As the revolution proceeded the agitation grew deeper amongst the soldiers. Having no opportunities to find anything wrong in the life of the arrested ones they tried to find new ways of inflicting suffering upon the imperial family. On one occasion they saw the czarevitch carrying a small rifle. This rifle was a model of the standard infantry rifle and was presented to the czarevitch by some munition works. It was absolutely harmless, as special cartridges had to be used for it and none of those cartridges were available. Of course, the trouble was started by the soldiers of the second regiment. All the efforts of the officer (I do not remember his name) to persuade the men that their demand was ridiculous, had no results. In order to avoid violence he took the rifle from the czarevitch. After this thing occurred I came to the palace where Gilliard and Tegleva told me the story and added that the czarevitch was crying. I ordered that the rifle should be forwarded to me, took it apart, and in this way, smuggled it back to the czarevitch. Finally the soldiers and through them the soviet of Czarskoe-Selo ceased entirely to comply with my orders and appointed Ensign Domodziantz, an Armenian, to act as my assistant. He was a rough man and made the utmost efforts to get into the palace, where I tried my best to prevent him from going. After that he began to pass his time in the park, especially when the family were walking there. Once as the emperor was walking by and held out his hand to him, he refused to shake hands with the emperor, saying he had no right to do it, being an assistant commandant. After this incident was related to Kerensky he came to the palace at Czarskoe-Selo and called for the chairman of the local soviet (he did not come in regard to this incident, but on some other business). The chairman of the soviet said to Kerensky: “I want to let you know, minister, that we elected Ensign Domodziantz to be assistant commandant of the palace.” Kerensky answered: “Yes, I know it, but was it so necessary to elect him; couldn’t you elect somebody else?” However, no changes were made, as Kerensky himself had no power. It was Domodziantz who told the soldiers not to answer the emperor’s greeting. Of course the soldiers followed his advice, and, of course, it was the soldiers of the second regiment. I had to ask the emperor not to greet the soldiers, as I was losing control over the men, so the emperor refrained from further greetings to them. At the same time I must state that it was not only the soldiers who were unfair in their attitude towards the imperial family.