Pierre Gilliard's book “Emperor Nicholas II and His Family” is one of those that, in my opinion, every true admirer of the memory of the royal martyrs should definitely read. If only because Gilliard is one of the most knowledgeable witnesses of the era, and a very unique witness.
Pierre Gilliard
Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss by birth, was a French teacher for the daughters of Emperor Nicholas II from 1905, and in 1913 he was appointed tutor to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. For many years from 1905 to 1917, Gilliard had the opportunity to observe the life of the royal family from the inside, communicated closely with the sovereign and empress, and was one of their confidants. His book describes many scenes of amazing frankness with which Nikolai Alexandrovich behaved with him, a foreign subject, of whose loyalty the emperor was confident.
Gilliard is a typical Westerner, but at the same time, surprisingly, he is not a Russophobe. Not Russian and not Orthodox, during his stay in Russia he managed to sincerely fall in love with our country and just as sincerely tries to understand it, although he, as a non-Orthodox, does not always succeed. His thoughts about Russia to us, Russians, sometimes seem far-fetched, and sometimes simply comical, however, they reveal an unfeigned desire to understand and justify, and not condemn and stigmatize, which is so typical of Western publicists writing about Russia.
It is also worth paying attention to the fact that Gilliard is not a monarchist by conviction. He considers the Orthodox monarchy to be an “anachronism”, and the burden lying on the shoulders of the autocratic tsar as “unbearable for a person.” “The monarch,” he writes, “is the person least prepared for the task ahead of him, and it is subsequently impossible for him to fill this gap. The more he wants to rule himself, the less aware he is of what is happening. In order to alienate him from the people, he is given only distorted, manipulated and manipulated information. No matter how much willpower, no matter how much perseverance he shows to find out the truth, does he ever succeed? And with such convictions, which were radically dissonant with his own, Nikolai Alexandrovich decided to entrust the education of his own children and the upbringing of the heir to the crown prince to Gilliard. Why? Because this foreigner and heterodox bribed him with his impeccable honesty and deep morality, in comparison with which his personal political convictions no longer played any role. So the fate of Gilliard is a clear illustration of what guided the last Russian autocrat in matters of personnel policy.
Pierre Gilliard and Tsarevich Alexei on the yacht "Standard".
Gilliard's view of the 1917 revolution is interesting. He consistently and quite convincingly defends the idea that the revolutionary events were provoked by German propaganda, the victims of which were the educated classes of Russian society, who failed to rally around the Throne at a critical moment for the country in the name of victory. Moreover, Gilliard cites specific facts known to him of provocations staged by German agents and aimed at discrediting the royal martyrs. After his repatriation, Gilliard studied extensively the memoirs of military leaders of the First World War on both sides of the front. He also actively communicated with diplomats and politicians who determined the “agenda” in the pre-revolutionary years and directly in 1917. In particular, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Imperial (and then White) Russia Sergei Sazonov and the French Ambassador to Russia Maurice Paleologue. Therefore, his conclusions are not only interesting, but also not unreasonable.
But what makes Gilliard’s book interesting is not the author’s political reflections (which sometimes seem the height of naivety, and sometimes begin to simply contradict what Gilliard himself wrote a couple of pages earlier) - although in these reflections one can feel an attempt to rewind history, to comprehend the tragedy that happened to Russia and with the royal family, to find that fateful moment when the opportunity to avoid disaster was missed. The book is interesting because it brings to us a living image of the royal passion-bearers, created with great love by a person who knew them closely. He conveys his own thoughts and feelings of the sovereign, the empress and their children. At the same time, Gilliard, as a witness of the era, can be trusted: he proved his personal deep devotion to the sovereign by voluntarily agreeing to share with the royal family its imprisonment in Tsarskoe Selo and Tobolsk. Speaking about the royal martyrs and the motives of their actions, Gilliard seems to be trying to withdraw himself, not to comment; his memories at these moments take on the character of a kind of verbal photographic portrait. Gilliard is well aware of many facts that were a sealed secret for his contemporaries - for he had the opportunity to ask the emperor personally about them. Fans of pseudo-pious myths about the royal family may be disappointed by the book - for some of these myths it leaves no stone unturned, but it is difficult to simply brush aside the testimony of such an eyewitness as the mentor of Tsarevich Alexei. Moreover, Gilliard’s motive is simple and noble - he seeks to clear the names of the royal passion-bearers from the propaganda lies abundantly piled up around them by revolutionary and liberal propaganda. The book pays a lot of attention to various provocations undertaken by the German intelligence services during the First World War in order to discredit Nicholas II and his wife, which resulted in mass discontent and, as a result, the February revolution.
Pierre Gilliard with Tsarevich Alexei at Headquarters during the First World War.
Lessons were held in the office of Emperor Nicholas II
So everyone who is interested in the era of the last reign, and especially all sincere admirers of Emperor Nicholas II, should have a book by Pierre Gilliard in their home library. Without it, ideas about Nicholas II and his family are unlikely to be completely adequate.
In 2017-18, Russia celebrates the centenary of events associated with the Great October Socialist Revolution (already a half-forgotten name) and the Civil War.One of the most terrible dates in our history is the execution of the royal family on the night of July 16-17, 1918.
Tsar Nicholas II can be treated differently, but the justification for the terrible murder of his children was subsequently echoed by terrible repressions and murders of hundreds of thousands and millions of innocent victims of the Stalinist Gulag.
Despite all the controversy and ambiguity of the personality of the last Russian Tsar, even his most sworn enemies cannot deny that he and his wife raised four daughters and a son
in rigor and love, instilling in them such qualities as hard work, diligence in study, emotional responsiveness, kindness and respect and compassion for ordinary people. This took a lot of effort from the parents. It was especially difficult for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who was stricken with a serious illness.
Her close friend, the Tsarevich's mentor, the Swiss Pierre Gilliard, provided invaluable assistance to the Imperial Family. Thanks to Pierre Gilliard, there are many photographs of the home life of the family of the Russian emperor.
Pierre Gilliard
Gilliard turned out to be a talented photographer. In his photographs you can see the king playing with his son or sawing wood, the king’s daughters working in the garden. In these sincere photographs of a person very close to the imperial house, moments of happiness coexist with moments of suffering, recalling the terrible fate of the royal family. And most importantly, he was able, through the British Consul and French General Maurice Janet Gilliard, to secretly transport his photo archive to France and then to Switzerland, thereby preserving them.
