Nicholas Romanov, Citizen of Lithuania

This idea came up as a joke noticing the similarities between the last Emperor of Russia and the interwar Lithuanian general Povilas Plechavičius:

Exhibit A

Czar-Nicholas-II.jpg


Exhibit B:

plech2.jpg


It's like the Romanovs actually managed to escape Bolshevik wrath and fled to Lithuania undercover...

So what if this scenario came to be somehow?

What do you think the impact of the surviving Romanov royal family living in the Baltics be?
 
How much love Balts have towards Romanovs? Are they even in safe? At least them have better go more westward when and if Soviets annex Baltics.
 
Why would Nicholas move in Lithuania in first place? Not only Lithuania had a chance to be annexed by Bolsheviks like other former parts of Russia, among the other problems, I don't think that Lithuanians, as well as the native population of other Imperial national borderlands, had some special feelings for the Tsar due to Russification and stuff.

Even if stayed in Lithuania, I don't think there would be any massive impact, since after the abdication Nicholas mattered little in the political life, neither he was particularly ambitious, especially when he had a chronically ill son to care about.
 

nbcman

Donor
Assuming they can cross over into German occupied Lithuania, Maybe the Romanovs can share accommodations with Willy in the Netherlands once the Kaiser abdicates.
 
I've seen TL where Germans saved Romanovs from bolshevik hands (sending commando in zeppelin ;) ) and then installed tsar as puppet monarch of Mitteleuropa to legitimise German rule in the East.
 

Nick P

Donor
Mr Romanov settles in Lithuania with his family, his daughters head off to get married to Dukes and minor Princes across Europe. They need the money. After a few years and the death of Alexei from haemophilia, Nicholas gets angry or bored and starts agitating against Communism and the wreckage of his Russia. One night on the way home from a meeting he is mugged by an unknown assailant and dies. It is suspected the killer is an ex-German soldier based on certain obvious clues left at the scene. The real killer goes back to a warm reception in Moscow.

I really don't see Moscow wanting to let the former Tsar hang around causing trouble for them. If he could build up popularity and be a figurehead for a counter-revolution he is a threat to the State.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
This idea came up as a joke noticing the similarities between the last Emperor of Russia and the interwar Lithuanian general Povilas Plechavičius:

Exhibit A

Czar-Nicholas-II.jpg


Exhibit B:

plech2.jpg


It's like the Romanovs actually managed to escape Bolshevik wrath and fled to Lithuania undercover...

So what if this scenario came to be somehow?

What do you think the impact of the surviving Romanov royal family living in the Baltics be?
For this to be even remotely realistic, you need to have Nicholas somehow become a Lithuanophile back when he was the Russian Tsar.
 
Unfortunately this TL is not from this site and is in Polish.
http://www.historycy.org/index.php?showtopic=94729
Tsar with family is captured by Germans after his abdication, he is then made puppet ruler of Eastern European teritorries conquered by Germans (so Germans have better chance to make peace with the West-"we don't try to outright annex western Russian provinces, we just fight to re-install righteous ruler of Russia on the throne!").
 

GujaratiRaj

Banned
Let's say that one of the guards at the Imperial Palace becomes friends with the Tsar post-Bolshevik era.This guard is Lithuanian and, over the course of a few months, somehow causes the Tsar to become a Lithuaniophile.The same guard is forced to join the Red Army, but successfully leads the Romanovs to safety in Lithuania, and then eats.
 
There were plenty of false tsars (and other members of House of Romanov) in former areas of Russian Empire post-ww1. Say true Nicholas appears in Lithuania and is belived to be just one of these impostors ;)
 
How much love Balts have towards Romanovs? Are they even in safe? At least them have better go more westward when and if Soviets annex Baltics.

Obviously the Lithuania of OTL would be one of the worst possible places for Nicholas to seek refuge. "In April 1920, The Constituent Assembly of Lithuania was elected and first met the following May. In June it adopted the third provisional constitution and on July 12, 1920, signed the Soviet–Lithuanian Peace Treaty. In the treaty the Soviet Union recognized fully independent Lithuania and its claims to the disputed Vilnius Region; Lithuania secretly allowed the Soviet forces passage through its territory as they moved against Poland.[10]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania–Russia_relations Of course the Poles defeated the Red Army, and ultimately took Vilnius, but the Lithuanians still tried to maintain good relations with the Soviets (who recognized the Lithuanian claim to Vilnius). Nicholas's presence would hardly be welcomed or secure.

As for the business of the Germans installing Nicholas as emperor of a Mitteleuropa puppet state, that is unlikely, to say the least. If you want a puppet, you don't want to install someone who fought you until he was overthrown--yes, there were endless rumors of his seeking a separate peace, but that was all they were--and who is extremely unpopular with the non-Russians who make up the vast majority of the local population.
 
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