Czar Nicholas made plenty of stupid decisions on his own that ultimately doomed him and his family. William Manchester in his biography of Winston Churchill notes that Nicholas strongly opposed using Greek armies to capture the Dardanelles when Turkey was weak because he wanted to control them. If the Dardanelles/Gallipoli campaign had been successful is one of the great ifs of history and Nicholas’s throne might have been saved.
I’m not sure how accurate the 1970s miniseries “Edward the Seventh” with Timothy West was but I just got done watching it and it seemed accurate to me. In it “Bertie” several times tells Nicholas and earlier his father “Sasha” to introduce reforms, that you can not rule by fear but have to earn the people’s trust and love. Neither of them (or his nephew Kaiser Wilhelm) ever really took his advice to heart.
Another factor may have been that George V and Lloyd George may have worried what the Bolshevik reaction would have been if the British took in the Romanov royal family. Sixty years later one of the key factors in the Iranians occupying the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days was when the Carter Administration (advised by Henry Kissinger and others) let the deposed Shah into the USA for medical treatment for cancer. Perhaps it would have happened anyway but the British may have feared what would happen to their people in Russia if they took in someone the Bolsheviks fear may be returned to powe, perhaps by force.
You might also have had the attitude that “a leader should go down with his country”. At the time few people openly criticized “Titanic” captain Edward John Smith because he went down with the ship. White Star chairman J Bruce Ismay was severely criticized for surviving
Couldn’t the King have rescued the family and quietly sent them off to another country until the furor died down?:dubious:
If you’re asking for my opinion, yes.
One historical irony is that Rasputin gets a lot of blame (deservedly so) for the Czar’s downfall because he was a bad influence. But there is one major example of the Czar defying Rasputin - Rasputin was strongly opposed to Russia going to war in 1914 and repeatedly advised against it. It was one of the few times Rasputin was giving good advice and one of the few times he was ignored.
Although it has been indicated above, it may not be clear that when the offer of a haven was withdrawn by George V, the Romanovs were in the custody of the Provisional Government, not Lenin. Kerensky indeed packed them (the family) off to Siberia to keep them out of the reach of the Bolsheviks so it could not be seen clearly that they would be executed. Unfortunately 7 months later Lenin got hold of them.
So Jim’s Son, that would raise some difficulty with your theory regarding the Bolshevik reaction. They weren’t the govt at the time.
In the beginning he may well have not wanted to antagonize the Russian Provisional Government which was still prosecuting the war. Later, when the Bolsheviks took over, it may have been too late.
It’s been a while since I read of these events, but this seems plausible to me from what I remember of what I’ve read.
There was also a civil war going on in Russia. The Bolsheviks and their allies were the Reds and the various anti-Bolshevik groups were the Whites. Some of the White groups were republicans and some were imperialists (and some were secessionists and some were essentially warlords). The Reds had the Imperial family in their custody but White forces were in the area and it was possible they might have been captured/rescued from their Red captors. This was one of the reasons the Bolsheviks decided to execute the Imperial family so suddenly after having held them as a possible bargaining chip for several months.
I believe Kerensky was also hoping to obtain the Tsar and his family safe passage to Britain?
That sounds familiar.
Some nation would have let them in, perhaps even the USA. So, the fact that GB did not does not mean that spelled doom for the Czar. I see nothing that indicates the the revolutioniaries really would have let him go.
In “The Romanovs- The Final Chapter”, Massie states: “In the spring of 1917, after the tsar had abdicated and while Alexander Kerensky and the Provisional Russian Government were trying to provide for the safety of the Imperial family by sending them to political asylum abroad…”
As I recall from reading Nicholas and Alexandria they at first expected him to abdicate for his son. He abdicated for and Uncle or Broter who quickly refused the honor.
WHAT! There is a Robert K. Massie book I’ve not read?!?!
I’m outta here, on to Ebay!
Yes, but did they really want to let the ex-Tsar out of their control? Could they have gotten the Tsar out safely, even if they wanted to??
His brother, Grand Duke Michael. Alexei, would probably have been separated from his parents, and Nicholas didn’t want to risk his health that way. (Remember that the Tsarevich suffered from hemophilia) Michael would only take the throne if asked by the provisional government.
Kerensky (who also suspended the death penalty, IIRC), did indeed want to get the Romanovs out of Russia. (Whether he COULD have is another story – if George hadn’t denied them asylum, it’s possible). Kerensky had no desire for a big bloody massacre.
And the Nicholas wasn’t the only one losing his throne – monarchs all over Europe were being forced to step down, overthrown, etc. The Romanovs were the only ones killed out right, IIRC. Most simply abdicated and went into exile.
Kerensky wrote two books – The Crucifixion of Liberty and Russia and History’s Turning Point. I suggest you read them if you’re really interested.
Kerensky’s son did come to Britain, eventually, and became a civil engineer. My late father knew him.
Well, not a massacre but keeping the Tsar as a political hostage to use?
And, yes, in fact if they had just executed the Tsar (who after all was a very bad monarch) the Communists might have not gotten such a black eye over this. It was the slaughter of the innocent children that was such an atrocity.
True – although technically, the Grand Duchesses weren’t children – Olga was 22, Tatiana was 21, Maria* was 19, and Anastasia was 17. Alexei though wasn’t quite 14.
They also murdered their servants, and even Anastasia’s dog was clubbed to death. However, the idea of four young women, who had nothing to do with the regime being slaughtered was horrifying to the world, along with an innocent young boy with hemophilia.
*It was determined that the missing body was that of Grand Duchess Maria, rather than Anastasia. Her’s, along with Alexei’s, was recently found and interned with the rest of the family.
Not that it makes shooting a fourteen year old look any better, but very few people knew Alexei was a hemophiliac at the time. It had been kept as quiet as possible.
Which unfortunately ended up working against the Romanovs. The key to Rasputin’s access to the family was his apparent ability to “heal” Alexei. But because most people weren’t aware that Alexei was ill, they assumed the Romanovs kept Rasputin around for more sinister reasons.