The answer is a resounding no.
In a piece which was recently posted on Facebook by historian, curator, and author Nicholas B.A. Nicholson, he notes that Grand Duke Kirill and his family were not the first Romanovs to leave for Finland, and were, in fact, among the last to leave the former Empire, in a well-researched and fully cited piece.
The author was kind enough to agree that we could reproduce his post here, and also to add it to our FAQ section in a slightly edited form. Herewith, NIcholson’s summary of the historical question.
Was Grand Duke Kirill the First Romanov to Leave Russia?
No. Untrue. Grand Duke Kirill did not “flee” the Russian Empire in 1917. And he was not the first to go to Finland. The first Romanov to leave Petrograd for Finland after the February Revolution (not “fleeing” – just traveling within the Empire) was Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich began planning to leave Petrograd for his safety and his health in early April, 1917, and was living in Finland by May. Grand Duke Kirill left Petrograd in June, and traveled with his daughters. Finland was a Russian Grand Duchy. Finland was part of the Russian Empire, and had been since 1809. Finland was not independent. Finland WAS Russia, and both Grand Dukes were allowed to go there because everyone (including the new provisional government) acknowledged that leaving Petrograd for Finland was not ‘leaving the country’.
Many members of the Petrograd aristocracy and bourgeoisie had secondary properties in salubrious Finland, which was only two hours by train from the capital. Grand Duke George and Grand Duke Kirill leaving for Finland was no more “fleeing Russia” than it was for the other members of the dynasty who had gone to the Ukraine, the Crimea, or the Caucasus (all territories forming part of the Russian Empire) for work or rest during the periods both before and after the abdication of the Emperor Nicholas II. Many Russian families also went to Finland to escape the chaos in the capital, hoping to return shortly.
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich had started planning to leave Petrograd for his safety and health in April 1917, a month before Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill received an invitation to go to Finland. The recently translated diaries of Grand Duke Michael, brother of Nicholas II, which make this clear:
“20 April, Thursday, Gatchina. […] At 12 o’clock, George arrived from Petrograd. He was planning on going to Finland today, but postponed departure for some time.” [1]
Grand Duke George was finally permitted to leave for Finland at the end of May, or in early June. We know from Grand Duke Michael’s diaries that George had already left Petrograd and was living in Finland by 5 June, 1917.
“5 June, Monday, Gatchina. In the morning I wrote to Olga Pavlovna, M.G. Donich, and George (the last of whom is living in Finland)...“ [2]
It is important to note that Grand Duke Michael did not regard Grand Duke George’s leaving Petrograd for Finland as “fleeing” or even that it was unusual in any way.
At the end of May in 1917, Alexander Sevastyanovich von Etter, a Chamberlain to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder [3], and friend of the Vladimir family invited Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill and their daughters to Finland to his family home, where his brother Ivan Sevastyanovich von Etter [4], a Russian General and hero of the First World War, had gone into retirement. Grand Duke Kirill had resigned from his posts in the Russian military by 10 March, 1917 [5], and had no reason to remain in the embattled Capital.
Finland was still peaceful, and the von Etter manor house at Haikko large and comfortable. Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna was pregnant, and her children had been frightened by the violence of the February Revolution. It seemed wise to get out of the capital for a brief time. Because they were members of the dynasty, all of whom were prohibited from any travel by the Provisional Government, Grand Duke George and Grand Duke Kirill were each required to apply to the Provisional Government for permission to leave the capital. Grand Duke Kirill noted in his memoirs that he left Petrograd with his daughters in June 1917. [6]
On 2 June, 1917, Kirill’s wife Grand Duchess Victoria wrote to her sister Queen Marie of Romania, when the whole family was still resident in Petrograd:
“We hope to go & breathe a little air in Finland soon as all our healths [sic] are a little giving way & the heat which took so long in coming is now oppressive in town. If all goes well, I think of returning here for my confinement towards the 17th August.“
Clearly, Kirill’s whole family was still in Petrograd after Grand Duke George had already moved to Finland, and they were planning to stay in Finland for only a few weeks, but to return to Petrograd in late August.
It wasn’t until July of 1917 that Grand Duchess Victoria joined her family in Finland. A letter dated 16 July 1917, survives, and was written two weeks after her arrival in Finland. Grand Duchess Victoria had a difficult pregnancy, labor, and birth of her son Prince Vladimir Kirillovich, and wrote to her sister Marie of Romania:
“As I am very near the end of my time & suffering from a large and weighty baby, you can imagine the sufferings I am going through. Several professors have now seen me and turned me onto my suffering legs so that once or twice a day I get to totter a few steps through the rooms, the tears of agony running down my cheeks. But with God’s help this will all pass with the birth – only I am weak, weak morally & physically.” [7]
Because of the delicate health of mother and son, after the birth of Prince Vladimir in August, and his christening in September, the family moved to a rented house at Porvoo (Borgo), and it was there, over the ensuing months, that they learned of the collapse of the Provisional Government, the success of the October Revolution, and, on December 6, 1917, that Finland had declared itself independent from Russia, and that they were no longer on Russian territory, and were in exile.
