I.L. Goremykin looked blankly somewhere into the sky. Involuntarily he remembered: "In 1906, the resignation of S..Y Witte was final."

- However ..., - S.Yu. Witte slightly doubted - the loan would be directed against Germany and would be contrary to the interests of France itself (and Russia).

The German Emperor Wilhelm II and (ex) Minister of Finance of Russia Ivan Pavlovich Shipov, who came to the cafe-library, exchanged views on the Russian alternative "foreign loan (and preservation of ruble exchange for gold) - or refusal to exchange credit tickets for gold (which reduces the need for foreign Loan). "

Minister of Finance I.P. Shipov expressed his point of view, being in a very gloomy mood:

- A short-term loan of 267 million francs does not solve the issue and does not eliminate the need to introduce compulsory paper circulation ... Some more favorable information from many state Chambers on the receipt of state revenues does not deserve much faith, since they can be replaced by the same catastrophic news that have been received...

I think it is advisable to repeatedly introduce the draft Decree on the suspension of the exchange of credit tickets for gold.

One of the participants of the forthcoming presentation, who was standing nearby, thought: "The termination of the exchange of the ruble for gold, the issue of paper money would have facilitated the beginning of the redemption of land from the landlords and the subsequent sale of these lands to the peasants. And who knows what is more important - a hard ruble (exchange of the ruble for gold ), stimulating economic growth, or - resolving the agrarian issue, agrarian reform, giving land to the peasants. However, the refusal to exchange credit tickets for gold, the issue of paper money is unlikely to become insurmountable obstacle for stimulating economic growth."

The German Emperor Wilhelm II reacted rather dryly and indifferently to the words of Minister I.P. Shipov:

- I'm not a big financier, and I don't understand why Russia needs so much to care for its monetary system, when she has so many other worries?

Tell me, please, do not you think that it is simply wild that among the general disintegration, among the constant unrest that can sweep away everything that is still conservative in Europe, the two Monarchic countries can not join together to form one dense core and defend their existence .

Is it not a direct madness that Monarchist Russia, over the head of Monarchist Germany, seeks support in Revolutionary France and, together with it, always goes against its natural and historical friend.

Several steps alongside the German Emperor and the Minister of Finance of Russia were stepped by Lev Davidovich Trotsky (who in 1905 became chairman of the Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies). As if speaking aloud to himself, he said:

- The debt obligations of the Romanovs will not be recognized by the victorious nation. We decide to avoid the payment of debts for all those loans, which the Imperial government has concluded. The Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of February 10, 1918 declared all tsarist debts to be completely annulled. Those who claim that the October Revolution does not recognize any obligations are wrong. The revolution recognizes its obligations. The obligation, which she assumed on December 2, 1905, she carried out on February 10, 1918. To creditors of tsarism, the revolution has the right to recall: "Gentlemen, you were warned in time!".

Having stated, L.D. Trotsky stepped aside, waiting for the start of the presentation of the memoirs unified in one edition. Not far from him was the chairman of the First State Duma, Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev. S.A. Muromtsev dispassionately said: "The Vyborg appeal, adopted in Vyborg on July 10, 1906 in response to the dissolution of the First State Duma, called upon citizens of all of Russia, before the convening of the Duma, not to" give a penny to the treasury, no soldier to the army". Loans that will be concluded without consent of the Duma, were declared invalid".

The German Emperor and the Minister of Finance of Russia politely bowed to the Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of Emperor Nicholas II. She spoke out to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Vladimir Borisovich Frederiks:

- Unfortunately, my son is too kind, soft ...

It's really terrible, and I understand that Stolypin simply drops his hands, and he has no confidence in how to do business.

The Emperor is too proud of himself and is experiencing the crisis that has developed together with the Empress, without showing any appearance to those around him. He is worried and is looking for an outcome.

I do not see anything good ahead.

The farther away, the more and deeper the Emperor's grievances with Stolypin will grow. And I'm almost sure that now poor Stolypin will win the case, but for a very short time, and we will soon see him out of work, and this is very unfortunate for the Sovereign and for all of Russia. I personally do not know much of Stolypin, but it seems to me that he is necessary for us, and his departure will be a great grief for us all.

My poor son, how little luck he has in people. There was a man whom no one knew here, but who was smart and energetic and was able to enter the order after the horror that we experienced only 6 years ago, and this man is being pushed into the abyss. And who? Those who say that they love the Sovereign and Russia. But in fact, these people are ruining Him and homeland. That's just terrible...

V.B. Frederiks looked sympathetically at the Empress-Mother.

- During my long diplomatic service, held among a variety of peoples under all latitudes, - joined in the conversation with Witte and Goremykin Foreign Minister Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky, - I saw many public figures who were known for their radicalism, since they remained in the opposition, and who became ardent supporters of order, when they were called to power.

Is it really possible to seriously believe that the most influential figures of the First Duma like Muromtsev, Shipov and Prince Lvov, who are big landowners and so vitally interested in maintaining peace and resolving the agrarian question peacefully, would be less loyal and less conservative than the bureaucrats category Schwenenbach. Who have no connection with the land and whose well-being consists in receiving a salary on the twentieth day of each month?

S.Yu. Witte - more and more nervously - continued to state his point of view:

- ... They did not dare to dissolve or disperse the Duma, not to set a date for elections to a new Duma and not to give a new election law, that is, they did not dare to completely destroy October 17, or, in other words, destroy legislative institutions. But only decided to make such a law, so that the State Duma was completely obedient.