The Great War and the February Revolution of 1914–1917. Memoirs of Major General of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes, Chief of the Imperial Palace Guard of Nicholas II

Major General of the Separate Corps of Gendarmes Alexander Ivanovich Spiridovich was a man devoted to Emperor Nicholas II and to the very idea of monarchic power. With the onset of World War I, A. I. Spiridovich accompanied the sovereign on trips to the front, ensuring his protection, at the Headquarters and in the front units. In 1915, for his service successes, A. I. Spiridovich was promoted to Major General. In the summer of 1916, Nicholas II appointed Spiridovich as the mayor of Yalta. The war, as a general belief, was heading towards a victorious end, and Yalta, the emperor's favorite Crimean corner, was to be turned into a “Russian Nice”, and for this, an initiative, honest man, a servant of the law was needed. The general energetically took up the task, but... history had a different scenario in store for the Russian Empire... In February 1917, amidst revolutionary events, General Spiridovich found himself in Petrograd on a business trip and could observe everything happening with his own eyes. The collapse of the Russian Empire, the overthrow of the monarch, and the subsequent events he perceived as a great tragedy. Personal memories of A. I. Spiridovich are complemented by numerous official documents, which makes the narrative especially credible.