Peter Andreevich, as the teachers at court were called, or in the family - an affectionate diminutive - Zhilaryk was born in 1879 in the town of Fiez, thirty-five kilometers above Lausanne - the fourth largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the French-speaking canton of Vaud.
Pierre Gilliard studied at the University of Lausanne, which was then located in the Palace of Gabriel Rumin on Place Riponne.
Former building of the University of Lausanne
Currently, the Pierre Gilliard Foundation has been created at the library of the Cantonal University (BCU) of Lausanne.
In the fall of 1904, Pierre Gillard accepted the invitation of Duke Sergius of Leuchtenberg, who was Emperor Nicholas II's uncle, to teach his son French in Russia. The royal family met Pierre Gilliard in Peterhof.
The young French teacher proved himself very well - he was an honest and charming young man, and at the same time an excellent teacher. About a year after accepting the post of Duke Sergius (in 1905), Pierre Gilliard received what seemed then a brilliant offer - the two eldest daughters of the Sovereign needed a French teacher.
Royal Palace in Crimea. The royal family lived in Livadia much more freely than in Tsarskoe Selo or Peterhof, this, to a large extent, explains the love of all its members for Livadia.
Pierre Gilliard with his students, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana in Livadia, 1911
The first lesson, forever preserved in Gilliard’s memory, took place at the Alexandria dacha. To the surprise and great embarrassment of the teacher, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself was present at this lesson. Then she attended classes more than once. Subsequently, Gilliard noted a small but important detail for him - when the Tsarina was present at her daughters’ lessons, he never had to wait for the students to lay out notebooks and writing materials on the table. And then, in the absence of their mother, the Princesses did not allow themselves to be lazy.
Quite quickly, Gilliard became friends with his eldest student, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, who became his favorite.
Olga Nikolaevna
“The eldest of the Grand Duchesses, Olga, a girl of ten years old, very blond, with eyes full of sly sparkle, with a slightly raised nose, looked at me with an expression in which there seemed to be a desire from the first minute to find a weak spot - but from this the child was inspired by purity and truthfulness, which immediately attracted sympathy for him."
“The eldest, Olga Nikolaevna, had a very lively mind. She had a lot of prudence and at the same time spontaneity. She was very independent in character and had a quick and funny resourcefulness in her answers...
I remember, by the way, how in one of our first grammar lessons, when I was explaining to her the conjugations and use of auxiliary verbs, she suddenly interrupted me with an exclamation: “Oh, I understand, auxiliary verbs are the servants of verbs; only one unfortunate verb “to have” “I must serve myself!”... At first it was not so easy for me with her, but after the first skirmishes the most sincere and cordial relationship was established between us.”
Gilliard was a talented teacher who, as one can judge from his memoirs, knew how to deeply penetrate into the essence of the characters of his students, identify their individuality and, based on this, build a teaching methodology, finding his own approach to each. At the same time, he did not demand from his students more than what they were capable of.
When the heir turned 9 years old, the Emperor and Empress turned to Pierre Gilliard, an already proven teacher who had become a close friend of the Family, with a request to take over his upbringing.
Gilliard understood perfectly well that Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was not an ordinary boy. Hemophilia, a serious, deadly disease, could not help but leave its mark on the character of this kind, cheerful and sociable child by nature.
Pierre Gilliard: “This was the terrible illness that Alexey Nikolaevich suffered; a constant threat to life hung over his head: a fall, a nosebleed, a simple cut, everything that would have been a trifle for an ordinary child could be fatal for him.
The heir had to be surrounded with special care and concern in the first years of his life and with constant vigilance, try to prevent any accident. That is why, on doctors’ orders, two sailors from the Imperial yacht were assigned to him as bodyguards: boatswain Derevenko and his assistant Nagorny, who in turn were supposed to watch over him.”
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna could not be as strict with her son as she might have liked. Gilliard recalled in his book “Emperor Nicholas II and His Family”: “She knew very well that death could occur from this disease every minute, with the slightest carelessness of Alexei, which would be wasted on everyone else. If he approached her twenty times a day, There was never a time when she didn’t kiss him when he approached her and left her. I understood that every time she said goodbye to him, she was afraid of not seeing him again.”
Of course, the sick child was the darling of the family. For example, footage has been preserved of a little prince beating a lady-in-waiting whose back was turned to him - after all, this was strictly prohibited by etiquette.
An experienced teacher, Gilliard actually saved the Tsarevich as a person, although at first the teacher had a very difficult time in his new position.
..."At this time he was a child who did not tolerate any attempts to restrain him; he was never subject to any discipline. In me he saw a person who was entrusted with the responsibility of forcing him to boring work and attention and whose task was to subordinate his will , having taught him to be obedient... I had a very clear impression of dull hostility, which sometimes turned into open opposition."
“Meanwhile, days passed by days, and I felt how my authority was strengthening. I could notice in my pupil more and more often repeated impulses of gullibility, which were for me, as it were, a guarantee that more cordial relations would soon be established between us.
As the child became more frank with me, I became more aware of the richness of his nature and became convinced that, with such fortunate gifts, it would be unfair to give up hope...
He had great quickness of mind and judgment and a lot of thoughtfulness. He sometimes amazed me with questions above his age, which testified to a delicate and sensitive soul. I easily understood that those who, like me, did not have to instill discipline in him, could easily succumb to his charm without a second thought. In the little capricious creature he seemed at the beginning, I discovered a child with a heart that was naturally loving and sensitive to suffering, because he himself had already suffered a lot. As soon as this conviction was fully formed in me, I began to look cheerfully into the future."
Subsequently, he will write that Alexey Nikolaevich suffered from the absence of comrades. “Both sons of the sailor Derevenko, his usual playmates, were much younger than him and did not suit him either in education or development. True, his cousins came to see him on Sundays and holidays, but these visits were rare....K Fortunately, his sisters, as I already said, loved to play with him; they brought fun and youth into his life, without which it would have been very difficult for him.”
Apparently, Gilliard considered this problem quite serious if he mentioned it more than once in his memoirs. So, for example, he talks about how the Tsarevich finally found a real comrade - the son of the life surgeon Derevenko. “Meanwhile, I was especially puzzled by finding comrades for the Heir. This problem was very difficult to solve. Fortunately, circumstances themselves partly filled this gap. Doctor Derevenko had a son approximately the same age as the Heir. The children met and soon became friends; no Sunday passed , a holiday or a day of vacation, so that they would not be united. Finally, they began to see each other every day, and the Tsarevich even received permission to visit Doctor Derevenko, who lived in a small dacha not far from the palace.”
