The shooting of the royal family: what really happened. Death of the Romanovs (writer, historian, political scientist - Nikolai Starikov)

THE ROYAL FAMILY OF THE ROMANOVS

THE ROYAL FAMILY OF THE ROMANOVS

The marriage of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna is called a saint, and its date - November 26 - is remembered in Russia. 26th birthday of the last royal family houses of the Romanovs ..
Contemporaries said with some envy: "Their honeymoon lasted 23 years ..."
On the day of the wedding, Alix wrote in Nikolai's diary: "When this life is over, we will meet again in another world and stay together forever."

Interesting facts about Nicholas II

Nicholas II was born on May 6 on the day of St. Martyr Job the Long-suffering. The emperor himself considered himself in something similar to him. Both in character and in his actions, Nikolai was a clean, decent person, except for his stormy romance with the famous Russian ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, whom he loved before his marriage to Princess Alice of Hesse (Alix). For her, he experienced the first serious feeling, which he carried all his life until the brutal execution in the Ipatiev house on July 17, 1918.
They first met in St. Petersburg in 1884 at the wedding of Alix's elder sister Ella of Hesse and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. She was 12 years old, he was 16. Alix spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg. Later, Nikolai wrote: “I dream of marrying Alix G. someday. I have loved her for a long time, but especially deeply and strongly since 1889”.
In 1894, Emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Fedorovna fulfilled their son's cherished dream. Alice had to persuade him to accept Orthodoxy for a long time, but still, loving Nicholas, she agreed to change her faith.
Emperor Alexander III died on October 20, 1894. The loving son was very upset by the death of his father, but the heavy funeral did not prevent the magnificent wedding of Nikolai and Alice, who was named Alexandra Fedorovna, from taking place. On the occasion of mourning, there was no gala reception and no honeymoon trip. After the ceremony, the imperial couple moved to the Anichkov Palace.
In the spring of 1895, Nikolai moved his wife to Tsarskoe Selo. The couple were happy. The young emperor was more of an exemplary family man than statesman... The cunning ministers constantly deceived him, and his uncle, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, constantly intrigued against him, hoping for a coup d'état. The conflict intensified especially after the outbreak of the First World War.
Nikolai himself led a more than modest lifestyle. Demanding nothing for himself, he gave all his strength to the family and the state, which, as it seemed to him, he ruled. Usually the emperor got up at seven in the morning and began to work in his office, without a secretary. Perhaps the desire for loneliness and ruined him as a politician: he did not intervene in intrigues, did not look for supporters. And did he need it?
An interesting fact is that a certain monk Abel predicted to Paul I the entire history of the Romanov dynasty up to Nicholas II (“the tsar who will replace the royal crown with a crown of thorns”). The impressionable Paul I sealed the works of Abel, and said that he wanted them to be opened by his descendant a hundred years after his death. What Nikolai did after the coronation. The man withstood the news that he was the last emperor of the Romanovs' house, without resistance. Perhaps this can explain his inaction throughout the entire kingdom.
The imperial couple were accused of many things, especially the unfortunate Alice, who during the First World War was dubbed a "German spy", although at that time half of Russia worked for Germany, in particular, the Social Democratic Party, which by that time was divided into "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks". In fact, Nikolai distributed all his property to the poor, actively helped the wounded and their families during the World War, and made many trips to the cities of Russia. His wife, together with her friend A.A. Vyrubova, worked in hospitals as a simple sister. And this act of mercy still did not find a response in Russian souls. All were engaged in vilifying the royal couple in the entire press, on the streets, in clubs, in taverns, at meetings of deputies.
With the development of the disease of the heir to the throne (he was sick with hemophilia), many "prophets", "healers", Tibetan monks appeared at the royal house, who tried in vain to heal the boy. This angered the high society. Everyone was especially angered by the appearance of a "simple man" of a certain Grigory Rasputin, who was accused of trying to influence the policy of the royal house. He was also accused of orgies that Rasputin allegedly arranged with the empress and her inner circle. It is not known whether it was so or not, but it was Rasputin who could temporarily alleviate the boy's suffering. And, as you know, people who have lost hope of salvation are ready to pray for any sorcerer who will be able to alleviate their fate at least for a while.
Nevertheless, Rasputin was killed in December 1916. The conspiracy was led by State Duma deputy Purishkevich, Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. After the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas was forced to abdicate. The royal couple were arrested and transferred to Tobolsk. Courage only once betrayed Nikolai. During his arrest, he cried like a child.
It is curious that A.F. Kerensky, who hated Nicholas only from rumors, when meeting with him noted that he was a kind, sincere man, not at all like the despot he had introduced him to. After Nikolai was imprisoned in Tobolsk, his family and close servants were transported to Yekaterinburg. They were shot in July 1918 in the Ipatiev house, which was specially bought for this occasion (it is known that the coronation of Mikhail Romanov took place in the Ipatiev Palace). Until his death, Nikolai stood firm, and courageously endured all the humiliation to which he was subjected.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II and the Grand Duchesses
She was actively involved in charity work, in 1902 the Imperial Philanthropic Society was created. All family members of the latter Russian emperor be sure to do charity work. That's how they were brought up.
By the beginning of 1909, 33 charitable societies, communities of sisters of mercy, shelters, shelters and similar institutions were under her patronage, including: the Committee for finding places for military ranks who suffered in the war with Japan, the House of Charity for crippled soldiers, the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society , Trusteeship for labor assistance, Her Majesty's school of nannies in Tsarskoe Selo, Peterhof society for helping the poor, Society for helping the poor with clothes in St. Petersburg, Brotherhood in the name of the Queen of Heaven for the charity of idiotic and epileptic children, the Alexandria shelter for women and others.
Olga Nikolaevna: She regularly worked in hospitals and helped the wounded and injured. The community of sisters of mercy in Samara was called "named after Her Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna."
Tatiana Nikolaevna: During the First World War (1914-1918), she was active in social activities, was the honorary chairman of the "Tatiana Committee" - an organization engaged in providing assistance to refugees and other people who suffered as a result of hostilities. Was involved in collecting donations to help the wounded and injured. Chief of the 8th Uhlan Voznesensky regiment, one of the nicknames is "Ulan".
Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna: during the war they became patroness of the hospital. Both sisters gave their own money to buy medicines, read aloud to the wounded, knitted things for them, played cards and checkers, wrote letters home under their dictation, and entertained them with telephone conversations in the evenings, sewed clothes, prepared bandages and lint.
Maria and Anastasia gave concerts to the wounded and did their best to distract them from their heavy thoughts. They spent their days in the hospital, reluctant to break away from work for the sake of lessons. Anastasia remembered these days until the end of her life.

Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Romanov

The Romanov sisters with their brother Alexei

In the family circle

With my son on vacation

At the family table

Children of Nikolai and Alexandra

With son

Sisters

Sisters

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova - Grand Duchess, the firstborn of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. After the February Revolution, she and her family were under arrest. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, she was shot with her family in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.
Born in Tsarskoe Selo on November 3, 1895, at 9 o'clock in the afternoon. Baptized by the court protopresbyter and confessor Yanyshev in the church of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace on November 14 - on the birthday of Empress Maria Feodorovna and on the first wedding anniversary of her parents; her successors were Empress Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich; upon communion with the newborn, Empress Maria Feodorovna bestowed on her the insignia of the Order of St. Catherine.
During the First World War, there was an unfulfilled plan for Olga's marriage to a Romanian prince (the future Karol II). Olga Nikolaevna categorically refused to leave her homeland, to live in a foreign country, she said that she was Russian and wanted to remain so.

