telegram from cousin willie.....

nikolai and alexandra on the beach......

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• romanov
• nikolai
• alexandra
• anna
• rubovna
• anastasia
• olga
• maria
• tatiana
• alexi

[Bfdidc]

Actually, Nicholas was at his summer home on the Baltic in the days leading up to the war. (My source: World War I by John Keegan.) The czar wasn't the only one. Much of Europe's ruling class, including the Kaiser, went on vacation in the month that preceded the opening of hostilities. This series did its homework.

[hill9868]

The First World War:- the war that no-one wanted to start but which no-one was willing to try and stop.

[sprinklefriend]

@Bfdidc you can buy the series on dvd. i got mine through barnes & noble and am very glad to have found it! it's about the same price as a season for a tv show, so more than a typical movie, but for people who are really into the history & the story it tells, it's a good investment. at least i think so. :-)

[EdwardRommel]

Actually many of the diplomats and statesmen were out of town as was Von Moltke, the Kaiser had been on his Norwegian cruise, Von Jagow had been on a honeymoon, Von Hollweg was vacationing at his estate, ...it was a custom in Europe and in America at that time to get out of the hot cities and go out to the country since they did not have air conditioning then...

The beach in this scene is along the Baltic sea..so about a one hour drive from St. Petersburg...it's very conceivable.

[EdwardRommel]

Nicholas says "he was never sincere"...he is referring to the Kaiser's claims that he was trying to act as mediator between Austria and Serbia.

Even though the Kaiser said that the Serbian response was conciliatory and meant that there were now no grounds for war, he nonetheless refused to control his ally and stop their attack upon Serbia. He refused to take the matter to the Hague Tribunal as Russia and Serbia requested and he refused to have a 4 power conference as Britain suggested.

[QueenComment]

Now that is a funny image. Even better if Adolph was in bermuda shorts.

[BPFanatico]

What did he mean at 2:53???

[mcmlxvi]

The ultimatum from Austria to Serbia was the worst political crisis in Europe since the french revolution. Nicholas II was most definitively not at the beach. This depiction of the Willy-Nicky telegrams is ridiculous and inaccurate, almost absurd. Sorry but this is like whatching Hitler in a bathing suit drinking a daikiri while he's being told that the russian army just entered Berlin.

[Bfdidc]

It's from a 1970s BBC series called The Fall of Eagles. It is an excellent history of three European dynasties (German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian) from the years 1848-1918. I'd love to see more of it posted.

[mizzleahmizzyl]

i love it what film is this