The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II

the leaders of the Ural Soviet, headed by Myasnikov’s old Perm friend, Beloborodov. The purpose of the meeting was to draw up a resolution for the execution of their Romanov prisoners. Although they knew Michael was already dead, his name was included as one of those the Regional Soviet ‘considers it indispensable to execute…’ However, the resolution recognised that ‘for reasons of foreign policy’ it might be necessary to keep that ‘absolutely secret’.⁴⁴

The meeting also agreed that the Ural Soviet should send immediately two envoys to Moscow to obtain the endorsement of the Bolshevik leadership for their decision. The first envoy was a very senior figure in the ranks of the Ural Soviet: secretary and war commissar Filipp Goloshchenkin; the other was a man with no position at all — Myasnikov, who it was said was carrying ‘a personal report’ for Lenin. The two envoys were instructed to return ‘not later than July 15’.⁴⁵

The man who had been Emperor Michael II was dead. Now the question was how best to deal with the other Romanovs in the custody of the Ural Soviet. Five weeks after the murder of Michael, the world would have the answer to that.

23. LONG LIVE MICHAEL

IN both London and Berlin the ‘escape’ of Michael was seen as of high importance, with both sides wondering how best to exploit that to their own advantage. Although the British, like the French, had withdrawn their ambassadors from Petrograd to the greater safety of Murmansk, on the White Sea, they still had a skeleton staff there, of whom the naval attache Captain Francis Cromie was key to their intelligence sources. Just over two weeks after Michael’s murder, and based on reports from a spy in the German general staff, he reported by telegram on June 29, 1918, that the Germans intended to follow up their seemingly successful offensive in the West by a new effort in Russia. Their aim was to ‘break the Brest peace and declare a monarchy. Considerations will be more favourable than Brest Peace Conference, return of all territory to Russia, even Ukraine…Economic conditions will be onerous but less so than at present. Candidate for the throne is Grand Duke Michael and a high German Agent has already been sent to Perm to open negotiations, but Grand Duke has temporarily disappeared’.

The despatch to London, which fitted the facts as Cromie understood them, urged that since the Germans appeared bent on restoring the monarchy, albeit for their own interests, the best course for the British was to forestall them and back the monarchists first. ‘In Ukraine there are 200,000 officers of whom 150,000 will at once join up, but only in support of monarchy’, he said, adding that ‘Grand Duke Michael is the most popular candidate’.¹

The Germans had re-established an embassy in Moscow, with Count Joachim von Mirbach, a Russian expert, as ambassador; they also maintained an important consulate in Petrograd. Their messages to Berlin and to the Kaiser’s brother Prince Henry, who was primarily responsible for questions relating to the Romanov dynasty, were also supportive of Michael as emperor. Prince Henry took the keenest interest in bringing the Bolsheviks to heel: his two sisters-in-law were Alexandra and Ella, both prisoners, and his wife, Princess Irene, was aunt to the five children in Ekaterinburg.

The question was how to rescue them, and the best hope of that might well prove to be Michael. On June 27, two weeks after his ‘escape’, The Times in London had reported rumours that ‘he is at the head of an anti-revolution movement in Turkestan’ and that ‘he had issued a manifesto to the Russian people…leaving the decision as to the form of government to be adopted by the Duma which was to be convoked’.

This seemed to re-affirm Michael’s manifesto on becoming emperor: that it was for the Russian people to decide its status, and that if he was to be emperor it was to be as a constitutional monarch not an autocrat. That being so, its authenticity seemed real enough. A week later, the newspaper had him ‘at the head of the Siberian revolt’.²

On that same day, July 3, 1918, von Mirbach in Moscow advised Berlin that of all the Romanovs who might be restored to the throne the most popular was Michael, and that there was no support for ex-Tsar Nicholas whose cause he judged to be hopeless.

Of more immediate concern to von Mirbach was the news that Michael was not only leading the Siberian revolt but that he remained an ally of Britain and France and had published a ‘manifesto’ calling on all former Tsarist officers to support him. ‘Effect of Michael Aleksandrovich’s support for Entente on generals and officers, including those of groups who lean towards us, considerable according to impressions here. Groups here have shown themselves noticeably more restrained towards us during the last week.’³

A few days later came further confirmation to Berlin that Michael was the only possible candidate for the throne of a restored monarchy. For the Germans their evidence of that, in part, was the reaction of the people in Petrograd to news reports that Nicholas had been killed.

This wholly false story, spread by the Ural Soviet at the same time as they were announcing Michael’s ‘escape’, was that while being evacuated by special train from Ekaterinburg because of the threat posed by advancing Czechs, Nicholas had become involved in a furious row with one of his guards, and the soldier had then killed him with a bayonet thrust. The object of all this was to test both public and foreign reaction to the death of Nicholas, while covering up the real murder of Michael.

The result from the Bolshevik standpoint was encouraging, as the German despatch from Petrograd to Prince Henry confirmed just over three weeks later. The report, passed on by Henry to the Kaiser, stated that although the ‘murder’ of Nicholas on the train was widely believed,

…the effect of this news on the masses was scarcely perceptible. Even the Russian church, whose interest can only be bound up with the imperial family, did not react in any way. Although the rumour was not retracted for almost two weeks, a requiem mass did not take place anywhere. This notoriously proved that the ex-Tsar has lost all sympathy from the people.

Grand Duke Michael is a different matter. The newspapers which carried the news of his flight and his alleged manifesto in Siberia were read feverishly and he is seen as the only possible source of deliverance from the unbearable circumstances. The famous Russian writers Kuprin and Amfiteatrov even attempted to publish a newspaper article about the Grand Duke, in which His Imperial Highness was characterised as the only Romanov not to have been discredited in any way. Both were, of course, immediately arrested.

The report, largely confirming Cromie’s assessment of German intentions, concluded: ‘only the restoration of the monarchy in Russia with German assistance… will guarantee Germany an alliance with Russia and the maintenance and support of German interests in East Europe’. What was needed was that ‘a general Church Congress, presided over by the Patriarch, offers the Grand Duke the crown’.⁴

Here, it seemed, was proof that the Kremlin’s dead-and-alive strategy was paying off. They had given the Germans an emperor for their planned monarchy but one who was set to go to war with them, while denying them the possibility that they could credibly find an alternative. If the Bolshevik leadership had been able to read the German diplomatic cables they would have been well pleased with themselves. The threat of a German-led counter revolution was real enough, but muddying the waters was better than going back to war with them, as the Socialist Revolutionaries wanted to do — they would murder the German ambassador von Mirbach on July 16.

What was more, the Bolshevik ‘escape’ story continued to be accepted at face value by the world at large. The man they had buried in a wood outside Perm was alive and well and in Siberia. Everyone knew that, because it said so in the newspapers.

But the newspapers were printing only what seemed to be credible reports from a number of sources. A Japanese diplomatic despatch to Tokyo was picked up by the British military attache, who promptly cabled London on July 8, 1918 that ‘a counter-revolutionary movement headed by Grand Duke Michael has started in Omsk…’ ⁵ Four days later even a Moscow newspaper was reporting Michael’s reappearance. ‘Rumour has spread here’, said a report from Vyatka, ‘that the former Grand Duke Michael Romanov is in Omsk and has taken command of the Siberian insurgents. There are claims that he has issued a manifesto to the people calling for the overthrow of Soviet power and promising to convene Assemblies of the Land to resolve the question of what regime there should be in Russia.’⁶ The stories about Michael even reached Persia where Dimitri recorded in his diary the rumours that ‘Misha is advancing on Moscow with Cossacks and has been proclaimed