eMedals - World Orders for Czechoslovakia

OF THE LATE BARONESS HILDA P. JANIN-VON ARX, AWARDS BESTOWED UPON GENERAL THIÉBAULT CHARLES MAURICE JANIN (1862-1946), COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE CZECH LEGION, AND ONE OF THE THREE MOST SENIOR ALLIED OFFICERS DURING THE ALLIED INTERVENTION IN RUSSIA, 1918-20, WHO WAS REPORTED TO HAVE CARRIED OUT OF RUSSIA THE HUMAN REMAINS AND EFFECTS OF TSAR NICHOLAS II AND THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. Belgium, Kingdom, Order of Leopold, Commander's neck Badge, 96mm including crown and crossed swords suspension x 59mm, silver-gilt and enamel, French version, major enamel damage to central medallion on both sides, therefore fine (Spink, Sale 7029 Lot 524); Italy, Kingdom, Order of the Crown of Italy, First Class set of Insignia, by A. Tovaglieri, Milan, sash Badge, 53mm, gold and enamel; Star, 90mm, silver, gold, and enamel, with crowned eagle, maker's cartouche on reverse, almost extremely fine (Spink, Sale 7029 Lot 529). General Pierre Thiebault Charles Maurice Janin (1862-1946) was born in Paris. He instructed at the Academy of the General Staff Headquarters at Mykolaiv, Russia, September 1909-November 1911. Janin was promoted General 20.4.1916, and appointed Head of the French Military Mission in Siberia in May of that year, 'General Janin was tactical instructor at Petrograd before the War, his experience with the Russian Army makes him intimately acquainted with the military possibilities of that country. At the outbreak of the War he served at the French Front. Shortly afterward he became Assistant Chief of Staff of General Joffre. In 1916 he was Head of the French Military Mission to Petrograd. Retaining that commission until 1917, he returned early the latter year to France, where he took Command of the Czechoslovak troops in France. He retains command of that body. General Janin will be accompanied to Siberia by General Stefanic of Czechoslovak Army.' (The New York Times, 13.9.1918, refers). Janin held the position of Supreme Commander of the Czech Legion in Russia during the Revolutionary War. The Imperial Family were deposed by the Bolshevik's, and subsequently killed under a shroud of mystery. During Janin's career in Russia he had formed a high opinion of the Imperial Family, and given the positions he had held, he came into quite frequent contact with Tsar Nicholas II. This relationship is illustrated by Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, who was Empress Alexandra's Lady-in-Waiting and personal confident, who wrote of her meeting with Janin at Omsk after the death of the Imperial Family, 'General Janin I had known at the G.H.Q. at Mohileff [sic] when during the War I accompanied the Empress on her visits to the Emperor. The General had changed very much, I thought. I connected this mentally with a black band I saw round his sleeve. He had aged, and his eyes had lost their keenness. He spoke to me with great feeling and respect of the Emperor, whom he had known well.' (Left Behind, December 1917-February 1919, Fourteen Months in Siberia During the Revolution, Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, refers). Despite the passing of the Imperial Family Janin's involvement with them reputedly did not end there. Pierre Gilliard was the French tutor for the five children of Tsar Nicholas II from 1905-1918. He followed the Imperial Family into exile at Tabolsk, Siberia, but was prevented by the Bolsheviks from joining his pupils at Yekaterinburg in May 1918. The trip was to prove fatal for the Tsar and his family and perhaps out of loyalty to the family he once served, Gilliard remained in Siberia after their deaths to assist Nicholas Sokolov the White Russian investigator with piecing together evidence that murder had taken place, 'In March, 1920, I rejoined General Diteriks and N. Sokolov at Harbin, whither they had drifted, like myself, after the collapse of Admiral Kolchak's government. They were in a state of great agitation, for the situation in Manchuria was growing daily more precarious, and it was expected that at any moment the Chinese eastern railway might fall into the hands of the Reds. Bolshevik spies were already beginning to swarm over the station and its surroundings. What was to be done with the documents of the enquiry? Where could they be put in safety? General Diteriks and N. Sokolov had appealed to the British High Commissioner before his departure for Pekin, asking him to take to Europe the relics of the Imperial family and the evidence of the enquiry. He had asked for instructions from his