Тринадцать лет при Русском Дворе. Трагическая судьба Николая II и царской семьи

(Peterhof 1905 - Yekaterinburg 1918)

Pierre Gilliard (1879-1962), after graduating from the University of Lausanne in 1904, was invited to Russia as a professor of French to the children of the Duke of Leuchtenberg. In September 1905 he received an offer to teach the language to the children of Emperor Nicholas II. Since 1913, he became a mentor to the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexei, who became very close to his teacher and gave him the nickname "Zhilik". After the overthrow of the monarchy, he went with the emperor's family to Siberia. He was forcibly separated from her after being sent to Yekaterinburg and, by chance, survived. One of the first to be at the scene of the murder of the Imperial family and participated in its investigation, collecting information and searching for the remains. He had important data on the death of the royal family, made sketches of the Ipatiev House and the proposed burial place in an abandoned mine. One of the first to publish what he knew about the last months of the life of the royal family and its death. In 1920 he returned to Europe, and already in 1921 his book The Tragic Fate of Nicholas II and His Family was published. Throughout his subsequent life, he repeatedly took part in exposing various impostors who pretended to be the surviving Romanovs. A large collection of photographs of representatives of the Imperial family and the place of their death, taken by P. Gilliard, is well known. The memoirs are of great value, since their author regularly communicated with Nicholas II, the Empress, the Grand Duchesses and the heir for a considerable time, and was also part of the social circle of the court nobility. Thanks to his memoirs, the unofficial life of the Russian ruling house in the last years of its existence received comprehensive coverage. The memoirs are a very detailed story about the life and customs of the Romanovs, court etiquette, the characters of the princesses and the empress, undercurrents and intrigues at court. They highlight the personal qualities of Nicholas II and his wife, hidden from the eyes of strangers. The book is free from excessive emotionality and imbued with thoughtful reflections on the historical context of the early 20th century. The memoirs are filled with liveliness of immediate impressions and many valuable details. The author talks about all the key events and phenomena of that era - about Grigory Rasputin, the First World War (according to P. Gilliard, the whole family of the emperor cried on the day of its announcement), the revolutions of 1917 and the first days of the Red Terror. During his imprisonment, together with the royal family, he repeatedly alleviated the suffering of the sick crown prince, replacing him with a nurse, did not avoid hard work, and, together with the exiled emperor, sawed firewood in the Siberian frost.