Grand Duke Michael: Brother of the Last Tsar

uh first of all thank you michael and hannah and thanks to the museum for asking me to speak today um i have to apologize in sort of a funny way for the fact that my co-author helen azar isn't present today she lives outside of sydney australia where it is about five o'clock in the morning tomorrow and as anyone who knows her nose she is really a night owl but she sends her best and if we get any crazy questions at the end that i can't answer i'm happy to pass them on to her or you can look at her facebook page in the steps of the romanovs and look at a lot of the wonderful things that she has been posting i think i have to start this off by talking a little bit about the manuscript diary uh michael ramanov who as everybody knows was the younger was a younger brother of nicholas ii the last tsar of russia kept a diary but he did not keep it in the same way as most of the romanovs did he kept notebooks and he jotted things down bit by bit every day and at the end of the day he would turn them over to his secretary nikolai johnson who was a russian of british extraction and he would type them up and the next day michael would make notes in the margins or slight corrections and then the papers would be bound together those manuscripts after the death of grand duke michael which we'll go over at the end of the lecture uh those manuscripts were returned to his wife natalia brasova and she smuggled them out of russia to england where they remained with her family for many years natalia kept the manuscripts with her in paris and they were inherited by her daughter natalie mamante mamantova gray majorie she was married several times who found the manuscripts propping up her mother's bed after her death the manuscripts were sold by the family privately through a dealer ultimately uh selling them to the forbes collection in new york where they sat for many many years no translation was ever done of them and the first really appearance of sections of the um diaries became known in michael and rosemary crawford's book michael the last tsar michael ii the last tsar but the book had never been published in english in its entirety and the forbes is sold the book in 2009 to the national archives in russia where the manuscript exists today and where my colleague helen came across them excuse me several years ago on her last trip to russia so she said what we should do is to translate an annotated translation of these diaries in the same way that we had done grand duchess tatiana and which she had done also for grand duchess olga and um we thought terrific but work held us up and it really wasn't until the pandemic that i was able to complete my end of the deal and get the annotation research done so the book was published this year this lecture which we're about to have is going to cover an enormous amount of material and probably the last third is going to be the most devoted to the work that we did on the book but i felt that it was very important for everybody to have an overview of the life of grand duke mikhail and so without further ado i will start the lecture so michael was born on the 22nd of november 1878 at the anchov palace in saint petersburg he was the fifth and penultimate child of alexander the third and his wife empress maria fiodarovna he was 10 years younger than his older brother nicholas ii and seven years younger than his older brother granted george when your children a decade makes a huge difference and so michael was really far more frequently in the company of his grand sister's auto who was three years older and grand duchess olga who was three and a half years younger than he was grand duke mikhail was known in the family as misha you can see here a wonderful family group of photographs which now belongs to the russian history museum it's in our collection it descended within the family of the council sufif and was a gift to the museum in 2009. michael was a lively little boy he enjoyed torturing his sisters he was universally adored by his family and close relatives and was known for the fact that he was so genial and natural and unaffected count vita noted and he observed the imperial family very closely for many years he said most of all emperor alexander iii loved his son mikhail alexandrovich why anyone loves one person above another is a mystery of the soul and so would therefore be difficult to explain why alexander iii loved his son misha so much but the fact is he loved him most of all without any question all of the children of alexander the third were i will not say terrified of their father but they were humble before him and they felt his supreme authority only mikhail aleksandrovich was the one who was completely natural and unafraid of his father in any way and for this the emperor was grateful the adolescent michael was therefore a bit cuddled and was certainly the favorite baby of the family though as he grew older he began to exhibit this sort of brusque toughness uh that was a hallmark of rahman of men he adapted well to tutoring at home and began to chafe at restrictions to his liberties he had a tendency to slam around the palaces noisily and irritated his sister branducci's olga by storming into her room and throwing himself into chairs or onto her bed she began to call him floppy in english for his behavior and uh the nickname stuck within the family in 1894 mikhail was just 16 and preparing to enter military school when his father alexander iii became deathly ill and finally died in the crimea at the old lavagia palace on 19th october he was only 49 years old his son nicholas was only 26 and mikhail found himself second in line to the throne after his older brother that cesaryevich and grand duke george alexandrovic after the death of alexander iii maria fiodarovna and her family withdrew permanently to the anitch of palace and leaving the imperial suites at the winter palace to nicholas and alexandra the new emperor and empress mikhail then 17 joined the imperial artillery school and joined the lifeguards artillery for military training which was so crucial to the education of every russian