SAVING THE CRIMEAN ROMANOVS: THE PERSONAL CHOICE OF THE SAILOR ZADOROZHNY

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the personality of the Black Sea Fleet sailor Philip Zadorozhny. For five months in 1917–1918, he served as a head of the security team for members of the former royal family residing in Crimea during that time. These included the mother of Nicholas II, Maria Fedorovna, the sisters of the abdicated Tsar, Ksenia and Olga, and the Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich and Alexander Michailovich. Zadorozhny’s legendary role in saving the “Crimean Romanovs” from robberies and executions is well-documented, but until now there has been no detailed biographical information available about him. The author has discovered archival materials related to Zadorozhny, on the basis of which his participation in revolutionary events was reconstructed. It was established that, in May 1917, sailor Zadorozhny was a member of the Black Sea Fleet delegation sent to the Baltic fleet and ground units of the Russian army to agitate for the continuation of the war until a victorious conclusion. Subsequently, Zadorozhny was twice elected as a delegate to the Sevastopol Soviet from the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and he served as a member of the commission for the protection of the fortress, fleet, and city. On November 30, 1917, Zadorozhny was sent to the southern coast of Crimea to lead the security team for the Romanov family. His close ties with the Alupka Soviet, among other things, helped him protect high-ranking prisoners from anarchist members of the Yalta Soviet. Through the personal initiative of sailor Zadorozhny, part of the former imperial family concentrated in Crimea managed to escape and go into exile a year later.