Rescue Mission: Alfonso XIII and the Russian Imperial Famil

Abstract

The article deals with a little-known episode of the Russian-Spanish relations at the beginning of XXth century. It concerns the Spanish Monarch Alfonso XIII diplomatic initiatives that aimed for the rescue of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and his family after the Russian Revolutions of 1917. The previous investigations of this question of J. Cortés-Cavanillas, C. Seco Serrano and A. Olano-Ereña are considered. A detailed reconstruction of this «rescue mission» became possible due to documents from the General Archive of Palace (Madrid), the General Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (Madrid), Eduardo Dato's Archive (Royal Academy of History, Madrid) and the Archive of the Russian Empire Foreign Policy (Moscow).

Keywords

• russia
• spain
• russian-spanish relations
• alfonso xiii
• nicholas ii
• the romanovs
• first world war
• february (march) revolution in russia
• october (november) revolution in russia
• diplomacy