Oxford, St Gregory and St Macrina’s House, 11-13th October 2019
CONFERENCE REPORT
Report of the conference “Rescuing the Romanovs: Crimea – Malta – Britain, 1919-2019”, and other events organised by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Romanov Society, UK, in Oxford (October 11th-13th, 2019) dedicated to the Centenary of the British operation to rescue Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna from Crimea.
Romanov commemorative events, organised by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Romanov Society UK, took place in Oxford during the weekend 11th-13h October at the House of St Gregory and St Macrina. The conference “Rescuing the Romanovs” and the new exhibition “Romanov Estates in Crimea” were dedicated to the Centenary of the British operation in Crimea to rescue the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and other members of the Romanov Family. Under the title “The Last Days of the Romanovs” the Society also brought to Oxford their displays and collection of the photographs depicting the Imperial Family, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Dowager Empress Maria and her daughters Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga during the Great War and the tragedies of Ekaterinburg and Alapaevsk in July 1918.
The exhibition was opened on the 11th October by the Society’s Chairman, Dr Maria Harwood, who welcomed the trustees, members and guests who had travelled from far and wide to Oxford (including from Russia, Japan and Switzerland) to participate in the Romanov weekend. She explained that the presented panels are the result of almost four years of the Society’s educational work. Father Stephen Platt then spoke words of welcome to Oxford and to the House of St Gregory and St Macrina where all the events were held. Mr Michael Wynne-Parker spoke on behalf of our sister society the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society and expressed a wish for continued friendly collaboration. A quartet from the choir of the Russian Orthodox cathedral (ROCOR) in Chiswick gave a most moving concert of liturgical hymns and Russian songs of the First World War.
A special pilgrimage was made earlier the same day to Headington Cemetery and a Panikhida was served by Father Stephen at the grave of Archimandrite Nicholas Gibbes, tutor to the Imperial children. Flowers were laid by Maria Harwood on behalf of the Society, by Princess Olga Romanov and by Paul and Ludmila Kulikovsky.
BISHOP IRENEI of London and Western Europe (ROCOR) opened the conference on the following morning with a wonderful exposition on the meaning of Royal Martyrdom. Starting with the words of St Paul about All being One in Christ he spoke about this oneness, and clear human differences of gender and social status which exist and have been sanctified by God. We live in an age which sweeps these distinctions away and rejects monarchy to the extent of violently subjecting rulers to martyrdom. This was an extremely penetrating discourse on the theological and Biblical meaning of martyrdom, monarchy and human differences.
CORYNE HALL then discussed one episode illustrating the reaction of the British monarchy to the plight of the Romanovs: “Awkward Encounters: Meetings between Grand Duke Dmitry and George V,
1918-1920″. This was a sobering account using the newly discovered and unpublished diaries of Dmitry Pavlovich. The quotations from these diaries showed the changing attitude of George V to Dimitry and other representatives of the House of Romanovs. Coryne’s book on the attitudes of Queen Victoria towards Russia is due to be published in 2020.
The section dedicated to the relationship between the Royal House of Windsor and Imperial House of Romanov was concluded by STEPHEN PATTERSON, Curator of the Royal Collection, who presented an account on the renovations made to Frogmore House, Windsor, to suit the needs of the Grand Duchess Xenia and her growing family. He used unpublished documents and photographs from the Royal Collection, full of interesting details confirming that these renovations were approved and closely supervised by King George V. This highlighted a different aspect of Windsor-Romanov relations.
In the afternoon we had the pleasure and honour of welcoming Princess OLGA ANDREEVNA ROMANOFF, granddaughter of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (sister of Emperor Nicholas II) and President of the Romanov Family Association. MARIA HARWOOD presented Olga’s recent book of memoirs, written in collaboration with Coryne Hall, “A Wild and Barefoot Romanov” (2017), and initiated a dialogue with the Princess, later involving members of the audience. As a result, Princess Olga shared with us incredibly personal and vivid recollection about the personality of Grand Duchess Xenia and her elder son, Olga’s father, Prince Andrei Alexandrovich. We found out that the Provender, where Olga Andreevna has been living since her childhood, houses mementoes of the evacuation of her grandmother and father from Crimea.
Another Romanov descendant, who had travelled from Russia to speak, was PAUL KULIKOVSKY, great great grandson of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (the Tsar’s other sister). He is well known in Russia as an organiser of Romanov events and is editor of the Romanov News web-journal. We were honoured by Paul’s and his spouse’s presence and listened with great interest to his account (with many photographs) of Olga Alexandrovna’s life in south Russia before her escape with her husband. As her husband was not royal, they were able to remain in a remote place on the South as long as possible and the title of the talk reflected this fact: “Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, The Last Romanov who left Russia”.
Princess CATHERINE GALITZINE then showed us never photographs, never before shown publically, of the “Journey from Crimea into Exile of Prince Vladimir Galitzine and his wife Catherine”, her grandparents. Prince Vladimir was actively involved in organising the evacuation and Galitzine’s family archives to the U.K. We were most grateful to Katya for sharing her family treasures with us.
ROBERT JARMAN, a celebrated archival historian, presented a paper on “British Government Policy towards the Romanov Refugees: Theory and Practice”. This gave us a fascinating contrast to the picture given in Coryne Hall’s talk. Here the focus was not on King George personally but on the British Government. Robert provided us with copies of Home Office documents and other letters which make shameful reading.
JOHN HARWOOD returned to Bishop Irenei’s theme of Royal Martyrdom, examining especially the case of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, first of the Romanovs to perish. Michael Alexandrovich had several interesting connections with England and his wife and son escaped here. John also looked at Royal Martyrs of past ages, especially Prince Michael of Tver – the Grand Duke’s patron saint – the Emperor Paul and several Anglo-Saxon kings.
DAVID GILCHRIST, the Society’s Secretary and skilful conference chairman, brought the talks to an end, adding a moving meditation of his own based on the last recorded words of the Holy New Martyr ELIZABETH when she was taken from her beloved Sisters in Moscow towards certain death.
After the guest speakers had finished we had the opportunity to see a video with the talk given by FRANCES WELCH: “Dowager Empress and other Romanovs on board the HMS Marlborough”, where Frances summarised her book “The Russian Court at Sea” (2011). Frances was unfortunately not able to attend our conference so this was a wonderful chance to present to our audience the main characters and faces of those who left Crimea hundred years ago.
As a conclusion of the Romanov commemorative events, there was a trip to the Isle of Wight organised by David Hill, a friend of our Society from East Cowes. Princess Olga Andreevna, Paul and Ludmila Kulikovsky and our trustee Michael Edwards laid flowers at the Monument and met local government and public officials. They also visited Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria, and St Mildred’s church where Victoria, the elder sister of Ella and Alex, is buried. In honour of visiting relatives of the martyred Russian Imperial Family a reception at Albert Cottage (where Nicholas stayed as a child) was organised.
The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Romanov Society wishes to thank all those who helped to make this Conference possible: our distinguished speakers, our sponsors, our hosts at the House of St Gregory and St Macrina, and all who helped to prepare the exhibition and conference, mounting photographs, arranging accommodation and transporting speakers and guests to and from various events and preparing food: David Gilchrist, Yulia Chisholm, Anna Skriven, Natalia Baeva, Stuart and Natalie Wines, Alexander Kapustin, Alexander Groves, Paul Oxborrow and Michael Edwards. Finally, many thanks to our friends on the Isle of Wight, Karl Love and David Hill, for their usual hospitality and warm welcome for our distinguished guests.