They had never crossed the border, but the border had finally crossed them.
Meanwhile, Grand Duke George left the villa he had rented in Retierve, and went to live in Helsingfors [Helsinki]. Desperate to be reunited with his family abroad after four years of separation, he made the mistake to ask for a new passport from the new Soviet representatives in Helskini, was arrested, and was deported to Russia, where ultimately, he was murdered. [8]
The family of Grand Duke Kirill were compelled to stay in Finland for two more years without papers, depending on charity and without any news of their Russian relatives, though they heard the news of the murder of the Imperial Family in late 1918.
In December of 1919, Grand Duchess Victoria sought the help of Lord Acton, the British Minister in Helsinki, against the wishes of her husband. Grand Duke Kirill was still furious at the British for ignoring the plight of Nicholas II and his family, blamed the British for what he perceived as their tacit support of the February Revolution, and he still smarted at the fact his wife, a British princess, had been rebuffed by Ambassador Buchanan when she had requested assistance in leaving Russia for Great Britain with her children. Lord Acton wrote:
“I was very much struck by the attitude towards me of the Grand Duke Cyril, who ostentatiously turned his back upon me. He is reported to be anti-entente, and to resent our alleged action in fathering the first Russian Revolution of Prince Lvov and Professor Miliukoff. In consequence of the Grand Duke’s attitude, I somewhat hesitate to contact the Grand Duchess at Borga, where they are staying, as I am not sure of my welcome as far as he is concerned.” [9]
The minister also noticed the toll the Revolution and time in Finland had taken on Victoria. He wrote that she:
“…looked aged and battered and has lost much of her beauty, which is not astonishing considering all that she has gone through. [10]
In March of 1920, Lord Acton informed Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill that all White resistance to the Bolsheviks in the north had collapsed in Arkhangelsk, Karelia, and at Murmansk, and that any hope of a return to Petrograd was likely finished. That month, Finland and the Soviet Union began negotiating the Peace of Tartu, and Grand Duke Kyrill, Grand Duchess Victoria, and their three children were finally able to leave Finland for Germany in April of 1920, and were in Zurich with Victoria Melita’s mother the Duchess of Coburg by June of 1920. [11]
Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill left Petrograd and lived in dangerous penury within the Empire (and then the former empire) with three young children for 22 months, finally leaving the former Empire not first, as people say, but one long year after the Dowager Empress and her family had already fled the German-occupied former Russian Crimea on the H.M.S. Marlborough in April of 1919.
NOTES:
[1] Azar & Nicholson, Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, Academica Press, Washington DC/London: 2020, p. 70
[2] Ibid, p. 86
[3] Alexander Sevastyanovich von Etter (1867-1938), was a graduate of the Corps of Pages, and later in service to Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder as Court Chamberlain. (cf. “Pridvornyi Kalendar’ 1903”, St. Petersburg: 1903, p. 264.)
[4] Johan-Emil (Ivan Sevastyanovich] von Etter (1863-1938) was educated at the Corps of Pages and graduated on August 12, 1883 as an ensign in the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. During his service he was promoted to second lieutenant (August 30, 1884), lieutenant (August 30, 1887), staff captain (December 6, 1895), captain (December 6, 1899) and colonel (28 March 1904); for almost eleven years he commanded the company and for three years - the 1st battalion. From November 14, 1909, he commanded the 5th Kiev Grenadier Regiment. Promoted to major general on November 22, 1913, Etter was appointed commander of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment. He retired from the Army in 1915 after the award of the Order of St. George. (cf. https://ru.rodovid.org/wk/Запись:921420 accessed 12 October 2021.)
[5] 10 March 1917, the Russian newspaper Priazovskii Krai published the official announcement: “Resignation FROM command. Petrograd. Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich visited the Minister of War A.I. Guchkov, and announced that he was surrendering his command of the Guards Crew. A.I. Guchkov accepted completely the full resignation of the Grand Duke.” Priazovskii Krai, 10 March 1917.
[6] Grand Duke Kirill, My Life in Russia’s Service, Selwyn & Blount, London: 1938, p. 213.
[7] Victoria Melita, letter to Queen Marie of Romania, 16 July 1917, copy from the Royal Archives Bucharest, John Wimbles Papers, Archivio Orléans-Borbón, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain.
[8] George remained in Finland until April of 1918, when he was arrested in independent Finland, deported to Petrograd, and subsequently exiled to Vologda. In July, he was returned to Petrograd and imprisoned, along with his brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich and their cousin Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich. In January 1919, the three grand dukes were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad.
[9] RA/PS/GV/P 1596/1, Lord Acton to George V, 1 March, 1920.
[10] Ibid. [11] Maria Alexandrovna Duchess of Coburg, letter to Queen Marie of Romania, 3 August 1920, reprinted in Bogdan, A.M., Doch I Sestra Imperatora, Saint Petersburg: 2011, p. 187
