29
(_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,