Go West - The Romanovs out of Russia ?

One of these days - probably when I'm not working and I've got some time on my hands, I want to sit a write full timeline where the Romanovs are brought out of revolutionary Russia to England in the spring of 1917 and their impact on European and world history.

Until then, I'm interested in any ideas/thoughts.

Getting the Romanovs away was planned and seriously considered and could have been done in the spring of 1917. The Provisional Government would have been happy to see them out of the way, the Bolsheviks were in no position to do anything about it and there was a window of opportunity of about 10-12 days when George V and the British Government were supportive of the idea.

My thought was that the Romanovs would be smuggled out at night on a neutral (Swedish or Dutch) vessel and brought under secrecy to Aberdeen and thence to Balmoral. Clearly, once news of their "escape" was made public, there would be a backlash and given the anti-German feeling of the time, a deal of suspicion regarding the Tsarina who was German by birth.

I'm interested in the role the children could have played. I could imagine for example Prince George marrying one of the Russian princesses instead of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon or even Prince Edward avoiding the clutches of Wallis Simpson.

Perhaps Alexei, with his hemophilia B under control, could have emerged as a political figure in the 1930s acting as a focus for anti-Communist elements and perhaps even supporting the German invasion of 1941 as a "war of liberation".

There are any number of possibilities, aren't there ?
 
The Tsarina would be accepted as Russian, and any members of the press who made mention of her German-ness would recieve a jolly stiff talking to from the civil service.

Interesting though, at this point the Romanovs would essentially be puppets of the British government to all intents and purposes.
I could see "White" Russian forces fighting the Germans, but somehow independantly of the Red Army.
Would Stalin go as far as to allow the Romanovs back into the USSR to help bring the country together in 1941?
He was cynical enough to restore the old ranks and allow the church into the mix, but would that be one step too far.

On the later notes, a Monarchist movement in Russia would actually have a credible candidate now.
 
From what I've recently read it would have been very important that the Romanovs not land in Britain. I would consider that they be transported from St. Petersburg to Sweden and then across to Scotland, or more specifically Scapa Flow. From Scapa Flow, still in hiding from the press, they are taken either to Newfoundland or the Bahamas. They should go to an isolated British possession until after the war.

The tsar is not a popular figure, particularly with the worker class. Him being in Britain could increase civil unrest and King George V recognized it.
 
This is wierd. I actually had this idea a while back, started writing a timeline, and then after some serious criticism, I stopped, and went back to redraft the main Romonov story. Not up yet, but I think the next couple of months should see the new attempt put up.

Original here.
 
Canada?

What if they went to Canada instead of Newfoundland or Scotland?
The Romanovs in the new world would be an interesting thing, and if the media took the story there might be a bigger swell of support for intervention in the Russian Civil War.
 
What if they went to Canada instead of Newfoundland or Scotland?
The Romanovs in the new world would be an interesting thing, and if the media took the story there might be a bigger swell of support for intervention in the Russian Civil War.

I was thinking more about this last night and this could be a very interesting POD, if the Romanov's do get smuggled out and go to the USA or Canada and start getting the media involved it could get very interesting for Russia. The story would have drama (real or imagined), famous people and tragedy. To a people who are seeing nothing but war from afar this could be a major 'feel good', 'escapist' story.
 
I was thinking more about this last night and this could be a very interesting POD, if the Romanov's do get smuggled out and go to the USA or Canada and start getting the media involved it could get very interesting for Russia. The story would have drama (real or imagined), famous people and tragedy. To a people who are seeing nothing but war from afar this could be a major 'feel good', 'escapist' story.

So in other words, they'd have been tabloid-fodder or equivalent?
 
I was thinking more about this last night and this could be a very interesting POD, if the Romanov's do get smuggled out and go to the USA or Canada and start getting the media involved it could get very interesting for Russia. The story would have drama (real or imagined), famous people and tragedy. To a people who are seeing nothing but war from afar this could be a major 'feel good', 'escapist' story.

I don't think that would change anything. I don't believe that the working class in the United States would have been very favorable to the Romanovs. Alot of Russian immigrants left Russia because of the Tsar. For the most part he was regarded at a tyrant and autocrat. Any human interest stories will probably be centered upon his children, but they will probably fall by the wayside as the 1930s get started and everything Soviet was acceptable.
 
Japan might invite them over to rule as the figurehead of the Primorky White Government instead of just withdrawing and leaving the Whites to dry. But i doubt Nicholas would accept, cant say it wouldent be interesting to handwave it and say they do accept. Ah the butterflies.
 
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