People Being 'Horrified' by OTMAA's Murders?

[Horock]

In Britain we were losing over 300 people per week. In France it was twice that number.
How much would the death of the Romanov children would affected the population as a whole?

My gradparents went right through the First World War.  They never mentioned it to me. 

[PAGE]

For 90 percent of the French in 1918 (I am French, so I speak for what I know), Russia spoke very little to people. So the Romanov family ...

Moreover, I believe that the notoriety of the imperial family today comes from its deep humanity. Otherwise, she would have fallen into oblivion. It would be a historical "episode".

[edubs31]

I wonder if this was one of those somewhat rare instances where foreigners were more appalled than Russians - the ones generally sympathetic to the IF & monarchy but perhaps not arch-monarchists - themselves.

In the midst of a Civil War, inflation and food shortages it’s easy to get preoccupied by other things than the fate of a deposed former ruler and his family. For those of us in the West the plight of Russia as a whole was less relevant making this tragedy stand out.

[Horock]

If individuals in Britain, France and Germany were asked in 1918 something like 'Do you think that the murder of the Romanovs was a terrible crime?', then probably 99 out of 100 would have answered yes.

But how much the murders affected people when they read about them in newspapers at that time is another matter.
Britain with about 18 million households took approaching 2.7 to 3 million casualties during the war.
France with about 16 million households took 6 million casualties during the war.

Given the scale of suffering it hard to think that the murder of the Romanovs had a major effect on people in the major combatant nations.

Perhaps public reaction was different in countries like the USA that were comparatively unaffected by the war.
Who knows?

[edubs31]

If individuals in Britain, France and Germany were asked in 1918 something like 'Do you think that the murder of the Romanovs was a terrible crime?', then probably 99 out of 100 would have answered yes.

But how much the murders affected people when they read about them in newspapers at that time is another matter.
Britain with about 18 million households took approaching 2.7 to 3 million casualties during the war.
France with about 16 million households took 6 million casualties during the war.

Given the scale of suffering it hard to think that the murder of the Romanovs had a major effect on people in the major combatant nations.

Perhaps public reaction was different in countries like the USA that were comparatively unaffected by the war.
Who knows?

Sort of what I was getting at there. The US/Canada would have had the luxury of focusing on a very specific, individual tragedy such as the fate of the Romanovs since, by and large, far fewer families suffered their own loss and since the American economy and system of governing wasn't thrown into turmoil by the effects of the war.

[DNAgenie]

There is an interesting article about British newspaper reports on the reign of Nicholas II at https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2017/03/14/the-last-of-the-romanovs/ . "It was in Yekaterinburg, in July 1918, that the Romanov family was murdered by the Bolsheviks. The reports afterwards were conflicting and rumours circulated about the tragic fate of the family.

 ‘Fate of the Romanovs’, Edinburgh Evening News – Saturday 06 July 1918

‘Romanov mystery’, Aberdeen Press and Journal – Tuesday 09 July 1918

‘The last journey of the ex-czar’, Sheffield Evening Telegraph – Monday 05 August 1918

‘Fate of the Romanovs’, The Scotsman – Thursday 05 December 1918"

[Превед]

If individuals in Britain, France and Germany were asked in 1918 something like 'Do you think that the murder of the Romanovs was a terrible crime?', then probably 99 out of 100 would have answered yes.

You are probably underestimating the number of Communists who believed in (and were hoping for) armed revolution and class war in these countries in 1918. In Germany the left-extreme USPD (which split from the main Social Democratic Party) got 7,6 % of the votes in the 1919 election and the new Communist Party KPD 2,1 % in 1920. Four years later the KPD got 12,5 % of the votes.

[Horock]

I have no idea of how things stood in France and Germany.
 
In Britain, the Communist Party of Great Britain did not contest a General Election until 1922 when it gained 30,684 out of 13,748,300 votes cast (about 0.22%).  How much the murder of the Romanovs influenced peoples' voting intentions is perhaps anybody's guess.  I would doubt if it had any in effect at all but who knows?

[DNAgenie]

If individuals in Britain, France and Germany were asked in 1918 something like 'Do you think that the murder of the Romanovs was a terrible crime?', then probably 99 out of 100 would have answered yes.

You are forgetting that in 1918 no-one knew anything about the murder of the Romanovs. The death of Nicholas and Alexei had been announced by the Russian Government but at that stage the rest of the family was reported to be in a place of safety.

That question was not relevant until the mid-1920s, at the earliest, and it can only be answered in hindsight.

In 1918 many European royal families had lost their thrones, and there was little public sympathy for their plight. The world was trying to recover from a calamitous World War and most of the royals were seen as having caused that war. Seen in that context, the death of some members of a particular royal family would not have been seen as a terrible crime, but as retribution.

You would probably get a different answer today, as modern readers are suitably horrified by the manner of the Romanov deaths. But in 1918? No.

[edubs31]

Slightly off topic but I always found it interesting and, being a Romanov fan, heartening, to hear that Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, the longest living person ever recorded (1875-1997) considered the execution of the Russian Imperial Family to be the most significant historical event in her lifetime.

This is someone who met Vincent Van Gogh, saw the invention of electricity, the automobile and airplane, lived through two World Wars and was still around when the World-Wide Web was first launched...and yet it was the death of the Romanovs that stood out above all else. Pretty impressive!

[PAGE]

I do not know if I will live 121 years, but the most important thing in my life until today is my meeting with the imperial family of Russia.

[LisaDavidson]

Josef Stalin's mother asked him if he had been involved with the murder of the Imperial Family. He said no. His mother was Georgian, and not well educated but the murders were very important to her. I would imagine for most subjects, the murder of the Emperor was vitally important. Stalin's mother was horrified by the murder of the family, I should add.