Romanovs in England

So I've consisted doing a novel about this, doing some research and I think I have the point of divergence for at least some of the Romanovs to live.

If the Romanov girls did not have measles during their house arrest after the February Revolution of 1917, there is a chance that they and possibly their mother and the Tsarevich could have gotten out to a friendly port and to England before George V rescinded his offer of asylum.

How do you think that could have gone in England? The girls were perhaps the Romanovs best hope for some sympathy from the British people, I can see them perhaps taken to the English court perhaps by their grandmother (though it will take time to get her out too) with their mother Alix perhaps at home wherever they were living and perhaps not entirely unhappy with being retired from public life.

Nicholas would perhaps eventually manage to leave Russia, its easier to perhaps get one man out alive than an entire family and their entourage with perhaps a little struggle from his cousin in getting him into England?

What are your thoughts on the history aspects of this? I am a long time lurker and I've searched for what's been posted on this but I don't think the girls not having measles has been explored. Seems such a sad thing to have happened to them by chance that can be changed for alternate history.

I do sort of want to have the Romanov girls as bright young things in England in the 20s, trying to find husbands in the English aristocracy. Then later perhaps Nicholas as a country gentleman at some house they put them in.
 
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I can't see the Reds allowing Nicholas to escape Russia if they can prevent it. I wonder if Alix would let the "regular" doctors in the UK treat the Tsarevitch, and of course she would need to find a Russian Orthodox priest to salve her religious fanaticism. When she searches for "suitable" husbands for her daughters will she be willing to accept English aristocracy, who are not Orthodox or search for expat Russian nobles - of course the problem is most of those are broke.

I would expect there will always need to be significant security for the Romanov family, as the Soviets will want to eliminate any possibility of a Romanov heir to be a rallying point.
 
Yeah, I didn't see Nicholas being let go willingly...but there are some delays that could be eliminated by just having Nicholas in Russia. Sometimes they were delayed in being moved by Alexei's illness.

If Maria Feodovrna is in England before Nicholas, there's a possibly she leans on her sister George V's mother to get Nicholas out. George does send a destroyer to the Black Sea to get her.

I'm wondering if Alix would let her son be treated by conventional doctors, particularly after Rasputin managed to be effective in alleviating Alexei's symptoms. Of course, Rasputin is still dead.

I honestly can't see Alexei living for many more years after they get to England. Prospects for haemophiliacs wasn't good until about the 1950s. Likely we won't reach 18.

And the religion thing will be interesting. There will be Russian émigrés coming into England with probably some orthodox priests.
 
I have never seen a less important question (politically [1]) get so much attention as that of the fate of the Romanovs after their overthrow.

Russian conservatives had little use for the Romanovs by 1917-18. In fact, not one of the White leaders proclaimed restoration of the monarchy as a political objective. (Their official line was always that the question of whether Russia would be a monarchy or republic would have to be settled in the future by a Constituent Assembly. As Denikin wrote in 1918, "If I raise the republican flag I will lose one half [of the Volunteers] and if I raise the monarchist flag--the other half will leave me.") It was precisely the fact of the murder of the Imperial Family by the Bolsheviks that made the Romanovs heroes to the Whites.

As I have suggested before: If the Bolshevik leaders were smart, they would allow--or rather force--Nicholas to flee abroad and then claim that he (along with foreign governments) was masterminding every anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia (including Left SRs and Anarchists) and for that matter all oppositionist movements within the Bolshevik party...

[1] Not of course that I don't recognize the human tragedy. To quote the émigré poet Georgii Ivanov:

Emalevyi krestik v petlitse
I seroi tuzhurki sukno…
Kakie pechal’nye litsa
I kak eto bylo davno.

Kakie prekrasnye litsa
I kak beznadezhno bledny –
Naslednik, imperatritsa,
Chetyre velikikh kniazhny…

Not-quite-literal translation, quoted from memory from Markov and Sparks, *Modern Russian Poetry*:

Enameled cross in the buttonhole,
The grey fabric of his coat,
How very sad the faces,
And the era--how remote.

What lovely faces, and yet how pale
In utter hopelessness-–
The Tsarevich, the Empress,
The four Grand Duchesses…
 
Except the Bolsheviks were not in power until the October Revolution of 1917. Until then you had Kerensky, who may have even been willing to let ALL of the Romanovs go.

I'd like to think Nicholas would have sent Alix and the children staying behind himself, but that could be giving him qualities he did not have. Alix herself would be hopelessly lonely without him.
 
How about: Rasputin dies at least 18 months earlier and a reluctant Alix takes Alexei and the girls to England for medical treatment in a desperate hope to save her son. They're in England when the February Revolution occurs and Nicholas insists they stay there.
 
