The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II

by Donald Crawford

  AS Dimitri had done, Natasha moved to Paris in 1927 ‘since life in London is three times more expensive than in France’.20 She had sent George to Harrow, one of the best-known public schools in Britain, and he completed his last year there in July of that year, just before his seventeenth birthday. In Paris, Natasha enrolled him in the exclusive, and equally expensive, École des Roches at Verneuil, fifty miles outside the capital; he would go on from there to the Sorbonne.

  George brought with him to France his prized Norton motorcycle which he insisted on driving at high speed, much to the terror of Natasha. He had now grown to be as tall as his father, with the same slim figure. ‘He was uncannily like Uncle Misha’, thought Tata. He had the same look about him; his voice was similar; he even walked in much the same way.

  Some émigrés within the divided Russian colony in Paris mentioned his name as the ‘true successor’ to the imperial throne in preference to the discredited and disliked Kirill but ‘George treated the claims made on his behalf with indifference, tinged with amusement’.21

  It was in Paris that George, but not his mother, became the first beneficiary of the various interests which, on paper, sustained Natasha’s hopes of financial security in the future. In 1928 the Dowager Empress died three years after the death of her sister, the Dowager Queen Alexandra. Hvidore, the Danish property which they jointly owned, was sold. King George V and his sisters waived their claims; the proceeds, amounting to the equivalent of $57,000 in the values of the day — some $500,000 today — were therefore divided equally between Michael’s two sisters, Xenia and Olga, and his son George. It was a very handsome legacy and a more-than-welcome windfall. For George, with almost $20,000 in his bank, he could feel himself a rather rich young man. He put some ten per cent of it immediately into the purchase of a brand-new Sports Chrysler motor car.22 In July 1931, having finished his final examinations at the Sorbonne, he decided to celebrate with a holiday in the south of France. He and a Dutch friend planned to drive to Cannes, George promising Natasha that he would be back in two weeks, in time for his twenty-first birthday.

  Having waved them goodbye, Natasha was playing bezique that afternoon with friends when the telephone rang in the hallway of her rented apartment at 5 rue Copernic, off the Place Victor Hugo. The Chrysler had skidded on the road near Sens, and crashed into a tree. The Dutch boy, who had been at the wheel, was killed; George was in hospital; both thighs were broken and he had severe internal injuries.

  Distraught, Natasha took the first train southwards, arriving at the hospital in Sens just before midnight. She sat by his bedside all night, but there was no hope for him. George died without recovering consciousness at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 21, 1931. His body was brought back to Paris and buried in the fashionable cemetery at Passy, near the Trocadero. Hundreds attended the funeral, with Dimitri heading the procession behind the coffin, followed by a black-veiled Natasha.23

  Natasha had bought two plots lying side by side at Passy, George was laid in one; the other she reserved for herself but not as the princess she had been styled three years earlier. On the cemetery receipt the name she gave was simply Mme De Brassow. So much for her view of Emperor Kirill.

  THERE would be little left for Natasha after that. ‘Oh Misha! Oh, Georgie!’ she would weep in private. At 51 she was still beautiful though her hair was snow-white, but her life was over. The end would come 20 years later, but even that in itself spoke volumes about its emptiness. Then penniless and living alone in the tiny attic room of an apartment at 11 rue Monsieur on the Left Bank, her landlady threw her out when it was discovered that Natasha had cancer. Taken to the Laënneck, the nearby charity hospital in the rue de Sevres in the 7th arrondissement she died at 3.50 pm on January 23, 1952.24 The only clue to her identity among her pathetic effects was a faded Russian birth certificate dated 71 years earlier and naming her as plain Nathalie Sheremetevskaya — the name duly typed onto her death certificate.

  However, as word spread in the dwindling band of Russian émigrés in Paris that Princess Brasova had died, they did what they could to give her burial the dignity denied her death. They took her to Passy to lie beside her beloved son George. Their grave is marked by a Russian cross of stone, above a chest-tomb of green-and-black marble, with the simple, gold-lettered inscription: Fils et Epouse de S.A.I. Grand Duc Michel de Russie.

