SOVIET'S RED REIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19698, 26 July 1927, Page 9

SOVIET'S RED REIGN.

NINE MONARCHISTS TO DIE.

GRAND DUKE CYRIL'S FRIENDS.

(Received July 25, 7.36 p.m.) Sun. LONDON, July 24

The Warsaw correspondent of the Daily Mail says Prince Tshakovski and eight former Tsarist officers were condemned to death at Kursk, Russia. The condemned men were charged with organising a coup d'etat on behalf of the Grand Duke Cyril, claimant to the throne of Russia.

The Gi'and Duke Cyril of Russia was born at Tsarskoye Selo in September, 1876. His father, the Grand Duke Vladimir, was a brother of Tsar Alexander 111. Cyril is therefore a cousin of the last Tsar, Nicholas 11. His mother was a Duchess of Mecklenburg. In his early days he served in the Russian Navy. A sensation was caused in October, 1905, by Cyril's marriage at Tegernsee to a daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Princess Victoria Melita, whom the Grand Duke of Hesse had divorced in 1901. By command of the Tsar he withdrew entirely from public life until, after the upheaval in Russia and the murder of the Imperial Family ho was called upon as next in succession to the Throne to assert the claims of the Romanoffs. His right to it was not undisputed. A section of the monarchists living in exile are supporters of the Grand Duke Nicholas. They accuse Cyril of having made overtures to the revolutionists in 1918. A congress of emigrants at Bad Reichenhall in 1921 under the chairmanship of the former Premier, Trepoff, resolved to set up a "Supreme Monarchist Council," and to recognise the Grand Duke Nicholas as heir to the Throne. In November, 1923, a "gathering of members of the Imperial house" in Paris decided in favour of undertaking the "protection of the Throne," laid down in the Constitution, and entrusted this task to the Grand Duke Nicholas, who, however, did not take up a very definite position. The Grand Duke Cyril, on the other hand, whose claim cannot be disputed, according to the views of the Legitimists, obtained support in the shape of the "Russian Patriots' League of Great Britain," founded in London, and of the "Provisional Committee of the Russian Legitimist Monarchist League," which was formed at Munich in 1923, and issued propaganda in his favour. Cyril himself, in a proclamation issued from St. Briac. Brittany, on July 26, 1922, declared himself "Protector of the Throne" on the basis of the Constitution. In a further proclamation of April 5, 1924, he demanded that all "loyal subjects of Russia" should in future obey only his commands. Then on August 30, 1924, he issued a manifesto proclaiming himself Tsar of All the Russias. This step in view of the existing conditions was not. notified to the Powers through diplomatic channels and Cvril continued to use his old title. His claim was not supported by the Empress Marie, who declared it "premature, as she cherished the hope that her son Tsar Nicholas 11. and his family might be still alive. The Grand Duke Nicholas stated that he could not support the claim, but all the other members of the Imperial house have declared their loyalty to Cyril, except the Grand Dukes Peter and Roman. At the beginning of 1925 Cyril issued a proclamation in which he pronounced against armed intervention with foreign aid to overthrow the Soviet regime, adding that he was awaiting the not-far-distaat hour when the Russian people would come to their senses and bring down God's judgment on the Bolsheviks. At the end of that year he set up a commission to work out a new Constitution for Russia. In this there was no question of a parliament on the Western European model, but merely of a Supreme Council of State, composed of representatives of various sections of the population. In March, 1926, Russian, German and Hungarian monarchists met at Munich, both Cyril and Nicholas being represented In the following month a congress of Russians was held in Paris, which placed Nicholas at the head of the anti-Bolshevik movement, though it was stated that this did not imply that he was designated as successor to the Throne. The supporters of Cyril claim that he lias over 2,000,000 Russian adherents in the United States and nearly as many ill Europe. The Grand Duke spends his time betweeD the Villa Edinburgh at Coburg, which belongs to the Grand Duchess, the Chateau Fabron at Nice and St. Briac, in Brittany. He has two daughters and a son, the Grand Duke Vladimir, born in Finland in August, 1917.