grand duke mikhail was not much of a student but he was an excellent and instinctive soldier and they impressed all of his colleagues with his sort of natural physical abilities miphail became a superb equestrian a near professional shot and he was much encouraged by the older members of the family such as the grand duke vladimir and granted nikolai nikolaj who urged him to work hard to serve the emperor by his early 1920s mikhail was one of the rising members of the romano family and very useful to nicholas ii he traveled extensively was the public face of the family at family events and became well known to the members of the extended international family of the romanus which included the royal houses of great britain denmark greece hesse and prussia and became familiar with relatives such as his cousins in saksakoba gota hess darmstadt saxa altenborg and elsewhere in 1898 there was an enormous shift however when the michael's older brother the czech and grand duke george died as the result of a motorcycle accident near abbas pumani in georgia where he had lived for several years as a result of the tuberculosis that he acquired on a trip to asia with his brother in the 1890s the funeral of george proved to be a turning point for mikhail because with the daesh the death of george alexandrovich mikhail was now cesariovich and grand duke his brother's heir with this responsibility michael was thrust into a political world he had never really been meant to navigate but in the middle of which he would uncomfortably remain for the rest of his life by nineteen hundred that says that ivig mikhail alexandrovich was at the center of everything in st petersburg he was young he was handsome he was powerful he was next in line for the throne he had loved the admiration of his family he was respected by his regiment and he lay very lightly on the political scene and made no enemies he appeared to want for nothing and to ask for nothing he was a soldier who served his brother and though honors came he never put himself forward for anything the very astute grand constantine constantine noted misha keeps away from affairs of state never offers his opinions and perhaps hide behinds hides behind the public's perception of him as a good-natured and unremarkable boy it was precisely this quality of michael's that made him such an interesting subject for helen and for me publicly michael was always very quiet and reluctant to speak for himself or be quoted he left a very small record of official statements or public appearances oh oh people are asking me to speak slower and i'm i'm sorry it's going to be difficult because there's a lot of material to cover as a result um the fate of his diaries were uh as we mentioned were unknown for 50 years they were unpublished for almost 100 years and as a result people have and continue to project onto michael what they want to believe about him as a result there are a lot of myths and fabrications even from the people who were closest to him our translation of his diaries from the most important period of his life the war and the revolution until his death are a way for us to try to move away from that and to restore his voice and his opinions to him and to eliminate some of the myths which follow him around mikhail's rise coincided with the apogee of romanov power and influence here's another piece from the museum of russian history's collection we have a copy of the extraordinary book of photographs that sergey levitsky compiled of the guests at the last great ball held at the winter palace known as the boyar fett of 1903 and this is a detail of michael's sumptuous costume as the 17th century cesarevic on his hat this is a fun fact he wears two important pieces from the russian imperial crown jewels which were borrowed for the occasion from his mother and he has gone down in history as having lost the large diamond spray you see at the top his sister olga was quoted in her memoirs as saying michael lost it it must have fallen off his cap while he was dancing my mother and he were in absolute despair the clip having been from the crown jewels all of the halls at the palace were searched that very night at dawn the detectives searched from basement to attic the diamond clip was never found poor mikhail has been blamed for enough um over the years so i'd actually like to absolve him of this once and for all you can see here a picture in the side box of the jewel in question you can compare it you can see it's the same one that he's wearing on his cap this photograph was taken in 1924 by the soviets so we know that the drool was definitely returned to the diamond treasury between 1903 and 1914 when the crown jewels were sent to moscow for a safety during the first world war i have to thank my instagram friend russian underscore treasure for bringing this to my attention if you don't follow i think you should there's a lot of wonderful russian jewelry history going on there that event aside it was to be the last ball at the winter palace that nobody knew it at the time by 1903 grand michael was considering his future and the possibility of marriage marriage was an important moment in the lives of the male members of the imperial family and the fundamental laws of the russian state noted grand dukes could only marry women of equal birth that is members of a reigning or formerly sovereign house and by this time mikhail had met and fallen in love with just such a woman princess beatrice of saksakoba gangota was on the surface a perfect match she was a granddaughter of queen victoria and a granddaughter of alexander ii her father had been the duke of edinburgh and had inherited the duchy of sax codeberg in 1893 baby b as she was known was the youngest of four beautiful sisters and mikhail and beatrice had a passionate epistolary relationship which went on for years they were madly in love but there was one impediment they were first cousins the russian orthodox church prohibits marriage between relatives to the seventh degree this means a complete ban on marriages between siblings aunts and uncles first cousins first cousins once removed second cousins and second