The first that Natasha knew about events at Perm was a terse telegram sent to her on the morning ofJune 13 by Colonel Znamerovsky: Our friend and Johnny have vanished without trace. It was the last contact Natasha would have with the colonel. That very day he and his wife were arrested and thrown into prison to join Chelyshev and Borunov. The Archbishop Andronik of Perm, whose crime was to have prayed for Michael, was also arrested; none of them would survive. Comrade Zhuzhgov subsequently boasted of having killed the archbishop as well as Michael.

Natasha was also immediately arrested. She had been in Petrograd staying at the house of Maggie Abakanovich on the Moika. After receiving Znamerovskys telegram, she and Maggie went at once to the offices ofUritsky to demand an explanation. It was a stormy meeting, which ended with Uritsky ordering Natasha to be detained in the womens prison on the fourth floor of Cheka headquarters at 2 Gorokhovaya Street, beside the Alexander Gardens and opposite the Admiralty. Like Znamerovsky and the others in Perm, she was charged with being an accomplice in Michaels escape. Maggie Abakanovich was also arrested."

More worried about Michael than herself, Natasha continued to insist on an explanation for his disappearance, though it was futile in face of Uritsky counter-demanding explanations for his escape. More satisfactorily, Natasha made a thorough nuisance of herself . . . continually complaining about everything and demanding all sorts of impossible things. Unawed by her gaolers, she refused from the outset to accept the prison conditions, insisting that she be allowed to bring in her own furnishings as well as her own food. The Cheka guards, whom she treated as a collection of half-witted menials, shrugged and gave in.

Next day a procession of workmen arrived bearing an enormous pile of luggage . . . beds, bedding, linen, crockery, books, candles, cushions, towels, and all spare available food. Natasha and Maggie pinned sheets to the dirty walls and having reorganised it to make the room look more like a parlour than a prison, they retired to their separate beds and stayed there.

At 2 Gorokhovaya the womens prison was a set of two intercommunicating rooms, the smaller one of which, reserved for political prisoners, housed Natasha and her friend Maggie. In normal circumstances prisoners were kept at Gorokhovaya for only a short period before being moved to a prison proper. However, Natasha would be there for the next ten weeks, facing the threat of a transfer to prison in Moscow to stand trial for conspiracy.

Natasha was refused contact with the outside world for the first four weeks. It was only then that Tata was allowed to see her. Escorted from Gatchina by Princess Vyazemskaya, Tata took flowers, some eggs and butter to Gorokhovaya Street. A condition of the meeting was that it took place with Uritsky present, and a nervous Tata was led into his office. He was sitting beside his desk, a fattish man, with protruding ears, very pale, with reddish hair and agate eyes. He nodded, but said nothing to her.

Eventually Mamma came down, escorted by a guard with bayonet fixed. She and Uritsky glared at each other like a couple of angry cats, Tata remembered. Natasha had got a lot thinner and was very pale. They hugged, and were allowed to sit together for thirty minutes, before Natasha was led away to her prison floor upstairs. Princess Vyazemskaya then whispered to Tata to thank Uritsky for allowing her to see her mother; Tata went up to his desk and, like any well-brought-up girl, inouthed her party piece and curtseyed." But good manners counted for little at Gorokhovaya Street; next time Tata would be a prisoner there herself.

Over the past weeks Natasha had been interrogated by Uritsky on a number of occasions, and although she learned no more from him than he did from her, of one thing she became certain: Michael was alive and well and in safe hands. It was not jusi that Uritsky insisted that Michael had escaped, but that the whispers reaching the prison said the same thing. The rumour was that Michael might yet return to Petrograd as Emperor.

Under the terms of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty the Germans had reestablished a diplomatic presence in Russia; their embassy, staffed with Russian experts, was in the Bolshevik capital of Moscow, but they had an important consulate in Petrograd. The ambassador, Count Joachim von Mirbach, had been Counsellor in the pre-war embassy in St Petersburg; he took up his new post on April 26, 118: his chief assistant, Riezier, was equally experienced. The Germans were still the dominant military force in the region; they were in easy striking distance of Petrograd and were also effectively masters in supposedly independent Ukraine. The Bolshevik regime depended for its existence on German tolerance of it.

Like the French, the British had withdrawn their embassy personnel in February, leaving a skeleton staff behind. Among them was the British naval attache, Captain Francis Cromie, now a key source for intelligence. Based on reports from a spy in the German general staff, he reported by telegram on June 29, 191) tht the Germans believed that they would follow up their seerningly successful offensive in the West by a new effort in Russia. Their intention was to break the Brest peace, and declare a monarchy . . . Considerations will be more favourable than Brest Peace Conference, return of all territory to Russia, even Ukraine ... Economic conditions will be onerous but less so than at present. Candidate for throne is Grand Duke Michael and a high German Agent has already been sent to Perm to open negotiations, but Grand Duke has temporarily disappeared.

The despatch to London, which fitted the facts as Cromie understood them, urged that, since the Germans appeared bent on restoring the monarchy, albeit for their own interests, the best course for the British was to forestall them and back the monarchists first. In Ukraine there are 200,000 officers of whom 150,000 will at once join up, but only in support of monarchy, Captain Cromie reported, adding that Grand Duke Michael is the most popular candidate.

The Germans in Petrograd were sending similar messages to Berlin and to the Kaisers brother. Prince Henry, who was primarily responsible for questions relating to the Romanov dynasty, and whose concern about their fate was both political and personal, since the ex-Empress Alexandra and the Grand Duchess Ella were his sisters-in-law and his wife Princess Irene was aunt to the five children of Nicholas.

A report sent to Prince Henry in early July made many of the points already raised in London by Captain Cromie in Petrograd. Of all the candidates for a restored monarchy the leader was undoubtedly Michael — believed now to be in Siberia, and the author of a manifesto published in his name - and on that both the German and British viewpoints tallied. For the Germans their evidence, in part, was the reaction of the people in Petrograd to two news reports, the first being of the death of Nicholas II and the second the rescue of Michael.

When Michael was reported as having escaped, the Ekaterinburg Soviet simultaneously spread the rumour that Nicholas had been killed by a Red Guard while being evacuated aboard a special train taking him and his family from Ekaterinburg to Perm. The story was that in the evacuation, necessary because of the threat from advancing Czecho-Slovak troops, the ex-Tsar and the soldier had been involved in a furious row, and it was then that the Red Guard had killed him with a bayonet thrust.°

This wholly false story was intended to test both public and foreign reaction to the death of Nicholas. From the Bolshevik standpoint the result was encouraging, as the German despatch to Prince Henry confirmed. The report, passed on by Henry to the Kaiser, stated that although the murder of Nicholas on the train was widely believed,

Grand Duke Michael is a different matter. The newspapers wllich carried the news ohis flight and his alleged manifesto in Siberia were readfeverislily and he is seen as the only possible source ofdelwerance from the unbearable circumstances. The famous Russian writers Kuprin and Amfiteatrov even attempted to publish a newspaper article about the Grand Duke, in which His Imperial Highness was characterised as the only R.OManof not to have been discredited in any way. Both were, of course, immediately arrested.

The report, largely confirming Cromies assessment of German intentions, concluded: only the restoration of the monarchy in Russia with German assistance ... will guarantee Germany an alliance with Russia and the maintenance and support of German interests in East Europe. What was needed was that a general Church Congress, presided over by the Patriarch, offers the Grand Duke the crown.

In Moscow, Ambassador von Mirbach also advised Berlin that of all the Romanovs who might be considered as Emperor in a restored monarchy the most popular in Russia was Michael, although given his known support for the Allies he was not Mirbachs preferred choice. However, Mirbach concluded, there was no support for Nicholas and he judged the ex-Tsars cause to be hopeless.

Of more immediate concern to von Mirbach was the news that Michael was at the head of an army in Siberia, that he was supporting the British and French - the Entente - and not Germany, and that his manifesto called on all officers to support him. On July 3 von Mirbach* sent off a gloomy cable to Berlin: Effect of Michael Aleksandrovichs support for Entente on generals and officers, including those of the groups who lean towards us, considerable according to impressions here. Groups here have shown themselves noticeably more restrained towards us during the last week.

No one involved in these assessments was in any doubt that Michael was alive. In London on June 27, 1918, Tlie Times reported rumours that Michael is at the head of an anti-revolutionary movement in Turkestan and that he had issued a manifesto to the Russian people ... leaving the decision as to the form of government to be adopted by the Duma which

* Voii Mirbach was murdered in his embassy three days later bv two Soenlit Kcvoludonarv (SB.) members of the Cheka as part of a power struggle between the SRs and the Bolsheviks. The SKs were hoping co provoke a resumption otthe war with Germaiiv., and thercbv prevent a German-led counter-revolution.

on reports from a spy in the German general staff, he reported by telegram on June 29, 191) tht the Germans believed that they would follow up their seerningly successful offensive in the West by a new effort in Russia. Their intention was to break the Brest peace, and declare a monarchy . . . Considerations will be more favourable than Brest Peace Conference, return of all territory to Russia, even Ukraine ... Economic conditions will be onerous but less so than at present. Candidate for throne is Grand Duke Michael and a high German Agent has already been sent to Perm to open negotiations, but Grand Duke has temporarily disappeared.

