The Guns of August
Still amazes me how Europe was plunged into a devastating war, and with first cousin kings being on opposite sides.
One word...mobilization.
My fault Russia was allied with Britain, but the royal families were so inter-related back then.
King George V and Tsar Nicholas looked almost like identical twin brothers.
The brutal murder of Nicholas and his entire family including young children was just part of many evil acts to start the legacy of the communist Soviet Union and its leaders over time.
Thanks for posting.
The fall of Russia was orchestrated faster than anybody could react to it. Very well orchestrated.
bump
Because the king didn’t want the socialist to decend on england
Something major is left out of this ‘history’ by this woman Rappaport— the political situation in Britain. The Prime Minister was Lloyd George (not Church of England, but a Labor favoring, who was Baptist. This is important in those days as to the State Religion/Monarchy House of Lords interconnections, and the working people were not happy about mobilization. Lloyd George played a crucial role is warning off King George- when George had the capabilities, and could have had the timing. Labor favored the Bolsheviks as they organized against British defense manufacturing and the War, and it was they put Lloyd George in Labor from Parliament into the position of Prime Minister). Appeasing the workers so they would not strike against Vickers, etc.
Labor was not helpful, even resentful of WWI and UK’s commitments to the French and Russians vs. The Tsar’s cousin (again the relationships) Kaiser Wilhelm, who was nuts and power mad at the same time (the war started with a Serbian nationalist killing the heir to Austro-Hungary and his wife. And the actions of the Russian foreign minister getting “taken” by Austro-Hungary’s foreign minister. Serbs aligned with Russia in all history).
HMS Marlborough came in to the Black Sea and Crimea and picked up the Dowager Empress and many of the Romanovs— the Bolshies killed every one they found, but there was a window to rescue the Tsar’s children if not Nicholas and Alexandra- these were real thugs, and the White Russians almost freed the family in Ekaterinberg.. Lenin ordered the murders- it’s in the Russian archives on paper, and what is very important is that German Foreign Minister convinced the Kaiser to support Lenin and 70 0f his conspirators to be allowed to leave Switzerland, travel to St. Petersburg in a German military protected train, loaded with German gold specie (coins) and carry out the revolution. Wilhelm was pushed being told they would WIN the war by removing the Tsar and causing them to leave the war. It did not happen that way. Germany lost, the blowback was Communists became a major threat to Weimar, and the powers went with Hitler to ‘control’ them.
Wilhelm was nuts and exiled to Holland (he wrote letters to Hitler thinking Hitler would restore the german monarchy).
Nicky’s cousin, Der Kaiser is the one who allowed Lenin to enter Russia.
All these royal idiots ended up destroying Europe for good with this stupid war.
It was Kaiser Wilhelm II who sent Lenin and 32 other bolsheviks on a special sealed train to Russia for the intent of getting Russia out of the war. Everything ended up with the Romanovs murdered and Kaiser Wilhelm bundled off to Holland to die in exile in 1941.
All the accounts I have read never mention Nicholas and family having anything like Royal Guards or any serious protective service, devoted specifically to the Royal household - who had serious contingency plans with the power and ability to move them where they needed to go
And Kaizer Wilhelm of Germany too
As far as I can tell, the overthrow was part of a centuries-old conflict between Russia and the Khazars.
“Kaiser” is apparently derived from “Khazar.”
The Bolsheviks were mostly not Russians.
The deep state of that time and place were, as they are here and now, the descendants of the Khazars.
The closest surviving person to the tzar was his mother, empress dowager Maria Feodorovna. She was the sister of Queen Alexandra of England, King Frederick of Denmark and King George of Greece. During the revolution she happened to be in Crimea, out of the reach of Bolsheviks.
She lived another 10 years, but felt unwelcomed in England, so eventually moved to her native Denmark.
Obviously English monarch did not like their Russian relatives.
I would call the killing of the czar and his family murders, not executions.
Queen Victoria and her progeny were and are a menace.
There are bad alliances in every family. Monarchies are inherently an evil in the end.
A tiff between cousins led to the slaughter of millions and was the precursor that would lead to a six year cataclysm humanity would barely survive.