cousins once removed spiritual family members are also included meaning you cannot marry a god child of one of your parents even if they are not related to you by blood this religious cannon however was moot if the if the marriage was permitted by the emperor first cousins first cousins once removed and second cousins married all the time in the house of romanov in fact nicholas and alexandra were second cousins grand duchess elizabeth and her husband grand ducey were first cousins once removed and in fact the majority of nicholas and alexandra's romanov relatives had married in defiance of this canon but with the emperor's permission as the supreme episcopal authority of the russian orthodox church such a marriage was possible though nicholas ii could have approved this match he refused to randall mikhail and princess beatrice were broken-hearted they wanted nothing more than to be together but nicholas stood steadfast and refused to allow the first cousin marriage it was likely the first occasion that michael did not get his own way forbidden to marry b he turned his attention elsewhere and things got worse in 1901 the dowager empress had appointed a lady in waiting to grand duchess olga her first the woman who you see here alexandre of nakasikovskaya known as dina replaced the grand duchess's nanny mrs franklin and became a central figure within the family circle and soon she caught michael's eye she was no cousin but she was a commoner and a completely unacceptable choice for a grand duke after two years of a covert relationship which culminated in rumors that an elopement was imminent the dowager empress finally dismissed kasich again mikhail was affected by the loss of his choice but he was distracted because by 1904 nicholas ii and empress alexandre fudorovna had at last had a son that says and alex and graham duke alexis nikolaj michael was no longer cesariovic he was third in line nicholas named him regent in waiting in case something should happen to the young heir and also made him a godfather michael was greatly relieved to no longer have to shoulder the burden of immediate succession and with that in mind miphail's perspective began to shift if b had been an inappropriate choice and dina had been an illegal one what was to come next was going to shock everyone to their core and actually have serious ramifications for the entire imperial family in this photograph you can see granted mikhail at the front and his sister grand duchess olga on the hill at the back around 1907. next to granted mikhails it's natalia sergey of novulfort natasha as she was known uh was generally acknowledged to be one of the great russian beauties of her generation born into a family of the minor service nobility she was the daughter of seville shermytinsky a well-known moscow jurist and lawyer eminently respectable her first marriage was to sergey mamentov who was a nephew of the moscow industrialist and famed art collector savan mamentov while sasha was happy while natasha was happy with her first husband's social access she noted later she was less than pleased with his financial situation the two had a daughter also called natalia but known as and though sergi's uncle was fabulously rich he was not and his social cachet was dependent on his relationship to artists and musicians many of whom like fyodor yapin and mikhail varubil were devoted to natasha natasha however was dissatisfied and began an affair with an aristocratic petropolitan guardsman vladimir vladimirovich wolfer and ultimately filed for divorce uh for many of you who've read anna karenina you know that divorce was impossible for women in imperial russia and in fact her husband mamantov uh posed as the guilty party in a case of adultery so that she would be granted a divorce without any scandal he maintained he was the guilty party and the divorce was ultimately granted she married uh wilford right away and natasha and her daughter moved to st petersburg where they were quickly drawn into the imperial circle you can see from this picture she was at the center of it all she's seated right here next to granted mikhail and behind them on the crest of the hill you can see grand duchess olga sitting with colonel nikolai kulakovsky who would ultimately become her husband in 1916 with the permission of her brother by 1912 all of these people would be living a very different life the relationship progressed quite quickly and though it was not consummated for some time the rumors had reached petersburg's society that natasha and michael were in gate were involved with one another so much so that captain wilford offended challenged brandon mikhail to a duel and nicholas ii sent graham duke away to join another regiment it's clear however that michael and natasha had indeed become lovers by 1909 and by december of that year she was pregnant with his son though she was still married to wolford mikhail appealed to nicholas ii who was horrified but helped arrange a negotiation with wolford who agreed like her first husband to portray himself as the adulterous party and to divorce before the birth of their child the divorce did actually not go through in time and natasha gave birth to their son kyodovich on 24th july 1910 the divorce on the instructions of nicholas ii was backdated so that their son would not be regarded as wolford's son but as natasha's own illegitimate child and therefore under her full legal guardianship the emperor granted natasha and george the right to live at michael's moscow estate brassova and to use the name brassava as their surname mikhail promised nicholas the second that he would never marry natasha he promised that she would remain outside of moscow and that she would never be a source of any trouble for the imperial family but in 1912 on a trip to western europe the two were married in the serbian orthodox church in vienna on the white gaza which is still there today here you can see a photo postcard of the serbian orthodox church of saint sava on the left and a photograph of it on the right where you can see it is virtually unchanged there's a note on the postcard in michael's own hand which reads the church that we were married as you can see the church is unchanged as you can also remember there is another unchanged thing which was the rule about grand duke's marrying without permission mikhail wrote nicholas ii about the marriage and he said i know punishment awaits me for this act and i am ready to bear it the dowager empress received a similar letter and wrote to nicholas this has completely killed me i am undone maria fielder suggested that the whole wedding should be kept a secret and the marriage should be kept a secret as well because unequal marriages of the imperial family had been in the past but it was too late and the consequences were swift michael and his wife seen here with their dog were banished from russia his military rank and positions were revoked his palace which had been under renovation since 1910 was confiscated his funds from the imperial appanach were halted his marriage was unrecognized his son was unrecognized and he was stripped of the role of regent to the cesarevich quick decisions precipitated to move to britain his cousin george v allowed him to come into exile and his relative brandon mikhail mikhailic or already lived there with his own morganatic life wife countess de torbi and their children in russia mikhail's first cousin grand kiril had just been allowed to return with his wife who was in fact b of saxa koberg's older sister she had finally been recognized as a grand duchess and their child was recognized as a princess of the blood imperial the fact stood out to mikhail and seemed to prove that no matter what his punishment would only be temporary michael and his family settled into what would appear to be a very pleasant exile they rented nepworth house nebworth house in hartfordshire in 1913 and you can see here life for the newly married couple was far from unpleasant michael and natasha settled into a society settled into a cycle of society visits though the british aristocracy generally snubbed natasha and generally were referred to preferred to receive only the grand duke they spent most of their time with their children and their very close staff here you can see grand duke michael playing his guitar at networth he had an italian guitar teacher called domenici who traveled with him and his diary records lessons of playing the guitar almost daily who domenic he was and what happened to him is totally unknown he's one of those mysteries and casualties of the war grand michael and natasha brassova also joined the ranks of the thousands of affluent russians who frequented the riviera and paris in the period before the first world war here you can see from left to right uh natalia brassova and mikhail alexandrovich with an unknown woman and mikhail's secretary nikolai johnson they are on the kittis anglais at nice here is the fashionable natasha sitting with secretary johnson on that same riviera trip johnson was responsible for the diary as we mentioned earlier at the end of 1914 however once war had been declared in august mikhail wrote an impassioned plea to nicholas ii begging that he'd be permitted to return to russia i cannot bear the thought of being unable to serve my country at such a time i beg you he wrote allow me to fulfill my duty in this picture you can see that nicholas did relent here the whole family is reunited on the balcony of the imperial family's rooms at the alexander palace michael's return however was politically difficult and awkward for all concerned though he was allowed back there were still indignities his funds were limited he was not restored to his position as regent for the cesarevic he was not allowed to return to his own regiment instead being assigned to a dagestani regiment known as the savage in addition his unfinished palace was not returned to him and he and natalya were limited to living on the estate of brasil in a final backhanded act nicholas recognized george brassif as michael's son and awarded him the title of count brassov in accordance with what had been done for the illegitimate offspring of members of the imperial family in the past however contrary to sort of the western view it appears nicholas ii never accorded the title of countess to the boy's mother though people called natasha countess out of courtesy it appears she had no legal right to that title the imperial family still refused to receive her and she was persona non grata even during wartime mikhail on the other hand was quickly reintegrated into the imperial family and was placed on duty during the war here you can see him reunited with his mother the dowdra empress maria fiorovna and his sister granddaughter and their sons and her sons neither the dowager empress nor michael's sister would meet natalya they refused to call her countess or even madame brassova in a family correspondence she was only referred to as that woman his wife or even la brassava in the same way that mistresses of the french kings or actresses have been called la dubari and la bernhardt mikhail returned to fairly normal activities even in wartime as an avid photographer made frequent trips to petrograd's kodak score kodak store which was located at balshaya clinician street number 19. you can see him here in front of the kodak store um it's actually quite surprising at how normal life was during the beginning of the war [Music] natalia however was basically confined to brassova the estate near the estate had been inherited by mikhail from his brother grand duke george and it was a pleasant country estate or as russian say usaba unpretentious and beautifully cited outside of moscow the couple made many improvements and decorated it without sparing expense it was littered with objects from the imperial collections but arranged in an informal way here are a few views of the interior one can clearly see works by bharavikovsky kanova and others while mikhail spent as much time as he could there natalia was mostly there by herself with their children receiving a stream of sympathetic visitors from moscow including her family and friends who were full of gossip concerning the state of the country and noting how quickly conditions were