his study, Nicholas smoked, listened impassively, but seemed deaf to anything that Michael said as he tried in vain to impress upon his brother that without change he faced disaster. Sandro judged that they were ‘wasting his time and ours’ and when it came his turn to support Michael’s arguments he found by the end that ‘I was hardly able to speak…emotion choking me’.3
With that, Sandro gave up in despair. However, Michael told him he would try yet again, hopeless though it seemed, and on Friday February 10 — six days after coming back from the front — he drove once more to Tsarskoe Selo.4 The meeting in Nicholas’s study was as pointless as the earlier one, though it was interrupted by the arrival of Rodzyanko. Nicholas agreed to see him, and went out into the audience chamber.
Rodzyanko was standing with a report from the Duma which simply underlined the points which Michael and Sandro had been making, but ‘the Emperor listened not only with indifference but with a kind of ill-will’, recounted Rodzyanko. ‘He finally interrupted me with the request that I hurry a bit, as Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich was waiting for him to have a cup of tea.’5