Spiridovitch, Alexander

Those who served the Tsar: Alexander Spiridovitch (1873-1952)

PHOTO: Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovich (1873-1952)

In 1906 Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovich was handpicked by Emperor Nicholas II to serve as his personal security chief, the position he served faithfully from 1906-1916. He was also responsible for the security of the tsar’s residences. He was a nan of honour, and one of the few men whom the Tsar put complete trust. Throughout his distinguished career, Spiridovich served his Sovereign faithfully and with honour.

He was born on 17th (O.S. 5th) August 1873 in the town of Kem, Arkhangelsk Province into the family of a hereditary nobleman. His father, Ivan Matveevich Spiridovich, was an officer of the border guard, his mother, Anna Alexandrovna, came from the family of the fabulist I. A. Krylov.

Alexander graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Cadet Corps (1891) and the Pavlovsk Military School (1893), from where he was released as a second lieutenant in the 105th Orenburg Infantry Regiment. He was later promoted to lieutenant of the regiment. In 1899 he was transferred to the Separate Corps of Gendarmes

In 1900 he went to Moscow, where he was seconded to the Department for the Protection of Public Safety and Order, usually called the Guard Department and commonly abbreviated in modern English sources as the Okhrana [a secret police force of the Russian Empire and part of the Imperial police department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs], where he served under the command of Sergei Vasilyevich Zubatov[1] (1864-1917).

In 1902, he was appointed head of the Taurida security department in Simferopol in Crimea and in 1903, with the rank of captain, he took up the post of head of the Kiev security department. On 13th May 1903, he arrested the head of the combat organization of the Socialist-Revolutionaries, Grigory Gershuni[2], in Kiev. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.

On 28th May 1905, Spiridovitch was seriously wounded by his former secret collaborator, the Social Democrat P. M. Rudenko, after which he spent several months in treatment. On26th June, he was seconded to the staff of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes.

PHOTO: Tolstoy House, one of the residences
of Alexander Spiridovitch in St. Petersburg

At the beginning of 1906, Alexander was seconded to the palace commandant Dmitri Feodorovich Trepov[3] (1850-1906) and appointed head of the palace Security Agency. In 1907, he organized the protection of Emperor Nicholas II and his Family during a trip to the Finnish skerries. For distinction in service, Alexander Spiridovitch was promoted to colonel.

After the assassination of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin in 1911, Spiridovitch was involved in the investigation on charges of not taking measures to protect the chairman of the Council of Ministers, and, although his career was considered already over, he did not lose the trust of Nicholas II and was not relieved of his post. In 1913, the criminal case was terminated by the personal order of Nicholas II.

During the First World War, Alexander accompanied Nicholas II on all trips. In 1915, he was promoted to major general for distinguished service. He organized the protection of Nicholas II at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief at Mogilev. On 15th August 1916, Alexander Spiridovitch was appointed mayor of Yalta in Crimea.

During the February 1917 Revolution, Spiridovitch arrived in Petrograd [4], where he was arrested by the Provisional Government, held in the Peter and Paul Fortress and interrogated by the Extraordinary Investigation Commission. In early October 1917, he was released from prison on bail in October.

In 1920 he emigrated to France. He was a member of the Russian Monarchist Party in Paris. In 1926, he participated as a delegate from France in the Russian Congress Abroad. While living in emigration, he gave numerous public lectures on the history of the Russian revolutionary movement and the struggle against it, as well as lectures on Emperor Nicholas II and his family.

During his years in exile, Alexander Spiridovitch published several books on these topics and his own memoirs, including Les Derniers années de la cour de Tsarskoïe Selo, Paris, Payot, 1928; Histoire du terrorisme russe, 1886-1917, Paris, Payot, 1930 and Raspoutine 1863-1916, Paris, 1936.

In 1950, at a meeting with the American Sovietologist Isaac Don Levine (1892-1981), he recognized as authentic a document proving that Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was an agent of the Tsarist police.

In 1950, Spiridovitch moved to the United States, where he died in 1952 at the age of 78. He was buried at the Novo-Diveevo Cemetery – the largest the largest Russian Orthodox cemetery outside of Russia, situated in Rockland County, New York. His personal archives are today in the collection of Yale University.

NOTES

[1] Zubatov committed suicide during the February Revolution of March 1917 after hearing the news of the Emperor’s abdication.

