Donald Crawford - The Last Tsar - Emperor Michael II

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.

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. 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; C havchavadze, 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

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

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

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