Subsequently, Kolya Derevenko and his father followed the arrested Royal Family to Tobolsk, then to Yekaterinburg. In Tobolsk, Kolya was the only one who was allowed to visit the Royal Family on Sundays and greatly brightened up the Heir’s bleak existence in captivity.
Of course, Pierre Gilliard was fully aware that he was raising not just a boy, but the Heir to the Russian throne. And he understood perfectly well that important qualities for the Monarch are compassion and sensitivity, the ability to listen to the opinions of other people, the perception of his great task precisely as serving his people, but not as a reason for vanity and pride.
“I understood more clearly than ever how much the environmental conditions were hindering the success of my efforts. I had to fight the servility of the servants and the absurd admiration of some of those around me. And I was even very surprised to see how the natural simplicity of Alexei Nikolaevich resisted these immoderate praises.
I remember how a deputation of peasants from one of the central provinces of Russia once came to bring gifts to the Heir Tsarevich. The three men of whom it consisted, by order given in a whisper by the boatswain Derevenko, knelt before Alexei Nikolaevich to present him with their offerings. I noticed the embarrassment of the child, who blushed crimson.
As soon as we were alone, I asked him if he was pleased to see these people kneeling in front of him.
“Oh no! But Derevenko says that’s how it’s supposed to be!”...
I then spoke with the boatswain, and the child was delighted that he was freed from what was a real nuisance for him."
I. Stepanov recalls: “In the last days of January 1917, I was in the Tsar’s Alexander Palace with the tutor Heir Gilliard, and we went with him to see the Tsarevich. Alexei Nikolaevich and some cadet were animatedly playing a game near a large toy fortress. They were placing soldiers , fired from cannons, and their whole lively conversation was full of modern military terms: machine gun, airplane, heavy artillery, trenches, etc. However, the game soon ended, and the Heir and the cadet began to look at some books. Then Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna entered. .. 
Alexey's notebooks and drawings
All this furnishing of the Heir’s two children’s rooms was simple and did not give any idea that the future Russian Tsar lived here and received his initial upbringing and education. There were maps hanging on the walls, there were bookcases with books, there were several tables and chairs, but all this was simple, modest to the extreme.”
The photo was taken after the abdication of Nicholas II
Gilliard was actually a member of the Romanov family. When he was faced with the choice of whether to follow the Royal Family into exile or return to his homeland, Switzerland, then, presumably, he did not hesitate for a second. The family of Sovereign Nicholas became his family; The Tsar, Queen, and their children were truly family to him. He shared imprisonment with them in Tobolsk. There, the mentor continued to study with the Tsarevich, teaching him and his sisters French.
Pierre Gilliard and Emperor Nicholas II in the vegetable garden
In Tobolsk exile
The last photograph of the royal family
In Yekaterinburg, the family of Nicholas II and their devoted friend Pierre Gilliard were separated by the Ural commissars. Those arrested were settled in Ipatiev’s house, and Gilliard, as a foreign subject, was told that he was free. But Gilliard was eager to enter the house with the painted over windows, fully aware of the fact that he was probably taking a mortal risk, but still did everything possible to be re-housed with the arrested Royal Family and its faithful servants.
Group photo of those close to the Royal Family who followed the royal family into exile
From left to right: Ekaterina Adolfovna Schneider, Count Ilya Leonidovich Tatishchev, Pierre Gilliard, Countess Anastasia Vasilievna Gendrikova, Prince Vasily Alexandrovich.
Only Pierre Gilliard was not killed. All the rest accepted the crown of martyrdom.
There was speculation on this topic, but the appeal of Dr. Botkin, concluded with the Imperial Family in the Ipatiev house, to the chairman of the regional executive committee remarkably reflects who Pierre Gilliard was for Tsarevich Alexei.
“As a doctor who has been monitoring the health of the Romanov family for ten years, which is currently under the jurisdiction of the regional Executive Committee, in general and in particular Alexei Nikolaevich, I am turning to you, Mr. Chairman, with the following most zealous request... the most zealous petition to allow Messrs. Gilliard and Gibbs to continue their selfless service under Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, and in view of the fact that the boy is right now in one of the most acute attacks of his suffering, which is especially difficult for him to endure due to overwork from travel, do not refuse to allow them - extremes - at least one Mr. Gilliard, see him tomorrow.
Ev. Botkin".
Botkin's petition was not granted. Gilliard was forced to leave Yekaterinburg, but as soon as the White Guard troops entered the city, he immediately returned there again. But neither the Emperor and Empress, nor their children, nor their devoted servants were no longer alive.
Pierre Gilliard could not believe it for a long time. He even began his own investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance of the Royal Family, then helped investigator N. Sokolov, who conducted the official investigation when Yekaterinburg came under the rule of the “whites”.
He was finally able to get into Ipatiev’s house, where he became convinced that not only Nikolai had died (which the Bolsheviks notified the city through leaflets on the fences), but also everyone who happened to be next to him.
In 1920, Pierre Gillard was able to return to his homeland in Switzerland, where he continued to work at the University of Lausanne, becoming a professor there, and was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
It is interesting that he was able to take Grand Duchess Anastasia’s nanny Alexandra Tyegleva from Russia, whom he later married (already in Switzerland).
Alexandra Alexandrovna Tegleva-Gillard died in 1955.
In 1921, Pierre Gillard published the book “The Tragic Fate of Nicholas II and His Family,” which was cited several times above.
In 1925, the sister of Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, asked for help from Gilliard and his wife in investigating the case of a certain Anna Anderson (Tchaikovskaya - Francis Shantskovskaya), posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna. Pierre Gillard responded immediately.
Anastasia 
At this time, Anna Anderson felt very bad. He recalled what happened next as follows:
“Twilight was falling. Madame Tchaikovskaya (...) was lying in bed and looked completely exhausted, she was feverish. I asked her several questions in German, to which she answered with incomprehensible exclamations. In complete silence, we peered at this face with extraordinary attention in the vain hope of finding at least some resemblance to a creature so dear to us before. A large, excessively turned-up nose, a wide mouth, swollen full lips - nothing in common with the Grand Duchess: my student had a straight, short nose, a small mouth and thin lips. Neither the shape of the ears, nor the characteristic look, nor the voice - nothing left hope. In a word, apart from the color of the eyes, we did not see a single feature that would make us believe that this was Grand Duchess Anastasia - this woman was completely unfamiliar to us...”
