At 11:30 pm on the night of 27–28 January, guards awoke Grand Dukes Dmitry Konstantinovich, and Nikolai Mikhailovich and Georgy Mikhailovich, in their cells at Shpalernaya prison, telling them that they were going to be moved and they had to pack their belongings. They initially assumed that they were going to be transported to Moscow. Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich even thought that they might set free, but his brother Georgy said that it was more likely they were heading to another place to be shot. The Grand Dukes had an ominous hint of what was going to happen to them, when at the time of departure, they were told to leave their luggage.