The despatch to London, which fitted the facts as Cromie understood them, urged that, since the Germans appeared bent on restoring the monarchy, albeit for their own interests, the best course for the British was to forestall them and back the monarchists first. In Ukraine there are 200,000 officers of whom 150,000 will at once join up, but only in support of monarchy, Captain Cromie reported, adding that Grand Duke Michael is the most popular candidate.

The Germans in Petrograd were sending similar messages to Berlin and to the Kaisers brother. Prince Henry, who was primarily responsible for questions relating to the Romanov dynasty, and whose concern about their fate was both political and personal, since the ex-Empress Alexandra and the Grand Duchess Ella were his sisters-in-law and his wife Princess Irene was aunt to the five children of Nicholas.

A report sent to Prince Henry in early July made many of the points already raised in London by Captain Cromie in Petrograd. Of all the candidates for a restored monarchy the leader was undoubtedly Michael — believed now to be in Siberia, and the author of a manifesto published in his name - and on that both the German and British viewpoints tallied. For the Germans their evidence, in part, was the reaction of the people in Petrograd to two news reports, the first being of the death of Nicholas II and the second the rescue of Michael.

When Michael was reported as having escaped, the Ekaterinburg Soviet simultaneously spread the rumour that Nicholas had been killed by a Red Guard while being evacuated aboard a special train taking him and his family from Ekaterinburg to Perm. The story was that in the evacuation, necessary because of the threat from advancing Czecho-Slovak troops, the ex-Tsar and the soldier had been involved in a furious row, and it was then that the Red Guard had killed him with a bayonet thrust.°

This wholly false story was intended to test both public and foreign reaction to the death of Nicholas. From the Bolshevik standpoint the result was encouraging, as the German despatch to Prince Henry confirmed. The report, passed on by Henry to the Kaiser, stated that although the murder of Nicholas on the train was widely believed,

Grand Duke Michael is a different matter. The newspapers wllich carried the news ohis flight and his alleged manifesto in Siberia were readfeverislily and he is seen as the only possible source ofdelwerance from the unbearable circumstances. The famous Russian writers Kuprin and Amfiteatrov even attempted to publish a newspaper article about the Grand Duke, in which His Imperial Highness was characterised as the only R.OManof not to have been discredited in any way. Both were, of course, immediately arrested.

The report, largely confirming Cromies assessment of German intentions, concluded: only the restoration of the monarchy in Russia with German assistance ... will guarantee Germany an alliance with Russia and the maintenance and support of German interests in East Europe. What was needed was that a general Church Congress, presided over by the Patriarch, offers the Grand Duke the crown.

In Moscow, Ambassador von Mirbach also advised Berlin that of all the Romanovs who might be considered as Emperor in a restored monarchy the most popular in Russia was Michael, although given his known support for the Allies he was not Mirbachs preferred choice. However, Mirbach concluded, there was no support for Nicholas and he judged the ex-Tsars cause to be hopeless.

Of more immediate concern to von Mirbach was the news that Michael was at the head of an army in Siberia, that he was supporting the British and French - the Entente - and not Germany, and that his manifesto called on all officers to support him. On July 3 von Mirbach* sent off a gloomy cable to Berlin: Effect of Michael Aleksandrovichs support for Entente on generals and officers, including those of the groups who lean towards us, considerable according to impressions here. Groups here have shown themselves noticeably more restrained towards us during the last week."

No one involved in these assessments was in any doubt that Michael was alive. In London on June 27, 1918, Tlie Times reported rumours that Michael is at the head of an anti-revolutionary movement in Turkestan and that he had issued a manifesto to the Russian people ... leaving the decision as to the form of government to be adopted by the Duma which

* Voii Mirbach was murdered in his embassy three days later bv two Soenlit Kcvoludonarv (SB.) members of the Cheka as part of a power struggle between the SRs and the Bolsheviks. The SKs were hoping co provoke a resumption otthe war with Germaiiv., and thercbv prevent a German-led counter-revolution.

was to be convoked. On July 3 th newspaper reported other rumours of him being at Omsk at the head of the Siberian revolt. Five days later this appeared to be confirmed when the military attache in Tokyo cabled London that a counter revolutionary movement headed by Grand Duke Michael has started in Omsk . Nine days later, the German military attache in Moscow cabled Berlin to the same effect, but worrying that it would damage German efforts to rally support from ex-Tsanst officers: if Michael was leading a pro-AHied force, then this would place Russian officers of a monarchist tendency in a difficult position.

