The Romanov Conspiracy
Read The Romanov Conspiracy Online
Authors: Glenn Meade
Tags: #tinku, #General, #Suspense, #Action & Adventure, #Fiction
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FOR KIM AND LUKE,
AND ALL THE KILGORES AND REDMONDS
WITH LOVE
CONTENTS
All stories find their own lover.
I fell in love with this one when I visited the village of Collon, on Ireland’s northeast coast, in the distant shadows of the majestic Mountains of Mourne.
It was in the burial grounds of the village’s Presbyterian church, dating from 1813, with its beautiful stained glass windows, where I found the forgotten graves of a group of Russians who fled to Ireland during their homeland’s October Revolution.
And it was here that I heard the first echoes of a remarkable plot to rescue the Russian tsar and his family in 1918, an event still shrouded in some secrecy. This was one of the most difficult stories I’ve researched, for it proved to be a deeply rooted enigma with many tendrils.
What began in St. Petersburg in the fevered days of the Russian Revolution ended in a cluster of graves in an Irish country churchyard. In between are long-lost clues to an intricate conspiracy, one that may well answer the twentieth century’s most enduring mystery.
Many of the characters named in this book existed, as did the shadowy order sometimes known as the Brotherhood of St. John of Tobolsk.
Much of what you are about to read is true.
The rest, but a small part, is fiction, part of the mosaic of storytelling that a writer must employ to bring life to his tale.
But as to which part is truth and which small part is fiction, I will leave that for you to decide.
My dear Maria, history may never reveal what truly happened to all of the Tsar’s children. The answer is so secret that for now I cannot speak of it.
—LENIN, IN REPLY TO HIS SISTER IN JULY 1918, AFTER SHE INFORMED HIM THAT SHE HAD HEARD RUMORS OF THE ROMANOVS’ EXECUTIONS
Anna Anderson is part of a much deeper mystery than any of us can comprehend, for she left behind so many unanswered questions. One of the most startling questions is this: how could a supposedly simple, deranged peasant woman manage to confound the world’s brightest and most respected legal and investigative minds for over six decades? In this regard, I’m reminded of a saying that I once heard: “There are always three sides to every story. There’s your side, there’s my side. And then there’s the truth.”(tinku)