6th.

The wife and the son of Nicholas Romanov had been sent to a place of
security. In a detailed account of the execution, published in Berlin,
it appeared that the Czar had been awakened at five o'clock in the
morning, and informed that he was to be executed in two hours. He spent
some time with a priest in his bedroom and wrote several letters.
According to this account, when the patrol came to take him out for
execution he was found in a state of collapse. His last words, uttered
just before the executioners fired, are reported to have been "Spare my
wife and my innocent and unhappy children. May my blood preserve Russia
from ruin."

The Russian press, including the Socialist papers, condemned the
execution as a cruel and unnecessary act. The charges of conspiracy were
utterly unproven, and were merely an excuse. The Central Executive
Committee, however, accepted the decision of the Ural Regional Soviet as
being regular, and a decree by the Bolshevist Government declared all
the property of the former Emperor, his wife, his mother and all the
members of the Imperial house, forfeit to the Soviet Republic.

Meantime the provisional government, which had taken power on the 16th
of March, seemed as if it might succeed. Miliukov, whose announcement of
the Regency had made him unpopular, declared for a Republic. The great
army commanders for the most part accepted the revolution. The Grand
Duke Nicholas was removed from his command and the other Grand Dukes
were ordered not to leave Petrograd. Alexiev became commander-in-chief;
Ruzsky had the northern group of armies, Brusilov the southern; Kornilov
was in command of Petrograd, and the central group was put under the
command of Lechitsky. Reports came that discipline was improving
everywhere on the front.

[Illustration: Map of Petrograd]
CAPITAL OF THE NEW REPUBLIC OF RUSSIA

The plans of the government, too, met with general approval. Their
policy was announced by Prince Lvov. "The new government considers it
its duty to make known to the world that the object of free Russia is
not to dominate other nations and forcibly to take away their territory.
The object of independent Russia is a permanent peace and the right of
all nations to determine their own destiny."

Kerensky, in inspiring speeches, encouraged the country to war, and
declared against a separate peace. The new government announced that
Poland was to receive complete independence, with a righ