5 TNA GFM 6/139, 664, 22 June 1918, von Kühlmann to von Grunau. McNeal, Secret Plot to Save the Tsar, 103, quoting Von Kuhlman to von Grunau, TNA GFM 6/139, A 26851.
6 Baumgart, Deutsche Ostpolitik, 387–8.
7 Ibid., 388.
8 Ibid.; Nicholas II, 221–2.
9 Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 394. Hall, Little Mother, 308–9.
10 Mosolov, At the Court of the Last Tsar, 260–1; Nicholas II, 225.
11 Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 58–9.
12 Ibid., 62.
13 Occleshaw, Dances in Deep Shadows, 161.
14 FOT, 279, 275.
15 See Bothmer, Mit Graf Mirbach in Moskau, 97.
16 FOT, 276; Letter of 18 July, British Consulate, Geneva, TNA FO 371/3328.
17 FOT, 276.
18 Petr Botkin, letter to Stephan Pichon, French Foreign Minister in Paris, 2 July 1918, Ross.Arhkiv, 279–80.
19 Boyard’s presence in Ekaterinburg was not revealed until Sokolov’s later investigation. See Ross, Gibel tsarskoy semi, 216.
20 Levine, Eyewitness to History, 145–6.
21 Dnevniki, 2: 522.
22 For a full account of the murder of the Romanov family at the Ipatiev House on the night of 16/17 July, see Rappaport, Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs.
23 See Rappaport, Ekaterinburg, chapter 10, ‘What is to be Done with Nicholas?’, which describes the dicussions that took place in Moscow.
24 Ibid., 141.
25 Ibid., 162–3.
26 Preston, ‘The Vigil’, 3.
27 Preston, ‘Sir Thomas Preston Recalls Ekaterinburg’.
28 Lenin, Khronika V, 642, quoted in Pipes, Russian Revolution, 781.
29 Fall, 337.
30 Ibid.; Pipes, Russian Revolution, 781.
31 Fall, 341; Pipes, Russian Revolution, 784.
32 The best summary of the chronology of events following the murders can be found in Pipes, Russian Revolution, 780–5.
33 Bothmer, Mit Graf Mirbach in Moskau, 98.
34 Orlano-Erenya, ‘Ispanskii korol’, 156.
35 For a discussion of the rumours, see Salisbury, Black Night, White Snow: Russia’s Revolutions 1905–1917, London: Cassell, 1977, 714. See also Sudba, 390–400.
36 Fall, 341; Leal, ‘Alfonso XIII y su Actuacion’, 63.
37 Tsaritsa, 259.
38 Pipes, Russian Revolution, 782–3.
39 Ibid., 784.
40 TNA FO 800/205/307, 23 July 1918.
41 TNA FO 800/205/313, 24 July 1918; /314, 25 July.
42 Preben Ulstrup, Kejserinde Dagamrs fangenskab paa Krim: Dagbøker og breve 1917–1919, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2005, 222, 223.
43 23 July 1918, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/2.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 23 July 1918, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/6, 7.
47 The Times, 25 July 1918.
48 Stamfordham to Rt Hon. George Russell, 26 July, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/8.
49 Baroness de Stoeckl, My Dear Marquis, London: John Murray, 1952, 179.
50 Ibid.
51 George V diary, 25 July 1918, quoted in Rose, King George V, 216.
Chapter 13: ‘Those Poor Innocent Children’
1 Tatler, 7 August 1918, 144.
2 Alexander Iswolsky, Recollections of a Foreign Minister, New York: Doubleday, 1921, 252.
3 David R. Francis, Russia from the American Embassy, New York: Scribner’s, 1921, 328.
4 German Wireless, 4 August 1918, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/13.
5 Lord Stamfordham to Lord Esher, 25 July 1918, quoted in Rose, King George V, 217.
6 Ibid.
7 Lord Esher to Stamfordham, 28 July 1918, quoted in Rose, King George V, 217.
8 For a discussion of the rumours, see FOT, chapters 24 and 25. Sadly, The File on the Tsar went a long way to perpetuating the unsubstantiated claim of survival of Alexandra and her daughters.
