Escape plot involving Maria Rasputin's husband?

[Annie]

Forgive me if this has been discussed, or if it's in the wrong forum. I read somewhere that a guy, I think his name was Solokoviev? or something like that, who had married Maria in 1917 was part of a big escape plan to free the IF from Tobolsk, but made off with most of the money himself, and was rumored to have been a double agent. Any factual actual info on this man and his story is appreciated.

[helenazar]

Annie, I think his name was Soloviev, and yes he married Maria in order to gain the trust of the monarchists and organize an escape (at least this is one version). I also read somewhere that he was a double agent and that once all the money was gathered, he dissapeared...

Here is an excerpt from Volkov's book about this:

"... Father Alexei did not have any group behind him. He was merely close to Lt. Soloviev who had married Rasputin's daughter and who had, as a result of that marriage, managed to ingratiate himself into the ranks of the monarchists. The genuine motive they had was to extort money from the monarchists by creating an alleged "rescue" of the Their Majesties from Tobolsk. In reality, they had no plan to save them and never did rescue anyone. (Mme. Tatiana Melnik-Botkin in her "Memoirs" on pg 44 catagorically accused Soloviev and Father Vassiliev of losing valuable time and betraying the Imperial Family as there was then still time and many monarchists who truly did want to save and rescue the Imperial Family. Soloviev as "head" of this fictional group made all the monarchists come to him, officers and others, and defrauded them by making them wait on the hook for long months. Those who disobeyed him were betrayed to the Bolsheviks and paid for that disobedience with their lives in Siberia in 1918..)."

[AGRBear]

It is thought that Boris Solovyov was the man who caused some of the last few attempts to rescue Nicholas II to fail.

Summers and Mangold in FILE ON THE TSAR wrote p. 262:

>>History has branded Solovyov as a dangerous triple agent, paid by the Germans to supply information in league with the Bolsheviks, while posing all the time as a monarchist hero, .  Loyal officers traveling to Tobolsky were brief to contact Solovyov en route, and walked straight into a trap.  At least three were captured and shot by the Bolshevik secret police.<<

However, it should be noted that Solovyov was discovered for what he was.
 Summers' and Mangold's THE FILE ON THE TSAR p. 262 goes on to tell us more:

>>But in the second week of April 1918 Solovyov's activites were abruptly interrtuped.  A man called Bronard turned up--ostensibly for consultation.  In fact he pulled a neat doublecross, turned the local Bolsheviks against Solovyov, and, had him thrown into jail on suspicion of being a counter-revoutionary.<<

Ahh, the next thing one should know is that Bronard was a French agent.

So,  it appears the French were also in the act of rescuing Nicholas II.

The results was:  The Reds moved Nicholas II to Ekaterinburg.

AGRBear

[AGRBear]

Steinberg and Khrustalev wrote in THE FALL OF THE ROMANOVS pps 390-1:

>> Solovyov, Boris Nikolaevich (b. 18993).  Lieutenant, son of the treasurer of the Holy Synod N.V. Solovyov, member of Rasutin's circle in Petrograd, officer for commissions and adjutant to the chairman of the Military Commission of the State Duma Committee.  In Septemember 1917, married the daughter of Grigory Rasputin, Maria (Matryona).  Served as Anna Vyrubova's courier, delivering correspondence, money and gifts to and from the Imperial family in Tobolsk and planning the family's escape.  While living in Pokrovskoe and later to Tiumen, he tried to bring the various efforts to free the tsar and his family under his own control.  Stayed in close contact with Father Aleksei Vasiliev, the family's priest in Tobolsky, and with one of the family's maids.  Arrested in March 1918.  Many emigres later maintained that Solovyov was a provocateur, acting on behalf of the Bolsheviks in order to expose and abort genuine plans to free the tsar and his family.  Died abroad.<<

[AGRBear]

King and Wilson in their bookTHE FATE OF THE ROMANOVS tells us that they find evidence that Soloviev claimed to have been just as much a victim of the Bolsheviks as everyone else.  When money was missing,  he blamed others, one being a  Markov II.  On p. 67 they write:

When Soloviev >>..met with Hernogen and Bassiliev and asked ow the rescue plans were progressing, the clerics were confusesd.  Neither had ever hard of Markov II or his assistant Nicholas Sedov, whom Markov II had claimed was organizaing the three hundred men in Tobolsky.  Nor had they received any of they money.... Solviev was stunned...."

In all fairness,  I have no personal evidence against Soloview, but it does seem more than likely he was not the victim  since future money given him continued to  disapear.  One known amount  of 200,000 rubles which vanished, Soloviev gives  blamed to Madame Buxoveden whom Soloviev said he had given this sum [p. 68]....

I'd like to find out more about this French agent Bronard and if the French archives have anything of interest about Soloviev.

AGRBear