EX-TSAR'S ESTATE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 67, 17 September 1917, Page 2

EX-TSAR'S ESTATE

CONFISCATED TO REPUBLIC. J

Property valued at £140,000,000, from which Nicholas Romanoff, formerly Emperor of Russia, enjoyed the revenues for life only, lias been taken from him by. the Provisional, Government. A special Commission of; the Government has been discussing whether land, palaces, and other property owned by Nicholas, and estimated to .be worth £9,760,000, shall'be sequestrated by the State. ' :> . ■"•. ' '■'■ ' ' ■'•

This Commission also considered whether the property of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses, worth about £42,000,000, should be seized for the benefit of the public. The value of all the property owned by the former Emperor or members of the formerly Royal House of Russia is estimated by Professor Ofcuiiieff, of Petrograd, at;£191,600,000.- ■ •'., ■ In addition,- the Professor asserts,; Nicholas still has on deposit' in the Bank of England £7,000,000, placed there years ago in provision for the rainy day which now has come. The late Grand Duke Alexis, uncle to. the.former Emperor Nicholas, left £2,0CK),00p on~ deposit in the Bank of FraSce.•■' .'• ' There are also two Roniahoff family trust funds. One was founded by Alexander 111. when on his <deathbed in Liyadia, which now amounts to £1,560,000, is invested in Russia, and is within reach of tho revolutionary Government. Another, amounting ltd £4,800,000, was derived by Alexander 11., when he liberated 4,000,000 serfs for £1 5s each in 1861. :

' Chief among the properties taken from the former Emperor are the so-called "cabinet lands." These constituted one of the largest private estates in the world, and included ■ vast forests; gold, silver, platinum, and copper mines; 100 factories for making paper, textiles, glass, or porcelain; and 1500 flour-mills. Nicholas derived £6,400,000 a year in profits from the rental of these properties to peasants or others. ALLOWED HUGE SUMS YEARLY. The former Emperor. Nicholas's annual income w-heji he was deposed is estimated by Professor Okunieff. at £13,000,000. The Duma allowed him £1,700,000 a year to pay -the expenses of the Imperial Court, but because of extravagance, mismanagement, and pilfering the annual cost amounted to £4,000,000, according to the statement of Zubatcheff, Councillor of the Empire."

Besides the lands, the Grand Dukes and Duchesses owned, as private individuals, more than 200 palaces.or villas, estimated to be worth £14,000,000. Some of these include the richest lands in the , Crimea and the Caucasus. These estates ', were taken by the Romanoffs after the ' conquest of the Crimea and the Caucasus, and in most cases no compensation was paid to the former owners.