Four days later even a Moscow newspaper was reporting Michaels reappearance. Rumour has spread here, said a despatch from Vyatka, that the former Grand Duke Michael Romanov is in Omsk and has taken command of the Siberian insurgents. There are claims that he has issued a manifesto to the people calling for the overthrow of Soviet power and promising to convene Assemblies of the Land to resolve the question of what regime there should be in Russia.

The news of Michael reached even Persia, where Dimitri recorded in his diary the rumours that Misha is advancing on Moscow with Cossacks and has been proclaimed Emperor.

The belief that Michael still lived was widespread and accepted as fact in Denmark, where little George was being cared for by King Christian. Just after his eighth birthday on July 24, 191 George wrote to his father, in English, a pencilled letter on lined notepaper: Darling Papa, We are longing to go to you. Pussy and I are very sad without you ...I hope you are quite well . . . Best love and kisses. To Natasha he wrote: Dear Mama, how are you. Here is very, very, very bad ...I want you so much . . . We are very lonely here . . . I have not forgotten Papa. At the end ofJuly he wrote again to his mother: Pity that you were not here for my Birthday. It was a nice day. I write my letters by myself now and ended by asking, Where is Papa?

It was a difficult question. The first official sighting of Michael was not until August 26 when a British agent identified as STi2 reported from Stockholm that a Swede arrived from Omsk reports that Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich is living in the Governors House in Omsk with the Imperial Russian flag flying, with guards and procedures as in old regime days.

For the Germans, long convinced that Michael was not only alive but leading a monarchist army in Siberia, the question which commanded most attention, at least in Berlin, was whether he could be wooed away from his support for the Entente and persuaded to back Germany. The Moscow embassy on July 17 reported that General Brusilov, formerly supreme commander,* has therefore sent a. lieutenant-commander to the Grand * He would lacerjOin the Red Army.

Duke to prevent him aligning himself with the Entente . . .

This was good news for Berlin. There had already been encouragement on July 22 in a report that attention should be paid to news which has repeatedly come in recently that certain differences of opinion exist between Grand Duke Michael and the Omsk government about the Entente, as the Omsk government is pursuing solely Russian objectives and in any case wishes to avoid a war with Germany. By August 23 a despatch from the German Ukraine Delegation in Kiev to Berlin suggested that Michael is by no means as pro-Entente as he is said to be.

German interest in Michael would persist until the very end of the war, and their eagerness to win him to their cause was to have one significant and practical result: it would save Natasha from the Bolsheviks.

The news that Michael was leading armies in Siberia suited the Bolsheviks. So long as Michael was alive then, as the most popular of all the Romanovs, it would be difficult, even impossible, for any other candidate for the throne to emerge. The indifferent public reaction to the death of Nicholas effectively sealed his fate, but the outstanding question was what should be done about the other Romanovs. The only factor which stood in the way of their execution was fear of the German response.

It had been in German interests to bring down the Romanov dynasty, and then to support the Bolsheviks, so as to force Russia out of the war. But the Germans were no friends of the Reds for in Germany there were plenty of home-grown Reds eager to emulate their comrades in Russia. Imperial Germany would not countenance the wholesale murder of Russian royals and in particular of those Romanovs who were both Germans and relatives. Apart from family considerations the Kaiser, when a young man, had been deeply in love with Grand Duchess Ella; he had made an earlier attempt to bring her out of Russia into Germany but she so loathed him that she had refused.

There were special reasons, therefore, why the Kremlin should tread carefully in its dealings with the Romanovs. Moscow could not afford to provoke Berlin; at the same time, it did not intend to leave the Romanovs as a live banner, as Lenin would put it, for the monarchists. The answer was clear enough in Moscow: the Romanovs in their hands would be killed, but with the sole exception of Nicholas, the deaths of the others would be concealed. Michaels escape had proved how successful deception could be.

In the early hours of Thursday, July 18, Nicholas and his family were awakened in their rooms at the lpatev house in Ekaterinburg and told, as Michael had been told, that because of the threat posed by advancing

Whites it was necessary to evacuate them. They went quietly downstairs, were placed in a basement room, and shortly afterwards massacred there by a squad of gunmen. It was an horrific killing which would revolt the world -

At Alapaevsk the next day, the horror of the Ekaterinburg massacre was repeated with equal ferocity by, and to the equal shame of, the regime which ordered, permitted, and then concealed it. The Romanov prisoners there were told that they were being evacuated: on peasant carts, they were taken out into the night to a disused mineshaft into which they were thrown alive. A shot fired into the shaft killed Grand Duke Serge, the bullet striking him in the forehead and passing out through his jaw; the others, including Ella, were still alive at the bottom when their killers shovelled earth and rubble on top of them. When White troops captured Alapaevsk, Red Guard prisoners who had been at the murder site admitted to interrogators that they had heard hymn singing coming from the shaft for some time after-wards As in Michaels case the Alapaevsk Romanovs were said to have been abducted by Whites and to have escaped.