It is also worth remembering that Gilliard participated in the exposure of Alexei Putsyato, the first of the impostors who posed as the “miracle saved Tsarevich” Alexei Nikolaevich, and with sufficient insight predicted the appearance of many other impostors in the future.
Gilliard remained the main witness in the cases of the false children of Nicholas II. But on May 30, 1962, Gilliard got into a car accident, from which he never recovered. He died four years later, at the age of eighty-three.
The Pierre Gilliard Foundation presented the exhibition “The Last Days of the Romanovs” at the Historical Museum of Moscow. Photographs of Pierre Gilliard" with about 300 photographs of the home and everyday life of the imperial family, without officialdom or retouching.
The Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve received a donation of items that belonged to Pierre Gilliard- a tea set and a set of tableware (34 items in total).
The items were presented to the teacher by Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna in 1909. All of them were made by craftsmen of the famous company I.E. Morozov, supplier to the Imperial Court.
They were given to the museum by Gilliard’s niece, Françoise Godet, who lives in Geneva.
Monument on Ganina Yama - a flooded mine near Yekaterinburg, where the remains of the country's last emperor and his family were dumped after the execution.
Pierre Gilliard
Emperor Nicholas II and his family
According to the personal recollections of P. Gilliard, the former mentor of the Heir to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich
From the publishing house "Rus"
This book is the only complete Russian edition authorized by the author.
We deliberately changed the text of the title adopted by the author: “The tragic fate of Nicholas II and his family,” so that this publication would not be confused, through a misunderstanding, with two other translations of his articles that appeared earlier without the author’s permission and were published in the French magazine “Illustration.” As can be seen from the author's preface, these articles, expanded and supplemented, were included in the content of the last chapters of this book, which also contains the memoirs of G. Gilliard during his 13 years at the Court, as a Mentor of the Tsar's children.
We consider it our duty to express our sincere gratitude to S. D. Sazonov, who agreed to preface this book with several pages of his personal memories, and to General E. K. Miller, who kindly informed us of the original text of the act of abdication of Emperor Nicholas II and the farewell speech to his troops.
Preface
I have repeatedly had the opportunity to meet the author of a wonderful book, now appearing in translation into Russian. In it, a close eyewitness conveys, simply and truthfully, the story of the family life of the tragically deceased Royal Family and the sad story of its fate from the beginning of the Russian Revolution until the martyrdom of all its members.
Hardly any other person close to the Royal Family could have given us this book with a greater right to our attention and trust, if not a foreigner, alien equally to the partisanship that eats up our lives, and considerations of ambition or personal gain, modestly fulfilling his duty as a teacher of the Tsar's children and living in close contact with the Tsar's family, not in external, ostentatious, but in its internal, everyday life.
The observation and lively human interest that Mr. Gilliard brings to the performance of the duties he has assumed gave him the opportunity to become thoroughly acquainted with the extremely closed system of life of the family, which jealously guarded its family sanctuary not only from any encroachment from the outside, but even from the indiscreet gaze.
My meetings with Gilliard began, as far as I remember, in Livadia, where I went to report to the Emperor during the Court’s stay there and where I usually spent some time. In Crimea, the Royal family lived much more freely than in Tsarskoe Selo or Peterhof. This, to a large extent, explains the love of all its members for Livadia.
There the opportunity was created for them to move more freely and meet with people other than those who constantly performed some kind of official duties with them; in a word, their horizons expanded. As one of the Grand Duchesses put it, there was life in Crimea, and service in St. Petersburg.
When the war began and trips to Crimea stopped, I had to go first to the Headquarters of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, when he was at the head of the army, and usually my trips to Baranovichi coincided with the Sovereign’s stay there, and then, after he assumed the duties of Commander-in-Chief , I went to Mogilev, where the Main Apartment was moved. When, as often happened, the Heir visited his father, he was invariably accompanied by Gilliard, and on these occasions I had to see both of them.
Of these trips to Mogilev, I especially remember one, the one I made at the end of June 1916.
The war seemed to drag on forever. The Germans were heavily pressing our allies on the western front, Poland had been at the mercy of the enemy for more than six months, and the lack of weapons and military supplies was weighing heavily on us, morally and financially. The inspiration and faith in success that marked the first stage of the war began to give way to irritation and doubt. Accordingly, the internal situation of the country became increasingly vague, thanks to the sharply revealed split between government power and public opinion.
And at the Tsar's Headquarters the oppression of the events weighing on Russia was felt. The people surrounding the Emperor questioned random people like me in detail about Petrograd rumors and moods and answered, in turn, our questions about the state of things on different fronts.
The Emperor had that concentrated look that I had noticed on him since the declaration of war and without which I never saw him until our last meeting, a month before the start of the revolution. There was no need to look for reasons for this. There were many of them, and they were obvious to everyone. The constant tension of nerves and anxiety about the progress of military operations affected him physically. He lost a lot of weight, and a large amount of gray hair appeared on his temples and beard. The friendly gaze of the beautiful eyes inherited from the mother and the kind smile remained, although it began to appear much less frequently.
In all other respects he was the same as he had always been, with all the attractive features and some of the shortcomings of his typically Russian character. Only the deep religious feeling inherent in him from early childhood seemed to become even more intense. Looking at him at church services, during which he never turned his head, I could not get rid of the thought that this is how people pray, who have lost faith in human help and have little hope in their own strength, and are waiting for instructions and help only from above. In his soul, a strange feeling of hopelessness was mixed with his ardent and sincere faith, which he himself admitted, calling himself a fatalist. From the fact that his birthday coincided with the celebration of the church memory of Job the Long-Suffering, he drew the conclusion that his life would be rich in sorrowful events, and as if he was constantly expecting their occurrence. This premonition, unfortunately, was destined to come true with terrifying completeness.
No matter what happened in the soul of the Sovereign, he never changed in his relations with those around him. I had to see him close at a moment of terrible anxiety for the life of his only son, on whom all his tenderness was concentrated, and except for some silence and even greater restraint, the suffering he experienced did not show anything in him. It was in the autumn of 1912, in Spala, where I went, on his orders, to report on my trip to England and France and on my meetings with local government officials. I found the Royal Family completely assembled. My first impressions clearly indicated that the news about the Tsarevich’s illness that I had seen in the foreign press was not only not exaggerated, but gave far from a complete picture of the seriousness of his situation. Meanwhile, in appearance, everything was going as usual. The Tsar and the Grand Duchesses appeared at daily breakfasts and lunches; only the Empress was absent, who did not leave her sick son’s bedside for a minute.
