Yours,

Alex.  Syv.”

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(Third letter to M. Goroshkin)

“As I told you in one of my letters, the actions of some people in Tobolsk are more or less significant.

Father A. Vassiliev has become welcome to the Emperor and has all of his confidence.  We tried to warn him of this pope, but I don’t think it worked, for they know that Vassiliev received some very important documents from the Emperor, and also his revolver and sword for safekeeping.

At present there is an organization in Tobolsk helping the family with money and food; the Ordovsky-Tanaevskys, the Prince Khovansky’s family and the Budischevs.  The latter house is on Rojestvensky Street about four blocks from the Mansion.  Bishop Hermogen comes often, as well as Bishop Irinarch and some others.  None are really good.  The Empress is sick—­the same old nervousness.  The Heir is all right, barring a little accident—­he fell down stairs and got a bad bump on his head.  They say that the Bishop received a letter from the Dowager Empress which was brought by a German war prisoner.  Others think that this letter was an act “de provocation” and has been fabricated by the Bolsheviki to circulate a bad story about the Bishop.

They speak a great deal about taking the Emperor from here to European Russia and the whole family is scared.

The situation is very precarious:  there is a decided tendency on the side of the Bolsheviki to take the family away—­some say, to Ekaterinburg, others to Berezov; deputies from Petrograd and Ekaterinburg, arrived in Tobolsk asking the local soviet to give up the family.  The members of the “Detachment of Special Destination” do not allow that, saying that the Family will be given only to the Constituent Assembly and the population is on the side of this detachment.  There may be an outbreak.  In certain houses there are firearms.  The situation would be better if the soldiers from the detachment had been paid; but since last September they have not been, so discontent is growing.  Colonel Kobylinsky’s behavior seems to be strange.

The Ufa movement is gaining in strength.

Yours,

Al.  Syv.”

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(Fourth letter to M. Goroshkin)

“In case you would like to eliminate the work of my companion,—­let me know, and it could be very easily done:  she could be taken out of the house and put on the train going in any direction.  Schmelin would help in this case.  Then I would go away, for instance to Ekaterinburg or Omsk.  I shall wait for your letter in regard to this, and in the meantime I’ll remain just as I am now.  Please do not let me stay in my actual position.  I simply refuse to be aiming at her back with a concealed dagger.  Even as it is, my life is untenable—­the way I live, and the people I have to meet, make it perfectly horrid....”

(end of letter missing)

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