9 May 1917. Maria Feodorovna

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

Maria Feodorovna

Ai-Todor, Crimea, Russian Empire

I was suddenly awoken at 5:30 in the morning by a knock at the door. In the terror of the twilight, I made out a man who loudly declared that he had been sent on behalf of the government to search the house. Despite my firm protestations, they pulled back the canopy, and the lieutenant said that I had to get out of bed.

I sharply expressed my displeasure to them. Though I don’t quite remember what I was saying, I was so beside myself. I only remember how the officer, in a rather offended tone, said: "You offend me," to which I sharply replied: "I don’t insult you, but you insult me."

They opened all my dressers, even those where the jewels were kept. He rummaged through everything. He sat down at my desk, and emptied the drawers, in which I kept a bunch of letters from my beloved Sasha and my sweet angel Georgie as well as the Danish New Testament my dear mom gave me!

I watched what he was doing in the mirror and said that these were letters from 1894 and my New Testament, and I asked them to take them out of the bag in which he threw everything. But he told me that he didn’t throw anything anywhere, but put them in a bag and that was where they’d remain. Thus, my most precious, most holy relics disappeared. It was something truly unimaginable!

Everyone in the Ai-Todor was taken into custody, security was posted everywhere and searches were conducted.

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To the Editor of The New York Times:

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8 May

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Lenin on the Mensheviks

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Map of the Royal dynasties of Europe

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in Petrograd

in Moscow