VOLUNTARY MARTYRDOM

In 1906 Stolypin’s government prepared a decree on granting full liberties to the Jews. This protocol was signed by all members of the government, all members of the National Council, was obviously approved by the National Duma as well, and only remained to be signed by the Sovereign. And now – here is Tsar Nicholas II’s letter to P.A. Stolypin:

Petr Arkad’yevich, I am returning the protocol on the Jewish issue to you without approving it. Far in advance of your presenting it to me, I can tell you that I thought about it and agonized over it day and night. Despite the most convincing arguments on behalf of making a positive decision on this matter, more and more insistently my inner voice urged me not to take such a decision upon myself. Up to now my conscience has never betrayed me! Therefore, in this case I intend to follow its dictates as well. I know that you, too, believe that “a king’s heart is in God’s hands.” May it be so! For all the power given to me I bear an awesome responsibility before God and am ready to give an account to Him at all times. I regret only one thing: that you and your colleagues have worked very hard over a matter whose decision I have rejected.

Nicholas

By rejecting this decision the Sovereign signed his own death warrant, which was put into effect on July 17, 1918. But even this is not the very essence of this incredible, this historic act… The obvious is incredible, but the essence is that in refusing to sign this protocol, the Sovereign was well-aware of the cost of such a refusal. In other words, he was accepting voluntary martyrdom! And today, when the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas is placed at the head of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, this is the explanation for his leadership.

As is customary nowadays, one can, of course, look upon such a spiritual feat on the part of the Tsar as simply a fact. But this is not simply a fact! This is the embodiment of that incredible confession of faith in Christ which in his own time was declared to the world by Maximus the Confessor: “Even if the entire universe follows the path of this insanity, I alone will not follow them!”

But it seems that even this is not all that is contained within the fact of the absence of the Tsar’s signature where everyone else had signed. This is unparalleled firmness on the part of the Sovereign, unparalleled by any other head of state, as they are now called.

And thus now – attention! – the following question arises: who else among the leaders in the 20th century and even more so in the 21st century would dare not approve this protocol, for fear of the Jews? Who else could have such exceptional strength, such decisiveness, such courage to refuse to sign this protocol?

Attention! Here is the right answer: NO ONE! No one except the Russian Sovereign, Emperor Nicholas II. And if Tsar Nicholas II, like Maximus the Confessor, turned out to be the only one in the whole world who unflinchingly rejected the protocol which, for fear of the Jews, had been signed by all the highest-ranking officials in Russia, including Stolypin, then another question arises, a question for the entire liberal world: so, gentlemen Liberals and all your atheist supporters: Tsar Nicholas II – was he a weak person? Was he indecisive? Was he cowardly? Could a weak person reject this protocol? Could an indecisive person fail to approve it? Could a cowardly person even dare write such a letter?

The simple truth is that the Orthodox Tsar ascended the Golgotha, and the Russian people ascended the Golgotha after him. And thus this action on the part of the Sovereign, this fact which the liberal atheists wish to suppress, has for each one of us, for each coming generation, the importance of the Tsar’s urging us to steadfastness, which must be demonstrated even now, without waiting for the time when the Russian elder will declare: “My little ones, the Antichrist is come!”

Vadim Vinogradov