[2] Grigory Andreyevich Gershuni (1870-1908) was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. In February 1904, Gershuni was tried by a military court in St Petersburg and received a death sentence, which later was reduced to life imprisonment at a hard labour camp by Tsar Nicholas II.

[3] Trepov was Head of the Moscow police, Governor-General of St. Petersburg with extraordinary powers, and Assistant Interior Minister with full control of the police. His attempts to restore order were overwhelmed by the revolution of 1905; he retained influence with Nicholas II, when appointed as the Commandant of the Imperial Palace.

[4] In Petrograd [St. Petersburg] Spiridovitch lived in the Tolstoy House at 15-17 Troitskaya Street (now Rubinstein Street) and at 54 Fontanka Embankment in apartment 333

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PHOTO: the first French language editions of Alexander
Spiridovitch’s memoirs, published by Payot Paris

LAST YEARS OF THE COURT AT TSARSKOE SELO – 2 Volumes
by Alexander Spiridovitch

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Originally published in French in 1928, this is the FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITION of both volumes – a MUST read for any one interested in the life and reign of Emperor Nicholas II.

Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovitch (1873-1952) was handpicked by Emperor Nicholas II to serve as his personal security chief from 1906-1916. He was also responsible for the security of the tsar’s residences.

His memoirs offer a rare eye-witness glimpse into the private world of the last tsar and his family and their day to day life. Thanks to his eye for detail, he Alexander Palace and Livadia Palace in detail, the Imperial yacht Standart and journeys through the Finnish fjords and to Livadia in the Crimea.

Spiridovitch writes candidly about his impressions of Emperor Nicholas II and family, as well as the grand dukes and grand duchesses. He also writes about his investigation of Grigorii Rasputin.

Spiridovitch and his men were highly recognized for their counter-terrorist work. His memoirs reveal the numerous plots to assassinate Nicholas II and other members of the Imperial family by terrorist groups working within Russia.

Spiridovitch was a pillar of honesty and trust, articulate, and intelligent, loyal to God, the Tsar and Mother Russia. He was truly a gentleman beyond reproach. His memoirs offer one of the most honest accounts of the character and personality of Tsar Nicholas II and life at the Russian Imperial Court in its twilight years.

*You can order this title from most AMAZON outlets, including
the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia,
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Sweden,
Brazil, Mexico and Japan

*Note: prices are quoted in local currencies

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CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO ORDER FROM AMAZON

LAST YEARS OF THE COURT AT TSARSKOE SELO
Volume 1
1906-1910

Volume I – 1906-1910, with 458 pages + 59 black & white photographs

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE HARD COVER EDITION – PRICE $30.00

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE PAPERBACK EDITION – PRICE $25.00

***

LAST YEARS OF THE COURT AT TSARSKOE SELO
Volume 2
1910-1914

Volume II – 1910-1914, with 480 pages + 65 black & white photographs

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE HARD COVER EDITION – PRICE $30.00

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE PAPERBACK EDITION – PRICE $25.00

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

The third volume of Alexander Spiridovitch’s memoirs cover the years 1914-1916. This book is only available in French and Russian.

In 1935, Spiridovitch also published a book about Grigorii Rasputin (1863-1916): from Russian documents and the author’s private archives » (published in 1935). It is a detailed biography based on his direct knowledge of the Russian Imperial Court. This book is only available in French and Russian.

The death of Pyotr Stolypin at Kiev, 18th September 1911

Posted on September 18 by Paul Gilbert

PHOTO: Emperor Nicholas II and Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (right) in Kiev. This photo was taken the day before an assassination attempt was made on Stolypin’s life in Kiev on O.S. 30th August 1911

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II (1894-1917), politicians and police officers were murdered as a result of widespread revolutionary violence by leftist revolutionaries. There are no exact statistics on the number of politicians and police officers killed during Nicholas II’s reign, however, it can be argued that hundreds or even thousands of people were killed during this period due to the political violence that spilled over into the revolutionary movement.

One of the most tragic human losses occurred on 18th [O.S. 5th September] September 1911 – when Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin died, following injuries sustained during an attempted assassination in Kiev four days earlier.

Stolypin was a prominent and widely respected Russian politician. He was the third Prime Minister of Russia, and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire from 1906 until his assassination in 1911.

