In 1918, as the curtain of war fell, World War I ended the three major European empires. The German Emperor went into exile in the Netherlands, the Austrian Emperor went into exile in Switzerland, and the family of the last Tsar was desolate and destroyed.
On July 16, 1918 (when World War I was not yet over), The imprisoned Nicholas II, his wife, and five children woke up in the middle of the night and were taken to the basement.
The secret police (Cheka) who rushed in, after reading the execution order, shot and executed Nicholas II's family, and the Russian Romanov dynasty that lasted for hundreds of years was completely "wiped out".
Although the Russian Revolution ended the Russian Empire and led to the destruction of Nicholas II's family, such an outcome does not seem inevitable.
After all, at that time, most of the European royal families were related to each other (this is mainly due to Queen Victoria, who herself can be called the grandmother of Europe, of course, also brought negative effects such as hemophilia), and it is still more realistic to find a place of refuge.
King George V of England, for example, who was a cousin of Nicholas II, was considered the best option to save the last Tsar's family at the time.
So why has this "best option" not been realized, and no one can save Nicholas II's family?
Group photo of 9 kings of Europe in 1910. Most of them were related to each other, and even the King of Norway was the son of the King of Denmark
The Tsar's road to decline
As mentioned earlier, most of the European royal families are related to each other, and some are even blood relatives. For example, King Haakon VII of Norway, who was actually the second son of King Frederick VIII of Denmark.
Nicholas II and George V were cousins, and the two were very similar even in appearance. Although most of his relatives liked the warm and outgoing Nicholas II, his empress Alexandra behaved arrogantly and unpleasantly, which led to a gradual distancing of kinship...
Group photo of the two cousins. On the left is Nikolai and on the right is George
Queen Alexandra's troubles were more than that. After the Russian Revolution of 1905, when the Tsar proclaimed a "constitutional monarchy", the number of public appearances decreased.
At this time, Empress Alexandra believed in mysticism and favored the demon monk Rasputin, which not only greatly deepened the estrangement between the Russian royal family and relatives in various countries. It also disrupted the political situation of the Russian Empire and caused internal discontent in Russia.
At the time of internal and external troubles, it caught up with the First World War, and the repeated defeats of the Russian army completely crushed the image of the Tsar's "little father", and people's attitude towards the royal family was already from resentment to hatred. Finally, in the tide of the "February Revolution" in 1917, the Tsar lost the throne.
When the armies were all on the opposite side of the Tsar, Nicholas II was no longer able to do so
Missed last chance to go into exile
The "February Revolution" Tsar abdicated, but the Provisional Government was kind to Nicholas II's family, constantly urging Alexandra to flee quickly with her children, but Alexandra refused.
By the time Nicholas II returned from the front, the last moment had fled, and unfortunately they missed it again. A week after their abdication, Nicholas II's family was brought under control and placed under house arrest in Alexander's Palace in the Tsar's village.
The family of the last Tsar Nicholas II consisted of 4 daughters and 1 son
At the same time, King George V was also concerned about the situation in Russia, and expressed his concern for his cousin in a private letter. But George V did not dare to act rashly and "rescue" Nicholas II, because his own situation was also worrying.
At that time, anti-German sentiment in Britain was high, and the spearhead was even directed at the British royal family. So much so that George V had to change the name of the royal family, changing the German "Saxon-Coburg-Gotha dynasty" to "Windsor royal family".
Nicholas II, who was also related to Germany, naturally became the object of british dislike, and many people at that time called the former Tsar "Bloody Nicholas". In this way, George V only dared to pay lip service to him...
One of the last few photographs left by Nicholas II, by which time he had abdicated and had lost his former aura
At that time, the British government was very pragmatic in "accepting Nicholas". Their goal was to keep Russia in the Entente in any case, in order to contain the Germans on the Eastern Front and to be friendly to the Russian Provisional Government.
The Provisional Government of Russia was thinking about how to drive Nicholas II out of Russia as soon as possible. Because of his presence, it would make the Russian royalists more vigorous and seriously threaten the status of the provisional government.
The British government agreed to accept Nicholas II's family, but the British royal family was worried. The King's private secretary, Lord Stanford Deham, feared that the arrival of Nicholas II would trigger an anti-monarchical revolution in England. Therefore, the acceptance of Nicholas II was negative.
After abdicating, at Alexander Palace, the "former tsar" also had to go to the ground
Eventually, with the personal intervention of King George V, the British government canceled its promise to admit Nicholas II. Apparently, George V abandoned his cousin for his own sake.
According to the book The Race to Save the Romanov Family: The Truth Behind the Secret Plan to Save the Russian Royal Family, author Helen S. Rappaport's statement: "He could have played a role more effectively, but when the moment came, they had to make a choice. ”
In fact, some other European royal families (including Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) also considered ways to save Nicholas II's family, but eventually gave up for fear of provoking opposition from the Russian government.
The October Revolution and the End of the Tsar
After March 1917, Nicholas II's family remained under house arrest at Alexander Palace, during which time rumors spread and speculations appeared about their fate.
In August 1917, the family was relocated to Tobolsk, Siberia, where they were trying to contact some "royalists" in an attempt to escape.
However, Rapaport believed that these "royalists" were scattered and inconsistent, and simply did not have the ability to rescue Nicholas II's family. Eventually, after the "October Revolution," these people lost hope and gradually faded away.
When the Bolsheviks came to power, the fate of Nicholas II's family was almost in doubt. The Interim Government had some "sympathy" for them and just wanted to drive them away. But Bushervik had a clear attitude of wanting their heads.
Soon after they were moved to the city of Yekaterinburg, Nicholas II's family, along with their servants, was thrown into the "merchant Ipatieev's apartment", an ominous "house for special purposes".
Despite the bleakness of the situation, they seemed optimistic, and even just hours before their execution, Alexandra wrote a hopeful diary. It just doesn't work...
The end of Nicholas II's family
On July 16, 1918, the secret police read the execution order in the basement, and Nicholas II's family never left the basement again. It was not until a few months later that news of Nicholas II's execution reached the European countries.
In 1919, the British sent a ship to the Crimea to pick up the remnants of the Romanov family, including two sisters of Nicholas II and some descendants of the old Tsar.
As for nicholas II's family, their remains were not re-excavated and DNA-identified until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Eventually buried in a church in St. Petersburg...