The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II (44 page)

Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich (
ex-Emperor Nicholas II)

Grand Duchess Alexandra Fedorov (
ex-Empress Alexandra)

Grand Duke Alexis Nikolaeovich, aged 14 (
ex-Tsarevich
)

Grand Duchess Olga, aged 23

Grand Duchess Tatiana, aged 21

Grand Duchess Marie, aged 19

Grand Duchess Anastasia, aged 17

July 17/18, 1918, Alapaevsk

Grand Duke Serge Mikhailovich, aged 64
Grand Duchess Elizabeth (Ella), aged 54
Prince Ioann Konstantinovich, aged 32
Prince Konstantin Konstaninovich
(brother),
aged 27
Prince Igor Konstantinovich
(brother),
aged 24
Prince Vladimir Paley
(son, Grand Duke Paul below),
aged 21

January 19, 1919, Fortress of SS Peter & Paul

Grand Duke Paul Aleksandrovich, aged 58
Grand Duke Dimitri Konstantinovich, aged 58

Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich (
Bimbo
), aged 60

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, aged 55

AT the 90th anniversary of Michael’s death in Perm, in June 2008, I went there to join in the ceremonies to mark that day, little knowing what to expect. I was both astonished and delighted at the scale of the events, and by the thousands who turned out to honour his memory. Forgotten? Clearly not in Perm, where he was murdered in 1918 but is still revered by many. It was those three days of marches, of church services, of concerts, and of an academic conference to discuss his life, which seemed its own proof that Michael was dead but not gone. And that the more Russia knows about him, the greater the hope that it can bridge that gap between the Soviet version of history, and the reality. Hence this book.

However, this would not have been possible without the long research that had gone into a prior book, of which I was co-author with my wife Rosemary,
Michael & Natasha.
And as then, the many people and institutions we thanked deserve thanks again.

In Russia, I remain enormously grateful to all those at the State Archive of the Russian Federation in Moscow who gave us such enormous help over many months — the director, Sergei Mironenko, the deputy director Alya Barkovets, and the historian Vladimir Khrustalev, in particular. As ever, I also remain in the debt of Dr Aschen Mikoyan, of Moscow University, whose grandfather was chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and who spent many months editing some 3,000 pages of letters and documents about Michael. I shall always remember her blurting out —
‘how could we have done this to him!’
— and I know that many other Russians now feel the same. I must also pay tribute to the unfailing ‘detective work’ of Dr Aleksandr Ushakov, who found documents that added considerably to an understanding of Michael and his times, as did Dr Sergei Romanyuk in researching documents in other Moscow archives. The staff at the Russian State Historical Archive in St Petersburg were equally helpful as were those at Gatchina Palace, as well as in the Perm archives.

In England, Richard Davies, archivist at the Leeds Russian Archives at the University of Leeds, is someone to whom I shall ever remain grateful, for his archive possesses a wealth of personal documentation on Michael, generously given to it by Natasha’s grand-daughter by her first marriage, Pauline Gray.

In the United States, there are several institutions which have invaluable source material on the period covered here, including the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Houghton Library, Harvard University. At Columbia University, we had Michael’s war diaries 1915-1918 translated for the first time.

In Europe, given the amount of time that Michael spent there, the trail inevitably follows in his footsteps — Paris, Vienna, Cannes, Berlin, Copenhagen, Switzerland. A great many people helped in tracing him, not least Professor Dr Ferdinand Opll at the
Stadt-und Landsarchiv
in Vienna, who provided more information about Michael’s marriage than the embarrassed and out-witted
Okhrana
managed to do afterwards in 1912. Again, each and everyone is to be thanked.

Finally, I should pay tribute to Dr Vladislav Krasnov, born in Perm, but now a senior American academic, for his enthusiasm in promoting the memory of Michael in his home city and beyond. It was he and his committee who erected a memorial plaque to Michael on the walls of the hotel in Perm from which he was abducted in June, 1918 — still now much as it was then — and since then they have taken their cause to St Petersburg and Moscow. It is to their credit. No one loved his country more than Michael. If one day his country will come to embrace him also, then his brutal death in a dark wood might prove not to be the end of his story.

