The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

Then the Emperor approaches the altar and raises his right hand toward the Bible which is presented to him ... In slow, short tones, stressing each word, he proclaims, ‘Officers of my Guard here present, I salute in you the whole army, and I bless it Solemnly I swear that I shall not conclude peace so long as a single enemy remains on the soil of the fatherland.’” This was word for word the oath that Czar Alexander I swore in 1812, when Napoleon invaded Russia. After pronouncing it before the brilliantly and frantically cheering throng of courtiers in the St. Georges Gallery, the Czar stepped out on the balcony overlooking the great square of the Winter Palace, where on that other Sunday — the Bloody Sunday of 1905 — his soldiers had mowed down the ranks of unarmed demonstrators. This time, too, the crowd filled the square — the third largest in Europe — waving flags, banners, icons and portraits of the Czar, but this time sovereign and subjects shared the same solemn exaltation. As the Czar repeated his ancestor’s historic oath, the crowd dropped to its knees and sang the Imperial anthem, God Save the Czar, followed by the lovely hymn, Lord, Save the People and Bless Thine Inheritance, invoking the divine protection in time of war.

At a rally when war began in Russia