deteriorating mikhail took part in the war effort and was granted the saint vladimir medal with swords for his part in the second cavalry court during the brazil of offensive he visited the troops wherever he went in an effort to boost the declining morale of the man who served during one of those visits he may have in fact presented a watch like this one which is in the collection of the russian history museum this watch by pavel beret who was the court supplier of watches to the armed forces appears to have been made during the period 1914 1918 more research is absolutely necessary but you can see here michael's imperial crown cipher on the presentation watch though michael fought very well and very hard for the war effort he was frequently able to get away from time to time in order to rest and to see his wife his son and his stepdaughter in december of 1916 michael was able to get away to a place that he and natasha really loved to celebrate christmas and the new year you can see here natalya also contributed to the war effort by funding hospitals out of her own funds the crimea was one of imperial russia's most beautiful resorts on the black sea coast and since the mid 19th century the imperial family and the aristocracy had built spectacular homes in this beautiful location now in ukraine though this house that you're seeing swallows nest was not a romanov house it is the backdrop against which our translation of michael's diaries begins it belonged at the time to the family of one of michael and natalya's dear friends the shilla putins he and natasha had been staying in the crimea towards the month of december 1916 when the diaries open they had just finished their vacation and they were returning to brassova when they learned of the murder of grigori rasputin from newspapers on the train heading towards moscow michael and natasha spent a worried christmas at brasov gradually learning of the chaos which had erupted after the death of empress alexandra's spiritual friend murdered by a group which included their relatives grandduke dimitri and prince felix yusuf the collective relationships of the ramana family were beginning to disintegrate nicholas and alexandra were horrified by the murder but even more so by a letter written and signed by many members of the family which begged for clemency for the two young men the request was denied no one has the right to commit murder nicholas responded i am astonished you would make this request after christmas on the 30th of december mikhail and natasha moved to a rented house at gachina that he had taken for himself and his family in order to be nearer to the capital and tried to make sense of the changing situation in petrograd the situation was becoming desperate morale was at an all-time low there were open rumblings of dissent against the government and most particularly and aggressively against the empress who was believed to have extensive influence throughout the government from the small house at gachina michael and natasha would be increasingly aware that the situation was disintegrating throughout the month of january on january 1st michael traveled from gachin into the alexander palace to meet nicholas ii and together the two men went here to the emperor's new year reception at the great catherine palace at saskatchewan michael noted that the reception there was held as if it were an old times though the empress did not appear after the reception michael went to the house of his cousin baris at baris's english style house michael records he met with him and his cousins kiril and andrew dimirevich who though michael does not mention it probably acquainted with him with their feelings regarding the family situation they had all signed the letter asking for clemency for dimitri pavlovich and felix and they were all feeling the sting of the emperor's anger and response to their requests the vladimirji cousins may have asked michael to visit their mother the grand duchess maria pavlovn of the elder and two days later on january the third michael did according to his diaries michael met with brenda's maria pavlovna and her sons at the vladimir palace on the english embankment the family was concerned they said and suggested that he try to get a fuller picture of the disorders and difficulties from duma chairman mikhail rezianko michael may have also discussed natasha and the refusal of women of the imperial family to receive her michael went from the vladimir palace to the home of grand duke's gaming highlands and from there the two went to meet with miguel retzianco at the meeting michael asked radianco if he thought there would be a revolution and redzianko affirmed that the situation was tremendously serious and asked michael to try to set up a meeting with nicholas ii in order to establish a government of confidence to try and replace the officials in whom the public had no trust noted that who should be placed at the head of this new government was himself michael returned to the house at gachina and spent the next few days dealing with his son george who had a serious case of influenza and receiving visitors from petrograd including prince and princess paul putiaten who brought him news of the gradual disintegration of the quality of life in the capital talk of revolution was everywhere and the situation was getting worse on january 12th as he had promised rudzianco michael went to the alexander palace and had breakfast with nicholas and alexandra here in the palo sander room and then repaired to have a private conversation with nicholas at two o'clock nicholas had a formal meeting with michael as well as with the princess constantine and igor constantinovic but there is no record of their conversation that day back in petrograd michael and natasha went to see aunt mihim on the 14th it was the first time any woman of the imperial family had bothered to receive michael's wife news of the meeting swept through saint petersburg elizabeth zizi narish a confidence of the confidante of the empress you can see lower right wrote i believe that danger is coming from an unexpected source mikhail his wife natalia is very much a