On the topic of raising the children of Sovereign NicholasAlexandrovich has been contacted quite often lately. Which is not surprising, since one can have different attitudes towards Nicholas II as an Emperor, but no one, not even many of his obvious enemies, denied that the last Tsar was an excellent family man and, together with his wife, raised wonderful children. This is true, and, of course, in order to raise four daughters and a son as wonderful people, real Christians, the parents needed to make a lot of effort. It was especially difficult for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, who was stricken with a serious illness. But her close friend, the Tsarevich’s mentor, the Swiss Pierre Gilliard, provided invaluable assistance to the Imperial Family. This is what we will discuss in our article.
With Olga and Tatiana
The Royal Family first met Pierre Gilliard, a native of the Swiss canton of Vaud, in Peterhof, at the dacha of Duke Sergius of Leuchtenberg, who was Emperor Nicholas II's uncle. Gilliard, a French teacher, proved himself very well - he was an honest and charming young man, and at the same time an excellent teacher. It is not surprising that about a year after accepting the post of Duke Sergius (in 1905), Pierre Gilliard received an offer that turned his life upside down - the two eldest daughters of the Sovereign needed a French teacher. Gilliard accepted the brilliant offer without hesitation.
The first lesson, forever preserved in Gilliard’s memory, took place at the Alexandria dacha. To the surprise and great embarrassment of the teacher, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna herself was present at this lesson. Then she attended classes more than once. Subsequently, Gilliard noted a small but important detail for him - when the Queen was present at her daughters’ lessons, he never had to wait for the students to lay out notebooks and writing materials on the table. Then, in the absence of their mother, the Princesses did not allow themselves to be lazy.
Quite quickly, Gilliard became friends with his eldest student, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, who later became his good friend.
“The eldest of the Grand Duchesses, Olga, a girl of ten years old, very blond, with eyes full of sly sparkle, with a slightly raised nose, looked at me with an expression in which there seemed to be a desire from the first minute to find a weak spot - but from this the child was inspired by purity and truthfulness, which immediately attracted sympathy for him.” Pierre Gilliard considered this Princess the most capable of the sisters: “The eldest, Olga Nikolaevna, had a very lively mind. She had a lot of prudence and at the same time spontaneity. She was very independent in character and had a quick and funny resourcefulness in her answers... I I remember, by the way, how in one of our first grammar lessons, when I was explaining to her the conjugations and use of auxiliary verbs, she suddenly interrupted me with an exclamation: “Oh, I understand, auxiliary verbs are the servants of verbs; only one unfortunate verb “to have” must serve itself!”... At first it was not so easy for me with her, but after the first skirmishes the most sincere and cordial relations were established between us.”
Gilliard also became passionately attached to Olga Nikolaevna’s sisters. He was a talented teacher who, as we can judge from his memoirs, knew how to deeply penetrate into the essence of the characters of his students, identify their individuality and, based on this, build a teaching methodology, finding his own approach to each. At the same time, he did not demand from his students more than what they were capable of.
However, the greatest revelation of Pierre Gilliard's pedagogical talent was required not by teaching the Princesses French, but by the most difficult task, which he took on at the request of the Emperor and Empress. When their only son Alexei needed a mentor, a tutor, they turned to Pierre Gilliard, an already proven teacher who had become a close friend of the Family, with a request to take over the education of the Heir to the Russian Throne.
Of course, this puzzled Gilliard and almost frightened him. In addition to the fact that he had to take on the most responsible mission of educating the future Russian Tsar, Gilliard understood perfectly well that Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was not an entirely ordinary boy. Hemophilia, a serious, deadly disease, could not help but leave its mark on the character of this kind, cheerful and sociable child by nature. From the very beginning, Tsarevich Alexei could not develop like ordinary boys, could not do much of what he would like and what a growing active boy needs.
Anna Vyrubova wrote about the Tsar’s son: “The life of Alexei Nikolaevich was one of the most tragic in the history of the Tsar’s children. He was a charming, affectionate boy, the most beautiful of all children. His parents and his nanny Maria Vishnyakova spoiled him very much in early childhood, fulfilling his smallest whims. And this is understandable, since it was very difficult to see the constant suffering of the little one; whether he hit his head or his hand on the furniture, a huge blue tumor immediately appeared, indicating internal hemorrhage, which caused him severe suffering at the age of five or six. hands, to Uncle Derevenko. This one was not so pampered, although he was very loyal and had great patience. I hear the voice of Alexei Nikolaevich during his illness: “Raise my hand,” or: “Turn my leg,” or: “Warm my hands.” , and Derevenko often reassured him. When he began to grow up, his parents explained his illness to Alexei Nikolaevich, asking him to be careful. But the Heir was very lively, loved the games and fun of boys, and it was often impossible to restrain him. “Give me a bicycle,” he asked his mother. "Alexey, you know you can't!" - “I want to learn to play tennis like my sisters!” - “You know that you don’t dare play.” Sometimes Alexey Nikolaevich cried, repeating: “Why am I not like all the boys?”
S. Ofrosimova: “His liveliness could not be tempered by his illness, and as soon as he felt better, as soon as his suffering subsided, he began to play pranks uncontrollably; he buried himself in pillows, crawled under the bed in order to frighten the doctors with an imaginary disappearance. Only the arrival of the Emperor could to pacify him. Sitting his father on his bed, he asked him to tell him about His Majesty’s activities, about the regiments of which he was the chief and which he missed very much. He listened attentively to the Tsar’s stories from Russian history and about everything that lay beyond his boring. hospital bed. The Emperor shared everything with him with great joy and deep seriousness...
When the Princesses arrived, especially Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, terrible fuss and pranks began. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was a desperate naughty girl and a faithful friend in all the Tsarevich’s pranks, but she was strong and healthy, and the Tsarevich was forbidden from these hours of childhood pranks that were dangerous for him.”
Pierre Gilliard: “This was the terrible illness that Alexey Nikolaevich suffered; a constant threat to his life hung over his head: a fall, a nosebleed, a simple cut, everything that would have been a trifle for an ordinary child could be fatal for him.
He had to be surrounded with special care and concern in the first years of his life and with constant vigilance to try to prevent any accident. That is why, on doctors’ orders, two sailors from the Imperial yacht were assigned to him as bodyguards: boatswain Derevenko and his assistant Nagorny, who in turn were supposed to watch over him.”
