I've been thinking about a story set primarily in the context of the last tsar and want to go from thinking to writing but there's a point missing. What I need to happen to kick things off is for a group of brothers, all young officers from a military family, from Sweden to be caught up a in a scandal so they feel they must simply move to another country, which in this case will be Imperial Russia, and try to start a new life as they have relatives in Finland who they can turn to and who can help them get going. So if possible they should come during 1893-1894 and so at least be present in the Russian Empire when Nicholas II ascends to the throne. My needs for the scandal is primary for it to be so severe that it can be explained that all the brothers get caught up in it but not so severe in modern eyes that it will make the average reader likely to be very ill-disposed towards them. I don't mind flawed or grey main characters but I don't think it would be very good to start the story when the reader detesting them. If anyone got some good idea, please let me know.
What about refusing the challenge to a duel? Maybe one of the brothers is infatuated with a well-off young woman and her father challenges him because he thinks that the guy did spoil her (instead of just wanting to); and then the rest of the brothers defend him? And no one believes them because they are close to each other? If their family is not that well off in terms of money, they'd be seen as fortune hunters.
A sex scandal with a lower or higher class woman - or a man? During those times it's my impression that there were rigid rules around sexual conduct and homosexuality was not acceptable. Or maybe one of the "brothers" is a female in disguise in order to win fame and fortune for herself on "her" own merits and when found out, the scandal threatens her family's status?
Another option is a military scandal. One of the brothers could be cashiered for cowardice. That would seriously affect his brothers, who would be considered guilty by association and ostracised from high society.
As Oscar Wilde can sadly attest, exposed homosexuality was a fairly big taboo for that age. If anything that might help the readers develop some sympathy for that reason. It's a scandal that forces a character to flee and was a shocking thing for the time, but is something most modern readers would be more understanding over.
Yep, I completely agree. However, there are a lot of stories published about homosexuality in victorian age, which approaches a trope. If the OP wants to avoid that trope (sorry, but I think it is at this stage), either of @Naomasa298 's points might be worth considering.
Thanks for your suggestions! While an angle of an exposed homosexual person would be interesting I don't know for sure if that's the best. One thing I do consider is to use several. Namely that the oldest brother is cashiered for percieved cowardice, perhaps for refusing a duel, and as the other brothers also have their secrets, could here be both gambling debts, a secret romance, being a woman in disguise (although I don't know if that would work in a more realistic story) and so on, the brothers come under investigation and so makes their decision to leave the country for Russia before, so to speak, "shit hits the fan". Another option is naturally that their commander don't want a scandal in his regiment and so allows them an honorable discharge in exchange for leaving the country. Which takes them to their relatives in Finland but without the urgent "must leave now!" kind of scenario that the first option leads to.
I recommend you read the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser. They're set around the time you're looking for, and the protagonist, Harry Flashman is a military man, but he's a total coward, a bounder and a cad. He gets himself into all sorts of trouble (particularly with women) but somehow manages to get himself out of it. Here's a real chap who was involved in several scandals that you might want to read more about: https://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/home/the-dramatic-life-and-passing-of-prime-minister-lord-palmerston-1-4288750
Don't know about Flashman as he seems to have sold out in my favorite online book store and they don't have him in an e-bok version. But I'll keep my eyes open for this series. Thanks for the link! Very interesting character.
Sweden, military family in the 1890's, from 1870 to 1890 emigration to the US was at it's height. A lot of people left for economic reasons. I don't see that they had much of an army at that time either. I would imagine that social norms would be similar as to England. I do know that if there is a conflict over the ownership of a horse a person might want to leave the country. Just saying gleaned from family history.
Thanks! Social norms were probably similar to England although to be honest Sweden only really got into the anglophilia after the First World War. Before that, at least within the political right, it was Germany all the way. But still there's much more written that I can access about England and I don't speak German so researching Imperial Germany would probably be harder and thus I may have to take some creative freedoms. Although I am not sure if the differences would be very dramatic. @Maggie May I apologise for my earlier reply to your post.
1893 is still the Victorian era, and the last fatal duel in the UK (per this page) took place in 1845. That's over 50 years distant, I don't really see that as plausible unless you take some serious liberties with history. Homosexuality would be good but as mentioned above it would put a whole different spin on your story. Gambling would be good, or perhaps bigamy? An older era, but during the 1828 US presidential election it was found that Andrew Jackson was technically in a bigamous marriage. His wife had been previously married but believed that her (not) ex-husband had divorced her. However, during the election it was discovered that the man hadn't actually gone through with the legalities. The three corrected the situation when it was discovered in the early 1790s, but the issue came up again in the 1828 election and she was hounded so badly by the press and her husband's opponents that she died after the election but before Jackson was sworn in. If one of the men in your story had been caught in a similar situation perhaps with his brothers having stood with him at the wedding that might serve as sufficient catalyst. Rachel Jackson
Entirely correct that 1893 was in the Victorian era. The thing is that I had an idea before to angle the story much more towards another event but decided to expand the timeline in order to capture the whole of Nicholas II's reign. Hence I moved the start of the story from 1902-1903 to 1893-1894, but failed to change the title of the thread. Now a romantic spin could also be interesting for one or more of the characters. Terrible that to hear that such misogynistic scum would got and oppertunity to harm Jackson's wife in such a way, or at all.
Sorry, that came off rather more blunt than I intended. TBH I didn't know exactly when that era was until just now and had prepared a lengthy response based on "Edwardian" before I noticed @Naomasa298 identifying things based on the dates as Victorian, then I jumped down another rabbit-hole and edited my comment poorly.
Here's a possible one, though it may tip over into making your characters unsympathetic: Maybe a fellow soldier is a bully and a coward and he's been making the life of one or more of the brothers hell for quite awhile. And maybe the bully takes things too far, like he says he's going to accuse the victim brother of cheating at cards or something equally life-ruining for their class. So the rest of the brothers decide to teach the bully a lesson, but the thing goes terribly wrong (I'm seeing night time, and cold, and alcohol involved), and the bully ends up permanently maimed, or dead. So the brothers all skip the country before the manure hits the ventilator. In that case, they'd have to take off before the scandal.