‘No, before. February last year, when it first began.’
‘What was it like?’ she repeated. ‘Like it always was. Nobody thought it would be any different from all the other demonstrations there’d been. They were calling it “International Women’s Day” or something. It was a Thursday and all the women came to Petersburg to complain about the shortages. Everybody was depressed because the war had been going so badly. There had been nothing in the shops for days, although all the restaurants were still open of course. If you had money you could get food, but the poor couldn’t buy anything.
‘Was there fighting?’
‘No, that was later. The next day there were more demonstrations only this time the men came too, marching out of the factories. Even then no one thought anything about it because it had happened so often before. The fighting began on the Saturday, I think it was. Some army officers were attacked and the police fired on demonstrators at the Nikolaevsky. Then the cavalry killed some men on Nevsky Prospékt. It didn’t seem to make any difference this time, though. Not like it usually did when that sort of thing happened. The workers weren’t intimidated this time. The next day the police tried blocking the bridges to stop them getting into the city but the crowd just crossed on the ice instead. There was some firing at the Moika Canal, I think. And a lot of people were killed in Znamenskaya Square. But even then no one thought anything would come of it. It all seemed so unreal. It had happened so many times before and nothing had changed… Princess Radziwell threw her party at her palace as usual, just as if nothing was happening at all. Everyone went.’
Paul could imagine who ‘everyone’ was. The elite would have been dancing and banqueting while outside workers went hungry and soldiers died at the front.
‘An army officer escorted me to the party,’ Sofya said. ‘Arkady Vladimirovitch… He was in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Their barracks is near the Tauride. I first met him when I was at the Smolny. At lunchtimes they used to stroll along Suvorovesky to the Smolny to watch us girls come out of the convent. He told me about the people who were killed at Znamenskaya. He was on leave from the front. That was Sunday, the twenty-seventh. I remember because they killed poor Arkady the next day.’
Her voice quivered a little but she went on, as if now she had begun talking she couldn’t stop.
‘The soldiers who had fired on the crowd at Znamenskaya Square mutinied and the men at the Preobrazhensky murdered their colonel. They shot Arkady, too.’ She fell silent for a moment and when she resumed there was no emotion in her voice at all.
‘Papa went to the Admiralty. The minister, P.G. Kurlov, was there, barricaded in with some of the other government ministers. They had some loyal troops with them and artillery. Then the supposedly loyal troops ran away. There wasn’t much shooting but some people were killed. Minister Kurlov and Papa were arrested and taken to the Tauride. That’s where the Petrograd Soviet workers’ and soldiers’ deputies were sitting. They were only held for a day. Rodzianko and Miliukov formed the Provisional Government and they released them. Minister Kurlov told Papa to look after things at the ministry. He left,’ she added bitterly. ‘His Excellency Pavel Grigoriyevitch Kurlov emigrated abroad with all the rest of the rats.’
She fell silent and Paul had to prompt her.
‘What happened after that?’
‘After that? Everything changed after that. It all happened so quickly. The mob took the arsenal and started handing out weapons. The sailors from Kronstadt came over. The soldiers refused to fire on the people. Their officers were either murdered or joined them. Policemen were lynched. All the prisoners in Kresty prison were released. The workers formed militia and you couldn’t go out onto the streets because they were stealing cars and riding round waving red flags and shooting at anyone who moved. I watched from the windows. By the middle of the week they were in complete control. That’s when they started breaking into the shops and looting houses.
‘Everyday Papa said troops would come from the front to restore order but they never did. Then, at the end of the week, it was announced that the tsar had abdicated.’ She sighed. ‘We expected to be killed in our beds, or worse. But oddly, after that first week it quietened down. There was only sporadic trouble. If only Papa had not gone out when he did…’
‘It must have been difficult,’ Paul sympathised.
‘No one did anything,’ Sofya replied angrily.
‘What did Mikhail do?’
‘What does Mikhail ever do? He railed against them and lectured Mama and me, shouted at the servants and made calls on his friends. But he didn’t do anything! Once the streets were safe we hardly saw him.’
Paul was surprised at the way she spoke. When they were children, Mikhail could do no wrong. Paul had the impression now that Mikhail had not behaved quite as well during the Revolution as Sofya might have wished.
‘Then in July the Bolsheviks tried to seize power. But the majority of the soldiers and workers were either Social-Revolutionaries or Mensheviks and they fought them off. There was rioting again and some fighting and that’s when Papa was killed. It was just a stray bullet. So stupid. If he hadn’t gone out…’
She went quiet again. When she went on her voice was little more than a whisper.
‘Mama was heartbroken after Papa died. She moped around but seemed to waste away. Then she got sick. The doctor said it was cholera but I think after Papa died she just gave up. Mikhail was no use. He was involved with some organisation that called itself The League for the Regeneration of Russia. It was Boris Savinkov’s idea. Imagine! Mikhail being involved with Savinkov!’
‘Who’s Savinkov?’
‘He’s a Social-Revolutionary. He was the one who planned the assassination of the tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Sergei. Papa would have turned in his grave!’
‘What was this League?’ Paul asked, wondering if it was the kind of organisation he ought to try and contact.
‘They were anti-Bolshevik. But then so were most people after the July Days. Kerensky was prime minister by then and he made Savinkov his Minister for War. The League used to meet in this house sometimes. I even saw your Admiral Kolchak here.’
‘Kolchak?’
‘Yes. He didn’t approve of Kerensky let alone Savinkov. He resigned as Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet when Kerensky was first made minister for war, which just shows you how two-faced they are since he was plotting with Savinkov, the new minister for war not long after Kerensky became prime minister.’
‘Is this when Kornilov marched on Petersburg?’
‘In September. After Kerensky became prime minister the streets were quieter. The soldiers had gone back to their barracks and everyone was hoping things would get better. Even the restaurants and night-clubs opened just the way they used to. People still had money although they were spending it like they didn’t expect to have it long. The trouble was no one in the government seemed to know what they were doing. The different factions were always arguing. The war was going badly. Some people wanted to send more troops to the front while others, the Bolsheviks, mostly, wanting to sue for peace. Whenever the Provisional Government did suggest something the workers’ and soldiers’ deputies in the Soviet just vetoed it. Nothing ever got done. The Soviet just talked and didn’t do anything either…
‘Eventually,’ she said, ‘we heard that Kornilov was sending troops from the front. And what a fiasco that turned out to be! Kerensky couldn’t make up his mind who to support and in the end sided with the Soviet. The troops were stopped and he had the generals arrested. And lot of good it did him. No one trusted him after that because they thought he’d supported Kornilov then got cold feet when he saw how the workers’ militia reacted. After that everyone seemed to lose hope. People started leaving. I wanted to go as well, at least until things improved, but Mikhail wouldn’t hear of it. He said it was our duty to stay and save Russia. Save it for what? The Bolsheviks?