Moscow announced on July 19 th Nicholas had been shot dead. However the Bolsheviks assured the world that the ex-Empress and her five children were all alive and well, although of necessity they had been evacuated from Ekaterinburg to keep them out of the hands of advancing Whites. They also cynically continued in negotiations with the Germans for the release of Alexandra and the children as part of a wider settlement of issues between them.

Official confirmation of Nicholass execution on July 19) had no greater effect on public opinion than had the false report five weeks earlier. In Moscow the British diplomat Bruce Lockhart noted that 1 am bound to admit that the population of Moscow received the news with amazing indifference, though it might not have been so if they had known the truth about the killing of the entire family and the savage slaughter at Alapaevsk.

With her mother in prison, and her stepfather missing, Tata was left at Gatchina in the care of Princess Vyazemskaya and a new English governess, Miss Trevelvan, though shortly afterwards the latter was repatriated by the rearguard British embassy. Because of money and food shortages, the domestic staff had been reduced to four: an aged housekeeper, a porter who lived above the washhouse, his mother who came in daily to clean, and the gardener, whose interest in the vegetable patch seemed increasingly proprietorial. There were no cars and the family transport was reduced to a dog-cart and a pony. The standard meal became a fish pie, with potato on top, and a few vegetables when the gardener could be prevailed upon to

release them. Sugar, butter, and eggs came through the back-door, usually late at night, from the local black market.

The Danish embassy continued to rent part of the house, flying their flag and sending their daily caretakers to help protect the house against looters, but it was the local Cheka which presented the great nuisance. The Gatchina chief, Serov, took particular pleasure in his regular appearances, flanked by guards, and in baiting Tata, who proved no more tactful than her mother.

Fortunately for Tata and the household, there was continuing help from Vladimir Gushchik, their friendly Bolshevik commissar at the Gatchina palace. He became a regular visitor to Nikolaevskaya Street, often bringing with him a chicken, eggs, or fish, and he also gave the household warnings when Serov planned a nuisance raid, ostensibly looking for illegal supplies of food, valuables, or hidden stacks of arms. The warnings allowed the food to be hidden; jewellery and other valuables were already carefully concealed - the silver was buried in the garden - or had been smuggled out to friends in Petrograd. Searches for arms were, of course, ludicrous but they gave an excuse for turning the house upside down.

In early September Serov found himself with a better reason for raiding Nikolaevskaya Street. Almost three months after being arrested and imprisoned at Gorokhovaya Street, Natasha had escaped. There was swift reaction. On Saturday, September 7, Serov arrived at 24 Nikolaevskaya Street and arrested Tata.

Kept overnight in the local Cheka office, she was bundled next day on to a train and taken under escort to the same prison room where her mother had been, though it was now so crowded that Tata spent the night sleeping on a table. One of the women there remembered Natasha, and was full of admiration for Mamma and said . . . that it was marvellous the way she had them all rushing around executing her orders and pandering to her whims.

Tata would say afterwards that nothing the Cheka ever did could compare with having been in the hands of an English governess like Miss Neame, but that was schoolgirl bravado. Told by Serov that she would be sent to a correction camp for young criminals, 1 burst into a flood of tears.

The threat turned out to be a bluff. After interrogation to find out what she knew about her mothers whereabouts, she spent another night sleeping on a tabletop, but next day, Tuesday, September io, she was suddenly told that she was being released.

It was pouring with rain when she got outside. She had no money and had not eaten for two days. Knowing that she could not go back to Gatchina, she took her suitcase and struggled with it to the Fontanka, hoping to find refuge at the apartment other Uncle Alyosha, Natashas brother-in-law Matveev. Climbing the stairs she reached the apartment door, only to find that Matveev was no longer there. He had disappeared. The housekeeper refused to allow her in, complaining that she had not been paid and that she was tired of having the Cheka turning up every day to look for Natasha. With that the door was slammed in Tatas face.

She sat down on her suitcase on the landing and started to cry. Suddenly she heard a door open on the floor above and footsteps on the stairs. A voice called her name, and when she looked up, startled, she saw a completely strange woman with flaming red hair. It was Princess Vya-zemskaya, disguised by a wig. Moments later Tata was running upstairs and into the arms other mother. Since her escape Natasha had been hiding out in the apartment immediately above the one which the Cheka searched every day.

Natasha had escaped from Cheka custody just in time to save her own life. She had been in the womens prison for ten weeks, until the end of August 1918. Helped by a co-operative doctor, who confirmed that she was suffering from tuberculosis, she was transferred under guard to a nursing home. Once there, she simply got up one night and walked out.