MA = Michael
NS= Natasha
MA’ s diary — Michael’s diary 1915-1918
N = Nicholas II (letters) or in ‘N’s diary’
AF = Empress Alexandra
DE = Dowager Empress Marie Federovna
GAPO = State Archive Perm District
GARF = State Archive, Russian Federation, Moscow
LRA = Leeds Russian Archive, University of Leeds
PRO = Public Record Office, London
RA = Royal Archives, Windsor
Vienna SLA =
Wiener Stadt-und Landsarchiv

Dates are according to Russian calendar, unless shown in
italics

1. Love and Duty

1
. Vassili, p 105

2
. Alexander,
Once a Grand Duke
, p 78

3
. Witte,
Memoirs
p 19

4
. Alexander, p 80

5
.
Ibid
p 168-9

6
. Nicholas II,
Journal Intime.
(hereafter N’s diary) p 125

7
. Vassili, p 105

8
. Alexander p 161

9
. Nicholas of Greece, p 181

10
. Polovtsov, pp 126-7

11
. Melgunov, p 229

12
. Mossolov, p 95

13
.
Ibid

14
. Grand Duke Konstantin K’s diary, February 26, 1904, cited Maylunas/Mironenko p 240

15
. Dillon, p 41

16
. Buxhoeveden, p 92

17
. Mossolov, p 33

18
. Witte, p 194

19
.
Ibid

20
. Chavchavadze, p 107, Radziwill,
Secrets
, pp 44-6

21
. Sullivan, p 181

22
. Gelardi, pp 91-3.115

23
. Chavchavadze, p 235

24
.
Ibid,
242

25
. Radziwill,
Secrets,
p 60

26
.
Ibid,
pp 69-70;
C
havchavadze, p128

27
. Kleinmichel, pp 66-8

28
. N to DE , October 20, 1902, p 170

29
. Vorres, p 115

30
.
Observer,
London,
October 7,
1906. The story also appeared in
The Sunday Times,
and
Reynold News,
London.

31
.
The Times,
London,
November 5, 1908

2. A Scandalous Exile

1
. State Archive of the Moscow Region, f. 2170-8-1-64;.
Vsya Moskva;
Moscow Historical Archive, f.179-24-237-15

2
. Natasha’s father was still registered as living in the Vozdvizhenka apartment eighteen years later in 1924

3
. 13. MA to NS, November 3, 1909, GARF 622/12

4
. MA to NS, July 28, 1909, GARF 622/09

5
. Letter to Natasha’s granddaughter Pauline Gray, December 17, 1973, LRA MS 1363/136

6
. Trubetskoi, 4, p 110

7
. NS to MA, August 8, 1911, GARF 668/76

8
. Radziwill,
Secrets
, p 92

9
. Trubetskoi 4, p 110

10
.
Ibid

11
. Majolier, p 35

12
. Trubetskoi, 4, p 117

13
. Okhrana report, September 6,1911, cited Maylunas/Mironenko, p 345

14
.
Ibid,
December 17, 1912, pp 364-5

15
. MA to N, October 6, 1912, GARF 601/1301

16
. MA to N, October 14, 1912, GARF
ibid

17
. St Savva marriage register, No 35, 1912, Vienna SLA

18
. Paléologue,
February 10,
1916, Vol II, p 172

19
. Marriage register, Vienna SLA

20
.
Ibid

21
.
Ibid

22
.
Okhrana
Paris report December 17, 1912, cited Maylunas/Mironenko pp 364-5

23
. N to DE, November 21, 1912 cited Maylunas/Mironenko, p 363

24
. N to DE November 7 1912,
Letters,
p 283-4

25
.
Ibid

26
. The ten-point memorandum is undated andunsigned, but was clearly written in early November 1912; Fredericks was the court minister responsible for matters relating to the Grand Dukes. GARF 601/1301 f.175-6

27
. MA to N, November 16, 1912, GARF 601/1301. MA’s ‘terms’ were attached to this letter.

28
. N to DE, November 21, 1912,
Letters
, p 285

29
. George V to N,
December 16
, 1912, cited Maylunas/Mironenko p 363

30
. British ambassador to Sir Edward Grey, January 16, 1913, PRO/FO 371/1743

31
.
Ibid

32
.
Ibid January 4,
1913

33
.
Ibid January 16
, 1913

34
. Mossolov, p 65

35
. Radziwill,
Secrets
, p 94

36
. MA to N, November 1, 1912, GARF 601/1301

37
. Majolier, p 81

38
. MA to N, April 23, 1914,
f. ibid

39
. Polovtsov, p 115

40
. Natasha’s documents, LRA 1363/72

41
. Majolier, p 46

3. A Brief Peace

1
. Vorres, p 64

2
. Queen Victoria’s Journal,
October 8,
1899, RA

3
. Majolier, p 82

4
. Xenia’s diary July 12, 1913, cited Maylunas/Mironenko p 379

5
.
Ibid

6
.
Ibid

7
. DE to N, July 27, 1913,
Letters,
pp 287-8

8
. Knebworth House archive

9
. Majolier, p 43

10
. MA to N, March 8, 1914,
f. ibid

11
. MA accounts, 1914-1916, Paddockhurst Estate Office

12
. Chavchavadze, p 178

13
. George V to N, 6, 1912, GARF 601

14
.
The Times,
London,
December 30, 1913, January 10, 1914, May 13,1 1914.