The house which was to receive us not being ready, we were forced to remain for some days on the boat which had brought us, and it was not until August 26th that we moved into our new quarters.
The family occupied the whole of the first floor of the Governor’s house, a spacious and comfortable building. The suite lived in Korniloff’s house, belonging to a rich merchant of Tobolsk, and situated on the other side of the road almost facing ours. The guard was formed by soldiers of the former rifle regiments of the Imperial family who had come with us from Tsarskoïe-Selo. They were under the orders of Colonel Kobylinsky, a generous man who had become sincerely attached to those in his charge; he did all he could to ameliorate their lot.
At first the conditions of our captivity were very similar to those at Tsarkoïe-Selo. We had all that was necessary. The Czar and children nevertheless suffered from lack of space. Their exercise was confined to a very small kitchen garden and a yard which had been formed by enclosing with a fence a broad and little-frequented street running along the south-east side of the house in which they lived. It was very little, and they were exposed to the observation of the soldiers, whose barracks overlooked the whole of the space reserved for us. On the other hand, the members of the suite and servants were freer than at Tsarskoïe-Selo, at any rate to begin with, and
[Illustration: GRAND-DUCHESS TATIANA SITTING AT THE FURTHEST POINT THE PRISONERS WERE ALLOWED TO GO IN THE PARK OF TSARSKOÏE-SELO.]
[Illustration: ALEXIS NICOLAÏEVITCH JOINS HIS SISTER, THE GRAND-DUCHESS TATIANA.
were allowed to go into the town or immediate surroundings.
In September Commissary Pankratof arrived at Tobolsk, having been sent by Kerensky. He was accompanied by his deputy, Nikolsky--like himself, an old political exile. Pankratof was quite a well-informed man, of gentle character, the typical enlightened fanatic. He made a good impression on the Czar and subsequently became attached to the children. But Nikolsky was a low type, whose conduct was most brutal. Narrow and stubborn, he applied his whole mind to the daily invention of fresh annoyances. Immediately after his arrival he demanded of Colonel Kobylinsky that we should be forced to have our photographs taken. When the latter objected that this was superfluous, since all the soldiers knew us--they were the same as had guarded us at Tsarskoïe-Selo--he replied: “It was forced on us in the old days, now it’s their turn.” It had to be done, and henceforward we had to carry our identity cards with a photograph and identity number.