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna could not be as strict with her son as she might have liked. Gilliard recalled in his book “Emperor Nicholas II and His Family”: “She knew very well that death could occur from this disease every minute, with the slightest carelessness of Alexei, which would be in vain for everyone else. If he approached her twenty times a day, There was never a time when she didn’t kiss him when he approached her and left her. I understood that every time she said goodbye to him, she was afraid of not seeing him again.” .
Seeing this, the talented teacher could not help but assume that all the positive qualities inherited by Alexei Nikolaevich from his parents, as well as those that the disease itself fostered in him, for example, compassion for others, could over time be supplanted by developing capriciousness or a feeling of inferiority. If the parents had not undertaken a dangerous experiment and had not given their boy the right to take risks. Gilliard thought about this very seriously at one time, and he actually saved the Tsarevich as a person, saved the unique uniqueness of this rich noble nature. Although at first it was very difficult for the teacher in his new position.
“When I began my new duties, it was not so easy for me to establish a first relationship with the child. I had to speak Russian with him, giving up the French language. My position was delicate. Having no rights, I could not demand submission.
As I said, I was initially surprised and disappointed to not receive any support from the Empress. For a whole month I did not have any instructions from her. I got the impression that she did not want to interfere in my relationship with the child. This greatly increased the difficulty of my first steps, but it might have the advantage that, having once gained a position, I could more freely assert my personal authority. At first, I was often lost and even despaired. I was thinking about abandoning the task I had taken on."
Fortunately, Doctor Derevenko, who observed the boy (the boatswain’s namesake), greatly helped the teacher with his support and advice. Advising Gilliard to be more patient, he explained that the Empress, knowing that every day of her son’s life could bring mortal danger, was slow to intervene in the relationship between mentor and pupil - she did not want to enter into yet another struggle with her son, who was already already, due to his inquisitive and lively nature, he was exhausted by constant care. Now it turned out that a new mentor was being imposed on him, a new jailer who would take away the last remnants of freedom from him.
“I myself was aware that the conditions were unfavorable,” writes Gilliard, “but despite everything, I remained hopeful that over time the health of my pupil would improve.
A serious illness, from which Alexey Nikolaevich had just begun to recover, greatly weakened him and left him very nervous. At this time he was a child who did not tolerate any attempts to restrain him; he was never subject to any discipline. In me he saw a man who had been entrusted with the duty of forcing him into dull work and attention, and whose task it was to bend his will by teaching him obedience. He was already surrounded by vigilant surveillance, which, however, allowed him to seek refuge in inaction; to this surveillance was now added a new element of insistence, which threatened to take away this last refuge. Without being aware of it yet, he felt it instinctively. I had a very clear impression of mute hostility, which sometimes turned into open opposition."
As we can see, not everything went well. The illness, instead of strengthening the boy’s character (which happened later), could completely break him and destroy his good inclinations, primarily because because of it the child is deprived of the freedom necessary for his development. Nevertheless, it seems that the overprotection to which the little Tsarevich was subjected was completely justified. But was it so? Gilliard was the first to doubt. Moreover, every day he discovered more and more wonderful qualities in his pupil and became more and more attached to him.
“Meanwhile, days passed by days, and I felt how my authority was strengthening. I could notice in my pupil more and more often repeated impulses of gullibility, which were for me, as it were, a guarantee that more cordial relations would soon be established between us.
As the child became more frank with me, I became more aware of the richness of his nature and became convinced that, with such fortunate gifts, it would be unfair to give up hope...
Alexey Nikolaevich was then 9 ½ years old. He was quite large for his age, had a thin, elongated oval face with delicate features, wonderful light brown hair with bronze tints, large blue-gray eyes, reminiscent of his mother's eyes. He thoroughly enjoyed life when he could, like a playful and cheerful boy. His tastes were very modest. He did not at all boast of being the Heir to the Throne; this was the last thing he thought about. His greatest happiness was playing with the two sons of the sailor Derevenko, who were both somewhat younger than him.
He had great quickness of mind and judgment and a lot of thoughtfulness. He sometimes amazed me with questions above his age, which testified to a delicate and sensitive soul. I easily understood that those who, like me, did not have to instill discipline in him, could easily succumb to his charm without a second thought. In the capricious little creature that he seemed at the beginning, I discovered a child with a heart that was naturally loving and sensitive to suffering, because he himself had already suffered a lot. As soon as this conviction was fully formed in me, I began to look cheerfully into the future. My work would be easy if it weren’t for the environment and environmental conditions around us.”
Now let’s take a moment away from Gilliard’s memories and return to our time. Let's open the book of modern psychologists Irina Medvedeva and Tatyana Shishova, who have been working with problem children for many years. Here's what we'll read: "the so-called overprotection, when parents surround their child with excessive care, is a fairly common phenomenon today... After all, allowing a child to be independent is a risk, and often a huge risk. It's the same thing as vigilant supervision! Of course, it takes a lot time and effort, but you provide yourself with a quiet life and at the same time look respectable in the eyes of others... As for the risk, without it, of course, it’s safer to live. But the peace comes at the expense of the child you’re talking about. supposedly you are so happy. Because each of his independent steps is a rehearsal. The more rehearsals he has, the more fully he will perform the play called “Life.”
In the above passage we were talking about healthy children. And in the case of the Heir, the parents’ increased care does not seem unnecessary at all. But it didn’t seem so to Tsarevich Alexei himself, who, by the way, would have to face not just “a play called “Life””, but the most difficult role in this play - the management of the great Empire. And the teacher Gilliard understood the child perfectly. Let's return to his memories .
“I maintained, as I said above, the best relationship with Doctor Derevenko, but there was one issue between us on which we did not agree. I found that the constant presence of two sailors - the boatswain Derevenko and his assistant Nagorny - was harmful to the child. This external force, which acted every minute to remove all danger from him, seemed to me to interfere with the strengthening of attention and the normal development of the child’s will. What the child gained in the sense of safety, the child lost in the sense of actual discipline. In my opinion, it would be better to give. he should have more independence and be taught to find within himself the strength and energy to counteract his own impulses, especially since the accidents continued to recur. Otherwise, this would be the best way to turn a child, already physically weak, into a spineless, weak-willed person, lacking self-control. , weak and morally. I spoke in this sense with Doctor Derevenko, but he was so absorbed in the fear of a fatal outcome and depressed, as a doctor, by the consciousness of his heavy responsibility that I could not convince him to share my views.”
