The Race to Save the Romanovs Read online

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  In memory of my parents,

  Kenneth and Mary Ware

  There is no worse punishment for a monarch than to lose the love of his people. It is hard for anyone other than he who has lived through it to understand.

  King Alfonso of Spain, in exile, 1933

  They have dragged all our world down crashing with them … Everyone says what a fearful punishment but I say it is not a punishment, it is a pure logical result of their own acts. Just as if they had taken a match and put fire to their own garments.

  Grand Duchess Kirill to her sister Marie, Queen of Romania, Petrograd, 10 March 1917

  Ever since then [1918], I have been haunted by the idea that had I been able to argue with the Ural Soviet for a longer period I might have been able to save the Russian Royal Family.

  Sir Thomas Preston, former British consul in Ekaterinburg, letter to The Spectator, 11 March 1972

  List of Illustrations

    1  Coburg wedding: Public Domain

    2  Nine European monarchs: Public Domain

    3  Hesse siblings: Public Domain

    4  British Royal Family: W. & D. Downey, 1906 © National Portrait Gallery, London

    5  Dagmar and Alexandra: Public Domain

    6  George and Nicholas: Hulton Archive

    7  Russian Imperial Family: Author’s Collection

    8  King Haakon and Queen Maud: W. & D. Downey/Archives Larousse, Paris, France/Bridgeman Images

    9  Nicholas and Alexandra: Public Domain

  10  Tatiana and Anastasia: World History Archive/TopFoto

  11  Nicholas and Maria: Public Domain

  12  Alexey: Public Domain

  13  Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga and Maria: Public Domain

  14  Lord Stamfordham (Sir Arthur Bigge): Walter Stoneman, 1917 © National Portrait Gallery, London

  15  Sir George Buchanan: Public Domain

  16  David Lloyd George: Public Domain

  17  Pavel Milyukov: SPUTNIK/Alamy Stock Photo

  18  Alexander Kerensky: Sovfoto

  19  Murmansk: © Imperial War Museum (Q 16984)

  20  Archangel: USS Des Moines on White Sea, 19 May 1919, Frank E. Lauer papers, the Frank E. Lauer family and the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

  21  Nikolay Markov (‘Markov II’): Paul Fearn/Alamy Stock Photo

  22  Cornet Sergey Markov (‘Little Markov’): Author’s Collection

  23  Inner courtyard of the Governor’s House, Tobolsk: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  24  Courtyard at the Governor’s House, Tobolsk: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  25  Sisters’ room, Tobolsk: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  26  Alexandra’s sitting room, Tobolsk: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  27  Room plan for the Governor’s House: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  28  Pierre Gilliard, Petr Petrov and Sydney Gibbes: Author’s Collection

  29  Prince Vasily Dolgorukov: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  30  Nicholas and his four children: TopFoto

  31  Jonas Lied: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-19063

  32  Count Benckendorff: Ullstein Bild Dtl.

  33  Kaiser Wilhelm II: Public Domain/National Library of Norway

  34  Vasily Yakovlev, aka Konstantin Myachin: Public Domain

  35  Major Stephen Alley: Courtesy of Felix Jay

  36  King Alfonso XIII: Hulton Archive

  37  Carriages outside the Governor’s House: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes

  38  Postcard of Ekaterinburg: Azoor Photo/Alamy Stock Photo

  39  Ipatiev House, Ekaterinburg: Heritage Images

  40  Alexey and Olga: Courtesy of Charles Gibbes/Kirill Protopopov

  41  Twenty-three steps: Public Domain

  42  Daily Mirror, 13 September 1918: John Frost Newspapers/Alamy Stock Photo

  Glossary of Names

  Alexandra/Alix/Alicky: Princess Alexandra of Hesse and by Rhine; Alexandra Feodorovna, Tsaritsa of Russia; wife of Nicholas

  Alexeev, General Mikhail: Imperial Russian Army Chief of Staff from 1915 until the abdication of Nicholas, March 1917

  Alexey Nikolaevich Romanov: the Tsarevich, son of Nicholas and Alexandra; Wilhelm’s godson

  Alfonso XIII: King of Spain; husband of Ena

  Alice: Princess Alice of Great Britain, later Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine, mother of Alexandra, Irene, Ella, Victoria Milford Haven and Ernie; sister of Bertie

  Alley, Major Stephen: British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) agent based in Murmansk

  Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova: fourth daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra

  Andersen, Hans Niels: Danish businessman and friend of the British and Danish royal families

  Armitstead, Henry: agent of the Hudson’s Bay Company based at Archangel

  Avdeev, Alexander: Yakovlev’s deputy and later commandant of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg

  Balfour, Arthur: British Foreign Secretary, 1916–19

  Beloborodov, Alexander: Chair of the Ural Regional Soviet from January 1918

  Benckendorff, Count Pavel: Grand Marshal and Master of Ceremonies at the Russian Imperial Court

  Bertie: Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII; father of George V; husband of Alexandra the Queen Mother

  Bertie, Sir Francis: British ambassador in Paris, 1905–18

  Bethmann-Hollweg, Theobald von: German Chancellor, 1909–July 1917

  Botkin, Dr Evgeniy: physician to the Russian Imperial Family, who accompanied them to Tobolsk and Ekaterinburg

  Botkin, Petr: Imperial Russian ambassador to Lisbon; brother of Evgeniy Botkin

  Brändström, General Edvard: Swedish envoy to St Petersburg/Petrograd, 1906–20

  Brockdorff-Rantzau, Count Ulrich von: German envoy to Copenhagen, 1912–18

  Buchanan, Sir George: British ambassador to St Petersburg/Petrograd, 1910–17, father of Meriel Buchanan

  Buchanan, Meriel: British author, daughter of Sir George Buchanan

  Buxhoeveden, Baroness Sophie: Alexandra’s honorary lady-in-waiting

  Cecil, Lord Robert: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1915–19

  Chicherin, Georgiy: People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, 1918–30, in the first Soviet government

  Christian X: King of Denmark, 1912–47, nephew of the Queen Mother, Dagmar and Valdemar and first cousin to Nicholas

  Coburg, Duchess of: Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Tsar Alexander II; wife of Prince Alfred of Great Britain, Duke of Coburg; aunt by marriage of Alexandra, Ella, Irene, Victoria Milford Haven and Ernie, and aunt by blood of Nicholas

  Contreras, Fernando Gόmez: Spani
sh business attaché in Petrograd, 1918

  Cumming, Sir Mansfield: Head of MI1(c), the foreign division of the British SIS

  Dagmar/Dowager Empress: Princess Dagmar of Denmark, Dowager Empress of Russia known as Maria Feodorovna, sister of the Queen Mother, mother of Nicholas and aunt of Christian X

  Davidson, Sir Arthur: Equerry to Bertie and later to George V, 1910–22

  Dehn, Lili: one of the ladies in Alexandra’s close entourage, but with no official court position

  Dolgorukov, Prince Vasily: Major-general with Nicholas at Army HQ and followed him to Tobolsk; stepson of Count Benckendorff

  Egan, Maurice: American ambassador to Denmark, 1907–December 1917

  Ella: Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, later Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, sister of Alexandra, Irene, Victoria Milford Haven and Ernie

  Ena: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain and wife of Alfonso; first cousin of Alexandra and niece of Bertie

  Ernie: Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig III of Hesse and by Rhine, brother of Alexandra, Ella, Irene and Victoria Milford Haven

  George V: King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; first cousin of Wilhelm, Nicholas and Alexandra

  George, Grand Duchess: wife of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, daughter of King George I of Greece

  Gilliard, Pierre: Swiss tutor, who taught French to the Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevich Alexey

  Goloshchekin, Filipp: military commissar of the Ural Regional Soviet

  Gustav V: King of Sweden, distantly related to the Romanovs through marriage

  Haakon VII: King of Norway, married to his first cousin Maud who, like him, was a first cousin to Nicholas

  Hanbury-Williams, Major-General Sir John: Chief of the British Military Mission in Russia, 1914–17; based at Stavka, adviser to Nicholas

  Hardinge, Lord: 1st Baron of Penshurst, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1916–20

  Hardinge, Sir Arthur: British ambassador to Madrid, 1913–19

  Hauschild, Herbert: First Secretary and acting German consul in Moscow, 1918

  Howard, Sir Esmé: 1st Baron Howard of Penrith, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Sweden, 1913–18

  Irene: Princess Henry of Prussia, sister of Alexandra, Ella, Victoria Milford Haven and Ernie; sister-in-law of Wilhelm

  Joffe, Adolph: first Soviet ambassador to Berlin, 1918

  Kerensky, Alexander: Justice Minister of the Provisional Government, March 1917; War Minister, May 1917; Prime Minister, July–October 1917

  Khitrovo, Rita (Margarita): a friend of Olga and fellow nurse at her hospital at Tsarskoe Selo

  Kienlin, Albert von: German legation secretary to Stockholm

  Kirill, Grand Duchess: Princess Victoria Melita, daughter of Duchess of Coburg, sister of Marie of Romania, first cousin of Alexandra and Nicholas

  Kobylinsky, Colonel Evgeniy: Commandant of the Alexander Palace Garrison at Tsarskoe Selo; Commander of the Guard at the Governor’s House, Tobolsk

  Kokovtsov, Vladimir: former Prime Minister of Russia, 1911–14

  Krivoshein, Alexander: Russian monarchist, former Imperial Minister of Agriculture, 1908–15

  Kudashev, Prince Ivan: Russian ambassador to Madrid, replaced in July 1917 by Neklyudov

  Kühlmann, Richard von: German Foreign Minister, August 1917–July 1918

  Lied, Jonas: Norwegian businessman, shipping magnate and adventurer; pioneer of the Kara Sea passage to northern Russia

  Lloyd George, David: British Prime Minister of the wartime coalition government of Conservatives and Liberals, 1916–22

  Locker-Lampson, Oliver: Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, in command of the British Armoured Car Squadron in Russia, 1916–17

  Lockhart, Robert Bruce: diplomat and spy; British Consul General in Moscow, 1917; first British envoy to the Soviets, 1918

  Lvov, Prince: Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, March–July 1917

  MacDonald, Ramsay: British Labour MP, leader of the opposition and first Labour Prime Minister in 1924

  Maria Nikolaevna Romanova: third daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra

  Marie of Romania: Crown Princess and later Queen; daughter of Duchess of Coburg, sister of Grand Duchess Kirill; first cousin to Nicholas and Alexandra

  Markov, Nikolay: Russian collegiate counsellor and former Duma member. Leading monarchist, known as Markov II

  Markov, Cornet Sergey: Russian monarchist, known as Little Markov

  Mary, Queen: Princess May of Teck, wife of King George V

  Maud, Princess: daughter of Bertie and Alexandra the Queen Mother; Queen of Norway and wife of King Haakon VII

  Merry Del Val, Alfonso: Spanish ambassador to London, 1913–18

  Mikhail Alexandrovich, Grand Duke: Nicholas’s brother and Dagmar’s son

  Mikhail Mikhailovich, Grand Duke: ‘Miche-Miche’, son of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich; a grandson of Nicholas I and brother of Sandro

  Milyukov, Pavel: Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government, March–May 1917, succeeded by Tereshchenko

  Mirbach, Count Wilhelm von: German ambassador to Moscow, April–July 1918

  Mosolov, Count Alexander: Head of the Russian Imperial Court Chancellery

  Neidgart, Dmitri: Russian monarchist and representative of the Right Centre in negotiations with the Germans

  Neklyudov, Anatoly: Imperial Russian ambassador to Stockholm, 1913–17; ambassador to Madrid, June–September 1917

  Nicholas/Nicky/Niki: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, husband of Alexandra and son of Dagmar

  Nikolay Nikolaevich, Grand Duke: Nicholas’s first cousin once removed, but referred to as an uncle; former Commander in Chief of the Imperial Russian Army

  Olga Nikolaevna Romanova: eldest daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra

  Paléologue, Maurice: French ambassador to St Petersburg/Petrograd, 1914–17

  Pankratov, Vasily: Commandant of the Governor’s House at Tobolsk

  Poole, Major General Frederick C.: British Commander in Chief of the Allied Intervention Forces in Northern Russia, May–October 1918

  Preston, Thomas: British consul in Ekaterinburg, 1913–18

  Queen Mother: Alexandra, Princess of Denmark, wife of Bertie, mother of King George V; aunt of Nicholas and Alexandra

  Ratibor, Prince Maximilian von: German ambassador to Madrid

  Rodzianko, Mikhail: Chair of the Imperial State Duma, 1911–17

  Sandro: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, married to Nicholas’s sister Xenia

  Scavenius, Harald: Danish ambassador to St Petersburg/Petrograd, 1912–18

  Solovev, Lieutenant Boris: Russian monarchist and would-be Romanov rescuer; husband of Rasputin’s daughter, Maria

  Stamfordham, Lord: Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham, George V’s private secretary, 1910–31

  Sverdlov, Yakov: Chair of the Central Executive Committee and Lenin’s right-hand man; in close contact with the Bolsheviks of the Ural Regional Soviet, he played a key role in the fate of the Romanovs

  Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova: second daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra

  Tereshchenko, Mikhail: Russian Foreign Minister, May–October 1917, successor to Milyukov

  Trepov, Alexander: Russian monarchist and former Prime Minister, 1916–17

  Valdemar: Prince of Denmark, brother of Dagmar and the Queen Mother; uncle of Nicholas

  Vasiliev, Father Alexey: priest at the Church of the Annunciation, Tobolsk; associate of Solovev

  Victoria Melita: see Kirill Grand Duchess

  Victoria Milford Haven: Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine; wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, later Marchioness of Milford Haven. Sister of Alexandra, Ella, Irene and Ernie; niece of Bertie

  Vladimir, Grand Duchess: aka Maria Pavlovna the Elder; aunt by marriage to Nicholas

  Vorovsky, Vatslav: Soviet ambassador to Stockholm, 1917–18

  Vyrubova, Anna: close friend and lady-in-waiting of Alexandrar />
  Waters, Wallscourt Hely-Hutchinson, Brigadier General: Chief of the British Military Mission to the Imperial Russian Army in World War I; friend of Wilhelm

  Wilhelm: Kaiser of Germany, first cousin of Alexandra and George V, godfather of Alexey

  Woodhouse, Arthur: British consul in Petrograd, who looked after diplomatic interests there after the ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, returned to the UK in January 1918

  Xenia: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, daughter of Dagmar and sister of Nicholas; wife of Sandro

  Yakovlev, Vasily: aka Konstantin Myachin, Soviet commissar entrusted with the transfer of the Romanovs from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg

  Yurovsky, Yakov: Urals Bolshevik and member of the Cheka (secret police); appointed commandant of the Ipatiev House on 4 July 1918 in order to organize and oversee the eventual murder of the Romanov family

  Yusupov, Prince Felix: murderer of Rasputin; nephew by marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra; one of the conspirators wishing to remove Alexandra from power

  By Way of a Beginning

  After publishing two books on Russia’s last Imperial Family, in 2008 and 2014, a book on Lenin in 2009 and one on the Russian Revolution in 2016, I really thought I had come to the end of my written love affair with the Romanovs and Russia. It seemed to me that I had exhausted all I had to say on the subject. From now on, as a writer, I was going to stay closer to home, and go back to my other love, the Victorians.

  But something kept niggling away at me. The Romanovs would not let me go.

  Romanovs. Russia. Revolution. Those three seductive words have drawn so many of us into the tragic story of Russia’s last Imperial Family over the century since their deaths. They suggest a grandeur that in many ways runs entirely counter to the real family – albeit a royal one – at the heart of it. What is it about Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey, that endlessly fascinates? Despite representing the apotheosis of 300 years of Romanov dynastic rule in Russia – as the possessors of fabulous wealth, vast lands and numerous grand palaces – it is not the epic scale of the Imperial Family’s story that attracts, but rather the intensely moving and human one of a quiet, loving and deeply unostentatious family who liked nothing better than being in each other’s company, but whose lives ended in hideous murder.