9 Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 62.
10 FOT, 361. For a useful discussion of the Spanish and German mediation attempts in August/September, see Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 61–6.
11 Mednikov, ‘Missiya spaseniya’, 71; FOT, 362.
12 The Times, 3 and 6 August 1918.
13 8 August 1918, in Summers and Mangold, El Expediente sobre el Zar, 325. The Spanish translation of FOT contains material on Alfonso’s role, in a postscript on 319–33, that was not included in the English editions of the book. See also Rey y Cabieses, ‘Alfonso XIII, Jorge V, y el Frustrado Rescate de la Familia Imperial de Rusia’, 123; Cortes Cavanillas, Alfonso XIII y la Guerra, 149.
14 The Times, 8 August 1918.
15 TS of telegram in French from Alfonso to Grand Duchess George, 8 August 1918, in TNA FO 800/205/325–6.
16 Edward Wallington to Harry Verney, 8 August 1918, TNA FO 800/250/320.
17 Buckingham Palace, 8 August 1918, TNA FO 800/205/402.
18 TNA FO 800/205/323–5.
19 Miller, Four Graces, 155.
20 Ibid., 156.
21 FOT, 362.
22 Letter of 25 July 1918, quoted in Urbach, Go-Betweens for Hitler, 131.
23 Cortes-Cavanillas, ‘Alfonso XIII en la Guerra del Catorce’.
24 Rey y Cabieses, ‘Alfonso XIII’, 124.
25 Ibid., 125.
26 Seco Serrano, ‘Alfonso XIII y la Familia del Zar’, 2.
27 TNA FO 800/205/424, 15 August 1918.
28 Telegram from Directorate of Military Intelligence to Major-General Poole Archangel, 9 August 1918. RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/20.
29 Summers and Mangold, El Expediente sobre el Zar, 326–7. See comments on this Spanish chapter mentioned at note 13 above; FOT, 363. See also Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 72–6.
30 Clarke, Lost Fortune of the Tsars, 112.
31 Monsignor Eugenio Pacelli, Apostolic Nuncio Munich to Herr Count von Hertling Reichskanzler, 12 August 1918, TNA GFM 6/139.
32 See Summers and Mangold, El Expediente sobre el Zar, 327; Clarke, Lost Fortune of the Romanovs, 112.
33 Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 74–5; Grand Duchess George, A Romanov Diary, 231, 238.
34 Cortes-Cavanillas, ‘Alfonso XIII en la Guerra del Catorce’.
35 The Times, 8 August 1918.
36 Ibid.; Contreras reported on his meeting to Polo de Bernabe, Spanish ambassador to Berlin, who in turn sent the details in a ciphered telegram no. 111, 6 September 1918, to Madrid. See also the account of the meeting in Carlos Seco Serrano, ‘Alfonso XIII y la Familia del Zar’.
37 Orlano-Erenya, ‘Ispanskii korol’, 155.
38 Pipes, Russian Revolution, 783; Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 63; Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 398–400; Orlano-Erenya, ‘Ispanskii korol’, 156.
39 Zenzinov, ‘Ubiistvo tsarskoy semi’, 6.
40 Director of Military Intelligence to Lord Stamfordham, War Office, Whitehall, 31 August 1918, quoted in Hough, Louis & Victoria, 326.
41 Report from Intelligence Coordinator for British Forces and Missions in Russia and Siberia, 28 August 1918, TNA FO 800/205; George V diary, 31 August 1918, in Rose, King George V, 216.