With the Emperor in Tobolsk
Of course, only the boy’s royal parents could take upon themselves the resolution of such a complex issue. When Gilliard offered them what he himself called a “dangerous experience,” which he went through with a feeling of severe anxiety, Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alexandra Fedorovna fully supported their son’s mentor. Gilliard will write in his book “Emperor Nicholas II and His Family” on this occasion wonderful words that clarify for us what true parental love is: “They were without a doubt aware of the harm caused by the existing system to what was most valuable in their child. They loved him infinitely, and it was this love that gave them the strength to risk some accident, the consequences of which could be fatal, so as not to turn him into a person devoid of courage and moral fortitude."
“Alexey Nikolaevich was delighted with this decision,” continues Gilliard. In his relations with his comrades, he suffered from the constant restrictions to which he was subjected. He promised me to justify the trust that was placed in him.
No matter how convinced I was of the correctness of this approach, my fears only intensified. I kind of had a premonition of what was going to happen...
At the beginning everything went well, and I began to calm down, when suddenly the misfortune that we were so afraid of happened. In the classroom, a child climbed onto a bench, slipped and fell, hitting his knee on its corner. The next day he could no longer walk. A day later, the subcutaneous hemorrhage intensified, the swelling that formed under the knee quickly spread to the lower part of the leg. The skin stretched to the utmost, became rigid under the pressure of the hemorrhage, which began to put pressure on the nerves and caused terrible pain, increasing from hour to hour.
I was depressed. Neither the Emperor nor the Empress gave me even the shadow of a reproach: on the contrary, it seemed that with all their hearts they wanted me not to despair of the task, which illness made even more difficult. It was as if they wanted by their example to encourage me to accept the inevitable test and join them in the struggle that they had been waging for so long. They shared their concern with me with touching benevolence."
The fight for the child was won. No one could cure an incurable disease, but from the “little capricious creature” that Tsarevich Gilliard initially seemed to be, a true Christian with a sensitive heart and a strong will grew. From year to year, the Sovereign would grow from the Heir. But he was destined differently. This amazing, rich nature never had the chance to mature and fully reveal itself.
I. Stepanov: “The Heir visited the infirmary several times (in the infirmary - M.K.). Here I cannot write calmly. There is no tenderness to convey all the charm of this appearance, all the otherworldliness of this charm. Not of this world. They said about him: not a resident “I believed in this even then. Such children do not live. Radiant eyes, pure, sad and at the same time glowing at times with some amazing joy...”
Restriction of freedom was not the only problem that Tsarevich Alexei’s illness posed to his parents and teacher.
In any pedagogical literature we will read that a necessary condition for the development of a child is his communication with friends. This is probably especially important for boys, future men, whose social role is traditionally broader and more responsible than that of women. However, the inability to establish first contacts with peers, a lack of communication with other children can have a harmful effect on the psyche of any child. It is equally important that from childhood a child learns to choose his own comrades, following his own sympathies, and not “make friends” on parental orders. In the Royal Family this problem was more acute than in any other. Firstly, the boy was the Heir to the Throne, and secondly, he was seriously ill. But precisely for the first reason, parents did not have the right to turn their son into an unhappy lonely creature, a “greenhouse child” growing up in isolation from the world. In addition, the Heir was shy, and the Emperor wanted to help his son get rid of shyness. Parents could try to solve the problem of their son’s communication, so to speak, “officially,” by artificially keeping the child company with the children of their relatives. The Tsar and Queen did not allow anything like this. On the contrary, according to Vyrubova’s memoirs, the Empress was afraid for her son and rarely invited her cousins, “playful and rude boys. Of course, her relatives were angry about this...”. But the Heir was not forbidden to play with the sons of his mentor, sailor Derevenko, which, presumably, made the “relatives” even angrier. But the Tsar and Empress, who did not take gossip to heart, especially did not pay attention to them when it came to the benefits of children.
Pierre Gilliard was also seriously concerned about the problem of communication between his Royal pupil and his peers. Subsequently, he will write that Alexey Nikolaevich suffered from the absence of comrades. “Both sons of the sailor Derevenko, his usual playmates, were much younger than him and did not suit him either in education or development. True, his cousins came to see him on Sundays and holidays, but these visits were rare. I insisted several times before the Empress that this should be changed. Some attempts were made in this sense, but they did not lead to anything. True, Alexei Nikolaevich’s illness made it extremely difficult for him to choose his comrades. Fortunately, his sisters, as I already said. , loved to play with him; they brought fun and youth into his life, without which it would have been very difficult for him.”
Apparently, Gilliard considered this problem quite serious if he mentioned it more than once in his memoirs. So, for example, he talks about how the Tsarevich finally found a real comrade - the son of the life surgeon Derevenko. “Meanwhile, I was especially puzzled by finding comrades for the Heir. This problem was very difficult to solve. Fortunately, circumstances themselves partly filled this gap. Doctor Derevenko had a son approximately the same age as the Heir. The children met and soon became friends; no Sunday passed , a holiday or a day of vacation, so that they would not be united. Finally, they began to see each other every day, and the Tsarevich even received permission to visit Doctor Derevenko, who lived in a small dacha not far from the palace. He often spent the entire afternoon there playing with his friend and his comrades. in the modest surroundings of this middle-class family. This innovation was subject to much criticism, but Their Majesties did not pay attention; they themselves were so simple in their private lives that they could only encourage the same tastes in their children.
Subsequently, Kolya Derevenko and his father followed the arrested Royal Family to Tobolsk, then to Yekaterinburg. In Tobolsk, Kolya was the only one who was allowed to visit the Royal Family on Sundays and greatly brightened up the Heir’s bleak existence in captivity.
Of course, Pierre Gilliard was fully aware that he was raising not just a boy, but the Heir to the Russian throne. And he understood perfectly well that important qualities for the Monarch are compassion and sensitivity, the ability to listen to the opinions of other people, the perception of his great task precisely as serving his people, but not as a reason for vanity and pride.
“I understood more clearly than ever how much the environmental conditions were hindering the success of my efforts. I had to struggle with the servility of the servants and the absurd admiration of some of those around me. And I was even very surprised to see how the natural simplicity of Alexei Nikolaevich resisted these immoderate praises.
I remember how a deputation of peasants from one of the central provinces of Russia once came to bring gifts to the Heir Tsarevich. The three men of whom it consisted, by order given in a whisper by the boatswain Derevenko, knelt before Alexei Nikolaevich to present him with their offerings. I noticed the embarrassment of the child, who blushed crimson. As soon as we were alone, I asked him if he was pleased to see these people kneeling in front of him.
