Is it true that after the renunciation of Nicholas II, the British prime minister said: “One of the goals of the war has been achieved”?

On May 15, 2023, in an interview with Ksenia Sobchak, Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) brought a phrase allegedly said by the Prime Minister of Great Britain Lloyd George and testifying to the British conspiracy against the Russian monarchy. We decided to check if such an attribution is correct.

Metropolitan Pskov and Porkhovsky Tikhon (Shevkunov) is one of the most influential hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church. He Heads Patriarchal Council on Culture and Enters to the Council for Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation, also called confessor of Vladimir Putin. IN interview Ksenia Sobchak, published on the journalist on May 15, 2023 published on the YouTube channel and gathered at the time of writing a analysis of more than 500,000 views, the clergyman said: “Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, when Nicholas II was overthrown to him, who was not subordinate to Britain, he said:“ Well, one of the goals of this war Reached "." The same quote is found in many books, films and articles dedicated to the 1917 February Revolution and the renunciation of Nicholas II. For example, the phrase attributed to the British prime minister is mentioned in the film "Nicholas II. Torn triumph"(2008), it is in the book of the director of this film Peter Multatuli"Emperor Nicholas II and the pre -war crisis of 1914"(2014). Quote is found in an interview with a variety of figures: Soviet diplomat Valentina Falina, specializing in the "Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" historian Andrei Fursov, archbishop Montreal and Canadian Gabriel (Scheudakova).

David Lloyd George headed the British government in 1916, in the midst of the First World War. Russia at that time was an ally of Great Britain and France on Entente. Great Britain was interested in continuing the war with Germany and Austria, and therefore did not condemn the February Revolution. About this He said And Lloyd George himself at a meeting of the parliament on March 19, 1917: “As far as we know, the revolution occurred with very little bloodshed, and the new government receives the support of both the whole country and the army and navy. The information we received, however, does not allow us to say that all the dangers have passed, but it is pleasant to know that the new government was formed with a solid intention to continue the war. ”

But in the speech of the British Prime Minister there is not a hint that the purpose of his country was to overthrow the Russian monarchy-the hands of revolutionaries or in any other way. There is no quote given by Tikhon in no other speeches Lloyd George, nor in his Works.

In fact, this is not a quote, but a later free retelling of rumors that circulated in Petrograd in 1917. Since 1916, the British ambassador George Buchenen warned Nicholas II and Russian dignitaries about the inevitable revolution, which will happen if the authorities do not listen to the dissatisfied. About this, in particular, testifies Another diplomat, French ambassador Maurice Paleolog. After the revolution, Buchenen had to make excuses for a long time: among the emigrants, there was an opinion that was not supported by any good evidence that he was on the side of the revolutionaries and almost stood at the head of the anti-monarchical conspiracy.

In their own memoirs Buchenin gives an example of such rumors. In Revue de Paris since 1922 Published Memoirs of Princess Olga Palei, widow of the Bolsheviks of the Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich. She claimed that the British embassy in Petrograd became the focus of a conspiracy in which future members of the Provisional Government participated. “In St. Petersburg, at the beginning of the revolution, they said that Lloyd George, learning about the fall of tsarism in Russia, rubbed his hands, saying:“ One of the English goals of the war was achieved, ”wrote Princess Palai. Buchenen accompanies this passage with the following comment: “That the Princess Paley is gifted with a living imagination is not a secret for me, and I can only thank her for this exemplary work of art.”

Then Buchenen convincingly explains why such a situation and phrase were impossible. “Mr. Lloyd George accepted our national interests too close so that he could authorize me to excite a revolution in Russia in the midst of World War II,” the diplomat writes. The ambassador explains that, on duty, had to communicate with representatives of all legal political parties in the country. In addition, Buchenin resembles, most future members of the Provisional Government with whom he contacted were monarchists at that moment.

Thus, the quote attributed to Lloyd George does not have official confirmation. This phrase is a retelling of rumors, which appeared shortly after the revolution and first recorded in the press only a few years later.

Photo on the cover: Nicholas II and King of Great Britain George V, 1913. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

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2. Did Churchill say that Britain was fighting not with Hitler, but with the German spirit?
3. Did Churchill say that Stalin accepted Russia with Sokha, but left with an atomic bomb?