Known as the greatest reformer of Russian society and economy, he initiated reforms that caused unprecedented growth of the Russian state.

“Give the state 20 years of internal and external peace, and you will not recognize today’s Russia,” he said. In an interview with one of the newspapers, Stolypin described the ongoing reforms, the main goal of which, according to him, was to create a class of small landowners, which was supposed to lead to the prosperity of the country.

Sadly, Stolypin’s reforms were complicated by the fact that they were not fully implemented due to the tragic death of Stolypin in 1911, the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the February 1917 and October 1917 revolutions, and then the Civil War. Stolypin himself assumed that all the reforms he conceived would be carried out in a comprehensive manner (and not only in terms of agrarian reform) and would give the maximum effect in the long term (according to Stolypin, “twenty years of internal and external peace” were required

PHOTO: early 20th century painting depicting Dmitry Bogrov
shooting Stolypin at the Kiev Opera House. Artisting unknown

PHOTO: “Stolypin was standing. He slowly turned his face towards us and, with his left hand, made the sign of the cross in the air.” – letter from Nicholas II to his mother

In the autumn of 1911, Stolypin traveled to Kiev despite police warnings that an assassination plot was afoot as there had already been 10 attempts on his life! On 14th September [O.S. 1st September] 1911, there was a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” at the Kiev Opera House in the presence of the Tsar and his two eldest daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna.

The theatre was occupied by 90 men posted as interior guards. According to Alexander Spiridovich – the head of Nicholas II’s secret personal guard – after the second act “Stolypin was standing in front of the ramp separating the parterre from the orchestra, his back to the stage. On his right were the Minister of the Imperial Court Count Vladimir Fredericks (1838-1927) and the Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov[1] (1848-1926).” His personal bodyguard had stepped out to smoke.

Stolypin was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the chest, by Dmitry Bogrov, a leftist revolutionary. Bogrov ran to one of the entrances and was apprehended. Stolypin rose from his chair, removed his gloves and unbuttoned his jacket, exposing a blood-soaked waistcoat. He never lost consciousness, but his condition deteriorated. He died four days later.

There is a myth that the Tsar and his daughters witnessed the assassination attempt, however, this is not true. In a letter to his mother, Nicholas describes the chain of events on that fateful night:

“ . . . During the second interval we had just left the box as it was so hot, when we heard two sounds as if something had been dropped . . . I ran back into the box to look. To the right I saw a group of officers and other people. They seemed to be dragging someone along: women were shrieking, and directly in front of me in the stalls Stolypin was standing. He slowly turned his face towards us and, with his left hand, made the sign of the cross in the air. Only then did I notice that he was very pale and that his right hand and uniform were bloodstained. He slowly sank into his chair and began to unbutton his tunic . . .

“Olga and Tatiana came back into the box and saw what had happened . . . Then the theatre filled up again, the national anthem was sung, and I left with the girls at eleven. You can imagine with what emotions! Alix knew nothing about it till I told her. She took the news rather calmly. Tatiana was very much upset, she cried a lot and they both slept badly.”

PHOTO: Dmitry Grigoryevich Bogrov (1887-1911)

Bogrov was hanged 10 days after the assassination. On his own request, Stolypin was buried in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (see photo below) on 22nd [O.S. 9th September] September 1911.

PHOTO: The grave of Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

PHOTO: On 27th December 2012, a monument to Pyotr Stolypin was unveiled in Moscow, near the Russian White House, officially known as the House of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Memory Eternal! Вечная Память!

NOTES:

[1] Sukhomlinov was ousted as Minister of War amid allegations of failure to provide the Imperial Russian Army with necessary armaments and munitions for World War I and accused of responsibility for Russia’s defeats in the early Eastern Front. Sukhomlinov was tried for high treason, corruption, and abuse of power in a high-profile case that damaged the reputation of Russia’s fragile Imperial government. According to some historians, the Sukhomlinov scandal may have done more harm to the Romanov monarchy than the lurid scandals associated with Rasputin.

Sukhomlinov lived the remainder of his life in extreme poverty in Berlin, where he was found dead from exposure to cold on a park bench one morning on 2nd February 1926. Sukhomlinov was buried at the Berlin-Tegel Russian Orthodox Cemetery.