Grand Duchess Tatiana
January 25 - Name Day of Princess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova. She was the second child of the family. Like the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Tatiana outwardly resembled her mother, but her father's character was. Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova was less emotional than her sister. Tatyana's eyes were similar to those of the Empress, her figure was graceful, and the color of her blue eyes was in harmony with her brown hair. Tatiana rarely played naughty, and had an amazing, according to contemporaries, self-control. In Tatyana Nikolaevna, a sense of duty was strongly developed, and a tendency to order in everything. Due to her mother's illness, Tatyana Romanova was often in charge of the household, which did not burden the Grand Duchess in any way. She loved to do needlework, was good at embroidering and sewing. The princess had a sound mind. In cases requiring decisive action, she always remained herself. If Olga Nikolaevna was closer to the Father, then the second daughter spent more time with the Empress. Self-love was alien to the princess. Tatiana could always give up her business, and pay attention to her parents, if required. The princess's shyness was often mistaken for arrogance, although it was not. The princess was poetic in nature, longed for real friendship and trust. Princess Tatiana was deeply religious, loved to pray and talk with loved ones about religious matters. With the outbreak of World War, Tatiana became a sister of mercy. Before the trip to the infirmary, Tatyana, getting up at the earliest, took various lessons. Then, having returned from dressings again lessons. Then again the infirmaries. In the evening, Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova took up needlework. From this we can conclude that the princess was amazingly capable of working. Tatiana founded the "Tatiana Committee", which provided assistance to the victims of the war.
Tatiana's lifestyle was closed and strict. This image consisted of labor, prayer, teaching and charitable work. Duty to Russia and God - that was the basis of the life of Tatyana Nikolaevna Romanova.

Grand Duchess Maria
Maria Nikolaevna Romanova - Grand Duchess, daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

She was born on June 14, 1899 in the summer residence of Alexandria (Peterhof), where the imperial family spent the summer at that time.

They remember that little Mary was especially attached to her father. As soon as she started walking, she constantly tried to sneak out of the nursery, shouting "I want to go to dad!" The nanny almost had to lock her up so that the baby would not interrupt the next reception or work with the ministers. When the Tsar was sick with typhus, little Mary kissed his portrait every night.

During the First World War, Maria began an affair with the headquarters officer Nikolai Dmitrievich Demenkov, whom she met during a trip to the Tsar and Tsarevich Alexei, who at that time were at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief in Mogilev. When Maria with her sisters and mother returned from this trip to Tsarskoe Selo, Maria often asked her father to give her the go-ahead for a relationship with Demenkov. And it happened that she jokingly signed letters sent to her father, "Mrs. Demenkova"

During the war, Anastasia and Maria visited the wounded soldiers in hospitals, which, according to custom, were named after both Grand Duchesses. They worked for the wounded, sewing underwear for soldiers and their families, preparing bandages and lint; they were very sorry that, being too young, they could not become real sisters of mercy, like the Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna.

The princess was shot together with her family in 1918.

Grand Duchess Maria

Grand Duchess Anastasia
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova - Grand Duchess, daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna.

Born on June 5 (18), 1901 in Peterhof. By the time of her appearance, the royal couple already had three daughters - Olga, Tatiana and Maria. The Grand Duchess was named after the Montenegrin princess Anastasia Nikolaevna, a close friend of the empress.
The full title of Anastasia Nikolaevna sounded like Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess of Russia Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, but they did not use it, calling her by name and patronymic in the official speech, and at home they called her “little, Nastaska, Nastya, egg-capsule” - for her small height (157 cm .) and a round figure and a "shvybzik" - for mobility and inexhaustibility in the invention of pranks and pranks.
... In 1901, after her birth, the name of St. In honor of the princess, Anastasia Uzorezresitelitsa received the Caspian 148th Infantry Regiment. He began to celebrate his regimental holiday on December 22, the saint's day. The regimental church was erected in Peterhof by the architect Mikhail Fedorovich Verzhbitsky. At 14, the youngest daughter of the emperor became his honorary commander (colonel), about which Nikolai made a corresponding entry in his diary. From now on, the regiment was officially named the 148th Caspian Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anastasia Infantry Regiment.
During the war, the Empress gave many of the palace rooms to hospital premises. The elder sisters Olga and Tatiana, together with their mother, became sisters of mercy; Maria and Anastasia, being too young for such hard work, became patroness of the hospital. Both sisters gave their own money to buy medicines, read aloud to the wounded, knitted things for them, played cards and checkers, wrote letters home under their dictation, and entertained them with telephone conversations in the evenings, sewed clothes, prepared bandages and lint.
It is officially believed that the decision to shoot the royal family was finally made by the Ural Council on July 16 in connection with the possibility of surrendering the city to the White Guard troops and the allegedly discovered conspiracy to save the royal family. On the night of July 16-17, at 11.30 pm, two specially authorized representatives from the Ural Council handed a written order to shoot to the commander of the security detachment P.Z.

There is information that after the first volley Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia survived, they were saved by jewels sewn into the corsets of dresses. Later, the witnesses interrogated by the investigator Sokolov testified that of the tsar's daughters Anastasia resisted death the longest, the already wounded “had” to be finished off with bayonets and rifle butts ...


One of the last photos of the family

Enamel cross in buttonhole
And broadcloth of a gray jacket ...
What lovely faces
And how long ago.
What lovely faces
But how hopelessly pale -
Heir, Empress,
Four Grand Duchesses.

Tsarevich Alexey

July 17, 1918 - the day of the murder, namely the murder, and not the execution of the saints Tsar Nicholas, Tsarina Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexy, princesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and their faithful servants.
The decision to destroy the entire Romanov family was made late in the evening on 07/14/1918 by a narrow circle of the Bolshevik part of the executive committee of the Ural Soviet. The question was agreed by I.I. Goloschekin during his stay in Moscow with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Ya.M. Sverdlov and V.I. Lenin (perhaps without a personal meeting with him). The approximate date of the execution ("no later than July 18") and the nature of the message about it were discussed. The local authorities were obliged to take full responsibility and announce the murder of only one Nicholas II.
At half past eleven on the night of July 16, Deputy Regional Commissioner of Justice Yurovsky ordered to withdraw royal family with a servant in the basement. The first was Nicholas II with the heir Alexei in his arms. Alexandra Fedorovna joined him. Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia and Maria followed the parents, and the children were followed by Dr. Botkin, the cook Kharitonov, Trupp's lackey and Demidova's maid.
There were 11 victims and executioners each. As soon as Yurovsky read out the decision of the Ural Council on the execution of the tsar, shots rang out. The heir was shot twice. Anastasia and the maid were stabbed to death with bayonets after the shots. Next to the dying princess, her beloved dog Jamie whined, who was nailed with a butt.
In 1981, all members of the royal family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, in August 2000 - by the Russian Orthodox Church.

2013 - 400 ANNIVERSARY OF THE ROMANOV HOUSE.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT NICHOLAS II
1. During his reign (21 years) the population of Russia increased by 62 million people !!!
2. The grain harvest has doubled.
3. NONE of the requests for clemency that reached the Tsar were rejected.
4. Funds from the London Bank, about 4 million rubles (the current equivalent is 5,340,000,000!), Which remained there for Nikolai Aleksandrovich from his father, were completely spent on charity.
5. Things and shoes in the royal family passed from older children to younger ones. The Tsar himself was so modest in his personal life that he wore his "groom" suits until the last days.
7. In Tobolsk, in prison, the Family did not remain idle for a day. The Tsar chopped wood, cleaned the snow, looked after the garden. A soldier, one of the peasants, seeing all this, said: "Yes, if I could give him a piece of land, he would have earned Russia back with his own hands!"
8. When the temporary workers were preparing an accusation of "treason" to the Tsar, someone suggested publishing the personal correspondence between Nicholas Alexandrovich and the Empress. To which he received the answer: "It is impossible, then the people will recognize them as saints!"
9. The empress and princesses assisted in hospitals during operations, accepting amputated arms and legs from surgeons, washing purulent wounds caring for the wounded.
10. Once someone noticed how Alexandra Fyodorovna was crying at a prayer service for sending the next train to the front, as if she was seeing off her own children ...
11. In 1905, the revolutionaries themselves began to shoot at the troops. And the dead were 93, not 5000 as the Russophobe and the God-fighter Lenin said. In 1905-1907, the revolution was defeated thanks to the strong will of the Sovereign. This dispels the myth of "a weak and weak-willed ruler."
12. During the years of the sovereign's reign, spending on education increased more than 6 times. In 1908, compulsory primary education was introduced. It was the Tsar who introduced it, not the Bolsheviks. In 1911 Empress Alexandra founded our Higher School of Folk Arts. This is our answer to the false myth that the Tsarist government allegedly did not care about public education.
13. During the years of the sovereign's reign, the standard of living has increased 3 times, the budget more than 3.5 times. Grain production doubled, the number of cattle increased by 60%. Then the aircraft and automobile industries appeared. The Tsar was helped by the Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. This is our answer to the vile lie "about the backward Tsarist Russia"
14.Then the Tsar stood at the head of the Army in Time. The defeats and retreat ceased. In 1916, Russia began to win the war. At the beginning of 1917, the country was on the verge of victory, and if it were not for the Masonic conspiracy and the betrayal of the generals, we won the wars. Galicia, Transcarpathian Rus and Bukovina would join Russia. Peace was established in Europe for many years, perhaps there would have been no monstrous World War II with its tens of millions killed. But the revolution prevented everything, the country fell into the horrors of fratricidal civil war and militant fighting against God.

