Felix still hoped that Nicholas and the Russian government would respond to Rasputin's death by taking steps to address the increasing political unrest. Felix refused to permit Irina to leave Rakitnoye to join her mother in Petrograd because he felt it was too dangerous. The Tsar abdicated on 2 March, OS, and he and his family were arrested by the Bolsheviks. They were eventually murdered at Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918. His decision to exile Felix and Dmitri meant that they were among the few members of the Romanov family to escape execution during the Bolshevik Revolution that followed.