#stavka

New photo of Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Olga Nikolaevna, Mogilev 1916

I will endeavour to post them all individually eventually, with extra information!

Some of these may seem familiar, but they are new angles/poses taken at the same time as more famous, existing photos.

Emperor Nicholas II and the other "players:"

Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievich and the minister of the court, Count Vladimir Fredericks, probably at Stavka

November 29 1917, Berlin--After Dukhonin’s dismissal, his replacement, Krylenko, (who had yet to arrive at Stavka, and was still at the Bolshevik-friendly Northern Front) dispatched representatives across the front lines to seek a ceasefire on November 26.  The Germans agreed in principle and sent them back the next day.  On November 29, the Germans publicly acknowledged this, with Chancellor Hertling telling the Reichstag that the Bolsheviks’ recent call for peace was a solid basis for the start of negotiations, and that he would enter into peace negotiations with the Russians as soon as representatives sent for this purpose arrived.  He also expressed a hope that Poland, Lithuania, and Courland (all currently under the occupation of the Central Powers) would express their right of self-determination under a “constitutional form of government corresponding to their conditions,” a phrase presumably vague enough to allow them to be German puppets.

The Kaiser was even more optimistic for the negotiations with the Bolsheviks, and told Foreign Minister Kühlmann to even attempt to negotiate an alliance with the new Russian government.  Such a proposal was entirely unrealistic due to the conditions in Russia and the Bolsheviks’ ideological commitments, and was likely ignored. The Kaiser may have thought that Lenin was far more pro-German than he actually was, or was simply hoping for a miraculous repeat of Prussia’s diplomatic success with the Russians at the close of the Seven Years’ War, as Hitler would hope for near the close of the next war.