6. Labor While Under Arrest
In October 2017, the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin had replaced the provisional government. For a minute, life was better than before, but it was about to get very bad. In March of 1918, the family had to give up their ten servants as their servitude violated the new government’s philosophies. Because of this, the family’s guards would mandate that the family perform manual labor as there was nobody else to do it. This new life was a long step down for the family that once lived better than almost every other person on the planet. In this picture from the Beinecke Library collection, Alexei and his father stop sawing wood long enough to get a snapshot. It was sometime in the winter of 1917, approaching the end of their time at the Governer’s Mansion.