member of the intelligentsia and as such she lacks any constraint she's already wormed her way through to maria pavlovna her box at the theater is teaming with grand dukes they will connive together with maria bavana she will see to it that natalya is accepted by the dowager empress and the emperor i sense that they're all plotting mikhail will in spite of himself be implicated in this plot first he will be regent then he will be emperor they will accomplish everything this type of gossip did not discourage the hopes of either michael or natasha they thought that things would actually get better and it's interesting to note narishkina's point of view because you can see that through her writing almost everyone in saint petersburg was convinced that there was a plot by the end of january 17 michael was working he was sent to moscow and took natasha leaving her there while he went on a final active tour of duty which included time in kiev with the dowager empress and other members of the imperial family who were working hard to assist the wounded at the ukrainian polish german front michael visited the second regiment and reviewed the troops and by the time he returned to pittsburgh on february 6 he could see the situation in the capital was eroding by the middle of february the family's perception was that the empress was the problem the entire family from the dowager empress on down through every branch were convinced that alexandra's influence over nicholas was misguided and dangerous we now know that the empress's role was significantly less than anyone thought and that she was in fact innocent of such intrigues but the gulf between nicholas and alexandra and the rest of the family had grown so large that the family was getting their news from the same sources as the general population which were newspapers and so they suffered from the same misinformation about the empress and her role as others brandon mikhail grand duke paul and grand duke alexander mikhail which all met with the empress at varying times and were shocked by what they felt was her seeming indifference to events she refused to entertain any thoughts that there was any trouble in russia that could not be resolved at the end of the war on february the 22nd michael joined and nicholas and alexander for breakfast and stayed until nicholas the second left for mogulev two on february 25th disorders began in the capital michael noted that there were blockages in the street that grenades were being thrown and that in general there was disorder at all levels on that day the first strike broke out in response to the rumors of lack of bread and the optics of disorders in the street ninety thousand workers struck and took to the streets the first day the next day a hundred thousand workers and the day after that two hundred thousand more michael left gauchina immediately and arrived in petrograd on the 26th of february and went at radzianco's request to a meeting of the council of ministers february 27th was the worst that anyone had seen and michael's diary reads 27 february monday beginning of complete anarchy in gachina and petrograd at five o'clock johnson and i went to petrograd in the extra train at the marinski palace i confirmed with retiancon nekrassov savage dimitryukov then prince khalidson general goliath and trajonsky arrived by the time we got to petrograd it seemed quiet but by nine o'clock the shooting had started in the streets and almost all of the troops became revolutionary the old power no longer existed because of this a provisional executive committee was formed which began to give orders and decrees in order to maintain the fragile order this committee consisted of a few members of the state duma under the chairmanship of razianco at nine o'clock i went to the moyca to the war minister and transmitted via a radio device to general alexiev to pass on to nikki the steps that needed to be taken immediately to calm the brewing revolution specifically the resignation of the entire cabinet and to entrust prince love to choose a new one according to his own discretion i added the response needed to be given immediately as time does not wait and every hour is precious the response was as follows do not make any changes until my arrival michael and uh his uh his team actually tried to get rooms in the winter palace but they were forced away there were enormous riots and they finally found shelter at 12 millionaires princess putiyatina's place where they lay down on the sofas to get some sleep by this time the senior members of the imperial family felt the things really needed to be taken into their own hands grand duke mikhail brandu kirill and brandu paul representing the senior most members of the house of romanov worked together to try to preserve the throne for nicholas they could see that in the capital the imperial government was losing its authority so quickly that waiting for nicholas's return might mean losing everything a draft of a petition of a of a petition called the manifesto of the grand dukes was drafted it's unclear if the first draft was by retsianco or if it was originally drafted by ivanov a lawyer of grand duke paul's but by the 28th of february the document had been drawn up and signed by grand duke paul and grand duke the plan it appeared was to send the signed manifesto to radianco to transmit to the emperor for his approval the men were to join the provisional committee at the duma either on the first or the second grand duke michael wrote to natasha early on the morning of the first i have signed a manifesto which is supposed to be signed by the sovereign on it were already the signatures of babel and kirill and now mine as the senior most of all the grand dukes with this manifesto will begin russia's new existence it is possible that i will go to the state duma today or maybe tomorrow michael did not go to the state duma that day and it is unclear what kept him from doing so but grand duke kirill a signatory of the manifesto arrived at the duma at 4 15 in the afternoon with supplementary troops that had been requested earlier that morning he found the place of shambles meeting