Sir George Buchanan was the British ambassador to the Imperial court, one who
liked the Tsar and gave him good advice. His dispatches to the Foreign Office
will now be in the Public Records Office. They do not seem to have attracted
much interest.
George Buchanan ex Wiki
In 1908 he was appointed as minister in
The Hague,
The
Netherlands. In 1910 Buchanan was appointed as the British Ambassador in
Russia. He
kept abreast of the political developments in Russia and met some of the leading
liberal
reformists in the country. It has been suggested that this was secretly
encouraged by the then
Liberal government in
London. Buchanan was the ambassador at the time of the
Russian Revolution in 1917. He had developed a strong bond with the Tsar,
Nicholas II, and attempted to convince the Tsar that granting some
constitutional reform would stave-off revolution. Unfortunately Nicholas's
opinion of him was poisoned by the Tsarina's views. Knowing that there were
plots to stage a palace coup to replace him, Sir George formally requested an
audience of the Tsar in the troubled early days of 1917. At his last meeting
with Nicholas he pleaded with him in 'undiplomatic' language: "I can but plead
as my excuse the fact that I have throughout been inspired by my feelings of
devotion for Your Majesty and the Empress. If I were to see a friend walking
through a wood on a dark night along a path which I knew ended in a precipice,
would it not be my duty, sir, to warn him of his danger? And is it not equally
my duty to warn Your Majesty of the abyss that lies ahead of you? You have, sir,
come to the parting of the ways, and you have now to choose between two paths.
The one will lead you to victory and a glorious peace - the other to revolution
and disaster. Let me implore Your Majesty to choose the former."( Jan 12, 1917-
page 49, Vol. II autobiography) Although the Tsar was touched by the Ambassador's devotion, he allowed his
wife's malevolent attitudes to overbear the sensible advice he had been given.
After the collapse of the Autocracy (see
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia), he developed close relations
with the liberal
Provisional Government led by
Alexander Kerensky that formed after the
February Revolution. However, after the events of the
October Revolution and the
Bolsheviks ascendency to power he was widely criticised for the failure to
ensure that Tsar
Nicholas II and his family were evacuated from Russia before their execution
by the Bolsheviks at
Ekaterinburg in 1918. It is now known that this was not his fault but that
of the Tsar's first cousin,
King George V of Great Britain who, fearful of revolutionary trends in
Britain and the stability of his own throne, persuaded the
Lloyd George government to rescind the offer they had made to provide
sanctuary for the Imperial Family. Sir George, disappointed that the fledgling democracy offered by the
Provisional Government was strangled by the Bolshevik coup in October, finished
his distinguished career as ambassador to the
Holy See
from 1919-21. Sir George's autobiography, My Mission to Russia and Other Diplomatic
Memories, was published in 1923. It is believed that he had to leave out
some of what he knew under threat of losing his pension. He died in 1924. His daughter Meriel Buchanan wrote several perceptive books about the
revolution, which she witnessed, and key figures she had personally known.
Meriel married Major Harold Knowling in May 1925 and died on 6 February 1959.
UNQUOTE
QUOTE
Sir George William Buchanan
GCB
GCMG
GCVO
PC (1854–1924) was a
British diplomat. Born in
Copenhagen,
Denmark, he
was the son of British
Ambassador
Sir Andrew Buchanan, Bt..
Bruce Lockhart knew him. Bruce
approved heartily, saying that he was a very good man. See another view at
George Buchanan, British Ambassador In Moscow