17 March 1917. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich with Nicholas II

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich with Nicholas II

Mogilev, Russian Empire

Summoned into their presence, I found Maria Fyodorovna weeping uncontrollably in her seat; he, meanwhile, was on his feet, stock-still, gaze fixed on the floor, cigarette (naturally) in hand. We embraced. I didn’t know what service I could render him. His calmness testified to the fact that he was firmly convinced of the rectitude of his decision, although he did reproach his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich for leaving Russia without an Emperor when he refused the throne.

“Misha shouldn’t have done that,” he concluded sententiously. “I wonder who could have possibly given him such an odd piece of advice.”

This remark, coming from a man who’d just surrendered one-sixth of the world’s landmass to a handful of undisciplined soldiers and striking workers, robbed me of the power of speech.

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16 March

“Our great-grandchildren will speak of these days as of the beginning of a new era in the history of humanity”

The Empress learns of her husband’s abdication

Nicholas II’s brother refuses the throne

From one revolution to another

Russia in 1917

Map of the Royal dynasties of Europe

Romanovs dangerous liaisons

-14

in Petrograd

-14

in Moscow