In late April 1918, the family was about to be moved from Tobolsk to their final destination, Yekaterinburg. Hemophiliac son Alexei was ill and in pain, as usual, and decisions had to be made re which family members would go first, then who would follow. Originally, Nicholas was scheduled to travel with the four daughters, with Alexandra and son Alexei to follow. Ultimately, though, Alexandra chose to travel first with her husband and daughter Maria, leaving the invalid Alexei to be cared for by the other three daughters.
Commissar Yakovlev, in charge of the family in Tobolsk, was interviewed in May 1918 re the travel decisions. Surprised that Alexandra had elected to part from her son, he noted that it had been reported to him that Alexandra had said to a confidante, re her husband: "I am afraid that left alone he may do something stupid."
(While Alexandra's advice was usually emotionally rather than intellectually based, and thus often worthless, she nonetheless occasionally provided a backbone to her husband---and remained appalled that he had abdicated while apart from her, when alone at the front in March of 1917.)
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