both received news of the event, was horrified of his son's participation in the murder. The Grand Duke supported his son and wrote a letter to the Tsar asking for clemency for Dmitri. Nevertheless, after spending some time under house arrest, Dmitri was sent to the Persian front as a form of exile. On , Alexandra summoned Paul and asked him to go to the front and gather some troops to save the throne. He declined, convinced that it was going to be a fruitless endeavor. Instead, with the assistance of Prince Michael Putiatin and the lawyer Nicholas Ivanov, Grand Duke Paul drafted a manifesto introducing the idea of a constitutional monarchy with Nicholas II remaining as an Emperor. It was signed by Paul, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich and Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the three most senior grand dukes in the last period of Imperial Russia. The manifesto was then delivered to the Duma to be presented for the Tsar's signature on March 1, at Nicholas II's return from headquarters. However, before that, the Tsar's train was held up and Nicholas II abdicated on 2 March. It fell upon Grand Duke Paul to inform Alexandra of Nicholas II's abdication on 3 March. Revolution At the fall of the Russian monarchy in March 1917, Grand Duke Paul, his wife, and their children remained united living at their luxurious estate in Tsarkoe Selo amid the upheaval. As Tsar Nicholas II and his family were sent to internal exile in Siberia, the Provisional Government, led by Alexander Kerensky, placed Paul under house arrest on . His telephone line was cut and a squad of soldiers guarded all the exits to his home. Through the intervention of his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, whose second wedding he was not able to attend, the guards in charge of overseeing his house were removed. The lives of the Romanovs deteriorated sharply after the Bolsheviks rose to power in October 1917. On , Grand Duke Paul's house was ransacked and his firearms collection was taken away. Paul was arrested and held for two weeks at the Bolsheviks' headquarters in the Smolny Institute. He was going to be incarcerated at the Peter and Paul Fortress, but the Grand Duke protested. He was treated well by his captors, who addressed him as "Comrade Highness". Due to his frail health, he was released and returned to live in