The timing of her escape increased the Chekas determination to find her, for it came just after the murder in Petrograd other old enemy Uritsky, gunned down on August 30 by a Jewish student, apparently revenging himseltfor the execution of a friend. Uritskys death was followed, coinci-dentally, by the shooting and wounding of Lenin in Moscow. In revenge the Bolsheviks brought in two decrees which inaugurated what would be known as the Red Terror. The first instituted the execution of hostages as reprisal for further attacks on Bolsheviks: the second commanded the execution of anyone with links to the White Guard organisations, conspiracies, and seditious actions. No one was to be spared, even those with diplomatic immunity, as was shown when a band of Cheka agents forced their way into the British embassy and killed the resisting naval attache Captain Cromie, shot down at the top of the staircase. His body was hung out of the window and left there for days.

Natasha, in custody, would have had little chance of avoiding the firing squad: cheating the executioners by escaping made her re-arrest a priority for the Cheka. Her disappearance was followed not only by the arrest of her daughter, but by an announcement in Perm that Michael andJohnson had been recaptured. Coincidence or consequence, the news of their rearrest suggests that at some level in the Bolshevik leadership there was disquiet about the encouragement which Michaels escape had given to the monarchists. The disappearance of Natasha may have contributed to the decision to announce his recapture, in the sense of it being the last straw, but what is certain is that by September 18 the Perm Soviet was

resolved to remove Michael from the scene officially. To do that they passed off Michaels valet Chelyshev as being Michael, and the chauffeur Borunov asJohnson.

A statement issued on that date by the Perm Cheka, signed by the chairman Malkov, announced that six days earlier a local Cheka agent had arrested two men who, walking along a road, were behaving in a suspicious manner. One of these suspects, a tall man with a light-brown beard, particularly drew attention to himself. Taken to Cheka headquarters for interrogation, it was noted that the men were wearing make-up. When this was removed, they were identified as the former Grand Duke Michael Romanov and his secretary, Johnson and were immediately detained under close guard.

Two days later the Russian Telegraph Agency reported that Michael Romanov and his secretary have been detained by agents of Perm Provincial Cheka. They were taken to Perm.

On the following day, under Warrant No. 3694 Chelyshev and Borunov were taken from prison and shot dead. A month earlier, Sverdlov had cabled Perm that as to the Romanov servants I give you permission to act as you see fit in accordance with the circumstances, which was effectively their death warrant. There can be little doubt that their killing was intended to provide bodies for Michael and Johnson, but that this purpose was frustrated because for some reason the decision to kill off Michael was rescinded, at a level higher than the Perm Cheka, possibly by Moscow.

Evidence of confusion and of countermanding can be seen in the fact that the text ofMalkovs announcement of Michaels recapture appeared in only one newspaper and that was then blacked-out by being covered in printers ink; in the regional newspapers the announcement was removed at the last moment from the presses.

The reversal in policy was not enough, however, to save Chelyshev and Borunov, who were doomed anyway in the wave of Bolshevik killings which followed the inauguration of the Red Terror. Madame Zna-merovsky, arrested with her husband immediately after Michaels murder, was among the victims, taken out with a group of other prisoners to a sewage farm outside Perm and there shot dead. Had Natasha remained in Perm, instead of returning in May, or had she not escaped from custody in Petrograd, it was a fate she would certainly have shared.

No further attempt was made to promote the story of Michaels recapture and in consequence no real attention was paid to the agency story from Perm. The German report to Berlin mentioned a newspaper reference to it, but dismissed it cynically as same as always. Michael was back in play, and the Germans returned to the business of finding a way in which he could be brought over to their side.

A cable to Berlin on September 30 reported that Petrograd monarchists were planning a dictatorship under General Lechitsky, who is supposed to prepare the accession to the throne of Grand Duke Michael. Lechitsky, former commander of the Ninth Army, under whom Michael had served in 1915, was a competent general but he was not the stuffotwhich dictators were made, nor was he ever likely to attract the kind of support from other White generals which would be necessary, but in Petrograd the monarchists were so desperate that any general was better than none, and any hope better than none.

Three weeks later, in a telegram from Kiev, Berlin received apparently authoritative confirmation that Grand Duke Michael is in Siberia in the safe hands of the "Siberian government". That report, passed on to Natasha, must have given her enormous joy: it was also sufficient to spur the Germans on to the next stage of their plans for Michael. Natasha was to be their bait.