42 Princess Marie Louise, My Memories of Six Reigns, London: Evans Brothers, 1956, 186.
43 Ibid., 187. Note that an examination of this source, in comparison with the account of how Victoria Milford Haven received the news from Marie Louise, reveals that the story does not relate to when the King and Queen first received news of Nicholas’s death on the 24th, as has been widely assumed – for there was no word at tha
t time on the fate of the rest of the family. Her story relates to 31 August, when George and Mary received the distressing confirmation, via the Foreign Office, that the entire family had been killed. See Hough, Louis and Victoria, 326, which clearly states that Marie Louise’s visit with the letter from King George was on 2 September, and not a month earlier, when news of Nicholas’s murder only was first received.
44 VMH to King George, 3 September 1918, in Miller, Four Graces, 157.
45 14 September 1918; Hough, Louis and Victoria, 326; Miller, Four Graces, 157.
46 Lord Stamfordham to Milner, Windsor Castle, 1 September 1918, RA PS/PSO/GV/C/M/1344a/31.
47 Letter to Freda Dudley Ward, 25 July 1918, Rupert Godfrey (ed.), Letters from a Prince, London: Warner Books, 1999, 76.
48 Aberdeen Evening Express quoting a report in Yorkshire Evening Post, 12 September 1918.
49 Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 64. Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 400.
50 Occleshaw, Romanov Conspiracies, 66.
51 Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 401. Zenzinov, ‘Ubiistvo Tsarskoy Semi’, 6, Nicolaevsky Collection, Hoover.
52 See Elliot’s report of 5 October 1918 to Balfour, TNA FO 371/3977, and an interim summary in TNA FO 371/3335.
53 Benckendorff Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo., 132–3.
54 Birmingham Mail, 14 November 1918.
55 ‘Fate of the Tsar’s Family. All Shot Together in a Cellar’, The Times, 5 December 1918
56 FOT, 26.
57 Victoria Milford Haven to King Alfonso, 22 September 1918, Madrid Archives, quoted in Miller, Four Graces, 161.
58 Summers and Mangold, El Expediente Sobre El Zar, 328. Carlos Seco Serrano, ‘El Relato de la Baronesa Buxhoeveden A. D. Franciso Gutierrez de Agüera’, Diario ABC, Madrid, 6 March 1980. Buxhoeveden’s father Carlos Matthias von Buxhoeveden was in the Russian diplomatic service in Copenhagen and passed on this message from his colleague, Gutiérrez de Agüera, a Spanish minister based there. When she travelled to Tobolsk, Baroness Buxhhoeveden was not allowed to enter the house to visit the Romanovs but Alfonso’s message was smuggled in by Anastasia Hendrikova.
Chapter 14: ‘His Majesty Would Much Prefer that Nothing … Be Published’
1 Aga Khan III, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: World Enough and Time, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954, 113.
2 Rodzianko, Tattered Banners, 271.
3 Christopher Hibbert, The Court of St James, London: BCA, 1983, 72.
4 ‘Europe Harbors Hapless Queens’, Louisville Courier-Journal, 3 October 1927.
5 For an account of the evacuation, see Frances Welch, The Russian Court at Sea: The Voyage of HMS Marlborough, April 1919, London: Short Books, 2011.
6 Stamfordham’s comment, front cover of TNA file FO 371/3977/ Part I, no. 98898. Quoted in FCO 12/158, Rohan Butler memo dated 22 February 1974. 4 July 1919, Lord Stamfordham to Sir Ronald Graham, Acting Permanent Under-Secretary in the FO during the Paris Peace Conference.
7 TNA FO 371/3977, Part I, no. 98898.
8 Daily Telegraph, 7 September 1921.
9 Kerensky, ‘The Provisional Government’s Responsibility’, Part IV of Kerensky and Milyukov, ‘Light on the Murder of Tsar Nikolas’, 643.
10 Ibid., 645.
11 For Kerensky and Milyukov’s defence of their position, see ‘Light on the Murder of Tsar Nikolas’, 638–45, which is a résumé of various articles they had written in the Russian émigré press.
12 TNA FO 370/273 1928. See correspondence between the FO occasioned by this.
13 Keith Hamilton, ‘Addressing the Past’, 101. The Librarian’s Department of the Foreign Office carried out the vetting of diplomatic memoirs.