  And in far-away Perm they would not forget either. Although Michael’s grave has never been found, a chapel to his memory and honour now stands in the wood where he was murdered, and there is a plaque to him on the wall of the hotel from which he was abducted. And interest increases: in 2010, the then Senator for St Petersburg, Viktor Yevtukhov — promoted deputy Minister of Justice in February 2011 — said: ‘We should know more about this man and remember him, because this memory can give our society the ethical foundation we need’. Better late than never.

  Many years ago, in 1927 when he was building a literary reputation in Riga, Vladimir Gushchik, the sometime Bolshevik commissar in Gatchina who had so admired Michael, wrote an epitaph for him in his book Taina Gatchinskogo dvortsa, and it is one which could well stand today:

  And now, remembering this man, I wonder how You, Russia, will wash away his innocent blood? Will you ultimately be able to redeem the death of Michael the Last? 25

  Romanovs murdered by the Bolsheviks, 1918-1919

  June 12/13, 1918, Perm

  Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich (Emperor Michael II)

  July 16/17, 1918, Ekaterinburg

  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

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  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.

  CHAPTER NOTES

  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; Chavchavadze, 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.

  15. Natasha continued to use her coronet notepaper when she returned to Russia, notwithstanding that she had no title.GARF 668/77-8

  16. The Times, London, January 10, 1914

  17. Ibid, December 2, 1913

  18. On May 9, 1914, LRA 1363/39

  19. May 19, 1914, ibid

  20. Ibid, 1363/386

  21. Majolier, p 47

  22. Gray, p 38

  23 The Times, London, July17, 1914

  24 Majolier, p 49

  25. Ibid, p 42

  26. George V’s diary, RA, although for security reasons the departure was not recorded in the Court Circular until August 20, 1914

  27. Yousoupoff, Lost Splendour, p 180

  28. Poutiatine

  29. Majolier, p 53

/>   4. War Hero

  1. The Times, London, January 17, 1913

  2. Lincoln, p 76

  3. Ibid, p 83

  4. Kournakoff, p 55

  5. Polovtsov, p 115

  6. Ibid, p 127

  7. Kournakoff, p 80

  8. Polovtssov, pp 116-7

  9. Kournakoff, p 55

  10. Polovtsov, pp 126-7

  11. Paléologue, Vol 1 p 302

  12. N to AF, Letters, October 27, 1914, p 10

  13. Polovtsov, p 138

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

  15. MA to N, November 15, 1914, GARF 601/1301

  16. Polovtsov, p 134

  17. Ibid, p 132

  18. Poutiatine

  19. MA’s Diary, January 2, 1915

  20. MA to NS, January 16, 1915, GARF 622/20

  21. Ibid January 15, 1915

  22. Ibid, January 20, 1915

  23. Ibid, January 22, 1915

  24. N to AF, November 19, 1914, p 14

  25. MA to NS, January 22, 1915, GARF 622/20

  26. Ibid, February 16, 1915

  27. Ibid, February 4, 1915

  28. Ibid, January 22, 1915

  29. MA’s Diary, January 21-2, 1915

  30. Ibid, February 9, 1915

  31. MA to NS, February 16, 1915, GARF 668/78

  32. Polovtsov, p 135

  33. Ibid, p 138

  34. Fund of the Imperial Russian Cavalry, Hoover Institution archives

  35. Krylov, ‘Istoricheskie miniatyury’, Moskva, Moscow, 3, 1990

  36. Radziwill, Secrets, p 96

  37. Alexander, p 303

  38. Polovtsov, p 138

  39. Gushchik, pp 12-13

  40. Ibid, pp 28-9

  41. MA’s diary, April 17, 1915

  42. N to AF, March 3, 1915, p.32

  43. AF to N, Letters, p 54

  44. MA to N, March 14, 1915, f. ibid

  45. Imperial ukase of March 26, 1915, cited Jaques Ferrand, Il est toujours des Romanov! Paris, 1995, p 25