A monument to Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna was unveiled in St. Petersburg

The sculpture is installed between the buildings of the Varshavsky railway station and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. The initiator of the creation of the monument was the rector of the temple, Archimandrite Sergius, and the parishioners raised funds for its installation. The opening of the sculpture was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty and the 120th anniversary of the wedding of the royal family.
“We would like this to be a monument not only to the royal, but also to every truth in general. Orthodox family- and there are still a lot of them, in spite of everything, in Russia; these families bear the whole burden of time on themselves, do not let the Russian society finally fall, - and, of course, they are worthy of a monument, ”they say in the parish of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

After the shooting on the night of July 16-17, 1918, the bodies of members of the royal family and their entourage (11 people in total) were loaded into a car and sent in the direction of Verkh-Isetsk to the abandoned mines of Ganina Yama. At first, they tried unsuccessfully to burn the victims, and then they were thrown into the shaft of the mine and thrown over with branches.

Finding the remains

However, the next day, almost all of Verkh-Isetsk knew about what had happened. In addition, according to a member of Medvedev's firing squad, “ ice water the mines not only washed away the blood clean, but also froze the bodies so much that they looked like they were alive. " The conspiracy has clearly failed.

It was decided to reburial the remains promptly. The area was cordoned off, but the truck, having driven only a few kilometers, got stuck in the swampy area of ​​Porosenkov's log. Without beginning to invent anything, they buried one part of the bodies right under the road, and the other a little to the side, having previously filled them with sulfuric acid. Sleepers were placed on top for reliability.

It is interesting that the forensic investigator N. Sokolov, sent by Kolchak in 1919 to search for a burial, found this place, but did not think to raise the sleepers. In the area of ​​Ganina Yama, he managed to find only a severed female finger. Nevertheless, the conclusion of the investigator was unambiguous: “This is all that remains of the August Family. The rest was destroyed by the Bolsheviks with fire and sulfuric acid. "

Nine years later, perhaps, it was Porosenkov Log that Vladimir Mayakovsky visited, as can be judged by his poem "The Emperor": "Here the cedar was torn with an ax, the notches at the root of the bark, at the root under the cedar is a road, and in it the emperor is buried."

It is known that the poet, shortly before his trip to Sverdlovsk, met in Warsaw with one of the organizers of the execution of the royal family, Pyotr Voikov, who could point him to the exact place.

The Ural historians found the remains in the Porosenkovy Log in 1978, but permission for excavation was obtained only in 1991. There were 9 bodies in the burial. During the investigation, some of the remains were recognized as "royal": according to the experts, only Alexei and Maria were missing. However, many experts were confused by the results of the examination, and therefore no one was in a hurry to agree with the conclusions. The House of Romanovs and the Russian Orthodox Church refused to recognize the remains as genuine.

Alexey and Maria were found only in 2007, guided by a document drawn up from the words of the commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Yurovsky. “Yurovsky's note” initially did not arouse much confidence, nevertheless, the place of the second burial in it was indicated correctly.

Falsifications and myths

Immediately after the execution, representatives of the new government tried to convince the West that the members of the imperial family, or at least the children, were alive and in a safe place. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs GV Chicherin in April 1922 at the Genoa conference when asked by one of the correspondents about the fate of the Grand Duchesses vaguely replied: “The fate of the tsar's daughters is not known to me. I read in the newspapers that they are in America. "

However, in an informal setting, PL Voikov stated more specifically: "the world will never know what we have done with the royal family." But later, after the materials of Sokolov's investigation were published in the West, the Soviet authorities recognized the fact of the execution of the imperial family.

Falsifications and speculations around the execution of the Romanovs contributed to the spread of persistent myths, among which the myth of ritual murder and the severed head of Nicholas II, which was in the NKVD special security, was popular. Later, stories about the "miraculous salvation" of the Tsar's children - Alexei and Anastasia - were added to the myths. But all this remained myths.

Investigation and expertise

In 1993, investigator of the Prosecutor General's Office Vladimir Solovyov was entrusted with conducting the case on the discovery of the remains. Considering the importance of the case, in addition to traditional ballistic and macroscopic examinations, additional genetic studies were carried out jointly with British and American scientists.

For these purposes, blood was taken from some of the relatives of the Romanovs living in England and Greece. The results showed that the probability that the remains belonged to members of the royal family was 98.5 percent.
The investigation considered this to be insufficient. Solovyov managed to obtain permission to exhume the remains of the tsar's brother, George. Scientists confirmed the "absolute positional similarity of mt-DNA" of both remains, which revealed a rare genetic mutation inherent in the Romanovs - heteroplasmy.

However, after the discovery in 2007 of the alleged remains of Alexei and Maria, new research and expertise was required. The work of scientists was greatly facilitated by Alexy II, who, before the burial of the first group of royal remains in the tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, asked investigators to remove the bone particles. “Science is developing, it is possible that they will be needed in the future,” such were the words of the Patriarch.

To remove doubts from skeptics for new examinations, the head of the molecular genetics laboratory at the University of Massachusetts, Evgeny Rogaev (on which representatives of the House of Romanovs insisted), the chief geneticist of the US Army Michael Cobble (who returned the names of the victims of September 11), and Walter, an employee of the Institute of Forensic Medicine from Austria, were invited for new examinations. Parson.

Comparing the remains from the two burials, the experts once again double-checked the previously obtained data, and also conducted new studies - the previous results were confirmed. Moreover, the "blood-spattered shirt" of Nicholas II (the Otsu incident), found in the Hermitage funds, fell into the hands of scientists. And again a positive answer: the tsar's genotypes "on blood" and "on bone" coincided.

Outcomes

The results of the investigation into the shooting of the royal family refuted some of the previously existing assumptions. For example, according to the experts' conclusion, "under the conditions in which the destruction of corpses was carried out, it was impossible to completely destroy the remains using sulfuric acid and combustible materials."

This fact excludes Ganina Yama as the final burial site.
True, the historian Vadim Viner finds a serious gap in the conclusions of the investigation. He believes that some finds belonging to a later time, in particular coins of the 30s, were not taken into account. But as the facts show, information about the burial place very quickly "leaked" to the masses, and therefore the burial ground could be repeatedly opened in search of possible values.

Another revelation is offered by the historian S. A. Belyaev, who believes that “the family of the Yekaterinburg merchant could have been buried with imperial honors,” though without providing convincing arguments.
However, the conclusions of the investigation, which were carried out with unprecedented scrupulousness, using newest methods, with the participation of independent experts, are unambiguous: all 11 remains clearly correlate with each of those shot in the Ipatiev house. Common sense and logic dictates that it is impossible to accidentally duplicate such physical and genetic correspondences.
In December 2010, a final conference was held in Yekaterinburg dedicated to the latest examination results. The reports were made by 4 groups of geneticists who worked independently in different countries... Opponents of the official version could also present their views, however, according to eyewitnesses, "after listening to the reports, they left the hall without uttering a word."
The Russian Orthodox Church still does not recognize the authenticity of the "Yekaterinburg remains", but many representatives of the House of Romanov, judging by their statements in the press, accepted the final results of the investigation.

In this case, the conversation will focus on those gentlemen, thanks to whom, on the night of July 16-17, 1918, in Yekaterinburg was brutal the royal family of the Romanovs was killed... These executioners have one name - regicides... Some of them made the decision, while others followed it. As a result, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and their children: Grand Duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga, Tatiana and Tsarevich Alexei, died. Together with them, people from the service personnel were shot. These are the family's personal chef Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, the chamberlain Aleksey Yegorovich Trup, the room girl Anna Demidova and the family doctor Evgeny Sergeevich Botkin.

Criminals

The terrible crime was preceded by a meeting of the Presidium of the Ural Soviet, held on July 12, 1918. It was on it that the decision was made to shoot the royal family. Was also developed detailed plan both the crime itself and the destruction of corpses, that is, hiding the traces of the destruction of innocent people.

