This informative and readable volume recounts how senior members of the Romanov dynasty escaped Bolshevik Russia, settled in Europe, and preserved Russian monarchical culture. Boris Prassoloff drew on extensive published primary and secondary sources and abundant archival material gathered throughout France. Three genealogical charts depict the relations among the six branches of descendants of Nicholas I. Throughout, the author places the grand dukes and their families within the context of the main historical events transpiring around them. Thirty-three chapters are divided into chronological sections encompassing events before 1917, from 1917 to the death of the main pretender to the throne, Cyril Vladimirovich, in 1938, and until 2021.
The Romanov clan was extraordinarily wealthy: the territory set aside to provide its income comprised four times the territory of France in 1850—not to mention diamond and gold mines, palaces, worldwide investments, and fabulous collections of art and jewelry. They were also above the law; only the emperor could judge their transgressions. Strictly educated by private tutors, their main role was serving as military commanders. Most traveled often to Europe, where they had many royal and princely relatives. Among the more ambitious, rivalries reigned. Sixteen grand dukes attended the tercentenary Romanov dynastic celebrations in 1913. Eight escaped slaughter by the Bolsheviks and joined the Russian emigration.
In 1924, Cyril Vladimirovich, the eldest son of Alexander II’s second son, proclaimed himself emperor. He was tall, handsome, charming, and serious. The monarchist émigrés divided their allegiances, some following Cyril and others following his great uncle Nicholas Nikolaevich (Nikolasha), the first son of Nicholas I’s third son. Huge, an excellent hunter, popular in dynastic circles, and extremely irascible, he served as commander-in-chief during the first year of World War I and was rumored as a possible replacement for Nicholas II. The more conservative émigrés, who hoped to restore the old order, supported Nicholas and not Cyril, who advocated for a constitutional monarchy, had been willing to work with the Duma in early 1917, and had supported the Provisional Government.
After the Civil War, the Russian emigration dispersed across Europe, with Paris as its cultural capital. Cyril and his wife Victoria, a German princess and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Alexander II, divided their time between southern France, Brittany, and Victoria’s villa in Coburg, Germany. Victoria, ambitious and talented, lavishly supported the Nazis in 1923 because of their anti-communism. She also raised money from rich Americans for Cyril’s monarchist organization. Newspapers, pamphlets, photographs, and correspondence poured out from its headquarters first in Coburg, then in Saint-Briac-sur-mer in Brittany. Soviet agents infiltrated all the monarchist organizations, however, and their efforts to make connections inside the USSR failed miserably. A few monarchist leaders were abducted or murdered by Soviet operatives. Cyril and Victoria were active in local society and benevolent organizations. In their private lives, Cyril was an avid golfer; Victoria painted and exhibited her work. Cyril issued regular declarations and appeals, for example, promising free and fair elections to the soviets and calling for unity in the emigration.
Cyril’s daughter Kira married a Hohenzollern, the third in line to the German throne. His son Vladimir worked briefly in an English factory under the name Vladimir Mikhailov to learn about ordinary people. After the Nazi attack on Russia, Vladimir urged Russian émigrés to fight alongside the Germans, but Hitler rejected such assistance—until the tide turned against him. After the war, Vladimir fled to Spain, where he married a rich divorcée from an aristocratic Georgian family. Close to Francisco Franco, the Caudillo of Spain and his wife Carmen Franco, they sent out countless appeals, letters, brochures, and reports. A key goal was concealing Vladimir’s pro-German war stance (Appendix 2). He remained staunchly anti-communist, issuing declarations on Russian history and Soviet misdeeds. Most postwar monarchist organizations worldwide supported his claim to dynastic leadership. Vladimir’s daughter Maria married Prince Franz-Wilhelm of Prussia, the great-grandson of Kaiser William, and had a son, George, born in 1981. After the collapse of the USSR, Vladimir was officially invited to Russia, where he made a good impression on the public and received positive press coverage. Discussion of reestablishing the monarchy was dropped when he died in 1992. Maria traveled frequently to Russia, was granted an official residence in 2015, and expressed support for Putin’s policies (Appendix 1).
Tsars sans Empire sheds light on Russian dynastic institutions, traditions, and culture before and after 1917 and will appeal to scholars in various humanistic and social scientific fields.