Government. The reply was a long time coming. It came at last… It was in the negative! I then appealed personally to General Janin, informing him of the situation. "I am quite ready to help you", he told me. "I can do it on my own responsibility, as there is not time to refer the matter to my Government. But it shall not be said that a French General refused the relics of one who was the faithful ally of France. Ask General Diteriks to furnish me with a written request expressing his certainty of my consent; I should consider doubt as a reflection on me." The letter was sent, and General Diteriks came to an understanding with General Janin as to the arrangements for transmitting the precious objects to the person named by him in Europe. Two days later, General Diteriks, his two orderly officers, N. Sokolov, and myself took on our shoulders, the heavy valises prepared beforehand and carried them to General Janin's train, which was standing a short distance from the station. In single file we were approaching the platform when those in the rear suddenly saw several figures start up out of the shadows and accost us, shouting: "Where are you going? What have you got in those bags?" As we hurried on without reply they made as if to stop us and, ordered us to open our valises. The distance that remained was fortunately not very great; we dashed forward at full speed, and a moment later reached the General's carriage, the sentries having already run up to meet us. At last all the evidence was in safety. It was time, for, as had just been proved, we were marked down. An hour later we slipped out of the train one after the other and made our way unobserved between the carriages of others standing near. On the next day General Diteriks brought General Janin the box containing the relics of the Imperial family. This happened on March 19th, 1920. There was nothing now to keep me in Siberia. I felt that I had fulfilled the last duty towards those to whom I was attached by such poignant memories. More than two years had passed since I had been separated from them at Ekaterinburg' (Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, A Personal Record of the Last Years and Death of Tsar Nicholas II and His Family, Pierre Gilliard, refers). The mystery surrounding the fate of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, and what happened to their remains has been the cause of much speculation throughout the course of recent history. The contents of the valises described by Gilliard add yet another theory as to the final resting place of the Imperial family. In corroboration with Gilliard's records, Janin himself was quoted in article featured in Time Magazine (7.7.1924) which originally appeared in Le Matin, Paris Journal, 'General Janin [onetime head of the French Mission in Siberia] has spoken. It appears that the General was given several urns of human ashes by the Russian General Diterichs and M. Gilliard, tutor to the little Tsarevitch. These gruesome relics he handed over to M. de Giers, quondam Russian Ambassador to Rome, and the latter has, apparently, handed them over to the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievitch, cousin of the Tsar and leader of the world scattered Russian Monarchists. Describing the contents of the urns, General Janin said: "To me fell the difficult charge of bringing to France, for Grand Duke Nikolai, the remains of the Emperor Nicholas II, of the Empress, of the Tsarevitch Alexis, of the young Grand Duchesses and of two servants. These poor remains could no longer be separated. The ashes of the Sovereign were mixed with those of his faithful valets. All that was recognizable was finger, held by experts to belong to the Empress because it was that of a middle-aged woman and its nail had been carefully manicured. There was also - with calcined precious stones, the remains of burnt clothing, the buckle of the Tsarevitch's sword belt, military buttons, some portable icons, and other objects of piety - a shapeless little mass of human grease!" The Monarchists, headed by the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievitch, however, declined to reveal the present resting place of the urns and all that could be obtained by diligent newsmen were multiplex corroborations of General Janin's tale. It has been rumoured that the whole story of the ashes is pure propaganda for the Russian Monarchist cause, but this is not borne out by the facts of the case.' (Time Magazine, Ashes in Urns, 7.7.1924, refers). The General's memoirs, Ma Mission en Siberie, 1918-20, were published in later life.