The meeting was chaired by the chairman of the Uralsovet, a member of the presidium of the regional committee of the RCP (b) Alexander Georgievich Beloborodov (1891-1938). Together with him, the decision was made by: the military commissar of Yekaterinburg Philip Isaevich Goloshchekin (1876-1941), the chairman of the regional Cheka Fedor Nikolaevich Lukoyanov (1894-1947), the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Yekaterinburg worker" Georgy Ivanovich Safarov (1891-1942), the supply commissar of the Ural council Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov (1888-1927), commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky (1878-1938).

The Bolsheviks called the house of the engineer Ipatiev "House of Special Purpose". It was in it that the royal family of the Romanovs were kept in May-July 1918 after they were transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.

But you have to be a very naive person to think that middle-level executives took responsibility and independently made the most important political decision to shoot the royal family. They found it possible only to coordinate it with the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (1885-1919). This is exactly how the Bolsheviks once presented everything.

Already somewhere, but in the Leninist party discipline was iron. Decisions came only from the very top, and the grassroots employees unquestioningly executed them. Therefore, it can be argued with full responsibility that the order was given directly by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who was sitting in the silence of the Kremlin cabinet. Naturally, he discussed this issue with Sverdlov and the main Ural Bolshevik Yevgeny Alekseevich Preobrazhensky (1886-1937).

The latter, of course, was aware of all the decisions, although he was absent from Yekaterinburg on the bloody date of the execution. At this time, he took part in the work of the V All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Moscow, and then left for Kursk and returned to the Urals only in the last days of July 1918.

But, in any case, officially Ulyanov and Preobrazhensky cannot be blamed for the death of the Romanov family. Sverdlov bears indirect responsibility. After all, he also imposed the "agreed" resolution. A kind of soft head. Resignedly, he took the decision of the grassroots organization into consideration and readily scribbled an ordinary reply on a sheet of paper. Only a 5-year-old child can believe in this.

The royal family in the basement of the Ipatiev house before the execution

Now let's talk about performers. About those villains who committed a terrible sacrilege, raising their hands to the anointed of God and his family. To date, the exact list of the killers is unknown. Nobody can name the number of criminals either. There is an opinion that Latvian riflemen took part in the execution, since the Bolsheviks believed that Russian soldiers would not shoot at the tsar and his family. Other researchers insist on the Hungarians who guarded the arrested Romanovs.

However, there are names that appear in all the lists of various researchers. This is the commandant of the "House of Special Purpose" Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky, who led the execution. His deputy is Grigory Petrovich Nikulin (1895-1965). The commander of the protection of the royal family, Pyotr Zakharovich Ermakov (1884-1952) and an employee of the Cheka Mikhail Alexandrovich Medvedev (Kudrin) (1891-1964).

These four people were directly involved in the execution of representatives of the House of Romanov. They put the decision of the Ural Council into effect. At the same time, they showed amazing cruelty, since they not only shot at absolutely defenseless people, but also finished them off with bayonets, and then doused them with acid so that the bodies could not be recognized.

Each will be rewarded according to his deeds

Organizers

There is an opinion that God sees everything and punishes evildoers for what they have done. The regicides are among the most cruel part of the criminal elements. Their goal is to seize power. They go to her through the corpses, not at all embarrassed by this. At the same time, people are dying who are not at all to blame for the fact that they received their crowned title by inheritance. As for Nicholas II, this man at the time of his death was no longer the emperor, since he voluntarily renounced the crown.

Moreover, the death of his family and service personnel cannot be justified in any way. What drove the villains? Of course, frenzied cynicism, disregard for human lives, lack of spirituality and rejection of Christian norms and rules. The most terrible thing is that, having committed a terrible crime, these gentlemen were proud of what they had done for the rest of their lives. They willingly told about everything to journalists, schoolchildren and just idle listeners.

But let's go back to God and trace life path those who doomed innocent people to a terrible death for the sake of an irrepressible desire to command others.

Ulyanov and Sverdlov

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin... We all know him as the leader of the world proletariat. However, this popular leader was spattered to the top with human blood. After the execution of the Romanovs, he lived for only a little over 5 years. He died of syphilis, losing his mind. This is the most terrible punishment of the heavenly powers.

Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov... He left this world at the age of 33, 9 months after the atrocity committed in Yekaterinburg. In the city of Oryol, he was severely beaten by workers. The very ones for whose rights he allegedly stood up for. With multiple fractures and injuries, he was taken to Moscow, where he died 8 days later.

These are the two main criminals directly responsible for the death of the Romanov family. The regicides were punished and died not in old age, surrounded by children and grandchildren, but in their prime. As for the other organizers of the villainy, here the heavenly forces postponed the punishment, but God's judgment was still accomplished, giving everyone what they deserved.

Goloshchekin and Beloborodov (right)

Philip Isaevich Goloshchekin- Chief Chekist of Yekaterinburg and adjacent territories. It was he who went to Moscow at the end of June, where he received oral instructions from Sverdlov concerning the execution of the crowned persons. After that, he returned to the Urals, where the presidium of the Ural Soviet was hastily assembled, and a decision was made on the secret execution of the Romanovs.

In mid-October 1939, Philip Isaevich was arrested. He was accused of anti-state activities and an unhealthy attraction to little boys. This perverted gentleman was shot at the end of October 1941. Goloshchekin survived the Romanovs by 23 years, but retribution still overtook him.

Chairman of the Ural Council Alexander Georgievich Beloborodov- for the present time this is the chairman regional duma... It was he who headed the meeting at which the decision was made to shoot the royal family. His signature was next to the word "I approve." If we approach this issue officially, then it is he who bears the main responsibility for the murder of innocent people.

Beloborodov had been a member of the Bolshevik party since 1907, joining it as a minor boy after the 1905 revolution. In all the posts that his senior comrades entrusted him with, he showed himself to be an exemplary and executive worker. The best proof of this is July 1918.

After the execution of the crowned persons, Alexander Georgievich flew very high. In March 1919, his candidacy was considered for the post of president of the young Soviet republic. But preference was given to Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (1875-1946), since he knew peasant life well, and our "hero" was born into a working class family.

But the former chairman of the Uralsovet was not offended. He was made head of the political department of the Red Army. In 1921, he became deputy to Felix Dzherzhinesky, who headed the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. In 1923 he replaced him at this high post. True, a brilliant career did not work out further.

In December 1927, Beloborodov was removed from his post and exiled to Arkhangelsk. From 1930 he worked as a middle manager. In August 1936, he was arrested by the NKVD. In February 1938, by decision of the military collegium, Alexander Georgievich was shot. At the time of his death, he was 46 years old. After the death of the Romanovs, the main culprit did not live even 20 years. In 1938, his wife Franciska Viktorovna Yablonskaya was also shot.

Safarov and Voikov (right)

Georgy Ivanovich Safarov- Editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Yekaterinburgsky Rabochy". This Bolshevik with pre-revolutionary experience was an ardent supporter of the execution of the Romanov family, although she did nothing wrong to him. He lived well until 1917 in France and Switzerland. I arrived in Russia together with Ulyanov and Zinoviev in a "sealed carriage".

After the committed atrocity he worked in Turkestan, and then in the executive committee of the Comintern. Then he became editor-in-chief of Leningradskaya Pravda. In 1927 he was expelled from the party and sentenced to 4 years of exile in the city of Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory). In 1928, the party card was returned and again sent to work in the Comintern. But after the assassination of Sergei Kirov at the end of 1934, Safarov finally lost confidence.

He was again exiled to Achinsk, and in December 1936 he was sentenced to 5 years in the camps. Since January 1937, Georgy Ivanovich served his sentence in Vorkuta. He performed the duties of a water carrier there. He wore a prison pea jacket, belted with a rope. The family abandoned him after the conviction. For the former Bolshevik-Leninist, this was a heavy moral blow.

After the end of his term of imprisonment, Safarov was not released. It was a hard time, wartime, and someone apparently decided that Ulyanov's former ally had nothing to do in the rear of the Soviet troops. He was shot by a special commission on July 27, 1942. This "hero" survived the Romanovs by 24 years and 10 days. He died at the age of 51, having lost both freedom and family at the end of his life.

Pyotr Lazarevich Voikov- the main supplier of the Urals. He was closely involved in food issues. How could he get food in 1919? Naturally, he took them away from peasants and merchants who did not leave Yekaterinburg. With his tireless activity he brought the region to complete impoverishment. The troops of the White Army arrived well, otherwise people would begin to die of hunger.

