Thanks soooo much, Inok Nikolai!! Having the letter in French i couldn't really understand. You don't know how grateful i'm for this.
Well, actually, we are beholden to you for giving us this opportunity to discuss Pankratov.
All those members of the suite who survived Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg agreed that Commissar Pankratov was a half-decent person, if somewhat of a fanatical, theoretical revolutionary.
Kobylinsky, Bitner and others considered him well-intentioned, for the most part.
But one must distinguish between the Pankratov of their accounts in 1918, and the Pankratov writing his memoirs in Soviet Russia in 1925.
By the time Pankratov wrote his memoirs, he was pretty much free to say anything he wanted. Who, among those still found in Russia who had known the Imperial family, would have come forward in 1925 to publically refute Pankratov or to defend the memory of the Imperial family? It would have been futile and suicidal to attempt such a thing.
But it is disconcerting to see his memoirs now being translated, printed, and quoted, with no editorial comments or sober evaluation of what he records.
In contrast, S. Melgunov, in his
Sudba Imperatora Nikolaia Posle Otrecheniia (The Fate of Emperor Nicholas II After His Abdication, pp. 220-222), discusses Pankratov's later perception of his former time in Tobolsk.
In general, in his books S. Melgunov contrasts what many participants in the Revolution later wrote in their memoirs with what they actually said and did at the time.
It makes for some very interesting, and, at times, amusing reading. It's a shame that his books have not been translated into English.
Melgunov, being a liberal socialist, cannot be suspected of monarchist sympathies, although he is fair to Nicholas II and the old regime.
(I realize that elsewhere on this forum "Zvezda" has expressed his/her critical opinion of Melgunov, but I do not share that evaluation of the man.)
Of course, Pankratov (and all the other jailers of the Imperial family) never dreamed that one day the world would all be able to read the Imperial family's diaries and letters, and thus learn their true opinion of these memoirists!
Some of the questionable statements made by Pankratov in his 1925 account:— Pankratov's glowing account of how warmly he was accepted by the Imperial family, as opposed to their own comments in their diaries and letters
In his diary entry for Sept. 29, 1917, Tsar Nicholas II called Pankratov a
scoundrel for not allowing them to walk outside their compound, even after having received permission from Kerensky.
On October 5, he wrote that it was Pankratov's
obstinancy that was keeping them from going to church.
— Concerning the Empress' command of Russian, Pankratov wrote: "Alexandra Fedorovna pronounced Russian words with a heavy accent, and it was noticebale that speaking Russian was hard for her ...[she] pronounced each phrase with difficulty, and with a German accent — just like a foreigner who had learned the Russian language from books, and not from practice."
(But see:
http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=1314.msg501358#msg501358)
— Alexandra Feodorovna and her children never wrote to Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
But there exist at least ten letters from them written to her from captivity.
— the Imperial children's lack of exposure to the classics of Russian literature. Their letters and diary entries prove otherwise.
(Claudia Bitner
did comment to Sokolov that the younger two children's education was wanting in some respects, but she did
not make the sweeping statements attributed to her by Pankratov in his memoirs.)
— Pankratov even claims that the Imperial family was so taken with him as a lecturer that they proposed that he help tutor the Imperial children!
— He also claims that the Imperial family definitely did not want him to leave when the soldiers expelled him.
But on Feb. 20, 1918, Tsar Nicholas wrote to his mother:
“The man who was over us here [Pankratov], has been at last removed away by our soldiers. We have only got our dear colonel [Kobylinsky], who came here with us."
This is not to say that there is nothing credible in Pankratov's account, but his memoirs (like most, if not all, such recollections) should be read with discretion, and not simply taken at face value.
