to dismiss Stalin "without violence" in December 1941. None of the plotters expected that with the war going on, the country, exhausted by overwhelming efforts, might fail to stand the race for power. And it never occurred to them that they might be unable to retain that long-awaited power. Most of the Romanovs who simple-heartedly had taken delight of the February overthrow were killed by Bolsheviks, and the rest had a narrow escape from the country in turmoil.
The Russian elite perceived the fever for changes in the ruling circles, and it became the basis for the country destruction plan of the "allies." "Soft" monarchists like Rodzianko, Milyukov, and Guchkov hoped there would be a constitutional monarchy led by Tsarevich Alexei or Grand Prince Michael Alexandrovich, the brother to Nicholas II. The political Lefts, who used Kerensky as a megaphone, wanted a republic. The military men wanted to have a steady hand and to stop treachery from the pro-German party in the Tsar's circle. No one was confused about the absence of real evidence for that treachery – as the Tsarina was German, she was considered to be the culprit behind our defeats. And it was she and Rasputin who were supposed to seek a separate peace agreement with Germany. These were the rumors spread in high society salons, blight barracks, and the Duma corridors.
To turn their plans into reality the plotters initially planned to arrest the Tsar and the Tsarina and make him abdicate in writing. This was the main scenario, approved by the Duma and military plotters. As the "allies" had a bigger plan, their intelligence services decided to correct the plot scenario to make it more natural, to provide a motive and to make the revolt look like popular discontent, not a plot.
Indeed, at that time many people knew about the plot against Nicholas. It was definitely known in London and in Paris. General Mikhail Bonch-Bruevich knew many plotters in person, "The idea that sacrificing the Tsar might save the dynasty called into existence a lot of plotting groups and societies that were considering a palace revolt… Paleologue and George Buchanan, the French and the British ambassadors, were also aware of it."[46]
In May 1916, Europe was attended by the Russian parliamentary delegation led by Milyukov. "Allied" governments had a liking for this "parliamentary social" group. The Russian intelligence reported that during informal meetings of the parliamentarians they often discussed matters that normally lead to execution in wartime. Nicholas II was receiving more and more reports about that, and he was also aware that the Duma opposition members were supported by Britain and France. Anna Vyrubova, the Empress's maid, wrote, "The Tsar told me that he knows from reliable sources that the British Ambassador Sir Buchanan is actively engaged into intrigues against Their Majesties and that he is as near as holding meetings with grand princes in that regard."[47]
Such evidence is in plenty. Major General of the Cortege, Palace Superintendent Voeykov recalled his impressions from meeting the British and the French Ambassadors during the New Year's levee in 1917 in Tsarskoye Selo.
"At the levee Ambassadors Buchanan and Paleologue were inseparable. When they asked me when the war was likely to end, I replied that from my perspective the state of the army had drastically improved and that if nothing happened, we should expect a fast and favorable outcome of the campaign. They didn't answer to that, but exchanged looks that left a bad taste in my mouth."[48]
The "allies" were not just aware of the brewing plot – they orchestrated and coordinated it. To direct the events according to their need, they used the secret agents of the western intelligence services. As if by magic, strikes, meetings, and demonstrations, which no one had organized, started again, and only after that the blinded elite captained the destructive forces. Most of the people who had their hands in destroying Russia sincerely wanted to do their homeland good and were used by the "allies" without seeing their cards. Like Matryoshka dolls stacked one into another, every plotter knew his own accurately proportioned piece of truth regarding the original idea. In fact, the true Master of puppets always keeps a low profile and sends his puppets to act in the spotlight. Such secret agents had back seats for the time being, but after the overthrow they made their leap for power to destroy the very foundation of the Russian state as soon as possible and to throw it into chaos. To destroy Russia, a puppet government had to be placed at the steering wheel, a government obeying the will of somebody else. Later, when all those puppets were in the Provisional Government, they acted weirdly and at first thought incomprehensibly, they literally dug their own graves and drew the Bolshevist revolution nearer. Further acts of the Februarists can't be reasonably explained unless we suppose they obeyed the orders of their masters and worked off the money spent to compile their "perfect biographies."
However, we will come back to the "odd" and "strange" actions of the Provisional Government later. Now let's recall how the February Revolution progressed…
Chapter 2
Driving Forces of the February Revolution: Lies and Delusions
The history will curse the proletarians but it will also curse us, the ones who evoked the storm.
The British and French funds assisted Guchkovs and Milyukovs in overthrowing Nicholas II so that they could be of help in conquering Germany.
February 1917 was the point when interests of the British and the local plotters came together. (Usually all the dates of the February Revolution appear in history books according to the Julian Calendar; let us also follow this rule. However, according to the Gregorian Calendar it would be the March Revolution.)
It was time for immediate action; any delay might result in loosing grip of the situation. Therefore, the tops of the western intelligence agencies gave the green light to their agents. Luckily, right before the coup they got a legal way to be in the center of future events and adjust their plans. Petrograd hosted the regular Inter-Allied Conference. Its official goal was coordination of the tactics of the "allies" in future offensive actions. The non-official one was to complete the last-minute preparations for the coup. The coincidence was certainly of purely accidental nature: earlier all coordination meetings had taken place solely in France. However, on the eve of elimination of the Russian monarchy, financed and encouraged by the allied secret services, the Supreme War Council was for the first time moved to the Russian capital. While the generals and diplomats talked war, plotters checked the coup alert, gave last-minute instructions and money Delegates arrived in the Russian capital on February 3 (16), 1917, and left on February 6 (20). In two and a half weeks, on February 23 (March 8), 1917, Petrograd saw the first riots.
Thoroughly preparing the overthrow of the Russian monarch, the "allies" lavished Nicholas with praises and simply smothered with embraces. Their hypocrisy had no limits. By 1916, Tsar Nicholas II had been honored with the highest awards of France, Britain, Belgium, and Serbia. He was even honored with the rank of Field Marshal of Great Britain, though even the British king was not in this rank.
This book is not particularly about the revolution processes in Russia, so we will only slightly address the chronicles of the February and the October of 1917. Revolutionaries and their actions are mostly interesting to us with regard to their relations with the "allies" from the Triple Entente. I should mention right away, there is no direct evidence that the British and the French financed the February Revolution, just as there is no direct evidence of the plot against the Russian Tsar. There is a great number of hints, references in various books, observations, and logical conclusions. In particular, the logic of events, deeds, and actions confirm that they were the ones who helped to organize and fund the destruction of the Russian state. If we analyze the conduct of the Triple Entente, the conclusion will be forced upon us. The sequence of the world massacre and its outcome (where Russia turned to be among the defeated, though it had been fighting on the winners' side for three years) give direct hints to that. Another evidence that the "allies" had a hand in destroying the Russian
Multatuli P. God Bless My Decision… M.: Forum, 2007. P. 248.
Multatuli P. God Bless My Decision… M.: Forum, 2007. P. 234.
Ib. P. 238.