From early summer the Germans had been taking the keenest interest in Natasha. As soon as news of Michaels escape was announced, Armin von Reyer, a key figure in the negotiations between the German legation and the monarchist organisations in Petrograd, went to see Natasha. They met just before her arrest and he reported their conversation back to Prince Henry in Berlin, emphasising Michaels popularity and recounting her story of the scenes at Easter when the townspeople of Perm had overwhelmed him with gifts.

Von R.eyer was never in any doubt that Michael was alive, though his first information from a trustworthy source was that Michael had been brought by ship to Rybinsk, a river port on the Upper Volga, 200 miles north-east of Moscow, and about iooo miles westwards by river from Perm. That was in flat contradiction of later and more credible reports placing him some 1600 miles to the east in Omsk, which at least was behind friendly lines. Nevertheless, it served to confirm that reports of an escape were genuine enough, whatever the confusion about Michaels whereabouts.

Michaels pro-Allied stance was the greatest hurdle for the Germans and in Berlin it raised questions about backing another candidate whose loyalty might be more certain. But these alternatives were never of any substance and the issue became one of winning over Michael, not backing someone better disposed to the Germans.

But how to win him over? The answer seemed to be Natasha. If the-Germans smuggled her safely out of Russia and into the German-controlled Ukraine, then Michael would surely hasten from wherever he was and join her. He would be in German territory and in German debt. The Germans therefore provided her with a false passport and the necessary permits for entry into the Ukraine. The passport — issued in the name ofFrau Tania Klenow, dated October i, 1918, and numbered 4594 ~ was prepared by the Ukrainian consulate-general in Petrograd, effectively German-controlled. The affixed photograph showed Natasha wearing the white head-dress of a nursing nun. Since Natasha did not dare venture outside into the streets, the nuns outfit must have been smuggled into her hide-out apartment and the photograph taken there.

The Germans equally appear to have been involved in helping to get Tata out of Russia and into the Ukraine. In her case she travelled on a false passport made out under her real name of Nathalie Mamontov, thought safe enough since it was unlikely to be connected with Brasova in routine checks at railway stations or at the border crossing into the Ukraine.

After their reunion, Natasha had decided that it would be best if Tata went back to Gatchina, as if she had no notion whatsoever about her mothers whereabouts. She was to stay there until given the signal to leave. Shortly afterwards a strange man arrived ... who he was I have never discovered, he vanished as silently as he had appeared, leaving my passport; the tickets he would hand to me at the station the next day. It had been arranged that Tata would travel in the company of one of her mothers friends, a Madame Yakhontova, who had property in the Ukraine and was travelling on a genuine passport.

Next morning Tata set off for the station. On reaching Petrograd the stranger, either a German or German agent, was waiting for her with her tickets. He had arranged reserved seats in the train, packed with people trying to get out of Russia, and her suitcase, taken by him the day before, was already on the rack, along with other cases belonging to her mother, including a kitbag filled with dirty clothes, under which were Natashas sables as well as other valuables. The stranger thrust money into Tatas hands and waved goodbye.

The route southwards out of Bolshevik-controlled Russia was through Vitebsk to the border crossing at Orsha on the Dnieper: a distance of only some 420 miles. At Orsha the following morning, there was a long wait for examination of exit permits and luggage. It was a worrying prospect, given the valuables - including Natashas pearl ear-rings, the size of hazel nuts, secreted inside a bar ofsoap - hidden in their suitcases. Mme Yakhontova found a man who assured her that the Bolshevik guards checking the luggage could be bribed: fortunately the man proved a genuine fixer, and to their relief the guards passed their luggage with only casual scrutiny.

Across the border Tata was struck by the look of order and tidiness that pervaded the territory occupied by the Germans . . . It was in such marked contrast to Bolshevik Russia ... There was also ample food to buy, and they purchased bread, butter, cold meat, cream cheese and bottles of kvas,

a kind of beer. Across the border they boarded a new train which took them through the old Stavka town of Mogilev, then to Gomel and on to Kiev, ajourney of 300 miles. At stations en route, the locals on the platforms would offer for sale apples, pears, plums and watermelons. After Bolshevik Russia it seemed a land of plenty.

On arrival in Kiev, Tata was met by Princess Vyazemskaya, who had left Petrograd days earlier and had travelled much as Tata had done. Accommodation had been prepared in an apartment owned by a friend of Princess Vyazemskaya and Tata settled down to await her mother. There had been no news other and no one knew when or if she would arrive. At last, in early October, about a month after Tatas departure from Petrograd, there was a telegram from the station at Gomel," the halfway point from the border crossing. Natasha, wearing her white uniform of a nursing nun, had successfully escaped and would be in Kiev within hours, no doubt having changed into something more attractive.

The Bolsheviks still hunting her in Petrograd learned other escape when, on October 21, the Russian Telegraph Agency reported her crossing the border. Brasova was greeted with great honour by the German local authorities . . . She was presented with an officers carriage for her journey to Kiev."

By the time that story appeared in the Bolshevik press the Germans in the Ukraine were already involved in the next stage of their plans for Natasha, which were intended to make her - and thus Michael - even more obliged to them tor their help. King Christian X of Denmark had cabled an invitation to her to go to neutral Copenhagen to join her son. The Germans saw benefit to themselves in helping her get there.

As Berlin was told: As we are losing considerable ground with the monarchists . . . permitting the journey might be a suitable way to place the monarchic circles under an obligation to us. The precondition, though, would be that a political influencing of the Copenhagen court by the countess to our disadvantage is not to be feared." In short, Natasha was not to say anything detrimental about the Germans. A few days later, on October 24, there was another request to Berlin to approve Natashas journey, along with her daughter. Princess Vyazemskaya, and two other companions. The telegram to Berlin described Natasha as extremely agitated as a result of the strain she has endured and worrying about the fate other husband. Two days later Berlin received yet another formal request from Kiev.

Having received confirmation from Copenhagen that the king approved -though later he did comment to the minister chat he had invited the countess alone, and did not expect that she would appear with so many companions - the Berlin foreign ministry finally agreed to the trip and

signalled permission to Kiev on October 30. The assumption, of course, was that Natasha would bring little George back with her to the Ukraine, for they knew how desperate she was to be reunited with Michael. In turn, Natasha and George would be irresistible bait for Michael; and with a grateful Michael in the Ukraine, the monarchists everywhere would surely rally to the Germans.

Natasha, or Grafin von Brassoff as the Germans now called her, posed once more for a passport photograph, wearing a hat and an elegant dress, and completed the details for the exit visa. The young clerk typing out the necessary details looked up and asked her for her date of birth. Natasha did not hesitate, telling him it was June 27, 1888. The clerk inserted that without blinking, and at the end of the line typed in her age as thirty. No matter what the circumstances, she was darnned if she was going to admit to being thirty-eight.

With the papers in her hand, bags packed, farewells made, and money organised, Natasha was ready to leave. Unfortunately the date was Monday, November ii, 1918- And that morning, at eleven oclock, the war ended. Natasha was holding a passport to nowhere.

Now it was the turn of the British to rescue Natasha. With German authority at an end it could only be a question of time before the Bolsheviks seized power in Kiev, and Natasha was once more at risk. Knowing that, she and Tata, along with Princess Vyazemskaya, fled to Odessa, hoping to discover some way of escaping by sea. On arrival they found a room which they all shared at the Hotel de Londres; Natashas brother-in-law Matveev had also arrived there after his escape from Russia.

Nerves were tense. There were no ships in the harbour, there was widespread looting and the only exit route to safety seemed to be through Romania, though the rumours were that the border had been closed. Then came hope: the arrival of a French battleship. Its sailors came into the town and swiftly restored order, though there was no sign of any willingness to evacuate any civilians in Odessa.

Some days later, Natasha, Tata, and Princess Vyazemskaya went for an afternoon walk down to the quay, and to their delight saw a new ship moored there. Running forward, they found it was the destroyer HMS Nereide. The destroyer, just 77 tons, was an old ship with a crew of seventy-two, including six officers. Nevertheless, our hearts stood still, Tata recalled. The British had arrived.""

Tata ran up the gangway and asked permission to go aboard. A few minutes later all three of them were being invited into the wardrooin for tea with the captain, Lieutenant-Commander Herbert Wyid. After that the officers of the Nereilie took us under their wing. They coinniandeered

a car from somewhere, and that car was put at our disposal; they came up en masse for tea at our hotel, and we in return were invited to meals on board. Tata would recall.

By now Odessa was entirely blocked landward, and there was the sound of shelling as the Bolsheviks started to approach. One of the British officers gave Natasha a small pistol for self-protection, but she was so frightened by it that she promptly locked it away in a suitcase.

Another British warship, the 2800-ton light cruiser HMS Skirmisher, with a crew of 268, had also arrived in the harbour. With the situation in Odessa deteriorating almost by the hour the British now decided to take Natasha, Tata, and Princess Vyazemskaya aboard the Skirmisher for greater safety. They stayed there for a few nights and then, as the two warships prepared to leave, all three were transferred back to the Nereide and told that they were being evacuated.

Shortly afterwards the ship moved away from its berth and headed out to sea. Standing on the deck, looking back at Odessa, Natasha knew not whether she would ever see Russia again, but she still believed that somewhere out there was Michael, and that he was alive and well, for everyone had said so.