It is no secret that the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and former English monarch, George V, shared the same blood, and many possibly blamed George V for failing to come to his cousin’s aid when the Bolsheviks came after the whole Romanov family in 1918. But apparently, Nicholas had originally intended to save his cousin and his family, but decided against it.
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Several accounts from the British ambassador to Russia at the time, Sir George Buchanan, as well as that of Alexander Kerensky, the then justice minister of the Provisional Government, pointed to the fact that such an exchange was in the books, however, it also indicated that there were two opposing sides to the story. Buchanan insisted that the offer to the tsar and his family remained open and that it was the Provisional Government of Russia which intercepted the planned extraction of the Romanovs. Meanwhile, Kerensky contended that they were told that England will no longer be accepting the Romanovs into English soil. So, which account was true?
Apparently, it was Nicholas himself who blocked the Romanovs’ sailing to English soil after being convinced that it would be detrimental to the reputation of the British crown if England were to offer asylum to “Bloody Nicholas” and his family. The book, The Dissolution of an Empire, written by Buchanan’s daughter Meriel and published in 1928, exposed the truth behind the whole facade.
For more details on the whole debacle between George V and Nicholas II, Alexey Timofeychev of RBTH shares the story behind the betrayal of the century.
(Image credit: Ernst Sandau/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama