Nicholas II and his family

The execution of Nicholas II and his family members is one of the many crimes of the terrible twentieth century. Russian Emperor Nicholas II shared the fate of other autocrats - Charles I of England, Louis XVI of France. But both were executed according to the verdict of the court, and their relatives were not touched. The Bolsheviks destroyed Nikolai along with his wife and children, even his faithful servants paid with their lives. What caused such animal cruelty, who was its initiator, historians are still guessing

The man who was unlucky

The ruler should be not so much wise, just, merciful as lucky. Because it is impossible to take into account everything and many major decisions are accepted by guessing. And this is a hit or miss, fifty-fifty. Nicholas II on the throne was no worse and no better than his predecessors, but in matters crucial for Russia, choosing this or that path of its development, he was mistaken, he simply did not guess. Not out of malice, not out of stupidity, or out of unprofessionalism, but solely according to the law of heads and tails

“This means dooming hundreds of thousands of Russian people to death - the Emperor hesitated. - I sat opposite him, carefully following the expression of his pale face, on which I could read a terrible internal struggle that was going on in him at that moment. Finally, the sovereign, as if pronouncing the words with difficulty, said to me: “You are right. There is nothing left for us to do but to expect an attack. Tell the boss General Staff my order to mobilize” (Foreign Minister Sergey Dmitrievich Sazonov on the beginning of the First World War)

Could the king choose a different solution? Could. Russia was not ready for war. And in the end the war began local conflict Austria and Serbia. The first declared war on the second on July 28. There was no need for Russia to intervene drastically, but on July 29, Russia began a partial mobilization in the four western districts. On July 30, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia demanding that all military preparations be stopped. Minister Sazonov persuaded Nicholas II to continue. July 30 at 17:00 Russia began a general mobilization. At midnight from July 31 to August 1, the German ambassador informed Sazonov that if Russia did not demobilize on August 1 at 12 noon, Germany would also announce mobilization. Sazonov asked if this meant war. No, the ambassador replied, but we are very close to her. Russia did not stop the mobilization. On August 1, Germany began mobilization.

On August 1, in the evening, the German ambassador again came to Sazonov. He asked if the Russian government intended to give a favorable answer to yesterday's note to stop the mobilization. Sazonov answered in the negative. Count Pourtales was showing signs of growing agitation. He took a folded paper out of his pocket and repeated his question once more. Sazonov again refused. Pourtales asked the same question a third time. "I can't give you any other answer," Sazonov repeated again. “In that case,” said Pourtales, breathless with excitement, “I must give you this note.” With these words, he handed Sazonov the paper. It was a note declaring war. The Russo-German War Began (History of Diplomacy, Volume 2)

Brief biography of Nicholas II

• 1868, May 6 - in Tsarskoye Selo
• 1878, November 22 - Nikolai's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich was born
• 1881, March 1 - death of Emperor Alexander II
• 1881, March 2 - Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich was declared the heir to the throne with the title "Tsesarevich"
• 1894, October 20 - death of the emperor Alexander III accession to the throne of Nicholas II
• 1895, January 17 - Nicholas II delivers a speech in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace. Policy Continuity Statement
• 1896, May 14 - coronation in Moscow.
• 1896, May 18 - Khodynka disaster. More than 1,300 people died in a stampede on the Khodynka field during the coronation holiday

The coronation festivities continued in the evening at the Kremlin Palace, and then with a ball at the reception of the French ambassador. Many expected that if the ball was not canceled, then at least it would take place without the sovereign. According to Sergei Alexandrovich, although Nicholas II was advised not to come to the ball, the tsar spoke out that although the Khodynka disaster was the greatest misfortune, it should not overshadow the coronation holiday. According to another version, the entourage persuaded the king to attend a ball at the French embassy due to foreign policy considerations.(Wikipedia).

• 1898, August - Nicholas II's proposal to convene a conference and discuss the possibilities of "putting a limit on the growth of armaments" and "protecting" world peace
• 1898, March 15 - Russian occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula.
• 1899, February 3 - Nicholas II signed the Manifesto on Finland and published the "Basic Provisions on the Drafting, Consideration and Promulgation of Laws Issued for the Empire with the Inclusion of the Grand Duchy of Finland".
• 1899, May 18 - the beginning of the "peace" conference in The Hague, initiated by Nicholas II. The conference discussed the issues of limiting arms and ensuring a lasting peace; representatives of 26 countries took part in its work
• 1900, June 12 - decree on the abolition of exile to Siberia for a settlement
• 1900, July - August - the participation of Russian troops in the suppression of the "Boxer Rebellion" in China. Occupation of all Manchuria by Russia - from the border of the empire to the Liaodong Peninsula
• 1904, January 27 - beginning
• 1905, January 9 - Bloody Sunday In Petersburg. Start

Diary of Nicholas II

— January 6th. Thursday.
Until 9 o'clock. let's go to the city. The day was gray and quiet at -8° below zero. Changed clothes at home in the Winter. AT 10 O'CLOCK? went into the halls to greet the troops. Until 11 o'clock. moved to the church. The service lasted an hour and a half. We went out to Jordan in a coat. During the salute, one of the guns of my 1st cavalry battery fired buckshot from Vasiliev [sky] Ostr. and doused it with the area closest to the Jordan and part of the palace. One policeman was wounded. Several bullets were found on the platform; banner Marine Corps was pierced.
After breakfast, the ambassadors and envoys were received in the Golden Room. At 4 o'clock we left for Tsarskoye. Walked. Engaged. We had lunch together and went to bed early.
— January 7th. Friday.
The weather was calm and sunny with wonderful frost on the trees. In the morning I had a conference with D. Alexei and some ministers on the case of the Argentine and Chilean courts (1). He had breakfast with us. Hosted nine people.
The two of us went to venerate the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God. I read a lot. The evening was spent together.
— January 8th. Saturday.
Clear frosty day. There were many cases and reports. Fredericks had breakfast. Walked for a long time. Since yesterday, all plants and factories have gone on strike in St. Petersburg. Troops were called in from the surrounding area to reinforce the garrison. The workers have been calm so far. Their number is determined at 120,000 hours. At the head of the workers' union is some kind of priest - the socialist Gapon. Mirsky came in the evening to report on the measures taken.
— January 9th. Sunday.
Hard day! Serious riots broke out in St. Petersburg as a result of the desire of the workers to reach the Winter Palace. The troops had to shoot in different parts of the city, there were many killed and wounded. Lord, how painful and hard! Mom came to us from the city right in time for Mass. We had breakfast with everyone. Walked with Misha. Mom stayed with us for the night.
— January 10th. Monday.
Today there were no special incidents in the city. There were reports. Uncle Alexei had breakfast. He accepted a deputation of the Ural Cossacks who came with caviar. Walked. We drank tea at Mom's. To unite actions to stop the unrest in St. Petersburg, he decided to appoint Gen.-m. Trepov as governor-general of the capital and province. In the evening I had a conference on this subject with him, Mirsky and Hesse. Dabich (dej.) dined.
— January 11th. Tuesday.
During the day there were no special disturbances in the city. Had the usual reports. After breakfast, he received Rear Adm. Nebogatov, appointed commander of an additional detachment of the Pacific squadron. Walked. It was a cold gray day. Did a lot. We spent the evening together, reading aloud.

• January 11, 1905 - Nicholas II signed a decree on the establishment of the St. Petersburg Governor General. Petersburg and the province were transferred to the jurisdiction of the governor-general; all civil institutions were subordinated to him and the right to call in troops independently was granted. On the same day, the former Moscow police chief D.F. Trepov was appointed to the post of governor general.
• 1905, January 19 - Reception in Tsarskoe Selo by Nicholas II of the deputation of the workers of St. Petersburg. On January 9, the Tsar allocated 50 thousand rubles from his own funds to help the families of those killed and wounded.
• 1905, April 17 - signing of the Manifesto "On the approval of the principles of religious tolerance"
• 1905, August 23 - the conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace, which put an end to the Russo-Japanese War
• 1905, October 17 - signing of the Manifesto of Political Freedoms, the establishment State Duma
• 1914, August 1 - the beginning of World War I
• 1915, August 23 - Nicholas II assumed the duties of the Supreme Commander
• 1916, November 26 and 30 - State Council and the Congress of the United Nobility joined the demand of the deputies of the State Duma to eliminate the influence of "dark irresponsible forces" and create a government ready to rely on the majority in both chambers of the State Duma
• 1916, December 17 - the murder of Rasputin
• 1917, end of February - Nicholas II decided on Wednesday to go to Headquarters, located in Mogilev

The palace commandant, General Voeikov, asked why the emperor made such a decision when it was relatively calm at the front, while there was little calm in the capital and his presence in Petrograd would be very important. The emperor replied that General Alekseev, the chief of staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, was waiting for him at Headquarters and wanted to discuss some issues .... Meanwhile, Chairman of the State Duma Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko asked the emperor for an audience: “On that terrible hour which the motherland is going through, I consider it my most loyal duty as Chairman of the State Duma to report to you in full about the threatening Russian state danger." The emperor accepted him, but rejected the advice not to dissolve the Duma and form a "ministry of trust" that would enjoy the support of the whole society. Rodzianko called on the emperor in vain: “The hour that decides the fate of yours and your homeland has come. Tomorrow it may be too late ”(L. Mlechin“ Krupskaya ”)

• February 22, 1917 - imperial train left Tsarskoye Selo for Headquarters
• February 23, 1917 - Began
• 1917, February 28 - adoption by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma final decision about the need for the abdication of the king in favor of the heir to the throne under the regency of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich; departure of Nicholas II from Headquarters to Petrograd.
• 1917, March 1 - the arrival of the royal train in Pskov.
• 1917, March 2 - signing of the Manifesto on abdication for himself and for Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich in favor of his brother - Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.
• 1917, March 3 - Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich's refusal to accept the throne

Family of Nicholas II. Briefly

• 1889, January - the first acquaintance at a court ball in St. Petersburg with future wife, Princess Alice of Hesse
• 1894, April 8 - the engagement of Nikolai Alexandrovich and Alice of Hesse in Coburg (Germany)
• 1894, October 21 - chrismation of the bride of Nicholas II and the naming of her "Blessed Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna"
• 1894, November 14 - the wedding of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna

In front of me stood a tall, slender lady of about 50 in a simple gray sister's suit and a white scarf. The empress greeted me affectionately and asked me where I was wounded, in what business and on what front. A little worried, I answered all Her questions without taking my eyes off Her face. Almost classically correct, this face in youth was undoubtedly beautiful, very beautiful, but this beauty was obviously cold and impassive. And now, aged with age and with small wrinkles around the eyes and corners of the lips, this face was very interesting, but too stern and too thoughtful. I thought so: what a correct, intelligent, strict and energetic face (memories of the empress ensign of the machine-gun team of the 10th Kuban plastun battalion S.P. Pavlov. Being wounded in January 1916, he ended up in Her Majesty's Own infirmary in Tsarskoye Selo)

• 1895, November 3 - the birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna
• 1897, May 29 - the birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Tatyana Nikolaevna
• 1899, June 14 - the birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna
• 1901, June 5 - the birth of a daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna
• 1904, July 30 - the birth of a son, heir to the throne, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich

Diary of Nicholas II: “An unforgettable great day for us, on which the mercy of God so clearly visited us,” Nicholas II wrote in his diary. - Alix had a son, who was named Alexei during prayer ... There are no words to be able to thank God enough for the consolation sent down by Him in this time of difficult trials!
The German Kaiser Wilhelm II telegraphed Nicholas II: “Dear Niki, how nice that you offered me to be your boy's godfather! Well, what is long awaited, says the German proverb, so be it with this dear little one! May he grow up to be a brave soldier, wise and strong statesman May the blessing of God always keep his body and soul. May he be the same ray of sunshine for both of you all his life, as he is now, during trials!

• 1904, August - on the fortieth day after his birth, Alexei was diagnosed with hemophilia. The palace commandant, General Voeikov: “For the royal parents, life has lost its meaning. We were afraid to smile in their presence. We behaved in the palace as in a house where someone had died.”
• 1905, November 1 - the acquaintance of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna with Grigory Rasputin. Rasputin somehow positively influenced the well-being of the Tsarevich, therefore Nicholas II and the Empress favored him

The execution of the royal family. Briefly

• 1917, March 3–8 - stay of Nicholas II in Headquarters (Mogilev)
• 1917, March 6 - decision of the Provisional Government to arrest Nicholas II
• 1917, March 9 - after wandering around Russia, Nicholas II returned to Tsarskoye Selo
• 1917, March 9-July 31 - Nicholas II and his family live under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo
• 1917, July 16-18 - July days - powerful spontaneous popular anti-government demonstrations in Petrograd
• 1917, August 1 - Nicholas II and his family went into exile in Tobolsk, where he was sent by the Provisional Government after the July days
• 1917, December 19 - formed after. The Soldiers' Committee of Tobolsk forbade Nicholas II to attend church
• 1917, December - The Soldiers' Committee decided to remove the epaulettes from the king, which was perceived by him as a humiliation
• 1918, February 13 - Commissioner Karelin decided to pay from the treasury only soldiers' rations, heating and lighting, and everything else - at the expense of prisoners, and the use of personal capital was limited to 600 rubles per month
• 1918, February 19 - an ice slide built in the garden for riding the royal children was destroyed at night with picks. The pretext for this was that from the hill it was possible to "look over the fence"
• March 7, 1918 - Church ban lifted
• April 26, 1918 - Nicholas II and his family set off from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg

Were everyone who, in one way or another, approached the case of the execution of the royal family? Why is it impossible to trust the books of Sokolov (the seventh! investigator in this case), published after his murder? These questions are answered by the historian of the royal family, Sergei Ivanovich.

The royal family was not shot!

The last Russian tsar was not shot, but possibly left as a hostage.

Agree: it would be foolish to shoot the tsar without first squeezing honestly earned money from him from the capsules. So they didn't shoot him. However, it was not immediately possible to get money, because it was too turbulent time ...

Regularly, by the middle of summer of each year, loud lamentation for the tsar, who was killed for nothing, resumes. NicholasII, whom Christians also “canonized as saints” in 2000. Here is Comrade. Starikov, exactly on July 17, once again threw "firewood" into the furnace of emotional lamentations about nothing. I was not interested in this issue before, and would not pay attention to another dummy, BUT... At the last meeting with readers in his life, Academician Nikolai Levashov just mentioned that in the 30s Stalin met with NikolaiII and asked him for money to prepare for a future war. Here is how Nikolai Goryushin writes about this in his report “There are prophets in our fatherland too!” about this meeting with readers:

“... In this regard, information related to tragic fate last EmperorRussian Empire Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov and his family ... In August 1917, he and his family were sent to the last capital of the Slavic-Aryan Empire, the city of Tobolsk. The choice of this city was not accidental, since the highest degrees of Freemasonry are aware of the great past of the Russian people. The exile to Tobolsk was a kind of mockery of the Romanov dynasty, which in 1775 defeated the troops of the Slavic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartary), and later this event was called the suppression of the peasant revolt of Emelyan Pugachev ... In July 1918 Jacob Schiff gives command to one of his confidants in the leadership of the Bolsheviks Yakov Sverdlov for the ritual murder of the royal family. Sverdlov, after consulting with Lenin, orders the commandant of the Ipatiev house, a Chekist Yakov Yurovsky bring the plan to fruition. According to official history, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nikolai Romanov, along with his wife and children, was shot.

At the meeting, Nikolai Levashov said that in fact NikolaiII and his family were not shot! This statement immediately raises many questions. I decided to look into them. Many works have been written on this topic, and the picture of the execution, the testimony of witnesses, look plausible at first glance. The facts obtained by the investigator A.F. do not fit into the logical chain. Kirsta, who joined the investigation in August 1918. During the investigation, he interviewed Dr. P.I. Utkin, who said that at the end of October 1918 he was invited to the building occupied by the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution to provide medical care. The victim was a young girl, presumably 22 years old, with a cut lip and a tumor under her eye. To the question "who is she?" the girl replied that she was daughter of the Sovereign Anastasia". During the investigative actions Investigator Kirsta did not find the corpses of the royal family in Ganina Yama. Soon, Kirsta found numerous witnesses who told him during interrogations that in September 1918, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. And the witness Samoilov stated from the words of his neighbor, the guard of the house of Ipatiev Varakushev, that there was no execution, the royal family was loaded into a wagon and taken away.

After receiving these data, A.F. Kirsta is removed from the case and ordered to hand over all materials to investigator A.S. Sokolov. Nikolai Levashov said that the motive for saving the life of the Tsar and his family was the desire of the Bolsheviks, contrary to the orders of their masters, to take possession of the hidden wealth of the dynasty Romanovs, about the location of which Nikolai Aleksandrovich certainly knew. Soon the organizers of the execution in 1919, Sverdlov, die in 1924, Lenin. Nikolai Viktorovich clarified that Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov communicated with I.V. Stalin, and the wealth of the Russian Empire was used to strengthen the power of the USSR ... "

Speech by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Veniamin Alekseev.
Yekaterinburg remains - more questions than answers:

If this were the first lie of comrade. Starikov, it would be quite possible to think that a person knows little yet and was simply mistaken. But Starikov is the author of several very good books and is very savvy in matters of recent Russian history. From this follows the obvious conclusion that he is lying on purpose. I won’t write about the reasons for this lie here, although they lie right on the surface ... I’d rather give a few more evidence that the royal family was not shot in July 1918, and the rumor about the execution was most likely launched for the “report” to customers - Schiff and other comrades who financed the coup d'état in Russia in February 1917…

Nicholas II met with Stalin?

There are suggestions that Nicholas II was not shot, and the entire female half of the royal family was taken to Germany. But the documents are still classified...

For me, this story began in November 1983. I then worked as a photojournalist for a French agency and was sent to the summit of heads of state and government in Venice. There I accidentally met an Italian colleague who, having learned that I was Russian, showed me a newspaper (I think it was La Repubblica) dated the day of our meeting. In the article, which the Italian drew my attention to, it was about the fact that in Rome, at a very old age, a certain nun, Sister Pascalina, died. I later learned that this woman held an important position in the Vatican hierarchy under Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), but that is not the point.

The Secret of the Iron Lady of the Vatican

This sister Pascalina, who earned the honorary nickname of the “iron lady” of the Vatican, before her death called a notary with two witnesses and in their presence dictated information that she did not want to take with her to the grave: one of the daughters of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II - Olga- was not shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16-17, 1918, but lived long life and was buried in a cemetery in the village of Marcotte in northern Italy.

After the summit, I went to this village with an Italian friend, who was both a driver and an interpreter for me. We found the cemetery and this grave. On the plate was written in German:

« Olga Nikolaevna, eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nikolai Romanov"- and dates of life: "1895-1976".

We talked with the cemetery watchman and his wife: they, like all the villagers, perfectly remembered Olga Nikolaevna, knew who she was, and were sure that the Russian Grand Duchess was under the protection of the Vatican.

This strange find interested me greatly, and I decided to find out for myself all the circumstances of the execution. And in general, was he?

I have every reason to believe that there was no shooting. On the night of July 16-17, all the Bolsheviks and their sympathizers left by rail for Perm. The next morning, leaflets were pasted around Yekaterinburg with the message that the royal family was taken away from the city, and so it was. Soon the whites occupied the city. Naturally, an investigative commission was formed "on the case of the disappearance of Tsar Nicholas II, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses", which did not find any convincing traces of execution.

Investigator Sergeev in 1919 he said in an interview with an American newspaper:

“I don’t think that everyone was executed here - both the king and his family. In my opinion, the Empress, the Tsarevich and the Grand Duchesses were not executed in the Ipatiev House. This conclusion did not suit Admiral Kolchak, who by that time had already proclaimed himself "the supreme ruler of Russia." And really, why does the “supreme” need some kind of emperor? Kolchak ordered a second investigative team to be assembled, which got to the bottom of the fact that in September 1918 the Empress and the Grand Duchesses were kept in Perm. Only the third investigator, Nikolai Sokolov (conducted the case from February to May 1919), turned out to be more understanding and issued a well-known conclusion that the whole family had been shot, the corpses dismembered and burned on fires. “The parts that did not succumb to the action of fire,” Sokolov wrote, “were destroyed with the help of sulfuric acid».

What, then, was buried in 1998. in the Peter and Paul Cathedral? Let me remind you that soon after the start of perestroika, some skeletons were found on the Piglet Log near Yekaterinburg. In 1998, they were solemnly reburied in the family tomb of the Romanovs, after numerous genetic examinations had been carried out before that. And the guarantor of authenticity royal remains the secular power of Russia represented by President Boris Yeltsin. But the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the bones as the remains of the royal family.

But let's go back to the Civil War. According to my information, the royal family was divided in Perm. The path of the female part lay in Germany, while the men - Nikolai Romanov himself and Tsarevich Alexei - were left in Russia. Father and son were kept near Serpukhov for a long time. former dacha merchant Konshin. Later, in the reports of the NKVD, this place was known as "Object No. 17". Most likely, the prince died in 1920 from hemophilia. I can't say anything about the fate of the last Russian emperor. Except one: in the 30s "Object No. 17" twice visited Stalin. Does this mean that in those years Nicholas II was still alive?

The men were held hostage

To understand why such incredible events from the point of view of a person of the 21st century became possible and to find out who needed them, you will have to go back to 1918. Remember from school course stories about the Brest peace? Yes, on March 3, in Brest-Litovsk, a peace treaty was concluded between Soviet Russia on the one hand and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey on the other. Russia lost Poland, Finland, the Baltic States and part of Belarus. But it was not because of this that Lenin called the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk “humiliating” and “obscene.” By the way, the full text of the treaty has not yet been published either in the East or in the West. I believe that because of the secret conditions in it. Probably the Kaiser, who was a relative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, demanded that all the women of the royal family be handed over to Germany. The girls had no right to the Russian throne and, therefore, could not threaten the Bolsheviks in any way. The men, on the other hand, remained hostages - as guarantors that the German army would not go further east than it was written in the peace treaty.

What happened next? How was the fate of women exported to the West? Was their silence a necessary condition for their immunity? Unfortunately, I have more questions than answers.

Interview with Vladimir Sychev on the Romanov case

An interesting interview with Vladimir Sychev, who refutes the official version of the execution of the royal family. He talks about the grave of Olga Romanova in northern Italy, about the investigation of two British journalists, about the conditions of the Brest Peace of 1918, according to which all the women of the royal family were transferred to the Germans in Kyiv ...

Author - Vladimir Sychev

In June 1987 I was in Venice with the French press accompanying François Mitterrand to the G7 summit. During the breaks between pools, an Italian journalist approached me and asked me something in French. Realizing from my accent that I was not French, he looked at my French accreditation and asked where I was from. “Russian,” I replied. – Is that how? my interlocutor was surprised. Under his arm, he held an Italian newspaper, from where he translated a huge, half-page article.

Sister Pascalina dies in a private clinic in Switzerland. She was known throughout the Catholic world, because. passed with the future Pope Pius XXII from 1917, when he was still Cardinal Pacelli in Munich (Bavaria), until his death in the Vatican in 1958. She had it on him strong influence that he entrusted the entire administration of the Vatican to her, and when the cardinals asked for an audience with the Pope, she decided who was worthy of such an audience and who was not. This is a short retelling of a large article, the meaning of which was that the phrase uttered at the end and not a mere mortal, we had to believe. Sister Pascalina asked to invite a lawyer and witnesses, as she did not want to take her to the grave the secret of your life. When they arrived, she only said that the woman buried in the village Morcote, not far from Lake Maggiore - indeed daughter of the Russian Tsar - Olga!!

I convinced my Italian colleague that this was a gift from Fate and that it was useless to resist it. Having learned that he was from Milan, I told him that I would not fly back to Paris on the presidential press plane, but we would go to this village for half a day. We went there after the summit. It turned out that this was no longer Italy, but Switzerland, but we quickly found a village, a cemetery and a cemetery watchman who led us to the grave. On the gravestone is a photograph of an elderly woman and an inscription in German: Olga Nikolaevna(without a surname), the eldest daughter of Nikolai Romanov, Tsar of Russia, and dates of life - 1985-1976 !!!

The Italian journalist was an excellent translator for me, but he clearly did not want to stay there for the whole day. I had to ask questions.

When did she move in here? - In 1948.

- She said that she was the daughter of the Russian Tsar? “Of course, and the whole village knew about it.

Did it get into the press? - Yes.

- How did the other Romanovs react to this? Did they sue? - Served.

And she lost? Yes, I lost.

In this case, she had to pay the opposing party's legal costs. - She paid.

- She worked? - Not.

Where does she get the money from? “Yes, the whole village knew that the Vatican was keeping her!”

The ring is closed. I went to Paris and began to look for what is known on this issue ... And quickly came across a book by two English journalists.

II

Tom Mangold and Anthony Summers published a book in 1979 "Dossier on the king"(“The Case of the Romanovs, or the execution that never happened”). They began with the fact that if the secrecy stamp is removed from state archives after 60 years, then in 1978 60 years from the date of signing of the Treaty of Versailles expire, and you can “dig up” something there by looking into the declassified archives. That is, at first there was an idea just to look ... And they very quickly got on telegrams the British ambassador to your Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the royal family was taken from Yekaterinburg to Perm. There is no need to explain to professionals from the BBC that this is a sensation. They rushed to Berlin.

It quickly became clear that the Whites, having entered Yekaterinburg on July 25, immediately appointed an investigator to investigate the execution of the royal family. Nikolai Sokolov, whose book everyone still refers to, is the third investigator who received the case only at the end of February 1919! Then a simple question arises: who were the first two and what did they report to the authorities? So, the first investigator named Nametkin, appointed by Kolchak, having worked for three months and declaring that he is a professional, is a simple matter, and he does not need additional time (and the Whites were advancing and had no doubts about their victory at that time - i.e. all the time is yours, don’t rush, work!), puts a report on the table that there was no shooting, but there was a staged execution. Kolchak this report - under the cloth and appoints a second investigator by the name of Sergeev. He also works for three months and at the end of February gives Kolchak the same report with the same words (“I am a professional, it’s a simple matter, no extra time is needed,” there was no shooting- there was a staged execution).

Here it is necessary to explain and remind that it was the Whites who overthrew the tsar, and not the Reds, and they sent him into exile in Siberia! Lenin in these February days was in Zurich. Whatever they say simple soldiers, the white top is not monarchists, but republicans. And Kolchak did not need a living tsar. I advise those who have doubts to read Trotsky's diaries, where he writes that "if the whites put up any tsar - even a peasant one - we would not have lasted even two weeks"! These are the words Supreme Commander Red Army and the ideologist of the red terror!! Please believe.

Therefore, Kolchak already puts "his" investigator Nikolai Sokolov and gives him a task. And Nikolai Sokolov also works for only three months - but for a different reason. The Reds entered Yekaterinburg in May, and he retreated along with the Whites. He took the archives, but what did he write?

1. He did not find the bodies, and for the police of any country in any system “no bodies - no murder” is a disappearance! After all, when arresting serial killers, the police demand to show where the corpses are hidden !! You can say whatever you want, even at yourself, and the investigator needs material evidence!

And Nikolai Sokolov "hangs the first noodles on his ears":

“thrown into a mine, filled with acid”.

Now they prefer to forget this phrase, but we heard it until 1998! And for some reason no one ever doubted. Is it possible to flood the mine with acid? But acid is not enough! In the local history museum of Yekaterinburg, where the director Avdonin (the same, one of the three who “accidentally” found bones on the Starokotlyakovskaya road, cleared to them by three investigators in 1918-19), hangs a certificate about those soldiers on the truck that they had 78 liters of gasoline (not acid). In the month of July in Siberian taiga, having 78 liters of gasoline, you can burn the entire Moscow zoo! No, they went back and forth, first they threw it into the mine, poured it with acid, and then they took it out and hid it under the sleepers ...

By the way, on the night of the “execution” from July 16 to July 17, 1918, a huge train with the entire local Red Army, the local Central Committee and the local Cheka left Yekaterinburg for Perm. The Whites entered on the eighth day, and Yurovsky, Beloborodov and his comrades shifted the responsibility to two soldiers? The inconsistency, - tea, they did not deal with a peasant revolt. And if they shot at their own discretion, they could have done it a month earlier.

2. The second "noodle" of Nikolai Sokolov - he describes the basement of the Ipatievsky house, publishes photographs where it is clear that bullets are in the walls and in the ceiling (this is apparently what they do when staging an execution). Conclusion - women's corsets were stuffed with diamonds, and the bullets ricocheted! So, like this: the king from the throne and into exile in Siberia. Money in England and Switzerland, and they sew diamonds into corsets to sell to peasants in the market? Well well!

3. In the same book by Nikolai Sokolov, the same cellar in the same Ipatievsky house is described, where clothes from each member are in the fireplace. imperial family and hair from each head. Were they sheared and changed (undressed??) before being shot? Not at all - they were taken out by the same train on that very “night of execution”, but they cut their hair and changed clothes so that no one would recognize them there.

III

Tom Magold and Anthony Summers intuitively realized that the clue to this intriguing detective story must be sought in Agreement on Brest World . And they began to look for the original text. And what?? With all the removal of secrets after 60 years of such an official document nowhere! It is not in the declassified archives of London or Berlin. They searched everywhere - and everywhere they found only quotes, but nowhere could they find full text! And they came to the conclusion that the Kaiser demanded the extradition of women from Lenin. The tsar's wife is a relative of the Kaiser, the daughters are German citizens and did not have the right to the throne, and besides, the Kaiser at that moment could crush Lenin like a bug! And here are Lenin's words that "the world is humiliating and obscene, but it must be signed", and the July coup attempt of the Socialist-Revolutionaries with Dzerzhinsky, who joined them at the Bolshoi Theater, take on a completely different look.

Officially, we were taught that the Trotsky treaty was signed only on the second attempt and only after the start of the offensive of the German army, when it became clear to everyone that the Republic of Soviets could not resist. If there is simply no army, what is “humiliating and obscene” here? Nothing. But if it is necessary to hand over all the women of the royal family, and even to the Germans, and even during the First World War, then ideologically everything is in its place, and the words are read correctly. What Lenin did, and the entire ladies' section was handed over to the Germans in Kyiv. And immediately murder the German ambassador Mirbach in Moscow and the German consul in Kyiv make sense.

"Dossier on the Tsar" is a fascinating investigation into one cunningly tangled intrigue of world history. The book was published in 1979, so the words of Sister Pascalina in 1983 about Olga's grave could not get into it. And if there were no new facts, then simply retelling someone else's book here would not make sense.

10 years have passed. In November 1997, in Moscow, I met the former political prisoner Geliy Donskoy from St. Petersburg. The conversation over tea in the kitchen also touched the king and his family. When I said that there was no execution, he answered me calmly:

- I know it wasn't.

- Well, you are the first in 10 years,

I answered him, almost falling off my chair.

Then I asked him to tell me his sequence of events, wanting to find out up to what point our versions agree and at what point they start to diverge. He did not know about the extradition of women, believing that they died somewhere in different places. There was no doubt that they were all taken out of Yekaterinburg. I told him about the "Dossier on the Tsar", and he told me about one seemingly insignificant find, which he and his friends drew attention to in the 80s.

They came across the memoirs of the participants in the "execution", published in the 30s. In them, except known facts about the fact that two weeks before the "execution" a new guard arrived, it was said that a high fence was built around the Ipatievsky house. For execution in the basement, he would be useless, but if the family needs to be taken out unnoticed, then he is just the way. The most important thing - which no one had ever paid attention to before them - the head of the new guard spoke with Yurovsky in a foreign language! They checked the lists - the head of the new guard was Lisitsyn (all participants in the "execution" are known). It seems nothing special. And here they were really lucky: at the beginning of perestroika, Gorbachev opened hitherto closed archives (my fellow Sovietologists confirmed that this had been the case for two years), and then they started searching in declassified documents. And found! It turned out that Lisitsyn was not Lisitsyn at all, but the American Fox !!! I have been ready for this for a long time. I already knew from books and from life that Trotsky came to make a revolution from New York on a steamer full of Americans (everyone knows about Lenin and two carriages with Germans and Austrians). The Kremlin was full of foreigners who did not speak Russian (there was even Petin, but an Austrian!) Therefore, the guards were from Latvian riflemen, so that the people would not even think that foreigners had seized power.

And then my new friend Helium Donskoy completely captivated me. He asked himself one very important question. Fox-Lisitsyn arrived as the head of the new guard (in fact, the head of the royal family) on July 2. On the night of the "execution" on July 16-17, 1918, he left by the same train. And where did he get a new appointment? He became the first head of the new secret facility No. 17 near Serpukhov (on the estate of the former merchant Konshin), which Stalin visited twice! (why?! More on that below.)

I have been telling this whole story with a new continuation to all my friends since 1997.

On one of my visits to Moscow, my friend Yura Feklistov asked me to visit his school friend, and now a candidate historical sciences so that I can tell him everything. That historian named Sergei was the press secretary of the Kremlin commandant's office (scientists were not paid salaries in those days). At the appointed hour, Yura and I climbed the wide Kremlin stairs and entered the office. Just like now in this article, I started with Sister Pascalina, and when I got to her phrase that “the woman buried in the village of Morcote is indeed the daughter of the Russian Tsar Olga,” Sergei almost jumped: “Now it’s clear why The patriarch did not go to the funeral! he exclaimed.

It was also obvious to me - after all, despite the strained relations between different confessions, when it comes to persons of this rank, information is exchanged. I just didn’t understand and there is the position of the “working people”, who from faithful Marxist-Leninists suddenly became orthodox Christians, do not put a penny on a few statements of His Holiness himself. After all, even I, being in Moscow only on short visits, even twice heard the Patriarch say on central television that the examination of royal bones cannot be trusted! I heard it twice, but what, no one else?? Well, he could not say more and announce publicly that there was no execution. This is the prerogative of the highest state officials, not the church.

Further, when I told at the very end that the tsar and the tsarevich were settled near Serpukhov on the estate of Konshin, Sergey shouted: - Vasya! You have all the movements of Stalin in the computer. Well, tell me, was he in the Serpukhov area? - Vasya turned on the computer and answered: - There were two times. Once at the dacha of a foreign writer, and another time at the dacha of Ordzhonikidze.

I was prepared for this turn of events. The point is that in Kremlin wall not only John Reed (journalist-writer of one book) is buried, but 117 foreigners are buried there! And this is from November 1917 to January 1919!! These are the same German, Austrian and american communists from the Kremlin offices. Such as Fox-Lisitsyn, John Reed and other Americans who left their mark on Soviet history after the fall of Trotsky were legalized by official Soviet historians like journalists. (An interesting parallel: the expedition of the artist Roerich to Tibet from Moscow was paid for in 1920 by the Americans! So there were a lot of them). Others fled - they are not children and knew what awaited them. By the way, apparently, this Fox was the founder of the XX Century Fox movie empire in 1934 after Trotsky was expelled.

But back to Stalin. I think few people will believe that Stalin traveled 100 km from Moscow to meet a "foreign writer" or even Sergo Ordzhonikidze! He received them in the Kremlin.

He met the King there! With the man in the iron mask!!!

And that was in the 30s. That's where the fantasy of writers could unfold!

These two meetings are very intriguing to me. I'm sure they seriously discussed at least one topic. And Stalin did not discuss this topic with anyone. He believed the king, not his marshals! This is Finnish war – Finnish campaign, as she shyly called in Soviet history. Why the campaign - after all, there was a war? Yes, because there was no preparation - a campaign! And only the tsar could give such advice to Stalin. He has been in prison for 20 years. The tsar knew the past - Finland has never been a state. The Finns really defended themselves to the last. When the order for a truce came, several thousand soldiers came out of the Soviet trenches, and only four from the Finnish ones.

Instead of an afterword

About 10 years ago I told this story to my Moscow colleague Sergey. When he reached Konshin's estate, where the tsar and the prince were settled, he got excited, stopped the car and said:

Let my wife speak.

I dialed a number on my mobile and asked:

- Dear, do you remember how we were students in 1972 in Serpukhov in the Konshin estate, where local history museum? Tell me, why were we shocked then?

And my dear wife answered me on the phone:

“We were completely horrified. All graves were opened. We were told that they were looted by bandits.

I think that not the bandits, but that even then they decided to deal with the bones at the right moment. By the way, in the Konshin estate there was the grave of Colonel Romanov. The king was a colonel.

June 2012, Paris - Berlin

The Romanov case, or the execution that never happened

A. Summers T. Mangold

translation: Yuri Ivanovich Senin

The case of the Romanovs, or the Execution, which was not

The story described in this book can be called a detective, although it is the result of a serious journalistic investigation. Dozens of books spoke with great persuasiveness about how the Bolsheviks shot the Tsar's family in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

It would seem that the version of the execution of the Royal Family has been unambiguously proven. However, in most of these works, in the "bibliography" section, the book of American journalists A.Summers, T.Mangold "The file on the tsar", published in London in 1976, is mentioned. Mentioned, and nothing more. No comments, no links. And no translations. Even the original of this book is hard to find.

Moscow. On July 17, the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II and all members of his family were shot in Yekaterinburg. Almost a hundred years later, the tragedy has been studied up and down by Russian and foreign researchers. Below are the top 10 important facts about what happened in July 1917 in Ipatiev house.

1. The Romanov family and retinue were placed in Yekaterinburg on April 30, in the house of a retired military engineer N.N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, footman A. E. Trupp, Empress A. S. Demidov’s maid, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived in the house with the royal family. All but the cook were killed along with the Romanovs.

2. In June 1917, Nicholas II received several letters allegedly from a white Russian officer. The anonymous author of the letters told the tsar that the supporters of the crown intended to kidnap the prisoners of the Ipatiev House and asked Nikolai to help - draw plans for the rooms, inform the sleep schedule of family members, etc. The tsar, however, in his answer stated: “We do not want and cannot run away. We can only be abducted by force, as we were brought from Tobolsk by force. Therefore, do not count on any of our active help, "thus refusing to assist the" abductors, "but not giving up the very idea of ​​being abducted.

Subsequently, it turned out that the letters were written by the Bolsheviks in order to test the readiness of the royal family to escape. The author of the texts of the letters was P. Voikov.

3. Rumors about the assassination of Nicholas II appeared in June 1917 after the assassination of Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. The official version of the disappearance of Mikhail Alexandrovich was an escape; at the same time, the tsar was allegedly killed by a Red Army soldier who broke into the Ipatiev House.

4. The exact text of the verdict, which the Bolsheviks took out and read to the tsar and his family, is unknown. At about 2 am from July 16 to 17, the guards woke the doctor Botkin so that he would wake up the royal family, ordered them to get together and go down to the basement. It went to the fees, different sources, from half an hour to an hour. After the Romanovs with the servants went down, the Chekist Yankel Yurovsky informed them that they would be killed.

According to various recollections, he said:

"Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they did not have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves"(Based on the materials of the investigator N. Sokolov)

"Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And now, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic ... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission of ending the Romanovs' house"(according to the memoirs of M. Medvedev (Kudrin))

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death"(according to the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G. Nikulin.)

Yurovsky himself later said that exact words which he said he does not remember. "... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and close ones both in the country and abroad, tried to release him, and that the Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them."

5. Emperor Nicholas, having heard the verdict, asked again:"My God, what is this?" According to other sources, he managed to say only: "What?"

6. Three Latvians refused to carry out the sentence and left the basement shortly before the Romanovs went down there. The weapons of the refuseniks were distributed among those who remained. According to the recollections of the participants themselves, 8 people participated in the execution. “In fact, there were 8 performers of us: Yurovsky, Nikulin, Mikhail Medvedev, Pavel Medvedev four, Peter Ermakov five, so I’m not sure that Kabanov Ivan is six. And I don’t remember the names of two more,” G writes in his memoirs. .Nikulin.

7. It is still unknown whether the execution of the royal family was sanctioned by the highest authorities. By official version, the decision to "execute" was made by the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, while the central Soviet leadership found out about what had happened only after. By the beginning of the 90s. a version was formed according to which the Ural authorities could not make such a decision without a directive from the Kremlin and agreed to take responsibility for the unauthorized execution in order to provide the central government with a political alibi.

The fact that the Ural Regional Council was not a judicial or other body that had the authority to pass sentence, the execution of the Romanovs for a long time was considered not as political repression, but as a murder, which prevented the posthumous rehabilitation of the royal family.

8. After the execution, the bodies of the dead were taken out of the city and burned, previously poured with sulfuric acid to bring the remains beyond recognition. The sanction for the release of a large amount of sulfuric acid was issued by the Commissar for the supply of the Urals P. Voikov.

9. Information about the murder of the royal family became known to society a few years later; Initially, the Soviet authorities reported that only Nicholas II was killed, Alexander Fedorovna and her children were allegedly transported to a safe place in Perm. He told the truth about the fate of the entire royal family in the article " Last days the last tsar" P. M. Bykov.

The Kremlin recognized the fact of the execution of all members of the royal family, when the results of the investigation of N. Sokolov became known in the West, in 1925.

10. The remains of five members of the imperial family and four of their servants were found in July 1991. not far from Yekaterinburg under the embankment of the Old Koptyakovskaya road. On July 17, 1998, the remains of members of the imperial family were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In July 2007, the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

The first commandant of the "House special purpose”A commissioner A.D. Avdeev was appointed.

Preparations for the shooting

According to the official Soviet version, the decision to execute was made only by the Ural Council, Moscow was notified of this only after the death of the family.

In early July 1918, the Ural military commissar Filipp Goloshchekin went to Moscow to resolve the issue of the future fate of the royal family.

At its meeting on July 12, the Ural Council adopted a resolution on execution, as well as on methods for destroying corpses, and on July 16 transmitted a message (if the telegram was genuine) about this by direct wire to Petrograd - G. E. Zinoviev. At the end of the conversation with Yekaterinburg, Zinoviev sent a telegram to Moscow:

There is no archive source for the telegram.

Thus, the telegram was received in Moscow on July 16 at 21:22. The phrase “trial agreed with Filippov” is an encrypted decision on the execution of the Romanovs, which Goloshchekin agreed upon during his stay in the capital. However, the Ural Council asked once again to confirm this earlier decision in writing, referring to "military circumstances", since Yekaterinburg was expected to fall under the blows of the Czechoslovak Corps and the White Siberian Army.

Execution

On the night of July 16-17, the Romanovs and the servants went to bed, as usual, at 22:30. At 11:30 p.m., two special representatives from the Ural Council came to the mansion. They handed the decision of the executive committee to the commander of the security detachment P.Z. Ermakov and the new commandant of the house, Commissioner of the Extraordinary Investigation Commission Yakov Yurovsky, who replaced Avdeev in this position on July 4, and suggested that the execution of the sentence be started immediately.

Awakened, family members and staff were told that due to the advance of the white troops, the mansion could be under fire, and therefore, for security reasons, it was necessary to go to the basement.

There is a version that the following document was drawn up by Yurovsky to carry out the execution: Revolutionary Committee under the Yekaterinburg Soviet of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies REVOLUTIONARY HEADQUARTERS OF THE URAL DISTRICT Extraordinary Commission C and o to the Special Forces to the house of Ipatiev / 1st Kamishl Rifle Regiment / Commandant: Gorvat Laons Fischer Anzelm Zdelshtein Isidor Fekete Emil Nad Imre Grinfeld Victor Vergazi Andreas Prob.Com. Vaganov Serge Medvedev Pav Nikulin City of Ekaterinburg July 18, 1918 Chief of the Cheka Yurovsky However, according to V.P. Kozlov, I.F. Plotnikov, this document, once provided to the press by former Austrian prisoner of war I.P. Meyer, first published in Germany in 1956 and, most likely, fabricated, does not reflect the real shooter list. According to their version, the execution team consisted of: a member of the collegium of the Ural Central Committee - M.A. Medvedev (Kudrin), the commandant of the house Y.M. Yurovsky, his deputy G.P. Nikulin, the security commander P.Z. Ermakov and ordinary soldiers of the guard - Hungarians (according to other sources - Latvians). In the light of I. F. Plotnikov’s research, the list of those who were shot may look like this: Ya. M. Yurovsky, G. P. Nikulin, M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin), P. Z. Ermakov, S. P. Vaganov, A. G Kabanov, P. S. Medvedev, V. N. Netrebin, Ya. M. Tselms and, under a very big question, an unknown student miner. Plotnikov believes that the latter was used in the Ipatiev house for only a few days after the execution, and only as a jewelry specialist. Thus, according to Plotnikov, the execution of the royal family was carried out by a group consisting almost entirely of ethnic Russians, with the participation of one Jew (Ya. M. Yurovsky) and, probably, one Latvian (Ya. M. Celms). According to surviving information, two or three Latvians refused to participate in the execution. , The fate of the Romanovs Except family former emperor, all members of the House of Romanov were destroyed, who for various reasons remained in Russia after the revolution (with the exception of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who died in Tashkent from pneumonia, and two children of his son Alexander Iskander - Natalia Androsova (1917-1999) and Kirill Androsov (1915-1992), who lived in Moscow). Memoirs of contemporaries Memoirs of Trotsky My next visit to Moscow fell after the fall of Yekaterinburg. In a conversation with Sverdlov, I asked in passing: Yes, where is the king? - It's over, - he answered, - shot. - Where is the family? - And the family with him. - All? I asked, apparently with a hint of surprise. - That's it - Sverdlov answered, - but what? He was waiting for my reaction. I didn't answer. - And who decided? I asked. - We decided here. Ilyich believed that it was impossible to leave us a living banner for them, especially in the present difficult conditions. Memoirs of Sverdlova Somehow in mid-July 1918, shortly after the end of the Fifth Congress of Soviets, Yakov Mikhailovich returned home in the morning, it was already dawn. He said that he was late at the meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, where, among other things, he informed the members of the Council of People's Commissars about the latest news he had received from Yekaterinburg. - Haven't you heard? - Yakov Mikhailovich asked. - After all, the Urals shot Nikolai Romanov. Of course, I haven't heard anything yet. The message from Yekaterinburg was received only in the afternoon. The situation in Yekaterinburg was alarming: the White Czechs were approaching the city, the local counter-revolution was stirring. The Ural Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, having received information that Nikolai Romanov, who was being held in custody in Yekaterinburg, was preparing to escape, issued a decision to shoot the former tsar and immediately carried out his sentence. Yakov Mikhailovich, having received a message from Yekaterinburg, reported on the decision of the regional council to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which approved the decision of the Ural Regional Council, and then informed the Council of People's Commissars. V. P. Milyutin, who participated in this meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, wrote in his diary: “I returned late from the Council of People's Commissars. There were "current" cases. During the discussion of the project on public health, the report of Semashko, Sverdlov entered and sat down in his place on a chair behind Ilyich. Semashko finished. Sverdlov went up, leaned over to Ilyich and said something. - Comrades, Sverdlov is asking for the floor for a message. “I must say,” Sverdlov began in his usual tone, “a message was received that in Yekaterinburg, by order of the regional Soviet, Nikolai was shot ... Nikolai wanted to run away. The Czechoslovaks advanced. The Presidium of the Central Executive Committee decided to approve ... - Now let's move on to reading the project article by article, - suggested Ilyich ... " Destruction and burial of the royal remains Investigation Sokolov's investigation Sokolov painstakingly and selflessly conducted the investigation entrusted to him. Kolchak was already shot, returned Soviet authority to the Urals and Siberia, and the investigator continued his work in exile. With the materials of the investigation, he made a dangerous journey through all of Siberia to the Far East, then to America. In exile in Paris, Sokolov continued to take testimony from surviving witnesses. He died of a ruptured heart in 1924 without completing his investigation. It was thanks to the painstaking work of N. A. Sokolov that the details of the execution and burial of the royal family became known for the first time. The search for royal remains The remains of members of the Romanov family were discovered near Sverdlovsk back in 1979 during excavations led by Geliy Ryabov, a consultant to the Minister of the Interior. However, then the found remains were buried at the direction of the authorities. In 1991, the excavations were resumed. Numerous experts have confirmed that the remains found then are most likely the remains of the royal family. The remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Princess Maria were not found. In June 2007, realizing the world historical significance of the event and the object, it was decided to carry out new survey work on the Old Koptyakovskaya road in order to find the alleged second hiding place for the remains of the members of the Romanov imperial family. In July 2007, the bones of a young man aged 10-13 years old, and a girl aged 18-23 years old, as well as fragments of ceramic amphoras with Japanese sulfuric acid, iron angles, nails, and bullets were found by Ural archaeologists near Yekaterinburg, not far from burial places of the family of the last Russian emperor. According to scientists, these are the remains of members of the Romanov imperial family, Tsarevich Alexei and his sister, Princess Maria, hidden by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Andrey Grigoriev, Deputy CEO Research and Production Center for the Protection and Use of Monuments of History and Culture of the Sverdlovsk Region: “I learned from the Ural local historian V.V. Shitov that the archive contains documents that tell about the stay of the royal family in Yekaterinburg and its subsequent murder, and also about the attempt to hide their remains. Until the end of 2006, we were unable to start prospecting. On July 29, 2007, as a result of the search, we stumbled upon finds.” On August 24, 2007, the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia resumed the investigation into the criminal case of the execution of the royal family in connection with the discovery near Yekaterinburg of the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria Romanov. Traces of cutting were found on the remains of the children of Nicholas II. This was announced by the head of the department of archeology of the research and production center for the protection and use of monuments of history and culture of the Sverdlovsk region Sergey Pogorelov. “Traces of the fact that the bodies were chopped up were found on a humerus belonging to a man and on a fragment of a skull identified as female. In addition, a fully preserved oval hole was found on the man's skull, possibly a trace from a bullet,” Sergei Pogorelov explained. 1990s investigation The circumstances of the death of the royal family were investigated as part of a criminal case initiated on August 19, 1993 at the direction of Attorney General Russian Federation . The materials of the Government Commission for the study of issues related to the study and reburial of the remains of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family have been published. Reaction to the shooting Kokovtsov V.N.: “On the day the news was printed, I was twice on the street, rode a tram, and nowhere did I see the slightest glimpse of pity or compassion. The news was read loudly, with grins, mockery and the most ruthless comments... Some kind of senseless callousness, some kind of boasting of bloodthirstiness. The most disgusting expressions: - it would have been so long ago, - come on, reign again, - cover Nikolashka, - oh, brother Romanov, danced. Heard all around, from the youngest youth, and the elders turned away, indifferently silent. Rehabilitation of the royal family In the 1990s-2000s, the question of the legal rehabilitation of the Romanovs was raised before various authorities. In September 2007, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation refused to consider such a decision, since it did not find "accusations and relevant decisions of judicial and non-judicial bodies vested with judicial functions" on the fact of the execution of the Romanovs, and the execution was "a premeditated murder, albeit politically tinged, committed by persons not endowed with appropriate judicial and administrative powers". At the same time, the lawyer of the Romanov family notes that "As you know, the Bolsheviks transferred all power to the soviets, including judiciary therefore, the decision of the Ural Regional Council is equated to a court decision.” On November 8, 2007, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the decision of the prosecutor's office as legal, considering that the execution should be considered exclusively within the framework of a criminal case. The decision of the Ural Regional Council dated July 17, 1918, which decided to carry out the execution, was attached to the materials provided by the side of the rehabilitated to the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, and then to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. This document was presented by the lawyers of the Romanovs as an argument confirming the political nature of the murder, which was also noted by representatives of the prosecutor's office, however, according to Russian legislation on rehabilitation, the decision of bodies endowed with judicial functions is required to establish the fact of repression, which the Ural Regional Council de jure was not. Since the case was considered by a higher court, representatives of the Romanov family intended to challenge the decision. Russian court at the European Court. However, on October 1, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized Nikolai and his family as victims political repression and rehabilitated them,,. As the lawyer of the Grand Duchess Maria Romanova Herman Lukyanov stated: According to the judge, According to procedural rules Russian legislation, the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is final and not subject to review (appeal). On January 15, 2009, the case of the murder of the royal family was closed. . . In June 2009, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate six more members of the Romanov family: Mikhail Aleksandrovich Romanov, Elizaveta Fedorovna Romanova, Sergey Mikhailovich Romanov, Ioan Konstantinovich Romanov, Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov and Igor Konstantinovich Romanov, class and social signs, without being charged with a specific crime...“. In accordance with Art. 1 and pp. "c", "e" art. 3 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions”, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation decided to rehabilitate Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, Varvara Yakovleva, Ekaterina Petrovna Yanysheva, Fyodor Semenovich (Mikhailovich) Remez, Ivan Kalin, Krukovsky, Dr. Gelmerson and Nikolai Nikolaevich Johnson ( Brian). The issue of this rehabilitation, unlike the first case, was actually resolved in a few months, at the stage of applying to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, no trials were required, since the prosecutor's office revealed all the signs of political repression during the audit. Canonization and ecclesiastical cult of the royal martyrs Notes Multatuli, P. To the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia on the rehabilitation of the royal family. Yekaterinburg initiative. Academy of Russian History(03.10.2008). Retrieved November 9, 2008. The Supreme Court recognized members of the royal family as victims of repression. RIA News(01/10/2008). Retrieved November 9, 2008. Romanov Collection, General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,

Bolsheviks and the execution of the royal family

Behind last decade the topic of the execution of the royal family became relevant in connection with the discovery of many new facts. Documents and materials reflecting this tragic event began to be actively published, causing various comments, questions, doubts. That is why it is important to analyze the available written sources.

Emperor Nicholas II

Perhaps the earliest historical source- these are the materials of the investigator for especially important cases of the Omsk District Court during the period of the Kolchak army in Siberia and the Urals N.A. Sokolov, who, in hot pursuit, conducted the first investigation of this crime.

Nikolai Alekseevich Sokolov

He found traces of fires, fragments of bones, pieces of clothing, jewelry, and other fragments, but did not find the remains of the royal family.

According to a modern investigator, V.N. Solovyov, manipulations with the corpses of the royal family due to the sloppiness of the Red Army would not fit into any schemes of the smartest investigator for especially important cases. The subsequent advance of the Red Army shortened the search time. N.A. version Sokolov was that the corpses were dismembered and burned. Those who deny the authenticity of the royal remains rely on this version.

Another group of written sources are the memoirs of the participants in the execution of the royal family. They often contradict each other. They clearly show a desire to exaggerate the role of the authors in this atrocity. Among them - “a note by Ya.M. Yurovsky”, which was dictated by Yurovsky to the chief keeper of party secrets, Academician M.N. Pokrovsky back in 1920, when information about the investigation by N.A. Sokolov has not yet appeared in print.

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky

In the 60s, the son of Ya.M. Yurovsky donated copies of his father's memoirs to the museum and archive so that his "feat" would not be lost in the documents.
Also preserved are the memoirs of the head of the Ural workers' squad, a member of the Bolshevik Party since 1906, an employee of the NKVD since 1920. P.Z. Ermakov, who was instructed to organize the burial, for he, as local knew the area well. Ermakov reported that the corpses were burned to ashes, and the ashes were buried. His memoirs contain many factual errors, which are refuted by the testimony of other witnesses. Memories date back to 1947. It was important for the author to prove that the order of the Yekaterinburg Executive Committee: “to shoot and bury them so that no one ever found their corpses” was fulfilled, the grave does not exist.

The Bolshevik leadership also created considerable confusion by trying to cover up the traces of the crime.

Initially, it was assumed that the Romanovs would await trial in the Urals. Materials were collected in Moscow, L.D. was preparing to become a prosecutor. Trotsky. But Civil War aggravated the situation.
At the beginning of the summer of 1918, it was decided to take the royal family out of Tobolsk, since the Socialist-Revolutionaries headed the council there.

transfer of the Romanov family to Yekaterinburg Chekists

This was done on behalf of Ya.M. Sverdlov, the Extraordinary Commissar of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Myachin (aka Yakovlev, Stoyanovich).

Nicholas II with his daughters in Tobolsk

In 1905, he became famous as a member of one of the most daring gangs that robbed trains. Subsequently, all the militants - Myachin's associates - were arrested, imprisoned or shot. He manages to escape abroad with gold and jewels. Until 1917 he lived in Capri, where he was acquainted with Lunacharsky and Gorky, sponsored underground schools and printing houses of the Bolsheviks in Russia.

Myachin tried to direct royal train from Tobolsk to Omsk, but a detachment of Yekaterinburg Bolsheviks accompanying the train, learning about the change in route, blocked the road with machine guns. The Ural Council repeatedly demanded that the royal family be placed at its disposal. Myachin, with the approval of Sverdlov, was forced to yield.

Konstantin Alekseevich Myachin

Nicholas II and his family were taken to Yekaterinburg.

This fact reflects the confrontation in the Bolshevik environment over the question of who and how will decide the fate of the royal family. In any alignment of forces, one could hardly hope for a humane outcome, given the mood and achievement list decision makers.
Another memoir appeared in 1956 in Germany. They belong to I.P. Meyer, who, as a captured soldier Austrian army was sent to Siberia, but the Bolsheviks released him, and he joined the Red Guard. Since Meyer knew foreign languages then he became confidant International Brigade in the Urals Military District and worked in the mobilization department of the Soviet Ural Directorate.

I.P. Meyer was an eyewitness to the execution of the royal family. His memoirs supplement the picture of the execution with essential details, details, including the names of the participants, their role in this atrocity, but do not resolve the contradiction that arose in previous sources.

Later, written sources began to be supplemented by material ones. So, in 1978, geologist A. Avdonin found a burial. In 1989, he and M. Kochurov, as well as screenwriter G. Ryabov, spoke about their discovery. In 1991, the ashes were removed. On August 19, 1993, the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case in connection with the discovery of the Yekaterinburg remains. The investigation began to be conducted by the prosecutor-criminalist of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation V.N. Solovyov.

In 1995 V.N. Solovyov managed to get 75 negatives in Germany, which were made in hot pursuit in the Ipatiev House by the investigator Sokolov and were considered lost forever: toys of Tsarevich Alexei, the bedroom of the Grand Duchesses, the execution room and other details. Unknown originals of N.A.’s materials were also delivered to Russia. Sokolov.

Material sources made it possible to answer the question of whether there was a burial of the royal family, and whose remains were found near Yekaterinburg. To this end, numerous Scientific research in which more than a hundred of the most authoritative Russian and foreign scientists took part.

used to identify the remains. latest methods, including a DNA examination, which was assisted by some of the current reigning persons and other genetic relatives of the Russian emperor. To eliminate any doubts in the conclusions of numerous examinations, the remains of George Alexandrovich, the brother of Nicholas II, were exhumed.

Georgy Alexandrovich Romanov

Modern achievements of science have helped to restore the picture of events, despite some discrepancies in written sources. This made it possible for the government commission to confirm the identity of the remains and adequately bury Nicholas II, the Empress, the three Grand Duchesses and courtiers.

There is another controversial issue related to the tragedy of July 1918. For a long time it was believed that the decision to execute the royal family was made in Yekaterinburg by the local authorities at their own peril and risk, and Moscow found out about this after the fait accompli. This needs to be clarified.

According to the memoirs of I.P. Meyer, on July 7, 1918, a meeting of the Revolutionary Committee was held, which was chaired by A.G. Beloborodov. He offered to send F. Goloshchekin to Moscow and get the decision of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, since the Ural Council could not decide on its own the fate of the Romanovs.

It was also proposed to give Goloshchekin an accompanying paper outlining the position of the Ural authorities. However, the resolution of F. Goloshchekin was adopted by a majority of votes, that the Romanovs deserve death. Goloshchekin, as an old friend Ya.M. Sverdlov, was nevertheless sent to Moscow for consultations with the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov

On July 14, F. Goloshchekin, at a meeting of the revolutionary tribunal, made a report on his trip and on negotiations with Ya.M. Sverdlov about the Romanovs. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee did not want the tsar and his family to be taken to Moscow. The Ural Soviet and the local revolutionary headquarters must decide for themselves what to do with them. But the decision of the Ural Revolutionary Committee had already been made in advance. This means that Moscow did not object to Goloshchekin.

E.S. Radzinsky published a telegram from Yekaterinburg, in which, a few hours before the assassination of the royal family, V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov, G.E. Zinoviev. G. Safarov and F. Goloshchekin, who sent this telegram, asked to be informed immediately if there were any objections. Judging by further developments, there were no objections.

The answer to the question, but by whose decision the royal family was put to death, was also given by L.D. Trotsky in his memoirs relating to 1935: “The liberals were inclined, as it were, to the fact that the Ural executive committee, cut off from Moscow, acted independently. This is not true. The decision was made in Moscow. Trotsky reported that he proposed a public trial in order to achieve a wide propaganda effect. The progress of the process was to be broadcast throughout the country and commented on every day.

IN AND. Lenin reacted positively to this idea, but expressed doubts about its feasibility. There might not be enough time. Later, Trotsky learned from Sverdlov about the execution of the royal family. To the question: “Who decided?” Ya.M. Sverdlov replied: “We decided here. Ilyich believed that it was impossible to leave us a living banner for them, especially in the current difficult conditions. These diary entries by L.D. Trotsky were not intended for publication, did not respond "to the topic of the day", were not expressed in polemics. The degree of reliability of the presentation in them is great.

Lev Davydovich Trotsky

There is another clarification by L.D. Trotsky concerning the authorship of the idea of ​​regicide. In the drafts of the unfinished chapters of the biography of I.V. Stalin, he wrote about the meeting between Sverdlov and Stalin, where the latter spoke in favor of a death sentence for the tsar. At the same time, Trotsky did not rely on his own memories, but quoted the memoirs of the Soviet functionary Besedovsky, who had defected to the West. This data needs to be verified.

Message from Ya.M. Sverdlov at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 about the execution of the Romanov family was greeted with applause and recognition that in the current situation the Ural Regional Council did the right thing. And at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, Sverdlov announced this by the way, without causing any discussion.

Trotsky outlined the most complete ideological justification for the execution of the royal family by the Bolsheviks with elements of pathos: “In essence, the decision was not only expedient, but also necessary. The severity of the reprisals showed everyone that we would fight mercilessly, stopping at nothing. The execution of the royal family was needed not only to confuse, horrify, and deprive the enemy of hope, but also to shake up their own ranks, to show that there was no retreat, that complete victory or complete death lay ahead. There were probably doubts and shaking of heads in the intelligent circles of the party. But the masses of workers and soldiers did not doubt for a moment: they would not have understood or accepted any other decision. Lenin felt this very well: the ability to think and feel for the masses and with the masses was highly characteristic of him, especially at great political turns ... "

The fact of the execution of not only the king, but also his wife and children, the Bolsheviks tried to hide for some time, and even from their own. So, one of the prominent diplomats of the USSR, A.A. Ioffe, officially reported only the execution of Nicholas II. He did not know anything about the wife and children of the king and thought that they were alive. His inquiries to Moscow yielded no results, and only from an informal conversation with F.E. Dzerzhinsky, he managed to find out the truth.

“Let Ioffe know nothing,” said Vladimir Ilyich, according to Dzerzhinsky, “it will be easier for him to lie there, in Berlin ...” The text of the telegram about the execution of the royal family was intercepted by the White Guards who entered Yekaterinburg. Investigator Sokolov deciphered and published it.

The royal family from left to right: Olga, Alexandra Feodorovna, Alexei, Maria, Nicholas II, Tatyana, Anastasia

The fate of the people involved in the liquidation of the Romanovs is of interest.

F.I. Goloshchekin (Isai Goloshchekin), (1876-1941), Secretary of the Ural Regional Committee and member of the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Military Commissar of the Ural Military District, was arrested on October 15, 1939 at the direction of L.P. Beria and was shot as an enemy of the people on October 28, 1941.

A.G. Beloborodoe (1891-1938), chairman of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council, participated in the twenties in the inner-party struggle on the side of L.D. Trotsky. Beloborodoe provided Trotsky with his accommodation when the latter was evicted from the Kremlin apartment. In 1927, he was expelled from the CPSU (b) for factional activities. Later, in 1930, Beloborodov was reinstated in the party as a repentant oppositionist, but this did not save him. In 1938 he was repressed.

As for the direct participant in the execution, Ya.M. Yurovsky (1878-1938), a member of the board of the regional Cheka, it is known that his daughter Rimma suffered from repression.

Yurovsky's assistant in the "House of Special Purpose" P.L. Voikov (1888-1927), People's Commissar for Supply in the government of the Urals, when appointed in 1924 as the USSR ambassador to Poland, could not get an agrement from the Polish government for a long time, since his personality was associated with the execution of the royal family.

Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov

G.V. Chicherin gave the Polish authorities a characteristic explanation on this occasion: “... Hundreds and thousands of freedom fighters Polish people who died for a century on the royal gallows and in Siberian prisons, would have reacted differently to the fact of the destruction of the Romanovs, than this could be concluded from your messages. In 1927 P.L. Voikov was killed in Poland by one of the monarchists for participating in the massacre of the royal family.

Of interest is another name in the list of persons who took part in the execution of the royal family. This is Imre Nagy. The leader of the Hungarian events of 1956 was in Russia, where in 1918 he joined the RCP (b), then served in the Special Department of the Cheka, and later collaborated with the NKVD. However, his autobiography refers to his stay not in the Urals, but in Siberia, in the region of Verkhneudinsk (Ulan-Ude).

Until March 1918, he was in the prisoner of war camp in Berezovka, in March he joined the Red Guard, and participated in the battles on Lake Baikal. In September 1918, his detachment, located on the Soviet-Mongolian border, in Troitskosavsk, was then disarmed and arrested by the Czechoslovaks in Berezovka. Then he ended up in a military town near Irkutsk. From the biographical information, it can be seen how mobile the future leader of the Hungarian Communist Party led in Russia during the execution of the royal family.

In addition, the information indicated by him in his autobiography did not always correspond to personal data. However, direct evidence of the involvement of Imre Nagy, and not his probable namesake, in the execution of the royal family, on this moment are not tracked.

Imprisonment in the Ipatiev House

Ipatiev house

The Romanovs and their servants in the Ipatiev house

The Romanov family was placed in a "special purpose house" - the requisitioned mansion of a retired military engineer N. N. Ipatiev. Doctor E. S. Botkin, chamber footman A. E. Trupp, maid of the Empress A. S. Demidov, cook I. M. Kharitonov and cook Leonid Sednev lived here with the Romanov family.

The house is good and clean. Four rooms were assigned to us: a corner bedroom, a dressing room, a dining room next to it with windows overlooking the garden and a view of the low part of the city, and, finally, a spacious hall with an archway without doors. We were seated as follows: Alix [Empress], Maria and I, the three of us in the bedroom, a shared bathroom, N[yuta] Demidova in the dining room, Botkin, Chemodurov and Sednev in the hall. Near the entrance is the guard officer's room. The guard was placed in two rooms near the dining room. To go to the bathroom and W.C. [water closet], you need to pass by the sentry at the door of the guardhouse. A very high plank fence was built around the house, two fathoms from the windows; there was a chain of sentries, in the garden too.

The royal family spent 78 days in their last home.

A. D. Avdeev was appointed commandant of the "house of special purpose".

Execution

From the memoirs of the participants in the execution, it is known that they did not know in advance how the “execution” would be carried out. Various options were offered: to stab the arrested with daggers during sleep, to throw grenades into the room with them, to shoot them. According to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the issue of the procedure for carrying out the "execution" was resolved with the participation of employees of the UraloblChK.

At 1:30 a.m. from July 16 to 17, a truck for transporting corpses arrived at Ipatiev's house, an hour and a half late. After that, doctor Botkin was awakened, who was told that everyone urgently needed to go downstairs due to the alarming situation in the city and the danger of staying on the top floor. It took about 30-40 minutes to get ready.

Evgeny Botkin, life medic Ivan Kharitonov, cook Alexei Trupp, valet Anna Demidova, maid

moved to the basement room (Alexei, who could not walk, was carried by Nicholas II in his arms). There were no chairs in the basement, then, at the request of Alexandra Feodorovna, two chairs were brought. Alexandra Fedorovna and Alexei sat on them. The rest were placed along the wall. Yurovsky brought in the firing squad and read out the verdict. Nicholas II only had time to ask: “What?” (other sources render Nikolai's last words as "Huh?" or "How, how? Re-read"). Yurovsky gave the command, indiscriminate shooting began.

The executioners did not manage to immediately kill Alexei, the daughters of Nicholas II, the maid A.S. Demidov, Dr. E.S. Botkin. There was a cry from Anastasia, the maid Demidova rose to her feet, Alexei remained alive for a long time. Some of them were shot; the survivors, according to the investigation, were finished off with a bayonet by P.Z. Ermakov.

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, the shooting was erratic: many were probably shooting from the next room, over the threshold, and the bullets ricocheted off the stone wall. At the same time, one of the shooters was slightly wounded (“A bullet from one of the shooters from behind buzzed past my head, and one, I don’t remember, either hand, palm, or touched a finger and shot through”).

According to T. Manakova, during the execution, two dogs of the royal family, who raised a howl, were also killed - Tatiana's French bulldog Ortino and Anastasia's royal spaniel Jimmy (Jammy) Anastasia. The third dog, Aleksey Nikolaevich's spaniel named Joy, was spared his life because she did not howl. The spaniel was later taken in by the guard Letemin, who because of this was identified and arrested by the whites. Subsequently, according to the story of Bishop Vasily (Rodzianko), Joy was taken to the UK by an immigrant officer and handed over to the British royal family.

after the execution

The basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg, where the royal family was shot. GA RF

From the speech of Ya. M. Yurovsky before the old Bolsheviks in Sverdlovsk in 1934

The younger generation may not understand us. They may reproach us for killing the girls, for killing the boy-heir. But by today, girls-boys would have grown into ... what?

In order to muffle the shots, a truck was brought near the Ipatiev House, but the shots were still heard in the city. Sokolov's materials contain, in particular, the testimony of two bystanders about this, the peasant Buivid and the night watchman Tsetsegov.

According to Richard Pipes, immediately after this, Yurovsky harshly suppresses the attempts of the guards to plunder the jewelry they discovered, threatening to be shot. After that, he instructed P.S. Medvedev to organize the cleaning of the premises, and he left to destroy the corpses.

The exact text of the sentence pronounced by Yurovsky before the execution is unknown. In the materials of the investigator N. A. Sokolov, there are testimonies of the dividing guard Yakimov, who claimed, with reference to the guard Kleshchev who was watching this scene, that Yurovsky said: “Nikolai Alexandrovich, your relatives tried to save you, but they didn’t have to. And we are forced to shoot you ourselves.”

M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) described this scene as follows:

Mikhail Alexandrovich Medvedev-Kudrin

- Nikolai Alexandrovich! Attempts by your like-minded people to save you were unsuccessful! And so, in a difficult time for the Soviet Republic... - Yakov Mikhailovich raises his voice and cuts the air with his hand: - ... we have been entrusted with the mission to put an end to the house of the Romanovs!

In the memoirs of Yurovsky's assistant G.P. Nikulin, this episode is stated as follows: Comrade Yurovsky uttered such a phrase that:

"Your friends are advancing on Yekaterinburg, and therefore you are sentenced to death."

Yurovsky himself could not remember the exact text: “... I immediately, as far as I remember, told Nikolai something like the following, that his royal relatives and relatives both in the country and abroad tried to release him, and that the Council of Workers' Deputies decided to shoot them ".

On July 17, in the afternoon, several members of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council contacted Moscow by telegraph (the telegram is marked that it was received at 12 o’clock) and reported that Nicholas II had been shot and his family had been evacuated. The editor of the Uralsky Rabochy, a member of the executive committee of the Ural Regional Council V. Vorobyov, later claimed that they “were very uneasy when they approached the apparatus: the former tsar was shot by a decree of the Presidium of the Regional Council, and it was not known how he would react to this“ arbitrariness ” central authority... ". The reliability of this evidence, wrote G.Z. Ioffe, cannot be verified.

Investigator N. Sokolov claimed that he had found a ciphered telegram from the chairman of the Ural Regional Executive Committee A. Beloborodov to Moscow, dated 21:00 on July 17, which allegedly was deciphered only in September 1920. It reported: “To the Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars N.P. Gorbunov: tell Sverdlov that the whole family suffered the same fate as the head. Officially, the family will die during the evacuation.” Sokolov concluded: it means that on the evening of July 17, Moscow knew about the death of the entire royal family. However, the minutes of the meeting of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on July 18 speak only of the execution of Nicholas II.

Destruction and burial of the remains

Ganinsky ravines - the burial place of the Romanovs

Yurovsky's version

According to Yurovsky's memoirs, he went to the mine at three o'clock in the morning on July 17th. Yurovsky reports that Goloshchekin must have ordered P.Z. Ermakov to carry out the burial. However, things did not go as smoothly as we would like: Ermakov brought too many people as a funeral team (“Why so many of them, I still don’t know , I heard only isolated cries - we thought that they would give us them alive, but here, it turns out, they are dead ”); truck stuck; jewels sewn into the clothes of the Grand Duchesses were discovered, some of Yermakov's people began to appropriate them. Yurovsky ordered to put guards on the truck. The bodies were loaded onto spans. On the way and near the mine planned for burial, strangers met. Yurovsky assigned people to cordon off the area, as well as to inform the village that Czechoslovaks were operating in the area and that it was forbidden to leave the village under threat of execution. In an effort to get rid of the presence of an overly large funeral team, he sends some people to the city "as unnecessary." Orders to make fires to burn clothes as possible evidence.

From the memoirs of Yurovsky (spelling preserved):

The daughters wore bodices so well made of solid diamond and other valuable stones, which were not only receptacles for valuables, but at the same time protective armor.

That is why neither the bullet nor the bayonet gave results when shooting and hitting the bayonet. By the way, no one is to blame for these death throes of theirs, except for themselves. These values ​​turned out to be only about (half) a pood. The greed was so great that, by the way, Alexandra Feodorovna was wearing just a huge piece of round gold wire, bent in the form of a bracelet, weighing about a pound ... Those parts of the valuables that were discovered during excavations undoubtedly belonged to separately sewn things and remained after burning in the ashes of the fires.

After seizing valuables and burning clothes on fires, the corpses were thrown into the mine, but “... a new hassle. The water covered the bodies a little, what to do here? The funeral team unsuccessfully tried to bring down the mine with grenades (“bombs”), after which Yurovsky, according to him, finally came to the conclusion that the burial of the corpses had failed, since they were easy to detect and, in addition, there were witnesses that something was happening here . Leaving the guards and taking valuables, at about two o'clock in the afternoon (in an earlier version of the memoirs - "at 10-11 am") on July 17, Yurovsky went to the city. I arrived at the Ural Regional Executive Committee and reported on the situation. Goloshchekin summoned Ermakov and sent him to retrieve the corpses. Yurovsky went to the city executive committee to its chairman, S. E. Chutskaev, for advice on a place for burial. Chutskaev reported on deep abandoned mines on the Moscow Trakt. Yurovsky went to inspect these mines, but he could not get to the place right away due to a car breakdown, he had to walk. Returned on requisitioned horses. During this time, another plan appeared - to burn the corpses.

Yurovsky was not quite sure that the incineration would be successful, so the plan to bury the corpses in the mines of the Moscow Tract remained an option. In addition, he had the idea, in case of any failure, to bury the bodies in groups in different places on a clay road. Thus, there were three options for action. Yurovsky went to the commissar of supply of the Urals, Voikov, to get gasoline or kerosene, as well as sulfuric acid to disfigure faces, and shovels. Having received this, they loaded it onto carts and sent it to the location of the corpses. A truck was sent there. Yurovsky himself stayed behind to wait for Polushin, "the 'specialist' incineration," and waited for him until 11 pm, but he never arrived because, as Yurovsky later learned, he had fallen off his horse and injured his leg. At about 12 o'clock in the night, Yurovsky, not counting on the reliability of the car, went to the place where the bodies of the dead were, on horseback, but this time another horse crushed his leg, so that he could not move for an hour.

Yurovsky arrived at the scene at night. Work was underway to retrieve the bodies. Yurovsky decided to bury several corpses along the way. By dawn on July 18, the pit was almost ready, but a stranger appeared nearby. I had to abandon this plan. After waiting for the evening, we boarded the cart (the truck was waiting in a place where it should not get stuck). Then they were driving a truck, and it got stuck. Midnight was approaching, and Yurovsky decided that it was necessary to bury him somewhere here, since it was dark and no one could be a witness to the burial.

... everyone was so damn tired that they didn’t want to dig new grave, but, as always happens in such cases, two or three got down to business, then others set to work, immediately lit a fire, and while the grave was being prepared, we burned two corpses: Alexei and, by mistake, instead of Alexandra Fedorovna, we obviously burned Demidova. A hole was dug at the place of burning, the bones were laid down, leveled, a large fire was lit again and all traces were hidden with ashes.

Before we put the rest of the corpses in the pit, we doused them with sulfuric acid, filled up the pit, covered it with sleepers, the empty truck passed, tamped the sleepers a little and put an end to it.

I. Rodzinsky and M. A. Medvedev (Kudrin) also left their memories of the burial of corpses (Medvedev, by his own admission, did not personally participate in the burial and retold the events from the words of Yurovsky and Rodzinsky). According to the memoirs of Rodzinsky himself:

The site where the remains of the alleged bodies of the Romanovs were found

We have now cleared this quagmire. She is deep God knows where. Well, here a part of these same darlings was decomposed and they began to fill it with sulfuric acid, they disfigured everything, and then it all turned into a quagmire. Nearby was Railway. We brought rotten sleepers, laid a pendulum through the very quagmire. They laid out these sleepers in the form of an abandoned bridge over a quagmire, and the rest at some distance they began to burn.

But now, I remember, Nikolai was burned, there was this same Botkin, I can’t tell you for sure now, now that’s a memory. How many we burned, either four, or five, or six people were burned. Who, I don't remember exactly. I do remember Nicholas. Botkin and, in my opinion, Alexei.

The execution without trial and investigation of the king, his wife, children, including minors, was another step along the path of lawlessness, neglect of human life, and terror. Many problems of the Soviet state began to be solved with the help of violence. The Bolsheviks who unleashed terror often became its victims themselves.
The burial of the last Russian emperor eighty years after the execution of the royal family is another indicator of the inconsistency and unpredictability of Russian history.

“Church on Blood” on the site of the Ipatiev House