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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 Alexandra
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.
The Race to Save the Romanovs Page 1