This gentleman also arrived in Russia in a "sealed carriage", but not with Ulyanov, but with Anatoly Lunacharsky (the first People's Commissar of Education). Voikov was at first a Menshevik, but he quickly figured out where the wind was blowing from. At the end of 1917, he broke with a shameful past and joined the RCP (b).

Pyotr Lazarevich not only raised his hand, voting for the death of the Romanovs, but also took an active part in hiding the traces of villainy. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​pouring sulfuric acid on bodies. Since he was in charge of all the warehouses of the city, he personally signed the invoice for the receipt of this very acid. By his order, transport was also allocated for the transport of bodies, shovels, picks, crowbars. The business executive is the main one that you want.

Petr Lazarevich liked the activity related to material values. Since 1919, he was engaged in consumer cooperation, being the deputy chairman of the Tsentrosoyuz. Concurrently, he organized the sale abroad of the treasures of the House of Romanovs and museum values ​​of the Diamond Fund, the Armory, private collections requisitioned from the exploiters.

Priceless works of art and jewelry went to the black market, since no one officially had anything to do with the young Soviet state at that time. Hence the ridiculous prices that were given for items of unique historical value.

In October 1924, Voikov left for Poland as a plenipotentiary. This was already big politics, and Pyotr Lazarevich with enthusiasm began to master in a new field. But the poor fellow was out of luck. On June 7, 1927, he was shot by Boris Kaverda (1907-1987). A Bolshevik terrorist fell at the hands of another terrorist belonging to the White émigré movement. Retribution came almost 9 years after the death of the Romanovs. At the time of his death, our next "hero" was 38 years old.

Fedor Nikolaevich Lukoyanov- Chief Chekist of the Urals. He voted for the execution of the royal family, therefore he is one of the organizers of the atrocity. But in subsequent years, this "hero" did not show himself in any way. The point is that since 1919 he began to suffer from bouts of schizophrenia. Therefore, Fyodor Nikolaevich devoted his entire life to journalism. He worked in various newspapers, and died in 1947 at the age of 53, 29 years after the murder of the Romanov family.

Performers

As for the direct perpetrators of the bloody crime, God's judgment treated them much softer than the organizers. They were servants and only carried out the order. Therefore, they are less guilty. At least, you might think so if you trace the fateful path of every criminal.

The main performer of the terrible murder of defenseless women and men, as well as a sick boy. He boasted that he personally shot Nicholas II. However, his subordinates also claimed this role.

Yakov Yurovsky

After the crime was committed, he was taken to Moscow and sent to work in the Cheka. Then, after the liberation of Yekaterinburg from the White troops, Yurovsky returned to the city. Received the post of chief security officer of the Urals.

In 1921 he was transferred to Gokhran and began to live in Moscow. Was engaged in accounting for material values. After that, he worked for a little in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs.

In 1923, a sharp decline. Yakov Mikhailovich was appointed director of the Krasny Bogatyr plant. That is, our hero began to lead the production of rubber shoes: boots, galoshes, boots. Quite a strange profile after the KGB and financial activities.

In 1928, Yurovsky was transferred to the director of the Polytechnic Museum. It is a long building near the Bolshoi Theater. In 1938, the main perpetrator of the murder died of an ulcer at the age of 60. He outlived his victims by 20 years and 16 days.

But apparently the regicides bring a curse on their offspring. This "hero" had three children. The eldest daughter Rimma Yakovlevna (1898-1980) and two younger sons.

The daughter joined the Bolshevik Party in 1917 and headed the youth organization (Komsomol) of Yekaterinburg. Since 1926, at party work. She made a good career in this field in the city of Voronezh in 1934-1937. Then she was transferred to Rostov-on-Don, where she was arrested in 1938. She stayed in the camps until 1946.

His son Alexander Yakovlevich (1904-1986) was also in prison. He was arrested in 1952, but, however, was soon released. But with the grandchildren and granddaughters, trouble happened. All the boys died tragically. Two fell from the roof of the house, two were burned down during the fire. The girls died in infancy. Yurovsky's niece Maria suffered the most. She had 11 children. Before adolescence only 1 boy survived. His mother abandoned him. The child was adopted by strangers.

Concerning Nikulina, Ermakova and Medvedev (Kudrina), then these gentlemen lived to old age. They worked, were honorably retired, and then buried with dignity. But regicides always get what they deserve. These three have escaped the punishment they deserve on earth, but there is still judgment in heaven.

Tomb of Grigory Petrovich Nikulin

After death, each soul rushes to the heavenly tabernacles, hoping that the angels will let her into the Kingdom of Heaven. So the souls of the killers rushed to the Light. But then a dark personality appeared in front of each of them. She politely took the sinner's elbow and nodded unambiguously in the opposite direction from Paradise.

There, in the heavenly haze, could be seen a black mouth in the Underworld. And next to him were disgusting grinning faces, nothing like heavenly angels. These are devils, and they have only one job - to put the sinner on a hot frying pan and fry him forever over low heat.

In conclusion, it should be noted that violence always gives rise to violence. The one who commits a crime becomes a victim of the criminals himself. A vivid proof of this is the fate of the regicides, about whom we tried to tell in as much detail as possible in our sad story.

Egor Laskutnikov

On December 12, Channel One will air an 8-episode series dedicated to last days reign of Emperor Nicholas II, as well as one of the most mysterious confidants of the royal family - the elder. Nicholas II and his family (wife and children) - the last representatives of the Romanov dynasty and the last rulers Russian Empire shot by the Bolsheviks in July 1918.

In Soviet textbooks, the autocrat was presented as not interested in state affairs as a “strangler of freedoms,” and the Russian Orthodox Church (albeit already in our days) canonized the tsar as a martyr and passion-bearer. Let's see how modern historians assess life and government.

Life and reign of Nicholas II

Tradition

Nicholas, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, was born in Tsarskoe Selo on May 6 (18), 1868. The heir to the throne received a deep education at home: he knew several languages, world history, was versed in economics and military affairs. Together with his father, Nikolai made many trips to the provinces of Russia.

Tradition

Alexander III did not indulge in concessions: he wanted his offspring to behave like ordinary children - to play, fight, sometimes play naughty, but most importantly, they studied well and "did not think about any thrones."

Contemporaries described Nicholas II as very simple in communication, full of true human dignity. He never interrupted the interlocutor and did not raise his voice, even to those of lower rank. The emperor was condescending to human weaknesses and good-naturedly treated ordinary people - peasants, but he never forgave what he called "dark money matters."

In 1894, after the death of his father, Nicholas II ascended the throne. The years of his reign fell on a turbulent period in history. All over the world, revolutionary trends were born, in 1914 the First World War began. However, even in such difficult times, he managed to significantly improve the economic situation of the state.

Arguments and Facts

Here are just a few facts about the reign of Nicholas II:

• During his reign, the population of the empire increased by 50 million people.
• 4 million rubles left by Alexander III as an inheritance to children and kept in a London bank were spent on charity.
• The emperor approved all requests for clemency that were sent to him.
• The grain harvest has doubled.
• Nicholas II spent military reform: reduced service life, improved living conditions for soldiers and sailors, and also contributed to the rejuvenation of the officer corps.
• During the First World War, he did not sit out in the palace, but took command of the Russian army, finally managing to repulse Germany.

Kommersant

However, the nascent revolutionary sentiments more and more captured people's thoughts. On March 2, 1917, under pressure from the high command, he handed over the Manifesto of Abdication, in which he bequeathed the army to obey the Provisional Government.

Modern historians believe the Manifesto was a forgery. In the original draft, Nicholas II only called for listening to the bosses, observing discipline and “defending Russia with all my might”. Later Alekseev only added a couple of sentences (“I am addressing you for the last time ...”) to change the meaning of the words of the autocrat.

The wife of Nicholas II - Alexandra Fedorovna

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The Empress (née Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt) was born on May 25 (June 6) 1872. She received a new name after her baptism and marriage with Nicholas II. The upbringing of the future empress was carried out by the English Queen Victoria, who adored her granddaughter.

Alice graduated from the University of Heidelberg with a Bachelor of Science in Philosophy.

In May 1884, at the wedding of her sister Elizaveta Fedorovna, she met Nikolai Alexandrovich. The wedding took place on November 14 (26), 1894, just 3 weeks after the death of Emperor Alexander.

During the war, Empress Alexandra and the Grand Duchesses personally assisted in operations in hospitals, accepted amputated limbs from surgeons and washed purulent wounds.

Arguments and Facts

Despite the fact that the empress was not popular in the new fatherland, she herself fell in love with Russia with all her heart. Doctor Botkin's daughter wrote in her diary that after Nicholas II read the manifesto about the war with Germany (its historical homeland), Alexandra cried with joy.

Nevertheless, the liberals considered her the head of the Germanophile court group and accused Nicholas II of being too dependent on the opinion of his wife. Due to the negative attitude, the princess, once sparkling with joy, the “ray of Windsor” (as Nicholas II called Alexandra at one time) gradually closed herself in a narrow circle of family and 2-3 close associates.

Especially a lot of controversy was caused by her friendship with the elder, Siberian peasant Grigory Rasputin.

Children of Nicholas II

Sites - Google

The family of Nicholas II Romanov raised five children: four daughters (Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia) and a son, the heir to the throne, Alexei Nikolaevich.

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova

Wikipedia

Olga, the eldest daughter of Nicholas II, gave the impression of a gentle and fragile girl. WITH early years showed a passion for books and was a very erudite child. However, at times the Grand Duchess was hot-tempered and stubborn. The teachers noted that the girl had almost perfect ear for music - she could play almost any melody she heard somewhere.

Princess Olga did not like luxury and was distinguished by her modesty. She did not like households, but she read with pleasure, played the piano and painted.

Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova

Wikipedia

Tatyana Nikolaevna was born on May 29, 1897. As a child, most of all she loved to ride a pony and a tandem bike with her sister Olga, she could wander around the garden for hours, picking flowers and berries.

In character, Tatyana was similar to her mother: she laughed less often than other sisters, she was often thoughtful and stern.

Unlike her older sister, the girl loved to manage, and she did it very well. When her mother was away, Tatyana embroidered, ironed the linen and managed to keep an eye on the younger children.

Maria Nikolaevna Romanova

Wikipedia

The third daughter in the family of Nicholas II - Maria - was born on the night of June 14, 1899 in a summer residence in Peterhof. Very large and strong for her age, she subsequently carried her brother Alexei in her arms when it was hard for him to walk. Because of her simplicity and cheerful disposition, the sisters called her Masha. The girl loved to talk to the guards and always remembered the names of their wives, who had how many children.

At the age of 14 she became a colonel of the 9th Dragoon Kazan regiment. Then her romance with officer Demenkov broke out. When the lover went to the front, Maria personally sewed him a shirt. In telephone conversations, he assured that the shirt fit. Unfortunately, the end of the love story was tragic: Nikolai Demenkov was killed during the civil war.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

Wikipedia

Princess Anastasia was born when there were already three daughters in the family of Nicholas II and Alexandra. Outwardly, she looked like her father, often laughed loudly and burst out laughing. From the diaries of those close to the royal family, you can learn that Anastasia was distinguished by a very cheerful and even mischievous character. The girl loved to play rounders and forfeits, she could tirelessly rush around the palace, playing hide and seek, and climb trees. But in her studies she was never particularly diligent and even tried to bribe teachers with bouquets of flowers.

Alexey Nikolaevich Romanov

Wikipedia

The long-awaited son of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna was the youngest of the children of the royal couple. The boy was born on July 30 (August 12), 1904. At first, the Tsarevich grew up as a cheerful, cheerful child, but later a terrible genetic disease, hemophilia, manifested itself. This complicated the education and training of the future emperor. Only Rasputin managed to find a way to alleviate the boy's suffering.

Aleksey Nikolayevich himself wrote in his diary: "When I am king, there will be no poor and unfortunate people, I want everyone to be happy."

Execution of Nicholas II and his family

All Switzerland in the palm of your hand

After the signing of the manifesto from March 9 to August 14, 1917, the royal family of Nicholas II lived under arrest in Tsarskoe Selo. In the summer they were transported to Tobolsk, where the regime was a little softer: the Romanovs were allowed to walk across the street to the Church of the Annunciation and lead a quiet home life.

While in prison, the family of Tsar Nicholas II did not sit idle: the former monarch personally chopped wood and looked after the garden.

In the spring of 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to transfer the Romanov family to Moscow for trial. However, it never took place. On July 12, the Ural Soviet of Workers' Deputies decided to execute the former emperor. Nicholas II, Alexandra Fyodorovna, their children, as well as Doctor Botkin and a servant were shot in Yekaterinburg in the “House of Special Purpose” on the night of July 17, 1918.

To accommodate the Romanovs, a house belonging to mining engineer N.I. Ipatiev was temporarily requisitioned. Five service personnel lived here with the Romanov family: Dr. Botkin, a footman Trupp, Demidova's room girl, a cook Kharitonov and a cook Sednev. On the fateful day of July 16, 1918, the Romanovs and the servants went to bed, as usual, at 22:30. At 23 hours 30 minutes. two specially authorized representatives from the Ural Soviet came to the mansion. They handed the decision of the executive committee to the commander of the guard detachment Yermakov and the commandant of the house, Yurovsky, and offered to immediately proceed with the execution of the sentence. Awakened family members and staff are told that the mansion may be under fire due to the White forces' advance, and therefore, for safety reasons, it is necessary to move to basement... Seven family members Nikolai Alexandrovich, Alexandra Fedorovna, daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and son Alexei, three voluntarily remaining servants and a doctor descend from the second floor of the house and move into the corner basement room. Yurovsky lined up the arrested in two rows, in the first - the entire royal family, in the second - their servants. The Empress and the heir were seated on chairs. The tsar stood on the right-flank in the first row. One of the servants stood at the back of his head. Before the tsar, Yurovsky stood face to face, holding right hand in his trousers pocket, and in his left he held a small sheet, then he read out the verdict. "Attention! The decision of the Ural Council is announced. ”Before he had time to finish reading the last words, the tsar loudly asked him:“ How, I don’t understand? ”Yurovsky read it a second time, at the last word he immediately grabbed a revolver from his pocket and fired point-blank at the tsar. The king fell backwards. The tsarina and daughter Olga tried to cross themselves with the sign of the cross, but did not have time. Simultaneously with Yurovsky's shot, shots from the firing squad rang out. All the other ten people fell to the floor. Several more shots were fired at those who were lying. Smoke obscured the electric light and made breathing difficult. The shooting was stopped, the doors of the room were opened so that the smoke would spread. A stretcher was brought in and the bodies began to be removed. The first was carried out the body of the king. The corpses were taken to a truck in the yard. When they put on Princess Anastasia, she screamed and covered her face with her hand. Others were also alive. It was no longer possible to shoot, with the doors open, shots could be heard in the street. Ermakov took a rifle with a bayonet from a soldier and stabbed everyone who was alive. When all the arrested were already lying on the floor, bleeding, the heir was still sitting on the chair. For some reason he did not fall to the floor for a long time and remained alive. He was shot in the head and chest and fell off his chair. Together with them, the dog that one of the princesses had brought with her was shot. After loading the killed on the car, at about three o'clock in the morning, we left for the place that Ermakov was supposed to prepare behind the Verkhne-Isetsky plant. Having passed the plant, they stopped and began to load the corpses onto cabs, since it was impossible to drive further by car. When overloading, it turned out that Tatiana, Olga, Anastasia were wearing special corsets. It was decided to strip the corpses naked, but not here, but at the burial site. But it turned out that no one knows where the mine intended for this is. It was getting light. Yurovsky sent horsemen to look for the mine, but no one found it. After driving a little, we stopped one and a half versts from the village of Koptyaki. In the forest, they found a shallow mine with water. Yurovsky ordered to undress the corpses. When they were undressing one of the princesses, they saw a corset, torn in places by bullets, diamonds were visible in the holes. Everything of value was collected from the corpses, their clothes were burned, and the corpses themselves were lowered into the mine and pelted with grenades. After completing the operation and leaving the guards, Yurovsky left with a report to the Ural Executive Committee. On July 18, Ermakov again arrived at the crime scene. He was lowered into the mine on a rope, and he tied each killed individual and lifted him up. When everyone was pulled out, the corpses were doused with sulfuric acid. It was decided to burn the corpses. But the person who took it upon himself to do this did not show up. There are also two statements: the corpses of Anastasia and Alexei were still burned and by mistake they burned the corpse of the maid Demidova. We had to hurry up: white people approached the city - the bodies were buried on the road, put two rails on top and drove a truck over them several times. Already in our time - in last years the researchers found the remains of the burial of the royal family and, using modern scientific methods, confirmed that members of the royal family of the Romanovs were buried in the Koptyakovsky forest. On September 20, 1990, the City Council of Yekaterinburg made a decision to allot the site on which the demolished house of Ipatiev stood, of the Yekaterinburg Diocese. A temple will be built here in memory of the innocent victims.

In 1998, on July 17, on the anniversary of the death, the remains of the Tsar's family were solemnly buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

In 2000, the entire Romanov Family was canonized as the innocent victims and became the Family of Royal Martyrs.

Nicholas I. (1825-1855). Under Nicholas I, the centralization of the bureaucratic apparatus was strengthened, the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty's Chancellery was created, a code of laws of the Russian Empire was drawn up, new censorship statutes were introduced (1826, 1828). The theory became widespread as an official nationality. In 1837, traffic was opened on the 1st Tsarskoye Selo railway in Russia. -d. The Polish uprising of 1830-1831 and the Hungarian revolution of 1848-49 were suppressed. An important side foreign policy there was a return to the principles of the Holy Union. During the reign of Nicholas I, Russia took part in the wars: the Caucasian War of 1817-64, the Russian-Persian War of 1826-28, the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-29, and the Crimean War of 1853-56.

Alexandra Feodorovna (Frederica Louise Charlotte Wilhelmina). ... She led an active social life. For grace and beauty at the court she received the nickname Lalla-Rook in honor of the heroine of the romantic poem by T. Moore (under this name she is mentioned in the draft version of Eugene Onegin). Her teacher of the Russian language was V. A. Zhukovsky, who called the empress “Genius pure beauty". She was the patroness of the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society and the Elizabethan Institute. For her was built the palace and park ensemble Alexandria in Peterhof with a cottage in English style... After the death of her husband, she inherited the Anichkov Palace, owned the manors of Ropsha, Kipen, Dudergofka, Znamenka. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The Alexandrinsky Theater was named after her. Wife (since 1817) of Emperor Nicholas I.

Alexandra.

Alexander II (April 17, 1818, Moscow - March 1, 1881, St. Petersburg). (1855-1881). He carried out the abolition of serfdom and then carried out a number of reforms (zemstvo, judicial, military, etc.). After the Polish uprising of 1863-64, he switched to a reactionary internal political course. From the end. 70s repressions against revolutionaries intensified. During the reign of Alexander II, the annexation of the territories of the Caucasus (1864), Kazakhstan (1865), most of the Wed. Asia (1865-81). In order to strengthen influence in the Balkans and help the national liberation movement Slavic peoples Russia took part in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78. A number of attempts were made on the life of Alexander II (1866, 1867, 1879, 1880). He entered Russian history as Alexander II the Liberator. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was mortally wounded on the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by the People's Will I. I. Grinevitsky. He died on the very day when he decided to launch the constitutional project of MT Loris-Melikov, telling his sons Alexander (the future emperor) and Vladimir: "I do not hide from myself that we are following the path of the constitution." Great reforms remained unfinished. (The second time he was married (1880) by a morganatic marriage to Princess E. M. Dolgoruka (Princess Yuryevskaya), with whom he was associated since 1866, from this marriage he had 4 children).

Mikhail (1832-1909) Field Marshal General (1878). Honorary member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1855).

Nikolai (1859-1919) General of Infantry (1913), Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1898). Monographs on the history of Russia 1st couple. 19th century After the October Revolution he was arrested, from 1918 in Peter and Paul Fortress where he was shot on January 30, 1919.

Nizhne-Selikamskaya mine in Alapaevsk with several members of the royal family.

Maria Alexandrovna (Maximiliana Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse Louis II, wife of the Russian Emperor Alexander II (from 1841). (1824-1880).

Vladimir (1847-1909), General of Infantry (1880), Adjutant General (1872), Commander from 1881, Commander-in-Chief of the Guards and St. Petersburg Military District in 1884-1905. On January 9, 1905, he ordered the use of weapons.

Alexei (January 2, 1850 St. Petersburg. November 1, 1908 Paris), naval leader, admiral general (from 1883), adjutant general (from 1880). In 1881 he was appointed Head. the chief of the fleet and the naval department. In this post, he showed himself to be a lack of initiative, which contributed to the delay in the technical re-equipment of the Russian fleet, to a decrease in its combat effectiveness. This was one of the reasons for the defeat of the Russian fleet in the Battle of Tsushima and in the Russian-Japanese war in general. In 1905 he retired, soon moved to Paris, where he died.

Alfred I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, full name Alfred Ernst (6 August 1844 - 30 July 1900), prince. Second son of Queen Victoria of England. In 1874, Prince Alfred married Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.

Victoria-

Maria, Queen of Romania

Nicholas, Prince of Greece

Pavel (September 21, 1860), on January 30, 1919, was shot in the Peter and Paul Fortress along with three Grand Dukes, among whom was Grand Duke Nikolai.

Alexandra

William, Swedish Prince Prince Lennart

Hohenfelsen (later Princess Paley), (Olga Valerianovna Pistolkors).

Alexander III (1881-1894). In the 1st floor. 80s carried out the abolition of the poll tax, lowered the redemption payments. From the 2nd floor. 80s carried out "counter-reforms". Strengthened the role of the police, local and central administration. In the reign of Alexander III, the annexation to Russia was basically completed. Asia (1885), the Russian-French alliance was concluded (1891-93). Not being the heir to the throne by birth, Alexander Alexandrovich prepared mainly for military activities. He became Tsarevich in 1865 after the death of the elder brother of the Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich, from that time he began to receive a more extensive and fundamental education. In 1866, Alexander Alexandrovich married the bride of his late brother, the Danish princess Dagmara. In the 1880s-90s, Russia practically did not wage wars (except for the conquest of Central Asia, which ended with the capture of Kushka in 1885), that is why the tsar was called a "peacemaker".

Maria Feodorovna (Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmara), daughter of the Danish king Christian IX, sister of Queen Alexandra of England. Wife of Emperor Alexander III (since 1866). She patronized the Russian Red Cross Society, the Department of Institutions of the Empress Maria, the Orphanage, the Alexander Lyceum and other institutions (more than 120). In 1882, on her initiative, the Mariinsky Women's Schools for low-income urban girls were created. Honorary Member of Kazan University (1902). Trustee of the Women's Patriotic Society, the Water Rescue Society, the Society for the Protection of Animals. Chief of a number of army regiments, including the Cavalry and Cuirassier regiments. In 1878 she was awarded the first degree Red Cross insignia for caring for the wounded and sick soldiers during the period Russian-Turkish war... During the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, as Empress Dowager, she had her own court, which played a significant role in the social life of St. Petersburg. She lived in the Anichkov Palace. In 1917 - in the Crimea. In 1919 she emigrated to Denmark. She helped charities and the Orthodox community in Denmark. Maria Feodorovna died in Copenhagen in 1928. She was buried in Roskilde Cathedral, the tomb of Danish kings. In 2006, on September 28, she was solemnly reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Alexander

Felix Feliksovich Yusupov (1887-1957), married to the niece of Emperor Nicholas II. Organizer and active participant in the murder of G.E. Rasputin. Since 1917 in exile. Author of memoirs.

Olga . In 1901 she married Prince Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, became the chief of the 12th hussar Akhtyrsky regiment. During World War I, a sister of mercy, the head of the hospital, which she equipped with her own funds. She was awarded the St. George Medal, which was presented to her by the head of the 12th Cavalry Division, General Baron Carl Gustav Mannerheim. In 1916, having received a divorce, she married Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky. After the revolution she lived with the Dowager Empress in the Crimea. Refusing to leave with Maria Fedorovna, she settled with her family in the Kuban in the village of Novominskaya. When the Red Army occupied Crimea, Olga Alexandrovna and her family left first for Belgrade, then for Denmark. Olga Alexandrovna was fond of painting and painting porcelain. Her paintings have been exhibited in Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin and London. The descendants of Olga Alexandrovna - the Kulikovskys (children from their second husband) now live abroad.

George (April 27, 1871 - May 28, 1899), from 1894 Tsarevich. In Abastumani, where he was sent for treatment, he built an observatory with his own money, which has survived to this day. He died in Abastumani.

Mikhail, brother of Emperor Nicholas II, lieutenant general (1916). From 1899-1904 the Tsarevich. In 1898-1912 in military service. In the 1st World War he commanded a cavalry division, a corps, was an inspector general of cavalry. In 1917, after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, he also renounced his rights to the throne. In March 1918, by order of the Council of People's Commissars, he was exiled to Perm. July 13 / June? shot in the vicinity of the village of Motovilikha, Perm province. His wife and son went abroad.

Sergei Alexandrovich, (April 29, 1857-1905), Grand Duke, son of Emperor Alexander II, Lieutenant General (1896). Member of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78; Moscow Governor-General in 1891-1905, from 1896 commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District. Sentenced to death by the battle group of the SRs. Terrorists watched the prince's movements around the city for a long time, investigated his routes. On February 2, he and his wife Elizaveta Fyodorovna and their nephews (children of V.K.Pavel Alexandrovich, his brother), Maria and Dmitry, who were in his care, went to the Moscow Opera House. On the way, a terrorist - Socialist-Revolutionary Ivan Platonovich Kalyaev was waiting for him, leaning against a garden fence near the Nikolsky Gate in the Kremlin. Moiseenko stood nearby holding a tray with cigarettes. He had to give a signal to Kaliayev that the prince's carriage had left. He did just that. Kaliayev, when the carriage passed him, ran out in front of the carriage, intending to throw a bomb, but saw a woman and children in the carriage, and did not throw a bomb. Then the terrorists postponed the date of the assassination attempt on February 4, hoping that the prince would be alone that day, as he would go to the governor's house on Tverskaya.

On February 4, Kaliayev stood in the same place as two days ago. As soon as the carriage of the Grand Duke caught up with him, he threw a bomb. There was a deafening explosion. A column of smoke and snow dust that rose from the pavement hid the place where the prince's carriage had just been. When the smoke from the explosion cleared away, the remnants of a carriage smashed to pieces and a shapeless burnt mess - all that remained of the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich - appeared before the gaze of those present. Kucher Andrey Rudinkin was thrown from the box, seriously wounded and died 2 days later. Policeman Leontyev and one of the prince's guards, Vinogradov, seized and disarmed Kaliayev.

Nicholas II, His reign coincided with the rapid industrial and economic development of the country. Under Nicholas II, Russia was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, which was one of the reasons for the Revolution of 1905-1907, during which the Manifesto was adopted on October 17, 1905, which allowed the creation of political parties and established the State Duma; the Stolypin agrarian reform began to be carried out. In 1907 Russia became a member of the Entente, as part of which it entered the 1st World War. Since August (September 5), 1915, he has been the supreme commander in chief. During the February Revolution of 1917 on March 2 (15), he abdicated the throne. From an early age, Nikolai felt a craving for military affairs: he knew the traditions of the officer environment and military regulations perfectly, in relation to the soldiers he felt like a patron-mentor and did not shy away from communicating with them, resignedly endured the inconveniences of army everyday life at camp gatherings or maneuvers. Immediately after his birth, he was enlisted in the lists of several guards regiments and was appointed chief of the 65th Moscow Infantry Regiment. At the age of five, he was appointed chief of the Life Guards of the Reserve Infantry Regiment, and in 1875 he was enlisted in the Life Guards Erivan Regiment. In December 1875 he received his first military rank- ensign, and in 1880 he was promoted to second lieutenant, after 4 years he became a lieutenant. In 1884 Nikolai entered active military service, in July 1887 he began regular military service in the Preobrazhensky regiment and was promoted to staff captain; in 1891 Nikolai was promoted to captain, and a year later - to colonel. On October 20, 1894, at the age of 26, he took the crown in Moscow under the name of Nicholas II. On May 18, 1896, during the coronation celebrations, tragic events took place on the Khodynskoye field ("Khodynka"). His reign fell on a period of sharp exacerbation of the political struggle in the country, as well as the foreign policy situation (Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05; Bloody Sunday; Revolution of 1905-07 in Russia; First World War; February Revolution 1917). During the reign of Nicholas, Russia turned into an agro-industrial country, cities grew, railways, industrial enterprises. Nikolai supported decisions aimed at the economic and social modernization of the country: the introduction of the gold circulation of the ruble, the Stolypin agrarian reform, laws on workers' insurance, universal primary education, religious tolerance. Not being a reformer by nature, Nikolai was forced to accept important decisions that did not correspond to his inner convictions. He believed that the time had not yet come for a constitution, freedom of speech, and universal suffrage in Russia. However, when a strong social movement in favor of political change arose, he signed the Manifesto on October 17, 1905, proclaiming democratic freedoms. In 1906, established by the tsarist manifesto began to work The State Duma... For the first time in Russian history, the emperor began to rule in the presence of a representative body elected from the population. Russia gradually began to transform into a constitutional monarchy. But, despite this, the emperor still had tremendous power functions: he had the right to issue laws (in the form of decrees); appoint a prime minister and ministers accountable only to him; determine the course of foreign policy; was the head of the army, court and earthly patron of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.

Elizaveta Fedorovna (October 20, 1864 - July 18, 1918) (Ella of Hesse-Darmstadt), sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (from 1884), saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1891 she converted to Orthodoxy. Participated in the work of the Orthodox Palestinian Society, of which Sergei Alexandrovich was for a long time; visited Palestine with him to consecrate the Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem; from 1905 co-chairman of the Palestinian Society. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. In Moscow, she led the movement to help the soldiers, as well as the widows and children of the victims. After the murder of her husband on February 4, 1905, she dissolved the court and devoted herself to charity. In 1907 she acquired an estate in Moscow for the construction of the Martha and Mary Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. On April 11, 1910, she took monastic vows of the abbess of the monastery. On her initiative, a hospital, an outpatient clinic, a pharmacy, an orphanage for girls, and a free canteen for the poor were set up in the monastery. During the First World War, she became involved in providing medical assistance to soldiers and officers of the active army. After the February Revolution, she rejected the offer of the German Emperor Wilhelm II to leave for Germany. In 1918 she was arrested and thrown alive in the Nizhnee-Selimskaya mine in Alapaevsk, together with other members of the Romanov family and her associate Varvara. After the occupation of Alapaevsk by the White Army, the remains of Elizaveta Fyodorovna were taken to Chita, then to China, and in 1921 they were buried in Jerusalem in the Church of Mary Magdalene. Canonized by Russian Orthodox Church (1990).

Alice of Hesse (daughter of Queen Victoria).

Alexandra Feodorovna, (Alice Victoria Elena Louise Beatrice of Hesse - Darmstadt) Russian Empress, wife of Nicholas II (since 1894).

Tatiana (born 1897)

Maria (born 1899)

Anastasia (born 1901)

The turning point in the fate of Nicholas was 1914 - the beginning of the First World War. The tsar did not want war and until the very last moment tried to avoid a bloody clash. However, on July 19 (August 1), 1914, Germany declared war on Russia. In August (September 5) 1915, during a period of military setbacks, Nicholas took over the military command [earlier this position was performed by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (the Younger)]. Now the tsar visited the capital only occasionally, but spent most of the time at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander in Mogilev. The war exacerbated the country's internal problems. The tsar and his entourage began to be assigned the main responsibility for military failures and a protracted military campaign. Allegations have spread that treason is nesting in the government. At the beginning of 1917, the high military command led by the tsar (together with the allies - England and France) prepared a plan for a general offensive, according to which it was planned to end the war by the summer of 1917. At the end of February 1917, unrest began in Petrograd, which, without encountering serious opposition from authorities, a few days later escalated into mass protests against the government and the dynasty. Initially, the tsar intended to restore order in Petrograd by force, but when the scale of the disturbances became clear, he abandoned this idea, fearing a lot of bloodshed. Some high-ranking military officials, members of the imperial retinue and politicians convinced the tsar that in order to pacify the country, a change of government was required, it was necessary to renounce the throne. On March 2, 1917, in Pskov, in the salon - the carriage of the imperial train, after painful deliberation, Nicholas signed an act of abdication, transferring power to his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who did not accept the crown. On March 9, Nikolai and the royal family were arrested. The first five months they were under guard in Tsarskoe Selo, in August 1917 they were transported to Tobolsk. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks transferred the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg.

Elena Pavlovna (née Frederica-Charlotte-Maria) (1806-73), The grand duchess, daughter of the Württemberg prince Paul-Karl, wife (since 1824) of the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich.