(Author) Rahul Gandhi - The monks curse

R ussia

March 1917 July 1918

How did we get here? I wonder.

Here I am in my favourite residence, enjoying life, but reduced to nothing. Once the Empress, I am now a prisoner in my own home. I no longer have any control over what happens to us, or over our belongings, where we live or where we go. Whose fault is it? They say it is my fault, being the foreign Empress, together with that of my confidante whom they call a treacherous weasel. They compare me to the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette.

Alix? I ask myself again. How did we get here?

Pulling myself out of the abyss of self-doubt and blame for the events that have transpired, I look around the room, resting my gaze on each one of my beautiful children who have done nothing to deserve the cruel fate that I fear awaits them. Each one of them; Olishka, Tanya, Masha, Nastya and Alyosha, have great dreams for their futures. I do not have the heart to tell them what I suspect, what tugs at my every fibre, every moment of every day. I turn around to look at my husband, Nicky. He looks deep in thought. He stares at the crackling fire, lit despite it being early summer. It is June, and the air is warm and sticky. While we the adults are concerned, the atmosphere among the children is relaxed. Occasionally, the children laugh, but somehow, they seem to realise that everything has changed even for them.

The guards do not call their father Tsar anymore as they had before. They now call him Nicholas Romanov. Instead of keeping us safe like they once did, they now guard us so that we cannot escape. No one visits anymore. The letters from Cousin George have stopped. Our subjects no longer praise us and send us well-wishes. Nickys name no longer rings through the streets of Saint Petersburg. The relics that were once carried in praise of Nicky are laying crumbling and forgotten in the streets of Saint Petersburg.

Who rules in his place? No one even knows anymore. So then, I ask, what was the point of it all? What was the point of what happened in February twelve years ago when all those peaceful supporters of the Tsar were shot? Or rather, why was Nicky overruled by his government and sent out of Saint Petersburg when they shot his supporters? Finally, what was the point earlier this year in February, when all the workers rallied against us? For what, I ask? Where are the changes?

Have the so-called proletariat learnt nothing from the past? Dont they see that the masses in France murdered their King, Queen and many of their nobility, and it took France many decades to return to any state of normality? Dont they see that millions of the ordinary French population died? Dont they see that the world frowned on France? So, what is now going on in Russia? How did we get here?

Mama, we are bored here in the palace. When can we leave? asks Nastya.

Nastya, if it were so easy, then we would be in Saint Petersburg already, replies Olishka.

Where is Grigori? Dont we need him? asks Alyosha.

What must I say to them? Grigori is dead; their father is no longer the Emperor of all the Russians, and we are now prisoners. Is that what any parent would want to explain to their young and now vulnerable children?

* * *

So, Nickys replacements call themselves the Provisional Government. If this is only a provision, then where is Russia heading toward, what is her future? Where is our future?

While Kerensky sits on his throne in Petrograd', the people of Russia starve. They work like slaves. They suffer. At least under Nicky, they had someone to turn to. Now, who do they turn to? Kerenskys government or the Soviets under the leadership of the communist bastards? Who is to help them? The devil or the deep blue? These Russians are fools.

Here I sit, in relative luxury, an imprisoned Empress. The last Empress. I do not see a future for Russia. I do not see a future for Nicky or me. I do not see a future for Olishka, Tanya, Masha, Nastya and Alyosha. I do not see a future for the world if it cannot learn from the past, just as the Russians did not learn from the French.

Yes, we are autocrats. Yes, that is dangerous and potentially fatal. However, I see the British Empire working perfectly under a king. Yes, they have moved away from an autocracy, but their king is just that, their king. So, why is it that the Bolsheviks demand our complete removal from office and any position of power or influence? Can we not work together?

Lenin seems to think we cannot. He believes that only vanguardism will work for us. He thinks that we will all turn into communists overnight. He is wrong. The world is not ready for that level of equality, especially when it involves overthrowing our admittedly totalitarian rule only to replace it with another dictatorship'. Where have the peoples common sense gone? Can they not see what these liars tell them is merely an unattainable utopia? Trying to make them all equal on those terms would make them all equally poor and powerless.

Listen, can you hear it? The motherland calls for help. Someone go and save her. Go and save Russia.