there every spring. However, they were able to return only six years later, after the war, having survived the Russian revolution. War and revolution With the outbreak of World War I, Grand Duke Andrei joined the staff at the headquarters of the Northwestern front fighting against Germany. It was a relatively safe position away from combat. On 7 May 1915, he became Commander of the Horse Guard Artillery brigade. This meant little, as the batteries were scattered in many places and were not a united command. He was made Major-General on 15 August 1915 and served as chief of the 130th Infantry Regiment of Kherson. His military duties were ill-defined and he was able to spend much idle time in Saint Petersburg retaking his social life with Kschessinska. Empress Alexandra took notice, complaining to Nicholas II. By 1916, Grand Duke Andrei joined other members of his family in political intrigues against the Empress who was in charge of the government in Saint Petersburg while Nicholas II was away at Russia's war military headquarters. In December 1916, the Assassination of Rasputin, in which Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Felix Yusupov took part, divided the Romanov family further. Grand Duke Andrei joined many of his relatives in asking for clemency for the culprits. As Andrei's ambitious mother intrigued against Empress Alexandra, Nicholas II ordered the Grand Duchess to leave Saint Petersburg for a time. After a short personal interview with Nicholas II, on 16 January 1917, Grand Duke Andrei left for Kislovodsk, a spa resort town in the Caucasus. He arrived there on January 21. His mother followed him a month later, claiming health reasons. Andrei Vladimirovich and his mother were in Kislovodsk when Nicholas II was forced to abdicate at the outbreak of the February revolution. The diaries of Grand Duke Andrei, written while he was in the army in the North-Eastern Front (1914–1915) and in Petrograd (1916–1917), have survived at the State Archives of the Russian Federation. They have been published, giving a detailed description of the period between the murder of Rasputin and the abdication of Nicholas II. In July 1917, Mathilde and her son escaped the disturbance in Saint Petersburg, joining Andrei in Kislovodsk. However, they could not live together as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was reluctant to acknowledge their presence. Andrei found separate living arrangements for them while he settled in a different villa with his