radzianco he made the statement he was there to assist the duma and to provide security and support for which redianco thanked him but rumors began to fly that michael would be made regent on the afternoon of that day grand duke paul wrote to kirill this sudden new disposition to make misha regent displeases me greatly it is absolutely inadmissible and it is possible that it may merely be the intrigues of the brassova or simply talk nevertheless we must be on our guard and continue to do all that is in our power to preserve the throne for nikki if nikki signs this manifesto which we have sanctioned the demands of the people and of the provisional government will be satisfied please speak of this to radzianco and show him this letter but neither paul nor kirill nor michael knew that the manifesto had already been sidelined by pavel milkov and that elsewhere in the building plans for the abdication of the emperor were being laid out with michael his regent on march the second the morning brought the news that the provisional committee had sidelined rodzianko and all of his plans the committee had decided to urge the emperor to abdicate in favor of his son with michael as regent the fact that michael had been stripped of the right to the regency in 1912 was of no concern to the provisional committee nicholas was pressured from all sides including grand duke nicholas nikolaj and abdicated in favor of his son at 3 pm kirill responded to paul's letter from the day before with a letter with regard to the matter which is troubling you i can only echo your sentiments i am absolutely of your view but in spite of my intriguing to work together and in conformity with the ideas of our family misha communicates with rodzianko i have been left absolutely alone these days to bear responsibility for nikki and the country to save the situation i'm forced to recognize the provisional government michael had indeed been contacted by razianco that morning by telegram but the contents of the telegram are unknown in swaff nicholas is concerned for his son's health and the possibility that alexis would be removed from his custody caused him to rewrite the abdication in favor of michael at 11 pm the document was changed with nicholas abdicating in favor of his brother the 11 pm document was back timed to 3 o'clock nicholas was no longer the emperor michael was awoken at the pujatin's apartment at six am on the morning of the third with a phone call from kidinski that the soviet of ministers would arrive at the apartment in one hour in fact they arrived at 9 30 am the ministers arrived to plan out the future there were an enormous number of consequences to weigh and the stability of the provisional government was in question questions included was it legal for the emperor to abdicate on behalf of his son could michael in fact accept the throne were the acts of the provisional government even legitimate or legal at all two lawyers present vladimir nabokov the father of the famous author and paris baron buddis nolda hammered out several preliminary drafts the meetings went on all morning and princess fusiatina was compelled to serve lunch to the entire provisional government assembled in the living room of her apartment the final version of the document was not an abdication per se but a deferral of the acceptance of power until such time that the russian people were able through free and fair elections to choose a new system of government until such a time michael would say he firmly placed all power in the hands of the provisional government michael copied out the statement in his own hand and signed it saying inspired in common with the whole people by the belief that the welfare of our country must be set above everything else i have taken the firm decision to assume the supreme power only if and when our great people having elected by universal suffrage a constituent assembly to determine the form of government and lay down the fundamental law of the new russian state invest me with such power calling upon them the blessing of god i therefore request that all the citizens of the russian empire submit to the provisional government established and invested with full authority by the duma until such time as this constituent assembly elected within the shortest possible time by universal direct equal and secret suffrage shall manifest the will of the people by deciding upon this new form of government signed it after the provisional government left it appears that michael who is no longer regarded as emperor received a late telegraph from nicholas ii which had been transmitted at three o'clock the telegram read to his imperial majesty pedragrad the events of recent days have forced me to decide that i am resigned to this extreme step forgive me if this upsets you and that i didn't have time to warn you in advance i will remain forever your loyal and faithful brother i am returning to staffka from where after a few days i hope to get to saskatchewan i desperately pray to god to help you and our motherland yours nikki it was too little and too late learning of michael's abdication later that day nicholas wrote in his diary alicia have arrived with the latest news from radzianco it appears misha has abdicated his manifesto finishes with something about elections for a constituent assembly god knows who advised who advised him to sign something so vile rubbish the answer to that question who had asked him to sign it was the team led by radzianco prince lev milkov and karensky michael returned once again to the small house of gachino where he was met by natasha by the 12th of march he noted that red flags were flying over gachina much to his disgust he and natasha settled into a quiet and rather low-key life at their house outside the capitol they rode over the gachina park in one of michael's many automobiles they went frequently to the silent pictures in petrograd and they awaited news from friends and family members nicholas returned to the alexander palace on march 9 and his whole family was placed under arrest on the 12th of march michael and natasha learned that grand duchess maria pavlona had been arrested in kislevsk and that boris had been placed under house arrest as well on the twenty-fifth of march the dowager empress granit xenia and grandeur alexander mikhailovic were detained and prevented for leaving from the crimea leaving for the crimea michael and natasha remained free and coordinated a move of his things from his rooms at the anika palace to his palace on the english embankment which was apparently now available to him they saw few people went to petrograd infrequently and tried to follow the progress of the war with little success as the news was both infrequent and inaccurate nicholas and his family were sent to tobolsk in may of 1917. the dowager empress was subjected to searches in the crimea later that month grand jury mikhailovic left for finland in early june followed by grand kiril and his family later that month by july bolshevik demonstrations against the provisional government were on the rise and michael and natasha found themselves increasingly restricted in august he and natasha were arrested though they were released in september for reasons as mysterious as the initial arrest when the october revolution came michael was quite sick and debilitated from the progress of a stomach ulcer by january 1918 the constituent assembly for which michael had deferred the throne was met and immediately disbanded michael was no longer useful to the government and in fact constituted a threat sitting at gachna ill and depressed michael stopped keeping his diary on march 11 1918 michael was arrested and deported to the siberian city of pyeong natasha fought valiantly for his release in petra but was only able to secure permission to come and visit him for easter it was only in may 1918 that his diary resumed with her visit to pierre they celebrated easter together and she stayed with him in his rooms at the korevsky hotel until her departure in may he wrote got up around 8 am and at nine and a half natasha and i rode at a cab to the second pyramid station behind us road johnson and yekaterina de nilova there we waited for the train on the platform for a long time ultimately the siberian express was 36 hours late as it was supposed to arrive in the evening of the third day sadly natasha got a seat in a small compartment of the international car with an unknown lady the train arrived at twelve o'clock ten minutes later zdamiorovskaya also went natasha is traveling via moscow and i returned in a horse cap with johnson stopped by the militia then i sat in the little theater garden for a bit after dinner johnson went to see borugar unsuccessfully while namiorowski stayed for another half hour i played the guitar by myself the weather was nice partly cloudy and 14 degrees i felt very sad after natasha's departure so empty and everything feels different and the room seems different michael was allowed to walk around in pm fairly freely and here he is seen with his friend the old police chief of gauchina palace pyotr ludwig who was also at pian this photograph is the last picture of michael who noted in his diary in june after breakfast i walked around town with namiorovsky we also stopped at the international panopticon wax figures after t johnson and i crossed to the other side of the camera where we took a short walk through the woods and returned by motorboat in the evening i played the guitar zdanierovsky and the grand duke saw a lot of one another in the last days until michael was called to testify before the chika throughout may he was forced to sign in every morning with them and noted that his ulcer pains were coming back on the 11th he heard that natasha was safely back at gachina and he finished a diary entry on the 12th noting that the weather was partly sunny and that it rained a bit on the night of the 12th the grand duke's rooms were broken into and he and nikolai johnson disappeared the bolsheviks planted a story in the local newspaper which read the abduction of michael ramanath on the night of the 12th 13th of june at the beginning of the first hour of the new time three unidentified men in soldiers uniforms arrived armed in the royal rooms where michael ramanov lived they entered romano's office and presented him with an arrest warrant which was read by romano's secretary johnson after that romanov was asked to go with the newcomers he and johnson were forcibly removed put in a closed phaeton and taken along trade street towards abhiskeya members of the emergency committee alerted by telephone arrived at the rooms for a few minutes after the abduction an order to detain the romanov was immediately issued horse-drawn police units were sent out on all the roads but no traces of him could be found a search of romanovs johnson's and the two servants premises yielded no clues the abduction was immediately reported to the council of people's commissars the petrograd commune and the euro regional council vigorous searches are being carried out granted michael alexanderovich and nicholas johnson were executed outside pyeong in the early hours of the 13th of june 1918. their remains have never been recovered the search for michael actually continues today you can see here captain peter salandinaki and his team the search team used ground penetrating radar and have worked to try and find grand duke michael's remains since 2009 they're going to be going back to piano this summer to look for him again and today the memory of grand duke michael is actually very much uh put to the fore in the town of pm a wonderful memorial chapel was built in his honor and it's visited every year during the satsuki days the the royal days in july when the imperial family is mourned it brings us to the end of our lecture and it's a good time to answer questions i apologize to everybody for having uh spoken so quickly but there was so much material i just didn't know how to get it all in i will now stop sharing and go back to michael

Channel: Russian History Museum

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Keywords: Russian History, Second Saturdays, Romanov

Id: I4orSmDAU-w

Length: 48min 12sec (2892 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 16 2020