“Oh no! But Derevenko says that’s how it’s supposed to be!”...
I then spoke with the boatswain, and the child was delighted that he was freed from what was a real nuisance for him."
I. Stepanov recalls: “In the last days of January 1917, I was in the Tsar’s Alexander Palace with the tutor of the Heir Gilliard, and together with him we went to see the Tsarevich. Alexei Nikolaevich and some cadet were animatedly playing a game near a large toy fortress. They were placing soldiers , fired from cannons, and their whole lively conversation was full of modern military terms: machine gun, airplane, heavy artillery, trenches, etc. However, the game soon ended, and the Heir and the cadet began to look at some books. Then Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna entered. .. All this furnishing of the Heir’s two children’s rooms was simple and did not give any idea that the future Russian Tsar was living here and receiving his initial upbringing and education. Maps hung on the walls, there were cabinets with books, there were a few tables and chairs, but that’s all. it is simple, modest to the extreme."
However, the modesty of the little Tsarevich did not at all interfere with his awareness of himself as the Heir to the Throne. Claudia Mikhailovna Bitner, who became the Tsarevich’s teacher already during the Tobolsk imprisonment of the Family, said: “I don’t know if he thought about power. I had a conversation with him about this. I told him: “What if you reign?” He told me answered: “No, it’s over forever.” I told him: “Well, what if it happens again, if you reign?” He answered me: “Then we need to arrange it so that I know more about what is happening around me.” - I asked him what he would do with me then. He said that he would build a large hospital, appoint me to manage it, but he would come and “interrogate” everything - whether everything is in order. there would be order."
Yes, one can assume that under Sovereign Alexei Nikolaevich there would be order. This Tsar could have been very popular among the people, since will, discipline and awareness of his own high position were combined in the nature of the son of Nicholas II with kindness and love for people. There is no doubt that Pierre Gilliard, who was always very interested in how his pupil lives, what he thinks about, how he relates to everything that surrounds him, made a lot of efforts together with the Heir’s parents to ensure that the natural kindness and attentiveness to people characteristic of the Tsarevich Alexey, received worthy development.
Unfortunately, Russia never received Tsar Alexei Nikolaevich...
When Gilliard was faced with the choice of whether to follow the Royal Family into exile or return to his homeland, Switzerland, then, presumably, he did not hesitate for a second. The family of Sovereign Nicholas became his family; The Tsar, Queen, and their children were truly family to him. He shared imprisonment with them in Tobolsk. There, the mentor continued to work with the Tsarevich, teaching him and his sisters French.
Once I had to read a phrase casually dropped by someone that Pierre Gilliard nevertheless left the Royal Family when the latter moved to Yekaterinburg. This is absolutely not true! Although in fact the Family of Nicholas II and their devoted friend were separated by the Ural commissars. Those arrested were settled in Ipatiev’s house, and Gilliard, as a foreign subject, was told that he was free. What could be happier than this news? But it was perceived as the greatest misfortune. Gilliard was eager to enter the house with the painted over windows, fully aware of the fact that he was probably taking a mortal risk, but still did everything possible to be resettled with the arrested Royal Family and its faithful servants.
The address of Dr. Botkin, concluded with the Imperial Family in the Ipatiev house, to the chairman of the regional executive committee remarkably reflects who Pierre Gilliard was for Tsarevich Alexei.
“As a doctor who has been monitoring the health of the Romanov family, which is currently under the jurisdiction of the regional Executive Committee, in general and in particular Alexei Nikolaevich, for ten years now, I am turning to you, Mr. Chairman, with the following most earnest request. Alexey Nikolaevich is subject to suffering joints under the influence of bruises, which are absolutely inevitable in a boy of his age, accompanied by the release of fluid into them and the most severe pain as a result of this, day and night in such cases, the boy suffers so unspeakably that none of his closest relatives, not to mention his chronically heart-sick mother. , who does not spare herself for him, is not able to withstand caring for him for a long time. My fading strength is also not enough. Klim Grigoriev Nagorny, who is with the patient, after several sleepless and full of torment nights, is knocked down and would not be able to withstand it at all, if not. shift and to help him would not have been Alexei Nikolaevich’s teachers, Mr. Gibbs, and, in particular, his teacher, Mr. Gilliard. Calm and balanced, they, replacing one another, by reading and changing impressions, distract the patient from his suffering during the day, alleviating it for him and, in the meantime, giving his relatives and Nagorny the opportunity to sleep and gather strength to relieve them in turn. Mr. Gilliard, to whom Alexey Nikolaevich had become especially accustomed and attached to during the seven years that he had been with him constantly, spent whole nights near him during his illness, let the exhausted Nagorny go to sleep. Both teachers, especially, I repeat, Mr. Gilliard, are completely irreplaceable for Alexey Nikolaevich, and I, as a doctor, must admit that they often bring more relief to the patient than medical supplies, the supply of which for such cases, unfortunately, is extremely limited. limited. In view of all of the above, I decide, in addition to the request of the patient’s parents, to disturb the Regional Executive Committee with the most earnest petition to allow Mr. Gilliard and Gibbs to continue their selfless service under Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, and in view of the fact that the boy is right now in one of the most acute attacks of his suffering, which is especially difficult for him to bear due to overwork from travel, one cannot refuse to allow them - in extreme cases - at least one Mr. Gilliard, to see him tomorrow.
Ev. Botkin".
Botkin's petition was not granted. Gilliard was forced to leave Yekaterinburg, but as soon as the White Guard troops entered the city, he immediately returned there again. But neither the Emperor and Empress, nor their children, nor their devoted servants were no longer alive. Pierre Gilliard could not believe it for a long time. He even began his own investigation into the circumstances of the disappearance of the Royal Family, then helped N. Sokolov, who conducted the official investigation. In the end, Gilliard had to believe the terrible truth.
In 1918, Pierre Gilliard left Russia. But he left his heart in her forever. It was he who, in his book of memoirs, would write amazing words about the Family of the last Russian Emperor: “It is impossible that those I spoke about would suffer their martyrdom in vain. I don’t know when this will happen, nor how it will happen; but it will come, without doubts, the day when brutality will drown in the self-induced flow of blood and humanity will draw from the memory of their suffering an invincible force for moral correction... The Tsar and Empress believed that they were dying as martyrs for their Motherland - they died as martyrs for humanity.”
