Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia
Michael II, Mikhail Alexandrovitch Romanov (Михаил Александрович Романов) (November 22, 1878 (O.S.) - about June 12, 1918) was the son of Tsar Alexander III of Russia, and brother of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. When Nicholas II abdicated the imperial crown on March 15, 1917, he did so in both his own name and in the name of his son, and named Michael as the next Tsar -- the dynasty that began on February 7, 1613 with Michael Fedorovitch would now end on March 16, 1917 with Michael Alexandrovitch and his own abdication. Though history sometimes refers to Michael as Michael II, in reality he never reigned. Historians differ as to whether to view Michael as the last Tsar. They universally accept Nicholas II as the last effective Tsar.
Bolshevik functionaries killed Michael Alexandrovich in the course of attempting to exterminate the Romanovs. The best source material, both archival from Russia and elsewhere, seems to indicate that Michael died at some time round the second or third week of June 1918, possibly on June 12, but not, as often reported, in July of that year. The order to execute him appears to have been given by the Perm Cheka, though responsibility is clouded by the conflicting statements of the men involved. The Ural Regional Soviet at Ekaterinburg and the Bolshevik leadership in Moscow would not admit having any hand in the murder, but each had good reason for pleading ignorance; each endorsed it afterwards and both conspired in the cover-up. Perms Bolsheviks were excited by the fear that the Czechs could reach Perm; martial law was in force in the town. Myasnikov claimed the discovery of a plot by an organisation of officers to rescue Michael. These factors, he said, determined the decision: Michael had to be killed because he was the only figure around whom all the counter-revolutionary forces could unite and the danger to Soviet power if Michael escaped and became the head of the counter-revolutionary forces would be immense. On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12, some thirty-six hours after the abortive White attack on Ekaterinburg, Myasnikov took the first steps in the plan to abduct and execute Michael, as approved by the Cheka. The involvement of the Ural Regional Soviet cannot be established but equally cannot be excluded. The murder was set for that night. Myasnikov called four men to a meeting that Wednesday evening in the projection room of the cinema in Motovilikha. There, he set out the reasons why Michael had to be killed. He said that if His Imperial Majesty was not dealt with, then tomorrow he may not be here, tomorrow he may be standing at the head of the massed forces of the counter-revolution. However, the execution would have to be presented officially as an escape, for Lenin and Sverdlov would then be able to avoid complications with the bourgeois governments and we will not compromise them. The four men having vowed silence, Myasnikov then revealed the details. To ensure secrecy the killing would be done that very night. Michael was to be abducted from the hotel room, taken to a wood and shot. As cover for the abduction the execution squad would present him with a forged order, pretending that he was being evacuated for security reasons and because of the threat to Perm from advancing White forces. On the morrow it would be announced that he had escaped, and his entourage would be arrested for complicity and shot. The five men went into the Cheka offices to prepare the forged order. The wording drafted by Myasnikov read: In view of the approach of the front. Comrade Nikolai Zhuzhgov is hereby instructed to evacuate Citizen Michael Romanov to Central Russia. The order was to be triple-signed, ostensibly by the Cheka chairman, the head of the counterrevolutionary department, and the secretary. When it was finished, Myasnikov, Markov, and Kolpashchikov provided the three signatures.
Shortly before midnight, the two phaetons bearing the executioners clattered into Siberia Street and stopped outside the Korolev Rooms. Three armed men standing in the office of llya Sapozhnikov, the hotel commissar. Myasnikov, Zhuzhgov and Kolpashchikov were telling the commissar that they had orders to evacuate Michael. The commissar said he would telephone the Cheka for confirmation, but the armed men refused to allow it.
Myasnikov stood in the roadway and watched as the two phaetons set off and disappeared into the darkness. Then he went into the militia offices and telephoned the Perm Cheka. Malkov was there, and confirmed that the escape story was now being circulated, search parties organised and telegrams sent out announcing that Michael Romanov had been abducted by counter-revolutionaries. By this time the phaetons had reached the paraffin stores some three miles beyond Motovilikha. Michael had sat silently on the journey to Motovilikha but when they moved off again he began questioning Zhuzhgov about their destination. Zhuzhgov told him that it was Mogilev, the first name that came into his head. It was not a reassuring answer, since Mogilev was 1400 miles to the west, and the carriages were heading east. Zhuzhgov hurriedly covered up his invention by telling him that they were heading for a railway crossing and that arrangements had been made that they would be put on a train there, so as to avoid the attention which they would have attracted at a busy station. It was not a convincing story but Michael didnt seem frightened, said Zhuzhgov afterwards. Six hundred yards past the paraffin stores" the two phaetons slowed as they reached the wood selected for the executions. There was no ceremony, no explanation, no macabre ritual of a cigarette and blindfold, just cold-blooded murder. Before burying Michael and his secretary Johnson their bodies were stripped of all their clothes and possessions, which were put into the phaetons and taken back to Motovilikha, apparently in order to prove to Myasnikov that the executions had been carried out as planned. The first telegrams from the Perm Cheka announcing the escape of Michael Romanov had already been despatched. Malkov telephoned Myasnikov at 2.20 a.m. to confirm that he had cabled the Soviet of Peoples Cornmissars at Moscow, marked for the attention of Trotsky and Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the Cheka supreme. A copy was also sent to Petrograd and to the Ekaterinburg Soviet and Cheka. The message read: Last flight Michael Romanov and Johnson were abducted by persons unknown in military uniform. Search as yet unsuccessful, most energetic measures taken The story of the escape was spread so convincingly that most ordinary people accepted it as fact. In the local Soviet newspaper, the Perm lzvestiya, Michael was said to have been abducted soon after midnight by three unidentified armed men in military uniform ... Orders were immediately given for Romanovs arrest and mounted militia units were despatched along all highways, but no traces were found. . . The man who had been Michael II was dead. Now, five weeks later, they were going to kill Nicholas II and every other Romanov in reach of the Ural Soviet.
The Bolshevik regime purportedly shot Michael as a test and floated rumours of his execution in the West -- to see exactly what reaction would come from the Romanovs' relatives, most specifically from King George V of the United Kingdom. Substantial documentation suggests that the King's silence on the issue, and that of the British government of David Lloyd George, convinced the Soviets that they could then shoot other members of the Imperial Family without fear of retribution.
|
Preceded by: Nicholas II |
Monarchy ended. New Russian republic under Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov |