Myachin/Yakovlev, commissar and former bold Bolshevik fighter, was a dangerous man. His biography included assaults on banks, bombings and the killing of officials. 'A bullet, and noose around my neck, followed at my heels,' he proudly wrote in his memoirs. So when the uprising of the Czechoslovak legion broke out at the end of May, Yakovlev was placed in command of one of the Bolshevik armies in the Ufa and Orenburg regions. But then Commissar Yakovlev abruptly quit the Bolshevik forces and fled to Ufa, which was occupied by the Whites. Here he announced that he had 'abandoned the idea of Bolshevism', and moved over to the side of the Whites. He also appealed to his former colleagues themselves to join the Whites.
There will, further on, be many more sharp turns in the astonishing life of Yakovlev/Myachin. This was a high-risk gambler, playing complicated games throughout his life, pursuing the most unbelievable adventures. So it is perfectly possible that the story heard in Ekaterinburg - that Commissar Yakovlev had absolutely no intention of taking his train to Moscow - was true. In fact, on the whole trip he had been notably kind and respectful towards his prisoners. An interesting passage turns up in the diary of the tsaritsa:
'16 April on the train. The Omsk soviet of deputies is not letting us travel through Omsk because of fears that they want to take us on to Japan.'
Maybe there is truth in this half hint? Maybe it was only to her - the real head of the family - that the secretive commissar hinted at his true aim. If so, this was the first attempt that might have culminated in the liberation of the tsar and the tsaritsa.
So now the tsar, tsaritsa and Maria were held in Ekaterinburg in a house that had previously belonged to a merchant named Ipatiev. Soon the remainder of the family joined them there.
Even in Ekaterinburg the imperial family could have been saved.
In May 1918 the former Nikolaevsky General Staff College had been moved to Ekaterinburg. Up until June 1918 the college numbered 300 students, 14 professors and 22 state tutors. The senior class of the college comprised 216 students. Just 13 of these would subsequently fight on the side of the Bolsheviks. The overwhelming majority of the students considered the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which the Bolsheviks had just agreed with the Germans, as an act of treachery; and the Bolsheviks as German agents.
So the college, along with its students - professional tsarist officers who hated the Bolsheviks - was now situated right alongside the arrested imperial family. This worried the leadership of the Urals Soviet. The head of the Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks, Isai Goloshchekin, informed Moscow that the presence in Ekaterinburg 'of an organised nest of counter-revolutionaries under the name of a college' was entirely unacceptable.
At the end ofMay the situation in Ekaterinburg deteriorated sharply. On 28 May Nicholas wrote in his diary: 'Attitudes to us have changed in recent days. Our jailers are trying not to speak to us, as if they are not quite themselves, and as if they feel some kind of alarm or danger around them. Hard to understand!'
But outside the walls of the Ipatiev house there was no problem understanding. In the middle of May the Czechoslovak legion, formerly prisoners of war of the tsar, had risen up against the Bolsheviks. Cossack units then joined up with the Czechoslovaks. Chelyabinsk fell. The Czechoslovaks and the Cossacks were moving on Ekaterinburg. Kyshtym fell. Zlatoust fell - just 130 versts from Ekaterinburg. On 14june all the Communists and workers from the Sysertovsky, Nizhny Tagilsky and Alapaevsky factories departed for the front.
The college nestling within Ekaterinburg now constituted a real threat to Bolshevik power. By Trotsky's order the college was swiftly transferred to Kazan. But its students declared themselves 'neutral'. Less than half of the complement in fact went to Kazan. So about 200 model professional soldiers remained in Ekaterinburg - a city now gripped by panic.
On 28 May there were street disorders in Ekaterinburg. On the eve of these, Ensign Arbatov, along with his unit, defected to the W hites. The only remaining support for the Bolsheviks left in the city was the Upper Isetsky Workers Detachment under the command of Pyotr Yermakov. Every other workers' detachment was at the front. A huge crowd of citizens shouting anti-Bolshevik slogans gathered on the cathedral square. Yermakov with his detachment, and Commissar Goloshchensky with the Chekists, with difficulty dispersed the mutinous crowd. They simply didn't have enough Red Guards. Meanwhile Red Guards fit for the front were guarding the 'tyrant' and his family. Louder and louder, voices were saying 'take them from their posts'. In other words, finish off the family.
The college was situated not far from the Tikhvinsky monastery at the heart of the city. It was from the Tikhvinsky monastery that milk, cream and eggs were delivered to the imperial family. It would not be difficult for the professional officers to establish links with the detainees. And the Ipatiev house was protected by men who, up until yesterday, had been workers, many of whom had never fired a gun. What about an attack? In the fear, panic and confusion that had seized the town such an attack had every prospect of success.
Meanwhile the Bolsheviks had decided to hasten matters. They already understood what the consequences of the Tsar's liberation could be in current circumstances. Trotsky wrote precisely of this straight after the execution of the imperial family. In his diary he quotes his discussion with Sverdlov - Lenin's right hand man. Trotsky, just back from the front, asks Sverdlov;
Where is the tsar?
He has been shot of course, Sverdlov replies.
And the family?
The family with him.
All of them?
All of them.
And who made the decision?
We decided here. Ilyich reckoned that we should not leave them as a living symbol, especially in our difficult situation.
From the end of May the Bolsheviks were preparing to destroy the 'living symbol'.
Three days after the disturbances in the town Nicholas wrote:
31 May. Today, for some reason they didn't let us out into the garden. Avdeev came and had a long conversation with E. S. [that is, Botkin]. According to him, both he and the Regional Soviet fear the intervention of the anarchists. So we may have to make a rapid departure, probably to Moscow. He asked that preparations be made for departure. Packing quickly began, but, at Avdeev's particular request, quietly so as not to attract the attention of the guard. At about eleven o'clock in the evening he came back and said that we would be staying for a few more days. Finally after dinner Avdeev, slightly tipsy, informed Botkin that the anarchists have been captured, the danger has passed, and our departure had been put off. After all these preparations it has now become very dull.
If only Nicholas, as he listened to the worried locals planning his journey to Moscow, had known what had happened the previous night; what 'journey' had already taken place. But up until his death he knew nothing.
At the beginning of that night, at a house previously belonging to the merchant Korolev in Perm, three unknown men had appeared. They showed a Cheka order and took the tsar's brother, the Grand Duke Michael, and his secretary Johnson away. In the forest attached to Motovilikhi village both were shot. The chairman of the Motovi- likhi Soviet, Myasnikov, the chief of the militia, Ivanchikov, and three subordinates took part in the operation. The Bolsheviks announced that Michael and his valet had been 'seized by persons unknown and carried off in an unknown direction'.
In this way they eliminated the second in line to the throne, an important component of the 'living symbol'. Plainly such a 'journey' had also been prepared for the imperial family. Why had they decided to postpone it? Whereas it had been decided that Michael's disappearance was to be silent, that of Nicholas was to make more noise. The press were to be informed. But before doing this Moscow decided they needed proof that shooting him was unavoidable. They intended to obtain 'proof of a White Guard conspiracy aimed to free the Tsar'. Had there been such a conspiracy it would indeed have necessitated the swiftest possible execution of Nicholas II.