As they retreated into a bedroom, the immediate problem which confronted the two lawyers was precisely that which had exercised Michael on first learning that he had been named emperor: was Nicholas's abdication manifesto lawful?
Nabokov and Nolde did not need any prompting on that issue: both recognised from the outset that Nicholas's manifesto contained 'an incurable, intrinsic flaw'. Nicholas could not renounce the throne on his son's behalf and as Nabokov would say, 'from the beginning Michael must necessarily have felt this'. Rightly, he judged that 'it significantly weakened the position of the supporters of the monarchy. No doubt it also influenced Michael's reasoning.'
That said, Nabokov and Nolde were left in the same position as everyone else: the political fact was that Alexis had been bypassed and could not be restored in any practical sense. There would be civil war, and the collapse of any responsible government.
When Nabokov and Nolde began their task, handing out drafts of the manifesto to Matveev for perusal and approval by Michael, they began with the same preamble used by Nekrasov: We, by God's mercy, Michael II, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias ... They started off therefore on the premise that Michael was lawful emperor, and that in abdicating he 'commanded' the people to obey the authority of the Provisional Government in which he was vesting his powers until a Constituent Assembly determined the form of government.
This formula gave legitimacy to the new government, which otherwise was simply there by licence of the Soviet. No one had elected the Provisional Government which represented only itself, and in that regard it had arguably less authority than the Soviet which could at least claim to have been endorsed by elected soldier and worker delegates.
Michael could make the new government official and legal, as no one else could, and therefore it was important that his manifesto be issued by him as emperor. If he was not emperor, he had no power to vest, and no authority to 'command' anyone. Of political necessity the new government needed Michael to give up the throne, but first they needed him to take it.
However, it was not going to be that simple. Michael was clear in his own mind about the position in which he had found himself. He had not inherited the throne. Alexis had been unlawfully bypassed and Michael proclaimed emperor without his knowledge or consent. He had not willingly become emperor and Nicholas had no right to pass the throne to him. At the same time, there was nothing that could be done about that. The wrong could not be righted; it was far too late. The only issue therefore was how best to salvage the monarchy from the wreckage Nicholas had left in his wake.
That the government were demanding his abdication in order to appease the Soviet was a serious complication, but even so, he was not going to abdicate. Besides, if he did, who was going to succeed him? The throne 'was never vacant' - the law said that - and it followed therefore that if he abdicated, someone else would immediately become emperor in his place. The next in line, the Grand Duke Kirill?
Nobody that morning seemed to have thought of it, but Nabokov and Nolde understood perfectly his argument. The problem was how to express all of it in a manifesto. Tearing up their first draft, and thereby consigning Nekrasov's manifesto to the dustbin, they started again, with Michael darting in and out of the schoolroom to make sure that their new draft stayed in line with his wishes.
There was not much time, but fortunately they were both very good lawyers, and with Matveev they worked as a team that knew the difference between the small print and the telescope to the blind eye. The result was a manifesto which would make Michael emperor without it saying that he had accepted the throne; that as emperor he would vest all his powers in the new Provisional Government; and with that done he would wait in the wings until a future Constituent Assembly voted, as he hoped, for a constitutional monarchy and elected him. Meanwhile, he would not reign, but neither would he abdicate.
Despite the intense pressure on Michael and the lawyers in Million- naya Street as evening drew in that day, his final manifesto said exactly what he wanted it to say, and it bore no resemblance whatsoever to the manifesto which Nekrasov had drafted that morning and which he had handed over after lunch. It said:
A heavy burden has been thrust upon me by the will of my brother, who has given over to me the Imperial Throne of Russia at a time of unprecedented warfare and popular disturbances.
Inspired like the entire people by the idea that what is most important is the welfare of the country, I have taken a firm decision to assume the Supreme Power only if such be the will of our great people, whose right it is to establish the form of government and the new basic laws of the Russian state by universal suffrage through its representatives in the Constituent Assembly.
Therefore, invoking the blessing of God, I beseech all the citizens of Russia to obey the Provisional Government, which has come into being on the initiative of the Duma and is vested with all the plenitude of power until the Constituent Assembly, to be convoked with the least possible delay by universal suffrage, direct, equal and secret voting, shall express the will of the people by its decision on the form of government.
MICHAEL
By this manifesto Michael made clear that the throne had been 'thrust upon me' not inherited, and that he was passing all his powers to the new Provisional Government until the future status of Russia was decided by a democratically elected Constituent Assembly. He had changed the imperious word 'command' in the first version to 'beseech' and had removed all use of the imperial 'We', as well as the description of him as 'Emperor and Autocrat', but he had signed with the imperial Michael, rather than the grand ducal Michael Alexandrovich.
There was no precedent for a manifesto in these terms, and the Code of Laws, seemingly so essential a few hours earlier, had been closed and put aside as irrelevant to the necessity of the moment. But as Nabokov later commented, 'we were not concerned with the juridical force of the formula but only its moral and political meaning'.
In so saying, the credit for that went to Michael and his refusal to do what he was told by the new government. As for the 'abdication manifesto' itself, curiously, for those who took the trouble to read it carefully, of the 122 Russian words meticulously written by Nabokov 'in his beautiful handwriting' the one word which did not appear, unlike Nicholas's manifesto, was 'abdicate'.
The final manifesto, as Nolde would recall, 'was in essence the only constitution during the period of existence of the Provisional Government'. Nabokov also recognised it as 'the only Act which defined the limits of the Provisional Government's authority'. When the British ambassador later asked Milyukov where the government derived its authority, he replied: 'We have received it, by inheritance, from the Grand Duke.' No, not the grand duke but the emperor, since only an emperor was empowered to act as he did.
Nabokov, as Michael came into the room and took up the pen, thought he was 'under a heavy strain but he retained complete self- composure'. Nolde was also impressed, declaring Michael to have 'acted with irreproachable tact and nobility'. Shulgin thought to himself 'what a good constitutional monarch he would make'. The theatrical outburst, predictably, was left to Kerensky. 'Believe me,' he cried out, 'that we will carry the precious vessel of your authority to the Constituent Assembly without spilling a drop of blood.' In fact, he would spill it all, but that no one could then foresee.