Last emperor

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			Last emperor On May 11, 1912 Tsar Nicholas II accompanied by a huge entourage walked round a line of cars at Peterhof that had just returned from a long – 2834 versts (a little over 1800 miles) – test drive conducted by the motorized company of the military college. The Tsar examined the different makes of car with interest, but soon afterwards left for Alexandria, his imperial dacha. The military were full of hope that since their ruler had shown interest in the vehicles, he would take steps to provide the army with the cars they needed – imported or nationally produced. But the last Russian tsar was in no hurry. By the summer of 1914 the army possessed barely 700 vehicles, and there were no more than a few thousand throughout the country as a whole. On the other hand, the biggest fleet of cars was owned by Nicholas II himself... Dislike at first sight The Russian tsar first set eyes on the horseless carriage in 1901 or 1902. It was then that the Grand Prince Dmitri Konstantinovitch and the Court Minister, Baron Frederiks, acquired the French Serpollet horseless carriages that were steam-powered. The tsar himself was rather sceptical about ‘motors’, and shortly afterwards the awkward machines confirmed his doubts. The story goes that while on a hunting trip, the steam engines cut out, bringing the whole cortege to a standstill, so that they had to be pulled off the road partly by manpower, partly using horses. From that time on, Nicholas II had no time at all for the new-fangled horseless carriages. When he holidayed in Livadia, no cars were permitted to be driven throughout the whole of the Crimea. But cars continued to be fashionable, and the ruling houses of Europe showed a lively interest in them. King Edward VII of Britain not only bought himself a Daimler, but also got his wife an American Columbia electromobile. Furthermore, he learned to drive cars quite well. King Alfonso of Spain was also an automobile enthusiast, as was Prince Heinrich of Prussia, who somewhat later was to give his patronage to automobile races. Prince Orlov, who was close to the tsar, also bought a spacious, French Delaunay-Belleville. It was Orlov, who had learned to drive quite well himself, who persuaded the tsar to go for rides with him. And the tsar enjoyed it, but then the Delaunay-Belleville was one of the most advanced machines of its time – powerful, spacious and comfortable. Soon his car outings with Orlov became one of the tsar’s favourite forms of entertainment. Garage No.1 In 1905, Orlov began to organize the royal garage. He got Adolf Kegress, a fine engineer and a virtuoso driver, from France to become Nicholas II’s personal chauffeur and head of the royal garage. By 1908 there were 28 people working in what was Russia’s largest garage, and by 1913 this number had risen to 80. By then, the court had at its disposal more than 50 automobiles of various makes. Apart from the Rolls-Royces, Renaults, and Mercedes that were already famous in Europe, the garage also had the finest Russian-built cars – the Russo-Balt and the Lessner. The automobiles at the country’s main garage were there to serve the royal family, its retainers and its couriers. Nicholas II’s favourite car was a huge Delaunay-Belleville. This French company, proud of having the tsar as a customer, built the Russian ruler a number of special cars together with the well-known bodywork maker, Kellner. These cars were referred to as SMTs (‘Sa Majest?, le Tsar’). The huge Delaunay with its closed bodywork did indeed look like a palace on wheels. The 1370mm door(!) opened on to a spacious sitting area with a luxurious sofa, electric lighting and a buffet. All this magnificence was driven by a 70hp engine, which was started with the help of a complex pneumatic system. It got the unwieldy limousine (weighing four tonnes!) moving noiselessly and the engine would cut in on the move. In 1909 the Delaunay was fitted in the royal garage with a more powerful 80hp engine. In winter they did practically no driving. But Kegress thought up a means to get the car going even over thick snow. Nikolai II and his son and heir, Alexei, went to watch the automobile being tested with skis attached to the front wheels and caterpillars to the rear – which made it easy to drive through snowdrifts. Royal amusements Nicholas II eventually got used to cars. He would take several of them on the royal train, whenever he travelled round the country. The Tsar loved what he called ‘motoring’ and especially driving fast along the Crimean roads. But cars were not his passion, just another easy form of entertainment, like hunting, photography or a favourite after-dinner cigar. He could never remember the names of the makes of his cars, and was not in the least concerned about about having more cars in the country as a whole or even in the army, which he was so attached to. Though he loved vast military parades, ostentatious manoeuvres and pretentious reviews, he evidently never believed that the automobile could be anything more than a plaything. As a result, the government did not exactly pamper even its own Russian factories with orders for military vehicles. Though the tsar was formally the head of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society and even held competitions for the ‘Tsar’s Prize’, he never himself sat behind the wheel of a car. The tsarevitch, on the other hand, was much more practical in his approach to cars. In October, 1914, he was presented with a Peugeot-Bebe, a very small car made by the famous designer, Ettore Bugatti, the creator of legendary sports and racing models. It was reliable and easy to drive, and the tsarevitch rapidly learned to control it so that he could go driving in what the tsar called his ‘little motor’ in a park adjacent to the palace. Possibly in time, the heir to the throne would have understood that not only the royal court, but the whole of Russia needed automobiles. But a new era was about to dawn that would change everything for the royal family – not to mention the whole of Russia... The tradition of buying the world’s best automobiles for the royal garage set a good tone. In 1915, the Packard-Twin Six with its then unique 12-cylinder engine was put on show in the United States – and a model immediately ordered for Nicholas II. But the Russian tsar was never to have the opportunity to travel in it... Fragments of the empire The first months of the First World War were enough to show the importance of the motorized vehicle to the army. The Russian government and even the tsar himself finally realized just how vital motorized transport was to an army. A rushed automobile plant construction programme was put through, but the empire was on its last legs... In February, 1917 Adolf Kegress handed over his charge to the Provisional Government, packed his family aboard a 70hp Delaunay-Belleville, and set off as fast as he could for the Finnish border and thence to Sweden. There he sold the royal limousine to a hotel owner and returned to his native country. In France, Kegress worked together with the Citroen company, whose cars were fitted, incidentally, with the semi-caterpillar track construction that he had developed in Russia and which the Russians called a ‘Kegress engine’. The tsar’s cars outlived their owner, who was shot in 1918. They then went on to serve the new leaders, chief among whom was a certain Ulyanov-Lenin who used a Renault, a Turcat-Mery and one of the ex-monarch’s favourites, another Delaunay-Belleville. But it wasn’t long before the new regime got new automobiles, and the old ones were handed down to the provincial bosses. Legend has it that only the little Peugeot managed to survive to modern times, but whether it is really the actual model that once belonged to the tsarevitch is anyone’s guess – there is no definite proof. All the other ‘fragments of the empire’ quietly rotted and rusted away in provincial garages located in out-of-the-way places across the country... by SERGEY ORLOV