Sorry, my window after the February Revolution stays. It seems the most likely to have occurred, if not for the girls all having measles
 
... When she searches for "suitable" husbands for her daughters will she be willing to accept English aristocracy, who are not Orthodox or search for expat Russian nobles - of course the problem is most of those are broke. ...

A desperate family indeed that would consider marrying off a senior son to a Romanov daughter.
 
How desperate really? From what I recall the main thing the British aristocracy were desperate for at this time was cash.

Another possibility I'm considering for the girls are rich Americans.
 
I have never seen a less important question (politically [1]) get so much attention as that of the fate of the Romanovs after their overthrow.

Russian conservatives had little use for the Romanovs by 1917-18. In fact, not one of the White leaders proclaimed restoration of the monarchy as a political objective. (Their official line was always that the question of whether Russia would be a monarchy or republic would have to be settled in the future by a Constituent Assembly. As Denikin wrote in 1918, "If I raise the republican flag I will lose one half [of the Volunteers] and if I raise the monarchist flag--the other half will leave me.") It was precisely the fact of the murder of the Imperial Family by the Bolsheviks that made the Romanovs heroes to the Whites.

As I have suggested before: If the Bolshevik leaders were smart, they would allow--or rather force--Nicholas to flee abroad and then claim that he (along with foreign governments) was masterminding every anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia (including Left SRs and Anarchists) and for that matter all oppositionist movements within the Bolshevik party

Of course, the bosheviks thought Nicholas and his family were such a threat that they had them secretly executed. There's also the original traitors who begged for the Tsarevich or Michael to take the crown

I can't see the Reds allowing Nicholas to escape Russia if they can prevent it. I wonder if Alix would let the "regular" doctors in the UK treat the Tsarevitch, and of course she would need to find a Russian Orthodox priest to salve her religious fanaticism. When she searches for "suitable" husbands for her daughters will she be willing to accept English aristocracy, who are not Orthodox or search for expat Russian nobles - of course the problem is most of those are broke.

I would expect there will always need to be significant security for the Romanov family, as the Soviets will want to eliminate any possibility of a Romanov heir to be a rallying point.

1. why would it be hard to find an Orthodox Priest? Its only the second largest denomination in Christendom

2. "Searches for 'suitable husbands" You do realize that Nicholas and Alexandra intended for their daughters to make their own matches?


Back to the OP:

Anything is possible. Its your timeline and you should do what you like with it. I think the hardest part is to get the family to separate. They were extremely tight knit. Nicholas would have pushed the girls to leave if he knew the danger though

As for Alexis- it would be a miracle for him to live much longer. The chance of him having a child is almost nil and any female child he had would inherit the disease
 
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Any girls Alexei would have had would have been carriers, any boys would not have had the disease. Haemophilia is passed on by a defective X-chromosome from the mother.

I'd be far more worried about the girls having a haemophiliac baby son.

As for matches, I think they did try to marry the oldest Olga to Prince Karol of Belgium, but she wasn't very interested and then WWI happened. It is interesting that her consent to the marriage was influential, perhaps her parents wanted love matches for their daughters like they had.

And yes, being separated would be so tough for the family.
 
I wonder if Alix would let the "regular" doctors in the UK treat the Tsarevitch, and of course she would need to find a Russian Orthodox priest to salve her religious fanaticism. When she searches for "suitable" husbands for her daughters will she be willing to accept English aristocracy, who are not Orthodox or search for expat Russian nobles - of course the problem is most of those are broke.

Huh? IIRC, the Tsarevich Alexei was treated by regular doctors all his life. The imperial family embraced Rasputin's mysticism as a desperate addition to regular medicine - not as a replacement for it.

There were several Orthodox churches in the UK, although they tended to be Greek rather than Russian.
 
From what I heard (and there are a range of views) was the doctors prescribed aspirin which thins the blood and makes him bleed more. Rasputin was able to “cure” the Tsarevich miles away by telling the Tsarina to “not let the doctors bother him”.

And yes, I have looked at other aristocrats whines aped but not in detail. Nicholas’s sisters escaped, some of them lived quite an age, as did his mother and other relatives.
 
Of course, the bosheviks thought Nicholas and his family were such a threat that they had them secretly executed.

I really doubt that Lenin saw the ex-Tsar, whom he called "that idiot Romanov" as a serious menace in 1918. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/mar/12.htm (To show how completely our of touch with political realities the Imperial couple was: their was main worry was that Nicholas should be put under duress to co-sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk!) So why did Lenin have the Imperial family killed? Probably simply because he hated the entire Romanov dynasty--no doubt partly for the usual political reasons but also because that was the dynasty that had his brother killed...
 
I thought there was some fear that the Romanovs may be rescued. Either by White Russians or some Czechs.

Kerensky I believe thought there was a genuine threat to the Romanovs, which is why he moved them from St Petersburg.
 
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