Emperor Nicholas II’s abdication: “My decision is firm and inflexible”

On March 15 (2), 1917, Emperor Nicholas II signed a manifesto on the abdication of the Russian throne and the supreme power. The collection The Abdication of Nicholas II, included in the collection of the Presidential Library 1917, contains research, archival affairs, newsreel fragments, visual and audio materials which spotlight this event. In addition to rare books, such as, for example, the work of F. Arbatsky The Reign of Nicholas II (1917) and others, here is a photograph The interior view of the train-bedroom car where Nicholas II signed the abdication and other rare evidence of the tragic the consequences of a page in Russian history.

The Presidential Library’s portal contains an electronic copy of the Chamber-and-Fourier Magazine of March 2, 1917, where the writer V. Klyuyev writes in impeccable calligraphic writing about the life of the royal court; on March 2 (old style) in 1917, he equally flawlessly deduced the text of the sovereign's abdication - dignitaries and the generals pushed for the surrender of power against the backdrop of the revolutionary unrest of the tsar.

In the conditions of growing protest moods and military setbacks, the emperor, it would seem, had to make political concessions. But that did not happen. “Tsar Nicholas remembered well and firmly the instructions of his father and the lessons of his educator, Pobedonostsev, an intelligent and restrained ideologist of autocracy”, - notes M. Koltsov. “He understood that the regime can only hold on to the former, the only, tested means: terror, police force, a system of unlimited noble dictatorship, not diluted by any parliamentary lemonades”.

Nicholas directs a punitive expedition led by artillery adjutant general Nikolai Iudovich Ivanov to suppress the rebellious capital. He receives at his disposal two cavalry and infantry regiments, plus a machine-gun command from each front. A whole corps of selected troops... However, according to Koltsov “the whole bet is scared to death by such a turn of the matter. Again they convince the tsar to relent. He is steadfast. He is right in his position! If one wonders in hindsight about what could save the situation for the monarchy, then, of course, it could only be a step taken by the tsar himself: the rout of revolutionary Petrograd”. 

Having given orders, Nicholas sets off on his journey. He wants to return from Mogilev, where Stavka was, to Tsarskoye Selo, to his wife and children. However, it is already impossible go further from Malaya Vishera Station. Tosno and Lyuban are occupied by revolutionary troops. The train returns and arrives in Pskov. The tsar is waiting for news, he hopes for Ivanov’s corps. But on the morning of March 2 (15), General N. V. Ruzsky reported to Nicholas II that the mission had failed. At the same time, the Chairman of the State Duma, M. Rodzianko, said by telegraph that the preservation of the House of Romanov is possible if the throne is transferred to the heir Alexei during the regency of the younger brother of Nicholas II - Mikhail. All the commanders of the fronts answered positively the question of the desirability of the abdication of Nicholas II, with the exception of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral A. V. Kolchak.

There was, however, another admiral for whom the question of honor and oath remained the main one. According to the testimony of General A. I. Spiridovich — it is given in the publication The Fall of the Tsarist Regime (1926) on the Presidential Library portal — General M. V. Alekseev tried to persuade the head of the Naval Staff at the Headquarters of Admiral A. I. Rusin to persuade Nicholas II to abdicate : “In the morning, Admiral Rusin was invited to General Alekseev. Alekseev said that the Tsar was in Pskov, and demands were made of him from Petrograd.

“What do they want? Responsible ministry?” - asked the admiral. "Not. They want more. They demand abdication”, - answered Alekseev. “What an horror, what a misfortune!”, - exclaimed Rusin. Alekseev was quiet and calmly silent. The conversation ended. The interlocutors understood each other. Rusin got up, said goodbye and left the office, without even asking why, in fact, he was invited by Alekseev”.

The generals, led by the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief M. V. Alekseev and the infantry general, member of the Military and State Councils N. V. Ruzsky, played a decisive role in the preparation of the unprecedented act of renunciation. “That evening the Emperor was defeated”, - writes Spiridovich. - Ruzsky broke the sovereign, morally tattered the Sovereign, who did not find serious support in those days. The sovereign surrendered morally. He succumbed to strength, assertiveness, rudeness, which reached one moment before stomping his feet and knocking his hand on the table. The Tsar spoke of this rudeness with bitterness later to his August mother and could not forget her even in Tobolsk”.

The digitized Chamber-and-Fourier Journal of March 2, 1917 says that on March 2, 1917, representatives of the Provisional Government arrived in Pskov — Minister of War A. I. Guchkov and State Duma member V. V. Shulgin; they had a meeting on an imperial train. Nicholas II, going out to the arrivals, said: “I considered all this, decided to abdicate. But I do not deny it in favor of my son, since I must leave Russia, since I am leaving the supreme power. I consider it possible to leave my son, whom I love very much. That is why I decided to pass the throne to my brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich”.

Guchkov and Shulgin asked his Majesty to consider his decision again. The sovereign retired to a neighboring compartment of the car where the conversation took place. After 20 minutes, he came out with the text of the manifesto in his hands and, passing it, said: “My decision is firm and inflexible”.

The text of the abdication is available in the Chamber-and-Fourier Journal of March 2, 1917

The next day, Mikhail Alexandrovich abdicated, passing on the decision on the way in which the country was governed by the Constituent Assembly.

In his diary, which Nicholas kept his whole life, he wrote on March 2, 1917: “The point is that in the name of saving Russia and keeping the army at the front calm, this step must be taken. I agreed. <...> At one o'clock in the morning he left Pskov with a heavy sense of experience. There is treason, cowardice as well deception around".