14 Buchanan, Ambassador’s Daughter, 159.
15 Dissolution, 192–3.
16 The Paley memoirs were published over several issues of the Revue de Paris. See 1 and 15 June, 1 July, 15 August, 1 and 15 September 1922.
17 Van der Kiste, Princess Victoria Melita, 130.
18 Ibid., 124.
19 Revue de Paris, 15 March 1923.
20 Ibid., 690.
21 Dissolution, 189.
22 Buchanan, Ambassador’s Daughter, 154; see also Dissolution, 193–5.
23 Buchanan, Ambassador’s Daughter, 159.
24 Dissolution, 198.
25 Buchanan, Ambassador’s Daughter, 154.
26 Dissolution, 193.
27 Ibid., 198.
28 Western Daily Press, undated cutting c. June 1932, Meriel Buchanan Archive, Nottingham University. This and many other reviews of Dissolution of an Empire were carefully collected by Buchanan, but in cutting them out she failed to append any dates of publication, and very few of the sources from which the reviews were taken.
29 Note by Laurence Collier, head of Cabinet Office’s Northern Department, 5 July 1932, quoted in Hamilton, ‘Addressing the Past’, 114–15.
30 See Hamilton, ‘Addressing the Past’.
31 David Lloyd George, ‘Tsar’s Future Place of Residence’, LG/G/212/3/7, Parliamentary Archives
32 Ibid., 4.
33 Ibid., 5.
34 Ibid., 6.
35 Ibid., 6.
36 Ibid., 7.
37 Rose, King George V, 218.
38 Lloyd George, War Memoirs, 3: 514. For an enlightening discussion of the suppressed chapter, see Hamilton, ‘Addressing the Past’.
39 Sylvester, Life with Lloyd George, 110.
40 Lloyd George, War Memoirs, 3: 1638.
41 David Cannadine, ‘The Context, Performance and Meaning of Ritual: The British Monarchy and the Invention of Tradition c. 1820–1977’, in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 142, note 156. Lacey, Majesty, 333. For a discussion of George’s position, see E. F. Benson, ‘The King and His Reign: XII. The King and Democracy’, The Spectator, 19 April 1935, 648–9.
42 Daniel Counihan, ‘The Romanov Riddle’, letter to the editor, The Listener, 7 October 1976, 444.
43 LG MSS F/3/2/19, Parliamentary Archives; quoted in Suttie, Rewriting the First World War, 192.
44 Lacey, Majesty, 62.
45 The Listener, 110, 7 July 1983, 26.
46 See The Listener, 30 September 1976, 3.
47 Story as told by the Duke of Windsor to the writer Gore Vidal, in Vidal, Palimpsest, A Memoir, London: Abacus, 1996, 207–8.
48 Michael Tyler Whittle, The Last Kaiser: A Biography of William II, German Emperor and King of Prussia, New York: Times Books, 1977, 285.
49 London Gazette, 17 July 1917.
50 See http://www.royalfoibles.com/the-british-queen-partially-to-blame-for-the-murder-of-tsar-nicholas-ll-and-his-family/.
51 See Deborah Cadbury, Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking, London: Bloomsbury, 2017, 151–2.
52 Gaselee to Sir Robert Vansittart, 16 April 1934, quoted in Hamilton, ‘Addressing the Past’, 115.
53 See Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 363–40, and Semenovsky, ‘Popytki Spaseniya Romanovykh’.
54 Jagow, ‘Die Schuld am Zarenmord’, 369.
55 Ibid., 371.
56 Ibid., 373, 388.
57 Ibid., 389.
58 Ibid., 392–3, 399.
59 Ibid., 400–401.
60 Wilhelm II, The Kaiser’s Memoirs, New York: Harper & Bros, 1922, 130.
61 Lamar Cecil, Wilhelm II, vol. 2: Emperor and Exile 1900–1941, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, 322.
62 Waters, Potsdam and Doorn, 252–3.
The Race to Save the Romanovs Page 38
