Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia - Captivity

Captivity

After the successful Bolshevik coup of November 1917, the Petrograd newspapers published a decree summoning all male Romanovs to report to the dreaded Cheka, the secret police. Initially they were just required not to leave the city. In March 1918, the Romanovs who registered were summoned again, now to be sent away into internal Russian exile. Sergei Mikhailovich was sent to Viatka, a small town in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. With suitcases in hand, the grand duke arrived at the Nicholas railway station on the afternoon of 4 April 1918. Sergei’s personal secretary, Fedor Remez (1878–1918), followed him in his exile. At seven that evening, the train pulled out of Petrograd headed east to Siberia. Grand Duke Sergei departed to his destiny in the company of his secretary, three sons of Grand Duke Konstantine Kosntantinovich (Princes: Ivan, Konstantine and Igor Konstantinovich) and Prince Vladimir Paley, the son of the morganatic marriage of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich. In Viatka, the Grand Duke was lodged in a different house from his much younger relatives. Although they all were virtually prisoners, they were allowed to walk freely around town, and could attend services at a local church. However, their situation changed after only eleven days.

On 30 April, Grand Duke Sergei, his secretary, and the other Romanovs with them were transferred to Yekaterinburg by order of the Ural Regional Soviet. The journey lasted for thee days through the forest of the Urals. On 3 May 1918, the prisoners arrived in Yekaterinburg. They were housed at the Palace Royal Hotel on the city’s Voznesensky Prospekt. A few days later, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, sister of the Tsarina, joined them and they were all allowed a certain amount of freedom. Although the Tsar and Tsarina with their children were there nearby at the Ipatiev House, they were unable to make contact. After two weeks, the Ural Regional Soviet decided once again to transfer Grand Duke Sergei and the other Romanovs in his group. On 18 May 1918, they were told that they were to be taken to the town of Alapayevsk, in the northern Urals, 120 miles (190 km) from Yekaterinburg, and ordered to quickly pack. That same afternoon, they boarded a train and, two days later, arrived at their destination.

The Romanovs were placed in the Napolnaya School, on the fringe of the town. The school was small, consisting of only six rooms, the furniture basic but scanty. Each prisoner received an iron bed. They were allowed to move in to the desolate former schoolrooms and sort out their living arrangements on their own. Grand Duke Sergei shared a room with Feodor Remez and Prince Paley. Although the captives were under the strict guard of the Red Army soldiers, they were allowed to walk in town, to talk to people and to go to church on feasts days. Preparing to spend a long time in Alapayevsk, they planted flowers and vegetable gardens near the school and spent many hours working there. On rainy days, the Romanovs read Russian novels to each other. Gradually, the regimen toughened and they were forbidden to take walks. The school was encircled with a barbed-wire fence and small trenches. Two weeks later, they were murdered.