Tsar Nicholas II (Russia) looked like King George V (UK). In this photo, which is which?

No, this is not a trick. There really are two separate people here, but they were closely connected. King George V (1865 – 1936) was Queen Victoria’s grandson through her son King Edward VII and his wife Alexandra of Denmark. Alexandra’s younger sister, Dagmar of Denmark, became Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, whose oldest child was Tsar (Emperor) Nicholas II (1868 – 1918). Since George and Nicholas’ mothers were sisters, the King and the Tsar were first cousins.

Queen Victoria was struck by the physical resemblance between the two when Nicholas travelled to London to be present at the wedding of his cousin to Princess Mary of Teck. In fact, their appearances confused several guests at the wedding. But if you look carefully at the moustaches in this and in other photos of the period you can see that George V trimmed his in a slightly less florid fashion.