Rescuing Nicholas Content
Rescuing Nicholas is organized into 16 chapters containing the most up-to-date information on events surrounding the Tsar’s disappearance in July 1918, as contrasted or reinforced by Martin’s account. Chapter titles and descriptions, which are accompanied by a bibliography and index at the end, are as follows, including a full transcript of Martin’s 1970 recording recounting the rescue mission as he remembered it that day:
Chapter titles and descriptions are as follows:
verifying history
An explanation about the research methodology in Rescuing Nicholas and a brief re-cap of the controversial story of the Romanovs.
Part I: Remembering the Mystery
an enduring saga
The 28th president of the United States and eyewitness soldier Martin Hutson are introduced to readers. Their extraordinary stories are told from both ends of the witness spectrum shared 100 years after the world was officially told that the Tsar and his entire family were brutally murdered in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918. Will history care if questions raised about the Tsar’s alleged assassination, burial, discovery and subsequent re-burial, are not as conclusive as they have been made out to be for more than two decades now? There was a cover-up for history’s sake. But dare we ask: by whom?
martin's story
This is Martin’s story told in his own words as recorded on audio in August 1971, some 20 years before the Romanov bones would be purportedly discovered in the Koptyaki Woods. The train number, the place they met, the people on board the rescue train, the time spent traveling east through Siberia and the violent encounters they endured together are all told as only an eyewitness could tell his story. Why would this story have never been told before?
whispers & theories
Rumors and whispers that have long plagued Russian history around the Romanov fate are explored in this chapter. The unsubstantiated stories about this Romanov being seen here, that Romanov being seen there, years and decades after they were said to be dead have been maddening to history.
theories & thistles
The problems these theories raise for the Romanov tale are explored in detail in this chapter. Based on the eyewitness story Martin now shares, there are number of thorny details that arise as modern leaders now learn that a new outcome can be, is being, revealed.
aide's covenant
When Woodrow Wilson authorized American troops to storm into Russia against the objections of a majority of his fellow citizens and the United States Congress, too, he set out his objectives in a personal document he crafted called the Aide-Mémoire. There were three stated objectives that were delivered in great secrecy to his commanding officer for Siberia at a train station in the middle of the country. Dripping with a heavy dose of clandestine intrigue, could it be that there was a fourth objective in the Aide-Mémoire that was not disclosed to the public? Was 28 that conniving and that convincing? Why did he risk alienating Congress and the American public?
Part II: The Romanov Rescuers
polar bears & wolfhounds
American Expeditionary Forces deployed to Siberia and Northern Russia when they went in to fight Lenin’s Russian Revolution were affectionately known as the Polar Bears and Wolfhounds. These American soldiers were a highly talented, deeply committed bunch of warriors dedicated to fulfilling their visionary Commander-in-Chief’s objectives. AEF Siberia records in the U.S. National Archives reconstruct their story of bravery and fulfillment of mission. Do their activities match Martin’s story? Is there evidence of the special mission to rescue the Tsar?
reconstructing timelines
We take a look at the timelines that have been provided in the national archives on the Siberian expedition and ask the question: could Martin’s story be true? Were the soldiers of Siberia in the right place at the right time for a rescue mission?
warring cousins
World War I was a war of cousins, grandchildren of the legendary Queen Victoria of England. Wilhelm II of Germany, Nicholas II of Russia, and George V of Great Britain were all related to one another and the centers of dispute in their governments resulting in the deaths of more than 17 million people. Combined with more than 20 million injuries, “the war to end all wars” has been ranked one of the deadliest conflicts in world history. Could it have been avoided if the world only knew that Nicholas lived? Were there special agreements between the cousins that brought an end to the bloody escapade?
wilson's boys
The 28th president of the United States had many uniquely experienced cohorts in his planned rescue of Tsar Nicholas II and his family from Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik revolutionaries, known as the Red Russians. We are re-introduced to a number of highly interesting characters who comprised the President’s inner sanctum as they worked with their counterparts in King George’s court.
Part III: Escaping Siberia
special train #28
This is the tale of the evacuation train which Martin says was the train that took the Tsar, the Tsarina and a younger Grand Duchess out of Siberia and into China on their great escape. Their fateful trip starts in Irkutsk and ends in Harbin, with the port city of Vladivostok in common. Could the train have been authorized to reflect its special mission as ordered by the 28th president of the United States? How did Ben Johnson and his North Dakota colleagues run the Trans-Siberian Railroad so that Nicholas could be evacuated when the world was not looking? Who were the British officers who took Nicholas away, alive no less, in a wooden burial box none would suspect? Do we know the name of the ship used to take the Tsar to America?
red cross, red spies
The American Red Cross played a very active role in the Tsar’s rescue. In fact, key leaders of the Red Cross in Siberia were related to the 28th president and had a special mission to perform under his direct orders. The Allies, who included the Americans, British, Czechoslovakians, Italians, Japanese, Canadians and others made for an Academy Awards-worthy mix of characters who shared a common purpose that eventually engineered the Romanov escape through Siberia. In fact, Allied officers rode in the train car with the Tsar as their trip unfolded. This is their story and we reveal who they were, by name.
hyde park mystery
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a young Assistant Secretary of the Navy when President Wilson launched his successful rescue mission across the Pacific Ocean. The United States Navy played a key role in expediting the Tsar and his family out of Russia once they left the train in Harbin, China. FDR, as he would be called when he himself became president of the United States and served as wartime president during World War II, wrote a manuscript based on the story of a remarkably similar Tsar-alike, who died in order that he might live, and had his trusted aides pitch the concept to publishers. This chapter takes a look at FDR’s version of events which he ultimately published as, The President’s Mystery Story, revealing, it would appear, his own secret role in rescuing the Tsar.
brilliant consequences
So, with this knowledge of a successful rescue what are the consequences of Nicholas’ story as told through Martin’s story? What does it mean to U.S.-Russian relations? Would there have been a World War II if we had known that the Tsar survived Yekaterinburg? The Berlin Wall and Airlift? How about the Cuban Missile Crisis or the American-Russian space race? Does it matter to history? Should we have known sooner? Could something like this ever happen again?
Part IV: Un-Redacting History?
dead man's tale
The next to the last chapter in Rescuing Nicholas explores how a Russian president, from the Yekaterinburg region no less, and two forensic scientists, one who will die mysteriously in the middle of the examination, come together to play controversial roles in explaining to history what supposedly happened to the Tsar and his family in July 1918. DNA evidence is used to declare that the Tsar and his family were murdered in Yekaterinburg but further examination of these findings lead to unending questions about its authenticity and credibility even though it was said by experts to be 98.5% conclusive. Was it? Why not? Would the evidence in this murder-mystery have been admissible in an American court of law?
from the bones of a tsar
Finally, Nicholas Lived undertakes a painstaking examination of the timelines for the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia compared in detail with those of young Martin’s story. Important elements of the rescue team were in place at the same time and the same location according to evidence that is presented from historical records. Using Martin’s account as a more accurate guide, and the DNA controversy as we now better know it, we can present a much clearer record on the story of the Tsar and his family, including new evidence on where he went now that we know he lived. Put simply, we can un-redact Russian history and reveal what history really knows to be the truth in the Romanov saga.
martin's epilogue
An account for how the story unfolded and the research undertaken to validate Martin’s account, as he remembered it decades later.
martin's transcript
You can read what Martin said for yourself. His story transcribed.
ENDNOTES & CITATIONS
Research notes for elements of the book are noted in this section.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Recommended related charitable organizations are listed here for your consideration.
